Martin Denny – Deep Exotica Music From Martin Denny’s Lush Lounge Righteous/Cherry Red Records There aren’t many genres of music where you could confidently, hand on heart say that one particular artist was the absolute pinnacle of their art. However, with all due respect to spluttering fans who would put forward someone else as an […]
The Lasry-Baschet Sound Structures might not be the go-to group on Spotify right now, I really couldn’t say. However, it would give humanity as a whole a tremendous boost if everyone were to run out immediately and listen to their remarkable, otherworldly creations. There are some composers who worked for years to bring to life […]
Where Were You? Independent Music from Leeds 1978-1989 – Cherry Red Records Name a famous band from Leeds? Half a point for Sisters of Mercy (too obvious) one point if you said The Wedding Present or Cud. It gets really tricky after that – I could manage four or five, but then, I am from […]
The Banana Splits were born, predictably, in 1967, perhaps the most important year in the 60s for music, with game-changing releases by The Doors, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Beatles, Small Faces, The Monkees and thousands of others. Neon colours, a logo you could copy onto your pencil case, psychedelia and catchy melodies were rife, […]
The Melvins – At the Stake – The Atlantic Recordings, 1993-1995 Led Zeppelin; Aretha Franklin; The Bee Gees; Foreigner; The Melvins. Of course, this is simply mischief – for every Hall & Oates there was an MC5, but make no mistake, the signing of The Melvins by Atlantic Records did raise eyebrows. In 1993, the […]
In 1984, The New York Times reported on the release of a set of recordings which by any standards were historic. Away from MTV, stadium rock tours, 12″ remixes and Band Aid, seventeen tracks made their way into the public realm, having previously existed scattered across classical collections of choral music, stamped on brittle shellac […]
When choosing a musical instrument to learn to play when the opportunity comes around at school, there are several factors which may influence a child. Primarily, this will be, “What are my mates choosing?” – leading to gaggles of violinists, much to the chagrin of their families. Others may be swayed by the flashy gleam […]
I recently watched ‘Evil Dead Rise‘, a film so bad that I believe I may be the only person outside of cartoons to have had random punctuation spill out of their mouth. Amongst the inexplicable awfulness was a particularly bad score by Stephen McKeon, one so lazy and bereft of invention that I’m amazed anyone […]
The Mad, Sad World of the Boutique Blu-Ray There’s a recently released study which suggests 50% of US vinyl buyers don’t have a turntable to play them on. This study is wheeled out every year, but it’s a fun one that causes much teeth-grinding from many record-playing purists, and a nervous defence from those practising […]
It has been just under 25 years since the band Tad split up. Their final single, ‘Oppenheimer’s Pretty Nightmare‘, was released in 1999, and a collection of latter-day recordings and errant stray tracks, ‘Quick and Dirty‘ appeared in 2018. Since then, Tad (the man) formed the band Hog Molly, releasing one album, ‘Kung-Fu Cocktail Grip‘ […]
