August 2010
112 posts
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Tubelord: Tezcatlipoca EP
Words: Gareth O’Malley
Bloody hell. We were expecting something good from Tubelord after their sensational debut ‘Our First American Friends’ impressed us last year, but not anything this good.
The band have clearly progressed from their debut album, even while remaining every bit as unpredictable as they’ve been known to be in the past. These three songs ensure that...
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Music Fan's Mic Mix: August 2010
Seems an odd time to begin a project, halfway through the year. But it’s been an idea roaming around the ol’ head for some time, and with August being our biggest, most productive month yet, it seemed a good time to introduce to you our monthly, tounge-twistingly titled, Music Fan’s Mic “mix” of August-related treats. Be it from the finest releases over the four...
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Quick Fix: Savoir Adore - In The Wooded Forest
[Released on Cantora]
Words: Gareth O’Malley
There’s one thing about this album that’s still puzzling us. It was released in the U.S. almost a year ago, and it saw the light of day here last week. How the hell did it not get picked up for U.K. distribution earlier? We ask this because - and there are no two ways about it - what we have here is one of the best pop records of...
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Quick Fix: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin -...
[Released on Polyvinyl]
Words: Gareth O’Malley
We can’t help but wonder if Boris Yeltsin was ever aware of this band’s existence. If he had been, would he have approved of the name? It’s one of those questions that will never be answered - thanks to the ex-Russian President’s death in 2007.
We like it though. It seems to be a little like Marmite. We can certainly...
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August, In Reviews
9.6 - The Strange Death of Liberal England - Drown Your Heart Again 9.2 - Everything Everything - Man Alive 9.2 - Tubelord - Tezcatlipoca 8.5 - Fight Like Apes - The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner 8.4 - Menomena - Mines 8.4 - Holy Ghost! - Static On The Wire 8.4 - Philip Selway - Familial 8.4 - Eels - Tomorrow Morning 8.1 - Savoir Adore - In The Wooded Forest 8.0 - Baths - Cerulean...
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Fight Like Apes: The Body Of Christ And The Legs...
Words: Gareth O’Malley
That album cover is brilliant, for a start, doing exactly what it says on the tin. It’s eye-catching, irreverent and fun. Quite a bit like Fight Like Apes themselves then.
The Dublin trio (formerly quartet; Adrian Mullen left earlier this year) released their debut, ‘The Mystery of the Golden Medallion’, back in 2008. That album was bright and...
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mpfree: Bastardgeist - Flee To The Hills
words: Jamie Milton Brainlove’s latest miraculous find, Bastardgeist (Joel Midden), comes equipped with the remarkable ability to display a breathtaking sonic exploration with only the most abstract of ingredients. His vocals shift in pitch and stature, riding a beautiful wave of soft synth patterns and uniquely-formed percussion. On paper, it’d simply pass by. But the final product...
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Quick Fix: Fan Death - Womb of Dreams
Words: Gareth O’Malley // Released on Mercury
We didn’t get off to be the best of starts with this one, we have to admit. The band name is still managing to irk us; we’re still not fans of the artwork, and as for the title… well, no, we dislike that even now.
The music, however, is much more appealing: for the most part, ‘Womb of Dreams’ is a delightfully...
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Album of the week 30/08/10: Everything Everything...
[listen on Spotify] ”Should all things go according to plan, Man Alive will cause a shift in the ground, potentially allowing guitar pop to succeed the sorry state of today’s charts.” Read our review of the terrific, frighteningly versatile debut album from Manchester’s biggest new talent.
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Quick Fix: Eels - Tommorow Morning
Words: James Dyke [released on E Works]
‘Tommorow Morning’ is the third installment of Eels’ so called ‘trilogy’ of albums released over the past 14 or so months (The previous two being ‘Hombre lobo’ - June 2009, and ‘End Times’ - January 2010).
Singer/Songwriter ‘E’ delivers an incredibly uplifting record, exploring the themes...
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mpfree: Religious Girls - ESL
words: Jamie Milton image: christian oldham California Bay gives way to experimentalism like you’ve never heard it before. Religious Girls’ ‘ESL’ begins by sounding akin to the Stars Of The Lid-meets-Justin Bieber remake that made ‘U Smile’ sound like a conceptual post-rock piece. What emerges after the elongation and soft, melting oohs and aahs however...
