Sunday 24 March 2024

Gossip 'Real Power' (ALBUM REVIEW)



It’s great to see Gossip back where they belong, stage front, fanatical audience wrapped around vocalist Beth Ditto’s little finger. Wowing a clearly delighted throng at the recent 6 music festival it’s as if they’d never been away, not forgetting a barnstorming groove-laden new single ‘Real Power’ and now a brand new long player boasting the same moniker. The trio’s sixth album, released on Columbia records, their first new record in a dozen years serves as a fitting marker to the American trio’s twenty-five years together. 

Friday 1 March 2024

Coco ‘2’ (ALBUM REVIEW)



Continuing the near recent trend of bands releasing new music anonymously or without fanfare, experimental stateside combo Coco unveiled their titular debut long player following a bunch of early  singles appearing as if by magic. Each record comprised languid, deeply infectious slices of soft rock, winning hearts and minds from many an unsuspecting listener.  

Tuesday 27 February 2024

Kill The Pain (LIVE REVIEW) The Old Woollen, Leeds, February 21st 2024



Chanteuses Melanie Pain and Phoebe Killdeer, rotating vocalists within surprisingly joyful French new wave covers band Nouvelle Vague, recently joined forces, the perfect vehicle to create some self-penned pop nuggets of their own within semi-eponymous side project Kill the Pain.  Tonight sees the Gallic duo opening for their former bandmates at a packed Old Woollen, the first of eight dates together on these shores, Phoebe adorned in a striking tinsel wig (presumably replete with the appropriate fire certification beneath the hot stage lighting) as she emerges from the gloom

Sunday 25 February 2024

Solar Eyes (self-titled) Album review

 


“There’s no escape, like Alcatraz,” goes the mesmeric middle section of the opening song on the debut album from Birmingham psych pop duo Solar Eyes. And it’s certainly easy to get sucked in – before you know it you’ve passed the psych-getti Western stylings of ‘Dreaming of the Moon’ and greasy Oasis-isms of album highlight ‘She Kissed the Gun’, dayglo colours streaming past you as you go. 

Wednesday 21 February 2024

Plus One's Artist in Focus: Metz

Photo credit: Vanessa Heins
              

METZ are playing us like a fiddle, offering up a brace of new songs to give a tantalising look at where their heads are at on their forthcoming fifth album, and obviously we’ve been sucked in. ‘99’ shoves upbeat and atmospheric verses down concrete steps for a typically discordant chorus, and ‘Entwined’ takes a sharp left turn for a dreamy middle section bookended by joyful noise.

Wednesday 14 February 2024

IDLES ‘Tangk’ ALBUM REVIEW

Whether they’ve wanted it or not, antagonism has dogged IDLES for most of their career. The Bristol band started off as the instigators, going after everything from the Tories to toxic masculinity, before being pushed towards the back foot at the hands of a rabid media, a strangely militant haterbase and, let’s face it, an underwhelming third album (the now all-but-disowned Ultra Mono).

Sunday 4 February 2024

Plus One's Artist in Focus: Lip Critic

 

                                                                    Photo: Justin Villar

With more drummers (two) than guitar strings (zero), Lip Critic are at the marauding vanguard of NYC punk, and pummeling new single 'The Heart' is thrilling and just a little bit stressful. Vocally it's straight up-and-down punk rock, but underneath the song is powered by frenetic work on two samplers - bringing Death Grips comparisons into the conversation isn't very creative but is inevitable. And one of the most pleasing aspects of it all is the pair of drummers are just doubling up the beats rather than intertwining complex rhythms, a means to a sledgehammer end which quite rightly smashes through any semblance of subtlety. A debut album awaits later this year.

Friday 26 January 2024

Tiger Island ‘Looka Looka Looka’ EP REVIEW

 

Emerging from the post Covid ennui brimming with defiance, West Yorkshire DIY punk quintet Tiger Island feel like a band stuck in a malfunctioning time machine, constantly veering Goodnight Sweetheart style back and forth from the eighventies [sic]

Monday 27 November 2023

CMAT - Leeds Stylus, 21 November 2023 (LIVE REVIEW)


Continuing the trend of women taking over as the driving force in pop music, behold the sudden emergence of the inordinately talented Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson. CMAT (for short) is a sharp-witted flame haired Irish singer songwriter fast becoming one of the hottest live tickets in town. The Dubliner is behind a string of startlingly accomplished country-tinged pop singles including the beautifully expansive ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy Baby!” and ‘Where Are Your Kids Tonight?” the latter featuring John Grant on backing vocals. 

Wednesday 22 November 2023

Bob Vylan - Leeds Stylus, November 13th 2023, (LIVE REVIEW)


Fiercely DIY and independent driven, London duo Bob Vylan have chosen their own supports for this tour. (First on are fellow Londoners ‘Kid Bookie’ - seething metallers, champion swearers and besties with Slipknot’s Corey Taylor. Rap-rock and nu-metal will never totally be eradicated judging by this display. Cardiff’s ‘Panic Shack’ are the antidote. Four fifths female, an authentic punk snarl mixed with a keen sense of fun and most importantly, a breath of piss-taking fresh air on stage.