LCD Soundsystem - Big Ideas

A new LCD Soundystem tune is a big event for this blogger. This one has spread like wildfire over the internet, taken from the soundtrack to 21. The tracklist contains other such luminaries as MGMT, Broadcast, Amon Tobin and U.N.K.L.E. as well as Rihanna’s obnoxiously catchy Shut Up And Drive: a proper guilty pleasure that one. [...]

Frightened Rabbit - Head Rolls Off

Lead single from the Glaswegian group’s second LP The Midnight Organ Fight, due April 15 on the FatCat label. A great slab of good auld Scotch indie, very much in the vein of The Twilight Sad or reflecting Idlewild’s calmer moments. The single is up for grabs from March 3.
Download here / Buy here

Live Review: Los Campesinos! at Kingston Works

First things first, The Works is a dive. Housed in a cavernous space in the centre of teen-drinking capital, Kingston, the club looks like it is more used to nights of ‘banging’ house and bland Euro-trance than be-cardiganned indie hordes. Because of this, the stage is cramped and the sound is truly dreadful. On the [...]

Hot Chip - Made In The Dark

Hot Chip return to a scene with high hopes for their third LP, distinctly new territory from that encountered when releasing 2006’s Mercury-nominated The Warning. That album was released to an audience largley unaware of their charms. Signing to DFA probably helped in the hipster stakes, but the massive expectancy surrounding Made in the Dark can [...]

Live Review: Richard Hawley / Maps 12th February, Astoria

So, to the Astoria for (ashamedly) my first live show of the year. 2008 has kicked off to some promising new music (Black Mountain, Sons & Daughters, Blood Red Shoes) and also some disappointments (I’m looking at you Hot Chip), so it was going to be interesting what two of 2007’s highlights could offer up. [...]