Engineers’ self-titled debut album was a thing of quiet and calm beauty. Perhaps to quiet; too calm. Perhaps the wrong sound at the wrong time, but whatever the reason it was largely ignored. Despite adding...

With their rumoured reunion now confirmed, and live dates scheduled for 2014, where better to start a month of shoegazing bliss than with the scene’s original champions?

Originally coined as a barbed description of the on-stage style of Moose frontman Russell Yates, shoegazing soon became a loose catch-all for bands playing in a particular style in the early 90s: droning, whirling guitars...

Why are Wild Beasts still referred to as an indie rock band? Better still, how did The Independent recently come to pull rockers out of its big book of music descriptors? One listen to Smother...

Some people really need to calm down a little and give themselves a moment to get over what they perceive to be the auto-destruction of the Pixies’ legacy.

The music newshound never sleeps, which is how he is able to bring you the most exciting and crucial latest releases at all hours. At least that’s what he claimed in interview. We’ll see…

Judging by Real Estate's new track Talking Backwards, summer will come early in 2014 - Real Estate are set to release Atlas, the follow-up to 2011's Days, on March 3rd in the UK, and March...

For the most part, the ten tracks on Tindersticks’ career retrospective album Across Six Leap Years aren’t radically altered from their original versions. You have to know the back catalogue fairly well to be able...

Proving that there’s more to his work than just endlessly mesmerising soundtrack pieces, Jon Hopkins added a bit of thump for his 2013 album Immunity and found himself a little closer to the center of...

The really odd thing about Trouble Will Find me is that Drowned in Sound’s snarky-sounding comment that the album somehow isn’t the sum of its parts is actually fairly on the mark. It takes a...

I haven’t yet experienced the absolute euphoria that led Drowned in Sound to name Pearl Mystic as their album of the year, and winner of the...

Singer-songwriter Jordan Lee gathers round him whoever happens to be available at the time; together they make sweet, sweet music. Love’s Crushing Diamond won critical acclaim across the board, and rightly so: it’s a delicate...

Little emptinesses abound on Cate Le Bon’s 2013 album Mug Museum: the emptiness of loss; the emptiness of memories; the emptiness of musical arrangements that less bold artists might be tempted to fill with strings,...

The full annual “Record, rewind, play” awards haven’t quite been finalised yet, but here’s a sneak preview of how a couple of categories are sure to shake out, barring unprecedented levels of vote-rigging:

How good were Los Campesinos! in 2013? Put it this way: Avocado, Baby features a children’s choir and it’s still gloriously catchy and fiercely intelligent. When not even caterwauling kids can derail your song, you...

Look, this is just brilliant, Rose Elinor Dougall is magnificent, and there is really no good reason why pop fans everywhere aren’t making sure this flies off the shelves of every record store (nod to...

I once had an argument about whether, in order to enjoy a piece of art, it was necessary to understand the piece. This was in an online forum, so you might think I would know...

With his side project Grinderman allowing Nick Cave to indulge in a bit of sweaty rock grunting, and periodically expunge that lust, Cave’s 15th album with The Bad Seeds drew from his more reflective persona....

If yesterday’s track was a bit much, this should make for a more appropriate piece of evening casualwear, perfect the your local friday indie night: the kind of indie-pop that just wants to take you...

So here’s a slight mood change from yesterday’s sweeping strings and acoustic melancholy.