I went to see Oasis at the old Wembley stadium in July 2000. I was fifteen-years-old and my old pal Graham and I would often spend weekends seeking out obscure bootleg interview discs, posters and elusive singles across South Essex. Remember, those were the days when you couldn’t just pull up ‘Round Are Way’ (sidenote:…

I’ve been tinkering away on this blog for a few years now, and I can’t think of another artist I’ve discovered through it that makes me drop whatever I’m doing and flounder around in search of some headphones the moment I see there’s something new. It was the case earlier this year when Glasgow’s finest,…

In the old days – well, in that golden time before AI came along and ruined everything – there was this mad thing whereby someone would slowly build up a set of skills and hone them over a period of time, usually a number of years. Then, at some point, all of the mistakes and…

Coming in at just over twenty-two minutes, Flower Days packs a surprising amount into its eight tracks. As with their previous EPs – 2014’s The Boatswain’s Manual and 2020’s How to Read – there’s a distinct theme to the set, and an organic feel completely in keeping with it. Naturally, anyone familiar with either artist’s…

I’m sure I’ve said it before on this blog; words to the effect of great art being able to conjure up a tangible atmosphere and a distinct sense of time and place. Often it is, as Thomas Merton put it, something that “enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. Living…

I’ve tried to start this piece several times. A stupid amount in fact. At some point I was labouring over an incredibly pretentious opening that talked about “the annals of pop history” and went on to talk about the long list of oddballs, outsiders, and eccentrics that Peter Cat absolutely belongs to, but each time…

Matti Jasu is a Finnish songwriter and musician, formerly part of a group named Goodnight Monsters, but now on his fourth solo album –  the playful, colourful, imaginative, and extremely melodic Up and Running. Hopping between the genres of pop, psychedelia, rock, electronic and country to name a few, Up and Running is a collection…

Merry Christmas describe themselves as a “ten-legged festive wonder tank from Tokyo, Japan”. Initially a three-piece of Ben George, Matthew John Thoren, and Joe-Joe Moran-Douglas – brought together through a mutual appreciation of Neutral Milk Hotel – the (excellently named) band, also consisting of Yuki Nishimura, and Yurie “Barihi” Yamaguchi, are quite an unusual proposition…