Claire Campbell chose the stage name Abagail Grey after meeting the character in what is described as an “eerily vivid dream”. And for that, she could hardly have a better name, because listening to her music seems like a slightly…
Category: Records
Album | Rachel Sermanni – Under Mountains
Glasgow-based Rachel Sermanni has been plugging away for a few years now, releasing various singles and EPs, but now the time has come for her to release a full-length effort with help from various piano and fiddle players that she’s…
Album | Alberta Cross – Songs of Patience
Alberta Cross have certainly racked up a lot of attention since their acclaimed debut album, Broken Side of Time. Tour commitments with Oasis and Them Crooked Vultures, plus coveted airtime on Radio 1 mean that their latest release, Songs of…
Album | Malcolm Holcombe – Down The River
Malcolm Holcombe has never previously sounded like a man in much of a hurry. A 57-year-old of remarkable sideburns, the North Carolina bluesman was in his 40s when he finally got around to releasing his debut album, and the follow-ups…
Album | The Fresh & Onlys – Long Slow Dance
The Fresh & Onlys look, according to their press release, “exactly like a biker gang composed of record store employees who could stomp your ass while shouting Kobaïan (that language ‘70s French prog band Magma made up) at you, if…
Album | Grizzly Bear – Shields
It’s far from an unfamiliar story: art-house indie band makes a huge breakthrough album, and then wrestles with the right way to follow it up for years. Veckatimest catapulted Grizzly Bear out of the experimental backwaters and firmly into the…
EP | Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker – Homemade Heartache
It’s been a good year for Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker. Following on from their 2011 sophomore album Seas Are Deep, the duo found themselves in Bristol, picking up the Isambard Folk Award. It’s an interesting development then that, after…
EP | The Paper Shades – Where You Lay
First and foremost, what grabs you when a Paper Shades song strikes up is the beauty of the harmonies between Sarah Dollar and Jon Rixon. It’s not a sound that’s going to get old in a hurry, and as soon…
Album | Bob Dylan – Tempest
Bob Dylan, now 71 years old, has explored plenty in his long and winding career. But an album that sees him encounter pimps, junkie whores and engage in the act of motorboating probably aren’t what most expected from this most…
Album | David Byrne & St Vincent – Love This Giant
Collaborations between yesterday’s innovators and today’s eclectics can sometimes be a recipe for disaster – two extreme styles battling to be the best, or the loudest heard. Not here. St Vincent and David Byrne are a match made in heaven.…