Field Day have revealed a series of special parties for before and after next weekend’s big event. The following pre and post-festival gigs have just been announced:

Julia Holter Field Day warm-up: Julia Holter preps for the big day at Cafe Oto.

BleeD afterparty: Kassem Mosse, Will Bankhead of Trilogy Tapes, BleeD/Lanzarote programmer, Casper C, and Nik Nik Nik.

XOYO afterparty: 50 Weapons with Dark Sky, Anstam and a Very Special Guest DJ set from a band playing at Field Day.

Field Day takes place 2 June at East London’s Victoria Park, with the likes of Grimes, Gold Panda and Friends featuring among the jam-packed bill. You can win a pair of tickets for the all-day fest via Best Fit here.

The National have unveiled new song ‘The Rains Of Castamere’, featured on the Game Of Thrones soundtrack.

Vocally, it’s vintage The National – with Matt Berninger’s dulcet baritones taking centre-stage as the music is stripped back a bit. But lyrically, it’s a whole different picture to anything off High Violet, taking on a conceptual feel fitting to the fantasy-medieval show.

It’s a short and sweet number but a touch subdued. You keep waiting for it to erupt into new realms of grandeur, but it never does.

Give us Berninger singing about feeling alone in Waitrose anyday.

Nick Talbot’s Gravenhurst project returned this year with a new album, the first in five years following 2007′s The Western Lands. The Ghost in Daylight is a record that brims with atmospherics, a soothing-but-dark undercurrent and Talbot’s talent for songwriting and performing – a combination that secures the Bristolian’s place among the UK’s best musical talents.

A long-desired subject for a Best Fit Session, we finally met up with Nick last month when he was in town to promote the new record, his fourth long-form release on the legendary Warp.

It is true, I didn’t like folk. I didn’t like post-dubstep before The Weeknd, though, and I didn’t like hardcore before Death From Above. But once in a while, reader, there’s an album that takes a shit genre, knocks it out with a punch in the back of the head, guts it and throws the entrails over the rest of us. The Pond is a great album, and even though I think you’d get more of a sense of that through listening to it rather than reading the rest of this self-serving page of drivel, I’m contractually obliged to dither around with words like “dynamic” and “smooth”, so if you’re a masochist then prepare to watch me squirm.

Smooth, genre-busting, concise. Those are all your descriptive words. I don’t want to squirm so the rest of this I’m going to enjoy writing, because its tough work rehashing press releases, and I’d rather talk about this how it feels than give you a list of comparisons and “it’s kind of like…”s. There’s a certain type of music: The Weeknd does it a bit, Commix’s ‘How you gonna feel’ does it a lot, and some tracks of Kid A still pierce the “I’ve heard too much of Thom Yorke’s voice” barrier to make you feel like you’re slowly falling through cold milk.

Like one of those horribly wanky debut single “industry hype” tragedies, where bands that have finally been given enough money to rent a high speed SLR film a video, I feel serene, falling through a semi-viscous liquid in slow motion, I’m a bit spongy, there are pores in my body that the milk osmoses through, and it cleans out the dry bits at the back of my eyes. Each one of The Pond‘s quick 3 or 4 minute songs, vaguely straying into trip hop but then going back to a weird crossover between the Cardigans and the Futureheads, keeps me falling through the liquid.

I listen to this album and afterwards I feel clean. I feel nothing of the Admiral Fallow-patented “Wow it must be crazy living on a farm!!!!!” and I don’t want to pick up an acoustic guitar or smile with a fucking tamborine. I just feel clean. It’s a milky folk bath with none of the repercussions of normal folk. Listen to ‘The River’ or ‘Carved’ for downbeat, ‘Pass Us By’ for upbeat, and ‘Bebop’ for genre-twisting. Or just stop looking for 3 minute pick-me-ups and listen to the whole album. You won’t regret it.Rex Pester

If Mile Me Deaf were from Brooklyn, or on Slumbaland, we’d be clawing at the release of Eat Skull like Hipster Runoff’s Carles after Samantha Urbani’s tit tape. As it is they’re Viennese. Now, the only thing anyone knows about Vienna’s music scene is Art Brut, Rotifer and The Lovely Eggs probably play there, and that bloody song.  However, in reality the Austrian capital has a lo-fi scene groaning with beautiful guitars and jangly vocals, based around Siluh Records, of which Möstl is the golden boy.

Eat Skull is his first official release as Mile Me Deaf, his previous DIY releases merely being an idea-generating side project veering from Lawrence’s disco cynicism to lo-fi Conor Oberst yelps. His main band, Killed By 9V Batteries, release the scuzzy ’90s riot noise of Urusai Yatsura and Shellac, while more recently his five piece, Sex Jams, are the bastard son of Dananananaykroyd and Prolapse. What makes Eat Skull different from Möstl’s other work, however, is its  melodicism and breeziness.

Yes, there’s still a shitload of his trademark feedback, especially on ‘You’re A Walking Maze’ which could be, er, Mazes, but ‘Troubles Caught’ has a ’60s slacker harmonica hook with Buffalo Tom melodies counterpointing its Half Japanese distortion. ‘Wild At Heart’ likewise has the laid back feel of Guided By Voices chillaxing with a My So Called Life box set . Cloud Nothings and Spectrals aim in a similar direction, but neither come close to encapsulating the variety of ’90s alt the way Eat Skull does. Listening to it feels like a bibliography of alt-rock ’89-’97.

It’s hardly surprising; all the time Möstl has spent on his own with a laptop and a guitar has been in preparation for this masterpiece. It’s purposefully constructed, as though an inevitable conclusion to a noise-pop doctorate. That’s not to say it’s soulless or unauthentic. On the contrary it’s a heartfelt homage. Skulkers’ Ranaldo squalling is deployed only when it’s needed, to propel its sprightly pop to a new level of awesomeness without milking the well-trodden quiet-loud paradigm. Equally, Heels Come Naturally’s My Bloody Valentine slant is only briefly sanctioned during the riff drive, in a classic case of less is more.

From the sparse distorted metronome of ‘Faux Trials’ to the fuzz-gaze of ‘Camera’ there’s evidence of a true cult icon emerging. Although Eat Skull has the originality of a Mills and Boon romp, it is incredibly rare to see someone as prolific and excited as Möstl create such a stimulating record, which constantly surprises. Indeed, opening track ‘Leaking Stuff’ even starts with a lo-fi Girls On Film drum intro before suddenly becoming an ethereal glide with a chugging slacker drawl. It’s everything that ever was, and forever will be great about guitars.

Eat Skull is a magnificent outsider record, brimming with devotion, which will allow Möstl to establish himself as an alternative force. It refuses to sound nostalgic, instead it reinvigorates a genre often carelessly manipulated. By officially releasing Eat Skull he has upped his game, allowing Mile Me Music to come out from the bedroom and into the forefront and his main outlet for which should be thankful. It might be about time to check out those Austrian festival listings.

