The Weeknd – Echoes of Silence
Trilogies can be a tricky thing to pull off. If you think about some of the more famous film trilogies – say Star Wars or Lord of the Rings – the first one…
Little Dragon – Ritual Union
It is a crying shame that Little Dragon are quite possibly the most famous electronic outfit that no-one has ever heard of. They – or at least frontwoman Yukimi Nagano – has appeared…
Dark Souls
Do you have a PlayStation 3? Are you are a fan of challenging adventure games? Then chances were that back in June of last year you might well have picked up Demon’s Souls,…
New Blood – Kimbra
Quirky female solo artist in the vein of Bjork and Kate Bush: a phrase that seems a bit tired now? Well maybe you should think again. New Zealand’s Kimbra is trying to reinvent…
Review // Rainbow Arabia – Boys and Diamonds
Some people might remember that Rainbow Arabia appeared a couple of years ago back at the height of Brooklyn-mania: those psychedelic, world music-inspired offerings helped to place Rainbow Arabia in some sort of…
Review // Chapel Club – Palace
Having a few brain cells and doing some genuinely intelligent referencing has been something of a dirty thing in recent British indie: okay, we’ve had Foals and their clever take on the genre,…
Review // Joan As Policewoman – The Deep Field
No-one can accuse Joan Wasser of not being dark – her last two albums were informed by death, and it showed in the sorrowful lyrics and, on To Survive, the haunting use of…
Review // The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar
It’s been a few hard years in the making, but The Joy Formidable have finally released their debut album after periods of being a continual support band and numerous teasers on their MySpace…
Review // Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi
Britain has had its decent share of women dabbling in dark rock: Anna Calvi is just the latest in this line. With her debut album she treads ground that is familiar to fans…
Review // Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings
Dylan Baldi, the 19-year-old behind Cloud Nothings, is obsessed with 80′s UK indie bands, so much so that, like his US contemporaries The Drums, it’s hard not to hear the influences in his…
New Blood // Niki And The Dove
There are a handful of places in this world where musical talent practically flows on tap: one of these places is undoubtedly Sweden. From the early days Sweden has provided us with pop…
Review // Fable 3
Why did you buy your Xbox? Was it because it was the newest games console and you just had to have it? Or was there a particular game you wanted to play that…
Review // Enslaved: ODYSSEY TO THE WEST
Platform and adventure games have long since outgrown their mass appeal. In the last five to ten years there’s been a massive shift in what type of video games we play, moving from…
Music // Lykke Li – Get Some
On her 2008 debut album ‘Youth Novels’, Lykke Li placed herself as a childlike, vulnerable and altogether sweet popstrel, singing about the way in which she was hard-done by love. She played the victim…
New Blood // Beat Connection
Ironic, isn’t it? We come out of a summer of ups and downs and suddenly to get hammered with a whole host of dance music: everything from the strict end of Aeroplane and…
Review // Glasser – Ring
It’s a shame gothic is most closely associated with moody rock and alt acts like Salem. After all, sorcery isn’t just confined to black magic. It seems numerous dark artists have all been terribly overlooked or undermined…
Never Let Me Go
Mark Romanek is obviously a very devious director. He read the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and said “from the moment I finished the novel, it became my dream to film it.” The reason?…
Music // Crystal Fighters – Follow
We’re constantly swimming against the tide of new music, being swamped by it all the time, being told who we should or shouldn’t look out for. A lot of these bands aren’t anything…
Review // Maximum Balloon – Maximum Balloon
Going solo: it’s an often treacherous path to take. Sometimes you might be on safe ground (think Brandon Flowers) and other times you could be navigating the stormy seas to find a new…
