The Big Pink

The Big Pink are a shoegaze/dance duo made up of Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell. Their My Bloody Valentine influenced fusion of dance rock, ambient noise and electronica shrouds each track in distinct late-80s/early-90s psychedelia. 'Too Young To Love' draws comparisons to School of Seven Bells with it's hard electronic beat keeping and tearing TV On The Radio-style ambient synthesizers. Vocals are dreary and almost inaudible, but consistently essential and perfectly fitted to the music. Single 'Velvet' and it's jarring synth riff mould into an ever expanding M83/MBV wall of sound effect and the one-chord progression technique builds the song up magnificently and hypnotically. They've gained appropriate Gang Gang Dance and Mount Kimbie remixes of this song, which are both equally as odd as each other.

Second single 'Stop The World' is more New Order than Spacemen 3 in introduction but nevertheless returns to it's Jesus & Mary Chain moulded roots once the song begins. Monotonous, trance-like vocals submerge into intermittent and sinister chord changes between each anthemic chorus. The Big Pink take their name from the first album of The Band, but out of the mix of folk and psychedelia Furze and Cordell very much focus on the latter.

If you haven't heard of Furze and Cordell before, what i am about to say might expose them as well within your scope. They have opened for Tv On The Radio and Crystal Castles, and Milo Cordell owns the label Merok, home of Klaxons, The Teenagers, Crystal Castles, Titus Andronicus and Telepathe. Cordell is also son of the 60s pop producer Denny Cordell who worked with J.J.Cale and Tom Petty in his early career. Lily Allen also chose Furze's 'shoulder to cry on' after her well-publicised split with Ed Chemical.

The Big Pink have got themselves dates at Glastonbury and Reading and are also playing Bestival in September. They are definitely on the list of bands I am attempting to see, playing the John Peel Stage at 1.00PM next Saturday.

The Big Pink - Too Young To Love
The Big Pink - Stop The World
The Big Pink - Velvet

The Big Pink, Amazon.

Ra Ra Riot + Vampire Weekend = Discovery!

Discovery is Wes Miles of Ra Ra Riot and Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend making a psychedelic mix of 2005 soul filled RnB and Dirty Projectors style erratic indie rock. They are not really anything like either Vampire Weekend or Ra Ra Riot, to me they sound more like Empire Of The Sun having a play on some glitch synths with Wes Miles on vocals. The tracks are nowhere near as well produced as VW or RRR but are definitely some solid and unassuming summer tunes. The kick-start their project gets with the musicians reputations is definitely needed, I doubt Discovery would really be anywhere without it. Any combination of two such high profile musicians is bound to attract a great deal of deserved/undeserved media attention whatever the quality is like. Discovery's bold experimental approach makes them worth a listen or two, and the Ra Ra Riot influence over this mixed up musical mess is just strong enough to pull me in and keep me there.

Discovery - Orange Shirt
Discovery - Can You Discover? (RnB Rework of Ra Ra Riot's 'Can You Tell')
Discovery - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (featuring Angel Deradoorian)
Discovery - Swing Tree

Amazon (July 6th)

Fanfarlo

Fanfarlo (from the novel 'La Fanfarlo' are a London based indie pop band whose debut album 'Reservoir' was released (after a year of recording in Conneticut) in February of 2009. In an attempt to make their music more widely available, the album is available until 4th July for $1.

Under prized producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, The Twilight Sad), Reservoir displays instrumentally dense indie rock, with a full Arcade Fire feel to their sound. The influence of Katis is clear throughout, and like the sounds of The National and The Twilight Sad, Fanfarlo do a fantastic job of keeping each instrument's recording concise, whilst including more than your average folk band.

Ultimately there is a twee pop lightness and air of youth to their work, and particularly to Swedish guitarist and vocalist Simon Balthazar's fragile vocal part. The band draw another similarity, whether intended or not, to London based folk band Mumford & Sons particularly in vocal sound and structure.
They have recently played dates at SXSW Festival, and they spent the March of 2009 on a UK tour with Snow Patrol. You can pick up the album for a dollar below, or two of the album highlights for nothing whatsoever.

Reservoir for $1.
Fanfarlo - Luna
Fanfarlo - I'm a Pilot

The XX

The XX have been firmly placed on my ones to watch list since they released debut single 7" 'Crystalised' in April, and since then they have been slowly but surely recording their self-produced debut album (as of yet untitled) in the offices of indie label XL's West London headquarters.

The music is reserved as is their live show, a low key mix of post-punk, indie pop and influences
as far ranging as Rn'B and early 80s gothic experimentalism. An air of fragility is ever-present, even throughout songs with structures closer to pop. The XX let their riffs and melodies speak for themselves, with VCR holding a riff and song structure not out of place on a Kills album, but an execution far from it.

Their 'calm before the storm' atmosphere doesn't stop after their own material either, they've added trip-hop influenced covers of Womack & Womack, as well as Aaliyah to their discography, leaving the originals unrecognisable and unsatisfying. Darker elements of The Velvet Underground are evident, as are portions of fellow post-punk contemporaries Crystal Stilts. A major influence is impossible to place, each listen of each song brings about a new genre comparison, whether this be early 00's garage rock, trip-hop, dance, indie pop, or post-punk. The XX have come up with the latest unique, addictive and quietly optimistic combination.

The XX - Teardrops (Womack & Womack Cover)
The XX - Crystalised
The XX - VCR

The Little Hands Of Asphalt

The Little Hands of Asphalt is the twee folk side project of Sjur Lyseid, lead singer of Oslo based indie rock quartet Monzano. The music departs from Mozano's mellow indie rock but retains a more definite, and certainly better recorded version of Lyseid's sentimental and warming vocals throughout.

Part of the appeal of the act is the timelessness of the arrangement. The fingerpicked acoustic guitar, occasional bass, quiet drawn violins and simple muted drums is hardly a revolutionary selection of instrumentation, but something about the delicate, confident and constant voice suggests otherwise. Ultimately the music is nice and easy to listen to, and the songs are lyrically dense, intelligent and sufficiently deep in terms of excellent storytelling to have some kind of lasting impression on the listener. From a genre whose grassroots I often might avoid out of impatience, something draws me in here and keeps me coming back. The Little Hands of Asphalt may not break new ground in many obvious ways, but they take the ground they are currently residing on to a whole new level, at the definite risk of sounding cliche. There is clear influence, whether intended or not, from Kings Of Convenience, Bright Eyes and Josh Pyke.

Back to the real world in terms of tours, albums and where you can get your hands on their material, their myspace is the way forward. A tour looks unlikely but they have released enough material (including a free EP) to warrant further investigation. Released on Spoon Train Audio in March 2009, the album leap years is available now as mp3 download from Amazon and the free EP from how is annie records.

The Little Hands Of Asphalt - Oslo (mp3)
The Little Hands Of Asphalt - Highway's Pull (mp3)