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MUSIC CD REVIEWS : S
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Saffron Monkey
‘Unnatural Selection’ (LP, self-released) • There’s a defiantly old-fashioned sound to this album recalling the smarter end of late-70s jazz funk, with occasional flutes, tight unison breaks and even a shamelessly…17.11.2010 READ MORE -
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Sarah Class
‘A New Dawn’ (LP, Glorious Technicolour Records) ** • Pristine but woefully greige acoustic folk-pop about wings spreading, stars aglow in the night sky, oceans roaring and what have you. Think The Corrs spliced with…06.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sarah Gough
‘Juxtaposed’ (EP, self-released) • An ambitious collaboration brings together the swooningly romantic piano and voice of Sarah Gough with the distinctly prog-folk stylings of guitarist and drummer Frank Mason and…11.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sarah Menage
‘Who Needs A Man?’ (album, self-released) *** • Despite the generally low-key and composed tone of the music, there’s a lot of life in this album: Sarah Menage’s life, to be precise, and a lifetime’s worth of the ups…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
Sarah Menage
‘In A Mood’ (LP, Independent) Just ‘a’ mood? There’s a range on offer in Sarah Menage’s new album, mostly ambivalent. Making no attempt to sidestep life’s paradoxes with false certainty, she chuckles wryly into her…14.12.2011 READ MORE -
Saturation Point
‘Mechanisms’ (Album, Invada) *** • Marking a sonic shift for these local post-rock soundscapers, ‘Mechanisms’ sends tingling sci-fi probes off into the trancier outer nebulae of krautrock to bring back six untitled…13.08.2010 READ MORE -
Saturation Point
‘A Black Sun Rising’ (Album, L.L.S. Records) **** • For all their stage frenzy, Saturation Point have an almost clinical economy in the studio. Calling one track ‘Like Clocks Work’ suggests they understand the…20.06.2010 READ MORE -
Saturation Point
‘Three’ (album, Very Friendly) **** • The clue really is in the name. In the case of Saturation Point and ‘Three’, it’s all about invention. As their very moniker suggests, ‘Three’ is flooded with ideas. Lead single…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Scene Kids
‘Leaving to California’ (EP, self-released) * • Scene Kids are a band of four, but I suspect that vocalist Will Hardiman’s mostly to blame for this four-song-long James Taylor impression. For fans of Taylor, repetition,…11.09.2010 READ MORE -
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Sean Taylor
‘Angels’ (album, unsigned) ** • Armed with an acoustic guitar, a loop pedal and a veritable arsenal of self-belief, Kilburn-residing 23-year-old singer-songwriter Taylor delivers a lo-fi album of earnest, sincere…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
Secret Shine
‘All Of The Stars’ (album, Claire Records) *** • The shoegazing revival continues to peep coyly from under its collective fringe and this new album from Secret Shine, their first in 14 years, sees no reason to change…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
Secret Shine
‘The Beginning and the End’ (LP, self-released) • Hard to believe these passionless peddlers of diet dream-pop once supported the Jesus and Mary Chain and Deus. Their own web-biog – charming though it is – admits “the…16.02.2011 READ MORE -
Selfservice
‘Selfservice’ (EP, Sleeper) **** • Cover your ears, grandma, these Bristol-bred teens have only one thing on their mind – and it ain’t Harry Potter! Signed to Guy ‘Robbie Williams’ Chambers’s label, the pop-punk…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Serious Music
‘The Heights’ (album, Calumet City Records) *** • Despite my reservations, Serious Music actually live up to their name. They're perhaps occasionally a little too serious, but their skill is unquestionable – every…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Seth Lakeman
‘Poor Man’s Heaven’ (Album, Relentless) **** • Third album from the West Country-born ‘Poster Boy of Folk’, and please welcome into your lives highly buffed commercial ‘indie folk’. In the same way that Garth Brooks…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
Seun Kuti + Fela’s Egypt 80
‘Many Things’ (Tot Ou Tard) **** • It’s hard to displace a legend. While brother Femi ploughed his MTV-wise rock furrow, Seun Kuti stayed to be the keeper of their late father’s considerable flame. Maintaining Fela’s…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
Sexy Bitch
‘Canis De Sexus’ (EP, unsigned) **** • This five-track EP is undeniably red hot. Funk-punk fashionistas like LCD Soundsystem, Gang Of Four and The Rapture are all audible but some real personality starts to emerge after…27.01.2009 READ MORE -
Shaun McCrindle
‘Come Around’ (LP, self-released) • Wry humour and faultless musical chops highlight this second album from Bristol’s McCrindle as a cut above the rest. From ‘When Tuesday Comes Around’’s exploration of the ethics of…01.10.2010 READ MORE -
Shaun McCrindle
‘Family Man’ (album, self-released) **** • A Bristolian who has served his time with the Blue Aeroplanes, McCrindle’s debut is a wry, unfussy album of acoustic Americana somewhere between Roger McGuinn and the…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Sheelanagig
‘Freaks, Fools and Ghouls – Live!’ (album, Get Real Records) **** • I have to declare an interest: I was there when they recorded this (I’m third whoop from the left) and I’m nicely thanked on the sleeve (it was one…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
Sheelanagig
