Album Review: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Winterland (BBC Music)

What can you say about Jimi Hendrix that hasn't been written already? Well, with four CDs of live recordings from the man's legendary 1968 shows at Winterland, you'd think it might inspire one or two new observations. Find out whether that's true here.

"Even the most hardened of cynics cannot deny the power of performances that robbed Eric Clapton of his reputation as the world’s best guitarist..."

Album Review: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Winterland (BBC Music)

Album Review: Art Of Noise - Who's Afraid Of The Art of Noise (BBC Music)

There's a short entry in my 1986 diary about how badly I want to get hold of The Art Of Noise's latest single, 'Moments In Love'. A quarter of a century later, I find myself reviewing a deluxe reissue of the very album from which it came for the BBC. You can't read my diary, but you can read the review here.

"Remarkably, this debut was accessible enough to spawn hit singles, including Close (To the Edit), arguably the only record ever to include the sound of a VW Golf stalling as its central motif..."

Album Review: Art Of Noise - Who's Afraid Of The Art of Noise (BBC Music)

Feature: Wings Of Desire: An Interview With Dustin O'Halloran (The Quietus)

My ongoing obsession with the neo-classical scene continues thanks to Dustin O'Halloran, who's branched out from his solo releases for a collaboration with Stars Of The Lids' Adam Wiltzie. A stunning collection of melodic piano work shrouded in mists of ambience, A Winged Victory For The Sullen is one of the year's most beautiful albums. It's nestling quietly http://thequietus.com/articles/06985-dustin-o-halloran-winged-victory-interview.

Feature: Wings Of Desire: An Interview With Dustin O'Halloran (The Quietus)

Feature: After The Flood: Talk Talk's Laughing Stock 20 Years On (The Quietus)

Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden remains the record I value above all others, with the band's final album, Laughing Stock, also a special favourite. I'm far from alone in this opinion, as the constant name-checking of both records by musicians confirms. The story behind both records is long and complicated, however, and, on the 20th anniversary of the latter's release, The Quietus invited me to examine the story. Containing interviews with manager Keith Aspden and studio engineer Phill Brown, as well as some fairly exhaustive research and comments by other fans of the record - including Wild Beasts and James Lavelle (Mo'Wax, UNKLE) - After The Flood: Talk Talk's Laughing Stock 20 Years On is online here.

Feature: After The Flood: Talk Talk's Laughing Stock 20 Years On (The Quietus)

Feature: A Musician vs The Music Industry: A Conversation (The Quietus)

"In late May, The Quietus published a story entitled ‘How The Music Industry Is Killing Music And Blaming The Fans’.... Despite its considerable length, the piece went on to become the most read story the site had published to date, provoking a stream of comments and also a slew of private messages. Amongst them was a mail from Joe Cardamone, who turned out to be the singer of The Icarus Line. Some three weeks later, a promotional copy of the band’s new album, Wildlife, arrived... I suggested we pick up our communication once again to discuss the issues raised in more detail. What follows is an edited version of a candid exchange, beginning with Joe’s original message sent a few days after the original feature’s publication."

Feature: A Musician vs The Music Industry: A Conversation (The Quietus)

Album Review: The Waterboys - An Appointment With Mr Yeats (BBC Music)

He's been promising it for years, but finally Mike Scott and his Waterboys have 'teamed up' with William Butler Yeats for an album. The BBC sought my opinion, and I was happy to offer it here.

"It could have been a risky concept – accusations of pretension are never far from anyone who undertakes to put poetry to music – but Scott’s conviction, alongside his years of preparation, ensures that this is a genuinely successful experiment."

Album Review: The Waterboys - An Appointment With Mr Yeats (BBC Music)

Album Review: A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Uncut)

4/5
Piano minimalism meets orchestral ambience

It’s been a prolific year for former Devics man, Dustin O’Halloran, with a studio album, live album and film soundtrack to his name. Now he pairs up with Stars Of The Lid’s Adam Wiltzie for seven elegiac tracks of almost oppressive beauty. Like labelmate Ólafur Arnalds or Jóhann Jóhannsson, the duo prioritise atmospheric soundscapes, but features like O’Halloran’s poignant piano melody, immersed within slow moving strings and drifting guitar textures on ‘We Played Some Open Chords’, set this project apart, while the twelve minute ‘A Symphony Pathetique’ is unapologetically moving. Another triumph for the post-classical scene.

