MUSIC FAN'S MIC -

Spotlight: Insect Guide

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:08:00 +0000

Words: Emmy Droege

Dark. Indie. Shoegazer. Pop. If any of these words grab at you, then take note of Insect Guide, a three-piece band hailing from Leeds who are set to release their second album, ‘Dark Days & Nights’ this May. The band received widespread praise and recognition for debut album ‘6ft in Love’ in November 2007, and their momentum in the musical underground clearly hasn’t slowed down since, having released a limited EP of remixes by Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3/Spectrum) in 2008.

Now with their future sophomore release, the band brings their distinctive skills and veteran know-how of flowing into the mainstream. Title track and upcoming single ‘Dark Days & Nights’ is a moody, poignant tune which talks of ‘sticky club floors’ and ‘see-through love’, all while being beautifully smashed up against an atmospheric wall of sound.

Meanwhile, ‘This City’ offers a distinctive blend of sounds raining down from the pop clouds. Clocking in just over two minutes, the track carries the kind of infectious riff reminiscent of 1980s English post-punk band, Psychedelic Furs.

Finally, for those of you who remember the time when Manchester indie-rock band James hit their ‘commercial’ peak in the mid ‘90s -or if you just simply have great taste and are a fan of the band – listen to Insect Guide’s ‘Down From Here” and try to convince me that the fantastic drum line doesn’t resemble ‘Sometime’ from the glorious ‘Laid’ album. As with the band’s previous tracks, ‘Down From Here’ offers a supersonic collision of chaos and beauty, making the overall song poppy and very much accessible.

To think that I’ve been blown away by just sampling of songs from the band’s forthcoming album is quite remarkable. Needless to say, I look forward to enjoying their full LP, as I’m sure many others will too.

Live: Yuck; Greenside Hotel, Leslie, 17/3/2010

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:59:58 +0000

Words: Martyn Young

Despite Yuck making some of the most thrilling, exciting, loud and melodic pop music in the UK at the moment, the audience for the this hastily arranged gig at a small pub in Fife numbers approximately 30 people, evidently the charms of Yuck have yet to be discovered by the majority of people but no matter, they will be soon, this band are going places.

Yuck are a four piece band from London. Formed from the ashes of defunct teenage indie-popsters Cajun Dance Party, Yuck make really loud yet hugely melodic indie rock redolent of a number of late eighties lo-fi American indie bands, Dinosaur Jr immediately come to mind, not just for the retro Dinosaur t-shirt sported by guitarist Max but the way his guitar swoosh’s and crashes and floats along effortlessly carrying hook after hook but just as things threaten to get too nice and safe, a haze of reverb and foreboding feedback envelopes the room, captivating the ears of the admittedly few people present.

There is not a lot to Yuck, they are clearly in thrall to the music they love but this belief in their lo-fi sensibilities and the power of noise aligned with melody marks them out as a welcome change from the shiny buffed up pop peddled by any number of new indie acts. Their set at the Greenside is short and distinct, a sharp direct blast of white hot alt-pop. Recent single ‘Georgia’ is a joy, riding along on an insanely catchy guitar hook, the boy/girl joint vocals chime in unison and it sounds like a number one record in an alt-pop heaven. There is an argument for saying the music is backwards looking and far to in thrall to the past but when your songs are as good as Yuck’s that argument is rendered immediately redundant.

Grass House: A Cockroach

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:34:00 +0000

Words: Gareth O’Malley

Thinking big is quite often a good thing. Just ask London quartet Grass House, who evidently have a lot on their minds. They’re quite comfortable dealing with Big Issues, however - and thankfully ‘A Cockroach”s lyrics don’t merit any cringing. The way I see it, the song’s either about the collapse of the global financial system (‘There’s cracks in the foundations, and the house is burning down’), or making sure you don’t get too ambitious in life and thus bring about your own downfall (there are references to ‘aiming for the ceiling when the stars are too hot’, and we’re told that ‘many times those things have burned the fingers of mankind’).

In fact, the song is packed full of memorable lyrics and images. The only way this would fall to pieces was if it didn’t have a memorable tune to go along with it. Once again, thankfully, this brooding three-minute wonder does: a quite fittingly ominous and bass-driven one that takes off halfway through as powerful drumming becomes the track’s focal point. A very impressive start from this lot, and I’m sure there’s even better material on the way.

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Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:22:00 +0000

Words: Emmy Droege

I often find that if you listen to the buzz about an up and coming singer or band before the mainstream hype lays it on thick, you’re usually rewarded. Plus, you have the added bonus of being smug about it while the rest of the world catches up.

This seems to be the case with Laura Marling and her latest folk-pop album, ‘I Speak Because I Can’. Granted, she did receive a significant nod in her native England with the Mercury-nominated ‘Alas, I Cannot Swim’ debut two years ago, Marling’s second album is inclusive enough to be universally recognized and loved.

