Alternative music articles http://soundblab.com/ http://soundblab.com/images/soundblab.png http://soundblab.com/ editor@soundblab.com (Rich Morris) Copyright 2012 Soundblab Ltd support@soundblab.com (Nick Honer) http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4507 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:41:00 GMT Who says January is grim, grey and desolate? Well, anyone who's taken a look out the bloody window, I guess. But not so in the world of music, as we've seen an unusually busy month here at Fortress Soundblab, our hooded, chipped minions virtually run ragged trying to meet their... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4507 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4358 Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:16:00 GMT The great Britpop debate. This article is one half and argues that Britpop wasn't really that good. Have your say and check out the other article here. 'I am working on a new song called 'American Guitars': part sarcastic riposte to British bands who cannot find their own voice, forever worshipping... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4358 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4289 Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:12:00 GMT The great Britpop debate. This article is one half and argues that Britpop was actually very good. Have your say and check out the other article here. Aside from The Beatles and a decent line in prog rock, Britain didn't have a great deal going for it on the world music... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4289 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4360 Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:45:00 GMT With the end of each year comes the inevitable glut of top-ten lists. Every magazine from Mojo to NME will be declaring their love for the latest acts to 'hit the charts'. NME, keen to appear on the ball yet aware that fashion is a fickle thing, usually chooses to... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4360 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4355 Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:37:00 GMT The cover version gets a bit of a bum deal in today's pop culture, despite the fact that up until The Beatles, recording versions of other artists' songs was normal practice. Singers and performers from Elvis to Nina Simone were judged largely by their ability to breathe new life into... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4355 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4239 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:42:00 GMT Although I live pretty much in Manchester, I'm not from Manchester, but even I know the effect The Stone Roses had on the Madchester scene back in the very late 80s and early 90s. With one classic debut under their belt (and a divisive follow up which got itself a... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4239 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4169 Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:06:00 GMT A couple of months back, I wrote about how 70s Brazil was a hotbed of musical genius - which it was, FACT. I talked about the freakiness of the Pernambuco psych-folk scene, the gender-bending outrageousness of glam rockers Secos e Molhados and the state-baiting sensuality of tropicália star Gal Costa,... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4169 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4172 Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:26:00 GMT One of the most imaginative bands of our time have decided to call it a day. With a wealth of songs at their disposal which showcase the band at their peak, by picking one track from each of their 15 albums through the years we aim to arrive at their... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4172 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4161 Sun, 18 Sep 2011 19:30:00 GMT Jonathan Richman is one of those artists so venerated by his nutball fans that it can be hard to take his music on its own merits. Best known for the proto-punk, Velvets-indebted 'Roadrunner', and his cameo appearances as a summarising troubadour in There's Something About Mary, most of Richman's career... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4161 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4075 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:04:00 GMT Here's one for all you 'heads', as they used to say. Parallel World is a very, very trippy record by 70s Japanese group Far East Family Band. Produced by Krautrock legend and one-time Tangerine Dream member Klaus Schulze, and recorded at Manor Studios in the UK, it's a full-on psychedelic... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4075 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4072 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:00:00 GMT There's a lot of criticism being aimed at East Oakland rapper Kreayshawn right now: she's a fake; she's a hipster-hopper, a dilettante; her lyrics are misogynist; she uses black people like props in her videos, a kind of legitimising visual reference; she's piggy-backing on the success of established, authentic black... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4072 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4030 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:42:00 GMT At the record company party/ On their hands - a dead star/ The sycophantic slags all say/ "I knew him first, and I knew him well" I can't be the only one to find the lyrics to The Smiths' 'Paint a Vulgar Picture' echoing 'round my head over the last week,... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4030 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3962 Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:25:00 GMT It's a funny old thing, the Mercury Prize. It's never been cool; in fact, it definitively blew any chances of being cool in 1994, when it passed over the likes of Blur, Pulp and Elastica to give the gong to house-pop sax-brandishers M People. However, as that little anecdote demonstrates,... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3962 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3919 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:42:00 GMT More unjustly overlooked cult British movies from the 1970s (and one from the 1940s). Deep End (1970) Requiem for a Village (1975) will be re-released in dual format edition (Blu-ray and DVD) on the Flipside label on July 18. Went the Day Well? (1942) is released on DVD/Blu-ray by Optimum... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3919 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3881 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:53:00 GMT Nic Roeg's chilling 1973 drama arrives on Blu-Ray for the first time this week. We assess whether it's worth around 20 of your hard-earned pounds. When their young daughter is drowned, John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) return to Veniceto to help get over the tragedy. There, they... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3881 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3899 Mon, 04 Jul 2011 03:52:00 GMT Alas, poor Brother, we knew them well. In fact, it looks like we saw them coming, had their number and quickly gave them the brush off. At least the recent change of moniker to Viva Brother (due to a legal dispute with an Australian Celtic band of the same name)... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3899 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3890 Wed, 29 Jun 2011 07:03:00 GMT Just a couple of weeks ago on Soundblab we were singing the praises of weirdy Italian music show Stryx and reflecting on how YouTube and rest means you can discover, sometimes inadvertently, whole musical wonderlands you never knew existed. Now our world is reverberating to the sounds of psychedelic, sun-stroked... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3890 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3876 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:39:00 GMT Another quick round up of superb recent releases from one of the best reissue labels in the world - Ace. 1. COME TOGETHER: BLACK AMERICA SINGS LENNON & McCARTNEY - VARIOUS ARTISTS Ace's excellent follow up to their How Many Roads - Black America Sings Bob Dylan shows how vital African American... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3876 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3862 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:34:00 GMT One of the wonderful things about YouTube and this whole ker-razy digital wonderverse we live in is the way previously obscure pop artefacts, buried beneath the teetering edifice of Michael Jackson videos and decomposing girl bands which form the top layer of our cultural crust, are allowed to flourish online,... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3862 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3849 Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:26:00 GMT "Kaiser Chiefs Revolutionise the Music Industry," yells the cover of this week's NME. If you're not clear on what's going here, or how a band best know for going "WOOOOOH!" on every other song have achieved a monumental shake-up on a scale the combined might of Napster, Steve Jobs and... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3849