Mint Julep - Stray Fantasies

Wife and husband duo, Mint Julep, release new album Stray Fantasies on 31st January from Western Vinyl

Mint Julep are Hollie and Keith Kenniff, a partnership born out of a deep love for synthesisers and electro pop, and this has been curated towards the album Stray Fantasies, a twelve track album full of pop nuggets dripping with basslines, punching drums and electro heaven.

This can be expressed in the new single 'Escape' a disco tinged gem, and there are many exciting tracks on the album to discover from opening track 'Blinded' to 'Just For Today' a song that would not look out of place on Pet Shop Boys discography.




When listening to the album there is a buzz you get from enjoying it that you rarely feel with other electro-pop fare; the fizz of melodies coupled with Hollie's winning vocal delivery and the professional production makes this a winning combination in life and love.

All in all this will be a great album for fans of New Order and other electro pop trendsetters, and there are tracks ripe on her for remixing for the club scene as well as crossing over to indie darling-dom as the wave of shoegazing is here also.

Stray Fantasies is out on 31st January from Western Vinyl

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Margaret Glaspy Returns

Singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy returns with a new album Devotion out on 27th March from ATO Records.

Following on from the release of her acclaimed debut in 2016 Emotions and Math and her EP Born Yesterday, and a three year trip on the road Glaspy is following a new direction on this new release.

She has released lead single 'Killing What Keeps Us Alive' which offers a new sound with digitised vocals and a bare electronic sound in contrast to the rich electric guitar swagger on her debut.

The new single which also has an excellent promo directed by Alex Chaloff which shows how colour can come to the fore if you look hard enough, and is as much about gestation and patience over the be here immediately mindset.

The album which was co-produced by Tyler Chester in Los Angeles features 12 love songs, of which Glaspy states, 'It's about letting love in even when you don't know what will happen when you do'

If the single/video is anything to go by, then listeners and fans both old and new are in for a pleasant surprise - gone is the angry guitar sound a la Glaspy's peer Anna Burch (herself returning with new material this year) and instead a more melodic and emotive soundscape - an artist willing to challenge herself in terms of production, subject matter and material.

Margaret Glaspy will be on tour in the UK for some selected shows:

27th March - Mono, Glasgow

28th March - Institute, Manchester

29th March - Fleece, Bristol

31st March - Lafayette, London

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

En Attendant Ana 'Juillet'

Second album by Parisian quintet released by Trouble in Mind on 24th January

En Attendant Ana is a five-piece from Paris, France who are quietly making waves and gathering further acclaim through muso circles, and the difficult second album shows a broadening of the ambition shown in the debut album Lost and Found from 2018.

Trouble in Mind are releasing the second album also, and it marks the a band going through transition after the addition of guitarist, Maxence Tomasso.  Recorded by Vincent Hivert and Alexis Fugain over the course of one week in isolation in rural France.

Songs on Juillet are ones of hope despite the melancholic tone with triumphant trumpets swelling amid the lyrics of accepting loss but towards a new found sense of self and indepence.

The songs may be about the end of something, yet the beginning of another era - these songs are more focused than the first album, more hooks garner greater attention.

The band admit listening to more shoegazing, dream pop from across the spectrum including the likes of Cocteau Twins, Stereolab, Cate Le Bon and The Breeders; yet the band the album made this listener recall most fondly was the debut album of The Maccabees - a band of joyous infectiousness who could craft a winning tune and perhaps also Bombay Bicycle Club who themselves released a new album last week.

Both those bands share the same line of best fit with En Attendant Ana - a soulful band who want to sing about love, loss and dreams - playing with a lilt and float fitting for a summer sojourn.

This album is already one of the best listens of 2020 thus far, an album full of joy and unbridled ambition that could easily crossover from a niche of European to become an indie staple.

Juillet is released by Trouble In Mind on 24th January worldwide.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

East Village - Hotrod Hotel

Singles collection of great lost band released 24th January via Slumberland Records

East Village are one of the great lost and what could have been bands from Great Britain. Formed as Episode Four, in the mid-1980s in sleepy Princes Risborough, by brothers Martin and Paul Kelly playing distinctive garage music.  Later joined by Johnny Wood (guitar/vocals) in 1984 and Spencer Smith (drums) in 1985.

