Sweet Baboo 'Dennis' (EP REVIEW)
"Pick of the sextet is arguably penultimate track ‘Blowin’ Up My Mind’, full of cunning linguistics and driven by a Wurlitzer straight off the set of Phoenix Nights .."
Hewn from the same school of Cambrian quirkiness that blessed the music world with Super Furry, Gorky’s and Cate Le Bon, Sweet Baboo, (aka Stephen Black) has been ploughing his own like-minded idiosyncratic furrow for the best part of a decade. He can also boast a pretty impressive productivity rate, the six-track ‘Dennis’ is EP number four, again released on the Adrian Pike founded London based label Moshi Moshi, and that’s not half of it, with a clutch of albums on top of that, the dude must have songs coming out of his ears!
Triptick (VII) - BIG canned beers
This TripTick’s theme is cans, big ‘uns too! The proper beer canned market is growing, and I’m more than happy to see these tallboy cans popping up from breweries outside of America too. As it happens I picked up these three from Tallboys Beer Market in Leeds, finally living up to the name!
Public Service Broadcasting - Leeds Uni, February 7th 2016 (LIVE REVIEW)
"...the deadpan delivery of the sampled audio commentary adding to the soothing effect, the packed house respectfully silent, presumably preoccupied with digesting the sensory overload..."
Three months ago Public Service Broadcasting were forced to reschedule their eagerly anticipated Leeds University Refectory gig, leaving oneself truly utterly bereft, having been chomping at the bit to see them in the flesh, knocked out by the twin assault of their otherworldly ‘The Race For Space’ album combined with the gripping footage from their BBC 6 music festival performance in Newcastle.
Triptick (VI) - Vocation Brewery
A three-beer study into Vocation Brewery - Based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
Wherever you turn online in beer circles at the moment, you will find pictures, opinions and positivity revolving around Vocation’s entire range of brews. I’m literally yet to see a negative word said about them. The power of the internet has obviously worked its wonders on me, and with that, I had to have some.
Fun Lovin' Criminals - Leeds 02 Academy, February 4th 2016 (Live Review)
"The 6-song encore includes the sun-drenched ‘Loco’…..you can positively smell the Tequila, as the gents also tear-up the Barry White tribute ‘Love Unlimited’..."
Half a century ago the LP as we know it finally came of age with the releases of ‘Pet Sounds’ and ‘Revolver’. For the next 30-odd years, its position as the definitive benchmark against which every serious popular music performer would be judged remained unchallenged until the digital age suddenly gave the listener the power to slice and dice their audio product, threatening to make albums an irrelevance overnight. Thankfully, the art form fought back partly due to the resurgence of vinyl, also because digital streaming sites like Spotify, suddenly meant listeners could plunder back catalogues at will as opposed to simply ‘Best Ofs’. Performers also started playing their most feted works in their entirety during live shows, not lost on Fun Lovin’ Criminals who’ve chosen to do just that with their stylish and urbane debut, first appearing in record shops some 20 years ago this month.
Superbowl MVB's (Most Valuable Beers)
"...obviously you want to make sure you start off with a lighter beer, something that's not too strong ABV wise. You don't want to start the night 'all guns blazing' and nod off before the half time spectacular after all"...
Brace yourselves Britain, we are about to be hit by a storm drifting over from the US. No, its not Gertrude or one of the other comically titled storms, but the annual extravaganza that is The Superbowl. With the game underway on Sunday 7th February from 11:30pm GMT, its time to put on the sick voices and let work know you wont be coming in on Monday.
Za! 'Loloismo' (ALBUM REVIEW)
"Listening to Loloismo from start to finish is a genuinely unique experience, in the true sense of the word – whatever you fill your ears with..."
As a writer traditionally very suspicious of bands with punctuation marks in their names, my taking on of a Za! record was always going to be a risk – what if my grammatical prejudices ruined the review? What if my judgment was clouded by preconceptions? But it is impossible to be prejudiced against the Spanish duo because their music fundamentally sounds nothing like anything else.
As a writer traditionally very suspicious of bands with punctuation marks in their names, my taking on of a Za! record was always going to be a risk – what if my grammatical prejudices ruined the review? What if my judgment was clouded by preconceptions? But it is impossible to be prejudiced against the Spanish duo because their music fundamentally sounds nothing like anything else.
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