Trails / Swim Good / Dragons That Make Love To Pandas / Cavalier [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 6/9/14]
The Boileroom team sure know how to throw the quietest (or at least best-soundproofed) album launch parties in town. Read more…
Following Foxes – ‘Mother Brother’ [Review]
As firm TMMP favourites, Following Foxes can do no wrong. After just one gig and a single song, Following Foxes inspired me so deeply that they instantly earnt a place on TMMP’s A&R Watch List. Mother Brother, Following Foxes’ second single, lives up to expectations effortlessly. Read more…
Nothing But Thieves / Passport To Stockholm / Andy Ruddy [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 21/7/14]
Andy Ruddy
A really enjoyable acoustic-driven set showcasing plenty of great and engaging songs. Peaceful, serene, lush, and spacious new tunes hinted at serious future promise. Overall, a great start to the night. Read more…
The Xcerts / The Darling Buds / Tapestry [Live Review – The Boileroom, Guildford, 16/7/14]
Tapestry
When the opening band kicks off with a riff that transports you back to the glory days of alt-metal, you know it’s going to be a good night. Read more…
Pavilions – ‘Futures’ [Review]
This is really interesting. A true musical melting pot that barely contains a brew of pop, rock, and punk spiced up with plenty of brilliant musicianship and real songwriting nous, Futures is intense, solid, and gloriously beautiful. Super cool, and an unmistakable sign of greater things still to come. Read more…
A Guide To Chronographs [Special Feature]
Chronographs are a recent discovery, and they’ve made a real impact in a very short time. I’ve written a lot recently about how I try to offer constructive criticism where possible; but I just can’t think of any way to improve this band. Chronographs are like a firework with a lit fuse. Your best course of action is to stand well back, and watch them go. Read more…
Yearbook – ‘Old Bones’ [Review]
This EP is a triumph.
Yearbook are masters of syncopation, turning bars of 4/4 inside out and making common time sound as uncommon as it gets. These tracks aren’t so much “songs” as they are guided tours through Yearbook’s collective musical consciousness, unorthodox constructions laced with elements of the familiar and, yes, catchy. As with Yearbook’s live shows, there’s an ever-present middle finger raised in the direction of compromise and comfort zones; if Coheed and Cambria decided to take on the world of math-pop, they would sound as Yearbook do right now. Read more…
Rose Coloured Records – ‘Doorstep – Volume 1’ [Review]
Here at TMMP, grassroots music is a big deal. I’ve never understood why people will happily watch rubbish, stuck-in-a-rut TV talent shows that promote an illusory path to instant fame (and drop almost every winner once the last pennies have been squeezed from their exhaustive promotional activities) when hundreds of far more fascinating stories can be found just down the road, at a local music venue like The Boileroom in Guildford. It’s incredible to think that so many great, even world-class talents can go ignored, despite being within such easy reach year in, year out. Why wait for the next week’s TV-scheduled slot when you could just poke your head out of the front door and experience something first-hand? Read more…
Arcane Roots – ‘Over & Over’ [Review]
First off, let me just say: This tune is fucking immense. It’s anthemic, even joyful, heavy as fuck, and is wrapped up in a unique sound that can be readily identified as belonging to Arcane Roots – regardless of what the “Biffy Clone” critics claim. Now, there’s a certain amount of Biffy in there, yes – after all, music is rarely made in a vacuum, and artists of all stripes have been influenced by others – but Arcane Roots deliver their own special twist on Biffy’s brand of new-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. Read more…
Natives – ‘Indoor War’ [Review]
One of the fun things about keeping an open mind is that things can always change. This is especially important when it comes to life as a music fan; many listeners have a tendency to adopt strict rules and set-in-stone fundamentalist attitudes toward “The stuff I like” and “All the rest of it”. It’s no surprise, then, that so many people claim to be bored when it comes to music; but this just doesn’t have to be so.
At TMMP, we make a point of not doing things the locked-in-stone way. So even if an act doesn’t make a great first impression on us, we’re happy to look deeper and give them a second chance. Read more…