SoundsXP.com - indie, folk and alt-country reviews

Vadoinmessico - Archaeology of the Future review

Sun, 27 May 2012 15:52:56 PST

Heard the one about the Englishman, Italian, Mexican, Austrian and, er, another Italian? Well, they formed a psychedelic folk band and lived happily ever after. Not funny? Well, it's not supposed to be, as it's the true story of Vadoinmessico, a planet spanning group of musicians who came together in London and produced this rather enjoyable album. It's no doubt a fusion of their various cultural influences but while there’s a melancholic aspect to much of the album, particularly its second half, it’s the uplifting peppy openers that last in the memory. The title track commences the buzz with a pace switching and hand clapping verve while the uke and bell spurred Pepita Queen of the Animals is an afro/latino rhythmed delight. In Spain is another highlight as it gallops along with its clipped percussion and melodica flourishes. Much of the rest drifts along at a more leisurely pace, the floaty keyboard backdrops delivering pleasant dreamlike qualities in gently woozy form.

One for fans of Islands, the Beta Band, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Vampire Weekend and a band well worth catching live, particularly if you enjoy seeing a drummer earning his crust.

Get tweeting! Rockingbirds gig next month

Sun, 27 May 2012 15:10:38 PST

Seminal alt-country act The Rockingbirds play a rare date at the end of June. The band, led by the flame haired troubadour Alan Tyler, released two albums in the early 90s on the Heavenly label. They anticipated the alt-country revolution and sat comfortably alongside like-minded contemporaries like The Jayhawks and Uncle Tupelo. Since an 18th birthday festival in London in 2008, the band’s first album has been re-mastered and re-released, and more live dates and fresh recording sessions are ensuing as they try their method on a new generation. A new 7” single “Till Something Better Comes Along” was released in December 2011 on Spring Records, and a new album is planned for 2012.

Full details:

Date: Fri 29th June 2012
Cost: £8.50adv
Acts: The Rockingbirds + The Arlenes + Simon Stanley-Ward
Venue: Windmill Brixton, 22 Blenheim Gardens, London SW2 5BZ
Tickets from here

The Ruskettes - Tell Me Why Review

Sun, 27 May 2012 10:16:03 PST

The Ruskettes are a trio of Shangri-Las clones from Tulsa, formed in 2010 who took their name from their songwriter, Chris Rusk. Tell Me Why is an enjoyable 60s girlgroup style effort, a sort of tinny indiepop version of the Ronettes. The lo-fi production and corny lyrics help to ensure you don't take the record too seriously and it's definitely one for fans of The School and the Carrots.

Now do I get a prize for not using the phrases 'candy coated' or 'saccharine sweet'...?

The Yarns - Chase Me To The Hills EP review

Sun, 27 May 2012 10:02:47 PST

Given their style and location, I think it's safe to predict that Oxford's The Yarns are in for their fair share of Stornoway comparisons in the lead up to their debut EP next month. Not only have that group given this first release their stamp of approval, 'Chase Me To The Hill' comes from a similar place both geographically and instrumentally. Digital sounds are shunned in favour of brass and acoustics and they live up to their name, using their songs to tell stories. This gives The Yarns' songs a traditional folk bent, but while they have one foot in the past the other is firmly planted in the present and they're not shy of talking about the current political and economic troubles facing the world.

This is done cleverly, without either preaching or stating the obvious. We're not exactly talking The Enemy and their faux political stance or the ham-fisted statements of The Levellers. 'Chase Me To The Hills' deals with these issues in a more subtle manner and if you strip away the meaning you find the music is a vital as its words, not just an empty vehicle for the lyrical message. The maudlin 'Properly Of Michael Docherty' is a threadbare, heartfelt ballad that shows a softer side, and 'The Engagement' tackles the age-old subject of a relationship breakdown but does so in a lyrically inventive way and minus the usual slush. With so many others jostling position in the indie/folk world it's not yet quite clear where The Yarns will fit, but hopefully they can muscle their way in somehow, as they have some very decent stories to tell.

Knickers - My Baby's Just A Baby EP review

Sun, 27 May 2012 09:08:21 PST

My Baby's Just a Baby

Back in the noughties The Loves were a welcome feature on the Cardiff and London toilet venue circuits for a while with their psych/bubblegum pop proudly stomping down the fine line between rubbish and genius. They were always highly entertaining and fun, particularly live, and it was a sad, if not unexpected, night indeed when they spat out their Bazooka Joe for the last time at a farewell gig on Valentines Day 2011. Well the good news is their wisecracking svengali-like frontman Simon has a new band and based on the four tracks here they could be even better. Simon's knack for a catchy melody remains but with Sarah's delicious vocals taking a prominent role, there's a definite smoothing of the edges, to reveal Knickers to be a more feminine outfit.

Opener My Baby's Just a Baby (But I Love Him So) is the most Loves-like effort on offer with its cheesy take on sleazy garage but the other three are wonderful too. Are You Ready Girl? is an excellent but obscure Dave Davies (of the Kinks) number that is given a tender treatment with Sarah's delicate warble while A Thousand Ways is strident Belle and Sebastian-esq brass and percussion led pop. Meanwhile closer Darling is cheery 60s girlpop with handclaps and chimes. All in all, four reasons why you need to get the 7" out and into Knickers.

You can listen to the four tracks at the Elephant site here.

Derek Lambert & The Prairie Fires free MP3

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:57:56 PST

Iowa's Derek Lambert & The Prairie Fires have been together just over a year and have so far released two singles including 'The Woods' which is a gruff and ragged piece of punk rock.

