In corners around the country, there are rumblings of young folks with an axe to grind. Irked into action by an increasingly austere status quo, those making up the current trad folk scene are drawing from the not-so-distant past and morphing traditional ideas into fresh thinking.  It seems the societal changes undergone in Britain over the last 50 years have seen many local histories plastered over, marginalised, or all-but forgotten. Although this ostracization has been seen time again through history, the current state-of-things appears to be geared fiercely against these ideals of soc ..read more

The debut EP from Slow Cooked has been long in the works. Its roots lie in Huddersfield, where cellist Louis Barby found a love for his instrument playing in symphony orchestras. Fastforward a few years and Barby is plugged into the London DIY scene and in high demand, his chops being employed by acts across the capital.   Although having found firm footing as a go-to man for all things cello, the 9-5 wasn’t serving Barby as well. Disillusioned by the bizarre trappings of his corporate day job, the Slow Cooked project developed as a way to articulate the frustrations of operating in ..read more

Electro-punk seems to be on the up – it’s the way the ethos of punk has adapted to the twenty-first century, mixing the old school with the new school, with just as much anarchic chaos. In that sense, nobody is doing electro-punk as well as Lip Critic, who have just released their newest single – ‘In The Wawa (Convinced I Am God)’, which, by the way, is a great title. The track is named for a chain of petrol stations (or gas stations) in the United States, and perfectly mixes the nihilistic, wall of sound associated with punk music with instrumentalism that wouldn’t sound entirely out of ..read more

Much like many of the acts currently emerging from the Netherlands, The Klittens don’t disappoint with their unique mix of punk ethos and poppy sounds.   Listening to their new EP Butter is an unusually uplifiting experience, one that focuses on the message of people trying to find their place in the world, with clever lyrics and intricate melodies working well together to make a hard sentiment seem light. The band all perform beautifully on the recordings with a pleasing mix and the characteristic chatty nature of the vocals bringing across a very personal touch – feeling like they ..read more

Whilst interviewing C Turtle, I was met with a lucky reminder of the freeing nature of breaking the rules. The chat was easy and flowing, speaking a lot about the significance of a carefree attitude when prioritizing your unique sound. Each member of the band had something peculiarly original to bring to the table, and now the uncharted experimentalism and kaleidoscope of sonic emotions made complete sense.  The band prides itself on the courageous absence of rigid structure which seemingly and annoyingly penetrates the ideology behind a ‘perfect sound’. For C Turtle, there is no real rea ..read more

When Simple Things Festival last opened their doors in October 2019, it’s fair to say it probably wasn’t on anyone’s mind that it would be the last for five long years. With the turmoil that the music industry has faced in the years since, it’s almost nothing short of a miracle that the Bristol festival even managed to make a grand return, but so much was the demand for their eclectic and far-reaching approach to curating lineups that it finally re-emerged for its tenth edition in 2024. Truth be told, it hardly felt as though there had been an absence, such was the strength of the selection on ..read more

You’re hurrying home. Maybe it’s raining slightly. Maybe you’ve been at work. Against the darkening sky, you start to notice the lights from residential windows scattered in squares up the sides of the tall buildings you trudge between, like some anarchic deconstructed chessboard. You notice people moving in their apartments. Maybe a couple is silently arguing, maybe a newborn child is silently wailing against the attempts of its caregivers to get it down for the night. An old man sits in silence. You can’t help but conjure a narrative from your witnessed snatches of these other people’s lives ..read more

Sometimes it only takes a sentence to sell a song to me before I’ve had the chance to listen, and “it sounds a bit like Grizzly Bear” is one of those sentences. It’s worked countless times, and it’ll continue to work for as long as I survive as a writer. The most recent example of this personal pandering to my taste comes courtesy of Brighton seven-piece SoftTop; a merging of many members of the city’s psychedelic vanguard including Hutch, Ideal Living and TINMAN. Their second single as a group, ‘Runaway’ is power pop balladry at its most sensual and soulful, complete with all the emotional pe ..read more

Bristol-born and Manchester-based producer BUFFEE has released her new single ‘Heaven’ via Spinny Nights. Building on her unusual, industrial soundscapes, on ‘Heaven’ BUFFEE takes her sound further and sees her create a catchy, almost dancy pop song.  BUFFEE’s music is best described as a collage of sorts – she takes influences from hardstyle and electronica, her lived experience and underground Soundcloud producers to make her very own trademark style. Most of her songs are based on samples of her voice, which are compressed and distorted to make something completely new.  On her de ..read more

Haiku Hands are beyond the point of needing a strong introduction. The Australian trio instantly allow the power of their wacky (and wonderful) songcraft to do the legwork for them, which has already garnered attention from the likes of Rolling Stone and NME. They’ve been described as the “Aussie Beastie Boys” – which is high praise, obviously – but just listen to one of their tracks, and you’ll see they’re much more than just that; they’re original and interesting, and their discography feels refreshingly new. In December, last year, the band released their ambitious second album, P ..read more