Alternative – Will Garnett

Album Reviews: My Top 5 Albums Released in May

November 9, 2020April 22, 2021Posted in Album Reviews, JournalismTagged Album, Album of the Month, Album Review, Alternative, America, Art, Blackpool, Boston Manor, Britpop, Cloud Rap, COVID-19, Discover, Emo, Emo Rap, Feature, Freddie Gibbs, Glam, GLUE, Goth, Hayley Williams, hip-hop, Indie-Rock, London, May, Music, Music Feature, Music Journalism, Music Review, Musicians, Netflix, Paramore, Perfume Genius, Petals for Armor, Pop-Punk, Punk, Rap, Review, Rock, Sad Boys, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, Soul, SoundCloud, Starz, Sweden, Synth-Pop, The Alchemist, USA, Yung Lean1 Comment

By the time May came around, each month had started to blur into one, and a feeling of doom and gloom lay rife in the air, as everything that we had looked forward to slowly withered away and was being cancelled, or rescheduled for what would be either the first or second time of many more. Completing a Netflix series had become the norm and no longer an accomplishment, and having walked the 5 mile radius surrounding my London flat a good ten times over, it all started to feel like a Deja Vu. New lockdown hobbies and interests started to fade, and the constant battle to stay motivated was a fortnightly crisis. Even new music wasn’t quite hitting the mark, and some of the albums in this post were listened to retrospectively.

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Feature: Top 10 Music-Related Things to Watch During Lockdown, pt. 2

October 23, 2020April 22, 2021Posted in Features, JournalismTagged (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, A Thousand Suns, Alicia Keys, Alternative, Behemoth, Big Night Out, Britpop, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Discover, Disney+, Dutch Hardcore, DVD, Experimental Rock, Extreme Metal, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Grime, GRM Daily, Hamilton, hip-hop, IDLES, KEXP, Linkin Park, Live At Home, Live In The K! Pit, Live Music, Lockdown, Los Cogelones, Maida Vale, Metal, Mexico, Music, Music Documentary, Music Feature, Music Journalism, Musical, Musicians, New Music, Noisey, NPR, NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Nu-Metal, Oasis, Poland, Polish Metal, Punk, Punk Rock, Quarantine Watches, R&B, Return To Rockfield, Rock, Theatre, Together We Rise, Ultra Mono1 Comment

Back in May when I wrote the first part to this I wouldn’t have believed that I would be writing a second part several months later. Time is a weird thing, and amiss of any live music, festivals and any significant trips away, apart from visiting the Motherland for a few weeks, the months have rolled into one and gone by in a blur. I’ve learnt to accept the situation and know that I cannot control what will happen, counting my blessings each day that the people close to me are safe, and that I’ve not lost anyone during this time. Having worked in music and live events since University, their absence has been hard to come to terms with, and with the Goverment response to this, asking people like myself to retrain, has been somewhat anger-inducing, to say the least. Finally we are now seeing some socially distanced shows happening, and being able to mark them into the diary. It’s great to see a venue that I’ve worked at for the past few years, The O2 Arena, having their first show back on the 5th of December.

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Album Reviews: My Top 5 Albums Released in April

October 8, 2020April 22, 2021Posted in Album Reviews, JournalismTagged Acid Jazz, Album, Album Review, Alternative, America, April, Bad Decisions, Blink 182, Discover, Electronica, Emo, Emotional Hardcore, England, Enter Shikari, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fever 333, Fiona Apple, Geography, Hardcore, Heartwork, hip-hop, Human League, Jason Aalon Butler, Journalism, letlive., Lo-Fi Hip-Hop, London, Mark Hoppus, Metacritic, Metal, Music, Music Feature, Music Journalism, Music Review, neo-New Wave, neon-R&B, New Music, Nightrider, Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible, Panic! At the Disco, Piano, Pop-Punk, Post-Punk, Punk Rock, Review, Rick Rubin, Rock, Rou Reynolds, Songwriter, The New Abnormal, The Strokes, The Used, Tom Misch, USA, Venice Beach, What Kinda Music, Yussef Dayes4 Comments

Here we go again! As I continue to look back through my albums of the year, month by month. This time I’ll take a look at April, which saw the return of The Strokes after seven years, the wonderful collaboration between Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes, amongst fantastic new albums from Enter Shikari, Fiona Apple and The Used. April once again saw an abundance of new music, and as always it was hard to pin down what my top five albums were. This list could have easily included Thundercats ‘It Is What It is’, and new releases from R.A The Rugged Man and Dance Gavin Dance, but alas I can only pick five, and these are the beautiful albums that I have chosen.

