SpideWriter

New Durutti Album Out 31st July 2026 Album Review My immediate response to this album of newly released, but not necessarily new compositions, was that Renascent is a near perfect album for these Dog Days of summer.  I have played and replayed the collection in its entirety repeatedly since the moment I clicked on the opening file, Echoes in The Memory . The brief introductory track has a deceptive beginning. It is slow to build and slightly threatening in tone. It develops, with a change of tempo, into what might be a musical synopsis of the complete album. The brevity of the first track and its broken rhythm leads beautifully into the cool of Your Shadow at Morning , where  use of steady piano chords working through a series of cycles, provides the background to some finely-etched guitar details, before the piano eases its way into the foreground, completing a wholly satisfying piece.  Harold Budd would have been proud to issue this in his creative prime. Vini Reilly (...

The Paper Kites - Seventh Album and European Tour 2026 Photo copyright: Tim Harris Quietly doing their thing, The Paper Kites have been steadily accumulating a substantial global following.  January 2026 will see the release of their seventh album of embroidered Americana.  Seen by many in the industry as a defining act of the genre, fan comments revolve around the band’s ability to produce music that counters much of the noise and conflict all around us.  Singing of enduring love and the ideals of family and friendship, the music of The Paper Kites draws listeners into a reflective and occasionally mournful inner world, which given our planet’s stressed and stressful direction, is an understandable attraction.   With an album launch European tour due in February 2026 , the band has been booked to play at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, the O2 in Manchester and smaller venues in Leeds, Bristol, Belfast and Glasgow. The bigger shows lock onto London’s ...

Songs of Alienation Pared to the Bone   Richard Hawley ‘In This  City  They Call You  Love ’ New Album Review   Release Date 31 st  May 2024 on  BMG It took a few plays to appreciate the new Richard Hawley album, ‘In This  City  They Call You  Love ’   which is released by  BMG on 31 st  May 2024.  You'll need to be in a certain emotional state to get the most from this album.  Initially it comes across as cruise-ship-lounge music, possibly to be played before the second sitting for dinner is called.  In the round, this is a pleasant listening experience. By the close of the last track, you will have heard the singer-songwriter employ all his talents to good effect, as well as ghostly echoes of some of pop music's greatest male voices: Presley, Cash, Orbison. Hawley sets off with a wheel-spin screech of guitar, for the opening track and single cut For His Heels  before recounting tales i...