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Monthly Playlists

December 2025 Playlist

This past month has delivered the sad news about the passing of Stone Roses and Primal Scream bass legend Mani. I have to admit, at a time when barely a week will go by without the passing of someone whose records I bought or who played on tracks I loved or simply was involved in music of the last 75 years in some way, the news that Mani is gone felt like a significant light had gone out. This has something to do with his personality, he was a life force and an uplifting presence wherever he roamed who possessed a highly unusual facility, for a non-singing bass player, in that he was always a focal point on stage. A front man without actually being the front man. He was the source of the funk in the Stone Roses when they changed the UK musical landscape with that legendary 1989 debut album. Throughout the 1990’s that self-titled classic was routinely voted or acclaimed as one of, if not ‘the’ on occasion, greatest albums of all time and whilst that status has levelled out in modern times, it remains a brilliant LP that was responsible for a lot of welcome changes. No longer were indie bands restricted to the outsider, floppy fringe sporting diffident introspection so atypical in a British scene where The Smiths were the benchmark; suddenly these acts could proudly wear their Beatles or Simon & Garfunkel influences out loud as well as ambitiously storm the pop charts and, as Mani proved whenever the Stone Roses took to the stage, they could dance.

The other thing that Mani helped revolutionize as the eighties were escorted from the stage was the return of the working class English youth to the top table. There would not have been an Oasis without The Stone Roses knocking down the doors first, stealing the mantle of credibility away from the up-hair poseurs and placing it firmly back in the hands of the natural mod hair renegades found in every pub and club up and down the country. Mani always came across like someone you knew, a lad who was well into his music that you might have bumped into giving it large smoking with his mates at the bus shelter. That was the exact same thing that Americans said in 1964 about The Beatles, that they saw them on the TV for the first time and John Lennon had a cynical, mocking look in his eye just like any number of their teenage tearaway friends. It saddens me that the pathway, based on a kind of monetary meritocracy, has been lost to the under privileged classes today. Back when The Stone Roses broke through, they could hit the mainstream and take advantage of the major label business model to realize a very lucrative career break. Nowadays, a few thousand streams means diddly-squat in financial terms compared to the earnings a few thousand record sales would have yielded. This is why the working class young bands breaking through feel like a dying breed, leading to a situation where too many of the newest acts are those fortunate enough to have inherited or family financial backing, who do not seem to have the same hunger because they can afford to help themselves to a self-appointed music career. Obviously, as I try to prove every week, there is still plenty of exciting new music being created for the right reasons, but I do hate how the cards are stacked these days compared to the past.

I never got to interview Mani and the closest I came to meeting him was at Glastonbury in 1994 when I was wandering around the site and looked up to see him right in front of me heading in the opposite direction. I gave a polite nod and he smiled back because he saw I had recognized him where maybe most had not. He was attending the festival as a punter and a music fan I guess, this being the period before The Stone Roses had released their second album, which actually landed at the end of 1994. In fact, at that time the band were acquiring a legendary status partially for the wrong reasons because it looked like they had disappeared those past four years with a shed load of major label money causing people to speculate if they had any real intention of ever releasing that second album. Obviously when they finally did it had no hope of living up to the expectations foisted upon it but, listened to away from the Britpop and grunge sounds of the period, ‘The Second Coming’ is clearly a record with a lot going for it. They then spent another 18 months slowly disintegrating as a functioning unit before calling it quits after a lukewarm Reading Festival appearance in 1996. By then Mani and Ian Brown were the only original members left but the positive gained from the split was its opening up the opportunity for Mani to join, and enjoy a brilliant long term stint in another legendary band, Primal Scream. He always remained loyal to his mates though and, interviewed by the NME after the Roses called it a day in 1996, he said “we wanna leave two classic LP’s untainted. We wouldn’t wanna do anything which would detract from them” before adding about his impending recruitment by Primal Scream, “I’ll have to get me leather keks and winkos out, won’t I?”

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 1st December 2025

Lucy Kitchen – The Boatman

The personal circumstances surrounding folk artist Lucy Kitchen’s creation of her forthcoming album were devastating. The loss of her husband to cancer three years ago hangs heavy over brand new ‘In The Low Light’ record, set for a February release and including this heartfelt ode to the departed; it is an impossibly moving song that beautifully evokes the heartache and dark desire to cross over to the other side and reunite with those passed on. But this is also a piece that, amidst the silent sorrow, also connects with the human spirit and survivors instinct to carry life on with dignity and hope. The structure of the music here sounds more like a spiritual folk hymn, especially with that gorgeous underlay of church organ sound rising at the songs end. We have all been knocked about by life’s unfair hand at some point, but while there are artists like Lucy Kitchen creating music to help us through the struggle, there will always be a ray of light breaking through eventually.

Tiwayo – I’ve Got To Travel Alone

There is plenty to like about this one, a killer tune with some seriously sharp edged playing and a rough, lived in soul voice taking it all out for delivery. There are, it seems, already a good number of reasons to anticipate 2026 with enthusiasm. This one is from Tiwayo’s latest album called ‘Outsider’ which is set for release early next year on the Record Kicks label. It is produced by the Black Pumas Adrian Quesada and promises to push this Paris born singer firmly into the spotlight. That the video presented here has a shot in it showing a picture of Prince on the wall is an accurate enough indicator of the kind of talent we are witnessing here. And I come back to that voice again, even some of the all time greats in soul, blues and gospel did not come as close as this to a sound so authentically aged and fresh, no wonder Tiwayo was once bestowed with the nickname “The Young Old”.

