Author: Jordan Dowling Page 3
Tashaki Miyaki - Tashaki Miyaki
'You make me happy/I'm always happy/With you'. 'Something is better than nothing/It's gonna be alright'. Nobody is going to accuse Tashaki Miyaki of taking too much time over their lyrics, that's for sure. And yet...
Review posted on 30th November 2011
Puressence - Nottingham Bodega Social Club, November 12th 2011
In the light of Elbow's slow-cum-rapid ascent to fame, it's a surprise that Puressence continue to be overlooked. Both bands have almost two decades of experience behind them; both have a knack for writing heart-wrenching...
Review posted on 23rd November 2011
Lou Reed & Metallica, Lulu Album Review
The thing about a legacy is that it is nearly always pissed on by the legend that creates it. From Elvis' descent into ill health, Garrincha and George Best's problems with alcohol right through to...
Review posted on 14th November 2011
Supersonic Festival - Custard Factory, Birmingham, 21st - 23rd October 2011
Supersonic Festival offers a rare treat for an annualized festival; an event which is ever-changing and ever-unpredictable. Its ninth addition saw a further rejig of the festivals layout, adding a second stage accessible via a...
Review posted on 1st November 2011
Swimming - Ecstatics International
Swimming are one of those all too rare bands that have a dual manifesto of unbridled ambition and pure pop spirit, one who effortlessly create a veritable gumbo of styles and ideas without losing sight...
Review posted on 17th October 2011
Nils Frahm - Nils Frahm
Somehow Erased Tapes continues to go from strength to strength. April's release of Worlds End Girlfriend's 'Seven Idiots', a frenetic clusterfu*k of oblique musical experimentations that combined the headrush prog of early Mars Volta with...
Review posted on 6th October 2011
Supersonic Festival - 2011, Preview
It is perhaps fitting that Supersonic Festival, one of the few truly great independent alternative festivals in the United Kingdom, is held in the city that gave birth to Black Sabbath (and so heavy metal),...
Review posted on 27th September 2011
Pully For Noise - Pully, Lausanne, Switzerland - 18-20th September 2011
Situated on the bank of Lake Geneva, Pully For Noise festival is an eye opener for anyone that complains at the escalating price and cost of UK festivals. Weighing in at around £100 equivalent for...
Review posted on 31st August 2011
Dragon Gate Wrestling - Broxborne Civic Hall/Nottingham Albert Hall - 21st/22nd October 2011
Dragon Gate Wrestling, a wrestling promotion begun in Tokyo in 2004 by legendary luchador Ultimo Dragon, is the perfect subject for Contactmusic's first detailed coverage of a live wrestling event as it makes its return...
Review posted on 24th August 2011
A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen
With so little room for variation and such an over-saturation in both the field of 'ambient' music and commentary on it any review of an album situated in the genre can seem to be a...
Review posted on 24th August 2011
Indietracks Festival - 2011 - Midland Railway Centre, Butterley, Ripley - 29th-31st July 2011
It can be difficult to describe Indietracks in a factual manner without giving the impression it is a weekend subscribed to conformity and devoid of creativity. On the face of it, at least for anyone...
Review posted on 8th August 2011
Kashiwa Daisuke - 88
After the headrush IDM of '5 Dec', with its cluttered beats and uncompromising sonic maelstroms that bore resemblances to Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares at times and countrymen Xinlisupreme and Merzbow at others '88' may...
Review posted on 21st July 2011
Pully For Noise - 2011 Preview
With rising ticket prices, poorly maintained sites and dwindling line-up qualities at home, more and more people from the UK are heading to Europe for the festival season. Primevera, Rock Am Ring and Roskilde have...
Review posted on 12th July 2011
Takahiro Kido - Fairy Tale
To place a critical analysis of an album made by a Tokyo based artist in the context of the earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit Japan on the 11th of March this year may seem...
Review posted on 6th July 2011
The Berg Sans Nipple - Build With Erosion
Nebraska/Paris duo The Berg Sans Nipple have always stood out like a sore thumb, whether that thumb is pointed in the direction of windswept post-rock or the nearest discothèque. Adored by the none-more-serious devotees of...
Review posted on 6th July 2011
Serengeti - Family & Friends
For those not familiar with Anticon, and artists like Doseone, Sage Francis, Sole and the recently sadly departed Eyedea, the premise of 'intelligent hip-hop' may seem unnecessary and unwelcome but the loose, and admittedly mostly...
Review posted on 28th June 2011
Frontiers - Frontiers, Jake Bugg, Nottingham Bodega Social 22nd June 28/06/2011
'Introducing' gigs in their nature are typically nights to avoid, usually containing a line-up consisting of a headliner with new-found and short-lived label backing and local bands that will ensure a half-decent turnout. Fortunately Dean...
