Gazelle Twin & NYX @ Oval Space, London

In typically British fashion, the stock response to shambolic calamity is to grin and laugh at the disaster which is unfurling. Particularly if that disaster...

Festival Review: EFG London Jazz Festival 2018

The EFG London Jazz Festival is an event so widespread across the capital that covering it any kind of comprehensive depth is simply impossible. It...

Jóhann Jóhannsson: Last And First Men @ Barbican, London

Last And First Men, the new multimedia work by Jóhann Jóhannsson received its premiere at the Manchester International Festival back in 2017. This follow up...

The Good, The Bad & The Queen @ EartH, London

One of the most pleasant surprises of 2018 has been the return of The Good, The Bad & The Queen with new album Merrie Land,...

Federico Albanese @ Purcell Room, London

The piano may be centuries old but its appeal shows no signs of abating. This year has already seen a wide range of artists demonstrate...

The Twilight Sad @ Mill, Birmingham

The Twilight Sad, here supporting their labelmates (and real mates) Mogwai, performed a mini Greatest Hits set in front of a near-full room in the...

Bryan Ferry And His Orchestra – Bitter-Sweet

Having always felt a kind of affinity with Bryan Ferry, as we share the same birthplace of Washington New Town and even went to the...

The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

This is the third record by The 1975. You’ve been waiting forever for it. You remember the jump between the tacky youthfulness of their first album, and...

Esben And The Witch – Nowhere

Esben And The Witch are a curious case study of a band: proof that it’s possible to very quietly become really rather heavy. A look...

Ed Harcourt – Beyond The End

There’s nobody else quite like Ed Harcourt. There certainly aren’t many careers that have been as varied as his.  Since his breakthrough with his debut...

Vessel – Queen Of Golden Dogs

In an instance of curious serendipity, this writer went to see a play at Battersea Arts Centre called Vessel in the same week as reviewing Queen...

Malcolm Middleton – Bananas

How much of a connection should pop music have with everyday life? For Malcolm Middleton, music is the opposite of escapism. With so much modern...

Laibach – The Sound of Music

In 2015, the secretive authoritarian state of North Korea invited a western rock band to perform in their country for the first time. The band...

Art Brut – Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out

Seven years since their last record, Art Brut release their fifth album. What have they been doing in the meantime? Well, two longstanding members, Mikey...

The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Merrie Land

“A stroppy little island of mixed-up people” was how Damon Albarn memorably described the United Kingdom in a song called Three Changes from The Good,...

Jeff Goldblum @ Cadogan Hall, London

Jeff Goldblum’s debut album The Capitol Studios Sessions plays out with the Hollywood A-lister/geek’s vote of thanks to his band The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. One...

Mariah Carey – Caution

Normally, in mid-November, all we hear from Mariah Carey is another renaissance of her legendary Christmas jingle. This year, not only is her cruelly underrated...

Two Medicine – Astropsychosis

In the lull after touring Midlake’s Antiphon album, bassist Paul Alexander decided that he wanted to see if he was able to make an album...

Kelly Moran – Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet, Kelly Moran’s first album for Warp Records, is a gentle affair. The description “prepared piano mixed with electronica” brings to mind Aphex Twin in...

J Mascis – Elastic Days

It’s one of the most recognisable, and oddly endearing, sounds in modern alt-rock – J Mascis‘ anguished sigh of a voice, which sounds like he’s...