The Fat Angel Sings

According to the press release “an incredible feeling of freedom and escapism” dominates the fourth full-length by Welsh electronic music artist Kelly Lee Owens, so the title “Dreamstate” does make a lot of sense. Compared to the experimental 2022 “LP.8” and the slightly darker and also fittingly titled “Inner Songs” from 2020, this new body of work is indeed a bit more euphoric and positive. It’s an album that celebrates the power of the four-to-the-floor beat while also showcasing the artist’s profound songwriting skills. “Dark Angel” does open the album slightly more atmospheric but the title track and its bubbling acid bassline make sure that Kelly Lee Owens’ work is still rooted on the club floor.

The tremendous singles “Love You Got” and “Higher” continue to deliver that hands-in-the-air-euphoria before a few more mellow songs slow the tempo a bit down in the middle of the record. 

What I enjoy about “Dreamstate” is not just the wonderful production and the angel-like voice of its creator, but the aspect that it works extremely well as a coherent record.

There’s a flow that combines all these different worlds. Still, I wouldn’t label the record as a pure club album. Sure, there are more straightforward bangers like the terrific “Air” but these songs also work in different contexts. It’s an album full of energy, a battery full of ideas and love. “I do my best to stay open,” she sings on the relaxing “Ballad (In the End)” and that repetitive mantra resonates a lot with me these days, I have to say. With this new album Kelly Lee Owens cements her status as one of electronic music’s finest contemporary players. Björk, Jon Hopkins and Depeche Mode are already fans and I am as well. So, follow the advice of us all and enter a very special “Dreamstate” right here.

Seated stage right at a lone electronic keyboard, for almost the first half of his two-hour set at a busy Alexandra Palace Theatre, Joe Jackson looked a bit like a particularly accomplished busker. Playing in front of a crimson curtain on an entirely unadorned stage, the production was as intimate as it was economical. The sense, though, that this was a one-man band touring the country on the cheap, perhaps in a hire car, didn’t survive the appearance of a nine-piece brass-and-strings ensemble for a second-half run through with a selection of entirely unusual music. In the past, Joltin’ Joe has turned his hands to jazz, soul, pop, rock and classical; these days, however, and with some gusto, he’s trained his sights on early 20^th century-style music hall.

As befits this most singular of artists, the show was kind of backwards. In the normal telling, artists of a certain age dispense with their newer material first before rewarding the audience with hits from the past. Up at Ally Pally, though, Jackson unfurled the bangers early doors. “On Your Radio”, “Real Men” and “It’s Different For Girls“, hits from the days when the Portsmouth-reared songwriter was mislabelled an ‘Angry Young Man’, helped bring the crowd to life. Minutes later, the sound of his relentless left hand pumping out the bass line to mega-smash “Steppin’ Out” suggested that time and tide have yet to leave a mark on an artist who recently celebrated 70 circuits of the sun. His voice, too, was in sensational shape. 

In lesser hands, the second half might not have worked quite so well as he launched into songs from last year’s album, “What a Racket”, as his fictional alter ego, music hall performer Max Champion. For some, the sight and sound of a tuba player, a flutist, trumpeters, violinists, a double bassist, and more, could have easily been a gear change too many.

But holding court centre stage, dressed in a stovepipe hat and tails, Jackson was a convincing roustabout. At a venue nicknamed “the People’s Palace”, Jackson brought love and expertise to what otherwise might have been a testing second act. Deservedly, before the encore, he and the players received a standing ovation. 

Even Joe Jackson, though, isn’t quite bloody-minded enough to leave the stage without a final nod to his illustrious back catalogue. In the past, “Is She Really Going Out With Him?“, his first single, from 1978, has been interpreted in ways that include acapella, pop and a sparse-sounding kind of soul. Never before, though, has it been sculpted in a way that would have been recognisable to music hall stagers such as Millie Lindon and Whit Cunliffe. In his refusal to bow to the powerful gravity of nostalgia, as he finished his night’s work, Jackson deserved the applause that rained upon him. 

