Can't Help Falling in Love: Patti Smith Captivates At Cardiff's Festival of Voice

Photos: Janire Najera It took almost 50 years to build St. John the Evangelist in Canton, a mile or so from the centre of Cardiff. Some parts of the church came together relatively quickly, including the nave and the aisles, but others took time.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 12 June 2018

New Kid On The Block: All Points East Enjoys A Winning Start

Photo: Rory Marcham The first staging of All Points East had a lot riding on it. A new London festival with a stellar line up, plus several similarly star-studded sideshows, it had to overcome an already stacked calendar of competitors and some inevitable teething problems. And it did. Helen Payne found some awkward stage timings to navigate during an otherwise perfect, if excessive, few days.

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Friday, 08 June 2018

Hip-hop, Not Easy Listening: Lewis Parker On 20 Years of 'Masquerades & Silhouettes'

For people of a certain generation, English producer Lewis Parker is best known for working with Ghostface Killah and being sampled by Joey Bada$$. Flitting between London and New York, Parker has made his name as one of hip-hop's most respected underground heads, renowned for his impeccable groove-based beats.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Thursday, 07 June 2018

Timing Is Everything: Davey Newington Talks Boy Azooga's Debut LP '1,2 Kung Fu!'

Photo: Stella Gelardi Malfilatre More haste, less speed. It’s a lesson a lot of us learn the hard way, and one that has shaped Davey Newington’s trajectory with his latest musical project, Boy Azooga.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Wednesday, 06 June 2018

Enjoy the Balance: Collective Soul's Will Turpin Shines on 'Serengeti Drivers'

Every now and then an album arrives from out of nowhere and instantly brightens up your day. Like rays of sunshine breaking through the clouds, ‘Serengeti Drivers’ – the debut solo album from Collective Soul bassist Will Turpin – is quite simply an unexpected treat. Bursting to the brim with a melodious mix of pop, rock, Americana, funk, soul and AOR, it’s the kind of record summer was invented for.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 05 June 2018

Loneliness and The Solo Artist: Jess Abbott Talks Tancred's 'Nightstand'

Photo: Shervin Lainez One of the enduring challenges facing any writer is making people feel as though they’re in the room, and experiencing things in real time. On ‘Nightstand’, the new Tancred album, Jess Abbott’s solution is to load up on specifics.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 31 May 2018

Journey of a Wild Heart: Introducing Kashena Sampson

She may have been mentioned by Rolling Stone magazine in the same breath as Stevie Nicks, and already had her music compared to Linda Ronstadt, Bobbie Gentry and Jim Croce, but Kashena Sampson is capable of standing on her own two feet. Her debut album, ‘Wild Heart’, showcases a singer-songwriter whose artistic authenticity and integrity is increasingly rare in Nashville these days.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 31 May 2018

'It's Like It Was When Korn Started': Jonathan Davis Strikes Out On His Own With 'Black Labyrinth'

Photo: J Weiner Photography “Boom na da noom na na nema, da boom na da noom na namena.” Twenty years ago, Jonathan Davis’s vocal breakdown in Freak on a Leash made perfect sense. Nu metal had almost reached its commercial peak and Korn were shitting out hits, blowing up cars in their music videos and always staying ahead of their imitators – so brashly that their 1998 album was named ‘Follow The Leader’.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Friday, 25 May 2018

Did You Hear The '59 Sound? The Gaslight Anthem and a Grand Rock Tradition

Illustration: Thomas Norton “Is Brian around?”  Bruce Springsteen has just pulled a cardboard sign from the Hyde Park crowd and flashed it around E-Street. A moment later Brian Fallon walks out from the wings, having opened the show with his band, the Gaslight Anthem. He embraces Springsteen before Max Weinberg’s kick drum counts in No Surrender.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 24 May 2018

Forget The Barriers: Goat Girl And The Power of Subverting Expectations

Photo: Holly Whitaker Expectations are constantly being placed on Goat Girl, and they just keep quietly subverting them. The band were hyped by London’s music press before they had released their debut single, while a narrative grew around them as a political garage-rock band that was part of a growing scene in south London. They then signed to Rough Trade, and 18 months later their self-titled debut album was released. Here they finally have an opportunity to let the music speak for itself.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Tuesday, 22 May 2018

It's Loud And Wild, But I Swear It Feels Soft: Beach Slang's James Alex Talks Quiet Slang

