Author: Dom Gourlay Page 3
The Wave Pictures - Long Black Cars
Having been around for a good fifteen years now, while releasing nigh on thirty records in that time - an average of two for every year of their existence - The Wave Pictures have become...
Review posted on 10th May 2012
Various Artists - Modular Presents: Leave Them All Behind 4
Sydney based independent Modular Recordings have been one of the most forward thinking labels on the planet since their conception fifteen years ago. Initially responsible for launching the careers of artists like The Living End...
Review posted on 8th May 2012
The Great Escape, 2012 Preview
Now that South-By-Southwest has been and gone, it's time for the UK to open its festival doors and this year's Great Escape achieves such a feat with diligent style. Now in its seventh year since...
Review posted on 8th May 2012
Severin - Everything Breaks
Severin may have only been together just over a year, yet the London-based duo seemingly have a catalogue of sonic expeditions and ideas in spades. Borne out of shared love of experimental electronica, swirling noise...
Review posted on 29th March 2012
Stay - Arem
With electronic music still at the forefront as far as creativity and progression is concerned, it's refreshing to note that many of those sounds originate from these very shores. If the much-maligned James Blake paved...
Review posted on 29th March 2012
Various Artists - SID Chip Sounds: The Music Of The Commodore 64
If, like me, you were a child of the 1970s, it's likely that your first dalliance with a strange gadget known as a computer would be the Sinclair ZX81. Or if you were really lucky...
Review posted on 20th March 2012
The Naturals - Concrete Sea
In the age of the iTunes download, Soundcloud and any number of digitally enhanced mediums from which to select and purchase music, traditionalists could argue that the 45, or single as it's more commonly known,...
Review posted on 22nd February 2012
Mull Historical Society - City Awakenings
A decade ago Colin MacIntyre a.k.a. Mull Historical Society was opening for The Strokes on their inaugural UK tour. At the time cited as a possible "next big thing", heavy MTV2 rotation and a couple...
Review posted on 15th February 2012
Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
As hyped next big things go, it's fair to say that Lana Del Rey has courted more global attention since GaGa made meat a fashion accessory rather than carnivorous delicacy. The 25-year-old New York based...
Review posted on 13th February 2012
Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic
If prizes were awarded for lazy references by association than the actual commodity itself, Errors would run away with first place every time. Formed in Glasgow and discovered by that city's own rock royalty Mogwai,...
Review posted on 31st January 2012
Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
If there's one thing native Clevelander Dylan Baldi can never be accused of him resting on laurels. For someone who initially started making music as an excuse to drop out of University, the subsequent wave...
Review posted on 30th January 2012
The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know
With almost a decade's worth of uneasy listening behind them, only the most nonchalantly optimistic soul would augur a drastic change in The Twilight Sad's psyche. Shrouded in mystique with a brooding intensity money can't...
Review posted on 26th January 2012
Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur
The last ten years of Kathleen Edwards's life reads like a Jackie Collins novel to some degree. A talented musician struggling to make ends meet falls in love and marries a highly regarded record producer,...
Review posted on 19th January 2012
Various Artists - Rough Trade Shops Electronic 11
2011, the year the guitar became redundant. Or at least that's what the doom mongers of medialand would have us believe. Of course that first sentence isn't strictly true, but at the same time it...
Review posted on 9th January 2012
Tyson - Die On The Dancefloor
Relatively unknown London-based producer-cum-musician Tyson Speede has set the dancefloors of clubland ablaze these past twelve months with his heady take on old skool hi-energy disco. This time last year, a mysterious slab of white...
Review posted on 5th January 2012
Pulled Apart By Horses - Tough Love
As hard-working musical outfits go, they don't come much more conscientious than Leeds foursome Pulled Apart By Horses, a band whose nomadic tour schedule could have been devised by Alan Whicker. Having spent the last...
Review posted on 4th January 2012
Bill Ryder Jones - If
Unlikely headlines part 1: "Former Coral guitarist turns classical musician, writes musical adaptation of cult novel." However, that's exactly the case here. Bill Ryder Jones, guitarist and indeed all-round musician with The Coral during...
Review posted on 21st December 2011
Mr Oizo - Stade 2
The name Quentin Dupieux might not mean a lot to most folks reading this, but as the interminable Mr Oizo he's long established himself as a songwriter, musician, producer, DJ and film maker of considerable...
