Camilla Pia
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Richard Milward - Kimberly’s Capital Punishment
12 Aug 2012
Punchy, super-smart prose fuels Milward's bittersweet paean to London
With two great books already under his belt, Richard Milward has got critics in a tizz with a devilishly intoxicating style that’s been compared to Irvine Welsh, JD Salinger, Gabriel García Márquez, Skins and the Arctic Monkeys. And this latest effort…
Interview: Nikita Lalwani at 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival with new novel The Village
11 Jul 2012
Booker Prize-nominee inspired by visit to open prison in India
In 1998, Nikita Lalwani visited an open prison of convicted murderers in India, with the view to making a BBC documentary. What she saw there haunted her for years, eventually working its way out as The Village, the superb follow-up to her acclaimed…
Robert Williams - How the Trouble Started
25 Jun 2012
Compelling read delves into head of troubled teenage boy
Boy next door, monster or both? Robert Williams returns to the theme of childhood for the follow-up to his award-winning debut Luke and Jon, and this compelling story of fractured families and kids that don’t fit is told with the light, unfussy flair…
Sharon van Etten set for UK tour
25 Jun 2012
Third album from cohort of The National, The Antlers and Beirut
When we tell you Sharon Van Etten’s had it tough, we don’t just mean a bit of writer’s block or bad press. The Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter found herself fleeing an abusive relationship and endured two years of homelessness while making her third…
John Maus - A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material
13 Jun 2012
Off-kilter compilation from Ariel Pink and Animal Collective keys-man
Remastered rarities, demos and previously unreleased tracks are generally the preserve of the socially ostracised. Don’t own a stained raincoat and a couple of Can bootlegs? Don’t care. We make an exception for cult hero and part time-Ariel Pink and…
Kotki Dwa - Staycations
13 Jun 2012
Sprightly delights fill album recorded in National Trust properties
And there we were thinking indie was dead and buried, when all the while Kotki Dwa were round the back of the bike sheds pashing it into life. Produced in collaboration with the National Trust and recorded in many of their historic properties…
Nikita Lalwani - The Village
22 May 2012
A tense social drama about trust and betrayal, set in an Indian prison
When Ray Bhullar travels to an Indian ‘open prison’ village to film a behind-the-scenes BBC documentary, she gets more than she bargained for. ‘Everyone here has killed someone,’ she’s told, as she slowly adapts to the sights and smells of her alien new…
Hot Chip - In Our Heads
21 May 2012
The elctro-pop masters' fifth album is their most smartly accessible effort to date
Every self-appointed creative with a WTF haircut and a MacBook thinks they’re an ‘electronic artist’ these days. But there’s more to it than bedroom-recording cry wank vocals over presets and dropping them to Tuesday night cheek-chewers. Hot Chip’s…
Zulu Winter - Language
23 Apr 2012
The indie rockers' debut is disappointingly unadventurous
(Play It Again Sam) With their unabashed love of Czech new wave cinema, Steve Reich, TS Eliot, Ayn Rand and modern dance troupes The List won’t even pretend to have heard of, we expected something a little more adventurous from Zulu Winter’s debut…
PAWS - Misled Youth
23 Apr 2012
A pacey, frantic and melancholy EP from the Glasgow garage pop-rock trio
(Fat Cat) Grrr, Paws are good. Be it gigging in weird places (the Glasgow trio have played in bathrooms, skate shops and on top of double decker buses) or the bedroom recordings released on painstakingly put-together, hand-numbered limited edition…
Interview: Grimes - Electronica artist
16 Apr 2012
The Canadian musician shares the intense creative process that spawned new album Visions
The stunning future pop masterpiece Visions by Claire Boucher aka Grimes is inspired by Enya, Japanese anime, TLC and Aphex Twin and samples Renaissance composer Palestrina. Her dream? To be Timbaland and Lydia Lunch simultaneously and leave a mark on…
Peter Carey - The Chemistry of Tears
16 Mar 2012
Moving portrait of grief and genius from the twice Booker-winning author
(Faber) Grief haunts the pages of Peter Carey’s new novel, the twice Booker-winning author painting a compelling picture of all-consuming love in the 19th and 21st centuries. Catherine Gehrig is an horologist turned museum conservator who, following…
Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind
28 Feb 2012
Superb spellbinding pop which pulls of a mulititude of hipsterism sins
