Robert Plant has been enjoying a late career renaissance since 2007’s excellent Raising Sand collaboration with country/bluegrass singer Alison Krauss. Carry Fire, his 11th solo studio album, sees the Led Zeppelin frontman backed once again by The Sensational Space Shifters – a quartet of multi-instrumentalists – who clearly share his enthusiasm for finding new approaches to music. Produced by Plant himself, the album covers similar territory […]
Reviews
107 posts
When I was about nine or 10 and just starting to take a serious interest in music, my elder brother, in a rare show of fraternal indulgence, took it upon himself to introduce me to the delights of indie synth-pop. To my great surprise and eternal gratitude he presented me with a cassette tape (ask your parents kids!). On […]
Anyone familiar with the work of Matt Bailey‘s Salient Braves will know what to expect from this their debut crowdfunded LP. Bailey’s sardonic, often laugh out loud lyrics, mercilessly turn the microscope on Brexit Britain and the notion of national pride. The tramp on the cover is an abiding metaphor for many of the lowlife characters who lurk within, […]
I was lucky enough to catch Suzie Stapleton opening for Boss Hog at the Hackney Oslo earlier this year. Playing for someone else’s audience is never easy but, despite wrestling with some recalcitrant loop pedals, a solo Stapleton secured a great reception. The Sydney-born singer-guitarist won over the crowd with her smoky, rasping voice and full bodied swamp-blues playing style and she’s been […]
Events like these remind you that the term ‘indie’ represents a very broad church, with multiple sub-genres. The good folks at Indie Daze made sure this fourth festival represented this wide spectrum; from the pop-punk of Bis to the grebo of Crazyhead, with ’90s Britpop and baggy on offer from Thousand Yard Stare. There was indie-acoustic from The Wonderstuff‘s Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls, […]
Frontman Neil Arthur is disarmingly modest about their achievements, but Blancmange were one of the most successful bands to emerge from the experimental electronic music scene of the early ’80s. Blending pop melodies with dark lyrics and avant-garde programming and recording techniques, they went on to rack up seven Top 40 hits. Don’t Tell Me and Living On The Ceiling both reached the […]
In June 1967 five musicians went into London’s Abbey Road studios to record The Zombies‘ second album Odessey and Oracle. Though not an initial success, the record came to be regarded as one of the landmark albums of the late 1960s, right up there with The Beach Boys‘ Pet Sounds and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper. Half a century later the surviving members of […]
For some the thought of spending 90 minutes in the company of two middle-aged blokes, armed only with a laptop and a microphone, would be about as appetising as an office team-bonding session on a wet weekend in Nantwich. But Sleaford Mods are no ordinary middle-aged blokes.
Incredibly, OMD have been making music for nearly 40 years now and The Punishment Of Luxury is their 13th studio album. It’s a varied collection that sees them again refusing to trade on past glories, tackling complex themes with invention and not a little humour.
Canadian-Ukrainian space pop duo Ummagma have unveiled the new video for their collaboration with Cocteau Twins co-founder Robin Guthrie. Taken from their forthcoming LCD EP, Lama, features Guthrie’s trademark soaring guitar arpeggios and sound washes over Shauna McLarnon‘s cool clear vocals.