Album Review: A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Uncut)

Album Review: St Vincent - Strange Mercy (BBC Music)

Annie Clark, you've rocked my world for a while, but I'm not so convinced any more. Find out why here. But, as a quick hint, allow me to say that Strange Mercy is "full of ideas but struggling to find a coherent voice..."


Will you ever forgive me...?

Album Review: St Vincent - Strange Mercy (BBC Music)

Feature: "A Long Tradition Of Pessimists": Roll The Dice Play Ball (The Quietus)

Sweden's Roll The Dice make dark, dark music. That should be reason enough to chat with them. So I did. Find out what happened here.

"For all its bleak augury, In Dust convinces us that, although its creators have allowed it to be created mechanically, they're constantly pulling at the levers trying to ensure that it maintains some sense of humanity..."

Feature: "A Long Tradition Of Pessimists": Roll The Dice Play Ball (The Quietus)

Feature: A Scenic Highway To Hell: Ppartying At The Pstereo Festival (The Quietus)

And so it's time to return to Norway for the Pstereo Festival in Trondheim. If you want a breakdown of who was hot and who was not, try other journalists. But if you want to know what happened when I was let loose on the streets of that Norwegian city for a couple of nights, then this should do the trick.

"My heart's bruising my ribs, I'm losing the feeling in my left leg and my blood's pumping so ferociously that I'm expecting my hands to fly from my wrists like fireworks..."

Feature: A Scenic Highway To Hell: Ppartying At The Pstereo Festival (The Quietus)

Feature: Pursuing The Obel Arts - An Interview With Agnes Obel (The Quietus)

"The music journalist has an hour in which to unlock the secrets of the musician's work and make it interesting to readers, and the musician in turn needs to communicate enough to intrigue the journalist or else the promotional opportunity will have been wasted. Another day in the life…"

Agnes Obel - almost a neighbour of mine, it turns out - is neither shy or especially reserved, but she's about as far from the tired cliché of both a depressed singer songwriter and a mouthy wannabe indie rock star as one could hope. You can find an unusually down-to-earth discussion of what it's like to watch your music go from 0-250,000 in the space of just a few weeks here...

Feature: Pursuing The Obel Arts - An Interview With Agnes Obel (The Quietus)

Album Review: Archers Of Loaf - Icky Mettle (Uncut)

4/5
Chapel Hill’s cult college rockers revisited

Despite the preposterous name, Eric Bachmann’s quartet were, for a short time, close to mainstream acceptance as US indie rock looked set to take over the world. Their 1993 debut, remastered by Bob Weston, treads similar ground to Crooked Rain-era Pavement - if less self-consciously clever - with dissonant, spiky guitars piercing surprisingly melodic college radio favourites like ‘Web In Front’ and ‘Wrong’. Bachmann’s Jagger-esque drawl perfectly matches the slacker-punk vibe of absurd, crowd-participation favourite ‘Toast’ - “There’s something wrong with my toast!” – and bonus tracks include the atonal fury of ‘Audiowhore’ (from the Greatest Of All Time EP).

Album Review: Archers Of Loaf - Icky Mettle (Uncut)

Album Review: Googoosh - Googoosh (Uncut)

3/5
Rare Persian pop from ‘Iran’s Daughter’

Actress and singer Faegheh Atashin aka Googoosh was an Iranian heroine silenced by the 1979 revolution until her emigration to the US in 2000. This enlightening collection of lesser-known songs recorded in the 1970s reveals a pre-Khomeini world of Persian traditions and western influences – in 1971 she even recorded in French. The passionate, string-laden lament of ‘Digeh Geryeh Delo Va Nemikoneh’, the sultry, disco-inflected charms of ‘Talagh’ and the Middle Eastern chanson of ‘Mano Gonjishkaye Khooneh’ may be an acquired taste for indie-trained ears, but no one can deny the potent romance of Googoosh’s voice.

