reviews
click here to view albums archive
8/22/2008 4:03:33 PM
The Prodigy
More Music For The Jilted Generation + The Prodigy Experience: Remixes & B-Sides (XL)
“‘out of space’, ‘voodoo people’, ‘one love’ and a fair few others are just pure greatness, but to be honest, a lot of what is here is a bit ali g; dated, a bit funny, but if you are in the mood and can put up with it, why the hell not…”; release – ‘08
8/19/2008 3:29:00 PM
Gotye
Like Drawing Blood (Lucky Number)
“gotye has seemingly gone to sleep one night under a blanket of starlight and somehow written a dreamscape utopian score on colourful, subconscious manuscript paper; he has managed to realise some kind of heavenly gorgeousness in his music. and I can’t fault it one little bit…”; release – ‘08
8/19/2008 3:25:53 PM
Milosh
iii (K7)
“who knew electronica could be this romantic? this is like a chagall painting condensed into aural media. you will fall in love with it…”; release – ‘08
8/15/2008 3:45:25 PM
Fucked Up
Year Of The Pig (Matador)
“in the unedited version of the eponymous title track, there is a staggering eighteen minutes in which you can fill your belly with meat, guzzle beer and sing heartily. i imagine that’s what experimental hardcore is probably all about…”; release – ‘08
8/15/2008 3:39:48 PM
Motorpsycho
Little Lucid Moments (Rune Grammafon)
“rune grammafon have really proved a point with little lucid moments. not only do they release consistently good jazz, but when they adventure further a field they don’t do it just to look cool and open minded - they do it to push a really great album…”; release –‘08
8/15/2008 3:36:49 PM
Buddy Peace
Wolf Diesel Mountain (2600)
“it’s like it’s made for people that still think it’s cool to smoke marijuana and wear knitted hats, like needing depressants some how makes you more of a naturally laid back easy going person. you know the sort of people, they wear really expensive head phones, all the time…”; release – ‘08
8/15/2008 3:34:41 PM
Panther
14kt God (Kill Rock Stars)
“when they are on form, the band seem to have a knack of touching on something really particular and very human…”; release – ‘08
8/14/2008 5:14:03 PM
Ra Ra Riot
The Rhumb Line (Barsuk)
“of course, pike’s passing away still weighs heavily on ra ra riot. this is most evident in the lyrics, which consistently allude to water and death…”; release – ‘08
8/14/2008 5:09:43 PM
Port O’Brien
All We Could Do Was Sing (Universal)
“everything about the folk collective is infused with the intoxicating odour of salty sea-air, to the point where you can almost taste the tuna…” release – ‘08
8/13/2008 6:07:40 PM
Oneida
Preteen Weaponry (Jagjaguwar)
“having always been a little afraid of oneida’s back catalogue due to the irrational fear that after sitting through an entire half an hour one riff concept piece i’d never be able to enjoy the delights of, say, wham! in the same way again, as preteen weaponry landed at my desk i was half hoping they’d ditched the prog and decided to focus all that musical talent, which they no doubt have, into something more worthwhile – a christmas no.1 perhaps…?”; release – ‘08
8/13/2008 5:33:24 PM
Black Kids
Partie Traumatic (Universal)
“when black kids f**k the consequences is when they really shine. unfortunately, as partie traumatic goes on, black kids seem to be playing it safe, shiny production masking the songs that could have been. ‘love me already’s cries of “love me!” sound more desperate than a band on the up ever should…”; release – ‘08
8/13/2008 5:25:36 PM
The Blakes
The Blakes (Strange Addiction)
“main vocalist garnet keim leers and spits just like the scary drunk outside the pound shop on your local high street. in the acceptable setting of a rock band though, it’s much cooler…”; release – ‘08
8/13/2008 5:19:28 PM
A Storm of Light
And We Wept The Black Ocean Within (Neurot)
“human beings will never tire of contemplating a force much more powerful than them in nature…”; release – ‘08
8/13/2008 5:15:46 PM
Scorch Trio
Brolt! (Rune Grammafon)
“when listening to free jazz of this calibre you feel like you are tapping into a constant anarchic stream of human fiddle fun. does the world need more free jazz? no. am i glad that this album exists? yes. definitely…”; release – ‘08
