by John Tindale It has been three years since the last Frightened Rabbit record Pedestrian Verse, and during that time the Scottish five-piece have toured to the brink of exhaustion, almost broken-up and, most importantly, frontman Scott Hutchison moved to Los Angeles. Hutchinson’s turbulent time in L.A. is a clear commonality running through the music of this eventual fifth album Painting Of A Panic Attack, and it is the subsequent doom
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by Ed Biggs Canadian experimental artist Tim Hecker has, by degrees over the course of 15 years, got to a point where his albums are being anticipated by a wider circle of listeners than simply ‘those who bought the last one’. After all, a man with a PhD in ‘urban noise’ (!) and who used to be a university lecturer in ‘sound culture’ is almost bound to be pigeonholed as an
by Ollie Rankine The Wilderness is perhaps an appropriate album title when considering the content of Texan post-rockers Explosions In The Sky’s newest artistic venture. Although retaining the gentle, dream-like guitar riffs that have featured in previous works all the way back to their 2003 masterpiece The Earth Is Not A Cold, Dead Place, EITS have stepped into the bottomless unknown to explore much deeper territories of music.
by Ollie Rankine The thought of living in an age where the mere, simple push of a single button could begin the cataclysmic implosion of humanity as we know it is certainly not reassuring to say the least. The desire to harness the colossal capabilities of nuclear power has become subject to primary interest of superpowers around the world. The idea of developing something with such formidable potential is mind-bogglingly fascinating
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 Matthew Langham Emmy The Great’s first two albums, First Love and Virtue, both explored heartbreak and the ending of a relationship. It’s been five years since Emma-Lee Moss’s last record and her third effort to date is certainly more introspective and focused on advancements in technology, and how it affects everyday life. Labelled as a former anti-folker, Second Love mixes electronica with intricate orchestral arrangements to create a confessional record,
by John Tindale Kendrick Lamar may already have registered himself as one of the greats before the age of 30; having released the classic good kid, m.A.A.d city in 2012, he went on to better himself with what will certainly be regarded as one of the very best records of the decade, To Pimp A Butterfly, last year, so the surprising news that we are now getting some extracts from the
by Ed Biggs As the former lead singer of The Beta Band, Steve Mason has forged a strange path that has kept him running parallel to, yet separated from, the evolution of British indie over the last two decades. The band he founded with Gordon Anderson in the mid ‘90s produced one of the most criminally overlooked back catalogues of the latter-day Britpop era. Imagine if Pink Floyd had disbanded upon
by John Tindale In case you weren’t already aware, Animal Collective are a bit of an odd case. Featuring an ever-changing line-up and an alternative approach to electronics, their only consistent characteristic is their ability to command the listener’s attention, it is no wonder that tenth studio album Painting With was so highly anticipated by the masses, after the slight disappointment that was Centipede Hz in 2012.
by John Tindale When the most divisive man on the planet announced he was going to be releasing a seventh studio album in 2013, a mere five months after the release of the almost-experimental Yeezus, many heads were turned. Now two and a half years and no fewer than three title changes later, The Life Of Pablo has finally arrived and the media storm with it. Part of Kanye West’s brilliance is
