• Battles – Juice B Crypts

    October 30, 2019 - By 

      To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to lose one band member may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. When Tyondai Braxton left Battles in 2010, fans were worried. Although the quartet had started out as an instrumental unit, Braxton’s distinctive pitch-shifted vocals had become the focal point of their acclaimed debut album Mirrored, and with his departure, expectations for the follow up plummeted. They needn’t have worried, as with the help of a few guest vocalists (including none other than Gary Numan), the band’s second album Gloss Drop was more than a match for its predecessor.…

  • Elbow – Giants of All Sizes

    October 24, 2019 - By 

    Bleary-eyed and broken, Britain is bumbling from one disaster to the next. Social and demographic fractions, impending irreparable gulfs, rogue leaders contorting the political landscape, unthinkable shapes… Dead ends. Anxiety levels are at tipping point. Right on cue, an Elbow record – the audio equivalent of popping the kettle on, right? Wait for it all to blow over. Buoyancy. Optimism. Warm northern accents. Community. 40 minutes of escapism from the shitshow going on outside. Sink in. Press play. There’s a crunching bassline. Stomping drums. Despair. Hang on. “And I don’t know Jesus anymore”. Uh-oh. Pause. Check for scratches. No scratches.…

  • Big Thief – Two Hands

    October 21, 2019 - By 

    Two hands is the second album from Big Thief this year, following the sublime U.F.O.F. back in May. Despite such a brief interval between both albums, these “twins” reside in polar geographies; the former fixating on voyeuristic distance and disconnection, while the latter roots itself in a close and uncomplicated familial structure. There’s a desire for domesticity in Two Hands, which manifests in multiple ways, but is accentuated in the way the album was recorded almost entirely live, save a few overdubs. Bringing this raw, marked sound together with multi-faceted lyrics to explore internal uncertainties and societal grievances, Big Thief harness intimate…

  • Danny Brown – uknowhatimsayin¿

    October 17, 2019 - By 

    Danny Brown has always been somewhat of an outlier in hip-hop. Gifted with the ability to present his many exploits with astounding shades of colour, humour and vocal inflections verging on the maniacal, his unorthodox style has garnered support across the globe, far beyond his home city of Detroit. Brown’s skill in synthesising his wide-ranging influences – he has confessed to being a fan of everything from Cee-Lo Green to Bowie and Joy Division – culminated in 2016’s Atrocity Exhibition on Warp. A remarkable collection depicting the highs and lows of mental health and the ugly underbelly of the hip hop world, its outstandingly…

  • Angel Olsen – All Mirrors

    October 16, 2019 - By 

    Angel Olsen rarely shies away from making demands of those to whom her songs are addressed, seemingly with the aim of forging a sense of connection or wholeness through sheer will – not only with the addressee in question, however, but also with (or within) herself, and the world she inhabits. At her most confident, she issues imperatives that appear to be concerned less with whatever romantic situation is at hand, and more with a desire to give herself a voice when she feels most vulnerable, to be heard clearly just as emotional tumult threatens to drown out sincere efforts to…

  • Gross Net – Gross Net Means Gross Net

    October 9, 2019 - By 

      Gross Net started life back in 2014 as a collaboration between Girls Names guitarist Philip Quinn and Autumns’ Christian Donaghey, crafting krautrock jams out of primitive drum machines and industrial guitars. However, Donaghey’s early departure has left Quinn to captain the ship alone, steering it in a more fully electronic direction. After two EPs, 2016 saw the release of debut full length, Quantitative Easing, on Belfast’s ever reliable Touch Sensitive Records. Now, as if to ease the pain of Girls Names dissolution earlier this year, album number two has landed on LA based label, Felte. While Quantitative Easing’s cold electronic pulse…

  • Dermot Kennedy – Without Fear

    October 9, 2019 - By 

    As Dublin’s Dermot Kennedy releases his debut album, Without Fear, it’s odd to think he’s already been performing to packed-out audiences for two years. For an artist who recently sold out the 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy in London without even having a UK single, and who has collaborated with regular Kanye West producer Mike Dean, you’d almost be forgiven for thinking of an album as an unnecessary afterthought. Nevertheless, Without Fear, released on UK major Island, puts Kennedy’s towering voice on full display with a collection of deeply personal, hip hop-infused pop songs ruminating on heartbreak, hope and healing. While it may be tempting to…

  • 65daysofstatic – replicr, 2019

    October 7, 2019 - By 

    65daysofstatic make music that speaks to our most elemental, human concerns. Anxious, urgent and vital, their sound narrows on a space between post-rock, cinematic and electronic worlds. replicr, 2019 arrives as a focused expedition into a dark and uneasy present. On this, their sixth album proper, the band collate their experimental interests – they soundtracked the 2016 videogame No Man’s Sky through algorithmic composition – with the feverish immediacy of their early records. Ultimately, the world of replicr, 2019 is unsettling in its realism. From the opening bars, we’re prepared for a bleak, industrial landscape – one which is built…

  • Girl Band – The Talkies

    September 27, 2019 - By 

    Like a bucket of red paint into white, Girl Band’s explosion in the Irish music scene half a decade ago proved a new year zero for the country’s underground scene. Their modus operandi was laid out with ‘Lawman’ and a simple, radical rework of Blawan’s ‘Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage’.  By the time 2015 debut LP Holding Hands With Jamie came out, they were primed for success. Eschewing the role of traditional rock instrumentation, it was seemingly the sound of four people left in isolation, handed a stack of experimental techno 7”s and traditional rock instruments, and…

  • Charli XCX – Charli

    September 25, 2019 - By 

    Charli XCX has become a pop touchstone, and the woman everyone is clamouring to collaborate with. In the last two years alone, she has worked with BTS, Diplo, Cardi B, Clean Bandit, and Taylor Swift – not to mention the artists she collaborated with on 2017’s Pop 2. Charli XCX is the benchmark of the late 2010’s pop; heavily influenced by contemporary dance music and produced in tandem with PC Music, it’s messy, fun, outrageous, and appropriately melancholic. Pop 2 was, rightfully, critically acclaimed. How does Charli compete? On collaborations alone, Charli is standout. The release of the album was…