Album Review: Googoosh - Googoosh (Uncut)

Album Review: Various Artists - True Soul Volumes 1&2 (Uncut)

3/5
Crate-digging heaven for soul funk fans

While its most famous son Bill Clinton was busy not inhaling, Arkansas’ True Soul label – run by record store owner Lee Anthony – was documenting the thriving local soul and funk scene. Though its output rarely troubled the charts, these 32 tracks, compiled by Stones Throw label manager Eothen Alapatt, are packed with an abundance of righteous grooves and crazily titled gems, especially the pysch-funk of York Wilson’s ‘Psychedelic Hot Pants’. Memphis may have hogged the spotlight, but John Craig’s effortless ‘Doing My Own Thing’ and the laidback shuffle of Thomas East’s ‘Funky Music’ prove Little Rock had a big heart.

Album Review: Various Artists - True Soul Volumes 1&2 (Uncut)

Feature: The Q&A: Anne Müller, cellist (The Economist / More Intelligent Life)

As this review for the BBC testifies, I'm a fan of Nils Frahm and Anne Müller's album, 7 Fingers, so it was a pleasure to interview Ms Müller - who also performs live with Agnes Obel - for The Economist and More Intelligent Life. "My older cousin played cello," she explains, "so my mother asked him to convince me to learn, too. He showed me one and said I’d look very good with it. He was my hero, so of course I had to play..."

Read the full Q&A here or here.

Feature: The Q&A: Anne Müller, cellist (The Economist / More Intelligent Life)

Feature: We Are All Norwegians - How Norway’s Bravery Is An Example To Us All (The Quietus)

Norway has become something of a second home for me. I have probably spent more time there since I moved to Berlin than I have done in the UK. The news of the appalling shootings that took place in Oslo on July 22, 2011, were therefore an especially tremendous shock. The country's reaction, however, was extraordinary. In response to the mixed feelings that the nation clearly felt as it gathered under the country's flag, due to the fact that the murders had been carried out by an extreme nationalist, I was prompted me to write a tribute to a country whose behaviour was nobler and more dignified than anyone had any right to expect.

"The old order, in which a nation’s identity is defined by the nature of its historical inhabitants, is no longer relevant. The passports we hold are simply the result of an accident of geography."

The full article is here on the Quietus, and was also reproduced by Matador here.

Feature: We Are All Norwegians - How Norway’s Bravery Is An Example To Us All (The Quietus)

Feature: Tim Burgess On Loving Lawrence & Felt, "Birmingham's Best Band" (The Quietus)

Now this was unexpected, and unexpectedly fun. Tim Burgess of The Charlatans decides to join me on a drive from London to Essen to see KORT, Cortney Tidwell and Kurt Wagner's collaborative project, as I finally drive my entire record collection from London to Berlin. A conversation about Felt ensues, and upon my return we pick up the threads and turn it into a formal interview. The Quietus has it all here.

"I remember walking down Parkway in Camden. I was walking on the street and Lawrence pulled me onto the curb and actually shouted at me. 'A rock star can not be killed by a black cab or a mini cab!'"

Feature: Tim Burgess On Loving Lawrence & Felt, "Birmingham's Best Band" (The Quietus)

Feature: Beyond The Pleasuredome - Frankie's 'Liverpool' 25 Years On (The Quietus)

Having previously written at length about Frankie Goes To Hollywood's debut album, which - for me, at least - represented a Never Mind The Bollocks for the 1980s generation - The Quietus allowed me to wax at length about its follow-up, Liverpool. It's odd that a reader's comment should perhaps nail why I felt the urge to write about this critically and commercially disappointing record, but "I've never read such a fantastically written essay on such a crap album" made me grin a great deal.

"The day-glo colours and the sense of fun and mischief at the heart of their debut had disappeared, replaced by an often monochromatic vision, a seething anger and a raw sense of injustice. This wasn't the Frankie we expected, five cheeky lads in leather waving plastic guns at us and revelling in sexual innuendo, the gang to whom we'd given our hearts wrapped in baggy T-shirts."

The full story is here.

