Category: Indie
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Beans on Toast: A Spanner in the Works
Beans On Toast is the stage name of folk singer Jay McAllister from Essex. He’s a mate of Frank Turner, and thus gets to play Wembley supporting Frank and then considerably smaller venues on his own account. (He just played Manchester Gorilla). A Spanner in the Works opens with an angry rant about 2016. If…
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Oskar’s Drum: A Cathedral Of Hands
Another CD that’s hard to review; on one hand, it’s excellent, on the other it’s hard to know why we should tell anyone to buy it. Is consistently interesting a good enough reason? Oskar’s Drum is Patrik Fitzgerald and Yves Altana. Older readers may have come across Fitzgerald’s work, as he claims to be an…
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Non Canon: Non Canon
Non Canon is Barry Dolan, also known as Oxygen Thief, about whom we know nothing: he has supported Frank Turner and InMe so we guess it’s punky folk. Non Canon is more folky, with string instruments to the fore, though Turner is an obvious comparison. This is the kind of act you’d see at a…
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Regina Spektor: Remember Us To Life
It’s hard to know what to say about this. Spektor writes piano-led good songs that tread a line between the arty and the pop, never too whacky not to be enjoyable but never quite pure pop, neither Laurie Anderson nor Adele. She’s a solid performer and sounds like no-one else; the only question is whether…
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The Slow Show: Dream Darling
If The Slow Show’s music was in a film it would a rom com, as the hero walked away into the sunset after finally splitting up with the girl he still loves; as the camera followed him into the middle distance he’d give a little happy skip because, hey, life’s not that bad really. This…
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Jaws: Simplicity
Jaws are a cross between shoegaze, stoner rock and The Cure. They have the same kind of upbeat tempo but downbeat sound that The Cure do well; it’s possible they know this because the opening couple of bars of the first song are almost a Cure-clone but it’s the most Cure-ous moment on the album…
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Two Door Cinema Club: Gameshow
We bought Two Door Cinema Club’s debut album and saw them live supporting someone or other when they first started; they were a decent indie band. Next thing we know our pet teenager is a big fan and Two Door are selling out tour dates. So we were pleased to get this new one, and…
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Joan As Police Woman and Benjamin Lazar Davis: Let It Be You
The Guardian review of this says it “doesn’t quite do the pair justice” but we think they’ve not listened to it enough. It takes a number of plays for its charms to become apparent, but they are there. The album sees Joan Wasser link up with New Yorker Benjamin Lazar Davis, a multi-instrumentalist, for a…
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The Head and the Heart: Signs of Light
Fans of The Head (as we hope they’re called for short) are rather critical of this, saying it’s a sign the Seattle folk-rockers have sold out. Some reviews even use the dreaded M-word. Yes, Mumfords. All we can say is that a member of the Review Corner had an early Head CD which was a…
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