Review: Warning - the title of this album is flagrant false advertising. Brooklyn based Cameron Winter (of indie art-punk darlings Geese) has opted to go solo with his debut full-length Heavy Metal and while it's an eclectic, sporadic affair, it is devoid of essentially any sonics that could in any way be referred to as "heavy metal". It's a move based around the fact that, according to the 22-year-old himself - "barely anybody knows who my band is, I'm young and not afraid of living with my parents and I'm free to chase whatever ideas I want." Apparently drawing on a Craigslist-sourced who's who of guerilla backing band members including a disinherited cousin of John Lennon ("he was a real good sport"), a five-year-old bassist ("these kids, you know, they get raised on their iPads but they're far more precocious than any generation"), and a Boston steel worker-cum-cellist ("Honestly, it's crazy, the talent that can be found on Craigslist. We got a couch, too"), while supposedly being recorded in piecemeal fashion from locations such as hotel room closets to multiple Guitar Centres where he has now received a lifetime ban, there's an undeniable sense of absurdity and line-blurring between fact and fiction that goes hand-in-hand with his low-drawled, too much life experience and awareness in a young body malaise that underpins this razor sharp, insightful, ludicrous jaunt through young New Yorker life.
Review: Unsettled Scores Records presents the long-overdue release of the soundtrack to The New York Graffiti Experience 1976, a seminal documentary by Fenton Lawless. One of the earliest films to document NYC's graffiti culture, the project began in 1974-75 as a slideshow created by Lawless and producer Justine DiIanni and featured original photos as well as the track 'French Fry 97.' That song, along with other recordings from 1974 by Lawless and his band, now appear on this official soundtrack, which is previously unreleased. The music captures the raw thrill and creativity of a pivotal moment in underground culture so this is a vital piece of NYC history.
Review: Sarah Mary Chadwick's ninth album drifts in on the smoke and hush of a late-night confessional. Half jukebox heartbreak, half art-song seance, we find a multi-talented but downcast musician tiptoeing the edge of a major life shift, as Chadwick sings of the moments before a commitment to sobriety. Hers is the kind of detoxified clarity that only hindsight allows; tremulous voices sing with candid exposure on 'I'm Not Clinging To Life' through subjects of age and lost time, backlaid by piano pitched so high we can feel vicariously the artist's vertigo. The New Zealand-born Melbourner recorded the album with Chris Townend, who reamped the full mix through a piano held open by a sandbag to create its strange, aspirant reverb effect heard throughout. The result is a record attenuated by granular bulks of memory and detachment; devastation, reframed with restraint.
Review: Chapman's magnetic voice and stark storytelling create an atmosphere both intimate and politically charged on this, her 1988 self-titled debut, made famous by hit single 'Fast Car', but ultimately a far deeper affair. Songs like 'Talkin' Bout a Revolution' channel the protest spirit of folk legends like Woody Guthrie, delivering an anthem for those marginalised by economic inequality. Her blend of folk, blues and rock feels timeless, with lyrics that still moves listeners today. The haunting 'Behind the Wall', can move one to tears for its raw portrayal of domestic violence and the systemic failure of the police to intervene. Chapman's trembling contralto gives life to the repeated line 'Last night I heard the screaming', transforming it into a powerful condemnation of indifference. In contrast, 'If Not Now...' is a personal perspective, urging listeners to live and love in the present with its delicate acoustic arrangement. Chapman's storytelling is a triumph of nuance, balancing bleakness with hope. Decades later, Tracy Chapman remains a powerhouse in songwriting, deserving renewed attention. It is not just an album of its time but a work of enduring relevance, offering a poignant reminder that music can still be a catalyst for change.
Review: Brooklyn-born Dennis Harte might only have been eleven when he picked up a Sears Silvertone, but the music on this anthologyirecorded between 1973 and 1974iis anything but juvenile. Collected here for the first time on a single release, these four singles originally appeared under shifting monikers (Dennis Harte, Harte Attack, Harte Brothers and Pure Madness), a strategy cooked up by mentor Carl Edelson to maximise industry exposure. The sound veers between garage soul, basement psych, and scrappy blue-eyed r&bian adolescent echo of The Rascals, The Youngbloods or early Spoonful. 'Summer's Over', written by Edelson, is the emotional peak: a world-weary soul lament, rendered uncanny by Harte's teenaged delivery. 'Running Thru My Mind' plays it cooler but still flickers with melodic instinct and wiry guitar interplay. 'Freedom Rides' charges out with organ-stabbed garage grit, a protest anthem wrapped in biker-jacket energy. 'Treat Me Like a Man' flips a Beatles-influenced B-side by Long Island group The Shandels into something looser and more ragged. Harte would go on to tour with Wilson Pickett, but these early 7"sinever before compiledishowcase a raw, regional talent teetering on the edge of real experience. Efficient Space lands another killer excavation from North America's fringe.
