A Bird in the Hand (Toast Music) - Another year and another heartfelt release from Beans On Toast (aka singer/songwriter Essex’s Jay McAllister) and this is something of a landmark album as it’s his 10th. He got in touch with Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett (w…
Exit Space (self release) - Newcastle’s Stephen Key and Graeme Stoker (aka Tunnel Club) forged their love of all things electronic back in the halcyon days of acid house. Their debut album, 2016’s ‘From the Old School’ was well-received across the UK, and…
Triumphant Hearts (Music Theories Records) - It’s hard to talk about Jason Becker without mentioning his backstory. A virtuoso on guitar he worked with David Lee Roth before being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. He was given five years to live, 29 y…
Johnny Seven (Nil By Mouth Records) - Johnny Seven formed in Middlesbrough during punk’s heyday, toured during the 80s, but then split. They came out of retirement in 2011 and were so well received that they toured the UK and, eventually, have now release…
Broken Glass (Clamour Records) - Dumb Angel are a collection of like-minded artists from Saskatoon, Canada fronted by singer-songwriter Shaun Mason. Their latest comes over like some kind of pastoral shoegaze and it seems like they’ve located the sweet sp…
The Well Worn Path (Cooking Vinyl) - Oh sweet Jesus! This is Seth Lakeman’s ninth (NINTH!) album - that makes me feel old. How did that happen? He’s still hitting us up with his brand of folk-rock but this is certainly a much more interesting release than…
Frequency (Modern Sky) - Hailing from Liverpool The Tea Street Band share the same melodic polish as bands such as The Coral and The Lightning Seeds, but they also deploy electronica that is often of the most blissful variety. They won over plenty of fans…
Yawn (Domino) - Yes! You’re right! Bill Ryder-Jones is formerly of The Coral, but he’s also a rather fabulous solo artist in his own right. His latest long-player is testament to that and it’s a release that addresses life’s many pitfalls, but, rather lik…
Diagrams (Billingham Records) - Billingham’s finest, and Maximo Park frontman, is a restless soul who isn’t content to just bang out super albums with his band. This is his fourth solo release and, again, is another demonstration of his ability to marry w…
Queen of Golden Dogs (Tri Angle Records) - Vessel have pushed, pulled and cajoled electronica into some very interesting shapes over a couple of albums and for their third they’ve went out even further on that particular limb. It appears to reference ever…
Space Is The Plaice (Pussyfoot Records) - The cult label Pussyfoot Records has had cattle prods applied to its nether regions and the reactivated label is back with a new instalment of its popular compilation series. The vibe is a deep space exploration o…
My East Is Your West (Gearbox Records) - Sarathy Korwar is one of the biggest names in contemporary UK jazz with his Indo-centric percussion being a thing of beguiling wonder. So, any new project of his is always going to be an exciting proposition and th…
Witches (Atom Records) - The Black Watch are the cultish Californian band who have been around since the late 1980s, with their head honcho – and only constant member – being John Andrew Fredrick. They’re principally known for their jangly indie-rock but …
The Event (self release) - Escape To What is the musical project of Teessider James Orez and he’s a fella who certainly knows how to wring every ounce of emotion out of his full-on sonic assault. This seven-tracker skitters into alt-metal territory with a…
Songs From The Cultural Backwater (S.M.I.L.E.) - Jules Maxwell? Isn’t he the fella who plays keyboard for Dead Can Dance? Yes indeed! And with this – his first solo album – he’s shown just how effective he can be when holding up front and central duties, …
Curveballs (Truesoul Records) - This is the fourth album from the Italian-born, London-dwelling, artist and his commitment to quality dancefloor workouts is showing absolutely no sign of abating. This is well frothy stuff – with hundreds and thousands on …
Volume 1 (Broken Toys/Cargo) - Killing Cartisano is actually Roberta Cartisano, a rather amazing Italian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter (and something of a shapeshifter) and for this, her latest incarnation, she’s singing in English and hugging clos…
