This is a special return from Ex Libras. Much fancied around the time of the release of their debut album Suite(s) and its follow up EP Cut(s), the band went off the radar for several years leading up to the release of this comeback EP, which is undoubtedly something of a triumph. I missed them first time around (more fool me) so as the first bars of the title track’s sinuous groove kicked in I was taken aback. The press release likens the band to Radiohead and Foals and this is not too far wrong. There’s something of the compositional creativity of the former mixed in with the aggression of the latter as each of the EP’s four tracks wend and wind their way to some particularly fascinating musical destinations. On this evidence a full length album can’t come soon enough. Ex Libras are certainly a band to watch.
Andrew Wasylyk – Soroky
Now a member of Idlewild, previously a member of The Hazey Janes and sessioned for Electric Soft Parade and School of Language, Andrew Wasylyk has a stellar pedigree and. on the strength of this musically strong and lyrically emotive album, a promising future. Beginning with the woozy piano of ‘Last of the Loved’ and its intelligent use of chromatics (not to mention a fabulous Crowded House-apeing chorus), Soroky is a fine album. Centrepiece and high point ‘Empress Ballroom’ calls to mind Grizzly Bear at their most opulent, whilst ‘Morning Falls to Blue’ builds gloriously to a cinematic climax. This is an album full of musical intelligence and with enough twists and turns to keep even the most demanding listener happy.
Nova Heart – Nova Heart
Watch the video for Lackluster No. below
I get a lot of music sent to me. A lot. Not much of it is classified as ‘minimalist post-punk/electro from Beijing’ so when the debut album from Nova Heart landed in my inbox my interest was piqued. The band feature Helen Feng who, the press release reliably informs me, ‘has been dubbed the Blondie of China’. The record was mixed by Rusty Santos (TV On the Radio, Animal Collective) and there is something of a Dave Sitek influence throughout. As you’ll hear from ‘Lackluster No.’ if you watch the video above, things brood and shape-shift without ever really losing control. ‘No Controversy’ and ‘Evil’ both ricochet along percussively, the latter one of several tracks here to feature some wonderfully jarring guitar effects work. ‘Right Wrong’ has a synth-driven, disco-infused chorus to die for, and ‘My Song 9’ could pass for some of the best recent work of Russian shoegazers Pinkshinyultrablast. This is a wonderful unexpected surprise.
Jono McCleery – Pagodes
Watch the video for an acoustic version of ‘Desperate Measure’ below
When you’re blessed with the kind of voice that Jono McCleery is (it’s the kind that could stop you in the street singing the phonebook, or whatever the modern equivalent of that is) the temptation could be to skimp on the other crucial element of the solo artist’s art: the songs. On ‘Pagodes’ everything works beautifully in tandem. McCleery’s vocal performances range from wistful and intimate, as on ‘Age of Self”, all the way to the understated yet complex ‘Fire In My Hand’ where the emotion causes cracks to appear on more than one occasion. Having been featured as a vocalist with Portico this year, perhaps it’s no surprise that there is plenty of jazzy electronica here. ‘Halfway’ draws you in with its syncopation before letting rip with a gorgeous chorus that wouldn’t have been out of place on the recent Grasscut album. Allied with this, tracks such as ‘Bet She Does’ position McCleery as an acoustic singer songwriter par excellence, whilst ‘Pardon Me’ takes things in a piano-driven Benjamin Clementine direction. What is clear at the end of the listening experience of this album, and it is an album to be experienced rather than consumed, is that Jono McCleery is a prodigiously talented artist deserving of a much wider audience. Don’t miss this album.
If you’re eagle-eyed, or your memory is better than mine, you’ll remember that I swooned over the performance Esther gave at this summer’s Irregular Folk Festival in Oxford. The best compliment I can pay this driving EP of dark, brooding techno, is that as I listened, I remembered each of the songs from that performance. These are four beautifully crafted tracks. Esther has a haunting, spectral voice, which cuts through even the most densely populated track. She also has a winning way with a vocal hook. Each song here contains within it the kind of chorus that pop hit factory songwriters kill for. The fact that the emotion of each song is so keenly felt is even more to Lane’s credit. At times reminiscent of the best bits of Poliça, this is sterling stuff that should be all over the radio. For me, the best track here is ‘You Know’, which grows and grows in to a real electronic mini-symphony, but to pick favourites is to potentially diminish the power of this collection as a whole. Just listen to it.
USA Nails – No Pleasure
Watch the video for ‘I Am Normal’ below
USA Nails brings together members and ex-members of Oceansize, Hawk Eyes, Kong, Future of the Left, Silent Front and Dead Arms. So you know what you’re getting. This is fast, loud, uncompromising, technical and downright heavy and fun post-hardcore. At times it reminds me of These Arms Are Snakes, but I may well be ignorant in this regard. The album barely lets up from the first to the last. ‘You Sing For Yourself’ is monstrous and its time signature changes are a joy. The distorted bass of ‘Laugh It Up’ gives the pummelled listener something to hold on to in a sea of musical chaos, and ‘Make Me Art’ really tips things over the edge in to an extra dimension with some brazen guitar work. If you like your rock records to actually rock, this second album from USA Nails is for you.
Victories At Sea – Everything Forever
Listen to ‘Bloom’ below
Victories At Sea are probably the most exciting band to have emerged from Birmingham this decade. They’ve been supporting Editors this month, so their progress in to the hearts and minds of the indie-loving nation is virtually assured. But is the record any good? Well, in a word, yes. Citing influences ranging from Slowdive to Mogwai and all the way through to dancefloor fillers Factory Floor, this is a record the like of which 2015 has not seen. That in itself is a great thing to be able to say about a debut album from a British band. Much more than the sum of its parts or influences, Victories At Sea make a truly unique artistic statement which is a real joy as the year wanes to its end. ‘Florentine’ is a driving indie pop song with a pumping rhythm bed. So is ‘Up’, which reminds me of the brilliant Losers from a few years ago (featured members of Cooper Temple Clause as I remember). DMC is darker and largely instrumental, creating a foreboding atmosphere which leads in to ‘Poles Apart’, a song with another great pop chorus, and swathes of guitars which envelop the listener like a winter fog, before the track lets go in a percussive coda. Is this a pop album? Yes. Is this a post-punk album? Yes. Is this a rock album? Yes. Is this album beyond simplistic categorisation and simply one of the best of 2015? Most definitely.
So, dear readers, I’ve been extremely remiss recently and not posted about any of the myriad records I’ve been sent. I bet you were having palpitations. This will be a long post. There are a lot of records to cover. As such I will be perhaps somewhat more cursory than I can be on occasions, prone as I am to verbosity in the Word Count department. Take it from me though, there’s a lot to love in each one of these releases. Some of them are very special indeed. I’m writing about them in no particular order. See you on the other side.
Lovedrug – Notions
Watch the video for Spinning Out of Control below
I’ve loved the music of Lovedrug for almost half my life. That’s a scary thought. ‘Everything Starts Where It Ends’, the band’s second album, was a vastly underrated indie rock masterpiece. “American Swimming Lessons” from that album remains one of the most wonderfully bombastic American rock songs of recent memory. Whereas, in the past, the band were driven on an urgent alternative rock plane, now things are a lot straighter, more radio-friendly. On this album, Michael Sheppard plays almost everything, as well as producing and mixing. In a sense, it feels like more of a follow-up to his recent album with the Boys on the Radio moniker than it does to Lovedrug’s last album Wild Blood, but this is still a potent record full of great songs. I just wish, personally, though that the handbrake had been let off a few more times. Maybe on the next album!
Any trio which claims to root themselves in jazz and heavy metal (not that there are that many, admittedly) is going to get my attention, and that’s exactly what Zeitgeist have done. Their self-titled debut album may only contain five tracks, but they are all weighty, both in terms of length, and in terms of ambition compositionally and in terms of performance. The off-kilter ‘Haiku’ is a particular highlight, as melodic and rhythmic shifts you might normally expect to see on a Meshuggah album are carried off delightfully in the realm of the more traditional jazz setting. For me, this band have no true reference points. They’re closer to The Bad Plus than, say, Trichotomy, with the odd nod to Neil Cowley Trio, but something about the way the three instrumentalists combine leaves them out in a realm all of their own. One to seek out.
