Charlie Gardner
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“We could have been a really good stadium band. It would have not been any good for the personalities in the band – it would have driven us all absolutely insane I would have thought. Any level of success would have made us worse people in my opinion. We could have been really good at it though. It didn’t happen and that’s that – it is what it is. It’s not a good or bad thing, just a thing. I would have liked to have made that second record though. There’s nothing wrong with being unknown, with being anonymous, it’s what almost everyone is – but try telling that to an arrogant idiot in his early twenties. . .”
Michael J Hall, Nebraska
Articles by Charlie Gardner
The distorted, anxious and surrealist visual style of the album’s cover art (painted by artist Madalena Pinta) speaks perfectly to the album’s direct, albeit melted, psychedelic electronic post-metal. Riff after riff comes and goes, never wearing out its welcome.
On the eve of an extensive UK tour to celebrate their new record, we though it it the perfect time to find out a little more about what makes the Champs chime. So we asked Danny George Wilson to tell us about four albums that have been hugely influential on the creation of You Are Not A Stranger Here. And in a delicious twist, all of the albums Danny chose are visible in the band’s latest video…
Versus Machine is an innovative and genre-blending rock band whose members bring together years of experience from diverse musical backgrounds. The band’s core is made up of singer/guitarist Stephen Tilley, bassist Michael James Stipe, and drummer Brian Doherty, with the group’s formation rooted in both past musical connections and newfound collaborations.
With Voyager to Voyager, Dead Meadow once again affirms their place in the pantheon of modern psych rock by pushing their sound to new heights, all the while honouring the deep creative bond they have shared through nearly three decades of melting minds worldwide. . .
The distorted, anxious and surrealist visual style of the album’s cover art (painted by artist Madalena Pinta) speaks perfectly to the album’s direct, albeit melted, psychedelic electronic post-metal. Riff after riff comes and goes, never wearing out its welcome.
Emmaleen Tangleweed’s music is more accurately described as a channelling than a song. Summoning stories of lost souls too tortured to let go, she cries and yearns as they no longer can, and yet, a silver thread of faith binds them.
Olivares has always lived between worlds – immersed in the chaos of noise rock, while quietly drawn to the subtle complexities of electronic sound. After years of creating experimental rock, it was the deep, hypnotic rhythms of artists like Pole, Nicolas Jaar, Nils Frahm, Caribou and Floating Points that sparked a shift in his creative direction.
Like the lovechild of a David Lynch fever dream and a warehouse dancefloor at 3 am – The Shops are a perfect cure for anyone drawn to the mysterious corners of music.
Versus Machine is an innovative and genre-blending rock band whose members bring together years of experience from diverse musical backgrounds. The band’s core is made up of singer/guitarist Stephen Tilley, bassist Michael James Stipe, and drummer Brian Doherty, with the group’s formation rooted in both past musical connections and newfound collaborations.
NEON KITTENS, formed in 2022, draw their name from a misheard Ultravox lyric and are influenced by No Wave, PiL, On-U Sound, and ZE Records
The sound of Los Angeles shoegaze band OSNOVA could still be likened to walking alone on a dark night –it strides with confidence, masking an unstable and anxious edge –the sound of forward movement that is all at once evocative, determined and enveloping
Deep Fade are Amanda Votta, Neddal Ayad, and Grey Malkin. Their second album, Further, delves into themes of disintegration, loss, and distance, expanding on their debut Line Of Flight with a new sonic structure.
Photo: Giovanna Ferin Brighton-based singer-songwriter Juanita Stein has just released her fourth solo album The Weightless Hour via Agricultural Audio. Always in demand, the Howling Bells’ front-woman has just finished a UK tour supporting Evan D …
Massive Attack meets panic attack with a flavour of a Purple-pink Floyd. The Murrays mint another beauty…
Portland Oregon-based heavy post-progressive band Light Creates Shadow release new single, ‘Beauty For Ashes’, their first new music since the release of the 2022 full length, Ghosts Pass Through, Running From The Body.
On the eve of a London headline, we asked the France-based prog-metallers to share three records that have hugely influenced their music and their new album, Mesh.
Juanita Stein has released her fourth solo album The Weightless Hour via Agricultural Audio. The Howling Bells front-woman has just finished a UK tour supporting Evan Dando and is doing a series of in-store shows including one at London’s Rough Trade West this evening, before joining Travis on their UK dates in December.
Singer-songwriter and interdisciplinary artist from Montreal, Olivia Khoury unveils her newest single ‘Fall Forward’ and offers a glimpse of her evolving artistic journey. . .
I wrote “Siphonophores” on guitar, during the first lockdown, a period where I was kind of trapped between an almost empty flat in Edinburgh and Dresden. . . I´m not a confident guitarist since I am completely self-taught, but, probably because of this, I feel that this instrument allows me to focus on aspects of the song-writing that I normally overlook when writing on piano. . .
The noirish Gothenburg duo’s journey through life’s twists and turns now continues with the release of their fourth single, ‘Down’.
A properly noir thing, as notable for its long stretches of quiet atmosphere as it is for its pummelling skronk with, appropriately enough, a couple of very impressive drone shots!