 David Newbury

The forthcoming debut from Fixers is out next week but the Oxfordian outfit are streaming it online right now, which you can get your ears stuck into below.

After being pushed back a bit, We’ll Be The Moon finally drops on 4 June. You can pre-order it here.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor have just announced that they’ll be heading to the UK later in the year for a one-off show.

The post-rock band will play London’s Forum on 4 November. It’ll be their first British show since they played the capital back in 2010.

The group last released an album in 2002, going on a prolonged hiatus before reuniting two years ago, and are reported to be working on new material.

Tickets for this London show can be found here.

Gruff Rhys has been announced to perform a special show at the Royal Festival Hall this summer.

The one-off concert will see the Welshman perform his latest album Hotel Shampoo from start to finish, with support from fellow compatriots Y Niwl and Cate Le Bon.

The event, taking play on 6 July, will be part of Opera singer Bryn Terfel’s BrynFest series of shows. Tickets for the gig are available here.

Hotel Shampoo was awarded the first ever Welsh Music Prize last October.

Alt Altman has been causing a bit of a stir with his brooding, mournful electronica of late with his project Digits. We spoke to the former Ghost Is Dancing man about his new mixtape Death and Desire, the rise of the Canadian electronic scene and covering Phil Ochs.

You live in London now but are originially from Toronto. How long have you been here and what made you relocate?

I’ve been here since October of last year. I moved here mostly because of the greater touring opportunities. Touring in Canada is difficult especially if you’re solo. There are more big cities in Europe, shorter distances between them, and it’s easier to get around without a car. I also came for the adventure/inspiration – I’ve lived in Canada my whole life. I had friends in London so it made sense for me to come here.

That seems fair. How have you found the transition? Are there any major differences about how the scene works in Toronto as opposed to London?

There’s no question that London is a more difficult scene to break into. It’s one of the most important music cities in the world. I do think it’s great that you can play more often here, there’s so many different parts of London and scenes in the city.

Shows start very early here and that feels weird to me. I’ve showed up when I would have thought would be early enough to see the opener and ended up missing the headliner. There are positives and negatives to it for sure. I like being able to get home at a reasonable hour some nights. But it’s strange to see a headliner at 10:30 when nobody is really drunk yet

You’re calling Death and Desire a mixtape despite the fact that it’s all you playing. Why call it a mixtape and not an album?

The main reason is that it’s not just Digits music – it includes my other project Bad Passion which is a bit more tongue-in-cheek than Digits. I wanted a release that had a cohesive feel, and there weren’t enough slow Digits songs to really make an album that would go with the songs I had planned for Death and Desire. I also wanted to include a couple of older songs that had already been released, as well as a cover (‘Changes’ is a cover of a Phil Ochs song) it felt like a mixtape would be more the correct thing to call it-although I feel like there needn’t be “rules” about these sorts of things anymore

You say Bad Passion is more tongue in cheek?

With Bad Passion, our songs are very story driven. Lesley and I have a song about stealing cars, for instance – both of us are mild-mannered people. But even though there’s a bit of a wink in there, our songs are delivered very seriously. There’s still enough humour in there if you’re paying attention, but the delivery is serious. I’m not sure if that qualifies as “tongue-in-cheek”. Bad Passion made a music video that’s two guys in a bicycle gang acting tough wearing leather jackets, while sipping tea and practicing ballet by train tracks and under bridges.

You’ve described the mix as loosely themed around death and desire going clubbing, and you just said things don’t fit for the album. Do you still strongly believe in the ‘album’ concept, and having a strong coherence/ theme?

I definitely think so – but you have to be careful. You don’t want to sacrifice good songwriting for the sake of a concept. But an overall theme is a great thing to aim for…as long as you do enough, the listener can usually fill in the blanks. That’s the other thing about over-thinking a concept album. you want to leave space for listener’s interpretation.

As for Death and Desire: the idea is that the personifications of Death and Desire are friends, and they decide to go to a club together. Desire is obviously incredibly seductive, everyone wants her. While Death could potentially take anyone’s life at any moment. Desire is an all-out hedonist (as heard on ‘The Face of Desire’) while Death isn’t really but understands that philosophy and that’s why they get along. They definitely capture the attention/desires of the clubgoers – ‘Because It’s Wrong’ is an invitation they give people to give into their urges even though it might lead them down a dangerous, potentially deadly path. The concept was more elaborate and I had a lot more songs – but they were getting too expositional and story/philosophy driven and ultimately didn’t make for good pop songs. I’m glad I decided to not be too rigid about their inclusion, it would have been a mistake. I tried to not make it too concept-y in the end but more try to make a record that focused on those themes: death, desire, pleasure-seeking, meaninglessness

How did Digits come about- and also what records influenced your music making?

Digits isn’t my first project – I started playing in two indie pop bands, The Ghost is Dancing and Europe in Colour. But I was always writing solo stuff the whole time. So once people heard it and told me it was good I started making music as Digits in 2009…and then decided I wanted to focus on it exclusively. The most important influence on my sound, no question, is the Junior Boys-I feel  like before Last Exit came out I was not even thinking of writing music like this. After the Junior Boys, Morgan Geist is a huge influence in terms of his production. Kompakt’s mid-2000s output influenced me in my minimalism. Diamond Rings influenced me by making all-out pop music – the first indie music I’d heard that was unafraid to be 100% pop. He also did a project called Habitat beforehand that was a bit electronic with Sylvie Smith from The Magic/ Evening Hymns: the last track on that is incredible – it’s like Low making electro-pop.

Arthur Russell is a huge influence as well. Huge huge huge! Owen Pallett is a big influence on how I perform live, I don’t think i’d have been trying to do it on my own without his example-not that I can put on a show like him – that guy is something else.

How does Digits work as a live experience?

I use a looping pedal when i perform so i can layer multiple synth parts and perform everything as live as i possibly can. I always find it a bit disappointing when electronic acts just sing over backing tracks. Unfortunately there are no harmonies live, but otherwise I play two synths and sing, and most things are played live – just not the drums.

The live show is a lot more uptempo and dancey – since Death and Desire is a slow record, a lot of those songs would kind of slow the momentum.

Given the influences, and the genres that we’ve spoken about, it seems unlikely that you would cover a Phil Ochs tune. How did that come about?

There’s a great Canadian music blog called Herohill. They were putting together a Gordon Lightfoot compilation last year for Canada Day and asked me to contribute. I recorded a cover of “Changes” which is off my fave Lightfoot record, his first album. I didn’t realize that HE was covering Phil Ochs – so i meant to cover Gordon Lightfoot actually. It’s a song that Phil wrote just before crossing the atlantic for the first time – I felt it appropriate to put it as the closer on the record – it seemed like a better ending than the other songs.

There seems to be a pretty vibrant electronic scene coming out of Canada at the moment – Austra/ Grimes/ Doldrums/ Egyptrixx/ yourself/ New Look to name a few. Is it a sudden explosion or is it just people are taking more notice?