Review posted on 28th June 2011
Dot To Dot - Nottingham 2011
With a line-up as inconsistent as the days weather it was hard to know what to expect from the 2011 edition of Dot-To-Dot. Pre-festival chat suggested attendance would be severely down on previous years, with...
Review posted on 1st June 2011
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Nottingham Bodega Social 24th May 2010
Inhabiting as they do the mid-point between the bleary-eyed, fiercely American rock of The National and the heart-on-sleeves modern emo of Saddle Creek label mates Bright Eyes, The Rural Alberta Advantage appear to have crafted...
Review posted on 1st June 2011
The Antlers - Heaven, London, 12th May 2011
Breaking up the structure of "Hospice", the (very) highly acclaimed full-length that brought Brooklyn, New York's 'The Antlers' a perhaps unexpected wave of adoration, must be as hard as the break-up that inspired it. Their...
Review posted on 19th May 2011
Dot To Dot - 2011 Preview
Dot-To-Dot has made a name for itself as a budget festival with a budget line-up, and the 2011 edition of the festival, held across a number of venues in three cities, sticks to this tradition....
Review posted on 18th May 2011
Kitsune - Maison Compilation 11
For those familiar with much-adorned French record label and high-fashion specialists Kitsune an introduction is barely necessary. Bar a very rare occasional curve-ball the label's output is perfectly representative of a collaborative group who no...
Review posted on 3rd May 2011
Hit The Deck Festival - Nottingham Rock City/Rescue Rooms - 17th April 2011
It was with a sense of trepidation that the first steps into Nottingham's first annual Hit The Deck festival, a heavily sponsored all-day indoor festival focused on the genres of metal, rock, emo and hardcore...
Review posted on 26th April 2011
Tune-Yards - W H O K I L L
Merill Garbus' output as TuNe-YaRdS can never have the same power on record as it does performed live but 'W H O K I L L' comes closer than anything preceding it at capturing the...
Review posted on 20th April 2011
Low - C'Mon
The BPM of Low's once glacier-paced slowcore may have sped up in the 17 years since their debút 'I Could Live In Hope' but the speed of their output has slowed with time; 'C'Mon' is...
Review posted on 20th April 2011
Killing Joke - Nottingham Rock City Wednesday 31st March 2011
Despite barely registering in the charts or garnering any mainstream media interest (outside of a short dalliance with Dave Grohl in 2003) for a good part of two and a half decades Killing Joke remain...
Review posted on 4th April 2011
Patrick Wolf - Nottingham Rescue Rooms Thursday 17th March 2011
Much more than a multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wolf is a showman. Throughout five albums across eight years Patrick has utilised guitar, ukelele, piano, violin, harp and countless other instruments to drift from brooding folk to joyous...
Review posted on 29th March 2011
Hit The Deck Festival, Nottingham Rock City/Rescue Rooms/Stealth - April 17th 2011 Preview
The first Hit The Deck festival has been marketed as the alternative to Nottingham's other DHP-promoted multi-venue festival Dot-To-Dot, but Hit The Deck is anything but alternative in the true sense of the word. Merely,...
Review posted on 29th March 2011
WU LYF - Nottingham Bodega Social, 20th March 2011
Although refreshing at first it is hard not to find the WU LYF's cloak of mystery, a thing which seems to precede the Mancunian 'quartet as it did similar blog-hype darlings Lansing-Dreiden, as little more...
Review posted on 22nd March 2011
Daedelus - Bespoke
Daedelus's main point of attraction is also his main point of detraction; his unrestrained experimentation and excess, and refusal to stand still for a single second. His back catalogue consists of scores of albums, EPs...
Review posted on 21st March 2011
Suggested
Leisure Festival - Dreamland in Margate
On the same day that Glastonbury welcomed back Margate's adopted sons, The Libertines, Margate itself put on it's very own Leisure Festival as it...
Pretty Fierce talk to us about collaborating with Doja Cat, emetophobia, arena tours and staying "true to yourself" [EXCLUSIVE]
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Will Varley & Jack Valero - The Astor Theatre Deal Live Review
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
WYSE talks to us about her "form of synaesthesia", collaborating with Radiohead's Thom York and the prospect of touring with a band [EXCLUSIVE]
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
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Bay Bryan talks to us about being a "wee queer ginger", singing with Laura Marling and being inspired by Matilda [EXCLUSIVE]
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Keelan X talks to us about staying true to "your creative vision", collaborating with Giorgio Moroder and being "a yoga nut" [EXCLUSIVE]
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
![Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]](https://images.contactmusic.com/images/home/homepage/luke-de-sciscio-abof-a.jpg "Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]")
Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Annie Elise talks to us about the challenges a female producer has to face and "going through a year of grief and sickness" [EXCLUSIVE]
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
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