NEWS: Givers to release album

Louisiana-based Givers should be added to everyone's summer playlists. Self-described as 'Dance Pop Indie Folk' (Soundcloud) these guys provide listeners with plenty of  innovative, feel-good anthems. Their record is out on 6th July. Check out their wonderful single, 'Up Up Up', below.

FEATURE: Dream-Pop

One of the genres that has been getting me through the slog of my last year at university is Dream Pop
Sam Tully and I have have been playing tracks from bands such as: Tamaryn, Beach House, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Deerhunter, Best Coast, Puro Instinct, Beach Fossils etc. relentlessly on our weekly radio show on URN http://www.urn1350.net/. While I have been listening to a few of these bands for a couple of years, the woozy, summer sounds of these largely lo-fi and/or shoegaze revival bands have only recently started to be classified under the sub-genre of 'Dream-Pop'. Call it what you want, but it's bloody, ruddy good!

Check out a recent favourite, 'Blue Star' by Sea Pony, which features on their upcoming album, Go With Me.

Happy Easter!

REVIEW: Alexi Murdoch – 'Towards The Sun'

Born in London, raised in Scotland, Greece and France and living in Los Angeles, singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch is a man of many landscapes. In his self-released 2006 debut album, Time Without Consequence, Murdoch presents a varied array of dusty folk and American bluesy sounds that extend for nearly an hour and seem to reflect these experiences , but in Towards The Sun, his thirty five minute showcase is surprisingly too long and devoid of the variety and soundscapes found in his previous release. While Murdoch’s lyrics have most certainly matured, there are only fleeting moments where his song writing has developed.

‘Towards The Sun’ is a disappointing opening track. The looped root notes do nicely marinate with Murdoch’s romantic, pastoral lyrics and earthy vocal tones, “the water is so cold and heavy on my mind, I dreamed of walking with you but I fell behind”, but the actual vocal melody is stale and lifeless. The following track, ‘At Your Door’, contrasts using a more up-beat pace and a promising guitar melody, but just as a cacophony of horns nicely build a crescendo, the song suddenly ends.

‘Slow Revolution’ and ‘Some Day Soon’, however, mark where the album first sprouts life. Murdoch is at the peak of his poetical writing in the former; his omniscient narration evoking strong images, “Martin was bright as he stood up and sang in the choir, his hearts all in pieces, was breaking, his head was on fire, they took him from that place and they buried him deep in the ground, out with the light, quiet the sound” and residual political messages.

There is (at last!) real instrumental texture in ‘Some Day Soon’ with a thumping bass drum, gentle banjo, chiming piano and whispery female backing vocals supporting Murdoch while he yearns for his father’s company. The song is one of the highlights of the album, alongside the closing track, ‘Crinan Wood’ which features a simple, crackling-fire side ukulele melody with Kelly Pratt (Beirut) and Kyle Resnick (The National) carrying the weight of the song’s excitement through warm brass tones, which weave beautifully between Murdoch’s stories of love, loss and nostalgia.

Murdoch’s vocals in the preceding song, ‘The Light (Her Hands Were Leaves)’ mirror the honesty of his tone found in ‘Some Day Soon’ and similar familial themes also exist, “Brother how you shine/Mother you are a bird.” The song does, however, drag musically. Towards the end of the album, epic guitar delay and ebow sounds introduce ‘Through The Dark’ but are not allowed to grow with Murdoch’s plucked strings and mid-tenor Celtic hums, and this would have added some much-needed colour overall.

Murdoch’s lyrics remain strong throughout the album, but his music unfortunately lacks the refreshing variety found in his previous releases. There are no real signs of musical development or experimentalism, just feelings of stunted growth.