Spirit Is The Power (Supple Pipe Records) - Hey! This is quietly very good. Jack Adaptor are made up of Paul Frederick (formerly of The Family Cat) and producer, master guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and sound-innovator Christopher Cordoba, and their la…
Circles (Mascot Records) - It seems like these San Diego rockers were determined to make a splash with their debut album for Mascot Records, and here they sound utterly revitalised bringing the vitality of Sure Shot-era Beastie Boys to tracks such as ‘Roc…
All That Divides (Rise Records) - This Brighton four-piece turned plenty of heads with rip-roaring tours supporting the likes of Architects, Mastodon, System of a Down and Prophets of Rage. The band themselves have built on a post-hardcore sound for their…
Birthplace (Ballpoints) - The alias of Welsh songwriter Ali Lacey, Novo Amor’s first full-length studio release offers up ten tracks of intelligent orchestral-tinged pop reminiscent of Bon Iver or Cinematic Orchestra. Written and recorded at his home stud…
The Lamb (Hardly Art) - Lala Lala is Lillie West, born in London, raised in LA, living in Chicago, and the latest signing to Hardly Art. And Hardly Art know what they’re doing because this lo-fi chunk of indie-rock is really rather good. Apparently it was…
Mother of My Children (Saddle Creek) - The debut album from Portland based Katherine Paul (aka KP aka Black Eagle Scout), a “radical indigenous queer feminist”, has an eerie beauty that she manages to hold across all these tracks, which are weighty with e…
Muunduga (Fatcat Records) - Maarja Nuut is a singer and violinist while Ruum dabbles in the outer-reaches of electronica. They’re both from Estonia. Together they have come up with a quite startling album of songs that really pack a sonic punch, full of s…
Pure-O (Western Vinyl) - No one deploys Soviet-era synths quite like this Berlin-based, Norwegian multi-instrumentalist and producer. She also has a love for Soviet-era disco, which, if this fine release is anything to go by, must have been slightly off-c…
Dig Deep (Stolen Heart Records) - Matt Sage is the mover and groover behind The Catweazel Club, an intimate and long-running night in Oxford that has been the launch-pad for many an act including Foals and Stornoway. The man also plays, and how, as eviden…
Darkness Rains (Suicide Squeeze Records) - Woah mama! LA’s Bonnie Bloomgarden (vocals/multi-instrumentalist and best name in music), Larry Schemel (guitars) and the rest of their up and at ‘em cohorts have really slapped down a fistful of aces with their …
Suicide (The State51 Conspiracy) - This is a weird one. MAO are producer Tim Norman and singer Guy McKnight and they have recorded a tribute album to Suicide’s frontman Alan Vega who died in 2016. Suicide – of course – are one of the most influential band…
Dialogue I-II-III (One Little Indian) - I love a bit of Scandi-generalisation and so if Sweden have all the go-getting pop merchants, then it’s surely Iceland who bend towards the more intriguing end of the spectrum. Case in point are this trio who mix th…
Demons of Ruby Mae (Peanut Records) - The debut album from the Leicester duo of Jonny Gavin and Adam Rowley is bursting with great tunes, with the pair pulling together guitars, pianos and electronics in the most pleasing of manners. They have a knack of …
Wanderlust (Blanc Check Records) - These new-wavers were just one of a glut of similar bands who flashlit the 1980s with their smart and sharp synth-pop (their biggest hit being the fabulous ‘Living on the Ceiling’). The band began releasing new, always i…
Project Assegai (self release) - Project Assegai emerged from the ashes of Newcastle band Vendetta who released three albums between 2007 and 2012. Their stock in trade is metal tinged hard rock and their stock is high on this release which flies like spa…
Into The Future (The Lipservice Tapes & Recording Company) - AKA! Explode! are a Newcastle outfit and the brainchild of Mala Reay. His latest release is an inventive amalgamation of styles that push indie-pop, indie-rock, post-punk – whatever you want to …
Joe Strummer 001 (Ignition Records) - The lead singer of The Clash is one of the greatest songwriters this country has produced and his talent wasn’t only bundled into those punk luminaries alone. This is the first compilation to span his career outside o…
Aidattu Tulevaisuus (Svart Records) - Just when you’d given up on grabbing yourself a truly great Finnish krautrock album along come Teksti-TV 666 with this beast. They combine a driving wall of electric guitars and motorik beats with the gum-snapping att…