Amelia Coburn – Something Wild

Amelia sounds like she has really refined her individualistic gothic fairy tale niche with the release of this latest song. Not only does it carry forward the very promising sounds heard on her Bill Ryder-Jones produced 2024 debut album ‘Between The Moon And The Milkman’ but also, with such an earworm worthy chorus line, she is proving to be a tidy songwriter as well. Endorsements by the likes of Paul Weller will not have done her confidence any harm either, in fact she duets with him on a track from his latest ‘Find El Dorado’ record, but this one is all about Amelia’s own sound and vision. And it is a pretty sympathetic video as well, in which her search for the wildness inside is illustrated with some graphic destruction of civilised engagement. I mean, everyone has, at some point, just wanted to shove their fist into a garishly decorated cake and then smash up some ceramics haven’t they?

Fuzzy Lights – Greenteeth

Moving ever deeper into the quagmire of folk-horror and fuzz drenched freakout friendly sounds, we find Fuzzy Lights getting their ankles wet exploring the mysteries of ‘Fen Creatures’ on their latest psych fuelled album. They are a Cambridge based group of space cadets who have been building a rich back catalogue since 2008 and have, whilst tackling themes of folklore and humanities fractured relationship with the environment, nurtured a love of acid-folk textures into explorative, progressive even, music that does not respect boundaries of genre, tone or tempo. Fuzzy Lights tackle music as an expression and they intentionally deploy a razor sharp edge to their sound that can cause injury to those not paying attention; this is music that demands and rewards immersion.

Anna von Hausswolff (ft. Iggy Pop) – The Whole Woman

I have unashamedly steered us down a very heavy set gothic folk-noir avenue this week and may just have hit the motherlode with this stop on the detour. It is a track from Anna’s new album ‘Iconoclasts’ and as if her pure, caressing vocal were not a winning enough ingredient atop the sweeping cinematic grandeur of the song, when that bottomless Iggy croon joins in the game is well and truly up. It is the sixth album release from the acclaimed organist who has been plotting an increasingly eccentric and deliberate pathway through choppy prog waters for a number of years now, making music that is simultaneously foreboding and enchanting. This new collection though, is being tipped with good reason by many to be her best thus far.

The Melancholy Kings – Bitcoin Elegy

And so we bring things to a close with the jingle-jangle crash and bang of The Melancholy Kings, proudly nailing their vintage college-rock colours to the mast. Of all the song writing forms in the pop world, this is the one that still retains the look of a design classic; key scaling electric guitars, meaty drums, deep bass, intros, verses, choruses, a middle eight and then a mighty thud to end it on a high. Simple but still oh so effective. Just right too for a song bemoaning the state of personal relationships in the digital age. The bands first album in six years, ‘Her Favourite Disguise’, is out now on The Magic Door Record Label.

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Live Reviews

Tanita Tikaram – Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, 16th November 2025

It is a lush concert hall location that tonight presents the Southeast of England instalment of Tanita Tikaram’s tour in support of her new album ‘LIAR (Love Isn’t A Right).’ This is a theatre setting that combines the grandeur of a concert hall recital, wherein the sublime acoustics are especially delightful, yet with a capacity of 740 seats retains an ability to encourage some intimacy between audience and artist. Whilst the overall impression of the venue is one of traditional design and construction there is an enveloping modern sheen too which, rather aptly, is also something that can be said of Tanita Tikaram’s music in 2025. These days she is some 37 years advanced from the diffidently bopping folksy songwriter that really did storm the UK pop charts all those years ago. Today Tanita is a wonderfully matured individualistic songwriter and singer whose sound demands the kind of attention and presentation this type of venue invites.

Tonight’s concert is a masterclass in baroque chamber pop, a fine grain of distinctly English music that can be heard in the most acclaimed art pop ever made (think ‘Eleanor Rigby’) and is also a key element in the celebrated high water marks of the 20th century singer-songwriter boom (think Nick Drake). That Tanita is tuned in to her musical vital ingredients extends to some fine song choices by other artists placing her in the realms of a connoisseur. In fact, it is a song by Nick Drake’s mother Molly that supplies the new albums title track and a sufficiently weighty melancholy as to appear handwritten for her latest set of songs. That same motivation to put the music first extends to this evenings live performance during which the star attraction is happy to occasionally disappear as a quarter component in a four-piece ensemble. Her first encore number is an exquisite cover of John Martyn’s ‘May You Never’ during which Tanita hands a substantial portion of the lead vocal over to cellist Zosia Jagodzinska. She is also proud to highlight her longtime violinist Helen O’Hara on a poised duo rendition of oldie ‘Valentine Heart’ (a song which the writer confesses was written about romantic love before she had any personal experience of such a thing). She also gives compositional kudos to drummer Marc Pell on the new ‘Sweet Feather And The Storm’, describing it as being born out of a jam between herself and the percussion maestro.