Get the Blessing – Astronautilus
Watch the video for Phaenomena below
Show me a fan of modern jazz or, to hell with it, intelligent progressive music, who finds it hard to fall in love with Get the Blessing and their incredible blend of rhythm and brass and I’ll show you….well, I don’t know what I’ll show you, because I’ve not met anyone who’s spent any time in the company of any of their albums and failed to fall head over heels in love with them. “Astronautilus” continues the band’s recent form, with a series of solid-gold grooves and crescendos which build so meticulously that they’re on top of you before you even realise they’re there. Opener ‘Carapace’ is an astonishing example of one such. ‘Monkfish’ shows another string to the band’s bow, as wailing brass compete with a head-spinning drum track. This has to be one of the finest jazz releases of 2015. Do not miss it.
Fred Abbott – Serious Poke
Watch the video for ‘Adrenaline Shot’ below
You might have already clicked play on the video for ‘Adrenaline Shot’, the opening track on Fred Abbott’s debut album. If you haven’t, and your day is on the drab side and needing a boost, I strongly recommend you stop what you’re doing this instant and listen to this song. There, feel better? I thought you would.
Fred Abbott used to be part of Noah and the Whale, the ultra-intelligent pop band who achieved dizzying success a while back. Now Abbott’s back, and he’s brought all the musical intelligence which characterised his former band at their best moments, whilst adding a heady dose of straight ahead rock and roll. At times, this touches on Tom Petty, at others, such as on ‘Awake’, it is Bruce Springsteen’s name that most easily comes to mind when searching for a comparison. If you like your singer-songwriters to have a widescreen sheen, ceiling-high choruses and just the merest hint of an alt-country twang, then “Serious Poke” is the album you’ve been longing for.
Sons of Kemet – Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do
Sons of Kemet emerged with their twin drum and twin brass attack two years ago in a blaze of publicity and a Mercury nomination. Most of the publicity seemed to centre on the presence of the huge hair and huger talent of Seb Rochford in their ranks, but in a sense, this was an unfair distraction from the visceral and vibrant qualities which characterised their debut album, “Burn”. Instead, as on “Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do”, it is the compositional talent of Shabaka Hutchings which most persistently demands, and merits, attention. These are simply brilliant pieces of music, fantastically conceived, and faultlessly executed. Whether it’s on the understated yet insistent ‘Breadfruit’, or the gloriously expansive ‘Tiger’, this is a band which, far from being at the peak of its powers is only just seeing top gear in the distance. The sky is the limit for the potential of this quartet.
What we have here is some fine, mostly very chilled and downtempo, electronica. Ash has been receiving support all over the shop from BBC 6Music DJs, so there’s no doubt that this debut album is going to make quite a dent. His roots in trip-hop are obvious throughout, particular for me on the gorgeous ‘They Do Not Know Yet’, while ‘Six Eight’, which is in…..6/8 immediately follows, showing the jazzier leanings which lift this from being a one-paced slow groove record into being a collection suffused with gravitas and beauty. At thirteen tracks, the album is quite a lot to digest in one sitting, but it works well as an extended snapshot of the breadth and depth of Walker’s talent and potential. The gloriously named and otherworldly ‘Root Veg’ is a woozy late album highlight not to be missed, too.
Autobahn – Dissemble
Watch the video for ‘Society’ below
This is gloriously uncompromising stuff. Seemingly universally lauded, “Dissemble” is a hard pill to swallow at first, but one that has serious restorative powers. Equal parts Cooper Temple Clause-esque squall, as on opener ‘Missing In Action” and foreboding, krautrock-esque drive on ‘Immaterial Man’, which immediately follows it, the album is really singularly indescribable. Built on unshakeable melodies, and with the unmistakeable vocal performances of Craig Johnson giving the band an extra string of individuality to its bow, there is simply no way that this album will not end up as one of the albums of 2015. By the time the dissonance of ‘Passion’ cavorts its way into your heart and mind any thought of resistance will be long gone. Autobahn must be a fearsome proposition live. Make a point of checking them out.
Sweet Baboo – Boombox Ballads
Watch ‘Walking In the Rain’ below
Like the most impenetrable prog rock album, now our attention turns to a gorgeous album from folk-influenced singer and songwriter Sweet Baboo. Don’t be fooled by the winsome strumming that begins opener ‘Sometimes’, there’s a depth and resonance to this album which is on show the moment the strings, brass and what sounds like an accordion, spring into action at the song’s coda. ‘Two Lucky Magpies is a beautiful piano ballad augmented again with legato strings, whilst the yearning of ‘I Just Want to Be Good’ would be bound to cause anyone who heard it to invite Sweet Baboo in for a nice cup of tea. Chock full of memorable choruses, and meticulously constructed soundscapes, if this is your introduction to Sweet Baboo, as it is mine, you won’t be disappointed.
Maserati – Rehumanizer
Watch the video for ‘Rehumanizer II’ below
Something special here from Maserati. I’m new to the band, and a search to try and work out where this fits in the canon of the band is less straightforward than it might first appear to be, but I make this their eighth album. Whether it turns out that I can’t count, or not, all the evidence suggests that Maserati are a band who are still on the up. Their blistering amalgam of metronomic krautrock, programmed drums and explosive passages of full on psychedelic rock wig outs is a potent combination. Best exemplified in the stupefying end to ‘End of Man’, really there are few bands as exciting as Maserati in full flow on the scene at the moment, on this evidence. Only ‘Montes Jura’ breaks the mould on this set, with more of a focus on the glistening synth-driven 80s element of their sound, it is a nice diversion, a brief pause, before the rock returns with a vengeance. This isn’t out until October 30th, but get prepared, this is a fine album.
Hills – Frid
Watch the video for ‘Milarepa’ below
Once again, this is heavy stuff, on the third album from Gothenberg-based Rocket Recordings (Goat et al) signees Hills. This is cited as their ‘most intense and out of mind outing yet’ and it’s not hard to disagree. Opening groove ‘Kollektiv’ may very well take you over. By the time it lets you off for a few seconds with a Sitar-esque interlude, you will probably be under the band’s spell, not to emerge until 60s influenced closer ‘Death Will Find A Way’ has wound its, erm, way round and round your subconscious. In between times, ‘Natural Drone’ proves itself one of the most correctly-titled songs of recent times, carrying within it some lovely squalls of guitar, while ‘Och Solen Sänkte Sig Röd’ really stretches things out, it’s near 11 minute peaks and troughs among the record’s most satisfying moments. Best taken as a whole though, “Frid” adds to Rocket Recordings’s stellar recent output. Hills appear to be another band not to miss live, should the chance arise.
Muncle – Hot Brain
Watch the video for ‘Chicken Or Egg’ below
Muncle is the brainchild of one Mike Griffifths, a Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist and longtime member of several fine bands, some of whom I think (if I have this right) I shard a stage with in a previous life. On ‘Hot Brain’, which was mastered by Ed Woods ((Jamie Lenman, The Xcerts, The Who, Idlewild), but otherwise self-recorded, produced and mixed, Mike presents a stark study of his personal and private frustrations, doubts and questions. So, you might think this would be an introspective record. You’d be wrong. It explodes in to life with the wall of sound that is ‘Kick Up A Fuss’ and barely lets up from there. ‘Glass To the Wall’ is a fantastic, Reueben-esque series of melodic twists and turns. ‘Obituary’ has a chorus that Blur would be more than happy to steal, while the breakdown in ‘Mother Was Right’ is a spellbinding moment. Lots of people make records at home. Not many of them turn out as good as this one.
I could write reams and reams about why Laura Cannell and her album, “Beneath Swooping Talons” are among the very most exciting of my most recent discoveries. I could wax lyrical about the sheer emotional power and resonance of her instrumental performances, about the meaning they convey without recourse to anything as trite and trivial as words. I could tell you that this album has reduced me to an awed hush on more than one occasion even as I’ve been preparing this post. But really, when it’s all said and done, you’d be better served clicking the link above and spending some time immersing yourself in the these pieces yourself.
Alif – Aynama-Rtama
Watch the video for Holako (Hulagu) below
I can’t claim for one minute to be a World Music aficionado, but something about the heady mix of Eastern and Western styles on this debut album from Alif has quite beguiled me. As you’ll hear from the track in the video above, Alif are a band bridging the gap between cultures, in a similar way to another of this year’s success stories, Mbongwana Star. Listening to the way the Buzuk and the Oud dovetail so beautifully with keyboards, bass and drums, all topped off with traditional Arabic poetry, the feeling really does come that a kind of musical and consensus has, if it has not been reached, been made possible. If ever listening to an album can make me feel ignorant and narrow-minded in my appreciation of what music has to offer, this one is it. There isn’t an album I’ve heard in the last few months which has caused as deep an emotional response in me as this one. Make a point of seeking it out.
