"A great track with a powerful message, but the video is truly something special. It’s been described as a call for people to not take the media and their leaders at their word but to seek the reality of situations for themselves, and I couldn't possibly think of a more eloquent way of explaining what has been produced here."
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Live review: Let's Eat Grandma at Camp Bestival 1/8/15
'The 15-year-old girls from Norfolk are an experimental cross between MGMT and Haim. It was deliberately DIY, the musical equivalent of a Jackson Pollock, and entirely captivating.'
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Live review: Long Teeth at The Finsbury 1/8/15
"Long Teeth’s key strength lies in dynamic contrast, tonight showing how pared-down guitar, bass and drums can pull out drops and crescendos worthy of the dancefloor dedicated." And if you did have to compare them to a pizza...
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Listen/review: White Reaper – Make Me Wanna Die
'A fortifyingly direct slab of melodic rock’n’roll – as if Oasis had been forced to hone their musical chops at CBGB – with an arms-aloft vocal growl that slices through the clattering overdrive while a tremulous Casio-like keyboard sprinkles some incongruous sweetner on top.'
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Listen/review: Ideomotor – Amplified
"A Finnish indie-electro band whose polished production resonates with a synth-heavy sound and eerie vocals, sprinkled with moodily atmospheric guitar/keyboard elements that are oddly soothing and mesmerising to the ear."
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Listen/review: Deradoorian – A Beautiful Woman
"There are elements of everything from Bow Wow Wow to Can, Grace Jones and (courtesy of the breathy squeaks) Laurie Anderson amid this leftfield mashup – and you’d be right in thinking that makes for a intriguingly scope-swelling whole"
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Watch/review: Venice Trip – Look Forward
"An excellent mix of old and new, which you can't help but tap along feverishly to. 'Look Forward' spreads its loveliness throughout and remains in your head"
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Watch/review: Rocky Nti – Ride On
A guitar-driven spike of jangling energy that swiftly shifts through the cordially vocalised gears to hit its catchy bridge and the sort of borderline-anthemic chorus that the Maccabees took a couple of albums to master
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Watch: Max Richter – Sleep (trailer)
Our sleep-deprived scribe likes the sound of this colossal eight-hour continuous piece of music, composed to facilitate greater access to the land of nod. Watch a teaser for the project here
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Listen/Review: The Phoenix Foundation – Mountain
Raising the Phoenix: ‘Mountain’ grabs your ears with a sweet guitar riff and a conga-like afro-kraut drumbeat followed by a sweet piano synth sound
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Listen/Review: Sheepy – Wild EP
Reviewer Dein Moore is truly feeling Sheepy: "‘Wild’, is a trip down the psychedelic lane with a healthy dose of pop hooks and ska-punk riffs and beats to make sure the trip is permanently engrained in your brain."
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Live review (poem): Joel Sarakula at Servant Jazz Quarters 21/5/15
Joel Sarakula's official single launch for 'Northern Soul' brought out the laureate in our contributor, who expressed his praise in prose...
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Watch/Review: C Duncan – Garden
The truth of the matter is that the mild-mannered Glaswegian just keeps turning out song after song that draw the focus like a lyrical Lionel Messi. 'Garden' is another medal-worthy slice of poppy kaleidoscopica
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Watch/Review: Holy Holy – You Cannot Call For Love Like A Dog
"One can imagine driving along the motorway on an August afternoon when everyone has their windows down and this song is drifting out of every car stereo while fingers are drumming along on steering wheels."
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Live review: Happyness at Boston Music Room, London 13/5/15
Everything about the band was endearingly lo-fi, even down to the way they introduced themselves to the audience – "Me, him and him are called Happyness" – and their audience banter was yet more proof that Happyness are just three silly dudes who'd be a right laugh to hit the pub with.
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Live review: Dead Ceremony at Electrowerkz, London, 6/5/15
Dead Ceremony managed to create a three-dimensional sound with a depth that filled the room, the singer lost in the music, seeming to forget he was being watched.
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Listen/Review: Alberteen – A French Connection
Alberteen have arrived at an opportune time to provide perspective and celebrate the south east’s “landscape, history and cultural heritage” on their second album ‘Miss World’. Indeed, preview single ‘A French Connection’ is actually inspired by these counties’ links to Europe, taking in the channel tunnel, an alternative Miss World contest, a Parisian love affair and even Derek Jarman along its merry way.
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Watch/Review: Slum Sociable – Anyway
‘Anyway’ is lent an easy momentum by its assuredly understated rhythm track, and currency by the digitalist timbre of its vast bass drop. Otherwise, it is spacious and symphonic chillout, layered with charming reverbed harp, clipped piano and the faraway soulful lament of the lead vocal.
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Listen/Review: Fight Like Apes – Pretty Keen On Centrefolds
Fantastically upbeat and dance-in-your-bedroom fun, this single highlights a lighter, poppier side to the band. Expect the self-titled new album, out on 18 May, to be a party-inducing splatter of cartoony-punk, eclectic electronics and some sweet pop vibes.
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Live review: Trampolene at Koko 25/4/15
To anyone unfamiliar with the Swansea-formed, North London-based Trampolene, they could appear to be another mid-noughties indie revival heard-it-all-before bore, three guys with shaggy haircuts wielding guitars in skinny jeans, but as soon as frontman Jack Jones opens his mouth, it is obvious that ‘Pigeon Detectives part two’, they are not.
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