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Album Reviews: My Top 5 Albums Released in March

August 13, 2020April 22, 2021Posted in Album Reviews, JournalismTagged Abel Tesfaye, After Hours, Album Review, Alternative, Avante-Garde, Brighton, Code Orange, DIY, DIY Magazine, Eddie Vedder, Emo, England, Every Bad, Gigaton, Grunge, Hardcore, Indie, Industrial, Journalism, March, Melancholy, Mercury Prize, Metal, Milk Teeth, Music, Nervus, Pearl Jam, Pop, Porridge Radio, Punk, R&B, Review, Roadrunner Records, Rock, Rough Trade Records, Seattle, Talking Heads, The Weeknd, Underneath, USA2 Comments

Having already looked at my albums of the month for January and February, I now move onto March. The first two months of the year brought us some great music, and March continued in the same vein. Just like my previous posts, I’ll start with a quick update on the state of the world back then; it had imploded. Speaking of someone who lives in the UK, our Government started a shit show of a plan to prevent the spread of Covid-19, as we were shown numerous graphs of how to ‘flatten the curve’, and Boris Johnson reassured the nation by stating that “many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time”. He then set out plans to do absolutely nothing for weeks… Eventually, we were all ordered to stay at home, which led to a new outbreak which swept across the nation; boredom. Time was spent binge-watching the latest Netflix series, baking numerous amounts of banana bread, and attempting to learn new skills, as we began to settle into the ‘new normal’.

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Origins of European Hip-Hop: Francophone Rap

July 13, 2020August 17, 2020Posted in Features, JournalismTagged Africa Bambaataa, Alternative, Assasin, Boogie Down Productions, Bouge De La, Caroline, Chacun Fait (C'Qui Lui Plait), Chagrin d'Amour, De La Planete Mars, Dissertation, European Hip Hop, France, Francophone Rap, Hip Hop, IAM, Introduction, Italy, Jazz Rap, Je Danse Le Mia, Journalism, Kurtis Blow, La Haine, L’ecole du micro d’argent, Marseilles, Mathieu Kassovitzin, MC Solaar, Music, NTM, Ombre Est Lumiere, Origins, Paris, Prose Combat, Qui Sème le Vent Récolte le Tempo, University, USA1 Comment

After looking through some of my old work, I stumbled across the disseration that I wrote for my final project at university back in 2016, and decided to give it another read. Lockdown boredom may have reached new heights, and brought me to an educational read which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. Perhaps as it brought back the memories of writing it, which with the benefit of time and rose-tinted glasses seemed great, but the sleepless nights and Red Bull driven researching weren’t. Whilst I’ve ditched the Red Bull, and seem to be sleeping fine, going back down memory lane and the same rabbit holes as I orginally had, seem like the perfect distraction to another stressful time, as we are in now. As you may have ascertained from the title of this post, my disseration was about European hip-hop, in particular the development and impact of the genre in France, Italy and Germany during the 1980s and 1990s. In that, I waffled on about Globalisation, Americanisation and the history of hip-hop, but I’ll save you from the academic jargon, and dive right into the various scenes themselves.

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Album Reviews: My Top 5 Albums Released in February

June 27, 2020August 18, 2020Posted in Album Reviews, JournalismTagged Album Review, Alternative, Black Metal, Djent, Dream Pop, Electronic, Emo, England, Everyone Love You... Once You Leave Them, February, Grimes, I Let It in and It Took Everything, Indie, Journalism, Liverpool, Loathe, Metal, Metalcore, Miss Anthropocene, Music, New Music, Nu Metal, Ordinary Man, Ozzy Osbourne, Prog Rock, Psychedelic, Punk, Review, Rock, Tame Impala, The Amity Affliction, The Prince of Darkness, The Slow Rush, USA, Video2 Comments

Continuing to look back at some of my favourite albums released earlier this year, this time I’ll take a look at the month of February. A month where everything seemed normal, it was the calm before the storm, as the full impact of COVID-19 lurked around the corner. Donald Trump was being impeached, Parasite won Best Picture at the Oscars, Storm Denis hit the UK, and the world was still in self-destruct mode. But alas, there was new music. This month saw the return of The Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, Tame Impala coming back after five years, and a blisttering second album from Liverpudlian band Loathe, not to mention new albums from The Amity Affliction, Grimes, Green Day, and King Krule, just to name a few.

