The Evan Whitton Blog: After Hours

PinkPanthress - Heaven Knows - The Singles, Reviewed Over the last 12 months, PinkPanthress has become my de facto response to when people say there's no good pop music. Initially coming across her music purely by chance, I was instantly hooked. The mix of retro style UK dance music of all variations like garage and jungle, paired with her incredibly distinctive, characterful, emotive, and futuristic vocal style on her 'to hell with it' mixtape blew me away, retrospectively becoming one of my favourite releases of that year. Not to mention she's one of the few artists I think to truly transcend the "TikTok music" label, so it's been really cool in the last 9 months or so to see her transformation from internet sensation to full blown pop superstar, while continuing to release some really unique pop music. It's no surprise then that I was thrilled to hear news of her debut album 'Heaven Knows' releasing on November 10th. So let's take a look...

Pendulum - Anima - The Singles, Reviewed It’s fair to say that Pendulum may be the first name a lot of people think of when they think of modern Drum n Bass or even modern EDM full stop, and with good reason. Led by songwriter and frontman Rob Swire, they started out as a much more straight up DnB outfit on 2005’s ‘Hold Your Colour’, and not only were they damn good at it, but the album also spawned anthems like ‘Tarantula’ and the title track in the process. Soon after though, the band began experimenting musically, broadening not only the range of electronic influences, but also incorporating elements of anthemic stadium rock and hard rock, resulting in my personal favourite album of theirs, 2008’s ‘In Silico.’ They then expanded on this further with 2010’s ‘Immersion’, making use of an even wider range of aesthetics, but also injecting their sound with a more palpable accessibility, evident in huge singles like ‘Witchcraft.’ It was after this that the various members went on hiatus ...

Black Grape - Orange Head - The Singles, Reviewed Following the breakup of 90s indie titans Happy Mondays, vocalist Shaun Ryder and best mate Bez rose from the ashes, teaming up with rapper Kermit and producer Danny Saber amongst others, and forming Black Grape. Their debut album 'It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah' in 1995 was described by Ryder as "what the last Mondays album should have been", and he wasn't wrong, the record seamlessly combining indie, dance, rap and funk into a fantastic musical melting pot, resulting in multiple hit singles. While their second album before their breakup, 1997's 'Stupid, Stupid, Stupid' wasn't as well received, I still loved it, and when the group reformed as the principal duo of Ryder and Kermit, teaming up with super producer Youth and releasing 'Pop Voodoo' in 2017, I thought that was brilliant too. So on an album basis, they haven't missed yet, and now, with Youth at the helm again, ...

Public Image Ltd. 'End Of World UK Tour' Review at Holmfirth Picturedrome - Post-Punk Legends Deliver a Stellar Set With an Odd Deficit of New Material My first introduction to John Lydon's post-Pistols band Public Image Ltd. (or PiL) was through my dad. He was going to see them in Holmfirth with a friend in 2016, and I remember him saying, "you know the Sex Pistols? The singer, when he left, he started this." At that time, having not yet heard any of the music, I was still familiar with the hysteria surrounding punk as this loud, angry, rebellious music you don't listen to around your parents, and so while I was aware this wasn't exactly going to be "punk", I was still excited to hear it. That said, when the first song he played me kicked in, even despite my lack of expectations, it really threw me for a loop, for lack of a better term. I just didn't know what to do with it. Anyway, cut to two or so years later when I've started properly...

The Streets - The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light - The Singles, Reviewed After over 20 years in the limelight, I don’t think calling Mike Skinner a UK rap legend is unjustified. After a run of five great albums with The Streets, including classics like ‘Original Pirate Material’ and ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’, in which displayed his talent for creating gritty, homegrown production, complete with unorthodox delivery and witty lyricism, he retired the project in 2011 to focus on other ventures like The D.O.T. with Rob Harvey among others. However, Skinner returned to The Streets in 2017, citing the making of a self produced film and its accompanying soundtrack as the reason for his return. That’s not to say that’s all he’s been doing though, as in the time between his comeback and the film’s release, he’s seen fit to drop a fair bit of music, including various stand alone singles, a duets mixtape, the soundtrack’s sister album, (which at one point I mistook for the actual so...

Don Letts - Outta Sync - The Singles, Reviewed  DJ and filmmaker Don Letts I think is one of the more underappreciated figures in the pivotal 70s UK punk movement. Starting out as a videographer for The Clash, he eventually became a very prominent name in that scene, shooting reams of important archival footage such as for his 1978 ‘Punk Rock Movie’, and even (rather sensically given his reggae background) at one point managing The Slits. Over the years though, Don has also been involved in a number of musical projects, most notably co-founding Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones. Now though, after over 45 years in the business, it’s his turn to show what he can do. Teaming up with producer Gaudi, Don’s debut solo album ‘Outta Sync’, set for release on September 29th, purports to display Don’s eclectic range of influences from the worlds of reggae, pop, and rock, combining them in a D.I.Y. style. So, let’s have a look at the singles to see how that’s panning out. Outta Sync Musicall...

Corey Taylor - CMF2 - The Singles, Reviewed Corey Taylor is one of the best known frontmen in modern metal, fronting not only nu-metal juggernauts Slipknot for over 25 years, but also alternative metal band Stone Sour. In both he displayed himself to be a very skilled vocalist, solid lyricist and pretty good songwriter, so the shift to solo material seemed inevitable. However, despite not liking, and in fact pretty much hating his debut ‘CMFT’ in 2020, although perhaps being a little harsh in retrospect, upon announcement of it’s follow up ‘CMF2’, set for release on September 15th, I still went into the singles optimistic at the prospect of improvement, so let’s see. Post Traumatic Blues What this track seems to put across quite well is Corey taking perhaps a more classically “rock” song, but giving it a heavy metal sense of aggression and speed. The nearly 35 second long intro was maybe unnecessary and it could’ve probably just started with the drums, which themselves have a really co...