Katie Macbeth's Portfolio.

Stereoboard.com • 5th April 2024

Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter (Album Review) - Stereoboard

“This is not a country album,” Beyoncé writes in the liner notes to ‘Cowboy Carter’. “This is a Beyoncé album.” There aren’t many artists who can pull off that sort of statement but, then again, there aren’t many artists who can pull whole styles of music into their orbit as she can. This is the second instalment in a shapeshifting trilogy that began with 2022’s disco-infused ‘Renaissance’ and across its mammoth 27 track running order Beyoncé leans into country history in fascinating fashion. At

idobi • 26th March 2024

7 Female Punk Artists Leading The Genre

As we commemorate International Women’s Month, it is essential to recognize and appreciate women’s remarkable talent and invaluable contributions to the punk music scene. Women-led punk bands have been making waves for years, but their impact has been particularly significant in recent times, owing to their exceptional musical prowess, electrifying live performances, and inspiring lyrical messages. Women have proven that they are more than capable of holding their own in a predominantly male-dom

DIY • 1st March 2024

The Neu Bulletin (King Isis, Been Stellar, Kaeto and more!)

We’ve also got a handy Spotify playlist where you can find all the Neu tracks we’ve been loving, so you can listen to all our hot tips in one place.

Neu Bulletins are DIY’s guide to the best and freshest new music. Your one stop shop for buzzy new bands and red hot emerging stars, it features all the tracks we’ve been rinsing at full volume over the last week (or in this case, the last fortnight - it’s a bumper two week roundup today, you lucky things!).

An unapologetic rejection of all bounda

DIY • 9th February 2024

The Neu Bulletin (Home Counties, RLY, Gurriers and more!)

We’ve also got a handy Spotify playlist where you can find all the Neu tracks we’ve been loving, so you can listen to all our hot tips in one place!

Neu Bulletins are DIY’s guide to the best and freshest new music. Your one stop shop for buzzy new bands and red hot emerging stars, it features all the tracks we’ve been rinsing at full volume over the last week.

Home Counties continue to build anticipation for their debut album ‘Exactly As It Seems’ with anti-clubbing anthem ‘Uptight’. Driven by

Stereoboard.com • 9th February 2024

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (Album Review) - Stereoboard

Chelsea Wolfe has always been unpredictable. The last we heard from her, she was teaming with Converge to create an unholy racket on their ‘Bloodmoon: I’ collaborative album, having already experimented with genres including folk, goth, rock, and industrial in her solo career. It’s remarkable, then, that her latest album ‘She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She’ manages to venture into uncharted territory once more. These are some of Wolfe’s most daring and experimental tracks yet, with its wr

Indie is not a genre • 8th February 2024

Declan McKenna - What Happened To The Beach? Review

Declan McKenna is a name that every indie kid will be familiar with, with the release of his debut album, ‘What Do You Think About The Car?’, arriving at a crucial point for indie in 2017 – with tracks like ‘Brazil’ and ‘Listen To Your Friends’ gaining traction for being tapped in politically whilst being joyous and lighthearted enough to be big hitters in festival season. Its follow-up, Zeros, allowed him to reach dizzying new heights, pipped to Number 1 in the UK Charts by none other than The

DIY • 2nd February 2024

The Neu Bulletin (Pixey, Blue Bendy, EFÉ and more!)

We’ve also got a handy Spotify playlist where you can find all the Neu tracks we’ve been loving, so you can listen to all our hot tips in one place!

Neu Bulletins are DIY’s guide to the best and freshest new music. Your one stop shop for buzzy new bands and red hot emerging stars, it features all the tracks we’ve been rinsing at full volume over the last week.

Pixey - The Thrill Of It

Pixey is upscaling! Against her mellow indie-pop backdrop, 'The Thrill of It' goes off like a firework. Launc

Indie is not a genre • 30th January 2024

The Last Dinner Party - Prelude To Ecstasy Review

Ever since their grand debut with their first single, ‘Nothing Matters’, their theatrical, lavish, live shows, and wardrobes lined with corsets, overflowing fabrics, and velvets, The Last Dinner Party have become a household name in the past 12 months. With the release of their debut album, Prelude To Ecstasy, their rise shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The album opens with an orchestral instrumental, evoking feelings of melancholy and longing, setting the tone for what’s to come by