But before the global buildup truly sets in, let’s just say that album opener and current single ‘Devil’s Spoke’ is enough to turn the earth’s axis, creating a roar of folk rhythms that will spin you back in time to a debauchery of some European medieval festival.

Speaking of history, Marling has compared to carrying a similar creativity to a young Joni Mitchell, and that can certainly be seen in a song like ‘Rambling Man’ where Marling professes that “Let it always be known that I was who I am.” In the instance, we see a Marling who grows with mature, if not darker, lyrics backed up with equally mature songwriting finesse.

At just 20 years old, it’s doubtful that Marling is truly at her musical peak. One thing is evident, though, and that is she has the talent to go down in the books as a sophisticated folk-root legend, and tracks like ‘Alpha Shallows’ show her craftswomanship, with what starts off as an acoustic, dark, moody tune ends in an uplifting, rockier spirit, while her emotions remain steady and constant.

‘Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)’, meanwhile, offers a sincere ode to her hometown of Hampshire in the quaint wintertime. Further proof that Marling is growing up is displayed in “Hope In The Air”. She speaks beyond her years of the glum fact that sometimes hope can’t be found everywhere after all as members from Noah and the Whale and Mumford and Sons provide cyclical instrumentation and occasional backing vocals. One of the great things about Marling’s ten-track LP is that there are no filler songs here. While each song offers themes regarding the curve balls in life, they’re unique enough to be listened to individually or as a whole, but I recommend the latter to truly appreciate the homerun of an album she just scored.

8.7

mp3: Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) [Mark Riley Session]

We Have Band: WHB

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:30:18 +0000

Words: Gareth O’Malley

Good things come to those who wait, or so the saying goes. We would certainly agree with that. We hoped that this London trio’s debut full-length would surface sooner rather than later, and the wait’s almost at an end. The record, ‘WHB’, is quite highly anticipated in certain circles, and quite rightly so, because its creators’ output has been nothing less than stellar so far. Now, finally, We Have Band have album.

Does it deliver on the promise that such tracks as ‘Hear It In The Cans’ and ‘Oh!’ did? Certainly - and there’s more. While the three-piece (Darren Bancroft and husband-and-wife Thomas and Dede W-P) have admittedly taken a while to find their ‘sound’, they have struck gold at long last. ‘WHB’ is cohesive, while at the same time quite diverse.

The band have said that while the record has its poppier moments, there are darker shades hidden within, and we see where they’re coming from. ‘Piano’ and ‘Buffet’ make for an unsettling opening pair. The latter’s two-note guitar intro gives a nod to the group’s post-punk leanings, before settling in to something like a moodier Bloc Party crossed with Joy Division.

Then, in about as complete a contrast as you could ask for, we are thrown into the synth stabs and rushing percussion of ‘Divisive’. With an anthemic, gang-vocals chorus of, ‘We’re all divisive / You take me out this way’, the song (that some would consider aptly named) points to the diversity at the heart of ‘WHB’.

By the time the album gets to one of its highlights, ‘How To Make Friends’ (which comes coasting in on a hook that even Snow Patrol would kill for), we’ve been treated to the house-influenced ‘Love, What You Doing?’ and the razor-sharp guitar-driven ‘Oh!’. What follows is what could pass for a stadium-worthy electro-indie track. Its chorus reaches for the stratosphere, the focal point of an uplifting four minutes that shows that We Have Band can hop between genres with the best of them.

The trick is again repeated with another three-song run. The handclap-laden ‘Hear It In The Cans’ comes either side of ‘WHB”s dancefloor-ready lead single ‘Honeytrap’ and the decidedly darker ‘Centrefolds and Empty Screens’, which exhibits a clear Talking Heads influence with its introspective lyrics: ‘You were warned what was happening, but you still fall short / Can’t separate from the smiling face / Can’t separate from the warm embrace’. There’s even a little bit of Editors in there.

It’s not often that the group go for quirkiness, but they indulge themselves with the fractured, disjointed ‘You Came Out’, which finds Dede taking lead vocals, to superb effect. This is followed with the album’s title track, on which We Have Band give themselves over entirely to their electro side, and produce what can only be described as a breathtakingly intense three minutes.

Hero Knows, the album’s closer, is the other stadium-ready track here, rounding the album out in style. Here, Darren and Dede trade vocals, as the song builds to a pulsing, pounding finish.

While there are poppy moments here, ‘WHB’ is quite an intense affair when you look at the bigger picture. It is somehow appropriate, then, that the record closes with the words: ‘Please don’t wish away the dark days / They’re the ones that make it all worthwhile’. This album can inspire quite the mixture of emotions, among which is sheer awe. This is an assured, confident debut, the sound of a band who seem to have much more experience than they do. We Have Band, then. They have album. They have talent. They have given us something rather extraordinary.

9.2

Audiovisuals: Divisive // Honeytrap

Ten Bears - Braces Debut single from Salford band Ten Bears,...

