Review Corner

Month: May 2016

  • Heck: Instructions

    Mathcore punks Heck were previously known as Baby Godzilla but forced to change their name by a Japanese film company. Which is ironic: play this raucous blast of noise pollution at an invading gorilla whale and it would soon get the heck out. We no longer have to fear alien invasion, at least. Heck are…

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    Hayley Ross: Barracuda

    For reasons relating to hangovers we had this EP on repeat in the Review Corner for one whole day. We’ve probably listened to it more times than anyone accept Ross herself. It’s nice more than anything, and comforting. It’s mainly her and an acoustic guitar and she has a somewhat elfin voice, so it’s a…

  • Day At The Lake

    The clock was turned back over a century at a local beauty spot this weekend as its heyday as the Blackpool of the Potteries was recreated. Wild Rumpus, organisers of the Just So Festival, took over Rudyard Lake over the weekend and laid on the entertainment that Potteries workers would have enjoyed in the mid-1800s,…

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    The Coral: Distance Inbetween

    The Coral were about 12 (ok, 16) when they started and by 20 were big stars. Their first two albums were very good but they tailed off a bit, presumably while they grew up and got their heads together; they’ve keep popping up on other albums and we’ve lost track of the number of relations…

  • Kris Drever: If Wishes Were Horses

    We reviewed the excellent Blair Dunlop last week, putting new life into folk. Drever’s day job is with Lau, famed for improvisation and adding electronica and fancy production, also putting new life into folk. This solo album shows that Drever still loves the old stuff, and it’s about as traditional a folk album as you…

  • Les Amis de Philippe, Ketil Haugs, Ludger Remy: Anonymous, Six Concertos

    This lovely CD goes on the selling point that they’re anonymous works, but good for all that. The music is from the Schranck II, the music collection of the Saxon State and University Library in Dresden. This treasure trove includes many anonymous compositions produced “in creative ecstasy” but omitting the name of the author. Some…

  • Just Great Songs 2016

    This is so not aimed at the Review Corner. We believe in democracy but this collection’s five number ones, seventeen top fives and 24 top 10s doesn’t mean the record-buying public is right. Forty songs that all sound similar with Autotuning clear in places. Still: it opens with Justin Bieber, and damn, the boy is…