I think that it’s Canada’s greatest musical strength right now and yes, people are only recently beginning to take notice. Katie was doing amazing stuff solo before as well… Grimes has been really good since her first record…but I think these things start underground and then take a while for people to notice. I think Austra was the big turning point. The minute I saw Katie after she’d added her live band and started playing “Lose it” I knew that it was just a matter of time.

And Montreal is excellent right now – Arbutus have been owning that scene the last few years – Visage Musique are a really exciting new Italo development.

I actually run a blog too called Silent Shout, so if you’re ever looking for good under-the-radar Canadian electronic pop ….

What’s next for Digits – will there be a debut album for that project forthcoming?
I’m just finishing a new EP called Lonely Road – it’s five new songs, and in keeping with having themes to my records, they’re songs about being on your own and being isolated in places you’ve never been before. It will come out in the summer, probably end of June/beginning of July – the first single from it will be ready quite soon and I’ll show it all to you as soon as it’s ready. I’m also playing a few festivals in Europe which should be a lot of fun.

Digits plays The Barfly as part of Guardian New Band Of The Day Live on 14 June.

You can hardly blame the double-takes and somewhat bewildered expressions on almost every face that enters Camp Basement, as Montreal MC Cadence Weapon lurks on the venue’s compact and modest stage. It’s hardly the type of act you’d normally expect to support a band with the punk influences that Japandroids have. But despite the bafflement on entry, it only takes a few tracks, or “jams” as the former Polaris Prize nominee and Grimes affiliate puts it, before each and every new arrival is won over.

Now, rather than causing thoughts to linger on how rap itself is going through a “punk” phase, with the likes of Odd Future bringing the genre back to the alternative crowd like NWA and Public Enemy before them, Cadence Weapon actually goes to show a lot about the headline act. The energy of the Canadian rapper as he makes his way into the crowd, encouraging random members of the audience to sing along to tracks oblivious to their pre-knowledge, matches exactly that of his tour mates who have long been regarded as a “great live” act for the staunch band tee wearing gig-goer.

You see, Japandroids are not only known for their raw energy live but also for the audience participation they not only evoke but actively seek. Classic punk call-backs like “Woah, ohh!” litter the choruses of their songs so often that they needn’t write them in the linear notes, you’d just as well half-expect it anyway. This evening’s outing however, a couple of weeks before Japandroids’ new album comes out, seems a different prospect altogether, even for the diehard fans that can be heard frequently discussing how they’ve have seen the Vancouver pair more times than they have fingers to count on.

Airing half a sets worth of new, unheard tracks feels like a true test; sifting the great live band from merely a good band with great, responsive fans. “We’re going to be back here in a few weeks,” frontman Brian King tells the crowd as the duo get ready to start things off, “but this is like a special pre-rehearsal; you won’t know a lot of the songs. Well, unless you’ve already downloaded the new record, which might makes things a lot more fun!”

To the untrained eye and ear, however, it’s hard to distinguish between the old and the new – at least in terms of the crowd’s response, except perhaps when recent single, (the only track from the new record that anyone has heard), ‘The House That Heaven Built’ kicks in. The audience reels off each line like an old favourite, underlining what is missing with the rest of the new material, where matters are more understandably mute. There are still fists in the air a plenty though and spontaneous instances of crowd-surfing as their set draws to a close before King calls out during a bit of a breather “I don’t know how much time we got left but we’re just going to play until somewhat kicks us off”.

A makeshift onstage encore ensues and they play three more songs, their last King describes as “the best song we have”. It’s a mark of a truly great act that you cannot tell the brilliance of their best track apart from those before it. Japandroids are a band to warrant a hell of a lot of credit on tonight’s performance: No matter how many shows they play, how many times an audience member has seen them previously or not, whether they’re playing familiar tracks or some unreleased, it’s just refreshing to see a band and crowd have so much fun in equal and constant measures.

Last month we introduced you to the fantastically exciting Swedish singer Fanny. Today we are very excited to announce that her forthcoming single ‘Water Against The Rocks’ will be the third release on our sister label Best Fit Recordings – and that the artist will now be recording as Faye.

‘Water Against The Rocks’ will be released digitally on 25 June, with a 7″ to follow in July. Faye will make her UK debut at the Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen on 27 June, with support from fellow Swede Azure Blue. Tickets are available here.

Follow Faye via Facebook and Twitter. For more information, head over to the Best Fit Recordings website.

The new PS I Love You album gets its Euro release next week via Paper Bag Records and we’ve been granted an exclusive of this wonderful new session with the band.

Running head-first through standout track ‘Saskatoon’ from the forthcoming Death Dreams LP, it’s hard to imagine they could be more intense in such a confined space unless the room was one padded.

Watch the clip from the Paper Bag Session below:

Jen Long is one of Best Fit’s oldest friends, and certainly one of our busiest. As well as presenting her essential Introducing show, the hirsute saviour of Radio 1 somehow finds time to run the wonderfully named Kissability – a limited run cassette label in association with Transgressive.

Last night Huw Stephens gave Kissability’s next release its first radio play, and today we are pleased to give the song its online premiere. Among Brothers are a Cardiff quintet whose theatrical, string-heavy indie immediately brings to mind Denmark’s Efterklang. ‘Keep’ demonstrates the band’s scrapbook sound, apparently constructed from snippets of English folk and cuttings from Youthmovies’ Albion-tinged rock songbook.

‘Keep’ will be released on 9 July through Kissability. In the meantime, listen to the track below.

Brighton’s Fear Of Men have released a new track, ‘Born’, which you can have a listen to below.

Sonically a lot clearer than their previous efforts, as the former lo-fi haze is slowly shed and the band go for indie pop gold, but the bittersweetness that made us fall in love with the band in the first place still remains. As perfectly exemplified in the lines: “I remember being born, I’ll remember when I die”. Although we may have to protest the actual truth behind these lyrics.

‘Born’ is the b-side to the recently-revealed track ‘Green Sea’, which is set to see a physical outing next month.

The single is set for release as a 7″ on Sexbeat, dropping 18 June on limited-edition white vinyl. There’ll only be 300 copies so hurry quick and pre-order now.

The band are also playing a free launch show at London’s Old Blue Last on 19 June, with support coming from Virginia Wing and JAWS.  More info on that can be found here.

What is it with Nicolas Jaar and famous people’s kids? First he teamed up with Scout LaRue, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, and now he’s revealed this track with one Sasha Spielberg. Yes, you guessed it. She just so happens to have a father called Steven who directed some film called ‘Jurassic Park’.

If you thought that was intriguing enough, then just wait for this. The track in question is a Leonard Cohen cover, as Jaar takes apart his track ‘Avalanche’ and pieces it back together as a masterpiece of ambient minimalism.

Listen below, via Radio 1:

The good folks behind Dot To Dot‘s tri-festival have announced the festival schedule and set-times for each of their three consecutive dates.

For the complete breakdown, head here.

