• I Break Horses – Chiaroscuro

    February 11, 2014 - By 

    Chiaroscuro, an Italian juxtaposition of the words light and dark, has historically been a dramatic and influential style of presentation, particularly in the classical art world; it is also the theme upon which I Break Horses’ second album is based. Having seen success with their first release Hearts which netted them touring slots with Sigur Rós and M83, the excitement had been building in the minds of many prior to this release – they were a new band that many critics couldn’t help but fall for. The new record is a series of anxious, techno-infused pieces, with a strong bent…

  • Actress – Ghettoville

    February 7, 2014 - By 

    Actress, AKA Darren Cunningham has prowled the dark world of experimental, minimalist electronica for nearly a decade now. The title of this his fourth album harks back to Hazyville, his debut full length, and, if the finality hinted at in the album blurb is to be heeded, the pair seem likely to bookend the Actress story. Accordingly Cunningham has decided to create his masterpiece. Adopting varied approaches, Actress hunts the murky territory of a glitchy, avant garde noise and presents the results in phases. These phases become most obvious over five (not six) sides of vinyl LP (everything needs to…

  • Planningtorock – All Love’s Legal

    February 6, 2014 - By 

    All Love’s Legal is the latest release from the Berlin-based Planningtorock, her first since 2011’s W. Owing as much to the likes of Burial and Brian Eno as her label mates from DFA, All Love’s Legal is a musically fascinating album. It’s a great example of late night music; the party has died down, but you don’t want to night to end just yet. Voices are heavily distorted and unearthly, the beats are distant and everything just seems to be filtered through the haze of intense lights, strong booze and cheap drugs. We are giddily lost within the post-club confusion.…

  • September Girls – Cursing The Sea

    January 31, 2014 - By 

    For devotees and avid consumers of feedback-drenched guitar pop that once formed the backbone of the “Paisley Underground” or C86 scenes, it may seem like a long, cold Ice Age has been in situ.  September Girls could be those first green shoots emerging through the rocky landscape or the first of the small, furry animals to roll out of hibernation. This ain’t punk, and it sure isn’t nihilism. The songs on Cursing the Sea surf the wave of the Sixties and Eighties guitar bands and the influence of the sonic genius of the Beach Boys and Phil Spector.  For sure,…

  • Mogwai – Rave Tapes

    January 28, 2014 - By 

    “Blur are shite.” A simple, to the point, and even iconoclastic statement that Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite once saw fit to wear emblazoned upon his torso. While Damon Albarn & Co. may not be everyone’s cup of tea, what seems to have really stuck in the throat of the Glaswegian post-rocker was their laissez-faire irreverence that became a quintessential hallmark of the Brit-pop era. A bugbear that provides proof, if any is still required, that those in Mogwai view their craft as a fairly serious business. So, given that they could never be described as a particularly light-hearted collection of individuals,…

  • East India Youth – Total Strife Forever

    January 24, 2014 - By 

    Mostly instrumental and electronic, Total Strife Forever is the 11-track debut from East India Youth (William Doyle). Shostakovich and Brian Eno are just two of the influences cited, so it is clear from the outset that this album has some expansive ideas – ideas its creator often explores at dispiriting length. Total Strife Forever starts very promisingly with ‘Glitter Recession’; a swelling digital hiss supporting a series of harpsichord-style arpeggios. It’s emotional, tuneful, warm – the kind of thing that could be on the soundtrack to the movie Drive. ‘Total Strife Forever I’ (the first of four tracks of the same name) follows next. And…

  • Warpaint – Warpaint

    January 21, 2014 - By 

    With Warpaint taking three years to produce the follow up to their 2010 debut The Fool, and allegedly drawing inspiration from a desert recording session somewhere in the vicinity of The Joshua Tree, the history of popular music would suggest that any lingering doubts about the accessibility of their self-titled second album may not be entirely misplaced. And while the output is not as experimental as its recording process and subsequent promotion may suggest, if The Fool was slightly detached, on first listen Warpaint emotes the kind of welcome usually reserved for the most reticent of hermitages. Delve deeper however…

  • Lee Bannon – Alternate/Endings

    January 16, 2014 - By 

    Remember that excited, lose-yourself-in-something-primal feeling you had when music shook you so hard that you laughed but also cried at the same time? Well, let that explosive catharsis elude you no more, for 2014 has kicked off with Lee Bannon’s debut LP, a record fastened upon a foundation of shock, awe and a solid history of open-minded, experimental production. Having secured his reputation and cut his teeth producing hip hop that’s more avant-garde than balls-to-the-wall, Bannon continues to explore the junglist sensibilities he began to display in 2013 with his latest LP, Alternate/Endings. Bearing in mind that hip hop and…

  • Pixies – EP-2

    January 13, 2014 - By 

    Where were you the first time you heard The Pixies? I remember. I was fourteen years old, in the school hall talking about music with a friend of mine. He gave me his generic MP3 device to hear this strange and wonderful thing he’d just discovered. It was Debaser. There are very few things that can conjure the feeling that came over me when I first heard Kim Deal hammer those F notes into submission. For a brief moment, I seemed to have found everything I was looking for. First love is a thing of wonder. It’s been nearly a…

  • Snowbird – Moon

    January 14, 2014 - By 

    Snowbird is a transatlantic duo. Stephanie Dosen, a singer songwriter from Wisconsin, provides vocals over tracks originating from piano sketches by Simon Raymonde. Dosen already responsible for a couple of solo albums has also toured as vocalist with Massive Attack and provided vocals for several songs on The Chemical Brothers‘ 2010 album Further. Raymonde who has run the Bella Union label since 1997 was previously a key member of dream-pop pioneers Cocteau Twins. While the duo’s sound is admirably fleshed out by an impressive indie alumni (Midlake, Lanterns on the Lake and even a couple of Radioheaders) it’s plainly the…