Mike Dawes – ‘Era’ (Album Review)
Mike Dawes is the acoustic guitarist’s acoustic guitarist.
Try saying that ten times in a row Read more…
TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2016 [Feature]
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As the music industry slows down, its alternative end hibernating while the pop-enamoured mainstream hungrily ogles Christmas shoppers, the time has come to look back on a seriously strong year for organised soundwaves. For me, it’s been heavy, intense, and a hell of a lot of fun thanks to the releases listed below.
With so many exceptional contenders in the running for the top spot, the thought of ranking them in order of quality is plainly ridiculous. So instead, I’ve picked out three releases that had memorable impacts on me when I first heard them, and assembled the others in alphabetical order.
The Pretty Reckless’s Who You Selling For – along with previous effort Going To Hell – is conclusive proof (if it were honestly needed in 2016) that women belong in rock music, and are fully capable of kicking ass. The sexists of the music world are like Wile E. Coyote; they’ve run off the edge of the cliff, nothing surrounds them but empty air, they’ve looked down, and they’re panicking. Sonic Boom Six’s The F-Bomb picks up where that image leaves off – it’s cheeky, chirpy, happy and hard-hitting (sometimes simultaneously), addressing a wealth of gender-related issues and providing a great ska-fuelled party soundtrack as only Sonic Boom Six can.
Musically, Dissociation is The F-Bomb’s polar opposite. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s swan song is crammed with brutal and ultra-experimental mathcore – but it’s also Dillinger’s most delicate and diverse album. The Dillinger Escape Plan are living proof that you can achieve great things without compromise, by sticking to your guns and just going for it.
Beyond that point, you’re free to dive into an epic range of albums including solidly grooving rock sets, monolithic slabs of military-grade metal, and progressive masterpieces. Since I’ve not reviewed many EPs this year, I’ve also included a pair of extended-playing mind-blowers in the form of Dorje’s Centred And One and Toska’s Ode To The Author. Dorje specialise in utterly idiosyncratic rock tunes with added progressive spice, while to me, Toska (made up of Dorje’s backline, namely guitarist Rabea Massaad, drummer Ben Minal, and bassist Dave Hollingworth) represent the future of instrumental metal.
Both Dorje and Toska are bands on the rise – and they fully deserve to hit the same peaks enjoyed by the biggest names on this list.
There’s little more to say; for me, this list represents the top albums of 2016. Enjoy the full reviews linked below, follow TMMP on Twitter, subscribe to my brand new YouTube channel, and stay tuned for more world-class music next year!
1) The Pretty Reckless – Who You Selling For
1) Sonic Boom Six – The F-Bomb
1) The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation
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2) Read more…
Animals As Leaders – ‘The Madness Of Many’ [Review]
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Animals As Leaders represent that rarest breed of bands, so far ahead of their time that even their most visionary peers struggle to keep up. For fans of instrumental progressive metal, Tosin Abasi, Javier Reyes, and Matt Garstka need absolutely zero introduction, their names synonymous with music so intricate that the fact there are only three of them is still scarcely comprehensible. To those for whom djent is everything, Animals As Leaders are the leaders of the pack.
The Madness Of Many is not going to do anything to change that. The thought of Read more…
TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2015 [Feature]
2015 has been a big year, soundtracked by a slew of spectacular albums. Picking an overall favourite was a pretty stressful task – and in the end, Jon Gomm’s gorgeous collection of live fan picks and what is, in my opinion, the definitive modern-day Joe Satriani album both had to go on top.
Deciding who would ultimately top the tree was made infinitely easier by putting them in alphabetical order by surname; if you put a gun to my head and demanded I choose between Jon Gomm and Joe Satriani in terms of quality, you’d just have to shoot me. They’re two sides of the same coin, Jon Gomm representing the acoustic world, Satriani the electric. Put together, these guys represent almost unparalleled guitaristic virtuosity.
In joint second place, you’ll find a whole host of alphabetised winners who would each be done a terrible injustice were they to be placed in a lower position. From legends with glittering careers spanning decades to stunning comeback albums and a fair few brand new names facing bright and hopeful futures, TMMP’s top albums of 2015 are all here.
Dive in – there’s a lot to get stuck into – and follow TMMP via Twitter for more from the world of world-class music in 2016!
1) Jon Gomm – Live In The Acoustic Asylum
1) Joe Satriani – Shockwave Supernova
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Jon Gomm [Interview]
Imagine you’re a guy with an acoustic guitar. You practice a lot. You get good. You experiment with every technique you can possibly think of. You record an album, with the goal of getting gigs. It works – a bit too well. You end up touring for several years, performing in countless countries and covering every continent on Earth.
