Reviews

This is our review section where you can find out more about the bands, artists and songs featured on our site. The most recent reviews to be published are listed below. To search for reviews that are not displayed here please go to our archive section. In all of our reviews there is a link to the official website of the artist where you may be able to purchase their music direct.

• Pete Greenwood
  Drawing on Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Tom Hardin, for inspiration, Greenwood’s acoustic tunes are pensive, lyrically offbeat and poetically resonant; not bad for music degree coursework.
• The Wombats
  These workaholic Wombats, fresh from their 'In The City' success, are gigging their punk-pop set all over the damn place. Not content with their current hefty batch of hook-laden tunes, they've also gone and written 2006's best Xmas song. And you thought wombats were slow moving creatures...
• Kid Harpoon
  Dressed like a trendy ‘Artful Dodger’ and with a smile fixed to his face, the Kid has no interest in playing the quiet, moody, serious type, because he has that all too rare ingredient – a sense of fun.
• Kaiko
  Kaiko are haunting, slightly unsettling, tinged with darkness and have a penchant for the medical: factors that have resulted in a fantastic sonic proposition compared with the glut of mediocre garage bands found on the pages of myspace.
• Ra Ra Riot
  With enough members to give Arcade Fire a decent scrap, tunes that sound like Field Music mixed with The Spinto Band and experience of playing to exceedingly small crowds, New York's Ra Ra Riot bring their barrage of sound to Blighty.
• Lincoln Brown
  Hats, harmonicas and hobo hum-alongs from the country-bluesmen from Lincoln. If your taste lands between Johnny Cash and Richard Hawley, then there's another band for your jukebox right here.
• The Mescalitas
  These Queens of Leon are all swirling hips, screeching guitars and bedraggled hair dos; imagine Blondie singing to you the morning after a heavy night toking on the zoots - cool, huh?
• Peter and the Wolf
  Peter and the Wolf are an acoustic anomaly in a sea of amplification, combining the walking rhythms of a double bass with guitar lines despatched straight from the Delta.
• Will Jakeway
  Jakeway: purveyer of songs written in the vein of Elliott Smith and injected with a healthy dose of Nick Drake morbidity. Cheer up, it might never happen...
• Mydriasis
  Combine the influence of 'At The Drive In' with the stomping 'Sikth,' and a sprinkling of 'Glassjaw' and you find yourself nearer, but not yet next to, Mydriasis. After a painful delay their debut has finally been released. The year starts well then...
• The KBC
  The KBC merge the funked-up house and disco beats of Daft Punk with Bootsy Collins’ bass licks to form the incessant and foot-tap inducing foundation of their Northern groove.
• Xerox Teens
  Decked out in shades and drawing on obligatory cigarettes, The Xerox Teens 'organised racket'-of-a-sound divides as much as it pleases.
• Fanfarlo
  Evasive as an elephant on an ivory hunt, eccentric as the Marquis of Bath in his Sunday best and as enchanting as a sweet shop having a sale; Fanfarlo can't fail to appeal.
• Imperial Leisure
  Imperial Leisure fuse rap, rock, ska, hip-hop, soul and funk. Capturing contemporary British culture with a wry, sunny humour, they feel as familiar as your cooler, older brother; the one who gets all the girls.
• The Manhattan Poets
  The Manhattan Poets, confusingly from Lancashire, draw together the sonic hallmarks of Manchester's finest: the Stone Roses, Oasis and The Verve.
• Greyhound Green
  Greyhound Green make music like what they used to: proper tunes played on proper instruments played really fucking loud.
• Through Snowy Static
  Through Snowy Static make simple music reminiscent of the Postal Service, Jenny Lewis and Regina Spektor, though EMO hell is not on the agenda.
• The Kara Sea
  With catchy grooves and voicemail samples regarding ‘rabbits and courgettes’, The Kara Sea could be the catalyst for casserole-based songs to make an overdue assault on the music industry.
• Alterkicks
  The Alterkicks have more classics than a Reebok shop. Who cares about being the ‘next big thing’, they are great right now.
• Modula
  Making atmospheric, instrumental dance music Modula mixes pinches of Primal Scream, DJ Shadow, Death in Vegas and The Meters on his five-track demo, The Rule of Three.
• Will Rixon
  With wracked, heartfelt and melancholy songs, Will Rixon relays tales of relationship breakdown, isolation and emotional rescue.
• Little Man Tate
  Though their ‘Pulp, driven by the rhythm of The Jam’ schtick pales in comparison to their steel-city rivals, they bring a refreshingly no-nonsense approach to their music.