Feature: Beyond The Pleasuredome - Frankie's 'Liverpool' 25 Years On (The Quietus)

Album Review: Felt - Bubblegum Perfume (Uncut)

4/5
Collector’s compilation of cult band’s Creation albums

The kind of band beloved by 80s indie fans who considered The Smiths too mainstream, Felt’s ten albums combined Lawrence (no surname)’s erudite lyrics and Tom Verlaine intonations with ornate instrumentation, often provided by keyboardist Martin Duffy (now of Primal Scream). This 1990 compilation of their time on Creation boasts a revised tracklisting, but highlights the fragile beauty of ‘Be Still’ (from the ‘Space Blues’ EP), the instrumental cocktail jazz of ‘Book Of Swords’ (from ‘Train Above The City’, for which Laurence only named songs) and 86’s breathless, claustrophobic but joyous ‘Ballad Of The Band’ 7”.

Album Review: Felt - Bubblegum Perfume (Uncut)

Album Review: Digitalism - I Love You, Dude (Uncut)

3/5
Hamburg duo get nostalgic for the 90s

Like Delphic, Jens Moelle and Ismail ‘Isi’ Tuefekci share a love for late twentieth century ecstasy-fuelled euphoria, and their second album sounds at times like the Mancunian quartets’ update of New Order, especially on ‘2 Hearts’ and the Julian Casablancas collaboration, ‘Forrest Gump’. Elsewhere, the Kitsuné endorsed duo lean heavily on The Prodigy for ‘Reeperbahn’ and The KLF for ‘Antibiotics’, while the low-slung crunch of ‘Miami Showdown’ gives Jan Hammer a Chemical Brothers rubdown. It’s far from original, but nonetheless highly effective, and the sweaty, lad-friendly nature of the title betrays its inherent good humour.

Album Review: Digitalism - I Love You, Dude (Uncut)

Album Review: Gonzales - The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales (Uncut)

4/5
The musical prankster goes symphonic

Amidst a flurry of one-liners – one track is titled ‘Shut Up And Play The Piano’ – Gonzales relocates his rhymes to an orchestral setting for his ninth album. What could be a novelty record is transformed into a deeply satisfying and intelligent experiment thanks to the Canadian’s charm, with ‘Self Portrait’ riffing on Dorian Gray references and ‘Rap Race’ a confessional look at his motivation. Frequently self-referential and flippant, he skewers hip hop’s excesses – “No, I haven’t said the ‘n’ word yet” – against a melodramatic backdrop composed by his brother Christophe Beck, albeit more in the style of Danny Elfman than Gustav Mahler.

Album Review: Gonzales - The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales (Uncut)

Album Review: Brian Eno & Rick Holland - Drums Between The Bells (BBC Music)

Two albums from Brian Eno in less than a year, and still the man proves he's got more ideas per release than U2 and Coldplay, the stadium acts that presumably pay for his buzzcuts, have had in their entire careers. Combined.

"Drums… operates within the realms of electronica, ambience and spoken word, full of the kind of subtle studio trickery that has made Eno such an intriguing personality."

The BBC prints more words like that here...

Album Review: Brian Eno & Rick Holland - Drums Between The Bells (BBC Music)

Feature: We Dream On Cardboard - Staff Benda Bilili's Rise From The Streets (The Quietus)

When I first heard Staff Benda Bilili, I was so inspired that I actually considered flying to the Democratic Republic Of Congo, their home - if you can call the grounds of capital city Kinshasa's zoo a home. These formerly homeless, disabled musicians have since gone on to seduce people all over the world, while I haven't travelled further than Norway all year.

But the release of Benda Bilili!, a documentary about their last five years, was a great excuse to write about the band without risking my life in the world's most dangerous country."'I’m working for our children’s future,' Ricky explains. 'If I die, what will I be leaving them? A sewing machine. They won’t have anything, not even a roof over their heads. With the music I’ve composed, it’s different. If it’s successful in Europe, it’ll bring in money every year. My kids will be saved."' Mumford & Sons they are not. Find out why here.

Feature: We Dream On Cardboard - Staff Benda Bilili's Rise From The Streets (The Quietus)

Album Review: Gonzales - The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales (BBC Music)

He just keeps getting better, and having confounded people with the brilliance of his live two-pianos-and-two-drumkits performances in 2010, he's back with an orchestral rap album that he believes is the world's first. Is it any good? Well, since you ask, "where most rappers would need to reach for their sampler, Gonzales most likely sat down with his brother to hatch the plan over a bag of weed. It certainly sounds that effortless."

