Author: Andy Peterson Page 8
Shawn Lee - Synthesizers in Space
What Shawn Lee's career has lacked in terms of actual sales is certainly made up for in terms of output; recording since the late 1980's, his official releases are piling up towards 30, although for...
Review posted on 20th August 2012
Bleech - Nude
If only everything in life was as simple as this. Remember good old fashioned indie rock n' roll? Uncomplicated, one dimensional, get out there on the refectory floor and look a bit of prat indie...
Review posted on 9th August 2012
Kraak & Smaak - Feelings
Kraak and Smaak's last release Electric Hustle was well, ok; like a supermarket curry, it was pleasant enough for the most part but a little bland. Certainly given the wealth of innovative, boldly ambitious and...
Review posted on 25th July 2012
ULTRAVOX - Brilliant
First, let's deal with the elephant in the room here: you don't call your first album for 18 years Brilliant unless you're prepared to encounter some cynicism, especially since barely two years before its release...
Review posted on 12th July 2012
Simian Mobile Disco - Unpatterns
Dateline 2002: Jas Shaw is still a part of Simian, a four piece from Manchester whose debut album Chemistry Is What We Are contained some pristine, if largely ignored, dream pop moments in a vaguely...
Review posted on 9th July 2012
SquarePusher - Ufabulum
It feels a bit crass - probably because it is - to label Tom Jenkinson (he of the Squarepusher moniker) as a scene granddaddy, particularly when you consider that it's hard to define exactly what...
Review posted on 28th June 2012
The Cinematic Orchestra - In Motion #1
It's been said before here at Contact Towers, but God bless the recent commercial failure of the music industry model as we know it. Now, a few tousle haired former suits may well disagree with...
Review posted on 19th June 2012
Deer Tick - Divine Providence
Whether Deer Tick are really a band or still just the supersized lone project of John McCauley, it seems like he's turned over a new leaf, and gosh darn it if it isn't mighty dark...
Review posted on 30th May 2012
The Phenomenal Handclap Band - Form & Control
Phenomenal: 1. Very remarkable, extraordinary 2. Perceptible by the senses or through immediate experience. Well, I don't know much about either of those two, but the first minute of Form & Control's opening track Following...
Review posted on 8th May 2012
Slugabed - Time Team
Punk; it's like it never needed to happen. After all, thirty five years since John Lydon made himself public enemy #1 by singing about god saving our Lizzy during Jubilee year, its legacy seems to...
Review posted on 24th April 2012
PNAU - Soft Universe
For the uninitiated, Pnau are Australian duo Peter Mayes and Nick Littlemore, and Soft Universe is their fourth outing since their d'but Sambanova, was released in 2000. They may well have passed you by, although...
Review posted on 16th April 2012
Electric Guest - Mondo
Strange to think that anything as inoffensive as Mondo could be so divisive, but in the one corner the critical knives are out for Electric Guest, a top hack describing their sound as "The kind...
Review posted on 3rd April 2012
Human League - Dare
Whilst it seems the industry has little by the way of collective conscience, we at Contact Music are never short of a metaphorical finger or two to wag at it. Today's hot topic (again): reissues,...
Review posted on 30th March 2012
Jono McCleery - There Is
Let's get one thing straight from the off; I'm a grizzled part time rock hack, and when I see a bio that mentions not just Jeff Buckley and John Martyn in it as artist reference...
Review posted on 22nd March 2012
Deadbeat Darlings - The Angel's Share
There are times in an artists' career when you feel they're deliberately throwing it all away. That greatness, wisdom, unit shifting and full control of the creative process is firmly within their grasp. It's all...
Review posted on 20th March 2012
MUTE MATH - Odd Soul
I've said this before, but in my opinion there's simply no feeling like getting blindsided by a record that totally defies your expectations in a good way. My past exposure to Mutemath had been about...
Review posted on 15th March 2012
Seventeen Evergreen - Steady On Scientist
My first acquaintance with Seventeen Evergreen was via Angels, one of those free downloads that makes the hours of trawling through the tons of soon-to-be-obscure remixes and otherwise weird off cuts on Rcrdlbl worthwhile. Essentially...
Review posted on 7th March 2012
Wiley - Evolve Or Be Extinct
Given that this is Wiley's third outing in in the last 12 months - that's if you count the download only EP-ish Chill Out Zone of course - it seems easy to draw the fairly...
Review posted on 27th February 2012
Body Language - Social Studies
Say what you want about the eighties - it's the decade that keeps on giving. Body Language are from that hipster nexus Brooklyn, but any similarities to their wraparound shade and skinny jeans wearing contemporaries...
Review posted on 21st February 2012
Lapalux - When You're Gone
Pssst! Hey, you! Yes, you over there! I'm a bit psychic and I can read people's minds. Because of that I know that you were about to say something dork-ish like "Uh, I ain't never...
Review posted on 7th February 2012
Neil Cowley Trio - The Face Of Mount Molehill
You won't have heard of Neil Cowley but you will almost certainly have heard what he does - it's his fingers tinkling the ivories on Adele's record smashing 21. Far from a mere session musician...
Review posted on 31st January 2012
Monument Valley - Tongues
I remember a girlfriend of a long, long time ago tell me - when she was breaking up with me - that one of the male gender's biggest shortcomings is that they are blighted by...
Review posted on 23rd January 2012
Deaf Havana - Fools and Worthless Liars
Look I never told anyone before but you guys seem quite nice, so I feel comfortable enough to let this thing go. I've got a fear of heights. Acrophobia to you. When I went up...
Review posted on 12th January 2012
The Chevin - Champion
Looking out from the vantage point that is Surprise View on Otley Chevin you can almost imagine that you're seeing all the world; hundreds of metres above the Wharfe Valley which stretches out beneath it...
Review posted on 3rd January 2012
Slugabed - Sun Too Bright Turn It Off
As a confirmatory signal that you're in the moment and giving the zeitgeist the seeing-to of its life, getting a commission to remix Roots Manuva's classic Witness (1 Hope) for last year's epoch defining Ninja...
Review posted on 21st December 2011
Orienteers - Orienteers
Away from the charts - of course - as it comes to an end, there's little doubt that 2011 has been a great year for music in a creative sense. The reasons for this are...
Review posted on 13th December 2011
Miguel Migs - Outside The Skyline
Like a few other niche vibes, Deep House - substitute the "Deep" for "Dad" in some quarters - has something of an image problem. On one level the sound - a tapestry of soul, Latin...
Review posted on 30th November 2011
Cass McCombs - Humor Risk
I once had a mug - I never bought it, I just ended up being its final custodian, as can happen with mugs - that had a big picture of Garfield on it, along with...
Review posted on 17th November 2011
Apparat Organ Quartet - Polyfonia
Confession time first; in the process of selecting what to review from the long list provided by the super hard working staff of the Contact Music back office, I'd confused Apparat (German techno producer, native...
Review posted on 17th November 2011
Gold Panda - DJ Kicks
Along with the similarly niched Late Night Tales series, DJ Kicks has continued to exhibit the kind of durability which only comes with a highly perceptive choice of guests and a reputation for making the...
Review posted on 15th November 2011
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