8/12/2008 1:12:19 PM
Flying Lotus
Los Angeles (Warp)
“over seventeen tracks, the shining beetle-like creature on the album cover becomes real, and the glitch-hop beats are the sound of something investigating us with curiosity and perhaps a little menace…”; release – ‘08
More Album Reviews:
dEUS - Vantage Point (Universal) Cathy Davey - Tales of Silversleeve (EMI) Shortwave Set - Replica Sun Machine (Wall of Sound) Errors - It’s Not Something, But It Is Like Whatever (Rock Action) The Little Ones - Morning Tide (Heavenly) The Futureheads – This is Not the World (Nul) Beestung Lips – Songs To And From An Iron Gut (Southern) Pop Levi – Never Never Love (Counter)
click here to view singles archive
8/22/2008 3:59:30 PM
Metronomy
Heartbreaker (Because)
“the lyrics are so simple that everyone and their mum will be able to sing along… there is also a whistley melody that your dad will latch on to in no time. yeh; family crisis. your parents are going to be into metronomy. bugger…”; release – ‘08
8/22/2008 3:56:01 PM
One Day As A Lion
One Day As A Lion EP (Anti/Epitaph)
“it’s blissfully heavy and lurches forward with some complex drumming which yearns for a fight; it’s basically starting on you…”; release – ‘08
8/21/2008 3:39:05 PM
Mogwai
Batcat (Wall Of Sound)
“they’ve reached new levels of prog; the visceral energy of ‘batcat’ flies to higher realms of intimate thrash - if you wanted to know what it was like to ride a tornado, jump on the new mogwai material…”; release – ‘08
8/19/2008 3:21:41 PM
Midnight Juggernauts
Into The Galaxy (EMI)
“mgmt meets bowie meets guster meets white rose movement. without ever bumping in to the klaxons. that makes it sounds pretty awesome, actually…”; release – ‘08
8/19/2008 3:17:47 PM
The Music
The Spike (Polydor)
“seriously this track, upon listening, manifests existentialist thought so bleak… we were gonna go on but it’s all so pointless…”; release – ‘08
8/15/2008 3:42:40 PM
John & Jehn
Fear Fear Fear (Faculty)
“john’s creepy humming rolls around with jehn’s gallic accent, possibly in a haunted forest (though probably in a studio)…”; release – ‘08
8/14/2008 5:03:00 PM
Chris Bathgate
Restless (One Little Indian)
“it’s one of those life-affirming songs that sound good while you’re speeding along country roads, watching rain stream down the bus window…”; release – ‘08
8/12/2008 1:25:46 PM
The Verve
Love Is Noise (EMI)
“if this is the sound of a band returning, then long may they stay away - this is exactly what i want playing when i switch the radio on…”; release – ‘08
8/12/2008 1:17:48 PM
Fleet Foxes
White Winter Hymnal (Bella Union)
“what sounds like a traditional song from a nation’s collective memory, it’s tantalisingly close to perfection…”; release – ‘08
8/12/2008 1:15:22 PM
Jay Reatard
Always Wanting More (Matador)
“simple, unambitious and without pretensions to anything more cerebral, this is music to turn up loud and dance about to in a pair of scuzzed up converses…”; release – ‘08
8/5/2008 4:29:18 PM
Crystal Castles
Vanished (Last Gang)
“the music that would soundtrack opening your eyes after a fifty year coma, as slowly you wonder what’s become of the world…”; release – ‘08
7/31/2008 5:07:37 PM
Magistrates
Make This Work (XL)
“the type of song that couples will have their first kiss to in a dodgy club, and later will hold it responsible for their loathing for each other after 40 years of marriage when they look back to that fateful night and realise that it was actually ‘Make It Work’ that got them in the mood, and it had absolutely nothing to do with their partners riveting conversation whatsoever…”; release – ‘08
7/30/2008 12:04:49 PM
White Denim
All You Really Have To Do (Full Time Hobby)
“full of the tight rhythmic punk of the minutemen, but at the same time it’s as loose and psychedelic as zeppelin – albeit it a modern day version, full of all kinds of e-numbers and computers strapped to faces…”; release – ‘08
7/28/2008 5:07:07 PM
Metronomy
Holiday (Because)
