The chorus is brazen and ear grabbing, with punchy riffs and catchy licks that never overstay their welcome. Chunky, hooky and brief, ‘I Was Born’ is a great first single to what should be a stellar second EP.
Read MoreLive review: Habitats at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, 3/3/16
A hugely enjoyable night, rich in good old indie sounds with a blend of psychedelic influences and ecstatically dancing fans
Read MoreListen/review: Iska Dhaaf – Invisible Cities
Melding sequenced electro-rock production and gritty post-punk beats, ‘Invisible Cities’ baits its hooks with a surf-guitar twang and a supercool vocal pattern at a reverb setting presumably called Cavernous Aircraft Hangar
Read MoreListen/review: Alejandra Ribera – Satellite
The humid swing of ‘Satellite’ bears a shimmering country vibe announced by a reverbed guitar that expands across a smokey jazz-bar groove
Read MoreWatch/review: SULK – Black Infinity (Upside Down)
'Black Infinity's beautiful simplicity hooked me somewhere in the middle – much like being wrapped in new bed sheets, it takes a little while to get snug but once you are the feeling is glorious.
Read MoreWatch/review: Bombino – Inar
Four minutes of hypnotic, intricate groove – a pulsating marriage of fleet-fingered acoustic picking, heartfelt Tamasheq vocal and percussive desert blues.
Read MoreWatch/review: DMA's – Delete
There’s a heart-on-sleeve emotion behind the whole thing that gives ‘Delete’ all the qualifications to be the film-trailer song for an against-all-odds, ‘quirky girl, awkward guy’ romance. It’s the song that DMA’s will use to close their mainstage festival sets
Read MoreWatch/review: Electric Eye — Mercury Rise
Electric Eye’s latest taster from forthcoming second album ‘Different Sun’ showcases quintessential groove-psych-space-rock, harking back to classic Doors and reminiscent of great Hawkwind tracks like ‘Silver Machine’, while still feeling firmly in the space of 2016.
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Listen/review: Working For A Nuclear Free City – Bottlerocket
This splendidly disorienting mashup of Hot Chip, Captain Beefheart and !!! is taken from ‘What Do People Do All Day’, Working For A Nuclear Free City’s first album in half a decade, and suggests that their experimental urges remain undimmed
Read MoreListen/review: Trudy – Baby I'm Blue
Trudy guitarist Olly Taylor's lively fretwork is what sets ‘Baby I’m Blue’ (along with the rest of the Scouse trio’s output so far) above and beyond the competition.
Read MoreListen/review: Alissia – Take Off
Alissia’s new single, ‘Take Off’, is 200 seconds of unadulterated feel-good P-funk that sounds as if Prince and George Clinton are locked in a musical duel to prove who’s most worthy of wearing the high-waisted cerise trousers.
Read MoreLive review: Nathan Ball at The Lexington 01/12/15
Soaked with humbleness yet intimate and even a bit other-wordly due to Nathan Ball’s deep, wistfully longing vocals and carefully accentuated singing.
Read MoreListen/review: Les Gordon – Atlas
Fervour for all music, regardless of time and place, informs Les Gordon's latest EP. The French producer treats us to a moving melancholic (and joyous) piece that expresses feelings that can’t be vocalised.
Read MoreLive review: Disco Doom at the Electric Ballroom, 25/11/15
Combining the fuzz of Rust…-era Neil Young with the wall-of-sound dynamics of the Secret Machines, Disco Doom single-handedly obliterated the mundane winter blues on a late November evening
Read MoreListen/review: Fascinator – The Traveller
Lord Fascinator's music takes on a fractal and luscious technicolour aspect. Washes of synth recall Lonerism cuts like ‘Endors Toi’, but there’s much more to it than straight-up homaging. The arpeggios are baroque in the truest sense of the word – think Henry Purcell.
Read MoreWatch/review: Melt Yourself Down – Dot To Dot
‘Dot To Dot’ draws influences from a plethora of genres, cultures, tones and flavours. It's a banging tune with big bass sounds, big energetic drums and just big, well... 'bigness'
Read MoreListen/review: Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Melody In High Feedback Tones
Mike Oldfield-like arpeggios, twinkle-grit synths and motorik drumming is set to a wistful progression that delivers in spades before dipping out ungracefully in a clunky electro-funk finale.
Read MoreListen/review: Blue House – Hot Air Balloons
A new release by jangle-pop duo Blue House stirs an almost Krautrock beat and high-altitude synths into the gentle broth of acoustic guitar and dreamy vocals
Read MoreWatch/review: Guadalupe Plata – Calle 24
The plot of Guadalupe Plata's lo-fi promo zips along surreally at an urgent pace, all matching the fuzz-toned garage-blues rumble of ‘Calle 24’ itself, a tune that hovers between the Soledad Brothers, Dick Dale and The Cramps.
Read MoreListen/review: Palm – Doggy Doctor
'Doggy Doctor' is a slow and strange number replete with chiming guitars and a kind of car-sick nauseous quality to its heavy lurching momentum. It’s challenging music that never quite settles in the stomach till the starry outro.
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