Demob Happy

Follow the herd 9/10 ‘Shepherd’s Dog‘ is a significant departure for Sam Beam and judging some fan reaction it is not going to be an easy transition for a large bulk of his followin. However, if like me you were not particularly enamoured to his old style – stripped down folk in the mold of [...]

Iron and Wine - Carousel [ 4:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Without Walls 8/10 Despite his reputation as arch studio boffin, producer Sascha Ring – aka Apparat – makes unapologetically beautiful music. Unlike some of his IDM peers, Ring is not interested so much in abrasion or near-mathematical deconstruction, but with music that swells and soars with classical grandeur. Among current producers, he bears a resemblance [...]

Apparat - Headup [ 5:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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‘Roll River Roll’ 8/10 Richard Hawley’s latest album is embued with the same romantic retro ambience as his previous ventures. The former Pulp guitarist turned baritone crooner gives a masterclass in classic pop nostalgia, pitting his melancholy Roy Orbison-cum-Scott Walker vocals against beautifully arranged compositions. Whereas he has garnered some criticism for playing it too [...]

Richard Hawley - Lady Solitude [ 5:32 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Excellent mini-album 7/10 Iron & Wine and Calexico have collaborated well on this fine EP, which pits Samuel Beam’s alt-country credentials against the latter band’s widescreen musicianship. It is an easy match, since Beam’s soft, sometimes melancholic vocals are not dissimilar to that of Calexico’s Joey Burns. Whereas Iron & Wine is a solitary lo-fi [...]

Iron & Wine / Calexico - He Lays in the Reins [ 3:44 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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‘Something to Look Forward to’ 8/10 Anyone who got into Spoon’s later albums, ‘Gimme Fiction‘ and ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga‘, will certainly not want to miss out on 2002′s ‘Kill the Moonlight‘. Spoon are a hard band to categorise, at once both willfully experimental and with plenty of crossover appeal. They make lean, concise [...]

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‘Top Ranking’ 9/10 Blonde Redhead’s breathtaking album ‘23‘ combines the sonic intensity of shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine with the dream pop of Cocteau Twins and Lush. Despite the stylistic conceits, they overwhelm the listener with the strength of the songwriting and dazzling, dizzying soundscapes. Like contemporaries Asobi Seksu (check out their stunning single ‘Thursday‘), [...]

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Another View Point 7/10 Keigo Oyamada – aka Cornelius – has a curious sound that is at once lush and acoustic, but proudly synthetic and occassionally a little sterile. Point‘s mix of funky house, beach boy harmonies, garage rock and other electronic ephemera feels somehow both spontaneously breezy and painstakingly intricate. The digital production is [...]

Cornelius - Brazil [ 3:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Timely collection 9/10 There may never be agreement on the best tracks of such an important, much-loved band. Universally successful groups like REM reach a great variety of people with diverse tastes, connecting with different sides of their musical personality. This, their second Best-Of, covers REM’s albums with Warner, incorporating their most commerically successful period [...]

REM - Ebow the letter [ 5:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Race In to Battles 8/10 Call them Math Rock, Postrock, call them whatever, Battles are a progressive act in the truest sense of the word. Whereas aforementioned genres can conjure images of po-faced musical purism, Battles’ sound is approached with a maximilist, more-is-more attitude. There are shades of Tortoise’s jazz-rock leanings here, ooioo’s tribal freak-outs, [...]

Battles - Leyendecker [ 2:44 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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’4AM At Toumani’s’ 8/10 Damon Albarn’s Mali Music project is an overlooked album of beautiful mood and texture that barely belongs to the hideous ‘category’ of world music. This is very much a subjectivised, western account of African moods and musicianship, taken largely from muddled field recordings and mixed down in London. Mostly the range [...]

Spoons - Mali Music [ 5:19 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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