ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 1 MARCH 2024

As we emerge bleary-eyed into springtime (though it still feels like winter here), there are plenty of new releases to keep us company.   The Pheromaons             Wyrd Psearch    Upset The Rhythm release the band’s 13th album, a brew of  loose electronics, refractory rock and humdrum musing which tackles subjects such as mid-life crises, male pattern […]
Dolly Parton once said “If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain”, my Aunty Annie once said “country music, the tunes are great but the songs are depressing, first the couple split up, then the bills pile up, then the dog dies!” Two views there, one from Tennessee and one from […]

ALBUM REVIEW: GRANDADDY – BLU WAV

ALBUM REVIEW – LIZZIE NO: HALFSIES

Despite contributions from immensely talented black artists (Lead Belly, Odetta, Elizabeth Cotten, Ma Rainey), folk music can often be a genre that enables and celebrates white mediocrity. White folk singers depend on the exhausted formula of southern drawl and a broken heart to fulfil their dreams of releasing a cliché folk track and frankly, they’re […]
If the script writing boffins in TV land ever needed an artistic triumph over adversity series with a twist, they could do no better than looking towards the brilliant Bill Ryder-Jones for a gripping tale. From his early musical beginnings as a teen in The Coral, to taking time out from music to focus on […]

ALBUM REVIEW: BILL RYDER-JONES – IECHYD DA

LIVE REVIEW: DJANGO DJANGO – NEW CENTURY HALLS 13/12/23

Advice After Tooth Extractions: 1. Take painkillers as soon as possible and before local anaesthetic wears off, and thereafter as necessary for the pain. Check… 2. Avoid rinsing out your mouth or disturbing the extraction socket for the first 24 hours, so as not to upset the natural blood clot forming, which initiates healing. OK… […]
It’s still hard to believe that it’s only ten years ago since Johnny Marr decided to go solo. Since the demise of The Smiths in 1987, his collaborations took centre stage, notably with Bernard Sumner in Electronic, The Cribs, and Modest Mouse amongst others, so tonight is a celebration of Marr’s decade going solo, lent […]

LIVE REVIEW: JOHNNY MARR ORCHESTRA 07/12/23

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 3 NOVEMBER 2023

For those who think that ‘War and Peace’ is an annoyingly slim novella, we offer Silent Radio’s latest roundup of new releases. It is chaos out there. Moses Yoofee Trio           Ocean   Very pleasing album from a trio consisting of pianist/keyboardist/producer Moses Yoofee, bassist Roman Klobe-Barangă and drummer Noah Fürbringer, fusing jazz, hip hop, RnB, and […]
Is there anything more delightful than a singing drummer (or is it a drummer who sings? One to debate)? There’s something magnificent about them, sitting there behind their kit, boshing away whilst also finding the wherewithal to bash out a tune too. How do they do it? How are they not completely breathless all the […]

LIVE REVIEW: SQUID – NEW CENTURY HALL 18/10/23

ALBUM REVIEW: THE BREEDERS – LAST SPLASH 30TH ANNIVERSARY ORIGINAL ANALOG EDITION

A band who played their first ever gig in a snooker hall behind Warrington Rugby Club before supporting Nirvana on tour two days later, a band who have been sampled by The Prodigy for their biggest hit ‘Firestarter’, a band who used a sewing machine on a tune and dropped cymbals out of a window […]
I’m still undecided on album anniversary shows. You know the ones: a band don’t have anything new out but in this shit show of an industry they still have to tour if they are to even consider making some cash, so they convene around an arbitrary number of years since a (mostly) beloved album came […]

LIVE REVIEW: 65 DAYS OF STATIC – NEW CENTURY HALL – 15/09/23