What an exciting debut from this young Bejing band. Xiaowang make music that’s as unexpected as it’s exhilarating. They’re described as “kawaiicore” and that’s a perfect term, as their music is often pitched between the fun and the terrifying. Steal vacillates between deadpan choppy postpunk and death metal roars, whereas Duck Song is slicing, staccatoContinue reading “Album Review: Xiaowang-Kachakacha”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Future’s Here Today: Tether
As summer approaches,so too does the prospect of festivals. And Tether , a post-hardcore band based in London, have a brilliant live reputation, tailor- made for festival crowds. Their debut, a new EP, Mirror Work which is self released, comes out next month and there are a series of live dates. The EP captures aContinue reading “The Future’s Here Today: Tether”
Lost In Music: Barnes & Barnes- Fish Heads
It’s been a long weekend.
A superb review by Matt McBrier. Shared
Mercury Prize 2023
What does everyone reckon to this year’s Mercury Prize nominations then? I’m pleased at the diversity this year, as I like a wide range of music. It’d be excellent to see Shygirl win for Nymph , as she bends beats into interesting shapes, and Sega Bodega are superb producers.Lankum are great, but I can’t imagineContinue reading “Mercury Prize 2023”
Piers- The Movie
Interior . Bedroom. Pink castle. Princess Piers yawns, stretches and gleefully gets out of bed, ready to face the day. PIERS: Huzzah. Another scrumptious English morning, ready to be assaulted by a volley of my opinions, masquerading as facts. Princess Piers dresses in two seconds flat, slides down a pole and out into The MagicContinue reading “Piers- The Movie”
Hey! Wednesday! Leave the normies alone…
When singer, actor and activist Olivia Newton- John passed away in August last year, it felt like a piece of our collective childhood had also gone. Despite being thirty something when she portrayed Sandy in ‘Grease’, archetypal virgin given sexy makeover, stitched into those satin leggings and wank banks of many, she’ll forever be thatContinue reading “Hey! Wednesday! Leave the normies alone…”
Album Review: Superorganism – World Wide Pop
Perfect pop often tightropes precariously between euphoria and melancholy. So it is with Superorganism, the London- based, globally sourced pop act. Orono Noguchi’s sweet youthful vocals can be soulfully sad, joyful or snarky and cynical. It’s all anchored by quirky textures, samples and grooves. Like a Lego kit, the band thrives on building little empiresContinue reading “Album Review: Superorganism – World Wide Pop”
What has happened to theatre criticism?
What has happened to theatre criticism? It has been onn a downward spiral for years, anyway. It used to have its own special place in the newspapers, and the critic had the power to destroy (or to ensure a blockbuster success), but that probably only ever happened on Broadway or in the West End. Isn’tContinue reading “What has happened to theatre criticism?“
Lost In Music: Aphex Twin- Come To Daddy
In these terrible days of Boris and his cronies’ collective hubris, we need an anthem to guide us into the light- a song which, heads raised aloft like Boudicca, we sing to raise spirits and gladden hearts. It’s what Dame Vera stood for and by jingo, it’s what we need right now. Bollocks we do.Continue reading “Lost In Music: Aphex Twin- Come To Daddy”
Hit The North 