190 posts
New albums
In seeking to have so many other talents on her first album for five years, Charli XCX often makes everyone sound the same… For someone so ubiquitous, it’s remarkable that…
Review: New Model Army – From Here
There’s always been a degree of snobbery directed towards Bradford’s New Model Army, who seemed to spend the late 80s and early 90s performing mid-afternoon slots at Reading Festival to…
Review: Hanne Hukkelberg – Birthmark
Fifteen years after beginning her solo career with typewriters and bicycles as instruments, Norway’s Hanne Hukkelberg is still employing found sounds as her work’s foundation, though rarely so accessibly. It…
Review: The Skids – Peaceful Times
Confronted by the reality of a Skids acoustic album – never an especially obvious prospect for punk veterans like them – the first concern one has is for singer Richard…
Review: A Flock Of Seagulls – Inflight – The Extended Essentials
In 2018, the original A Flock Of Seagulls reformed for the first time since 1984 to rework their hits with The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra for the album Ascension. A year…
Review: The Rembrandts – Via Satellite
Back together with their first new songs since 2001, The Rembrandts don’t sound a day older, probably because their brand of American college rock is essentially timeless. Opener How Far…
Review: Fever Ray – Live At The Troxy
Musically speaking, Karin Dreijer’s Far Eastern proclivities often dominate this Fever Ray 2018 show, much as they did David Sylvian’s Japan recordings. Part Of Us is full of Oriental melodic…
Review: Body Of Light – Time To Kill
It’s perhaps symptomatic of our cultural divide that in America, where brothers Alex and Andrew Jarson grew up, Body Of Light receive specialist tags like EBM, darkwave and industrial. In…
Review: Mabel – High Expectations
“Fuck my life,” Mabel McVey insists on this debut, but, in truth, that seems a trifle melodramatic. After all, 2017 gave her two Platinum awards, and there were more Gold…
Review: Ride – This Is Not A Safe Place
“This was your 15 minutes,” sings Mark Gardener on 15 Minutes, “Hope you had fun now/ Have a nice life, yeah/ You’re basically done”. A few years ago, these words…