Sleeping States – In The Gardens Of The North (Bella Union)
Markland Starkie has taken his time with this Bella Union debut, and it’s been absolutely worth the wait. Rarely are listeners likely to hear a writer who gives such balance to the realms of pop and folk music and the trappings therein. It is at [...]
Hecuba - Paradise (Manimal Vinyl)
Hecuba are, if nothing else, utter experts at conjuring a menace that seeps. The boy/girl duo of a filmmaker and an actress are more than competent at maintaining that menace and mutating it gently into serious unease – the buzzing free-form ending of ‘Even So’ is a scintillating climax. Intense darkness surrounds [...]
Telekinesis – Telekinesis! (Morr Music)
The best summer records are more than just simple, jolly songs played on acoustics with a little bit of fuzz – you have to capture all elements of the season. The sitting down, the water, the sweat of activity, maybe some romance if you haven’t already cracked a bottle. This is [...]
The Heavy – The House That Dirt Built (Counter)
With a Ronseal title like The House That Dirt Built, the listener would expect some serious scuzz, some dusty, taut rock ‘n’ roll, an erring on the side of well-greased punk. We get that, with bells on, we get that. But we also get a confusing amount [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
La Coka Nostra – A Brand You Can Trust (Uncle Howie)
For all its claims at independent non-conformity, for all the posturing that screams authenticity and for all the turns of phrase that rhyme one too many words in succession to engender dazzlement, A Brand You Can Trust feels lightly peppered with easiness. Rather than actively [...]
The Present – The Way We Are (LOAF)
Freeform in its initial appearance, The Way We Are by New York’s The Present takes the form of several tiny sound experiments and one gargantuan, climactic one. The veneer must be scraped from this colossal work (the whole work, not just the final 30+ minute title track) to [...]
We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls (Fatcat)
It’s obligatory now to comment on the refurbished and revitalised state of Scottish independent music (has it been unhealthy at any point over the last twenty or so years?), and it’s into these encouraging climes that bands like We Were Promised Jetpacks weather their inception. For many, [...]