'Baba Yaga’s Ball' (album, Big Badger Records) **** • About a year ago Sheelanagig released their debut album ‘Uncle Lung’, lugging it from gig to gig like all new bands, but as the gigs multiplied so did sales, and…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Shooting At Unarmed Men
‘Triptych’ (album, Too Pure) *** • ‘Triptych’ is an album divided, split into three discs, with playful hardcore romps beside half-asleep drone ballads, both goofy and grave. SAUM perform with two fingers in the air…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
Sid Delicious
‘EP 08' (Self-released) **** • Together less than a year, Sid Delicious seem to be having fun working out exactly what they are. Opener ‘Ion Bubbles’ is like a light-headed Grandaddy or morning-after Beta Band - layered…20.06.2010 READ MORE -
Silent Tides
‘Silent Tides’ (EP, self-released) This is Silent Tides’ debut EP and, as such, serves as a calling card for a band who – straight out the box – are massively adequate. An act fuelled, moreover, by playing technique…19.01.2012 READ MORE -
Silver Campervan
‘Shade’ (album, Long Train Ride) ** • Silver Campervan are a Gloucestershire acoustic folk trio who seem to enjoy making music: every plucky chord change and folky vocal swoop sound is accompanied by a smile - or an…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
Simon J Alpin
‘On The Wire’ (album, Ravine) *** • If you can overlook the comical fact that this is a rather reedy-voiced British fellow called Simon trying desperately hard to sound like he was raised in a log cabin off a trucking…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Sinead O’Connor
'Theology' (album, Rubyworks) * • Making an album that preserves all the earnest God-bothering and devotional lyrics of Rastafarian spirituality while jettisoning all of its musical aspects in favour of a celticised…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Six Figures
Six Figures (EP, self-released) *** • “Give me something to drink or smoke or take”: the lyrics of ‘Moving Forward’ support bold, strangulated vocals, set to an off-kilter, haphazard background. It’s good, weird,…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
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Smerins Anti-Social Club
‘The Alibi’ (single, Jigsaw) **** • Since they’re long and firmly established in the party-minded hearts of Bristol and Bath’s dance-friendly public for their mutant brass-heavy funk, it’s a bit of a surprise to realise…06.09.2010 READ MORE -
Smile, LOOKALIVE!
'Ringside Seats’ (EP, self-released) Smile, LOOKALIVE! (or SLA, for those with chilblains) wear their enthusiasm for punctuation, cute-but-meaningless titles – eg ‘Casablanca Was A Disaster Movie’ and ‘Old Habits Die…30.09.2011 READ MORE -
Smith & Willox
‘The Lost Cow’ (LP, self-released) **** • There’s something very seductive about the tightly disciplined playing out of chaotic musical ideas - it worked for Captain Beefheart and it’s working for Smith & Willox. This…13.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snoop Dogg
‘Ego Trippin’ (album, Geffen Records) * • Easily the worst album heard all year, this is 79 long minutes of complete dog shit. Lame beats, no songs, dreary rhymes and an army of backing singers warbling on overtime.…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
Sober & Dribbla
'Freaks Speak Dark' (self-released) **** • GZA's lifeless performance at the Academy recently was, for many people, just another sign that hip-hop is in the doldrums: jaded, flabby and creatively bereft. None of which…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
Sober & Dribbla
‘The Broken Plan’ (EP, Bold Error Records) **** • Despite hip-hop being an integral part of the DNA of the inescapable 'Bristol Sound' big three, success for more purist local purveyors of the sound has been…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Sonny Landreth
From The Reach (album, Proper Records) ***** • One of the finest - and certainly the most distinctive - slide guitarists in the world, Sonny Landreth always brings the taste and smell of Cajun music to his blues and…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
Spiers & Boden
‘Vagabond’ (Album, Navigator Records) ***** • This is the fifth album from the duo who founded the sensational 11-piece band Bellowhead, played alongside Eliza Carthy in The Ratcatchers and have won numerous awards as…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
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Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time
‘Runout Groove’ (Album, Universal) **** • “I feel like I live in another time,” Stephen Duffy intones in his choirboy tenor at the start of the Lilac Time’s eighth album, setting the tone for these soft, sepia elegies…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Stephen Fretwell
‘Man On The Roof’ (Album, Fiction) **** • On which Scunthorpe's finest (yes, competition is rife, folks) leads us through 14 plaintive tales of aching romanticism, heartbreak and alcohol, all stripped sombre acoustic…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Stereo De Luxe
‘Monosyllabic’ (Freshly Squeezed) **** • Like some perverse amalgam of the Swingle Singers and the Dandy Warhols, German hipsters Stereo De Luxe drawl languidly about Jeff Koons and Cicciolina on the Beck-flavoured…18.07.2010 READ MORE -
Stereophonics
‘Pull The Pin’ (album, V2) * • Damn. We thought it was too good to be true. It was quiet – but too quiet. Two years of silence from Stereophonics and now they’re back with a sixth studio album. ‘Pull The Pin’ (pull the…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Steve Bush and Fran Fey
