Grand Tour (Big Big Train) - I’d be disappointed if one of the UK’s finest prog rock bands didn’t have an over-arching theme for their latest album but they do and it’s a corker. Inspired by the Grand Tours of the 17thand 18thcenturies, whereby young men …
Sound Pet (self release) - What you’ll get out of this album will largely depend on whether you think a Geordie parody of ‘Uptown Funk’, featuring lyrics such as: “This one’s for them Toon girls, them Geordie girls, straight pasty-eaters”, is funny or not…
Stonechild (Memphis Industry) - Jesca Hoop was born in California but is now a long-term resident of Manchester. And we’re glad to have her in the UK because her five studio albums have revealed an incredible talent. Tom Waits described her sound as “like…
Orgone (One Little Indian) - French singer/songwriter/producer/musician/etc Sarasara (so good they named her twice) won plaudits aplenty for her debut album ‘Amor Fati’ and her follow-up is just as deliciously beguiling. She mixes together prime trip-hop …
Falling (Hardly Art) - There’s a huge amount to enjoy in the new album from this Seattle three-piece’s fourth album, especially if you’re in thrall to alt-pop-punk of yore. It sounds like they’ve been mainlining early 2000s college radio stations and then…
Northern Monkey Business (self release) - This exemplary local outfit capture a whole load of vivid emotion on their latest release, most of which you can file under: Exuberant. Even the traditional song ‘Water Of Tyne’, featuring a fantastic vocal turn f…
Can You Really Find Me (Domino) - Night Moves are made up of John Pelant and Micky Alfano, a Minnesota pair who, over their two previous albums, have caught something of a Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips style vibe. On their latest long-player they’re still sho…
HiiDE (Deathwaltz Originals) - The debut album from this emerging Margate-based artist is a joy to behold. She wears her DIY electro-pop and futura-R&B aesthetics well and trades in skittery beats and wonky melodies as if to the manor born. The album’s sw…
Seams (self release) - As far as I can gather, DGKyle is from Newcastle and used to front up a band called The Mother Black Caps. He has both written and produced this solo album and it’s one of those beautifully melancholic releases that you just want to…
False Alarm (Prolifica Inc) - The Bangor three-piece are back with a real, ahem, bang on this, their fourth studio album. They’ve honed their sound to absolute perfection, melding fruity pop to galloping disco, bubbling electronica, blue-eyed funk and any…
Formoterol (self release) - I do love a collaborative side-project and here Ally Morton (of Massa Confusa fame, formerly based in Newcastle but now in Spain) has invited artists to co-write tracks in his studio. That might sound like a recipe for eclectic…
Stew Simpson (Whap Music) - Born in Newcastle, but now based in Cumbria, Stew Simpson has won much acclaim for his work with folk rock band Hadrian Union. But this “bearded morris dancing folk singer with still a bit of that punk rocker floating about in …
Soup (Treetrunk) - According to the blurb I’m looking at: “Fax Machine lives in a wooden box filled with musical instruments. The synths are warped, the guitar strings are rusting.” I also know that this album was recorded in Newcastle and Fax Machine is …
Reach (self release) - There are plenty of metalheads getting excited by Edinburgh’s House of Hatchets and with good reason. The quintet had a fine 2018 but they’ve entered a whole new world of ‘Wow!’ with their debut album, which is packing real heat. Th…
Wilderness (ANTI Records) - This is the second album from this Californian country singer/songwriter and it’s a real goodie. She has an Emmylou Harris thing going on (always a good thing in my book) and writes songs that have one of those top-down, open-r…
Full Metal Jacket (Tru Thoughts) - Flowdan is one of the founding members of the UK Grime crew, Roll Deep, and his latest album features some down and heavy production work from the likes of Plasticman, Filthy Gears and Footsie. It’s a concept album of a …
Useless Coordinates (Captured Tracks) - This lean and mean Leeds trio really know how to cook up the finest post-punk racket, a la Wire, and their debut album is stark, claustrophobic and pushing all my buttons. We also get elements of no-wave and Gang of…
The New Industrial Ballads (Turntable Friend Records) - The Claim were a band from Cliffe in Kent who were a bit of cult outfit in the 1980s, influencing the likes of Blur and The Manics. Their ‘Boomy Tella’ album had a vinyl reissue recently but this is …
