Genaro Interview

It’s fitting that Glasgow-based quartet Genaro took their name from a character penned by Carlos Castaneda, the writer who wanted to discover a “separate reality” through shamanism and was labelled “the Godfather of the New Age” by Time magazine.
 
It’s fitting because Genaro make music so richly atmospheric and mysterious that it seems to take the [...]

Jack Penate Interview

Whether Jack Peñate liked it or not, the moment his friends first realised he was going places was when his song Torn On The Platform featured on teen soap Hollyoaks, as he tells me when I grab him for a chat between rehearsals for his album promo tour.
“The most text messages I’ve ever had was [...]

The Royal We - ‘The Royal We’

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(Geographic Records)
Since they first hit the new music radar last year, The Royal We have kept us waiting like royal subjects for this eponymous debut album. Though calling it an ‘album’ is pushing it: clocking in at just over twenty minutes, it’s shorter than some EPs. But as The Royal We are [...]

Joshua English – Trouble None

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(Xtra Mile)
 
While average bands can broadly assimilate to a current scene and hope to get a record deal, solo artists need something to set them apart: a certain quirk (e.g. Joanna Newsom), obvious talent (e.g. King Creosote) or unswerving lane-loyalty to the middle-of-the-road (e.g. James Blunt). Unfortunately, Oregon’s Joshua English misses on all three [...]

Randan Discotheque – I Am the Singer You Are the Song

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(Fife Kills)
 
 
The most basic conceit of folk, rock or pop music is the combination of voice and guitar. It’s a conceit that naturally places emphasis on words over music, and has fanned the lyrical fire of anyone from Woody Guthrie to Elliot Smith. But recently, many artists we understand as singer-songwriters, such as [...]

MV & EE with The Golden Road – Gettin’ Gone

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 (Ecstatic Peace Records) 
Jack and Meg aren’t the only boy-girl duo with a taste in countrified rock and blues. Hailing from Massachusetts, MV & EE are Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, who, with the assistance of band The Golden Road, have concocted an album of hollering Americana. It’s definitely not refined, but it compensates with [...]

Reverend And The Makers - The State of Things

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(Wall of Sound Records) 
 
Like The Fratellis last year, Reverend And The Makers sparked a wildfire of hype over this debut album months ago. It doesn’t take much brain-wracking to reason why: friendly with Sheffield peers the Arctic Monkeys; purveyors of similarly candid dancefloor indie; and in Jon McClure, a bandleader cocksure and media-savvy enough to accept [...]

This is Music @ Henry’s Cellar Bar, 30 August

Another month ends, and another trio of bright young bands arrive with amps in tow for This is Music. First up is Edinburgh quartet Jesus H. Foxx (***), who break into a scratchy, melodic opener. The two Fender-wielding guitarists display a near telepathic understanding, though the rhythm occasionally lags behind this searing frontispiece. I’m 24 [...]