Light Music, from Milwaukee, Canada, are described as an ‘epic pop band’. Rarely has a genre description for a new band with a debut album been more apt. As you will have heard if you’ve clicked on the link to listen to ‘Nessum Dorma’, the opening track from “Ocean’s Daughter” there is a lot going on with this music. The button marked ‘skyscraping ambition’ has been pressed in the studio. Everything about this record is huge. The mix is full and layered, the drums sound huge (just check out the build in the part on ‘True Colours” for one example) and the songwriting wilfully seems to take things in unexpected directions. At times, the scope is Muse-sized. At others, Civil Twilgiht and Circa Survive are the closest reference points. Tiis is beautifully executed heavy modern pop music.
Shannon and the Clams – Gone By The Dawn
Watch the video for ‘Corvette’ below
‘Gone By The Dawn’ is the fourth album from Shannon and the Clams. Unless you were there the first time around, it’s unlikely that you will have heard anything like their mix of 50s surf rock (‘I Will Miss the Jasmine’), bar ballads (‘My Man’) or stomping dancefloor fillers (‘Point of Being Right’, which, itself reminds me of the best of Nicole Atkins) before. This is music full of attitude, and with a clear aesthetic, but without the songs such acts rarely get as far as a fourth album, and Shannon and the Clams have songs aplenty. The title track is a luscious waltz which teeters on the blink of melodic collapse throughout to an enormously satisfying degree, whilst ‘Telling Myself’ swings and rolls along at quite a lick with a trademark 50s guitar riff whilst lead singer Shannon Shaw, whose vocals are fantastic throughout the album, somehow contrives to sound a little (a very little) like Julian Cassablancas at his most rasping. You’ll find yourself humming the chorus for the days. This is a fun album. Remember when people made those?
“Spark”, the new album from exceptional talent Kat Reinhert shows her vocal and compositional versatility. She has a a voice which seems to crest melodic waves endlessly, and these thirteen songs provide ample moments with which she can show her prowess to its full extent. Over the mournful groove of ‘Heavy’ her tone is easy, light and precise. “My Arms’ gives her a chance to show her depth and warmth over a light and playful melodic backing. ‘Little Compartments’ builds from an ominous-sounding beginning into an atmospheric climax. What is most pleasing about this set is its musicality. Each player is enabled to show their chops as the record is peppered with solos and instrumental passages which, rather than merely filling time, add greatly to the whole. What cannot be escaped however is that it is Reinhert’s voice which makes this album as special as it is. She is a special talent.
Small Feet – From Far Enough Away Everything Sounds Like the Ocean
Watch a live video for ‘Gold’ from this album below
Simon Stålhamre, the main driving force behind Swedish band Small Feet, is purported to have learnt English from watching television as a virtual recluse after leaving school early. I wish watching television did me that much good. Small Feet’s debut album is as extraordinary as the backstory of its primary songwriter. ‘Gold’ the opener is a strident, acoustic-driven piece of emotive 60s pop. It is immediately followed by ‘River’, which sounds like a Simon and Garfunkel offcut, by way of Scandinavia, yet with a much deeper emotional depth than even the much-lauded duo could match. Quite a claim that, but there we are. When the chorus hits, and the reverb-drenched vocal harmonies find the sweet spot, there’s nothing else in the world that matters apart from seeing what happens in the rest of this song. Very few debut albums can grab and hold a listener to this extent.
There are too many other strong moments here to describe them all. The haze which floats above the groove of ‘Backwards Falconer’ is an unusual and enticing touch, while ‘Lead Us Through the Night’ has a lovely instrumental break which we hear through a fug of reverb and delay before vocals return with crystalline clarity.
I was going to say that perhaps this is the album Neil Young would make if he had spent his life in Scandinavia. Perhaps Justin Vernon’s process and output would be similarly affected by a spell in Northern Europe, but in actuality, there is only one Small Feet. This is a deep, important piece of art.
HeCTA – The Diet
Watch the video for ‘Sympathy For the Auto Industry’ below
So by now you will have heard that members of Lambchop, noted alt-country mainstays as they are, have decided to take a turn not just leftfield, but have planted an entirely new field of their own. In case the listener is in any doubt, the uncompromising four-to-the-floor of ‘Till Someone Gets Hurt’ opens the album and, within seconds, any worries about this being a pastiche or tokenistic attempt at electronica are dispelled once and for all. This is the real deal. As an organ pulses in the song’s latter section we could be on any refined and discerning dancefloor in all of the world.
And nor does the pace slow down, either. ‘Prettyghetto’ has an outrageously funky bass riff as its jumping off point, which is oddly reminiscent to me of short-lived hitmakers Hockey, while ‘The Concept’ utilises atmospheric synths and quirky vocal samples to make its point.
Throughout everything, hooks abound. There is a beating pop heart in the midst of this record, but it never once, not even for a second compromises on its primary objective: this is music to get you moving. It is impossible that it will fail.
There’s just too much music in the world. I can’t listen to it all. Why should I bother? You might think be thinking such thoughts as the seemingly endless stream of fairly average music spews all over the internet. It’s a good job you’ve got me then, isn’t it. Loads of releases to get through today. A lot of different genres. There’s something for everything.
This band features Max Portnoy, son of Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater. Max and the rest of the band are 15 or 16. Some reviews of this record I’ve read are quite snide in saying that the age, or lack of experience, of the band members tells. I think this is nonsense. This is straight-up high quality progressive metal. Throughout, Max’s drums are stellar. So much nuance in the playing. The songwriting throughout is killer too. Opener ‘The Edge of Sanity’ is a strong start, with effervescent instrumental solo-ing and a great hook of a chorus. The genre might be somewhat esoteric, but if progressive metal is your thing then Next To None are a band you need to watch out for.
Daniel Blue, lead singer of Motopony, has one of those voices. It is instantly reognisable. It can turn its hand (or should that be voice, I don’t know) seemingly to any genre or style of song and give it a beauty, an intensity, a vulnerability, that other, often much-vaunted singers just can’t reach. This is a welcome return for the band, now featuring new members and something of a new sound, following a long wait from their splendidly woozy self-titled album. Whereas that record was marked by an almost spectral beauty and the electronics of erstwhile colleague Buddy Ross, this album takes much more of a 70s glam stomp approach to proceedings. The first half of the album is dominated by fuzzed out guitars, competing with Blue’s caterwauling vocal to splendid effect. This is Motopony but not as we knew it. As he sings “Life, in 1971, I wanna be there, I wanna have fun” it is clear that Daniel Blue and his cohorts have got as close to living in 1971 as it is possible for a bunch of bearded wonders in 2015 to manage. One listen to this joyful summer record and you’ll be wanting to join them.
Watch the lyric video for ‘Don’t Forget the Joker’ below
It’s wrong, isn’t it, that one of the first things I notice about Mike Vennart, live guitarist for Biffy Clyro, member of British Theatre, former member of Oceansize and now solo troubadour extraordinaire, is that he has grey hair. Yes, yes it is wrong. I have grey hair too. I also have a lot less talent than Mike Vennart. I’m just jealous.
If you like any of the aforementioned bands, or you like your guitar rock literate and inventive one minute and crushingly heavy the next, this is an album for you. Time signatures change all over the place, like its effortless. It isn’t. The songs are chock full of hooks. Just watch the video above and tell me you can’t remember the chorus by the end. More than that, though, it just rocks. ‘Retaliate’ is a muscular song with a buzz-saw riff and a skyscraper of a chorus. ‘Infatuate’ explodes into a glorious groove and when the release of the chorus hits it feels just like people tell me Opium does.
It takes a special musician to marry progressive technicality with pop song structures and hooky riffs, but Vennart manages this to a tee. Don’t miss this record.
It feels almost superfluous to write about Wolf Alice and their debut album, “My Love is Cool”. You might have seen them at Glastonbury last weekend. You’ve probably heard or read people swooning and raving about them. The album has quickly garnered the status of being the most exciting British guitar music debut of the year. There is an assuredness about the band, and the album, that makes it plain that they know that stardom beckons. So, what of the record, is it worth giving in to the hype and giving Wolf Alice a chance?
Well, in a word, yes. This is a beautifully-constructed, shoegaze-leaning album. Songs like ‘Bros’ will work splendidly on the radio but serve notice of their explosive potential in the live setting. ‘Lisbon’ begins taut before, in point of fact, exploding. The song does this twice. It is exhilarating. There’s really no other word to describe the evocative nature of the visceral and yet intensely melodic coda at the song’s climax.
