Our very own Brighton Festival has a long standing hidden gem. The Lunchtime Concert series. It's been going for longer than I can remember but receives little fanfare despite it's invariably outstanding programme of jazz, classical, world and experimental music. It's where I first saw the Manchester based GoGo…
Can you tell us about your career background? I was a Biochemist graduate, though when I realised that laboratory life wasn’t quite for me I entered the music industry working for EMI and Universal in product marketing. In the mid 1990’s I set up one of the first digital media…
Unbelievably, this is Austin based Jonathan Meiburg's ninth album as Shearwater, a truly outstanding achievement in relative longevity and devotion to music. Made more so in the face of limited success, albeit one that has seen him attain a decent loyal following, and a high regard amongst critics, for…
I can't quite put my finger on it, but many of the old faces have been releasing some of their finest work of late, often after years of producing ho-hum tedium. It could be just a coincidence. Or it could be that many are raising their game in the…
Tuff Love are not tough to love – you hear their music and it just makes you want to get involved by bouncing across the room along with the other Tuff Lovers. Having met them briefly after an awesome gig at The Prince Albert early in 2015, they are…
The Brewis brothers have, very sensibly, not tried to follow on from 2012’s “Plumb”, an impeccably conceived and sequenced album that plays more like a suite than a pop/rock LP. Like many intelligent musicians do, they’ve moved on to different things and sought to avoid repeating themselves. “Commontime” sees…
Do you like big vintage guitars? Do you like huge drums? Do you like dreamy, layered harmonies and whimsical melodies? Yes? Well, you’re in the right place. Recorded at The Besnard Lakes’ own Breakglass Studios in Montreal, “A Coliseum Complex Museum” is all about guitars – red hot…
“What is emotional mugging?” Ty Segall rhetorically asks us in a video preview for his new record, mocking the ‘you believe what I say because I’m in a lab coat’ bullshit of pseudo-scientific adverts, as Casio keyboard muzak plays in the background. Luckily Dr Segall is on…
The High Llamas are best described as a warm comforting hug for the ears. Time and time again Sean O’Hagen brings together influences from early American pop and folk, Brazilian jazz and bossa nova, post Beach Boys Brian Wilson, film scores and avant-garde electronica. To form the delicious baroque…
Beginning with the deep resonant bowing of a dusty cello and viola, the cinematic sweep of Suede's seventh album Night Thoughts is apparent from the opening bars. 'When You Are Young's pairing of guitars with epic strings and rat-a-tat-tat militaristic drumming, alongside Brett Anderson's distinctive high octave vocal, gets…