I like bands with silly names. Better still if they actually turn out to be good. The American label Afternoon Records has a penchant for the ridiculously monikered, having several superalitive acts on their roster. My two...
Category - Albums
I am a bargain-hunter, blighted by the need to pay the lowest possible price for anything I desire. It is a burden. On the unfortunate flipside of my affliction, I also have an irrepressible compulsion to buy anything simply...
So another year is sliding to an end, like a canvas shoe desperately pawing for friction on black-iced pavements and here it is, the albums, artists and shows I’ve enjoyed throughout 2010. Happy New Year, folks. Best Albums...
Best of the Year Blog 2009 Well, it’s 2010. How about it. Arctic winds, bad skin, black ice, hangovers, snow, chapped lips, a pot belly that shows no signs of diminishing, more snow, and it’s only day ten. Now add to that an...
French anti-folk surrealists GaBle´ are back in typically playful mood with new mini-LP I’m Ok. Touted as a response to Daniel Johnston’s Hi, How Are You?, it’s a genre-blurring mix of the folktronica of Tunng, the...
Drag City Recordings Having ditched the Smog moniker for 2007’s Woke On A Whaleheart, Bill Callahan emerged more ambitious, eager to try out new textures. Although Whaleheart was a slightly disappointing progression when...
Psychedelic Guide to Monsterism Island Review Welsh-born artist Pete Fowler created Monsterism Island and its bizarre inhabitants in an ambitious multi-faceted art project. The Psychedelic Guide… is the latest in a series of...
It’s 2009. I’m listening to Motown, looking out on a snowy Bristol scene with the dull ache of alcoholism and gluttony inside. A two week sojourner from work is all but over, gone in a festive flash of over-indulgence and...
More abstract thoughts on the latest Bum Tapes release from Zach Kouns. ZACK KOUNS – Network and Circuitry of Nettles C34 Dark post-modern murder ballads and avant-garde pop are played out in a jumble of bongo-rhythms...
Maths Balance Volumes – Tried To Make A Call C11 Fractured vocal vignettes, broken organ melodies, squelchy stunted phrases and echoey grunted rhythms – Tried to Make a Call is a tonic to a shrinking world where everybody...