Feature:: Brits Critics’ Choice Award Nominees 2013
Tom Odell, Laura Mvula and AlunaGeorge have been tipped to follow in the footsteps of the of Adele, Florence and the Machine and Emeli Sande with the announcement of the shortlist for the Brit Awards Critics’ choice award. Previous winners of the prestigious award have gone on to unprecedented global success, selling millions of [...]
Blog:: Mercury Prize 2012
The Mercury Music Prize, held annually since 1992, is increasingly criticised as being irrelevant, elitist and unnecessary in the file-sharing age. True, some of the nominees appear to be almost deliberately obscure. for instance, there’s always one jazz at least one folk nominee. However, if the nominations merely reflected popularity, it would simply turn [...]
The Blog: The Emergence Of A New Genre
Like so many forms of social media, the blog appears to have simply sprung into ubiquity from nowhere. With all the instancy that the World Wide Web provides, everybody who was anybody (and every brooding teenager worth their salt) was suddenly in on the blogging phenomenon. The rise of microblogging sites such as Twitter seem [...]
Blog: The Electro Swinger’s Club // The Atomic Fireballs
The Atomic Fireballs are one of those bands that appear on your itunes without any forewarning. I stumbled across them one evening and was pleasantly surprised. The gravely vocals of John Bunkley make you feel like you are back in an era full of rhythm and blues and fast paced jazz. They have been hailed [...]
Blog: Hype.fm
1. King Krule is unchallenged in the top spot this week, seeing his popularity rise 1253%. Formerly known as Zoo Kid, the barely legal teen has a striking, physical, resemblance to La Roux. His music however, is rather more pleasant, he playfully toys with notions of Future Garage, Darkwave, Blues and Hip Hop, all with [...]
Blog: The Shape of Leeds to Come // Santiago’s
Turning away temporarily from Leeds punk and ska bands, this week’s blog will concentrate a venue: the Santiago Bar in Leeds, and hopefully bring to attention a completely unique drinking spot which is rarely frequented by students. Santiago Bar is located at the bottom of the Grand Arcade, and is open every evening (except Monday) [...]
Blog: Hype.fm
Hype.fm looks at the week’s top five artists on the last.fm hype chart in order to shine a little light on some perhaps lesser heard of music… 1. BΔSTILLE – Alongside Δ (Alt-J) are proof that the chill-wave inspired fetishism for the humble triangle isn’t likely to consigned to the annals of ‘what were we [...]
Blog: The Shape of Leeds to Come // Pie Race Festival
This wouldn’t be a very thorough blog on the punk and ska scene of Leeds if it failed to mention the Pie Race Festival, an all-dayer managed by Leeds punk band Acid Drop, which showcases some of the best talent from all across the UK. The first Pie Race Festival took place in October 2010 [...]
Blog: Out with the New, In with the Old // Metallica – Ride the Lightning
Continuing this blog’s series of albums you must hear is a band you’ve undoubtedly heard of, even if you’ve never listened to them. Metallica, formed in 1981 and continuing to release albums to this day are indisputably one of the greatest and unquestionably most successful heavy metal bands of all time. 1984′s Ride the Lightning, [...]