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Articles

RussWarf has written the following articles:

91710

Annie - The A&R EP

Review by Russell Warfield

The EP lacks a summer-defining chorus, which we’ve come to take as standard from Annie.»

91685

Lovebox 2013: the DiS review

In Depth by Russell Warfield

A festival which continues to strut the line between underground-boutique and the hyper-mainstream with remarkable success. »

91505

Honey Ltd. - The Complete LHI Recordings (reissue)

Review by Russell Warfield

You suspect that Honey Ltd. could have delivered a genuinely brilliant record, given time.»

91153

Halo Halo - Halo Halo

Review by Russell Warfield

A record which, for all the snap and zip of its basic conceits, becomes quite bloated by its halfway mark. »

90793

Jon Hopkins - Immunity

Review by Russell Warfield

Immunity is an album which puts a well-placed confidence in rewarding the patience of the listener, melding together current club trends with a vulnerable humanity to create an hour-long arc of total immersion.»

90200

Sam Amidon - Bright Sunny South

Review by Russell Warfield

With Bright Sunny South, Sam Amidon has taken a huge step forward as a folk artist, creating arrangements which preserve his musicianship, while deepening the maturity of his interpretive skills.»

90180

Ghostpoet - Some Say I So I Say Light

Review by Russell Warfield

Some Say I So I Say Light is the attempt to merge a lone voice into the black of the vast, surrounding landscape, and it succeeds absorbingly well.»

89909

!!! - Thr!!!er

Review by Russell Warfield

Ultimately, the strongest moments on here are those which are most confident to leap into uncharted waters, as well as those which are equally confident to draw on established strengths.»

89903

Sweet Baboo - Ships

Review by Russell Warfield

There’s an endearing sense of modesty to a line like “Daniel Johnston has hundreds of great tunes, and I’ve got six”, especially when it’s sung in the chorus of the first song of an 11-track album.»

89897

Simian Mobile Disco - Live

Review by Russell Warfield

Live ultimately plays more like an accomplished mixtape than it does a live concert.»

89875

Kurt Vile - Wakin' on a Pretty Daze

Review by Russell Warfield

Wakin' on a Pretty Daze is one of those rare examples of an artist’s uninhibited self-indulgence resulting in an LP which plays firmly to their strengths.»

89669

Lower Plenty - Hard Rubbish

Review by Russell Warfield

A perfect synthesis of form and content, translating loneliness into 20 minutes of unrelenting intensity.»

89537

After Girls: DiS meets Christopher Owens

In Depth by Russell Warfield

Emerging just six months after the shock dissolution of Girls, Lysandre is in many ways a curious album for Christopher Owens to release under his own name for the first time. Following the expansive, rapturous ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’, Lysandre’s less-than half an hour of wistful arrangements and girlish backing vocals can easily scan as treading water or even regression for Owens, whose creative momentum seemed unstoppable, making vast leaps in ambition and maturity with each new Girls record he released. For all its merits, Lysandre – telling a road trip story set in 2009, comprised of material written around the same time – acts as a slightly uncomfortable opening statement for Owens as a solo artist, and raises an array of questions about his motivations for leaving Girls, as well as for releasing an album like Lysandre.»

89314

Anaïs Mitchell, Jefferson Hamer - Child Ballads

Review by Russell Warfield

As a love letter to swirling mythology and the centuries old folk tradition from which Anaïs Mitchell emerges, Child Ballads is gorgeous, beguiling and enrapturing.»

89264

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Dawn McCarthy - What the Brothers Sang

Review by Russell Warfield

What The Brothers Sang plays like a lovingly-made mixtape taken to the extreme: material so beloved that Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Dawn McCarthy share it with you by actually performing it.»

89146

Concrete Knives - Be Your Own King

Review by Russell Warfield

The earnestness and warmth of Be Your Own King succeeds in making the record almost as addictive and loveable to hear as it clearly was to perform.»

89108

"We needed a record which reflected how well we can work together"-DiS meets Tegan and Sara

In Depth by Russell Warfield

Seventh album Heartthrob isn’t just Tegan and Sara’s most focused and unified record – it’s also their best»

88823

PVT - Homosapien

Review by Russell Warfield

PVT still frequently show flashes of promise and brilliance, but soon undercut themselves through the poor balance between vocal and musicianship.»

88764

The History Of Apple Pie - Out of View

Review by Russell Warfield

At its strongest, Out Of View is brilliantly engrossing. But half-baked melodies and bloated structures often don't do enough to invite you into the songs in the first place. Instead the music frequently bludgeons the listener into wondering why the song wasn’t cut dead about three minutes ago. »

88575

Christopher Owens - Lysandre

Review by Russell Warfield

While it’s hard not to continue wondering what Christopher Owens’ genuinely post-Girls output is going to sound (and feel) like, Lysandre justifies its own existence by virtue of its own wide eyed wonder, its own vulnerability, and its giving sense of heart.»

88005

DiS meets How To Dress Well

In Depth by Russell Warfield

Clearly, Tom Krell aka How To Dress Well is an artist who spends a lot more time than most thinking about how the tiniest components of an individual song’s texture provide an affect which contribute to its album’s whole, and to the trajectory of the journey which the listener experiences... »

88008

Various - Christmas Rules

Review by Russell Warfield

Christmas Rules is as a pleasant evocation of nostalgia, delivered by artists who find both the melancholy and the joy of the season in a collection of spirited performances.»

87422

Rebekka Karijord - We Become Ourselves

Review by Russell Warfield

Rebekka Karijord joins the small clutch of artists who manage to sound like a pioneer, not a follower.»

87381

Of Montreal - Daughter of Cloud

Review by Russell Warfield

As far as curiosity pieces go, 18 snapshots of Kevin Barnes at his most filthy and fancy free really is delightfully curious.»

87221

Halls - Ark

Review by Russell Warfield

When Samuel Howard pushes himself as a producer and instrumentalist most fully, he reaches territory which isn’t just admirably original, but emotionally engrossing. But sadly, for a great deal of Ark, he’s all too willing to snatch and grab from obvious influences»

87165

Ty Segall - Twins

Review by Russell Warfield

Three LPs into the year, Ty Segall hasn’t yet outstayed his welcome, and still has more pleasure to offer.»

86703

Ben Folds Five - The Sound of the Life of the Mind

Review by Russell Warfield

Continues Ben Folds’s particularly unwelcome insistence on putting himself more and more squarely in the centre of the arrangements, even as his song writing and piano playing becomes more and more pedestrian.»

85807

Tamara Schlesinger - The Procession

Review by Russell Warfield

A sincere and legitimate attempt to perform something outside of the parameters of the sound of Tamara Schlesinger's ‘main’ project.»

85549

Fang Island - Major

Review by Russell Warfield

The exact antithesis of everything which Fang Island have claimed to deliver, or implied that this record would be.»

85503

Passion Pit - Gossamer

Review by Russell Warfield

Gossamer is a lovesong to the tender heights of feeling at the balmiest time of year; when feeling anything can provoke some sense of wonder and an irrepressible desire to listen to beaming pop music, really loudly, again and again.»

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