Gracing this year’s events will be the likes of Wavves, Summer Camp (pictured above), Friends, Cloud Nothings and Neon Indian.

Remember: You can still win tickets to a Dot To Dot outing of your choosing, by entering our Best Fit comp. Find out how here.

Dot To Dot takes place over the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend in Bristol (June 2^nd), Nottingham (June 3^rd) and Manchester (June 4^th).

Nadler has stated she believes her narrator’s voice is much stronger than it has been on previous records, and this is evident from the quality of the two standout songs ‘Christine’ and ‘Constantine’; the former one of the few tracks on the album that adds a little extra to Nadler’s gorgeous and intricate finger-picked playing through an ethereal background buzz and male harmonies that perfectly complement her voice. The song itself tells of the title character’s downward spiral of self-destruction: “They found you deep inside your den/They hoped to escort you, to court you/Tut you’re firmly dying, instead/What has become of you now that you’ve fled?” Later, the gothic iciness finds the titular Christine out on the town, and Nadler pleading “get out of the nightclubs, and into the light… the sea will surround you/The sea will surround you”. It’s an ominous track, but it’s completely brilliant. ‘Constantine’ tells of a faded rock ‘n’ roll star “in his limousine/Does he recall the codeine days” with Nadler/the narrator recalling the early days of a romance before Constantine left her to join a band and escape their dead-end town. Nadler’s voice is drenched in reverb but remains the star of the show, wonderfully clear both in tone and vision.

When Nadler is on her own with just guitar and voice, as on the stark folk of ‘Apostle’, it’s hard to know what to concentrate on as the guitar playing is so mesmerising yet the story being told demands to be listened to; in this case it’s the story of a drinker battling to give up the bottle, while a chorus of Nadlers sighs mournfully over the closing refrain of “I’m holding on to you”. Opener ‘The Wrecking Ball Company’ takes the same template but adds weight through a simple drum backing, and despite the gloominess there’s a suggestion of hope that the titular wrecking ball can crack Nadler’s cemented and protected heart: “Flirted with the failed and fleeting fusion/Body after body to entice/Till you came into my sad seclusion/I laid to waste your vice and be your wife”. Okay, it doesn’t sound that cheerful, but she doesn’t shy away from presenting relationships in an honest light. ‘To A Road, Love’ is another track that reveals hoepfulness through both lyrical content and probably the sunniest musical moment on the album; however, closing track ‘Your Heart Is A Twisted Vine’ – featuring some gently keening pedal steel guitar – returns to the themes of loss with the “you” in question visiting only “once in a while”, leaving Nadler’s narrator to bittersweet reminiscences about the relationship.

The Sister is a great record for many reasons – Nadler’s voice and playing being two – but it’s the frank and realistic portrayals of relationships that makes what could have been a difficult record so engaging and easy to relate to. Singer-songwriters are ten-a-penny, but with such a true and pure voice – and astonishing musical ability – Marissa Nadler deserves to be raised and garlanded above most others.

 Andrew Hannah

With honeydewed and curious vocal, now without brother Angus and absent from their eponymous folk outfit, Stone ponders the usual loves, losses and heartbreak with a yearning characterised by her childlike vocal so reminiscent of Joanna Newsom. For the most part it’s an unabashedly pessimistic record, its lonesomeness perfectly translated, in ‘I’m Here, I’m Not Here’, by the coy cries of its opening lyrics “Living in this room but I don’t really want to”, accompanied by minimal piano and ambient bleeps which only serve to accentuate this solitude. You’d be mistaken for believing this keening call is running to the end of its course however, as the timidity of much of the record pales in the light of the aggressive and impassioned vocals of the title track’s depiction of an adulterous lover, as she almost snarls with contempt at her mistreatment.

It’s perhaps the deft instrumentation and layered textures of sound however that are most appealing to the ears here. The National theme runs throughout, with drummer Bryan Devendorf featuring on a number of tracks, providing By the Horns with a certain warmth in spite of the chilling emotions Stone’s lyricisms often provoke. As such they are central to the mood of the record, from the brushed drum pattern of the subdued vocal opener ‘Let’s Forget All the Things That We Say’ on to the thumping intro to ‘It’s All Okay’, providing a perfect contrast to its tumbling piano chords.

Though much of By the Horns‘ merit will be hard placed to emerge without reverting to a quiet room and headphones – its quieter moments are where the heart of this album is – it is certainly a grower, a firm example of Stone’s mass appeal and ability to stand alone as solo artist.Melanie McGovern

First single, first track and stone-cold classic ‘True Romance’ sets the tone for the rest of the album by laying down the (unwritten) rule that Citizens! must get to the chorus within the first sixty seconds of the track. While some charming plinky-plonky keys do their thing in the background singer Tom Burke intones in his best Bowie-esque style “Oh my love, what are we doing here/This little heart is racing through the gears” before we hit a buzzing chorus that builds layers upon each further visitation, capped with dizzying synths. In some ways Citizens! [God, that exclamation mark is annoying] remind me of a bedsit Phoenix, with the Gallic charm replaced by an alluring grubbiness; this idea is furthered with the disco swing of ‘Reptile’ which tells a tale of an isolation that’s a million miles away from the French band’s glamorous world yet remains equally appealing. Upcoming third single ‘Caroline’ completes the set of belting tracks that most new bands would die to have in their repertoire: a blazing pop stomp with squelching synths, which – as with all great pop songs – is about an unattainable woman, as is the Franz-Ferdinand-with-the-horn (hang on, that’s just regular Franz isn’t it?) of ‘(I’m In Love With Your) Girlfriend’ that adds an appropriate electro, ahem, throb to Burke’s knowing croon of “I always want the things that I can’t have/I always want what I can’t have”.

It’s a shame that not everything lives up to the standard of the singles and the second half of the record fades slightly once we’re passed the loose and appealing funk of ‘Monster’, with ‘I Wouldn’t Want To’ failing in its attempt to mix a last dance waltz pace in the verses with a quicker chorus tempo, and final track ‘Know Yourself’ meandering, leaving the pace and quality that Citizens! brought earlier in danger of being forgotten.

Still, there’s something about those tracks that heralds promise; Tom Burke’s lyrics are acerbic yet welcoming and the music provided by band mates Martyn, Mike, Laurence and Thom, while approaching calculated at times, is often thrillingly Pop with a capital P. Here We Are represents a solid beginning for Citizens! and something of a mission statement: Here we are, this is what we do… care to join us?Andrew Hannah

To wait amidst thousands of others for the arrival of tonight’s headliners is to enjoy sharing in a type of anticipation that just doesn’t happen at any other kind of gig, because there really aren’t any other gigs like this. The only thing I can compare it to is when I saw David Beckham play for Manchester United many moons ago.  Such a huge celebrity that his off field exploits were being reported in the national press far more widely than his match day efforts, to see the actual David Beckham stood there, kicking a ball, kicking other people and having other people kick him back, was nothing short of bizarre. I remember the crowd’s playful, gently goading enquiries about Posh Spice were like water off a ducks back to the guy: They may as well have been mocking a fictional character.

