Paul Parrish's debut is a bright, excellently produced LP filled with remarkable sunshine-dipped folk-pop songs along the lines of Donovan. Replete with flute, strings, and slight psychedelic effects, the album gets by on the strength of Parrish's songs, especially tracks like "English Sparrows," "Suzanne," and "Flowers in the Park." Each track is ripe with rainbow-colored imagery and the requisite amount of forest/meadow scenarios…
Bibio's Stephen Wilkinson had such a major breakthrough with Ambivalence Avenue that anticipation about whether or not he could maintain such a breakneck pace of innovation was palpable. Mind Bokeh - whose title was inspired by the photography term for the way a lens renders out-of-focus points of light - is true to its name and Wilkinson’s hyperactive creativity, but not in obvious ways. Though the title track dapples sparkling electronics over a luminous haze of distant nature samples, the rest of the album isn’t exactly blurry. In fact, its sounds are often surprisingly hard-edged and chilly, especially compared to Ambivalence Avenue’s summery vibe. Yet Wilkinson's meticulous way of layering these crisp, immediate sounds with half-heard atmospheres is fascinating (especially under headphones), suggesting the intertwining of the present with dreams and memories, and the external world with the internal one…
Darker, heavier and even more adventurous than its predecessor, Dividing Lines reveals a band with a lot on their collective mind, while also boasting some of the most wildly inventive and melodically potent material they have ever recorded.
Dividing Lines is an album of shadows and light, of despair and hope; the human experience, rendered in dazzling, widescreen colours and performed with all the intensity and passion that has typified Threshold’s more than three decades of active service. The UK’s kings of prog metal are back, and ready to conquer the world all over again.
Formed in leafy Surrey in the late '80s, Threshold truly blossomed in the following decade, and swiftly established themselves as the UK’s chief progressive metal standard bearers…
Diamond in the Mind: Live 2011, was filmed at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England on December 16, and features a set list that's heavy on the classics, yet respectful of the band's well-received, Mick Ronson-produced All You Need Is Now. A winning blend of style and substance, it's remarkable how well Duran Duran have aged since their '80s heyday. The band tears through ancient (by pop culture standards) radio staples such as "The Reflex" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" with the same enthusiasm that they afford more recent offerings like "Girl Panic" and "Before the Rain," teasing the audience with a rowdy mash-up of 1984's "Wild Boys" and Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" before sealing the deal with a seven-and-a-half-minute version of "Rio."