The Woods by Derek Lambert & the Prairie Fires

English Singles - Backstreet Pages EP

Sat, 26 May 2012 16:41:02 PST

The four tracks on this debut release for Sacramento's English Singles are over and done with well before the EP can reach the eight minute mark. It might not be the kind of bumper crop that will have your iPod groaning under the weight of the gargantuan files, but it will have you smiling at some wonderfully executed and enthusiastic D.I.Y. guitar-pop. The ramshackle, instantly lovable variety that probably makes up a fair portion of your record collection already and always seems to sound fresh. It jangles like the lighter end of 80s British indie and has the gentle fuzz of the alternative guitar revolution happening simultaneously on the other side of the Atlantic.

Yes, you can hear The Vaselines, The Television Personalities and the college rock of the fledgling REM or Campervan Beethoven. Guitars are crisp, drums rattle and the melodies scream "pop" in such a wide-eyed and homemade way they they could never really rub shoulders with any kind of mainstream. 'Grey Skies USA' lays down the blueprint that they rigidly adhere to, its light burning briefly but brightly. That title doesn't really suit a song so summery, and the same can be said for the sunshine-pop of 'Winter'. 'Daydream' is like a miniature version of something Teenage Fanclub would have released circa 1992 and the punky 'Finer Points' has rightly been compared to The Buzzcocks. Where the 'English' bit comes in to this isn't clear, but 'Backstreet Pages' does sound like four singles.

Liz Lawrence - Hold On free MP3

Sat, 26 May 2012 09:41:35 PST

London-based singer-songwriter has a new EP, 'Live From No. 82', out now and you can stream or download the quite lovely nu-folk of 'Hold On' for free.

Still Flyin' - On A Bedroom Wall album review

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:19:38 PST

Debut album 'Never Gonna Touch The Ground' showed us that Sean Rawls and his vast collective of helpers were capable of mixing a plethora of styles from new romantic to reggae to post-punk to create an eclectic brand of indiepop that occasionally bordered on the novelty but was always a heap of summery fun. This anything goes approach has changed little on Still Flyin's second effort. New-wave basslines and 80s pop synths are combined with a hotch-potch of beats and uplifting tunes that are best served sun-drenched. The tempo isn't allowed to drop and they retain the fun factor of the first album, but minus any novelty aspect.

In essence 'On A Bedroom Wall' is a new-wave record that's been given some shades and a Hawaiian shirt and plonked in front of an azure blue sea. 'Elsie Dormer' and 'Spirits' take similar base components to The Cure or early New Order, but here the elastic bass and retro electronic beats have an altogether lighter feel than the pop-noir that those two created. Single 'Travelling Man' is like someone's taken a photo of Goth and is showing us the negative: it sounds like Goth, but night is turned to day. 'Big Trouble In Little Alabama' adds a sprinkling of The Postal Service to their joyous indie blueprint.

There's a touch of variety in the stop/start funk of 'Clear Talking' and the pure 80s pop of 'Camouflage Detection', whereas electronic dreampop is visited successfully on 'Surrender To Me'. The tinkling 'Take These Streets' and the tropical flavoured 'Candlemaker' both have single potential and 'Jacket In July' could be a metaphor for their approach to music. Looking to big coated new-wave bands such as Echo & The Bunnymen but dragging their sound away from the fog and towards the beach. 'On A Bedroom Wall' is a good solid album without really containing any particularly exceptional tracks, but that shouldn't serve as a warning, because anyone looking for a stack of inventive, feel-good indiepop tunes will be more than happy giving this lot a spin.

Knickers/ The Feathers

Fri, 25 May 2012 10:16:25 PST

Full of retro-charm, Knickers are all that the Loves used to be and maybe a bit more. They’re still powered by the engine room of the Loves (Dan and Jonny) and are marshalled by bubblegum-pop-wunderkind Simon but upfront they now sport a sparky new keyboard-basher and an exotically coiffured and charismatic French frontwoman, Sarah Eisenfitz, to draw the attention. The Svengali role suits Simon, allowing him to focus on making the songs as blisteringly melody-soaked and hook-ladenly pop as he can, drawing on his love of the Kinks, the Velvets and a host of obscure 60s garage bands but full of the sort of musical tricks and lyrical twists that keeps this away from pastiche. ‘My Baby’s Just A Baby’ is clothed in a gorgeous girl group sound but is wearing psychotic undergarments when you look closely while the version of Jacques Dutronc’s ‘Les Cactus’ is pure va-va-voom Gallic garage goodness, with every “oy” squirted out like a Jane Birkin orgasm. If they can get more stability than the Loves ever managed, Knickers could turn out to be a very satisfying and successful indiepop act.

Bands don’t make it easy for themselves. A search on The Feathers throws up bands in the psych-folk, Celtic-rock and alt.rock genres, plus the Corrs and a million pub names. Then I discover they were once the band behind Georgina Baillie’s Poussez Posse, who were managed by Adam Ant’s management team. Formed in summer 2011, The Feathers are a pretty spectacular mash-up of the Antman himself, the Runaways and Jesse Hector of the Hammersmith Gorillas (and hats off to the singer who’s wearing a haircut that would have got you a severe kicking in 1973 and possibly still would in 2012). They’re great fun but sharp as well; they might be too arch for some but their glam-metal moves and distorted rock riffs, plus charming banter and wincingly tight trousers, makes for a brilliantly entertaining evening. These aren’t featherweights.

Toys That Kill - Stye free MP

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:43:38 PST

Toys That Kill originally formed in 1989 as F.Y.P and are now returning with their first album in six years, 'Fambly 42', and lifted from it is the excellent 'Stye' which you can stream or download from the widget below.

