by Ed Biggs Marking pretty much the precise point at which dance music became epic, Alex Paterson turned an on-off DJing gig into a fully-fledged project with The Orb’s first studio album after years of EPs and singles. Sprawling over nearly two hours, The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld certainly doesn’t short change on the promise of its title.
by Ed Biggs The story of The Monks would surely have been written for a movie script if it hadn’t actually happened in real life. You can picture it on the big screen: five American GIs stationed in Germany during the ‘60s pop revolution and the outbreak of the Vietnam War, form their own group out of frustration and boredom. Honing their basic garage rock sound into guttural, twisted but undeniably
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by Ed Biggs A quarter of a century after the release of Spiderland, the second and final studio album by the short-lived Louisville four-piece Slint, it’s extremely difficult to imagine the state of the modern guitar music scene without it. Released on Corey Rusk’s Chicago-based Touch And Go label, one of the impressive network of indies that made up the 1980s American underground, it sold virtually nothing at the time, and
by Matthew Langham Produced by Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age, Iggy Pop’s 17th studio album has been rumoured in some quarters to be his final one, and features a star-studded line-up. Homme himself plays guitars alongside contributions from Arctic Monkeys’ Matt Helders on drums and QOTSA’s own Dean Fertita. Dropping a sly clue as to his possible retirement with the brilliant title Post Pop Depression – who knows
by Ollie Rankine It’s nearly four years since the release of Efterklang’s Piramida, and after recently recruiting Finnish percussionist, Tatu Rönkkö the Scandinavian trio have eventually returned under their new name Liima with debut album, ii. Following four week-long bouts of writing in Finland, Berlin, Istanbul and Madeira, Liima have matured from Efterklang’s previous four albums by establishing a far more complex sound.
by John Tindale iLoveMakonnen, aka Makonnen Sheran, has long been on the attention of the masses without ever releasing an album and while Drink More Water 6 may not be a debut record, instead the latest instalment in a line of mixtape releases, it feels like the closest thing we’ve gotten from the Atlanta based star. After shooting to fame with ‘Tuesday’ (an R&B styled pop song that got over 100
by Ollie Rankine We all know that feeling of walking through the front door during the early hours of the morning after a particularly strenuous night out. Varying emotions cloud the familiar lethargic reflections of the previous hours spent laughing with friends and embarrassing yourself on the dance floor of the chosen club of the evening. Most of us combat the comedown by finding solace in the left over takeaway that
by Ed Biggs Much more than most reunions, the return of Sleater-Kinney in 2015 after nearly a decade on hiatus didn’t just feel right, it felt necessary. When they called it a day in 2006 shortly after their excellent seventh album The Woods, singer-guitarist Corin Tucker, guitarist Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss had built up a bulletproof reputation, with a substantial cult fanbase and enough critical praise to match some
by Ed Biggs The gap of six years after 2010’s Barking may be the longest wait between albums in Underworld’s history, even for a band that has only really ever operated infrequently, but that hiatus has been productive for both Rick Smith and Karl Hyde. Smith worked closely with British film director Danny Boyle, both on the original score segments for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony and on Boyle’s 2013 movie
by Ed Biggs Given what has happened to so many of their contemporaries from the early ‘90s, who’ve either disappeared into complete irrelevance or are desperately coining it in re-touring their old albums, Primal Scream have become some of the hardiest survivors in music. Just when everybody has written them off as an irrelevant museum band, Bobby Gillespie, his trusty crew and an ingenious producer reinvent Primal Scream once more with
