Rating: Jethro Tull took their name from a 17th century English agricultural pioneer who helped instigate the British “Agricultural Revolution” via pioneering and modernising methods that changed landscapes, something his musical namesakes would achieve themselves. Toil that soil to strike that…
Rating: Public Image Limited’s seminal Metal Box was famously originally released in a “metal” film canister, therefore it’s slightly incongruous reviewing an umpteenth version via stream, the stark physicality of the original release in 1979’s mid-Winter a symbol of artistic…
The ever garrulous rapscallion on his ‘posh, middle-class’ wife and offspring, pig’s tickers, taxing issues, close encounters, the wisdom of aging, his enduring appeal and new pastures. We talk to the legend Shaun Ryder ahead of his performance at this…
It sometimes feels like you can’t move for bands/groups divining/refining inspiration from the lysergic “codified” 1960s, Lenny Kaye’s “seminal” Nuggets’ influence growing trendier, groovier and cooler by the second. So, it’s extra special when a band exists that respect a script…
Rating: If Joseph Coward’s first album (2014’s self-reflexively titled The World Famous…) addressed crises of faith, redemption and an ultimate deal with God then this follow-up raises the stakes by articulating themes of rejection, unhappy finality, new beginnings, lamentable actions…
Psychedelia as a label/term has constantly mutated and (trans)morphed since its 1966 -1968 flowering, today’s smorgasboard of technicolour deriving its influences from 50 years of cultural happenings (music/art/film/lit) artefacts that still permeate and infect/infuse: from sound to style, the aesthetic…
Adam Ant is the only artist to successfully straddle the punk, post-punk and pop landscapes with the latter becoming his wondrous kingdom for two years (1980 -1982). Second LP Kings of the Wild Frontier, released in November 1980, was notable…
Rating: Absent since 2012’s A Mirror Now EP, London quintet Suzerain release their second LP, Identity. Produced by Grammy Award winner Steve Lyon (Depeche Mode, Siouxsie Sioux, The Cure) the once pioneering and innovative sound of post-punk gothic rock is in…
Rating: They’re back, having called the bluff of the “haters” and their refusal to pay for what they don’t want, Newport’s riposte to Jay-Zed, Fiddy (Non)Cents and Kant’ye, Goldie Lookin’ Chain release Pill Communication, the band’s XIX long-player. Over 15…
It has become de rigueur for classic albums to be resurrected and re-evaluated, recontexualised in exercises of nostalgic trips down Memory Lane. Not the Men In Black. Having resolutely remained together and continued to produce new material, they are not…