Whatever your opinion is on the sentiment of Original Pirate Material and Skinner’s delivery, The Streets’ debut is undoubtably one of the very best albums in terms of being so perfectly within its zeitgeist. You find yourself sprawling about a south London smoking area in the early 2000s in every song. The instrumentals are quite minimal but do their job well and Mike Skinner just does Mike Skinner, which is understandably polarising but effective in its intentions. Do i love it? ... read more

‘Preobraz’ (transformation).

A disturbingly good dark ambient soundtrack, 17 minutes of short, spectral tracks that maintain minimalism but still hold that unnerving spine that makes it so effective. Fantastic atmospherics and a great start to what’s sure to be a flourishing career.

Earl’s flow, cadence, and overall style is so unique and it’ll never get old. Live Laugh Love is yet another great instalment in his consistently captivating career

WE’RE SO BACK

Deftones bring us what i feel is their best work in 13 years in ‘private music’. The shoegaze influences are as present as they’ve ever been, and Chino Moreno shows no signs of slowing down. What more is there to say, Deftones continue to prove they’re head and shoulders above all of their peers.

quannic stays on the shoegazey noise rock road with his third album, and while Warbrained is missing that sparkle that set Stepdream apart from its peers. Alongside feeling a bit less adventurous, this album tends to sit in the same pocket throughout the majority of the album.
I still definitely like it though, quannic’s sound is one that i enjoy a lot, but i think he’s taken a bit of a sidestep with Warbrained.

AOTY reviewers when an album has a band with a saxophone:
😨😰😨😰😱😱!!!! BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD??
guys are out here saying this is a BC,NR regen when it’s not even a post-punk album at all, it’s far far more folkish as a matter of fact.

with that out of the way though, Racing Mount Pleasant’s self titled record is simply incredible. Raw, earnest, and intense, but also silky and polished - the group produce a bombastic display of emotional intent through the ... read more

first of all, congrats on such a positive release Zinga. I’m genuinely quite proud of how he’s shown real maturity and quality on this EP.

The EP is obviously very heartfelt, and Zinga manages to tackle the topic quite head-on without falling into the vast majority of traps and tropes that come with opening up on such a subject. The songwriting is intimate and potent, and taking the ‘Phoebe Bridgers approach’ in delivering emotional lyrics quite bluntly, and doing so ... read more

hypnotically groovy, a great experience

such a great midwest emo project, it blends everything memorable and interesting in the genre alongside the roughness of post-hardcore and the technicality of math rock. It makes for such an exciting but also powerful album of bangers. feels like midwest emo’s Pink Flag

I’ll come back to this but Pavement still won’t fully click with me for some reason
I like a few tracks

reminds me a lot of Sunbather by Deafheaven ngl, this one feels maybe more massive, a higher tempo, more aggressive and raw listen in contrast to the slower, more shoegaze-adjacent Sunbather.
A beating EP that despite slowing down slightly in the second half, hits the mark very well.

Hear me out okay…

White Pony but it’s mall screamo

I always seem to find a new amazing band reshaping what it means to make emo music each year, and i think Gingerbee might be that for me in 2025. The blending of the roughness of emo and scremo with gorgeous chamber pop and samba. Apiary is a paradoxical album of sorts, the rugged with the smooth, the sharp with the soft, the harsh with the soothing. That contrast is what makes this EP such a standout. I’m very excited to see where the band go from here.

A deeply somber experience, with ambient influence heavily present throughout, Star Is Just A Sun is emotional exhaustion and isolation in a bottle. it’s by no means breathtaking in what it does, and the atmospheres may be minimal but in that minimalism they lies a mostly effective portrait of the mood.

Jim’s vocal range and wide stretch of ability through genres and styles allows him to mesh together a mirage of sounds and influences through a London jerk lens

gorgeous Alchemist instrumentals and crisp, clean delivery from Freddie but it feels quite played out and rather samey and repetitive, especially toward the back end.

A tad noisier than the actual record, back toward the sound of their previous album, but it’s no secret i love both sounds, so this B-Side is just as ear-scratchingly good. SENTRIES is on a fabulous run. Can’t wait to have this on CD soon!

The ocean, the land, the moon and the horizon,.
Vanisher, Horizon Scraper is a voyage of an album that explores dreams, desires, isolation and morality.

Quadeca’s ‘Mount Eerie’:
While the concept and ‘storyline’ of Vanisher is much less rigid and defined in comparison to his previous record I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You, it leaves room for the personal ‘voyage’ that the listener sails on to shine through in every first listen. I’ve always had ... read more

I had the pleasure of watching caroline perform live recently, and i have to say it was probably the most unique gig experience I’ve had. The band were spread in a horseshoe shape around the stage, with no centre-point in the middle of the stage. Silently, the crowd watched and soaked every swirling crash, jagged violin strike, dense saxophone call, and every vocal line drenched in emotion. The sound built up, was thrown around aggressively, and then stopped to tranquility within a ... read more

I’ve got mixed feelings - Tyler makes yet another Tyler album, and while several people would argue that he is ‘very versatile’ i’d just say that Tyler albums don’t sound the same but they just 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 the same, they have similar sonic palettes and at the end of the day they simply don’t do anything for me. I do appreciate that he’s clearly been influenced by watching Paris Texas support for him on his Chromakopia tour but yet again i see this ... read more