Year: 2024

Tulsaqueen – October – Album Review

December 24, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Still running to catch up trying to get a load of album reviews done before I finally decide on my end of year lists…

October has, unsurprisingly given its title, been out in the wild so to speak for a while now, just like many of the albums I’ve enjoyed and still not written about yet… 

The debut Tulsaqueen album was an absolute delight, and as such I had great expectations for October, expectations which were smashed on first listen, as the album made its mark immediately and indelibly. It has a suave, laidback and unassuming style with arrangements that really get under the skin, there is a sparse and somewhat fragile beauty within the quiet assertiveness of the songs, with gently strummed guitar and bewitching vocals forming the core of the songs which captured my imagination and pull me into a mesmerising and mythical parallel Lynchian Twin Peaks dream universe. … Read the rest

Carol Hodge – EffortLess InSecurity – Album Review

December 20, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Ginger Quiff namesake Carol Hodge recently released her fifth studio album in the shape of the personally relatably titled EffortLess InSecurity. As I’ve now come to expect, this is another fine example of her elegant and empathetic wordsmithery. EffortlLess InSecurity is perhaps her heaviest album yet, and not just from a musical genre perspective, where she has shifted gear once again with the record having more of a stoner rock edge while in places taking on a soaring extravagance like an ostentatious Queen epic, but also in the deeply affecting and personal lyrical content. 

Whatever direction Carol takes with her music, the enduring core of her sound will always remain, with her incredible vocal and piano always sitting front and centre and carrying the bill of the emotion.… Read the rest

Johny and the Dead Girls – Need for Speed – Album Review

December 18, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Rockers England’s Mr. Vincent is back with his band of deceased dirty fuckin’ rock ‘n’ rolling girls for the follow up to last years fittingly titled Dirty Fuckin’ Rock ‘n’ Roll with a just as suitably named new album Need For Speed, it’s ten full throttle punk ‘n’ roll rattling by in just shy of 30 minutes…

Kicking of with the old Thames TV theme that only those of a certain vintage will remember, Sex and Drugs picks up, at an incendiary pace,  from where Dirty Fuckin’ Rock ‘n’ Roll left off and doesn’t let up for the duration, with barely time to catch a breath between songs.… Read the rest

The Tenementals – Glasgow: A History (Vol I of VI) – Album Review

December 16, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

The Tenementals are a band/a collective of academics and musicians that have intrigued me since I first heard of their inception. The bands musical journey since then has been nothing short of outstanding, their thought provoking lyrical take on various significant events from Glasgow’s radical history are often both empathetic towards the protagonists in the stories while being cutting about some of the dark events in Glasgow’s history themselves. And the brilliant wordplay is more than matched by the superb musicianship and sumptuous arrangements which perfectly soundtrack each mini epic. 

Die Moorsoldaten

My introduction to the band was their first single (not on the album), a departure from their own songs telling of the radical history of Glasgow, but a release which was firmly entrenched in the same ethos of sharing a slice of radical socialist history with a 21st Century audience.… Read the rest

Spooky Halloween Christmas…Transmitting from NYC…GIFTSHOP – live in Brooklyn

December 10, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Go on holiday and have a break from gigs? Not likely! But this blog isn’t your average gig review… more a recognition of how music has no borders, and of the power music and social media has in bringing people together who may not have done so otherwise…

This whole experience was part of the first full day of our dream trip to NYC, and helped to make this trip, which we’ve waited for and anticipated with thinly veiled excitement for so long, one that we’ll never forget. In the hours before the gig (not gig) we’d enjoyed cocktails in the salubrious surroundings of the historic Campbell Bar in Grand Central Station, after a long day of traipsing around doing loads of touristy things like the thoroughly enjoyable “The Ride”, an interactive bus tour around Lower Manhattan with actors performing at various points on the streets along the way, and visiting….… Read the rest