For me, one major positive take away from tonight’s concert was that the vast majority of those in attendance wanted to hear the music from the new album as much as the oldies. In fact, a spontaneous cheer erupted when the singer announced that this latest album would be the main focus. I highlight this because I have long been of the opinion that Tanita’s work has developed and grown into something quite wonderful over the years. I would particularly emphasise that her most recent albums are her best, so the necessity she feels to include a lot of material from that 1988 debut ‘Ancient Heart’ feels a little less essential to me. A curious thing seemed to happen back then, we saw a whole crop of talented female folk leaning singers emerge and enjoy significant chart success; this included people like Tracy Chapman, Michelle Shocked and Eddi Reader’s Fairground Attraction who all had their biggest mainstream success that year, despite carrying on to enjoy lengthy careers making increasingly wonderful music. Tanita has arguably suffered the most from an association with one specific era, but quite why this should be the case for any of the above is hard to pinpoint. Maybe the giant musical sea changes that swept aside the 1980s, the arrivals of dance, grunge, Britpop and the like, caused an avalanche of fresh excitement relegating the class of ’88 to the margins? If so, we are fortunate today that Tanita Tikaram still found a pathway to nurturing her writing and evolving to the sweet spot we find her in today.

So, in Saffron Walden we are treated to primarily music from 1988’s ‘Ancient Heart’ album and 2025’s ‘LIAR’. That acoustic guitar strumming nearly-dancer of yore is still in there, pleasing the one person rising to their feet to groove along with ‘Good Tradition’ every bit as much as I was spellbound by the cold punch and empty ache of ‘Lover Don’t Come Around.’ Some of her youthful offerings have aged extremely well, ‘World Outside Your Window’ nowadays has the elegance of a folk-pop standard while ‘Twist In My Sobriety’, with a trembly faster tempo, remains a darkly enigmatic song of which the singer herself admits “I have no idea what it’s about, and I wrote it”. To my eyes and ears though, she appears far more at home when seated at the piano facing her bandmates, wearing an inviting expression to get lost in this music. It is met with interest too, as Tanita picks the beautiful piano melody on ‘This Perfect Friend,’ the strings and percussion first smoulder then erupt into a whirlwind of bittersweet elegance. Equally a cover of ‘Wild Is The Wind’ (also performed on the album), which she acknowledges is inspired by the Nina Simone version, is absolutely mesmerising. Tanita closes the night at the piano too, lifting ‘I See A Morning’ from ‘LIAR’ and re-contextualising it as a soulful, gospel adjacent hymn to the hope ushered in at the dawning of a new day. It brings an end to a thoroughly immersive evening of music and underlines the point that, even if Tanita Tikaram hit a commercial peak four decades back, this has not impeded her pathway to an artistic peak in the present day. I believe she has realised just that and if you have not done so already, urge you to rediscover her work.

Words Danny Neill  Photos Sophie Reichert

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 24th November 2025

Muireann Bradley – No Name Blues

Muireann has been bedazzling audiences both live and through our TV sets for the past couple of years thanks to her mastery of that early acoustic, ragtime infused, rhythm and blues style. Hers has been an act based on the authentic re-interpretation of this vintage folk material, breathing fresh life and lustre into songs that may have previously felt like the belongings of another age. With the youthful Bradley touch, they once again found a home in the modern day musical firmament but where would she take her act after establishing such firm roots in retro soil? Well, it looks like she might just be in for the long haul because, as heard on this new recording, Muireann has added songwriting in the style of her closest inspirations to her arsenal and it sounds pretty damn fine as well; the name of the release is the ‘Rose Dogs EP’ so go and dig it out.

The Hanging Stars – Sister Of The Sun

There are some classic echoes vibrating from the speakers with this track too, this time however it is the Beatle-esque harmonic guitar pop favoured by the likes of The Byrds, Teenage Fanclub (whose Gerry Love collaborates with the band on this very tune) or other such psych-flavoured sonic visionaries that we recall. It is all very well making these comparisons of course but they are of little value if the band playing does not live up to such top drawer likenesses. Fortunately, The Hanging Stars have learned from the best and have both the hooks, the imagination and the execution to turn out music that is easy to love and hard to shake off. They have been busy working on their sixth album which, on the evidence of this track, promises to build on the shimmering cosmic folk-rock of their previous releases, and it is due to appear in the first half of 2026

Sabine McCalla – Two Of Hearts

This sumptuous track is taken from Sabine’s brand new album ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ released on Gar Hole Records. Sabine has been quietly building a music career whilst her sister Leyla McCalla (who features on the new record supplying some guest vocals) has received the vast majority of the attention, especially for her sublime 2024 album ‘Sun Without The Heat’. However, just like Leyla, Sabine has a winning way with a lilting melody and an authentic Americana sound that fuses folk, gospel and soulful influences. The impressions burned into her writing by New Orleans is clear to hear also and there is an inviting element of performance and charm to her delivery, maybe something that comes naturally when you are offering the world songs that are this immediately enjoyable, singable and repeatable. There is something about this McCalla family that I really like.

Billy Bragg – Hundred Year Hunger

On the strongly recommended compilation retrospective album ‘The Roaring Forty (1983-2023)’ Billy Bragg’s career in protest music and personal songwriting is presented with forty killer tunes over a forty year period. It is a pretty damn fine statement of the mans body of work and humanitarian writing which might well have stood as a full stop if not for the fact that Billy is ploughing on, ever relevant, ever opinionated and compassionate, always articulate and worth listening to in a debate. This new song is proof positive of this, a piece that has been written under the shadow of the famine in Gaza that clearly puts across the key message of “existence is resistance”. In doing so Billy is focusing in on how hunger and displacement have been used as political weapons and cleverly places the tale in an historical context of Israeli policies and long running resilience against the abandonment of ancestral land. Billy Bragg is a musician who can not only do this, but also present it as a work of art that moves the soul as only the best compositions can.