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mpfree: Kanye West - Monster (w/Justin Vernon,...
words: Ben Ross As Part of his promise to release a song a week from G.O.O.D. music family, Kayne West unleashes Monster; which contains the fabled collaboration between Kayne West himself and a taciturn Bon Iver. It does also feature Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj. The song’s opening is the highlight, the vocalists harmonising in such an interesting way that the rest of the song, being an all...
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Quick Fix: Baths - Cerulean
words: Jamie Milton [released on Anticon] An emergence of the ‘chillwave’ genre has been met with hard criticism, early dismissal and even satire. But in beneath the cliched beach-landscape artwork and the processed synths lies genuine invention. It’s unfortunate for Will Wiesenfeld (aka. Baths) that he’s been tagged amongst a genre which he owes very little to. His debut...
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mpfree: Abe Vigoda - To Tears
words: Jamie Milton [mp3 via] Abe Vigoda have adjusted their co-ordinates. That much was evident in ‘Throwing Shade’, the lead single from forthcoming record ‘Crush’. Involved was electronic elements, minimalism - the content on ‘Skeleton’ felt like it was being seen from an alternative viewpoint. ’To Tears’ will reassure those concerned with the...
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The Strange Death Of Liberal England: Drown Your...
Words: Gareth O’Malley
There are two words that can either thrill or chill a music fan through their very utterance. Those two words are ‘concept album’. They conjure up the idea of progressive rock at its height: noodling guitar solos, lyrics that are either about nothing in particular or head-wreckingly obtuse, and pretentious story arcs.
‘Drown Your Heart...
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This is good. Very definitely so.
ADULTROCK:JAY-Z VS ADEBISI SHANK - 99 PROBLEMS (BUT A SHANK AIN’T ONE) by ADULTROCK
Hova’s ‘99 Problems’ meets Adebisi’s ‘Oyasumi’ to produce something as strange as it is brilliant.
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New Music: Seapony
Words: James Dyke
Ok, Summer’s drawing to a close, but it’s never too late for a great Summery pop track is it? Introducing: Seapony, a twee band based in Seattle (Is it me or does most good pop come from the States these days?). Their brand spanking new self-titled EP features 4 tracks to prolong your Summer afternoons, bursting with hazy vocals and chiming guitars not too...
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Everything Everything cover Gloworm, do it...
One of our new favourite bands are clearly in a rich vein of form as of late. Now they’re covering this, and we’re on board with it, very much so. Here’s what they said:
“I remember this song from my childhood, there’s something unusually sad and soulful about what at first appears to be a fairly upbeat dance track. For some reason the verse lyrics have...
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WatchAUDIOVISUALS/// Goodluck Jonathan - Broken Heart
Brighton seems to be spewing out more new bands than we can currently keep up with. Judging by their quality, we hope the well doesn’t run dry any time soon. These guys are Goodluck Jonathan, who seem to know a thing or two about wrapping interesting song structures around a good tune. Not to mention, their drummer knows what he’s...
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WatchAUDIOVISUALS: Washed Out - Hold Out Ridin’ some chillwaves. This is a fascinating insight into how quickly and radically Washed Out’s career has taken off. It’s less than twelve months since we first mentioned him and a steady blog uprising at the time has transformed Ernest Greene from bedroom-ridden mac-user to a huge international artist. And he’s yet to release a...
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Art Is Hard to release compilation via. a...
words: Jamie Milton This isn’t an entirely original idea, I’ll grant you that. Of Montreal released 2008’s ‘Skeletal Lamping’ in the form of “a collection” which included t-shirts, badges and yes, some paper lanterns, and each package came with a digital download code. This either passed South West-England label Art Is Hard by, or they were greatly...
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Disclosure: Offline Dexterity/Street Light...
Words: Gareth O’Malley
Dubstep. It’s always been something I’ve ‘appreciated’, but have never fully been able to get into. The genre can be quite hit-and-miss, and more often than not it’s light on melody whilst being heavy on atmospherics, which isn’t exactly the kind of thing I like.
Disclosure’s debut single isn’t going to provide the...
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Words With: Sky Larkin
Questions: Jamie Milton Responses: Nestor Matthews Sky Larkin have come out of a lengthy and at times troublesome last two months with fresh faces. Their second album, ‘Kaleide’ has finally hit its release date, to resounding applause. Beforehand however, the band had to deal with a notably early internet leak of the record. This event, and the band’s subsequent actions in...
