• Idles – Joy As An Act Of Resistance

    September 3, 2018 - By 

    Urgent. Vital. Important. Essential. Interchangeable words that are denoted to music or artists that are deemed to be definite of the mood of the times. Albums and previously unseen and untold stories that break boundaries down, songs that transcend their form, artists whose messages become immortalised. Punk music and its offshoots have their fair share of such acts, but these words’ meanings have become denatured over time. Now, anything even vaguely resembling depth or that is tangentially outspoken is commonly misconstrued as politically charged or timely (sorry, not sorry, Macklemore, Justin Timberlake). Idles, a five-piece Bristol band who navigate the furious simplicity…

  • Oh Sees – Smote Reverser

    September 1, 2018 - By 

      Oh Sees (aka Thee Oh Sees, OCS and too many other variations to mention), are not only one of the most prolific bands active today – seemingly locked in an endless battle of releases against protégés Ty Segall and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – but they’re also a rare example of a band that has by and large only gotten better as their career has progressed, even as their album tally has gone well into double figures. Though many long term fans miss the ‘classic’ lineup that disbanded after 2013’s excellent Floating Coffin, when Dwyer relocated from…

  • Interpol – Marauder

    August 28, 2018 - By 

    Last year Interpol embarked on a worldwide tour in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Turn On The Bright Lights. It’s impossible to deny just how important that album was to both fans and to music in general. In the wake of 9/11, it placed the band at the centre of a slew of era defining artists coming out of New York. Covered in a shroud of mystery, the band managed to tug at the heart-strings of indie lovers with the likes of ‘NYC’ and ‘The New’. They replicated this emotional prowess on 2004s Antics cementing Interpol as one of the…

  • Blood Orange – Negro Swan

    August 23, 2018 - By 

    Looking at the decade and a half long career that Dev Hynes AKA Blood Orange, has carved out for himself, there is one word that rings above all others: chameleonic. In that time, the London-born, New York-based polymath has transitioned from noisy, DFA-influenced dance punk to baroque indie pop and then onto masterful R&B with a seemingly effortless pace, adopting each genre and its trappings with such a deft hand that it’s hard to envision him doing anything else. His Lightspeed Champion persona was so convincing that hearing that same mind compose a song like 2016’s ‘Hand’s Up’, a searing…

  • Mitski – Be The Cowboy

    August 17, 2018 - By 

    Given the critical success of 2016’s Puberty 2, touring with Lorde and Run the Jewels, and facing into an almost fully sold out tour across the US and Europe, it’s fair to say Mitski’s upward trajectory in the past few years has been stratospheric. Be The Cowboy, her highly anticipated fifth album marks a more mature direction in the New York artist’s – full name Mitski Miyawaki – sound, both musically and lyrically. Mitski seems to have taken a step away from the guitar and pop-punk sound her name is has become synonymous with. Patrick Hyland (who also worked as a producer…

  • Ross From Friends – Family Portrait

    July 29, 2018 - By 

    What is it about the past that fascinates us? What is it that allows us to romanticise and dream of places that we can’t ever return to? Is it because they are out of our reach that so too is the disappointment that often arises from getting what we desire? Nostalgia is a fickle thing, and in its use we often become completely submerged in our own warped perception of the past, ignorant to all but the glamorous detail. When we incorporate this almost artificial warmth into the lucid and veritable memories of our families, the intoxication becomes all the…

  • The Ophelias – Almost

    July 29, 2018 - By 

    Very occasionally you hear an album that neatly demonstrates its full mission statement within seconds of starting. The opening number is normally a musician’s calling card, but generally this takes a few minutes to let the audience in on what’s being attempted. There’s a real delight in encountering music that is so self-assured and confident that it’s willing to show all of its cards as soon as the chips are drawn. To The Ophelias credit, they give you a nice ten-second window in which to decide if this is going to be for you. If you think that a high…

  • Years & Years – Palo Santo

    July 26, 2018 - By 

    In 1987, the Pet Shop Boys released ‘It’s A Sin’, detailing Neil Tennant’s relationship with his own sexuality and the sense of shame that came with it. It was years after the singer publicly came out. Thankfully, these days, singing about sex and love outside of heterosexual constraints isn’t a rarity. So many songs in the pop zeitgeist have gone beyond heteronormative boundaries, but still, it is often treated as something forbidden, experimental, taboo and something explicitly, solely sexual. Think Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ or Demi Lovato’s ‘Cool for the Summer.’ Years & Years’ Olly Alexander joyfully takes…

  • Body/Head – The Switch

    July 24, 2018 - By 

    “Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting” – Brian Eno, Music For Airports linear notes If you’re a fan of mid 1990s, alternative rock bass players named Kim, then this year has been a real treat. Kim Deal released the wonderful All Nerve with The Breeders and now Kim Gordon, formerly of the parish Sonic Youth, has gifted us her latest broadcast: Body/Head’s The Switch. The group, completed by Bill Nace, are an experimental noise duo whose work is focused on…

  • Panic! At The Disco – Pray For the Wicked

    July 23, 2018 - By 

    Remember that ‘I Like Me’ song from the Simpsons episode with Hank Scorpio? Imagine if Frank Sinatra collaborated with the Chainsmokers to make a Broadway version of that song. Once you imagine that, you’ll have a bit of an idea as to the level of absurdity we’re dealing with here. Pray for the Wicked is the sixth studio album from Panic! At the Disco. Riddled with pop culture references and sabotaged by extraneous high notes, this effort – which comes 13 years after Bradon Urie and co’s breakthrough A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out –  is basically everything we’ve come…