Category: Reviews

EP | David Harbottle & The Friendly Cats – Dawn Breaks

With a name as playful as David Harbottle & The Friendly Cats, one of the strongest elements I initially expected from their record was quite simply, fun. Happily, the seven-piece outfit’s third EP, Dawn Breaks, doesn’t disappoint in that sense…

Live | Glasser @ Hoxton Bar and Grill

The stage at Hoxton Bar and Grill is tantalisingly populated with a flat screen, projector and mammoth percussion rig long before Cameron Mesirow, aka Glasser, takes to the stage twenty-five minutes late.  Apparently oblivious to such earthly mundanities as ‘time’,…

EP | Andrew Bird – I Want To See Pulaski At Night

It would be easy to criticise Bird for missing the unique experimental opportunity that an intermediary EP release can provide. Right from its opening; the plucked, strummed, looped violin of ‘Ethio Invention No.1’; I Want To See Pulaski At Night…

Live | Ane Brun @ Kentish Town Forum

Over the last ten years, Ane Brun’s career has taken the ‘slow burn’ route, with seven studio albums released independently on her own label, Balloon Ranger Recordings. This patience has paid off, resulting in a solid fan base of devoted…

Album | Torres – Torres

Beginning with a tour-de-force of voice and guitar combining in beautiful harmony in ‘Mother Earth, Father God’, Torres (real name Mackenzie Ruth Scott) declares that she was ‘Born on bloody battleground/to the middlemen between two realms,’ and so the tone of record is set within the opening three minutes.

Album | Piers Faccini – Between Dogs And Wolves

Piers Faccini’s Between Dogs and Wolves is a beautiful album, for three simple reasons. His eclectic and unassuming vocal style is gently balanced on the music, falling somewhere between Nick Drake and Kings of Convenience. The instruments are deployed with…

Album | Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum

The latest offering from Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon, Mug Museum, is strangely timeless: it has clear retro, sixties influences, as if it’s playing on vinyl, but is full of fresh touches too. The guitar parts remind me of Dirty…

Album | Kiran Leonard – Bowler Hat Soup

Mary Epworth can seemingly do no wrong. After releasing her stunning debut album last year, Dream Life, Mary has turned her hand recently to running a record label, Hand of Glory, a label which Kiran Leonard has made his home.…