2000 Trees 2018 was easily one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to. Year after year, the Trees team have consistently worked to build and improve on everything they’ve achieved – and by this point, 2000 Trees has a practically unrivalled reputation amongst fans of British underground music.
This past weekend, one of the UK music scene’s greatest institutions exceeded all expectations Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
Watching a band you love level up in front of a packed venue is one of the best experiences a music fan can have. Hatton Manor – the guitar-vocal duo now expanded to a trio with the addition of brand new drummer James Purvis – did exactly that at Komedia Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
According to modern cultural commentators, our society is slowly losing its capacity for empathy. The potential causes range from capitalistic money-chasing to isolating smartphone bubbles – but regardless of the reasons why, the solution is the same. There isn’t one. We’re sick of it all, but we don’t know what else to do but grin and bear it.
As their name makes clear, Nahko and Medicine For The People are well aware that countless individuals worldwide desperately want to get up, get better, and get on with life. Cue HOKA, an album that chronicles a lifelong struggle with trauma and its consequences – and a series of personal victories that fuel one of the most emotive releases you’re going to hear this year Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
Innovative instrumental guitarists are a rare breed. Most still stick to recycling Satriani licks over stock-issue backing tracks. The standard has been set and met many times, but rarely exceeded.
Yossi Sassi is a notable exception. This guy has mastered many stringed instruments, the electric guitar being just one – and he’s even masterminded the creation of an entirely new instrument, the bouzoukitara – half guitar, half bouzouki. In short, Yossi Sassi is pretty much a one-man orchestra.
Fans of Jimmy Page’s ‘Guitar Army’ approach to composition and arrangement will instantly Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
The average band doesn’t make it past their first album. Sometimes the sophomore slump hits hard, sinking careers as that difficult second long-player either never gets released, or just blows instead of blowing up. Rarely, you’re talking three to four albums – but you’re talking really rarely.
Keeping the flame burning after ten albums is an impressive feat – and with Distortland, The Dandy Warhols have hit an all but unbelievable career landmark.
Distortland is one of The Dandy Warhols’ most focussed albums Read more…
A jack of all trades is a master of none.
Or so we’re told. It sounds like common sense – and it is. But common sense isn’t always accurate.
Between them, Klaire de Lys and Sara Rose have almost every art, craft, and entertainment-related outlet covered. From comedy writing and lifestyle blogging to award-winning YouTube makeup tutorials, fantasy novels, webcomics, sculpture, visual art, and a head-spinning range of future projects in the pipeline, Klaire and Sara are both pretty busy, to say the least.
So, that makes them jacks (or Jills?) of multiple trades. Following the apparently immutable logic of common sense, Malumi and their debut album Monsters And Fireflies should be mediocre at best. This review, in turn, should be Read more…
With so much hectic intensity permeating TMMP of late, it’s time to bring things back down for a bit.
Hayden Calnin has been billed as Australia’s answer to Bon Iver – and the comparison certainly fits. Fans of Cinematic Orchestra will also find themselves immediately at Read more…
As we saw yesterday via TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2015 feature, the last year has seen some absolutely amazing music released into the world. In case the 50 albums on yesterday’s list weren’t enough, here’s the cream of 2015’s shorter-form releases. TMMP’s Top EPs & Songs Of 2015 is a little less hefty, but no less inspiring.
Considering the meteoric rise of Catalyst, Dorje’s none-more-hench slab of riff-rocking audiojoy – not to mention the fact that it’s been my wakeup music since the day I downloaded it – it ultimately had to come out on top. But that fact does nothing to detract from the awesomeness of the bands, artists, songs, and EPs who’ve all been given second place since you’d need to nitpick to an insane degree if you were to try to rank them in some kind of chart-style order.
Every moment of music this list contains is top-notch. For further explanation, click the relevant links for more words and music – and follow TMMP via Twitter and my brand new Facebook page for more from the world of world-class music in 2016!
—–
2) Arcane Roots – Heaven & Earth EP
2) Black Peaks – Glass Built Castles / Crooks / Saviour
2) Maxi Curnow – If We Make It
2) The Hyena Kill – Blisters / Still Sick
2) Plini – The End Of Everything
2) Project RnL – Twisted Truth
Here’s a list of things that could stop me from seeing Signals when they’re in town:
1) Death.
That’s about it.
Since on a Friday night most punters tend to show up for the headliners and ignore the supports, said supports tend to be…shall we say…not very good. However, China Bears (75%) managed to buck that trend with a very nice, low-key, poppy indie-folk acoustic set that went over well despite falling victim to some standard-for-acoustic-sets-everywhere crowd chatter.
Me And The Moon (70%), meanwhile, were at an awkward point for any band, performing for the first time with an entirely new rhythm section who still need time to settle in. Here, they were a band of two halves – a frontwoman and guitarist working hard and successfully on their onstage confidence, meeting the gaze of every last person in the room, and a drummer and bassist who with time and experience will no doubt be doing the same sooner rather than later. Songwriting-wise, these guys were great – a work in progress with plenty of potential.
Signals (96%) have always been an immense band, in possession of a style brimming with cool subtleties. Complex but accessible, technical but still soulful, Signals’ self-label, “math-pop”, fits Read more…
Sometimes small gigs are the best gigs. With so many massive chain venues and mammoth festival fields out there, it’s easy to forget the joys of being packed sardine-like into a none-more-intimate room to enjoy an evening of top-class music.
Watching Jack Williams (83%) and Tiago Saga (85%), I was reminded of a recent interview with Jon Gomm, discussing the importance of authentic sincerity in the singer-songwriter world. These guys have authentic sincerity oozing from every pore, along with two distinct and enjoyable styles. Jack Williams is capable of projecting deep passions through borrowed equipment, while Tiago Saga’s versatile skills drift seamlessly through everything from Read more…