Album Reviews from the KLOF Mag team and recommendations from KLOF Mag’s Editor.
Albums
by KLOF
Yes, The Vaselines are back after a long hiatus…some of you might feel the urge to run behind the sofa like you did when you were ten after watching Dr. Who when the Daleks ambled along on trolley wheels shouting “EXTERMINATE!” (children back then didn’t need special effects to scare the shit out of them). But hold on…don’t run yet! Apart from the fact that it seems to be the …
“Before, I was pretty lost. Really unhappy. For years. A lot of times I didn’t want to leave my apartment because I felt too self-conscious”, Matt Bauer once confessed. This may, in part, explain why this Brooklyn-based banjo player sings the way he does, in a gruff whisper that is, more often than not, softer than that of his female vocal contributor Dana Falconberry. It’s a tone so hushed that …
Soft Landing are a Brooklyn-based three-piece comprised of Beirut’s Paul Collins and Perrin Cloutier; together with pal Mike Lawless. Forming during a touring hiatus from Zach Condon’s collective, they played together day and night, perfecting these Brazilian born tracks that were later recorded with producer and Icy Demons frontman Griffin Rodriguez; in Chicago this January.
by KLOF
The Low Anthem put on a performance last night in Belfast that immediately won the crowd over. They are the type of band that will always give a consistently good performance. They get the balance right: they play the hits and they play them well. Their timing, delivery and stage presence is second to none.
by KLOF
My first night at Open House Festival was a real treat. I opted for the main Festival Marquee for the night and was saturated in sound from the quiet revolution. Kicking off with Nathaniel Rateliff, followed by The Low Anthem and Iron and Wine.
The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green provided the quaintest, cosiest, homeliest of performances from David Dondero on Saturday night. With a cluster of people gathered around half a dozen candle-lit tables it was perhaps even for Dondero himself, so used as he is to playing bars and small grimy venues, something of a quintessentially English change; this little rustic cafe complete with terrace, fairy lights and the odd few punters …
by KLOF
I first came across Matt Bauer in 2006 when he released an e.p. called Wasps and White Roses. It featured a neo-traditional version of Sea Lion Woman a traditional American folk song which hooked me. It led me on a bit of a musical journey which led to many other great artists including Alela Diane, Marie Sioux and Sam Amidon. I’ve been following and playing his music on Frukie since.
These three girls may appear the female counterpart to Robin Pecknold and Co. with their Appalachian revivalist vocals and hauntingly authentic folk, but there is something much stronger behind their whisperings. Mountain Man is comprised of Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath who, having met at Bennington College, Vermont, began a transformation into the sound that they describe as “a creature growing from [their] mouths”. Upon hearing Molly playing what was later to become “Dog …
Canadian three-piece Plants and Animals indeed prove themselves to be chameleons of sorts in their ability to cross genres with little to no flicker of discomfort or hesitation. Melding post-punk, psychedelia, folk, and classic 70s rock; their compositions are as adaptable in style as the chameleon to his surroundings – and are commanded with a complete sense of authenticity. While their live shows are hailed across the small board of almost cult-status followers with …
by KLOF
David Dondero is a modern-day troubadour, a minstrel, a bard, a rolling stone, a traveling wilbury — he gets around, and wherever he goes, he makes music. He’s been getting around to odd parts of America, making music — of a primarily transient, narrative, and acoustic variety, in the tradition of great American troubadours of decades past — since the early ’90s. Originally he did it with a band called …