This splendidly disorienting mashup of Hot Chip, Captain Beefheart and !!! is taken from ‘What Do People Do All Day’, Working For A Nuclear Free City’s first album in half a decade, and suggests that their experimental urges remain undimmed
Read MoreListen/review: Trudy – Baby I'm Blue
Trudy guitarist Olly Taylor's lively fretwork is what sets ‘Baby I’m Blue’ (along with the rest of the Scouse trio’s output so far) above and beyond the competition.
Read MoreListen/review: Alissia – Take Off
Alissia’s new single, ‘Take Off’, is 200 seconds of unadulterated feel-good P-funk that sounds as if Prince and George Clinton are locked in a musical duel to prove who’s most worthy of wearing the high-waisted cerise trousers.
Read MoreLive review: Nathan Ball at The Lexington 01/12/15
Soaked with humbleness yet intimate and even a bit other-wordly due to Nathan Ball’s deep, wistfully longing vocals and carefully accentuated singing.
Read MoreListen/review: Les Gordon – Atlas
Fervour for all music, regardless of time and place, informs Les Gordon's latest EP. The French producer treats us to a moving melancholic (and joyous) piece that expresses feelings that can’t be vocalised.
Read MoreLive review: Disco Doom at the Electric Ballroom, 25/11/15
Combining the fuzz of Rust…-era Neil Young with the wall-of-sound dynamics of the Secret Machines, Disco Doom single-handedly obliterated the mundane winter blues on a late November evening
Read MoreListen/review: Fascinator – The Traveller
Lord Fascinator's music takes on a fractal and luscious technicolour aspect. Washes of synth recall Lonerism cuts like ‘Endors Toi’, but there’s much more to it than straight-up homaging. The arpeggios are baroque in the truest sense of the word – think Henry Purcell.
Read MoreWatch/review: Melt Yourself Down – Dot To Dot
‘Dot To Dot’ draws influences from a plethora of genres, cultures, tones and flavours. It's a banging tune with big bass sounds, big energetic drums and just big, well... 'bigness'
Read MoreListen/review: Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Melody In High Feedback Tones
Mike Oldfield-like arpeggios, twinkle-grit synths and motorik drumming is set to a wistful progression that delivers in spades before dipping out ungracefully in a clunky electro-funk finale.
Read MoreListen/review: Blue House – Hot Air Balloons
A new release by jangle-pop duo Blue House stirs an almost Krautrock beat and high-altitude synths into the gentle broth of acoustic guitar and dreamy vocals
Read MoreWatch/review: Guadalupe Plata – Calle 24
The plot of Guadalupe Plata's lo-fi promo zips along surreally at an urgent pace, all matching the fuzz-toned garage-blues rumble of ‘Calle 24’ itself, a tune that hovers between the Soledad Brothers, Dick Dale and The Cramps.
Read MoreListen/review: Palm – Doggy Doctor
'Doggy Doctor' is a slow and strange number replete with chiming guitars and a kind of car-sick nauseous quality to its heavy lurching momentum. It’s challenging music that never quite settles in the stomach till the starry outro.
Read MoreListen/review: Eliza Shaddad – Wars
'Wars' starts with a guitar riff slowly bleeding through a touching vocal line that seeps in later. It’s quite different to the Eliza songs I'm used to but still features her sweet, sultry vocals on top of the track. There is a certain roughness to them now,
Read MoreListen/review: Beach House – Elegy To The Void
This is certifiably Beach House at their very best. Atop the astral synths and buoyant beats sits a meditation on impermanence from Victoria Legrand. "Black clock looming distant" she coos, as the song drifts and arranges itself to brace a phenomenal feedback-saturated guitar solo from Alex Scally.
Read MoreWatch/review: King Korea – Zoo Generation
The pounding riffs, Eagles of Death Metal-esque vocal delivery and the astoundingly thumping catchiness of the band all feel like great influences from the desert-rock scene.
Read MoreLive review: Caspian and Jo Quail, The Dome, 2/11/15
Caspian hit that glorious sweet spot where every note just sat right and emanated energy throughout the room, vibrating through the audience. It was a killer performance
Read MoreLive review: Orphan Boy at The Sebright Arms 29/10/15
Singer Rob Cross is a fine lyrical chronicler of the travails of the unfashionable everyday, not unlike a provincial British Springsteen, and, for all their punk roots, Orphan Boy at their best have a flavour of The Boss’s widescreen, anthemic escapism.
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Listen/review: David Ward – Möbius Wave
Ward’s soulful operatic vocal is set to harmonious, subtle contrasts. The slow-burning percussive pound, considered guitar licks and gently rising orchestration of the lovely verses is the real bedrock of the song, and ‘Möbius Wave’ never fails to intrigue.
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Watch/review: Jane Weaver – I Need A Connection
The effortless delivery of Weaver's vocals makes for a tasty treat further amplified by those Eighties-inspired synths that fill the space in the background, especially in the chorus where it gets a bit more meaty and emphatic. It's a pop-inspired track that has a cute flair to it and is inspiring
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Listen/review: O Emperor – Switchblade
The first thing that stands out on ‘Switchblade’ is its simple, delightful bassline and playful synth-riff melody that kinda floats on top before the vocals kick in. These are distinct and welcoming, coating the music in what feels like a warm massage oil.
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