When we think of Beach Slang, we think of screaming our lungs out with our best friends, t-shirts soaked with sweat and beer, as a man in a crushed velvet jacket leads a dive bar chorus. We certainly do not envision being brought to the brink of tears by the gentle melodies of the same songs after they have been recast with a hauntingly beautiful orchestral backdrop. But that’s the alchemy at the heart of James Alex’s Quiet Slang experiment.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 17 May 2018

How To Be a Real Adult: Common Holly on 'Playing House' and Finding Your Place

Photo: Sean Mundy  “We’re all pretending to be adults on a fairly constant basis.” Brigitte Naggar tells it like it is. Her thoughtful, considered debut album as Common Holly, ‘Playing House’, was released in October last year, and although it jogs down the well-trodden break up path, she covers the difficult ground through sparse guitar textures, unexpected math-rock production and truly relatable twentysomething lyricism.

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Tuesday, 15 May 2018

Rock The House 'Til Its Closing: Nils Lofgren Discusses 50 Years On Stage

Photo: Cristina Arrigoni Rock ‘n’ roll would be nothing without a little mythmaking, and Nils Lofgren’s career lends itself to it.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 08 May 2018

Music Is Meant To Inspire: How Brothers Osborne Created The Sprawling 'Port Saint Joe'

The notion of genre as insular and self-contained is eroding. In a way that reflects our increasingly interconnected global community, exposure to a wider variety of influences means that fewer artists will stick devoutly to one style. Stuffy traditionalists will complain, but on their sophomore record ‘Port Saint Joe’ the Brothers Osborne show exactly why such an eclectic approach can reboot venerable musical forms in a fresh and exciting way.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 04 May 2018

Music Was Always There: Jake Ewald Talks Starting Again With Slaughter Beach, Dog

Photo: Jess Flynn Back in February of last year, Jake Ewald had to find a new job. After several years spent writing records and touring with Modern Baseball, the band went on indefinite hiatus. The statement they released referred to the fact that they had been “championing the importance of mental health” and that the band had become a source of anxiety that they could no longer ignore.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Friday, 04 May 2018

A Different Perspective: TesseracT On 'Sonder' and The Quest To Keep Moving Forward

They started life as the bedroom project and Myspace page of guitarist Acle Kahney, but now Tesseract are credited with pioneering the madly expansive djent genre, have a intercontinental following, and can be safely regarded as one of the UK’s biggest names and exports in prog metal.

Written by: Guy Hirst | Date: Friday, 27 April 2018

Weed, Riffs And Prog: Boss Keloid Head Into The Unknown

In a little under a decade together, Boss Keloid have earned a good deal of support from the metal community. Having risen up from the scene in the north-west of England, the Wigan five piece have performed at Bloodstock and been hotly tipped by Metal Hammer, Kerrang, and Terrorizer. Much of this acclaim is owed to their killer sophomore album, ‘Herb Your Enthusiasm’, which, understandably, turned the heads of stoner-doom enthusiasts across the weedesphere back in 2016.

Written by: Guy Hirst | Date: Thursday, 26 April 2018

The More You Make, The Better You Get: The Prolific Jay Watson of GUM on 'The Underdog'

Jay Watson is the epitome of chill. His voice crackles through the phone from 10,000 miles away, where he’s in the pub. “The kitchen closes at 9, so I’m just getting some food,” he says. The Tame Impala-via-Pond multi-instrumentalist has just touched down in Melbourne, where he’s due to to play a sold out show at the intimate Yah Yah's club. There’s also the small matter of his new solo record, ‘The Underdog’.

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Monday, 23 April 2018

Faith In The Future: Trivium Oversee The Passing Of Metal's Torch

Something brutal this way comes. Venom Prison, Power Trip and Code Orange are leading a new wave of young, forward-thinking bands that are tearing up the blueprints when it comes to creating heavy music. If you have any affinity for loud noises at all and haven’t heard them yet, you really haven’t been paying attention.

Written by: Jon Stickler | Date: Friday, 20 April 2018

'Hate Is A Really Rich Well To Draw From': Lice Talk 'It All Worked Out Great'

“Support us? We’re gonna be supporting you, mate. You come to this city you’re gonna learn the meaning of support.” That’s what Joe Talbot told Alastair Shuttleworth when they first met in Bristol three years ago. Shuttleworth, an English student moonlighting as a music writer, had interviewed the Idles frontman earlier in the evening and now, with a few beers in his belly at an afterparty, was asking whether his band, Lice, could open one of their shows.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 06 April 2018