In 1987, they renamed themselves as East Village relocated to London recording two EPs for Jeff Barrett's Sub Aqua label.  That label collapsed, and they floated around borrowing money to make an album eventually landing with Jeff Barrett who was forming the new Heavenly Recordings label.  The band played shows with Manic Street Preachers and Saint Etienne in 1991, releasing a single before playing a sold out show in New Cross and abruptly splitting up on stage.

The band have gone on to become a cult amongst indie fans and prices of original pressings of recordings have skyrocketed in recent years.

Slumberland Records have compiled the recordings into a compilation we have here and it is released on vinyl and will be highly sought by alternative music fans intrigued by the history of the genre.



One of the best songs on the compilation is 'Violin' and it encompasses all that is good about the band - jangly guitars, yearning lyrics and tight composition - a sound of their own which is indebted to the late 1960s mod era of the Kinks and yet has the ear for the tune of The Byrds, as well as the extensive catalogue of Paul Weller.

The influence of this guitar music can be heard in  1990s bands - Ocean Colour Scene and Cast for example and up to the date with The Coral  with that wash of summery guitar; even the opening riff of Violin sounds like an opening to a song by Olden Yolk's 'Cotton and Cane'

Slumberland released another compilation late last year by another forgotten band, the American band The Springfields - an album also indebted to the 60s Laurel Canyon music writing; yet these two albums will go hand in hand together at a listening party.  Other key songs on the album are 'Cubans in the Bluefields' and 'Kathleen'.

While the reasons for the split of East Village are never fully known, and the band refuse requests for reformations constantly, at least finally they have granted permission for their legacy to not remain lost forever to the ether and instead can now be freely found upon request.

Hotrod Hotel is available on all formats from 24th January from Slumberland Records

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity

Ali & Ava

The fourth feature from writer-director Clio Barnard has finished principal photography.

Ali & Ava is the fourth feature by Clio Barnard (Dark River, The Selfish Giant, The Arbor) starring Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions) and Claire Rushbrook (Secret and Lies)

Produced by long-term partner Tracy O'Riordan of Moonspun Films; the film is financed by BBC Films, BFI and Screen Yorkshire, with Altitude handing world sales and UK/Irish distribution. Principal photography and shooting recently took place on location in Bradford.

AVA (Rushbrook) is a devoted mother and from an Irish-Catholic background in a predominantly white Bradford estate; a teaching assistant who fills her time looking after others and listening to country and folk music, masking an abusive marriage with her ex-husband.

ALI (Akhtar) is a charismatic son, brother, boss and landlord, a music fan and book lover he is devoted to his family and Asian community in Bradford. Still living in an estranged marriage, he hides the estrangement from wider family, and carries on the charade because he is still in love with her.

Both lonely for different reasons, Ava and Ali find each other and sparks fly despite fears about the coupling within their respective family and communities.

Producer O'Riordan says of the film;

'It was wonderful to be back in Bradford shooting Clio’s fourth feature; a love story, based on people we have met whilst making our previous films there. Inspired by Fassbinder’s ‘Fear Eats the Soul’, ALI & AVA is a film about fear and courage, loneliness and belonging, time and love’.

The critical acclaim given and the funding bodies behind this project bodes well for a film that follows in the footsteps of unlikely love pairing - think Harold and Maude, Last Tango in Halifax, Kelly + Victor - hopefully this will have as much to say about love in general as it does about the fraught racial tensions within the Yorkshire borders.

ALI & AVA will be released in cinemas later in 2020.

My thanks to Emfoundation for the review opportunity.

Deserta - Black Aura My Sun

Debut album from Deserta out from Felte Records on 17th January

Deserta, is a solo project by LA based musician, Matthew Doty (a former mainstay of Saxon Shore) who has taken his solo material and released this persona's debut album on Felte Records on 17th January.

For fans of electronica and the ever growing shoegazing trend, Deserta is a band that writes song full of character despite the solitude nature of its production.  It is soft and not overbearing as some electronica can become due to the emotional nature of the melodies being made.

Doty found his own voice and this was harnessed in collaboration with Josh Tillman (Father John Misty) in their group Saxon Shore; and yet this is Doty's first stab at a solo production.

The album Black Aura My Sun, is one of those hypnotic soundscape albums that is indebted to electronica, Johnny Marr guitar riffs from The Smiths and an air of quiet euphoria; this can be heard in opening track 'Save Me' which soars and then has quiet moments to then explode again.