4/10

Published for the Oxford Music Blog, 18th April 2011*

*You can read the published review here
http://www.oxfordmusicblog.co.uk/2011/04/alexi-murdoch-towards-the-sun/#more-4223

NEWS: Brand new Death Cab For Cutie single

                      

Listen to 'You Are A Tourist' here:

http://soundcloud.com/1077-the-end/death-cab-for-cutie-you-are-a

x

LIVE: Warpaint @ O2 Shepherd's Bush - 21st February 2011

Warpaint are a difficult band to pigeonhole. Post-punk /psychedelia/prog-rock only cover half of the band’s sound, but the trouble classifying their music would probably run smoothly with the experimental LA all-girl quartet. Vocally, Warpaint draw influences from the likes of Cat Power and Bjork, but listening more closely to their debut album, ‘The Fool’, the guitars are so heavily saturated in lilting phaser effects that their music harks back to early The Cure and even The Verve. I am digressing; just like their music swallows you up a world of ghostly landscapes and angelic harmonies, and it is this profound musical escapism that I wanted to see performed live by one of the most hotly-tipped acts of 2011.

The quartet opened their set with the monotonous, yet dulcet bass tones of ‘Set Your Arms Down’, allowing the crowd to slowly fall in love with guitarist/singer Emily Kokal’s ethereal vocals and meander to guitarist Theresa Wayman’s delicate arpeggios. While ‘Set Your Arms Down’ is a personal favourite, there was a sense among the crowd that this was not perhaps the best song to open with and, unfortunately, either the P.A or the band’s volume levels were too low to fully appreciate the beauty of this song live. The volume increased a little more for the remainder of the gig and fans did not let the earlier levels impede their engagement with the band’s ability to thread hypnotic guitar lines between eerie vocals, walking bass progressions and syncopated beats.

It was fantastic to hear the band play tracks off their 2009 EP, ‘Exquisite Corpse’, such as the progressively haunting, ‘Stars,’ which implanted a deeper appreciation of the band’s early style and their capability to stay true to their experimentalism – also displayed by ‘The Fool’. Their unpredictable rhythm changes and irregular song structures clearly show how the band are passively avoiding being fashioned for mass-consumption, albeit their celeb-culture origins (Kokal used to date RHCP guitarist John Frusciante/Bassist Jenny’s sister is actress Shannyn Sossamon). Refreshingly, it is their talent and extremely original song writing that has pushed the band into the spotlight, reflected by the all-ages audience who sway in trance-like states, hypnotised by Warpaint’s on stage cosmology.

The performances of ‘Bees’, ‘Warpaint’ and ‘Shadows’ is where the band really comes into their own. Drummer Stella Mozgawa is rapturous behind her drum-kit, half-standing up with excitement as she snaps at the snare drum in ‘Shadows’. The fragmentary structure of ‘Bees’ ambushed the crowd half-way through the set, with Wayman and Kokal’s riffs splashing in restless dissonance and Lindberg’s roaring bass lines also cleverly interlacing Mozgawa’s off-beat pelts. Their hit, ‘Undertow’ was a little weaker than expected live, while the romantic, ‘Billie Holiday’, projected a faultless three-part harmony that looped beneath the gentle folk ballad tones.

Warpaint returned to the stage with a little more confidence for their encore; the capillary wave of Wayman’s guitar hook in ‘Elephants’ creeping about the stage and Kokal’s manipulative lyrics, ‘I’ll break your heart’, cunningly worming their way into the crowd’s heads. They most certainly left a residue.

4.5 /5

Published for 'Impact Magazine', 14th March 2011.

NEWS: Spanking-new Elbow album, 'Build a Rocket Boys!'

I've only heard it a few times, but so far, so good!
You can stream it here...
http://www.we7.com/#/album/Elbow/build-a-rocket-boys

FEATURE: URN After Dark - 'Sam and Char Show' tracks of the week

After Sam and I finished our show on URN (http://urn1350.net/) this Thursday, we had a quick chat about our favourite tracks of the evening. Sam voted for Gil Scott Heron and Jamie xx, 'NY Is Killing Me' and I have chosen this track...

Rainbow Arabia - 'Without You'

Enjoy.