The atmosphere isn’t exactly electric early tonight. Maybe it’s because Deftones are pretty regular visitors to London, or because Ally Pally is literally no one’s idea of a good time, but it might just be because Deftones fans have grown up with the band. No offence to thousands of people politely queuing around the outside of the venue as doors […]
Read moreStephen Bruner is just like you and me. He gets too drunk at times, too stoned, watches too much TV, and he talks to his cat. Except, unlike you and me, he is a bass guitar phenomenon, multi-genre musical marvel, and one hell of an overachiever. As Thundercat he has worked with some of the biggest and most interesting names […]
Read moreEldstad have come out of nowhere for me. I stumbled across the band’s emotional, immersive new album ‘Hamnstad, Hemstad’ and fell in love within 30 seconds. And then over the next 25 minutes I couldn’t do anything else but listen. And then, when the record stopped spinning, I just wanted to start it up again. A contender for album of […]
Read moreThat cover art says a lot. Yes, Benjamin Power- one part of neon noiseniks Fuck Buttons and the man behind Blanck Mass– has a history of making music with bite, but ‘World Eater’ truly bares its teeth. Opener ‘Jon Doe’s Carnival of Error’ sparkles into life but there’s something off-kilter in its music box melodies, a swirling oddness, and it […]
Read moreFrank Carter’s first foray into Rattlesnake country produced some captivating fury. Despite its name, ‘Blossom’ was a bloodthirsty rager, a signal flare, an uncompromising sign that Carter might just have rediscovered the passion for punk rock that his rollercoaster experience with Gallows apparently drained away. It was bloody good to hear him roar once more. ‘Modern Ruin’ is not the […]
Read moreThis is kind of like a sonic scrapbook. In fact, there are so many sounds cut-and-pasted into the second Nine of Swords record- unabashed hardcore heaviness, downtuned metallic fuzz, upbeat melodies, big dirges, small doses of electronic calm that I hesitate to call interludes because of just how essential they are, and more- that it should be exploding at the seams. […]
Read moreAlbums of the year lists usually come easy around here. Oh sure, there’s some always some debate, ‘hmm, should that be at 7 or 8’, but by the time December rolls around, it’s normally become pretty clear exactly who will make the cut. Not so in 2016. This year there could have been a Top 50. So please, seek out […]
Read moreEvery Time I Die should never have worked. The band emerged from deepest, darkest Buffalo, New York at the turn of the century with an English teacher on vocals, a circus strongman on guitar, a revolving door of bassists, and a guy called Ratboy on drums. Sure, they played a whip-smart and wicked fast version of metallic hardcore but they […]
Read moreIt’s unfair to weigh this band, the Pixies of today, against the Pixies of legend. Unfair, but almost irresistible. A short, sharp shock ensemble that made jolie laide punk rock designed to get under your skin, for a few volatile years around the turn of the 80s, Pixies were essential listening. Three decades later they’re older, greyer, missing one creative […]
Read moreThere are times when this, the second EP from Swedish quintet Look, Orion!, points truly skywards, post-rock without a hint of sluggishness or schmaltz, a soundtrack to the stars. And then there are times when it simply struggles to lift off, any jet fuel force undone by staid riffs and too many pretty notes without real power. So if ‘Contours’, […]
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