Articles by Greg Harradine
Greg is an outdoorsy type who also happens to like music. He completed his Masters in Composing for Film and TV last year, and currently does many things for a living including writing music for plays, playing guitar in an acoustic duo and sometimes moving antiques across London in a van. Enjoys writing about music almost as much as playing it. Reviewing for NEN keeps him busy and away from his piano long enough to give his housemates some respite. Loves Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, Jim Moray, forests, lakes, books and Ray Mears a little bit too much. Hates how much we need to use computers in this day and age but paradoxically loves the wonder that is the internet. At best, ambivalent towards our increasingly digital world, at worst a total luddite. Things we should all do more of: read, walk, laugh, get out of the city, SEE LIVE MUSIC. And of course visit the best corner of the web - Never Enough Notes! You can also find Greg rambling on Twitter: @GregHarradine.
Bellowhead are a talented bunch. Between them they have been nominated for Best Group, Best Live Band, Best Duo (Spiers and Boden) and Folk Singer of the Year (Jon) in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2012. Backstage at this very gig, Simon Mayo presented them with silver discs to recognise 60,000 sales of their [...]
Emblazoned upon the artwork of Laura Veirs’ new album Tumble Bee is a worrying phrase: ‘Laura Veirs sings folk songs for children’. But don’t let that put you off. This is an album to be enjoyed by adults too. And teenagers. And those lucky older ones eligible for a free bus pass. Actually, some teenagers [...]
Tiersen’s seventh studio album Skyline is an opus of acoustic and electronic symbiosis. Strummed guitars and bedroom drums are paired with shimmering synths and rising, burbling beds of manipulated sound. Songs sigh in and out of life, fading imperceptibly into one another, at once tender and contemplative, then dynamic and abrasive. Although to call them [...]
There is an extreme overabundance of slightly above average music out there. Lots of bands that are pretty OK. Bundles of inoffensive, hard to dislike, well rehearsed stuff. These are the groups who you nod along to on the radio, see supporting other bands, or stumble across online. You give a brief murmur of approval, [...]
‘Medicine’ is the second track released by Scottish four-piece We Were Promised Jetpacks in anticipation of their sophomore album In the Pit of the Stomach, out on October 3rd. It is accompanied by a music video which tells the story of a bookish young man who prepares himself for an epic showdown with a mysterious [...]
Recorded in a Devonian barn ‘nestled between the moors and the sea’, Ben Howard’s debut album Every Kingdom embodies a wise-beyond-years soulfulness that at times rivals Laura Marling in its maturity and scope. The ten songs that form this cohesive and world-weary collection have been road-tested and developed over several years of intense touring throughout [...]
The first single from Tiersen’s forthcoming album Skyline bears the listener along upon a gentle wave of shimmering acoustic psychedelia. The experience is like a waking dream featuring the Flaming Lips. Or astral projection with John Lennon.
‘It’s too quiet in here’ says my friend Paul in a short lull between the songs of Jeniferever’s set. And he was right. The small room was only half full and the audience were attentive but reserved and didn’t project much energy towards the band. This didn’t appear to trouble Jeniferever though, as their set [...]
Now, it is my opinion that when you see a live band it is important that there is something worth seeing on stage, as well as hearing. Otherwise, why bother looking stageward at all? A mediocre sounding band can generate a memorable and enjoyable gig by way of a compelling live performance; equally, a legendary group can disappoint [...]
Tallulah Rendall is a London-based alternative-rock singer, backed by a four-piece backing of cello, bass, guitar and drums. Alive marks Tallulah’s second studio album following on from her 2009 debut-album Libellus. Alive is an independent project with no record label endorsement; all the funding for the album came from a pledge campaign run by Tallulah. [...]
One of the album’s due for release in 2011 that I am most excited about is All at Once, the second studio album from Los Angeles indie-pop band The Airborne Toxic Event. The album has a lot to live up to with its predecessor, the brilliant self-titled debut album released in 2008, but having seen [...]
Friday night in Central London, and what better place is there to be than Brick Lane, soaking up the sounds of the best up and coming alternative music in the city, the sights of the buzzing cosmopolitan metropolis that is the Brick Lane nightlife, and the smells of freshly barbequed meat wafting over from the [...]
The emotional highlight of the concert was a beautiful stripped down song from the new album that Jollett described as “very personal”. Winding up the set with the anthemic “Wishing Well” and “Gasoline” the quirky indie rockers left five hundred Londoners screaming for more. Here’s hoping they come back soon.
Maia were on top form, firing out hauntingly surreal acoustic creations which combined the rhythmic sensibilities and sheer oddness of Mr. Bungle with a vocal somewhere between Nick Drake and Antony Hegarty. And who else could write a reverent and really rather moving folk song comparing the sun to an old onion? Remarkable.
People jostled eagerly into the beautiful Union Chapel, full of grand expectations for the sole London performance of Anais Mitchell’s acclaimed folk-opera Hadestown. Featuring a stellar cast of folk greats including Jim Moray, Wallis Bird (who totally rocked during her support set) and the LEGEND that is Martin Carthy, the pressure was on for them to deliver a knockout show