Katzenjammer at XOYO review

Thu, 24 May 2012 21:35:56 PST

The first hot week of the year coincides with my first visit to the XOYO venue. Practically next to one of the many exits from Old Street tube, it holds around 800 over its two floors, so I'd imagine there must be 500 in the basement venue part, including, bless 'im, a dapper little fella offering after shave in the gents. Now these bog botherers have to pay to provide such a service, so I hope his takings were better than the poor bloke that I once stumbled across while emptying my bladder at a gig in the now demolished Metro. There were only thirteen people in attendance then, of which eight were dudes. I'm no mathematician but his only hope was that one of them had a urinary tract infection and a penchant for being splashed with lots of fake Brut.

Still, back to tonight. Before the headliners appear I endure a performance by Jay James Picton and his guitarist sidekick (a dead ringer for Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons). Picton is Welsh apparently though his chirpy 'tween set banter is pure mockney geezer. He has a decent voice but he delivers jazzy soul in that irritating staccato jabbing manner which probably rates alongside cheese rolling and basketball as things I can live without. But he's confident, by jove, and while most would think twice before attempting Marvin Gaye's What's Going On?, Mr Picton has the mini babybels to attempt it. Personally, I'd rather slamdunk a gorgonzola before catching him live again though.

By contrast, the four young women from Oslo, who perform under the banner of Katzenjammer, are top, top entertainment. Their sophomore album is fine but some dishes are really best served before your eyes, fresh and piping hot, and this quartet are as far from the musical equivalent of tinned gazpacho as imaginable. Coming to the end of their brief UK tour, they are so bubbly and vivacious, they look like they’d happily play to an empty room if that was their lot. Instead they have a packed audience of attentive punters (some, it must be said, perhaps more attentive than their partners would be comfortable with). While, they were born with their good looks, their musical skills were honed at the Oslo University of Pop, and presumably they gained some of their confidence there too. Not many out of the thirteen different instruments utilised tonight aren’t used by two or more band members but doubly impressive is the fact that all four are also extremely competent singers.

The musical direction swings with the frequent change of vocalist, thereby creating a somewhat eclectic collection of songs. The most instant pop numbers, such as Rock - Paper – Scissors and I Will Dance see Solveig lead but Anne Marit can conjure up a sea shanty or some wistful folk (the lovely Lady Marlene), Turid can take us on an accordion led Parisian walkway and Marianne can shake a booty to ragtime blues or cause some mayhem in the Balkans. But the appeal is not limited only to the variety of the music, it’s the cheeky laugh out loud comments that nail it, such as when Solveig impersonates Picton’s accent (“lavverly day, innit”) or Marianne teases us over our efforts during an audience participation section... well, you had to be there. No really, you should have been there and hopefully the girls will be wowing us again during the festival season, when some of you can.

Geoff Barrow/Ben Salisbury – Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega City One

Thu, 24 May 2012 17:07:16 PST

Drokk is a collaborative project from Geoff Barrow of Portishead and Beak> and Ben Salisbury, a composer for TV and film whose work has featured in, among other things, national history documentaries. Together they have concocted a grimly dystrophic electro fantasy inspired by Mega City One, a sprawling anarchic megalopolis stretching down the coast of a post-apocalyptic United States. The city is home to Judge Dredd, a violent lawmaker of the future.

Recently performed live at Oblivion Comics in London, the album brilliantly evokes the source material. Aside from the full group material of ‘Inhale’ which features Barrow’s Beak> bandmates, the rest of the album maintains a consistent and pervasive futuristic nightmare. The album perfectly captures the looming sky-blocking buildings and ever-present violence of the comic books.

The music of Drokk is a lush John Carpenter filmscape of synth arpeggios and thumping, funereal rhythms. The album flows between sounding violent and claustrophobic and droning and expansive. Not just for fans of the 2000AD comics and film soundtracks, this is a great electronic album in itself.

The Lord – Collision / Detection v3

Thu, 24 May 2012 17:05:33 PST

Another release in the excellent Collision/Detection series from Front and Follow records, volume 3 finds The Lord raining computer madness down upon his minions.

‘Diligence Is A Fish’ contains steam-driven piston-beats straight outta Drukqs-era Aphex Twin which segues into what sounds like a washing machine full of digital hammers. ‘Eruption of the 106’ is a queasy set of piano thump‘n’rumble that is periodically interrupted by an alarm, presumably alerting us to the escape of The Lord from whatever secure facility he was previously a guest of. ‘Parliamentary Crampons’ oozes deep crunching electro hip-hop that occasionally features beeping phone keys being drunkenly mashed to bits, bursts of silence and someone growling from the depths of a death metal song. ‘Reducing The Past’ is a partial reprise of the previous track in which The Lord forces you to listen to what you’ve just heard, eating itself in violent monochrome.

This is avant-noise at its most fun. Bracingly direct, it will give the adventurous listener a good, cleansing, mind-scrub.

Hospitality: Hospitality album

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:50:47 PST

It’s not often you find an album where every track has been so carefully crafted that all ten songs could be singles but that’s pretty much true here. And though you might justifiably liken this Brooklyn band to the Cardigans or Camera Obscura at times, Hospitality have a much more idiosyncratic style of indiepop. They employ taut and tangled rhythms plus Amber Papini’s cool-as-a-calving-glacier voice to create sophisticated arrangements which lead to the catchiest of choruses. 'Friends of Friends’, for example, has a quirky stop-start rhythm and stabs of guitar, but it bursts open when it hits the chorus, oozing with honeyed vocals and tiny blasts of catchy horns, as irresistible as Happy Hour in a student union. ‘Betty Wang’ glitters with scintillating indiepop, a real-life tale of one of Amber Papini’s co-workers that is shot through with genuine affection, while ‘The Right Profession’ is singalong power-pop.

