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”

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”

The Future’s Here Today: Doom Scroller

Hiding in velveteen corners in smoke filled rooms you may find the enigmatic Doom Scroller. The Edinburgh based trio- comprised of singer and award- winning video artist Alex Auldsmith along with Scott Bathgate and Alex Palmer – make majestic, atmospheric electronic music designed to be heard undercover of darkness. It’s dark, seductive and intoxicating. The videoContinue reading “The Future’s Here Today: Doom Scroller”

Overlooked Classics: Hail The New Puritan (1987)

“Michael! Michael! “ I’m trying not to get too nostalgic here, as any nostalgia suggests there’s nothing worth dipping into in contemporary culture, but Charles Atlas’ fictionalised account of Michael Clark was like a firework going off in my soul. Something just sparked within me. Epiphany is an understatement. This was something I wanted inContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Hail The New Puritan (1987)”

Film Review: Beau Is Afraid

Pitched between hysterical mayhem and an eerie calm, Beau Is Afraid makes Get Out look like The Wiggles. This almost three hour epic is trippy indeed, with all the logic of a fever dream.Although written and directed by Ari Aster it’s like a Kafka compendium created by Paul Thomas Anderson, with a soupcon of DavidContinue reading “Film Review: Beau Is Afraid”

Film Review: Boom For Real

Anyone who’s ever seen Julian Schnabel’s good but flawed film Basquiat knows where this documentary gets its name from: a news report that artist Jean – Michel Basquiat sampled this anguished line from, and turned into an artwork. Sara Driver’s documentary, from 2018, subtitled The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat , takes a muchContinue reading “Film Review: Boom For Real”

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”

Album Review: PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying

There are many Polly Jean Harveys, all shedding skins, one by one. While an introspective album using her poems as songwriting templates was never going to be a sonic battering ram as so much of her previous work, there are still good things to be unearthed. This is her tenth studio album and is producedContinue reading “Album Review: PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying”