Review
by Neil Ashman
Scars' abundance of collaborators doesn't really allow Basement Jaxx to stamp their personality on the music, which is a shame, especially considering its fraught origins However, perhaps this is a little too much to expect from a duo who specialize in maximalist dance floor fillers and whose boundless energy and eclecticism is a form of catharsis in itself. »
Review
by Neil Ashman
For those who know Andrew WK purely as the party-rock good time boy of 2001 debut album I Get Wet - as succinctly embodied in UK top 20 single 'Party Hard' - 55 Cadillac will come as something of a shock. »
Review
by Neil Ashman
Sam and Me are a songwriting duo who settled upon their rather straightforward name after playing together for over ten years unde»
Review
by Neil Ashman
Hot on the heels of the UK release of The Tough Alliance's 2005 album The New School comes another belated UK release from Swedish»
Review
by Neil Ashman
If Reverend And The Makers’ own manifesto was to make 'a record that's truly artistic' and 'artistically interesting' before retiring from the music industry then they are going to have to give it another shot, because A French Kiss In The Chaos is neither artistically interesting, nor indeed very good. Unfortunately on this evidence it seems the Reverend may never possess the talent to match his ambition, meaning he could make another five albums without fulfilling the promises made in his 2008 manifesto. Perhaps it would be best if this album was a French kiss goodbye. »
Review
by Neil Ashman
Originally released in Sweden on the Service label (home to fellow countrymen Jens Lekman and The Embassy) back in 2005, it has ta»
Review
by Neil Ashman
On their second album Gnarls Barkley labelled themselves The Odd Couple. Odd in the sense that they are two quite odd people, but»
In Depth by Neil Ashman
I've been hearing people talking up Rockness as better than T In The Park. One cursory look at the line-ups for both festivals will tell you this isn't true, at least in the quantity and sheer size of artists playing, but what Rockness can boast is an atmosphere to match TITP in scaled down format, with a greater emphasis on DJs and dance acts. The organiser's boast that it is 'the most beautiful festival in the world' is entirely vindicated by the picture postcard view of Loch Ness and the lush glen spreading out behind the main stage, with the weather mostly brilliant sunshine.»
Review
by Neil Ashman
The debut album by Edinburgh septet Broken Records arrives riding a wave of hype, mostly generated by ubiquitous proclamations that they are 'the Scottish Arcade Fire'. However, to this writer's ears at least, they bear a startlingly resemblance to one other band in particular: The Waterboys. Frontman Jamie Sutherland's tremulous, sometimes rasping pipes at times bear an uncanny resemblance to Waterboys frontman - and fellow Edinburgher - Mike Scott, most evident on the re-recorded version of early single 'If the News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It'. In addition, the septet's epic folk-rock isn't unlike the blend of Celtic sentimentality and 'Big Music' that The Waterboys dealt in on the This Is Sea and Fisherman's Blues albums in the mid to late Eighties.»
Review
by Neil Ashman
As founder of the autonomous DIY folkies The Fence Collective, King Creosote never seemed the likeliest candidate to feel the pressure of commercial expectations, but feel them he did on Warner's 679 imprint. »
