• Alt-J – This Is All Yours

    October 8, 2014 - By 

    Alt-J rose to success in 2012 having already been together for five years. All this time meant that their first album was the result of five years of hard work; the best tracks to come out of long hours spent in the studio. Arriving just two years later, people might not have thought that This Is All Yours would be able to satisfy the fans. The good news is that it does not disappoint. Despite the departure of Gwil Sainsbury (bassist and vocalist), the band’s new album equals the sound of artistic harmony and chemistry that fans fell in love with…

  • Avi Buffalo – At Best Cuckold

    October 7, 2014 - By 

    In this day and age a four year gap between album releases can be viewed as a lifetime for any young band, such is the way music is consumed (more often than not, spat back out the very same week). It’s just as easy for a new group to garner positive column inches or be thrown into the world of magazine photo-shoots as fresh cannon fodder following a critically-lauded debut album, as it is for them to implode, or find themselves lost amidst the immediate and frenzied media response. In Avi Buffalo’s instance they seemed to have it all going…

  • Aphex Twin – Syro

    October 3, 2014 - By 

    To give Richard D James an introduction seems redundant. Anyone uninformed of his past work has almost certainly listened to other artists inspired by it; such was the impact of many of his staple albums throughout the 90s. His reach within electronic music has oft been referred to as game changing, immeasurable, and essential. So when his unmistakable emblem began appearing on blimps, tagged across multiple European capitals and even within the darkest reaches of the deep web accompanied by a stark ‘2014’, the electronic music producer from Cornwall sent music lovers worldwide into a state of frenzy. The hype…

  • Electric Wizard – Time To Die

    October 2, 2014 - By 

    Rejoice, rosy-eyed Neanderthals, for your patience has been well rewarded. It’s been an age and a score (or four years to be precise) since last we were gifted with a new Electric Wizard LP, and anticipation has been boiling for months since it was announced that Wizard original, Mark Greening, would be taking a seat behind the drum kit for the first time since the trance-inducing Let Us Prey in 2002. It has already been an absolutely stellar year for doom metal with cumbersome offerings from favourites such as Conan and EyeHateGod, so it’s hard to not feel spoiled filthy…

  • Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World

    September 18, 2014 - By 

    Death from Above 1979 swagger back into your life like that former lover you swore you’d gotten over years previously. You thought ‘yeah, that’s cool, good for them’ when they announced they were playing music again, but you genuinely weren’t convinced. You went back to listening to The Black Keys and secretly viewing live performances from way back when on Youtube in the dark when you thought no-one was looking. Then, boom – in they stride, and you’re the same weak-kneed simpleton you were in 2004. Ten years is a long time. The bare-cheeked audacity. They still have the nerve…

  • U2 – Songs of Innocence

    September 10, 2014 - By 

    So, straight off the bat – let’s forget about Apple, iTunes, hypocrisy, commerce, and even U2 themselves. Daunting though that may be, it doesn’t really help us when it comes to looking at Songs of Innocence, the thirteenth studio album by U2, arguably the biggest band in the world. Like looking at someone like Roman Polanski, or Woody Allen, or whomever, there comes a time when you have to separate the art from the artist, and attempt to consider that in isolation. And this time round, that’s never been more pertinent for U2.Songs of Innocence is eleven tracks of new material from…

  • Marcel Dettmann – Fabric 77

    August 27, 2014 - By 

    It’s been a busy year for Marcel Dettmann, a few months on from his inaugural Essential Mix and roughly 12 months after his most recent LP Dettmann II comes his effort in the renowned Fabric mix series. If the mix is anything to go by, the year will only get busier for Dettmann with a lot of the material on the mix forthcoming on his own MDR label. Dettmann is now one of the most recognisable names in techno and with that, there’s little pressure to prove himself. The last couple of years may have seen a resurgence in the…

  • Bear In Heaven – Time Is Over One Day Old

    August 21, 2014 - By 

    Time Is Over One Day Old is the fourth studio album by Bear in Heaven. It is also their finest album to date, more relaxed than Beast Rest Forth Mouth or I Love You, It’s Cool, though certainly not a million miles away from these earlier outings. There are more of the rippling synths, the running basslines and coy vocal progressions which mark out Bear in Heaven’s sound. The formula has always worked and they have recognised this – it now works even better. There are many comparisons to be made with this album, yet it manages to be unique…

  • Boxcutter – Shea EP

    August 14, 2014 - By 

    London-based, Northern Irish producer Barry Lynn AKA Boxcutter, is back with a small helping of delightful, electronic treats with his latest release, the Shea EP. The self-titled opening track lures the listener right in with a catchy, looping female vocal sample and its incredible array of dynamics. With earphones in and volume up, you feel the full force of Lynn’s creation, and the specific points of detail within these tracks are nothing short of impressive. ‘Holoscene’ allows Shea to stand on its own merits. With an ambience of what seem to be the sound of crickets, it’s easy to find oneself getting lost…

  • Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal

    August 12, 2014 - By 

    There must be a sense of relative trepidation whenever an underground band are thrown into the media spotlight from the depths of relative obscurity, and viewed by many a rock critic as the latest bearers of the indie rock torch. That sort of instant exposure was something that befell Brooklyn via Texas natives Parquet Courts, in the early part of last year, following the release of their second record Light Up Gold, especially after the success of the utterly infectious ‘Stoned and Starving’. Light Up Gold was considered a little rough around the edges, which resulted in the group being…