Singer songwriter Cam Fraser has had a long career on the fringes of stardom. The cult musician first became known to some as a member of The Cataran, a band whose three albums gained the band a following in the 80s, and he latterly ventured further into the realms of jangly indie as a member of Borrowed Books, whose 2020 album presented a timeless sound where a very 90s feel was underscored with occasional folk-rock rhythms, taking influence from Lou Barlow’s Folk Implosion. Under the name Boulder Fields, Cam explores the avenues of Americana – albeit from a Scottish perspective – going deeper into the folky, but without losing his roots, and although 2024’s ‘With All The Other Ghosts’ sometimes values atmosphere over immediacy, his sense of melody and lyricism often comes through in massive waves.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
TRAUM – Traum
Bringing together members of Fuzz Orchestra, Zeus, Lento and Zu, German band Traum aren’t light on musical talents. On their debut album, the collective explore a broad soundscape of space rock, desert rock and stoner to create a heavily atmospheric work. Perhaps most impressively, unlike some of their peers, they don’t feel it is always necessary for their musical explorations to stretch out into hugely lengthy jams. There are longer works shared, but the bulk of ‘Traum’ shares shorter, accessible pieces, and in doing so, really helps to create a user friendly record from a sometimes less than user friendly style.
THE BEDSIDE MORALE – Still Life EP
When The Bedside Morale burst onto the scene with their debut single ‘Safeword’ in 2023, it immediately became clear that they were a band to keep a close eye on over the coming months. That single might’ve taken the guts of a couple of Queens of The Stone Age numbers and tempered the familiar riffs with a bigger hook or two, but the way these Bristol based lads took their influences and sharpened them suggested there was more here at stake than lazy recycling. A second single, ‘Bitter Things’ appeared before the end of the year, but fans wouldn’t get a proper EP from The Bedside Morale until the summer of 2024. By this time, everyone had spent months with those two singles rotating on playlists, ruminating the possibility of even better things ahead.
WILD REMEDY – Songs From Home EP
Three distinctly different voices; a world of folky arrangements; an instantly classic feel. Introducing Wild Remedy: a Canadian trio whose debut EP ‘Songs From Home’ mixes pop, folk, and a world of harmonies, and shares a selection of songs that sound like they’ve long been a part of the Americana scene and even other peoples’ repertoires.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Can’t Seem To Come Down: The American Sounds Of 1968
Between the release of The Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds’ in May 1966 and the first Woodstock Festival in August 1969, the American rock and pop scenes went into overdrive. With the groundbreaking ‘God Only Knows’, Brian Wilson had shown how grand “pop” could be in the hands of a master; the birth of psychedelia meant that garage rock grew into something much bigger and more interesting than a selection bands churning out variants of ‘Louie Louie’, and the blues morphed into sprawling jams which birthed a generation of guitar heroes. A prolonged period of experimentation arguably reached its peak in 1968, with The Byrds releasing their last works with David Crosby (at least for a time), Moby Grape issuing a double LP (‘Wow/Grape Jam’), the arrival of Spirit’s debut (helmed by the fantastic ‘Fresh-Garbage’), The Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light/White Heat’ proving their Warhol overseen debut wasn’t just some arty fluke, and the Grateful Dead issuing their show piece ‘Dark Star’ as a single. Even Simon & Garfunkel got a little out there on their fourth LP ‘Bookends’, with their masterful folk-pop joined by the vaguely psychy ‘Punky’s Dilemma’, and feeling brave enough to include Art’s audio verité ‘Voices of Old People’ as a key album track.