HUNKYPAPA
Baba Ali has just released his fantastic debut album, Memory Device. In a wide-ranging conversation, he talks about the education of Brian Eno, marathon Berlin DJ sets and the philosophy of Yarchism. For his recent Desert Island Disco slot on Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 show, Baba Ali mixed Bowie with Von Südenfed, his own Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Americana master channels her inner glam Brandi Carlile is a master of Americana. Her sophomore album, the T Bone Burnett-produced The Story, was re-recorded in 2017 as Cover Stories, with artists covering her songs including Dolly Parton, Adele, Kris Kristofferson and Pearl Jam. Her last LP, By the Way, I Forgive You received six Grammy nominations, including Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL MTB retains her majesty. Martina Topley-Bird is British music royalty, with her contributions to Tricky’s early records alone ensuring her crown; Maxinquaye is as important to the pantheon as Nevermind The Bollocks or London Calling. On it, MTB switched gender roles with Tricky, working as his proxy, singing his parts, her beautiful timbre both jarring and compelling. As countless middling Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Cork craftsman continues to deliver. Ionce heard that Johann Sebastian Bach was so prolific, the merchants of Leipzig used his sheet music to wrap their produce. As John Blek’s sixth LP in as many years, On Ether & Air suggests that the singer could plaster the walls of Mutton Lane in Cork with his music Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Lo-fi troubadour goes hi-fi Intriguingly, Willy Mason’s collaboration with The Chemical Brothers on 2007’s ‘Battle Scars’ offers the best clue to the musical terrain of Already Dead. The success of Mason’s debut record, propelled by his zeitgeist-capturing protest single ‘Oxygen’, cursed him with the infamous tag of ‘the new Dylan’. With his sophomore pitchforked, producer Dan Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Irish music royalty delivers in spades Paddy Casey’s multi-platinum selling debut album, Amen (So Be It) formed a meaty chunk of the soundtrack to the final dog days of 1990s Dublin. Released in 1999, it was the calling card of an artist who would be at the forefront of the Irish music scene throughout the Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Full-bodied Cumbrian pub rock is here. Hardwicke Circus is the first roundabout you hit when you drive into Carlisle, a fitting moniker for a band that is putting the Cumbrian town on the musical map. Fresh-faced veterans of over 700 gigs, they recall 1980s Neil Young – who they’ve supported at London’s Hyde Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Orchestral pop master goes full 80s, in powerful re-invention… Laura Mvula won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Album and was nominated twice for the Mercury Prize. Yet, she dares to rip it up and start again, knocks out a tremendous record and has a bundle of fun in the process. Pink Noise introduces a Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Soul maestro continues to evolve with R&B gold Forged whilst delivering his retro soul across countless open mic sets in the country music hotbed of Fort Worth – Townes Van Zandt, John Denver and T-Bone Burnett all hailed from the Texas town – Leon Bridges has always gone about things his own way. His Grammy Continue Reading
THE HOT PRESS NEWSDESK It was a very special occasion indeed when former Oasis front-man Liam Gallagher came to 3Arena, in Dublin towards the end of November. And afterwards, there was a hootenanny in the centre of town that lifted the gathered throng into another dimension. By Will Russell. Iwoke feeling disinterred, my remains thrown Continue Reading