Tag: rock
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Ian Blurton – Signals Through the Flames
A couple weeks back, I saw Ian Blurton’s Future Now open for Spirit Adrift, during which he remarked that next to the other bands on the bill, his “sounds like some Carpenters shit.” And yet, I would say that they played enough heavy grooves to keep a decent chunk of the crowd satisfied. To my…
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Tensei – Constellate LP
Over the last few years, The Flaming Lips have really come a long way from being the LSD-dipped and surrealist punk band that they were when they emerged from the wilds of Oklahoma in 1983. Since then, the hard left musical turns that they were perceived to have taken have become streamlined and the group…
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The Old Firm Casuals – Holger Danske LP
After a solid amount of time up on blocks (the band’s debut album was released in 2014 and, while there have been a couple of splits and a couple of EPs, demands for something more substantial have gone unanswered), a recent reissue campaign renewed interest in The Old Firm Casuals (a.k.a. Singer/guitarist Lars Frederiksen’s “other”…
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Revolution: Underground Sounds of 1968
Various Artists – 3CD boxed set 1968 was a milestone year, both musically and socially (as evidenced by an excellent documentary series that recently aired on the History Channel). We very much live today in a world that is shaped by the events of 1968, such as the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther…
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Royal Trux – White Stuff (vinyl LP)
Listening to White Stuff – Royal Trux‘ first album of new material since 2000’s Pound For Pound – I simply could not stop thinking about and drawing comparisons between it and Danny Boyle’s film T2 Trainspotting. In the film, all of the characters who survived the events which played out in Trainspotting had found life after…
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Kings Destroy – Fantasma Nera
Kings Destroy has always offered an original take on melodic doom that can’t easily be pigeonholed – for instance, while their NYHC roots might have some influence on their chugging guitar riffs, they don’t sound anything remotely like sludge metal. Fantasma Nera, their fourth album, sees the band move at times away from “doom,” displaying…
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Rancid – st (7″ EP)
At this stage of their career, it’s almost impossible to envision Rancid as anything other than the four-piece ska/punk powerhouse which has been responsible for songs like “Roots Radicals,” “Ruby Soho,” “Bloodclot,” “Fall Back Down” and “Last One To Die”; they are that punk-identified pop institution. At this point in their career, the band is…
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Tangerine Dream – The Blue Years Studio Albums 1985-1987
I’ve only recently gotten into Tangerine Dream via their excellent soundtrack for the ‘Wages of Fear’ remake ‘Sorcerer’. So I really enjoyed reviewing this boxset. ‘The Blue Years’ is a value-for-money four-CD set comprising four albums released by Tangerine Dream between 1985 and 1987, a prolific period. The first, ‘Le Parc’, is excellent and includes…
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Hard Rock Hell: HRH Prog VIII Sheffield @ 02 Academy
Same weekend, same line-up as Shepherd’s Bush Empire event HRH Prog’s 8th Cycle at the iconic Shepherd’s Bush Empire sold out within 12 weeks. In response, HRH are now staging a second weekend at the HRH base at the 02 Academy in Sheffield. The dates and prices will be the same dates, and the exact…
