Monday 2 January 2023

Top 20 Albums of 2022 plus loads more






Here's my top 20 albums of 2022




1 TAngerinecAt - Glass REVIEW | BANDCAMP

2 Clara Engel - Their Invisible Hands REVIEW | BANDCAMP

3 Primitive Knot - Ur-Metal REVIEW | BANDCAMP

4 Holodrum - Holodrum  REVIEW | BANDCAMP

5 The Vat Egg Imposition - Shop Tones REVIEW | BANDCAMP

 

6 Johnny Dowd - Homemade Pie REVIEW | BANDCAMP

7 Moor Mother - Jazz Codes BANDCAMP

8 Neptunian Maximalism - Set Chaos To The Heart Of The Moon BANDCAMP

9 Mayshe Mayshe – Indigo REVIEW | BANDCAMP

10 Everson Poe - The Night Country BANDCAMP

 

11 Scanner - The Homeland of Electricity BANDCAMP

12 Yama Warashi - Crispy Moon LIVE REVIEWBANDCAMP

13 All Structures Align - Distance and Departure BANDCAMP

14 Forming - The Water That We Swim In  REVIEW | BANDCAMP

15 Nervous Twitch - Some People Never Change BANDCAMP

 

16 Richard Carlson Band – Mother’s Intuition BANDCAMP

17 Thank – Thoughtless Cruelty LIVE REVIEWBANDCAMP

18 SAULT – Air  BANDCAMP

19 Ann Eysermans - For Trainspotters Only  BANDCAMP

20 Menace Ruine – Nekyia  BANDCAMP



                                          Here's my top 10 'other' releases of the year






1. Mollie Coddled - I Wanna Go Home (EP) Article | Bandcamp

2. Not a Minute of Silence (comp) Bandcamp

3. MEN (soundtrack) Bandcamp

4. Nightrax - Nightrax EP Review | Bandcamp

5. Nape Neck - Look Alive (EP) Live Review | Bandcamp

6. Senseless Optimism - It Gets Better (EP) Bandcamp

7. Loud Women Volume 5 (comp) Bandcamp

8. Care Home - Assisted Living (Part 1) (EP) Live ReviewBandcamp

9. Magi Merlin - Gone Girl (EP) Bandcamp

10. Cold Comfort - Maximum Effort (EP) Live Review | Bandcamp



Here's a MASSIVE YouTube playlist of a lot of my favourite music from 2022


Spectacular 2022 Playlist Extravaganza


LIVE MUSIC

I went to a lot of gigs this year. Here are 10 of the best:


1. Benefits - Brudenell Social Club - 26th Nov 22 Review

2. The Cure - First Direct Arena - 6th Dec 22

3. Pavement - 02 Academy, Leeds - Oct 17th 22

4. The Endless Hum #2 - AJA - 2nd July 22 Review

5. Sunburned Hand Of The Man - Wharf Chambers - 20th March 22 - Review 

6. Yama Warashi - Hyde Park Book Club - 15th June 22 - Review

7. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 - Belgrave Music Hall - 1st June 22 - Review

8. Mary Lattimore - The White Hotel, Salford - 2nd June 22

9. The Cribs - Brudenell Social Club - 30th July 22 - Review

10. Arab Strap - Brudenell Social Club - 21st Aug 22 Review 


Read all my Louder Than War stuff HERE



Friday 25 February 2022

Top 20 Albums of 2021 plus lots more

Yes, yes I realise it’s February 2022 now but I didn’t get round to posting my Top 20 albums of 2021 here on the blog. What a fantastic year for all kinds of music it was!




Here you go!


1.  Deathretro – Deathretro REVIEW

2. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready

3. The Bug – Fire REVIEW | INTERVIEW

4. Lump – Animal REVIEW

5. The Lodger - Cul-De-Sac of Love REVIEW


6. Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark REVIEW

7.  Hello Cosmos – Golden Dirt REVIEW

8.  Primitive Knot – A New Ontology Of Evil REVIEW

9. Clara Engel – Dressed In Borrowed Light REVIEW

10. David Christian & The Pinecone Orchestra – For Those We Met On The Way REVIEW


11. Delilah Bon – Delilah Bon REVIEW

12. Ox. Sanchez – Anxiety Dreams REVIEW

13. AJA – Slug REVIEW

14. Sault – Nine

15. Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs


16. The State Of Georgia – This Time REVIEW

17. Neil Turpin – Take Heart In The Dark

18. Hawthonn – Earth Mirror

19. Moor Mother – Black Encyclopaedia Of The Air

20. Hieronymus Dream – Nostos REVIEW


LIVE MUSIC IS BACK!!!


