A Distorted Reality.

Los Campesinos! MySpace
Caustic, hyperliterate, aggressive twee pop. Seriously, even the concept is wonderful: I doubt that there could be ill-executed record of this central ideal, but Los Campesinos! really have made extended metaphor in song their hallmark. Their second album of 2008 (God bless their punk-esque recording ethic) sees a happy return for their 7-piece [...]

This, kind reader, is beyond overdue: I have long been enamoured by the music of the Leicester-based Maybeshewill, and this album has been available for rather a long time now, and it’s gotten a lot of positive press from media outlets far greater in scope than this one. However, this time has done very little [...]

I hate how the more prevalent local scenes develop. You have one band which does something semi-original, and then you get the emulating hoards who will follow objectivelessly: they just want the benefit of the peer validation of being part of this sprawling ‘community’ of the bands of said scene. Innovation dies off and you [...]

With the demise of Starve in Heaven, I felt that this deserved a repost.
James Summerfield’s MySpace
Birmingham seems to be at the forefront of a new wave of folk- and country-inspired music, with the likes of Sam Bentley, Friends of the Stars etc. coming to the favour of ourselves and other local media. And here, in [...]

Yes, Ben Marwood is yet another British singer-songwriter; yes, Ben Marwood is yet another pretty boy who can play guitar; and yes, Ben Marwood does sell his records in HMV (call me an indie snob, I do not care). All of this perceived negativity, however, is mere prejudice and doesn’t even hold up to the [...]

Envy’s MySpace
Thursday’s MySpace
To say that I’d been waiting for this with baited breath would be an understatement: Envy are simply brilliant and Thursday have always held some favour with me, even through the rocky A City By The Light Divided years. Spine-chilling album artwork and a seven-track listing of names far too long to be [...]

They used to be fun. I swear that they used to be fun. Does anyone else remember the clever songwriting on From Here to Infirmary? The alcohol-metaphor drenched Take with Lots of Alcohol? There was definitely a time when Matt Skiba et al could write with the best in their (admittedly intrinsically cliché) genre of [...]

Lydia’s This December was an album which dominated my listening habits for the best part of 2006: it was honest, it was dark and it was immediate whilst retaining subtle nuances which could only be appreciated with a copious amount of repetitious listening. It was that perfect balance of instant-gratification listening and longer term appreciation: [...]

I have been enamoured by the music of Frank Turner since the release (and my subsequent purchase) of Sleep is for the Week in January 2007. Even in spite of its early release in the year, I knew that it was to become one of my favourite albums of the year. And that it did: [...]

Screamo is an ailing genre so close to my heart it could be considered an inanimate extension of myself: a genre so unified by a sole sense of purpose; a great community spirit; and the initiative to reinvent itself when its term of self-identification was taken and bastardised by the mainstream media. It always gives [...]