Things are going pretty well by the time you record a solo performance video for a song that, on paper, shouldn’t have commercial appeal. It’s six-and-a-half minutes long, your vocals aren’t auto-tuned so badly that you sound like Hatsune Miku, and you don’t have your hair cut in a trendy style that makes you look like an Iced Gem. But it also goes viral on the back of the fact that by now, you are a legitimate and undeniable Jedi-level virtuoso. Praise comes flooding in from every corner of the world. You win fans as diverse as Stephen Fry and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee.
When you’ve been through a journey like that, and it’s still ongoing, you could probably be forgiven for developing a big head and being a bit of a knob. Jon Gomm, however, remains a true gentleman despite social media success, global popularity, and the fact that his star remains deservedly on the rise. Whether you’re a long-time Gomm fan (Gommaholic?) or just curious, read on as Jon Gomm digs deep into the story behind his new live album Live In The Acoustic Asylum and discusses authenticity, drunk Italian dockers, and the counterintuitive reality of being a bipolar performer…
Your new live album Live In The Acoustic Asylum is out next month. What thoughts and feelings are going through your head right now?
Fear, I guess! Not so much about the album release, but just kind of releasing the songs onto the Internet one at a time – because that’s where they get the most added exposure – and then, you know, are people going to like it, are people going to be into it, is it going to be popular, and all these different things.
It’s a little like being a bird with babies in the nest, and then you push them out pretty much hoping they’ll fly, and if not they’ll go splat on the ground, and you’ll be pretty upset!
How did you go about selecting the songs you recorded for the album?
Well, at my gigs it’s pretty noticeable – particularly in the UK – that there’s generally two kinds of fans Read more…
Jon Gomm – ‘Live In The Acoustic Asylum’ [Review]
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Understatement of the day: Jon Gomm’s CV is quite impressive. The guy sells out gigs across the world, has performed on every continent on Earth, is welcomed at classical, folk, and metal festivals alike, and has won over fans as diverse as Stephen Fry and Tommy Lee. Behind his viral hit Passionflower – a solo guitar-and-vocal tour de force with a view count well into eight digits – lies a sizeable collection of songs guaranteed to both boggle the mind and brand themselves on your memory.
Live In The Acoustic Asylum is a collection of specially-recorded fan favourites. Passionflower is notable in its absence, but this collection doesn’t suffer for that fact in the least. Twelve-year-old instrumental Stupid Blues kicks things off with rugged pulsations and sharp waves of notes before Read more…
Alex Brubaker – ‘The Architect; The Engineer’ [Review]
The guitar world has long fallen foul of the “music-as-sport” cliché. Walk down any bohemian city street and you’re likely to come across a six-string-toting busker or two frantically punching out notes like Morse code. Like thousands of others before them (and thousands more still to come), they take technique to its highest heights, but forget to say anything in the process.
Pecussive acoustic guitar maestro Alex Brubaker has a lot to say. The Architect; The Engineer may be dense notewise, but Brubaker speaks with grace and eloquence through Read more…
Martin Harley Band / Andy Ruddy [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 27/2/2015]
I love seeing musicians progress in leaps and bounds – and Andy Ruddy has done exactly that. The last time I saw him live, Andy Ruddy seemed reserved and nervous – but both qualities have now been completely eliminated, replaced by a confident and strong yet still warm and approachable presence. With a strong stage show, great songs in the singer-songwriter vein, and an album on the way, 2015 is looking very good indeed for Andy Ruddy.
Martin Harley is a local legend, and it’s almost criminal that Read more…
TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2014
The “death of the album” has been declared many times in recent years – but nonetheless, musicians keep making them and are showing no signs of stopping (and thank God for that!). Almost a decade and a half into the twenty-first century, there still exist bands and artists capable of composing immersive, engaging, and fully satisfying collections of songs that stand up to repeated, unshuffled listens. Here are fifteen of them. Read more…
TMMP’s EPs & Tracks Of 2014
I have a very strong emotional attachment to many of the releases listed below. Choosing this list was exceptionally tough; I’ve been fortunate to discover some incredible bands and artists over the past year, and it’s safe to say that outside this list lie a great many immense tunes that can be found via a quick browse through TMMP’s archives when you’re done with this lot. However, the following choices are the cream of the crop. Read more…