Review: Wilson Tanner steps on solid ground with Legends, a pastoral odyssey steeped in the rhythms of South Australia's Manon Farm. Swapping coastal breezes for the dusty toil of the vineyard, the duo channel the grit of farm life: dirt-crusted boots, crackling radios, and the far-off hum of summer crickets. Their previous works basked in suburban lethargy and nautical drift, but here, the focus is on the raw textures of agricultural labor, where ducks and dogs roam, tractors rumble past, and stainless steel tanks glint in the sun. Made entirely off-grid, the Manon sessions repurpose wind, brass, balalaika, and synth, rigged together with wire and tape. Legends distills the essence of natural winemaking into sound: feral, unfiltered, and alive with imperfections. Overflowing with rustic charm and irreverent humour, it's a heady swirl of folklore and fermentation, bottled straight from the land.
Review: After 2015, Bon Iver began to fuse ambient glitch with folk, a style which now reaches a head on his latest LP. It expands on 2024's taster EP 'SABLE' in the form of an 11-track sonic parable: waxing introspective on difficult themes such as memory and identity, 'THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS' and 'S P E Y S I D E' indulge typographic play and fragmental lyrics, the latter especially paradigm-shifting in lyrical perspective. 'Awards Season', also, deals in the problematics of recognition, peeking behind and thus part-dissolving the veil of success in public life. With signature passion yet quarrelsomeness, Justin Vernon has crafted yet another glistening, glitching folk odyssey for us to enjoy.
Review: Daniel O Sullivan, known as a producer for the likes of Tim Burgess and for his astounding art pop band Grumbling Fur, makes his first foray into classically informed chamber music. With some sort of superhuman genius mind, the unassuming Mancunian wrote these arrangements for a 14-piece ensemble and nailed it. 'Golden Verses' is stately, pastoral, yet menacing. Another highlight, 'Painting Rose' is some of the most psychedelic classical music you'll ever hear. So, if you're looking for chamber music that spans eras, genres and takes you on a transcendent journey, then look no further.
Review: American country star Morgan Wallen returns with his fourth full-length project: a sprawling, near two-hour showcase of pop, rock and acoustic balladry. While his sound remains rooted in Nashville tradition, the Tennessee-born singer taps into broader palettes hereidrawing on slow-burn storytelling ('Just in Case'), radio-friendly duets (like his Tate McRae collab), and swaggering pop-rock hybrids that veer into crossover territory ('I Ain't Comin' Back', with Post Malone). Wallen's lyrical themes stick to familiar territoryiheartache, small-town nights, self-reflectionibut the production, led by longtime collaborators Joey Moi and Charlie Handsome, often elevates the material. Despite its length, the album keeps a steady rhythm, with highlights like 'Superman' offering a rare moment of emotional clarity. For fans, it's an unfiltered look at a man embracing vulnerability while doubling down on chart power. For everyone else, it's proof of Wallen's status as one of the most commercially magnetic voices in contemporary countryiand one who continues to expand his reach.
Review: Fine Glindvad Jensen's Rocky Top Ballads is an album that feels as though it's suspended in time, capturing moments that are both timeless and ephemeral. Fine's lyrics, often vague in their specifics, convey a sense of days slipping by, with an urgency to grasp reality through songwriting. Drawing from the Copenhagen scene, where she's collaborated with Erika de Casier and Astrid Sonne, Fine's music under her solo moniker defies easy categorization. While hints of Mazzy Star and a touch of "countrygaze" permeate the album, her sound is also rooted in the traditional folk music of her upbringing. Rocky Top Ballads is a deeply personal and intuitive collection, blending sample-based production with organic instrumentation. The result is a debut that feels both assured and strangely new. Tracks like "Days Incomplete" capture a yearning that is both fervent and detached, while 'Losing Tennessee' and 'Big Muzzy' explore themes of love, loss, and self-discovery. The album's beauty lies in its ability to evoke emotions and leave lingering questions, keeping listeners entranced.
Review: Recorded during the final year of her life, this posthumous release finds Marianne Faithfull looking both backwards and forwards - reconciling the weight of legacy with the intimacy of reflection. Across these four new tracks, she honours the dual foundations of her 60-year career: chamber pop and traditional British folk. 'Burning Moonlight', co-produced with long-time collaborator Head, echoes the melancholic grandeur of 'As Tears Go By', while 'Love Is (Head version)', written with her grandson Oscar Dunbar, floats with tender defiance. The flip side turns to lineage and tradition: 'Three Kinsmen Bold' is stark and ancestral, passed down from her father and 'She Moved Thru' The Fair' is sparse, aching, and spectral. Faithfull was born in Hampstead and came of age in 60s London, and here, on what is now her final release, she returns to the very start - not out of nostalgia, but with grace and resolve. It's the completion of a circle, yes, but it still leaves a faint line trailing off into the air.
