SEELAND
Tomorrow Today
LOAF23
LOAF Recordings 2009
12 Tracks. 43mins23secs

Buy: CD | iTunes

Formed at the end of 2004 by Tim Felton, who previously officiated as part of retro-futuristic sci-fi popsters extraordinaire Broadcast, and Billy Bainbridge, once a member of fondly remembered electronic entity Plone, two of Birmingham’s finest bands of recent years, Seeland released their first single on Stereolab’s Duophonic in mid 2005, followed by an EP a year later. Since, they have grown into a trio as bassist Neil McAuley joined the ranks, and have developed their sound to fit the realm of their first long player.

Fond of old style library music, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Joe Meek or early German Krautrockers à la Kraftwerk or Neu!, Seeland add some refined pop touches which find their roots in the early to mid eighties synth pop of the Human League or Depeche Mode to create a rather warm and inviting record with Tomorrow Today. Continue Reading »

THE BLACK DOG
Vexing EP
SOMA263
Soma Quality Recordings 2009
03 Tracks. 17mins36secs
Format: 12″/Digital

In recent years, The Black Dog have appeared rejuvenated and has found a new energy and dimension in brother Martin and Richard Dust, delivering albums and EPs with the confidence Ken Downie demonstrated in the early nineties. With a new album, Further Vexations, ready to be unleashed, the trio launch a first missive with this three track EP comprising of two tracks (0093 and You’re Only SQL) lifted from the album and beefed up to dance floor musculature, plus a third exclusive ambient piece, Plinth. Continue Reading »

CLARK
Growls Garden
WAP272
Warp Records 2009
06 Tracks. 25mins18secs
Format: 12″/CD/Digital

Buy: CD

Warp’s enfant terrible returns with another devastating slice of dirty gritty electronic music. Follow up to last year’s Turning Dragon, his most upbeat record to date, Growls Garden ups the ante once again as Clark launches another digital assault on the dance floor. Counting six tracks and clocking just over the twenty five minute mark, this EP is perhaps Clark’s most eclectic release since Clarence Park, as he revisits the dark hues of Empty The Bones Of You or Body Riddle (Growls Garden, Distant Father Torch), and, as he did with Turning Dragon, cuts some fine body-jerking grooves and harsh beats (Seaweed, Gonk Roughage). Continue Reading »

ULTRE
The Nest And The Skull
AB018
Audiobulb Records 2009
13 Tracks. 43mins41secs

Buy: CD | MP3 | iTunes

It would be easy to dismiss Finn McNicholas, the man being Ultre, as just another soldier of the folktronica army. While his music certainly feeds on acoustic, electric and electronic instrumentation, McNicholas is something of an all-rounder, busying himself with making music not just for himself, but also to serve as soundtrack for films, and regularly ventures into various visual art forms.

The Nest And The Skull follows a first album, All The Darkness Has Gone To Details, released in 2006 on the excellent Sheffiled-based Audiobulb, a record which quietly established Ultre as an artist to watch. Continue Reading »

Twenty five years in the music industry is a long time, but that’s exactly how long Philippe Petit, head of French imprint BiP_HOp Records, has been involved with music-related projects. Journalist, record label owner, musician, it all comes under the umbrella of music activism for him. As he celebrates the first ten years of BiP_HOp and his twenty five years of musical activism, Philippe Petit talks to us about the political aspect of his work, how meeting with some of the biggest alternative acts of the early nineties shaped up his vision of what music should be,  giving his artists complete freedom while being available for guidance and help,  and sexual piercings.

Continue Reading »