While the national emblem of Wales might be the fierce red dragon, Cate Le Bon’s whimsical undercurrent of 70s laidback folk and Nico-embossed vocals paints a picture that counteracts this association. It was only April this year that Welsh lovely…
Category: Records
Album | Stealing Sheep – Into the Diamond Sun
Liverpudlian girl-trio Stealing Sheep are effortlessly fresh-faced, embracing psychedelic swoops and loops; they create a homespun hippyish vibe in a way that’s honest and fun rather than affectedly occult (I can see them dressing up in kaftans, but not faffing…
Album | Adrian McNally – Harbour of Songs
Metal and rock are, of course, both well-established as musical genres. Wood is less so, but the Unthanks’ Adrian McNally is out to change that. As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, a boat constructed from wood donated by…
Album | Lianne La Havas – Is Your Love Big Enough
A gorgeous voice, fresh-faced good looks, a trailor load of youthful exuberance and an original songwriter to boot. The myriad of Cowell-sponsored TV talent shows could run for the next hundred years without turning up a little star like Lianne…
EP | Andrew Bird – Give it Away
If you haven’t watched the video for ‘Give it Away’, the lead track on Andrew Bird’s most recent EP of the same name, do it now. Immediately. It features a human piñata at a 1950’s-style kids birthday party, and a…
Album | Meursault – Something for the Weakened
It’s been clear from the outset that Meursault are a band that push outwards at all times. Their oft-changing line-up, unpredictable live shows and, most obviously, famously mercurial sound – which has seen them flicker constantly between the extreme end…
Album | Family Band – Grace & Lies
In their sophomore record, Grace & Lies, Family Band juxtapose two fundamentally opposing and paradoxical concepts, and intertwine them to form a being that thrums with life’s most profound questions. The album begins with the unsettlingly with ‘Night Song’, centred…
Singles Round-up | Dog Is Dead, Alberta Cross, Alexander Wolfe, Tashaki Miyaki, James Canty & Church School
Dog is Dead – Glockenspiel Song When I was first this track I did a double take; wasn’t this quirky, upbeat pop number from Nottingham was released two years ago? It turns out I was right – after releasing ‘Glockenspiel…
EP | Bonnie Prince Billy – Now Here’s My Plan
I sometimes wonder what it would be like if modern songs were given the kind of interpretative renditions born by traditional music – if more cover versions consciously shaped meaning, like Bellowhead, rather than merely adapting style, like the Mystery…
EP | WAGWAK – The Way To Drive Into The Arabian Sunset
Made up of singer-guitarist Daehyun Kim and madcap multi-instrumentalist Sangyoung Cho, WAGWAK’s curious moniker is an acronym of We Aren’t Gay, We Are Korean, after they were repeatedly mistaken for a couple. Self-professed disciples of FFS favourites Slow Club, Mumford…