Warpaint Review

They say time flies when you’re having fun but I’m afraid I would now beg to differ. The Fool, Warpaint’s debut full-length on Rough Trade, feels like it goes on for frickin ever but to say it was merely an enjoyable experience would be so much of an understatement....
Read the review on Sucking Lemons.

Trophy Wife 'Microlite'

They probably wouldn't appreciate being likened to Foals, but there are quite a few signature Yannis 'eyy-eahhhyyy's towards the end, which don't exactly detract from the comparison.
A catchy song in its own right though  - pretty chilled.

New Digitalism

The last we heard of German electro duo Digitalism was back in 2007 when they released their debut rec Idealism, showcasing their transcendent mix of funk and trance, a quasi euro pop album to France's Justice and Daft Punk.

Ablaze, they have returned with a fab new EP, again to be released on Kitsuné, entitled Blitz, the title track of which can be heard below, as well as a thumping remix from California's Harvard Bass:

TV Girl 'If you Want it (You Got It)'

Abstract pop melodies, a charging hip hop beat and a 'Hello It's Me' Todd Rundgren sample commingle and entwine to form another great crossover tune (think Kid Cudi/Chiddy Bang's music, but rap-less and doing a duet with Yeasayer with their catchy vocals and chillwave vibes). The outcome is one truly great listening experience and evokes the need to listen once more, and once again. And again.


   If You Want It (You Got It) by brpetering

Tapes 'n Tapes - back 'n better than before

Freak Out by tapesntapes

2005 saw Minneapolis' Tapes 'n Tapes release their stunning and audacious debut The Loon, a scintillating record of rock tunes, all of which highlighted their Pixies-tinged sound.

Three years later, to my dismay, they returned making rather infantile music, virtually defecating on their crit-lauded debut, releasing the follow-up, entitled Walk it Off, which was just a tiny bit pants (the band had walked off all the good stuff).

But now, after a two year interlude, with the spring back in their step, TnT have returned once more, this time with full original might and tuneage. Their third album, Outside, from what I have heard so far, is a beaut; a real return to form.

In the first released song, 'Freak Out', they present us with a vibrant and explosive indie tune which brings to mind Wolf parade's marvellous hooks and the Black Keys' raw riffs (check that out @ 2.20!!). Their defining distorted sound has been somewhat muted and instead replaced with neat, catchy pop-ness, enhancing and developing the musical splendour from their debut.

Perhaps, and hopefully, Walk it Off was just a joke, a little music industry  joke. It was TnT's forgettable second album, their Second Coming (it feels very odd comparing this group to The Stone Roses). The album which is now going to be erased from my memory, next year to be replaced with their third record (which is in fact going to be their second full-length release. Walk it Off never happened, I'm telling you.)

Released on 11th January on their own Ibid Records, Outside is a delightful prospect and is the first album of 2011 that I am genuinely excited about.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Badaboom
2. SWM
3. One in the World
4. Nightfall
5. Desert Plane
6. Outro
7. Freak Out
8. The Saddest of All Keys
9. Hidee Ho
10. People You Know
11. On and On
12. Mighty Long

You can download  'Freak Out' for free by clicking on that little downwards-facing arrow on the player.

Halloween

Here's a selection of freaky songs which all warrant an inclusion on your halloween playlist for this year.
Whether it be down to their auteurs' shady persona, dark and angular dreamscapes or just their sublime creation of a medium made to frighten, these eclecticists' songs all undeniably have the freak factor.



Mexican post-hardcore giants At the Drive-in were all the rage back in 2000, when they released their superb and exhilirating debut 'Relationship of Command'. Packed full with tunes stemming from 80s hardcore and 70s progressive rock, one of the highlights for me was 'Enfilade', an exhaustive, shouty-shouty affair which accentuated their punk nature.

It opens with an obscure, spine-tingling phone conversation between an innocent girl and a nonsensical gruff-voiced weirdo who addresses her as 'Mother leopard'. The song develops into a brilliant heavy jam of whooshy distorted guitars overlayed with a trademark call-and-response chorus between singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.



The band Scars were a brilliant but short-lived post-punk outfit from Edinburgh. In their heyday, they combined the funky riffage of Gang of Four with John Cooper Clarke's fashion sensibilities. They released 'Horrorshow', their debut single, in 1979.

With the meatiest bassline in the history of the earth, sounding like it had come directly from the devil, alongside their clattering, caterwauling guitars, this was an absolute musically evil song. That ear-splitting slap bass and the song's fittingly freaky title were enough to form the perfect Halloween party tune.



Compared to the rest of these freaks, Esben & the Witch, who posted this video online in August, are relative newbies. Nevertheless, this video is very disturbing, in fact, it's the scariest music video of the year. It depicts the trio face on, mysteriously obtaining more and more wounds on their faces as the song develops.

The music is wicked too. Rachael Davies' Twitchy, anthemic, Florence Welch-esque vocals emanate throughout and echoing guitars dominate. The spooky opening's crescendo of thumping percussion and wailing is fantastic.
New, but just as spooky, Esben & the Witch are a group to watch out for next year.



