Okkervil River: I Am Very Far [2011]

So it’s been a while. Hi there. I’ve been pretty busy, but not busy enough to justify such a long absence – I’m supposed to be doing one of these bastards a day! It’s been several. I’m aware of this. So I’ve never heard of Okkervil River. Neither do I know what kind of music [...]

Trouble: Manic Frustration [1992]

Absolutely amazing album. For the sake of decency, I’ll go one, but I’ve fallen for this band hard. They market themselves (or are marketed) as stoner rock, but they’re actually a pretty good metal/rock band. The opener, ‘Touch the Sky’ is classic rawk fare, but it’s the second track that got me. A hugely sarcastic [...]

Color Haze: All [2008]

Right then. The rather confusingly-named All by the world of stoner rock’s best kept secrets, Colour Haze, is nothing short of a triumph. The form is perfect – almost mathematical adherence to structure – but there is a just a flavour of 60s and 70s-inspired hippy-ness in there too. The tempo is pleasingly downbeat, the [...]

Pulled Apart By Horses: Pulled Apart By Horses [2010]

As you might be able to make out from the album art (I can’t), this band’s called Pulled Apart By Horses. They’re very similar to the last album I did, ‘Call Me Dragon’. However, they’re not as experimental and have a better sense of humour musically. It probably comes from the apparent fact that they [...]

These Monsters: Call Me Dragon [2010]

So… Basically I typed "You have to call me dragon" into Google because I was looking for something to do with a Stepbrothers quote. This album came up at the bottom and I thought I simply had to give them a listen. This is an incredibly varied sound. I’ve tagged it as Rock, Metal, and [...]

Rob Dougan: Furious Angels [2001]

Apologies for the lack of reviews for a few day – I’ve been sweating my way through final essays and the prospect of writing an album review at the end of a frantic, terrified day has been a pretty upsetting concept for me. This is an album recommended to me by my friend Roz, same [...]

Cat’s Eyes/Nao: Picture This If You Will… [2009]

Continuing my current trend with diving into beepy, strange music, I thought I’d go for this one. Never heard of them/him/her before, just bumped into it on spotify. The first couple of tracks are quite difficult to describe. This is going to be another boring review I’m afraid – I find it hard to write [...]

Caribou: Swim [2010]

Further to my aims of rubbing my nose in music I’d previously have turned the appendage up at, I thought I’d go for Caribou. Not something I’d like. It can be described as a sort of dance-indie-sample-thing, complete with strange beeps and gratuitous synth. ‘Odessa’ kicks things off, with a kind or repetitive Primal Scream-y [...]

Boards of Canada: The Campfire Headphase [2005]

Opening with a beepy, echoey bit of of fluff doesn’t traditionally get me going, but this album was actually quite nice, in a way that’s hard to describe. Floaty, ethereal and highly technical, it’s an interesting sound. ‘Chromaky Dreamcoat’ the second song, though the first real song on the album in terms of length, is [...]

MC Solaar: Cinquieme As [2006]

So this is actually really good. Solaar is originally from Chad, and ended up in France, where he does hip-hop. In French. Which I suppose I’m ok with, just this once! This has, thank god, more in common with genuine (i.e. US) hip-hop/rap than it does with *spits* UK hip-hop. It’s a really chilled out [...]