Courtney Marie Andrews – Cons And Clowns

Courtney Marie Andrews has been a reliably consistent purveyor of yearning country music for a good fifteen years now. This heartfelt ode to outsiders has been issued as a leader track from a new album set to be released in January of next year. The record will be called ‘Valentine’ and has been co-produced by Jerry Bernhardt, who has worked with at least two other Fruit Tree Records favourites, namely Ron Gallo and Yola. Courtney has certainly been pouring a lot of herself into her music over the years, resulting in material that does not have even a hint of fakery to it, This singer is the real deal alright and with some of the sneak preview songs from albums due next year that Fresh Juice has featured this week and last, 2026 is already shaping up to be a year with great new music in plentiful supply.

The Tiger Lillies – Stupid Life

We delighted in the dark depths of a night of live Tiger Lillies entertainment at the start of this month (our live review is here https://fruit-tree-records.com/2025/11/12/tiger-lillies-wiltons-music-hall-london-1st-november-2025/) and this is a new song from the album they were launching that evening, ‘Serenade From The Sewer’. Performed in their trademark scorched cabaret style, this is one of a vast catalogue of Martyn Jacques songs that exaggerates the absurdities of life itself and societal routines with a refreshing air of futility and a finely tuned sense of theatrical colour. They may well penetrate the atmosphere like ancient spirits re-awakened but they are simultaneously wholly unique and exhale a certain timelessness. They also, in a far more practical sense, write some startlingly good, melodically bouncy and memorable songs.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 17th November 2025

The Wave Pictures – Alice

As ever the news of a forthcoming Wave Pictures album is gladly received here at Fruit Tree Records. This newly available song is teasing us ahead of a Bella Union album due for release in late February 2026 called ‘Gained / Lost’. It is a classic sounding rocker with that sixties garage energy that almost feels like the bands default setting at this point, shot with the melodious hooks and riffing that David Tattersall can effortlessly deliver in a heartbeat. The music world is surely a better place with a band like The Wave Pictures still putting out exciting new records.

Lael Neale – Some Bright Morning

And talking of sixties flavoured sounds, this new song recently released by Lael Neale is a very welcome burst of vintage pop loveliness shot through with a laid back Velvets like cool. It is full of retro thrills and hazy instrumentation, especially with that omnichord drone, the primitive simplicity of the drums and an occasional burst of backwards guitar soloing, but is also a grooving little banger of a song. As such, it is understandable why the decision was taken not to include it on this years ‘Altogether Stranger’ album, despite being recorded around the same time, but rather hold it back for this pumping stand alone single (another sixties music releasing trend). Check out her tour dates for she is playing live in Europe and the UK at the end of November then early December.

Anna Tivel – Animal Poem

Here is another songwriter on top of her game, this time more in the acoustic troubadour mode but equally injected with the qualities, standards and human touch that lights this style of music up bright. This is the title track from Anna’s latest album released on Fluff And Gravy Records and of the tune she says it is “a meditation on the stories we tell ourselves and each other”. This is her seventh studio LP in a catalogue that is gradually building to showcase Tivel as one of the leading expressionists on the folk, singer-songwriter scene today. Her tunes are just so welcoming in their tone and patterns but stand up to deep engagement thanks to their carefully crafted lyrics and ideas. Anna Tivel is one of the best around today with a guitar and a song.

The Lemonheads – In The Margin

Evan Dando might only return to his Lemonheads music vehicle when he feels like it but at least when they do return it is with songs and a committed approach that makes the wait worthwhile. This remains the rough, warm sound of grunge that took the genre into the charts over thirty years ago but in the hands of a dude proving it is still a style worth revisiting; especially in comparison to some of the reductive metallic tangents rock has taken over the same period, the sound of The Lemonheads retains some soul. The new album is called ‘Love Chant’ and is their first album of original songs since 2006. The grunge essence is undoubtedly enhanced by collaborative legends credited on the LP, such as J Mascis, Juliana Hatfield, Adam Green and Nick Saloman.

Fitzsimon & Brogan – Flowers At Her Door

Every bit as crunching and melodically tasty are this London based power-pop duo, who have released this single through French label Booster Music. Neil Fitzsimon and vocalist Bee Brogan were once a part of the band Pretty Blue Gun but have since gone into partnership with their composing and producing. This is a track that has one foot pounding a glam rock stomp and another wearing laced up DMs kicking out with new wave energy and attitude. It is no surprise therefore to learn that their latest album ‘This Wicked Pantomime’ features contributions from Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello’s Attractions) and Woody Woodmansey (David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars). If you like a bit of grit and thrust with your infectious rock/pop hooks then look no further.

The Wood – Cold Fire

This is one heck of an essential soulful sound, fused with gospel depth, emerging from what feels like a vibrant music scene in Liverpool these days. The Wood are Alex Evans and Steve Powell (who also runs Ark Recording Studios on the city) and the lead vocal well and truly taking you there on this number is performed by guest vocalist Brooke Combe. The song is from a newly issued EP of the same name released on Riverdream Records. Fast becoming highly rated for their stylish blending of soul, jazz and folk influences, this sounds like one of those EPs that, should it not break big like it deserves to, will be a sought after nugget for record (or in this case CD) crate diggers and collectors of the future.

