Are You There is not an easy listen. If you think you can casually fire up your player, press play, sit back and nonchalantly enjoy its delights, think again. This album brings new dimensions to the meaning of brooding and…
View More Michał Łapaj – Are You There
“Oh, my goodness; that’s gorgeous!” It doesn’t matter what you are doing, music frequently snags our attention to elicit unexpected and often involuntary responses. In a culture which places so much value on ‘disruption’ it is often forgotten that music…
View More 22 Layers – Isotope
Let’s cut to the chase: Track 3, City Lights and Desert Dark – at the 7:16 mark comes one of *those* soul-rending, emotion churning guitar solos of such sublime existential intensity where exquisite ecstasy mingles simultaneously with an agony bordering…
View More Raven Sad – The Leaf and the Wing
Yes. Yes. I know. The second album from Kepler Ten, A New Kind of Sideways, was indeed released in November 2020, on the always excellent White Star Records label. And yes, you are quite right: I did select it my…
View More Kepler Ten – A New Kind Of Sideways
In 2019 I had the unexpected pleasure of reviewing The Rising by Tony Lowe’s ESP Project: unexpected because at the time, I knew nothing of the band or its history, but a delightful pleasure because I quickly fell in love…
View More ESP Project – Phenomena
“Beauty always comes with dark thoughts”, warns Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish). When the liner notes of an album have a final page dedicated to an impressive bibliography of further reading, containing titles with phrases which include ‘Narcissistic Abuse’, ‘Chronic Shame’, ‘Covert…
View More Three Colours Dark – The Science of Goodbye
When trying to talk about a piece of music it can be frustrating knowing how, or even where, to start. Occasionally, having spent time with a particular release, you realise it’s perhaps not as good as the initial cursory listen…
View More Long Earth – Once Around the Sun
Few live recordings successfully rise to the challenge of capturing the spellbinding spirit and excitement of the musical magic created and experienced at a concert. There is absolutely nothing quite like the infectious thrill, the vibrancy, the energy and exhilaration…
View More Subsignal – A Song for the Homeless
There is a significant difference between a concept album and the concept of an album. It is not a distinction which had previously caught my attention until I read a recent interview with Katatonia’s vocalist Jonas Renske. Comparing ‘our’ generation…
View More Katatonia – City Burials
Music and drama are perfect partners when it comes to telling stories. The ability to weave the carefully crafted threads of a plot along with shifting changes of mood, tempo and events by using the layers and textures of a…
View More Art – Asylum