Andy Shauf: An Observer On The Edge Of 'The Party'

All that's left of the evening are its embers. It’s a heavy-lidded scene; certainly not a sober one. His glass is filled, he tosses it back. He dances to the radio with Martha, who’s pretty just like his ex. All too easily he slips into reminiscing. Martha spins, he catches her hand. Her laugh pulls him back into the room. Back to ‘The Party’.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 17 May 2016

Tacocat: The One Stop Guide To Your New Favourite Band

Summer is finally here, so you’ll be needing a new favourite band to be getting on with. Look no further than Tacocat. Since getting together just under a decade ago, the Seattle pop-punks have put out three albums, four EPs and two tapes, culminating in the recently-released ‘Lost Time’.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 12 May 2016

Older/Wiser: Vinnie Caruana And The Bruised Optimism Of 'Survivor's Guilt'

Vinnie Caruana is a nostalgic person. He’s cool with that. So are the fans yelling along to each word of the Movielife’s set at the Dome in north London. It’s 13 years since the band first split, leaving images from a harrowing van crash in North Dakota tattooed across their final album, ‘Forty Hour Train Back To Penn’, and there’s a new energy at work.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 06 May 2016

Foy Vance: Embracing Creative Freedom On 'The Wild Swan'

Photo: Sarah Barlow and Stephen Schofield Foy Vance isn’t yet a household name. But there’s a good chance you’ve heard his bluesy rasp as a guest on a track from another artist, or even heard it bubbling up on a TV show. The Northern Irish singer-songwriter has been releasing beautiful music for a decade, but this is perhaps the year that his will be a name on everyone’s lips.

Written by: Katie Territt | Date: Wednesday, 04 May 2016

White Lung: Love, Death And 'Paradise'

Things change. And we get it, you fear change. You liked it when they weren’t a name on anyone’s lips. You liked it when you could drop them into a conversation and receive a blank stare in response. You liked it when their distribution was a few hundred LPs and a Bandcamp page. You liked it when they had one speed: getthefuckouttaourway. But with ‘Paradise’, White Lung don’t care what you used to like about them. They care about what the band is today and what it might become in the future.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 03 May 2016

Into The Wild: Evan Weiss Clears His Head On Into It. Over It.'s 'Standards'

Writing or recording an album in the wilderness has become an indie staple in recent years. The theory is that artists seeking to create raw work, or learn about themselves, should retreat to a remote location, deny themselves internet access – apparently the ultimate sacrifice in this day and age – and solely focus on writing stripped down music.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Mogwai: Living With The Gravity Of 'Atomic'

Photo: Brian Sweeney Mogwai remain in a somewhat unique position; labelled as elder statesmen of a genre that they’ve often renounced. The influence of their colossal debut, ‘Young Team’, has been enduring, triggering dozens of the floppy-haired, crescendo-based, four-chord-a-minute post-rock bands that emerged in the mid-2000s.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Friday, 15 April 2016

Ocean Colour Scene: Many Happy Returns To 'Moseley Shoals'

To mark the 20th anniversary of ‘Moseley Shoals’, Ocean Colour Scene will play their second album in its entirety on a tour of the UK, including two hometown shows at Moseley Park in Birmingham. The record, released in April of 1996, is of course where the band took off, despite achieving a level of success with their eponymous debut four years earlier.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 13 April 2016

A Healthy Discomfort: Kevin Shirley Talks Joe Bonamassa And 'Blues of Desperation'

Photo: Joe Bonamassa by Rick Gould He may be the king of 21st century blues-rock, but Joe Bonamassa is the first to admit he owes a huge debt to producer Kevin Shirley. Having helped to guide the guitarist’s steady ascent for the last decade, the South African guru – whose CV also includes Iron Maiden and Aerosmith – is perfectly placed to take us behind the scenes of a Bonamassa record, namely his new collection, ‘Blues Of Desperation’, and detail what the future might hold for the six string star.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 06 April 2016

PREMIERE: Peaness Pair Pop With Politics On The Bittersweet Oh George

Photo: Twin Moon The last note to ring out during Peaness’s Sŵn Festival set last autumn was a frustrated one.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 04 April 2016