Elsewhere, ‘Swallowtail’ and ‘Soapy Water’ show a more considered and nuanced side to the band. At times it feels like Wolf Alice are a band yet to truly settle down in to their final identity. While they’re figuring it out, it’s a lot of fun being a fly on the wall.
With Son Lux freshly expanded to a three-piece, the seemingly boundless compositional creativity of main man Ryan Lott has a fresh scope and impetus. “Bones” is a gorgeous album. ‘Change is Everything’ is the closest thing there has ever been to a Son Lux single to my ears, a spine-tingling moment on an album of tingle-inducing moment. ‘Flight’, with its (synthesised?) flutes, gives the listener a real sense of, well, flying. “Are we now what we’ll be, are we fixed or free?” Lott asks. This is music which feels free, free to explore the recesses of the possibilities of orchestrally-infused electronica. It’s the kind of music that is so intricate, layered perfectly realised that it has the potential to cause the head-shaking wonderment of other musicians, if not their outright retirement.
Elsewhere, the rolling percussion of ‘Undone’ as it breaks down into a bossa nova slink and then continues upon its merry, rolling way, is a contrary centrepiece for the album. We might not know what it is trying to be, but Son Lux are in constant and complete control. Just follow meekly after them. It’s for your own good.
This is the debut full-length album from Mutoid Man. This band features members of Cave in (Stephen Brodsky) and Converge (Ben Koller and Nick Kagaeo). If you don’t like your music hard and fast, with hints of melody, then you should probably move along;. If you’re still with me, then we’re on to something special here.
I must be one of the only people still allowed to post on the internet who thought that Cave In’s album for major label RCA, “Antenna” was something of a masterpiece. Apparently if you like the band you have to hate it, which is a shame, as I really quite like it. It blended heavy pop-rock (herein lay the problem, I believe) with progressive passages, and enough aggression to make you sit up and take notice. Cave In toured with Foo Fighters. They played them off the stage, and then sank without trace. This was unfortunate.
All of which to say, I was pre-disposed to liking “Bleeders”, in spite of the fact that it is a lot faster and harder than anything on “Antenna”. Brodsky’s crystal clear melodic vocals remain intact. He really has a fantastic set of pipes. Throughout the riffs are intricate, yet accessible. The experience of these guys shines through. They sound like they’re having fun, but also at great pains to show that they can really play. It’s not right to single out individual tracks. This is the best punk/post-hardcore album of the year. Nothing else will come close. Mutoid Man are an exciting, potentially important band.
It’s interesting how wrong you can be about a band. I saw Vant in Northampton on their recent tour. They were very….competent. Having been supported by two local bands who were well supported and brought energy in abundance, Vant came onstage, with a more polished sound, and plenty of attitude. They appeared not to want to be there (who can blame them? Northampton on a Friday night being not exactly the height of cool), fairly listlessly played for about 35 minutes and got off stage as quickly as possible. Sure, they had a couple of strong choruses (both featured on this single) but their best song was a country and western swing-along which felt like a throwaway, but was actually really very strong indeed. I couldn’t really fathom how they were going to be the “next big thing”.
And then I heard the two tracks that make up this double A side. With a combined playing time of 3 minutes and 59 seconds, the band are certainly not hanging around. Opener ‘Parasite’ is a furious blast of snarling punk energy. It could be a lost Strokes classic. If only they played songs like they meant them. It lasts 1 minute and 24 seconds and still finds time for a ripping guitar solo. As a statement of intent it is unimpeachable.
As yo will have gathered if you’ve spent some time with the second song here, ‘Do You Know Me’ is something completely different. It is infused with a thunderously-beating melodic heart. It has a soaring chorus. It crests and bests anything put out by any band in the Britpop + sub genre in recent times. It’s the kind of thing that people used to get over-excited about The Vines for, or Cooper Temple Clause, or perhaps Nine Black Alps for, but it’s better than all of them. Seriously. If there’s more where this came from then Vant could be on to something very special indeed.
Sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me.
Leprous – The Congregation
Order the album here
Watch the video for ‘The Price’ below
Leprous are a Norwegian prog metal band.
Still reading?
Good. That’s seen off the ones with weaker stomachs.
Released on the renowned Inside Out label, “The Congregation” is an eleven song exercise in melodic progressive metal. My initiation to Leproous, this album is not, perhaps, as heavy as you might expect from something termed “metal”, but the musicality at play here more than makes up for any shortcomings in the aggression department. This is a band with some serious chops. ‘Rewind’ is driven by some great tom work as it convulses through a soaring verse which, honestly, could only be created by a Norwegian band. I have no basis for that, except to say that the whole section, and indeed the whole song just sounds, well, Norwegian, in the best possible way. There’s no other part of the world that creates music that sounds like this. The way that guitars and synths augment one another, the almost complete lack of screaming in the vocals, their beautiful purity. ‘Triumphant’ features some lovely rhythmic work. If you can find and keep hold of the “1” you’re a better man than me. Later in the album, ‘Moon’ tastefully incorporates Rhodes and a bed of synths before exploding in to another glorious chorus. Again, I’ve lost the 1. Again I don’t really care. This is just too good.
To all intents and purposes, these could be the best kind of pop songs, except that most listeners would end shaking their heads in disbelief. If only people would persist! They are delivered with an alarming conviction. I can only imagine what they must be like live.
This EP is the follow up to the self-titled debut full-length from Bells Atlas. Again, an entirely new band to me. Coming in I had no idea what to expect. This is what their website says about them:
☀ kaleidosonic•soul•punch ☀
⚡ afro-soul, rhythm pop-sicles ☄ taste the r’nbow //// missy elliot meets bjork meets shadowcats and jolly sludge monsters ⚡
So, basically, anything goes, right? Well, yes, basically. As you’ll gather if you listen to the opening track from this EP above, there is plenty of soul, funk and groove here. Arguably it touches on reggae too. There are fantastic vocals, choppy guitars, and the kind of rhythm parts that make you sway in spite of yourself. There are time signature changes (always a plus, I’m sure you’ll agree). At points, it seems to me to touch on Eska or Laura Mvula of recent vintage, but this is far more creative and out there than either of those admittedly masterly artists have produced thus far. The beauty of this track is that it contains approximately three sections which could be argued to be its chorus, whilst never over-emphasising any.By the time the song is complete, I’m almost dizzy with the journey that I’ve been taken on. I don’t know what Bells Atlas are trying to say, I haven’t understood their language yet, but it’s the first language I’ve wanted to learn in a long time.
‘Sugar For the Queen’ swings in a 70s soul direction for a while. It has some glorious vocal harmonies in its tag section. Again, the interplay between bass and drums is fantastic.
I know I’m always raving about music. That’s the point of this section of my website, but seriously, SERIOUSLY, what is in the water that these guys are drinking? I want some.
‘Mess It Up’ rolls along on a dub groove and features an obvious “grab hold of me and never let me go” chorus, which is quite comforting amid the sheer musical turncoatism of the rest of this EP. It is, of course, a brilliant song.
Closer ‘Bling’ develops from some processed vocals and distant drums into another swinging wonder. These guys can seriously play. Just to prove that they don’t want to be pigeonholed once again (!) there is some crunchy guitar on this one too. Just, you know, because.
I’ve never seen or heard of an Atlas like Bells. Immerse yourself in this brave new world. Don’t ever leave it.
Do you ever wish the 1990s and its College Radio Rock boom hadn’t ended? Did you love Built to Spill the first time round? If you answered yes to either of these two questions then “Untethered Moon” is the album you’ve been waiting for.
I missed Built to Spill the first time round, but when I heard that they were back and with a new album on the way, I was intrigued to find out what they were all about. I have to admit to total ignorance. I was expecting some kind of shouty post-hardcore. Shows you how much I know. Some of these albums are wasted on me.
Of course, devotees of the band, and I’m certain there are many, know exactly what they will be getting with this new record. To my ears, sprawling opening duo ‘All Our Songs’ and previous single ‘Living Zoo’ offer a fuzzier, much more progressive take on peak-period REM (sacrilege! heresy!), with an added musicality and glorious propensity for wigging out. You have to wonder why Built to Spill’s reformation is not causing even more of a stir on the basis of these opening tracks.
Elsewhere, ‘Another Day’s’ driving 6/8 and heavily crunched Leslie organ (I hope that’s what it is) is a major highlight, as the aggression is amped up. Conversely, ‘Never Be The Same’ is almost sweet, festooned as it is in 60s pop vibes, This is a band at home in a variety of styles, but in vocalist Doug Martsch they have a leader distinctive enough to make them stand out from the crowd. For a band formed in 1992, “Untethered Moon” feels like a surprisingly youthful and jaunty record, the sound of a band maturing and improving ever more with age.
