benmarwood has written the following articles:
Toronto’s Ten Kens have much in common with psychedelic rockers Black Mountain - not completely conventional but accessible enough to not alienate»
The first in a planned series of three EPs from noisy Cambridge quartet The Tupolev Ghost rattles around these speakers with ease»
Where The Light Gets In smells like Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai, taking in their expansive, multi-instrumental nature and filtering in tunefully tender vocal melodies»
‘Ambitious’ so often equals something different, but when My Morning Jacket's Jim James is involved, it could quite literally mean anything»
Duels’ sinister LP manages to impress without resorting to grabbing a cloak, pointing to thundering skies and hamming it up like the end is nigh»
The musical equivalent of a stream-of-consciousness amateur dramatics play where the emphasis is on twists and turns without being trapped by the confines of having to make sense - in short, it's a mess»
Punchy, brief, technically proficient and suitably varied, O Fracas' Fits & Starts debut dares you to make it through its duration without moving your feet, whether it’s a toe-tap or a stomp»
Canadians should on paper present some kind of hidden treasure, a combination of the goodtime feel of the Beach Boys, or maybe Fountains of Wayne without the odd bouts of nausea»
Once acclaimed for a string of cheery tongue-in-cheek pop songs, Chris T-T’s career trajectory somehow found him hailed as political folk songwriter. This is the third album of his London 'in demise' trilogy»
Jukes' We Might Disappear doesn’t put on airs, not making a break for anything particularly original and instead content to settle for comfortable familiarity»
Gospel Bombs, the debut album from Vincent Vincent and the Villains, isn’t stuffed to the brim with anything complex, but pay it enough attention and you’ll find an album infused with, or enthused by, rock ‘n’ roll spirit»
Sounding American when you’re actually from Manchester: I'm set up to unleash a barrage of the most spiteful music hack bile over The Maple State. But what's that? Oh, it's the sound of me eating my hat»
Fighting With Wire's first LP is a surprisingly accomplished debut, aesthetically pleasing and never troubled in the confidence stakes, even if it does sometimes try and make you its MOR-rock bitch»
Reading's Pete and the Pirates have made a spectacular start to 2008, with their new Little Death album earning the quintet some booty-ful acclaim. Booty, 'cause they're pirates, see? Oh, just read about their Brixton Academy conquering already»
Forts is doubtless The Boggs’ most accessible long-player yet, presenting a sound which doesn’t stay still long enough to get tired, and with one foot these days pointing towards the bright lights of the mainstream»
The man on the microphone sounds both wary and wise beyond his twenty-something years, his music a mixture of thigh-slapping, hand-clapping country and lonely folk for the quieter moments, almost everything sorrow-dusted»
Swedish duo Jettie's Kites For Charity is an album of calm emotion rather than flashy star jumps, captivating in its execution of both the quiet and the intensely epic as well as being accessible to most. Not the next Feeder, then»
Music to watch rain roll down the window to, captivating in its complete peace and almost as lazy in its construction as the end result is to consume»
It turns out that none of Mr Bonjour’s four parties were the kind where the police were called to after some stuff got set on fire»
If familiarity really does breed contempt, then New York-based singer Jaymay's debut album Autumn Fallin' is just begging for someone to use it as a doormat»
Standing knee-deep in loops and programmed patterns, the instrumental electronica housed within Hello, Avalanche is some of the finest you’ll hear this year»
Ben Garrett is slurping granny's special soup and noodles out of a bowl and the phone is going off every ten seconds and tonight is his first frYars gig AND he's ill. It's tough being this awesome.»
With no highlight tracks and no heart-stopping moments, yet at the same time nothing insulting to the ears and a pleasant enough listen, Can’t Wait Another Day is just nice»
Say it quietly, but Idlewild's rarities compilation A Distant History might even do a better retrospective job than its recent (bigger and 'best-of') sibling»
An example of happy go lucky contented country-pop, Runout Groove ticks most of the necessary boxes, even if not with any particular flair»
Apparently not just the occupation of bearded or suspiciously skinny men in hats, girls can be buskers too»
Slightly wonky, totally upper-case LA outfit EELS will celebrate officially being around for ages by releasing a couple of CDs in the new year.»
Jazzy instrumentals, relaxing arrangements, some gently molested samples and soothing beep ‘n’ squeakery fit for either the laziest of Sunday lay-ins or the most reclined of BBC travel programme montages – the Winston Giles Orchestra don't seem in a hurry to break into the 1812 Overture»
The kind of glo-stick encouraging, art school dance-electropunkery that the kids are currently going mad for»
You can have all the prettiest musical touches, the lushest of melodies sung by the cutest of voices, but without a certain level of impact, this kind of thing will always be in danger of being left behind»
