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I try to avoid mentioning other artist's names as much as possible in reviews, but after just reviewing the new Bonnie Prince Billie album the similarity in style is so close I had to check I was listening to the right CD on several occasions. To be fair James Yorkston's voice is different and there's less of a country influence on his music, but melodically the songs are in the same melancholic, downbeat, lamenting vein played over a bed of gentle acoustic guitar and occasional accompaniment....

Bonnie Prince Billy, William Higham, Palace Music... Is an artist who is something of a cult genius to has fans and admirers, but to outsiders, someone who's appeal has always been hard to fully understand and comprehend, this album has done something to address that opinion. The songs are all fairly similar, a country / folk crossover, sparse, usually just guitar and vocals, occasionally an accompanying percussionist, instrument or vocal. Lyrically Bonnie Prince Billy Is typically fairly downb...

An odd choice for a single, quite slow, dark and fairly bitter lyrics, not exactly something to set the dance floors across the land alight. The B-side is in a similar vein both tracks are awash with brooding, building melodies, always restricted, always maintaining tension that never quite releases, haunting harmonies and waves of reverb soaked instruments adding to the melancholic majesty of it all. <a href='https://www.doloroso.co.uk/' target='_blank'>www.doloroso.co.uk</a> Published in Ma...

There's an odd sound and feeling to Winterkids' single, track one seems to be veering dangerously to sounding like an early 90's baggy anthem, whilst the b-side is doing a very good impression of a pop-heavy-rock hit which would get the 13 year olds in baggy jeans and hoodies moshing like mad. Throughout both the tracks the vocal has some horrible production on it, it's so compressed and so saturated with reverb it's a real effort to listen to, this is what gives both the tracks the odd sound t...

I've been aware of the Needles for some time, this album has been a while in the making and it gives the feeling that the songs were possibly written over a long period of time; it's a schizophrenic sounding album. Some songs are straight ahead power rock songs, others reminiscent of 60's ballads whilst others are more contemporary sounding rock songs. Therein lies the problem, the more contemporary sounding and the fast, frantic rock songs are the highlights, things start to tire around the mi...

The Noisettes formed as the band they are now in the wilds of South East London at the infamous Brits school in Croydon less than three years ago. Consisting of Shingai on vocals and bass, Dan on guitar and Jamie on drums, the band rapidly rehearsed and recorded their debut 4-track EP, Three moods of the Noisettes, releasing it in Summer 2004, the band then went on to receive critical acclaim and some lucrative support slots with the likes of Babyshambles and Mystery Jets. But that makes them...

The Immediate's careful and beautifully crafted melodies are somewhat lost in the echoes of a half empty Scala tonight. These are pop songs of the highest calibre, the kind that would be critically acclaimed and incredibly commercially successful if handled correctly. The band are already winning over the 7.30 crowd tonight, give them 6 months and the Immediate will be everywhere. <a href='https://www.myspace.com/theimmediate' target='_blank'>www.myspace.com/theimmediate</a> Published in Maps...

Every time Jeremy Warmsley releases something new his style seems to change, is he a creative genius full of thousands of ideas or just a little indecisive? I promise is a melancholic little ditty, gentle tip-tapping drums, acoustic guitars, plink-plonking melodies and wistful romantic lyrics. It wont set the world on fire but it could set a few romances alight. <a href='https://www.jeremywarmsley.com' target='_blank'>www.jeremywarmsley.com</a> Published in Maps Magazine

Snowfight in the City Centre are yet another band who of late seem to be wearing the big sound shoes. Slow burning anthemic numbers, lots of instruments, probably a string section if they could afford one. A little outdated and not to everyone's taste, but not too overindulgent, which is a good thing. <a href='https://www.snowfight.net' target='_blank'>www.snowfight.net</a> Published in Maps Magazine

Not the most interesting of Findlay Brown's material, but this is a commercial single after all. This is sad stuff; a haunting beauty, subtle intertwining melodies, an amazing silky smooth voice, the makings of greatness, but not a storming chart success. <a href='https://www.findlaybrown.com' target='_blank'>www.findlaybrown.com</a> Published in Maps Magazine

Apparently this song has appeared all over some sort of Football programming... Having no interest in Football, I cannot verify this. However the title track of this single is another mellow, slightly childish bouncy offering from Jim Noir, his unique lyrical style again fully evident and his wonderfully repetitive but never dull melodies in full flow. Not as inspiring as his last single outing, but still an artist doing completely his own thing and making a damn good go of it. <a href='https:...