Joe Jackson plays Alexandra Palace Theatre

“Heavy Lifting” is the new studio album by Detroit’s punk rock pioneers, MC5! Led by founding member Wayne Kramer and produced by the iconic Bob Ezrin, “Heavy Lifting” signifies a momentous occasion – the release of new MC5 music, a staggering 53 years since their last album “High Time” in 1971! The release signifies a momentous occasion – the release of new MC5 music, a staggering 53 years since their last album in 1971. The music community recently mourned the loss of MC5 founding member Wayne Kramer and Dennis ‘Machine Gun’ Thompson, the last members of the original MC5 line-up, accompanied by messages of love from the world’s greatest rock stars. MC5’s enduring influence and cultural significance are solidified by their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024. 

In a completely unexpected turn of events, legendary garage punk originators MC5 (Yes that MC5!?! Yes, the recently totally deceased MC5!?! Yes THAT MC5) return with a new album “Heavy Lifting”, . Expect guitar led madness and classic Detroit punk played by the last remaining (until recently) member Wayne Kramer and a cast of rock royalty.

“Heavy Lifting” features an all-star line-up of guest musicians including Slash, Tom Morello, William DuVall (Alice in Chains), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Tim McIlrath (Rise Against), and many more!

Now available as a limited-edition bundle, including the bonus album “10xMC5 Live”, with rare, unreleased recordings from the MC50 tour celebrating 50 years of “Kick Out The Jams”!

After the success of his recent album “66”, Paul Weller releases 4 sublime new songs on the “Supplement: 66” EP. The tracks on “Supplement: 66″ were recorded at Paul’s own Black Barn Studios and serve as a loving nod to his past while also embracing his continued growth as an artist. 

All tracks were produced by Paul Weller and feature most of the Weller band plus Max Beesley on vibraphone, folk legend Danny Thompson on double bass and original Jam member Steve Brookes on guitar. Esteemed folk singer/songwriter Kathryn Williams takes lead vocals on the haunting closer ‘So Quietly,’ which she also co-wrote.

French modern psych band La Femme is switching things up for their sixth album, “Rock Machine”: it’s the first one they’ve recorded in English. It’s also a bit of a departure in terms of genre; though it’s rooted in synth overall, the album explores many different corners of the rock genre. Less “cohesive album” and more “weird sonic journey that we’re absolutely here for,” “Rock Machine” is a singular album from a band that has consistently defined categorization.

On their first album totally written in English, French electronic pop band La Femme accompany the romantic lyrics with a wider, complimentary set of influences. This, their sixth album, balances the synth-heavy, elegant new wave of their debut with an ecstatic mix of disco, British punk, and surf rock.

Released on: 2024-09-04

As a band, Ireland 6 piece Silverbacks are restless, eager to move onto the next thing: 3 albums in 4 years is evidence of this. That their fizzing, rock-addled songs rarely pass the 4 minute mark is further proof.

Irish rock band Silverbacks are doing pretty nicely, thank you. They are all settling down with singer Daniel O’Kelly even making Paris his home. All that doesn’t mean that their music has gone soft. They still have a bit of Fontaines DC about them on this third album and their sound is proudly (slightly) sloppy indie-rock with nods to Pavement and Guided By Voices. 

Silverbacks album number 3 ‘Easy Being A Winner’ is out October 18th on Central Tones.

“The Ouroborus” – that is, the icon of the snake or dragon eating its own tail – appears to some a statement of the brutality of nature. To others of a Gnostic disposition it symbolises the duality of the divine and earthly in mankind. But most commonly, it’s taken simply to mean the endless cycles of death and rebirth that characterise life on this planet. As such, it’s an image that looms large in the world of Goat, the ever-mysterious and endlessly revivifying collective whose latest album marks another adventure above and beyond this particular plane of reality. This may be a band that has named albums both “Requiem” and “Oh Death”, yet this eponymous salvo proves yet again that transcendence and metamorphosis are their watchwords. Goat sees this ever-unpredictable outfit summoning rhythmically-driven rituals in unmistakable, uplifting and scintillating style, equally adept at ignitiing dancefloors and expanding minds.

