Website Powered by FATEA

Releases

You've just completed your latest masterpiece and need to get the news out to a waiting world. Here's your opportunity. Click Here to mail us the details and a photo.

Please include contact, price and availability details.

You also get up to a hundred words to let everyone know what you and your release is about.

Please keep pictures below 30k

Jack Rabbit Slim

Album:Hairdos & Heartaches

Website: http://www.myspace.com/jackrabbitslimuk

It says something for both rock 'n' roll and rockabilly that as the genres enter their seventh decade there are still artists that want to add to the cannon of work, not just replay hits from the past, but to add to them to the future, Jack Rabbit Slim are just such a band. Drums, guitars, the obligatory slap bass and attitude oozing out of every pore isn't a bad way to define a band by any standards and standards is what this crowd create. "Hairdos & Heartaches" is, as it should be, a little rough around the edges, but boy does it rock you to the core. It'll dance your night away.

Website: http://www.vivalbertine.com

I'm always a little concerned when an artist returns to performing after a long absence. You always fear their motives in what is a cycical age. More than that you fear they will be a shadow of their former self. As part of the Slits Viv Albertine formed part of my teenage dreams. There's still a great deal of sex and sexuality in her music and sound, but these days its mixed almost with random thoughts. It allows her to retain part of her old sound without it being a pastiche, rather a stright line interupted by too many lost years. Welcome back Viv, good to remake your acquaintance.

Rachel And The Lawn Grower

Website: http://www.myspace.com/rachelandthelawngrower1

Whilst, to an extent, the packaging whisphers the phrase low budget, the sound of Rachel & The Lawn Grower screams big ambition. You trim your cds to the cut of your cloth, but there is absolutely no sign of compromise in the recording. "Sweet Taste" is an EP with real ambition. It's got a beautiful, rich, deep sound throughout, Rachel Watson has one of those voices that stops you in your tracks and makes you want to listen. It's accompanied by a sound that reaches out to fill the room. Yet some how it manages to remain delicate, almost fae, but not twee, rather pure and simple.

Album:More Than Dawn

Website: http://www.myspace.com/kahsongs

"More Than Dawn" isn't your typical singer/songwriter album, but then again, Kah, isn't your typical singer/songwriter. She produced the album to boot, but was sensible enough to have someone else come in to master and ensure that the creative juices didn't overflow into a self indulgent mush. The result is a pop/rock album packed with stylish eloquence. Rhythm and melody combining to give the vocal a solid frame to build the song around. It has a real sense of drama as well as the dramatic, each song wrapped in it's own story, it's own personality, it's own sense of being

Philip Butler & Natasha Tranter

Album:Stories For Emily

Label:Sawmill/Steelmill

Website: http://www.myspace.com/philipbutlermusic

If you want to prove that you can be dark without being dreary, checkout "Stories For Emily" from emerging duo Phillip Butler & Natasha Tranter. It's got a classic folk feel and combines conventional song with songs used as a story telling medium. Ghosts and ships lost at sea are a staple part of the dna of traditional music and it would be fair to say that this duo really have this aspect of the genre nailed as tight as a coffin lid in plague season. Its a cracking album, delightfully orchestrated and then delivered with Phillip's smokey baritone.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/bigiamrash

I'm not sure if this is a full blown release, yet, or a sampler cd primarily to get the band gigs, not that it matters, if you should get the opportunity to get your self a copy, grab it with both hands. The Big I Am have the feel of a band flirting with the fringes of greatness. It's difficult not to describe their soumnd as 'what REM would have sounded like if they'd have come out of Nort West England rather than Athens Georgia.' Its well thought out with plenty of acoustic harmony, solid and thoughtful lyrics and a slight indie edge to give it some real bite.

Rose Red & The Butterflies

Album:Just A Glimmer

Website: http://www.myspace.com/rosered

I know this album has been a while in it's creation, but Rose Red has used that time to hone a finely crafted acoustic pop album with an absolutely delightful dreamy vocal. It gives "Just A Glimmer" a slightly not quite of this world feel, connected to the planet, not totally of it. It's an album to set the spirit soaring, uplifting and imaginative. Why keep on the straight and narrow when there's tangents to be explored? There a really lush lyric throughout the album and such a turn of phrase, "My Soul's too big for my body to hold" and as for the melodies, there's another story.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/seadogmusic

I'm reviewing these as a pair as that's how they arrived, it's also how I would recommend buying them. Seadog have got a dynamic acoustic pop sound with a DNA that streches back to the late sixties. Harmony vocals and intricate guitars a sound that has a root in CSNY, but one that also updates it and gives it a modern edge. This becomes more apparent on EP2 which shows a band growing in confidence. Taking more risks with both the lyric and the delivery, an approach that serves them well. It gives them a growing sense of identity, a distinct musical personality

Website: http://www.myspace.com/demolitionsky

There's something about "1202" that I struggled with. For me it's not an instant album. Initially it comes across as a little too laid back, a little too mellow and yet I found myself coming back to it, there was something tickling away at the back of my mind that needed to be resolved. Then it clicked I was trying to listen to the album rather than slip into. I was spending to much listening to the reflections, rather than going with the album into it's depths. It has both a melody and lyrical quality that give it a real sense of it's own identity.

Album:Strangers With Shoes

Website: http://robingrey.bandcamp.com

There are two main phrases that you can apply to singer/songwriter Robin Grey, versatile and prolific, actually make that three, talented. His new album "Strangers With Shoes" runs the range from whimsical to deeply serious. He seems as at home lamenting over lost youth as he does railing against a fashion industry encouraging self mutilation and butchery. Whilst most of the songs have additional musicians and backing singers on them, you know these songs could be performed to perfection with just voice and guitar. You could just sit and listen for hours, I did.

Website: http://www.fordante.com

We don't do a lot of classical music in Fatea. I can count the releases covered in that genre on one hand, but when I heard "The Arrival" from Fordante, I just knew I had to include it as it's a sheer delight. A collection of twelve new pieces, all under six minutes, but oh so expressive. It's passionate and moving, it gets the emotions going. You can understand why rich aristos held masked balls when there was music like this to kick start the party. Phil Mountford takes the composing credits, Fordante bring the music to life.

Matthew Glenn Thompson

Album:The Garden And The Arcade

Website: http://www.matthewglennthompson.com

Soundwise, "The Garden And The Arcade" has a bit of a feel good factor about it. Good honest uptempo acoustic rock that lifts the spirit as well as being a cracking album to drive to. It's difficult to go wrong with lines like "Feeling good, feeling great", but every coin has two sides and there are a couple of times where you can feel that all is not the garden of eden, Matthew Glenn Thompson has a couple of emotional itches that he really needs to scratch, but he does it with such eloquence and a certain amount of acerbic wit.