The Jim Muir Slideshow - ...And With the Fading of the Light' (A Tomorrows World Industry) By Nick Quantrill

Some things are worth waiting for, and for those paying attention it has been a lengthy wait for this album. Having quietly released a string of critically acclaimed EPs, the Jim Muir Slideshow disappeared from public view. Compiling these releases, and aided by some freshening up, the EPs are transformed into a debut full-length release which is no less worthy or essential. Combining music with day jobs working as doctors, Jim Muir and Paul Galpin, have created an album befitting of men used to the sharp end an altogether more unpleasant reality.

Whether it's asking what comes next once the recreational drugs stop working on After The Fireworks, or detailing the agonies of breaking medical diagnoses on Waiting for the Test, the songs somehow maintain a tangible optimism in their almost relentless bleakness. If that makes the album sound like difficult listening, nothing could be further from the truth. Schooled in classic pop, each song unfolds as a neat little kitchen-sink drama, with clever and ambiguous lyrics, suggesting a wry playfulness on Muir's part. ...And With the Fading of the Light is maybe best viewed as a chance to jump on board with the Slideshow and familiarise yourself with the story so far. When and where the band will resurface again is anyone's guess, but hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later. For now, content yourself with possibly the first great record of 2008. www.jimmuirslideshow.com

Album Reviews - Turkey In The Straw By Glenn Williams And The Ullbillies Reviewed By Pete Smith (The Advertiser UK)
	Maintaining the theme of real country and innovation we move back across the Atlantic to the port of Hull where resides one Glenn Williams the captain of a motley crew called the Ullbillies. Glenn, it appears, is a performer after my own heart. His passion is to revive classic country and to give it a facelift without compromising the Read more...

Album Reviews - White Chalk by PJ Harvey Reviewed By Perry Farrell
	Let's be honest - there are certain kinds of music and certain artists that the happy-clappy masses are never really going to get and, apart from her odd forays into the charts with one or two of her more accessible songs over the years, Polly Jean Harvey falls into this category. Moreover, it's probably fair to say that many of her fans have a greater-than-average Read more...

Album Reviews - Screaming Tarts 4 (17 track compilation) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	The Screaming Tarts website has gone from strength to strength over the past few years. There's little wonder either, especially when a whole host of exclusive interviews, reviews and blogs are forever being published on there. To be fair, a once-a-week whirlwind tour around the site often makes for far more entertaining reading than the NME. Read more...

Album Reviews - Hodmeister - The Total Fabrication Of The Personification In The Nuance Of the Art Form (4 Track EP) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Now here's a Yorkshire-based talent to get genuinely excited about. Chris Hoddinott has been involved in the fine art of music-making for some years now, having shown off his guitar-playing prowess as a member of Beverley band 35 Stock. Since the band dissolved, Chris has moved up to Scarborough, where he's now producing a totally different style of music Read more...

Album Reviews 3-D - Future Primitive Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	This extraordinary album release has been a profound family affair from start to finish, with former Spiders From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey working with his two sons Nick and Danny to produce this amazing album that's full of exhilarating instrumentals, with a multitude of killer drum beats at their heart. It's a bold premise that has been executed Read more...

Album Reviews - Manic Street Preachers - Send Away The Tigers Reviewed By Richard Stephenson
	There comes a time in the career of many bands when a dilemma occurs ... how to build on past glories. There may have been a genre defining album, or a style of music and clothing that set the stratosphere ablaze. But once a reputation has been established and career defined, where next? In their 17 year career, the Manics have been the kings of such reinventions. Read more...

Album Reviews - The Me Band Debut Album By Gavin Hopper
	Do you remember a time before high school? Before getting drunk at college and getting off with the ugly one? A time before a mortgage and 2.4 children and a very angry bank manager whose minions would phone you everyday making those debt free adverts on television seem more and more appealing? Perhaps a time before trouble? Read more...

Album Reviews - CD Reviews - Painted Sambas 3 Track Demo By Michael Smith Age 15
	The Painted Sambas are fairly new band who have only just recorded this 3 track demo. Track 1 appears to lack that presence a band should have, in my eyes. This band provides a Pop Indie sound with Folkish vocals which sadly don't work in my eyes. Track 2 however has a better vibe Read more...

Album Reviews - CD Reviews - Unless - Drowning 2 Track Demo By Michael Smith Age 15
	Unless are a good band and time-served in the music scene of Grimsby with an Indie, Alternative feel. This new demo seems to be dominated by a Techno and dance vibe. This Drowning Demo is a good attempt on going in a new direction with the Indie and Techno - a combination that people obviously like, otherwise they would not have such high myspace stats! Read more...

Album Reviews - Sworn Amongst - Audio Aggression 2007
	This young British band execute strongly on their new three-track EP, which is indeed neck-breaking from start to finish. It's is a much heavier effort this time around, and the new line-up show that they can really pack a wallop, with added ferocity! Fans of Slayer/Machine Head/Pantera will surely be worshipping this band in time to come. Read more...

