athomas has written the following articles:
Right, fuck it, if a Midget album can be nominated a "classic" then so can this. "And The Rest Is History" means an awful lot to an awfully small amount of people. Released in 1997 it came about as a result of the teenage drinking den club known as Dynamite. Dynamite made being a musically inept teenager in a band cool»
Have you been to Ibiza? if you haven’t then you probably think it’s a godforsaken sack of shit with lager lout morons pounding the pavement looking for their sixth shag of the night. And you might be right if your reference point is "Ibiza Uncovered" backed up by something you heard from a mate about San Antonio.»
Rialto’s third album (and third label), so what’s new? Well, the soaring vocals, tight arrangement, and equally sombre and optimistic feelings stay. The traditional sound, however, has been given a distinctly electronic rub down. Where Rialto used to rely on the reliable live set-up plus some strings they now employ sy»
Stegg do not look like rockstars. Playing tonight to a healthily occupied toilet venue the four piece look three accountants fronted by Neil from The Young Ones. The sound is mixed in such a way that the guitar is hardly noticeable whilst the keyboards are loud to the extreme of being obtrusive. Still, musically they c»
Over a flute playing the key riff from Bob Marley’s track "Get Up, Stand Up" we have rapping in a style not heard since the time of Grand Master Flash. It’s got a groove on that will keep the floor happy but beyond that it lacks substance, the only enduring memory of it being an eightie’s style computer voice speaking »
Like the last light of a summers evening this goes down with a quiet contentment. A tune laid back enough to be soothing but simultaneously purposeful enough to hold your attention. The vocals coo over the strings and organ backing, the closest reference point being somewhat unbelievably "Strawberry Fields" era Beatles»
PJ Harvey echoes through this with it’s stilted rhythm and half sung/half spoken female vocal. Deliberately pronounced but lacking direction the minimal band with synths backing fails to create anything even close to memorable however. If this is the most immediate track to spring from their forthcoming album they coul»
It’s an odd match. Headlining we have Susy Thomas, a defiantly commercial M People lounge music wannabe, with two grrrl powered teen rock bands as support. We are not going to talk about Susy Thomas because, frankly, she does not belong here. Susy Thomas belongs in Simply Red support slots and Jane-from-The-Cruise’s»
Once derided as poor Radiohead imitators Muse have taken a New Labour type swing into the centre ground once held by Thom and co as the ‘Head take to the obscure climes of the far-out-write(rs). Vote for Muse. Vote for melancholy overblown guitar rock epics. Vote for melancholy overblown guitar rock epics you ca»
There must be an automated press release writing machine somewhere in the music business, occasionally it makes little errors. Sometimes dull records will be called "fantastic", slagged records will be called "acclaimed", and "national tours" will have consisted of a gig in London and Glasgow. But something has gone ve»
Could 2001 be the year the underground goes self purposely lo-fi? Blame Moldy Peaches for starting the trend, there is a new mantra that states music must be recorded on a budget of 50p and a borrowed second hand 4-track. Sylvester Boy fit the mould well, first track sounding like a cross between the previously me»
Hooray for bands that stay together for over their requisite two years without any kind of record deal. Stegg have been going for five years now and it shows on this fifteen track album. With an age range spanning twenty to twenty five this isn’t your usual collection of songs knocked out in a few months. »
The venue is packed, quite an achievement considering headliners, King Adora , have never been higher than the top 30.
