Release Reviews
They Might Be Giants - Boss Of Me
You ALL know them. Yes you do. When i was a nipper and was still sliding along disco-hall floors i remember a certain track. Not the Time Bomb, or the Star-Trekking song...The words "not to put to put too fine a point on it, lets say i'm the only bee in your bonnet...make a little birdhouse in your soul" come flooding »
Various - Hut Recordings 1991 - 2001
Named after the security hut at the entrance to Virgin Records, the owners of the label, Hut Recordings has enjoyed remarkable success throughout a decade, which proved frighteningly tough for many independent record labels. Despite its ownership by Virgin, Hut remains an independant label as it is dis»
Skinny - Morning Light
Curse those radio stations with their playlist policies!! Roughly 2 and a 1/2 months ago I heard a brilliant song on XFM. It had a trip hoppy beat, with a little bleepy riff, a gorgeous black vocal juxtaposed with a wispering male one. The ideal song to come down to after a night on the tiles. The fact that XFM go and »
Homescience - Main Sprit Weind
Here is a band who I doubt many have heard of, but in all truthfulness, it seems harsh on Homescience that you don't. In a nutshell, Homescience are doing the alt-country thang, with strong emphasis on psychadelic keyboards and US stylee vocals. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but certainly not »
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - More Revery
Hiding behind yet another moniker, Will Oldham's latest release is essentially a repackaging of his contribution to Temporary Residence's Travels In Constants series, a collection of obscure cover versions all indelibly imprinted with Oldham's singular creative vision. The success of 'More Revery' is both surpris»
Therapy? - Troublegum
Seemingly out of nowhere, ‘Screamager’ and a clutch of other classic singles rocketed Therapy? into the post-grunge vacuum in 1994. With a back catalogue consisting of two half-hearted mini-albums and an inconsistently inspired full-length album, the turn of events that year were unexpected to say the lea»
Super Furry Animals - Juxtapozed With U
You've heard the reviews already from the Super Furry Animals forthcoming LP 'Rings Around The World' their fifth in total and the follow-up to the biggest selling album sang in Welsh. Or you maybe haven't read the reviews. But you surely must know that this band is physically incapable of making a duff r»
Various - And The Rest Is History
Right, fuck it, if a Midget album can be nominated a "classic" then so can this. "And The Rest Is History" means an awful lot to an awfully small amount of people. Released in 1997 it came about as a result of the teenage drinking den club known as Dynamite. Dynamite made being a musically inept teenager in a band cool»
Various - Undiscovered Ibiza
Have you been to Ibiza? if you haven’t then you probably think it’s a godforsaken sack of shit with lager lout morons pounding the pavement looking for their sixth shag of the night. And you might be right if your reference point is "Ibiza Uncovered" backed up by something you heard from a mate about San Antonio.»
Rialto - Night On Earth
Rialto’s third album (and third label), so what’s new? Well, the soaring vocals, tight arrangement, and equally sombre and optimistic feelings stay. The traditional sound, however, has been given a distinctly electronic rub down. Where Rialto used to rely on the reliable live set-up plus some strings they now employ sy»
Antihero - a.n.t.i till I die
The mainstream, eh ? Brain numbingly, eye-glazingly, limb-gnawingly, mind-screwingly BORING !!!
That's fucking Britain for you. Stuck in a vice-like dying dull grip of insipid, accoustic tweeness. Smug and safe; smugly safe.
