Album Review: The Destroyers - Hole In The Universe

The Destroyers are very much a Gypsy Punk outfit from Birmingham, they bring the sounds from Eastern Europe and give them a punk rock edge and structure & as other bands have shown in the past this combination can really succeed & for the most part it works particularly well on this album. However this is a collection of songs, like I have said earlier about this kind of music, that'd fare much better in a live environment (ideally a festival). You see the problem I have with this album is it tends to grate after a little while, I dunno I just think the is limited appeal for this kind of music when I can't cha-cha in the sunshine in some field. It's by no means a bad album, in fact it's a very enjoyable one, but it's more an album I'd have in my collection so the odd song crops up when my media player is on shuffle, it's loud & fun but a little bit tiresome when listened to in a single sitting.

Album Review: The Imagined Village - Bending The Dark

The thing about most world acts is that they often translate quite poorly onto record & lose a lot of that raw earth energy that translates oh so well when you run across it on the Park stage at Glastonbury at 1pm carrying a flagon of cider. However when it does work I often find it's the bands who embrace new genres into their world of world music & this is what 'The Imagined Village' do here on 'Bending The Dark'. Combining their traditional English gypsy folk with world music and techno really makes for a sonically pleasing and interesting album. Check out the 12 minute epic 'Bending The Dark' and you'll really get a sense for what this album is really about & whilst I still feel this music is really needed to be seen live to really be appreciated for what it is I still do recommend you check out this album.