NEWS: Denmark's Efterklang win IMPALA award for best European Independent Album of the Year

I am a huge fan of these Experimental/Indie/Art-Rockers and think that they wholeheartedly deserved to win. Here's a link to the beautiful, 'Modern Drift,' the first single off their third studio album, 'Magic Chairs' (released February 2010):

LIVE: The Naked and Famous @ Bodega Social Club, Nottingham - 18th February 2011

The Naked and Famous are not quite as internationally-renowned as their name boasts, regardless of their success in their native New Zealand, but the Bodega crowds’ excitement before the Electro-Pop band’s headline slot was more than tangible. Following on from Wolf Gang’s promising performance, The Naked and Famous started the show with an unusual song choice, ‘All of This’, which with its mid-tempo beats and oscillating crescendos made it a frustrating opener. Nevertheless, they made the brave decision of playing arguably their most popular song, ‘Punching in a Dream’ second, which really lifted the crowds’ spirits and allowed the band to shake off their somewhat hesitant dispositions.

Front-man and woman, Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith, share beautiful falsetto harmonies and have real chemistry on stage, with Powers often stringing out discordant guitar notes that add darker layers to the band’s essentially classic pop music, and Xayalith firing out rippling synths while impressively whipping her hair back and forth more times than lil’ miss Willow Smith herself. Jessie Wood’s machine-precise, yet remarkably inventive drumming is fashioned by a half-acoustic/half-electric kit that drives The Naked and Famous’ thunderous and explosive set forward.

The band’s delicate track ‘The Sun’ nicely interrupted the set mid-way through, beautifully unravelling its subtle tones so that it echoed the minimalist experimentalism found in Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’. The heavily -distorted guitar riffs in ‘No Way’ following this further proved that this band are no one-trick pony, and ending on their anthem, ‘Young Blood’, The Naked and Famous sent their intimate crowd into a flurry of call-and-response ‘Yeah oh yeahs’, delivering the perfect ending to a very enjoyable gig overall.

4/5

Published for 'Impact Magazine' on 25th February 2011.

FEATURE: Helplessness Blues...

I was raised up believing,
I was somehow unique,
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes,
Unique in each way you can see.

And now after some thinking,
I'd say I'd rather be,
A functioning cog in some great machinery,
Serving something beyond me.

But I don't, I don't know what that will be,
I'll get back to you someday soon you will see.

LIVE: Annie Mac @ Stealth, Nottingham - 1st October 2010

3.05am. The wait for Annie Mac is over. After rushing from one of her gigs in Lincoln, she takes to the stage unannounced and lets the music explode before the crowd, dropping melodic synths, clipped samples and heavy beats from every corner of Stealth’s sweat box. As a relatively new fan, it was incredible to see the room come alive so quickly with her presence, regardless of the fact that she had not spoken a word nor lifted her dark mass of curly hair from the decks. The crowd happily delved into the dubstep bass lines and syncopated rhythms and before long, Annie threw them off course by creating her own live mash up, switching to DnB with the likes of Shy FX and then mixing her set further with Swedish House Mafia’s energetic, ‘One’.

Annie consistently attended to everyone’s musical needs – she successfully prolonged breakdowns for a good few minutes, before swelling crescendos finally exploded into cacophonies of heavy beats and frenzied dances. She also continued to display a perfect balance between the unpredictable and predictable; one minute presenting you with an eclectic mash up of underground electro and dubstep tunes, and the next, briskly moving on to more well known tracks, such as the first lady of dubstep, Katy B’s track, ‘On a Mission’. The power behind the sub-bass here propelled itself through the hundreds packed into the club before the final song, M.I.A ‘Paper Planes’ burst onto the scene, with Annie’s repeated and spliced samples adding yet another dimension to the immense diversity and excitement of her set overall.

Published for 'Impact Magazine' on 12th November 2010.

FEATURE: What is it like to be in a band in Nottingham?

Playing in a band at Nottingham may seem like too much to balance for us students with our heavy workloads and social lives to lead, but for me it is fundamental creative escape. There is something really exciting about getting a group of like-minded people into a hot, sweaty and steamy...no wait, crammed, practice room, ready to join ideas and play loud music for a good few hours each week. While this can be paralleled to the reverberations of weekly clubbing, it is indescribable how elated you feel when a song comes together, or when a stranger after a gig claps you on the back to say “well done”.

Being in a band at Nottingham is totally different to my home experiences (in my case, Oxford).  Before, I was sometimes having to get my parents to help me lug equipment to the outskirts of the county; from run down pubs with seemingly inbred audiences, to popular venues in the city and even playing at my school. Although Nottingham is a much bigger city, the music scene appears to be more localised yet with the similar range of venues. Seven is one of the best known venues for university bands, with its acoustic bar downstairs and the area upstairs allowing the gain to be increased. While this is probably the most regularly played venue for bands at Nottingham, I have also had the opportunity to play at the Rescue Rooms and at a little-known venue called the Maze, situated on Mansfield Road. On first impressions it appears to be a standard pub, but as you delve into its depths, an intimate venue emerges with corner staging, a bar and a large audience area. Apart from the above, there are still so many places to explore across the city and the range that I have experienced so far is varied and refreshing.

So how do you get involved? Well, for the individual artist, just grab your guitar or whatever instrument you play and book yourself in at places such as Snug and Wax Bar. The atmosphere at both is always chilled and extremely welcoming. For the group artist, firstly knock on a few doors in your hall. I can guarantee that at least one person will play the guitar or have a half-decent voice. Get chatting and get jamming. Alternatively, become a member of Nottingham’s very own Band Society...surprisingly called BandSoc, which hosts regular gig nights at Seven featuring university bands. Membership enables you to have access to its fully- equipped practice rooms, joined to the New Theatre and to the Archaeology building. It is really fantastic to be involved and I would recommend anyone with a burning musical desire to give it a go. Who knows, one day you might be headlining the Summer Party...

To get involved with BandSoc, check out www.bandsoc.net

Published for 'Impact Magazine'.

REVIEW: 'Impact's' Top Albums of 2009 - xx, 'xx'

xx’s debut presents a minimalistic blend of softly delayed guitars, clipped synths, off-beat bass lines and sexually-charged lyrics that suffocate the listener in a world of dark, melancholic pop music.
Many of their songs are reminiscent of past hits; creations that have been stripped back with simple notes and reverberating guitars. ‘Crystallised’ is clearly Interpol-inspired with chord/vocal dissonance, while Romy and Oliver’s call-and-response vocals accumulate in beautiful crescendos - reflecting the relationship struggles illustrated in the lyrics. This album leaves you overwhelmed from the first time you hear it.

REVIEW: 'Impact's' Albums of the Decade. Sigur Ros, 'Takk'

Describing 'Takk' in less than eighty words is near impossible. Ethereal, transporting, elevating, depressing, breath-taking, mesmerising, simple, complex, beautiful and disturbing are but a few words to illustrate this Icelandic band’s masterpiece of an album. Singer, Jónsi Birggison’s passionate falsetto vocals are enough to put Chris Martin in his place; accompanied with intricate string arrangements, powerful bowed guitars, trancelike xylophone melodies, rolling drums and songs that are sung in a nonsensical language. The music speaks for itself.