For the love of music
Phoebe Jean and The Air Force – Heartbreakers Phoebe Jean’s album dropped in June on French imprint Lentonia Records and its standout track is the hella catchy “Day is Gone”. It’s a mix of snappy ‘n’ clappy rhythms, cymbal tap, a sprinkling of brighter electronic notes, and Phoebe laying down her short-phrase, spoken vocals with … [Read more...]
Whilst it would be a slight exaggeration - as a critic of some 15 or so years standing - to say that it’s an occupational curse being exposed to too much music before it hits the stores, the fact that music is so readily accessible 24/7 and the fact that it’s almost too easy to release it in one form or another means that focusing time and … [Read more...]
Different and all somewhat shaded with towering trees, folk music comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s mostly a tag for describing a specific sound and while the genre tags themselves grow wearier as time passes by, there’s always something about the forest, about the shade, about trees and folk that is downright synonymous. Portland’s … [Read more...]
With still a slew of solo albums and off-shoot releases waiting in the wings for resurrection, Fire Records’ dedicated Howe Gelb reissue mission finally reaches the last three ‘official’ Giant Sand albums needing to be brought back into the world. After the standalone-to-savour re-release of 2000’s seminal Chore Of Enchantment a month or … [Read more...]
If the past two years have been any indication, 2012 looks like it’ll be good to Boston’s Kingsley Flood. The Americana sextet that first seized the public’s attention with its sinewy 2010 debut, Dust Windows, has established a palpable indie notoriety over the past year, getting media attention from NPR and Paste, receiving awards from … [Read more...]
As one of the most aptly-named albums in Giant Sand’s vast discography, 2000’s Chore Of Enchantment is a testament to forging magic out of adversity. Widely-regarded as one of the best – if not the best – in the group’s sprawling canon, Chore is a kaleidoscopic collection, like R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People, against which … [Read more...]
It’s hard not to feel both twinges of cynical suspicion and mild concern when it comes to Laura Marling's rapidly rising starlet status. Already shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize twice, signed to a major label with plenty of marketing muscle power and encumbered by gossip-friendly side-stories of past relationships with members of Noah … [Read more...]
With seemingly as many new records hitting music store shelves as reissue or retrospective produce in recent times, keeping up with both streams of relentless output can be pretty damn exhausting for completionist connoisseurs with diverse tastes. There’s simply no breather from it all anymore, particularly in this year’s post-summer release … [Read more...]
No one ever said music had to be about one specific medium, with no prospect for branching out. I mean, if we took music and really tried to conform it into something both rigid and controlled then there’d be no room for it to breathe. So, when someone can channel both the forlorn voice of Tom Petty and the bare roots exposure of … [Read more...]
You know how the music of classical composer Aaron Copland is indelibly linked to panoramic imagery of American life in the 20th century? I can’t help but sense a similar sort of jingoist pride when I listen to Portland’s Blitzen Trapper. Please don’t misunderstand me – I’m not setting out to argue that songs like “Wild Mountain … [Read more...]