Amon Amarth: Slicing, Dicing And Unrequited Love

Concept albums can be a nefarious, tricky business. Often, a band’s collective head will remain planted inside their shrivelling creative sphincter throughout, oblivious to the rhyme and reason of reality. So, with Amon Amarth’s first full-blown shot at the medium, ‘Jomsviking’, on the way, it’s refreshing to hear rhythm guitarist Olavi Mikkonen’s straight up take on the video for At Dawn’s First Light, where disembowelling, beheadings and band members playing with fucking arrows stuck in them feature heavily.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 21 March 2016

Talk Talk: Many Happy Returns To 'The Colour of Spring'

Thirty years ago this month, Talk Talk’s third album, ‘The Colour of Spring’ was released in the UK. Uncharacteristically, though, it had already been released on the other side of the Channel, such was their popularity across Europe. The band’s status in their home country had always lagged behind by comparison, but that was something Mark Hollis was not too concerned with.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 15 March 2016

We Disappear: Love, Death And Technology With The Thermals

td#right {display:none !important;} Photos: Jason Quigley We can’t rely on many things. We’re all going to die, so that’s one. The Thermals will keep writing songs about dying, or at least the lingering prospect of it, so we can call that two. Then there’s love. You’ll get good odds on falling in, or in and out, of it at some stage. Let’s ink that in as number three.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 11 March 2016

Noise Not Music #15: Aluk Todolo, Chthe'ilist, Slabdragger

We’re back with an overdue dose of the finest noise from the first two months of the year, careering dangerously between grindcore, death metal, harsh electronics and the avant-garde rumblings of Ehnahre. Consume at your own risk.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Tuesday, 08 March 2016

Single Life: Miike Snow Rekindle Their Love Of Pop On 'iii'

There’s something in the argument that there are no great singles anymore. Like a standalone hour of TV being followed by a week of anticipation, the idea of fishing three minutes of gold from a rack of 45s or the shelves of a suburban Woolworths is an increasingly sepia tinted one.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 01 March 2016

Patience Is A Virtue: yndi halda Prepare To Return With 'Under Summer'

Photo: Daniel Gregory In this globalised world of trends, hashtags and instant engagement, it’s easy to underestimate fan loyalty. We live in a society where brevity is encouraged, but that’s not to say that real artists aren’t given a bit of leeway.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Thursday, 25 February 2016

Mount Moriah: Learning How To Dance

td#right {display:none !important;} Photos: Lissa Gotwals “This album is dedicated to anyone who has ever felt the cold shadows of oppression or discrimination; to the misfits, the outcasts, the loners, the misunderstood, the underdogs; to the activists who devote their lives fighting for social justice; to the artists who exist to create and create to exist, even when the fruits of their labor are threatened; to the animals of the world who teach us unconditional love; to the healers and counselors who follow our pain and show us how to heal; to the community leaders who seek not to divide us, but to unite us in compassion and humanity; to those who pursue the expansion of mind and emotion; to the cosmos and to the magic; to the seekers.”

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 24 February 2016

'Words Just Left Me': Alejandra Deheza on School Of Seven Bells' Final Statement

td#right {display:none !important;} Photo: Clarke Tolton/Justin Hollar Creating a powerful microcosm charged with passion and devastation, the music crafted by Alejandra Deheza and Benjamin Curtis as School of Seven Bells is drenched in tender, bittersweet emotion. Meeting by chance in 2004, while playing in bands supporting Interpol, their worlds collided and would remain forever changed.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Monday, 22 February 2016

Creeper: Misery Never Goes Out Of Style

td#right {display:none !important;} Since Christmas, life has battered our hollow, dishevelled excuses for bodies. But, at this moment, anyone with their head screwed on isn’t paying attention to the outside world. Forget crippling debt, global warming and impending nuclear war for a while, because Creeper’s third EP, ‘The Stranger’, has just started streaming online.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 18 February 2016

Can: Many Happy Returns To 'Tago Mago'

Lists of classic albums invariably tend to throw up the same titles time and again. You’ve got your nailed on certainties in the Beatles’ various releases, the Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’, Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’, all of which also contain songs considered classics in their own right.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 16 February 2016