Posted in Press Releases

FARMERS MARKET – SLAV TO THE RHYTHM, OUT MARCH 4th ON DIVISION RECORDS
“the world’s greatest musical stew…” VF

Twenty years in the making, the Norwegian prog ensemble Farmers Market remains as equally musically complex as they are critically acclaimed. Following their 2008 outing “Surfin’ USSR” (on Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings), the new recordings on “Slav to the Rhythm” have been released by the Oslo-based label Division Records to rave reviews in Norway, and are now set to be released on an unsuspecting British audience.

The former album earned them a Norwegian Grammy in the award ceremony’s open category...

Posted in Press Releases

Onward Chariots is the brainchild of Ben Morss, a multi-instrumentalist and self professed music geek whose journey to This Is My Confession is peppered with eclecticism. In a life filled with music, Morss has toured the world, played with the California acid-jazz group 11:11 at festivals such as NXNW and SXSW, conducted orchestras, played gospel in African-American churches, arranged and played on albums for artists like Cake, and immersed himself in the works of Peter Bjorn & John, Belle & Sebastian, Yo La Tengo and The Beatles.

Taken from the forthcoming album This Is My Confession (Jan 29th), the band now make the track Mama available for streaming and sharing:

Morss had this to say about the track:

“It’s a shimmering, tragic, Sufjan Stevens-esque, minimalism-influenced chamber pop...

Posted in Press Releases

AMARANTHE, the fast-rising modern metal sextet,will release their sophomore album, ‘The Nexus’, on March 25th via Spinefarm Records.
Produced by Jacob Hansen (whose credits include Volbeat, Dreamshade & Ginger Wildheart, and who worked on Amaranthe’s 2011 self-titled debut), ‘The Nexus’ sees the Swedish/Danish outfit further honing a musical style that blends cutting-edge melodic metal with soaring pop melodies, the whole thing topped off by a unique three-vocal attack…
Says guitarist and band co-founder Olof Morck: ”The moment has come to let loose ‘The Nexus’ on an unsuspecting world! This time we went all the way with our futuristic dream-nightmare – a no-compromise vision steeped in deep contrast between the mechanically ultra-heavy and shimmering serene melody...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Den gamla dansbanan Björksäter i Hässleholm har väckt liv igen i sin hårdrockssatsning – Club Metallic. Corroded och Bonafide delade scenen (i dubbel bemärkelse) tillsammans denna kyliga lördag kväll.

Först ut var Bonafide mot min förvåning då jag trodde dem skulle avsluta kvällen! Men vad gör det. Lika bra att börja med det bästa direkt. Med nya Ultimate Rebel i ryggen, ytterligare en ny kritikerrosad platta så bjuds det givetvis friskt på nytt material från denna. Startskottet är energifyllda Doing It Pretty och löper vidare med To Fire Up, The Mess och Rebel Machine. Däremellan hinner dem med att bränna av rökare som Dirt Bound, Butter You Up och odödliga Down.

Niklas på trummor har fått låna Corrodeds trumset och leker ständigt med klockspelet...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Malian singer Salif Keita is often referred to as the ”Golden Voice of Africa”. As an albino he was ostracised by his family and community, and left his village to move to the capital city of Mali – Bamako, in the late 1960s where he joined the Super Rail Band and then Les Ambassadeurs before leaving the country in the mid 1970s during the country’s political unrest. Now he is based in Paris and Bamako and is a major star of African music.

I have to be honest and admit that while I’ve listened to a lot of music genres over the years, I’ve never really paid any attention to African music – like many people the closest I’ve got to African music is Paul Simon’s graceland, or some Ladysmith black mambazo.
Despite this I was familiar with the name of Salif Keita – I just hadn’t heard anything...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Lion Music/Border

Project mastermind Tony Vinci has been here before, with a similar band of the same name. But after the self-titled debut he saw the need for a new formation, better suited to the more progressive stand that was taking form. This time around it is Tony on guitars, Andy Engberg of SECTION A on vocals, keyboard player Anthony Brown (GRAPHITE SYMPHONY), Greg Putnam (JAM PAIN SOCIETY on bass, and last but definitely not least prog drummer hero Mark Zonder of FATES WARNING fame. The album centers on the elements, “Fire”, “Wind”, “Water”, “Earth”, and a fifth, “Quinta Essentia” to keep the themes together.

Opener “Fire” is of cause intense, straightforward on the border of leaving the genre, but also boosts a great refrain...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Chantal Claret is best known as the singer from US rock band Morningwood, and also as the wife of Mindless Self Indulgence singer Jimmy Urine. Her latest album is a somewhat different sound to her normal rock music. The album was released in the US last year and is now getting a UK release. The album, ”The one, the only…” takes 60s girl pop and soul and adds some modern rock and hip hop to give a sound that is both modern and vintage at the same time.

This is one of those rare albums these days – one that stands out as totally different to most other album releases. There are lots of great albums, but most fall into a genre such as rock or folk and while most bands have their own sound, they do usually have a strong resemblance to other bands in the genre...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Heidi Talbot is a singer from County Kildare in Ireland, who spent several years in New York as part of the group Cherish the ladies. Her first solo album after leaving ”Cherish the ladies” in 2008, ”In love and light” got great reviews, but it wasn’t till her 2010 album ”The last star” that she started writing her own songs. Now she is back with her latest album, ”Angels without wings” (her fifth solo album). As well as her usual team of musicians, she has two guests on the album, both of who are acclaimed guitarists – Jerry Douglas and Mark Knopfler...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”Another step” is the debut album from Manchester band City Reign. The band comprises the songwriting duo of Chris Bull and Mike Grice along with Duncan Bolton and Ryan Ashton. After moving to Manchester to study, Chris and Mike met at a Ryan Adams gig – the band’s name comes from his song ”City Rain, City Streets”.
The band have released three singles – ”Making plans”, ”Out in the cold” and ”Daybreak” as well as an EP (Numbers for street names). Now they are releasing their debut album on their own record label.

The album was recorded in Salford’s Sacred Trinity Church, so instead of a recording studio where everything is designed to control echoes and the sound bouncing, the the stone walls and high ceiling give a very different recording environment...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Finnish power metal band Stratovarius are due to release their new studio album, Nemesis, in late February. Fans though can get a taste of the new album with the new EP, Unbreakable, which is being released on 25th January.
The EP consists of five tracks – one new song (Unbreakable) taken from the forthcoming album, Nemesis, plus four songs from earlier albums that have been remastered for this release. Effectively then it’s the first single from the new album, but the presence of four remastered tracks makes it far more appealing than a typical single.

Starting with the new song – Unbreakable, it opens with some nice keyboards, the guitars and drums quickly kick in, followed soon after by the vocals...