God Is In The TV • 25th January 2024

Festival Lineups, Repeated Headliners And Lad Culture

Look at some of the recently announced festival line-ups coming out of the UK right now, taking extra notice of the mid-level festivals such as Y Not, Kendal Calling, Isle Of Wight, and Tramlines. Now take another look at them, this time without paying attention to which is which – can you distinguish between them? Probably not. Why is this? Well, it’s easy to see why. They all have the same headliners, or at least from the same pool. It feels like a discussion that gets bought up every year, an

Stereoboard.com • 23rd January 2024

Marika Hackman - Big Sigh (Album Review) - Stereoboard

Marika Hackman’s ‘Big Sigh’ is just that: a therapeutic release of sadness, stress, and lust described by the indie-rock auteur as the hardest album she has ever had to make. Not that it’s immediately apparent. Hackman lands on her feet with opener The Ground, allowing emotionally resonant, intricate piano work to take centre stage alongside melodies that are reminiscent of the haunting sounds found within Radiohead’s ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’. ​ Lead single No Caffeine, too, is an instant highlight,

Stereoboard.com • 4th January 2024

The List: Stereoboard's Best Albums of 2023 - Stereoboard

Welcome to Stereoboard's Album of the Year rundown for 2023, where we delve into 12 months of head-spinning, pulse-quickening, thought-provoking music. Join us. Following collaborations with Stormzy, Kendrick Lamar and just about every other major act of the last decade, the wait for Sampha’s follow up to his beloved 2018 debut ‘Process’ has felt arduous. Fortunately, Lahai serves up everything fans wanted and so much more beyond that. Across 14 gorgeous tracks, Sampha’s voice soars through the

Stereoboard.com • 4th January 2024

Spector - Here Come the Early Nights (Album Review) - Stereoboard

On ‘Here Come The Early Nights’ Spector pull off a difficult trick — they stay true to who they are while moving on, displaying fresh perspective from within the same fizzing indie songs that made them big fish in the UK indie scene of the early 2010s, alongside bands such as Peace, JAWS and Swim Deep. Hot on the heels of their first LP in more than half a decade — 2022’s ‘Now or Whenever’ — here the band pay homage to musical legends old and new while keeping their own flame alive. The album’s

Stereoboard.com • 22nd November 2023

PinkPantheress - Heaven Knows (Album Review) - Stereoboard

PinkPantheress’s rise has been nothing if not rapid. In the span of a couple of years the 22-year-old has gone from anonymously posting mixes on social media to a couple of million TikTok followers and monthly streaming stats in the same ballpark. Her debut album ‘Heaven Knows’ is perfectly pitched to continue that momentum. This is a collection of Y2K-inspired hyper-pop tracks that show an almost unbelievable amount of promise. Opener Another Life sets the overall mood for the album, with omino

The Forty-Five • 13th November 2023

10 years on, ARTPOP remains Gaga's most misunderstood record

When searching for Lady Gaga’s third studio album, ARTPOP online, you’ll come across numerous results, ranging from streaming platforms, Wikipedia pages, and Amazon links, however you’re also likely to stumble across several articles that question whether the album is ‘better than originally remembered’ or ‘misunderstood in its time’. These headlines are significant, coinciding with a change in opinion around the album, which when it was first released 10 years ago, was unfairly labelled a flop.

DIY • 10th November 2023

The Neu Bulletin (Heartworms, Teeth Machine, Cardinals and more!)

We’ve also got a handy Spotify playlist where you can find all the Neu tracks we’ve been loving, so you can listen to all our hot tips in one place!

Neu Bulletins are DIY’s guide to the best and freshest new music. Your one stop shop for buzzy new bands and red hot emerging stars, it features all the tracks we’ve been rinsing at full volume over the last week.

London-based Heartworms' ‘May I Comply’ is a strong follow up to her debut EP ‘A Comforting Notion’. Grungy and self-assured, Jojo Orme

DIY • 3rd November 2023

The Neu Bulletin (Porij, Divorce, Folly Group and more!)

We’ve also got a handy Spotify playlist where you can find all the Neu tracks we’ve been loving, so you can listen to all our hot tips in one place!

Neu Bulletins are DIY’s guide to the best and freshest new music. Your one stop shop for buzzy new bands and red hot emerging stars, it features all the tracks we’ve been rinsing at full volume over the last week.

