Review Corner

Author: jerobear

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    Neil Young: The Monsanto Years

    Reviews of this are mixed and we’d guess are split by age: people who know enough to understand how the Great Vampire Squid of Goldman Sachs infiltrates government on both sides of the Atlantic will find it much more satisfying than people who don’t know as much, and think it all a little far-fetched. (Doubters:…

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    Accademia Daniel: Graupner – Concerti e Musica di tavola

    There’s nothing more to say about this album other than it’s a delight. It’s not an album that’s intellectually challenging and the music doesn’t seem to operate on a deep level, it is just pleasurable. It’s music for festivities and pleasure, and 300 years or so after it was written, it’s as pleasurable now as…

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    Restorations: LP3

    Restorations might not be ambitious when it comes to album titles (the last one was LP2) but they’ve got much bigger ideas when it comes to music. They’re on SideOneDummy records and we remember the last album has being very Gas-light Anthem / Springsteen / heartland rock in sound. Workman-like, more than anything. This new…

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    Joanna Gruesome: Peanut Butter

    The most surprising thing about this album is that Rolling Stone reviewed it. We’d guess a mention in RS is something many bands dream of, so why a cult noise/punk outfit from Car-diff should make it we don’t know. They’ve got interesting back-story: the name is a reference to harp-playing Joanna Newsom, whose music is…

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    Malpas: Rain River Sea

    This isn’t out until 27th July but we’re plugging it now so you can get head of the curve and find them early. The opener is Under Her Sails, a song we’ve had on repeat for some time. It’s a gentle, quirky electronic track that’s crisp and appealing mix of folk and ambient electronica that’s…

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    Simi Stone: Simi Stone

    Stone, half of The Duke and the King, has produced an album that’s a bit like going on a bender on expensive wine. The first couple of glasses are beautiful but after that; well, you’re half a bottle of wine into the session and it doesn’t matter. Somewhat similarly: the first few tracks on this…

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    Michael Habermann: Sorabji, Piano Music

    It’s impossible to say anything bad about this, to be honest. Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was born Leon Dudley Sorabji in Chingford, his father being a civil engineer of Parsi parentage from Bombay. As a teenager, Sorabji took interest in the work of Schoenberg, Mahler and Debussy among others and eventually created his own system of…

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    Twin Shadow: Eclipse

    It’s good to have an artist making pop for adults, and we’ve been playing Twin Shadow a lot. The initial impression — for older readers — is John Hughes and Atlantic 252. For younger readers, the latter was an Irish music station broadcasting on longwave, playing American-style radio friendly hits: Richard Marx was on a…

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    Barbarossa: Imager

    After the piratical reference above we come to Barbarossa, which we think means red beard in foreign, me ‘arties. It’s really James Mathe, purveyor of slow-burning electronica. Mathe has strayed from the folk that saw him become part of the Fence Collective (Kid Creosote, KT Tunstall et al), and a band member for the likes…

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    Outfit: Slowness

    We remember Outfit’s 2013 debut Performance with mixed feelings: it evokes a memory of disappointment mixed with promise, and the fleeting thought “Why did we never leave that on the Review Corner iPod” followed by “It was only good in places”. This is better and we may now revisit that last album, which can now…