High Voltage

It seems old habits die hard, well as far as artist Jim Jones is concerned, previously fronting Thee Hypnotics a British Garage/ Psychedelic band in the 1990s he became frontman for London Blues rock band Jim Jones Revue and its his larynx shredding vocals aided by the bands superior rhythm and keys section that are the bands unique selling point.

From playing dive bars around London they have fast become the talk of the music industry having been championed by Steve Lamacq...

The press pack for this record made comparisons to Godspeed You!, Mogwai, Sigur Ros and Explosions in the Sky, but because I’m a good music journalist I’m going to make my own mind up. Er, so if you got Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ and time-stretched it like ‘9 Beet Stretch’ (Google this if you want to have a really strange day), and then added the Deftones as backing… no. I give up.

Ok, so it’s post-rock Jim, and exactly as...

Wow. Now this was a surprise. Here I was, pen poised to shit all over ex-Placebo drummer Steve Hewitt’s solo album, only to press ‘play’ and discover that it’s actually really good.

To explain this surprise, look at musicians’ jokes- “what do you call someone that constantly hangs around with musicians?” “a drummer”, or the one that Sel from Amplifier told on stage last year- “how do I know we aren’t about to...

Yes, it is true. Kevin Barnes has turned to the top shelves and sidestreet bars for this, Of Montreal’s most sexual and sex-obsessed album. Containing some of the most erudite chat-up lines in recorded music –“You give me emotional artefacts that can find no purchase” – False Priest is probably the best fun you can have of an evening without taking your clothes off.

If you’ve only just accepted Arcade Fire borrowing from Abba for The...

Right. A heavy metal science fiction concept album called Warp Riders. I’m going to make up a word now. Once you get over its sheer ridiculosity, this is actually quite a charming effort. It’s metal, but not the particularly aggressive kind- more the kind of thrash popularized by Metallica’s Master of Puppets; in other words, nigh-on radio friendly (at least in the US, anyway).

In fact, ‘Tres Brujas’ probably could get on the radio- and...

With eleven songs lasting only half an hour  Magic Kids debut album Memphis is the perfect slice of summer. From opener ‘Phone’ to the albums closer ‘Cry With Me Baby’ throwing doo-wop forward fifty years and showing that their near perfect take on the late-60’s California sound of their debut single ‘Hey Boy’ has been recreated again on Memphis faultlessly.

Their debut, released via emerging label True Panther Sounds, is...

After Linda Perry heard Little Fish’s demos, flew out to Oxford and signed them on the spot, they’ve toured with Placebo, Them Crooked Vultures, Hole, Juliette Lewis and Blondie. In the midst of all this they’ve recorded their debut album ‘Baffled and Beat’.

Little Fish are all about drums, real drums. Recorded live, with no over dubs what you hear on ‘Baffled and Beat’ is the sensual thunder that you see in their live shows. Guitars...

With rumours abound of Klaxons battling with Polydor over the quality of their new recordings, Surfing the Void lands over three years since the breakthrough debut Myths of the Near Future.

The title track of the new LP could be viewed as the moment that embodies all that Klaxons stand for: brash, angst-ridden, and an obsession with ambiguous lyrics referencing other-worldy experiences. Yet beneath the thrashy mash-up of screeching guitars and sloppy drums lies an enhanced...

From all the slightly worrying portents, The Final Frontier, Iron Maiden's 15th studio album, could well have been a bit of a shocker. Don't get me wrong, I'm a massive Maiden fan, but when I first heard lead single 'El Dorado' and the title track, I have to admit that my hopes were not very high. However, just when I thought it was safe to second guess the Irons, they drop this absolute cracker of an album, which for me at least, is far and away the best thing they've done in the last...

Phillip Selway is not a man used to the spotlight. For one, I thought he was called Phil. Here's a man who has spent 20 years with the biggest band in the world, so logically some of the Radiohead magic must be his. Right? Despite his undisputed drumming credentials, and the fact that he always seems such a lovely bloke, Familial suggests that Thom Yorke needn't worry about his drummer taking over songwriting duties quite yet.

Selway's first album without the other 'Heads...