Author: Admin
It’s week 2 of the search for our writers’ Top 10 UK americana albums, and Jonathan Hincks will doubt add to the debate with his choice, as follows:With the hands of the Doomsday Clock edging inexorably closer to midnight—85 seconds and counting last time I checked—some AUK readers may well be stocking their nuclear bunkers and curating post-apocalyptic playlists whilst whistling Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Taking a lead from Donald Fagen, this writer’s provisions will certainly include lots of beer. After all, “The keyword is survival on the new frontier”. So, when AUK’s Features Editor, Fred…
Originally publihsed in Uncut Take 193 (June 2013 issue)… ______________________ Some 80 years after Bob Dalton met his bloody end during a shoot-out in smalltown Kansas, a book is being passed around a $60-a-month apartment in Echo Park, the low-rent Los Angeles locale where Glenn Frey, Jackson Browne and JD Souther live, write, drink, smoke and plot their futures. The Album Of Gunfighters by J Marvin Hunter and Hoan H Rose contains photographs and brief biographies of the outlaws, bandits and bounty hunters of the Old West. Among the usual suspects – Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Wesley Hardin…
Originally published in Uncut Take 222 (November 2015 issue)… “I really was terrible in the beginning,” laughs Linda Ronstadt. “I had no idea what I was doing. It wasn’t until about 1980 that I really started to learn how to sing.” While the millions of fans who repeatedly sent her ’70s work to the top of the American charts would likely disagree with her humble assessment, Ronstadt’s words are testament to her eagerness to try new things. Over her long career, the Arizona-born singer has tackled a variety of styles, from majestic country-rock songs written by James Taylor, Jackson Browne…
Legendary DJ Carl Cox has long cited ‘The Phantom’ by Renegade Soundwave as one of his all time favourite tracks. He first heard it at a rave in Biggin Hill, played by DJ Frankie Valentine, and immediately had to seek it out. “This record blew my mind,” Carl recalls. “It was like indie meets rock techno punk. What I love about it is that when those guys made that record, they didn’t give a fuck. Even today, there’s nothing that sounds like it at all.” Carl has played the original, first released in 1989, in Ibiza numerous times over the…
“Nature has always been a part of music and music is the most powerful tool we have in connecting people around a common idea. And that idea is that climate justice is our future.”Cool Me Downis out worldwide today to coincide with the beginning of New York Climate Week. The single will be supported by a speaking and playback session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York as part of the UN General Assembly, billboards in Times Square, Spotify on-platform promotion, and further events and activations.Cool Me Downis released and supported by Sounds Right, a groundbreaking global initiative that…
Steven Braines on why balanced lineups start years before the poster, and why “fewer women DJs” doesn’t hold up. Debates about representation in electronic music tend to get heated fast. Comment threads and panel soundbites distort arguments that deserve more space, whether that’s about lineup balance, studio access, mentorship or safety. With that in mind, Attack is starting a four-part series that gives people working on these issues the room to discuss the situation in greater depth. At the heart of the series is a simple question: can we close the gender gap? The questions remain the same for each…
1Stray Bullet(The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, 2015)From 1980, here’s Bruce at his most plaintive, carried by rippling piano and soprano saxophone, and opening in a similar mood to The River’s title track: “In the tall grass we held hands/Down by the river we made plans…” before twisting away from small town New Jersey disappointments towards something considerably more dramatic. 2Restless Nights(Tracks, 1998)There are many glorious moments in this outtake from The River sessions in 1980, but in the Bruce catalogue it’s one of the finest examples of Steve Van Zandt’s sublime approach to backing vocals. To see how…
Athens-born and London-based electronic artist Leena Punks is fusing punk attitude, UK rave energy and euphoric electronic production across a rapidly expanding international career, with her latest release seeing her officially remix Bodyrox ft. Luciana’s iconic 2000s track ‘Yeah Yeah’. After spending recent years establishing herself as a distinctive presence within electronic music, Leena Punks has built an enduring catalogue that combines melodic euphoria, emotional breakdowns, powerful drops and the raw energy of UK rave culture. From her early experiences discovering electronic music through MTV, radio and international DJs in Athens, to performing at major festivals and clubs around the…
Stephen Eyre is singer and guitarist with South Oxfordshire band Only The Brave. Our Graeme Tait reviewed their debut EP and described them as a band with a bright future in his February EP roundup. Stephen also proves to be an accomplished writer of short stories, as you will see below. You can try one of his songs at the end of the story.On the roadby Stephen EyreI looked at the case for a long time before I opened it. Checked it visually against my memory, daring it to be different or changed. I knew the dust was new. And…
Jack Barksdale. Photo credit: Jamie HarmonIt’s September already, and with it the first signs of Autumn’s “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, inviting us to bid a fond farewell to another year of outdoor festivals culminating in last weekend’s ‘Long Road’at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire. Did you know that the word September comes from the Latin septem, which means seven, as it was originally the seventh month of the year in the oldest known Roman calendar, with March being the first month of the year? I’m not sure whether that would have made the summers longer or shorter, though; with…
So, frontman Finn Keogh – whose face will surely be plastered onto bedroom walls, while his words are inked onto skin – delivers towering vocal performances, counter-balanced by his lyrical vulnerability (’I’m such a loser/I’m so alone,’ he emotes on Loser). And the band show a mastery of dynamics, mustering real power on anthems Be Happy and Thorn, yet able to drop the pace – if never the intensity – on ballads such as Bird On The Wire. The songs are outstanding, with the happy knack of seeming just too short, meaning this album will leave you wanting or –…
Semi-retired Iron Maiden drummer has recalled the moment he met Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne, and the late singer’s claim that he once saved McBrain’s life.Talking exclusively to Metal Hammer, the drummer, 74, says that he first met the Prince Of Darkness on a boat crossing the English Channel. He doesn’t remember much of what happened next, but the next time he and Osbourne came face-to-face, Osbourne alleged that he saved McBrain’s life by stopping him from falling into the sea that day.“I thought there was no way Ozzy would remember meeting me for the first time,” McBrain says. “He came…