Humanworld (Domino Records) - The former frontman with The Only Ones collected plenty of accolades for his 2017 release ‘How The West Was Won’ and his latest is just as spiky with his sardonic wit and political nous still very much intact. Sonically, it’s…
Stillwater (Loose) - Stillwater is a small town between two hills in the middle of America. Frankie Lee was born there and has been running from it, and to it, ever since. The upshot of that is his latest album with flickers like the flames of a campfire …
A Broken Heart Is An Open Heart (Icons Creating Evil Art) - Louise Lemón has fluttered a few hearts previously with her own brand of noir gospel, or “death gospel” if you will; big lush songs that have more than a touch of the dark and dramatic about the…
First Flight (self release) - This Brooklyn-based singer and multi-instrumentalist has previously won much praise for a clutch of albums that nestled nicely between back-porch jams and wide-screen Americana. He hasn’t tried to invent the wheel with his la…
Sunday Morning (THIS Recording Company) - Denmark’s Sara Lew – aka Sara Lewis Sørensen – is an incredibly enticing proposition and her latest album is chockfull of the kind of art pop that sets up shop somewhere between light and dark. She marries rumbly …
Are You OK? (The Wilderness Records) - This Bradford-on-Avon four-piece have supported the likes of The Flaming Lips and I’m pretty positive their pastoral psychedelia would have went down well on that tour. Written and recorded by head honcho William Sou…
It’s OK To Talk (Good Soldier) - This Yorkshire band have something of a chequered history but, thankfully, they’ve gotten round to releasing their debut album and it’s a real stomper. Produced by Catherine Marks (Wolf Alice, St Vincent, PJ Harvey) it’s p…
HouseSkimming Stone (self release) - The core of The Last InnHouse are Victoria Siddoway (who spent half her life in Sydney) and Craig McDearmid, who was once a resident at Newcastle’s Jazz Café. And they’re a great combo because their debut album is a re…
Perfect Vision (Hardly Art) - Julia Shapiro? Isn’t she the lead singer with US alt-rockers Chastity Belt? Yes, indeed! But she nearly went off the rails with the cancellation of the band’s last tour, struggling with depression and other issues. She return…
Room To Breathe (Last Gang Records) - Low Hum is Hawaiian born producer and multi-instrumentalist Colin Desha, who caused a few ripples with a couple of early singles and with this, his debut album, he’s really backed them up. It’s a heady mix of surfing …
Odd One Out (Virgin/EMI) - The long-awaited debut album from last month’s cover star doesn’t disappoint. She favours a maximalist approach chucking all manner of electro-pop-punk stylings at these tracks all of which have “Anthem!” running right through t…
The Years In Between (Gingerbread Man Records) - You might have caught Jamie Lawson supporting Ed Sheeran on his mammoth 46-date tour last year. If so you would have been made aware of his non-threatening guitar-pop which is very much to the fore on his f…
Persona (Pelagic Records) - The Parisian meta-post-rockers are back! Their latest long player pushes many buttons, specifically those marked “Raw and driven, yet oozing with thick synth textures and a great sense of melancholy and drama”. No vocals, of co…
Next Episode Starts in 15 Seconds (Xtra Mile Recordings) - Johnny Lloyd is the former frontman of Tribes, the indie rockers who supported everyone from Kasabian to The Rolling Stones. He’s dialled down the revs considerably for his new solo album, channel…
The Cell (self release) - Hailing from Loomis, just outsider of Sacramento, David Allred worked as a sound engineer and session musician before branching out on his own with his debut album ‘The Transition’, which was all double-bass and reverb-heavy chur…
21st Century Love (Sapien Records) - Country Durham’s Scott Michael Cavagan was previously a member of Dryll (formed by metal legend Jeff Mantas, formerly of Venom) but here he’s striking out in a much more easy-on-the-ear direction. This is straight up g…
Breathe Shallow (Fathom Records) - Firefly Burning won plaudits aplenty for their 2015 album ‘Skeleton Hill’ and this long awaited follow-up doesn’t disappoint. They play a very distinct kind of art-folk, minimal but with plenty of body. It gives them a s…
Serfs Up (Domino) - For their third album The Fat White Family have taken everything that was good about themselves – uncompromising, don’t mind a bit of a literate rant – and made it even more so. What they havedone is ironed out some of their lo-fi kink…