The songs are unpredictable – ‘Argonauts’ has the same jangly pop majesty as the early Shins and ‘Julie’, inspired by Papini’s coalmining grandfather, is slowly unfolding, evocative and anthemic – but however deftly arranged, there’s always a hook, and these hooks are Tyson-esque in effect. I’d be delinquent if I didn’t mention the glorious lush chorus of ‘Sleepover’, but then there’s something to be said about every track here.

Ever song a possible single and half of them classics (though some are revisited from a 2008 EP); Amber & Co have created intelligent indiepop that is easy to love and we should welcome this Hospitality.

Exitmusic - Passage album review

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:39:14 PST

Actors' forays into the world of music are not often a success. Sure, famous names will inevitably sell records, but the actual product wouldn't make it past most labels' quality control were it not for the celebrity attached to it. Rarer still is the likelihood of any boundaries being pushed or genuine musical input or ingenuity from the face that fronts the campaign. Exitmusic however, are a little different. While she may have starred in several films, Aleska Palladino isn't exactly a hollywood A-lister, and the band she formed with husband Devon Church is anything but a vanity project or a major label cash-in. Exitmusic have made this music themselves, the way they want to and secured a contract to independent label Secretly Canadian in the exact same way as any other artist would: through the sounds they create.

Following self-released collection 'The Decline Of The West' in 2008, it was last year that the band really began to make headway, and as such their first label release, 'Passage', can be seen as a debut album of sorts. Palladino's quiveringly powerful voice is nothing short of spellbinding; passionate and chilling in equal measure. The nearest contemporary comparison would be to Beach House's Victoria Legrand. Exitmusic's sound would come under a similar dreampop umbrella and is equally as stirring. Opener 'Passage' gently builds layer upon layer of shimmering atmospherics before blossoming into a pained yet beautiful crescendo, those vocals sending shivers down the spine. It's a format they stick to for much of the album and as such the only criticism you could level at them is that more variety wouldn't go amiss.

It's a minor quibble though, and it's difficult to knock any track individually. 'The Night' is what would happen if Sigur Ros grew some balls, and they continue to delicately construct a substantial wall of sound throughout, a shuddering force that's destined to cause goosebumps. 'Storms' is indeed a tempestuous melee of beautiful noise, then just as you think the album has settled into a familiar routine on the sleepy 'The Wanting' and 'Stars', they go and drop the quaking musical megalith of 'The Modern Age', a towering tour-de-force of spine-tingling power and emotion that blows other bands' entire oeuvres out of the water in one fell swoop. The album is worth owning for that alone, but the sheer beauty of that voice and those shimmering sounds mean that this record rarely drops below the 'startlingly good' level. Exitmusic may not be headed for the top of the charts but in 'Passage' they've created a musical blockbuster that will surely stand the test of time.

XPiRiMiNT - Rain Dance free MP3

Thu, 24 May 2012 08:35:16 PST

Today's free MP3 is courtesy of US folktronica artist XPiRiMiNT and his new track 'Rain Dance'.

Fort Fairfield - Loop 3 single review

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:32:11 PST

It's always interesting when music arrives for review with next to no information attached. Firstly because it gives you the chance to listen in a completely objective way, letting what comes out of the speakers talk for itself without the usual back story, ridiculously gushing press release and selected quotes from other media outlets, and secondly because the intrigue tempts you to seek further information using all the tricks the internet has to offer (yeah, we could have emailed them back and asked for a bio, but where's the fun in that?). This new single from Fort Fairfield landed in our inbox without so much as a "hello". Here's what our investigative journalism (um, Google) has revealed.

Fort Fairfield are two brothers from Sweden who've been making music together for several years, apparently inspired by things they find in their book shelves. There are at least two albums available so far, with a new one, 'The Straw Boys' due out soon. That's pretty much all we have, so, to the music. Well, the name 'Loop 3' suggests the album may be made up of sections of repetitive sound (this presumably being the third) and indeed this is a looping piece of chilled electronica which has no particular direction and doesn't really need one, being three and a half minutes of gently hypnotic beats and twinkles. It has to be said that this is a pretty good track, but whether they can repeat the trick over an album remains to be seen. In the mean time, enjoy this rather cool video they've made to accompany it.

The Horrors

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:53:58 PST

When Jack Daniels were planning this JD Roots campaign (get a well-known band to play a small gig in their hometown), The Horrors would’ve thrown up a choice of Southend or Bexley – while the latter is known for its mildly threatening pubs and a freight train derailment (no fatalities), Southend at least has a venue called Chinnery’s to counter its equally threatening boozers on its rather dilapidated seafront.

This murky, 400-odd capacity room is ideal for the five-piece’s “homecoming”.

The night begins with another local band, Clout, who specialise in collage-rock and gloomy electronics. For the most part their songs are a patchwork of ideas that somehow manage to hold together very effectively; be it a droning saxophone deployed over a laptop bleep, an unexpected burst of jangly guitar, or a Micachu guest spot, there’s always something happening worth your interest.

Next up are The Black Belles – the “Garage Goth” female quartet signed to Jack White’s Third Man Records and currently dressed to do battle with any Witchfinder General in town (well, kind of). Tonight they’ve been reduced to a three-piece (keyboard player is missing) and from the start they seem to struggle with this new set-up; more than once there are confused looks, missed cues and false starts. Technical problems certainly play their part too with singer Olivia Jean complaining she can’t hear her bandmates although by that point she’s already pinned the blame on booze (twice). Still, who cares? The punchy tunes contain enough rock n roll fun regardless and Jean’s guitar blues are as catchy as they are deafening, and a thunderous Shelby Lynne provides the best drumming performance of the night.