Jay-Z and Kanye West are at an even higher level of celebrity. This is one man who recently fathered Beyonce’s child, and another who the President of the United States has a personal nickname for (the nickname might be “Jackass”, but it’s closer than I’m ever going to get). The pair might know who Beckham is, but he’s sure as hell heard of them. They are at once everywhere, their ubiquitous presence making them seem unreal. Yet soon they will appear, here, the both of them, together, and they’re going to do something that, given the level of their public profiles, it’s often easy to forget they do – they’re going to rap! The first of many moments of joy in the evening’s set doesn’t however come from anyone recognising the opening song; it comes from 20,000 people simultaneously experiencing an invigorating mixture of relief and bafflement -  “Yes!  THEY EXIST!”

After confirming their existential status as best they could, they settle my other worry – how can two characters of such prowess, talent and ego ever possibly share a stage? By having separate podiums, one at either end of The O2 of course is the answer.  Slowly but surely, these platforms are elevated toward the ceiling, revealing video screens that display pictures of snarling dogs and presumably angry sharks (sharks are always angry, right?). The footage faces the crowd whilst West and Z tower some 20 feet above them, rapping at each other from opposite ends of the cavernous arena. To use this report’s buzzword for the first time, it is ridiculous, but also hugely enjoyable – you want this to be a spectacle, and from the off it’s clear that is exactly what you’ll get. Though everything tonight is largely done to a backing track, this isn’t without musical merit either – it’s quite the skill to see two men rapping a capella together in perfect rhythm when there’s about half a kilometre between them.

As well as being arguably the two most famous men in rap, Kanye West and Jay-Z are also its best friends. The tangible camaraderie between them means that when they do finally join forces for ‘Otis’ (in front of a huge American flag and pyrotechnics so hot you can feel it from the back seats), any thoughts on one being more famous than the other disappear. Unlike other nights in this run of O2 shows, there are no guest appearances but it doesn’t matter a jot – spending over two and a half hours solely in the company of this coupl’a fellas just reaffirms their prowess. And when they’re not coming across like the best buddies since Bill and Ted, they’re playing a cheeky game of one-upmanship.

Whilst their collaborative effort Watch The Throne is the best album Jay’s been involved with in many a year, the same isn’t true of Kanye, whose My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy just edges it out for the accolade of Biggest, Silliest, Most Important Hip Hop Record of Recent Times (check – there probably is a Grammy for that). Their set list choices reflect the commonly accepted theory that Kanye’s currently on top of his creative game in a way that Jay can’t match. It’s only ‘Empire State Of Mind’ from Hove’s recent material that can really stand up to anything from Yeezy’s career-best, most recent LP. And whilst he’s still the better of the two when it comes to the technicalities of actually rapping, it’s clear that Jay will never compose something quite so epic, so full of ambition as ‘Runaway’, which Kanye delivers solo from atop his now bright red video cube at the back of the venue. It’s a sight to behold, even if it is sung wholly in auto tune.

The times when they attempt to be thought provoking do work, but perhaps provoke the wrong thoughts.  I’m not sure how they expect dedicating ‘No Church In The Wild’ “to London for the riots” to go down, but lines like “coke on her black skin made a stripe like a zebra” certainly don’t have many pondering the lack of inner city social mobility or the death of Mark Duggan. When they turn their backs to the crowd and stand motionless watching on-screen images of Molotov cocktails being thrown at police and Klu Klux Klan members sinisterly pulling hoods over the faces of their children, it’s difficult to know what Jay and Kanye are mulling over either. Perhaps it is how many times they’re going to play a closing song called ‘Niggas In Paris’ to an audience of (largely but certainly not wholly) well-off white folks who’ve paid £70 each for a ticket? The answer’s five times, by the way.

It’s no surprise to find the set is best when it’s at its most ridiculous; the way the two try to thread together their solo material with so-bad-it’s-funny banter sees every hit they’ve ever had recast as some timely commentary on each other’s relative successes and failures with the opposite sex. What else can Jay do after Kanye’s blown the roof off’a the place with ‘Golddigger’ than return to the stage with a jovial reply of “You havin’ girl problems, Ye..?  If you havin’ girl problems I feel bad for you son…!”  Cue an eruption. It’s also oddly pleasing to see that talk of him retiring the word ‘bitch’ from his lyrics after the birth of his daughter was wide of the mark, if only for the fact that hearing Jay-Z tell us of how he has “99 problems but ah, y’know, I just don’t wanna talk about it” simply wouldn’t have the same impact.

I’m not even sure on what level exactly, but a Watch The Throne gig certainly does make an impact.  It has the curious effect of making the ones on the Throne seem more like real people than ever, and also like the most surreal people in the world.  And in a game so obsessed with “keeping it real”, you really have to salute the lengths they’ve gone to in order to explore what it’s like to do things another way.

Swede pop siren Robyn has confirmed she is to play a headline UK date later this year.

Having already been booked to visit the UK in May supporting Coldplay, the Scandi singer today announced details of a stand-alone show set for London’s Brixton Academy, taking place on 1 November.

Currently working on her eighth studio release, Robyn is likely to air some new material set for this forthcoming album.

Tickets for the Brixton date go on sale Friday at 9am. You can get tickets then via See Tickets.

That, right there above, might just be the best press photo we’ve seen all week. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if they had actually (NSFW alert!) said “FUCK”. Like we can. God bless the internet.

And the best news we’ve heard possibly all day is that PEACE have just signed to Columbia. Better yet, they’ve just dropped a new track to celebrate.

‘Li’l Echo’ is the b-side to the band’s current single ‘Follow Baby’, which you can buy by following this very link.

Listen to PEACE – ‘L’il Echo’ below:

Purity Ring and Fanfarlo are among the new acts confirmed for this year’s OFF Festival.

The Polish event, which takes place in the southern city of Katowice, have unveiled a number of bands set to play the fest between 3-5 August.

Already announced were the likes of Battles, Iceage, Kurt Vile and Shabazz Palaces.

The full list of new acts revealed are as follows:

Purity Ring,
Fanfarlo,
Pissed Jeans,
Kuedo,
DOOM,
Chrome Hoof,
The Wedding Present.

More info on the OFF Festival website, just remember to set Google Translate to Polish.

Nathan Fake‘s debut album is all but synonymous with Border Community. Drowning In A Sea Of Love‘s roughly hewn synth sounds and lysergic melodies have helped to define a label that has helped to define a genre.

On his second album Fake moved into techier territory. The melodies simmered with a new aggression, the percussion had a harder edge. But for his third effort, it would seem, the producer has returned to his kaleidoscopically warped vision of pastoral England. ‘Iceni Strings’, the first single to be taken from his forthcoming album Steam Days, bounces along in unmistakably Fake-like fashion, with clipping bass and hydraulic percussion, gradually expanding into a Super 8 shimmer.

