The Mary Onettes - Hit The Waves

3 Stars

These Swedes are still obsessed with the 80s, at times dazzling with as much majesty as a Simon Le Bon yacht ride.

10th March 2013

Man Like Me - Pillow Talk

3 Stars

Fun at first, the duo’s hyperactive gimmick runs dry after too many listens.

8th March 2013

Clinic - Free Reign II

3 Stars

There’s a fissure of AM hiss rippling through the remixed record.

4th March 2013

Chelsea Light Moving - Chelsea Light Moving

3 Stars

A lively, noisy semi-resurrection.

4th March 2013

The Cave Singers - Naomi

3 Stars

An album that makes you long for a beard, a porch, a shotgun and the onset of dusk.

3rd March 2013

Golden Grrrls - Golden Grrrls

3 Stars

Their sound gleams with a lo-fi aesthetic that stays true to their bedroom beginnings.

24th February 2013

Theme Park - Theme Park

3 Stars

The Londoners’ debut paints a vivid picture of burnt skies and highways, of lazy afternoons and endless sunshine.

21st February 2013

Concrete Knives - Be Your Own King

3 Stars

Concrete Knives are a band who can’t quite decide whether they prefer The Maccabees’ first or second album.

15th February 2013

Blue Hawaii - Untogether

3 Stars

The album tends to favour ponderous, glacial ambience.

10th February 2013

K-X-P - II

3 Stars

An intergalactic funeral dirge; inspiring and capturing whilst in the throng of it, but just like death, you eventually come to terms with it.

7th February 2013

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - We The Common

3 Stars

Buzzing with vitality, abandon and the joy that comes from knowing that sometimes there is no place like home.

30th January 2013

Various - Reason To Believe: The Songs Of Tim Hardin

3 Stars

A worthy, if overtly reverent, addition to the steady stream of Hardin covers.

26th January 2013

Adam Green & Binki Shapiro - Adam Green & Binki Shapiro

3 Stars

Less Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, more She & Him — only, well, better.

24th January 2013

Delphic - Collections

3 Stars

The Manchester trio’s return is undeniably impressive, but also resembles Duran Duran at their most bombastic.

23rd January 2013

This Town Needs Guns - 13.0.0.0.0

3 Stars

The tracks are less punchy than before and perhaps more subdued.

20th January 2013

Wave Machines - Pollen

3 Stars

While the Liverpudlians’ second album is more focused than its predecessor, there’s not as much fun on show.

19th January 2013

Plantman - Whispering Trees

3 Stars

Very much an indie rock album in a traditional sense, a record for bedroom introspection.

12th January 2013

Threatmantics - Kid McCoy

3 Stars

The energy of their breakthrough release layered with fuller-formed ideas and tighter production.

26th December 2012

Peaking Lights - Lucifer In Dub

3 Stars

This is a heavier interpretation that requires full attention; it’s not soothing background music.

11th December 2012

Creature With The Atom Brain - The Birds Fly Low

3 Stars

There can be a little too much noodle in their caboodle.

1st December 2012

Tim Hecker And Daniel Lopatin - Instrumental Tourist

3 Stars

The overriding feeling is one of gradual disintegration giving way to atrophy.

19th November 2012

Pop Levi - Medicine

3 Stars

There is an innate strangeness at the heart of everything; it’s impossible to grasp who the real Pop Levi is.

11th November 2012

Vitalic - Rave Age

3 Stars

The best moments here are when the beats are heavy and obvious.

5th November 2012

Joshua James - From The Top Of Willamette Mountain

3 Stars

A passionately crafted third album that resonates with a desire to look to the past for inspiration.

2nd November 2012