Formed in Melbourne by brilliant percussionist Matt Blach, the quintet Beans are fast becoming one of Australia’s best loved neo-psychedelic bands. This, their third album, takes its name from beatboxing, but that’s as modern a reference as you will find here. It’s retro all the way. Blach has said that themes of introspection are importantContinue reading “Album Review: Beans- Boots ‘N’ Cats”
Category Archives: Review
Documentary Review: Becoming Frida Kahlo
We all know Frida Kahlo: survivor of polio, and a terrible bus crash; flowers in her hair and autobiographical art, married to Communist and prolific artist Diego Rivera, twenty years her senior. These are merely outlines, bare sketches. Louise Lockwood’s exhaustive three part BBC documentary films fill in the colours. There are details from her great-nieceContinue reading “Documentary Review: Becoming Frida Kahlo”
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”
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”
Why The Traitors Works
Warning: spoilers ahead… Farewell then, to the unmissable second series of The Traitors UK. Presented by everyone’s favourite glam auntie type, Claudia Winkleman, it’s the BBC’s biggest cash cow in years, and with good reason. It’s great fun, and very smart. Essentially, a game like Mafia or Cluedo, but framed as a reality show withContinue reading “Why The Traitors Works”
Podcast Review: Things Fell Apart
In this time of noise, overload and division, it’s easy to get deep into doomscrolling and overwhelm. So it’s wonderful that writers and broadcasters like Jon Ronson exist in the world. As with his brilliant books (he’s tackled everything from social !media cancellation, to the roots of psychopathy) his podcast Things Fell Apart, takes on theContinue reading “Podcast Review: Things Fell Apart”
Film Review: Cat Nation
This quirky documentary, created by film maker Tim Delmastro and You Tuber Chris Broad, an Englishman who has lived in Japan for over five years, follows the Japanese fascination with the domestic felines. From a station master’s cat (below, in jaunty hat) to a temple festooned with Neko beckoning lucky cats, to a slightly OTTContinue reading “Film Review: Cat Nation”
Album Review: Problem Patterns- Blouse Club
It’s nice that there are young bands who still have a lot to say. Feminist punk band Problem Patterns release their debut album Blouse Club today, and it’s politically engaged without ever losing its sense of humour or effervescent fizz. ‘Advertising Services’ takes on the ubiquity and inescapable nature of advertising and corporate sponsorship… Where’sContinue reading “Album Review: Problem Patterns- Blouse Club”
Album Review: Mint Field-Aprender a Ser
The new album from Mexican duo Mint Field , is evocative of 4AD big hitters like Cocteau Twins and His Name Is Alive, but with their own unique spin on the template. It’s gauzy, dreamlike and a little disconcerting, as the best Dream pop always is. Estrella del Sol’s vocals caress, while remaining unsettling. SheContinue reading “Album Review: Mint Field-Aprender a Ser”
Hit The North 