‘Iceni Strings’ is out 11 June on Border Community. Steam Days will follow on 27 August.

Perfume Genius has announced a handful of UK dates set for later this year.

The new gigs announced are to take place around his appearance at this year’s End of the Road festival and see the musician stop off in Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow and Birmingham, before finishing up at London’s Union Chapel on 6 September.

His full forthcoming EU tour dates are as follows:

June
29 – Rock Werchter, Werchter, Belgium
30 – Open Source Festival, Dusseldorf, Germany

July
2 – Blaa Oslo, Norway
3 – Strand Club, Stockholm, Sweden
4 – Pusterviksbaren, Gothenburg, Sweden
5 – Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark
7 – Super Bock, Super Rock, Lisbon, Portugal
9 – Spaziale Festival, Turin, Italy
10 – Piazza Castello, Pordenone, Italy
11 – Exil, Zurich, Switzerland
15 – Latitude Festival, Southwold, United Kingdom

August
30 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
31 – The Globe, Cardiff

September
1 – End of the Road Festival, North Dorset
4 – SWG3, Glasgow
5 – Glee Club, Birmingham
6 – Union Chapel, London

Last week, Mike Hadreas released his album’s bonus track ‘Rusty Chains’ as a free download. You can stream/download it here.

Tunng frontman Mike Lindsay has announced that he’s set to release a solo record on Full Time Hobby.

The label that also just confirmed they’ll put out the next Seams EP will release Lindsay’s first solo venture under the name Cheek Mountain Thief.

The self-titled solo album is scheduled for release on 13 August. You can check out the man’s new video for track ” below:

How To Dress Well, otherwise known in his linear notes as Tom Krell, has unveiled plans for an upcoming new album.

Krell’s second full-length to date, Total Loss has be scheduled for a September release and will follow on from the musician’s Just Once EP released last year.

The first track to be shared from the record is entitled ‘Ocean Floor For Everything’, and is available to stream beneath:

Seeing and hearing Anja Plaschg perform is a tender and emotional experience. Just 18 when she released Soap&Skin‘s debut Lovetune for Vacum, she quickly took her place among the new school of the ‘alternative’ modern classical sound. A second record of sorts dropped earlier this year – the ‘mini’ album Narrow - as well as the news that Plaschg had created her own chocolate – a tie-in that might have seemed out of place until one noticed that pig’s blood and betroot were listed amongst the ingredients.

We took the young Austrian to North London piano dealers Markson Pianos for her Best Fit Session. Among the uprights and grands she turned in a stunning performance of ‘Lost’.

Britt Daniel and Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs man Dan Boeckner have announced plans to form a band together.

The supergroup, which sees Boeckner and the Spoon frontman team up with New Bomb Turks‘ Sam Brown, has been called Divine Fits; with the band already working on their debut.

Boeckner had just last week announced that the Handsome Furs are no more, and now looks set to release a Divine Fits album on Merge Records during 2012.

You can find out more about the band via their brand spankin’ new website.

Last week, Yeasayer announced their comeback with a series of live dates and their first new material since last year’s Record Store Day release and today they’ve unveiled plans for their forthcoming record.

Entitled Fragrant World, the band’s new album will drop on 21 August via Secretly Canadian.

The tracklist is set to read as such:

1. Fingers Never Bleed
2. Longevity
3. Blue Paper
4. Henrietta
5. Devil and the Deed
6. No Bones
7. Reagan’s Skeleton
8. Demon Road
9. Damaged Goods
10. Folk Hero Shtick
11. Glass of the Microscope

The Brooklyn band’s tour will stop off on the following dates:

June
19 – Richmond, VA, The National
20 – Asheville, NC, The Orange Peel
21 – Knoxville, TN, Bijou Theatre
22 – Nashville, TN, Cannery Ballroom
23 – Louisville, KY, Headliners Music Hall
24 – Cincinnati, OH, 20th Century Theatre

July
4-7 – Gdyina, PL, Open’er Festival
12-15 – Suffolk, UK, Latitude Festival
13-15 – Ferropolis, DE, Melt! Festival

August
3 – Montreal, QC, Osheaga Music Festival

You can listen to the premiere track from this upcoming LP, ‘Henrietta’, below:

Welsh electronic heartbreak merchant Dauwd popped into the Boiler Room to deliver a 50 minute set chock full of unreleased material. Listen below.

Anyone already familiar with alt-poppers Bear Driver will know their debut album hasn’t come easy. Starting with their single ‘Wolves’ back in the summer of 2010, the band have released a handful of self-labelled EPs and free downloads, causing the blogging world to spin on its heels but still failed to set alight the little black box marked ‘charge’.

Usually this signifies a musician’s resentment of marketing schemes and record label deploys, but Bear Driver seem happy to be drifting along at their own pace, catching attention at SXSW 2011 and holding it by playing in support of bands like Young Knives. More recently their single ‘Big Love’ has turned heads and gained the band airwave time on  BBC 6 Music, courtesy of Mr Marc Riley.

A laid back approach to music making hasn’t always been a trademark of the band, who formed when Oli Deakin and Harry Dean, “kept talking about writing some songs together”. Oli adds, “In the end we just booked a gig and [then we] had to write some songs.”

Bear Driver’s guns blazing attitude extends to their line-up, with various musicians swapping instruments and some founding members departing entirely. Notably singer Cassie left last summer to pursue a solo career, and founding drummer iPod “wasn’t really pulling his weight [...] so he was officially sacked during the first song at a gig”.

Thankfully their haphazard career path has made no impact on the quality of their music, which continues to follow a sound akin to Wolf Parade at a Yo La Tengo gig, or indeed Bear Driver in an abandoned swimming pool.

“[We recorded our debut album at] a pool in Bermondsey. It began life as a swimming pool but now makes a very fine studio, with glass roof and aqua-blue floor and walls,” explains Oli, “It was definitely the right place to make the album. It has lots of natural light and that big echoe-y swimming pool sound.”

Once again Bear Driver’s ‘try it and see’ ethos reigned supreme, as Oli admits, “It all came together really quickly. We just set up in the room together; mic’d everything up and started playing.”

With a career that already spans three years, from a fan’s point of view Bear Driver have taken their sweet time about getting a full length out. But Oli’s not worried about the interim, insisting the time was well spent:

“When we first started we only had a few songs and things picked up pretty quickly so we just kept writing. By last summer we felt we had the album we wanted to record so we did it. It’s been fermenting since then, and is finally beginning to seep out.”

“We’re quite keen to use a DIY approach,” he continues, “We started out just recording in our basement or rehearsal room. Once it’s all tracked we try to work quickly on the mixes, just keep them as lively as possible. It’s easy to get hung up on a particular guitar part or vocal or whatever, so if we hit a stumbling block we just leave it and come back later. Normally whatever it was has sorted itself out.”

Nor do inter-band relationships deter Bear Driver’s progress.

