The Great Escape has become a regular fixture on the gig-going/industry showcase/conference calendar in recent years. Taking place in (usually) sunny Brighton, this year the Motel’s South Coast correspondent braved packed venues and the terribly British art of queuing to bring us her personal highlights of a very busy three days…
Album Reviews
Blood On Their Hands
On Blood, the band who rose to the top of the pops by keeping their promise of making music for girls to dance to have made a record which will attract much more than admiring glances from teenage females in after dark discotheques.
Album Reviews
Sins In The Major Key
Such a perfectly realised concept is demanding of both admiration and respect, as are the plucky upstart vignettes to the gritty underbelly of Gravesend, its Dogshit Streets and its Teenage Crushes that fill this debut.
Live Reviews
Garage Punk Gets Beautiful
But on tonight’s evidence, the shoegaze revival started a long time ago, and Deerhunter are top of the pile.
Festival Coverage
Kate’s Glastonbury Festival 2009 Dirty (Bakers’) Dozen (Ones to Watch)
Following today’s lineup announcement, here’s the twelve (or so) bands you should make time for this year – ranging from the new kids on the block right through to the finest musical vintage.
Album Reviews
Record Breakers!
Large-scale orchestral indie bands with lots of members and even more instruments seem to be ten-a-penny at the moment – which is what makes this record even more astounding, as it stands head and shoulders above so much of 2009’s new music.
Album Reviews
Number Crunching
Standout track Shake is, yes, urgent, intense, but utterly brilliant, demanding the kind of commitment to head-banging, arm-flailing, floor-shaking freak-outs that will make your feet bleed and give a whole new meaning to the concept of dancing.
Music: Reviews
Little Boots – New In Town
Once again, Little Boots has enlisted expert assistance in the studio. New In Town is melodic and highly polished but disappointingly unadventurous, and will do nothing to diffuse the already intense criticism surrounding her forthcoming album Hands.
Live Reviews
Doves From Above
In just four songs Doves have proved why they are still Manchester’s most relevant band.
Music: Features
Your New Favourite Band!: Part 15 – Broken Records
They may evoke the moody, overcast skies of autumn hurtling towards winter, but Broken Records look set to be the band of the summer.