All My Love In Half Light.

Lady Lazarus, aka Melissa Sweat, talks about her fascination with composition and the healing that music has given her.

“I admired a good many solo artists like Cat Power, Smog, and Mount Eerie, who went under these poetic pseudonyms or project names. It conveys that the music is far bigger than just the individual.”

In Cold Blood.

Morgan Kibby, M83 collaborator, is the force behind White Sea. She talks about what it was like to write, record and produce her own album.

“If I hadn’t learned how to use ProTools my music would ultimately have been shaped by another producer instead of myself. I make beats, layer vocals, play with synth sounds and so my music is very much defined by my ability and flexibility with technology.”

[rating=4]
Released May 23, 2014
This exciting collaboration between Röyksopp & Robyn features five songs from very diverse spheres of electronic dance music.

“The songs on Do It Again have no agenda other than to be the most satisfyingly, forward-thinking songs they could possibly create together.”

[rating=4]
Released May 12, 2014
Unrepentant Geraldines sees Tori Amos return to the realm of pop. It is a rich mix of songs that are about being true to yourself, wherever that may take you.

“The musical palette she plays with is also as various as her subjects. From Americana, electronic music and her signature stripped piano-and-voice aesthetic, the record trips on many musical styles and represents her as an artist today, as well as her canon of work”

[rating=4]
Released April 28, 2014
The first solo record from the exceptional Brody Dalle, Diploid Love, is a marvel as well as a creative jump. Highly recommended.

“On lead single and album highpoint ‘Meet The Foetus/Oh The Joy’, Brody brings in Garbage’s frontwoman Shirley Manson. The two singers go full force and it is unquestionably one of the most electrifyingly ecstatic pieces of music Dalle has ever written.”

[rating=4]
Released May 6, 2014
Previously only released as 10″ vinyl single, the powerful Girls Talk from Garbage, with vocals from Brody Dalle, is now available to all. Brilliant.

“What makes the song particularly powerful is the vocal feature of fellow female rock figure Brody Dalle. Side by side, the two singers rail against the naysayers in life and Dalle brings her goosebump-inducing roar.”

[rating=3]
Cert: 15 • UK: 85 min • Lionsgate Films • April 18, 2014

Following Ivan Locke’s journey on the M6 from Birmingham to London, Locke is an intense film about one man’s life unravelling.

“Tom Hardy gives an absorbing and natural performance. Looking boyishly handsome and bearded, his expressive face and eyes are the agents of the film; exposing his moments of distress, uncertainty and loss of control.”

[rating=5]
Released April 28, 2014
Rich and passionate lyrics are combined with forward-thinking, intelligent production in the exceptional Capsule EP by Velour Modular.

“There is an arresting quality in the way Guilhem and Hektagon have brought their two backgrounds together, fusing them cohesively. Capsule is the first and exciting glimpse of what Annabelle can imagine and execute musically.”

Behind The Velvet Curtain

Velour Modular is about to release its first EP, the retro-futuristic Capsule. Andrew Darley takes a peek behind the velvet curtain to speak with its mastermind Annabelle Guilhem.

“I tried to write about The Droste Effect between human beings and the rest of the “universe” … we have a whole lot of worlds within us. That’s what interests me.”

Steel & Oil

Fredrik Kinbom’s second album Oil is expressive and cinematic. Andrew Darley talks to him about his creative process and how a drunken encounter on a bus in Brighton brought him to the instrument that has shaped his music since.

“I find it much more expressive than a normal guitar. The fact that there are no frets, its sensitivity to touch, turns it into it a more direct expressive instrument … like the human voice.”