9 Bar | Food Review

I am on the go a lot so I like to have some snacks in my bag. Cereal bars are a particular favourite.
9bar have re-launched with a sleek new makeover and I tried their 5 varieties – Original, Nutty, Pumpkin, Flax and Organic. 9bars are gluten, dairy and wheat free. 9bars are handmade in Wales.


Original

The original bar is crunchy and delicious. It is also very filling. A brilliant snack. This bar is substantial and not too sweet.

Nutty

This bar is filled with nuts and seeds. Really good cereal bar, and with chocolate on top. Yum.

Pumpkin

I love pumpkin seeds. This bar also has a brilliant carob coating. You can see all of the seeds. It tastes sweet and is filling.

Flax

Flax seed is very popular with the health conscious. Flax seed is a super food, making these bars even more healthy. Tastes brilliant too.

Organic

This organic bar is tasty and pure organic heaven. Topped with chocolate and full of seeds. The perfect on the go bar.

The 9bar range is available from Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Morrison’s, Holland & Barrett and independent health food stores nationwide. All varieties are available in 4 x 40g multi packs, RRP £1.89, and in 50g singles, RRP 70p.

King of Cats – America | Music Review

King of Cats is a boy called Max from Oxford but I’m afraid I don’t know about the name. I don’t like to ask. He sends me nice emails and is very polite but I do need to get one thing off my chest: I don’t much like cats. My sister has one that looks like it is going to defecate when you look at it. My parents have one called Pumpkin who drew blood from me the first day we met, and 19 years later she’s nothing if not Machiavellian. What I do like, though, is the King of Cats.

This album is what happens when a singer-songwriter from Oxford takes himself off to America to travel around on greyhound buses armed with only an acoustic guitar and a four track. I say only but I hoped he’d taken some clean pants and a toothbrush but Max hasn’t let on to me about that so we’ll have to assume.

America, the debut record by KoC, was committed to tape in some odd places whilst on his travels in the USA. Max recorded on a cherry picker in Seattle, in the mountains of Oregon and at a hardcore show in San Fransisco. Having sat in on more recording sessions than is enjoyable I wish more were conducted in such delightful surroundings. The results are really rather good.

Each song on the album is named after where it was recorded. My personal favourite is “Hooters Casino, Las Vegas, whilst Mike was showering” but other stand out titles include “Next to the train-tracks in Flagstaff, Arizona” and “on a plane, in the high desert and Seattle”. It’s a nice record.

The album begins with the aforementioned “One a plane . . . “which builds with each of the many plucking of guitar strings. It sounds like Super XX Man were they to have been from Middle England.

Each song captures not only the sound of Max’s guitars and vocals but also incidental sounds such as dogs barking and the sounds of people clapping and talking. At the end of “Golden Gate Park . . .” a couple can be heard arguing between themselves including the female, Suzie, uttering the cutting line of “I’m not trying to be mean but I just don’t give a shit.” She’s set her stall out clearly there and so I will do the same for you: this is a good record. If you like the idea of the folky acoustic sound of the Mouldy Peaches with the vocals of Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel then this is a record for you. Otherwise move along, because, like Suzie, you just won’t give a shit.

America is released on 19th May 2012 via http://kingofcats.bandcamp.com/album/america