since-last-summer has written the following articles:
Valerie Perkins, aka Valley Girl, has a fine voice. But until she learns how to use it in an original way that’s all she’ll have, as this album's too close to Portishead and Goldfrapp efforts past to warrant much attention»
Adrian Orange and Her Band is at the very least a fascinating, vital snapshot of a singer engaged in a constant process of artist discovery and renewal, with startling, fascinating, often wondrous results»
Most of the material Beach House play tonight is culled from their lush eponymous debut record, the band both immaculately tight and suitably laid-back. Sad, melancholic, strangely hopeful»
As much as I’d like to see Puressence as yet another death rattle from the bloated carrion of northern indie, I can’t help but feel there’s another dusty, swaggering zombie waiting to lurch from the grave»
DiS caught up with Jeffrey Lewis before an afternoon show at Brixton’s Windmill to talk about why he chose to release an album of Crass covers, as well as about Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, and what his next record, of his own material, will sound like...»
Fuck Buttons manage to sound like the future, and the real, material present at once, in a glorious, cacophonous, very loud kind of way...»
Part of me feels that, as much as irony grates with me sometimes, at least it would make Butcher Boy sound a little less assured that what they were doing was anything more than just nice...»
Extraordinarily there’s no song here over four minutes; the album itself is barely half an hour long. How incredible the, that so much emotion and confusion could be expressed in such a short space of time, something that would have been impossible without White’s, gentle, complimentary drumming...»
The fact that Jeffrey Lewis has tried to rework these tracks doesn’t lessen the admirable rage and passion of the original songs, crass as they may have been. Or even that his having a degree means that he doesn’t have a right to sing them in his own, uncrass way. Just that it doesn’t quite work...»
Maybe it’s best for Herman Düneto make it less noticeable that, without backing, David’s new songs lack not only specificity, but also, sadly, a little originality...»
Summary deals with the happiness to be found in immediacy, in emotion and feeling, the sacred capacity to record an instant and pass it on as a document of what you were feeling, right there and then.»
When he comes out for a sing-along version of 'Devil Town', I'm just delighted to be singing "I found I was a vampire with Daniel Johnston. The Daniel Johnston...»
Giant is both a surprise and not at the same time. A surprise because it’s uncharted territory for a band whose music has always been schooled in the low key and homely; not because, like Jonathan Richman, they’ve long written simple indie-rock tunes with a heart...»
DiS’s Sam Lewis met Jeffrey Lewis about two months ago, in a strange, almost school hall-like theatre in Sale for the Twisted Folk tour; playing alongside him was Nina Nastasia (read a review of the tour here). Here Jeff talks about anti-folk, his latest album City & Eastern Songs (recorded with his brother Jack, who he’s pictured with here), and his place in the 'pantheon' of musical greats…»
'Bro’s' sounds like an approximation of Caribou as conceived by Brain Wilson, with just a smidgen of Noah Lennox’s other band thrown in for good measure...»
Bitches Is Lord ends with ‘In Your Sky Of Thoughts What The Clouds Are’, a track that opens: “Keep on believing because what the world needs now…” What does the world need now? I don’t think Orange knows. I certainly don’t. But I’m glad it’s a question he’s beginning to ask, and that he has faith in there being an answer...»
Towards the end of a long evening that began with a brutal traffic accident outside the venue, middled with someone in the audience collapsing and ended with a wondering performance from the Castanets in a venue lit only by two UV lights and a tiny, trailing spotlight, lead Castanet Ray Raposa articulates the general mood, accurately identifying the presence of “weird vibes”...»
If Akron/Family's contribution to their split album with Angels of Light was the fullest expression to date of their potential as a group of eccentric musicians, on Meek Warrior the band lean far too close to wayward spirituality for the record to count as anything other than a sideways step...»
Occasionally the dedication to simplicity of Colleen et les boîtes à musique is striking; in the right mood you’ll be left with no choice but to sit and watch the world go by...»
More often than not it’s pretty easy to guess what’s coming next on The Year of The Leopard, but that doesn’t once distract from the underplayed elegance of an album more sparkler than firework... »
Gone is the sexual and religious imagery that ran through his previous work; even so, the careful balance between comfort and edge is still here, even if it does lean too much towards the former at times to be ranked amongst Oldham’s best. Regardless, repeated listens finds The Letting Go to be an wonderfully understated and rewarding album, with our ‘Prince’ fretfully contemplative...»
Crosses is a more introverted album than anything produced by peers and touring-partners like Devendra Banhart or Akron/Family, closer to the warm intimacy of Little Wings than the more consciously talismanic Banhart...»
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Not quite far-reaching enough to be an EP, yet too plentiful to rank alongside your average single, this disk nevertheless acts as a reminder of why A River Ain’t Too Much Too Love was one of last year's most touching albums; a perfect showcase for Callahan at his most tender and forgiving...»
This compilation is inventive and playful; at times I can’t help but wish Hedben’s own material were this much fun live.»
At times Tunng's sophomore album 'Comments of the Inner Chorus' struggles to provide itself with direction, seemingly preferring inertia over the self-propulsion that drives the most interesting music ever forward.»
On ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ Leonard Cohen sings as if writing a letter, ending the song with a doleful, “sincerely, L. Cohen”. I can imagine Marissa Nadler being the kind of girl Cohen would write to (I see it being early in the morning somewhere incandescent in New York, or perhaps, more realistically, a Tibetan retreat).»
For The Boy Least Likely To to remain a lasting treat perhaps they need to be less Panda cola and more the cup of tea Belle & Sebastian have perfected over the years, to ensure long-term satisfaction.»
Before the Akron/Family take to the stage I ask Nima from Hush The Many what to expect, having never seen the New Yorkers before. He tells me that they exemplify the difference between English and American bands; when pushed to elaborate he explains, “they’re nutters” – a succinct and ultimately prophetic comment.»
Like Will Oldham, Thomas-Broughton has created a world of his own; one haunting, fragile, full of tension and reflective delicacy, marking him out as one of the most promising artists in the North, or anywhere else, at this moment in time.»
English four piece Hush The Many make the kind of folk that one fears may be going out of fashion. With Vashti Bunyan, Iron & Wine, Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart all having been appropriated by marketing men recently, adorning adverts for products ranging from mobile phones to cheese, suddenly the ‘new weird/freak folk/insert tag here’ movement seems to have suddenly, strangely, lept from the periphery into the mainstream (in its loosest definition). Maybe it’s not all that surprising; with their beguiling eccentricities artists like Banhart and Newsom must seem like prime meat for admen desperate to attach themselves to quirky figures with indie-cred.»