Review: "I'd prefer it to be called just a country album," said TORRES of her collaboration with Baker, nearly a decade in the making, "but I'm proud to have made a 'queer country' album." TORRES had the initial idea to turn to the genre, inviting Baker to collaborate not only because of her shared southern roots but also because she'd also had a similarly religious upbringing that ultimately saw sexual orientation judged and condemned. The result is some deeply autobiographic songwriting on tracks like 'Tuesday', about a traditional family's rage at discovering their daughter was gay, the lilting 'Sylvia' and 'Sugar In The Tank', with pedal steel meeting acoustic guitar strum and very intimate sounding vocals. Bound to cause controversy in certain areas of the US, but it's got the quality and distinctive flavour to stand its ground.
Findlay Brown - "Teardrops Lost In The Rain" (Stallions remix) (8:04)
Harris & Crane Band - "Change Is Me, Change Is You" (3:32)
Frank Pyne & Loon Saloon - "Waco" (4:58)
The BB Jackson Band - "Theme IV: A Detective" (4:37)
Cascada - "Weepin'" (6:06)
Peter Campbell - "Let Me Ride" (4:28)
Review: From an ardent blogger to an in-demand compiler, Paul Hillery's obsessive approach to music discovery has taken him far. As well as working with the likes of BBE, he's been fostering a working relationship with Re:Warm which now yields a second volume of the fantastic Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours series. The title is instructive, and somewhere in the folds of private press joints and forgotten album cuts Hillery finds a thread which binds together seemingly disparate sounds. There's delicate singer-songwriter seances from the likes of Lucy Kitchen and psychedelic, roving magic from Stallions remixing Findlay Brown and much more besides.
Review: Indie singer-songwriter and folk experimentalist Bon Iver follows up his 2024 EP 'SABLE', expanding upon the EP's concept with a full-length in 11 tracks. Diving into themes of memory, longing and transformation, the record feels like a deciduous psychic regrowth, processed and refined from an initial uncontrolled burl of raw feeling and expression. Layering experimental sounds and organic textures, it hints at Iver's change in direction kept steady ever since 2016's Jagjaguwar debut 22, A Million. The style was continued and redeveloped on 2019's fourth album, i,i, and now returns in its fullest resplendency, with modern symbolic bricolage of effulgent soundscapes and querulous singing. This is the latest in a string of records that cements Justin Vernon stature as an artist and not a mere musician: increasingly, we hear the work of someone clawing back greater and greater shares of aesthetic control.
Review: Originally recorded in 1966 during his remarkable comeback - he'd been playing since the 20s but was rediscovered by various musicologists and found a new audience at Newport and Philadelphia's folk festivals in 1963 - this album demonstrates why he became a beloved mainstay of the folk revival. Unlike traditional bluesmen, Hurt's style is rooted in melody and intricate fingerpicking, making him a profound influence on the folk musicians of the 60s. His dexterous guitar work, often feeling as if multiple players are involved, pairs seamlessly with his soothing, almost meditative voice. Tracks like 'Pay Day', 'Louis Collins', 'Spike Driver's Blues', and 'Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor' showcase his ability to transform folk and blues traditions into something uniquely personal. He even delivers a rare but successful slide guitar performance on 'Talking Casey'. A particularly stunning moment comes in 'Beulah Land', where his intricate cross-rhythms add new emotional depth to a traditional song. Every track exudes a gentle, comforting presence, as if Hurt himself is sitting beside the listener, easing their troubles. His voice, often described as a balm for the soul, remains as rich and warm as ever, untouched by time. A beautiful, healing and profoundly moving experience that continues to impress more than half a century later.
Changing Forest (CD1: Sketches For World Of Echo - Recorded live At El June 25, 1984)
Let's Go Swimming
They & Their Friends
Keeping Up
Make 1,2
I Take This Time
Losing My Taste For The Nightlife
I Can't Hide You
The Boy With A Smile On His Face
Sunlit Water
That's The Very Reason (CD2: Open vocal Phrases, Where songs Come In & Out - Recorded live At El December 20, 1985)
Tower Of Meaning/Rabbit's Ear/Home Away From Home
Happy Ending
All-Boy All-Girl/Tiger Stripes/You Can't Hold Me Down
Introductions
Hiding Your Present From You/School Bell
Too Early To Tell
Review: These archival recordings of two extraordinary live performances takes you back to when New York City was a bohemian magnet, with low rent and spaces where artists could thrive. Recorded in Downtown in December 1985 and June 1984, the late, great Arthur Russell is captured performing at an intimate loft space known as Experimental Intermedia Foundation, which was run by Phil Niblock. Since the recordings are unedited, it does a really great job of simulating the experience and so if you close your eyes, it's easy to imagine Russell in the room right there in front of you. Of the numbers played, Russell's gifted avant-garde approach to cello is brilliantly done on 'Too Early To Tell'. And the spine-tingling, raw and deeply emotional 'That's The Very Reason' is arthouse folk at its finest. It epitomises the raw, spell-binding talent that Russell had to captivate a room. Hats off to those who have immortalized these very special shows.
