No Pretense - Music Reviews

 Harry Mcilroy - harrymcilroy100@gmail.com Glass Ceilings  "2015" Glass Ceilings are an Indie pop band originating from Birmingham, England. After releasing a few singles and steadily growing their profile through confidently fiery live performances throughout 2019 the worldwide pandemic hit, an event that threatened to kill upcoming music acts stone dead. After taking most of 2020 off and going through a lineup change, Glass Ceilings return with the fantastically anthemic 2015 , a single showcasing the bands obvious mainstream-ready talent for songwriting and lyricism alike. Instantly setting the mood with a really pretty yet subtly melancholic guitar passage, 2015 is immediately impressively atmospheric. Indie and proud, this brightly dark track encapsulates the band working like a newly oiled machine. All the parts work together fantastically, as if any one element was missing it wouldn’t work nearly as well. The drums (played by Qemal Torra) are something of a highlight,...

 Harry Mcilroy Myriam Adams  "LA" Hailing from Birmingham, Myriam Adams are a self-dubbed “post-emo pop” band. Forming in 2019 as college best friends, the band is part of the UK’s burgeoning live-oriented indie-rock scene, and have been slowly building a following through high-octane live performances ever since. This mode of being for these bands became impossible after the pandemic hit, which is a problem addressed in the wonderful and affecting mini-documentary “year two” (linked below) which the band released earlier this year. It addresses the myriad of problems touring bands have had with covid, as well as the general strain on mental health the lockdown has caused. During this time away from live shows Myriams Adams have honed their songwriting skills, which is evident on their new track, LA. From the very first second, you can tell that this is going to be a crowd pleaser. Wasting no time with an extended intro, the band bursts into an emotive, driving melody that pr...

 Harry Mcilroy Black Midi - Cavalcade   genre - art-rock, noise-rock, alternative, jazz fusion   9/10 Black Midi are a (x) band hailing from London, England. You see the (x) I placed there instead of a genre? That’s because trying to pin down black midi’s new album, Cavalcade in a simple, non mastubatory genre title would be a complete waste of time. The most simple name I could come up with was “progressive jazz-fusion art-rock”, which in all honesty is even more embarrassing than simply calling it “alt-rock”. Every single damn review, think-piece and article I've read on this band refers to them as something completely disparate and confusing, so I like viewing them in a different light. I see bands like this under the banner of “post-streaming”. We now live in a time where streaming music has completely taken over how we consume and put out music. Even though the development of the internet itself started this revolution of near infinite choice, it was stream...

Harry Mcilroy  performance link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2MCATB75C8  Clipping. - live for no one during a global pandemic  genre - industrial hip hop, horror-core, noise, experimental  10/10 Clipping (stylised as Clipping.) are an experimental hip hop trio fronted by actor, rapper, and now Tony award winning Hamilton star, Daveed Diggs. That’s quite a resume, isn't it? And judging by the relatively family friendly tone of Hamilton itself, one could assume Daveed would continue to work within this niche.  But in reality, the sound and lyrical content of Clipping might make them the least family friendly group out there. More influenced by Public Enemy and Whitehouse than Broadway, Clipping is easily one of the most interesting and cutting edge groups making music right now. They are one of the few bands where “unique” isn't hyperbole. This group expertly and seamlessly explores the genres of both harsh noise and hardcore hip hop. The impressive, complex...

  Harry Mcilroy  Alias & Doseone - Less is Orchestra Genre - Alternative Hip Hop, IDM 9/10 Less is Orchestra was released right after ridiculously prolific underground producer Alias, whose career span over 20 years, sadly passed away in the March of 2018. He was a co-founder of Anticon, one of the best rap labels no ones ever heard of.  Alias and company came to prominence just around the massive rise in easy to access music production software, ranging from free applications like Garageband to any number of online beat sequencers. This all meant that the creativity hidden in any inspired person could suddenly and very easily be tapped into. The unfortunate downside of this unrelenting creativity and rejection of accessibility was that mainstream appreciation was always just out of the labels reach. Nowadays, you don’t hear a thing from this forgotten surrealistic art-rap music scene. And listening to this album, you do kind of get why. The unrelentingly complex, idm...

Harry Mcilroy Xiu Xiu - Girl With Basket of Fruit  Genre - Experimental, Surreal, Ritual Ambient, Post Industrial 9/10 Xiu Xiu is an Experimental/Art Rock band formed in 2002 by lead singer Jamie Stewart. They have made what I believe to be some of the most boundary-ignoring and out-there music that still somehow functions, albeit very vaguely at times, in a “pop” realm. That being said, making a case for an album like this is no easy task. The sheer lack of recognisable structure, the near-incomprehensible lyrics, the deeply unsettling sounds constantly thrown at you, it all comes together to create one of the most disorientating musical experiences you could ever have. And despite my love for this album, with no context or point of reference, this listening experience could easily be straight-up unpleasant. So before the actual review, bear with me as I give you an insight into my personal experience with this album, and how I fell in love with it.      Let me take...

 Harry Mcilroy Taylor Swift - Folklore 7/10 Genre - Chamber Pop, Folktronica, Indie Folk Taylor Swift is- look, is it really necessary for me to tell you who Taylor Swift is? She became world-famous at the age of 17, somehow selling over 200 million albums in a time when they are barely a respected art form. Trying to place her in a historical and genre context is quite an interesting task, as I have quite literally grown up with Taylor Swift in the background. For as long as I've been conscious, some Swift songs have been on the billboard charts. Even typing her name out sounds more like referencing a brand than a human being. That being said, Taylor has always been kind of an anomaly in the mainstream pop game. She’s always had a slight air of authenticity, yet doesn’t really elicit many strong opinions. She’s no Madonna or Britney Spears, where theatrics are key, or on the other side of the spectrum she doesn't exactly fit into the Fiona Apples or Kate Bushs, where poetic ly...