This is nuts. It’s so bizarre yet so listenable. The eccentricity in their arrangements, flicking between time signatures and their use of microtonal elements is a truly inspired recipe and this album if anything takes what they did on their debut and turns it up to eleven. Difficulty in procuring live tickets aside, their blow up this year is amazing and a huge win for interesting, original music in the wave of TikTok fodder and AI shite

Everything I would have hoped for in a follow up to My Soft Machine. Colourful and vivid, introspective and beautiful. Dancey, sometimes sad, reflective of the dance floor scene that she immersed herself in while making it. Endlessly listenable and compelling, I do wish her voice was mixed in a way where it competes with the bass better, there are a few cases where she gets a little lost but overall a huge triumph.

A hard one to properly rate. I absolutely dig Earl Sweatshirt, I love basically all of his output and while UTILITY isn’t necessarily his strongest I do still appreciate his humour, his flow and his approach. It sounds woozy, but faster paced than his usual output which works for some songs but does feel slightly out of place for others. MIKEs side doesn’t hit quite as much for me. I do like his work, and there are some undeniable highs here but a lot of the rapping stops being ... read more

I really like this. Noisy, harsh boom bap that creates an uneasy atmosphere throughout. I don’t love their last album so this is quite a return to form. It doesn’t necessarily tick all of the boxes I look for in a so called experimental rap album, the beats don’t really switch up and the structures are quite straight forward, but take on face value it’s a strong record that, despite becoming a little repetitive toward the end, will be one I come back to a lot.

Love this. It’s intense, passionate, hungry, bleak. This is what I want from a screamo project. Love the maths guitars, the vocals sound full of life, and the production has the right amount of grit do achieve that unpolished feel that works so well. Solid album, nice job.

Elephant in the room first. It will take more than the apology and a few performative videos for Ye to properly atone for his actions the last few years. I know that mental health struggles can lead you down some unrecognisable paths, and I have experienced first hand the personality shift that comes with bipolar disorder, but to return from that level takes actions more than words. I think maybe he’s on the path to recovery but I’m just a dude watching his life through a screen, I ... read more

It’s pretty good. It’s not anything groundbreaking but it’s a good return to his previous form for the most part. Since it’s only a 4 track EP it’s only natural that lower scoring songs are going to drastically affect my overall enjoyment, and let be real, REAL ONES NEVER DIE is leaps better than the other three. Still, this sound developed into a whole album would be something I’d be keen to hear.

I’m going to get my gripes out the way first. This is so melodramatic. It’s theatrical to almost a point of no return, teetering on the edge of fun cheesy and corny cheesy. It’s tolerable for the most part though, and annoying exposition and meta commentary aside the talent on show outweighs the theatrics, at least until the wholly unappealing closing credits song. All that being said, this is a well written, well put together and very well sung project. Autobiographical ... read more

Every time Tigers Jaw release something new, I can’t help but compare it to their self titled that had me so enamoured when it first came out. It’s cynical to dismiss a bands later work based on a comparison to a record that’s nearly 20 years old, but the fact is that even accounting for the band developing over their career this is still a bummer of an album. I’m sure plenty love it, but to me it just sounds flat and polished and lacking any real emotion. It’s ... read more

Nope, this does absolutely nothing for me. The songs are pretty standard power pop fare, quite simple and not particularly exciting, but what makes it worse is the awful production. The whole mix sounds flat and naff, and the vocals just plopped on top makes it sounds like bad karaoke. Don’t care for it at all.

I love this. Such a unique record, the production is such quality and the vocals sound so good. A bit Death Grips, a bit Clipping, a bit JPEGMAFIA, a bit Shabazz Palaces. It’s not perfect, there’s some songs that drag themselves out too long, maybe by paring the album down it would be more digestible. Regardless, this is a banger.

Actually pretty good. Production is good, beats are good but repetitive, the rapping is solid but there’s little variety in flow. They do what they do well, and it’s a nice tribute to classic gangsta rap but it’s not the most varied project. Good to see BigXthaPlug back on his game though.

This one bummed me out. Ladytron have a really solid place in my heart for their albums that the were releasing as I was growing up (Velocifero/604/Witching Hour/Light and Magic), and while some of their more recent albums haven’t resonated quite as strongly with me they still hold up as strong entries in the catalogue. This one just seems so diluted. The eerie feel of their earlier releases isn’t quite so present, and it’s replaced with something that sounds like Ladytron but ... read more

There are some genuine bops on there but unfortunately they are punctuated with just the most annoying shit (Goo Goo Ga/ Ay Ay Ay). Somehow they got a stacked guest list but this album falls so flat. Clearly there’s chops there but the lows on this album are just so annoying.

This is really really good. Euphoric at times, zany, glitchy, brilliant production, consistent songs throughout. Creative and addictive, this is a really strong album.

They still got it. This is exactly what I’d expect from Mclusky, it’s intense, lyrically both clever and bonkers, a proper Mclusky record. I’m not a huge fan of that was my brain on elves’ inclusion, not because it’s a bad song per sé but if where looking at the precious 6 songs present on an EP I think I’d have gone for another that shows off more of what Mclusky can do and saved that for an album cut. Minor qualm though, this slaps.

Nope. Not for me. Very twee pop rock that sounds like a watered down version of Weezer, nothing sticks in my memory, it’s just very plain and inoffensive.

High potential, chaotic instrumental mathcore that kind of goes round in circles. I respect the fact that these are 2 dudes who I keep seeing pop up on Instagram noodling away and they have chops but this stuff I think would be better if it were bolstered with a band, and probably some vocals to break up the constant lead guitar chicanery. It’s good though, don’t get me wrong, it’s just very bare bones in its current state.

I like this. Very off kilter, lots of nods to older grunge and noise artists. It’s raw, distorted, droning at some points, thrilling at others. Apparently this could be the last Land Whales release due to them being from Cuba and having to move to different parts of the world to escape the atrocities currently going on there which is a huge shame, but what a way to bow out.

This is a good solid throwback to the MySpace days of deathcore, gritty production and squeals and all. And that snare drum sound good grief. The first track has it sounding like someone hitting a kettle with a ladle, an absolute staple of myspace era death core. I like this a lot.