There’s something about America that leads venue owners to supply junk food alongside live music — and so a few weeks ago I found myself watching folk bands at a pizza place. Noise and tomatoey smells drifted across from the…
Category: Reviews
EP Review: Western Friends of the Sun – Grey Trouble
When coming across a band that have no more than 200 plays on their MySpace and a page as bare as the plains of Alaska, there is a sense of excitement awakening the pioneer instinct in you with that secret…
Album review: Cocos Lovers – Johannes
“The wind and the rain that follows you home/The valley surrounds and swallows you whole.” Kentish folk stalwarts Cocos Lovers’ latest album, Johannes, captures all the beauty of their live singing. From the beginning of ‘Time To Stand,’ the clear-toned…
Album: She & Him – Volume 2
There’s a lot to be said for pure originality – without it our lives would be severely lacking in, well, pretty much everything. In music though, pure originality is a fair less admirable quality. The truly original bands tend to…
Live: Sparrow & the Workshop @ Wimbledon Watershed
Each musician in Sparrow & the Workshop brings their own musical ingredient. Frontwoman and acoustic guitarist Jill O’Sullivan’s country vocals are cuttingly pure — but more haunting banshee than soothing angel. Gregor Donaldson is a phenomenal drummer, his dexterity is sometimes astonishing. As well as that he’s that most elusive of things, a singing percussionist, whose warm Scottish baritone adds harmonic depth to Jill’s vocals. Guitarist and bassist Nick Packer scuzzes things up nicely with a layer of distortion and noise.
Album: Tunng – …And Then We Saw Land
There’s nothing strikingly different about …And Then We Saw Land, Tunng’s fourth record. All of the main ingredients for a modern British folk album are present – the harmonies, cheerful melodies and casual banjo are all present and correct. Though…
Classic album recommendation: Elliott Smith — Either/Or
Every decade is peppered by a select number of albums in which all their composite elements are in perfect harmony. In these the texture of the music is perfectly married to the tone of the lyrics and the timbre of…
Album: Joanna Newsom — Have One on Me
Listening to Have One on Me for the umpteenth time, I still find myself irrationally and spontaneously bursting into tears at the gentle phrasing and subtle moments. There is no biological reason why my hormones should be so out of…
Single: Wild Beasts – We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues
Kendal quartet Wild Beasts’ third single from their much-lauded second album, Two Dancers, ‘We Still Got The Taste…’ is a giddy tale of youthful debauchery and lustful adventures, characteristically told by frontman Hayden Thorpe’s unique countertenor vocals and accompanied by…
Review: Lightspeed Champion — Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You
It’s been three years since Dev Hynes joined the Saddle-Creek alumni in Omaha, Nebraska, to record his debut LP, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge. For his latest release, Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You, he chose to go further east…