‘Row Of Ashes’ (Album, Green Goat Recordings) *** • This debut from ex-Essential Bop man Steve Bush and ‘urban rustic and guru’ Fran Fey swings wildly between melancholic electric folk and the kind of gritty garage rock…20.06.2010 READ MORE -
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Steve Payne
‘No Commercial Value’ (album, Digitdoc Records) **** • For many years, Steve Payne has been stunning audiences with his dexterity on guitar, but his value as a songwriter has generally been ignored. At last we have an…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
Steve Wilks
'Friends Now' (album, Wontstop) • To those that think acoustic reggae – that is, minus the bass pulse that is literally the genre’s heartbeat – is a bad idea, two words: ‘Redemption Song’. Bristol veteran Steve Wilks’s…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
Steve Williams
‘Corners’ (Principle Records) *** • Bristol-based Steve Williams already has reason to celebrate with this new collection – his track ‘The Better Part of Me’ has just won top prize in the annual National Songwriting…20.06.2010 READ MORE -
Steven Kings
‘John Pitts: Intensely Pleasant Music’ (LP, self-released) **** • ‘Intensely Pleasant Music’ is a disc summoned (and sustained) by bells. Actually, ‘summoned’ doesn’t begin to cover the urgency of ‘Changes’ - three…11.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stewart Ford
‘Silence is Golden’ (LP, self-released) • Much effort has clearly gone into this slight, self-pitying selection: precise production, solid musicianship, thoughtful song titles. Plaintive paean ‘A List’ has a certain…09.02.2011 READ MORE -
Stonephace
‘Stonephace’ (Tru Thoughts) ***** • ‘Made in Kernow by pirates’ it says on the cover, but there’s nothing countrified about this music. Sax player Larry Stabbins unites his free improvising ideas with the…18.07.2010 READ MORE -
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Sunharbour
‘Sunharbour’ (EP, Bang!) *** • A dizzyingly amorphous collective of over a dozen musicians, Sunharbour’s alternating vocal focal points are headed by Bristol-born multi-instrumentalist Simon Kusnierek. A cursory play is…06.09.2010 READ MORE -
Super Furry Animals
'Hey Venus!' (album, Rough Trade) **** • It’s not enough these days to be the YooooKay’s premier purveyors of retrodelic symph-pop; you then have to attempt to soup up your eighth album by cooking up a clumsy narrative…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Supergrass
‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ (album, Parlophone) *** • Maturity: it’s so overrated! After 2005’s ‘Road To Rouen’ seemed to signal a new – yawn – grown-up approach from the last survivors of Britpop, this new album sees them…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
Surfin’ Turnips
‘Return To Turbo Island’ (LP, Rampant Sausage Records) **** • In which The Wurzels meet The Pogues and namecheck cider more times than an AA meeting. Yes, it’s a punkier, somewhat more raucous tribute to the delights of…11.09.2010 READ MORE -
Susheela Raman
'33 1/3' (album, XIII Bis Records) **** • In which Susheela Raman plunders her record collection, re-imagines some great tunes and re-invigorates her recording career? Given the diversity of the source material (Lou…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
Suzy Condrad
‘Stop The Carousel’ (Self-released) *** • ‘Stop The Carousel’, the opener on this very short demo CD, wrong-foots with its skirt-swishing, fruity theatrical vocal delivery, plangent 12-string guitars and discreet…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
Syte & The Sound
‘The Introduction’ (EP, self-released) • Hip-hop beats, sweeping orchestration, smoky jazz-flecked vocals: so far, so Portishead. You imagine Syte and co would be more than happy with such a description, what with their…06.09.2010 READ MORE -
The Scoville Units
‘The Scoville Units’ (LP, Get Real Records) • Using bluegrass as a baseline, this is an acoustic project featuring interweaving melodies and counter melodies, little individual showboating, and a band featuring Leon…26.01.2011 READ MORE -
The Scribes
‘The Sky Is Falling’ (album, Unsung Records) ***** • Outstanding rap from a crew split between Bristol and Plymouth who’ve been cutting their teeth performing with Rodney P, Foreign Beggars and Westwood. It’s…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
The Short Life of Gracie
‘The Short Life of Gracie’ (EP, self-released) There’s a moment on opener ‘How to Kill Some Time’ where the vocals hint at Tim Kasher’s guttural holler: “I don’t have any more time I could kill! I could KILL! I could…14.12.2011 READ MORE -
The Short Stories
‘The Night Is On Fire’ (LP, International Lo-Fi Underground) *** • It is the early 80s. You are sitting in a bedsit, resting your feet on a pile of structuralism lecture notes and pondering whether to crack the spine…13.08.2010 READ MORE -
The Short Stories
‘Short Stories For Long Nights’ (album, The International Lo-Fi Underground) **** • Sounding at times like they were recorded to cassette, The Short Stories ply a highly evocative garage psychedelia suffused with an…25.01.2010 READ MORE -
The Sketch
'The Sketch' (EP, self-released) **** • This Weston-based trio are proof that there is still hope for the youth of today. Admittedly, they might well spend their time mugging old ladies, gobbing on the pavement and…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
The Sofa Project
‘Five Live’ (EP, self-released) * • Sometimes writing as a journalist feels like a rottweiler mauling an innocent child, like pushing an infirm old dear in front of an oncoming bus as she nibbles from her cones of…25.01.2009 READ MORE -
