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Sunday 30 November 2008

In 5 Years Time...


It's been a busy year for Noah and the Whale, from the success of Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down to the announcement last week that they would be releasing a 'punk' project along with a short movie for their second album. It's hard to imagine anything remotely anarchistic or aggressive from the band which only these last few months have been whistling such twee classics as 5 Years Time and Give A Little Love. But there you have it, who knows where Noah and The Whale could be in 5 years time?

Give A Little Love (mp3)

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Friday 28 November 2008

Menomena - Friend and Foe

Firstly i have to say that this is definitely the most fascinating album artwork i've ever seen. The red and yellow parts of the cover both change and twisting the Cd in its case will change the eyes of the characters to display amusing expressions of shock as they look out at you. The album cover is almost as intruiging as the band itself.
Menomena are an experimental rock band from Portland, USA, who share lead vocals and, through a wide variety of conventional instruments, create indie with elements of jazz, rock, and electronica to name but a few. Comparisons can easily be drawn to Tv On The Radio, however Menomena ooze originality and show off a very distinctive style despite the changes of vocals from track to track. Friend and Foe is the follow up to the independently released first album I Am The Fun Blame Monster! (an anagram of The First Menomena Album) of 2003, and a clear progression in terms of both recording quality and tightness can be seen.
One of the distinguishing and most interesting features of Friend and Foe is its prominent experimental drumming, capable of completely changing the feel of their songs in one strategically placed rhythm change and added bass line. Evil Bee is a perfect example of this. This track begins as a slow, disturbingly unbalanced acoustic build up to be converted by the entry of an alto sax, bass and simple drum line into a driving funk rock song, before combining the two for a beautifully woven outro.
Wet and Rusting is the highlight of the album. Beginning with a synthesizer, and mildly unnerving high pitched lyrics, the song develops into a disturbing combination of off beat, almost wrong-sounding acoustic strums and reverbial, distant sounding piano lines (both Menomena trademarks). The bullet-like drums in the chorus drive the song with such force that rather than simply holding the song together they create a completely new element to the music. Concentrating solely on the drumming in Menomena songs is something quite easy to become accustomed to.
With any distinctive sound there comes the responsibility to keep it both interesting and fresh simultaneously. Menomena partially succeed however the album does trail off nearing the end, and the song Boyscout'n, the second longest album track, is really quite terrible with persistent jabs of the alto sax and a piercing whistle riff the track would do better without. The song is attempting to be too catchy in the wrong context and fails miserably at fulfilling its role as one of the happier, more upbeat songs on the album.
Failings aside, Menomena have released a very strong follow up to their debut, and their music pushes enough boundaries to take experimental music forward without venturing too far into electronic effects or too far away from conventional musical intruments.

8.1/10

Wet and Rusting
Evil Bee

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Thursday 27 November 2008

Saturdays = Listening To M83.


Recently i have fallen in love with M83. They combine electro indie with dream pop and shoegaze with fantastically original results. Saturdays = Youth is the perfect dance album to relax to, notably the epic eight and a half minute immersion of Couleurs. Other highlights include the brilliant We Own The Sky, mixing an addictive synthesized force of a melody with a spacey vocal chant of an outro. The general ambient feel to the tracks is similar to a synth-based My Bloody Valentine and a more drawn out version of the melodies of early Mercury Rev. However the result is something quite different, revolutionary, and ecletic. M83 will leave you on a cloud. Earlier album Before The Dawn Heals Us is also home to such gems as the darker Teen Angst. The band have, somewhat surprisingly in terms of genre, landed themselves a support slot with modern garage rockers Kings Of Leon on their UK tour, opening the doors for potentially a wider recognition here in the UK.

Wednesday 26 November 2008

The Ortolan

I've been listening back recently through one of my favourite albums of the summer '08, The Ortolan by The Deadly Syndrome. Straight out of LA, the band play some of the most charming and uplifting indie pop you've never heard. They've been championed by Hot Hot Heat and toured with Oh No! Oh My!. Light, catchy guitar riffs are everywhere coupled with the rasping indie rock vocals of Christopher Richard. The Deadly Syndrome have, in one album, mastered the kind of exciting, chaotic chorusses that have been lacking in the post-elephant 6 indie rock scene; and every instrument, riff and irresistable piano line knows exactly its place.
Highlights include:

Heart
Eucalyptus

And here's a fantastic live version of I Hope I Become A Ghost:

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