Although we sometimes take it for granted in the streaming age, music is a luxury good. When Submotion Orchestra play, that fact becomes perfectly clear. Their albums always sound expensive, high-class cultural excursions made for the benefit not of the super-rich, but all of us mere mortals.
A couple of years back, Submotion Orchestra dropped Colour Theory, an album littered with Read more…
As the world struggles with an onslaught of serious issues, it’s nice to be able to take a break every now and again and just have some fun. CHON provide an ideal soundtrack for said festivities; their back catalogue is crammed with cutesy cleans, playful and mostly instrumental math-based tunes, and good vibes aplenty. Up to this point, these guys have emphasised the clean side of instrumental guitar – but on Homey, their focus has firmly shifted Read more…
Right now, you’re looking at a screen, and I’m writing these words on a computer – but we’re both being connected by technology. Jamiroquai’s new album Automaton is all about human connection in a digital world.
Jamiroquai have always been my go-to happy band. If I’m feeling crap, I just put them on – and within ten seconds or so, things are better. Shake It On is the kind of song where, if you’re listening to it while walking down the street, you’ll end up walking like a badass. There are so many layers to it, from pounding piano to immense clavs, sublime strings, Rob Harris’s super-tight guitar, and the Rhythm Section Of Doom Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
How would you celebrate the dawn of the coming apocalypse?
Well, you probably wouldn’t celebrate it. First, you’d shit yourself – if not physically, then mentally at least. In a culture prone to panicking at the brief loss of a free 4G connection, the end of the world is not something we’d be likely to take lightly.
Donald Trump officially came into power yesterday – and last night also happened to be the night that Beardyman and the Dream Team took the stage at Camden’s Electric Ballroom Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
Although it’s 2017, the question of whether or not women belong in rock and metal remains an emotional trigger point for many fans. Despite its status as an all-inclusive genre that provides shelter for those used to being excluded by others, heavy music still harbours a perhaps small but nonetheless extremely vocal element set on rabidly tearing down any musician in possession of big riffs, buckets of attitude, and non-phallic genitalia.
With She Rocks Vol. 1, Favored Nations – the record label run by world-renowned guitar wizard Steve Vai – has set out a resounding rebuke that should by rights silence sexists and provide more open minds with plenty of great music on which to feast. It’s pretty sad that this release will prove controversial in some quarters, but oh well. She Rocks isn’t the kind of album that’s going to meekly turn tail and flee, and we’re not about to turn back the clock and embrace the gender-related values of the 1950s again.
It’s not a case of “women can rock”.
They already do. Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
Leave all thoughts of Beardyman and the Dream Team aside for a second, and visualise instead a steaming, stinking shit sandwich. Picture it plopping onto your breakfast plate, unwanted, unloved and unlovable. Had the person who birthed that turd known what was coming, he’d have held it in out of pure terror and shame before scuttling away to quietly top himself.
That’s how all sane humans feel about 2016 Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
As the music industry slows down, its alternative end hibernating while the pop-enamoured mainstream hungrily ogles Christmas shoppers, the time has come to look back on a seriously strong year for organised soundwaves. For me, it’s been heavy, intense, and a hell of a lot of fun thanks to the releases listed below.
With so many exceptional contenders in the running for the top spot, the thought of ranking them in order of quality is plainly ridiculous. So instead, I’ve picked out three releases that had memorable impacts on me when I first heard them, and assembled the others in alphabetical order.
The Pretty Reckless’s Who You Selling For – along with previous effort Going To Hell – is conclusive proof (if it were honestly needed in 2016) that women belong in rock music, and are fully capable of kicking ass. The sexists of the music world are like Wile E. Coyote; they’ve run off the edge of the cliff, nothing surrounds them but empty air, they’ve looked down, and they’re panicking. Sonic Boom Six’s The F-Bomb picks up where that image leaves off – it’s cheeky, chirpy, happy and hard-hitting (sometimes simultaneously), addressing a wealth of gender-related issues and providing a great ska-fuelled party soundtrack as only Sonic Boom Six can.
Musically, Dissociation is The F-Bomb’s polar opposite. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s swan song is crammed with brutal and ultra-experimental mathcore – but it’s also Dillinger’s most delicate and diverse album. The Dillinger Escape Plan are living proof that you can achieve great things without compromise, by sticking to your guns and just going for it.
Beyond that point, you’re free to dive into an epic range of albums including solidly grooving rock sets, monolithic slabs of military-grade metal, and progressive masterpieces. Since I’ve not reviewed many EPs this year, I’ve also included a pair of extended-playing mind-blowers in the form of Dorje’s Centred And One and Toska’s Ode To The Author. Dorje specialise in utterly idiosyncratic rock tunes with added progressive spice, while to me, Toska (made up of Dorje’s backline, namely guitarist Rabea Massaad, drummer Ben Minal, and bassist Dave Hollingworth) represent the future of instrumental metal.
Both Dorje and Toska are bands on the rise – and they fully deserve to hit the same peaks enjoyed by the biggest names on this list.
There’s little more to say; for me, this list represents the top albums of 2016. Enjoy the full reviews linked below, follow TMMP on Twitter, subscribe to my brand new YouTube channel, and stay tuned for more world-class music next year!
1) The Pretty Reckless – Who You Selling For
1) Sonic Boom Six – The F-Bomb
1) The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation
—–
2) Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
Thoughtful, thought-provoking, and above all else intelligent, The Atrocity Exhibition is a serious and seriously timely album.
The hip-hop world has been sending certain beat-backed messages loud and clear for a long time now. Life can be tough. The way the world works sets the tide and cultural current against individual expression and creativity – even as we’re bombarded by messages broadcasting how important both are for our collective mental health. People of all ages, races, genders, and so forth have found themselves trapped living lives that they don’t enjoy, and feel helpless when it comes to finding a way out.
The Atrocity Exhibition, at its core, is about Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
The UK-based hip-hop heads amongst you will no doubt be familiar with the funky, soulful, and fearlessly direct Lazy Habits. Even if hip-hop isn’t normally your thing, these guys pack enough stylistic variety into their tunes to keep any fan of remotely urban-related music satisfied. Keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming review of their brand new full-length, The Atrocity Exhibition, and read on for a very cool chat with the band… Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
What can I write about Signals that I haven’t before?
This Southampton-based self-proclaimed math-pop quartet makes music that seems to demand a hell of a lot of hyphens in order to explain it properly. With Paraesthesia, Signals have levelled up afuckinggain, taking a soulful, jazzy tack and dropping a freaky Tim Burton-esque video accompaniment, viewable below. Paraesthesia takes math-rock’s trademark sense of playful joy and keeps dead-brain numbness at bay by amplifying Signals’ trademark quirks, showcasing a band hitting the next peak of their powers.
Long may Signals’ ascent continue. When these guys hit debut-album territory, it’s going to be Read more…