Category: Sound

Without music, life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Nietzsche

David Tort – Jack it Up

David Tort’s ‘Jack it Up’ promises ‘a tempestuous sea of dark synths’ but actually delivers ‘a turgid canal of muddy loops’. With pretensions to dancefloor...

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Weekend Nachos – Worthless

Weekend Nachos - Worthless - Relapse Records 2011...

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Hexstatic – Scan Me EP

Trailer Trax's 'Scan Me' EP wallows so deeply in the 1990s that it ought to be buried in a time capsule with a Sega Megadrive and a Blue Peter badge. 'The music business has...

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Into the Unknown: tUnE-yArDs – Bizness

This is what happens when you're blindsided by a song so great it should be hugely popular? I was not quite sure which way to go this month. I thought that by the time this went online this tune...

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Gold-Bears – Are You Falling in Love?

What's that sound in my ears? The Gold-Bear's debut album is messing with my head. And my hands are dancing too! The Gold-Bears have been developing their sound for a number of years. Formed...

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Sarah Jarosz – Follow Me Down

Travelling through the past’s future: Sarah Jarosz cuts a timeless album of particular appeal. Singer-songwriter acoustic music is the bane of my existence. Plucked chords and soaring female...

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Slugabed – Moonbeam Rider EP

Can Slugabed's quirky beats and basslines inject new life into pre-packed dancefloor anthem hooks? Perhaps. Slugabed's Moonbeam Rider EP comes from the mind of a musician who has spent a lot...

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Blank Dogs – Collected By Itself: 2006-2009

The first steps are always the hardest… Some bands can take a while to focus their ideas.  So it was with Brooklyn’s Blank Dogs. Nowadays, they are a spellbindingly opaque mix of...

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Austerlitz – Austerlitz

How soon is too soon. Parisian indie rockers Austerlitz go for bronze. Austerlitz have rushed to release a record that with a couple of months worth of emphatic development would have been...

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Bloodiest – Descent

How often when listening to a new metal band do you stick on the record, sit through it for the duration then ask yourself the question, “What the fuck?” For me that doesn’t happen...

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Dutch Uncles – Cadenza

So NME accuse this album of 'musical incompetence' and being 'baffling', whilst The Fly go with 'one of 2011's most exciting prospects'. Things are already juicy....

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//Tense// – Escape or Soundscape?

“Your official diagnosis is schizophrenic psychosis…” drones a machine on the title track of Escape, the new EP from Tense. Sounds cool. Sounds ominous. But am I tense? Words mean...

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Kitty, Daisy and Lewis – Bull and Gate

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis promote their new album 'Smoking in Heaven' at the Bull and Gate. I found the Bull and Gate by following a trail of polka dot skirts, red lipstick and rockabilly...

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TOKiMONSTA engulfs with dreamy texture.

TOKiMONSTA has odd and beautiful dreams, apparently. Brace yourself, as she treats us to a musical retelling. According to L.A. Weekly, Jennifer Lee (aka TOKiMONSTA) is Los Angeles' premier...

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Amon Tobin – Isam

Recreational users beware: claustrophobic and frustrating, is the new Amon Tobin album worth the risk?...

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Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds – 100 Club

Underground legend Kid Congo Powers headed a night of Nugget’s era golden rock and roll....

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Dels – Gob

Fear, righteous anger, too much booze and a boldly-drawn emotional vision, this debut from Dels wraps the disorientation of over-intelligent urban British youth into forty minutes of poetic and...

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Red Fang – Murder the Mountains

Behavioural Psychologists ponder the nature versus nurture argument frequently. The extremes of the argument state that when a person is born is it purely their genes that determine what they become...

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The Luyas – Too Beautiful To Work

In my book, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a bit weird. Though I tend to apply this maxim a little too broadly in personal terms, when it comes to music, the best acts are, more...

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Into the Unknown: Fists – Stag

I write for the unsung heroes I hear! I’ve been asked to write this column once a month on a single of my choice and with so much writing out there it’s worth thinking why. I’m...

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Aleph – Haunt For Little Blind Fish

Armed with a bag of glitch, can Aleph's four-track EP convince us of this Siberian instrumentalist's intent? What happens when musicians break free of the limitations of physical instruments...

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Start and Complete – Complete at the start?

About Group's new album “Start and Complete” is an experiment in spontaneity. A fine idea, but does spontaneity really breed better music? When About Group got together to record...

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Alphabets Heaven – Jay’s Odyssey

On King Deluxe, Jonny Wildey's album gets truly glitched-up, but who's in control – the producer or the genre? The temptation when a genre is defined by a simple trait is for the artist...

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Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Despise You (Split) – and on and on

Pressing play on a record like this is like activating an electric death chair with chainsaws for legs.  Despise You are Hardcore. Not so much genre defining but genre defined; every note they...

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Quones by Global Goon

In terms of a modern musical fantasy it’s hard to beat the idea of sharing a house at one point with both Richard James (of Aphex Twin fame) and, Mr Squarepusher, Tom Jenkinson. Aside from what...

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Measuring optimism: ‘Arch’ InterContinental bar launch

Desolation Row. Bar launches have become rare occurrences in these recession heavy times. It used to be that every day of the week (excluding Fridays and weekends) was filled with the backlit...

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Tennis – Carpe Diem, Cape Dory!

During the summer months, we've all taken off to find that elusive something. Some of us collect trinkets, others snaps – and some record an album. When “Tennis”, husband and...

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Obscura – Omnivium

If Earth were to be invaded by an alien race the scene could be imagined as smaller bombers strafing the surface being coordinated from a mother ship.  Much like, say, the US Air Force or Navy...

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Magic Bullets – ‘Magic Bullets’

Sunshine and tears… Boy, do these Californians love their Orange Juice. Not, however, the golden state’s fruity elixir, but the Scottish variety. Despite their San Franciscan base and...

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Daedelus – Bespoke

An album full of bespoke pieces as layered as his choice of fashion, does Daedelus retain full control of his creation or does he challenge our ears with a note too far? After a splurge of LP...

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