Evenfall (Disco Gecko) - Andrew Heath is a man who likes to paddle around in pianissimo field recordings, electronics and, indeed, piano. His latest doesn’t see him suddenly swerving down any grime alleys; instead he’s went even more minimal on our asses,…
The More I Sleep The Less I Dream (Big Scary Monsters) - The Scottish indie-post-post-punkers have been rather quiet of late, but their first album in four years suggests they haven’t been sitting around discussing the unusually warm Edinburgh weather. It…
Coast & Refuge (Mother West) - Kris Gruen is a New York City native – now residing in Vermont – and it’s easy to hear why he’s been compared in hushed tones to the likes of Sufjan Stevens. His latest sees him really pushing his Americana influenced folk-r…
My Mind Makes Noises (Dirty Hit) - Pale Waves have been described as a goth/pop hybrid, but, apart from the band’s two women (Heather Baron-Gracie and Ciara Doran) looking like they’re on the Bride of Dracula’s hen-do, there is nothing gothic about this M…
House Or Home (Rhythm Section International) - The musical project of Aussie’s Matt Crowley, Tori Holleman and Marco Vella, Retiree make pop music that you might want to call 1980s new-wave-wine-bar, with its smooth rhythms and rounded corners (or maybe t…
The Hoppings (Label Fandango) - Apparently the inspiration behind Chris Hornsby’s latest (he’s the songwriter and vocalist with Modern Hinterland) were the hills and valleys outside of Newcastle, as well as his travels around the UK (see: ‘York’ and the e…
What’s The Point? (self release) - Nikk McKeown is a real stalwart of the local scene playing with outfits such as The Urban Warriors and A Prayer Before Birth in a career that stretches right back to 1980. He took an extended break from music in 1998 but…
What We’re Looking For (Northern Quarter Records) - The Jet Reds are a Newcastle four-piece in thrall to lad-rockers of yore – Oasis, Kasabian, The Jam etc – and they certainly know how to whip up an anthemic verse, chorus, verse, chorus, repeat to fade. …
True Rockers (Mascot Records) - This Canadian outfit are about as complicated as five-piece jigsaw in that they play straight-up-the-middle, jackhammer rock, which thunders along with all the alacrity of a runaway train. This is their third long-player an…
Wild Wild Country (Western Vinyl) - One of the best TV programmes of 2018 has been Netflix’s astonishing docu-series ‘Wild Wild Country’, which followed the story of an Oregon town established by Indian mystic Baghwan Shree Rajneesh and his devotees. One …
Red (TeaPot Records) - This Leeds-based singer/songwriter has been a real viral hit racking up over 100 millions views on her YouTube do-dah. These clips largely featured her delicate and sensitive cover versions but she has gradually been letting us in o…
Chris (Because Music) - She’s not a chanteuse, she’s a chan-tease and she’s returned with a brand new moniker in the shape of Chris (which, hey, fits in nicely with her gender mangling and pansexuality). And Chris (her mother calls her Héloïse Letissier) …
Stand Together (Lama Records) - Landermason are the Northumberland based duo of multi-instrumentalist Fiona Lander and finger style guitarist Paul Mason and their latest album features eight fabulous original songs and a couple of beautiful covers: The Wa…
Slow Air (Wrecking Light) - Featuring songwriter/producer Greg Hughes and vocalist Tessa Murray this London-based outfit are now four albums in to a career that has given us the kind of dreamy synth-pop that is subtle but drenched in emotion. Their latest…
Electric (x2). Techy house elbows its way to the front on “Inside A Dream” while “Love Is A Bourgeois Construct” is classic PSB…
The Gangster Chronicles: The Definitive Collection (Tru Thoughts). Despite intimations of a revival, the nineties, as I remember them, were not exactly pioneering, hence my cautious approach to this re-release. …
Blue Gardens (Keysound). An accomplished debut that will please the bassline crowd no end. Juddering drum tracks are pushed way up in the mix, with due attention paid to a heavy-duty low end.…
Songs To Sing & Jokes To Tell (self release)…
Yummy (Distraction Records). If this album was actually played on death row, I imagine most prisoners would go to the chair with a big daft smile slapped right across their chops.…
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