by Ed Biggs Richard D. James returned under his most notorious moniker Aphex Twin last September, sending musical connoisseurs and internets forums into meltdown. His reputation had grown enough in his thirteen year absence to land him an appearance in the UK Top 10, but Syro drew some (very minor) criticism from some quarters. Superb as it was, it didn’t give the impression that James was really pushing himself or
Continue reading…
by Lauren James In retrospect, you’d have Nick Allbrook would have to be crazy to have stepped away from the Grammy-nominated Tame Impala, but while his former band is lapping up the plaudits, he’s the one busy making the music. The Perth multi-instrumentalist is able to stamp his personality much more effectively on his own project Pond, which celebrates its sixth album in as many years. Man It Feels Like Space Again is
by Matthew Langham Fall Out Boy’s four year break ended in 2013 with their fifth LP Save Rock And Roll. Two years on and their new record defines how the music industry has changed since their biggest single ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down’, almost ten years ago. Considering the length of their hiatus, it is difficult not to admire the band’s longevity and very loyal fan base. Between playing festivals, they
by Ed Biggs Where to begin with Enter Shikari? A band that in essence seeks to marry post-hardcore and happy hardcore and any genre they happen upon in between, they won the John Peel Innovation Award back in 2007, possibly because their brand of ‘electronicore’ was adjacent to the then-popular ‘nu-rave’ movement. Their combination of confrontational politics, extreme sound and mind-boggling arrangements is hard going at the best of times,
by Matthew Langham Making up one third of Oxford Britpop band Supergrass, Gaz Coombes is a million miles away from his indie roots on his second solo album, Matador. His 2012 solo debut record Here Come The Bombs saw him cut ties with his prank-happy lyrics in pursuit of a more serious side to his persona, but the follow-up makes another leap forwards in the development of his career. It
by Ed Biggs In the history of rock ‘n’ roll survivors, there can be very few that can claim to have emotionally suffered more, or endured more changes in the pop landscape, than The Charlatans. Having begun their career at the height of the ‘Madchester’ baggy sound in 1990, they successfully negotiated the zeitgeist change to Britpop in the middle of the decade, and have maintained a consistent fan-base ever
by Ed Biggs From the release of her debut album in 1993, Icelandic chanteuse Björk has been responsible for some of the most unique and forward-thinking pop music of the last two decades, and even before that as a member of The Sugarcubes. Groundbreaking albums like Homogenic (1998) and Volta (2007) helped shape the musical landscapes of the years that followed. Her last album, 2011’s Biophilia, was billed as a
by Ed Biggs Portland’s The Decemberists scored a surprise Number 1 hit on the US Billboard 200 with their last album The King Is Dead almost exactly three years ago. Granted, it was during the traditionally slow sales month of January, but it was gratifying to see this intelligent and passionate indie group gradually gaining momentum and recognition in the decade since their formation, reflected in a Grammy nomination for
by Ed Biggs Currently sitting atop the UK Singles chart for a fifth non-consecutive week, Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’ is absolutely everywhere. It’s a ubiquity to which he’s accustomed: 2007’s Version was the coffee table album of the year, yielding six singles and shifting close to a million copies. But by the same token, Ronson is also accustomed to his divisive status. For every person who loved Version’s playful approach
by Ed Biggs Of all of the well-documented reunions in music over the last five years, few make as much sense as Portland’s Sleater-Kinney. Formed in 1994 and as contemporaries of Bikini Kill and the riot-grrl movement, there was always something more cerebral, more lasting about them. Their de facto leader Carrie Brownstein, who has since found fame in the TV world having co-written ‘Portlandia’, said in 2008 that she’d only consider
