This is a hell of a debut. Featuring members of Sauna Youth and CoId Pumas, Marcel Wave are a promising lot. Singer Maike Hale- Jones delivers witty, gobby vignettes on the state of Britain, flanked by Oliver Fisher and his bruising guitar, and organ from Lindsay Corstorphine. It’s in the grand tradition of UK post-punkContinue reading “Album Review: Marcel Wave- Something Looming”
Category Archives: Review
Album Review: Indoor Pets- Pathetic Apathetic
Grunge influences and 90s alt rock nods are still around in contemporary music. Indoor Pets definitely channel the energy of Nirvana, Pixies and Jane’s Addiction, while retaining their own 2020s sound. It’s so well executed that it feels like a great big shot of adrenaline. ‘London’ and the title track are fuzzy, pile-driving songs asContinue reading “Album Review: Indoor Pets- Pathetic Apathetic”
Book Review: Lemn Sissay- My Name Is Why
British Ethiopian poet and performer Lemn Sissay writes prose in the same way that he speaks: succinctly, openly and with no time for bullshit. It’s this no -nonsense approach that he brings to his devastating memoir, My Name Is Why. For the first twelve years of his life, he had lived with a Christian familyContinue reading “Book Review: Lemn Sissay- My Name Is Why”
Album Review: Ora Cogan- Formless
The Canadian artist’s eighth album is a real labour of love, with contributions from Luz Elena Mendoza of Y La Bamba on the mellifluous, twisty duet’Ways Of Losing’ and LANKUM’s Cormac Mac Diarmada playing violin and viola on ‘Feel Life’. ‘Dyed ‘ feels like a folky jazz incantation with a psychedelic undertow and her newContinue reading “Album Review: Ora Cogan- Formless”
Film Review: Tramps!
The natural reaction to a conservative era is to reject it, subvert it entirely and aim higher. So it was with the “New Romantics”, the movement which gave us Boy George, Michael Clark, Duran Duran, Leigh Bowery, Marilyn, Visage and Spandau Ballet. These stylish, freaky rebels were part of a loose “family” of club kidsContinue reading “Film Review: Tramps!”
Overlooked Classics: Common Holly- Playing House
There are some artists who make albums that should have been huge. Better known by her stage name Common Holly, Brigitte Naggar is a Canadian musician from Montreal.As Common Holly, Naggar has released two full-length albums, but her debut is so underrated it beggars belief. It’s so fully formed, it’s astonishing. Naggar’s first album, Playing House, was releasedContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Common Holly- Playing House”
Album Review: Mammoth Penguins -Here
You just can’t keep a good indie trio down. Cambridge scamps Mammoth Penguins ‘ new album fizzles with effervescent energy. Emma Kupa, Tom Barden and Mark Boxall have returned with music that is irresistible, straight out of the traps, racing forward and never looking back. Their trademark grungy indie, and Kupa’s sweet, youthful voice, hasContinue reading “Album Review: Mammoth Penguins -Here”
Album Review: Gossip- Real Power
Gossip ‘s return was announced with little fanfare, as the best surprises always are. But, while they’re always great to see live, this new studio album is something of a disappointment. Rick Rubin is on board as producer, which ironically may be the problem. It often sounds too glossy, as though sonically airbrushed. The moreContinue reading “Album Review: Gossip- Real Power”
From The Skinny Archive… Matthew Bourne ‘s Swan Lake In 3D
REVIEWS ★★★★★ Review by Missy Lorelei | 27 Jun 2012 This ravishing production from Sadler’s Wells in London is at once contemporary and utterly timeless. Bourne’s re-telling of the classic ballet has more than a slight Freudian overtone to the narrative; the adult Prince (touchingly portrayed by Dominic North) has mother issues; is seduced byContinue reading “From The Skinny Archive… Matthew Bourne ‘s Swan Lake In 3D”
Overlooked Classics: Julian Cope- World Shut Your Mouth
This is the album, not the song. That can be found, of course, on Saint Julian. World Shut Your Mouth marked Julian Cole’s transition from Teardrop Explodes pin -up,to eccentric solo artist. And there are a couple of would -be TE tracks on here (Pussyface’ and ‘Metranil Vavin’) but in the main, it’s Cope flyingContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Julian Cope- World Shut Your Mouth”
