Album Review: The Smile-Wall Of Eyes

Leave it to Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood to have a side project that’s also as extraordinary as the other. Along with legendary jazz drummer Tom Skinner, the trio’s second album proves they can still weave magic on their own terms. The reason Wall Of Eyes so beguiles is the capricious nature of theContinue reading “Album Review: The Smile-Wall Of Eyes”

A Secret Worth Sharing: Meet Anna Secret Poet

Anna Secret Poet is a genderfluid singer/songwriter,musician,poet and model based in Glasgow. Their influences range from The Ramones to Doctor Who, and you can find them performing in clubs,cabaret nights and at comedy shows.With new music on the horizon,I caught up with the delightful Anna Blair to find out what’s in store for 2024. IsContinue reading “A Secret Worth Sharing: Meet Anna Secret Poet”

The Peel Sessions- The Slits

“We were like a gang”, Viv Abertine said in her brilliant memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music,Music,Music,Boys,Boys,Boys. “We’d shout over to each other…OI!” It’s this uninhibited spirit that marks The Slits as unique, fearless and badass, even decades later. The sessions for John Peel reflect this. From the sarcastic sex kitten cries and faux orgasms ofContinue reading “The Peel Sessions- The Slits”

Album Review: The Pheromoans-Wyrd Psearch

Indie in 2024 is best when it’s DIY, raw and sung from the heart. Leave it to the peerless Upset The Rhythm, then, to bring more of the kind of gritty indie music that I like, the raw, unvarnished and honest stuff. It’s not made to fit curated playlists or banal daytime local radio, it’sContinue reading “Album Review: The Pheromoans-Wyrd Psearch”

Overlooked Classics: Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition

Overlooked may be a strong term, but this album by Danny Brown remains, for me, a trailblazer. There’s an old adage that goes, “you’re only as good as your friends” . I believe this is as true of artists and their collaborative colleagues. Featured here are Kendrick Lamar; Kelela, Be Real, Petite Noir and EarlContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition”

Kim Gordon Returns

The mighty Kim Gordon has just released one of the year’s best singles,in my opinion. Takes from her forthcoming second album, The Collective, Bye Bye is a stormer, with ESG influenced noise, trap beats and Gordon’s unmistakably defiant, half sung, half purred vocals. With a video to accompany the single starring her daughter Coco asContinue reading “Kim Gordon Returns”

The Future’s Here Today: Currls

We’re all tired. January is a tough month, and where I am, it’s bloody freezing. So here’s something to warm us all up. Brighton garage rock trio Currls are getting a lot of heat, and rightly so. Beth Molly Moore, Trilby White and Natalie Caushaj are the band in question, and they’re sounding amazing rightContinue reading “The Future’s Here Today: Currls”

Overlooked Classics: Bomb The Bass- Clear

British hip hop took a while to ignite. But Tim Simenon, aka Bomb The Bass,had been doing his own singular thing production wise since the eighties, but the third album Clear felt like a step up from his poppier efforts. Released in the mid nineties, it’s at times more akin to a more oddball PublicContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Bomb The Bass- Clear”

Lost In Music: David Bowie -Hunky Dory

Hunky Dory is, for me, absolutely peerless. It’s perfection. It’s still overlooked in favour of The Rise and Fall Of Ziggy Stardust, etc, but it never fails to make me feel all warm inside. It’s hard to believe that Bowie was only in his twenties when this masterpiece was created. The songwriting, as well asContinue reading “Lost In Music: David Bowie -Hunky Dory”

Lost In Music: The Sugarcubes-Planet

Bjork’s breakthrough band in the UK and USA (she’d made work with Kukl,Spit and Snot and various others) were a funny hybrid of indie and pop: sometimes,they were on the wrong side of wacky, a la The B52s around the time of Love Shack. Sometimes, as with the gloriously dark Mama, Cold Sweat or Sick ForContinue reading “Lost In Music: The Sugarcubes-Planet”