Versus Universe (Rock Action Records) - Rev Magnetic is the latest project of long-time Mogwai collaborator, musician and author, Luke Sutherland, and the debut album from these Scottish types goes big on all kinds of post-rocking goodness, by way of shoe…
40 (Surfdog Records) - The American band are celebrating their 40thanniversary this year by releasing their first album in 26 years. And the original trio haven’t suddenly found a new grime direction to take their sound. They still play the kind of reelin…
Songs From Aurora (27.27 Records) - Dave Fidler? Isn’t he the Manc folkie and long-time touring partner of I Am Kloot’s John Bramwell? Yes, indeed! And on his latest album he’s pulled together a beautifully warm collection of songs that sits somewhere bet…
This Mess is a Place (Sub Pop) - “What a time to be barely alive,” sings Emily Nokes on Tacocat’s fourth album, as the band contemplate the horrors of the Trump administration. The Seattle band have always put their social concerns up front and centre but…
Boundaries (Label Fandango) - The elephant in the room on this debut release is the band’s bloody awful name. Tall Tree 6tf Man? I’m not having that. But if you can overlook that terrible moniker you’ll find a piano led, indie-pop outfit let by singer/son…
Levitation (Moshi Moshi) - Flamingods – from London and Bahrain – should be one of your go-to bands if you’re on the hunt for sweet psych sounds with a side order of Eastern exotica. On this, their fourth studio album, they’ve hit a real high-stepping str…
Watch Me Fly (Membrane) - Best know for her recordings with the likes of Snarky Puppy and Moby, Shayna Steele also has two solo albums under her belt and her third is a real revelation. She folds soul into gospel, R’n’B and jazz – not to mention some Aust…
High Life: Soundtrack (City Slang) - Stuart A. Staples? Isn’t that him out of Tindersticks? Yes, indeed! And he’s written the soundtrack to director Claire Denis’ first English-language film ‘High Life’ (which, apparently, is about some criminals on a spa…
Dying To Live (self release) - If you’re looking for the north-east equivalent of Americana then roll-up, roll-up. Appletwig Songbook are a Newcastle-based five-piece who play the kind folky roots music that feels like it’s been hewn directly from mine-sh…
Claude Fontaine (Innovative Leisure) - Claude Fontaine is an American lass with a French name who sings like Saint Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell, all sugar-spun sweetness and dripping 1960s ye-ye goodness. And her vocals are pushed up front and centre on this…
The Ceiling (self release) - The Birmingham dream-pop trio are back with a bang, a bang that appears to declare: Their Best Album Yet. They really know how to make their guitars sing, and on tracks such as ‘Feel’ they add some lovely synth textures to ens…
Sometimes Bewilder (self release) - This is just beautiful. Craig Clark is a Newcastle based singer/songwriter who has pulled together some top-notch local talent (including John Egdell) to help him make one of those albums that you instantly warm too, an…
Take A Bite (Pink Lane Records) - One of Newcastle’s finest continue their ascendancy with a firework display of an album which is sure to elicit many “Oohs!” and “Aahs!” They’ve always been on the folk spectrum but continue to pummel it with forays into …
Hati Payı (City Slang Records) - This Istanbul outfit really flipped a switch for me with their 2017 debut album ‘Fantezi Müzik’, which turned many people on to the sound of the Turkish underground. This follow-up sees them taking their luscious synth-pop…
Future Fantasies (self release) - Berlin’s Jackie Charles – a band don’t you know – are unsigned but have been championed by the likes of Steve Lamacq and it’s easily to see why BBC 6music type’s would fall for their dream-pop-indie sound that comes over …
Exotic Post Traumatic (Butler Records) - There’s some great glam-rock/psych stuff coming out of Budapest at the minute and you’re just going to have to take my word on that. Actually, don’t take me on trust. Take yourself off and give this is a listen and…
Alcohol Fuelled Violence (self release) - I’m always in the market for a curio and they don’t get much more curious than this. Put together by an Ashington lad this is nothing less than a symphonic experience that has been created using cut-ups, layers, l…
The Artisans (self release) - This four piece have been culled from the banks of the Tees and Tyne (not literally – that would be hideous) and make the kind of jaunt-pop that would put a smile on the face of a Queen Victoria statue. Their guitar-jangle ha…
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