London-based indie rock conglomerate Scandinavia are an odd bunch. When they liken themselves to both The Replacements and Hall & Oates and then confront you with music that sounds like neither, well, it’s an interesting proposition to say the leasy. Maybe their own self-chosen comparisons aren’t meant to be direct references, but rather more to assure you that their musical boundaries are wide open – which they very much are: their fourth studio album, ‘World Power’ is nothing if not eclectic.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
HERIOT – World Collapse EP
Since some bands can forge decade long careers without even attracting a sniff of attention from mainstream press, the fact that Heriot gained positive press from Kerrang! magazine within a year of formation, meant that their future career looked very bright indeed. Judging by the Swindon based band’s second EP, the appropriately titled ‘World Collapse’, it’s fairly easy to see why they’d become press worthy at such an important time in their growth as a band: they play bigger riffs than most and their musical style absolutely crushes.
THE DIFFERENCE – EP
Active from the mid to late 80s, The Difference were a progressive rock band that, while indebted to the usual influences from Rush and the big progressive hitters of the era, also tempered their sound with various other more contemporary influences – ranging from 80s pop and AOR to the tight quirks of The Police. On their 1988 EP, the coming together of older prog sounds with an eighties sharpness results in some very pleasing music that, although hampered slightly by budgetary contraints, still presents some great ideas.
KUROKUMA – Advorsus EP
There have been a vast number of bands and musicians to come out of Sheffield over the years: Arctic Monkeys, Joe Cocker, Human League, Pulp, Def Leppard and ABC are arguably the most successful, but doom metal trio Kurokuma are almost without doubt the heaviest. These guys don’t just mean business – they’re coming to smash you into oblivion with an intensity that is truly impressive.
JACK BROADBENT – Portrait
There are far too many bands and artists out there claiming to understand blues music, but in reality are merely rock bands whom add a dash of the blues to their bombast. Whether the sounds of The Union, Blues Pills, Big River or even Blues Traveler, these bands’ blues always comes from a watered down and very white perspective; music channelled through Free or many a Woodstock jam band throwback. Jack Broadbent is different. A bearded, rural Englishman and a one-man powerhouse of the slide guitar, his music takes on far purer blues intents than so many of his contemporaries. The sleeve of 2015’s full length album ‘Along The Trail of Tears’ saw Broadbent recreating one of the only two known photographs of blues pioneer Robert Johnson and its eleven songs brought far more of an authentic back porch blues in places than most other blues releases of the day.