Recommended Records
Das Racist - Shut Up, Dude/Sit Down, Man
Das Racist are simply a few guys approaching rap from an irreverent and fractured angle, unremittingly questioning its conventions while still managing to equal or eclipse its best moments. »
Elliott Smith - An Introduction to…
There are 14 songs here; 14 finer you’ll seldom hear.»
Darkstar - North
Darkstar took a risk in straying from a template that had already served them well, but nobody ever made a great record by playing it safe. »
Phantom Band - The Wants
The Wants feels like an album that could only have been made in 2010, after 50 years of musical merging, and more importantly like an album that could only have been made by The Phantom Band. »
Marnie Stern - Marnie Stern
If Marnie Stern feels she has less to prove, and less to say right now, then there’s still plenty to feel, and she’s more than deserved a chance to stop analysing and just express some joy.»
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
Although not an unqualified success, The Age of Adz is an audacious, eminently enjoyable offering. Peer into it long enough and a decisive, highly personal work reveals itself, from a singer whose deep reserves of curiosity and invention show little sign of dwindling.»
Robert Wyatt, Gilad Atzmon, Ros Stephen - For the Ghosts Within
A fully realised project in which the trio bring out the best in each other and in the songs.»
The Walkmen - Lisbon
If You & Me was the sound of a band holding on tight to make sure they got everything just so, Lisbon is the glorious expulsion of breath that comes after the win. »
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
It’s Cox’s inability to totally connect to an audience that makes him such a spectacularly special songwriter.»
Salem - King Night
Salem's debut album King Night is the aural equivalent of that point where the body’s journey into sleep turns sinister.»
David Bowie - Station to Station (special edition)
While this set is expensive and excessive - appropriately so considering the indulgence that birthed it - this meticulously assembled incarnation of Station To Station is an object lesson on why some parts of rock history need to remain an enigma. »
Owen Pallett - A Swedish Love Story
It remains to be seen whether A Swedish Love Story marks the beginning of a new era in Owen Pallett’s career. What it is for certain, however, is a small glimpse of the extraordinary range of songs he is capable of writing. »
Drums Of Death - Generation Hexed
The songs here are far better than they needed to be to get music this original noticed.»
Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky
My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky sounds more like the essence of Michael Gira than the Angels Of Light ever did, and ought to also serve as another broadside to the idea of reformations being inherently grubby and uncreative ventures.»
Of Montreal - False Priest
The darkness that has clouded Kevin Barnes’s soul for the last few records has palpably abated.»
Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep
The 12 tracks of elegant and aching soul-pop sucker-punches that make up Losing Sleep demand your thought.»
Grinderman - Grinderman 2
It’s difficult not to love an album that segues from a track called ‘Evil’ into one named ‘Kitchenette’, but Grinderman 2 is less of an instant thrill than its predecessor.»
Summer Camp - Young
The band have established themselves a sound that’s so genuine and pretty it dispossesses you of any cynicism and pulls you into their world of fuzzy bewilderment. »
Women - Public Strain
The start of something greater for a band touched with greatness from the off.»
Arab Strap - Philophobia (special edition)
It remains completely original and rewarding 12 years on.»
Tweak Bird - Tweak Bird
A blisteringly record that defies convention as much as it delights in melody.»
Mogwai - Special Moves/Burning
Special Moves/Burning serves as a useful rounding-up of what Mogwai have achieved in 15 years, showcasing many of their best songs via their highly-accomplished live shows.»
Fennesz, Tony Buck, David Daniell - Knoxville
Knoxville goes some way towards capturing the evident chemistry they found together, whilst also making it clear that we really need to catch them live to experience the full effect.»
Luke Abbott - Holkham Drones
It seems that Luke Abbott may just have taken his own spectrum of rural influence and created a game–changing electronic opus.»
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Let it Sway
This is a band completely at peace with who they are and where they're at musically – which is a rare thing.»
sleigh bells - Treats
Embrace the noise and come join Sleigh Bells party. So what if you go a bit deaf? It's not like you'll need to listen to anything else this year. »
Sky Larkin - Kaleide
It doesn't need dissection of what makes it so, it just needs acceptance, acknowledgement of what it is, lest the spell be broken, lest we break it by taking it apart. »
AC Acoustics - Understanding Music (reissue)
It’s a record that truly deserves to be heard.»
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
In a nutshell, The Suburbs' two most important achievement are to a) be good and b) not be a rehash of its predecessors.»
Wavves - King of the Beach
What Wavves has created here however is a collection of gleaming pop gems, laced with self-hatred and a keen sense of rebellion. »
armchair dancefloor 39: Mount Kimbie interview, Bobby Browser, Powell, Move D, Leon Vynehall...
DiS meets John Lydon - Part 1: The Man
DiS Does Singles 20.05.13: Paramore, Laura Marling, The Replacements
DiS joins the Music Alliance Pact + May 2013's global MAP compilation
Drowned in Bristol #12
DiS Does Singles 13.05.13: Swim Deep, These New Puritans, The National
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