Porridge Radio
Pieces of Heaven: Live at The Centre Pompidou
(Secretly Canadian)
⭑⭑⭑☆☆

BAD news — Porridge Radio have just split up, playing their last shows earlier this month.

Led by songwriter and guitarist Dana Margolin, since 2015 the Brighton band have released a batch of great albums full of intense indie rock and even more intense lyrics of doomed romance and despair.

This digital-only album of a concert at the Parisian landmark brilliantly documents their emotive live act, with the 18-song set leaning heavily on their 2024 album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me.

Anybody, with Margolin sing-shouting the mantra-like line “I don’t know anybody else/Don’t want to know anybody else,” is a powerful opener, and the catharsis-euphoria doesn’t let up until the end of closer Back To The Radio.

A fitting swansong from one of the best British alternative acts of the last decade.

The Cribs
Selling A Vibe
(PIAS)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

KEY players in the indie rock revival of the 2000s, with their scuzzy guitar riffs, shouty choruses and chaotic live performances The Cribs won a fervent fan base.

Two decades later and their new record, their ninth, confirms Wakefield’s finest are still very much a going concern.

According to the press release it’s “an unapologetic celebration of family” — remember the boys in the band are three brothers, Ryan, Gary and Ross Jarman.

Their knack for writing anthemic songs with killer hooks remains — the infectious Never The Same is up there with Mirror Kisses.

And while there is a general sense of keeping to the musical template that has served them so well over the years, Looking For The Wrong Guy, an acoustic number infused with emotional vulnerability, is something of a departure. 

Still worthy rock ‘n’ roll heroes.

Bjorn Meyer
Convergence
(ECM)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

BJORN MEYER is clearly a significant figure in ECM’s extended European jazz family, having recorded with Anouar Brahem (The Astounding Eyes of Rita, Souvenance) and Nik Bartsch’s Ronin (Holon, Llyria).

On Convergence, his second instrumental solo album for the label, the Swede plays the electric six-string bass and writes all the music.

The compositions seem to fit into two broad categories. The majority of the atmospheric set is taken up by slower, meditative tracks that hark back to the sparser work of German bassist Eberherd Weber.

Then, on Motion, Magnetique and the title track, he considerably ups the ante, creating pulsating sonic landscapes that feel like they owe a debt to Bartsch’s mathy jazz-rock.

I have no idea how Meyer creates all the different sounds on his own (loops? Clever production?) but it’s very exciting and effective.