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Live Reviews

Tiger Lillies – Wilton’s Music Hall, London 1st November 2025

Just as the extremities of freezing cold can feel like burning, so too when a musical act plummets the depths of death, drugs, doom and despair so thoroughly they uncover light, irony, absurdity and humour, albeit of the gallows variety. The Tiger Lillies delight in the underbellies of life, they dig a pathway to empathy for the downtrodden and tap into the shattered beauty of the broken. Playing songs from their new ‘Serenade From The Sewer’ album, alongside a smattering of older catalogue classics, the pictures they paint of London pavement dwellers are vividly brought to life. Singer Martyn wrote these latest songs whilst reflecting about the pre-yuppie city life he saw from his window after first moving to Soho in the 1980s. He says the drug dealers, prostitutes, addicts and gangsters recall “a happy time for me. But it was tragic for many of the people I knew and watched from my window.” And so it is that a song about suicide, complete with sonic imagery embellishments like a theremin volt of electrocution, ends tonight with audience laughter. At the songs close our narrator reflects on his age and the decision not to end it all by his own hand with the deadpan words, “I remembered I will die soon anyway.”

The Tiger Lillies have absolutely landed in the right space for the launch of their new LP, performing a long run of shows at East London’s oldest surviving Victorian music hall. With its exposed brickworks and timber galleries, this unique location is alive with ghosts of the past, its decadence evoking the spirit of the late 19th century era when the music hall and cabaret was enjoying its imperial boomtime. And much like the Tiger Lillies themselves, the place is reheating the flavour of an era long consigned to the history books. In fact, Wilton’s, named in 1859 after John Wilton took ownership of the site and transformed it into an entertainment venue, had spent the second half of the twentieth century in disrepair, coming close to demolition. And yet the turn of this century saw a restoration leading to revival and with their tombstone cabaret lurching forward onstage from the shadows, the Tiger Lillies presence feels like a perfect marriage of performer and situation. They take to the stage with this Saturday night audience hungry for musical stimuli presented with a unique theatricality, they are met head on by a band who appear to have absorbed every last drop of learned performance experience from the departed souls who stepped these boards in decades past.

They are a three-piece consisting of central leader and composer Martyn Jacques, these days a judicial presence in the eye of the storm, performing mostly perched on a stall with accordion or hunched over his upright piano kneading mournful serenades. His writing has a canorous classicism to it, something which spectacularly enhances the cabaret element of his band. Then there is Adrian Stout on double bass, theremin and musical saw (for me one of the saddest sounding of all hand tools). He is simultaneously dapper and as menacing as an apparition emerging your wardrobe. His playing is both a low-end back bone for the ensemble and a veritable buffet of spookily, textural frills and adornments. Adrian’s presence is authoritative, which is in stark contrast to drummer Budi Butenop, who is the living embodiment of the joke about people who hang around with musicians. His stage presence is that of a man who needs to prove himself and is suffering for his art, to the extent that he can look panic stricken by and increase in tempo and fearful of a lull. In reality his playing is a masterclass in rhythmic performance art, to the extent that towards the end of a superb crash bang wallop of a drum solo, a silently observing Martyn and Adrian are almost purring with looks of approval.

Even though this trio’s style is macabre and surreal, they impossibly manage to mine disparate influences such as opera and the outsider art of cutting edge of punk. This is not to say they are aggressive, but the chilling white face paint they all adorn does give them an unsettling presence. It is a shield that makes The Tiger Lillies rather impenetrable, so they are free to express themselves within their dark ballads, waltzes and shanties of morbidity and doom. The intensity of Jacques is offset by the menacing falsetto of his singing voice, which is a tricky mannerism to maintain but he pulls in his classical training as a countertenor to execute a pitch that can slice a crowd in two with its conviction. These are songs that delight in the grotesque, they swim in a sea of morbid alienation and irrationality. The effect on an audience of desperate narratives rising up from the stench of the sewers, delivered by a senior man imitating the exaggerated voice of a Victorian child, can raise your hairs just as it sends shivers.

In tandem with the nightmarish horrors is a counterbalance of comedy too. Drummer Budi is something of a court jester, especially with the variety of clownish expressions he pulls. Tonight, a mobile phone goes off in an unfortunately quieter moment and he does not miss a beat in reacting with a look of sudden bemusement. Then when standing in front of his kit with a washboard around his neck, the body language is hilariously exaggerated naughty-step misery. Adrian too is an expert in the art of smiling insincerity and when both he and Budi join in forced falsetto backing vocals, repeating the refrain “stupid,” it is like we have entered the surrealist realms of a Hammer Horror musical on ice. Of course, amongst the older tunes played tonight the band play arguably their most notorious song ‘Heroin.’ With its “if you want to win, take heroin” centre piece lyric, it is a grand example of both irony and pathos being rolled into a gloriously infectious musical singalong. Later however, seated at the piano, Martyn Joseph lays bare all the human empathy and yearning for light at the heart of his writing with ‘Birds Are Singing In Ukraine.’ This 2023 hymn to the beauty of nature, overwhelmed by destruction from invaders, shows unwavering defiance amidst devastation. It does not deny the horrors but clings to hope, in so doing revealing the one facet of the Tiger Lillies music that is mostly submerged but is key to their vitality and clout; a sensitive character guides this band with heart and soul. Martyn does not need to end the song with a four letter send off to Putin, but he does so because he has a feel for theatre. He can sense that the Tiger Lillies have played this room like the modern-day vaudeville master’s they undoubtedly are, small wonder this crowd tonight demanded two standing ovation encores.