Chuck Ragan & Rocky Votolato – Kindred Spirit Split EP
Chuck Ragan and Rocky Votolato are fine singer/songwriters in their own right, but these long time friends, Kindred Spirits if you will (fnar, fnar, fnar) have joined together to showcase each other’s tracks, and draw attention to their individual releases and forthcoming tours. Fans of either will find much to love here. Opening with three from Votolato, you will be able to see and hear for yourself that ‘Sparks of Recovery’ is a gorgeous folk rock song with a chorus to die for. ‘St. Louis” begins gently but contains a hint of snarl. Again, a fantastic chorus is the centre of the song. By the end of ‘Let Go’, if you’re not making a plan to immediately check out Rocky’s 2015 album “Hospital Handshakes” I’d be surprised. I know that I will be doing so.
Chuck Ragan’s half of the EP begins with ‘Justice and Fair Shake’, immediately lifting the tempo and the intensity of the EP. Where Votolato’s voice is tender, Ragan’s is strident and powerful. The driving fiddle on this track is something of a standout. We very much know we’re in the Deep South now. Again, perhaps unsurprisingly, a cast-iron gold chorus will ensnare you if you give it a chance. Chuck sounds somewhat like a vagabond, so that this is the title of the next track is apt. A bar-room stomp of a song, with some tasty Hammond, this makes it 5/5 on the stonking chorus front. Closing out the EP is ‘Before Dust’, a 3/4 full of violin and soaring guitars, where, if it’s possible, the vocal intensity raises up a notch. The weather-beaten story swings along carried on an almost chanted gang vocal and a walking bass part par excellence.
I have to admit (again) that this was my introduction to both artists, and for that I have to thank Side One Dummy. As a sampler of where both these fine songwriters find themselves as 2015 rolls towards summer, this is unbeatable. Delve in to the back catalogues of both. I fully expect not to be disappointed as I do in the coming days.
If you fail to fall in love with this album, I’d have to question whether you love music. It is a simply beautiful collection of songs. Understated, largely centring on the piano and vocals of Paul Marshall, “Lodge” is the first album Marshall has created since his split with Bella Union. He certainly seems to benefit hugely from his new-found independence. Full of moments, this is an album to resonate with the deepest parts of the soul.
‘Alligator’ is a truly stupefying track. It’s percussive piano opening gives the mistaken impression that it will turn in to a Coldplay pastiche. Blissfully, the eventual outcome couldn’t be further from the truth. The entrance of muted trumpet at 1.12 is a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment, as the album truly takes off. So much emotion is conveyed in those short stabs of brass, as they’re joined by bass and distant drums, as Marshall’s falsetto simply soars. It is one of those rare moments in music which words cannot do justice to. Honestly, I shouldn’t even be bothering to try. The second time it happens, and the trumpet of David Warmegard begins to improvise, carefree in the midst of such tension and barely concealed agony, the effect is merely doubled.
‘Crimes’ (video above) is a more straight ahead song, the syncopated piano bass riff drives the song, as Marshall unleashes his inner soul man, calling to mind and surpassing the work of the brilliant recent album from Benjamin Clementine.
Undoubted highlight of the album though is ‘Mess’. Its’ chord progression is perfect, shifting between major and minor at the drop of a hat, but always at just the right moment. Marshall breathes and aches every single drop of emotion out of every lyric and vocal note. Time signatures subtly shift, but never obtrusively. Synths and guitars drift in and out, never denying front and centre position to the pleas of the writer to be taken away from the mess he finds himself in. By the song’s end, it feels as if a real emotional breakthrough has been made. Or at least you have to hope so.
This is an album to get lost in. We are fortunate that Lone Wolf had the emotional capacity to make it, and that it has been communicated so wonderfully to tape for posterity.
How do you go about reviewing a Jaga Jazzist record? It’s virtually impossible. Their fusion of jazz, psychedelic rock, synth rock and assorted other genres as the mood takes them is unparalleled. Let’s face it is, is virtually impossible to imitate. The band’s seemingly never-ending well of direction shifts and stylistic feints makes them impossible to pigeonhole. Just watch the video above if you don’t believe me. Recurring melodic figures are present and correct, but it is a song which has to be taken as a whole. This is no bitesize nugget of pop goodness. This is akin to an orchestral symphony purloined, bastardized and spat out through the medium of contemporary instrumentation. It should be a tough listen, or at least tough to focus on, but this is no background music. This is music to be lived in and through. It can change you. It can open your eyes and ears to the musical possibilities that exist at the very fringes of what might be considered popular. It is, finally, a simply fantastic piece of music. There are very few, if any, active bands in Europe at this point who could imagine, and then carry off successfully, the kind of thing which Jaga Jazzist does as a matter of course.
There are four other tracks on this album. They are all similarly epic in scale. They all show that the genius of Jaga Jazzist only continues to grow and find new outlets of musical possibility. To describe them is redundant. To seek to understand them feels almost rude. Instead I can only ask you to note the sheer unbounded enthusiasm I have unburdened myself of in these short paragraphs and suggest that the very next thing you do upon finishing reading this is pre-order this album. You simply must.
Chris Davids and Liam Ivory make up Maribou State. This, their debut album on Counter Records/Naim has been a long time coming. If you are an electronica aficionado you probably knew about them before I did (about a week ago), but now I’ve heard them I once again, as I often seem to in the course of compiling these posts, am kicking myself for not cottoning on earlier. I really should stop kicking myself. It hurts.
What we have here is a fine, warm sounding dose of relatively low key electronica. The ten tracks here combine subtle guitar licks (see ‘Home’ and ‘Say No More’ for key examples) with sweeping synths (‘Wallflower’ and its insistently eastern vibes) and some fine guest vocals from Pedestrian, Holly Warren and Jono McCleery (whose work you may have enjoyed on the recent Portico album I reviewed on Drowned in Sound)) to great effect. Of course, underpinning it all, and the thing on which the album either stands or falls, are the beats and production of Maribou State’s core pair. These are inventive throughout. Always impressive, yet never really seeking to be the centre of attention. ‘Raincoats’ is a key example of the duo’s primary expertise, as all the elements which make this such a fine album are amalgamated together in one deeply satisfying track
One listen to this album will, I predict, be all you need to accept unequivocally that Maribou State are a coming force in electronica. A fine summer album, this is the perfect time for Maribou State to mount the next offensive in their campaign to take over the world one pair of ears at a time. The news that the band hope to bring their vibes to the live arena in the coming months can only be intriguing. Something to watch out for.
O-Face are a New York band who came together during their time at Bard College, which is just about to come to an end as they graduate. Congratulations guys. Oh to be young again with so much possibility ahead.
As graduation gifts and memorials go, a new EP is a creative and lasting one. Fortunately from the sound of this record, the members of O-Face have definitely not wasted their time in their chosen seat of learning. ‘740 Turbo’ starts big and gets bigger. An ode to a “luxury station wagon”, it seems, this has all the propulsive jingle jangle (that’s a technical term, naturally) which should see the band become a hit on College Radio on their side of the pond. The disarming urgency of the vocals, possibly from a guy named Seth (it is not clear) elevate this track to unforseen heights of fist-pumping rockness. By its end, I want a luxury station wagon. I do not drive. Good job guys.
‘When You Assume’ is a more restrained effort. It has a mid-section which appears to be the band’s George Michael moment (the synths and funk guitar, in case you’re wondering). ‘Yolanda’ develops a lovely 6/8 groove, reminding me at times of Menomena or Ramona Falls, before exploding in to a glorious coda. Yolanda is the one for him, apparently. Let’s hope she agrees. Next, they tell us that ‘O-Face is Breakin’ Up’. Let’s hope not. This song could soundtrack one of the epically emotional bits on American teen drama. The good kind. If there is one.
Final track ‘ Torres’ (is it about the footballer, or the singer-songwriter or some other Torres? We will never know) has a fantastic groove. Instrumental, it grows and grows and keeps on growing, ending with a the kind of grin-inducing squall of feedback and general cacophony which shows that O-Face have it in them to transcend genre. They are simply a rockin’ band. I sincerely hope they are not breaking up, and that we will hear more from them soon.