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:10:04 +0000

Ten Bears - Braces

Debut single from Salford band Ten Bears, ready to go on April 19th through East City. The song and video are as good as each other, so the group are getting off to the best of starts, whatever way you look at it. Very promising!

Stars and Sons: If It's Good For Me

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:39:59 +0000

Words: Gareth O’Malley

This lot don’t do things by halves, that much is clear. Brighton quartet Stars and Sons throw absolutely everything - including the kitchen sink - into their songs, and forthcoming single ‘If It’s Good For Me’ is no exception.

A piano-led belter of a song, it is strangely reminiscent of Elle Milano (at least to an extent), which is obviously a good thing. The raucous three minutes of pop brilliance finds singer Mike Lord having a pop at the so-called healthy lifestyle, tongue lodged firmly in cheek as he delivers such lines as, ‘Do not adjust my routine / I’ll eat organic baked beans / I’ll drink Yakult, no caffeine, if it’s good for me’.

The song’s taken from the band’s debut album, ‘Good Morning Mother’, due for digital release… rather soon actually - April 26th. Everything points to the record being eccentric and eclectic. Will it also be excellent? Here’s hoping.

Audiovisuals

The Lodger: Flashbacks

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:14:45 +0000

Words: Gareth O’Malley

The juxtaposition of ideas present on the new record from Leeds trio The Lodger is quite arresting on first listen. The band have clearly tried to push themselves even further forward on ‘Flashbacks’, and it shows. The amount of instruments used pushes them into Los Campesinos! territory: they do indeed sound like a septet at times here, even though the group consists of only Ben Siddall, Joe Margetts and Bruce Renshaw. It’s not clear whether this album, the band’s third after ‘Grown Ups’ and ‘Life Is Sweet’, is their best, but it stakes quite a claim.

A gloriously upbeat and poppy record, ‘Flashbacks’ marries infectious hooks and melodies with self-deprecating and quite often bitter lyrics. You can make comparisons with, say, The Smiths, or perhaps early James.

So far, so humdrum, you might say - but this album has an ace up its sleeve: the fact that it has an almost perfect flow to it. An album as short as this (32 minutes, ten tracks) can’t afford to have any filler, and just as well that this doesn’t. Each track fits in perfectly.

Shoegazey opener ‘The Back Of My Mind’ showcases the band’s uncanny way with a tune. It’s the kind of song that demands repeated listens, thumping drums mixing with a confident bass line and squealing, feedback-laden guitars to great effect.

Lead single ‘Have A Little Faith In People’ throws some brass and some jangly guitars into the mix, not to mention a killer, harmony-filled chorus and line after line of memorable, simple yet powerful lyrics. Siddall sings of becoming more kind to those around him: ‘I had been dreaming, a better place where I got along with the human race’.

‘The End of the Affair’ finds the three-piece channelling the spirit of ‘Warnings/Promises’-era Idlewild, as, backed by marching drums and staccato strings, a story of a relationship in crisis unfolds, as The Lodger move into baroque-pop territory, with impressive results.

This is followed by the album’s title track, an orchestral mini-epic driven by gentle acoustic guitar and a melody so infectious it should come with a warning. The achingly tender track proves to be one of the record’s highlights.

Siddall’s band may have gotten compared to The Smiths, but, well, he is no Morrissey when it comes to lyrics, relying too often on rhyming couplets. However, most of the time this works in his favour, lending a sense of charm to the album.

‘Welcome To My World’ finds the band having a go at math-pop, while Siddall offers another take on a doomed marriage (love, and more importantly the loss of it, is a rather prominent theme here): ‘I almost used instructions / I very nearly read my notes / Now we’re on our knees and at each other’s throats’.

The highlight, however, is the thrilling, up-tempo, two-minute wonder ‘Nothing’s Impossible’. The gang’s all here: organs, tremolo electric guitars, perky acoustic ones, and a rhythm section (Margetts/Renshaw) that play off each other brilliantly. Put it all together and you have one of the group’s best songs to date.

The 12/8 stomp of ‘Stand Up!’ makes for a great penultimate track, driven by, of all things, some honky-tonk piano. It leads perfectly into closer ‘Running Back Home To You’. The brass section takes the lead here, with a star turn from the backing vocalists, and, once again, Renshaw’s simple yet oh-so-effective drumming. It makes for a great summary of everything ‘Flashbacks’ is about: lyrics that are easy to relate to (‘I see your face/ I will put in it its place if someone gives me the chance, or just the slightest opportunity’), the kind of musicianship that makes you think for just a moment that summer’s already here…. just all-round fun, basically. It sounds as if The Lodger had an absolute whale of a time making this record, and hope that it will be every bit as fun for their listeners. Well, it certainly was for me.

8.2

Stream: Have A Little Faith In People (MySpace)

Live: Director/Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters, Bar Ritz, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland - 6/3/2010

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:10:00 +0000

Credit goes to Keith McGreal for the rather excellent photo.