Words: Danny Neill Pictures: Sophie Reichert

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 10th November 2025

Big Thief – Grandmother

Taken from the bands sixth studio album ‘Double Infinity’, the now three piece Big Thief are seen here with a recent live TV performance of one of the stand out tracks from the album. It is the first song in the bands catalogue to feature a co-writing credit for all three members, Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek and James Krivchenia. Although the lyric explores a theme of intergenerational emotion, directly addressing Lenker’s grandmother, I do like the way the “gonna turn it all into rock and roll” refrain points to a connection across the generations through music. Big Thief remain predictably brilliant on an album which serves to establish their prominence and position as one of the definitive and essential bands of our time.

Lisa O’Neill – The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right

Whilst it may not be a lead in to a new album any time soon, this latest EP release from Lisa O’Neill is a welcome return from one of the central voices in folk music today. And just as the folk music of yesteryear would sing out the hurt, toil and human endurance faced by ordinary working class people, so too does Lisa’s music reflect with needle-eye precision the turmoil and knock on effects of the political battles raging around us today. ‘The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right’ is a powerful hymn, a defiant anthem that rages against the capitalist regimes making up their own self-serving rule books in a stoically dignified, but no less enraged, manner. As emphasised in the traumatic video, laced with guest stars, the message feels like a line being drawn, the limits of where our cruelty to each other can go have been realised and now, maybe it is time for the pendulum to swing back the other way.

Vanity Mirror – White Butterfly

In a delightful amalgamation of the mid-sixties electric jangle of The Beatles and the irresistible primitivism of The Velvet Underground, Vanity Mirror conjure magic new sounds out of old recipes. Just let the shape of those verses take a hold and it is impossible not to summon thoughts of ‘Rubber Soul’ and the snaking melody of ‘Lady Godiva’s Operation’. The band are Brent Randall from Canada and Johnny Toomey from Los Angeles who used to play in a band called Electric Looking Glass but formed Vanity Mirror in order to develop a more lo-fi production with a songwriting style that references sixties style melodies. They have recently released their second album ‘Super Fluff Forever’.

Michelle David & The True Tones – Speak To Me

Well this is a banger indeed, a real super-spreader of a tune that takes up a long term residence inside your mind and simply refuses to recognise an eviction notice. This is what happens when you combine Motown production values, a strong song writing discipline and Northern Soul energy to a track, the sweet soul sounds of decades past still lives and breathes in 2025. The band themselves are a fusion of US and Dutch heritage who make music of a vintage soul and gospel persuasion that also manages to blend a gorgeous retro sound with a contemporary edge. This spiritual, open hearted floor filler has been released as a single this Autumn ahead of a brand new album called ‘Soul Woman’ set to arrive in February 2026.

Mood Bored – All The Time

This is a crunching indie guitar trio from the Netherlands who released this aching bittersweet gem from their EP ‘Too Much’, on Mattan Records, earlier this year. They represent a vibrant Dutch scene that includes names like Dutch Mustard and Tape Toy. ‘All The Time’ is especially notable for its grungy reverb and vocals that sing of burnout and existential pressure, asking “don’t you wanna break all the time?”. They already have some notable support slots under their belts, including Wolf Alice whose influence is apparent in the textures and pop inclinations, and their high energy performances have the desired attention grabbing effect.

Frankie Cosmos – Your Take On

Seen here in a punchy recent live clip, Frankie Cosmos perform a typically short and poetic track from their latest album ‘Different Talking’. They are an archetypal DIY indie band built around the music of Greta Kline who began the project in 2011, initially building a following through Bandcamp. They evolved into the larger ensemble featuring Alex Bailey, Katie Von Schleicher and Hugo Stanley and their music too evolved into a refined blend of bedroom pop and indie. Their latest was home recorded and self produced in upstate New York and refines the essence of Frankie Cosmos across 17 songs that rarely exceed the two minute mark. Greta’s presence has been felt across several other projects this year including ‘What Love Is’ by Soft Surface and a powerful version of ‘Hard Rain’ with the Kronos Quartet.

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Live Reviews

Scott Lavene – Cambridge Portland Arms 29th October 2025

Scott Lavene is a modern-day Essex likely lad, a unique music vessel and a stylish composite of Mod, Two-Tone ska boy with a hint of Where’s Wally. He is an individualistic UK voice who belongs somewhere in the Ray Davies, Steve Marriott, Billy Bragg, Ian & Baxter Dury lineage. Singing cartoon snapshots of his storied life, tonight the audience are let in on a bit of family history; it turns out Scott’s Granddad was a famous jazz trumpeter. I had picked up lyrics referencing this in his music before, there is the line about his Granddad saying “never trust a town that doesn’t have a jazz club” in the song ‘Disneyland In Dagenham’ for example, but tonight he imparts this as a fact. Why would it not be? Well, if you take all the colourful back story Scott puts into his songwriting, then some details might seem a tad far-fetched. If all true, this man has an incredible autobiography in him at some stage. Earlier, he told another story relating to the opening lyrics of ‘A Bus In July’, admitting that “I really did live with a Moroccan armed robber”, the story unfolding to the point where he was also playing tennis with the crack head lawyer from Finchley featured in the songs second line. And if you follow these random Lavene threads you might also detect a love of custard, which makes the lyric about first meeting his future wife on a bus with a carrier bag full of the sweet creamy dessert all the more believable. He is potentially the epitome of an artist unloading real life into his art with grit and raw honesty. I suspect the Scott Lavene we are presented with in concert is not a fictitious creation, more likely an exaggerated version of the real self, for the man has such an acute ear for the absurd minutiae of daily life that his sense of what can pass as entertainment is probably pretty fine tuned too. That said, I cannot find any information about the jazz playing grandfather online, so who knows? Does it matter anyway? Scott Lavene is a magnetic, charismatic performer arriving off the A13, wheel spinning a vintage Volvo estate car loaded with a cassette deck full of great songs.

