Favourite albums of 2025

This year has pro­duced a boun­ty of rich­es of incred­i­ble vari­ety and wild imag­i­na­tion, com­menc­ing in Jan­u­ary with a top­i­cal­ly suit­able release by Brid­get Hay­den called Cold Blows the Wind, before mov­ing on to the sun­ny sounds of Divorce (if that does­n’t sound too odd). And there’s a bit of a Bru­tal­ist theme going on…

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The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation album review

The Besnard Lakes’ pre­vi­ous album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thun­der­storm Warn­ings, was cre­at­ed after the death of the father of Jace Lasek in 2019. The Besnard Lakes’ front man cre­at­ed songs that helped him work through his emo­tions as he explored the dark­ness of death, while search­ing for light and…

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New Track ‘In Hollywood’ heralds The Besnard Lakes’ upcoming album

UK TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED NOW:Thurs­day 12 Feb Green Door Store, BrightonFri­day Feb 13 Lon­don. CHANGED TO MOTH CLUB­Sat Feb 14 Hare & Hounds, Birm­ing­hamSun­day Feb 15 Bru­denell Social Club, LeedsTues­day Feb 17 The Rum Shack Glas­gowWeds Feb 18 Yes Man­ches­ter Excite­ment is at record lev­els at Gourmet Gigs Tow­ers as word has winged its way…

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Albums of the year 2022

Look­ing over our choic­es for albums of the year, sev­er­al fea­ture dreams, frac­tured mem­o­ries in an ambi­ent set­ting… artists search­ing for clues from the past to help them make sense of the present. Per­haps it’s a post Covid thing, as we escaped our con­fines and moved war­i­ly, or rushed glad­ly, out into open spaces again,…

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The Besnard Lakes live at Oslo Hackney

We’ve wait­ed over two frus­trat­ing years but here they are – Mon­tre­al psych indie band The Besnard Lakes return to UK shores for a run of live shows. Actu­al­ly this night at Oslo in Hack­ney is their penul­ti­mate on the tour. The venue has sched­uled a club night for half an hour after the Bezzies…

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The Besnard Lakes unveil She’s An Icicle

Just a few tan­ta­lis­ing weeks ahead of their tour, which includes dates in the UK, The Besnard Lakes have released a sin­gle called She’s An Ici­cle. This new track is in keep­ing with the feel and atmos­phere of their last, tri­umphant album The Besnard Lakes Are The Last Of The Thun­der­storm Warn­ings, released in early…

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Top albums and EPs 2021

This has been an abun­dant year for new music, hard­ly sur­pris­ing as artists were forced into lock­down, stuck in their hous­es / bed­rooms /studios with only synths and gui­tars for com­pa­ny. We’re delight­ed to bring you Gourmet Gigs’ favourites this year: a com­bi­na­tion of albums and an EP. A few long-await­­ed albums turned out to…

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The Besnard Lakes are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings: review

The Besnard Lakes don’t make things easy for them­selves, pub­lic­i­ty wise. The new album which launched on Jan­u­ary 2021, The Besnard Lakes are The Last of the Great Thun­der­storm Warn­ings isn’t a title that fits neat­ly into social media posts, as I’m sure they know. But the Cana­di­an out­fit don’t par­tic­u­lar­ly care – noth­ing is…

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Top albums, EPs and songs for 2020

Let’s go with the pos­i­tive. This year there has been a pletho­ra of amaz­ing new music from artists both well estab­lished and emerg­ing. For many peo­ple, lis­ten­ing to music has been a life­line to turn to in these trou­bled times. And with lock­down, some have been able to redis­cov­er the plea­sure of play­ing an album…

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The Besnard Lakes announce a new album and share glorious track, Raindrops

It has been a thrill in these dark times to hear the announce­ment of new music from The Besnard Lakes. The Mon­tre­al band’s impend­ing album, to be unveiled 29 Jan­u­ary 2021, is titled – in their typ­i­cal prog-influ­enced style – The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thun­der­storm Warn­ings. I’ve been obsessed with…

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