Words: Gareth O’Malley

When I last saw Director, it was quite possibly the most depressing concert-going experience of my life. Up on stage in the T.F.’s Ruby Rooms, playing to, oh, about twenty people, of whom only three (my friend, an uninitiated that he’d brought along with him, and myself) seemed to care about the gig itself. I remember being genuinely stunned that the group actually didn’t just leave. I am not exaggerating in the slightest: such was the reception they got.

It was heartbreaking to see the band treated like that, especially after they’d only gone and released one of the best Irish albums of last year in ‘I’ll Wait For Sound’. The record’s crisp production and tight feel translated quite well to a live setting. It was just a real shame that hardly anyone seemed to notice on that particular night.

Fast forward four-and-a-half months, and it’s almost like it never happened. The band are energetic and quite clearly in form, playing to what is pretty much a packed room. It’s not as easy to tell who cares and who doesn’t, this time, as there seems to be an air of all-round appreciation for the band.

More on that later, but first, some acknowledgement of Limerick’s Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t all that gone on their recorded material, but they are a completely different proposition live. A rather excellent job by the sound team ensures that they make themselves heard, and this results in a tremendous reception. Debut single ‘Homeward Bound and Gagged’ (introduced quite brilliantly by frontman Ronan Mitchell: ‘Every band needs a song about bondage’) goes down a storm. So too do the waltzing ‘Cornelius T. Ampersand’ and the clarinet-assisted mini-epic, set closer ‘Darker Shade of Blue’. Add in a couple of broken drumsticks from Shane Serrano (though from the way that he pounds through ‘Walking With The Dead’, we know such a thing is inevitable) and you get a performance that can be best described as raucous.

Director take to the stage moments after Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters’ set has concluded, and launch into ‘I’ll Wait For Sound”s opening track, ‘Play Pretend’. By the end of recent single ‘Moment to Moment’, quite a lot of people have taken notice of the group, and the atmosphere has become warm and welcoming. The crowd seem quite glad to be here, and so, too, do the band - even if that’s a little hard to spot. Frontman Michael Moloney has perfected the ‘oh-my-god-I-STILL-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this’ look. He looks rather nervous, and while he needs to work on his stage presence, he can be forgiven this in light of what happened last time out.

Pulling out ‘I’ll Wait For Sound’ itself four songs in is a brave move. The crowd haven’t been entirely won over yet, but the seven-minute track seems to accomplish that. From then on it is a practically flawless gig. The setlist is a good balance between material from their second album, and 2006 debut ‘We Thrive On Big Cities’, and with each song played, the crowd get more and more into things. Set closer ‘Reconnect’ (a top ten hit back in 2006 - that would sadly never happen nowadays) even inspires a singalong: something that’s just a little on the ‘remarkable’ side.

A two-song encore sends us all home happy. ‘Hold Up Now’ is transformed into something that could only be called life-affirming, and the band save a rather big surprise for last, as ‘Be With You’ gets a rare outing, and is very well received.

While Director lack the amount of charisma that, say, Bell X1 (in my humble opinion, the best live band in the country) do, they have the tunes - and lots of them. People who say the Irish music scene is in a bad state have no clue what they’re talking about, really, because both these bands - one that is due for quite a lot of acclaim, if there’s any justice; the other, quite well established and well able to stick around for the long haul - indicate that the opposite is true. It couldn’t be in better shape, and even as things go from bad to worse here, we will hopefully continue to turn out bands that are every bit as good.

—

Setlist:

Play Pretend
Sing It Without A Tune
Moment To Moment
I’ll Wait For Sound
Laser Point
Standing In My Way
Easy To Me
Leave It To Me
I Only Realise
Big Cities
Can You Take It
She’s Saying Things
Reconnect
—————
Hold Up Now
Be With You

MGMT: Flash Delirium

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:41:00 +0000

Words: Gareth O’Malley

Fucking hell. You have to hand it to MGMT, no matter your opinion of their new single. It would seem that the duo are about ready to board the good ship Commercial Suicide. What, no singles? Not even a radio-friendly song across the entire length of ‘Congratulations’?!?!

The suits at Columbia Records must be panicking. The problem with giving a band like this lot free rein is that you have no idea just how self-indulgent they can be. Some of the more ponderous moments off their 2008 debut ‘Oracular Spectacular’ were pure self-indulgence. However, what made that album so consistently brilliant was the way it all came together.

If MGMT weren’t so good at writing hooks, they would be entirely screwed, this time around. ‘Flash Delirium’ is much closer to the non-single ‘Oracular Spectacular’ material. A sprawling, ambitious four minutes that actually seems to last much longer than that (not a criticism, just a testament to the absolute wealth of ideas they have packed in). Prog-rock excess? Check. Drum machines, pan flutes, shouty ending that sounds rather worryingly like The Fratellis? Check.

