January 2010
19 posts
ALBUM REVIEW - NO HOPE, NO FUTURE
“Think Before You Speak”, the début album from Morden four-piece Good Shoes, may not have been an original record but it was nonetheless an enthralling one. With the yelped vocals of frontman Rhys Jones and the memorable hooks of songs such as Sophia and Ice Age the band showed they had more to offer than many of their contemporaries. Three years later the band are back with...
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RX Bandits - Hope Is A Butterfly...
RX Bandits today premiered (finally) their first promo video for a Mandala track, namely Hope Is A Butterfly, No Net It’s Captor, one of the best tracks from my top album of 2009. This is the first promo vid the band have released that isn’t simply them performing a song somewhere, but despite the slick production it still has that home-made feel that encapsulates Bandits (large...
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Coachella Lineup Announced - It's Good
Coachella’s line-up always has the best bits of all genres of music, and this year is no exception, check this out…!
Absolutely amazing. For more info check http://www.coachella.com/
Greg
DOLBY ANOL - ONES TO WATCH IN 2010
One time, when I was at a house party and drunk, I pretended that I knew something about electronic music. What followed was a ten minute “conversation” (and I use that term very lightly) where I painfully tried to bluff my way through a succession of discussions about different sub-genres and upcoming artists. This self inflected torment only came to an end when the guy I was...
Walter Schreifels Solo Album
Legendary post-hardcore pioneer Walter Schreifels (Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand, Rival Schools, Walking Concert) is set to release his first solo album through Big Scary Monsters this spring.
Entitled An Open Letter To The Scene, the 10 track album will feature covers of Agnostic Front’s Society Sucker and Don’t Gotta Prove It by CIV (a track Schreifels himself wrote in 1995). The...
BLOOD RED SHOES - FIRE LIKE THIS
I’ve already posted about M.I.A’s new album today, but here’s another post with some news about the second record from Blood Red Shoes.
Entitled “Fire Like This”, the ten track album will be released on 1st March and is set to feature November’s free download Colours Fade. As you’ll find out if you click here, I wasn’t that impressed with the...
New Ratatat Album
New York guitar-led electronic wizards Ratatat are set to follow up 2008’s fantastic LP3 with the imaginatively titled LP4 on February 15th. Although mostly recorded during the same sessions that yielded its predecessor, the new album will apparently most definitely not be LP3 part 2.
The album will feature a horde of unusual instruments including Japanese Biwa and Pipa (leading to...
NEW M.I.A ALBUM
Despite her current ubiquity I’m still a big fan of M.I.A, and her last album, 2007’s Kala, is a pretty great record. Not only does it feature some genuine pop moments in Boyz, Jimmy, and the ridiculously overplayed Paper Planes, it also contains some much more interesting and diverse sounds such as the baile-funk of Bird Flu and the rapping Aborigine children on Mango Pickle Down...
The Sentimental Engine Slayer
Omar Rodríguez-López - not content with being the musical force in The Mars Volta, forging a formidable solo career and working with everyone from John Frusciante to Erykah Badu - is set to release his first film.
Entitled The Sentimental Engine Slayer, Omar wrote, directed, produced and stars (alongside his brother) in this film due to make its premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival in...
ALBUM REVIEW - HEARTLAND
Best known for his work arranging strings for other musicians (most notably Arcade Fire), Owen Pallett has been toiling away under the name Final Fantasy for a number of years now and, in “Has A Good Home” and “He Poos Clouds”, has already crafted two great albums. In his latest release “Heartland”, however, he has managed to create something truly special...
SPARKY DEATHCAP - ONES TO WATCH IN 2010
As promised over the next few days we’ll be posting articles about the acts we think you should be looking out for this year. These are not necessarily people or groups we think are going to become massive or win Best Newcomer at the Brits - on the contrary, most of these “ones to watch” will simply be artists we love and want to give you a heads up about.
Take today’s...
2010 - An Alternative Preview
For those of you with an ear for the slightly less accessible, more experimental or just plain noisier, here is a wee preview of some of the releases 2010 has in store for you. If any of them are half as good as I’m expecting, this is going to be a good year for music… Daughters – ???
Rhode Island mathcore marauders Daughters will be unleashing their as-yet-untitled 3rd full...
2010 - AGCS ALBUM PREVIEW PART THREE
In the final part of our album preview we’ll be covering any releases we for some reason missed in parts one and two but which we’re still looking forward to this year. Rest assured we’re not just mopping up the dregs. Well, maybe a little bit.
Anyway, without further ado here’s some dregs our final batch of albums to watch out for this year.
Liars - Sisterworld
This...
2010 - AGCS ALBUM PREVIEW PART TWO
A few days ago we listed the 5 albums we’re most looking forward too in the brave new world that is 2010, but in the second part of our album preview we’ll be delving into the murky world of unconfirmed solo albums and rumoured returns. Here, then, is an examination of the albums we optimistically expect to be released this year, and why we’re looking forward to them.
(WARNING -...
Track By Track: Vampire Weekend - Contra
Vampire Weekend’s new album may still be a week away but the band have decided to stream it in full on their myspace. Here, then, are AGCS’ stream of consciousness first impressions.
1. Horchata - The first taste of Contra was given away a few months ago now but it still sounds great. Not hugely different from anything on their first album but there’s a lot more going on - it...
2010 - AGCS ALBUM PREVIEW PART ONE
So, it’s finally 2010 and after a nostalgic end to 2009 (you can still find all our Albums of the Decade on the right hand side of the screen) it’s time to look to the future. There’s loads of good albums coming out in the next few months, and we’ve picked 5 (in no particular order) that we’re especially excited about.
Vampire Weekend - Contra
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