“the ‘drunken state’ the vocals were reportedly recorded in might account for the rather shaky falsetto performance that plagues a track otherwise nearing the band’s usual standard of dark and artful disco-pop splendour…”; release – ‘08
7/25/2008 3:36:07 PM
Asva
What You Don’t Know is Frontier (Southern)
“a truly groundbreaking and individual album… asva manage to conjure up a pretty accurate audio equivalent of total desperation…”; release – ‘08
More Single Reviews:
Hadouken! - Crank It Up (Atlantic) Those Dancing Days - Run Run (Universal) Let’s Wrestle – Let’s Wrestle / I’m In Fighting Mode (Stolen) Primal Scream – Can’t Go Back (B-Unique) My Morning Jacket – Touch Me, I’m Going To Scream (Rough Trade) Pin Me Down – Cryptic (Kitsune) Ladyhawke – Paris Is Burning (Modular) Beck - Chemtrails (XL)
click here to view concerts archive
8/12/2008 1:22:39 PM
Shout Out Louds
Dingwalls, London – 7/8/08
“there used to be something shambolic about shout out louds live, but either the drummer has been cloned with a drum machine, or simply practice makes perfect, because tonight the solidity of his playing enables their perfected pop-looseness…”
8/1/2008 11:13:54 AM
Asva / Gravetemple
Underworld, London – 10/7/08
“due to no fault of my own, i arrived late tonight and only managed to catch the last half an hour or so of asva. for a band like asva, this means two songs…”
7/29/2008 4:15:35 PM
Neon Neon - Rough Trade East, London
25/7/08
“for neon neon, playing their first album live in its entirety makes more sense than for most, but then most bands don’t debut with a concept album about the car named after john delorean, a man who succeeded in his dream of attaching gull wing doors to a vauxhall…”
7/11/2008 1:27:13 PM
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London – 10/6/08
“towards the end of the night when campbell shyly apologises “i messed that one up, my voice is shit tonight”, lanegan growls “i beg to differ” with a rare smirk, a collectors item of a moment…”
7/9/2008 12:05:53 PM
White Denim & Pivot
Cargo, London – 3/7/08
“every second of their performance sounds like it’s something they thought of in the spur of the moment, and it just happened to be pure genius…”
More Concert Reviews:
Cat Power – Colston Hall, Bristol – 9/6/08 Paul Weller – Hammersmith Apollo, London – 28/5/08 Land of Talk - Metro, London - 2/6/08 Spiritualized – Koko, London – 20/5/08 Vex’d, µZiq, Chevron, Barry Lynn, Venetian Snares & Shitmat - Corsica Studios, London – 10/5/08 We Are The Physics – The Barfly, London – 21/5/08 Seasick Steve - Stream Sessions Showcase, London – 30/5/08 Yacht, Chops & a.P.A.t.T. – Cargo, London - 29/4/08
click here to view festivals archive
7/31/2008 1:33:16 PM
02 Wireless Festival
Hyde Park, London – 4/7/08
morrissey and beck provide the big names whilst black kids, jaguar love, the national and others enthral to varying degrees across the smaller stages. quite what wireless actually is few people seem to have defined, but those who simply don’t care can have themselves a rip roaring shindig all the same.
More Festival Reviews:
The Mighty Boosh Festival – The Hop Farm, Kent – 5/7/08 Estrella Primavera Sound Festival – Barcelona, Spain – 29-31/5/08 Hove Festival - Tromoy, Norway - 23-27/6/08 The Great Escape – Brighton – 15-17/5/08 Red Stripe Camden Crawl - North London - 18&19/4/08 (SWN) Festival – Cardiff – 9-11/11/07 Ladyfest – Bristol, 27/8-2/9/07 Loop Festival – Brighton, 18/8/07
click here to view DVD archive
8/11/2008 4:44:14 PM
The National
A Skin, A Night and The Virginia EP (Beggars Banquet)
“as it turns out this is not your traditional “on the road/in the studio/talk about the band’s history” documentary… the filmmaking is such that a mere passing interest in music, or indeed film itself, will suffice: as far as music documentaries go it’s one of the more absorbing. …” release – ‘08
More DVD Reviews:
Kaada & Patton – Live (Ipecac) The Flaming Lips – U.F.O.s at the Zoo DVD (Warners) Pink Floyd – P*U*L*S*E (EMI) Green Day - 'Bullet In A Bible' (Warners) Sex Pistols - 'The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle' (SonyBMG) Graham Coxon - 'Live At The Zodiac' (Parlophone) Various Acts - 'Glastonbury Anthems' (EMI) Pitchshifter - 'PSI-entology' (Sanctuary)