‘Congratulations’ is either going to be brilliant, or a complete disaster, both musically and commercially. There’s not going to be a happy medium. There can’t be, after everything that’s been said about it. It is going to split their fanbase, if it hasn’t done so already. ‘Flash Delirium’ is quite good, for what it’s worth, but then I was always more in the mood for, say, an ‘Of Moons, Birds And Monsters’ than a ‘Kids’. If I can be brutally honest here for a moment: I couldn’t be happier that it seems that MGMT’s new record is going to appeal to those that prefer their ‘weirder’ side. But it really could go either way. Will it be a ‘Congratulations, you’ve defied expectations and produced something brilliant’, or a ‘Congratulations, you blew it’? We shall soon see.

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Ten Centuries: Ice Age

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:14:00 +0000

Words: Emmy Droege

It’s little wonder that a Minneapolis-based duo have dubbed their latest single ‘Ice Age’.

A delicate number that twists out of the bleakness of winter and turns towards the hope of spring, the track shows Ten Centuries capturing a song that recognizes darkness and acknowledges light.

The introspective song set to a gentle, mostly acoustic arrangement comes off the band’s debut album, ‘White Pines’, which evidently was recorded in an isolated cabin in the upper-midwest of the U.S. Hmmm… Bon Iver anyone? Who knows if the two-man band will catch on like ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’. However, one thing is certain, indie and contemporary folk fans will enjoy the track, even if singer/guitarist Bill Caperton comes off as sounding slightly bored, but that could be me just being a snob.

Still, with subtle lines that welcome the changing of seasons - ‘I have been cursed, now redeemed / Still sitting, sitting still under water / The names of the empires change/we change our names’ – there’s a faint similarity here with Scottish bard and wordsmith extraordinaire Roddy Woomble. And such a comparison should no doubt be seen as complimentary.

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We Were Promised Jetpacks: The Last Place You'll Look EP

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:50:00 +0000

Words: Gareth O’Malley

I get the sense that We Were Promised Jetpacks don’t yet know what exactly they want to sound like. Or perhaps they are always striving to change from one release to the next. I hope sincerely that it’s the latter, because in that case their second album couldn’t be more highly anticipated.

There was a real sense of urgency to last year’s debut LP ‘These Four Walls’. For those that have come to know them through upbeat indie rock like, say, ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves’ or ‘Moving Clocks Run Slow’, this EP is going to be like Marmite: it will either be seen as a crushing disappointment, or viewed as a snapshot of a band beginning to come into their own.

‘The Last Place You’ll Look’ thrives on grandeur, dramatic flourishes, and a good deal of pessimism. What sort of pessimism, I hear you ask. Well, the EP’s opening line (introducing the slow-burning ‘A Far Cry’) is, ‘You cried like a child who’d just seen their own blood for the first time’. You can almost feel the cheerfulness in frontman Adam Thompson’s voice! Not. The track soon unfolds into a windswept mini-epic, all stabbing guitars and clattering drums. The vocals are buried in the mix, giving an oddly unsettling feel to this most unexpected of openers. Jetpacks have a lot more ideas up their sleeve than most would give them credit for, that’s for sure.

The other new material is comprised of a short instrumental piece (‘The Walls Are Wearing Thin’) which sets up penultimate track ‘With The Benefit of Hindsight’ perfectly. From its piano intro to the explosion of sound mid-way through, the song asserts itself as one of the best the band have written. Its chorus (‘You cannot predict future events / I could use hindsight to clean up the mess’) is a brilliant contrast between uplifting music and despondent lyrics.

It was always going to be the new material that stole the show, but that is not to say the two reworked tracks that feature here are unworthy of mention. There seemed to be something lacking in ‘Short Bursts’ before now, but this more restrained take seems to breathe new life into it. As for the new version of ‘This Is My House, This Is My Home’, it is every bit as good as, if not better than, the version that appeared on ‘These Four Walls’.

We Were Promised Jetpacks have long since achieved liftoff. Their debut got them off to a flying start, but this EP quite easily matches it, and betters it in places. ‘The Last Place You’ll Look’, a real statement of intent, is aptly named. Nobody could have foreseen such a radically different sound - and it’s clear that the group are only just getting started. With any luck, they’ll be around for a while yet. And we’ll be glad to have them - however they sound.

8.6

mp3: A Far Cry

Liars: Sisterworld

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Words: Gareth O’Malley

Okay, so this is really a concept album. If that’s turned you off ‘Sisterworld’ already, I implore you, read on. You’ll find it’s not at all a bad thing. Formerly based in New York, but now with a new headquarters of sorts in Berlin, ‘experimental’ (and god, how I loathe that term) rock tri o Liars are back with their fifth record, and while it won’t win any prizes for immediately, it is, for lack of a better word, an absolute belter.

The band have said that, thematically, the record deals with ‘the alternate spaces people create in order to maintain identity in a city like L.A. Environments where outcasts and loners celebrate a skewered relationship to society.’ What this all means is that ‘Sisterworld’ is rather Los Angeles-centric, and thus the album is obviously rather difficult to connect with if you don’t live there.

