The pairing of Zoe Nichol and Rosie Jones is a special one, indeed. Armed with acoustic guitars, a banjo, a mandolin and a reasonable amount of stomp, the UK singer-songwriters bring a little backporch charm to the drab city suburbs. On this, their second EP, the vocal harmonies are consistently strong; their gift for rootsy hooks shining through each passing moment.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
DIALECTS – LTKLTL EP
Taking the jazzy mathrock complexities of Wot Gorilla? and fusing their complexities with a barrage of post-rock noise worthy of MaybeSheWill, on their debut EP, Glasgow’s Dialects instantly prove themselves to be fantastic players, ready to make an impact on the alternative scene with a real love of (largely) instrumental mathrock and post-rock sounds.
OF ALLIES – Fragments EP
In 2014, UK alt-rockers released their debut EP ‘Tempers’, a short collection of meaty rockers focusing on the contrasts between a heavy riff and melodic vocal. With the perfect mix of riffs and hooks, it showed the workings of a new band with solid foundations and promised great things for the future. A year on, their second release – ‘Fragments’, released early in the summer of 2015 – takes everything that was promising and really tightens it. The five featured songs are very heavy on the riffs, but more so than before, but to counterbalance that, there’s also a greater focus on vocal melodies.
SUN VOYAGER – Lazy Daze EP
As the light faded upon the last days of 2014, Brooklyn garage-psych merchants Sun Voyager put their stamp upon the year’s last essential purchase when they dropped a few tracks as part of a split release with label mates The Greasy Hearts. The Hearts’ trashy, Stonesy energy provided the perfect foil for the Voyager’s swirling swamps of sound, and were perhaps more accessible of the two acts, but Sun Voyager’s commitment to deep psyche noise suggested there would be more great music to come from their neighbourhood in the future. ‘Lazy Daze’ (their third EP) presents the band on a bigger scale than ever before, its five numbers bringing fuzzy guitars galore, often coupled with other-worldly vocals that sound as if they’re drifting in from another room.
ELIZA CARTHY & TIM ERIKSEN – Bottle
Eliza Carthy has carved out a successful career to become one of Britain’s leading folk artists. Whether tackling traditional folk music (as per 1998’s ‘Rice’), or her adding folk elements to adult contemporary music (2011’s ‘Neptune’), Carthy’s albums are often solid, thoughtful affairs. Somewhere over the water, Tim Eriksen has made his name taking traditional American folk roots and adding his own charm, firstly as a member of Cordelia’s Dad, but also in a stripped back solo setting. The talents of these two geographically opposed musicians comes together for the first time on 2015’s ‘Bottle’, a record that’s quite dark in places, but often rich in appeal; the largely unaccompanied talents of both folkies left to stand starkly.