After the success of their debut album, Not Accepted Anywhere, Welsh rockers The Automatic return with their second album, This is a Fix. “Steve McQueen” has been chosen as the first single of the new record, and if it’s a sign of things to come the band could be onto a winner.

The song is about the late American actor Steve McQueen, for the younger of you out there. With the infectious chorus of ‘I was the teenage Steve McQueen’, I’m sure you’ll be singing along to this one after the first play. It’s got anthem written all over it, and is pretty easy to follow. Read more

The main purpose of an album sampler is to create interest in the artist and their album and to encourage us to part with our readies to buy the full album (or to convince DJs and other tastemakers that they should persuade us to buy it). In this case it’s not strictly an album sampler because 2 of the 4 tracks are described as “non-album tracks”, which looks like an attempt to demonstrate the breadth of Bryn Christopher’s abilities.

He undoubtedly has an incredible voice, but is that enough? The music business has a habit of chewing up and spitting out incredibly talented vocalists (Lemar, for example), so there has to be something else to back it up. The two self-penned songs here are acceptable but not exceptional and “The Quest” is over-wrought and over-produced, while “My Kinda Woman” is filled with all of the usual romantic song clichés, musical and lyrical. Read more

The Automatic return with their 2nd album, This is a Fix, the follow up to their debut album, Not Accepted Anywhere. The Welsh rockers have seen a change in their lineup after Alex Pennie left due to band differences, with Paul Mullen, who was previously in the band yourcodenameis:milo, being brought in as his replacement. I think this will prove to be a positive move, with Pennie’s irritating screaming on backing vocals on the first album not fitting in with the music of the band.

“Monster” was the stand out hit from the debut album, and ultimately was a large part of the records success, with the rest of the album struggling to meet expectation. But This is a Fix is an improvement. The opening track, “Responsible Citizen”, certainly shows a level of maturity from the first album. It’s not as in your face and without the aggressive influence of Pennie, it seems the band have mellowed and this is allowing them to create better music. It’s not a ground breaking first track but I’m definitely intrigued to hear more. Read more

Given only a white disc with a Thomas White sticker on it I was left to guess what this might be. It happily ran on a loop in my car for a week before I had to know. I assumed it was a portfolio of a composer trying to get work creating soundtracks for films. It plays like an artist’s sketchbook. Almost every song is a different style and many of the songs don’t have vocals. Despite this sketchy, demo like feel it’s really rather enjoyable. It’s calming but not so much in the way of background music. You’ll feel very aware of what you’re listening to but it’s not intrusive.

I’d be hard pressed to say what I Dream of Black reminds me of as a whole. There are hints of Simon and Garfunkel in the opening track but then the second track presents more of an updated 80’s new wave sound mixed with a pounding, industrial sounding beat. There are definitely hints of Garbage… How can I fully describe this album? …Sod it, Read more

It’s an interesting idea but, unfortunately, interesting doesn’t always equate with essential. Naturally 7 are 7 guys (amazingly enough)who perform as an a cappella human beatbox ensemble in a style that they prefer to call vocal play. They are 7 very talented people and the arrangements they construct are very impressive given the self-imposed limitation of using only human voices. The CD sleeve notes emphasise this in a way that’s reminiscent of early Queen albums (“…and nobody played synthesiser”), which later backfired on the band. Read more

First things first – the venue. Industry is far enough away from central Hoxton to avoid the “coolest of the cool” mentality of Hoxton Square and the downstairs area is full of people who are genuinely interested in the music. The stage is fairly basic, but the sound system is excellent and the staff are well-organised and friendly – you even get your drink in a proper glass (or bottle).

On to the music. First up were Looptron, who sound exactly like a band with that name should sound and who get all the benefit of a sound system which is set up perfectly to deliver the rich synth sounds and pumping bass. The material is all pretty strong, the performance is professional and a partisan crowd give it a great reception. Pretty good start to the evening really. Read more