The Stingrays
‘Back Across The Rubicon’ (LP, YTY Records) **** • 30 years after they stopped plying their trade around Bristol, punk-pop local legends The Stingrays have made a welcome return to the live stage and released this…06.09.2010 READ MORE -
The Streets
‘Everything is Borrowed’ (sixsevenine) ** • Oh, Mike Skinner. Bless ‘im, he does try. This time Birmingham’s worst rapper is trying to give his lowest common denominator audience a bit of positivity (as on the…20.01.2010 READ MORE -
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THE BIG GIG
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Gary Numan
Mike White muses on the missing link between Kraftwerk and NIN. The same year as ‘Alien’, three years before ‘Blade Runner’, awkward, acne-ridden 21-year-old Gary Webb wrote a song called ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’. It sounded…23.04.2012 READ MORE -
Philharmonia/Ashkenazy
You have to feel sorry for any young pianist braving a Chopin concerto under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. Poacher turned gamekeeper, Ashkenazy’s glittering career as a pianist was kick-started by success at the Warsaw Chopin…23.05.2012 READ MORE
Live Reviews
The Handsome Family
The Fleece, Bristol (Mon 21 May) There's a warmth about The Handsome Family, a kind of…
23.05.2012
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Classical Opera
St George’s Bristol (Fri11 May) An opera by an 11-year-old … in Latin. Talk about a hard…
13.05.2012
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Dave Stapleton
St George’s, Bristol (Thur May 5) There are eight players on stage – and great ones at…
04.05.2012
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Simone Felice
Colston Hall, Bristol (Sat 28 Apr) The Felice Brothers came out of New York State with an…
01.05.2012
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Dan Baird and Homemade Sin
Beeses Tea Gardens, Bristol (Sun 29 Apr) I used to think I was the sole person who'd ever…
30.04.2012
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Neil Cowley Trio with the Mount Molehill Strings
St George’s Bristol (Thur 26 April) It’s the last night of a national tour and Neil…
27.04.2012
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Cher Lloyd
O2 Academy, Bristol (Tue 10 Apr) It's a struggle-to-get-through-the-door sell-out…
24.04.2012
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Alabama 3: Acoustic and Unplugged
Trinity, Bristol (Fri 20 Apr) The blues came down to Trinity... and blew it away. Alabama…
23.04.2012
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Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Chorus: ‘Carmina Burana’
Colston Hall Bristol (Thur 19 Apr) Time was when the definition of an intellectual was…
23.04.2012
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Filthy Six/Benny Sensus
Mr Wolf’s, Bristol (Fri 20 May) Mr Wolf’s on a Friday night and it’s a bit slow to fill…
23.04.2012
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Empty Pools/Schnauser/Glis Glis
Louisiana, Bristol (Wed 18 Apr) The three Glis Glis members repeating crystalline,…
20.04.2012
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Ceu/Curumin
St George’s, Bristol (Wed 18 Apr) Electronic bands rarely sound good in St George’s and…
20.04.2012
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Meshuggah/Animals as Leaders
O2 Academy, Bristol (Thur 12 Apr) Animals as Leaders are the missing link between The…
16.04.2012
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Orange Goblin/Church of Misery/Grifter/Dopefight
Fleece, Bristol (Sun 8 Apr) It's Easter Sunday and a sweaty, sold-out Fleece is…
09.04.2012
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The Magnificent Seven
Coronation Tap, Bristol (Sun 1 Apr) OK, it’s the usual suspects, but the discerning…
03.04.2012
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Spiro/Cliff Stapleton/Katey Brooks
Fleece, Bristol (Sat 31 Mar) It’s very satisfying when your local heroes get national…
02.04.2012
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Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet/Robert Mitchell 3io
Colston Hall 2, Bristol (Tue 27 Mar) “We don’t have much time,” announces pianist Robert…
29.03.2012
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Black Stone Cherry/Rival Sons
O2 Academy, Bristol (Mon 26 Mar) Even when the Academy is sold out, as it is tonight,…
29.03.2012
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Tall Ships
Thekla, Bristol (Wed 21 March) Tall Ships, originally from the harbourside town of…
29.03.2012
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UFO/Heavy Metal Kids
O2 Academy, Bristol (Sun 25 Mar) There are two things every rock trivia freak knows about…
27.03.2012
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The Cardinall’s Musick
St George’s Bristol (Sat 24 Mar) When not directing The Cardinall’s Musick, the…
27.03.2012
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Earth/Mount Eerie/Ô Paon
Arnolfini, Bristol (Sat 3 Mar) Ô Paon opens with a set of slow burners; her clumsily…
21.03.2012
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All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Jeff Mangum
Butlins, Minehead (Fri 9- Sun 11 Mar) It’s a different line-up almost every time they…
21.03.2012
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The Answer/The Union
O2 Academy, Bristol (Fri 16 Mar) Let's hear it for the return of the big-value rock…
19.03.2012
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Get The Blessing/Pops Parker/The Liftmen