Porij - You Should Know Me

'You Should Know Me' may be Porij's first new music of 2023 - and their debut release on Play It Again Sam

Indie is not a genre • 25th October 2023

Viji - So Vanilla Album Review

It’s common to get excited when you hear that an artist has been signed to in-demand record labels such as Dirty Hit and Speedy Wunderground, and Australian-Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Vanilla Jenner, known as Viji, has experienced both in the lead-up to the release of her debut album, . An album that has been completed for almost a year, So Vanilla begins to cement Viji’s status as one of the most exciting artists currently blending 90’s inspired shoegaze and bedroom pop.

Opener, ‘Anything

Indie is not a genre • 19th October 2023

Live at Leeds in the City 2023 Review

Last weekend, Live at Leeds took over Leeds’ city centre for a 150+ act festival which marked the closure of this year’s festival season. Spanning 14 venues across the city, this year’s festival boasted the likes of Shame, Wunderhorse, and the much-hyped The Last Dinner Party, alongside other hotly-tipped artists and bands in what could have been Live at Leeds In The City’s best year yet.

Live at Leeds has been a keen observer of new talent since its launch in 2007. The festival has provided a

Stereoboard.com • 17th October 2023

Troye Sivan - Something To Give Each Other (Album Review) - Stereoboard

It has been a long five years since Troye Sivan released ‘Bloom’, an album that received praise for vulnerable, defiant tracks that honestly discussed his experiences of being a queer man, enabling Sivan to situate himself as one of pop’s most essential voices. Its follow up, ‘Something To Give Each Other’ adds further colours to his palette: it is a 10 track celebration of sex, community, queerness, love, and friendship. Moving swiftly away from the innuendoes found on Bloom, Sivan opens Someth

Stereoboard.com • 9th October 2023

Slow Pulp - Yard (Album Review) - Stereoboard

Releasing their first album, ‘Moveys’, during the pandemic didn’t seem to hinder Slow Pulp’s rise all that much, with critical acclaim settling on a record that felt fitting for gloomy autumn nights. Now, with the release of their second LP, ‘Yard’, the Wisconsin indie-rockers delve further into a sense of isolation in order to deal with the subsequent feelings of re-learning to trust and love others. Opener Gone 2 is an atmospheric, melancholic number that perfectly sets the tone for the album,

DIY • 29th September 2023

The Neu Bulletin (O., Eaves Wilder, Human Interest and more!)

We’ve also got a handy Spotify playlist where you can find all the Neu tracks we’ve been loving, so you can listen to all our hot tips in one place!

Neu Bulletins are DIY’s guide to the best and freshest new music. Your one stop shop for buzzy new bands and red hot emerging stars, it features all the tracks we’ve been rinsing at full volume over the last week.

The Speedy Wunderground poster kids behind O. – drummer Tash Keary and baritone saxophonist Joseph Henwood – got a lot of people excite

Indie is not a genre • 28th September 2023

Float Along Festival 2023

As festival season draws to a close for another year, Sheffield’s Float Along pokes its head through the curtain, ready to take to the stage for an encore. A multi-venue showcase taking place in Sheffield’s city centre, Float Along takes over The Leadmill, Sidney & Matilda and Corporation, bringing together three venues and a total of six stages in a showcase that displays some of the most hotly-tipped acts that the industry currently has to offer, and even throwing in a talk with BBC Radio 6 Mu

DIY • 15th September 2023

The Neu Bulletin (Gretel Hänlyn, Home Counties, bby and more!)

We’ve also got a handy Spotify playlist where you can find all the Neu tracks we’ve been loving, so you can listen to all our hot tips in one place!

Neu Bulletins are DIY’s guide to the best and freshest new music. Your one stop shop for buzzy new bands and red hot emerging stars, it features all the tracks we’ve been rinsing at full volume over the last week.

Clara Amfo’s Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1 earlier this week, Gretel Hänlyn’s ‘War With America’ was inspired by a trip to

Indie is not a genre • 6th September 2023

Manchester Psych Fest 2023 Review

The first weekend of September can only mean one thing in Manchester, as the curtains of summer festival season begin to come to a close Manchester Psych Fest steps out onto the stage as a last hurrah. Uniting some of the city’s most iconic venues, hosting big names in the likes of the stained-glass beauty of The Albert Hall and the bouncing floors of the iconic Ritz, whilst smaller acts find themselves tightly packed in turn-offs on Oxford Road – with Deaf Institute and YES holding some of the