The Specials, the Godfathers of UK ska, released 'Ghost Town', their second single to reach no. 1, in 1981. Despite originally being written about the streets of Coventry, their hometown, their tune has over many years been used at comically 'scary' points during films and the like.

With its defining organs, its flute 'riff', and its eerie chord sequences, it is now the ultimate spooky tune.

The National 'Terrible Love'

On the back of releasing one of the albums of the year in High Violet, The National have released a new video for the best track from it, 'Terrible Love'. Comprising some pretty surreal tour footage inc. Matt Berninger's brrrrrilliant dance moves and the drummer in a swimming pool, it is worth the watch, even if the album has been on our stereos for nearly half a year now.

Antony & The Johnsons Review

Five years and one month ago, Antony & the Johnsons were the surprise victors of the 2005 Mercury Prize. No one had seen it coming. But their unique, anti-mainstream, blend of odd baroque, soul and contemporary jazz was now the talk of the town and their triumphant masterpiece I Am A Bird Now subsequently moved into the top 20 of the album chart.

Now on their fourth full-length release, nothing much has changed. Antony Hegarty’s swooning vocals, poignant lyrics and themes of love, longing and debasement still emanate throughout....
Read the Review on Sucking Lemons.

Aged Yummy

This coming November, the brilliant but peculiarly named Aged Yummy will release 'Let's Connect Dots', a fast-paced one and a half minute jigsaw of a tune.
Sounding like the ultimate UK indie fusion of an electonic-less These New Puritans and the raw garage of Los Camp! and Let's Wrestle, Huddersfield's AY have in this tune created a wonderful, brief singsong.
They make a considerable amount of noise for a three-piece too. Listen to 'Let's Connect Dots' below:

  AGED YUMMY - Let's Connect Dots by Run of the Mill

Limited to 100 copies, the CD single is being released on Run of the Mill. Order it here, before they all sell.

Best Coast Video

Best Coast, the band who brought Lo-fi to the masses with the brilliant 'Boyfriend' earlier this year, have just made a video for that very song. It's teenie, hazy, crazy, pretty much what you'd expect.

MUNCH MUNCH

Following in the footsteps of the likes of Talk Talk, Xiu Xiu, the Ting Tings, Violet Violet, Timber Timbre, Bright Light Bright Light and Django Django, come Bristol's MUNCH MUNCH, the newest trendy band who accidentally named themselves twice.

Their name aside, MM are a fantastic new outfit whose songs combine the pop vocals of Friendly Fires and Fenech-Soler with dangerously drummy lo-fi and Gang Gang Dance-esque electronic sounds, intermingling the best bits of T33TH and MGMT. Brilliant.

They recently uploaded a new song to their myspace myspace entitled Wolfman's Wife, which I have posted below, alongside previous goodie Cyclorama.



Munch Munch - 'Wolfman's Wife' by Tim Chester NME

Catch them at Swn Festival next week and supporting Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Abe Vigoda on their respective tours this Autumn, amongst various other dates here and about.

AFRO POP INVASION

Vampire Weekend appeared back in 2008, with an album full to the brim with what essentially sounded like covers from Paul Simon's seminal Graceland album.
But there are now a whole host of other groups who perform in a similar vein, all parading their afro-influenced music and their worship of PS. Here are a few:

THE RUBY SUNS
New Zealand's Ruby Suns have been creating heavenly beach sounds since 2005. This is 'cranberry', a joyous song from their third album Fight Softly, highlighted here for its Afro-beats and catchy chorus. (It gets pretty meaty from 1.55 onwards)



KISSES
On the verge of releasing their debut album, I present to you LA duo Kisses. Think a Toumani Diabete-influenced Hot Chip, or New Order. This is pop delight in an African nutshell.



HERE WE GO MAGIC
The brainchild of Brooklyn's Luke Temple, Here We Go Magic released Pigeons, their second LP this year. Complex guitar, strolling bass and pretty unsubtle 'OH-OH's = African-influenced pop at its best.




TANLINES
With their smooth anthemic voices and African rhythms, another NY band awash with synthesized bongos, owing much to Graceland, are Tanlines:



CLOUD CONTROL
....are basically Vampire Weekend.

STAGECOACH

 In the brilliant We Got Tazers!, London's Stagecoach have written the song that indie music has been awaiting for quite some time. It's the pop tune that Johnny Foreigner, Tubelord and Los Campesinos! have all never quite managed to deliver. They amalgamate the latter's fantastic quirk and the almighty Pulled Apart By Horses' raw rockability. It's catchy, it's punk, it has a cheesy chorus - it's everything anyone could ever want. 
They released their debut album in 2009, but damn it! it went criminally unnoticed, virtually unreviewed by the press!
But the future looks bright for the young group. Their upcoming dates supporting Johnny Foreigner and the awesome Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltskin, alongside a performance at Huw S's Swn Festival, should hopefully allow their current dwindling popularity to gain momentum and grab the journos' attention.
In my opinion, the arrival of Stagecoach is the best thing to happen to UK indie since falsetto-beasts Wild Beasts cropped up in 2006. Anyway, up there is the marvellous video for We Got Tazers! , in which they showcase their brilliant dance moves and angry faces. The singer also looks like Yann from British Sea Power which is highly interesting.

