Cloudspeakers

If ever a band deserves to have a “Ballad of….” Written about them, it’s The Features. They crashed into the collective consciousness back in 2005 with their overwhelmingly... Read more

Miami based Robbie Riviera seems to have missed the boat. But not entirely in a bad way. The Puerto Rican born house DJ’s new album is awash with the sound of the summers that defined Ibiza – t... Read more

I first came across Piano Magic nearly 10 years ago, when their album “Writers Without Homes” left critics gasping to the point of virtually forcing them out of bedsit recording and into the pu... Read more

The year is 1983. Mike Read is the Chris Moyles of his day. And inadvertently, he creates one of the biggest records of the decade by banning it. “Relax” was the song, and whilst it’s fairly ... Read more

There’s very little that I can say in criticism of All Nights Out. OK, so perhaps if it had 20 tracks, or free beer with it, but musically, it’s damn near perfect. I will hold up my hands now, ... Read more

I used to share a flat with a fellow music journalist. We had a game called “cliché bingo”, where we (after a lot of red wine) came up with as many journalistic no-nos as we could, transferred... Read more

Can it really be 5 years since I asked a Sacramento record store clerk what the stunning album he was playing was? “Riot on An Empty Street” was a benchmark in acoustic loveliness, like “Quie... Read more

Hooray! Another musician hailing from Rugby! Things have certainly improved since I was there. In actual fact Kelleher is a Dubliner, but he lived in Rugby for a bit. His fair is a spooky, folky af... Read more

They’re Italian. There are two of them. They sound like Math-Rock with no guitars, and a generally wider augmentation of instruments and a total jazz ethic. There’s lots to like here, and there... Read more

This could be so bland. So many bands have done the “American folky” thing, to death, that I question whether anyone can ever successfully do it again. But with the augmentation of some beautif... Read more