Ed Sheeran - + (Album Review)

Ed Sheeran has seemingly become unstoppable in the past year or so, smashing his way into the UK top 10 with both ‘The A Team’ and ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’. However, this is anything but an overnight sensation. At the humble age of 20, Ed has already put tireless years into his music career with a rigorous gig calendar, self-recording various EP’s and even sofa surfing. All in the name of following one’s dream. Dreams in the music industry only really come true when your debut album is on the shelves of HMV’s all over the country, and for Ed Sheeran this is exactly the feat he has achieved.

Written by: Ryan Tinslay | Date: Monday, 26 September 2011

The Jayhawks ‘Mockingbird Time’ (Album Review)

As a very brief introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the work of Minnesota’s The Jayhawks, they are a band that have been making highly influential country rock music for over 25 years. So your apologies for the late start are graciously accepted. However, if you are already acquainted, you’ll be pleased to hear that the original line-up, including founding member Mark Olson, are back together for the first time since 1995’s ‘Tomorrow the Green Grass’.

Written by: Rob Sleigh | Date: Sunday, 25 September 2011

Coldplay Tickets For London O2 Arena, Manchester MEN & Glasgow Onsale 9.30am Today

Following the release of new album 'Mylo Xyloto' in October, Coldplay will play their first UK tour for two years with a series of UK arena shows announced for December. Coldplay Tickets are ONSALE 9.30AM TODAY, Friday 23rd September.

Written by: Jon Stickler | Date: Friday, 23 September 2011

Andy Burrows - If I Had A Heart (Single Review)

Former Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows releases new single ‘If I Had A Heart’ next month, following numerous other projects and a busy summer both with I Am Arrows and clocking up the air miles with We Are Scientists – of which he is now a full time member since 2009.

Written by: Helen Manley | Date: Thursday, 22 September 2011

They Say We're Sinking - Echoes Of The Great War (EP Review)

Comprising its component parts with musicians from hardcore, punk and experimental bands that came out of the local scene in Dover, Delaware, instrumentalists They Say We’re Sinking feel it is their impatience as people that greatly influences their particular take on post rock. And while this hurried, urgent energy is apparent throughout their debut EP 'Echoes of the Great War', the influence of bands like Red Sparrowes, This Will Destroy You and Explosions in the Sky, one feels is even greater.

Written by: Patrick Gormley | Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Tori Amos - Night Of Hunters (Album Review)

Since 1992 Tori Amos has been releasing albums every couple of years or so. So now, on album twelve, has anything changed? Well yes, nearly everything in fact. Breaking with tradition, she's not recorded this one with her usual band members,  instead opting for a new bunch of classical musicians.

Written by: Craig Willis | Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Rising Tide - Painkiller (EP Review)

For those of you that, like me, have never heard of Rising Tide, I can promise you, if you like Alternative, Indie music you will not be disappointed. Their debut EP is titled Painkiller and is more than well worth a listen. The band hail from Brighton and are described as a four piece alternative/indie/rock outfit. The group consists of: Martyn Wilson (vocals/guitar), Emma Newlyn (guitar/keyboards), Adam Rutherford (bass), Frankie Sparrowhawk (drums).

Written by: Lee Johnston | Date: Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning (Album Review)

It would be easy to write this album off as a prog rock indulgence. At over eighty minutes in length and stretched out over two discs, there is no doubting that 'Grace for Drowning' is an epic in an era in which albums beyond fifty minutes or so in length are resolutely unfashionable. However what has always marked out Steven Wilson’s work from many of the classic prog artists, and indeed what has distinguished his band Porcupine Tree from many other modern prog bands such as Dream Theater, is his lack of willing to engage in unnecessarily lengthy bouts of musical virtuosity. In fact, despite its extended running time, 'Grace for Drowning' arguably proves this point better than any of his other works. For a work so defiantly widescreen in its intentions as this it is truly remarkable that there is nothing that could, or rather should, be accused of being filler or being over the top.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Opeth - Heritage (Album Review)

So, Opeth have left behind death metal at last. It was always going to happen and only the most stubborn of metal heads can seriously begrudge its passing. Yes it gave rise to Opeth’s unique style but by the time of 2008’s 'Watershed' it was clear that Mikael Åkerfeldt was becoming increasingly tired of the extreme aspects of his band’s music. Although it might have been more commercially prudent to gradually ease such extremity out rather than dump it wholesale, it is undoubtedly preferable for the purity of the music that such elements are jettisoned now that Opeth’s main man is ready to do so.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Monday, 19 September 2011

Patrick Wolf - Time Of My Life (Single Review)

Patrick Wolf thinks he’d be at number one if he was a woman, but at the young age of 28 he’s already set to release his 5th album - so there’s still time to grab that chart position. Wolf is able to combine his effeminate, romantic folk elements with his eccentric, sexy electro pop to create ‘Time Of My Life’, the single to introduce the album.