On May 25th, The Horrors will play a headline show at Brixton Academy - Chinnery’s is one-tenth the size of that South London giant – ten seconds into tonight’s performance it’s clear they don’t intend to adjust the volume & lighting accordingly. ‘Who Can Say’ has Joshua Hayward’s guitar drowning out all competing instruments, the only respite from the white noise being the spoken-word interlude, while ‘I Can See Through You’ sounds fantastic yet, ironically, becomes a listen-only exercise as the room’s lit up like the surface of the sun. These are not complaints; on the contrary, it’s an enthralling assault on both the eardrums and eyeballs.

After touring their 3rd album for almost a year, the band have unsurprisingly mastered these mostly-epic tunes for their live shows and ‘Endless Blue’ in particular, with its sudden shift from cool, drifting synths to frenetic guitar rock simply oozes confidence tonight. The set’s high point arrives just before the encore; first up is the monolithic ‘Sea within a Sea’ in which a wide-eyed & motionless Faris is able to get his breath back while the coda soars in all its krautrock glory, and then comes the icy cool ‘Still Life’- the finest, unadulterated pop song in the band’s back catalogue - if you ever needed two tunes to sum up The Horrors you needn’t look any further (unfairly neglected debut album notwithstanding).

A great night’s entertainment.

Leitbur - Think Of Tomorrow single review

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:56 PST

The untimely passing of Donna Summer served as a reminder of just how important her pioneering work with Giorgio Moroder was. Not just did it breathe new life into the stale and sickly disco scene, it also played a huge part in forming what we now know as electronica. From New Order to Hercules & Love Affair, the pulsing sounds and dance beats have been a staple in many forms of popular music ever since. This new single from Californian electronic artist Leitbur is no exception, neatly updating the formula to combine those retro sounds with gleaming modern production.

Having grown up listening to the sounds of 80s rock and dance music Jaron Widman will be well aware of the history and that knowledge is put to great use on 'Think Of Tomorrow', a track that's straddles genres and uses a Moroder-esque bedding as the base on which to build it's layers of synth bleeps and whooshes. This is a song that would probably find itself filed under the 'alternative' banner, but there's a big pop tune here too and you don't need to be a connoisseur of electronica to appreciate this work. Much like Donna Summer, Leitbur should find fans in many corners of the musical world.

Let's Say We Did - The Stars Above Looked So Bright And Green free MP3

Wed, 23 May 2012 08:57:37 PST

Swedish quartet Let's Say We Did are set to release their second album later this year and are giving away the first track from it, 'The Stars Above Looked So Bright And Green'.

Allo Darlin's new album taped

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:40:52 PST

Fika Recordings have released Allo Darlin's new album, Europe, as a hand made cassette tape. Each of the 100 cassettes comes in a hand made sleeve, complete with a 16 page bound lyrics booklet, a recipe for Elizabeth's mum's Sacher Torte, a bag of Allo Darljeelin' tea and a digital download of the album. More details here.

The album is also released on LP and CD in Europe by Fortuna Pop, and LP and CD in North America by Slumberland Records.

Available to listen from here

Mothlite - Dark Age album review

Tue, 22 May 2012 12:07:52 PST

As the saying goes, first impressions last, and this fact could be a stumbling block for Daniel O'Sullivan on this, his second full-length under the Mothlite guise. Not because 'Dark Age' is a particularly cold or impenetrable album, quite the opposite, it sounds warm and fairly easy to listen to. Unfortunately at first glance it's all very beige; a one-paced voyage through pedestrian beats, wishy-washy synths and unexcited vocals. It feels repetitive, bland and generally quite dull. Nothing sticks out and grabs you, nothing captures your imagination.

While this may be off-putting to the casual listener or those not just looking for pleasant enough background music, it's worth persevering with. There are no startling discoveries, but once you become familiar with 'Dark Age' it becomes increasingly welcoming and slowly begins to reveal its true colours: it's not all beige after all. That said, there are great big lumps of filler mixed into its sonic building blocks. Tracks such as 'Wounded Lions' and 'Milk' barely register as they float by.

When he gets the mood right, as on the slow-burning 'Seeing In The Dark', the rare brush with gusto on the 80s-tinged 'Something In The Sky' or twinkling centrepiece 'The Underneath', the results far more attention grabbing and make picking through the fluff a reasonably rewarding experience. 'Dark Age' isn't exactly poppers o'clock but if you have the time to get to know it well the high points outweigh the drab bits and make it just about worth the effort.

Like Pioneers - Boggs free MP3

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:10:55 PST

Fans of The National or The Walkmen might be interested to hear this piece of alt-rock from Chicago's Like Pioneers. 'Boggs' is taken from their new album 'Oh Magic'.

Here's the place to listen to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' new LP

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:34:40 PST

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros release the first of two albums this year next week. Titled Here, it is out May 29 and features more gentle ballads than its predecessor Up From Below.

You can listen to all its tracks here.

Crocodiles - Endless Flowers free MP3

Mon, 21 May 2012 09:48:25 PST

Noise-rockers Crocodiles are gearing up for the release of new album 'Endless Flowers' in a couple of weeks and they're giving us the tremendously good title track for free.

Dignan Porch/ Omi Palone/ Manflu

Sun, 20 May 2012 23:14:40 PST

Dignan Porch are playing songs from their new album alongside those from the first album and EP and the new material sounds great – the same electricity as the older songs but with a riot of different textures – a little krautrock, some psychedelia, even a touch of guitar rock, and it’s as powerfully attractive as a scrapyard magnet. Their set combines bona fide classics like ‘Surge’ and ‘On A Ride’ with majestic psych-pop supernovas of sound that will be formally unveiled on record on 21 August, which can’t come too soon. One day Japanese fans will make pilgrimages to Tooting because of this band so get in on the ground floor.