The music scene is comatose and stoned out of its mind. It isn't so muc»
Feeder - Turn
I have four words for you, Duran Duran, Ordinary World. Yes, Feeder have slowed down a little for the next slice of conservative pop-pap. You know, the sort of catchy tunes that normal young indie guitarists come up with, who don't know better and couldn't play better anyway. This isn't as bad as th»
Fabulous Disaster - Put Out and Get Out
I've got to say that, as sceptical as I was about this all-female group, I'm utterly surprised at how good Fabulous Disaster actually are. As the second act to be signed to Fat's Pink & Black offshoot for all-female bands Fab Dis prove that they know exactly what their instruments are for. And man, what a voice! »
TSOL - Disappear
Now, I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan of TSOL. OK so they were pretty huge in the early 80s, headlining the Hollywood Palladium, getting paid £4,000 a show, causing mayhem around the country and trashing & setting fire to house parties, but when you actually cut to the music, well, I just don’t ‘get?Eit. I guess»
Spearhead, Michael Franti - Rock The Nation
Over a flute playing the key riff from Bob Marley’s track "Get Up, Stand Up" we have rapping in a style not heard since the time of Grand Master Flash. It’s got a groove on that will keep the floor happy but beyond that it lacks substance, the only enduring memory of it being an eightie’s style computer voice speaking »
Sparklehorse - Gold Day EP
Like the last light of a summers evening this goes down with a quiet contentment. A tune laid back enough to be soothing but simultaneously purposeful enough to hold your attention. The vocals coo over the strings and organ backing, the closest reference point being somewhat unbelievably "Strawberry Fields" era Beatles»
Gloss - New York Boy
Ask yourself a question. What are the three greatest things in the entire universe ?
What's that you say ? The 80s, blinding pop music and Scandinavia ? Well, there's a coincidence. I was thinking exactly the same thing.
Surely there aren't any three things more brilliant and some crazy little geni»
Baltasar Karmakur - 101 Reykjavik
Hlynur has a problem. He counts masturbating to aerobics videos and topping up other people's parking meters amongst his most pressing pursuits. At the age of 28 or so, he bathes in the kitchen and lives in his mother's house. He deters the agents of employment and monogamy by illustrating at length his lack of sexu»
Static X - Machine
Chances are you already know Static X. The bloke with the ludicrous barnet, the band with the obvious bland repetitive tunes and that are destined to be the support band for life. Well, I don’t know what happened between ‘Wisconsin Death Trip’ and ’Machine’ but the transition has been amazing. From the second th»
James - Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
It seems James have been forgotten yet again. Two decades ago James were famously hailed as ‘the next big thing’ by the British media. It took them 7 years to reach that expectation when they got the whole country singing along to ‘Sit Down’. A short spell as the top indie band in the country they »
Midget - Alco-pop
Think back to the mid 90's if you will. When the Power Rangers were everyones fave toy, the Sony Playstation was coming to dominance on the streets and Oasis, Pulp & Blur were kings of the airwaves. However, elsewhere, there was another mini revolution picking up momentum. It was titled 'Suga»
...And Oceans - Allotropic/Metamorphic - Genesis of Dismorphism
I'm struggling to think of something to say about ...And Oceans that hasn't been said about a million other bands before. Allotropic/Metamorphic - Genesis of Dismorphism (or AMGOD, to use the advised acronym) wants to be profoud and innovative (just look at the title...), but comes across as une»
Schizoid - All Things Are Connected
One-man electro-riot Schizoid - the brainchild of Canadian headbanger and anarchist J. Smith - is a brutal combination of techno, punk and grindcore. Unfortunately, it rarely combines the three, choosing instead to switch suddenly from a pounding hardcore beat to thrashy guitars, then onto something more mell»
Hoggboy - Ugh
It finally seems that the guitar world are beginning to realise what it actually takes to create a great record (or song for that matter). No Radiohead it doesn’t necessarily mean spending 370-odd days recording one song, no it doesn’t mean you have to invent a new genre or break down all barriers. All it takes it to b»
Drowned In Sheffield #14
DiS Does Singles 17.06.13: Dornik, Washed Out, AlunaGeorge
All Hail the Culturati... Fighting Over Radiohead's Hail to the Thief
Cutting Through the Noise: What it's really like representing new artists at events like The Great Escape
Arts & Crafts: Field Trip 2013 - The DiS Review
Live report The Stone Roses - Finsbury Park, London: 8th June 2013
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