(Female Energy/Polydor) You could be forgiven for thinking Kindness is little more than hipster ‘lolz’. Tracks have trickled out sporadically accompanied by cryptic soundbites and moody black and white shots of a recording studio in Paris and New…
Grimes - Visions
22 Feb 2012
Jaw-dropping record of carefully crafted and cleverly created songs
(4AD) Visions is Claire Boucher’s fourth release in less than two years, and shows the Vancouver-born music-maker feverishly developing her sound at a rate of knots. Since she moved to Montreal in 2006 and birthed performance art, video and audio…
The Shins - Port Of Morrow
22 Feb 2012
Timely reminder of value of solid indie rock built on smart storytelling and melodies
(Aural Apothecary/Columbia Records) Oh, James Mercer, we’ve missed you. Port Of Morrow is The Shins’ first new material in four years and in a world where the young’uns are dabbling in skew-whiff electronica and art funk ‘jams’ with varying results…
Real Estate set for UK tour
27 Jan 2012
New Jersey trio take one of the best albums of 2011 on the road
Let England Shake may have topped most of the critics’ lists, but for many it was word-of-mouth, you have to hear this, slow-burner Days by Real Estate that became their hands down musical highlight of 2011. This much-lauded record was an Ariel Pink…
Emeli Sande - Our Version Of Events
24 Jan 2012
Powerful, sophisticated and smart mix of stripped down, acoustic songs
(Virgin) Just imagine it, Adele and Emeli Sandé down the pub, putting the world to rights over copious pints. Men? Screw ’em. Hype? Whatever. But the main reason they’d make great gal pals is because they’ve both worked out ways to channel their…
Die Hard - Die Hard
23 Jan 2012
Glasgow outfit's eponymous debut of magnificently off-kilter, avant pop tales
(Halleluwah Hits) If this Glasgow outfit had named themselves after any other Bruce Willis film we’d have issues, but as it is we’re rather partial to a bit of John McClane action so we’re giving Die Hard a go. Stick their eponymous debut on and…
Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic
6 Jan 2012
Superb third album that should push the foursome out of Mogwai's shadow
(Rock Action) Lazily regarded as Mogwai-lite for most of their seven year existence, Errors’ third offering finally sees the Glasgow foursome shrug off the shackles of their legendary label founders’ early patronage. Anyone with half a brain could…
Single of the month: Trailer Trash Tracys ‘Candy Girl / Strangling Good Guys’
5 Jan 2012
Florence and the Machine, Arctic Monkeys and more also reviewed
Music snobs love to flame Florence and the Machine these days. But as ‘No Light No Light’ (Island) ●●●● proves, Welch does epic, pagan pop pretty much perfectly. Her only crime is that lots of people now like it. They’d no doubt sneer at the recent…
Ali Shaw - The Man Who Rained
19 Dec 2011
Fantastical modern fable from the author of The Girl With Glass Feet
(Atlantic) After the success of The Girl With Glass Feet, Ali Shaw sticks to his penchant for penning fables with a folklore-filled romance set in a small, superstitious American town. But Thunderstown is not as it first appears when Elsa Beletti…
Interview: Stuart Braithwaite deconstructs Mogwai
9 Dec 2011
An examination of what makes them great, ahead of their 2011 UK tour
40% Quiet/Loud ‘For our first few years this was our raison d’être’ says Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite of a technique that came to define the band’s early, and much revered, nerve-shredding sound. That jolt as the volume soared and dipped without warning…
Seafieldroad - Seafieldroad
10 Nov 2011
Thoroughly beguiling second effort showcases a spine-tingling delivery
(Biphonic) It’s a shock to find Swimmer One and Seafieldroad’s Andrew Eaton-Lewis stripped of all his usual sonic accoutrements. But this second solo effort of piano-backed ballads is thoroughly beguiling. Rich, sonorous vocals are the focal point…
White Denim - Last Day Of Summer
10 Nov 2011
A stripped down snapshot of a band in transition and showcasing awe-inspiring musicianship
(Downtown) Last Day Of Summer is a fascinating insight into what White Denim were knocking out for fun before the release of this year’s breakthrough; deservedly lauded fourth offering D. Recorded in a month and initially available only online, this…
Summer Camp - Welcome To Condale
19 Oct 2011
Seeped in nostalgia and one of the smartest synth pop romp of the year
(Apricot Recording Company/Moshi Moshi) Summer Camp’s music is seeped in nostalgia, but the London duo pay homage to the past cleverly; their 1980s’ teen flicks-inspired debut thankfully free of the usual pitfalls of cynical pastiche and straight…
