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SoundsXP Presents

Pictures from some recent gigs we've hosted:

29 March 2013 - Brixton, London

Viv Albertine, VuVuVultures, Left Leg, Mickey Gloss, Big Wave, No Cars, Arthur Gunn, Simon Love (Pictures)

8 March 2013 - Lexington, London

R.Ring, Golden Grrrls, Slushy Guts and Equinox (Pictures)

On Our iPod

Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (album)

Antony Harding - Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear (album)

Black Angels - Indigo Meadow (album)

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (album)

Still Corners - Strange Pleasures (album)

Savages - Silence Yourself (album)

Mikal Cronin - MC II (album)

Can’s Ege Bamyasi played by Stephen Malkmus and Friends(album)

Victoria and Jacob - Festival 7"

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (album)

Sauna Youth - False Jesii Part II 7”

Lightning Bolt - Oblivion Hunter

Robyn Hitchcock - There Goes The Ice (2x 12")

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

Life Coach
Alphawaves Thrill Jockey

Article written by Michael H - Mar 3, 2013

Alphawaves by Life Coach is every bit as good as its cover suggests, a bursting explosion of colourful psych rock.

After the cymbal washes and backwards guitar noodling of scene-setting opener ‘Sunrise’, the band launch into the excellent Neu! juggernaut title track. Over six and a half captivating minutes, the band explores and utilises all the conventions you would expect: an ever rolling hypnotic rhythm section cruising down an infinite highway, soaring guitar lines, well deployed keyboard plonks and droning synths, but uses them in a way that betrays a deep understanding not just of the mechanics of motorik but also its capacity for joyous transcendence; this is definitely not a case of “tonight Matthew, we’re going to be Harmonia!”

Perhaps, in a nutshell, that is what this album does best: the taking of well-worn clichés and left-field rock tropes and delivering them with complete conviction and an infectious sense of fun; I detected not a trace of irony or dilettantish wardrobe borrowing. Life Coach pick the best bits of prog, krautrock, psych, and, on the brilliant ‘Fireball’, sludge metal, and renders them in blinding clarity.

Links:
http://www.thrilljockey.com/thrill/Phil-Manley/
http://www.thrilljockey.com