Doty is playing with listener's expecations of rock and chill out music here; loud can be subtle and subtle can have a roar; for fans of Sigur Ros, Slowdive and everything in between - this is the sort of album to put on for those long train journeys or on the underground when you just want that bit of distortion and the unknown to reflect upon the day, to shut your eyes and drift.

Black Aura My Sun is out on 17th January from Felte Records.

My thanks to OneBeat PR for the review opportunity.

Alice Boman - 'Dream On'

Debut album from, Alice Boman, out from Play It Again Sam on 17th January

The long awaited debut album from Alice Boman is finally here, after a prolonged period of gestation and introspection, the songwriter emerges with a sumptuous piece of work that is at times hypnotic, sonic and intimate.

Boman came to prominence with home tinkering works that became the two EPs Skisser (2013) and EP II (2014) with her music captivating audiences as well as appearing in major American television series.

This album has the help that it has a brilliant lead off single in 'Don't Forget About Me' that is a wonderful gateway to the album as a whole; Boman's light lilt of singing and delivery married to Patrick Berger's melodic production, a collaboration that brings out the intimacy of Boman to the forefront and elevating the personal to the mainstream.

Other stand out tracks 'I Wish We Had More Time' and 'The More I Cry' again preach the tenderness of the songwriter in ballads, while 'Everybody Hurts' is a song that while morbid is much like her fellow countrywoman Robyn's 'Every Heartbeat' is ripe for a dance mix.  The real sense of pop freedom washes through the recordings.

Boman with her debut album establishes herself as an artist to watch, this is an album of emotional maturity despite the subject matter of heartbreak and disappointment, there is a real sense of defiance and mild-mannered confidence to the production as a whole.

Alice Boman is on tour in the UK in February:
23rd February - Brighton - The Latest Music Bar
24th February - Manchester - Gullivers
25th February - London - Union Chapel

Dream On is released by Play It Again Sam Recordings on 17th January

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Super Bowl Match ups 2020

The Conference Championships are this weekend and we are down to the Final Four of the 2019 NFL season, with two teams vying to punch a ticket to Miami, Florida for Super Bowl 54.

With the four teams left and three games to play to crown someone Super Bowl champions, here is a piece about the four possible match-ups we could see in Miami on 2nd February.

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San Francisco 49ers v Tennessee Titans

The No.1 seeds have home-field advantage this week and would be looking to go to their first Super Bowl since the Colin Kaepernick led Niners who lost to Joe Flacco's Ravens in New Orleans during the Blackout Super Bowl.

The 49ers have been one of the stories of the season, getting a full year of health from Jimmy Garoppolo, the brilliant sophomore year of tight end George Kittle, coupled with an elite run offense and the injection of Emmanuel Sanders in a trade makes the Kyle Shanahan offence one of the best in the league and most entertaining.

The Titans led by Pro Bowl Derrick Henry who is racking up big numbers in the post-season would provide a huge challenge to the vaulted 49ers run defence and from a tactical standpoint this would be the most fascinating match-up as the Titans would bet their house on Henry to have the answer against that defence.

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San Francisco 49ers v Kansas City Chiefs

Garoppolo would have his chance at a first Super Bowl of his own, having been on the roster of the New England Patriots; but he would be going up against the prodigal son of Patrick Mahomes. A player who reminded everyone of his greatness in the divisional round against Houston Texans when he led his team from a 24-0 deficit to a 51-31 triumph.

As they were losing points, Mahomes was seen to be marching up and down the touchline telling players they will get a chance to show what they can do following a series of crucial drops.  It paid off.  The narrative would be about Mahomes versus the Salah defence, and will the speed of Kansas out run the 49ers secondary which has leaked points on many an occasion this year.

The narrative of Shanahan v Reid, Jimmy G v Mahomes, Kittle v Kelce - the playmakers all over the field would make this a spell binding attraction at the end of an amazing year.

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Green Bay Packers v Tennessee Titans

Probably, the least anticipatory of the four possible match-ups but the Packers bring their sense of history and a former coach is on the name of the trophy they seek, Aaron Rodgers is gunning for his 2nd ring to beef up an already Canton bound career.

