Romani Beau – ‘Molly And The Boys EP’ [Review]
Romani is one of the Surrey folk scene’s best-kept secrets – for now. Opting for a country-flavoured approach that marks him out from 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 Gigs Of 2014
2014 has been a difficult time for underground live music in the UK. With small venues across the country facing all manner of issues, it was heartening to see the team behind Guildford’s Boileroom make it through an emotionally trying licence review process and move on to host some incredible gigs and community-oriented events. With any luck, 2015 will see a change in fortunes for venues like the Boileroom.
From intimate showings from ska legends to inhumanly tight math-pop sets via beatboxing virtuosity and an audience with the professor of punk, here are TMMP’s top gigs of 2014. 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…
Hacktivist [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 8/12/14]
Hacktivist defy categorisation. Their music is a mix of djent’s brutality and hip-hop’s flamboyance – but it’s impossible to merge those two genre labels without generating results that are…well…pretty shit. ‘Hip-djent’ reads like something you’d spot in an out of touch news rag whose contributors only feel truly comfortable with shameless fearmongering and casual racism, while ‘djent-hop’ sounds like a dance move guaranteed to alienate all but the most loyal friends. Read more…
The Hell / Flesh Trench / The Deadlights / Toska [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 27/11/14]
Some shows are born special. Although I’m relatively new to The Hell, I’ve already become hopelessly addicted to their latest album (reviewed here) – so nothing short of a bad case of death was going to stop this show (the first of The Hell’s A Shitemare Before Christmas tour) from getting featured on TMMP. Read more…
Massmatiks / Beasts / Faux [Live Review – The Star, Guildford, 17/11/14]
In Guildford, Monday night is student night – and normally, it’s not pretty. Last night, though, the streets were almost deserted, the freezing air probably prompting the town’s partygoers to settle for a night in front of the fire instead. Those in the know, however, headed Star-ward to check out one of the local scene’s favourite live acts, and give a chance to whoever might be supporting them. Read more…
Signals. [Live Review – The Star, Guildford, 19/10/14]
To say that I was looking forward to this show would be an understatement. Long-time TMMP followers will have already seen me wax lyrical about this Southampton-based math-pop quartet – but until this night, I’d not ticked off the final – and most important – box on the ‘Band To Watch’ checklist: The Live Show. No matter how good a band sounds on record, if they suck live it’s going to be tough to justify really getting behind them. Read more…
Vivien Goldman – ‘The Punky Reggae Party Show’ [Event Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 16/10/14]
For many of us, our comfort zones lie outside the physical world. Face-to-face conversations are bring replaced by IMs, text messages, tweets, and comments on Facebook statuses that drop off your news feed after you’ve scanned over them once. From this social evolution, a profound sense of disconnect is gradually emerging.
Vivien Goldman’s Punky Reggae Party Show explores the meeting of two groups for whom deep connection and active communities were paramount: Reggae musicians and punk bands. As a talk named after a Bob Marley single penned in appreciation of the Clash’s cover of reggae artist Junior Murvin’s tune Police and Thieves and hosted by a respected NYU professor, writer, and music journalist, Goldman’s Punky Reggae Party Show might sound to some like a stuffy, overintellectualised snoozefest entirely out of sync with the attitudes and ethos behind the actual musical movements being discussed – but the reality is very different. Goldman speaks from first-hand experience of the front lines of reggae and punk at the time of their very first meeting, and her enthusiasm for music with deep meaning and intent is both boundless and infectious – making the Punky Reggae Party Show an exciting and engaging experience. Read more…