Metric – Fantasies
Canadian/American synth-rockers Metric return with their fourth (or third) album. Fantasies. Will it be yours though?
El Perro del Mar – Love Is Not Pop
While we love pop, Sweden's El Perro Del Mar remind us that pop is not love.
Versus – On the Ones and Threes
Out of nowhere comes a near perfect album by a near forgotten band that rewrites their own history in one superlative-inducing swoop.
The Heavy – The House That Dirt Built
UK retro-funk n' soul act The Heavy roll out the grooves and ask the question "How you like me now?". Our answer awaits.
Detektivbyrån – Hemvägen
Danarkia, 2006 [8/10] With glockenspiel, accordion and toy-piano Detektivbyrån (Dee-tek-teeve-bu-ron, "The Detective Agency") take their audience on an imaginative musical journey through the urban streets of Paris and the forests of Värmland, the Swedish province
Dum Dum Girls – Only In Dreams
Dum Dum Girls add an extra coat of polish and put on a brave garage-pop face for album number 2.
The Stills – Oceans Will Rise
The Stills channel an environmental apocalypse with Oceans Will Rise. Will anyone be left to hear it?
Tame Impala – Interview about Alonerism (2012)
It's a reassuring sight to see an Australian band successfully take on the world in the way Tame Impala have over the last few years. Their lush, psyche-pop sound feels like it was born between
Beach House – Teen Dream
Makers of mood music for moderns, Baltimore's daydream duo return with their sweet and sombre third album, Teen Dream.
Foals – Australian Interview with Walter Gervers (Static, 2011)
To say expectations were high for Foals' second album Total Life Forever would be stating the exceedingly obvious but from the grandeur and exquisite melancholy of “Spanish Sahara” to the frenetic indie-pop of “This Orient” to the dance funk of “Miami” it met and exceeded them with uncommon ease. Total Life Forever elevated Foals further from their peers and into the rare league of artists who maintain credibility with a more accessible sound and thus gaining a larger listening base whilst still remaining true to their experimental pop principles. We spoke to bassist Walter Gervers while the band was in Australia for the St. Jerome’s Laneway festivals and some recording on the sly.
The Faint / Ladytron – Atlanta – 17 April 2009
Variety Playhouse Atlanta, GA 17th April 2009 The black-clad kids were out in force as the rolling The Faint/Ladytron sideshow pulled into Atlanta, Georgia, offloading what could be unkindly dubbed an ‘electroclash revival’ as both
Noah and the Whale – London – 16 May 2011
It’s a little known piece of Webcuts folklore that Noah And The Whale once played in my living room. Gladly, it was before my time, otherwise a compulsion to head downstairs and have words would‘ve been hard to resist. A sell-out show at the Camden Roundhouse is not to be sneered at, but if commercial success or the ability to fill a room is the barometer in which all great music is measured, we’re on (and have been for decades) very shaky ground, and when superlative-inducing American folk-rock act Okkervil River are playing across town, clearly in the wrong place.
Faker – Be the Twilight
Capitol/EMI, 2007 [9/10] There is a litany of bands that make the decision to pack their bags and move to Los Angeles to try and catch a spark of what makes the town such a
Wet Illustrated – 1x1x1
Sizzling psyche-pop debut from San Francisco three-piece Wet Illustrated. A little Feelies, a little Sonic Youth.
Dean Wareham – London – 8 December 2010
Long before he cleared the air/dished the dirt (whichever way you look at it), on his band mates in his autobiography Black Postcards, it was widely known there would never be a proper Galaxie 500 reunion. In the intervening years since their disbandment in 1991, both Dean Wareham and the unit known as Damon and Naomi have gone their separate musical ways to moderate degrees of success. With Wareham’s post G500 outfit Luna winding up in 2005, he’d now put to pasture two bands presumably allowing him time to reflect on past glories with a renewed desire to not let that youth go to waste.
Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago
Shearwater seem to have run aground on The Golden Archipelago. Not quite paradise, nor a place you'll likely return to soon.