‘One More Death’ and ‘Goatbrain’ are spectacular curtain-raisers, embodying a hedonistic spirit driven by incisive funk and possessed by merciless fuzz/wah-drenched guitar. Yet elsewhere, the band’s love of hip hop is the fuel for the end-credits-epic album closer ‘Ourobourus’ which marries infectious chant to breathless Lalo Schifrin-style breakbeat action. And which also means ultimately, like the titular oldest allegorical symbol in alchemy, we’re right back where we started. As Brad Dourif’s character Hazel Moates intones in the 1979 movie Wiseblood,  “Where you come from is gone; where you thought you were going weren’t never there. And where you are ain’t no good unless you can get away from it”; in Goat’s eternal now of renewal and revelation, there’s never been a more potent means of escape. 

‘Bleak and frightening “A Little Bit Of Grace And Decay” is also unfathomably beautiful’ MOJO **** 4 JSTARS.
‘Beguiling understated score to The Graceless Age: The Ballad Of John Murry’ UNCUT 8//10
‘A thing of true beauty…….A powerful reminder of just what a major songwriter and artist John Murry is’

The Soundtrack to accompany the Award winning Documentary “The Graceless Age: The Ballad Of John Murry”. Written and performed by John Murry and Mike Timmins (Cowboy Junkies).

This haunting film is the story of American singer songwriter John Murry, who was on the cusp of greatness after the release of his highly acclaimed album “The Graceless Age” (Released in 2013), when his world fell apart. Addicted to heroin and creatively exhausted, he washed up on the shores of Ireland, a broken man. Now, he retraces his steps back to Mississippi into the dark heart of American life and faces his demons- a neglected childhood, traumatic assault, and resulting years of opioid addiction.

Written and performed by John Murry and Mike Timmins (Cowboy Junkies). “Ever since we finished recording “A Short History of Decay” back in 2016, I’ve been waiting for John Murry to return to my studio. I had been working on some ideas for the film score for John’s doc when he finally reappeared. He had three days to kill in Toronto, so we decided to get together, sit around and play some music.

No real plan and no real goal, just play and enjoy each other’s company. This album is the result of that visit. It’s a “sort-of” soundtrack album to the film, it contains some score pieces, as well as some of the solo recordings that John and I made when he was here in Toronto, some of which also became a part of the score” Mike Timmins.

“The Garden Of Jane Delawney” was released in April 1970, but Trees were back in the studio to record the follow-up within five months, the intervening time seemingly spent listening to Steeleye Span’s debut album “Hark! The Village Wait” (released that June) and – at least occasionally – to each other. Having jostled for position a little inelegantly over the course of the first record, Trees benefited from a Bedford-van boot camp, gigging giving them a better command of group dynamics. All Phil Manzanera acid flash on the first album, guitarist Barry Clarke’s contributions take on a more measured, Quicksilver Messenger Service tone, his guitar flickering around the edges of songs rather than screaming into centre stage. Vocalist Celia Humphris also finds a new range, and if she cannot do traditional warhorses like “Polly On The Shore” and “Geordie” with the same conviction as a Shirley Collins or an Anne Briggs, she no longer sounds like she is just impersonating a folk singer.

Her two-layered vocal helps make “Murdoch” by far the best of Trees’ self-written songs. Bassist Bias Boshell reckons his tale of a mysterious awful up in the mountains came to him in a dream. With a subtle, insistent guitar and keyboard refrain, it’s certainly a piece that burrows into the subconscious, Trees discovering the passage behind the cupboard that leads from After Bathing At Baxter’s-era Jefferson Airplane into Stevie Nicks-age Fleetwood Mac.

However, if their compositions are tighter (opener “Soldiers Three” is a stylish fake medieval round), Trees still yearned to stretch out; their take on Cyril Tawney’s “Sally Free And Easy” bursts its banks to become a 10-minute guitar sprawl, but it’s a mark of their new-found unity that Costa and Clarke queue up in an orderly fashion to decorate “Streets Of Derry”, another spectacular journey from rustic inner space to the wild West Coast.