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Stream: Beach House - White Moon
words: Ben Ross Taken from the soon to be released live iTunes exclusive EP this slice of blissed-out dream pop carefully and progressively blossoms as the song progresses. Victoria Legrand’s diverse and angelic vocals coupled with Alex Scally’s slow and steady keyboard and drums paints a dreamscape of pure serenity, carefully drawing the listener into their world of beauty, and night time...
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Stream: Calories - Basic Nature
That up there is the rather excellent new record from our other favourite noise-pop trio from Birmingham, Calories. You can listen to it nearly three whole weeks ahead of street date. We like this kind of idea. Oh, and on a related note, you can grab ‘You Could Be Honest’ for free, in pretty much whatever format you want. That’s also something we approve of. Well done.
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New Music: Love Lake - Ghost
Words: James Dyke
We featured Minneapolis’ prodigy Love Lake a couple of weeks ago on Music Fan’s Mic, well he’s back with another indie pop gem. ‘Ghost’ is an upbeat tale which feels like it’s fresh off a sub-pop indie label. A hazy guitars overshadows all, accompanied by Derek Jackson on drums ‘Ghost’ feels a world away from previous effort:...
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Quick Fix: Klaxons - Surfing the Void
[Released on Polydor]
Words: Gareth O’Malley
Everyone knows what Klaxons should have done when the initial recordings of what would become their second album were vehemently rejected by Polydor last year. They should have said, about as politely as possible, ‘Screw this, and screw you lot. We quit.’ Then, they should have signed to a more flexible label and gone on ahead.
...
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Philip Selway: Familial
Words: Gareth O’Malley
Drummers, eh. Who’d be one? For so long now, it’s been the sticksmen (and women) that have been the butt of jokes. Their songwriting abilities have been lampooned, along with so many other things. This album, however, is a massive slap in the face to those who would belittle the importance of timekeepers - especially those who turn out to be perfectly...
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Album of the week: Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
Australia’s most exciting talents hit the UK with their stunning debut, ‘Innerspeaker’. The official release date is today. To make your mind up on whether to part with your tenner, listen to the stream by clicking the play button.
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Watchmvmvmv:
Toro y Moi - Low Shoulder
“Chillwave“‘s first high-budget video? That’s up to Hipster Runoff to discuss. Chaz and his gadgets get some drug-addled images to boot. Getting the sense that ‘Causers of This’ was about six months ahead of its time. Not entirely overwhelmed by it when it first came out but my word, has it grown.
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yvynyl:
Blonde Redhead - Not Getting There
New...
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Selway Solo Sampler Soundcloud Stream
‘Familial’ doesn’t see the light of day for another week, but a few of its songs, including one of the highlights, have been Soundclouded, collected in a handy sampler package. All these are pretty great in their own way - a pretty spot-on indication of the quality that makes up the album as a whole.
Philip Selway - Familial (Album Sampler) by Bella Union
There’s a...
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WatchAUDIOVISUALS: Masks - Forever Dancing (Live at the Great Escape) ——- Beatcast.tv catch up with the South-east-bound duo and capture some perfect visuals to accompany the sounds of the band’s breakthrough track, ‘Forever Dancing’. [Thanks to DiS]
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Fenech-Soler: Lies
Words: Gareth O’Malley
There is something about re-releases of songs that rubs me up the wrong way. Most of the time, they are done to cash in on a song’s success. However, there is the odd time when a move like that actually works, such as in the case of up-and-coming electro-pop quartet Fenech-Soler.
Most of you will already have heard ‘Lies’, due to its release on...
If you do this, we will be so, so happy
xxxx
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Watchmvmvmv:
How To Dress Well - Lover’s Start
AUDIOVISUALS —- Continuing to make ground is Tom Krell, How To Dress Well. Progress indeed. Gorgeous landscapes + enlightened man with suitcase makes for a visual treat.
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Zola Jesus - Stridulum II
words: Jamie Milton scribed for Music OMH Zola Jesus have the mainstream acclaim and the underground backing, the interesting opera-singer-cum-alternative-band-front-woman back-story and the token celebrity fan in Lady GaGa. A breakthrough seems imminent. Nika Roza Danilova is the voice behind the project. The biography links her ten year studying of opera to her unique childhood in the woods...
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