SINGLE REVIEW – TOM A SMITH: I DON’T WANT YOU TO HAVE TO REMEMBER ME FOR LONGER THAN YOU EVER KNEW ME

When Tom A Smith played Deaf Institute earlier this year, he introduced two new songs into the set.  The closer – a cover of LCD Soundsystems “All My Friends” – was incredible, a fine example of a band reinterpreting and making someone else’s song their own. But the most intriguing song of the night was […]
Arriving at a time of great uncertainty, Shallow Waters new single “The God You Know You Are” gives listeners the keys to a world to get lost in. The band originate from Wigan (aka the pie capital of Britain) and bring with them an expansive single that announces their ambitions clearer than a foghorn on […]

SINGLE REVIEW: SHALLOW WATERS – THE GOD YOU KNOW YOU ARE

SINGLE REVIEW: FURROWED BROW – PISSING SUPERFLUOUS

In the preceding summer, I erroneously misheard this song’s name while it was still in its unrecorded, (about-to-be) live-debuted infancy; the unpleasant temperature, noise pollution and the perturbing similarity of piss and kiss as syllables (matter of tongue placement) all proved decisive factors in an error I was powerless to reverse from being carved into […]
Death Valley Girls hit the streets once again with a single release of ‘Breakthrough’. A very charming and inviting success at merging the ‘old rock’ sound into a modern sound. They’ve got their influences tied into their groove without relying to much on just ‘sound like they did okay!’. Having never listened to the group […]

SINGLE REVIEW: DEATH VALLEY GIRLS – BREAKTHROUGH

SINGLE REVIEW: TINFOILS – SPITTING

Precipitation, as a literary device, is universally linked thematically to negative topics like the demise of a loved one/barbecue/relationship or even the inability to load a musket if period re-enact were the scenario (appears not). Owning to the 167 second runtime, it is a somewhat more concise and straightforward lament about undefined melancholy, with the […]
This wasn’t really what I was expecting when (I thought) I saw Tshegue described as ‘Afrobeat’ – I was thinking jazzy, musical and upbeat, where this is scuzzy, dirty dance music. Unfortunately, setting me to review this is like a gardener reviewing a computer – but never mind. Looking again, I realise that “afrobeats” is […]

SINGLE REVIEW: TSHEGUE – THE WHEEL

SINGLE REVIEW: YAMMERER – POISONOUS REPTILIAN COLLEAGUES & CO

It’s safe to say that Chester’s music scene is just a shadow of its big brother Manchester.  It might have something to do with the lack of venues, or maybe just the lack of interest from the ageing demographic of the city, but for somewhere that doesn’t stop fucking raining it is miraculously dry. However, not […]
Personally, I think it’s important to take some things into consideration when listening to a debut single. If an artist is serious, they’ll pour their heart, soul, and everything just shy of the kitchen sink into that first song. At that point, it’s evident that to them, it is their masterpiece. In that case, the […]

SINGLE REVIEW: TOM GIBSON – NOT RIGHT FOR YOU

SINGLE REVIEW: TINFOILS – ROYAL BABY MACHINE

Typically I don’t normally care for socio-political jabs in rock n’ roll; the commentary almost always finds itself doing a literal moon walk straight into the sanctimonious tavern of raised eyebrows (a real venue = nope). In this instance however, the Tinfoils pull an evasive manoeuvre on the aforementioned metaphor by the injecting the lyrics […]
Seemingly what I am hearing appears to be lurking in the youthful exuberance aisle; the distorted guitars forcefully yanking the shopping cart further into the unmapped retail complex that I’ve decided this review will be set in. It’s the changes in pace throughout the song that seem to invoke a kind of indecision… should one […]

SINGLE REVIEW: SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTARY – JACKED UP ON JESUS