Single Reviews – 6 December 2022 – The Ocelots, Sophie Bernice, Nasti, spaceseer
Photo by Barthelemy de Mazenod The Ocelots – Addlepated indie folk Wexford twins The Ocelots make indie folk music with impressions of cabaret and art pop on their recent single “Addlepated”. This amorous song of longing has a bittersweet chord progression, sincerely delicate vocal harmonies, wandering harmonica lines,Continue Reading
Ralph Kinsella – In The Lives That Surround You (Album Review)
Johann Sebastian Bach once quipped: “It’s easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time, and the instrument will play itself.” While this tongue-in-cheek statement is technically true, instruments can be utilised creatively, and even an instrument as ubiquitous as theContinue Reading
EUGENIA POST MERIDIEM – like i need a tension (Album Review)
The name Eugenia comes from the Greek word for ‘nobility’. It is the given name of Eugenia Fera, who fronts the Italian art-rock band Eugenia Post Meridiem. With post meaning ‘after’ and meridiem meaning ‘after noon’, the band name conjures images of its enigmatic frontperson after her thirdContinue Reading
hangtime – BLOODSKY (Album Review)
You can’t separate the art from the artist when you don’t know who the artist is. hangtime is, presumably, a duo. Any information available online about the group is contradictory. Their Spotify bio alludes to hangtime being a solo project, while from their Instagram, one can glean they are anContinue Reading
Oro Swimming Hour – Pterodactyl (Album Review)
Bristol-based musicians Oliver Wilde and Nicholas Stevenson make up the charmingly named indie-folk project Oro Swimming Hour. Following Penrose Winoa (2017) and Lossy (2019), their third album, Pterodactyl, is a cocktail of emo-folk-driven sentiments and personable songwriting that manages to warm the heart as it slays. While lo-fi luminaries Sebadoh and Elliot Smith, as well asContinue Reading
Marína Ósk – One Evening in July (Album Review)
The region known as the ‘Nordic countries’ is known worldwide for its progressive politics, cold weather, and tradition of music performance of the highest standard. Icelandic jazz singer Marína Ósk met her band while studying for a master’s degree at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, and while theContinue Reading
Ziggy Alberts – Dancing In The Dark (Album Review)
Australian renaissance man Ziggy Alberts has been asserting his presence as a purveyor of earnest music and the written word since 2011. His sixth album, “Dancing In The Dark”, comes with an alluringly minimalist sound that is processed and slick but doesn’t compromise its human touch. The ten songs here,Continue Reading
Brendan Cope – if now we are in pieces (Album Review)
Is our willingness to trust an artist to be sincere based solely on intuition? In his paper “Trust and Sincerity in Art”, C. Thi Nguyen of the University of Utah wrote, “In aesthetic life, we trust each other to follow our own paths, so that it is more meaningful whenContinue Reading
Single Reviews – 14 November 2022 – moshimoshi, Nightly Gatherings, Grand Eugène, Harry Klein
Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh moshimoshi – Soon emo rock Finnish emo rockers moshimoshi return in stellar fashion with “Soon”, a nostalgic cut of guitar-driven, passionately sung, and frenetic energy that is as charming as it is energizing. The guitar work here is especially lovely, with interplaying riffs rhythmically supplementing theContinue Reading
Wailing Urei – Is It Me? (Album Review)
Technology, much like nature, is fallible. Though modern technology and cloud computing promise accurate data representation and secure archiving, the truth of existence is that nothing is sacred, and even the most robust and protected information is liable to be corrupted. One need only look to the relevant example ofContinue Reading