Sonic Boom Six – ‘The F-Bomb’ [Review]

When most bombs drop, they cause widespread destruction and suffering.

The F-Bomb does the opposite.

Sonic Boom Six’s latest album is creative, liberating, and above all else supportive of those who continue to endure discrimination even in the year 2016. This is made clear from the off through the feminist-friendly No Man No Right and anti-racist tune From The Fire To The Frying Pan, the latter of which shows that while Sonic Boom Six don’t approve of Britain First and co., they still understand how even the most well-meaning people can get sucked into their orbit and seduced by extremist bullshit Read more…

Posted on 27 May 2016

The TiPs – ‘Twists ‘N’ Turns’ [Review]

Play musical word association with the name “Düsseldorf,” and you’re likely to come up with either “Kraftwerk,” or perhaps “punk”. Reggae is unlikely to make the shortlist – but The TiPs are on a mission to change that.

Reggae has always possessed a keen sense of political and social awareness, and The TiPs keep that particular torch burning throughout Twists ‘N’ Turns. From immigration (Leaving Home) to Read more…

Posted on 07 February 2016

Lithium Dawn – ‘Tearing Back The Veil I: Ascension’ [Review]

This is one of the most inspiring metal albums of 2015.

With the first part of Tearing Back The Veil, Lithium Dawn have set out to stretch the boundaries of tech-heavy progressive metal. It’s an ambitious task, to say the least; with luminaries such as Meshuggah, Karnivool, Periphery, Tool and Tesseract already forging new paths into the future, it’s easy to overlook the underground underdogs out there, and assume that everyone bar the legends are paying lip service to progression while actually playing catch-up.

One of the most attractive aspects of the prog world is the fact that anything goes. It’s like watching a Thunderbirds rerun from the ’60s: “Anything can happen in the next half hour!” We expect twists, turns, and tangents – but Lithium Dawn don’t just live up to that expectation. They go beyond it, into the Read more…

Posted on 20 November 2015

Julia Biel – ‘Licence To Be Cruel’ [Review]

A great remix is a beautiful and rare thing. Now that the technology needed to mash up and rework the works of others is easily affordable, the number of people diving into the world of digitized sound manipulation has mushroomed.

Unfortunately, not everyone with a DAW and fancy plugins is an instant genius. Getting good at any art takes time – and on Licence To Be Cruel, five outstanding producers have taken four fine tracks from Julia Biel’s recent album Love Letters And Other Missiles and given them Read more…

Posted on 21 October 2015