Nicholas Stevenson - Demo Review

Originally from Cambridge, but currently finding residence in rural Herefordshire, Nicholas Stevenson has cast aside his hazy past amongst the world of guitar rock in favour of a new, acoustic singer-songwriter approach; releasing his debut demo into an audience that couldn’t be more ready for the change.

The first track, “Tip Toes”, highlights just how worthwhile the shift has been. Lusciously smooth acoustic guitar lines and subtly reverberant piano stand as the only accompaniment to Nick’s melancholically moving melodic vocal performance. Taking the listener on a journey through hope, loves and losses, this Lo-Fi garageband recording carries with it a certain raw intensity songwriters three times as experienced would sell their guitars to gain.

Second Track, “New year Waterloo Station”, brings something entirely different to the table. Still here are the desperately emotive vocals, but here too are programmed drums and distorted guitars, giving an entirely new dynamic to Nick’s songwriting. Crashing influences of Death Cab for Cutie, Sonic Youth and Elliott Smith become increasingly evident as this track’s rich instrumentation parades itself upon the listener

This debut solo demo shows great promise from a real songwriting talent who, with full band on the cards, is certainly worth looking into.

http://www.myspace.com/sirnicholasstevenson

Rating:

David Gibb - A Footpath of Hope for a Town in Despair

I’ll be honest, I was never a big Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly fan. Same goes for Bright Eyes, really. Sure, I can understand why people went mad over I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, especially at a time when Death Cab for Cutie’s O.C endorsement meant that becoming a sensitive poster-boy was what the indie-community (or music community at large) wanted. But as far as millennial acoustic/folk pop’s concerned, the whole thing leaves me a bit cold. Read more

Royal Vendetta - Royal Vendetta EP (Demo)

Royal Vendetta fit vaguely comfortably into the established pub-rock aesthetic of recent years; like Kasabian and The Enemy before them the Leeds foursome bring immediate guitar bangers with everyman every-bloody-day lyrics to the table, even if vocalist Jonathan Banks occasionally approaches a northern Erasure-like yelp that threatens to effeminise the whole sound. Read more

The Chiara L’s - Eyelashes Demo

Life as a child in the 80’s wasn’t dissimilar to a Seasick Steve gig; you were surrounded by people older than you with terrible fashion sense, yet you knew know you were experiencing something a bit special - even if you couldn’t put your finger on it. As the generation 80’s grew up, they were force fed a musical omelette of Britpop, boy bands and, shudder, RnB. If you didn’t like what was on offer, it was time to raid daddy’s Smiths collection. Read more

Bayonets - Demo Review

After much hype following performances with I Was A Cub Scout, Grammatics, Frank Turner, Sonic Boom Six and Ghost of A Thousand to name a few, Herefordian Alternative-Emo-Rockers Bayonets have been into the studio and created a demo, showing tremendous potential and exiting the listener until a full release is finally announced. Read more

awordlike: attack - Ships Hung In The Sky

Whether the outside world is aware of it or not, “post rock” is suddenly a big thing. Ever since pioneers Mogwai disowned the term, the genre has expanded to incorporate a large range of styles, to the extent where the question of it being a genre anymore is a hotly debated one.

Read more

A Word Like. Attack: Ships Hung In The Sky

Whether the outside world is aware of it or not, “post rock” is suddenly a big thing. Ever since pioneers Mogwai disowned the term, the genre has expanded to incorporate a large range of styles, to the extent where the question of it being a genre anymore is a hotly debated one. Read more

One Day In Our Garden: Small Steps

Named after the Amon Tobin track, One Day In Our Garden are two brothers from London town who now occupy England’s rainy city, Manchester. After building up a sizable fanbase, a second E.P was inevitably scratching at the door. Read more

The Gravity Crisis: Spitfires

We don’t go where the flash type go/ we’re taking our chances and going out alone’ simply sums up the style of The Gravity Crisis. There’s no other band out there at the moment that sound similar to this Birmingham based four-piece. ‘Spitfires’ can’t be confined to just one genre, it’s like a mixture of indie and punk all thrown into a spicy mixing pot and spat back out. Read more

What Would Jesus Drive?: We Made This

In hindsight I probably could have made my mind up about What Would Jesus Drive? before reviewing this EP just by going onto their Myspace. In a real ‘fuck the world’ punk way they proudly claim ‘I don’t give a fuck about your band’ and proudly announce on one of their blogs that they have the IQ of a ten year old. Read more

Next Page »