There's more on the subject here...

Album Review: Gonzales - The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales (BBC Music)

Album Review: Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver (The Quietus)

It took me a very long time to get to grips with the appeal of Bon Iver's first album, but I got there in the end, and this new one opens up whole new horizons for Justin Vernon, even if it then closes them down lyrically. "Not for Coldplay the lines "doubled in the toes annex it, it minute closed in the morning did not lose it in the stack's stow, imma lay that call back on ya", sung back to them by a mass crowd waving lighters in the air."

Read my review for The Quietus here.

Album Review: Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver (The Quietus)

Album Review: Planningtorock - W (BBC Music)

It's time for something brooding: the latest Planningtorock album for the rather splendid DFA label. "Rostron imagines a darkly melodramatic world of shadows and sleek metallic edges, her electronic setting industrial and semi-gothic in a similar fashion to current critical faves EMA and Zola Jesus." Read all about it here.

Album Review: Planningtorock - W (BBC Music)

Feature: How The Music Industry Is Killing Music And Blaming The Fans (The Quietus)

Years spent working with musicians, labels, publishers and other sundry music industry types have allowed me to see how changing listening habits have affected not only the business' bottom lines but also made it harder and harder for new musicians to be heard, even though we live in a time when music has never been more accessible. The resulting feature became The Quietus' biggest article to date, shared on Facebook thousands of times and inspiring passionate arguments across the board.

Not everyone agreed with the scenario I presented - "Though democracy won't allow for musicians to be gagged, it can still price them out of the market" - but at the very least it got people talking about issues which I consider very important. You can join in the debate here.

Feature: How The Music Industry Is Killing Music And Blaming The Fans (The Quietus)

Feature: Pure Magic - Julianna Barwick Interviewed (The Quietus)

Sometimes it's necessary to slow things down and enter a world of quiet contemplation. Thank Lousiana for giving us Julianna Barwick, then, who introduces us, perhaps accidentally, to the middle ground between Enya and and Eno. "When something is sad and beautiful at the same time," she says, "it just kills me. It always has. I love that sound." And so do I.

Lie back and let Julianna Hardwick tell you about The Magic Place here.

Feature: Pure Magic - Julianna Barwick Interviewed (The Quietus)

Album Review: Toby Burke - Mexico City (Uncut)

4/5
Horse Stories main man strikes Aztec gold

Now resident in LA after a spell in London, restless Australian Burke’s latest was recorded in one week in a Mexico City apartment. With little more than piano and guitar, its nine songs echo the sparsest acoustics of Springsteen’s Nebraska, Burke’s voice delicate and world-weary, his mood subdued but never defeated. ‘Cantina Crawl’ is an elegiac lament for characters “who smoked like a borrowed car”, and the album is populated by itinerants for whom “home is no place to go”. ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’, its forlorn piano superseded by decaying, distorted guitar, is the exquisite highlight.

Album Review: Toby Burke - Mexico City (Uncut)

Album Review: Gus Gus - Arabian Horse (Uncut)

3/5
Immaculately produced techno soul from Icelandic veterans

Fourteen years on from their 4AD debut, GusGus have completed the transition from arthouse electronica to suave techno soulsters, their streamlining from unwieldy 12 piece to trio paying dividends in increasingly explicit club friendly gestures. They remain unafraid of the occasional sleight of hand, however, as the unexpected Balkan polka conclusion to Selfoss proves, and, elsewhere, Eastern themes underlined by the title bleed through an hour of largely euphoric, lushly textured but sometimes interchangeable grooves. ‘Within You’, featuring Hjaltalin’s Hogni Elisson, is more contemplative, but it’s the nostalgic, reverb-heavy house of ‘Over’ that’s most appealing.

