Russell Joslin is one of those artists you seem to stumble across by accident and then call it fate when you hear him sing. I heard about him from a friend who saw him live and fell in love, she…
Category: Reviews
Album: Laura Marling — I Speak Because I Can
Laura Marling’s new album makes me come over all Jo Wiley. I could very happily voice an advert calling it “breathtaking”, “astonishing” or “sublime”. Because unlike Keane or U2 or Coldplay’s more recent offerings, it is all of those things.…
Live review: Slow Club @ Steinbruch, Duisburg, Germany
It was beautiful; no introductions, no fade out lights or music to let the audience know the band were about to begin, just two people who suddenly began to sing together whilst walking amongst a crowd of minimal capacity. Stripped…
Album: Pavement – Quarantine the Past (best of)
With Pavement enjoying something of a resurgence, a reunion and accompanying tour have been agreed, it comes as little surprise that they should chose to release a collection of their greatest hits. The purpose of doing so generally falls into…
Single: Four Tet – Sing
Although not as all-powerful as first single ‘Love Cry’, ‘Sing’ is another fine cut from Four Tet’s latest opus. Clocking in at over 6 minutes, and with a 10 minute Extended version (and a fine 14 minute Floating Points remix),…
Live review: Breathe Owl Breath @ The Fungarden, Sacramento, USA
There’s something about America that leads venue owners to supply junk food alongside live music — and so a few weeks ago I found myself watching folk bands at a pizza place. Noise and tomatoey smells drifted across from the…
EP Review: Western Friends of the Sun – Grey Trouble
When coming across a band that have no more than 200 plays on their MySpace and a page as bare as the plains of Alaska, there is a sense of excitement awakening the pioneer instinct in you with that secret…
Album review: Cocos Lovers – Johannes
“The wind and the rain that follows you home/The valley surrounds and swallows you whole.” Kentish folk stalwarts Cocos Lovers’ latest album, Johannes, captures all the beauty of their live singing. From the beginning of ‘Time To Stand,’ the clear-toned…
Album: She & Him – Volume 2
There’s a lot to be said for pure originality – without it our lives would be severely lacking in, well, pretty much everything. In music though, pure originality is a fair less admirable quality. The truly original bands tend to…
Live: Sparrow & the Workshop @ Wimbledon Watershed
Each musician in Sparrow & the Workshop brings their own musical ingredient. Frontwoman and acoustic guitarist Jill O’Sullivan’s country vocals are cuttingly pure — but more haunting banshee than soothing angel. Gregor Donaldson is a phenomenal drummer, his dexterity is sometimes astonishing. As well as that he’s that most elusive of things, a singing percussionist, whose warm Scottish baritone adds harmonic depth to Jill’s vocals. Guitarist and bassist Nick Packer scuzzes things up nicely with a layer of distortion and noise.