“There’s a healthy amount of arguing about this or that but we all set out with the same idea, to record live and try to capture what our gigs sound like,” Oli asserts, “So there weren’t really any lines to draw [in the studio]. Oh, except Jon wanting to call the album Nashville Skyline. Which it isn’t, but everyone thinks it is so I’m not sure whether that line was successfully drawn…”

Hear Bear Driver’s debut album below, due out on Adventure Club Records on the 11 June, and catch the band at the following dates:

07 June: London, The Barfly (w/ Among Brothers)
08 June: London, The Old Blue Last
21 June: London, The Old Queens Head (Oh! Inverted World Presents)

The newly-reformed Afghan Whigs took to the stage on the consistently brilliantly booked Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, performing ‘I’m Her Slave’ from their 1992 Sub Pop album Congregation.

It was one of the band’s first performances in thirteen years, and a special warm-up for their appearance at this weekend’s ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror event in London. Speaking of which, you can win tickets to the Sunday leg that they are set to headline by heading right here.

Watch their appearance on Fallon below and check out their recent cover of Marie Lyons while you’re at it.

Wednesday morning comes around and it’s always worth checking out who was on Jools the night before. Sadly last night’s ep was the final offering of the current series, but let’s save the tears and just skip right to the chase of who was worth catching.

Beach House played the lead track ‘Myth’ from their latest album Bloom, leading to many flicking through the channels up and down the country to think “Haven’t I heard this in a car commercial?”

And The Hives also marked their return, and second appearance on Jools (the first came back in 2001) with cuts from their new album, ’1000 Answers’ and ‘Go Right Ahead’. Watch the former below.

And the latter track:

The likes of Paloma Faith and Jimmy Cliff also performed, which you can see in the full programme up on iPlayer now. Jools returns to BBC Two in the autumn.

It’s so surprisingly easy not to stumble upon Google on a daily basis nowadays, especially when just typing something into your browser will autosearch a term or phrase for you – sometimes to rather bafflingly unlucky results. That said, it would be a great shame if you didn’t get to see today’s special music-themed Google Doodle.

Google are marking what would have been synth-pioneer and electronic music visionary Robert Moog’s 78th birthday with an online replica of his most famed inventor, the eponymous Moog keyboard. Equipped with oscillators and filter dials, you can even record your creations and share them on Google+.

Moog sadly passed away in 2005 at the age of 71, but we’re sure he’d be pretty happy with this.

Have a mess around on the Google homepage. Try not to blame us when you spend hours on it though.

[via]

How bands come up with their names is a bit of a mystery, and no doubt long band names tend to grab people’s attention. If the band themselves leave something to be desired, however, the name really becomes more of a point of mockery than anything else (look no further than Hootie and the Blowfish for an example). Thankfully, Snake & Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band have some sass to back up their tag and in fact prove to be quite amazing, even in light of the fact that they minimally meet the requirements to be considered a” band”. Stuff that Rotates is the Danish duo’s third full-length release on the spectacular Crunchy Frog label, and while the album lacks some of the raw energy of their earlier efforts, their sound continues to fit the swagger associated with their moniker, except for the bullit (bullet?) part.

Sticking with bands that have long names, SJABB blend the psychedelic pop melodies of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich,  the catchy bluesy riffs  from the John Spencer Blues Explosion, remnants of improvised psychedelic-art-rock from Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and the seductive organ sounds of Question Mark & The Mysterians.  Rooted in a psychedelic ethos, SJABB conjure up waves of monophonic lead guitars, reverbed flute sounds, layered harmonies and tight rhythm patterns. At times they play a fuzzed out rock ‘n’ roll with guitar driven tracks like ‘Friends’ and the nearly demonic ‘Unknown Things’, the latter perhaps a tribute to King Diamond’s Danish ’70s metal band Black Rose.  The amazing aspect of the band is their ability to make subtle changes in their overall presentation allowing for a fresh listening experience on every track. ‘Magic Lawn’ is one minute and 44 seconds of garage-rock inspired goodness while ‘Four Letters’ begins like something from a Shadowy Men From a Shadowy Planet record with the tremolo surf guitar introducing a lyrically-dark track set amongst a rather lively accompaniment of danceable organs. The song has the feeling of a ’60s variety show, yet maintains that classic Snake & Jet essence.

Stuff That Rotates is destined to become a staple disc in any road trip situation. The album is also a perfect excuse to invite the neighbours in on your fun by testing the volume function on your stereo. While not exactly bullet-esque, in the sense that Thor Rasmussen and Thomas Frederiksen operate at a calmer pace then Bullet for My Valentine for example, they bring an attitude that is sexy and contagious. Stuff that Rotates is the band’s most accessible album offering a slightly more polished sound than its predecessors. It is a solid and memorable affair worthy of the name that brought it forth.Slavko Bucifal

Top marks to those currently experiencing a feeling of blood loss in their fingers – they’re the last five records Tom Jenkinson a.k.a. Squarepusher has fathered since 2004’s much celebrated Ultravisitor, widely regarded as his last big statement.  But those with their arms by their sides shouldn’t be chastised as dunces.  There’s something particularly strange about Squarepusher’s at once prolific and also quite understated way of working that makes his career path a rather difficult one to follow.

Maybe it’s down to a lack of coherence.  Whilst the variety of music across those releases mentioned proves that Tom Jenkinson can pretty much do whatever he wants with sound – full-on raves, bafflingly intricate polyrhythmic percussion workouts, unashamedly masturbatory exercises with a bass guitar, whatever – they don’t always make for superb records.  His credentials as a bona fide musical genius having already been proven before the arrival of Ultravisitor, he seems to have spent the last eight years convincing people that, yes, he is probably the best bass player in the whole world, and yes, he does really really really like jazz, but no, he’s never having any more fun than when playing loud acid house in a holiday camp to the people of All Tomorrow’s Parties.  For the gig-going Squarepusher fan, that’s been a blast.  To the more CD-inclined or casual admirer, it’s made for an interesting if not consistently pleasurable few releases.

Ufabulum hangs together better than most Squarepusher releases in the last ten years by virtue of the fact that it does something we’ve not come to expect from Tom Jenkinson.  Let me clarify.  Whilst we do indeed anticipate Tom Jenkinson doing the unexpected (solo albums consisting of just him on a bass guitar and records dripping with elegant jazz are things he’s done when we’ve expected him to, y’know, make dance music), we’re now kinda used to the fact that whatever comes next will probably be the sound of him pushing himself, often more than we might want him to. Ufabulum, though, is the first Squarepusher album in a good while that sounds a hell of a lot like a Squarepusher album: an old one, with all the charm of the kid-messing-about-with-IDM-and-breakbeat-in-his-room feeling that his early records possessed.  Nope.  Didn’t see that coming.