This has been the most unlike career of Rodgers who has seemingly done enough all year and shown again how capable he is when he has decent offensive weapons to play with. This is helped by Aaron Jones at running back who gets good first down yardage allowing Rodgers to find the elite level Devante Adams where possible.

The Titans have a few weapons to stretch the field in AJ Brown and a resurgent Cory Davis to stretch the field which would give more space for Henry to exploit.

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Green Bay Packers v Kansas City Chiefs

Quite possible the match up the television people would seek, two big time QBs going head to head. Aaron Rodgers v Patrick Mahomes. A shootout in Miami. Rookie Head coach and much maligned Matt Le Fleur to put detractors to bed with a ring, and the esteemed Andy Reid looking to win his first one at the end of a long career.

The playoffs have broken nicely for the Chiefs, due to the Ravens defeat and the Patriots not getting a bye the cards have fallen for the Arrowhead faithful and the resolve they showed to not panic at a 24-0 deficit to come back and show how potent an offence they have at their disposal, served as a reminder that this might be the best offense in football. Can the 49ers or Packers be able to match-up, the Niners possibly but the Packers do not have the defensive talent to stop this Chiefs side.

Follow me on Twitter @NextToTheAisle

Payback - RC Bridgestock

New series of books by RC Bridgestock kicks off with PAYBACK

The writing partnership of husband and wife team, Robert and Carol Bridgestock, who together have a combined 50 years of police experience. They have garnered attention for the DI Dylan series which has eight books in its series; Payback is a new release with a female Detective Inspector at the helm, her name is Charley Mann.

We meet Charley returning to Yorkshire after some years serving the Met Police in London; she is back in the countryside as the youngest DI and catching up with all her old friends who never left and look unchanged from years passed.

When a brutal murder needs investigating, Charley is in charge and the interest of her ex-boyfriend, Ray, a local journalist who is taking far too much interest in the case.

This is a great introduction to a new series by Bridgestock; a say a good introduction as this reader found the plotting a little bit by the numbers however, there is a great jumping off point for the series. Mann is a character who you like spending time with and the team she works with are full of distinctive characteristics which will be more drawn out the more the series goes on.

The writer utilise their experience working on the force to great effect, and having been raised and work in the Yorkshire Police force for so long, this reader could not ignore the cloud of guilt that hangs over that area ever since the Yorkshire Ripper - how that casts a long shadow over the region, how it could have been avoided, lives saved and the shame is a heavy coat worn by all people in that area.

This is transplanted into the character of Charley who having returned to Yorkshire, thinks of it as a failure to return home, yet she must realise this will be the making of her.  The writers cleverly pose societal problems to Mann - from the burden of paperwork, to the constraints of funding and resources.

For fans of procedural crime fiction this will be a welcome addition to the library, and as a first time reader of this writer one this reader will keep an eye out for more in the future.

Payback is out now from Dome Press.

My thanks to them for the review opportunity.

I Could Be You - Sheila Bugler

New book by Sheila Bugler, released by Canelo Press

Established author Sheila Bugler is back with a novel featuring the tenacious journalist, Dee Doran. Dee is a rebel at heart, nursing her wounds following a shaky divorce from her now ex-husband, she lives on the south coast not far from Eastbourne.

A few cottages down is her tenant, Katie, who lives with her young son Jake. They have a nice relationship, calling in on each other and while Katie is very young, Dee offers maternal support to both the mother and young boy - until Katie is killed in a hit and run accident and Jake disappears also.

As Dee helps police with their enquiries, her investigative juices start flowing again and she starts delving more into the back story of Katie and the deeper she goes into the back story the more secrets are revealed.

Bugler utilises a dual narrative scheme, with the story of both Dee's investigation going hand in hand with Katie's story from years before which takes place in South East London. Katie was brought up in a pub with her Dad, when she started to take a shine to a certain boy the story starts to unravel for her.

As a reader of Fiona Barton's The Child, this is similar territory with a combative female protagonist who gives as good as she gets and has her own demons to combat in terms of alcohol dependency. Bugler does really well to create these two different environments that the action takes place and in two different time periods - you can feel the wind buffeting off the south coast to her beach house and the grim of the London pub scene.

A book that takes a while to get started but once you dip your toe in the benefits pay off come the conclusion which is both satisfying and pleasing.

I Could Be You is out on 23rd January from Canelo and available on Kindle.