Edward Hollcraft - "South Bound Amtrak 716 Arrives In Martinez" (1:23)
JJ Cale - "Cherry" (3:06)
Bonnie Dobson - "Milk & Honey" (3:20)
HP Lovecraft - "Spin Spin Spin" (3:15)
The Rationals - "Glowin'" (4:16)
Linda Perhacs - "Hey, Who Really Cares" (2:30)
The B-52's - "Deep Sleep" (3:30)
Nine Circles - "Twinkling Stars" (4:11)
The Asphodells - "Another Lonely City" (4:30)
Tangerine Dream - "Love On A Real Train" (3:46)
Chris & Cosey - "Dancing Ghosts" (9:44)
Johnny Harris - "Fragments Of Fear" (4:02)
Bill Frisell - "1968" (4:34)
Bob Lind - "City Scenes" (3:29)
Tony Joe White - "Rainy Night In Georgia" (3:35)
Menahan Street Band - "There's A New Day Coming" (2:26)
The Byrds - "Goin' Back" (3:26)
Earth, Wind & Fire - "Drum Song" (5:10)
Leon Russell - "Out In The Woods" (3:27)
Review: Night Train: Transcontinental Landscapes 1968-2019 offers a lifetime of a music on this magical collection chosen from the familiar and surreal, guided by an eclectic selection of tracks curated by the compiler of Music For The Stars. From the laid-back grooves of JJ Cale's 'Cherry' to the haunting beauty of Linda Perhacs' 'Hey, Who Really Cares,' each song paints a vivid picture of the changing fields and coastline outside your window. This assortment showcases the power of compilations to expand one's musical taste, with artists like The B-52's, Chris & Cosey and Tangerine Dream offering their own unique contributions to the sonic tapestry. With tracks ranging from introspective to euphoric, The Night Train celebrates the beauty created by artists and musicians alike, inviting listeners on a transcendent journey through space, sound and emotion.
Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (feat Fiona Apple)
Rock Bottom
I Don't Know How I Made It (feat Taylor Goldsmith)
Frank (Let's F*ck)
Katherine (feat Anana Kaye)
Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper
Golf, They Say
Venice. California (Victoria) / The Passing Of Hopper
Aftermath
Review: Brit folk rock troubadours The Waterboys have put together an evocative exploration of life's complexities with this, their 16th album, all while being inspired by actor Dennis Hopper's defiant spirit. The album blends folk-rock, Americana and poetic lyrics into an introspective look at mortality, legacy and transformation. With Mike Scott's distinctive voice and emotive songwriting, the tracks balance philosophical musings with gritty realism and so embody Hopper's famously raw and rebellious energy, the sort that made him such a star of the silver screen and movies like Easy Rider. The album's atmospheric instrumentation includes sweeping strings and soaring guitars that enhance its reflective nature. Life Death & Dennis Hopper is an ambitious record but one that resonates with depth.
Review: New York indie-folk four-piece' Florist's second album is a hypnotic, psychedelic album that is the musical equivalent of an out of body experience. Single 'Have Heaven' is so elegant that you imagine singer Emily Sprague as someone who is deeply in tune with nature and the cosmos, careful as not tread too heavily incase she disturbs the flowers. It's timeless but also quite unusual in terms of the mix because although there's aspects of folk classics like Joni Mitchell, some of the flourish with pedals and effects brings to mind more modern influences, like Superorganism. But it's more a peppering of that side so as to not overwhelm. Another single from the album, 'This Was A Gift' is pure beauty that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Some singers are just born for the role of troubadour and Sprague is one of them. Long may Florist keep capturing songs this magical.
Review: Platform 23 reunites once more with Vox Man Records to dig deep into their archives and shine a new light on. In the past they have done some mega well loved Alternative Funk compilations which got the label off to a fine start and now they dig into an array of cult cassette releases to bring us treasure from Audiologie N-4 - The Independant Psychedelic Trip and Audiologie 5 et 6 - Ethniques Urbaines. This is music from the avant-garde and post punk scenes that draws on wave, spoken word, dark dub and industrial for its eerie yet alluring charms, all with a real edge. Ethnic, idiosyncratic and psyched out, this is another great overview.
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