January 2010
81 posts
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Errors: Come Down With Me
Words: Gareth O’Malley
For starters, you just have to love the irony, intentional or not, of that album title. Everything was pointing towards Glasgow quartet Errors’ sophomore record being an impenetrable, dark affair, but it’s rather safe to say that nothing could be further from the truth.
Simon Ward, Stephen Livingstone and Greg Paterson released their debut,...
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January, In Reviews
In Score Order: 8.9 - Four Tet - There Is Love In You 8.8 - Husky Rescue - Ship Of Light 8.8 - Delphic - Acolyte 8.7 - These New Puritans - Hidden 8.7 - Beach House - Teen Dream 8.6 - Vampire Weekend - Contra 8.5 - Owen Pallett - Heartland 8.2 - Cold War Kids - Behave Yourself EP 8.1 - Race Horses - Goodbye Falkenburg 7.9 - Spoon - Transference 7.8 - Surfer Blood - Astro Coast 7.0 - Get Well...
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Quick Fix: Lindstrøm & Christabelle - Real Life Is...
January’s Quick Fixes: Eels - End Times
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Lindstrøm & Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool (CD Feedelity) words: Jamie Milton
Your life is a song, and is it this one? Lindstom’s latest offering rarely shifts from a glossy output of superstar-beats, a quintessentially...
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Example - Won't Go Quietly (Dancing Robot Music...
top photo: Eleanor Rask Words: Steven Serrao Gutierrez
Aural visual extravaganza Dancing Robot Music offers a musical experience that takes over clubs and so far we have been teased with few remixes available to the public domain. They have been busy performing across the UK over the last 12 months with their unique assembly of elektro-dubplate-mashups. Eagerly anticipated, newly released...
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Broadcast 2000: Pep Talk/Everybody & Me
Words: Emmy Droege
Broadcast 2000 could very well be Sufjan Stevens’ English cousin. Or at least the calming vocals and smooth melody in ‘Pep Talk’ are enough to make listeners ponder that there’s a slight chance he might be. At any rate, for those who like to chill out to calming vocals and mellow acoustic strums, Broadcast 2000 (singer/songwriter Joe Steer) will sooth your...
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Retribution Gospel Choir - 2
words: David MacGowan
‘2’ opens with a track called ‘Hide It Away’, but there’s nothing shy about these boys. Strictly old school and Old Testament, the retribution they seek isn’t to be asked for, but taken. And their weapon of choice is ROCK, of the sort that could have been blasted forth at Woodstock or the Isle of Wight just as easily as through your iPod...
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Pit Er Pat - Water (mp3)
Shamelessly sexy. Think of ‘Water’ as the new decade’s Peaches’ ‘Fuck The Pain Away’, with its Snoop Dogg-‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ click-clicks, lyrics rarely moving from the subject of “drip, drop” etc. Lyrics aren’t important here, they’re more an instrument than anything meaningful. What’s essential is the deep...
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WatchAUDIOVISUAL: Broken Bells - The High Road
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Taken from the forthcoming, rather stunning, self-titled debut.
/via
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Stream: Magnetic Fields - Realism
Courtesy of Drownedinsound.
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Free mp3: Yeasayer - O.N.E
The gloriously shameless pop-romp, taken from next month’s ‘Odd Blood’, the recipient of MFM’s highest score given to a 2010 album so far.
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Pretty Lights: Fly Away Another Day (mp3)
Words: Emmy Droege
The first time I listened to ‘Fly Away Another Day’, I was brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. The captivating melody and beats instantly drew me in. I was hooked, and so nighttime obligations sat on the backburner while I stood frozen, a little less sleepy than before. Something about this tune woke me up, not enough to forget about sleep, but enough to...
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The Sunshine Underground: Nobody's Coming To Save...
Words: Gareth O’Malley
You get the sense that this time around, it really is a case of sink or swim for The Sunshine Underground. We have seen cases in recent years of bands taking far too little time with their second album (hello, The Pigeon Detectives!), or even their third (Kaiser Chiefs, guilty as charged). However, when you take nearly four years to produce a follow-up, it basically...
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High Places - On Giving Up (mp3)
top image: re-blogged from momentofsurrender words: Jamie Milton
The response to High Places’ debut was mildly underwhelming; in 2008, they had a great deal of hype behind them, ‘The Storm’ picking up the majority of momentum. But the full debut was one that received mixed praise. Some even, were quick to dismiss the band as one trick ponies. That much has been immediately set...