Click on the links to read my live reviews over at Louder Than War.

It was great to begin to get back into the swing of things with live music too with great shows by The Lovely Eggs, Arab Strap, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Billy Nomates, Laura Marling, Deathretro, Benefits, Osees and Hands Off Gretel




And another thing!


Amongst the album releases, singles and gigs, the humble EP is often forgotten. Here's a few of my favourites from 2021.

Primitive Ignorant - Life Or Death EP REVIEW

Weedipus - Demo Tape II BUY

Deathretro - Electric Rooms EP BUY


Playlist Extravaganza!


And, of course, it wouldn't be a celebration of the year without my huge annual YouTube playlist.


Spectacular 2021 Playlist Extravaganza







 

Sunday 10 January 2021

Top 20 Albums of 2020


For those of you that haven't seen it elsewhere, here's my Top 20 albums of 2020. I've added a link to a review of mine if I did one (Louderthanwar and one Under The Radar) and a 'Buy' link if there's a Bandcamp. Obviously, you'll be able to pick up most of these in your local record shop. And you should!

So, it's a belated happy new year from me and here's my top 20 albums of 2020...


1.       Clara Engel – Hatching Under The Stars

Review |  Buy

2.       Sault – Untitled (Black Is)

Buy

3.       Billy Nomates – Billy Nomates 

Review | Buy

4.       The Lovely Eggs – I Am Moron

Review

5.       Dream Nails – Dream Nails

Review | Buy

 

6.       The Wind-Up Birds – Summer Haunts

Review |  Buy

7.       Primitive Knot - Lost Wisdom

Review | Buy

8.       Run the Jewels – RTJ4

Review | Free download from the RTJ site

9.       Primitive Ignorant – Sikh Punk

Review |  Buy

10.   Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter

Review of a 2020 streamed gig  | Buy

 

11.   You’re a Face – Bold Glum

Review | Buy

12.   Steven Adams And The French Drops – Keep It Light

Review |  Buy

13.   Eartheater - Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin

Buy

14.   Regional Creeps – No One Cares

Review |  Buy

15.   Scanner – An Ascent

Buy

 

16.   Babybird – Babybird’s Happy Songs

Review |  Buy

17.   Memnon Sa – World Serpent

Buy

18.   Neil Turpin – Doorbell Disconnected

Buy

19.   Michelle Gurevich – Ecstasy In The Shadow Of Ecstasy

Buy

20.   The Cribs – Night Network

Review 


Monday 23 December 2019

Best albums and gigs of 2019

Top 10 albums of 2019

It’s been really difficult whittling it down to just 10 albums but after much deliberation here’s my favourite albums of 2019. All highly recommended!



Click to go to the Bandcamp page and buy/ listen to the album. Thanks!


Now for the impossible task!

Top 10 gigs of 2019

This year I’ve gone to 33 gigs and a festival. Compiling this list hasn’t been easy! So many incredible gigs that I haven’t mentioned, so please go and have a look here

Putting a festival at number 1 feels like a bit of a cheat but Kendal Calling was a special and magnificently muddy weekend. It's also the first festival I've covered (guestlist and everything). Highlights included Hands Off Gretel (pictured), The Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra and The Manic Street Preachers.


You can read my review by clicking the links. Thanks!


*The Kontiki review is of a different night as I didn't do a full write up for The Triangle gig.

So much fantastic live music this year! Here's some other highlights from 2019 - Acid Mothers Temple , Du Blonde , London Afrobeat CollectiveThe Wave PicturesThe Bug and Miss Red, Charly Bliss , BabybirdBilge Pump and The Mountain Goats . Lots more over on my Soundblab page. 


PLAYLIST 2019

And if all that wasn't enough here's a massive playlist. Enjoy!



See you in 2020!!!!



Monday 3 December 2018

Best Albums and Gigs of 2018

Anna Burch - Quit the Cusre

Anna Burch - Live at Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds

It’s that time of year again. It’s time to sharpen my quill and dip it into the deep pot of inky goodness that is 2018. It’s always difficult to commit to just 10 solitary albums but this year has been particularly tricky. There have been a lot of fantastic long-players, making an absolute mockery of all those ridiculous ‘is the album dead?’ articles.

