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Album Review
MINT JULEP – SAVE YOUR SEASON
Mint Julep
Save Your Season
[Village Green]
7/10


The fact that this record was made by a husband/wife radiates through its unified sound – a glowing amalgamation of synthesised electronics, harmonies and atmospherics – makes ‘Save Your Season’ feel like a very tight-knit and cohesive creation. It flips between hazy, ambient and moody laments and more conventional electro-pop numbers, the odder, more experimental moments being the ones that bring the bands qualities to light, the rest showing their clear eminence for pop songs too. Masters of seemingly infinite layers of sounds, Mint Julep are clearly ones for focussing on differing sonic levels, in which the vocals merge and intersperse throughout. And when at their fullest and boldest, the electronics resemble The Knife’s earlier work, and coalesced with the ethereal vocals it proves to be a rewarding concoction.

By Daniel Dylan Wray

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TANLINES – MIXED EMOTIONS
Mixed Emotions
[Matador]
7/10

Not everyone has the option to release a grab-bag aggregation of offcuts, deleted singles and remixes before their first full-length debut.

BRETON – OTHER PEOPLE’S PROBLEMS
Other People's Problems
[Fat Cat]
9/10

More of a collective than a band, Breton emerged from a group of filmmakers, which goes some way to explain the erratic disposition of their music.

BLOOD RED SHOES – IN TIME TO VOICES
In Time To Voices
[V2]
8/10

In life, we are often held back by limitations that are either of our own making or unjustly placed upon us.

GRINDERMAN – GRINDERMAN 2 RMX
Grinderman 2 RMX
[Mute]
8/10

Nick Cave isn’t a man who need repeat himself very often so when he asks for the stars to come out to play.

SEA OF BEES – ORANGEFARBEN
Orangefarben
[Heavenly]
7/10

This marks something of a break up record for Julie Ann Baenziger. After the rather lovely debut, ‘Songs for the Ravens’, ‘Orangefarben’ feels like a second, prolonged diary entry.

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO – UNPATTERNS
Unpatterns
[Wichita]
6/10

The speed with which dance music currently mutates means that even relatively new acts like Simian Mobile Disco – their debut is less than five years old – feel like establishment figures.

BLACK DICE – MR IMPOSSIBLE
Mr Impossible
[Ribbon Music]
1/10

Black Dice began their career as anarchic thrash noiseniks fifteen years ago, performing abrupt, aggressive music designed to piss people off.

CLOCK OPERA – WAYS TO FORGET
Ways To Forget
[Moshi Moshi]
3/10

The vocals on a record can draw a listener in, or repel them. It’s also utterly unpredictable how the sound of a person’s singing voice will affect you.

GEMMA RAY – ISLAND FIRE
Island Fire
[Bronze Rat]
5/10

The idea of a tortured artist can be an attractive one, but sometimes artists suffer from too much; too many influences, too many layers and too many ideas.

DIRTY THREE – TOWARD THE LOW SUN
Toward The Low Sun
[Bella Union]
8/10

Dirty Three return for their first album in seven years, and a most welcome return it is. Few people have the command over their instruments and self-honed sound quite like Dirty Three do.