NYC’s Bodega have massive expectations from their fanbase for this second studio album, the follow-up to impressive debut Endless Scroll. The band and film makers are an acerbic riot of humour, self-awareness and leftwing politics and musically fall somewhere between the sarcastic indie snarl of Pavement and the insistent house party groove of LCD Soundsystem.Continue reading “Album Review: Bodega – Broken Equipment”
Category Archives: Album
Album Review: Cate Le Bon- Pompeii
Even at her sweetest, Welsh avant-pop artist Cate Le Bon is always wilfully opaque. This, her sixth album, is even murkier than before. There’s nothing as driving here as Mother’s Mother’s Magazines or even Sisters. What there is instead feels like a series of dizzy spells, which seems appropriate for our weird and frightening times.Continue reading “Album Review: Cate Le Bon- Pompeii”
This Nation’s Saving Grace: The First Time The Fall Flirted With Pop
There’s something wonderfully opaque about The Fall’s This Nation’s Saving Grace. No change there, you might say, but I’ve got a theory about this. Their eighth album is a strange one, but it’s incredible. It seems like the more commercial they tried to sound, the more the twinkling keyboards and big fat riffs drew attentionContinue reading “This Nation’s Saving Grace: The First Time The Fall Flirted With Pop”
Album Review: Savage Mansion- Golden Mountain, Here I Come
Cheeky indie cherub Craig Angus, lead singer and guitarist for Savage Mansion has really stepped up a gear with this, the third album Golden Mountain, Here I Come. Now a quintet, Angus and the rest of the band have the bit between their teeth. Angus, keyboard player Beth Chalmers, guitarist Andrew McPherson, bassist Jamie DubberContinue reading “Album Review: Savage Mansion- Golden Mountain, Here I Come”
“The fruits of isolation”- Ezra Furman
Three new songs from Ezra Furman appeared the other day and a forthcoming tour has been announced for later this year (all being well). Thematically, it’s the usual great Furman stuff: spirituality, love, identity and connection, and her lyrics remain as on point as ever. It all bodes well for the next album. For moreContinue reading ““The fruits of isolation”- Ezra Furman”
Overlooked Classics: Danielle Dax- Jesus Egg That Wept
Danielle Dax has had an interesting career- she trained in opera in her youth; became a multi- instrumentalist and formed the experimental Lemon Kittens in the post-punk era, appeared as the Wolf Girl in Neil Jordan’s Company Of Wolves, went solo, and now works in interior design and art. Her second album is very muchContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Danielle Dax- Jesus Egg That Wept”
Overlooked Classics: Bauhaus- In The Flat Field
We need to talk about Bauhaus. No, not the German art movement, although it’s hugely influential and important. The debut album from the English band is also the very first album ever released on 4AD. I feel Bauhaus are often unfairly dismissed as pretentious pretty boys and mere Goths, like a haircut that you growContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Bauhaus- In The Flat Field”
Album Review: Sea Change- Mutual Dreaming
Norwegian producer and singer Ellen A W Sunde has produced yet another elusive, shining sad gem. Mutual Dreaming hits that half awake/half asleep tender spot. Her dreamy, often whispered vocals cast her as sonic somnambulist, and songs like Night Eyes, OK and the title track are like drowning in pixels. It’s elusive, warped and prettyContinue reading “Album Review: Sea Change- Mutual Dreaming”
Overlooked Classics: The Birthday Party- Junkyard
Few albums sound like their cover art. Junkyard is one such record. The follow-up to debut Prayers on Fire, it’s a riot. The Birthday Party were like a marauding razor gang. Every track is a little electric shock: pure viciousness, matching the Ed Roth/ Dave Christensen artwork. GrIpped by drugs and demons, the Australian post-punkContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: The Birthday Party- Junkyard”
Album Review: Boris-W
For well over two decades, Japanese experimental doom band Boris have been treading their own path, through line-up and label changes. Too avant-garde for the mainstream, they nonetheless have a loyal fan- base, not least because of working alongside collaborators like Sunn 0))). This, their first album for Sacred Bones, has enough light and shadeContinue reading “Album Review: Boris-W”
Hit The North 