Browsing Tag

Pop Noir

Until the End of the World gave pop a noir twist in their latest single, Easy Come, Easy Go

Posted on 21 January 2022

For their latest single, Easy Come, Easy Go, the lockdown-born outfit, Until the End of the World, gave pop a noir twist. With the 90s-style pop harmonies that will throw you right back to the days when Say You’ll Be There was dominating the airwaves while simultaneously captivating you with the same haunting mystique as Mazzy Star, Easy Come, Easy Go couldn’t be more beguiling.

Until the End of the World consists of the Nashville-based singer-songwriter Meg Olden and the English ex-pat, Ian Webber; their sound is equally as international as their formation. There are obvious hints of Americana in the deserty guitar tones, with nods to the likes of the English singer-songwriter Richard Hawley in the melodies. It isn’t every day that you stumble across an artist as authentic as this. Until the End of the World definitely isn’t an outfit to underestimate.

Easy Come, Easy Go is due for official release on February 21st; check it out for yourselves via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Acme Corporation present their sublime musical take on T. S. Eliot’s He Do the Police in Different Voices.

Posted on 31 August 2021
He Do the Police in Different Voices by Stephen Nunns

‘He Do the Police in Different Voices’ is the stellar album-musical adapted from T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land by composer, theatre director and co-founder of the Acme Corporation, Stephen Nunns.

For those previously unacquainted with Eliot’s iconic ground-breaking work, He Do the Police in Different voices explores T. S. Eliot’s rocky relationship with his wife, Vivian.

The jazzy noir pop single, A Handful of Dust, brings Eliot’s fiery account of frustrated passion to life with the finesse that you’d expect from an accolade-decorated Broadway director. O’Malley Steuerman’s sultry vocal timbre holds no prisoner while resonating through perfect pitch over the instrumental arrangement where synths, electric sitar, and lap steel notes bring a gritty atmosphere synonymous with the beat generation. Ironically, Nunns emanated the air that Eliot was always considered too grandiose for.

He Do the Police in Different Voices is now available to stream and purchase via Bandcamp.

For more info, visit The Acme Corporation website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nadine Shah brought her broodingly veracious post-punk-tinged soul to the Barbican in a one-off performance of her seminal album, Kitchen Sink.

Posted on 19 July 2021

In our depressively dystopic times where nothing seems to hit the same, Nadine Shah made sure she was the exception from the ennui; from the moment she walked on stage to the tune of synthesised jazzy discord, the atmosphere became just as electric – despite the social anxiety that mostly muted the audience aside from rapturous applause.

In her one-off performance at the Barbican in London on July 18th, she played her jazzy post-punk record, Kitchen Sink, in its entirety before playing what she claimed to be (they are) her ‘hits’. The critical acclaim she received following the release of her album in June 2020 had little impact on her infectious humility that radiates from her unfiltered stage presence.

As a proud owner of all of her records, I still somehow managed to underestimate the immensity of her vocal talent. There are few things in life more visceral than hearing her resounding, Jazzy vocal timbre and Pete Wareham’s demonic sax solos complemented by the acoustics in the Barbican.

Within the male-dominated realms of post-punk, Shah’s misogyny-challenging latest album, as with all of her music, comes with a sense of vindication that feels like a nuanced extension of the Riot Grrrl era. If anyone can kick ass with class, it’s Nadine Shah.

The deliciously rich brooding tones in her fourth studio album are a far cry from the abrasiveness of most artists striving to inspire through their lyricism, and they are all the more efficacious for it.

Grab yourself a copy of Kitchen Sink via Nadine Shah’s website.

Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

Review by Amelia Vandergast