A couple of years ago (it might be longer, my memory isn’t what it used to be), I picked up a Soundsupply Drop which either contained, or led me via Basement, another fantastic modern rock band, to the music of Daylight. (NB, this isn’t the way to start a review-it’s been a long week). Daylight’s album, Jar, was a fine piece of work. Straight-ahead and uncompromising, it was a big sounding rock song, full of anthemic songs, churning guitars and a confidence which suggested that they were a band destined for the top. I really grew to enjoy Jar. It became something of a go-to album for me on days when only loud guitars would do the trick.
And then, as so often happens, time moved on, many more albums crossed my path, and nothing more was heard of Daylight.
A couple of weeks ago, Side One Dummy sent me the info for the new album from Superheaven, a band the press-release likened to Smashing Pumpkins. This squarely hits the spot for me. I was in. And then, I discover that Superheaven is actually Daylight. You didn’t see that coming right from the first paragraph at all did you.
So, Superheaven aren’t a new band, they’re an established act with a new name. “Ours is Chrome” pretty much picks up exactly where Jar left off. ‘Next to Nothing’ is a riff-driven, chiming rock song. It follows a similar formula to it’s predecessor, album opener ‘I’ve Been Bored’. Guitars alternately rage and ring, bass riffs rumble, hi-hats are forward in the mix, snare drums accentuate militarily, toms are full and rounded. ‘Room’ keeps the feeling low, before ‘All the Pain’, if it’s possible, ups the angst quotient even further, slowing the tempo and adding tonally competitive guitar flourishes to the mix.
This is an intense listen, but has been mixed and mastered in what feels like a bright direction. All the record’s tones are clear and precise which, conversely, doesn’t actually help. Where ‘Leach’ or ‘Gushin’ Blood’ could be punishing exercises in suffering, they come off as somewhat bouncy, radio rock songs. It’s intriguing that such a heavy album could be so easy to listen to. If this is what Superheaven were seeking, then they should have no fear. I can well imagine that any of the songs on this album could make its home on radio in the months to come.
Hop Along – Painted Shut
This, the second album from Hop Along, is an enigmatic mixture. Equal parts 90s alt rock, college rock, jangling indie and intensely melodic, the elements which could make “Painted Shut” something of a standard-issue indie rock album are not just offset, but thoroughly obliterated by the abrasive vocals of Frances Quinlan. She rasps, she rages, she hooks you in and draws you in to a world where injustice, mental instability, self-inflicted suffering and shame seethe competitively to dominate and demand attention. The sheer force of Quinlan’s delivery on tracks such as ‘The Knock’ and previous single ‘The Waitress’ can, as it were, knock you backwards.
There’s much more to this album, though. Throughout the guitar tones are just right, sometimes fuzzed-out and urgent, at others almost playful, in line with the relaxed and focused work of the rhythm section. This has the effect of building a wide palette from which Quinlan can emerge. It’s an unusual combination, a combination, in fact, that probably shouldn’t work, and wouldn’t, were it not for the qualities of musicality on show. These are strong songs, well crafted and delivered expertly. The production is unfussy but sympathetic and, through it all, the sense that Frances Quinlan is a coming songwriter is never far from the surface.
Anyone for a bit of disco? “Bandana Republic” is the second album from Parisian trio Jupiter. Where the other albums I’m writing about today are all on the serious and important side, “Bandana Republic” is a joyful, gloriously fun ten track romp to pull you right into the heart of the Parisian summer.
Right from the scene-setting ‘AV’, you know you’re in for a fun ride. Of particular note, to my ears at least, is the ever-inventive bass work, which draws the ears and the mind into a groove and then places them in to an album-lasting headlock. This, allied to playful synths, choppy funk guitars, and consistently pretty vocals, largely from Amelie mean that Jupiter are able to carry you away into a world that is all of their own making.
Single, ‘Do It’ is one the album’s strongest moments. That’s probably why they released it as a single. All the elements described above are firmly in place, and it features the kind of chorus that several grasping female pop stars who have gone down this route in the last few years would kill for. Go on, watch the video above. You’ll love it. If you like that, you’ll love this album.
Taffy – Darkle EP
Darkle is out now. Watch the video to the first single from this EP, Suicidal Bunny below
Coming on like a cross between Blur, Stone Roses and Elastica, Taffy are one of the few bands from the exciting Japanese rock scene to have made a concerted and successful effort to gain attention in the UK. After two full-lengths and a stunningly consistent B-Sides and rarities album, the band continue their partnership with the, again astonishingly consistent Club AC30 label (Fever Dream, Flying Colours, Gavin Clark, Pinkshinyultrablast, Exit Calm) with the “Darkle” EP.
If you’ve been an aficionado of Taffy in the past, you’ll know what you’re getting here. A driving, punchy band, guitars which squeal and squall in a fashion Graham Coxon seems sadly to have forgotten, and vocals which at first sound sugary sweet, almost twee, but have a habit of burrowing deep inside your cranium and steadfastly refusing to leave. It’s a formula that works startlingly well. ‘Redamancy’ starts moodily, opens out in to a pre-chorus which is almost sweet, before it’s chorus of “I miss you today, I miss you more” is delivered atop groaning guitars which take us back to Radiohead circa 1994-95.
‘Young Times’ swirls and swoons. ‘Remember to Remember’ is chordally and melodically gorgeous, which takes its time, before building in to a stratospheric chorus which hits at just the right moment. ‘Dr. K’ takes things in a punkier and punchier direction, all energetic drive and spiky guitars. ‘HBD’ closes the EP proper with what sounds like a live demo take of ‘Happy Birthday’. I kid you not. The band even manage to take this three chord wonder into a swirling new direction. It very much makes me want to go and see them on my birthday. To actually close the record, ‘Young Tines’ is remixed by psych rock doyen Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre). His take on the track adds a little space and emphasises the prettiness of the melodies at play. It is a welcome addition.
Taffy are, without question, an exiting and essential band in the continuing shoegaze/psych revival. Now if only more of their compatriots would see their way to releasing in the UK.
False-Heads are a new band whose star is definitely in the ascendant. With a sound much in thrall to the grunge rock of the 90s (‘Twentysomething’ from this EP is the kind of song you wish had been on the post-reformation album from Pixies) but which leaves plenty of room for the psych guitars of Luke Griffifths to come to the fore, it’s no surprise that Q Magazine and NME have already been taking notice. ‘Wrap Up’ is the lead single and opening track of the EP. Without further ado, check out the video.
As you will have no doubt by now seen, the song is built on a muscular riff, and features a chorus hook that shouldn’t work but somehow does. It’s a promising start. From there we get the aforementioned ‘Twentysomething’ which is, if anything, a much more arresting prospect. It screams of a band with depth and potential. ‘Snatch’ keeps the pace up, with a verse which reminds me hugely of the Australian band Emperors (this is a good thing). Closer ‘Nothing In There’ begins by taking the intensity down a notch. A moody song, its cacophonous crescendo is somewhat predictable but still exceedingly satisfying.
This is a really solid EP. I am looking forward to seeing what False-Heads come up with next.
Released on the ever-reliable Club AC30 (seriously, do they ever put out anything any less than wonderful?) “Moyamoya” is the debut full length album from live mainstays Fever Dream. A lot has been written about how it sounds a little bit like My Bloody Valentine. More has been said about how it sounds like the kind of “indie” that was popular around 20 years ago. To lampoon Fever Dream with the implied snooty criticism of these associations is to do them a great disservice, however. “Moyamoya” is a fine album. It’s unrelentingly loud, swathes of guitar squall from Adey Flint dominate throughout. Sarah Lippett’s bass is never anything less than strident, and as for the whirlwind that the drums of Cat Loye envelop the listener in, well you’ll just have to listen to find out. This is intense stuff. I’ve already said that Fever Dream are live mainstays and it shows. Right from the word go, as ‘Watch You Sleep’s’ uncompromising opening gives way to the duo of singles ‘Serotonin Hit’ and ‘Nightcrawling’, there is a confidence, an assuredness which belies the fact that this is a debut album. These sound like songs which have been loved, coerced and cherished in to existence. Fever Dream sound like a band who know each other inside out, know each other’s strengths and weaknesses musically. There is a fantastic natural rhythmic pocket found throughout by Lippett and Loye which can only be built through years of hard gigging.
And it never really lets up. Song after song hits you between the eyes, but with so much melodic intentionality that you never lose sight of the song within the sound. This is no small feat. Often, it seems, the choice is between intensity for the sake of intensity, or melody at intensity’s expense. Fever Dream have the balance just right. There’s plenty here to satisfy the hardest-hearted of rock fans, be they of an MBV persuasion or not. A particular favourite of mine is ‘Dance Forever’, which has the temerity to bounce, yes bounce along in the lead up to the chorus, before the playful nature of the song is overtaken by a glorious wall of feedback.