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righthear:
BEACH FOSSILS: Daydream
The...
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About M.F.M
Music Fan’s Mic is a British-based music blog, established in late 2007. It’s been raised on the platforms of blogger and wordpress before moving to its current home of tumblr. Whilst initially being a mere output of reviews written for other publications, it is now worked on daily by editor Jamie Milton (founder, Reading, England), formerly with the help of Gareth O’Malley...
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Pierced Arrows - Let It Rain/Paranoia
Words: Emmy Droege
The first 15 seconds of ‘Let It Rain’ by Pierced Arrows kicks off with a uniquely sneaky intro that will no doubt grab at your soul, or more likely, the sole of your shoe. One foot is guaranteed to tap along with this up-tempo, garage rock sound. Then, just before the 20 second mark, your heel will suspend in mid-air as the singer comes on and tells you that “Some...
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Quick Fix: Eels - End Times
Quick Fix is a new feature in which we review some of the albums we’ve just about managed to squeeze into our listening time, only we review them a little quicker than usual. These still get the same time of day as some of the more paragraph-heavy reviews, but we thought we could summarise our thoughts with these releases nicely:
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EELS - End Times ...
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Four Tet - There Is Love In You
words: Jamie Milton
A clearing of the airwaves, a flick of the “on” button, and Keiran Hebden is formally ready to return. Although far from out of action in the four years since his previous record, ‘Everything Ecstatic’, an arrival in the new decade seems suitable, as his sound of naturally-built electronica breeds new life and continues to develop. As heads are...
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Spirit Spine - Flashes (mp3)
photographer: Mary Robinson words: Jamie Milton
Initially all you hear is ‘Person Pitch’. Sun-tinged samples, bursts of full, nautical atmosphere and the industrial background noise. Produced from over 30 samples, Spirit Spine doesn’t try to avoid a comparison to Panda Bear, one bound to be heaved upon him when his debut album finds the digital spine tomorrow.
And when your...
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Husky Rescue: Ship of Light
Words: Gareth O’Malley
The power of restraint. This might seem a strange concept to get your head around at first, but it’s often that the most minimalist of songs can sound the most powerful. Finnish quintet (we say quintet, but in the past there have been as many as twenty people - yes, really - working with them at times) Husky Rescue are a band that know this very well indeed.
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UK Music Releases: February 2010
February 1st
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring [Audiovisuals: Romance Is Boring] Husky Rescue - Ship of Light [Download: We Shall Burn Bright] The Sunshine Underground - Nobody’s Coming To Save You Midlake - The Courage of Others The Album Leaf - A Chorus of Storytellers Hot Chip - One Life Stand [Audiovisuals: One Life Stand] Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now! -...
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Get Well Soon: Vexations
Words: David Molloy
You know the tired saying - you have your whole life to make your debut album, and then only two years to make your second, and those two years aren’t very long when you take promotion and touring into account, so some pressure put on Konstantin Gropper wouldn’t have been very surprising - the multi-instrumentalist from Berlin spent three years making his first...
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Initial Thoughts: Frightened Rabbit - The Winter...
Words: Gareth O’Malley
No pressure, guys, but I think that, well, everyone is expecting you to come back with something even better than ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’. Said album was of course lauded pretty much right across the board when it was released in 2008, and we at MFM have a high opinion of it as well.
Anyone that was worrying that Frightened Rabbit peaked too soon,...
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WatchVISUALS: Beach House - Silver Soul
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Part of Gorillavsbear’s wonderful daily video gift. Read our review of ‘Teen Dream’ right here.
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Grizzly Bear - And I Was A Boy From School (Hot...
Regardless of how well Grizzly Bear have developed and forgetting their slight streamlining into a heady world of pop with ‘Two Weeks’, successful or not, Grizzly Bear will always have their stunning, grasping voices.
And in their rather unexpected cover of Hot Chip (of whom are set to release their fourth album), they turn a well-matured electronic song into a beautiful folk-drama...
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Good Shoes: No Hope, No Future
Words: Jack Layzell
It was always going to be a tough second album for Good Shoes. Their 2007 debut ‘Think Before You Speak’ was jam-packed with the sort of brilliantly written, hook-laden indie-pop songs that deserved to bring them a lot more success than they achieved. Unfortunately for the band, the current musical climate in the UK doesn’t breed much hope for their sophomore...