Sorry Roland Shanks, you've been around a while, maybe you were one of the first to do it, but if I hear another disco-beat-rumbling-bass-line-shouty-singer band, I'm going to scream very loudly. Maybe Roland Shanks have got more interesting songs, in fact the B-side even hints at that fact, and I know you're a bunch of down to earth guys, but don't just jump on the band wagon to try and get into the singles chart, or (possibly) to be more precise, don't let your label push you onto the band wa...

Somewhere in the recent months of the live music explosion, Indie music seems to have separated into two camps, thoughtful, clever, rocking music and music to bounce around to. Larrikin Love fall squarely into the later category, the kids love them, bounding and shouting around like idiots to pretty much every song, the band can do no wrong with their odd Indie-Ska-Gipsy crossover. However hooks and structure seem hard to find in their songs, everything rumbles along in the same vein with no re...

The Scare look out of it tonight, perhaps they would be a tighter band if they weren't off their heads, but they wouldn't be the Scare if they were sober. A big, loud, sometimes wonderful mess of heavy rock, new wave and egotistical posturing, riffs that fly around like there's no tomorrow and a seething mass of sweaty bodies. This is pure rock and roll, it may not always be pretty, but who ever said it should be. <a href='https://www.thescare.net' target='_blank'>www.thescare.net</a> Publish...

The Voices are not the sort of band I'd normally go for; I gather they call it Shoe-gazing, basically lots of noise, not much structure, just repeated, building patterns. However, there's something about The Voices that pulls me in, firstly I guess I'm impressed by the noise they make for a three piece, there's also something wonderfully calming and ethereal about the tracks on this album, they wash over you, enveloping your senses, and forcing you to just stop and listen. An excellent soothing...

Thanks to bands like The Editors and the Departure there seems to an ever increasing amount of bands making effects laden, sound-like-they're-playing-in-a-cave albums, full of big guitars and echoing vocals. So whilst At the Lake may not be particularly original they have a damn good go at the sound, with some excellent guitar riffs, great choruses and oodles of reverb of course! <a href='https://www.atthelake.co.uk' target='_blank'>www.atthelake.co.uk</a>

Strange, the 4 tracks on this Camera sampler are a little MOR for my usual tastes, but I kind of like them, in a mellow, sitting back with a bottle of beer and gently sighing kind of way. Some nice harmonies and tunes trip away with nowhere special to go, along comes another song and so it goes. In their rockier moments, Camera start to get more interesting, bring on the rock boys! <a href='https://www.cameratheband.com' target='_blank'>www.cameratheband.com</a> Published in Maps Magazine

Great album title! Televise really aren't my thing, but I get the feeling that if shoe-gazing music is your thing, then they'd be pretty ace, so I'm not going to write a review of them, and just tell you to take a listen... If you want to. <a href='https://www.televiseband.co.uk' target='_blank'>www.televiseband.co.uk</a>

These are songs for summer, beautiful close melodies, upbeat harmonies and wonderful lyrical couplets. But the weather outside is confused, and so seemingly is the band, the sound is not brilliant, everyone looks constantly surprised and lost. However it comes across as charming, complimenting the music well and Jim Noir get away with it. <a href='https://www.jimnoir.com' target='_blank'>www.jimnoir.com</a> Published in Maps Magazine

The ill informed might term Scully Ska, Lad Rock or some other such badge. Scully are the sound of frustration and displeasure with the arseholes and idiots that constantly ruin lives. They are the sound of celebrating the pleasures and excesses in life, and it all comes right in the end, usually in a big sing-a-long chorus. Scully are the sound of real life. <a href='https://www.scullyofficial.com' target='_blank'>www.scullyofficial.com</a> Published in Maps Magazine

The predominant problem for me (especially being a southerner) with jangly guitar bands singing with Northern accents, is that they all start to sound very similar, It's an unfair comment especially in You and the Atom Bomb's case. The two tracks on this single sound like different bands, which in my opinion, is a good thing. Track one is a fast-paced blistering riff led rant about and celebration of bad landlords and cheap rentals, track two a more laid back, melancholic affair about boy watch...