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Album Reviews: My Top 5 Albums Released in January

June 11, 2020August 18, 2020Posted in Album Reviews, JournalismTagged Afrobeat, Album Review, Alt-Pop, Alternative, Big Conspiracy, Britpop, Circles, Dancehall, Dune Rats, Electro-Pop, Electronica, Emo, Exotic Soundscapes, Grunge, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, Hurry Up and Wait, I Disagree, Indie, J Hus, January, Journalism, Mac Miller, Metal, Mura Masa, Music, Pop-Punk, Poppy, Punk, R&B, R.Y.C, Review, Rock, Video3 Comments

What feels like an eternity ago, when COVID-19 was a distant viral illness beginning to spread throughout Asia, when Harry and Meghan’s decision to step down from royal duties ‘split the nation’, when we were all left realing from the heartbraking scenes of the Australian bushfires, before many other tragic events, including the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter; new music was released, which was a brief respite from the tsunami of bad news and conflicts brought in with the start of a new decade, 2020. Whilst it’s not hard to understate that there are more important things in life than music, music can provide an escape from reality, and provide an outlet to release negative emotions, as well as provide joy and something to look forward to, especially in times such as these. Little did we know, that January was just the start of things to come, and these albums are fresh from the context of now, providing a brief respite as they did then, and now.

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WATCH: FEVER 333 perform a live ‘LONG LIVE THE INNOCENT’ Demonstration

June 4, 2020August 18, 2020Posted in Features, JournalismTagged Alternative, BlackLivesMatter, Demonstration, Fever 333, George Floyd, Journalism, Live Music, Live Show, LONG LIVE THE INNOCENT, Metal, Music, Rock, USA, VideoLeave a comment

Last night, Fever 333 performed a live demonstration to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement, with all proceeds of the livestream going towards the Black Lives Matter and the Minnesota Freedom Fund. Further to the performance, the band shared the below message:

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Feature: My Top 5 Musicians Speaking Out on Racism

June 3, 2020August 18, 2020Posted in Features, JournalismTagged Ahmaud Arbery, Akala, Alternative, America, Audioslave, BlackLivesMatters, BlackoutTuesday, Blues, Crime, Emo, England, Fever 333, George Floyd, Hip Hop, History, J Cole, Jason Aalon Butler, Joey Bada$$, Journalism, Letlive, Live Music, London, Metal, Minneapolis, Music, Musicians, Police, Pressure Cracks, Prophets of Rage, Protest Music, Punk, Racism, Rage Against The Machine, Revolution, Rock, Tom Morello, USA, Video1 Comment

Like many, I’ve been following the news of the shocking and appaling murder of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by police in Minneapolis, USA. The consequential outrage of his killing has not only sparked protests there, but spread to other cities in the United States too and across the world, with demostrations in Auckland, Berlin, London, and more. George Floyd’s death, and the circumstances surrounding it, is one of many examples of police brutality and racism towards the black community in America. As things began to boil up over the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and Breanna Taylor in Louisevill, and the consequent investigation (or the lack of), things have now boiled over to the point where enough is enough, and things need to change. The worldwide response shows that this sort of racist behaviour isn’t just succluded to America, the insututional day-to-day injustices and the things we don’t see, are happening all over.

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Feature: Top 10 Music-Related Things to Watch During Lockdown

May 20, 2020August 18, 2020Posted in Features, JournalismTagged Alternative, Andrea Bocelli, Astronomical Concert, Concert, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Delta 7, Disabled Not Defeated, Documentary, Duomo di Milano, Emo, England, Everybody's Everything, Film, Five4Five Fest, Foals, Fortnite, Gig, Grunge, History, Italy, Journalism, Kerrang!, Knocked Loose, Korn, Lil Peep, Live Music, Live Stream, Lockdown, London, Metal, Mini-Documentary, Movie, Music, Music For Hope, Netflix, New York Hardcore, Nirvana, Noisey, Pop, Post Malone, Punk, Review, Rock, Show, The Nothing, Travis Scott, USA, Vice, Video, YouTube1 Comment

The current situation with COVID-19 has left the world in lockdown, with venues closed and tours cancelled or postponed, a lot of artists have been forced to find new and innovative ways to stay connected wth their fans, such as live streaming performances from their home, going back through the archives and releasing footage of previous shows, or hosting Q&A’s and listening parties. Like many, I’ve had the extra time on my hands to watch a lot of these performances, and found it interesting to see the various ways in which bands and artists are approaching these difficult times.

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