Philip King’s compilation of late-seventies – mid-eighties synth pop has a similar, if less political, approach as Adam Curtis: find leftfield, obscure tracks and highlight them, creating a sideways look at pop culture. As the title suggests, there is a DIY, deliberately un-glossy attitude to much of the music on offer. Frankie Goes To HollywoodContinue reading “Album Review: All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop”
Category Archives: Album
Album Review: Rival Consoles- Landscape From Memory
What a beauty. The gorgeous, endlessly inventive new album, from Rival Consoles, aka Ryan Lee West, invokes a kind of synaesthesia: you can almost hear colours. It’s textured, layer upon layer, like a kind of complex tromp l’oeil painting in sound. Tracks like ‘Catherine’, ‘Known Shapes’ and the stunning, shimmering ‘Soft Gradient Beckons’ appear likeContinue reading “Album Review: Rival Consoles- Landscape From Memory”
Overlooked Classics: Amiina- Puzzle (2011)
Puzzle from 2011 saw the genre blurring Icelandic band Amiina experiment and expand even more, having started out as an all -female string quartet in Reykjavik. They looked like some kind of mad fin de siecle inventors catapulted into the twenty first century on the front cover, which seems entirely apposite: vintage and contemporary coexisting.Continue reading “Overlooked Classics: Amiina- Puzzle (2011)”
Album Review: Frankie Cosmos- Different Talking
For over a decade, Greta Kline with her band Frankie Cosmos has been making her own brand of sweetly introspective indie pop, full of wry observations and a melancholic undertow. There’s more of this on her sixth studio album, but with some nice experimentation thrown in. Call it ‘Sad Girl Summer’ if you like. IContinue reading “Album Review: Frankie Cosmos- Different Talking”
Sometimes, More Is Less
Pulp’s reunion has been all over the press here, and understandably so- they’ve not made a studio album in twenty four years. I was so excited to hear the latest fruits of their labour, as Jarvis Cocker is one of the UK’s most astute frontmen and waspish wits. I love the outsiders; the oddballs, theContinue reading “Sometimes, More Is Less”
Archive Review: Julia Holter- Aviary
Julia HolterAviary Uneasy listening from LA multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter In a sea of twee folksy singer songwriters, it’s reassuring that we are blessed with some genuinely unique and gifted artists who occupy their own sonic territory: singular women like Annie Clark, aka St Vincent; Kathryn Joseph, Solange, Jane Weaver, FKA Twigs, and Mary Epworth. Los Angeles based multi instrumentalist and singer-songwriter JuliaContinue reading “Archive Review: Julia Holter- Aviary”
Album Review: CLAMM- Serious Acts
Melbourne trio CLAMM have been bubbling up over the last few years, creating an enjoyable and disarming racket. The band, who consist of Jack Summers, Stella Rennex and Miles Harding, mine the best parts of punk, post -punk and noise music, but they’ve got a lot to say about contemporary society too, reflected in theirContinue reading “Album Review: CLAMM- Serious Acts”
Lost In Music: Adam and the Ants- Kings Of the Wild Frontier
Two decades before Meg and Jack, there was only one white stripe that mattered: the warpaint over the nose of Britain’s biggest pop star: Adam Ant. His look was so iconic that kids copied him everywhere: indeed, me and my cousin Audrey, inspired by his style, attempted to emulate said stripe one summer, using tennisContinue reading “Lost In Music: Adam and the Ants- Kings Of the Wild Frontier”
Album Review: Model/Actriz- Pirouette
This simply has to be one of the best albums of the year. A mash up of so many exciting elements: the dancefloor burn of mid-noughties American artists like LCD Soundsystem; wild experimentation of no wave and sheer filth of glam at its sleaziest. It’s night time music for seduction or moving under neon lights.Continue reading “Album Review: Model/Actriz- Pirouette”
Album Review: Mamalarkey- Hex Key
It seems that wonky pop, which emerged in the mid-noughties, is alive and thriving after all. Atlanta band Mamalarkey deal in this often underrated genre. It’s all of the unexpected sonic U -turns that make this new album such a delight. From the euphoric folk bounce of ‘#1 Best Of All Time’ to the sunny,Continue reading “Album Review: Mamalarkey- Hex Key”
Hit The North 