The return of.... Belle & Sebastian

I was only one year old when B & S's seminal debut Tigermilk was released. Much later in my life now, I find this fact very annoying. God, why aren't I older?
A few years ago I discovered that in the 90s, there essentially existed only one British rock group that connected with any one person entirely. Most of them fell under one genre: Britpop. For some, Oasis's monotone vocals were the cool while others fancied Blur's punk-influenced pop. The slick Brett Anderson-fronted Suede collected fans, as did the mighty Manics and the funny guys (and girls) Pulp.
For others, however, there was another British guitar group, not labelled britpop. A lovely, Scottish, intellectual and melodic outfit called Belle & Sebastian (named after a French's childrens' book) who encompassed Nick Drake's effortless songwriting and The Beatles' hooks to a fantastic standard, creating a debut album which was an amalgation of a side of the Smiths we never saw and Joni Mitchell's jollier moments. Album opener The State I am in has now become what some would label a classic. It indeed recently reached one of the highest spots on Pitchfork's recent 90s songs feature. Although perhaps not their most popular song (see Piazza, New York Catcher, which became a hit after it was featured in the popular 2007 film Juno, or the superbly catchy Step Into My Office Baby), it is B & S's trademark song - it epitomised their 'twee'. They are the ultimate Twee Pop group - that is, the genre involving simple melodies and pop tunes, with cute, quaint lyrics, inspired by love.
This, their signature style has consequently developed and over many years, has led to them becoming somewhat of a cult success. Would you believe that they won the Brit award, for best newcomer in 1999?? An award that has since gone to overproduced dancing pop babies JLS, Mika and the frickin' Darkness. How did they do this? no one really knows - but it's something that they should be proud of. It's something that the more commercially successful rock groups of the 90s (except Oasis, something your Blur's, your Pulp's etc...) never achieved. Below are Steps, one of the fabulous, really very musically credible artists who were up for the award in the same year.

When they headlined the second full day at Latitude festival in Suffolk this summer, they in fact opened with the aforementioned The State I am In, their anthem. The 20,000 enthralled fans sang back the words like a prayer. Scottish flags were rife, middle-aged men danced and even the little children, climbing Daddy's shoulders, wanted to get a good view of the group's first British show in four years. Their profound influence since Tigermilk is telling.
Although they were never really classified as Britpop as such - looking back, they should have been. Yes, Stuart Murdoch's group was a little different to the Gallaghers' and Albarn's. But that was what Britpop was all about - a wave of innovative rock groups all making different music for different people - filling the gap that The Smiths and then the Stone Roses had left behind. But unlike Oasis (who couldn't make it past the third album without being pooped over by journalists) and Blur (who have proved their irrevelance by means of cheese-making and aga-promoting), Belle & Sebastian's music is still alive in 2010.
But you may ask WHY this group are still relevant now?
Well, all it takes is a listen to their new album, fittingly entitled Belle & Sebastian Write About Love. Although packed full with stylistically similar songs to those found on Tigermilk, Dear Catastophe Waitress and the like, what they produce now still sounds so refreshing. Even now, 15 years since their masterful debut, every song feels so emotional and every little musical pinpoint is perfected. This is pure MUSICAL pop perfection. In a world where guitar bands hardly ever reach the higher realms of the charts, I feel Belle & Sebastian can still do it. Just listen to the Norah Jones-featuring Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John, or the first single from the album, Write About Love, and you will love them. And love twee.

Recorded in LA, Belle & Sebastian Write About Love is out on 11th October, on Rough Trade.

You can stream it in its entirety on NPR Radio here

Crystal Castles 'Baptism' Official Video

Here's a chaotic new video from the best electronic digital-screamo duo in the world right now (err.. sorry Kap Bamino!)


what a heavenly cacophany x

Best live music on Youtube this week

NEW YUCK!

I present to you the most wonderful, druggy haze you have heard since Spacemen 3 owned the noisy music world. Freak out my friends, because this really is very cool!

  Rubber by Yuck
 
PS. They release this as a single in October - expect a full-length debut featuring killer gems like this early next year!

Everyone's favourite minimalists get the Four Tet treatment!

FT's trademark clunks combined with an LCD Soundsystem-esque drum beat (of the funkiest kind) interweaving the best track off The XX can only result in one truly beautiful jam. Can such a thing really exist?

RoCk n RoLl 2010 ClAsS

So, one of my favourite ever 'rock' groups SWANS returned this year with their first full-length album in 14 years. It was amazing.
But there's a whole host of amazing new rock n roll groups about at the moment. Here are three stunning newbies who should hopefully keep us busy before the next Swans record.... in (if my maths is correct) 2024!

THE BABIES

FROM: Brooklyn, NY
SOUNDS LIKE: Vivian Girls, The Breeders (not a clever joke - they actually do)

FAIR OHS

FROM: London
SOUNDS LIKE: Exactly how they put it on their myspace - think a punk Paul Simon

DEEP SHT

FROM: London
SOUNDS LIKE: a catchy Psychocandy-era Jesus & Mary Chain