Author: Jordan Dowling
Cloud - Zen Summer Album Review
We seem to be elbow deep in an age where albums are worthless if we define 'worth' by its traditional capitalistic meaning. Prior to the official release of 'Zen Summer', the fourth album by Los...
Review posted on 27th April 2015
Carefully Planned festival #4 - Various venues, Manchester UK - 18th-19th October 2014 Preview
The weekend of the 18th & 19th of October 2014 will see the hosting of the fourth annual Carefully Planned festival in Manchester, taking place over seven venues in the city and featuring over 100...
Review posted on 15th October 2014
The Twilight Sad - Nottingham Bodega 7th October 2014 Live Review
The Twilight Sad's forthcoming fourth full-length release, "Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave", is not the Glaswegians strongest. It falls short of measuring up to the nervous grey-sky brilliance of their...
Review posted on 14th October 2014
Ringo Deathstarr supported by The Telescopes, NAAM, 11th September 2014, Lisboa Sabotage Club Live Review
The Sabotage Club in Lisboa has all the trappings of the typical toilet circuit venue, if you were to disregard a decade or two. Stepping inside you are immediately bearhugged by that old familiar stench...
Review posted on 19th September 2014
A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Atomos Album Review
There is, it seems, a compulsion felt by most music scribes when offering criticism of ambient music to meet a scarcity of sound with an over-abundance of adjectives and imagery; to compensate for minimalism by...
Review posted on 5th September 2014
Marc Weidenbaum - Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II Book Review
'Selected Ambient Works Volume II' is a peculiar addition to the 33 1/3 catalogue. The ongoing series of travel-sized books that focus on a particular album has previously featured meditations on albums that have a...
Review posted on 1st September 2014
Reverence Festival Valada - 12th/13th September 2014 - Valada, Portugal Preview
Valada, a scenic Portuguese village on the River Tejo, may not be the most traditional church for a marriage of shoegaze, stoner rock, prog, psychedelica, heavy metal and drone, but on the 12thand 13th of...
Review posted on 28th August 2014
Indietracks Festival - Midland Railway Centre, Butterley 25-27 July 2014 Live Review
In a world obsessed with expansion and 'brand diversification', Indietracks is the land where time stands still. Situated in the middle of a steam train museum, where a working train ferries you to and from...
Review posted on 11th August 2014
Bonobo - Late Night Tales Album Review
The only surprising thing about Bonobo's addition to the 'Late Night Tales' roster is that they existed separately for over a decade. Simon Green's heady mixes of midnight hour electronica and exotic down-tempo vibes run...
Review posted on 27th January 2014
Starting At Zero - His Own Story - Jimi Hendrix Book Review
'Starting At Zero - His Own Story' is an ambitious project. It is not very often you can use the word 'ambitious' to describe a book about a widely respected long-dead figure, but 'Starting At...
Review posted on 12th December 2013
Low - Rescue Rooms November 19th 2013 Live Review
There are very few certainties in life, never mind music, but one is that buying a ticket to see Duluth's finest Low will never lead to disappointment. Twenty-plus years of touring the world and writing...
Review posted on 22nd November 2013
CocoRosie - Tales Of A GrassWidow Album Review
Tales Of A GrassWidow is the fifth step in a journey that many who trace it appear to have the desire to obscure and confusticate. Whilst the American sisters have created folk of nursery rhyme...
Review posted on 23rd September 2013
Kayo Dot - Hubardo Album Review
If one were to compile and perform a statistical analysis on every review written on releases from Kayo Dot's back catalogue then it is very likely that the modal adjective result would be 'challenging' or...
Review posted on 6th September 2013
Green Man Festival 2013 - Live Review
That the most telling testament to the wonderful experience that was Green Man Festival 2013 comes not from the musical treats in store (which were myriad) but the sheer pleasure of the company present says...
Review posted on 22nd August 2013
Cloud - Comfort Songs Album Review
When you listen to Cloud's third full-length "Comfort Songs" for the first time, you get that rare thrill that becomes more elusive by the day and tells you that you have found something new that...
Review posted on 7th August 2013
Indietracks Festival 2013 - Review
Since its inception in 2007, Indietracks has remained one of the best kept secrets of the UK festival scene and a hideaway from modern life, with an atmosphere more reminiscent of childhood trips to Haven...
Review posted on 2nd August 2013
No.9 - The History Of The Day Album Review
A long-time entry on the seemingly endless list of begrudgingly talented solo artists from Japan who weave the classical with the futuristic and the acoustic with the electronic, the shadowy No.9 returns with his seventh...