To hold on to the jazz connection, rightly or wrongly, for a moment, there is a subtle musicality at play here. Scott fronts it out as a plain speaker which distracts a touch from the often disarmingly melodic and colourful flourishes in his playing. The guitar style can slide into hot progressive explorations almost despite itself and the piano songs have a touch and tone full of tenderness and colour. Even his singing, when he allows himself to let go without obscuring the vocal with a slice of cheeky chappy ham, hits the spot with a purity of tone. Scott Lavene could be an Essex soul boy if he did not feel so riled by the pretensions, posturing, double standards and hypocrisies in the world around him. Music might be his font for expressing feelings, but it also gives him an outlet to let off steam about everything from electric cars, overpriced posh coffees, gentrification and the ignorant soulless leisure activities of the newly minted. Tonight in Cambridge, he opens up about his own inner conflicts, alighting on his previous disdain of the middle classes alongside the realisation that he might now be one of them. These days Scott tells us, in one of many extended introductions (he does enjoy a chat with his audience), that he lives in a house with a garden, adapting to little things like stairs on the indoors, lawnmowers and neighbours who bring home made brownies. All of which makes his take down of middle class problems, ‘Waitrose Has Run Out Of Lobster’ with its images of burgundy chinos rising up in resistance to the shortage and specifically Janet, who has bought them all to store in a large freezer, all the more delightful.

While running through a superb set that draws from latest album ‘Cars, Buses, Bedsits And Shops’ along with generous pickings from records released over the past six years (he had to play longer tonight after the support act pulled out), Scott tells the crowd about a couple in attendance who travel around to every gig, giving them a shout out on their wedding anniversary. Scott inspiring this kind of loyalty is understandable, it is plainly clear that he is not an artist dialling in an identikit performance night after night. He plays solo, mainly an electric guitar with effects and loops but also a few songs in a piano ballad form. The music is a living being with Scott; if he plays about with form like this every night, it can only be to keep that restless inventive mind of his engaged. The delivery of a Lavene signature tune is anything but set in stone. ‘Broke’ is the story of an Essex lad riding his luck on the poverty line, shadow boxing with self-mocking wit as he thinks on his feet among societies forgotten and ignored, finding comfort in his vices, unexpected twists of fate and life’s simple pleasures; tonight it is caressed into a wholly different beast to the trodden slog heard on record. It is more like an electric free-form hymn with Scott crowd pleasing, after the line about his girlfriend sighing the longest sigh he ever heard, by repeating an impressive breath zapping example of that very thing. Like many artists who leave a little too much of themselves on stage, a gigs merits may depend on where their head is at on any particular night. At the Portland Arms, Scott Lavene seems relaxed and engaged, a venue he once worked as a chef is now a well-attended first headline gig in Cambridge. He takes requests and we sense that here is a songwriter in a golden moment; riding an upward curve in his fortunes, both personal and artistically, but still close enough to the sharp edges of life that shaped him to thrive in the creative inspiration those experiences provide. Get on to Scott Lavene at your earliest convenience, he is the ultimate Essex man in music, proving that a much-maligned region still has so much to offer the culture.

Words: Danny Neill Photos: Sophie Reichert

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 3rd November 2025

Josienne Clarke – What Do I Do?

Josienne’s latest album ‘Far From Nowhere’ is a record created and recorded in the isolation of a remote Scottish cabin. Deliberately lo-fi and intimate, it is a fine piece of work that sits together well as a suite of songs wrestling with questions, anxieties and motions that play-out as if being processed in real time. There are no easy answers, in fact often there are no definitive explanations at all, just questions, and this song is a good example of that. It also stands as a singer-songwriter album that honours the tradition of artists charting their journey through life via music; when real experience and feelings are the source, it is often reflected in songs that have more bite and depth, as heard in the music of Josienne Clarke

The Len Price 3 – Gypsy Magick

New music is always welcome from a trio with some of the purest sixties garage rock sounds you can find in 2025. As the title of their new latest album ‘Misty Medway Magick’ indicates, they are a power pop outfit from Kent who have been heavily gigging and recording for over twenty years with all original members, none of whom are actually called Len Price. That sound is hard to resist but I never warm to mere retro photocopyists, it is when bundled in with creativity and original ideas in composition, as the Len Price 3 have always done, that the music comes alive, fizzing with energy and vitality. It is a big part of the Fruit Tree Records ethos that design classic sounds and genres can continue to be enjoyed outside of their original eras, provided they are approached with the right attitude. As far as I am concerned, ‘Gypsy Magick’ is just a rollicking 2025 pop record, so dig it.

Tristen – Because Your Love Is Mine

Tristen (full name Tristen Gaspadarek) is an American singer-songwriter and musician based in Nashville, Tennessee who first came to my attention around 2018 with the swooning song ‘Glass Jar’ that appeared on the album ‘Sneaker Waves’. She has released several records at this point and is about to put out the brand new ‘Unpopular Music’ LP on Well Kept Secret. As heard here, the melody driven sounds and personal narrative infused lilt to the lyrics remain at the fore. There is a deceptively gentle, hazy energy to the music of Tristen that ensures any new recordings are always worth checking out. Of this new song she confides it is “about the healing power of connection, something we are starved for in the age of artificial intimacy”.

