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.
by Ed Biggs This weekend sees Yorkshire’s own Embrace return with the third annual edition of The Secret Festival, staying at last year’s site of Lotherton Hall just west of Leeds once again on the weekend of the 3rd-4th September 2016. Though still in its infancy, the idea behind The Secret Festival went down extremely well right from its first edition back in 2014, when it was held at Hertfordshire’s Knebworth
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by Ed Biggs August has been a terrific month for music: not least because of the headline-grabbing return of Frank Ocean with not one, but two new albums in the shape of visual project Endless, following two days later on August 20th by Blonde, currently sitting atop the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and many markets around the world.
by Ed Biggs Since their dense and detailed 2014 debut album ZABA, Oxford’s folktronica four-piece Glass Animals have made impressive commercial strides into key markets across the world. America seems to be falling in love with them, and Britain isn’t far behind, with recent single ‘Life Itself’ getting serious radio rotation.
by Ollie Rankine Living in an age where EDM has seemly claimed widespread dominance in popular music, artist determination to develop and expand the genre as far as humanly possible has arguably purged it of many of its original qualities. Although London duo Factory Floor began their careers sounding much like some sort of Joy Division tribute act after releasing their 2008 debut single ‘Bipolar’, their allegiance to claustrophobic post-punk has
Amnesty may have been released in mid-August, but it is an album designed for the dead of a winter’s night.
by Ollie Rankine In the cut-throat world of pop music, it’s common knowledge that talent doesn’t always equate to record sales. On countless occasions, the system that drives popular music has laid waste to numerous musicians, each unjustly thwarted by their music’s lack of palatability. Continuing to battle the affliction of commercial viability is London singer-songwriter, Ed Harcourt whose now 16-year-long career is yet to generate a legitimate hit.
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 Ed Biggs Having recorded some of the most resolutely imposing and challenging music of the last two decades, Scott Walker has gone from poster boy pin-up from his days in The Walker Brothers at the end of the ‘60s to one of the most respected experimental artists in the business in an impressive and unlikely career arc that’s lasted over half a century.
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.
