Album Review: Silje Nes' 'Optiks' (BBC Music)

And so, yet another musician decamps to Berlin to work on their new record. Norwegian Silje Nes' second album, Optiks, is, according to my random word generator, a "soothing collection that sounds like it was recorded late at night under threat of eviction". Other words either side of this extract can be read here.

Album Review: Silje Nes' 'Optiks' (BBC Music)

Album Review: a-ha's '25 - The Very Best Of' (BBC Music)

It pains me now to think of the way I dismissed my sister's love for a-ha when I was growing up, though she has since told me that she no longer understands what she saw in them. I, meanwhile, have somehow come round to the Norwegian popstars. "This thorough 39-song survey leads one to the unexpected conclusion that they were the Coldplay of their generation," my BBC Review suggests, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, as you can see here.

Album Review: a-ha's '25 - The Very Best Of' (BBC Music)

Album Review: Neil Young's 'Le Noise' (BBC Music)

What a pleasure and a privilege to be asked to review the latest album from a veteran like Mr Neil Young. "There are," I suggest, "no drums, no hurricane solos and, it has to be said, no great signs of a melody." But does that mean it's bad? Possibly not. Find out more here...

Album Review: Neil Young's 'Le Noise' (BBC Music)

Feature: "More Than You Can Chew" (JMag)

A trip to Iceland's western fjords nearly ends in disaster and my head in the toilet bowl. Want to know why? "We’re about to eat puffin. Puffin and sheep’s head. And whale. Whale blubber, it looks like. And dried fish." But that wasn't all. Click the pic - which may or may not be me - to find out what else was on the menu...

Feature: "More Than You Can Chew" (JMag)

Album Review: Timber Timbre's 'Timber Timbre' (BBC Music)

Canadians Timber Timbre caught me off guard with their third album. The full story is here.

"Filled with the kind of tunes that sound as though they were conceived specifically with the likes of True Blood in mind..."

Album Review: Timber Timbre's 'Timber Timbre' (BBC Music)

Feature: Travel Guide to Bodø (Matador Trips)

For the last three years I've ben heading to North Norway for the Træna Festival, and this has meant that I've spent a fair amount of time in the largely ignored city of Bodø. This is my attempt to shine a little light on a really rather lovely part of the world...

"Wielding a driver on their range, with the fjords to my left and scraggy, ice-topped hills to my right, I felt like I was at Scotland’s Gleneagles. I concede that the course I played is a little less groomed, but it’s still in better condition than my swing..."

Feature: Travel Guide to Bodø (Matador Trips)

Feature: Stretching Out On The Seas (Brave New Traveler)

"It’s 8.45am on Saturday morning, and I’m being guided to my yoga class by a reindeer." Yep, it's the kind of opening sentence I always dreamed of writing. Join me as I head out on the first ever Arctic Yoga Safari in Northern Norway. The story is here. Breathe in.... Breath out...

Feature: Stretching Out On The Seas (Brave New Traveler)

Feature: David Bowie - Fantastic Voyages From Beyond The Hits (The Quietus)

 The Quietus stirred up a rather entertaining debate about the Thin White Duke himself, Mr David Bowie, when they invited their writers to select their favourite non-single tracks from the man. The full article, with a couple of my own contributions, is right here.

Feature: David Bowie - Fantastic Voyages From Beyond The Hits (The Quietus)

Feature: Out Of My Cave (The Quietus)

One Norwegian 'Northern Rose' marble mine, one music and arts festival, one hell of an experience. The Quietus allowed me to introduce the world to the Ut Av Vår Hule festival here...

"It's odd to find myself jerking occasionally out of the trance the band's induced to emerge into this white frozen tundra, shivering instinctively, only to realise that it's still warm. My eyes are lying to a brain lost in music..."

Feature: Out Of My Cave (The Quietus)

Album Review: Yann Tiersen - Dust Lane (Uncut)

3/5
French soundtrack composer returns to his rock roots

Though best known in Britain for his Amelie soundtrack, Yann Tiersen’s music is far more elaborate and Dust Lane, his first for Mute, leans on sounds of his youth like The Birthday Party and Nirvana. Opener ‘Amy’ wrongfoots with both its name and peaceful introduction, but the extravagantly epic arrangements that follow – produced by Ken Thomas (M83, Sigur Ros) – are far more indicative of Tiersen’s current muse. ‘Fuck Me’, with vocalist Gaelle Kerrien’s breathy vocals entreating us to “Make me come again”, is paradoxically the most tender track here, while the dramatic, elaborately arranged ‘Palestine’ is breathlessly fierce.

Album Review: Yann Tiersen - Dust Lane (Uncut)

4/5
The kids are not delighted

If Delphic are this generation’s New Order, then O. Children are their Sisters Of Mercy. The London quartet inhabits a dry-iced world of doom and gloom, vocalist Tobi O’Kandi mining Eldritch’s melodrama while plumbing depths even Michael Gira would struggle to reach. Channelling both the sincere, literary indie rockers of the 1980s as well as their stadium rock counterparts – ‘Dead Disco Dancer’ starts like The Cure and ends like Simple Minds, ‘Fault Line’ could be an agitated Triffids covering Killing Joke – their sound may be familiar and their songs conventional, but they’re impressively committed nonetheless.

Album Review: Laetitia Sadier - The Trip (Uncut)

3/5
Debut solo outing from Stereolab vocalist

With Stereolab on hiatus following her split from Tim Gane, Sadier finally goes it alone, discarding her Monade identity and largely replacing krautrock with French chanson. ‘One Million Year Trip’ may have a curious Can-go-Goth appeal, and ‘By The Sea’ (a Wendy and Bonnie original) hints at the ‘Lab’s lounge-pop, but ‘Statues Can Bend’ recalls Françoise Hardy at her romantic 70s finest, and ‘Un Soir, Un Chien’ (a Les Rita Mitsouku cover) draws upon the Yeh Yeh Girl’s 80s era. Sadier’s intonation is occasionally awkward, but her uniquely compassionate yet oddly detached voice remains as affecting as ever.

Album Review: Laetitia Sadier - The Trip (Uncut)