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Don't Wait Animate - 6174 (exclusive mp3)
words: Steven Serrao Gutierrez top image
Indie-dub fusion group Don’t Wait Animate have been rewarding fans with regular examples of their interpretation of dubstep that has evolved from a lighter indie rock band sound. The style has an emphasis on live production and is clearly directed from the darker elements of electronic music.
‘6174’ is a gloomy stance on debt and...
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Details: Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed...
Release Date: March 1st 2010
Label: FatCat Records
Tracklisting:
01 - Things
02 - Swim Until You Can’t See Land
03 - The Loneliness & The Scream
04 - The Wrestle
05 - Skip The Youth
06 - Nothing Like You 07 - Man/Bag Of Sand
08 - Foot Shooter
09 - Not Miserable
10 - Living In Colour
11 - Yes I Would
Initial Thoughts review coming soon
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Here’s the...
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Beach House - Teen Dream
words: Jamie Milton
Where would some of these acts be without their lead singer? For instance: would The National be written off as dull and lifeless without the psychotic, deeply-toned heroics of Matt Berninger? How important was Thom Yorke to Radiohead when it came to not just delving into experimentation but also writing the pop-punk anthem that made them in the first place,...
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WatchVISUALS: The xx - VCR Taken from 2009’s self-titled debut.
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WatchVISUALS: Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
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Taken from the album of the same name.
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Stream: Owen Pallett's 'Heartland'
And read David McGowan’s wonderful review of the album.
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Hot Chip: One Life Stand
Words: Gareth O’Malley
As far as we’re concerned, Hot Chip have never been a band to go for if you’re looking for immediacy. That aspect of their material starts and ends with their singles (at the very most, as even then they don’t provide ‘quick fixes’ as most singles do). Rather, they have always been the band you’ve had to give a chance to grow on...
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Four Tet - New Album Stream
There Is Love In You by Four Tet
Steam the album in its entirity via. Soundcloud.
Released on Domino next Monday.
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Laura Marling - Devil's Spoke (listen)
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A prolonged time out finally explains itself: Laura Marling will release two full-lengths in 2010. The first of which (‘I Speak Because I Can’) arrives this March, the second we’re yet to know about. Last time an artist declared such a daring attempt, their plans went amiss slightly (Patrick Wolf, Cajun Dance Party). The beautiful Christmas-time release...
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jj - Let Go // My Way (mp3)
top image:
They continue to produce, they continue to encompass several genres of music at once, and they continue to impress. Jj are about to unleash their third release, jj nº 3, on secretley canadian this March.
‘My Way’ draws in yet another Weezy sample (after last year’s immaculate ‘Ecstacy’, one of our songs of the year), and goes from one pace to another...
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Surfer Blood - Astrocoast
words: Jamie Milton
So these “Surfer Kids”? They are the target of Surfer Blood’s hate. You assume them to be the kind who make a fool out of themselves in American Pie but always get the girl. Or the American footballers in the background of newly-fashioned TV show Glee; the kind that goof around and give the occasional high five, but again, always get the girl....
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LIVE: Vivian Girls // Veronica Falls @ Brighton...
words: Jamie Milton originally scribed for MusicOMH
Playing live is no big feat for a band like Vivian Girls. The real challenges come in transpiring their raucous, one-take energy into recordings. But an element of on-purpose carelessness in their first two albums (the self-titled and 2009’s ‘Everything Goes Wrong’) has won them a cult status in the UK and overseas and...
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Moke: The Long & Dangerous Sea
Words: Bart de Jong Where debut album ‘Shorland’ drew the attention of indie lovers all over the Netherlands (and even some abroad), ‘The Long & Dangerous Sea’ confirms Moke’s newly gained status, and sees them going on a mission to conquer Europe. The first song and title track of this album immediately reveals a new direction in the so-delicately-developed...
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Frightened Rabbit: Nothing Like You
Words: Gareth O’Malley
‘The Winter of Mixed Drinks’, the third record from that lot up there, Scottish quartet Frightened Rabbit, is due on March 1st, and anticipation for it is growing by the day, certainly here at MFM. We were mightily impressed with lead single ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’, and it seems that there is going to be much to love about this...
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Spoon - Transference
words: Jamie Milton originally scribed for gigwise.com
Step into an album where melodies are loaded in by trucks, where studio production acts as its own instrument, where guitars are incisive and precise and where vocals fit the mood of each song with perfection. You’re listening to a Spoon album, of course. But which one?
‘Transference’ is another footprint from the same...