Thirty seconds into the first track by Omi Palone, I’m already regretting the fact that I’ve let them pass by on various bills without investigating further. That’s remedied after tonight when I’m able to play to snapping point their sole release to date, a 5 track cassette (also available on Soundcloud). That thirty seconds of sound extends to an ecstatic 30 minutes as the band with the unusual name (it’s Polari - gay slang - for “effeminate man”) sound like they could have been on Creation Records in the 1980s and, if they had, they would have been the Weather Prophets, with their deadpan vocals and spacious, chunky guitars, allied to killer melodies. I won’t neglect them again.

Manflu are intriguing to watch but seem to cram too many styles into an overlong set right now. A truly international outfit, their songs have elements of goth-rock, art-rock, post-rock and prog-rock (sometimes within the same song). They call it “Russian prostitute music” on Facebook, which sums up their brutally visceral side but not the more cerebral; you can hear Magazine’s post-punk sound on some tracks and any band that names a tune ‘James Chance Coronary’ deserves a second hearing.

Mariee Sioux: Gift For The End

Sun, 20 May 2012 23:04:32 PST

From Nevada City, California (which is also Joanna Newsom’s manor), Mariee Sioux’s sound is floaty and hypnotic Cali-canyon psych-folk, a heady blend of Joni Mitchell, Linda Perhacs and the Beachwood Sparks. In a series of long songs (nothing shorter than 4 minutes and mostly 6 minutes plus), she moves - unpredictably and intriguingly, like switching between segments of a dream - from the twinkling and melodic psychedelic Americana of ‘Homeopathic’ to ‘Tule’, which marries the weightless, soaring rush of the Cocteau Twins to a pastoral English acid-folk beat. The heart of Mariee Sioux’s music is her precise guitar picking and her cool and pure voice (which might be too 1970s Laurel Canyon for some), which is swathed in a cottony cloud of haunted background noise, gentle percussion and otherworldly Wurlitzer piano. Her lyrics, meanwhile are spiritual, sensual (“soaking almonds in milky mouths” runs one line in ‘Icarus Eye’) and sometimes just plain odd, but always strangely compelling.

Gift For the End has as strong a sense of rootedness as any English folk album but her exoticness – Polish/Hungarian on her father’s side and Spanish/Paiute/Mexican on her mother’s – give this strange folk music a more magical and dreamy feel, perfect for unhurried contemplation.

Proto Idiot: Idiot Proto

Sun, 20 May 2012 09:54:55 PST

In fidelity terms, Proto Idiot drops off the end of the lo-fi scale, making up in raw rhythms and zingy pop energy what it lacks in polish and production. The solo artist also known as Andrew Anderson, from garagerock deliquents Thee Hipshakes, strips everything back to basics (meaning the pounding piano on the stomping garage psych of ‘Cracked’ is a revelation). But minimalist doesn’t mean unmelodic - ‘Nothing Inside Me’ is fuzz-smothered Nugget-y goodness and ‘Can’t Win’ is a catchy, Kinksy takes on 60s pop. It’s often sketchy and scratchy, and you wonder at times if that primitive beat is being knocked out on a biscuit tin, but that snotty punk-pop voice and frantic delivery keep your attention focused on his grungy garage pop sound, while killer riffs and awesome tunes lie within the primal trashabilly he produces.

TV Buddhas: Band In The Modern World

Sun, 20 May 2012 09:54:50 PST

Though they’re from Tel Aviv and are now based on Berlin, what you’re hearing is the angry and alienated melodic post-punk sound of Portland’s The Wipers and Minneapolis’ Hüsker Dü from the early 1980s, with a little of fellow Portland punksters Dead Moon for good measure. Of the five tracks, ‘Don’t Tell Me It’s Gonna Be OK’ is loud, fast and frantic, setting the template for lyrics about loss and regret that are offset by molten riffs and explosive rhythms, while ‘No More Neighborhood’ is a protest song with a touch of Springsteen even: “this is where we used to go/ where we’re going I don’t know”. Recorded in an hour, the Buddhas’ EP has a visceral kick that’s well worth hearing and is probably even better heard live – and since they play 200 gigs a year, you should have a good chance of catching them.

Young Man - Do free MP3

Sun, 20 May 2012 09:27:27 PST

Colin Caulfield's Young Man project are about to release their second album on Frenchkiss Records and you can stream the track 'Do' at the bottom of the page or pick it up free here.

Johnny5thWheel&thecowards - Nancy/In My Laboratory single review

Sun, 20 May 2012 09:18:38 PST

Six people wielding wooden, acoustic instruments, playing slightly wacky songs that are destined to be forever described as 'quirky' and 'off-kilter'? It's enough to make you want to stuff gunpowder in your ears and throw caution to the wind when it comes to being near naked flames. Do we need another one of these? If you have an aversion to waistcoats and facial hair you may feel a red mist descending already, but wait! For all is not as it seems with North Easterners Johnny5thWheel&thecowards, while their name may blow up the grammar/spell check on your computer, you'll want your lug holes fully intact to accompany you into their fascinatingly old-fashioned and surreal lair.

Tempos, structures and common sense all go out the window to be replaced with strange tales of one-eyed women in libraries and swapping identities with people who may or may not exist ('Nancy'), and the science of music being dissected by a mad man with a skeleton key and desire to cure narcolepsy ('In My Laboratory'). It's safe to say that this coming together of alt-folk, skiffle, music hall, lounge, pop and psychedelia isn't something you hear every day, but if only it was. The imagination, fun and drama compressed into these two songs has rarely been heard this side of Syd Barrett. Sod the gunpowder, Johnny5thWheel&thecowards' new album is out later this year and if they carry on like this they should be able to blow your ears up with music alone.

