Kscope / Eastgate At the time of his passing, Edgar Froese was working on several pieces of new music and also had decided to take Tangerine Dream back to its pure electronic past and, some would say, glory days. This release is made up of two separate releases, finally brought together
Gary Parsons
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SPV / Oblivion This is Klaus Schulze’s first studio album of new material in five years, after many reissues of his older work. It is both a celebration of him turning seventy and also the artist reflecting on his career while he recovered from an illness that saw him stop live performances for good.
London 4-6 May 2018 Friday: Justin It’s a sunny Friday in Olde London Towne, and the weather’s predicted to be a strictly non-traditional scorcher of a May Bank Holiday weekend. What better time to punctuate outdoor drinking with a succession of slow bands in dark rooms?
London 24 April 2018 Back in 1982, in one week I went to both Tangerine Dream and the final concert by Japan, all within a couple of days of each other. Fast forward just over thirty-five years, and here I am sat at The Union Chapel about to soak in the atmospheres of the Dream again, this time supported by Japan’s wonderful keyboard player Richard Barbieri.
London 7 April 8018 The Netfix TV series Stranger Things has been the go-to visual experience for all things retro 80s in the last couple of years. Set in the town of Hawkins, various supernatural and sci-fi events set off the young protagonists in the search for the truth.
Aagoo Italian guitarist and producer Eraldo Bernocchi has worked on a wide range of projects since forming Sigillum S in the eighties. He has collaborated on projects with Harold Budd, Markus Stockhausen, Robin Guthrie and Russell Mills among many others. From working with avant-garde noise to almost world music, Solitary Universe finds Bernocchi and Chihei Hatakeyama in a more ambient mode.
Beggars Arkive Dance was a change in direction for Gary Numan after four albums where he explored dark, cold electronic music, and he obviously thought it was time to move away from that area. This being 1981, it was only now that a lot of other popular artists were just beginning to explore Numan’s minimalist synth sound for themselves, and suddenly the UK charts were flooded with bands […]
London 21 November 2017 Over the last couple of years, Blues Pills have toured tirelessly and worked hard to become a big crowd-pulling concert act filling out large venues across Europe. So it was a bit of a surprise when they announced a rather intimate show at the small Jazz Café in London, but no surprise when the show sold out.
Svart Jess And The Ancient Ones are a enigma; their first album and EP were labelled under the occult rock genre alongside such bands as Jex Thoth and Blood Ceremony. This may have largely been due to the press releases saying that the songs were all about the band’s experiences with magick. Then came the second album, The Aquarius Tapes, which seemed to discuss the occult influence during […]
Relapse During the 1980s, synthesizer soundtracks for horror and science fiction films were ubiquitous; most low-budget, straight to video movies had them. But during the nineties they began to fall out of favour. Fast forward a few years and a new breed of artists began to fall in love with the sound of old analogue synths and decided to try and make music that conjured up the same […]
MIG This is Wucan’s second full-length album release and comes hot on the heels of their amazing performance at Desertfest this year. After the Vikarama EP and the album Sow The Wind, this time Wucan present us with a double LP in which they explore their sound, and start taking it in other directions.
London 9 October 2017 It’s been a few months since I last went to see a band at The Borderline, so I was somewhat shocked as I entered the venue as it seems like a totally different place. The one little bar has now been replaced by a massive long bar and an elevated standing area has been removed.
MiG Made In Germany carries on its massive Klaus Schulze reissue programme with these two releases that have been unavailable for some time. Both come in lavish fold-old covers with a booklet containing notes about the making of the albums. Both are two disc sets containing nearly three hours of music on each release.
London 11 September 2017 Dark clouds were brooding all day before Coven’s first ever show in the UK. AS I left the tube station the heavens opened and a monsoon like shower sent everyone on the street running for cover. I braved the downpour and ran to the entrance of the venue where a few other soaked individuals were also huddled trying to get in. A large clap […]
Rockosmos It’s always interesting to hear a band you have not heard of before, especially when the words “space rock” and “prog rock” are being attached to their name and they are getting a lot of press attention. So I slipped my disc into the player and was prepared to take a trip in to the outer reaches.
MiG Siena Root are a band I discovered a few years back and was instantly captivated by their sound. There were the big, heavy grooves and the wonderful melodies; but also there were sitars and a taste of the east that gave their hard rock sound a massive psychedelic twist, like it was 1968 all over again.
Sulatron Beautiful artwork by Komet Lulu is wrapped around this new release by Sula Bassana, which already tempts the listener to give it a spin. This is Sula’s first soundtrack album and is for Michael Yates’s new movie The Ape Regards His Tail.
London 14 June 2017 ‘Are you going to see Kings X?’, the guy in the pub says to me. ‘No, I’m going to see a band called Blood Ceremony at The Garage’, I reply. ‘They sound a bit weird to me, mate’; and with that he shuffles off, pint in hand.