The Vampire Diaries - Original Soundtrack (Album Review)

"Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire" - The awesome tagline from The Lost Boys. The what? you ask. I guess nowadays The Lost Boys doesn't mean much anymore as it's all about Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries. America have gone vampire mad, and the rest of the world are quickly catching on. As is the case with most movies and TV shows, the soundtrack is an integral part of the appeal, and now into its second series, The Vampire Diaries is about to release their first soundtrack from the show.

Written by: Katie Territt | Date: Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Ed Drewett - Album Sampler (5 Track Review)

Many of you may already be familiar with the Essex born singer songwriter Ed Drewett for many reasons. Most people would have heard his vocals on the Professor Green hit ‘I Need You Tonight’ where he lent his voice to the chorus.

Written by: Steve Wellman | Date: Wednesday, 17 November 2010

The Concretes - WYWH (Album Review)

For those new to this Swedish pop collective, their newest album ‘WYWH’ is perhaps not the best indicator of the band’s overall sound.

Written by: Jonny Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 17 November 2010

The Savings And Loan - Today I Need Light (Album Review)

Religion and Alcohol have become somewhat synonymous with the city of Glasgow over the years, and Scottish poet Martin Donnelly’s strait-laced but passionate lyrics beat these themes throughout his band’s debut album ‘Today I Need Light’.

Written by: Jonny Rimmer | Date: Monday, 15 November 2010

Monster Magnet – Mastermind (Album Review)

Monster Magnet have been playing mind-blowing, ribcage-shaking stoner rock for the best part of two decades now and ‘Mastermind’, the band’s eighth effort, offers no exception to that rule. Even if their last album ‘4-Way Diablo’ may have caused a certain degree of disappointment amongst fans, this latest offering is definitely a return to their earlier form.

Written by: Rob Sleigh | Date: Thursday, 11 November 2010

Beady Eye - Bring The Light (Single Review)

Cast your minds back to August bank holiday, 2009. The news had just filtered through that Oasis were splitting up and this time it was for good. Today, we discovered how the younger Gallagher would sound moving forward and it's basically the same.

Written by: Dave Ball | Date: Wednesday, 10 November 2010

John Legend & The Roots - Wake Up (Album Review)

A match made in heaven, the old campaigners of hip- hop The Roots meet the incredible soul power house that is John Legend. These two forces have come to together to make a concept album of two purposes.  Firstly to create a master piece of soulful, instrumental jazz blended with the John Legends' smoothest vocals to date. And secondly, to project the thoughts and fears of working class Americans, as the battle to reverse a failing economy spirals on, the light of Obama's shinning beacon of hope begins to dim and anger over the war in Iraq increases. But the overriding message of this twelve track offering is not to give up hope, but rather to literally "wake up" stay optimistic and "straighten it out".

Written by: Owen Sheppard | Date: Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Mona - Trouble On The Way (Single Review)

Mona are a four piece rock group straight out of the U. S. Of A. They’re based in Nashville and are becoming one of the most talked about bands out there. They have managed to amass a gigantic following on sites such as MySpace, with 180,000 page views before a single track was even posted to the site.

Written by: Rhys Morgan | Date: Tuesday, 09 November 2010

Burn The Fleet - Black Holes (Single Review)

Burn The Fleet are well known for their live shows and their debut EP was released on independent label ‘Walnut Tree Records’, home to the next generation of bands, including Tiger Please, Cuba Cuba and Bayonets. The band themselves are quite an individual mix between metal riffs, experimental and rock anthems.

Written by: Matthew Williamson | Date: Monday, 08 November 2010

The Candle Thieves - Sunshine And Other Misfortunes (Album Review)

Before getting into this review, I should first point out that this isn’t a brand new album. In fact it was released in April of 2010 so is a little over 6 months old. However, having seen them perform a support slot for Badly Drawn Boy recently (and completely out shine him I should add) I felt compelled to write something to draw more attention to this little known band.

Written by: Dave Ball | Date: Friday, 05 November 2010

Chiddy Bang - The Preview (Album Review)

'The Preview’ is exactly that, it is a preview of the forthcoming 2011 album from Chiddy Bang and it promises to be an excellent album. The duo from Philadelphia are releasing ‘The Preview’ on the back of the success from single ‘Opposite Of Adults’, which saw them go from one of the most hyped hip-hop acts around to challenging the charts.

