2025 Dot to Dot Festival: Everything That Happened This Year
The Spring Bank Holiday is always a busy time for Bristol’s music scene. In the picturesque grounds of Ashton Court, 30,000 dance fans gathered for the city’s biggest festival, Love Saves The Day. To the south, beer festivals were in full swing. And for those who preferred their music eclectic— and ideally heard in a […]
Album Review: Pan Amsterdam, ‘Confines’
Album Review: Pan Amsterdam ‘Confines’ Words: Sam Walker-Smart It’s not every day that a near-middle-aged jazz trumpeter reinvents himself as a sardonic, genre-hopping rapper — but Leron Thomas, aka Pan Amsterdam, is no ordinary musician. With a résumé that includes collaborations with Erykah Badu, Mos Def, and Robert Glasper, Amsterdam now splits his time between […]
Live Recap: Orchards + congratulations @ Exchange, Bristol
With summer seemingly arriving early in the UK and temperatures unusually soaring, stepping into the claustrophobic void of the Exchange felt jarring. I was here to feel a different kind of heat this Thursday night, the kind only a loud, sweaty double bill of Brighton-based acts could deliver. Known as a hub for great art, […]
How Scowl’s Kat Moss Climbed the Mountain and Put Her Flag on Top
A lot of things stand out when Scowl’s second album, Are We All Angels, blasts through the speakers: the urgent, overdriven guitars, the incessant, driving drums. In the eye of the proverbial storm is frontwoman Kat Moss— easily the band’s most magnetic presence. She’s always found the role curious, especially since she’s long seen herself […]
Album Review: Tapeworms, ‘Grand Voyage’
It’s no secret that Y2K aesthetics have been making a comeback in music lately. In recent years, mismatched clothing, dangerously high platform shoes, and plastic accessories have paired with cartoonish synths and retro beats in the music of many Gen-Z acts. For someone like me, who experienced this the first time around, it feels a […]
Album Review: SPELLING, ‘Portrait of My Heart’
Spellbinding, ethereal, and bizarre—three words that effortlessly capture the essence of any SPELLING record. Since 2018, frontwoman Chrystia Cabral has been the face of SPELLING, starting with their introductory demos Hard to Please and My Other Voice. From there, Cabral set the tone for SPELLING as an experimental project with a progressive sound and DIY […]
Agender, Expatriate Post-Punk Riot Grrrls, Go ‘Berserk’ on Their Fourth Album
Romy Hoffman has found herself at more than her fair share of crossroads after more than three decades in music. The front woman of self-described “pastiche post-punk” band Agender has previously navigated the worlds of hip-hop, electronica, and alternative rock across various projects. She also started her life anew in Sydney, New York City and […]
Album Review: Great Grandpa, ‘Patience, Moonbeam’
On paper, separation, distance, and uncertainty don’t seem like a good recipe for creating music. Then again, indie rock band Great Grandpa thrives on crafting unusual songs with unpredictable twists and turns. Patience, Moonbeam is the Seattle outfit’s first album in six years, and it’s one they feared they’d never get to make. After the […]
Saul Rivers Was Going Through Hell. Then, He Kept Going
Photo credit: Shervin Words by: David James Young For most of 2023, things were looking up for singer-songwriter Saul Rivers. He relocated from New York to Los Angeles and released his third EP, Late Bloomer—a suave, slick record melding vintage R&B with cutting-edge pop. With new opportunities flowing in after the pandemic’s disruption, Rivers prepared […]
Album Review: Divorce, ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’
For a debut album, Drive To Goldenhammer has surprisingly big shoes to fill. Since forming in 2021, Nottingham quartet Divorce has made an impression since day one. Every single they’ve dropped thus far has been, frankly, nothing but excellent. Their singular brand of impassioned alt-country earned national airplay and press from the get-go. Their busy […]