Harvest of Highlights

  • Esther Rose – How Many Times

    Esther Rose proves on this stunner of an album that design classics never age if they are presented with sincerity and conviction. By that I mean, Esther’s sound is wholly classic country in its tone, it has acoustic guitar alongside tasteful electric and steel guitar textures, rolling fiddle, easy swinging drum strokes and is topped… Read more

  • Chelsea Carmichael – The River Doesn’t Like Strangers

    Chelsea Carmichael is a saxophonist, composer and arranger who released this, her solo debut, in 2021 and added more lush sparkle onto a music style that has been on fire for me in recent years. My journey into Jazz appreciation came at a late stage, at least compared to other genres that I remain heavily… Read more

  • The Surfing Magazines – Badgers Of Wymeswold

    I came to the Surfing Magazines in 2017 when they put out a brilliant, grungy eponymous debut album. It took me a little time that year to realize they were actually more than half a combination of one of my favorite bands of the decade. It took a YouTube video for me to click, the… Read more

  • Gloria – Sabbat Matters

    French psychedelic pop finery from a group who first caught my attention with their 2016 debut album ‘In Excelsis Stereo’. Five years on, all that I had heard in the intervening period that these were still a going concern was a couple of, admittedly superb, EPs amid reports in the press that there had been… Read more

  • May 2022 Playlist

    I have been working as a music journalist for nearly twenty years now and in all that time have never seriously tried to make it the main focus of my occupation. Most of the time my interest in music discovery and collecting are my primary driving forces, wanting to write about it is a by-product,… Read more

  • April 2022 Playlist

    One of the many wonderful things about record collecting, in contrast to say collecting art or decorative homeware, is that vinyl records were the ultimate mass-produced product, especially in their 60s, 70s heyday. There are millions of these things still sitting in people’s cupboards, hidden in their lofts, tucked away under some shelves in sheds… Read more