Image Credit: Martin Schumann (CC BY-SA 4.0) It is now a popular rock legend that “not many people heard The Velvet Underground, everyone who did formed a band”, with the now-iconic New York garage rockers’ rough, unkempt experimentation directly influencing much of the next 50 years’ most enduring music. What is rarer however is bands who attempt to modernise much of this band’s most bizarre tendencies, something Dutch band Lewsberg have attempted to do on both their self-titled debut and new album, In This House. Opener ‘Left Turn’ greets the listener with the repetitive grind of dissonant guitar chords alongside…

Wasted Shirt Cover Art by Susan Sage Combining two of the most visceral and bizarre artists of the 2010’s, Wasted Shirt is a collaboration between prolific garage and psychedelic rock artist Ty Segall and Brian Chippendale, the drummer in the brutal and complex noise-rock band that is Lightning Bolt. Listening to the two singles released prior to Fungus II’s release, I could have been forgiven for thinking that this was largely an add-on to Lightning Bolt’s most recent album Sonic Citadel. Double the Dream and album opener, All is Lost, share the same dense production and fast yet sludgy bass…

Something that should probably be reflected upon during a time of crisis around the coronavirus and increasing authoritarianism across the world is how it will impact music. Much of the most profound music has come during times of huge strife, allowing artists to create music with a huge emotional resonance. Probably the most notable modern day example of this would be the case of Russian feminist punks Pussy Riot, whose unauthorised public performances of songs railing against Vladimir Putin, homophobia, sexism and the Russian Orthodox Church eventually saw two of their members imprisoned for 21 months for “hooliganism motivated by…

One artist I personally hadn’t heard prior to the last month was Alexander Tucker. As a member of the electronic collective Grumbling Fur, Tucker has spent the last decade mixing electronic and acoustic sounds and his 11th album does certainly sound accomplished in this regard at least.  Guild of the Asbestos Weaver is a droning, relentless take on synth-pop, held together by Tucker’s beautifully sombre vocal style. This really isn’t better summed up than by the opener, and only single, Energy Alphas. You are immediately greeted with a thick synth bassline and Tucker’s increasingly urgent vocals pushing the song on.…

For many of 20th Century music’s earliest forms, integration into the modern music scene hasn’t been too difficult. Classical music still rings through the ears of many movie goers, with pieces from Hans Zimmer or Alan Silvestri still captivating, alongside more modern innovators like the minimalists such as Phillip Glass or John Cage. The blues still has millions of listeners, whether in the streamlined yet hugely popular albums of someone like John Mayer or Joe Bonamassa, or in the bluesy alternative rock sound of the White Stripes. This influence, even arguably through the integration of soul and R&B into popular…

All Mirrors is the fourth album by American singer and songwriter Angel Olsen, and it is important to note that this album is not just Olsen. For this record, she recruits the help of a small orchestra, with instruments like violins, cellos, violas and trombones to help give her backing throughout the record. The opening track ‘Lark’ is a spectacular opener, using the orchestra and Olsen’s voice to build suspense until the track reaches a spectacular climax. There is nothing about this record that feels rushed, and no song feels like it’s simply been added to help extend the run…

After a career straddling the Britpop and Psychedelic Revival movements with his band Super Furry Animals, North Wales local Gruff Rhys has continued to delve into a huge range of different sounds and cultures, culminating with the curation of the Bethesda-based Ara Deg festival in support of his new album, Pang! Whilst I personally only attended the final night of a 4-day festival that also included art pop singer Aldous Harding and electronic experimenters Bitw along with art exhibitions and more, the final night at Neuadd Ogwen seemed to be the perfect summary of an event that really only an…

Within the popular music of the 1980’s, Prince arguably had no challenger in the United States. Able to combine an immediately loveable style with sharp song writing, as well as creating prominent singles for albums like 1999 or Purple Rain Prince wrote a huge range of significant hits for other pop musicians. The latest in a huge unseen back-catalogue that is being posthumously released by Warner Brothers Records; Originals is a compilation of original versions of songs he gave to other musicians. The first thing to really mention about Originals is that it isn’t just a set of demos or…

June marked the 40th anniversary of one of the most iconic debuts of all time. Atmospheric, solemn and tortured, Unknown Pleasures may not have seen chart success upon its release but is now remembered as one of the most influential and impactful releases from the explosion of punk and the subsequent post-punk movement that sprouted from the initial wave, inspiring artists from contemporaries such as The Cure to later artists like Radiohead or Bloc Party. The Manchester band’s debut has such a legacy most notably in my view for the desolate and reverberant production from Martin Hannett, with even the…

Even within a fairly diverse and eclectic alternative scene of the 1990s in Britain, Stereolab stood out. Mixing a love for the raw and uncompromising attitude of The Velvet Underground with the melody of French pop in their early recordings, within a decade they had blossomed into a band capable of making deceptively complex, vibrant pop. Pretty much the only constants in their career were the sweet bilingual vocals and political lyrics of Laetitia Sadier alongside the guitarwork of Tim Gane, but they had a distinctive yet constantly progressing brand of music because of this. Their comeback tour, coming to…