Music and Miles Johnson

The Musical of Musicals, The Musical!

Solidly performed Sondheim send-up a safe bet

18 Aug 2008

Essentially a send-up of musicals by Sondheim and Rodgers & Hammerstein among others, The Musical of Musicals is unlikely to be appreciated (or its references understood) by non-aficionados. This said, it is solidly performed and often amusing, the…

Bow Selecta - Dizzee Rascal Interview

22 Jul 2008

He’s worked with Arctic Monkeys and Calvin Harris while giving British rap a good name. With his own record label on the rise, urban music star Dizzee Rascal tells Miles Johnson about a life of grime.

Kid Canaveral

3 Jul 2008

INDIE Henry’s Cellar Bar, Fri 20 Jun Henry’s, for all its charms, is hardly the most sparkly place in town. However, bringing a solid dose of summer to the venue’s dimly lit confines, St Andrews four-piece Kid Canaveral’s lively guitar pop does the…

Singles & Downloads

1 Nov 2007

This issue’s singles and downloads have a distinctly local tinge, with our whirlwind tour of new Scottish bands beginning in the company of Vale’s The Casuals. ‘Confusion’ (No Carbon - 3 stars) certainly wins the prize for the most inadvertently apt…

Lethal Bizzle interview

4 Oct 2007

It’s sometimes said you know you’ve hit the big time when your song gets banned. London MC Lethal Bizzle might not have reached the notoriety of the Sex Pistols when his infamous track ‘Pow! (Forward Riddim)’ was banished from clubs across the country…

Singles & Downloads

6 Sep 2007

It’s Autumn again and, as ever, there are a sack full of new singles struggling to squeeze into limited radio rotation spots like fat men caught in a revolving door. Just as scientists have a tough time predicting natural disasters, gauging how…

Genaro

Genaro

9 Aug 2007

ROCK There is a fine line in the risky profession of innovative guitar music between brilliance and wanksmithery and Benbecula signings Genaro appear to tread this with glee. Still, the majority of their debut sits on the right side of the divide…

Esther O’Connor

The Place Where We Are

9 Aug 2007

POP Esther O’Connor is something of a musical paradox; a singer-songwriter specialising in slick commercial soft rock that she proudly releases on her own DIY label. As the daughter of the guitarist from Wet Wet Wet, she has certainly picked up her…

ESG

South Bronx Story 2

9 Aug 2007

HIP HOP While the past year has seen much blathering about the Nu Rave scene and its various spin offs, many have been quick to forget that dance rock first came into existence back when many current bands were still playing hopscotch. New York’s ESG…

Various Artists

Neon Nights

1 Aug 2007

n these heady days of nu rave saturation, when it is once again acceptable to be seen gurning while clutching a glo-stick, it’s easy to forget that there were indie-dance bands long before the NME reached for its big book of genres.

The Beats

16 Jul 2007

Beats international Miles Johnson raps about hip hop with Example and Professor Green, two of the acts on The Beats, the label set up by Streets frontman Mike Skinner With the emergence of Mike Skinner and Dizzee Rascal, British hip hop is…

Lethal Bizzle

Album

16 Jul 2007

GRIME LETHAL BIZZLE Back to Bizznizz (V2) The ailing Grime scene too often forgets that it was spawned from dance music, not hip hop, with many MCs eschewing potential club hits in favour of brainless trigger talk. Lethal Bizzle, on the…

Randan Discotheque

Album

16 Jul 2007

SINGER-SONGWRITER RANDAN DISCOTHEQUE I Am the Singer, You Are the Song (Fife Kills) Snaking from Johnny Cash train stomp rhythms to delicate love stung paeans to departed muses, Randan Discotheque throws up an occasionally disconcerting…

Black Affair

18 Jun 2007

ELECTRO In an aside from his post-Beta Band project King Biscuit Time, Steve Mason has concocted a fresh sound with Black Affair, being profiled on the band’s MySpace as ‘probably the best known and most discussed modern songwriters and thinkers’.

Broken Records

18 Jun 2007

ROCK The audience at Capitol may have been somewhat thin on the ground but the stage was bulging at the seams as Edinburgh septet Broken Records struggled to fit a music shop of instruments onto its dinky frame. At first sight it almost appeared…

Dizzee Rascal

21 May 2007

HIP HOP For many the turn of the new millennium was a bleak time for British music. A mixture of saccharine garage, imported nu metal and Travis had ripped the spine from the charts, leaving a charmless corpse and no respite in sight. Few though…

Wiley

Album

21 May 2007

GRIME Long hailed as the progenitor of grime, since his 2004 debut Wiley has struggled to match his credibility with commercial success. Sadly, lacking any degree of quality control, his third album sees only more underachievement. While others can…

The Dykeenies

QMU, Glasgow, Fri 13 Apr

23 Apr 2007

INDIE Despite sporting a moniker which sounds like a cbeebies show involving two conversing plant pots, Cumbernauld quintet The Dykeenies have made quick business of vaulting themselves into contention. The now standard MySpace malarkey ensured their…

5 Reasons - Yann Tiersen

5 Reasons To Go See

9 Apr 2007

1 He plays the typewriter Chuffing on Gauloises and quaffing glass after glass of fine French wine, the 37-year-old’s live shows involve him hopping around variety of instruments, stopping off occasionally to bash away rhythmically at a typewriter like…

Little Doses

Little Doses

27 Mar 2007

INDIE ROCK Cabaret Voltaire sees a good turnout for tonight’s New Found Sound showcase of local talent. Though third down on the bill, Vitamin Flintheart’s swirling atmospheric set sets a solid standard. Switching between flickering melodies to…

Singles & Downloads

28 Feb 2007

The road to musical hell is paved with good intentions. This year’s Comic Relief charity single sees two of our most treasured girl groups unite for a cover version of Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way’ (Fascination/Island - 2 stars). Unfortunately, while the…

The Horrors interview

Smoke & mirrors

30 Jan 2007

The Horrors are in need of a fag. Having had their ch ance for a nicotine fix disrupted by fans who are loitering outside The Caves in Edinburgh hoping for a glimpse of the band, they now find themselves upstairs experiencing first hand the realities of…

Lady Sovereign - album review

Lady Sovereign

29 Jan 2007

GRIME POP When people first began getting their pantaloons in a twist about London’s Grime scene, much of the media rumpus was concentrated around mini MC Lady Sovereign. After a year of set backs and a chance meeting with Jay Z (he signed her to his…

Jamie T - album review

Jamie T

29 Jan 2007

INDIE Instantly labelled as a ‘troubadour’, seemingly this year’s music journalism cliché de rigeur, Jamie T and his bass guitar pop has enjoyed a year of steadily conscripting devotees to his cause. Striking a lyrical balance between mockney…

Various - Blue Skies Up - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

INDIE With a manifesto aiming to ‘save pop’, Dogbox Records have certainly set themselves a tall task. Most of the ‘pop’ on this compilation is as likely to hit the charts as a duet from Robert Kilroy-Silk and Michael Barrymore, but this reflects far…