Esperi - The EP (EP Review)

Olive Grove Records made a curious decision when it scheduled an August release date for Esperi's The EP. This is not a summer record. Although each track radiates warmth, it is not the sort that you feel basking on the pebbles of Brighton beach, or as you tread the hard, cracked earth of a summer festival. Instead, the warmth of The EP is akin to that you feel sitting in your living room on a Sunday morning, thermostat set to maximum while a cloudless blue sky and blanket of snow on the ground direct sunlight through your window, adding a crisp edge to the cosy, lazy warmth of the central heating. That's the sort of warmth Esperi is offering here, that and the warmth of nostalgia, The EP is steeped in nostalgia.

Written by: James Brown | Date: Tuesday, 16 August 2011

ManRaze - Punkfunkrootsrock (Album Review)

The release of music as part of a ‘supergroup’ comes with a great number of questions. Do you replicate the sound of the bands your members are known for? Do you create something new? Do you just flat out go off the wall with experimentation? What do you do? What happens when you take members of Def Leppard, Girl and the Sex Pistols and cram them into a super-trio? That last question can be answered by taking a look at the fantastic threesome ManRaze. 

Written by: Heather McDaid | Date: Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Hawk Eyes - Witch Hunt (Single Review)

I remember someone showing me a review of the 'Modern Bodies' album by NME; I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life. They slated it. Before you read on let me make this clear, I love this band, and like most things that I love, I am extremely critical of them. Their last album 'Modern Bodies' is without a doubt one of the best albums from last year. Hawk Eyes (formerly known as Chickenhawk) are a band from Leeds and like most awesome signed bands in Leeds, they come to us via Brew Records. What stands out the most about them is that they don't try to be anything they're not. This is them, this is their sound and if you don't like it, then you know where the door is. This attitude and their sound is welcome, there is too much out there that tries to fit into 'the scene' which in turn makes it sound bland, like everything else. This is gutsy, this will kick you in the face, knock out all your teeth and you will thank it for doing it.

Written by: Kimberley Martinez-Meakins | Date: Monday, 15 August 2011

Rubicks - Rise of the Giddy (Album Review)

Rubicks has been bubbling under for nearly a decade now. After the band released its first single, 'Midas' in 2002, fans had to wait a further four years until it released its début LP, In Miniature on Universal Records in 2006. The album was met with critical acclaim and Rubicks acquired a loyal fan base who were teased with the 2009 EP, Idiot Time, and a string of singles throughout 2010 before the long-awaited Rise of the Giddy hit shelves this August. The fans' patience and faith has, no doubt, been vindicated.

Written by: James Brown | Date: Monday, 15 August 2011

You Me At Six - Loverboy (Single Review)

When You Me At Six announced that 'Loverboy' (the first single taken off their brand new album 'Sinners Never Sleep') was going to be played on the radio this week, my Twitter feed exploded with joy and anticipation, but was it really all worth it?

Written by: Matt Turner | Date: Friday, 12 August 2011

That's Outrageous - Teenage Scream (Album Review)

That's Outrageous, the latest coup by indie label Rise Records released their debut album on 19th July. Originally put together by former We Are In The Crowd founder Tom DeGrazia (who has since left the band), this New York outfit mix upbeat pop choruses with the hardcore element that is so familiar to Rise Records fans.

Written by: Matt Turner | Date: Thursday, 11 August 2011

The Files And Fires - For People Talk Lightly (Album Review)

Deriving their name from a passage in Albert Camus classic existentialist novel The Plague, Connecticut based avant gardists The Files and Fires return with their sophomore release, the inquisitively titled 'For People Talk Lightly'.

Written by: Patrick Gormley | Date: Thursday, 11 August 2011

Natalie McCool - Your Hero (Single Review)

Cheshire-born Natalie McCool has already begun to make waves in the music industry, particularly after the release of her recent and fantastic ‘Black Sun’ EP. With a newly filmed video, Natalie is now ready to release her next single from the EP in the form of ‘Your Hero’.

Written by: Katie Territt | Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2011

John B - Clwb Ifor Bach - 5th August 2011

Once again, John B, the make-up’d drum and bass electro fusion king, tore up Aperture last Friday with a killer 90 minute set that oozed of his mutli-genre’d madness we all know and love.

Written by: Elliott Batte | Date: Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Charlie Simpson - Parachutes (EP Review)

Charlie Simpson’s musical path has been a very public one. The music tastes the average 26 year-old moves between and develops over the years are normally restricted to an ever-changing iTunes playlist and choosing between your favourite band tour t-shirts.

Written by: Helen Manley | Date: Tuesday, 09 August 2011

Crosses - † (EP Review)

Call it a side project or 2/3rds of the latest super group, it won't make the EP ‘†’ any less special. The band members include Deftones front man Chino Moreno, Far’s Shaun Lopez and the unknown Chuck Doom. They have joined forces to collaborate on this atmospheric sound that features the indolent yet sexy beats we’ve come to love from Deftones and the melodic undertow of Far.