Arnolfini, Bristol (Thur 15 Mar) Like their seething soup-pond visual backdrop, there’s a…
16.03.2012
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Gabrielle Aplin/Hudson-Taylor
Thekla, Bristol (Mon 12 Mar) Still only 19 but nevertheless managing to rack up 1.3m…
14.03.2012
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The Tender Trap
Southbank Centre, Bristol (Fri 24 Feb) The Southbank has many guises and tonight it’s…
12.03.2012
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Ugetsu feat. Damon Brown and Yutaka Shiina
Colston Hall 2, Bristol (Tue 6 Mar) Yutaka Shiina heads straight for the piano as if he…
07.03.2012
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Field Music/Stealing Sheep
The Fleece, Bristol (Thur 23 Feb) A timid ‘hello’ from Stealing Sheep’s Lucy…
28.02.2012
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High Places/The Hysterical Injury/Hesomagari
The Cube, Bristol (Fri 17 Feb) If the idea of a boy/girl duo-themed night makes you feel…
21.02.2012
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Mouse Deer
The Old Bookshop, Bristol (Thur 16 Feb) Lord knows US coffee shop culture took a long…
20.02.2012
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OAE: The Glory of Venice
St George’s Bristol (Sun 19 Feb) With Vivaldi’s ‘L’Olimpiade’ about to be unleashed up…
20.02.2012
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James Morton & Friends
The Prom, Bristol (Fri 17 Feb) Lately, alto sax player James Morton’s career’s demanded…
19.02.2012
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Rich Robinson
Fleece, Bristol (Wed 15 Feb) With the Black Crowes on apparently indefinite hiatus, the…
17.02.2012
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Shinedown/Halestorm
O2 Academy, Bristol (Sun 12 Feb) It demonstrates considerable confidence to take a band…
13.02.2012
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Roots Manuva
Anson Room, Bristol (Fri 3 Feb) Having seen Roots Manuva take to the stage in riding…
06.02.2012
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Gannets/Tamco Trio/Three Cane Whale
St George’s Bristol (Fri 3 Feb) Can you have a game of three halves? It’s a Zen question…
05.02.2012
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Nigel Kennedy/Orchestra of Life
Colston Hall, Bristol (Wed 18 Jan) Telephone-hold to elevator music, ‘The Four Seasons’…
25.01.2012
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Bristol Acoustic Music Festival
St George’s Bristol (Fri 13-Sun 15 Jan) Who'da thunk it: some folk are dancing – dancing…
25.01.2012
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Howler/Man Made
Louisiana (Mon 23 Jan) Support act Man Made arrives on stage wearing the kind of gold…
24.01.2012
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Sir Henry at Rawlinson End
St George’s, Bristol (Thur 19 Jan) ‘Sir Henry’ distilled and squandered the late Viv…
22.01.2012
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Arabella Sprot Quartet
Bebop Club, Bristol (Fri 6 Jan) Given the styereotype of the lazy, time-wasting student,…
09.01.2012
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Denny Ilett plays Led Zeppelin
Coronation Tap, Bristol (Thur 5 Jan) There’s an inevitable sense of laddishness about…
06.01.2012
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The Peters
Coronation Tap, Bristol (Tue 3 Jan) Here’s a mind-boggling little collective of young…
04.01.2012
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The Hook 'Em Boys
The Croft, Bristol (Wed 21 Dec, 2011) It’s the longest night and it’s slipping by very…
22.12.2011
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Mike Willox Quartet
Bebop Club, Bristol (Fri 16 Dec) Mike Willox has long been master of the element of…
20.12.2011
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La Nuova Musica/Messiah
St George’s Bristol (Sun 18 Dec) Anyone nervous about the one-to-a-part line-up promised…
19.12.2011
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Oxford Philomusica/Schiff
St George’s Bristol (Thur 8 Dec) Intriguing to see Andras Schiff in front of an orchestra…
19.12.2011
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Holy Stain at Festive Fest
Thekla, Bristol (Sun 18 Dec) It’s Holy Stain’s second to last ever show, so we can…
19.12.2011
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Hawthorne Heights/The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus/Failsafe
Thekla, Bristol (Wed 14 Dec) Golly, when Thekla say ‘early show’, they mean it. Failsafe…
19.12.2011
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Get The Blessing
(Thur 15 Dec, Canteen, Bristol) They’ve clearly been missed. Get The Blessing’s 2011…
16.12.2011
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Little Dragon/White Hinterland
Thekla, Bristol (Fri 2 Dec) Despite the name, ‘White Hinterland’ is not a right-wing…
14.12.2011
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Ginger Wildheart and Friends
Fleece, Bristol (Tue 13 Dec) Ginger's guitar is out of tune and the drum monitor isn't…
14.12.2011
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The Magic Band
Thekla, Bristol (Sun 4 Dec) When rock visionary Captain Beefheart passed away in December…
07.12.2011
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Bleeding Heart Narrative
The Cube, Bristol (Sat 26 Nov) Watching Bleeding Heart Narrative at The Cube, it's…
07.12.2011
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Uriah Heep
O2 Academy, Bristol (Mon 5 Dec) When a band has been around as long as Uriah Heep, it's…
06.12.2011
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Emily Wright & The Royals
