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
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by Matthew Langham Over three years have passed since Mystery Jets released their Americana-influenced Radlands which featured the excellent ‘Hale Bop’. Now onto their fifth record in the first decade of their existence, their progressive fourth has certainly influenced their King Crimson / Pink Floyd soundscape on Curve Of The Earth. Released in the same week as the passing of David Bowie, it can’t help be noticed that this record takes
by Ed Biggs While the commercial pomp and circumstance of Britpop was in full flow on the other side of the Atlantic in 1995, the biggest American guitar acts of the day were turning inwards, away from their audiences and exploring the limits of their own talents, not necessarily with any regard to what critics or fans thought about them. Pavement’s sprawling Wowee Zowee, Pearl Jam’s difficult but ultimately rewarding Vitalogy
by Ed Biggs If you were to compile and average out all of those articles that you see from time to time that profess to list the greatest records ever, it’s quite possible that Kate Bush’s fifth album Hounds Of Love would end up as the highest-ranking record by a British female solo artist. As well as containing some of Bush’s most memorable and highest-charting singles, it very quickly came to
by Matthew Langham The elaborately named Australian psychedelic rockers King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard have approached their new record with a different variation of psych-rock following the success of 2014’s I’m In Your Mind Fuzz. The four-track album Quarters! owes much more to jazz-psych sound in comparison to their all-out drug-inspired previous effort. The brakes are off for King Gizzard and, at ten minutes and ten seconds long per track
by Matthew Langham Born Under Saturn is Django Django’s follow up to their successful 2012 Mercury nominated debut record. Following on from The Beta Band and Syd Barrett-influenced pop on tracks including ‘Default’, they have travelled further in the same direction into a darker pop psychedelia. The group’s leader David Maclean’s brother is a member of The Beta Band, which partly explained the left-field yet curiously pop-oriented nature of their music.
by Ed Biggs The initially unloved Wowee Zowee’s twenty year journey to being considered a masterpiece is a curious thing to consider. Possibly because it had to live up to the astronomical expectations built up by its predecessors Slanted And Enchanted (1992) and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994), which had seen Pavement hailed in some quarters as the new Nirvana, the next great hope for American alternative rock. Songs like
by Ed Biggs In 1994, few would have predicted that Radiohead would turn out to be the most influential rock group of the next twenty years. Then merely one of many post-grunge bands with a moderately well-received debut, their defining characteristic was the global hit single ‘Creep’ which, while it was their breakthrough, looked like it was becoming an albatross in terms of people’s expectations of them. The ridiculously tame
by Matthew Langham Formerly of English experimental group Tuung, Sam Genders’ latest release Chromatics is his second under the name of Diagrams. Having received a considerable amount of decent write-ups for his 2012 effort Black Light, his new record couples a similar synth-pop sound with a folkier tendency closer to his work with Tuung. The instrumental underpinnings are perfectly accompanied by Genders’ throughout the record, providing an experimental journey through
by Matthew Langham It’s been a long five years since Doves took a hiatus from their lengthy and successful career. The last twelve months has seen their frontman Jimi Goodwin release his critically acclaimed debut record Odludek, whilst it’s now turn of Doves family duo Andy and Jez Williams with the release of their new project Black Rivers. It’s unlikely that the brothers will repeat the success of their previous
