It's been something of a slow-burning process for Edinburgh quartet We Were Promised Jetpacks in piecing together that archetypical "difficult" second album. Having existed as a band for the best part of a decade now,...
Review posted on 22nd September 2011
With so many festivals to choose from nowadays, it's so easy for many of the line-ups to mirror each other and therefore engender a monotonous air of familiarity in the process. Indeed, glancing through many...
Review posted on 16th September 2011
In this age where genre boundaries collide and integrate, it would be churlish to saddle London quintet Deep Cut with any polarised tag or label, particularly one that might just cause potential suitors to walk...
Review posted on 15th September 2011
Having emerged quite forcefully out of London's trendier-than-thou Dalston scene two years ago, the energetic trio that is Male Bonding have gone from strength to strength ever since. While initially formed as something of an...
Review posted on 5th September 2011
As the 2011 festival season draws to a close, there's one event outstanding that seems to attract punters far and wide every year since it was first established back in 2004. Bestival, the brainchild of...
Review posted on 1st September 2011
Despite existing for over a decade now, LA based six-piece Dengue Fever are something of an unknown quantity to many outside of their home neighbourhood. It's also fair to say they're possibly one of the...
Review posted on 17th August 2011
As the much-maligned genre of shoegaze currently enjoys its umpteenth resurrection courtesy of the broadsheets and glossies declaring it "The sound of 2011", it's perhaps worth mentioning that the sound inspired by all things 'Loveless'...
Review posted on 17th August 2011
As one-day music festivals go, London's Field Day stands out from the crowd as being the most ambitious and forward-thinking certainly in terms of its booking policy. Concentrating on the more hip end of the...
Review posted on 9th August 2011
'It's more than just a music festival' claims the blurb on the cover of Latitude's 335-page programme, and in terms of location, alternative entertainment and the diversity of performers and artists they're right. After all,...
Review posted on 20th July 2011
As musical transformations from archetypical sinners to all-encompassing saints go, the inexplicable rise of The Horrors reads like an excerpt from a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale. Castigated and dismissed just four years ago as a...
Review posted on 7th July 2011
Now that 2011's festival season is in full swing, the time to take a trip up the A12 in towards rural Suffolk is almost upon us. Having first opened its doors in the summer of...
Review posted on 6th July 2011
Upon perusing True Widow's quite-excellent-as-it-happens blog, you'll notice that the very first paragraph gives resounding thanks to their label Kemado for allowing them to make their second record. While some observers may see this as...
Review posted on 4th July 2011
The history books are littered with bands naming themselves after songs. Shakespears Sister, Deacon Blue, The Ordinary Boys and Jet probably sit on the wrong side of the fence for those trying to put forward...
Review posted on 4th July 2011
As the oldest and largest festival of its kind in the world, Glastonbury has rightfully earned its place as the Mecca of all music events. It must also go down as the muddiest festival in...
Review posted on 28th June 2011
This coming week will see approximately 150,000 punters and many more artists descend on the normally peaceful village of Pilton deep in the heart of rural Somerset. As the UK's longest running music and arguably...
Review posted on 20th June 2011
In this climate of media saturation and social network overload, it's a near impossibility to remain under the radar long enough to develop an ethos or identity all of one's own making without all cover...
Review posted on 6th June 2011
With more festivals to choose from than Tesco Mobile stores popping up in the centre of town, the sifting process of deciding where to go can be a bit like picking needles out of a...
Review posted on 1st June 2011
Wading through the growing number of festivals strewn throughout Europe there's a familiar look to most of them, both in terms of layout and the artists booked to play them. Standing out like a proverbial...
Review posted on 20th May 2011
As the UK's answer to South-By-Southwest, The Great Escape has firmly established itself as the most distinguished festival for new music in the whole of Europe. Situated across numerous venues in the quaintly picturesque seaside...
Review posted on 17th May 2011
Its difficult to envisage where Wild Beasts would be at this moment in time had The xx not pipped them to the first prize at last year's Mercury Music Awards. Ever since 'Two Dancers' landed...
Review posted on 9th May 2011
Like pre-season friendlies that herald the start of a new football season, the Camden Crawl's status as the ultimate precursor to a long summer's festival activities remains pretty much unblemished. As with an expensive new...
Review posted on 4th May 2011
With a roster that includes releases by the likes of The Chills, The Bats and The Clean, seminal Christchurch independent Flying Nun has been flying the flag for New Zealand's underground music scene for thirty...
Review posted on 26th April 2011
When Chicago trio Smith Westerns first reared their heads in the summer of 2009 courtesy of their self-titled debut long player, it left little to the imagination as to where they were coming from. Sounding...
Review posted on 18th April 2011
So much has been written about The Kinks since their conception back in 1964 that documenting a warts and all history would be an arduous task, although Doug Hinman's 2004 biography 'All Day And All...
Review posted on 14th April 2011
Type the words Beat Connection into Google or any other search engine and you'll be met with several links to a Norwich based covers band specialising in weddings, parties and corporate events. Now, we're not...
Review posted on 11th April 2011
It's difficult to mention The Undertones without thoughts of the late, great John Peel immediately springing to mind. Having championed the band and cited their debut 45 'Teenage Kicks' as his favourite song of all...
Review posted on 11th April 2011
One question that won't come up in any music quizzes of the foreseeable future is the bafflingly unanswerable "Why aren't Ladytron one of the biggest bands in the world?" Nevertheless, as bemusing facts go, it...
Review posted on 28th March 2011
Having not released a record since 1986 and seemingly missed the boat for the eighties revival by half a decade or more, one could be forgiven for thinking Blancmange had completely disassociated themselves with the...
Review posted on 28th March 2011
It's difficult to know where to start with Glasvegas. There's the version that musically referenced a boxing match between The Libertines and The Jesus & Mary Chain - the Reid brothers inevitably won by an...
Review posted on 28th March 2011
We're little over thirty-five minutes into 'Angles' when Julian Casablancas urges the battle cry 'Don't try to stop us, get out of the way!' A matter of seconds later, The Strokes first record in over...
Review posted on 16th March 2011
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
Ahead of the imminent release of his second solo album - Dekker, aka Brookln Dekker, took time out to let us know about the musical project he...
Help Contact Us About Us Advertise Business Write For Us T&Cs Privacy Cookie Policy Site Map Consent Settings
Copyright © 2025 Contactmusic.com Ltd, all rights reserved