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The Hives @ Reading Festival

by Michael Hubbard

What do you get if you cross a monkey with John Inman? If it’s got the vaguest hint of a Swedish accent, it must be…


Pulp @ Reading Festival, Reading

by Sarah McDonnell
Festivals are rum affairs. A bunch of young people who are old enough to know better, risking either a soaking or sunstroke, forced to gaze...
Pulp @ Reading Festival, Reading

Marah – Float Away With The Friday Night ...

by John Power
There are few things I find more distasteful than rock music without balls. Take away the passion, the sex the sheer bloody mindedness from rock,...
Marah – Float Away With The Friday Night ...

Gorillaz – Gorillaz

by Michael Hubbard
As with everything Damon Albarn has been involved with since Blur‘s The Great Escape (and much before it), Gorillaz is superb. The sleeve would have...
Gorillaz – Gorillaz

Eva Cassidy – Imagine

by Michael Hubbard
Eva Cassidy died of skin cancer in 1996, tragically missing the thrill of seeing her star rise stratospherically with the posthumous success of her Songbird...
Eva Cassidy – Imagine

The Frank and Walters – The Frank and Wal...

by John Power
When it came to my attention that I’d be reviewing a “Best of” The Frank and Walters, I admit I did find it hard to...
The Frank and Walters – The Frank and Wal...

Leaves – Breathe

by John Murphy
Iceland’s place in the pantheon of cool music continues unabated, despite recent challenges from Sweden and Finland. Apart from the wonderfully bonkers Bjork moving from...
Leaves – Breathe

Natacha Atlas – Foretold In The Language ...

by Simon Evans
Natacha Atlas’s previous work, both with electro-world-dance alchemists Transglobal Underground, and on solo albums like Ayeshteni and Diaspora, has mostly combined the chugging rhythms of...
Natacha Atlas – Foretold In The Language ...

Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights

by Andrew Burgess
Among buzz like a beard of bees, Interpol have ushered in the next wave of New York City rock ‘n’ roll groups touted to reinvigorate...
Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights

Dot Allison @ Cargo

by Claire Simpson
Pint-sized Scottish singer Dot Allison is only just beginning to get recognition as an artist in her own right, despite having just put out album...
Dot Allison @ Cargo

Venus Hum @ Spitz

by Michael Hubbard
Something a little different appeared at the tiny, uber-cool venue that is The Spitz. It was called Venus Hum. This Nashville-based trio consisted of two...
Venus Hum @ Spitz

Future Sound Of London – The Isness

by Daniel Mumford
If you are, or ever have been, a fan of’electronica’, then it’s pretty likely that you own arecord by Future Sound Of London. Their 1992album,...
Future Sound Of London – The Isness

McAlmont & Butler – Bring It Back

by Nick Dawson
It was the reunion that no one was expecting. Their first album, ‘The Soundof McAlmont and Butler’, met with no great interest, despite coming right...
McAlmont & Butler – Bring It Back

Will Smith – Born To Reign

by Simon Evans
Entertainment industry suits call it synergy – using films to sell music to sell films, and so on, in a constantly circulating – and, when...
Will Smith – Born To Reign

Dirty Vegas – Dirty Vegas

by Michael Hubbard
Paul Harris, Steve Smith and Ben Harris, together Dirty Vegas, have begun to emulate Moby‘s success with car ad soundtracks. Their first single Days Go...
Dirty Vegas – Dirty Vegas

Raging Speedhorn – We Will Be Dead Tomorrow

by John Power
In an age when every new-jack rock band lays claim to be the spiritual heirs to the likes of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, it’s...
Raging Speedhorn – We Will Be Dead Tomorrow

Ellis Island Sound – Ellis Island Sound

by Simon Evans
Since leaving the ’80s retro-rock outfit The Weather Prophets, Pete Astor has reinvented himself as an ambient remixer par-excellence. For the past few years, in...
Ellis Island Sound – Ellis Island Sound