The Old Bookshop, Bristol (Sat 3 Dec) A nice new band in a nice new venue - Christmas has…
06.12.2011
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Wire/Talk Normal
Thekla, Bristol (Tue 29 Nov) At the merch stand, sales of the Wire shopping bag appear…
02.12.2011
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Zappa Plays Zappa
Colston Hall, Bristol (Wed 30 Nov) This is weird. There's a biggish band on stage – two…
01.12.2011
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In:Motion – RBMA & Futureboogie
Motion, Bristol (Sat 26 Nov) Tonight sees two of Bristol’s biggest dance music beacons,…
01.12.2011
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Billy Bragg: Left Field In Motion Tour
The Fleece, Bristol (Nov 28, 2011) Typical of Billy Bragg: he didn't just show up for a…
01.12.2011
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John Cooper Clarke
The Fleece, Bristol (Sun 27 Nov) Like a wizened stick-insect love child of 60s-era Bob…
29.11.2011
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Blakeley's Messengers
Bebop Club, Bristol (Fri 25 Nov) These days there’s so much going on in the name of jazz…
28.11.2011
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Claudia Aurora
The Folk House, Brisrtol (Fri 26 Nov) It’s packed down in the Folk House’s hall basement…
28.11.2011
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John Pearce & Mike Willox Classical Duo
El Rincon, Bristol(Sun 20 Nov) I ring Mike Willox shortly before this lunchtime gig is…
23.11.2011
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C.W. Stoneking & The Primitive Horn Orchestra/Howling Lord
Trinity, Bristol (Tue 22 Nov) It’s a remarkable crowd both in numbers and style, and the…
23.11.2011
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WNO: Don Giovanni
Bristol Hippodrome (Tue 8 Nov) Hearing Leporello’s ‘black book’ aria (in which he lists…
22.11.2011
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St. Vincent
The Fleece, Bristol (Fri 11 Nov) There’s always been a tension about St. Vincent’s live…
22.11.2011
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Benn Clatworthy Quintet
Bebop Club, Bristol (Fri 18 Nov) It’s a quintessentially Bebop gig, this, as club mainman…
21.11.2011
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Gillian Welch
Hippodrome, Bristol (Tue 15 Nov) “I learnt this from Doc Watson,” she says, before…
17.11.2011
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The Melvins
The Thekla, Bristol (Fri 4 Nov) Just when you thought The Melvins couldn't get any more…
11.11.2011
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Balkanarama feat. The Destroyers
The Fleece, Bristol (Fri 4 Nov 4) It's an inspired way to start proceedings: they've put…
07.11.2011
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This Is My Normal State/Tomorrow We Sail
The Cooler, Bristol (Sat 5 Nov) A wrapt, standing-down-the-front crowd for a support act?…
07.11.2011
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WHY? Acoustic Grand Piano Tour
Colston Hall 2, Bristol (Sun 23 Oct) There is usually something jarringly civilised about…
01.11.2011
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Anna Calvi
Trinity Centre, Bristol (Mon 31 Oct) Anna Calvi released her self-titled debut album at…
01.11.2011
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Alice Cooper
(Colston Hall, Bristol, Wed 26 Oct) Considering that this was billed as Alice's Halloween…
27.10.2011
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The Union/Fighting Wolves
Fleece, Bristol (Sun 23 Oct) The huge cheer that greets Fighting Wolves' announcement of…
27.10.2011
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Oxjam Takeover
Various venues, Bristol (Sat 22 Oct) It may well be an overcast Saturday afternoon, but…
27.10.2011
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Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
O2 Academy, Bristol, Sept 25 2011 New Jersey r’n’b stalwarts Southside Johnny & The…
27.10.2011
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Laura Marling
Bristol Cathedral (Tue 25 Oct) Spotlit columns vaulting to the heavens, a stage backed by…
27.10.2011
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Christian Wallumrod Ensemble
St George’s, Bristol (Mon Oct 24) He’s all in black at the piano and there’s a general…
25.10.2011
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The Duval Project
The Bell, Bath (Mon 10 Oct) “There are some people that, when they tell you they have a…
21.10.2011
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The Pierces/Marcus Foster
Anson Rooms, Bristol (Thur 20 Oct) Hadn’t heard Marcus Foster’s ‘Nameless Path’, but knew…
21.10.2011
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CD Reviews
Kid Carpet
‘Kid Carpet & The Noisy Animals’ (LP, self-released) // Few things are more intoxicating…
20.04.2012
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Million Way
‘Your Circuitry’ (EP, self-released) // Dream Continuum release the ‘Reworkz’ EP and,…
20.04.2012
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Paul Garry
‘With Love Comes Rescue’ (EP, BMS Records) // Offensively inoffensive and supremely…
18.04.2012
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Dave Stapleton
‘Flight’ (LP, Edition Records) // Dave Stapleton's Cardiff-based Edition Records is fast…
17.04.2012
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Hello Lazarus
‘Hello Lazarus’ (EP, Scylla Records) If there's a theme for this EP, it's that it implies…
26.03.2012
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Lady Nade & The Silhouettes