November Singles Round Up – Pt 8 – Upturned Boats, Port Sulphur, Quad 90, The Braes, Soapbox, Dead Pioneers

December 4, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

The last part of Novembers singles is mainly a homegrown affair with the second song from Upturned Boats for this month, along with Port Sulphur and Quad 90 fresh from their Stereo gig, the latest offerings from The Braes and the mighty Soapbox. Last word goes to Dead Pioneers who have a few harsh words to say in the wake of the month of Thanksgiving in the US…

Upturned Boats – Please Don’t Go

As if one sweepingly majestic song in a month isn’t enough, Upturned Boats once again test my ability to keep my composure as the heart melting melancholy of Please Don’t Go hits hard.… Read the rest

November Singles – Pt 7 – V.C.O., Count the Days, Gallus, Kneecap, Brielle, Corrine…

December 3, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Loads of local talent in the last section of this months round up…alongside some celtic cousins with Kneecap joining some of Scotland’s best young talent, V.C.O., Count The Days, Gallus, Brielle, Corrine.

V.C.O. – Slow Dance

When you press play on V.C.O.s Slow Dance it is like being transported back to the 1980s, a decade of music that often gets a bad reputation with cheesey pop, leg warmers and day glo taking centre stage in misrememberings about what 80s music was all about. The utterly addictive Slow Dance has me yearning for the hedonistic highs of 80s music with its retro post punk alt-pop electronica feel.… Read the rest

November Singles – Pt 6 – Librarians With Hickeys, Split Dogs, Annie-Dog, The Gold Needles, Alba Fury, The Elf of Elfbrook Court…

December 2, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

In Part 6 there are a couple of singles from the Big Stir stable with Librarian With Hickeys, and Hull’s The Gold Needles a couple of furious songs, one by nature from Split Dogs and one by name from Alba Fury, the dog references continue with Dublin’s Annie-Dog and one from the Christmassy sounding Elf of Elfbrook Court.

Librarians With Hickeys – Listening

First up from the formidable Big Stir Record label is Librarians With Hickeys and their upbeat bright and breezy harmonious jangly guitars matching the glorious vocals on Listening bringing a slice of sunshine to a miserable winters day.… Read the rest

November Singles – Pt 5 – Horsegirl, Upturned Boats, Dead Pony, Ron Briskin, Sunturns, Tombstones in Their Eyes…

December 2, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Part 5 and some more belters here…

A taster for album number two from Horsegirl, an early Christmas treat from Sunturns, plus songs from Upturned Boats, Tombstones in Their Eyes, Ron Briskin and Dead Pony.

Horsegirl – 2468

Ahead of the release of their second album Phonetics On and On comes the single 2468, an uncomplicated laidback and sprawling folky slacker rock tune.

Horsegirl

Upturned Boats – Car Park Sadness

The first of two tunes in the November Round Up for Upturned Boats with this heart-rending ballad Car Park Sadness, an atmospheric slow burn of an intro unveiling an affecting vocal that will appeal to fans of King Creosote and wojtek the bear.… Read the rest

November Singles – Pt 4 – Jody & the Jerms, Lambrini Girls, Joshua Idehen, Dancer, two blinks, i love you, Essential Logic, Sade…

December 2, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Another eclectic mix for Part 4 of Novembers singles featuring the unmistakable vocal of Sade on a very personal song alongside Essential Logic, Jody and the Jerms, Lambrini Girls, the genus single from Joshua Idehen, two blinks, I love you and yet another release from the hard working Dancer.

Jody and the Jerms – Winter Heart

A swathe of strings from Erica Nockalls on the driving rhythm of Winter Hearts adds another layer to the bands sound creating a song which is both upbeat and vivacious and highly emotive.

Jody and the Jerms

Lambrini Girls – Love

From their forthcoming album Who Let the Dogs Out, Love is a song of two parts one part a seething riot of scathing railing against toxic relationships and one part fun of regret and sorrow as a direct result of being involved in said toxic relationships.… Read the rest