Review posted on 1st August 2013
The Icarus Line - Slave Vows Album Review
The Icarus Line are one of those bands that just don't seem to have a place. Like Mínus and Cave In they've straddled genres and carved niches, looking for all the world on the cusp...
Review posted on 16th July 2013
These New Puritans - Field Of Reeds Album Review
When the term 'post-rock' was coined around twenty years ago, it wasn't coined for what it has come to represent now. What was meant to be a grouping and a primer for artists that took...
Review posted on 20th May 2013
Indietracks 2013 - Preview
Three years ago in an interview with this very site, Indietracks' head honcho wearily talked about scaling down the cult festival after the pressures of maintaining it, even with a trusted team of volunteers, were...
Review posted on 29th April 2013
Wolf People - Fain Album Review
Three years on from their debut album, it would perhaps be foolish to expect any change from the London-based prog-folk quartet Wolf People; such a period being a blink of an eye in the context...
Review posted on 25th April 2013
A Little Orchestra - Josefina EP Review
A Little Orchestra are a dectet who have their fingers in many pies, having performed with or collaborated with acts such as The Pipettes & The Loves amongst others, and the Josefina EP sees them...
Review posted on 22nd April 2013
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Mind Control Album Review
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats waste no time with introductions. Their third full-length, and second on the Rise Above label, kicks off with a spiralling jet-black riff firmly in the Black Sabbath lineage, but taken...
Review posted on 17th April 2013
Bonobo - North Borders Album Review
Simon Green, under the pseudonym Bonobo, has taken a long time to travel a short distance. In a manner mirroring the vibes of his music, Green's has been a story of slow but noticeable progression...
Review posted on 12th April 2013
Suede - Nottingham Rock City 28th March 2013 Live Review
Over two decades on from their last Nottingham date, though many things have changed in and around Suede just as much remains the same. 1992's show at the Nottingham polytechnic came before the departure of...
Review posted on 2nd April 2013
Port St Willow - Holiday Album Review
Most reviews submitted for Port St Willow's debut full-length "Holiday" since its original release midway through 2012 have focused on its resemblance to the grandiose indie-rock of The Antlers, with whom Port St Willow's singer/songwriter/instigator...
Review posted on 25th March 2013
Youth Lagoon - Wondrous Bughouse Album Review
Trevor Powers' debut under the Youth Lagoon moniker was an encapsulation of his own move from the coast of San Diego to the arid, primarily rural state of Idaho; wispy pop transplanted into a stark...
Review posted on 18th March 2013
Sigur Ros - Wolverhampton Civic Hall, 5th March 2013 Live Review
Although Sigur Ros have never been anything less than a great live band their current incarnation is their strongest for over a decade, since the two year period that bookended their landmark release ( )...
Review posted on 7th March 2013
Standard Fare - Sheffield Queens Social Club February 15th 2013 Live review
On their final headline show and penultimate set, it is business as usual for Standard Fare. Amongst friends and family turned out to see the homecoming Kings and Queen, any interaction with the audience is...
Review posted on 25th February 2013
My Bloody Valentine - mbv Album Review
Let us from the offset ignore inactivity, as My Bloody Valentine's follow-up to "Loveless" holds no regard for it. It begins two decades on as if nothing but the turn of a page has occurred...
Review posted on 5th February 2013
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Sports Team: 'Bus Trip All-Dayer' live at Dreamland in Margate
Live music returned to Dreamland in Margate in spectacular fashion as Sports Team brought their 'Bus Trip All-Dayer' back to the seaside town for the...
Mercury Prize 2021: With a shortlist like this, it’s truly anybody’s game
Wolf Alice are nominated for the third time and Arlo Parks is an unsurprising first-time nominee.
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Album Of The Week: The 19th Anniversary of 'I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love' by My Chemical Romance
Well before they enjoyed meteoric success with 'The Black Parade', My Chemical Romance started their musical journey with another concept album, 'I...
‘Whip My Hair’ Off: How shaving their heads empowered these women in music
Willow Smith and more rocked a buzzcut for so many reasons.
Normani - Wild Side ft. Cardi B Video
Normani and Cardi B dispense with the need to maintain any resemblance of social distancing as they get up-close and personal in the video their...
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Album Of The Week: The 37th Anniversary Of 'Diamond Life' by Sade
'Diamond Life', released on the 16th July 1984, is not only a significant album in it's own right, it's a cultural touchstone and a near perfect...
From Amyl and the Sniffers to The Jacklights: Six upcoming punk albums you must not miss
The resurrection of punk presents an exciting year for music.