Most satisfyingly of all, the passion never lets up. Closing pair ‘Flux’, with its busy, changeable, yet hypnotic rhythmic pattens and the smack between the eyes that is ‘Vapour”s anthemic chorus carry as much of a punch as anything in the first forays of ‘Moyamoya’. This is a consistent piece of art. My only regret is that I was ignorant of them till now. Now to find a live show….
Timeshares are a New York punk band. “Already Dead” is their second album, but their first for Side One Dummy, a label whose seal of approval is a sure sign of quality. At times (see ‘The Bad Part’, for example) Timeshares come off as a band paying homage to the punk of the 80s, circa The Replacements, as well as a good part of the modern punk revival (I know, I know, punk never died). That is only the half of what makes this an exciting proposition though. For every gritty vocal from Jon Hernandez which places the band firmly within the punk fraternity, there is a guitar tone which twangs just enough, and I mean just enough, to hint at the influence of country. Country-tinged punk might sound like a terrible idea to you, but trust me, the energy on ‘Same Day, Different Week’ and ‘Heavy Hang’ will make a believer out of the most cynical hack. Sure, there’s plenty of straight up rock to be found here. ‘Heavy Hang’ is followed by the decidedly straight-ahead ‘Spend the Night’.
There are some clever musical moments too. ‘(Corner of) Park and Park’ features a repeating and beautifully delivered bar of 5/4 (I think) which really grabs the attention and also has an elastic song structure which firmly moves Timeshares away from any accusation of being a standard four-chord punk band. They seem able to turn their hand in several directions, even at times, such as on ‘The New Incisions’ giving rise to comparisons with the phenomenally successful The Hold Steady (not sure if they’ll love that, but there we go). “Already Dead” is the sound of a growing band straining at the bounds of potential and possibility. The world could well be their oyster.
Ellis Ludwig-Leone seems like quite a dude. He’s been an assistant composer to Nico Muhly (who worked on strings for Sigur Ros along with a heap of other things). He’s worked on arrangements for Sufjan Stevens and Passion Pit. This year he is set to score a ballet in the upcoming New York City Ballet season. In short he is prodigiously talented. Projects birthed in the minds of musicians such as this can go one of two ways: either they can drown under the weight of unrealised delusions of grandeur, or they can soar to unimagined heights of beauty, panache and musicality. Fortunately “Jackrabbit” sits squarely and thoroughly in the latter camp. It is, to put it bluntly, an astonishingly good album.
Brought in to enigmatic life by an eight-piece band – Ellis aided by John Brandon (trumpet), Stephen Chen (saxophone), Rebekah Durham (violin/vocals), Michael Hanf (drums), Charlene Kaye (lead vocals), Tyler McDiarmid (guitar), and Allen Tate (lead vocals), these are great songs. With Tate and Kaye swapping lead vocal duties, there are moments where each of the band are given a chance to shine. Whether it’s the understated and unsettling drama of ‘The Woods’, the kind of song Thom Yorke is regularly deified for, which part way through briefly explodes into a St Vincent-esque kitchen sink jam, the groove of ‘Emily’, which somehow sounds just like Interpol, without prominently featuring guitars in any sense, instead saving its best moments for the trumpet of John Brandon, or the joyful pop of the title track, by the end of the fourth track, if you’re not sold then I will eat my hat. That’s not the half of it though. It’s only just a quarter. “Jackrabbit” showcases more ingenuity, imagination and fully-realised ambition over its fifteen (FIFTEEN) tracks than most artists manage to showcase in an entire career. ‘Parasites’ is one track which shows just how far the compositional mind of Ellis Ludwig-Leone can take him. Tones and instrument families compete. Tempos shift. Kaye and Tate swap vocals, with Tate almost, but not quite, falling over the edge of singing in a different key, brass and strings float in and out, there is a choral interlude or two, and that’s only in the first half. Before the songs’ end it builds to the kind of conclusion that you often hope a song will build to but it barely ever does.
I could write similarly hyperbolic descriptions of almost every song here, but I expect you get the point by now. It’s probably time I brought this thing in to land.
So, here’s the deal. Ellis Ludwig-Leone is a compositional genius. He has brought his vision to full and vibrant life with the help of some creative players. This is a brilliant album which transcends genre classification. It would be a travesty if, as a result, it failed to find a home in your heart. Don’t let that happen.
In this next installment of our guest blog series from the band Ghost Tree, Haydon Spenceley updates us on the progress of their EP as attention turns away from the recording phase and onto promoting the record. Haydon addresses the idea that God doesn’t really need PR…
Greetings! It’s a chilly Sunday morning here in Nottingham, and I thought it was about time (mostly because Jono told me it was) that I put finger to keyboard and updated you all about the goings on with Ghost Tree, and our very soon to be forthcoming debut, self-titled EP.
Since we last spoke (I imagine our times together as cosy fireside chats) lots has happened. Our EP is now completely tracked, including some fantastic string parts, which are amazing and wonderful (did I mention that they’re quite good?) and mixed. Kevin and Brandon have done a fantastic job of bringing my vision for these songs to life in the mix. They sound huge, and yet spacious, risky yet absolutely spot on. Even my voice sounds OK (miracles do happen). This coming week, Brad Blackwood is apparently setting to work on mastering the record so that, in a few short weeks, we can let it out of the bag for you all to enjoy. Can’t wait for that. At the same time as figuring out mixes, I’ve been working on some ideas for tours for the next few months as we look to make the most of the fantastic platform we’ve been blessed with. We’ll be announcing a couple of very different tours in the next few weeks, both of which I’m very excited about. Also been dipping my toe in the waters of trying to find partners with whom to release the record. I know very little about business, so it’s an eye-opening experience for me to even begin to have conversations with people. No idea what will come of all that.
Still need to figure out what to do with my hair.
At the same time, I moved to Nottingham yesterday to start theological college (I’m training to be a vicar from tomorrow – bonkers) while others of us in the band are having joyous family experiences, and some sorrows too, as some seasons come to an end and others start. It’s got me thinking recently, life goes on, seemingly, whatever happens. Life isn’t all about music and bands and good hair (although I really wish I could do something with mine). If nothing else, this year’s taught me that the songs I write and sing should match the life I live, and the words I do and don’t say. I want to be welcomed home as a good and faithful servant, to know Jesus, God made man, not my own construct of who I think Jesus is, but who Jesus actually is. I want others to know Him too. This is the point of all that we do as a band (I hope) and if we ever get lost up our own bottoms, or chasing after a different dream, I hope that we have people around us who will tell us off, dust us down and set us on the right path again.
This morning I woke up thinking about brackets. I read a lot of press releases, and often, the humble bracket plays a crucial role. What happens often goes something like this: “Blah Blah band announces the release of their new album Seismic Shift in History of Modern Music. The new record was produced by A.N. Other (someone who should make you go “ooh, ahh, I must buy this record forthwith if not sooner”)”. What got me thinking is, we could do this. People who worked on our record have worked on some very cool pieces of music, and continue to do so. It’s very tempting for me, as I start to think about promoting the record in the next few weeks, to litter our PR stuff with said brackets. I could easily press the right buttons, play the right games, and impress people a great deal. There’s a big temptation to do it – part of my brain really wants me to make back a lot of money, or even, gasp, make a profit, so that i might be able to support myself, think I was stewarding my resources widely or, double gasp, have enough money to make another record. Thing is, God doesn’t really need PR does He? He doesn’t need, require, or even want me to manipulate how I present myself in order to ensure more people listen to what I have to say. Or maybe He does, maybe He wants me to make the most of the blessings and opportunities He’s given me. I really have no idea. I guess I just struggle with the idea that this is the standard way to do things. I don’t want to come off as idealistic and pretentious. I just want to honour God, and I’m not sure how to do that….So, in a few weeks, when you see our PR stuff and it’s plastered with brackets, you’ll know that I capitulated!
We’re so close to having stuff for you all to listen to now, it’s very exciting. I can’t wait for the chance for you to see/hear what all the fuss is about!
Please pray for me and for us this week. It’s so inspiring to be part of a community of faith, and to know that we’re not alone, and not doing this for our own benefit, but to serve and bless people, and to bless and thank our God. Let’s hope we all find ways to live our lives along those lines this week.
In the fourth part of our series of guest blogs from LTTM friend Haydon Spenceley about the recording of his new band Ghost Tree’s debut album, Haydon gives us an update on the album and explains the heart behind some of the songs.