Album Review: Gus Gus - Arabian Horse (Uncut)

Album Review: Adventure - Lesser Known (Uncut)

3/5
Dan Deacon protégé trawls synthpop classics

Benny Boeldt was only three when the ‘80s ended but seems to have lived there since. His second album adds vocals to flesh out earlier ‘chiptunes’, its first half ransacking the racks in a Panda Pop-fuelled fashion: ‘Fool’s Paradise’ recalls Technique-era New Order, ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ joins The Human League, while ‘Feels Like Heaven’ could be a remix from OMD’s Junk Culture. Its garish roots are occasionally too obvious, but the album’s later tracks are darker: ‘Rio’ throws in a little M83 grit, while album closers ‘Another World’ and ‘Meadows’ offer a more expansive, psychedelic twist on his sound.

Album Review: Adventure - Lesser Known (Uncut)

Feature: "The Story Of ThIs Is The Sea - Mike Scott of The Waterboys Interviewed" (The Quietus)

I spent long hours as a teenager under the bedsheets with The Waterboys' third album on my headphones, and I still return regularly to it today, so I was arguably well qualified to discuss its genesis with the band's Mike Scott for The Quietus some 25 years after its release.

In this interview he talks about The Big Music and about how "I keep alert for what the music is saying to me and it always, always, always tells me what to do. And I fucking do it!"

Feature: "The Story Of ThIs Is The Sea - Mike Scott of The Waterboys Interviewed" (The Quietus)

Album Review: Moddi's 'Floriography' (The Quietus)

Winner of a massive grant from A-ha in 2010 designed to help promote Norwegian artists to the world, Moddi finally released his debut album in April 2011, some months after it saw the light of day in his homeland. "It's possibly not a timeless debut, but it's full of timeless music that ebbs and flows like the tide." Read my review here.

Album Review: Moddi's 'Floriography' (The Quietus)

Feature: The Q&A: Fred Cornog, Musician (The Economist / More Intelligent Life)

In case it's not already clear, I'm a huge fan of East River Pipe, so the release of We Live In Rented Rooms sent me scuttling to find out any place I could offer coverage. Lo and behold, The Economist wanted the man on their pages and the story also ran on More Intelligent Life here. And with wise words like these, who can blame them:

"Making a living solely from music nearly always involves a list of compromises that I’m unwilling to make. And, ultimately, the commerce side of things kills the artistic side."

Feature: The Q&A: Fred Cornog, Musician (The Economist / More Intelligent Life)

Feature: "Hicks And Drugs And Rock And Roll" (Triple J)

"Not only were the gods not such big fans, but nor were feminists, right wingers, the media, anti-drugs campaigners, non-smokers and a whole host of others who, in Hicks’ eyes, proved that 'people suck'." Did I ever mention that Bill Hicks is my God? It's all in the words above for Triple J...

Feature: "Hicks And Drugs And Rock And Roll" (Triple J)

Feature: "Lars Of The International Playboys: Mr Horntveth Of Jaga Jazzist Interviewed" (The Quietus)

So there I am, back on the very boat that saw me attempt yoga for the first time, this time for what can only be called an Anti-Yoga Safari, when I realise that one of my fellow passengers on what's meant to be a cod fishing expedition is none other than Mr Lars Horntveth, star of Jaga Jazzist and the man behind 'Kaleidoscopic', one of the albums I mentioned in my recent Sunday Times piece about the 'neo-classical' movement. Well, naturally I had to corner the poor, exhausted man after he'd finished his sauna, hot tub and hammam for a chat about Norwegian music, Norwegian stereotypes, and his career to date. It's all here.

"Over the next few days Lars makes a fair stab at unwinding. He soaks in the hot tub in a woollen hat, declining the beers clutched tightly in the hands of other passengers from lunchtime until the small hours. He roasts himself in the Hammam until his skin is puce, then lowers himself tentatively into the freezing pool, only to emerge into the fog once more. He endures prolonged bouts in the sauna as the monochrome mountains pass by the windows, emerging briefly on one memorable occasion in just a towel to take charge of a fishing rod for a brief burst of angling amidst a howling gale..."

Feature: "Lars Of The International Playboys: Mr Horntveth Of Jaga Jazzist Interviewed" (The Quietus)

Feature: "Radiohead: Probing Beyond The Hits" (The Quietus)

And back they came, Oxford's finest, with another album released at short notice. Whether or not The King Of Limbs matches the wonderful In Rainbows is open to question, but it gave The Quietus a fine excuse to look at the hidden gems in their back catalogue. It's far from exhaustive, but I like to think my contributions shed a little light on at least a couple of lesser known nuggets, including the early B-side, 'Coke Babies'. Dig deeper here.

