Wicked City – ‘So Good (Vocal Mix)’ [Review]
Some tracks just leave you stunned. This is one of them. Deadly-sexy, funky, deep, and gorgeously bass-heavy, So Good is…well… Read more…
Roy English – ‘Julianne’ [Review]
Roy English is straight-up cool. Deep retro vibes permeate Julianne, lending it an air of nostalgia while masterfully avoiding Read more…
The Weeks / The Apache Relay / The Greasy Slicks / Gold Phoenix [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 19/1/15]
I have no excuse for missing most of Gold Phoenix’s intense garage-rocking set. I’m just a bad person.
The Greasy Slicks, on the other hand, are good. As a matter of fact, they’re more than just good – they’re fucking immense. Flat-out fucked drums, flamethrower guitars, and Read more…
Rose Coloured Records – ‘Doorstep – Volume 2’ [Review]
Dropped right before Christmas last year, Rose Coloured’s Doorstep Volume 2 compilation doubtless made great stocking filler for a number of Surrey and Hampshire’s resident music fans. It also offers plenty of great reasons to get excited about the Guildford- and Aldershot-centred music scenes in 2015. 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…
By The Rivers / Bare Jams / Riot Act [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 19/12/14]
With very few exceptions, Christmas music is terrible. Fortunately, the Boileroom team have good taste in tunes – and so this show was the perfect antidote to the overwrought saccharine pap that’s been unavoidable for the past few months. Read more…
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…
Beardyman – ‘Distractions’ [Review]
In an age of instant gratification, where everyone wants everything yesterday, dropping a sophomore album over three and a half years after your debut can be an anxiety-provoking event. It can be argued that music fans are more fickle than ever, easily susceptible as we all are to distraction and immediate amnesia – and under such conditions, almost any musician could reasonably expect the world to have moved on over the course of 42 minutes, let alone months. However, Beardyman is no standard-issue artist. Read more…
Bare Jams [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 12/10/14]
Although Guildford’s alternative music venue is called the Boileroom for a reason, few bands heat it up as quickly as Bare Jams do. For band and crowd alike, this show was very sweaty. Read more…