‘All I Am’ (EP, unsigned) Lady Nade’s deep-hued voice adds archaic credibility to…
22.03.2012
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Caroline Martin
‘For All That I Do Not Know’ (LP, Smalldog) Second album ‘proper’, and still like being…
22.03.2012
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Island Audio
'The Drift' (Single/Sink & Stove) It's early days for glam-y, knife-edged post-punkers…
15.02.2012
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Rock In Your Pocket
‘Gutterdub’ (LP, Artscare Records) There are Riot Grrrl-invoking essays to be written…
15.02.2012
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Get The Blessing
‘OCDC’ (LP, Naim Jazz) Bish bash bosh, here they come, but there’s a sparkling new…
14.02.2012
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Experimental Pop Band
'Little Things' (Single, Wear It Well) Since 2007 EPB have written, recorded and scrapped…
13.02.2012
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Phantom Limb
‘The Pines’ (Album, Naim Edge) The title could’ve been swiped from a new-build…
19.01.2012
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Josh Arcoleo
‘Beginnings’ (Album, Edition Records) It takes practice and inspiration to become a…
19.01.2012
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The Hysterical Injury
‘Dead Wolf Situation’ (LP, Crystal Fuzz) Yes, Hysterical Injury brandish nothing more…
19.01.2012
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Silent Tides
‘Silent Tides’ (EP, self-released) This is Silent Tides’ debut EP and, as such, serves as…
19.01.2012
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The Liftmen
‘Troubled Teens’ (Single, Twisted Nerve) It’s disappointing that the first pressing of…
19.01.2012
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Francois & The Atlas Mountains
'E Volo Love’ (LP, Domino) Whilst the minutiae of the human condition might not present…
19.01.2012
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Mouse Deer
‘The Mouse Deer EP’ (EP, self-released) Girl-group harmonies forged from a single vocal…
14.12.2011
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Radio Banska
‘The Balkan Courtesan’ (LP, Get Real Records) Who knew John Zorn was composing 13-time…
14.12.2011
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Sarah Menage
‘In A Mood’ (LP, Independent) Just ‘a’ mood? There’s a range on offer in Sarah Menage’s…
14.12.2011
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The Short Life of Gracie
‘The Short Life of Gracie’ (EP, self-released) There’s a moment on opener ‘How to Kill…
14.12.2011
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Bleeding Heart Narrative
‘Bison’ (EP, Brainlove Records) As opening gambits go, 'Shoals' has to be one of the…
07.11.2011
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The Hit Ups
‘Unforgivable'/'66 Sexy’ (Free download, self-released) The Hit Ups: ‘parties, death,…
21.10.2011
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Follow The Sun
'The Evening Light’ (EP/self-released) Pushed just beyond ambient loveliness by gentle…
21.10.2011
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The Groove Farm
‘I Know It’s Only Indie Pop… But I Like It’ (LP, Big Pink Cake) From ’86 to ’90, South…
21.10.2011
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The Bad Joke That Ended Well
‘The Meteors Are Coming’ (LP, Little Paradise Records) Zips in on an express banjo…
30.09.2011
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Smile, LOOKALIVE!
'Ringside Seats’ (EP, self-released) Smile, LOOKALIVE! (or SLA, for those with…
30.09.2011
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Centrefolds
'Fresh Air’/’Jennifer’ (Single, self-released) Fiercely mixed to fizz with high end,…
30.09.2011
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Call The Doctor
‘Riots.’ (EP, Fear of Fiction) Patti Aberhart’s living the dream: black bob, lip gloss…
30.09.2011
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Chatterbox & Samuel Otis
‘Hard Graft’ (Killamari Records) Hip-hop is always at its most convincing when you can…
30.09.2011
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Curse You Damn Kids
‘Sorta Like An Epiphany’ (EP, Screamlite Records) There’s much to admire in this youthful…
27.08.2011
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Echo Park Orchestra
'Hymns of the Black Flag’ (LP, self-released) Echo Park Orchestra mainman Peter…
27.08.2011
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Rossanne Hamilton
'Attic Tapes/Live At The Thunderbolt 09’ (Double EP, self-released) Classically trained…
27.08.2011
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Baobinga & Co
‘Joint Ventures’ (LP, Build Recordings) DJ, producer and blogger Sam ‘Baobinga’ Simpson…
27.08.2011
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The Weary Band
‘Office Doodles’ (LP, self-released) At last! We’ve waited almost a decade – and a couple…
29.07.2011
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Planting_Claymore
‘Re-Gen’ (EP, self-released) Not, as the name suggests, a Clifton estate agent but a…
29.07.2011
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Electric Contradiction
‘Gold Mind EP’ (EP, self-released) This Bath-based five piece describe themselves as an…
29.07.2011
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The Minke Whales
‘Turncoat’ (LP, Tandem) The Minke Whales – possibly named in honour of that doomed…
29.07.2011
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The Divided Circle
‘The Divided Circle’ (LP, Lonely City Records) • Why isn’t everyone talking about The…
30.06.2011
