HUNKYPAPA
WILL RUSSELL Countrified tales of heartbreak. Utopian Ashes is a duet record. Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie and Savages vocalist Jehnny Beth quarrel their way across the record with a savage fury, recalling Coolidge and Kristofferson or Carter and Cash. The titles line up to rip your heart out: ‘Stones Of Silence’, ‘Living A Lie’, ‘You Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Quality offering from indie maverick. Going backwards! Boy From Michigan floats past Pale Green Ghosts and plunges under the Queen of Denmark, back to a pre-Denver John Grant, growing up in small-town Michigan alongside a potent cast of characters. A Mӓrchen boyhood, both alluring and terrifying, is conveyed with a painter’s eye for surrealist detail. The American Dream awaits Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Powerful effort from veteran rockers. It was only after Jacknife Lee signed up to produce All The Colours Of You, that James frontman Tim Booth discovered that they both live in the Topanga Canyon. No strangers to working with legendary producers – Eno was at the helm for a five-album run in the ‘90s Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Wonderfully eclectic stuff from art-rock maestros. Lisa Gerrard’s chops are meaty: a Golden Globe for the Gladiator soundtrack; several Grammy nominations; and a Dead Can Dance catalogue that blows a hole in the often-derided moniker of World Music. Jules Maxwell, meanwhile, joined Dead Can Dance as a live keyboardist on their 2012 world tour. He Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Folk legend John Spillane discusses his formative years in Cork, unforgettable gigs in Páidí O’Sé’s pub, and his cracking new album 100 Snow White Horses – which boasts a stunning cover designed by Brian Eno. He is Christy Moore’s favourite songwriter. Damien Dempsey calls his songs the heart and soul of Ireland. John Spillane is Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Mascis attack: the real deal… On a night carousing at World’s End in Camden in 1995, I twigged that J. Mascis was playing a solo gig downstairs. Or perhaps it was a Dinosaur Jr. show – they may have been touring the Without A Sound album, a period when they were trucking along without Lou Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL In a field of their own… Field Music are often seen as paragons of accretion, who meticulously forge baroque music. On Flat White Moon, however, they deliver a newly compressed version of their contagious sound. Discussing influences on their podcast Field Musicast, they reveal that their vivid wordplay is influenced by Joni Mitchell and Dire Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL A long-awaited record from the elusive and enigmatic band. Iwas thrilled to hear the great Paddy Cox, CIE conductor on the Sligo rail line cherishingly immortalized in song. People west of the Pale, may well recall chugging out of Connolly Station after sinking a few watery ones on Talbot Street, listening to Paddy Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Impressive effort from glam legend. They build ‘em to last in Detroit – Suzi, Iggy and Alice are all still motoring. Suzi Quatro’s breadcrumbs trail all the way back to the 1960s jazz of the Art Quatro Trio, through the garage rock of The Pleasure Seekers and Cradle. Subsequently, she cut her teeth Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Masterful offering from folk supremo On a wild night, in the dying days of a year, a crowd of us clambered upon tables, stools and one another to get a glimpse of John Spillane singing to a packed Páidí Ó Sé’s bar in Ventry. It was worth it. Spillane is an extraordinary figure. Continue Reading