OSKAR – LP:2 (Incarnation Recordings)
The loopy (literally) back-story to this recording is hilarious fun, and involves a load of previously near-mute Spanish mentalists in an asylum getting excited about music, which is obviously amazing. But have OSKAR (no need to shout) managed to distil the whimsy, the unexpected purity and infantile joy of such a [...]
“This is a song about some dresses…”
Very few artists would prompt immediate PRESS CAMPAIGNING from PM, but suffice to say Dananananaykroyd are one of them. One member down (again), they’re still special and destined for notoriety (maybe moreso than popularity, but who’s to say they aren’t mutually exclusive?). Either way, Stacy [...]
The nominations are, apparently:
Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Twice Born Men
Speech Debelle – Speech Therapy
Florence and The Machine – Lungs
Kasabian – West Rider Lunatic Pauper Asylum
Led Bib – Sensible Shoes
The Invisible – The Invisible
La Roux – La Roux
Glasvegas – Glasvegas
Bat For Lashes – Two Suns
Lisa Hannigan – See So
The Horrors – Primary [...]
Japandroids – Post-Nothing (Polyvinyl)
The sleeve of Post Nothing looks more than a little like the sleeve of Television’s Marquee Moon. Co-incidence or not, it’s interesting. What Japandroids share with Television is their extreme economy – both sound desperate to make the most impressive sound possible with the little physical attributes they have, resulting in some [...]
Further to yesterday’s self-indulgence (and because the ony reviews I’ve written in the past week can’t be published here for the moment), here is a nice list of all the times readers have truly excercised their right to reply. For the most part, these are culled verbatim from Drowned In Sound, but there are some gems [...]
With Drowned in Sound running some excellent articles (particularly John Doran’s) on the nature of Music Journalism (is that an undeserved capitalisation?) and its place in this most turbulent of climates, it seems a good time to react. I, for one, would never describe myself as a music journalist, but it’s true that I write [...]
Juice Aleem – Jerusalaam Come (Big Dada)
If there’s one furious expression that works every time in hip-hop, particularly in British hip-hop, it’s the continual decrying of futile, facile popular culture. In some ways, the obviousness of these targets – the overpaid, the artistically insincere – can detract from the impact of the lyrics, but nothing [...]
If, PR person, you can see one of your representatives’ albums/singles loitering in that pile, then I’m on it. Honest. I think that’s the new Anti-Pop Consortium record on the top. I just want to listen to that one again… Currently working on the new Blindfold album. Who are they please?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (Polydor)
With the majesty of the New York trio’s third LP It’s Blitz! well and truly sealed, it remains only for us to pick over the singles in an effort to throw praise on them once again. Come on, folks! Praise them! Everyone’s doing it! Heads Will Roll begins [...]
You know what? PM has not been producing much printable stuff of late. For that, PM is sorry. That’s the ‘ology bit done.
PM does not have much time, and gets sent many things in the post to listen to. If PM didn’t have a day-job where listening to much of this stuff in a quiet [...]