Written by: Emma Newlyn | Date: Thursday, 15 September 2011

Little Roy - Battle For Seattle (Album Review)

Just in time for the 20th anniversary and subsequent re-issue of Nirvana’s grunge classic and breakthrough album ‘Nevermind’, Jamaican reggae legend Little Roy has done for the Seattle alt-rock trio what the Easy Star All-Stars did for Pink Floyd, Radiohead and The Beatles. That is, he’s taken a bunch of their most celebrated and well-loved music and added his own loving reggae touch.

Written by: Rob Sleigh | Date: Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Soul Rebels Brass Band - Unlock Your Mind (Album Review)

Anyone familiar with the work of Chicago’s Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – who released their eponymous debut album through Damon Albarn’s record label Honest Jon’s in 2009 and even featured on the third Gorillaz album ‘Plastic Beach’ last year – will be pleased to learn of the Soul Rebels Brass Band – New Orleans’s answer to the future of music in the American South.

Written by: Rob Sleigh | Date: Monday, 12 September 2011

LaFaro – Meat Wagon (Single Review)

Don’t expect any sign of remorse from LaFaro. These Northern Irish tricksters are going to take your ears and slice them into hundreds of tiny little pieces and 'Meat Wagon' is them doing that at their very best. There’s an element of their countrymen, and alt-metal legends, Therapy? in their snarling delivery and breakneck intensity but there is also a heavy dollop of seething The Jesus Lizard-esque devotion to noise that sets them a little apart.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Monday, 12 September 2011

Chuck Ragan – Covering Ground (Album Review)

The voice of Chuck Ragan is a thing of quivering intensity. One of the voices of legendary punk outfit Hot Water Music, Ragan’s excursions into folk music have impressed ever since his assured solo debut 'Feast or Famine' in 2007 but 'Covering Ground' is a step up for the Floridian native. Think of him as being the American equivalent of Frank Turner if you will but what you are really getting here is something far more rough and tough than Frank could ever be.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Monday, 12 September 2011

The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love (Album Review)

It’s sad when bands that were formerly regarded as fresh and exciting slip into the totally mundane. Few bands capture such a slip as well as The Rapture. When they burst onto the scene they, alongside acts such as The Strokes, were seen as the future of indie music. The beguiling dance-punk of their 2003 breakthrough 'Echoes' seems a very long time ago and, judging by this record, the band aren’t likely to return to former glories any time soon.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Monday, 12 September 2011

Fostercare Vs. Ritualz - †‡† (Split LP Review)

This split LP between Fostercare and Ritualz is pretty insane stuff. With neither artist content to just bust out the same old tired beats again and again what one gets with this record is an avalanche of ‘haunted pop’ with synths that seem to be trying their very best to make your head explode and your body implode.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Monday, 12 September 2011

Pigeon Detectives - Lost (Single Review)

As Coldplay once sang, “Just because I’m losing, doesn’t mean I’m lost…”

Written by: James Ball | Date: Monday, 12 September 2011

Scams - Helicopter Parents (Single Review)

“I DON’T THINK SO!!!” Yells Andy Morgan, front man of Leeds-based punky guitar botherers Scams, as the rest of the band, a conglomerate of guitar, bass and drums, all better the living shit out of each other in a bid for total prominence. Welcome to the scene, Scams. Where have you been all my life?

Written by: James Ball | Date: Monday, 12 September 2011

Longevity – Tantrum (Single Review)

This is dirty.

Written by: James Ball | Date: Monday, 12 September 2011

Apparat - The Devil’s Walk (Album Review)

The last time we saw Apparat release an original, self-made record was in 2007 and it was 'Walls'. Since then we’ve seen collaboration’s and DJ albums, but now Sascha Ring is no longer alone in his musical quest. Apparat is now a band, although that could quite easily go unnoticed. The sound hasn’t changed dramatically, the inclusion of new musicians, however, does make for some of Apparat’s most expansive and, quite frankly, beautiful music to date. If you can imagine Burial covering Thom Yorke, you won’t be a million miles away from the sounds of 'The Devil’s Walk'.

Written by: Rhys Morgan | Date: Wednesday, 07 September 2011