Highly recommended is the debut album from Tusks. Admittedly three of the tracks are lifted straight off the False EP so there's really only 7 new songs to me but Dissolve is still an amazing album...

It's all shimmering, hazy pop but with enough beats and glitches to keep thing on the edge of electronica. The vocals are buried deep in the music and it does make deciphering lyrics difficult but doesn't spoil the sound

The standout tracks are Toronto with a nagging guitar refrain at the start and drums that just appear and disappear and the title track Dissolve which sounds a very personal recounting of a relationship breakdown

Really would like to see this played live but at the moment that doesn't look a possibility...

Go discover.

I have a wide ranging musical palette from folk to black metal, from Americana to goth but there are 3 forms of music I can't abide.... The first is the banal R&B dross that clogs up the charts and commercial radio. The second is jazz and more specifically the late night wine bar variety

Unfortunately for some of her latest album Nerina Pallot strays deeply into unpleasant area.
There are parts of Stay Lucky I can hardly listen to as it sinks to Katie Melua type depths

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Come into my Room are the worst examples and only suitable to play if you're trying to seduce a young lady (with no musical inclination) with a night cap after a good date

On the plus side the start of the album is fantastic. Juno and Bring Him Fire are some of the best tracks Nerina has recorded. Man Didn't Walk on the Moon begins like an amazing lost track from Rumours before the chorus kicks in (which wasn't a good thing)

Stay Lucky was recorded over 2 weekends by a tight knit group of musicians and it shows with a cohesive feel but it's not a patch on Sound and the Fury where she honed an albums worth of material from 12 months worth of EP's. That was widely varied in both texture and sounds whereas this is almost too homogenised

I missed that imaginative and wildly eclectic Ms Pallot.





(and the third type of music? - The Smiths. I never 'got' it and I'd rather have silence than listen to that)

Found an envelope full of old ticket stubs for concerts that bought back some memories and also a bit sad because what with online booking and the fact most tickets are now kept by the venues its a collection that isn't going to grow soon....

Anyway below are 10 that recall some amazing nights (it's not a list of my favourite gigs ever just the ones that these tickets remind me of)

Thunder - Sheffield City Hall (06/10/1992) - A band at the absolute height of their power touring Laughing on Judgement Day

Def Leppard - Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield (06/06/1993) - One of only two outdoor gigs I've ever been to and what a line up: Terrovision, Ugly Kid Joe and Thunder supporting

Marillion - St David Hall, Cardiff (25/09/1995) - Remember waiting for the milk train at Cardiff Station while the batteries slowly died in my Walkman

My Ruin - Exeter Phoenix (14/09/1999) - One of the most intimidating front woman I have ever see, take a bow Tarrie B

All About Eve - Tavistock Wharf (03/02/2001) - Driving through the fog to see Eve play acoustic with only a few hours notice

Sisters of Mercy - Bristol Academy (22/04/2003) - Unused ticket as my darling youngest daughter decided to be born 5 days late....

The Damned - Torquay Town Hall (04/12/2003) - Hungover from a gig the night before and the bounciest floor I've ever experienced at a venue (and All Living Fear supported!)

New Model Army - Lemon Grove, Exeter (13/10/20005) - Convincing some girl I met at the gig that it was safe to wander into the mosh pit, only for the next song to be Here Comes the War and it all kicked off!!

Fields of the Nephilim - Astoria, London (24/05/2007) - Just simply the best

Acoustica Festival - Exeter Phoenix (15/09/2012) - I've enjoyed all the Acoustica gigs but watching the Smoke Fairies play ABBA at their sound check was magical

Black metal is a strange genre…. Whilst to most people is just a noise and one band/song is indistinguishable from the next there are some variations of note

Bands form the UK seem to lack that cold nihilism that the Scandinavians do so well and the music seem to be more sort of widescreen, ‘epic’ even

This is especially true of the new (released earlier this year) album from Fen. Over just 6 tracks Winter is a huge feeling album. The length of the tracks ranger from 9 to 17 minutes is part of the reason but the changes in pace, mixed with some brutal musicianship and possibly some sort of concept make it a really fascinating listen

It’s not really worth picking out individual tracks but IV (Internment) has some amazing instrumental passages and even a false ending, the switch in gear on track III (Fear) where the atmospheric intro suddenly takes off with the drums just being pummelled into submission is exhilarating

This is a very English take on black metal, more in line with Winterfylleth but there is also a bit of goth (Nephilim style) and elements of post rock (the density and atmosphere of it all)

It could do with a bit more light and shade in the vocal department to make it a truly classic album – the clean vocals are used very sparingly and you wonder if just adding an occasional female voice in there would take it to the next level  



I bought this on vinyl and the packaging is brilliant…. Double LP in translucent green to match the artwork, fully printed sleeves with all the lyrics and even bonus tracks exclusive to the vinyl. Some more established bands should take note, you can produce an amazing physical product for under £25.

It's Autumn so here come all the new releases.... Admittedly Mareidt is more a freezing winter album but timing isn't everything

On her second full length album Myrkur has really mixed things up and its very impressive. The ferocious black metal is largely gone and replaced in part by a slower grinding metal more in line with Sabbath - this is shown to great effect on the Serpent

It's produced by Randall Dunn who's previous work includes Sunn O))) and Wolves in the Throne Room and some of that influence is evident here

Elsewhere the opening track is all Danish herding calls (!) and ominous storms before Maneblot arrives in a maelstrom of vicious riffing and screams, easily the blackest metal of the album. Even then there are clean vocals and a bit of a Scandinavian jig halfway through

The duet with Chelsea Wolfe is more in line with the guests musical output but is still fantastic.

Within the bonus tracks there are a couple of real oddities.... Bornehjem is all sweet choral work whilst a seriously creepy child's voice explains why it want to hurt people. Very, very strange
At the other end of the spectrum Death of Days could easily be played on daytime radio. Its an exquisitely sung, slightly downbeat tune

Overall it's going to take a while to get my head round all the styles on show but this is an artist spreading her wings and not afraid to mix the beauty with the brutal

Another year, another masterpiece from Public Service Broadcasting.....

Again we have a concept album in the shape of Every Valley about the mining industry in South Wales. What I love about this band is while the sound is recognisable each album has it's own feel - The War Room was all about defiance, The Race for Space dealt in the euphoria of discovering the new and Every Valley is all resigned melancholy

As ever, the samples are perfectly thought out and fit the tracks seamlessly. Its no gimmick just another way to add words to a song. The difference this time around is the use of real vocalist which adds another layer to sound.

In Turn no More, we have James Dean Bradfield giving his usual passion to lyrics from a welsh poem and Haiku Salut repeat the trick of the Smoke Fairies from the last album

There are a couple of surprises.... The anger of All Out is a bit off a shock, as is hearing the first vocals of J Willgoose himself on You + Me - an odd track which is a duet with Lisa Jen Brown who sing in Welsh and no samples. It's rather twee but the faltering vocal of the PSB main man give it an endearing quality.

The album fittingly ends with a Welsh male voice choir on Take Me Home.

The Race for Space is still the better album because it has the highs of discovery alongside the lows of the disasters rather than Every Valley which is more consistent in mood but this is still going to be one of the albums of the year.

The return of All Living Fear