The pale hordes who descend on Whitby for the biannual Goth Weekend may just have found the perfect soundtrack for their journey. With esteemed Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil producer John Fryer at the controls, York-based duo Mary and the Ram have come up with a modernist take on coffin-rattlers like Bauhaus, Love and Rockets and The Sisters of Mercy. Fryer is also famed for his […]
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Father-daughter combos are as rare as hen’s teeth in the music industry, but for London-based duo SPC ECO, it’s clearly a formula that works. The pair recently celebrated their 10th anniversary as a band with the release of Calm – their 9th full studio album. Dad Dean Garcia is a seasoned veteran having formed one half of indie band Curve in the 1990s, before […]
REM have unveiled a new mini-documentary to mark the 25th anniversary re-mastered release of Automatic for the People. Featuring new interviews with Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills, along with co-producer Scott Litt, the film charts the making of what many consider to be the band’s finest album “Culturally, 1992 in America was not an easy place to be,” Stipe remarks on the background to […]
Robert Plant has been enjoying a late career renaissance since 2007’s excellent Raising Sand collaboration with country/bluegrass singer Alison Krauss. Carry Fire, his 11th solo studio album, sees the Led Zeppelin frontman backed once again by The Sensational Space Shifters – a quartet of multi-instrumentalists – who clearly share his enthusiasm for finding new approaches to music. Produced by Plant himself, the album covers similar territory […]
When I was about nine or 10 and just starting to take a serious interest in music, my elder brother, in a rare show of fraternal indulgence, took it upon himself to introduce me to the delights of indie synth-pop. To my great surprise and eternal gratitude he presented me with a cassette tape (ask your parents kids!). On […]
Anyone familiar with the work of Matt Bailey‘s Salient Braves will know what to expect from this their debut crowdfunded LP. Bailey’s sardonic, often laugh out loud lyrics, mercilessly turn the microscope on Brexit Britain and the notion of national pride. The tramp on the cover is an abiding metaphor for many of the lowlife characters who lurk within, […]
I was lucky enough to catch Suzie Stapleton opening for Boss Hog at the Hackney Oslo earlier this year. Playing for someone else’s audience is never easy but, despite wrestling with some recalcitrant loop pedals, a solo Stapleton secured a great reception. The Sydney-born singer-guitarist won over the crowd with her smoky, rasping voice and full bodied swamp-blues playing style and she’s been […]
Events like these remind you that the term ‘indie’ represents a very broad church, with multiple sub-genres. The good folks at Indie Daze made sure this fourth festival represented this wide spectrum; from the pop-punk of Bis to the grebo of Crazyhead, with ’90s Britpop and baggy on offer from Thousand Yard Stare. There was indie-acoustic from The Wonderstuff‘s Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls, […]
Frontman Neil Arthur is disarmingly modest about their achievements, but Blancmange were one of the most successful bands to emerge from the experimental electronic music scene of the early ’80s. Blending pop melodies with dark lyrics and avant-garde programming and recording techniques, they went on to rack up seven Top 40 hits. Don’t Tell Me and Living On The Ceiling both reached the […]
Judge Roughneck is back and about to lay down the law at a venue near you. Ska great Neville Staple revived the character, first heard on The Specials‘ Stupid Marriage, for his latest double album The Return of Judge Roughneck. Now the Jamaican-born vocalist is heading out on the road to promote the record with a backing band featuring his wife Christine ‘Sugary’ Staple. Arriving in […]