Music is the universal language, however, and if ‘Sisterworld’ doesn’t provoke some sort of response within you, then I’d be rather worried. Things quite often move into frightening territory - the focus is on krautrock soundscapes whose primary objective is to unsettle the listener. And the result of all this is something thrilling and chilling in equal measure.

Lead single ‘Scissor’ grows from an a capella opening into an explosive workout, frontman Angus Andrew’s buzzsaw riffs and high-pitched, keening vocals giving the track a real sense of urgency, even desperation.

There isn’t a whole lot of potential single material on here, but surely ‘No Barrier Fun’ will be considered to promote the album. Its combination of funky bass, ghostly strings and subtle yet effective percussion courtesy of Julian Gross is rather stunning, and the track sends out the message that Liars have set their sights high.

The spiky, frenetic post-punk of ‘Here Comes All The People’ ratchets the tension up a further few notches. You wonder just how intense the record is going to become, and then are offered a welcome breather in the form of the dreamy, ethereal ‘Drip’.

Then you realise that all along the band were looking to lull you into a false state of security, as the absolutely terrifying ‘Scarecrows On A Killer Slant’ kicks in. A visceral four minutes, the track rails against the culture of violence that has spead throughout L.A. The venom in Andrew’s voice as he sings is truly unnerving, as he calmly delivers the lines, ‘We should drag the creeps out at night / Drag ‘em in complete by their ears / We should nail their guns to the wall’, before exploding in a vehement fit of rage: ‘Stand them in the street with a gun. and then kill ‘em all!’

The track is a clear highlight, simply because of its ferocity and passion that is unequalled on any other track here. ‘Proud Evolution’ opens with a chiming, shimmering riff, before being underpinned by bass and clattering drums. The lyrics here deserve particular attention, Andrew mentioning the ‘hundred million potholes you can step in without knowing that you have’ before warning that ‘you should be be careful’. The line is understated. but in the context of the album it is tremendously effective.

The sarky, ironic ‘The Overachievers’ opens ‘Sisterworld”s closing trio of songs, the band having a go at what is quite literally ‘slacker rock’: ‘There wasn’t much to do, so we just sat in watching TV / And smoked weed’. Its presence sets up the penulatimate track, the menacing, riff-driven ‘Goodnight Everything’, perfectly, before things draw to a close with ‘Too Much, Too Much’, whose ambient tones finish the record in an unexpectedly calm fashion.

Nor will ‘Sisterworld’ win any awards for immediacy. However, this album is the best kind: one you have to immerse yourself in - and not just because it’s a concept record. Plus it makes it so much better when things finally start to click, and this dark, forbidding, yet brilliant record begins to open up.

8.7

mp3: Scissor

Fenech-Soler - Stop and Stare Video for the new single, out...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:54:11 +0000

Fenech-Soler - Stop and Stare

Video for the new single, out April 19th via Moda Music.

Yeasayer - O.N.E. Taken from the stirring album ‘Odd...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:48:29 +0000

Yeasayer - O.N.E.

Taken from the stirring album ‘Odd Blood’.

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Gorillaz: Plastic Beach

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:58:00 +0000

Words: David Molloy

One thing I have noticed recently in other reviews of “Plastic Beach” is that whole “cartoon band” concept behind Gorillaz has at this point become irritating or irrelevant. I disagree. If it were not for those times I’d obsessively watch MTV as a young(er) child for a chance to see the “Clint Eastwood” video nine years ago I doubt I’d have the same appreciation for music as I do now. I had no idea who Damon Albarn was, nor was I aware of Blur: I wanted to watch that video because I loved cartoons. It was through that video, and the brilliant song, (I can rap the verses perfectly from memory to this day) that eventually helped me grow an interest in music in general, real or fictional.

Of course, it helped that the music really was good - both Gorillaz albums to date may have been patchy in parts, but there have been more then enough moments of pure pop gold in there to more than make up for it. A silly promotional gimmick they may have seemed at the time of the debut, but the second album “Demon Days” showed that there was substance there. So it’s now almost five years since that album was released and as usual that backstory for the fictional version of the band has been updated - with former Gorillaz HQ Kong Studios having been recently burned down for no disclosed reason, bassist/band leader Murdoc Niccals got all his stuff together and headed off for Plastic Beach, a collection of plastic materials making up a land mass in the farthest point from any land on earth. Since guitarist Noodle has not been seen since the events of the “El Mañana” video, Murdoc put together an android version off of her DNA, and has been brought to Plastic Beach as well along with blue-haired singer 2D to record the new Gorillaz album. Unfortunately, drummer Russell was nowhere to be found, so Murdoc had to program the drums on the record himself, but since then, Russell has found his way onto the beach, although due to unexplained events, he has suddenly become a BFG-like giant.

Back to the real world… Am I boring you yet? Even the visual art side of the Gorillaz duo Jamie Hewlett stated that he was “bored of drawing those characters” when work began on the album in 2008 but, with fair play to him and Albarn, they at least manage to make it interesting not only for them but for the huge fans that would care about that sort of thing in the first place.

