Welcome to my blog, use the menu to explore album reviews or find artists you like by using the search box. I write about the music I like, which can be electronic, indie, alternative, 90s, whatever.
Album reviews
I recently came across an old interview with Andy Stott, given upon the release of his 2014 album, Faith in Strangers, for which he switched from using software to an almost exclusively all hardware set-up. He described the process of gathering various pieces of equipment, testing them out by pushing them to their limits, “using … Continue reading Andy Stott – Never the Right Time (2021)
The cataclysmic event of Brexit and the ensuing political and cultural fallout has influenced many different musicians across the stylistic spectrum, prompting a range of reactions as artists responded in different ways to the implications of the referendum result. These shockwaves have combined with ever-increasing inequality, which has only been worsened by the pandemic, to … Continue reading Gazelle Twin – Deep England (2021)
Back in the mists of time, before Spotify and Youtube, before even file-sharing sites like Napster, when not all music was instantly accessible, buying an album was a commitment. Young music fans with little cash to spare would need to be sure we were making a good decision. This often meant treading a certain path, … Continue reading Godspeed You! Black Emperor – G_d’s Pee at STATE’S END! (2021)
“Who needs enemies, with friends as fucked up as these?”, to mangle an old phrase. And mangling is very much what Tobacco (aka Thomas Fec, aka creative mastermind of psyche synth act, Black Moth Super Rainbow) likes to do. Whether it’s the sound of his own voice through a vocoder, or those he wrings out … Continue reading Tobacco – Fucked up Friends 3 (2021)
Over the last 25 years, the duo of Andi Toma and Jan St Werner - known together as Mouse on Mars - have carved out a niche at the cutting edge of electronic music that is completely their own. In all that time, they’ve never stood still. Instead, the pair have constantly evolved and experimented, … Continue reading Mouse on Mars – AAI (2021)
The myriad genres and subgenres of electronic music can often seem like indecipherable languages to those not familiar with the various intricacies and subtle signifiers that differentiate them. This being the case, an album like Obscure Languages by Gacha Bakradze acts as something of a Rosetta Stone, connecting disparate styles and suggesting new ways they … Continue reading Gacha Bakradze – Obscure Languages (2021)
There's something unsettling about the cover image for Cocoon Crush that's hard to put your finger on. Maybe it’s the lurking suspicion that some of those water droplets are in fact sets of eyes, staring back at you. Then there’s the initial double-take factor - is it a plant? a sea creature? At the wrong … Continue reading Objekt – Cocoon Crush (2018)
The second album from the Belfast born and East London based duo Bicep is probably one of the most hotly anticipated electronic releases of 2021 to date. No doubt many listeners will be hoping to find some escape from the seemingly interminable lockdown blues in the bright and expansive dance music that Bicep are known … Continue reading Bicep – Isles (2021)
‘The best is yet to come’, intones Ella Harris throughout Talks, the lead track on PVA’s brand new Toner EP. If this is true then PVA will definitely be a band to watch in 2021. In fact, PVA were supposed to be a band to watch in 2020 but the world had other plans. Having … Continue reading PVA – Toner EP (2020)
The latest album from British folk collective, Tunng, is part of a much wider project exploring our uncomfortable relationship with death, dying and grief. As one of the band’s lead songwriters, Mike Lindsay says, ‘It’s not even just a record, it’s a discussion, it’s a podcast series, it’s poetry, it’s short stories, it’s an examination.’ … Continue reading Tunng – Tunng Presents…Dead Club (2020)
