A fresh declaration of the death of guitar music seems to come around as frequently as Christmas. The chart dominance of hip hop and dance, so the assumption goes, shows that there is no appetite for guitar music anymore, and that every innovation within the genre has been exhausted. This is obviously complete nonsense. … More Omni, Patterns, Saturday, 23 September 2017
It is always a matter of intrigue when an experienced frontman embarks on a solo career, and the case of Michael Nau is no different. The 32-year-old once fronted US indie pop group Page France and remains a member of americana troupe Cotton Jones, alongside his wife, Whitney McGraw. He made waves last year with … More Michael Nau, The Greys, Thursday, 21 September 2017
How did you celebrate your last big birthday? Stephin Merritt, the eccentric multi-instrumentalist and prolific songwriter behind US indie band The Magnetic Fields, marked his half-century with 50 Song Memoir, a sprawling and eclectic 5-disc magnum opus featuring a song for every year of his life. Anyone familiar with 2004 Magnetic Fields triple album … More The Magnetic Fields, Brighton Dome, 7-8 September 2017
On April 15th 1989, 96 Liverpool fans went to watch their team play an FA Cup semi-final vs Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough, and never returned. David Cain’s Truth Street, hosted by the Spark Factory at Sweet Waterfront 1 as part of the Brighton Fringe festival, was an attempt to make sense of that tragedy through … More Truth Street, Waterfront 1, Tuesday, 16 May 2017
Shirley Collins’ story is an incredible one. A prominent figure in the sixties folk revival, she met the legendary musicologist Alan Lomax at a party in London in 1954 and subsequently embarked on landmark folk song collecting trips to Europe and the United States, working alongside Lomax to unearth some of the most talented and … More Shirley Collins, Brighton Dome, Sunday, 14 May 2017
It’s hard to write about supporting Coventry without wallowing in self-pity and naval-gazing about the point of it all. Basically, good things don’t happen to Cov fans. My last game was the 4-1 defeat away to Oxford in November. I left in disgust, lamenting the wasted money, the time I could have spent on something … More Blue Skies Over Wembley
Swedish-American four-piece FEWS would have been massive if they’d emerged at the height of the naughties post-punk revival. But those were simpler times, and the place of guitar bands of their ilk is less assured in today’s musical landscape. This was reflected in a Sticky Mike’s crowd consisting predominantly of men of a certain age. … More FEWS, Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Saturday, 28 January 2017
You Know What It’s Like, Carla dal Forno’s bleak and ominous debut solo album, is an isolating listen. The Australian resides in her nightmarish songs like a spectral, half formed memory, intertwining with found sounds and hypnotic, lo-fi beats. Performing at Sticky Mike’s on the first night of her UK tour, she appeared alongside … More Carla dal Forno, Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Thursday, 2 February 2017
New York-based Aaron Maine, the 27 year-old behind Porches, has been on something of a musical journey these past few years. 2013’s raw, Neil Young-influenced album Slow Dance in the Cosmos hinted at a talented songwriter with an ear for a hook, but it was the maturity of this year’s synth pop symphony Pool that … More Porches, Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Tuesday, 18 October 2016
1. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool 2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree 3. David Bowie – Blackstar 4. ANOHNI – Hopelessness 5. Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass 6. Guy Andrews – Our Spaces 7. PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project 8. James Blake – The Colour in … More Albums of the Year 2016, 1-100