"'Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury And Executioner)', from the band's patchy sixth album, is one of their most menacing. Perhaps its impact is increased for me personally by a childhood memory of watching an infected animal bludgeoned to death with the back side of an axe."

Feature: "Radiohead: Probing Beyond The Hits" (The Quietus)

Album Review: Nils Frahm & Anne Müller's '7Fingers' (BBC Music)

18 months on from his last album of solo piano improvisations, Nils Frahm is back, this time collaborating with Berlin's own Anne Müller. The first, teeth-fixated fruits of their work can be found on the fine Erased Tapes label, and the BBC asked me what I thought. "Frahm is no more averse to surprises than he is to collaboration," I claimed, "and it’s clear that the inspiration he found working with Müller has led him to focus on more contemporary aesthetics." The rest is here.

Album Review: Nils Frahm & Anne Müller's '7Fingers' (BBC Music)

Feature: "News Of The World: Kate Adie Interviewed On Music And War" (The Quietus)

The thing about being a music journalist is that you know there's a chance, from time to time, that you'll meet your heroes. But you don't always expect to meet heroes from outside your field of (ahem) expertise. But here I am, chatting with the celebrated Kate Adie, one of the legends of broadcast journalism, about The Fall, Madonna, PJ Harvey and, inevitably, war and journalism.

"You do not hold power with a camera or a notebook. That is a myth. You do not shame people into better behaviour when they are at a level of determination you can hardly guess at. That's a very important lesson." She shares more in this surprisingly intimate interview, and I also get to provide a portrait of the great lady...

Feature: "News Of The World: Kate Adie Interviewed On Music And War" (The Quietus)

Album Review: Eat Lights; Become Lights - Autopia (Uncut)

3/5
Impressive kosmische debut from London three piece

Given their acknowledged debt to krautrock – their second 7” was called ‘Klustered’ and they’ve toured with Silver Apples – it’s perhaps unfair to expect new tricks from these strangely monikered revivalists. Fortunately their debut’s mixture of motorik rhythms, droning guitars and swirling electronics is exciting enough, with ‘Dark Matter’’s especially fierce assault recalling both Trans Am and Sheffield’s underrated Plone. Debut single ‘They Transmit’ and the unimaginatively titled ‘Musik For Motorways’ showcase a gentler side, but the towering, ten minute ‘All Aboard’, complete with sci-fi spoken word samples, proves that hackneyed constituent parts never prevent them from taking off.

Album Review: Eat Lights; Become Lights - Autopia (Uncut)

Album Review: Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Uncut)

4/5
Third album of wordless vocal acrobatics

Recalling the extraordinary power of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, albeit free of dissonant throatsinging, Brooklyn resident Barwick loops her voice intricately to create a masterpiece of largely instrument-free choral ambience. Its devotional leanings are inspired by a cappella hymns she sang during her Louisiana childhood, but though its meditative spirituality hints at New Age tendencies, the additional percussion that cuts through the layered harmonies of ‘Prizewinning’ could provide a rude awakening. There’s also a naïve wonder evident that recalls the bewitching power of Sigur Ros, and the piano that weaves out of closer ‘Flown’ would make Harold Budd proud.

Album Review: Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Uncut)

Album Review: Various Artists - The Art Of The 12” (Uncut)

4/5
ZTT helped refine the concept of the ‘extended remix’, and this double CD offers rarities like Art of Noise’s ‘Moments in Love (Beaten)’ and unreleased material including an impressive Hibakush-ah! mix of Frankie’s ‘Two Tribes’. The more playfully indulgent experimentalism at the label’s heart is also in evidence, plus mixes for lesser-knowns like Andrew Poppy and Act, Claudia Brücken’s post-Propaganda outfit.

