2000 Trees 2015 [Festival Review]

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Few things in life feel as good as immersing yourself in something you love. Diving deep into awesomeness, allowing the world’s worries to slip away, replacing baggage with better things. Escaping.

Of all the modern world’s escape hatches, music remains one of the most enigmatic and rewarding options. However, everyday life offers few opportunities for extended periods of musical immersion. You can walk down the street under headphones, spend a lazy Sunday in the company of your sound system with the curtains drawn, or spend an evening at a top-class venue taking in a few bands – but for many music fanatics, such experiences still don’t go deep enough.

2000 Trees certainly does. Situated on an out-of-the-way Gloucestershire farm in a 3G-free dead zone, the Trees site is an ideal location for digital disconnection, and reconnection with simpler things. The feeling of sun on your face, wind on your skin, and pure live music vibrating every cell in your body.

Arcane Roots’ (95%) set was the perfect reward for an Read more…

Posted on 15 July 2015

Heights / Throatpunch City / Eschar / Toska [Live Review – The Star, Guildford, 27/6/2015]

This lineup was unmissable.

Regular readers will already know how much I love talking about Toska. These guys are beyond insane, boasting telepathic tightness and currently-instrumental tunes heavier than the Terminator’s ballsack. Over their last few shows, Toska have been experimenting with a variety of dynamic approaches, and seem to have settled on a rawer, more focussed, and emotionally immersive sound than ever before.

Level Up: Achieved.

Having followed Eschar for so long they’re probably considering a restraining order, it’s safe to say that I think they’re alright – maybe even pretty good. The only thing Eschar seem to struggle with is Read more…

Posted on 28 June 2015

Slam Dunk Festival 2015 [Festival Review]

From the outside, alternative music festivals can seem intimidating. Certain corners of the media choose to portray alternative music fans as universally antisocial and self destructive. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

Festivals are full of people out for nothing more than a good time. Great bands, passionate fans, and meticulous organisation are all essential pieces of the puzzle – and Slam Dunk’s organisers provided the former and latter. In Wolverhampton, everybody won.

Behind black t-shirts and often morbid iconography, the themes of the day were love, respect, and gratitude. Second stage openers Shvpes set the tone with a rapturously received hometown set packed full of Read more…

Posted on 29 May 2015

Arcane Roots / Carnival Kids / Gallery Circus [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 21/5/2015]

Some nights are destined to be awesome. While most opening acts are content to warm up the crowd a bit, Gallery Circus pushed the Boileroom’s earlycomers as far as possible using massive Led Zeppelin-esque riffs, heavy beats, and buckets of raw energy. Then Carnival Kids came on and nailed a raft of angular, square-rooted and danceable math rock tracks including Here They Have Guns, The Future Is Mine, Mechanism, and Lateral Living. Deep in the crowd, heads were banged, hips were swayed, and pulses were raised.

The evening’s headliners likely need little introduction. Arcane Roots have been making increasingly Read more…

Posted on 22 May 2015

Palm Reader / Employed To Serve / Stallone [Live Review – The Star, Guildford, 4/5/2015]

“Use yourselves while we abuse ourselves.”

Although that command was given by Palm Reader vocalist Josh Mckeown two and a half hours into this show, the assembled hardcore-loving masses were on it from the moment Stallone kicked off the first fist-flailing pit of the night. Stallone describe their style as Read more…

Posted on 05 May 2015

Beardyman – One Album Per Hour (The Dream Team Sessions) [Live Review – The Jazz Cafe, Camden, 21/4/2015]

Beneath iconic billboards broadcasting HD consumerism, Piccadilly Circus’s resident beatboxers are going through the motions.

While undoubtedly deserving of respect from anyone whose beatboxing repertoire is limited to repeating the phrase “boots, cats, boots, cats,” until the throat goes dry, these acts consist of Read more…

Posted on 24 April 2015

Twothirtytwo / Secret Black Boyfriend / The Small Society [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 15/4/15]

Aldershot is on fire right now. Not literally (unless the football’s on), but in terms of incredible musical output. twothirtytwo look set to lead a fresh horde of fucked-off Aldershotians into the future, fuelling that rush with levels of theatrical passion which  Read more…

Posted on 16 April 2015

The Xcerts / Heyrocco / Glass City Vice [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 10/4/2015]

The Boileroom know how to put on a proper rock show. Support acts Glass City Vice and Heyrocco were a perfectly balanced pair, the former opening the night with tight, polished, and excellent pop rock/punk vibes, and the latter going full-throttle into heavy, rough-edged grunge territory. With plenty of fans in attendance from the off, it was obvious that both supports came equipped with their own hardcore fanbases, who were eager to get involved. Very cool.

The connection that The Xcerts have with their fans is absolutely Read more…

Posted on 11 April 2015

Princess Slayer / Oh So Quiet / Lily Oakes [Live Review – The Stillery, Camden, 8/4/2015]

I love Camden’s diversity. Step out of Camden Town tube station and you’re a minute away from the Jazz Cafe, punk and hardcore institution the Underworld, and the Stillery – an intimate hole in the wall torn apart last week by Mancunian post-hardcore up and comers, the Hyena Kill. This time around, the Stillery hosted a set of very different musicians.

Lily Oakes is an interesting one. A series of trip-hop-oriented tracks performed in the most Read more…

Posted on 10 April 2015

Heights / Porshyne / Valerian Swing / Toska [Live Review – The Hope & Ruin, Brighton, 4/4/2015]

This was not a good night to be a drum kit.

Featuring four progressively-oriented acts backed up by seriously accomplished skin-beaters, this show was a must-see for fans of complex, labyrinthine sonic structures and alternately brutal and nuanced beats. The crowd fit the bill, each individual bumping shoulders with likeminded music lovers and staring stageward as Toska belted out the first set of the night.

Toska are a very new progressive prospect, but they’re already making waves on the back of virtuosic talent, Read more…

Posted on 07 April 2015