Reviews / Album

It’s awkward, dark and easy to like.

To pull off retro pastiche is always tricky. So easy to be awful. Thankfully, Pink Martini are largely fabulous, as A Retrospective duly notes.

It’s less rooted in the traditional rhythm-driven tunes than The Bamboos’ earlier releases, but just as listenable and appealing.

In the two years since Hot Chip’s last release, One Life Stand, the dance scene has been swamped by the jarring sounds of dubstep and vocals of screaming youths. If all this has been driving you a little mental, than Hot Chip’s fifth LP In Our Heads is perhaps the antidote you’ve been seeking.

Intensely creative, a ton of fun and quite a unique listening experience.

Fusing their own methods of shredding speakers, the pair have created tracks that seem to grow and expand before collapsing in, or moving in a whole other direction.

The album’s complex combination of power and subtlety make it hugely satisfying.

Again, The Hives offer a big, scrappy, not-quite-as-dumb-as-they-may-want-you-to-think, wonderfully messed-up and shouty record.

It does seem there is nothing Bibb can’t do. He is consistently one of the best in his field; as with his previous releases, this is a wonderful record.

In making an album like Evolution Machine, Def Wish Cast show their pedigree and skip over the emo and ocker-hop influences which muddy the waters of today’s homegrown gene pool.