Like The Courteeners, Denis Jones is from Manchester but unlike them he makes interesting music. On a website we found he was described as making “scuzzy Mancunian blues”, which is good, but misses out the word “electronic”. It’s the blues of a dirty city where residents have good reason to sing soulful songs, but it’s […]
Bryde: Like An Island
A lot of whether you like a song is down to the vocals: love the voice and you’ll like the music and vice versa (hence our apathy to Arctic Monkeys). Bryde’s voice is mesmerising and we love it. It’s strong but sounds vulnerable, and she reminded us of Paula Cole (Where Have All The Cowboys […]
Turnstile: Time And Space
A bit like Wille and the Bandits last week, the familiarity of this was instantly comforting, at least if you like punk/rock and some screamo/falsetto vocals. Ok, so you’ve got to like loud music to appreciate this but it’s so much more than whatever you first think it is. It reminded us of Beastie Boys, […]
Lauri Porra: Entropia
This meld of prog rock and classical is as interesting an album as you’d want; entertaining if you like your prog broken down and your classical with bass solos and lots of 4/4 time. Mike Oldfield managed it on Tubular Bells. Adventurous brass band fans might also find much to like. Porra, (40), is an […]
The Stranglers: The Classic Collection
The Stranglers were without doubt the best band to emerge from the punk era. The Damned were largely rubbish, the Sex Pistols as manufactured as The Spice Girls and The Clash lacked any quality control; their longevity is down to all their fans later becoming music journalists and banging on about what a seminal band […]
Wille and The Bandits: Living Free
Like a pint of hand-pulled beer and a log fire after a long day’s walk in the hills, this double live CD is instantly comforting and familiar. Wille and The Bandits are predominantly a live band and we’ve never heard of them before, but frontman Wille Edwards is a consummate guitarist, playing lap steel and […]
Field Music: Open Here
We guess you can either write tunes to make money or write what you feel you need to, sod the market and keep your self-respect. Field Music are in the latter camp; from what we can gather brothers David and Peter Brewis make minimal money from their music but have accumulated a back catalogue to […]
The Xcerts: Hold On To Your Heart
The Xcerts have been going for years, formed by 13-year-olds Murray Macleod and Jordan Smith in 2001, and have toured with Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Fightstar and Taking Back Sunday. They were meant to support Guns N’ Roses but for “logistical reasons” all the support bands were forced to drop off of the tour. […]
Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac
This was their breakthrough album, released in 1975, and a big hit, reaching No1 in the States; Say You Love Me and Rhiannon are both on here. The band’s complicated lives were already unravelling and that turmoil led to Rumours, a much better album; admittedly one of the best albums ever. This one is good, […]
DeStijl: Debut
DeStijl love a joke: they formed before White Stripes released their album De Stijl in 2000 and so released an album White Stripes in 2011. This album is not their debut. As you all know, De Stijl is Dutch for “The Style”, aka Neoplasticism, a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 in Leiden by artists […]