I’ve re-written this list far too many times, wracked with guilt about those I’ve had to leave out. Considered making it a Top 15 or Top 20 albums instead (but that’s just cheating isn’t it?). So I don’t lose any sleep over it here’s some other acts that have released great albums over the last 12 months. Click for more info- one of my reviews, a track from the album, the artists website or a link to the albums Bandcamp page:

So without further ado (drum roll please!) here are my ten favourite albums of 2018 (with links to either my review or something relevant)

                                                            Albums Aplenty

With Quit the Curse Detroit’s Anna Burch has produced this year’s perfect indie album. 32 minutes of sunny, Lemonheads-esque pop and seductively melancholic melodies. I’ve had it on heavy rotation all year and was even lucky enough to see her perform the songs live at Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds. Faultless.

The bands Go-Betweens connection piqued my interest yet it’s this Brisbane trio’s gorgeous indiepop that had me returning to We’re Not Talking again and again. I saw them perform at Headrow House in Leeds too, further cementing the love affair. A great band!

I managed to see The Lovely Eggs three times this year, each time an absolute treat. This is Eggland might just be their boldest statement yet. Punk thrash meets psychedelic, early Flaming Lips-esque shenanigans. 2018 truly was the year of the egg.

A true indie-underground success story, the brilliant Brace for Impact saw Laura Kidd aka She Makes War climb up the Independent Album Charts on the back of fan funding and some of the finest songs she’s written. The album and subsequent show at The Brudenell Social Club emphasised what I already knew- She Makes War rocks!

Glorious post-punk from Manchester. We Are ILL is just over 40 minutes of state of the nation, post-punk madness and politics. All carried off with a wicked sense of humour and some of the most original and inventive music I've hear all year. I was thoroughly hooked after seeing them live at Wharf Chambers in Leeds. Highly recommended!

No one does it quite like Leeds post-punk poets The Wind-Up Birds. The soundtrack to austerity and a sonic response to bigotry and Brexit Britain. An album infused with anger, disenchantment and revolution. While many of this year’s albums cast an eye over current affairs, no album sums up the mess we’re in quite as well as Desire Paths (and yes, I saw them live this year too- at Wharf Chambers).

An album of funky post-punk released by Nottingham’s consistently ace Gringo Records and named after the city I’ve spent the last 17 years calling home- what’s not to like? Limber, danceable grooves, hard-rock riffs and Gemma Fleet’s impossibly cool vocals make Living in Leeds one of this year’s finest underground albums. It’s fun and kinda makes me feel like dancing (which isn’t something that happens all that often).

Like watching Papa Lazarou riding over the hillside with his freakish carnival in tow, Evil Blizzard are Preston’s very own punk-rock ringmasters. The Worst Show On Earth sees the band flesh-out their bass-heavy sonic assault to stunning effect. Their Halloween show at The Brudenell Social Club was one to remember too!

Perhaps this year’s most immersive album, The Light is Leaving Us All pulls you into its dark yet hypnotically beautiful world from its opening moments. David Tibet’s lyrics remain cryptic yet full of sorrow and mystery. An album I’ve played late at night many a time this year.

Alan Sparhawk, Mimi Parker and Steve Garrington are pretty consistent- Low remaining one of the most fascinating and unique acts of the last 24 years. On a personal level they always manage to hit the spot. Yet even by their impossibly high standards Double Negative is something genuinely strange and wonderful (and yes, I saw them live this year too- shaking the roof at The Brudenell Social Club).


                               Gigs Galore

Now for some live music. Having attended 32 gigs over the last 12 months I’ve certainly got plenty to choose from. Again, it was tricky to narrow it down. The likes of Hot Snakes, Bob Log III, Anna BurchAidan Moffat & RM Hubbard, The Breeders, Screaming Females, Bardo Pond, Grails, The Goon Sax, Sly & The Family Drone, Low and Horse Feathers all putting on some mighty fine shows. And so many more I haven't even mentioned (find the rest here: https://soundblab.com/writer/120).

It’s been hard to choose but here are Ten of the Best Gigs I Went to in 2018 and links to my reviews:













And, because I like to spoil you, here’s a rather sizeable playlist of some of the years finest songs. Enjoy!

                                            
                                              Andy B's Amazing 2018 Playlist Extravaganza!!!





Friday 2 March 2018

Escape from Middle England with The Wind-Up Birds!

One of my favourite bands has a new album out. The Wind-Up Birds have been going for 15 years and are the best kept musical secret in West Yorkshire. Their new album, Desire Paths, is a short but concise document and quite possibly the best thing they've done. Read my other reviews about the band over at Soundblab too. 




Live photo by me. Band photo by someone else.