NAF: ZOEY VAN GOEY / The Cage Was Unlocked All Along

Okay, this week’s New Album Friday album is a bit of a cheat because I’ve had the album in question for almost a week, but it’s simply so good that it deserves to be featured. The thing about Zoey van Goey, as anyone who has seen their live performances can tell you, is that whatever […]

NAF: DREVER, McCUSKER, WOOMBLE / Before The Ruin

No “new” album today, but this one is new to me and comes recommended by Mike Gallagher, a man who knows his contemporary folk/rock crossovery kinda stuff. Like it a lot. The folk elements shining through in the instrumentation and voicing of the songs bring the album a mellow, chilling with a whisky in front […]

Hinterland

Okay, now I’ve got my brain back I’m going to attempt to summarise what I got up to at Hinterland Festival on Friday. In essence, I pretty much saw everything I planned to, although there was an early evening scare when the printed timetable had Isosceles on at a different time from the pdf I […]

NAF: THE BROKEN FAMILY BAND / Please And Thank You

Not overly acquainted with the BFB, but on first listen this album feels more rocked up than some of their earlier stuff. Not that that’s ever a problem for me, but it took me by surprise. May just be a production thing, but either way it’s good. The songs have a nice grungy quality and […]

Hinterland – The Plan

[Sort of] SO. I’ve done the Myspace trawl and found a lot of good new stuff. Which – when you add new finds together with old favourites and acts-I’ve-wanted-to-see-for-ages – makes Hinterland an exciting, if boggling, prospect. At the moment, my key plan looks to be like hanging round the Arches/Classic Grand end where I […]

Before Hinterland

Around this time a year ago, I heard about the Hinterland Festival – basically an inner city music festival that takes place over 2 nights, with tons of bands in 15 odd venues across the centre of Glasgow. I thought it sounded interesting, but didn’t get to go, and regretted it. So, this year I’m […]

NAF: KING CREOSOTE / Flick The Vs

Every KC I’ve heard sounds slightly different. This one has the usual mix of acoustic and electric instruments, but there’s considerably more electronica than on Bombshells or KC Rules OK which gives it a more ethereal overtone. On first listen the songs are more downbeat and introspective (for KC, surely not possible!) too. But I […]

New Album Friday

OK, I decided that the Friday mp3 A-Z selector was a nice experiment but was going to get old quickly, but I like bigging up music, especially if it doesn’t involve expressing an informed opinion (long time readers will know how I feel about music journalism). So watch in amazement as I tread the tightrope […]

A Bit Previous

Open question: is a prologue ever a good idea? Why do writers insist on putting them in? And do readers even read them or do they skip on to the actual story? For me, on the rare occasions that I have time to read books, when I encounter a prologue it’s like a barrier. I’m […]

Afterglow

The aftereffect of Eastercon for me is always exhaustion+inspiration in equal measure. Exhaustion from the stamina-sapping of talk-talk-talking, being engaged and attempting to be engaging all weekend. Inspiration from all the serious, fun, silly conversations that you find yourself a part of. With so many smart people around, ideas are tossed off, tossed up and […]