by John Tindale New Zealand four-piece Yumi Zouma have garnered a reputation for being able to craft moments of summery, dream-pop bliss. Following a collaboration with the now-defunct Air France (the greatest band to have never released an album) in 2014 to cover their single ‘It Feels So Good To Be Around You’, their reputation has only grown to the point where they’ve supported Lorde on tour.
by John Tindale It seems strange for a musician to build an entire concept about something a taxi driver said in passing – but that is exactly what eccentric London producer, Gold Panda, did upon the release of third original record Good Luck And Try Your Best. The meeting with the unknown taxi driver came during a trip that Panda took to Japan with the photographer Laura Lewis in a bid
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by John Tindale It took six albums for Marissa Nadler to find her true voice and there is no better attribution to that than the Bella Union record label which housed the 2014’s record July, a breakthrough for the singer. Since that record, Nadler has found her style as a pop virtuoso set to a brilliantly descriptive backdrop and that is never more present than in seventh record Strangers.
by John Tindale During ‘All We Got’, the first track on Coloring Book (thanks for the spelling America…) the follow-up to 2013’s vibrant Acid Rap exudes joy, Chance The Rapper boasts “Man I swear my life is perfect, I could merch it” and it’s easy to understand why. The past three years have seen Chicagoan Chancelor Bennett rise into the upper echelons of hip-hop’s stars and over the course of his
by John Tindale Philadelphia quartet Modern Baseball have built a reputation for playful songs about love and the internet – all standard stuff for a pop-rock-meets-emo band. But on the back of a cancelled tour of Australia and news of co-frontman Brendan Lukens’ time in rehab for manic depression, Holy Ghost stands as a moment of triumph in a dying genre. Splitting the record into two sides (the first written by
by John Tindale Radiohead may be the most talked-about band the UK has ever produced, always trying to stay ahead of the curve on their records and in their approach to the wider industry. So, on the 3rd of May when new single ‘Burn The Witch’ was made available after a cleverly orchestrated social media blackout, understandably the whole world went into pandemonium – this is the band’s first album since
by John Tindale It takes approximately four seconds to be entirely captivated by Bottomless Pit, the fifth record from Sacramento three-piece Death Grips. By combining punk aggression with experimental hip-hop Death Grips have a sound completely unique to them that has seen them gain a cult following featuring the likes of Björk and Robert Pattinson to name but two. Previously alluded to opening track ‘Giving Bad People Good Ideas’ is an
by John Tindale and Ollie Rankine Live At Leeds is now in its 10th year, and has already built a strong reputation for itself as being the best inner city festival in the UK. But after creating a certain degree of excitement, the news of headliner Jess Glynne pulling out mere hours before the festival’s start the day hardly begins on a strong note…
by John Tindale Widely known and hyped up as Views From The 6 until approximately 24 hours before his release before he ‘did a Kanye’, Views provides an insight into Drake‘s home city of Toronto. However, at a painfully long 81 minutes, this fourth album proper feels overly self-indulgent and too far of a return from the excellent 2015 mixtape-album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late to a re-tread of
by John Tindale Kathleen Brien, better known by her stage name Katy B, is the definition of an artist with underground qualities becoming overtly mainstream. After collaborations with Benga, Magnetic Man and DJ Zinc she has firmly put forward her mantra for developing well-done pop with excellent production. It is from this idea that her sleek, sophisticated debut album On A Mission was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2011.
