This is my first trip to Leeds for live music. My first thoughts are something along the lines of “wow, these goods and services are noticeably cheaper than in the south.” I’m actually going to a wedding tomorrow, but a little detail like that should never prevent a bit of art rock indulgence. Women are certainly one of… [Read more…]
July 23, 2010
by Andrew Valentine
2010’s Lounge On The Farm festival took place on a weekend so hot that I was forced to wear a vest in public. This is not something I make a habit of, and is, in fact, not something I’ve ever done before. No one needs to see what I have to offer. This is one… [Read more…]
July 22, 2010
by Andrew Valentine
The Shortwave Set are a band of several permutations of a single larger contrast, namely, that of the conflict between the big and the small. There are only three of them, only two of whom play instruments full time, yet they are able to convey a full bodied, robust sound. Into this sound creeps the influence… [Read more…]
July 22, 2010
by Andrew Valentine
As I’m making my way to Shepherd’s Bush Empire, something occurs to me that I hadn’t thought of for a good few years. Call it repression if you will (and you can), but until this point I had forgotten that SBE is the venue of the first ’proper’ gig I ever went to, when I was around… [Read more…]
April 3, 2010
by andrewvalentine
They say write about what you know, and Owen Ashworth certainly knows film. As is mostly common knowledge, the perennial grizzly bear of battery powered analogue pop attended film school in his native USA, before packing his knapsack and opting for a lifestyle of cheap drum machines, cheaper keyboards and wittily affecting narratives. Theoretically then, this… [Read more…]
April 3, 2010
by andrewvalentine
Tangtype are two people from the very worldly Brussels, who happen to make some of the most other worldy music you’re likely to hear. Should you happen to be a fan of such juxtapositions, the fun doesn’t end there. The band are made up of singer Julie Cambier, and musician Jean-Francois Brohee. The former is a… [Read more…]
April 3, 2010
by andrewvalentine
Prog-folk eh? What a genre. Not one with enough column inches dedicated to it for my liking though. Well fear not, gentle reader! Allow us to devote some digital air time to local buccaneer Kopek, an improbably young looking lad trading in a diverse brand of the the prog stuff.No need to worry, we’re not… [Read more…]
March 19, 2009
by Andrew Valentine
"...The record feels like a photograph, and we try and rebuild the music as something more simple, but with the same shapes..."
December 15, 2008
by Andrew Valentine
"...I didn't have anything to do but sit around waiting for my first tour to start, so I wrote this psychedelic science fiction novel. It was so bad."
September 30, 2008
by Andrew Valentine
“It’s like a little laboratory, or a playground where it’s easy to get these gransiose, sometimes quite foolhardy ideas."
December 4, 2010
by Andrew Valentine
0