Coming 10 years after its predecessor – and with David Bowie‘s right hand man Tony Visconti in the producer’s chair – there were naturally big expectations surrounding Evil Spirits, the latest offering by The Damned. With founder members Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian well into their 60s – many have predicted it might be their farewell album – a last run around the track for the band, […]
New Album
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Recorded at the same Skyline studios, where they made their best-selling major label debut Flood, I Like Fun feels like a hearkening back to They Might Be Giants‘ glory days of old. TMBG fans have long learned to expect the unexpected and this their 20th album is typically eclectic, mixing and mashing genres from surf-punk to funk, college rock to avant […]
Words Matt Catchpole, Pictures Sam Wells The Damned’s place in history is secured as one of the triumvirate of London bands that kick-started the punk rock revolution. And yet despite being first out of the traps with a bona fide punk single, New Rose in 1976, they’ve often been dismissed as the jokers in the pack. For the sheer effrontery of […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Incredibly, OMD have been making music for nearly 40 years now and The Punishment Of Luxury is their 13th studio album. It’s a varied collection that sees them again refusing to trade on past glories, tackling complex themes with invention and not a little humour.
When Black Grape first came crashing onto the scene in the mid 1990s, they were a perfect fit for the new laddism in vogue at the time. They shot straight to the top of the UK charts with the magnificent It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah, but dropped off the radar after follow up Stupid Stupid Stupid.