Let’s Talk Daggers – ‘A Beautiful Life’ [Review]

If you’ve ever wondered what a panic attack might sound like, look no further than this album.

Let’s Talk Daggers do hyperventilating riffs, bludgeoning beats, and rhythms that would make a professional mathematician’s mind cave in. They don’t do sweet, calming chillaxatives – and even when they do turn down the intensity, the results possess a constant undercurrent of disturbed unease.

This is not the kind of music you’d admit to enjoying on a first date. Read more…

Posted on 07 October 2015

Outside The Coma – ‘The Battle Of Being’ [Review]

Remember science class? Man, it was boring. Stuck staring at a textbook or a blackboard while the world’s most monotonic teacher droned on and on about everything from leaves to light.

You were interested in light, at least. Sunlight. The light from the sun shining outside, while you were kept out of it.

But one day, you got to experience something even cooler than escaping. You gathered around the teacher’s table with your friends, to watch a series of substances with arcane names go up in flames. Blinding lights; miniature explosions; the world’s most compact firework display.

After all the sleepy gloom that came before it, that lesson was imprinted on your memory forever. Even when it was over, you were still buzzing. Excited.

The Battle Of Being is just like that lesson. Read more…

Posted on 27 September 2015

For Astronauts And Satellites – ‘Then, By The Light Of Our Own Creation’ [Review]

Originality is rare in music – but For Astronauts And Satellites have it in spades. These guys are gradually carving out a global-scale niche of their own, merging chiptuned electronica with gritty and epic post-rock and winning fans across the world in the process.

Then, By The Light Of Our Own Creation takes retro gaming soundtrack tones, drops them into syncopated rhythmic layers, and adds more than a few tasty (and often mixed-meter) grooves. It is challenging, but also rewarding – music made for those who crave Read more…

Posted on 16 September 2015

Pulo Revé – ‘É’ [Review]

To spot a great band in the darkest depths of the underground, start by asking yourself the following questions:

1) Are they recycling the same old tired clichés?

2) Can you hear their influences?

2a) If so, do those influences flow into each other and blend well?

3) Do they sound like they mean it?

4) Does the production job do the music justice?

The answers you’re looking for are:

1) No;

2) I don’t care, because this is badass!;

2a) Yes;

3) Yes;

4) Hell yes.

É‘s Introductory Blues passes this test effortlessly. Acoustic guitar fiddliness in the vein of Candyrat Records gives way to Enter Shikari-style vocalisations, a buildup into Read more…

Posted on 12 September 2015

Chon – ‘Grow’ [Review]

My face seems to think it’s Halloween, because I can’t stop grinning like a carved-up pumpkin after hearing this album.

CHON are a truly unique band capable of blending Disney-cute melodies with hard-driving hypersyncopated grooves (as on Grow opener Book, featuring Animals As Leaders drummist Matt Garstka) and intimidating time signature changes (second track But, again pinned down by AAL’s animalistic skin-beater). Add in sparkly fusion chords, polished-but-not-clinical production, and sublime vocals (entering on Can’t Wait) and…damn. If you’ve not been scared off by the six-letter F-word, this is your dream come true.

Highlights? How about every single moment? This may sound hyperbolic, but fuck it – it’s true. Grow has been Read more…

Posted on 09 September 2015

The Dear Hunter – ‘Act IV: Rebirth In Reprise’ [Review]

Before you press play on this album, you’d better brace yourself. This is for three reasons:

1) The Dear Hunter have been going for five studio albums and a series of nine EPs now, so it’s safe to say this band is a bit of a Big Deal;

2) The Dear Hunter’s main project is a six (or rather VI)-act story, in the process of being presented over the course of six/VI albums. Act III: Life And Death was released back in 2009 – and so this album, Act IV, has been six years in the making, and fan anticipation (fanticipation? …maybe not) has been at fever pitch for a long time now;

3) Act IV: Rebirth In Reprise is beyond epic.

This is an absolute rollercoaster of an album, launching into ultra-rich Biffy-Clyro-crossed-with-Queen harmonies which soon give way to forest-party-falling-down-the-stairs folk and an inquisitive orchestral section. As opening statements go, Rebirth is pretty damn unique – a very rare statement in today’s musical climate. Then we get pitched into Read more…

Posted on 04 September 2015