by John Tindale It has been a full decade since French electronic duo Cassius last released an album in the form of 15 Again, an Ibiza-infused celebrating house during a lull for the genre. Ibifornia, a blending of the club of Ibiza and the sun of California, is an ambitious and risk-taking affair that, unfortunately, misses its target too often.
Amnesty may have been released in mid-August, but it is an album designed for the dead of a winter’s night.
This year we’ve had records from Beyoncé, Radiohead, Kanye West etc. but in the midst of the global icons, a superstar introvert has released the most important album of the year and his second masterpiece in a row.
by John Tindale Thee Oh Sees are an oddity in a music industry which trudges along with the same formula of an album every two years and songs fitting the mould of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus etc. Thee Oh Sees, now on their 11th album in eight years, are the band that tears up the rulebook to create their own cosmic landscape and in A Weird Exits, it works wonderfully.
by John Tindale In a world where Kanye West and Chris Brown grab the spotlight, it is Atlantan brothers Khalif ‘Swae Lee’ Brown and Aaquil ‘Slim Jxmmy’ Brown who are beginning to attract a few headlines of their own.
by John Tindale If anything has been shown since the third coming of Dinosaur Jr., it’s that they haven’t missed a beat since the three-piece’s ‘golden era’ in the late ‘80s. 2007’s Beyond was a mature record full of floating melodies, the following Farm (2009) and I Bet On Sky (2012) were dazzling in their experimentation.
by Ed Biggs and John Tindale The angular, acoustically unfriendly environs of Leeds’ Millennium Square is the setting for The Cribs’ latest homecoming spectacular. The square has always felt quite hemmed in when adapted to be used as an open-air city centre venue, with gigs there never quite feeling large enough to feel like really big events, and the sound invariably ricocheting off the tall buildings that surround it. However, it’s unquestionably a lot
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by John Tindale In a world where Drake’s ‘One Dance’ dominates the singles chart, Peckham four-piece Beaty Heart arrive with their second album and continue to question just what it takes to make pop that connects in 2016. Till The Tomb at times isn’t overtly pop, but nor does it qualify into any other genre: it inhabits the borderline between world, electronic and pop constantly and it when it works, it
by John Tindale A producer to the stars and internet sensation in his own right, DJ Khaled is, without a doubt, a product of his generation; after rising to fame via Snapchat and becoming a glorified meme, Khaled, who in Major Key is releasing his ninth full-length effort, is closer to the mainstream than ever before. Sadly, the battle between irony and talent is won by the former making for a
by John Tindale It has been a tough time for Top Dawg Entertainment in recent years. Yes, there has been the unrivalled success of Kendrick Lamar and his classic To Pimp A Butterfly, but on the whole, the label’s reputation and visibility has certainly dropped from its peak buzz back in 2012. Jay Rock’s 2015 album 90059 remains painfully underrated and Ab-Soul’s These Days was passable at best, but in ScHoolboy
