Tag: Stereo Sanctity

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Some Great Stuff I've Heard Recently

Another Catch Up Of Some More Great Stuff I’ve Heard Recently

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.

Next to None – A Light in the Dark

Order the album here

Watch the video for ‘Blood On My Hands’ below

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.

Motopony – Welcome You

Order the album here

Watch the video for ‘Get Down (Come Up’ below

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.

Vennart – The Demon Joke

Order the album here

Stream it here

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.

Wolf Alice – My Love is Cool

Order the album here

Watch the video for ‘Giant Peach’ below

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.

Son Lux – Bones

Order the album here

Watch the Video for ‘You Don’t Know Me’ below

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.

Mutoid Man – Bleeder

Order the album here

Listen to ‘Sweet Ivy’ below

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.

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Some Great Stuff I've Heard Recently

Some Great Stuff I’ve Heard Recently: Rainer, The Weather Station, Anthony Strong

Rainer – Water

Buy the album here

Watch the video For Nocturn below

This is the debut album from Rainer. That it sounds far too mature, assured and confident to be a debut album is perhaps no surprise. Both of the bands’ members have been around the block several times in acts which met with varying degrees of success. The joys of success and the challenges of supposed failure have done nothing, it seems, but hone the talents and heighten the drive of Nic Nell and Rebekah Raa. On this record, Nell’s glitchy yet confident production and beats (see ‘Trouble’ and ‘Leave’) for particular key examples, are augmented by vocals from Raa which sound completely in control, even through dynamic shifts, beautiful layering and harmonies, and great use of different vocal tones. The field of indie-pop is a crowded one, but there are elements to Rainer’s approach, not least their strong sense of song craft, that should stand them in good stead. I can think of no greater compliment to pay them that, at times, this debut album sounded like a more focused Imogen Heap. I have no idea whether they’ll see it that way, but there we go. It will be interesting to see how things develop for them in the months and years to come. The flecks of glockenspiel, clarinet and other instruments not normally associated with this genre which appear throughout the album suggest that there is major scope for the development of a wider and even more enticing sonic palette on future releases. For now, though, this is a fine introduction to an intriguing new (to me) act.

The Weather Station – Loyalty

Buy the album here

Do you love Joni Mitchell? What about Leonard Cohen? Perhaps the recent re-emergance of Linda Perhacs on Asthmatic Kitty has got you really excited. Maybe the folk work of people like Holly Williams has captivated you. Well, to that august list of deceptively gentle sounding titanic songwriters we can add the name of Tamara Lindemann, aka The Weather Station. “Loyalty” her new album is a beautiful folk release, one of the best of 2015. Recorded with members of Feist’s band, the combination of gentle strumming and careful augmentation (banjo, piano, organ, brushed drums) do their job wonderfully in supporting The Weather Station’s primary asset, Lindemann’s crystal clear vocal. Equal parts smoothly relaxing, yet urgently exploring lyrical themes of suffering and sorrow, the eleven tracks of “Loyalty’s” duration  can slide by seemingly in a lilting moment, but engage with them and you’ll find a purposefully beating heart within. ‘Floodplain’ moves melodically and harmonically in unexpected directions, while ‘Shy Women’ makes splendid use of subtle changes in time signature to bring its effect firmly home. Those are my highlights, but this is an album best taken as a whole. If you’re looking for some new folk in your life, this is the record for you.

Anthony Strong – On a Clear Day

Buy the album here

Watch the video for the title track below

And now for something yet completely different. And yet, the voice and chilled piano stylings of jazz man Anthony Strong feel so comfortingly familiar that you feel like he, and his new album “On a Clear Day” have been part of your life forever. Anthony has a clear voice, seemingly from a bygone era when jazz was the most prominent of popular music forms. The title track of this album (video above) has an effortless groove which will draw you in. You will not escape it. The horns and flutes may grab the attention, but it’s the floating arpeggios and the ease with which Strong crests the melodic highs and reaches in to his boots for their depths which will impress most.

His takes on jazz standards ‘Whatever Lola Wants’ and ‘As Time Goes By’ show that he truly has the chops you need to make a dent in this most crowded of areas, while strong and intricate arrangements bring life to tracks which would otherwise run the risk of sounding tired and dated. And so the album progresses. Strong’s vocals fantastic throughout, a solid collection of songs, and an inventive band giving just the right amount of light and shade throughout.

And this is the pitfall for this kind of album. This is not a genre where it is easy to come up with a “new” way of showcasing your wares. It really has all been done before. As such, it is unlikely that this will be a life-changing album, unless this is your introduction to smooth vocal jazz. But it is a very fine album, and provides Anthony Strong with an opportunity to gain the attention at home which he richly deserves, and which has already been coming his way in spades in Europe. What’s not to love about a good old-fashioned jazz crooner after all? Go on, dig in and enjoy a smooth bank holiday Monday.

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Some Great Stuff I've Heard Recently

Some Great Stuff I’ve Heard Recently: Superheaven, Hop Along, Jupiter, Taffy

Superheaven – Ours is Chrome

Watch the video to I’ve Been Bored below. Ours is Chrome is out now. Play the bands’ own version of Space Invaders at this link too. Go on, you know you want to,

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.

See the video for Powerful Man below. Painted Shut is out now

Jupiter – Bandana Republic

Bandana Republic is out now. Watch the video for Do It Below

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.