You may be slowly noticing just how many great records have been trickling out of Ireland in the past few years, and with an in-flux of awesome bands, that trickle is set to become a tsunami. The newest to emerge is the second EP from Belfast boys Stil …

 The latest album from Hinterlandt, “Cartography”, sees Sydney-based, German-born solo performer Jochen Gutsch retaining his trademarks but finding something more listenable than his record from last year, and more diverse than 2009’s “All Things Consi …

With the recent crop of Americana bands that have come to the fore recently there has been a noticeable increase in different styles coming through. A genre which had lain underground for much of the 80’s and 90’s has seen a new breed discovering the r …

Opening with a bright acoustic guitar that belies the emotional undertones of Calexico’s first release in four years, it feels like the band has never been away. Things have changed though. The Arizona band decamped to New Orleans to record this record …

Chuter is a one man band featuring the music of Hampshire England’s Jack Chuter. Chuter has released a few EPs and ‘Regenerative’ is his latest and will appeal foremost to those who enjoy grooving to a heavy wall of droning guitar noise. Oh look, my sh …

The Jonas referred to here isn’t one of the Jonas Brothers (hurrah some of you may cry) but Swedish musician Jonas Carping, a folk-acoustic musician based in Stockholm. On his websites he mentions that he draws on a variety of influences (both from oth …

A trio of Liverpudlian lasses, Stealing Sheep are a band who have had quite a bit of air time and recognition since forming in the summer of 2010. The band have been met with acclaim from DJs such as Lauren Laverne and Jarvis Cocker as well as doing wo …

It’s not often that the prospect of an Anglo-Welsh-American psychedelic rock band arrives to serve up a cornucopia of delightful songs that straddles boundaries. Howl Griff seem intent on changing this though with this album, ‘Fragile Diamond’, which c …

Air. Try visualizing air. If you’re like me, that is most likely a very pleasant task. Air to dive into. Float into. Gaze into. Out of the window. Sounds familiar? So you float into your airy task and you might start seeing the sky high above the groun …

Stressechos are a band from Cheltenham describing themselves as “acoustic heart-on-sleeve storytelling” (awww) – BBC Introducing called them that too (double awww). They’ve been around in different shapes and forms since 2008 and have evolved to includ …

I must admit that when Tribal Fighters’ EP, ‘Brave Men Can’t Party’, first dropped into my inbox I did ignore it for a while; something about finding a new place to live, finishing university and trying to find a job all at the same time meant that my …

‘Inuit’ is the latest EP from London’s self-proclaimed ‘helicopter pop’ band Quadrilles. Their bio claims that they “squeeze math-rock into sub-3 minute nuggets and sprinkle it with…afrobeat, grunge and disco” although I couldn’t hear very strong eleme …

For this Irish quartet ‘Fade 2 Forever’ bridges a gap between their acclaimed debut long player ‘Laserdisc Nights 2’, with it’s accompanying stream of blistering live shows, and the material this wily 4 piece intend to tease into being over the summer …

It seems we are something of a golden age for the kind of psych / space / desert rock that White Manna do. There are some mighty fine proponents around; White Hills, Pontiak, Wooden Shijps to name but a few of the more high profile bands. However, very …

This record sounds a lot like Explosions in the Sky. I rarely make this direct comparison because most times when I read it I think it’s the wrong one to make. Not all post-rock bands sound like Explosions, Mogwai, Godspeed and Sigur Ros, and those ban …

In the fourth of a new series of articles featuring albums that perhaps flew under the radar when released but we think retrospectively deserve more consideration, we look back at Front End Loader’s “Ritardando”. Records have personalities don’t they? …

18 months, in the world of music, really isn’t that long. One criticism that can immediately be levelled at the new Yellowcard record – their second in that space of time, following on from last year’s ‘When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes’ – is that …

It’s been said that football is a game of two halves and to pinch that analogy, I’m going to use it to describe the debut long player from Sauna Youth. In what is a rather disconcerting experience, ‘Dreamlands’ is best looked at as an experiment in pus …

It’s a small world we live in. I was delighted to find when reading about Helicopter Quartet that they are two musicians I am quite familiar with from another time in my life. Over the years I have shared a bill with both Catscans and We Sell Seashells …

The first few seconds of volcano’s third release sounds like Salvador’s Dali’s alarm clock. To say it ‘erupts’ would be easy, conventional, and that would be doing this Chicago band a huge disservice, because if ‘Piñata’ does anything, it marches to th …

I’ve got to admit, I was giddy as a schoolgirl at the possibility of reviewing Sucioperro’s latest bombastic blast-fest, confident that Scotland’s most criminally under-exposed noise-makers would surely knock my socks off yet again. And guess what…? Th …