This past Friday night, Guildford’s residents were offered a prime opportunity to catch three fascinating acts in the act of creating incredible music. It’s rare to experience a gig crammed this full of uncategorizable music – but then, the Boileroom isn’t your average venue. Kudos first has to go to the booking brains behind this show; that kind of talent isn’t Read more…
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…
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…
If you love diversity, Brighton (aka Camden-on-Sea) is damn near perfect. Its top alternative music venue, the Concorde 2 – situated next door to the beach – hosted batshit crazy prog-metal mentalists SikTh on a school night last week. Now, just a few days later, a mixed-bag crowd of dub lovers are filing in to spend Saturday night the right way – enjoying music that moves the hips as much as the head. Read more…
Now is a very exciting time for live electronica legends Submotion Orchestra, with their latest long-playing opus Alium (reviewed here) dropping on November 24th and their biggest headline show to date taking place at the Forum in London tomorrow. Submotion Orchestra keyboardist Taz took some time out of his hectic schedule to talk about Alium, his single-item bucket list, and more. Read more…
Amid endless seas of wannabes trapped in a quicksand composed of hollow and lifeless MIDI sequences, Submotion Orchestra have long stood out by a fair few light years. Their recordings consistently ooze warmth and a vital humanity – and Alium continues this trend in impressive and impactful fashion. Read more…
Sometimes a little research goes a long way. I first discovered Key Of The Moment while researching TMMP’s Guide to Project RnL, a near-exhaustive look at one of the prog scene’s most promising up-and-coming acts. Featuring the guitaristic talents of RnL’s Alon Tamir alongside a cast of brilliant instrumentalists, The Switch presents the kind of turbulent melodic metal that takes me back to my days as an avid Nightwish fan. Read more…
Welcome to Part Two of The Musical Melting Pot’s Guide To Project RnL! Click here for Part One, where we looked at Project RnL’s YouTube-based output to date. This time around, we’ll be looking at the extracurricular work of Project RnL’s core members: keyboardist Eyal Amir, and vocalist Ray Livnat. Read more…
Opinion
One of London’s best-kept secrets, Hazlitt is an artist with a very unorthodox history. Following a decade-long stint as part of experi-punk outfit Tiger Force came Requiem For Little Bird – a complete 180-degree creative turn encompassing classical influences, lyrics in Latin, and a violin in place of her formerly treasured guitar. Since that gutsy debut Hazlitt has attracted a wide variety of followers, including eclectically inclined Strapping Young Lad frontman Devin Townsend, shared a stage with said legend, and thrown herself into a range of collaborative projects.
Battlecat – Hazlitt’s second solo album – has its own unconventional tale to tell. For the past year Battlecat has only been available to the people who paid for it to be made – an arrangement facilitated by crowdfunding platform Pledge Music, and necessitated by the destruction of Hazlitt’s home and studio in the 2011 London riots – but as of now it is up on Bandcamp to be enjoyed by the rest of the music-loving world. I’ve lived with this album for twelve months, and it still sounds as fresh and invigorating as it did on that hotly-anticipated first listen. Read more…