Review posted on 14th December 2011
DJ Shadow - The Less You Know, The Better
Joshua Davis might not be a name many people would recognise, but under the alias of DJ Shadow he's established himself as one of dance music's most progressive and innovative musicians over the past twenty...
Review posted on 12th December 2011
Amy Winehouse - Lioness: Hidden Treasures
The untimely tragic death of Amy Winehouse in July at the age of just twenty-seven remains one of 2011's biggest news stories, and no doubt will continue to be a major talking point long after...
Review posted on 12th December 2011
Birdy - Birdy
As I sit here writing, that insufferable John Lewis Christmas advert plays in the background, instantly recognisable by the anodyne cover of Morrissey and Johnny Marr's 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want'...
Review posted on 6th December 2011
Flashguns - Passions Of A Different Kind
Ah, the indie landfill site, a place reserved the staid, generic and Bombay Bicycle Club. While not everyone can ooze creativity like Arcade Fire, boast the songwriting prowess of The National or espouse boundless experimentalism...
Review posted on 14th November 2011
Blouse - Blouse
As the saying goes, "Everything comes gradually at its appointed hour", and in the case of Portland based trio Blouse, their existence owes more to the doctrine of fate than any pre-ordained manifesto. Initially conceived...
Review posted on 9th November 2011
Craft Spells - Idle Labor
In these highly technological times of Soundcloud, You Tube and saturated inboxes, there's always going to be the odd catch that slips the net. Take 'Idle Labor' for example, a record first unveiled on these...
Review posted on 9th November 2011
Esben And The Witch - Hexagons
Once upon a time when asked in an interview whether or not Esben And The Witch had any limits, Multi-faceted musical virtuoso Tom Fisher claimed, "I don't think we should indulge ourselves.I would be too...
Review posted on 2nd November 2011
Sonic Youth - Hits Are For Squares
When Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon recently announced their separation after twenty-seven years of marriage, many commentators were busy writing their obituaries for Sonic Youth. While it's anyone's guess what the future holds, or if...
Review posted on 1st November 2011
CANT - Dreams Come True
As one quarter of critically acclaimed experimental folk outfit Grizzly Bear, Chris Taylor's status as a veritable musician and songwriter of some repute is all but assured. Although roped in with New York's avant-garde set...
Review posted on 11th October 2011
Big Troubles - Romantic Comedy
Having received waves of acclaim from Pitchfork and various other blogs this past year, New Jersey based four-piece Big Troubles remain something of an unknown quantity outside the cooler confines of the US underground scene....
Review posted on 10th October 2011
Spectrals - Bad Penny
Leeds based singer/songwriter Louis Jones may not have endeared himself to some of the city's musicians after comments made about its incestuous existence, but there's no denying he's something of a unique entity, as the...
Review posted on 10th October 2011
Butcher Boy - Helping Hands
'Sometimes I'll write from my parents perspective and how they would have viewed the world in the 1960s,' said Butcher Boy's John Blain Hunt in a recent interview. While such references are apparent here and...
Review posted on 6th October 2011
Suggested
Leisure Festival - Dreamland in Margate
On the same day that Glastonbury welcomed back Margate's adopted sons, The Libertines, Margate itself put on it's very own Leisure Festival as it...
Pretty Fierce talk to us about collaborating with Doja Cat, emetophobia, arena tours and staying "true to yourself" [EXCLUSIVE]
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Will Varley & Jack Valero - The Astor Theatre Deal Live Review
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
WYSE talks to us about her "form of synaesthesia", collaborating with Radiohead's Thom York and the prospect of touring with a band [EXCLUSIVE]
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
Advertisement
Bay Bryan talks to us about being a "wee queer ginger", singing with Laura Marling and being inspired by Matilda [EXCLUSIVE]
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Keelan X talks to us about staying true to "your creative vision", collaborating with Giorgio Moroder and being "a yoga nut" [EXCLUSIVE]
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
![Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]](https://images.contactmusic.com/images/home/homepage/luke-de-sciscio-abof-a.jpg "Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]")
Luke De-Sciscio talks to us about having the courage to be yourself, forgiving that which is outside of one's control and following whims [EXCLUSIVE]
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Annie Elise talks to us about the challenges a female producer has to face and "going through a year of grief and sickness" [EXCLUSIVE]
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
Advertisement