The show of a skilled solo artist is the ability to fill a room with your sound and presence, and whilst The Social is a small venue, Findlay fills all corners of the room admirably. His melodies and harmonies are haunting but beautiful, filling you with an enormous sense of calm and stillness. At the end of his set he quietly finishes and disappears into the room, his unassuming manner unaware of his effect on the audience.<br><br><a href='https://www.findlaybrown.com' target='_blank'>www.find...

The two tracks on Pink Grease's forthcoming offering has a wonderful tension throughout both tracks. The lyrics to Ordinary girl ooze with an impassioned plea, for what who don't know, but it's very effective! Hate has a similar feel, it's tension supplied by a confession of sorts, a claustrophobic outburst against the world or perhaps more personal. One thing's for sure, Pink Grease have thrown aside their lighter past for a new darker outlook on the world and a tighter sound to fulfil it, goo...

Sorry, this is horrible, bloody disco beats all over the place for no real reason, stupid inane lyrics about taping a TV program and irritating Xylophone plastered over the top of some horrendously recorded tinny guitars. It's not a bad song, it has a catchy chorus, I'd just like to take the band, rearrange the song, strip it down and rerecord the whole thing to make the hooks audible and less grating. <a href="https://www.winterkidsmusic.com" target="_blank">www.winterkidsmusic.com</a> Publi...

Marissa Nadler is an artist hard to judge on just two tracks. Marissa has an incredible voice, the sort of voice that could, with the right oppputunities and a lot of luck become a classic voice. Her range and emotion are incredible, sucking you right in to the beautiful melodies and this is why two tracks are not enough, I don't want it to end yet, I want more.<br><br><a href='https://www.marissanadler.com' target='_blank'>www.marissanadler.com</a> Published in Maps Magazine

There's quite a lot of this shouty, shouty, fast guitars, pseudo-disco drums stuff about at the moment. All a bit manic, songs structures that never really have any choruses or middle eights, just 3 minutes of loudness, there's probably some sort of ridiculously named sub genre, but I don't know what it is. The Scare have a fair pop at it, the singer's voice is quite often more mental than most of his peers, at times descending into odd screeches and wails, but the problem is the lack of dynami...

I always try very very hard not to reference other bands in reviews, but there is one so blindingly obvious reference point in V//Formations' sound that I have to use it. The Pixies, I'm not even sure that this will mean anything to the band, but there's the same caterwauling vocals, the same rolling bass lines and the same discordant guitars. However V//Formation are like the aforementioned band in (what I imagine they sounded like) their early days, darker, rougher, full of more spit and veno...

Who's a Terrorist now? is one of the best tracks I heard this year, raucous, scathing, and teeming with aggression and hard-edged passion, everything a track should have in my opinion. The B-Side In Good Time isn't quite as raucous, and some of the lyrics are a little cheesy and cliched, but it's still an excellent track with an awesome guitar line and a glorious sing-a-long chorus. Definately a band to watch for, they will be big. <a href='https://www.scullyofficial.com' target='_blank'>www.s...

Balls is the BFB's third release, and usually by the third album bands are starting to mellow, The BFB seem to be going completely in reverse getting rockier as they release more, not that their going to be donning Leathers and playing the Download festival any time soon. Balls is more direct than previous releases, the tracks are shorter, they kick in quicker and are more danceable. However fear not, the same Alt-country roots are still there, the same Jet black dark and arrogant lyrics still...

I'm not sure quite why I like this, the lyrics are very repetitive, in fact even the same lyrics repeated over and over again, but it's simple and catchy, it sticks in your head in a nice mellow if slightly eccentric kind of way. What more could you want from a song? <a href='https://www.jimnoir.com' target='_blank'>www.jimnoir.com</a> Published in Maps Magazine