Half Crown – ‘Everything Goes’ [Review]
When I first discovered Half Crown at a secret Sofar Sounds show in a beautiful Brighton basement, I was struck by how comfortable they were in such an exposed and intimate environment. On Everything Goes, Half Crown manage to achieve that same sense of fearless liveness and meaningful connection without any face-to-face contact whatsoever. This is a rare and valuable feat in today’s increasingly digital and digitised world.
Fusing gritty blues-ridden rock’n’roll with elements of hip-hop and reggae, Half Crown have developed an energising and exciting sound that retains enough familiarity to ensure accessibility while pushing a collection of idiosyncratic personalities to the forefront. While many rock-oriented acts talk the talk and look the part but put out a self-consciously studious, even bookish vibe on record and onstage, Half Crown have not only done their homework but also twisted their tastes into something more suited to getting their plaintive and heartfelt message across. That message changes from song to song, spanning the spectrum from the personal to the political, but you cannot doubt the passion behind the playing or words for so much as a microsecond. Read more…
Hardcore isn’t normally the kind of music I can get into outside of live shows – but with this track, Palm Reader just became an exception to that rule. Maybe it’s the ultra-complex DEP-meets-the-theme-from-28–Days–Later vibe; maybe it’s my fresh, indignant anger at YouTube’s incessant insistence that I spend my time on their site consuming some Creationism-endorsing crapfest; or maybe it’s the bleakly abstract video below efficiently complementing this track’s relentless and ear-rending catharsis. Well, whatever – I Watch The Fire Chase My Tongue is fucking excellent, and if this is just a taste of what to expect from Palm Reader’s next album (Beside The Ones We Love, due out in 2015), then it’s also a reason to get very goddamn excited indeed. 
Biffy vibes, buckets of energy, raging outro riffs, and one of the most random videos I’ve seen this side of Baby Godzilla’s YouTube channel. All of my yes is being given to Fish Tank right now. Definitely a band to watch out for in 2015. 
Things have been pretty heavy on TMMP of late, and the weekend’s just around the corner. Enter Australian exports Sticky Fingers and their soaring, gritty party-rock anthem, Just For You. Sod winter’s freezing creep – close your eyes and be transported straight back to your favourite sun-drenched festival field. 
The first time I heard about The Hell, I was advised to imagine 
Bursting out of the gate with a crystal-clear salute in Meshuggah’s direction and really coming into its own from second track 91367 onward, No Sleep is a dense album easily penetrable to fans of modern progressive metal, and worth the time and effort for the curious. 
Dark, heady synth waves offering moral support to a disarming and vulnerable vocal before an unsettlingly shaky rhythmic base emerges from a nanobot beach; direct and instantly memorable lyrics; a winningly simple melodic line that Kraftwerk would be proud of. All are components of Wolfhour‘s identically-titled opening track. 
Although this piece is aimed at creative people who are traversing the long, desolate desert of writer’s block, it’s also a great pick-me-up for anyone experiencing an awkward life period, whether it be termed a “dry patch” or a “dark night of the soul”. On Turning Ruts Into Grooves, Trevor Gordon Hall employs his virtuosic guitar talents in evoking feelings of uncertainty, ambiguity, anxiety, inertia, and the slow emergence of fresh direction and determination. Not so much a piece of music as an act of public service. 
I got my teeth into this track a few days ago, and quickly wrote up a piece full of thoughtful phrases and quirky descriptions of its inner goings-on. But since then, I’ve not been able to stop listening to it – and my old words have been consigned to the circular file. Words, orgasms, and white sugar aside, I don’t have much of an addictive personality – but Ark is officially my fourth vice. As a music journalist, this kind of craving is not good for a career based on listening to innumerable songs over the course of a day, rather than just one – but when I mentally implode and wind up working as a “waste disposal technician”, at least I’ll be able to look forward to listening to Ark on the drive home. 
TMMP is all about boundary-breaking – and the video for ambient musician Nigel Stanford’s Cymatics definitely fits the bill. Whereas many electronic artists settle for stuffing their videos full of barely-dressed women and fully-clothed dudes posing somewhere in the background, Stanford’s team have taken a very literal approach to the visuals for Cymatics.