Written by: Kimberley Martinez-Meakins | Date: Tuesday, 09 August 2011

Lotus Mason - Lotus Mason (Album Review)

The keyboards used for 'Do You Love Me' must have been an in-joke, right? Overlapping cheesy deep voices last used effectively at the very beginning of Queens 'One Vision' make an appearance here, but instead if enhancing an excellent intro like they do in that song, they completely distract here on two occasions in the middle of the track. The sounds used for the melody actually made me laugh too, and the funniest part is this song clearly is supposed to be dead serious.

Written by: James Ball | Date: Monday, 08 August 2011

REM - Life’s Rich Pageant (25th Anniversary Edition) (Album Review)

It’s difficult to review an album that’s been out for 25 years featuring a band whose sound hasn’t really changed an awful lot in that time. What they have done though, listening to the core album through from start to finish, is create a sound that has not aged one bit. It’s hard to believe that in a year the New Kids on the Block debut album, Europe’s 'Final Countdown' and Berlin's 'Take my Breath Away' were doing the rounds, R.E.M were busy making a record that would have a strong, relevant musical style to what they would write 25 years later and it would still sound entirely fresh and original.

Written by: James Ball | Date: Monday, 08 August 2011

Trivium - In Waves (Album Review)

Trivium – amongst many metal-loving friends of mine – are almost that musical marmite that divides our crowd. Usually echoing praise for the same bands and not really feeling certain bands’ vibes, it’s a strange moment to find a band that can earn so much respect yet evoke such disagreement in a usually unanimous group. I suppose, in a weird kind of way, they’ve managed to break our group and offer for an interesting debate. Some say 2006’s ‘The Crusade’ was their peak and, ever since, they’ve been unable to remotely compare. Others have rather enjoyed watching them progress to 2008’s ‘Shogun’ and “can’t wait to see where they go from here”. Well, that mystery is over as Trivium unleash their fifth studio album ‘In Waves’ for our judgement; filling many I know with excitement and dread in equal measures. So, which side of the group will be proved right?

Written by: Heather McDaid | Date: Monday, 08 August 2011

Noel Gallagher Tickets For London & Edinburgh Shows ONSALE 9AM (Friday 5th Aug)

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have announced details of the first of their highly anticipated  live shows this Autumn. Noel and Co are to play Dublin, Edinburgh and London during October. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Tickets are ONSALE 9AM TODAY, Friday 5th August.

Written by: Jon Stickler | Date: Friday, 05 August 2011

Coma Recovery - Goddverb (Album Review)

New Mexicos purveyors of dark, industrial post rock Coma Recovery, return with their latest offering the deeply intense 'Goddverb'. Conjuring visions of a scorched, cracked earth scattered intermittently by deathly, bare, skeletal trees encircling broken, desolate, grey cities engulfed by vicious, tumultuous, biting winds choking the air with grit and dust, 'Goddverb' can be seen as a perfect soundtrack to this post apocalyptic landscape teetering on the edge of the abyss. Depressing stuff?? Not in the least.

Written by: Patrick Gormley | Date: Thursday, 04 August 2011

Ryan Leslie - Glory (Single Review)

Do you know who Ryan Leslie is? The R&B singer, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, producer, songwriter and entrepreneur has been working to make other people successful since his internship with Younglord in the early 2000’s, which he claims ‘jumpstarted his career’.

Written by: Emma Newlyn | Date: Wednesday, 03 August 2011

TEETH - Care Bear (Single Review)

Remember Outrun? That game where before you start a major race you hear that 8 bit “bip, bip, beeeeeeeep!!!” Well, that’s a reasonable description of the first few seconds of the first actual single from TEETH. What follows gets a little more layered and then a LOT more noisy. This is the epitome of lo-fi, with heavy synths, catchy melody and then the fuzziest, most primordial, crunching drums n overdrive guitar combo you’ll hear this year, and it’s in no way unpleasant.

Written by: James Ball | Date: Tuesday, 02 August 2011

The Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Bag Of Meat (Album Review)

Once again it's the same old story of don't judge an act by the name. The Victorian English Gentlemens Club are not really what I expected. The name suggests violins and pianos or at least some kind of stomping jigs. But none of this can be found here.

Written by: Craig Willis | Date: Tuesday, 02 August 2011

City Reign - Daybreak (Single Review)

This track by Manchester (even though two of them started life in London) newcomers City Reign is pretty good if slightly unspectacular. It has all the ingredients to break it above being average into definite “good” territory, including a stabby punchy guitar, insightful lyrics, a long “whoooaaaaaahhh” section and some drum fill that make you worry for Sam Jones’ arms as he crashes with utter devotion, especially towards the end of this track. It’s got that bratty sound that Dive Dive have managed to perfect over recent years, while still tipping their caps at arguably Manchesters biggest export, Oasis.

Written by: James Ball | Date: Monday, 01 August 2011