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Music heard, and observed

Enjoying established acts | Championing new and independent artists | Event promotions | Press kits, demos, EPKs, press passes, tickets etc. welcome: therealmusicobserver (at) gmail (dot) com

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Silvi: Burning

on August 08, 2022

alt-pop alternative Scotland Silvi singer-songwriter

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Charity Stow: What The World Wants

on August 07, 2022

alt-folk alt-pop alt-rock alternative Americana Charity Stow

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Glastonbury 2022: Some standout moments

on July 03, 2022

Big Thief festival First Aid Kit Glastonbury Holly Humberstone IDLES live music Olivia Rodrigo Sam Fender Wet Leg Wolf Alice

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William The Conqueror + Chloe Foy: The Big Difference, Leicester [Live]

on June 15, 2022

alt-folk alt-rock blues Chloe Foy Leicester live music roots William The Conqueror

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Music Observer Friday highlights - 03.06.22

on June 03, 2022

222 Alela Diane Beth Orton Frances Gein Friday highlights Georgi Clarke Headshrinkers The Great Leslie

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Lossline: Death Masks

on June 01, 2022

alt-rock alternative gloomcore indie Lossline Manchester

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YNES: Fake What Your Mama Gave Ya [Interview]

on May 24, 2022

alternative Coventry indie Indie Midlands interview pop punk post-punk YNES

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Metric: Doomscroller

on May 21, 2022

alternative Canada electronic electropop indie Metric

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Lizzie Esau: The Enemy

on May 13, 2022

alt-rock indie Lizzie Esau Newcastle

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All roads lead to Leicester: Emma Mae + JJ Lovegrove + Greysha + Emily Carr [Live]

on May 02, 2022

Emily Carr Emma Mae Greysha indie JJ Lovegrove Leicester live music

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New release horizon scanner:

11/1/25 - Rosie Gault: Dim lights
29/1/25 - Dictator: Middle of the road (EP)
7/2/25 - Arliston: Disappointment machine (Album)
28/2/25 - Hachiku: The joys of being pure at heart (Album(

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Popular Posts

The Music Observer 10: Looking back at 2023 [Albums]

Here's the Music Observer round up of standout albums of the year gone by. As you can see from the length of this post, it’s been hard to keep up with the albums this year; we've witnessed another wonderful flood of great musical art. It's really encouraging to see that this art-form is anything but dead, and in fact is thriving and growing! (My top picks of this year's singles can be found here and EPs are here .) THE MUSIC OBSERVER 10: ALBUMS As I've said before, for me a good album must work as an end-to-end product. It must be something curated with thought and care, with a coherent theme, story or arc. These are the 10 albums which met that brief for me, more than any others I’ve listened to, during 2023. As with previous years, I've also included a lot of "Honourable mentions". (Note: These are not ranked, but are in alphabetical order by artist name.) Coach Party - Killjoy I put this album straight on my shortlist as soon as I heard it in S...

Bottlemoth: Even Us Ghosts [Album]

Updated 8th November to include video Given the whole point of this blog is to write words about music, sometimes finding the right language proves really hard. There sometimes just don't seem to be enough adjectives in English. Bottlemoth have produced a debut album which has posed me a few problems in that regard. They're a fresh five-piece band with plenty of experience having been formed in January 2024 by the former members of Bridges 'Even Us Ghosts' was released on 18th October to stream, of course, and also on gorgeous-looking limited edition vinyl (links below). It's a 10-track record which encompasses all Bottlemoth stand for, musically: elements of timeless yet modern indie-folk, crisp pop/alt-rock drum production, warm Americana inflections, sublime vocals... That's quite a few adjectives already. 'Landslides (People Change)' opens the proceedings: a brief burst of ambient sound, and then straight in with soft but firmly-hitting guitars and...

Amber Saqladi: Becoming a modern-day Siren [Interview]

Amber Saqladi began her journey as a song-writer scribbling poetry at age seven, before graduating to writing songs with a felt-tipped pen on sheets of A3 paper. But it took some time for this pastime to evolve into a way of life. "It's always been something I've done but it was never anything I really took seriously growing up. I was a very academic kid, so that's what I expected to do," Amber explains. By 15, though, she had started writing music more seriously, and gigging. "Since then, it's become undeniable that that's the thing I enjoy the most - being able to be creative, and be academic at the same time," she says. Amber quickly established herself as a familiar name on the music scene in her home town of Leicester, where she also recorded her first three singles at HQ Studios . "The music scene in Leicester is absolutely lovely - it's very community based. I can always count on the other musicians there to support me, and I...

William The Conqueror: Move On

I woke up this morning with Move On in my head. It's the first track from William the Conqueror's most recent album (Maverick Thinker). This sort of occurrence is usually a good sign of a perfect candidate for the blog, so I had no choice but to follow the guidance of fate. I was tempted to write about the whole album, but having just done an album post yesterday, I thought I'd stick to just a single track, for now (although I've include a link to the whole LP below). But I think I need to put this in some context. As mentioned, this is the opening track (of 10), and what an intro this is - it brings energy and drive immediately, and really sets the scene for what's to come on the rest of the record perfectly. I can also imagine how well this would work as an opener to a live show. William the Conqueror purveys exceptionally good quality bluesy rock, which in some parts turns a bit rootsy, with a Southern US twist. And these guys are from Cornwall. There are influ...

The Music Observer 10: Looking back at 2021 [Singles]

Here are my top 10 single-song picks of 2021! ( Albums and an introduction are here . EPs are here .) THE MUSIC OBSERVER 10: SINGLES Whether a 2-minute sprint or an 8-minute indulgence, is there really anything better than listening to a great song? There is so much good stuff out there, and I feel very privileged to have heard so much of it over the past year. (Note: These are not ranked, but are in alphabetical order by artist name.) Casual Sex - BLAB This song from BLAB was a very early feature on the blog, and remains one of my absolute favourites of the year. Fran has somehow distilled every satisfying element of lo-fi pop punk into one song and it's completely delicious: lyrics, delivery, guitar riffs, drum sounds, silences. I've since written about two of BLAB's other releases, and she's put out a fabulous EP this year, too. [ Listen here . Read more of my thoughts on this song, and others, here ] On That Day - Chloe Lorentzen ...

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