Demob Happy

Too long but It Still Moves me 8.5/10 The Louisville, Kentucky band’s third full-length is a whopping 75-minute set recorded in a grain silo and positively swimming in reverb. By eschewing modern recording techniques altogether they were taking a big risk on ‘It Still Moves‘, their first for a major label, but is with the [...]

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Ghost in the machine 8/10 All the acrimony surrounding the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, in which Wilco left Warner/Reprise to resist attempts to make the record more commericially viable, seems bizarre now. For despite its moments of sonic chaos, YHF is a great, Beatles-esque, countryfied pop masterpiece with great hooks and immediately indentifiable melodies. [...]

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Alive and kicking 7/10 The Dodos are an exciting new band that blend freak folk with latin influences and blues. Their debut ‘Visiter‘ sees the duo create often cacophanous and frenetic songs mostly from acoustic (sometimes slide) guitars, banjo, pounding percussion and occasional horns. It is a raw template that recalls, by turns, The White [...]

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A good winter, forever after 8/10 It would be easy to dismiss the history behind the recording of For Emma, Forever Ago as mere press release hype. Yes, Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) recorded this album recovering from some deep personal disappointments in an isolated log cabin over one bitter Wisconsin winter – but what [...]

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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 [...]

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Frequently enjoyed album 8/10 The term ‘slowcore’ doesn’t really do justice to this album, conjuring as it does images of painfully protracted, po-faced minimalist post-rock. ‘Frequently Asked Questions‘ is nothing of the sort. I bought this album on a whim on its release in 2001 and still find myself playing it periodically six years later. [...]

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‘Ease Your Feet In The Sea’ 8/10 On first inspection the Amazon.co.uk review’s favourable comparison to the Smiths and the Velvet Underground seems a little generous. And while the lyrical concerns bear resemblance to those of Morrissey and Stuart Murdoch’s vocals make for a less smokey Nick Drake, Belle & Sebastian don’t quite reach that [...]

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Laptop pagan folk – what else? 6/10 Although the term ‘Folktronica’ seems to be used entirely as a derogatory term now, it is a useful word to help describe this album, which is a fairly literal fusion of folk songwriting and the glitchy textures of electronica. Unfortunately, it is the songwriting that lets the album [...]

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Exciting debut! 8/10 Micah P Hinson & The Gospel of Progress… is an assured debut from a young man the publicists would like you to believe has had a tough life. It certainly sounds like it. With a gravely, smoke-chiselled voice that recalls Nick Cave and early Leonard Cohen, Hinson sings largely of loss over [...]

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