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Edenheight
‘Peaceboy’/‘Trouble’ (Single, Breakin’ Bread Records) • One of Bristol’s…
30.06.2011
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Hi Fiction Science
'Hi Fiction Science' (LP, self-released) •A lass with a high, folksy voice ponders aloud…
30.06.2011
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Zero Pilot
‘XY’ (EP, self-released) If ‘Ice Road Truckers’ were a record, it’d be this ballsy,…
27.05.2011
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James Hollingsworth
‘Two And Two’ (EP, self-released) Awful cheesecloth rock channelling mawkish Chris De…
27.05.2011
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Oxygen Thief
‘Destroy It Yourself’ (LP, Broken Tail Records) Bristol’s Barry Dolan, in-your-face raw…
27.05.2011
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Maps and Legends
‘Maps and Legends’ (EP, self-released) Perhaps appropriately given their name, M&L…
27.05.2011
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Hello Lazarus
‘All Alliteration’ (LP, self-released) • It whizzes. It buzzes. Noisy and precise guitar…
29.04.2011
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The Short Stories
‘Small Mercies’ (LP, The International Lo-Fi Underground) • A lo-fi thrum of songs…
29.04.2011
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Cemlyn Jones
‘All These Dreams’ (LP, Kargo Records) • Clevedon-based singer-songwriter and former…
29.04.2011
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The Carny Villains
The Carny Villains (EP, Unsigned) • The seven-piece band from the heart of Bristol’s…
29.04.2011
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Narco Lounge Combo
‘Music for Ice Rinks’ (LP, self-released) • “She got freckles and a blow-job nose, kitten…
20.04.2011
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The Cheaterslicks
Rev Up, Burn Out’ (LP, Western Star) • Here’s a blistering debut mixing up rockabilly,…
20.04.2011
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Heg Doughty
‘Little Red’ (EP, self-released) • Ah, the sadly defunct Dartington College in the green…
20.04.2011
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Centrefolds
'Is Anyone There?’ (EP, self-released) • All hail Centrefolds for their unashamed pursuit…
13.04.2011
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Okus Dolphin
‘Spiritual’ (LP, self-released) • With its Glastonbury candle shop sleeve, ham-fisted…
13.04.2011
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Rachael Dadd ‘
'Elephee’ (EP, Broken Sound Music) • Rachael Dadd is a songwriter in thrall to nature,…
13.04.2011
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Elliot Hall
‘Adults Are Stupid’ (LP, self-released) • The title is just one affable feature of this…
06.04.2011
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James Brewster
‘As a Hovering Insect Mass Breaks Your Fall’ (LP, Make Mine Music) • Now living in Malmö,…
06.04.2011
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The Naturals
‘Gifthorse’/‘He Has An 80ft Tarantula’ (double A-side single, self-released) • The thing…
06.04.2011
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Principal Participant
‘Principles’ (Download LP, self-released) • “Minotaur Shock is my regular outlet for…
30.03.2011
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Emily Teague
‘Emily Teague’ (LP, self-released) • Bristol’s folkies have some bad habits – ‘spiritual’…
30.03.2011
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Pat Nicholson
‘Roll With It’ (LP, Pan Records) • Australian Pat Nicholson’s debut arrives with some…
30.03.2011
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The Egret Seacrow
‘Imaginatively, A Silk Wasp’ (LP, self-released) • A slight, delicate release – our copy…
23.03.2011
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Tony Harris
‘Choices’ (LP, self-released) • There is something of the madrigal about these simple,…
23.03.2011
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Color Of The Sun
‘Solong Suckers’ (LP, self-released) • Multi-instrumentalist Aron Ward is a Californian…
16.03.2011
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Honour Your Pain
'Between Blood and Pride' (EP) • Metal's such a crowded marketplace these days that you…
16.03.2011
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The Get-Outs
‘Exit’ (LP, Kitchen Rock Records) • The Get-Outs, currently celebrating their tenth year…
09.03.2011
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The Zen Hussies
‘Troubled Feet’ (LP, Musique DaDA) • If you’ve ever stumbled across a Zen Hussies gig the…
09.03.2011
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Badgertrap
‘Agony of Choice’ (EP/download, Kangaroo Kourt Records) • Product of Hal Camplin/Barry…
02.03.2011
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Central Spillz
'Space Travel' (LP, Durkle Disco) • In the increasingly boundary-bereft territory between…
23.02.2011
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TwoManTing
‘Legacy’ (LP, self-released) • Formed from Afro-dance outfit Le Cod Afrique, duo…
23.02.2011
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David Britton
'The Oldland Commoner Album’ (LP, self-released) • David Britton is a gent from Bristol’s…
23.02.2011
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Caricatures
‘Fire In The Womb’ (Single, Anticreation Productions) • Down-tuned strings, irregular…
16.02.2011
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Secret Shine
‘The Beginning and the End’ (LP, self-released) • Hard to believe these passionless…
16.02.2011
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