Album Reviews - CD Reviews - The North Pole - The Grip b/w How Can I Explain By Nicholas Boldock
	Let me relate to you a few irrefutable facts. You, like 99% of the population of the world, have never heard of The North Pole. You don't own any of their CDs. You have never seen them live. You don't know what they sound like. You don't know their names. You've never met them - or rather, if you have, you didn't realise who they were. You don't know whether you like Read more...

Album Reviews - CD Reviews - Make It Better Later - Music By Numbers By Kelpy D Pictures by Anna Drake
	I was thoroughly unprepared for this. For what just issued forth from my CD player. So much so I grabbed my laptop and began to write, shocked into action by a band with a sense of humour to rival their creative vision. My stereo had been turned up to a volume appropriate for a single man in his front room dancing to Gold by Spandau Ballet in the vain hope of Read more...

Album Reviews - The Sesh 4 Compilation CD By Joe Hakim
	I'm going to start off by mentioning just how good the overall quality of The Sesh 4 CD is. In the past, the production has varied in quality from track to track, but each and every track on this CD sounds as though it has come fresh from a big studio. This, combined with Darren Rogers' simple yet slick cover-design, has resulted in a product Read more...

Album Reviews - Delta - The Life and Times of Jim Vallie and Sweet Rosalyn By Michelle Dee
	Naomi and Grainger, have known each other since they were seven years old and now they are both twenty five, are busy promoting their first album. They play their own take on the soul pop sound with heart and feeling. Naomi's voice on opener Ten years in Harlem is powerful, soulful at times warm and invites the listener in. The song has strong lines with a standout Read more...

Album Reviews - Liv Kristine Enter My Religion on (Road Runner Records) By Michelle Dee
	Since receiving this disc from www.manillapr.com it has lain on my desk at home on top of the ever growing pile of demos and promos. I have played it on a number of times in order to absorb what she and her music are about. I came up with synth led moody pop intermittently good. The first track Over the Moon was catchy enough for Read more...

Album Reviews - CrackTown - There Must And Shall Be Midgets (an appraisal) By Michelle Dee
	A consumer of CrackTown am I, with songs irrepressible and wry. You would be mistaken, for the thought they'd forsaken, here's the second album we cry. Music to bring you out of your gloom, an antidote by the shovel not a spoon. They might well be misfits, there must and shall be midgets, hark the piper, calls a different tune. When CrackTown recorded their first Read more...

Album Reviews - Last Gang - Beat of Blue (48 Crash Records - Limited edition 7" vinyl and download) - Reviewed By Nick Quantrill Release Date : 30th October 06
	If you like your guitar-pop with a bit of kick and bite, then you could do a lot worse than to check out one of Yorkshire's best kept secrets. It's taken a while for this debut release to materialize, but the slow and steady approach looks set to pay dividends, especially now that influential figures in the music industry such as Steve Lamacq are beginning to Read more...

Album Reviews - Delta (A.KA.) Naomi and Grainger E.P. By Michelle Dee
	I received this EP early summer just as the days were getting hotter. I played it through and wrote some notes on the back of an envelope and then what happens, I put the envelope down in a pile and promptly lose it. It turns up, well half of it some weeks later and I spend the next few days staring at half of the words trying to remember what else was there. Read more...

Album Reviews - Screaming Tarts Volume 3 (20-track compilation album) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Already it's the third album in the series, and Screaming Tarts: Volume 3 is both sounding better and looking sleeker than ever. Once again the creator and webmaster of the hugely popular www.screamingtarts.com music e-zine (that long-haired, good-looking fellow called Mr Martyn from Driffield, East Yorkshire) Read more...

Album Reviews - Mogwai - Mr Beast (PIAS) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	While this ten-track affair might not be as exhilarating as Mogwai's 'Come On Die Young' masterpiece of an album, this new long-player - which is the band's fifth - is still an epic and emotional joy to behold. With a running time of almost three quarters of an hour, their Auto Rock tune kicks affairs off, being a subtly enthralling piano melody, before Read more...

Single Reviews - Ricky We Are England (Beatcrazy Records) By Nick Quantrill
	This unofficial World Cup 2006 track was going to be the record that propelled Ricky into the big time, and kick-started a career for the band that already had promised much. Add in that the band clocked up in excess of 25,000 miles traveling the length and breadth of the country recording over 50,000 school children chanting the popular Easy Read more...

Album Reviews - How Long Have You Got? By Andy Stocks Reviewed by DJ Chris Plant
	I sat down today and listened to Andy Stocks new album How Long Have You Got? Andy is a Hull born artist who writes his own material along with close friend Matthew Davidson. The music is special and the lyrics have a lot of meaning. None of this crap we are hearing in the charts (i.e. Who do you think you are kidding Jurgen Klinsmann) sung by 1966 legend Geoff Hurst. Read more...