Whilst it might be the most backward facing of his records of late, this stuff certainly isn’t phoned in.  On the contrary, Ufabulum’s finest moments are up there with the peaks of his dozen or so albums, striking a delightful middle ground between melodies that are desperate to kick off their shoes and set up home in your brain and rhythms that are so intelligent that often all you can do when confronted with a particularly juicy break or leftfield percussive turn is burst into laughter.  A few early cases in point – the eventual arrival of opener ‘4001’’s main hook is the kind of demented pleasure you only get from Squarepusher, and the following 64-bit video game melody of ‘Unreal Square’ introduces the ridiculous to the sublime.

In general, it’s a lot easier to keep up with him when his concerns are melodic more than rhythmic (as on the joyous romp of ‘Energy Wizard’). Middle ground like ‘Stadium Ice’ exists and serves as the album’s greatest success, but it’s things like ‘The Metallurgist’ that cause a slight problem – there’s clearly some serious intellectual muscle being flexed here, but its bombastic beat barrage marks a point in the record where bombastic beat barrages seem to be all that’s left (‘Drax 2’ and ‘Dark Steering’ make for a particularly punishing couple from which the album never really recovers). The listener stops having fun along the way, a problem only exacerbated by the thought that Squarepusher definitely doesn’t.

Also, we have heard him do this kind of thing before – nods to Ultravisitor, Go Plastic and Do You Know Squarepusher abound, and those are all slightly superior albums to Ufabulum.  To make a record that bears such a resemblance to its predecessors will only ever seem like a curious turn in a career like Squarepusher’s that has been so defined by pushing boundaries.  But hey, this is bona fide musical genius Tom Jenkinson – no matter what we crave from him, there’s something great about knowing that whatever his next release sounds like, it’ll sound like whatever he wants.Thomas Hannan

The first thing you’ll probably note about the young Swedish singer is that her voice sounds like a remarkable cross between Bjork and Karin Dreijer Andersson (of The Knife and Fever Ray fame).  It has an arresting, almost naive quality to it, but golly can Park sing.  And sing she does, frequently experimenting with melody, pushing its boundaries, often toying with dissonance, always considering how she can use the pulsing, industrial electro as a springboard.  And on tracks such as ‘New Era’ Karin’s voice really does reach some giddy heights.

As springboards go, the analogue synths and acoustic drums (courtesy of her brother David) stay taut and powerful throughout, never used as mere “backing”, always interestingly layered and composed, no matter how referential they are to the aforementioned electro-sirens.  On ‘Explosions’ a near sub-sonic hum gives the track an air of real menace, punctuated as the drums kick in like lightning punching through a broiling storm.  ‘6000 Years‘ is even more industrial, an abrasive synth hit repeats over synthetic sounds and a sinister vocal line; it’s not exactly a low point of the album, but is a touch unrelenting: Karin at her most experimental and introverted.

Then, ‘Thousand Loaded Guns‘ kicks in, all rapid-fire ’80s and string motif, probably one of the most epic, catchy and energetic tracks of the album.  It’s testament to the versatility of these ten tracks that, despite a real juxtaposition, a sense of journey nevertheless is able to coalesce.

Once you’ve absorbed some of the more testing moments, your concentration is freed up to grasp the slightly surreal poetry of Park’s lyrics too, “Like a pirouette that has nowhere to go but doesn’t know it yet” being a particular favourite. It’s the cherry on a slightly gothic looking cake.  Highwire Poetry is a beguiling listen I keep returning to; at first it was to try and understand the nuances, now it’s to revel in the harsh synth wobbles and that voice that gets under your skin like a half-remembered dream.  Utter post-Bjork brilliance.Danny Wadeson

On the surface, Tomas Barfod‘s album Salton Sea is completely unlike its namesake.  A polished, professional, meticulous, mathematical, European dance album of the sort that we have come to expect from Kompakt.  But underneath gloss one can’t help feeling that Barfod’s distant digital worlds aren’t so unlike this desolate, lonely corner of California.

Salton Sea is an album filled with immersive, artificial, perfectly quantized atmospheres.  Barfod’s CV includes sound design for some pretty impressive fashion designers, and tracks such as ‘Python’ can sound like they are made for beautiful people to strut around to wearing sunglasses.  And yet throughout the album distinct emotion emerges amidst the perfectly timed blips and beeps.

After opening track ‘D.S.O.Y.’, which is heavy on style and low on substance, lead single ‘Broken Glass’ is disarmingly sad.  Beginning with fragile detuned guitars and twinkling bells, a mellifluous robotic voice breaking like a pubescent boy sings “I tiptoe in to broken glass, it hurts like hell I told you the past” before being joined by horns and arpeggiated synths.  It’s a stunning and captivating combination (and might feel quite familiar to anyone who made it to the end of Portal).

‘Exstesizing’ and ‘Aether’ are two other stand-out tracks.  The former builds from a striking loop of what sounds like a hammered dulcimer, adding layer upon layer of eerie bass and shimmering percussion to a heady climax that sounds about as post-rock as a song without guitars ever could.  ’Aether’, on the other hand, begins in a manner very reminiscent of Four Tet’s ‘Circling’ before breaking up and dissolving into a sea of sine waves.

One of the album’s strongest points, and an element that keeps it from being simply a very well-produced desktop exercise, is the occasional use of female vocals.  Nina Kinert’s contributions are particularly enjoyable – her layered voice has an eerie computer-like quality to it which matches perfectly with Barfod’s seething backing tracks. At the same time her voice is vulnerable, and human, and a little bit folky, bringing the otherwise overwhelming tracks back down to earth.  Elsewhere Lydia Ainsworth adds a bit of mystery to the aggressive, ‘Silent Shout’-like, ‘Nighthawke’, though she suffers from having her clearest vocals detuned for no particular reason.

So the Salton Sea is an album of contrasts, jumping between soul-less trendy beats, beautiful intricate glockenspiels and bells, and disarming vocals, often within the space of a single song. It’s an album where Barfod seems at time unsure whether he ‘Came to Party’ or to cry over ‘Broken Glass’. He sets up expectations of accomplished but generic and uninspired ambient dance music, and then subtly defies those expectations with each successive track. His laptop doesn’t quite weep like Four Tet’s or reach the same levels of euphoria as The Field, but this is nonetheless an impressive debut, and one that bodes well for the future.Ian Gordon

Happy Tuesday afternoon, folks. And because it’s such a bright and sunny one, we thought we’d treat all of you to a pretty neat competition. Although, that said, we’d probably be running this comp even if it was raining…

Alas, we have a pair of tickets to give away for the Sunday leg (27 May) of this year’s ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror event taking place in London’s Alexandra Palace.

To win: Simply share this article via Twitter using the icon above, and while you’re at it you may as well follow us as well – if you’d be so kind.

Closing date: Thurs 24 May.

The line-up to the final day of the weekender looks like this:

THE AFGHAN WHIGS
THE MAKE-UP
EL-P
ARCHERS OF LOAF
THEE OH SEES
YUCK
SLEEPY SUN
TENNIS
TALL FIRS
FOREST SWORDS
DEMDIKE STARE
SISKIYOU
BLANCK MASS

Alternatively, you can secure tickets via the ATP festival website. Good luck!