Demob Happy

‘Central And Remote’ 8/10 I came across Grizzly Bear via Dan Rossen’s brilliant – but wholly different – earlier project Department of Eagles. I was initially underwhelmed and bemused, but I persevered and can back previous reviewers who have labelled this a grower. If like me you have come to Grizzly Bear via Department of [...]

Grizzly Bear - Easier [ 3:44 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Beck at his best 8/10 Unless you are a die-hard fan, of which I suspect there are many, Beck’s prolific career seems to slip in and out of my musical radar. 2002′s sombre, sometimes po-faced, Sea Change was the last time I bought a Beck album, one which I now feel hasn’t stood the test [...]

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Radio transmission 7/10 TV on the Radio aren’t as an immediate band to get into as some reviews might have you believe. I loved their first EP Young Liars but found their debut LP ‘Desperate Youth Blood Thirsty Babes‘ wearyingly oppressive and turgid and two-starred it in an unpopular Amazon review. I have given Return [...]

tvontheradio - wolflikeme [ 4:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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The Autumnal Crush 7/10 Is electronica dead? Its certainly quite easy to trace the influences of Chris Clark’s Body Riddle. There are the tape-damaged keyboards patented by Boards of Canada; the rough jazzy breaks and dusty sampling of early DJ Shadow, whose influence over electronica has been understated; and the sped-up glockenspiels popularised by Kieren [...]

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The cutting edge of the knife? 7/10 Silent Shout finds The Knife trading in the industrial strength synths of Kraftwerk and sonorous clubland basslines that belie their origins in dance music rather than electronica. Some of the descriptions of the music on this album would have you thinking they might sound like Icelandic electronica stalwarts [...]

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“Hot Chip will break your legs, snap off your head” 8/10 Genre-bending Hot Chip have not only released some of the singles of the year but one of its best albums. As with Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley recently, mid-way into the ‘noughties’ we are starting to see some real wit and invention in pop music [...]

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“The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear” 9/10 Thom Yorke’s Eraser is best viewed as a tangential companion piece to Kid A, in my mind Radiohead’s best album. It was that record’s Morning Bell that best married Thom Yorke’s bare, unprocessed vocals with electronic soundscaping and instrumentation. Those dissatisified with [...]

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War of the worlds 7/10 At War with the Mystics – The Lips’ 12th – is not the concept album the title might have you beleive. While it sees them continue to try and push the boundaries of their sound with varying degrees of success, it remains to be seen if it has the longevity [...]

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Superconnected 7/10 Broken Social Scene are a very unusual band. A huge cast of musicians participate on this record in a democratic process that leaves the producers with a lot of work to do, trying to make sense of what can often sound like two or three songs playing at the same time. The result, [...]

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