Album Review: Various Artists - The Art Of The 12” (Uncut)

Album Review: Dustin O'Halloran - Lumiere (Uncut)

4/5
Devics member and Neo-classical pianist expands his palette

After two albums of solo piano work and contributions to Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette soundtrack, Berlin-based American O’Halloran here bulks out his compositions, assisted by New York’s contemporary classicists (and Grizzly Bear collaborators) ACME Ensemble. Peter Broderick is also on hand, while fellow classical revivalists Jóhann Jóhannsson and Nils Frahm help out on mixing and engineering duty respectively. Melancholic piano melodies remain the focus – ‘Opus 44’ is another solo work – but imaginative chamber arrangements and deft electronic flourishes on pieces like ‘A Great Divide’ and ‘Fragile No. 4’ lend extra gravitas and a refined, sophisticated allure.

Album Review: Dustin O'Halloran - Lumiere (Uncut)

Album Review: East River Pipe - We Live In Rented Rooms (Uncut)

4/5
More classic bedroom sadness from New Jersey recluse

Formerly homeless, and still working at his local Home Depot, F.M. Cornog has spent eighteen years painstakingly crafting intimate tales of life’s losers, his small but devoted following including David Byrne and Kurt Wagner, both of whom have covered songs. His seventh album sees few stylistic changes, with ‘Backroom Deals’ and ‘The Flames Are Coming Back’ offering typically diaphanous arrangements of shimmering guitars around Cornog’s world-weary yet optimistic vocals. But ‘Tommy Made A Movie’, about a porno-fixated wannabe director, adds splashes of 1980s synth, while ‘When You Were Doing Cocaine’ sounds like an unusually candid Jimmy Webb.

Album Review: East River Pipe - We Live In Rented Rooms (Uncut)

Album Review: Belong - Common Era (Uncut)

3/5
Ambient shoegaze from The Big Easy

Five years on, New Orleans’ Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones return with nine rather more conventionally structured songs than the nebulous, shapeshifting drones of their debut, October Language. The addition of a drum machine and vocals wafting in from another galaxy only emphasises their debt to dreamy shoegazers like Slowdive, while their relentlessly washed out backing exhibits an intense familiarity with Kevin Shields’ glide guitar technique. But there’s a genuine, still beauty to tracks like ‘Perfect Life’, which sounds like an early but anaesthetised Cure, and plenty elsewhere for Flying Saucer Attack and Labradford fans.

Album Review: Belong - Common Era (Uncut)

Album Review: East River Pipe - We Live In Rented Rooms (The Quietus)

I've loved the work of Fred 'F.M.' Cornog since the mid 90s, and his new album does nothing to change that. His records "aren't meant to rise above the clamour: they’re there for when all the other noise becomes too much." There's much more on the subject here...

Album Review: East River Pipe - We Live In Rented Rooms (The Quietus)

Live Review: "Treefight For Sunlight" (by:Larm News)

They're Danish, they're on Bella Union. At least one of these things makes them happy. Yep, the less than brilliantly named Treefight For Sunlight are, I declare, "full of a buoyant enthusiasm that can’t help but enchant anyone with a penchant for sunshine on a rainy day." Click on the pic for the complete story...

Live Review: "Treefight For Sunlight" (by:Larm News)

Live Review: "Silje Nes" (by:Larm News)

Ah, the adrenalin rush, the challenge, and the typos... Yes, lovely Silje Nes is just a simple 'T' short of a classic headline. Though she got a bonus space in 'YOU 'VE' so it wasn't all bad.

"Nes’ music is all about space and intimacy, and as her short set progresses it seems that she’s managed to turn this large space into the equivalent of a huge feather bed." Click on the pic to read the fill review...

Live Review: "Silje Nes" (by:Larm News)

Live Review: "Jenny Hval" (by:Larm News)

I'm going to keep banging on about how incredibly talented I consider Jenny Hval (once known as Rockettothesky) until I die, or until she starts putting out bad records. I imagine I'll be long cold before the latter happens, but by then I hope others will have discovered this extraordinary voice.

If you click on the pix you'll read my rapturous response to her by:Larm showcase. It sounds in places like this: "Hval pulls no punches nowadays, a supreme confidence in the direction she’s taken her music evident in her ability to switch from whispers to wails in the swoop of a note, in the extraordinary lyrical content of her songs, and in the intricately arranged, experimentally textured backing..."

Live Review: "Jenny Hval" (by:Larm News)