Written by: Steve Wellman | Date: Thursday, 04 November 2010

Nelly Furtado Feat. Wiley - Night Is Young (Single Review)

The songbird and the godfather of grime have teamed up with Sketch Iz Dead to create a real floorfiller of a track, 'Night Is Young'. This won’t sound out of place on the club scene or the radio with the four to the floor beats on the chorus that have become big in today’s charts make this track potential chart material.

Written by: Steve Wellman | Date: Thursday, 04 November 2010

Pure Reason Revolution - Hammer And Anvil (Album Review)

Pure Reason Revolution claim to be proof that a band can be influenced by ELO, Smashing Pumpkins, Soulwax, Depeche Mode and The Beach Boys all at once, despite sounding nothing like them. This is evident within the album ‘Hammer and Anvil’ which features a constant combination of electro-pop and rock guitar riffs throughout.

Written by: Steve Wellman | Date: Thursday, 04 November 2010

Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars (Single Review)

It's not a huge surprise that Brooklyn based duo Sleigh Bells aren't a household name. Signed to Mom + Pop Music, an independent label based in New York, Derek E. Miller and Alexis Krauss have only been making music together for two years. Having only previously released a handful of tunes online, it's about time that the band start to get some recognition from their soon to be adoring public. 

Written by: Katie Territt | Date: Tuesday, 02 November 2010

Jamiroquai - Rock Dust Light Star (Album Review)

After spending almost 5 years in the music wilderness since the release of 2005 offering, 'Dynamite', Jamiroquai enjoy a welcome reawakening with their 7th studio album, 'Rock Dust Light Star'. Fronted by energetic, big hat wearing Jay Kay, the band triumphantly and effortlessly deliver yet more jazz/funk with a hint of electro in the way only Jamiroquai can.

Written by: Brian Thompson | Date: Tuesday, 02 November 2010

Kobra And The Lotus - Out Of The Pit (Album Review)

The metal scene of today is bursting at the seams with talent. Most of said talent is clearly placed at the experimental end of the metal scale. Bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan and Opeth take the genre of metal and move it on to higher plains. Kobra and the Lotus is a metal band and they are at totally the opposite end of the scale to the aforementioned experimentalists. Does this necessarily make their debut record worthless?

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Monday, 01 November 2010

Doris Brendal - The Last Adventure (Album Review)

Doris Brendel, the daughter of famed classical pianist Alfred Brendel, is set to release her latest album ‘The Last Adventure’ on the 1st November. She was the vocals behind 1990s alt-rockers ‘The Violet Hour’ who were signed to Sony, now, just as they receive critical acclaim, Doris is forging a new path in music with her own release.

Written by: Steve Wellman | Date: Friday, 29 October 2010

Akabu - The Phuture Ain’t What It Used To Be (Album Review)

Akabu is the deep house pseudonym of UK Producer/DJ/Remixer Dave Lee.  Better known by some of his other monikers (Joey Negro, Jakatta) he has been instrumental in the disco house scene since 1990, being one of the pioneers in using original disco samples and live instruments to fuse a totally new house sound – funky, dancefloor friendly and chilled. Described as “retrospective yet futuristic” and featuring collaborations from such diverse artists as Boomclap Bachelors, Andre Lodemann, Tony Momrelle and Tanya Michelle to name a few, this album is a real tribute to a love of house music spanning decades, and it shows its respect beautifully.

Written by: Andy Droid | Date: Friday, 29 October 2010

The Jam – Sound Affects (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

For those of you that may be relatively unfamiliar with the Jam’s music and history, ‘Sound Affects’, the fifth and penultimate album by the trio, has become known by many as one of their most experimental. Thirty years on and, if you haven’t yet been fortunate enough to give this gem a proper listen, the album is out again - remastered, repackaged and re-released.

Written by: Rob Sleigh | Date: Friday, 29 October 2010

Delta Mainline - In A World Full of Madness, the Simple Joy of Melody... (EP Review)

'In A World Full of Madness, the Simple Joy of Melody Can Pull You Through' is the eagerly-awaited EP release by pseudo-experimental Edinburgh collective Delta Mainline. It presents a new phase in the band's creative exodus from the norm, and a concoction of genre-spanning influences, such as Sparklehorse and Spaceman 3, are displayed.

Written by: Jacob Mier | Date: Wednesday, 27 October 2010