Reviews

Events

Dungeonesse - Dungeonesse

by Larry Day

It's a match made in the stars – longtime pals Jon Ehrens (White Life) and Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak) have conjoined to spew R&B-splashed indie-pop under the moniker Dungeonesse. Even though it's perhaps an odd combination of personnel and sounds, it never sounds out of place - it feels like this is an album they've had brewing for many years. [read more]
Sic Alps - She's On Top

by Andrew Hannah

If there were some small worries that last year's self-titled third album from San Franciscan psych rockers Sic Alps had smoothed some of the rougher, rawer edges off the band's gnarled output, then this 12" release probably allays some of those fears. [read more]

Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle

by Gareth O'Malley

The release of a new Laura Marling album is always noteworthy, and not least because she's become one of the best songwriters that England can claim as its own, even if she's since relocated to Los Angeles. Her music has been moving down an increasingly darker path since debut Alas, I Cannot Swim was released five years ago, and as her career has flourished, so has her ambition. [read more]

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

by Gareth O'Malley

It's been interesting watching New Jersey mathcore outfit The Dillinger Escape Plan develop, that's for sure. While other bands may view losing members through injury as a major setback, for them it's merely an occupational hazard (what with their live shows being the stuff of legend), and their revolving-door member policy means that their fifth album is the first one on which the band's line-up has actually stabilised from one record to the next. [read more]
Fair Ohs - Jungle Cats

by Gareth O'Malley

Is your default response to a band who pride themselves on being mysterious, 'Oh, here we go again - all that theatrics is just covering up music that's nothing to write home about'? In that case, you're probably ready to give Londoners Fair Ohs a wide berth. Despite their debut, Everything is Dancing|, being quite an eye-opening record, they haven't suddenly dropped the veil and gone, 'Look, this is us!'. [read more]

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

by Gareth O'Malley

One of the most hyped albums of the year is finally here, and one must wonder how Daft Punk have managed to cope with the expectation. More than ever before, the hype has been generated by the mystery surrounding their first studio album in eight years. They've always been a mysterious pair - we know them as only 'the robots': Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. [read more]
Laurel Halo - Behind the Green Door [EP]

by Adam Ward

Emerging as one of the more intriguing experimental electronic musicians in the recent memory, Laurel Halo broke new musical ground with her 2012 album Quarantine. It was a cold, abrasive, meditative test in a new blend of music that was completely unique. It was easily my favourite album to come out last year and has since become one of my desert island albums. [read more]

Baths - Obsidian

by Adam Ward

Baths - 'Miasma Sky', the first single from Baths' sophomore album Obsidian, begins with a melancholy piano ringing through rain splattering against concrete. It's the same kind of mood he set with tracks like 'Rain Smell' and 'Departure' off of his excellent debut album Cerulean. But the piano quickly cuts out to reveal only the bad weather playing companion to Will Wiesenfeld's plaintive, query-filled hook: "Are you maybe here to help me hurt myself?" [read more]

Is Tropical - I'm Leaving

by Larry Day

Intrepid London party-merchants Is Tropical are returning from a worldwide jaunt of capers, cavorting and caracoling with a spanking new LP, I'm Leaving. They've been up to the kind of once-in-a-lifetime antics that you can only dream of - street parties in Venezuela, clubs in Shanghai, and rocking out in locations as seemingly random as Mongolia and Nigeria just for the sheer hell of it. [read more]

The National - Trouble Will Find Me

by Gareth O'Malley

The general consensus when it comes to The National one of the most consistent bands going today, tracing a steady upward arc from their patchy self-titled debut to their breakthrough album, High Violet. Plenty of people were falling over themselves to praise that album upon release three years ago, and since then, they've waited, with varying degrees of patience, to see what the band would produce next. [read more]

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Queens of the Stone Age premiere new album in Los Angeles

Queens of the Stone Age premiered their new album in Los Angeles last night
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Watch Grizzly Bear perform 'Yet Again' on Ellen
Lorine Chia - 'Fly High'

Lorine Chia has unveiled a video for 'Fly High'
Prince - 'FIXURLIFEUP'

Prince struts his stuff in a rather fetching jacket in the video for 'FIXURLIFEUP'