The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

Category New Album Releases

REVIEW: The Orb – ‘Moonbuilding 2703 AD’ (Kompakt)

by Ed Biggs Those of you with very sharp musical memories might recall the early ‘90s heyday of The Orb, a cult favourite for those ravers whose favourite part of the night was the 5am chillout room. A dub-influenced ambient duo now currently in its sixth incarnation – German electronic composer Thomas Fehlmann has been working with the ever-present Orb founder Alex Paterson since the late ‘00s – they enjoyed a

Continue reading…

REVIEW: Wolf Alice – ‘My Love Is Cool’ (Dirty Hit)

by Ed Biggs We’ve been waiting nearly two and a half years for this moment, an absolute eternity in our rapidly churning social media age of hype and backlash. Wolf Alice appeared on radar back in February 2013 with their first single ‘Fluffy’, but their origins go way back to 2010 and their embryonic self-titled EP. Releasing only a couple of singles and EPs since then, the London quartet have been

Continue reading…

REVIEW: Everything Everything – ‘Get To Heaven’ (Sony)

by Ed Biggs Ever since they first bamboozled the indie scene with their absolutely-anything-goes approach, the perennial problem with Everything Everything is that they’ve always sounded better in theory than in practice. In many ways, their meta approach to influences and culture is perfectly suited to the information age, characterised by social media, news overload and the conflation of the personal and the political. What could be more contemporary than a

Continue reading…

REVIEW: Gengahr – ‘A Dream Outside’ (Transgressive)

by Matthew Langham Shelved alongside the likes of Tame Impala and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, London-based Gengahr have been one of the main critic’s choices for bands to watch in 2015. Following on from their brilliant set at Live At Leeds, their full-length debut A Dream Outside is a melting pot of summery, psychedelic pop hooks. On first listen it might float by without any immediate impact – after all, the air

Continue reading…

REVIEW: Active Child – ‘Mercy’ (Vagrant)

by Ed Biggs Active Child is the recording name of New Jersey electronic music artist Pat Grossi, who won plenty of plaudits for his first album You Are All I See in 2011. A porous mixture of electronica, post-dubstep and minimalist pop accentuated by Grossi’s harp-playing skills and his striking falsetto that was developed through a childhood spent in choirs, it was cited by many as an example of the future

Continue reading…

REVIEW: Hudson Mohawke – ‘Lantern’ (Warp)

by Ed Biggs Since he released his debut album Butter in 2009, Glaswegian electronic wiz kid Hudson Mohawke (real name Ross Birchard) has become something of a producer-by-appointment to the hip-hop royalty of America. In the last five years, he’s accumulated credits on albums by Drake, Pusha T, Azealia Banks and Lil Wayne, and was named as Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. label’s in-house producer, all for his talent at infusing rap music

Continue reading…

REVIEW: Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment – ‘Surf’ (self-released)

by Ed Biggs Franz Ferdinand & Sparks may have recently sung about how collaborations don’t work – oh yes, they do! Surf, a weird and wonderful record surprise-released at the end of May as a free download, sees a very unlikely (and probably one-off) combination of hip-hop upstart Chance The Rapper, young jazz musician Donnie Trumpet (the stage name of 21 year old Nico Segal), his backing band and a stellar

Continue reading…

REVIEW: Giorgio Moroder – Déjà Vu (Sony)

by Matthew Langham Since his sampled voiceover on Daft Punk’s 2013 album Random Access Memories, which in turn was a kind of tribute album to the man himself, legendary Italian-born producer Giorgio Moroder has seen something of a revival in fortunes in terms of his critical stock. Famed for producing hit records such as ‘Hot Stuff’ and the effortlessly futuristic ‘I Feel Love’, this is his first record since 1985’s collaboration

Continue reading…

REVIEW: FFS – ‘FFS’ (Domino)

by Matthew Langham At first glance it is remarkably obvious how Franz Ferdinand have been inspired by ‘70s avant-garde pop group Sparks. Franz’s Alex Kapranos first mooted a hook-up with their quirky pop heroes more than a decade ago and, at long last, we get to hear what many of assumed only existed in his head. Needless to say, this collaborative effort FFS from both bands is immensely fun and humorous,

Continue reading…

REVIEW: PINS – ‘Wild Nights’ (Bella Union)

by Ed Biggs Manchester’s all-female quartet PINS made one of the better British guitar debuts of 2013 with Girls Like Us, a solid if unspectacular study in post-punk revivalism in which they demonstrated a thorough understanding of the dynamics of the genre. While it didn’t really add anything to the canon, it indicated great promise for the future. More impressive was their prodigious work ethic, relentless touring and the curation of

Continue reading…