Neko Case – Wreck

Neko Case first came to my attention when she topped the John Peel Festive Fifty over 25 years ago, the legendary DJ’s championing of new country artists around this time may not have been a huge part of his celebrated legacy, but I think the fact that Neko is still making essential new Americana today proves he knew a good thing when he heard it. Her latest album is called ‘Neon Grey Midnight Green’ and is out now on the Anti- label; she describes is as a “love letter and a testimony” to her friends and influential musicians, producers and activists who have passed away in recent years. In focusing on these departed souls Neko Case has once again produced a work with a deep timelessness that pushes country music into the stratosphere.

Good Flying Birds – Fall Away

Newly signed to Carpark and Smoking Room, the Good Flying Birds are a jangly guitar-pop outfit from the Midwest who have just released ‘Tallulah’s Tape’, a mix of stripped down home recordings that includes this falling tumbleweed of melancholic pop timbre. It features backing vocals from Wishy’s Nina Pitchkites along with Kevin Krauter on drums and demonstrates a fine appreciation of the DIY aesthetic and the enduring persuasiveness of melody and hooks. Earlier this year they sold 300 copies of a self released cassette in under a month but now sound poised to take it to take it a lot further on down the road.

Pino Palladino + Blake Mills ft. Chris Dave – Taka

Blake Mills is a guitar hero with a difference, a genuine sonic explorer and visionary who takes the absence of macho posturing adopted by indie guitar gods and pushes it into progressive territories others could not even imagine are possible. This piece is taken from his second collaboration with Welsh bassist Pino Palladino following on from their first 2021 set ‘Notes With Attachments’. New record ‘That Wasn’t A Dream’ picks up and expands upon the innovations from before, recorded at Sound City Studios it again features contributions from Chris Dave and Sam Gendel. Another dimension to the work this time around is Blake Mills’ use of a prototype fretless baritone sustainer guitar, making for a unique, woodwind-like texture to the sound. ‘Taka’ was the lead track from the album and here we capture them cooking up their magic in the studio.

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Monthly Playlists

November 2025 Playlist

The cover star for this playlist is Scott Lavene, whose show at the Portland Arms in Cambridge last week will be reviewed on this site later this week. A lot of my time this past month has been spent diving into music documentaries and cinematic biopics. For my documentary fix I watched the whole of Ken Burns 2001 ten feature length installment series simply titled ‘Jazz’. Each episode ran to over an hour making this a deep dive into the history of Jazz, putting forward a compelling argument for it being America’s greatest contribution to the cultural landscape. As you would expect, some of the meat on the bone of the series was the incredible archive film clips incorporated into each episode, lacking in the earliest episodes simply because they centered on the late nineteenth, early twentieth century but from the 1950s onwards this is a jazz archive bean feast. It is the main reason to view a program of this nature for a jazz fan because the stories themselves are often well known and time restrictions, due to the sheer scope of the project, lead to only surface level commentaries. Key figures like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis are appreciated in greater detail than many others, the knock-on effect being the surprising absence of certain big names. I spotted a couple of photos of Lee Morgan but not an actual mention, Chet Baker was spoken about in passing as was Glenn Miller (who is almost totally dismissed as a commercial phenomenon only), whilst I do not think I heard the name Nina Simone even once.

All that said, it does remain a worthy watch. Some of the talking heads stitching the historical contexts together are very listenable and explain their points concisely whilst (then) modern day faces like Wynton Marsalis proves himself to be an absolute master student of the music. Historical music documentaries often struggle with contextualizing more recent events leading up to the present day and Ken Burns ‘Jazz’ is no different. The period 1970-2000 is speed-skimmed over and even though I get the point they are making about Jazz’s marginalization in the eighties, to imply that the music was all but dead is inaccurate. They also appear to believe that Wynton and his jazz revivalist peers were the key to the future of the music, but it is all too easy for me with all this hindsight to go picking holes in that, overall ‘Jazz’ is a superb visual document and precursor to a similarly deep series about country music that Burns would turn his attentions to later.

I also went to the cinema this month to watch the Bruce Springsteen biopic ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere.’ I approached this one with a little trepidation because the potential for a cliché-ridden rags to riches story of rock ‘n’ roll savior seemed like a possibility. However, lead actor Jeremy Allen White is a serious performer who gives the impression of some professional integrity, so I felt this alone was a bit of a safety blanket. The film is actually a thoughtful piece of accurately shot cinematography, set in 1981-82 when Bruce was on the cusp of the worldwide acclaim and success he would soon be indelibly showered with. Here we see Springsteen hit a mentally low ebb as he channels deeply personal background issues into the new music that would become the lo-fi ‘Nebraska’ album. He home records demos onto a cassette and the difficulties in recreating these songs in the professional studio environment is heavily focused on, as is the record company frustration expressed as Bruce holds firm about releasing the cassette demo as the actual record. We also see him capturing, during the same sessions, the first few tracks of what would become 1984’s mainstream smashing ‘Born In The USA’ album, which does point to the most obvious omission from the script. As Bruce’s manager defends his artist to the Columbia hierarchy, keen to support his acts artistic vision and holding firm that ‘Nebraska’ is to be issued with no promotion, no singles and no Bruce Springsteen face on the album cover, it is hard not to assume he also would have bartered “but don’t worry, if we indulge Bruce now and put this out, the record he’s nearly got ready to go after this is going to make us all millions, so let’s just play the long game and go along with him for now”. But the script did not include such a calculating line. Either way, a good film with impressively authentic audio performances in which the Bruce Springsteen legend remains intact.

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