May we cordially recommend a gig to you? It’s in one of the very most beautiful venues in London, there are prizes for the first 50 people to buy tickets from the Communion Music, and the line up is stonking. The…
Category: Reviews
Album | Beth Orton – Sugaring Season
Having spent the turn of the century in the company of Beth Orton’s 1999 Brit Award-winning album Central Reservation – and it’s chronological neighbours Trailer Park and Daybreaker – Orton’s music is part of the maturing folk fan’s genetic make-up. Now…
Album | Neil Halstead – Palindrome Hunches
The sometime Slowdive and Mojave 3 frontman’s prolific career continues with a simply beautiful third solo album. Recorded over one weekend in a primary school, after Halstead bribed the caretaker to let him and his band into the music room,…
Album | Martha Tilston – Machines of Love and Grace
Political music cannot, as Billy Bragg says, change the world, “but it can change the way you think about the world.” Martha Tilston’s new record Machines of Love and Grace finds its raison d’être – and severe limitations – in…
Live | Karine Polwart @ The Union Chapel
THE breathtaking Union Chapel is the perfect setting for this rare gathering of Karine Polwart’s full band. Adding piano and percussion to her regular backing of brother Steven (guitar, good looks, bad jokes) and Inge Thompson (accordion, backing vocals, headscarves),…
Album | Bhi Bhiman – Bhiman
Bhi Bhiman’s voice is distinct and powerful. In fact, his delivery is as textured and girthy as the mighty redwood trees near his home in San Francisco. Apologies for the hyperbole, but both the above sentences offer insight into Bhiman’s…
Live | Pocktoberfest @ Pocklington Old Railway Station
Pock’n’Roll. Pock and awe. Pock ’til you drop. Top of the Pocks. The only thing better than attempting a bit of word play relating to Pocktoberfest was actually being there. You may not have heard of Pocktoberfest. You probably haven’t…
Live | Bellowhead @ The Water Rats
When Charles Dickens reported “There was an abundance of lights, and there was music… the whole building looked to me as if it were learning to swim,” he was not describing a Bellowhead gig, rather David Copperfield’s first experience of…
EP | Simone Felice – New York Times EP
After years of producing outstanding records with the Felice Brothers and The Duke & The King, Simone Felice’s debut solo album fell a little short. When it hit its highs, it was beautiful (look no further than opener Hey Bobby…
Singles Round-up | Pistols At Dawn, Grass House, MAIA, Pipers, Mt. Wolf
Pistols At Dawn – Man.Wolf.Man The centrepiece bass on this recording-project-turned-band’s latest single is so like the brooding bass line on ‘Come Together’ it’s uncanny, but its goes far beyond its bluesy sound. The track’s scuffling brush beats, jangling acoustics…