VSP - Honey single review

Sat, 19 May 2012 12:17:04 PST

Originally formed in 2005, Finnish band VSP then took an extended break before reforming for a comeback. That comeback record? Well, as they didn't get that far the first time round, it was their debut album 'The Ultimate Collection Vol. 1'. Their manifesto is to "have fun, play music, make people laugh", and if we're judging them by single 'Honey' they can give themselves three ticks. As a song, 'Honey' is unusual enough, beginning with gentle strumming and strings that usually signal the start of something heartfelt and powerful, then in under a minute it's transformed by a creepy, gruff vocal about not buying the song's subject a ticket to a gig.

It just gets odder, with a change of pace that transforms it into a jolly knees-up. The challenge is taking it seriously, but it's enough fun to prevent you being too much of a miserable git about the novelty side of things. 'Honey' ends up being not too far away from the experimental, anything goes ethos employed by early Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. And then there's the video, with animal costumes as the norm and household objects used as instruments. It's said that long, dark, endless winters can turn people slightly insane. 'Honey' shows us just what these madmen do to pass the time. Suddenly 'Alice In Finland' seems like a genius idea for a film.

The Young - Livin' Free free MP3

Sat, 19 May 2012 08:40:53 PST

Here's some psychedelic rock that may appeal to fans of Tame Impala or Pond. The Young are from Austin, Texas and after signing to Matador they're about to release their second album 'Dub Egg'. The generous types are letting us have 'Livin' Free' for nowt!

The Mobbs - It's The Mobbs album review

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:47:18 PST

Northampton trio The Mobbs attack sixties garage in an enthusiastically British way. Sure the influence of the Nuggets pack isn't too far away, but there's no mid-Atlantic drawl and no references to retro US culture. Instead 'It's The Mobbs' celebrates the beat explosion in their homeland, chucking in the odd dose of surf, blues and proto-punk from overseas to liven up the formula. They take the power and sharpness of the early mod movement as well as the late 70s revivalists. So if we throw around names like The Who, The Jam, The Kinks and er, Jilted John, you'll begin to build up an image of what they're about.

This debut album is quick-fire and fun, packing in an explosion of crisp riffs, energetic beats with minimal production and, importantly, not taking itself too seriously. Aside from bluesy diversions such as 'Better The Devil You Know' and 'The N-Town Odd Shoe Blues' they barely pause for breath. 'Gad... It's The Mobbs' and 'Little Miss Twisted Gut' are a good old fashioned hoot, and 'No Belief' and 'Ghastly Business' are in possession of some great dirty riffs. The only barrier they're likely to break is the one in front of the stage as they whip up a frenzied crowd, but innovation isn't in the game plan.

The sense you get from this record is that The Mobbs are in this purely for the fun and the love of getting out some guitars and rattling through a set of primal rock 'n' roll tunes, not to try and spark intellectual debate and lace songs with hidden meanings like, say, Radiohead. Pilfered and unoriginal yes, but enjoyable and carried out with an undeniable energy, vigour and spirit that makes them difficult not to like. 'It's The Mobbs' is about having a good time and escaping, and on that level it's a roaring success.

Deathline Interview

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:34:01 PST

New single 'Ten Of Clubs' marks the return of London's dark and distorted electro-rock duo Deathline whose second album, the appropriately titled 'II', is set for release later this year. Here they talk to us about recording in LA, being stroppy and talking cats.

SXP: It's been a few years since you recorded your debut album. Did you approach the new album with the same vision or have your ideas of what you should sound like changed since then?

Kaoru: I think what we *actually* sound like has changed, but not what we *want* to sound like.

Jennie: We've become better at knowing what we want to sound like, and maybe we're more open to new stuff. We're listening to more heavy and psych stuff now and it's maybe changed how we think about making sounds. But what we want to do is still the same.

Kaoru: We've got better at making the sounds in our head real.

SXP: The new record was recorded in LA, can we expect a more American feel and how did recording in a different country compare to recording at home?

Jennie: It wasn't particularly the location that was different though we love LA - the desert dryness, the space and light. It was that we decided to work with someone else - we always recorded ourselves before.

Kaoru: It was definitely a decision we made. We wanted someone external to bring different ideas about sound to us. When our friend Josiah Mazzaschi approached us to see if we wanted to work with him it was ideal.

Jennie: I don't think we sound more American.

Kaoru: It sounds bigger. There's more space. Maybe that's American.

SXP: Did you try living the celebrity lifestyle while you were out there? Any A-list encounters we should know about?

Kaoru: Are you kidding? We were far too busy working!

Not really. We had five days in the studio and five days off. It was fun. We're more Z-list than A-list so we slummed it with the rock and rollers of LA.

Jennie: We did go to pool parties and Hollywood clubs but there was no snorting coke off dwarfs or anything. Next time.

SXP: How about rock and roll behaviour? Which of you is the biggest diva and what's the most outlandish things you've done?

Kaoru: We're more moody than diva. Jennie gets a bit stroppy sometimes.

Jennie: We had an argument in the studio last week and Kaoru thew his guitar on the floor. He's more stroppy than me!

SXP: In terms of songwriting, do you work on ideas together or both bring in songs independently?

Kaoru: Things usually happen slowly and it's organic. We don't really write in the conventional sense - we have little bits of ideas and glue the musical bits together till they start making sense.

Jennie: We write words by listening to our friends talk in pubs and bars. Bits of phrases jump out and when you repeat them and combine them they take a diffrent meaning. Kaoru also writes songs in dreams...

Kaoru: I do. I hear songs in dreams and when it's vivid, I wake up with at least a riff in my head, sometimes a whole song. Some of our stuff definitely statred that way and they're very quick. Other things take ages. Some songs on this new album are the oldest things we ever wrote. They never worked before but we nagged at them and suddenly they sounded perfect for what we're doing now.