So I look out of my window as I begin to write this fourth blog entry for you about Ghost Tree’s recording trip to Nashville. It is cold, it is grey. It is raining. I must be home. It’s amazing that you can so comfortably gauge whether you’re in the UK or not by whether it looks like it might rain or not. I’m looking back over the last couple of weeks since I last wrote for Louder Than The Music and I have no idea where to start in how to describe simply how awesome, exciting, frightening and fattening the latter part of our trip has been. I suppose, as I wrote about my toilet travails last time, I should pick up from where I left off.
You’ll be pleased to know, no doubt that the only lasting damage from my brush with the bathroom was to my pride, but that was by no means the last of my hazardous health histrionics. Indeed, on the very next day, while Ben and Mark were tracking at Brown Owl (which may be one of the coolest places on the planet). I discovered a large bite on my arm. Upon inspection at the local hospital, it turns out I had been dinner for a Brown Recluse Spider. I don’t know whether I’m exaggerating, so please excuse me if I am, but apparently bites such as these are potentially fatal, so I was freaked out more than a little bit. Anyway, come 3am the next morning I was home tucked up in bed, having been treated well, but still a little bit scared, I must admit. One of the things that had scared me was the potential financial cost of visiting the hospital and paying for treatment (high). In this, as in every other aspect of this trip, God was faithful, and provided me with a route to claim on my insurance, and pay for the prescriptions I needed to deal with the problem. I am pleased to say that now my arm is completely healed and I am back to health. It was a sobering reminder of my need for God though, the kind of reminder that seemed to come for all of us who were involved in the record at one point or other in the trip.
The next day was another rhythm section day, with some keyboards for me to do as well. I took abundantly great joy in playing a couple of songs on a Fender Rhodes, and another on a wonderful old upright piano, before finishing with some time on a Wurlitzer. All great fun, especially on 4 hours sleep. We concluded at 2am with Kevin (producer) trying to work on a Wurli part that ended up requiring that he play the right hand and I play the left. Teamwork is dreamwork people! I should point out as well that Kevin and Brandon had gone well above and beyond the call of duty in taking me and staying with me all the way through my hospital experience the previous night, so we were all quite worn out by this point!
I also had the pleasure of coffee-ing with Chad Johnson that day. Chad is a total legend, who heads up Come and Live! and seeks God in a way which is consistently challenging to me. Come and Live! have some cool bands, and an even cooler heart for ministry. Keep an eye on what they’re doing, and pray for them.
With the rhythm section stuff laid down (with some amazing help from Chris Vicari), we were on to guitars, keys and vocals in week 3. This was last week, which went by in a total blur, as we powered through the remaining stuff that needed to be put down for the record. Allie Kelly, our guitarist, played some great stuff, and Kevin came up with some great production ideas to augment and improve on what we had. Later in the week, another new friend, Ryan Stubbs, came along and sprinkled some magic dust over various parts of the record with guitar parts that were so cool it didn’t really seem fair. I sang some of the most challenging vocals I’ve ever had to record (including one standing up, which was like my own personal Mount Everest), and then before we knew it, our parts were done, and it was time to go home.
It was fascinating to me that my songs, written (mostly) in my bedroom back in the UK, seemed to provoke such amazingly positive reactions from guys we met in Nashville. Being British seems to be cool right now, and I with my “bizarre” and “silly” chord progressions (I was accused of being Prog at one point) seem to have made an impression on some people. This was cool, obviously, but not just from a vanity point of view. It was cool because I was able to just be myself, write and sing the songs that God had given to me, and here I was on the other side of the world, thousands of miles from home, and they were resonating with people I barely knew. Quite a confidence boost that. I guess it struck me that we need to push in to the things that God has for us. Not to push past Him, or run away from His still small voice, or His leadership down the narrow path that leads to life, but to stay in step with Him, to know that His character is to be generous, abundantly, to His children, and to trust His provision. I’ve worked hard over the years, and pushed on all kinds of doors that were closed, and were meant to be closed, but here was one that was wide open, and had only been made so by the grace of God, not by my merit, or through my ability to blag my way into something. There’s a lesson for me there, and I would guess I’m not the only one! For all those times when I’ve doubted my calling, it strikes me that I’d missed what my calling actually was. I remember writing here once before that life is less about doing and more about being, that it’s not what we do that defines us, but who we are. That statement’s always been true, but it’s so much more real to me now. God made me for Himself, not to be a musician, a Church minister, or anything else. He doesn’t need me to make an album, but He gave me the gifts and the grace I need, so that, with a lot of help, I can make an album to honour Him. Really, it takes a lot of the pressure off when you look at it like that. God provides for us to do everything He asks of us, but the primary thing He asks of us is love. He is love, and it is Him in us who makes us able to love, so we need to focus on Him, learn how to love, and then do it, in whatever area of life we are.
So now, looking back on the trip, I have to conclude it was the best few weeks of my life. Not without challenges or even frightening moments, as I said before, but without a shadow of a doubt the best time I’ve ever experienced. There’s nothing like seeking your calling from God over a prolonged period of time, and then finding that you’re actually walking (or rolling) it out, something I experienced here. I know, talking to the other guys, we’ll never be the same for what we’ve gone through either. I’m excitedly waiting to hear first mixes in a couple of weeks, and already we’re itching to find the best partners to release the record with, so that you can all hear it, and can experience with us something of the beauty and power of the God that we love through these songs.
Really, this is about so much more than a record, or an experience. For me, this was an experience of God, blessing me, teaching me, refining me, challenging me, to see myself for who I am, to see Him for who He is, and to walk in His way, confidently approaching His throne of grace, as He has invited me to do, and then taking the love and blessing I have received and sharing it with the world. That is what we want to do with these songs, this band. It’s cool to have great experiences, but it’s even cooler to know that our faith is on the solid rock of Christ, and I hope that when we come to release this EP in the latter part of this year, you will be blessed as you hear it, and led to worship and the one who loves you most of all.
If you want to keep up with us and our progress over the next few months, you can at @ghosttreeband – we’ll be launching our Facebook, Twitter, Reverbnation and everything else pages very soon!
In the third part of our series of guest blogs from LTTM friend Haydon Spenceley, we get a progress update from Nashville on the recording process for Ghost Tree’s new album, and hear a warning on the toils of public bathrooms!
So, it’s about 8.45pm here in sunny Nashville. Today we scratch-tracked the remaining three songs for the record. These are Hope, Hallelujah and Save My Day. Hope and Save My Day are both new versions of songs that my old band, Freeslave, used to do. They’re both pretty different from the old versions, feeling like the fully formed versions of the songs that I always hoped would make it out one day. Hallelujah is a straight-up worship track which starts off all nice and British, and ends up gritty and messy. There’s talk of a Queen-like vocal ending to this one, which should be fun. As far as the music goes, I’ve had a pretty straightforward day, tracking keys and vocals for the tracks so that the other guys in the band can play over them, and so that Mark and Ben can track the final rhythm section parts over them tomorrow. As I write this, they are practicing the tracks, whilst Brandon, Kevin, Chris Vicari (a cool drummer mate of theirs) and I are listening/pointing and laughing when they make the occasional minor mistake. But these are by far not the most interesting or even dangerous things to happen today. Oh no, dear reader. Oh no.
You see, this morning, Kevin and Brandon had a meeting about something or other on Music Row. The guys in the band and I decamped to a noted local coffee chain for an early-morning snack. All was well until I decided that, prior to going into the deep, dark recesses of the studio (where there is no bathroom, dear reader) it would be wise to, well, you know, make the most of the opportunity of, well, peeing. I did what was needed, and then I lent on the grab rail in the bathroom to transfer, and then…. Well, I kinda don’t know what happened next. Suffice to say that not only did I end up on the floor, but the grab rail came with me. And not only that, but so did the whole of the toilet.The toilet actually moved. It moved. And then, just to add insult to injury, it auto-flushed. I got wet. It was not cool. See, being a wheelchair user, I assumed that the USA would be well set for me, in this modern age. Turns out this is not the case. The manager of said coffee place was verily worried I was going to get extremely litigious. Fortunately for her, and for me, I decided against that, and emerged with a mildly bruised bottom, and an even more bruised ego. I’m also now scared to use the bathroom in public.
As I’ve done my guide parts now, I’m free until Monday. So, Nashville types, what shall I do with my time?!
Join me next time to see if the bruise on my hip has developed into anything, whether I’ve been offered a free Mocha, and hear about our experiences tracking rhythm parts at Brown Owl.
And remember kids, don’t use a grab rail unless it’s securely nailed to the wall.