(I do not want the review to give the impression that I care about the cartoon/backstory side more than the music itself, so onto that…)

After the short “Orchestral Intro” (what it says on the tin), “Plastic Beach” gets its introduction from Snoop Dogg, slowly walking his way through “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach”. It gives an odd introduction to an album that he was no real major part in, but it’s engrossing enough to drag you in, the hip-hop collaborations that Gorillaz favour and do so well continues with “White Flag”, a call and response from Kano and Bashy after an incredible intro from the Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music. It’s at this point that “Plastic Beach” feels more like a collaborative Gorillaz album than usual - you do not even hear Albarn’s (2D’s) vocals until four tracks in on “Rhinestone Eyes”, a wonderful glaze of the type of synth-led weird pop that they do best.

“Stylo”, when first listened to, may have seemed like an odd choice for first single; it had not the originality or instant ear-worn abilities of “Clint Eastwood” or “Feel Good Inc” but when it comes up on the context of the album, it shines, especially with Bobby Womack’s entirely improvised vocals, only to outshine himself later in the album on the gorgeous “Cloud of Unknowing”. On “Superfast Jellyfish” the record briefly enters cartoon territory - basically a jokey advertisement for “Plastic Beach“‘s own breakfast cereal endorsed by De La Soul, but Gruff Rhys’ chorus is by far the catchiest and most singalong-able moment on the album.

The collaborations, as already stated, are plentiful - Mark E. Smith adds disembodied ranting (the best kind) to “Glitter Freeze” (kind of like what Kraftwerk would sound like if they suddenly wanted to become maximalists), Lou Reed adds vocals to “Some Kind of Nature”, Mos Def goes frantic on the repetitive and overlong “Sweepstakes”, and former Clash members Mick Jones and Paul Simonon add guitars and bass to the title track. It’s the moments where Albarn is left by himself to fill the vocal hole where “Plastic Beach” shows it’s better side, however. On future single “On Melancholy Hill” he has never sounded so, for lack of a better word, comfortable while singing. The real treats of the album though are the two collaborations with vocalist Little Dragon, in particular the beautiful duet “To Binge”.

The album closer “Pirate Jet” is a short, summery send off to one of the most eclectic (and brilliantly so) albums of the year so far (and probably of the year altogether when people look back in December). It’s main line - “It’s all good news now, because we left the taps running for a hundred years” may give the impression of “Plastic Beach” being a pro-environment record - but while it may show its small intentions, it shows that it’s got heart somewhere. It’s still a soundtrack to the adventures of four cartoon musicians, even if they have taken a slight step to the side for a while to allow Albarn to indulge in his musical fantasies. The album is all the better for it. When I discovered Gorillaz by chance those years ago, I was caught by the animation. By 2010, I may still hold the cartoons and back story as an important part of my interest in the band, but overall, Gorillaz is a music project and they are even more so now.

9.0

Audiovisuals: Stylo

Check out Vampire Weekend’s strange “Giving Up The...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:15:10 +0000

Check out Vampire Weekend’s strange “Giving Up The Gun” video, the second single from the rather excellent ‘Contra’.

General Fiasco: Buildings

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:24:00 +0000

Words: Gareth O’Malley

Perhaps the most heartening thing about General Fiasco’s plans for the future, is that they actually have some. The Belfast trio have said that they realise what they do (i.e. typically Northern pop-punk) has a limited lifespan. They don’t want to become like, say, Ash, who have become stuck in a creative rut, and, in our opinion, started ‘The A-Z Singles Collection’ only as a front to mask this rut: by implementing a new marketing strategy (that seemed like a good idea at the time), they have tried to cover up the fact that they are now, at best, a parody of themselves. General Fiasco: Well, to paraphrase ‘Buildings” lead single, the raucous burst of energy that is ‘We Are The Foolish’, it’s good that they woke up, because this was the thing they needed to know.

However, as we are all aware, a band simply stating that they intend to stick around is only half the battle: you have to have the songs to back it up. On the evidence of their debut, should we be hearing more from the three-piece in future? Yes. A resounding yes. The band aren’t exactly ripping up the rulebook, as said, but they are quite simply excellent at what they do.

A word of warning, though: while the band’s sound is certainly catchy and accessible, ‘Buildings’ is definitely not all sunshine and roses. In point of fact, the album is actually rather bleak. The band have grown up in Belfast, and it’s clear they don’t like what they see around them. The youth culture that influenced them is lulling young people into a false state of security (‘The young are bold: it’s all they’ve got’ - We Are The Foolish’); the youth themselves are turning to alcohol to cope with their insecurities (‘Let’s get wasted, it’s all we ever do’ - recent single ‘Ever So Shy’); they have issues with personal confidence (‘I’m just a ghost / My mouth has let me down again’ - ‘Please Take Your Time’), and romantic confidence (the central theme of the stunning, strings-drenched title track, the album’s seven-minute centrepiece)…