SXP: Should (god forbid!) you split up tomorrow who's likely to have the most successful solo career and would either of you consider a glossy pop makeover to catapult you to fame?

Jennie: That would be Kaoru. He's definitely the pop diva. I would become the bassist in a heavy psych band.

Kaoru: I do quite fancy myself as the Japanese Jessie J.

You've been compared to The Raveonettes, Suicide and JAMC but are there any new bands out there you'd put in a similar bracket? Do you have any favourite new acts?

The KVB, who have done an amazing remix for Ten of Clubs. The Soft Moon. Exit International. Bo Ningen. Dead Skeletons. Teeth of the Sea.

SXP: If you could pick anyone - past or present - that you'd like to collaborate with, who would you go for?

David Lynch.

SXP: As talking cats are such an influence on your music, would you be able to share with us your favourite talking cat clip from youtube?

Kaoru: I think all the YouTube cat clips have been seen haven't they? I would nominate Jennie's cat Howard. He's the best around.

Jennie: We're more into books. The greatest talking cat can be found in one of our favourite novels, "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami.

Kaoru: Closely followed by 'Behemoth' in Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita".

SXP: Finally, let's play 'Ultimate Festival Line-Up'. Deathline are headlining - pick five bands you'd want on the same bill (as this is fantasy then any bands/artists current or past are allowed!)

Velvet Underground. Stooges. Suicide. Dead Skeletons. MC5

But it's an impossible question. You bastard.

Led Er Est - Kaiyo Maru free MP3

Fri, 18 May 2012 08:26:11 PST

New York's Led Er Est mix new-wave and electronica. Have a listen to free track 'Kaiyo Maru' and see for yourself!

The Dreaming Spires - Not Every Song From The Sixties Is A Classic single review

Fri, 18 May 2012 08:18:41 PST

There is a persistent myth amongst men (and it is mainly men) of a certain age that the sixties were the best decade of all time for music and will never be surpassed. For example, Uncut magazine (yup, men of a certain age) declared 1966 the greatest year ever a while ago. Of course there were bucket loads of great records made in that decade, but those rose-tinted spectacles have also somehow transformed the hideously naff tunes the era spat out into something to be celebrated rather than forgotten. So good on Truck Festival founders The Dreaming Spires for stating the truth, and kudos for doing so in the form of a sixties sounding, jangly folk-rock track!

'Not Every Song From The Sixties Is A Classic' is the new single from their anticipated debut album 'Brothers In Brooklyn' which is out next month. It's full of organ, sparkling guitars and harmonies that have been handed down from the Byrds to Teenage Fanclub and beyond. Subsequently the sound is pretty much timeless, and thankfully the song matches it by being catchy and uplifting like Belle & Sebastian if they swapped cardigans and hymn books for some tatty jeans and Buffalo Springfield records. Calling it a classic might be pushing it, but you won't need nostalgia to recognise that this is a decent tune.

Bersarin Quartett – II

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:48:38 PST

'II' is ambient in the sense that it doesn’t demand attention but it certainly rewards it. The album is alive with detail and a beautiful sorrow. ‘Zum Greifen Nah’ is made up of shivering strings, a squelching beat, crashing waves and guitar taps. Elsewhere, synth drones and an electronic choir evoke a feeling of ceremony, like accidentally walking into a funeral.

Much of the album’s songs introduce an initial simplicity that hides a subtle complexity; ‘Einsame Wandeln Still Im Sternensaal’ employs a simple melody of John Barry strings and woodwind until a martial rhythm breaks out, revealing the clockwork springs and steam hiss within; like the smooth surface of a pond concealing abundant animal life beneath. ‘Im Glanze Der Komeben’ sounds fogged, half-remembered and obscured until a chain-driven machine beat provides some clarity.

The underlying sadness of the album reveals itself best in the brilliant ‘Alles Ist Ein Wander’ in which a deep GAS-like drone builds to an echoing white light climax before fading back to black, and in the way the album’s final piece eventually faints into a windblown swooning drum beat.

Although Bersarin Quartett is actually a solo project, Thomas Bücker has the imagination of a whole group. With this release he has created an album of contrasts; light and shade, acoustic and electronic, stasis and action, large-scale and intimate, sweeping gestures and opaque silence. The album progresses within a tidal mesh of sounds, at times distant and unhurried, at others, enveloping and urgent. He seems to have a total command of his material; everything seems deliberate and considered but not contrived. Every sound is in its right place but exists as part of a homogenous whole.

School Knights - Powerslut free mp3

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:24:17 PST

Colorado noizniks School Knights have a new track for your delectation, titled Powerslut.

You can obtain the mp3 of the track for free here.

In the summer of 2010, School Knights began as a noise-pop duo in the desolate hippie mountain town of Boulder, Colorado. Pulled from opposite coasts, Michael Stein and Zack Roif mixed their backgrounds of west-‐coast slacker surf and garage rock with east-‐coast punk and noise.

Over the course of the next year, the duo recruited two more members, Morris Kolontyrsky and Ben Donehower, completing their full lineup. Including a trip to SXSW in 2011 and east/west coast tours, School Knights has since played shows with the likes of Ty Segall, The Black Lips, Cloud Nothings, Vivian Girls and fellow Coloradans, Gauntlet Hair and Pictureplane.

The new lineup began recording demos and exploring a fuller heavier sound, expanding on their style from their previous batch of releases on DIY labels Bridgetown Records (Cloud Nothings), Crash Symbols (Born Gold), and Dracula Horse (Coolrunnings).

The quartet has spent the last few months perfecting their live show and recording a slew of contagious, heavier pop songs. Drawing comparisons to Fang Island, Surfer Blood, and Cloud Nothings, the band has headed in a more developed direction while still maintaining their raw and youthful sound.