Mohobishopi, in support tonight, have yet to even hit the chart that high but show no signs of intimidation to be playing such a large venue. As a three piece banging out sho»
Trance and proud. There’s nothing here to distinguish this from the Fragma’s of this world but that’s not such a bad thing. A dreamy female vocal, a 4/4 beat, a 303, a 909, and a couple of novel electronic riffs and piano lines. I see thousands of hands in the air all over Ibiza this summer (again)… Better than Hi-Gate»
2001 seems to be the year for britpop comebacks. Along with new releases from both Shed 7 and Cast, come Echobelly, now releasing through their own indie label. Musically nothing much has changed, a jaunty strum combined with Sonya Aurora-Madden’s familiar gliding vocal. In sho»
Shed 7 are a band that no-one can link to specific songs but can sing along to when they’re on the radio. For a band who’ve had enough top 20 hits to compile a greatest hits package Rick Witter’s gang disappeared with little fanfare when they split from Polydor some 2 years ago. Now back on an indie the Shed’s pick up »
A double cd of garage grooves and two step exclusives. Luck & Neat have left pretension at home and collected some 44 tracks that will appeal to anymore, opposed to anal selecta trainspotters. The bumbling MC banter works to a degree and gives the package some personality at the very least. Choice tracks include the or»
Important point, this is not an album by Timo Maas. This album does not even include the “whoomp whoomp” Maas remix of the Ibiza 2000 anthem “Dooms Night”. This is Timo’s record collection, slung together in an ever so professional mix by the man himself. The problem is that said record collection is so homogenous, and»
It’s been two years since their last gig and Rick Witter is back with a new line up and a new energy. Support band, Gloss, are a fair warm up, sounding like second hand Catatonia for the most part. But the main event is what everyone is here to see. Aldershot is not the cutting edge of the live circuit and acco»
It’s been two years since Shed 7 last troubled the charts. Since then the whipping boys of indie guitar rock have changed lineup, changed labels, and recorded a new album. Speaking to me at the moderately sized Princes Hall in Aldershot Rick Witter seems confident but realistic of future success for the band, now ten y»
Or Paul "Screaming Cheese" as you may know him. Paul writes fanzines largely about alternative punk bands yet his musical output could be no more different. "Crowd Control" is a two audio + two MP3 track cd of beats and electronic blips. It's techno, in a seven minutes long, probably played in fields by raving pill hea»
When a press release talks of how a band forms to "recreate the feelings of desperation and terror of being in a car crash" you feel compelled at least to have a quick listen. If this is what a car crash is like then I guess abs and airbags do their job 'cos it's not a particularly harrowing experience. The lead track »
A split single between Moonkat & Meanwhile, back in Communist Russia MBICR like to talk through their eerie guitar and strings soundscapes in a vaguely Arab Strap style. They are not very exciting. Who is exciting is Moonkat, providing the second two songs on this split cd ep. "Tonight I Am Discontented" features»
The Melody Maker is dead, Limp Bizkit are on daytime radio, schoolgirls have thrown away their Topshop mini-dresses and are stomping around in hooded tops and enormous combat pants. The alternative has become the mainstream and the mainstream the alternative. Whilst this may cause untold shrieks of anguish from the a»
"Blue Sky" - Anastasia (Info: www.peoplesound.com/artist/anastasia) A self released album with a well rounded sound of honest pop/rock. Lyrically it's all a little too earnest though, 'Children', appears to be about the everyday tragedies experienced and observed by those too young to understand. It's all a»
"When I Burn Off Into The Distance" - Finley Quaye (Epic) Finley has had his moments. Unfortunately this isn't one of them. A confused ballad of no fixed structure featuring lyrics with the complexity of join the dots. Not recommended.»
"Travelling" - Paul Oakenfold (Perfecto) Dance music does exactly what it suggests. You go out, you dance to it, you go home, you sleep. It's also quite useful for writing essays to as well because it doesn't challenge the mind. You don't need to hear it, you just feel it. So if you don't like dance music t»
"Where I'm Now Stood" - Sam Burkey Sam is a professional, he's sung in operas during his formative years and now he's performing with jazz bands. And he wears a suit in all his promo photos. Let me summarise: opera, jazz, suits. Three words that should strike terror into any music fan (lets face it, people »
"Yeeshk" - Mooncat. (Info: www.moonkat.co.uk) For the first two songs this is punky indiepop. Moonkat are enthusiastic though not particularly original, sounding a little like Angelica circa 'Teenage Girl Crush'. Wavering female vocals half sing over fuzzy chords and cheap slightly unoriginal riffs. It's no»
A number one single in the indie chart, a top five indie album, a national tour, and their gig broadcast live on Radio 1. Life has indeed been hectic for the Lancaster four piece who only a year ago were low down the bill in a Camden toilet. It was at the November '99 Camdemonium string of gigs that I last talk»
