The Darkness 'Dreams On Toast' (ALBUM REVIEW)

It’s a brace of decades since ‘Permission To Land’ catapulted then cult NWOBHM throwback quartet ‘The Darkness’ into the stratosphere, infectious power pop underpinned by tongue-in-cheek 80s metal sonic pyrotechnics, leaving the listener wondering if the East Anglians were the real deal or simply the greatest piss take since Bad News.    

Marie Davidson 'City Of Clowns' (ALBUM REVIEW)

 

Combining the playfulness of Confidence Man, the detachment of Grace Jones as well as the sado-masochistic tendencies of Goldfrapp, the darkly alluring 6th long player from French Canadian producer Marie Davidson provides the somewhat startled listener with a 1990s tinged hedonistic dystopian rave odyssey. 

Zzzahara 'Spiral Your Way Out' (ALBUM REVIEW)

Zzzahara is American singer-songwriter Zahara Jaime; part Filipino, part Mexican, all California; or more specifically, Los Angeles. Waves of sun and grit spill out of this, their third album; a sound so uniquely Angeleno you can almost hear the traffic. Defiantly formed in the ashes of an ill-fated relationship, the emotion is thick and palpable. It’s a cliché to talk about sun-drenched guitar melodies, but the dreamy, beachy sound is undeniable. There are hints of Girls in there, of early Grimes, of Sky Ferreira's better produced moments.

Orbital: A Beginner’s Guide (ALBUM REVIEW)

I can still recall the moment Orbital first entered my life. Coming to after kipping on a friend’s floor after a night on the tiles, the room suddenly filled with the delightfully ethereal sampled vocal of Kirsty Hawkshaw, expertly fucked about with on Orbital’s slowest of slow burner introduction to ‘Halcyon + on + on’. A somewhat lengthier and bouncier mix of its original, arguably the track’s definitive version and of course, the delicious denouement of Orbital’s magnificent second album commonly known as ‘Brown’, my gateway to Phil and Paul’s unique variety of Hartnoll techno heaven.