‘Buildings’ becomes quite an unsettling listen as more of its sentiments reveal themselves. Because the topics discussed here are so universal, they have extra resonance. But nothing even comes close to the truly devastating ‘Sinking Ships’. Driven by a simple acoustic riff, and supported by Stephen Leacock’s effective drumming, frontman Owen Strathern views life from the perspective of a broken, suicidal young person: ‘I’m a waste of skin / I will take almost anything / I will leave myself a length of rope, and then I’ll go / …There’s no point in trying / Seems like we’ll all end up dying, the same way that everybody does’. These lines are delivered with such fragility that it is hard not to be swept up in the rush of emotion that comes when the strings enter and the song reaches its climax. The song, the band’s best to date, fades with a last, poignant chord, its desolation and despair making it ‘Buildings” dark heart.

It may seem that there is not a single bit of light to be had here, but that’s not necessarily the case. Towards the album’s finish, things start to take a turn for th better. Debut single ‘Rebel Get By’ starts the climb upwards from the hopelessness of ‘Sinking Ships’, though to say it is in complete contrast to its predecessor in terms of sentiment would be to lie. For every line like, ‘All the things you’d like to be, maybe they’re all ahead of you’, we get an, ‘Everyone shouting, “Please don’t kill yourself!”’

The clearest piece of optimism ‘Buildings’ has to offer comes after the ace in the pack, the Bloc Party-esque ‘Talk To My Friends’ (Enda, take a bow) has talked of the possibility of a fresh start, somewhere else. Even though the bass-led ‘Dancing With Girls’ (featuring a fine performance indeed from Owen) deals with a person who just can’t make up their mind about what they want to do in life (‘You set your plan, and you liked it / You’re coming over, changing it all around’), its bridge reveals that there might just be hope after all: ‘I know this is gonna change for good / Because these things, they seem to work the way they should’.

The album’s closer ‘First Impressions’ is the light at the end of the tunnel. Just the right kind of release after a dark and troubled half-hour. Even though the song concerns itself with people who have nothing of interest to say (‘On the inside, you’re pretty vacant / Your eyes are open, your mouth is making a sound’), there is just a smattering of sarcastic wit in there too: ‘You said that twice now, in case I didn’t hear / I heard it, and I don’t care - I thought that might be clear’

Ending their unsettling debut record on a positive note was a great move. General Fiasco, after everything, are smiling through the tears. Having written an album full of brilliant pop tracks, but left so much substance underneath their sheen, the trio have pulled off that most difficult of things. They have created an easily accessible record that has great replay value and depth. Also, crucially, it really does feel as though these Belfast boys have made the best album they could. And we couldn’t ask for more than that.

9.3

Audiovisuals: Ever So Shy

Fenech-Soler: Stop And Stare

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:08:32 +0000

Words: Emmy Droege

Imagine a sweaty dance club, packed with equally sweaty people, dancing to a heavily-synthesized, highly-electronic song, and you paint the international scene of Fenech-Soler’s latest track, ‘Stop and Stare’. Whether you’re into dance music or not, the song thumps with an infectious groove that will make any music lover click their heels at least once during the synth-laden number.

Sure, the lyrics may be a little cheesy - ‘I see you there like a light in the sky / Don’t give up / I’ll fight if you show me a sign’ - and may sound like they’ve been recycled from a dozen other bands, but the track is simply difficult not to like. Even in your most cynical hour, you’re bound to enjoy some snippet, if not all, of the 3:46 tune from the Kings Cliffe-based band.

Perhaps the greatest thing about this song is that it doesn’t require having to weave in and out of an alcohol-infused dance floor teeming with clammy bodies. Although it can be, and certainly is, enjoyed that way. Still, the catchy rhythm and beguiling beats will also move the most sneerful person just enough for a private dance party.

[Streaming on MySpace]

The Crookes: Chorus of Fools

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:00:04 +0000

Words: Emmy Droege

With a name like ‘The Crookes’, one might stereotype a band as a scruffy angst-ridden bunch sputtering on about drugs, sex and violence. One should know better. What you get this Sheffield-based band is a good dose of sunshine, love and peace. And what better way to welcome spring in than with ‘Chorus of Fools’, a poppy, jingle-jangle tune topped with indie-folk and a strong influence of English kitchen-sink literature.

‘Chorus of Fools’ was part of the ‘12 Days of Crookesmas’ release in December of last year. It echoes slightly of ‘50s doo-wop and girl groups from the ‘60s, and with such comparisons, one might simply pigeonhole the four-member band as outdated. Yet again, one should really do better than to judge. The lyrical creativeness captures something akin to The Smiths, Orange Juice, The Coral and yes, even perhaps early-day Libertines.

With the continuous flood of new wave synth acts seemingly coming far and wide, The Crookes offer a refreshing change that is not only catchy and poppy but simple – in a highly likeable way.

mp3

New single ‘Bloodshot Days’ b/w ‘Through the Cat’s Whisker’ is out April 5th on Heist or Hit