Album Preview: The National - High Violet (May 11, 2010)

The National

High Violet - (Worldwide - May 11, 2010)

4AD Records

Indie Rock/Post-Punk

The National premièred Terrible Love on Jimmy Fallon last week, and it has to be said, if the lead single is any indication of what's to come when High Violet drops in May; we've got a serious contender for album of the year on our hands. The National just don't seem to get it wrong - and with three years since their last full-length, they still have the kind of devoted fan base to sell out venues in 60 seconds. The new song marks a return to a sound closer to that of Alligator than Boxer, with emphasis on the guitars and overdrive sound rather than on Berninger's voice. With an unusually direct introduction, Terrible Love's fuzzy guitars are joined seamlessly by percussion and an idly piercing riff which barely breaks its head above water. Vocals as ever are immaculate if slightly concealed, and as we've come to expect in recent years - The National yet again conjure up unrivalled intensity without so much as a second thought. Pick up the first and second live clips from the new album below - and check Jimmy Fallon's show from last Sunday below.

The National - Terrible Love (Live) (MP3)

The National - England (Live) (MP3)

Pre-order High Violet on Amazon.com

Review: Wilderness Survival - On Belay Belay On (Jan 1, 2010)

Wilderness Survival / see also Cosmo Speedway
On Belay Belay On (Worldwide - Jan 1, 2010)
Unsigned/Self-released
Indie Pop/Electronica/Garage


On Belay Belay On feels more like a collection of demos and recordings as they come than a complete 'album' as such; but that's not to say that collections of recordings put together in this way don't deserve this title. In writing music, as far as I have experienced - working analytically from a general concept towards a creative output is the way that most bands seem to make their music. This is great if you're looking for a commercially appealing album - labels find no problems with branding their band and thus bringing the music towards the consumer - who buy up without a second thought. Equally, on the thematic side of the coin, re-occurring lyrical themes can colour an albums meaning and reinforce conceptual messages which the orchestrator is trying to get across through song - take The Antlers' Hospice, for example - Peter Silberman's 2009 masterpiece - dealing with losing a loved one to cancer. But this album is like neither of the above, nor does it pretend to be.

In fact, Wilderness Survival's fourth album seems to work the other way around. Recorded with just as much integrity, even if the themes aren't quite so depressive, On Belay Belay On sounds more like an album of musical-awareness and experimentation on a personal level than a conceptual masterpiece. The two members, Nick Grosvenor and Shane Reed, seem to harness their creativity by using it to accommodate ideas which most musicians would simply discard in context as not fitting in - and as a result, there are some surprisingly eclectic sections with some equally simple sections to match on this album.

Drawing mainly from garage rock, acoustic music, and subtle electronic sampling - the band sound objectively very close to London band The Invisible. Hushed vocals and rigid four-track structures give the music a very mechanical, almost emotionless feel, despite the huge range of textures and instruments which feature. Album opener I'm The One and We Cannot Lose remind explicitly of Freelance Whales, and some of the funky basslines (listen to Hierarchy) faintly echo classic rock artists and sequences of the 70s and 80s; Well Made Ads even brings us a bout of Dandy Warhols style psychedelic rock, reminiscent in particular of a more recent blog favourite The Shimmer. Wilderness Survival is not a collection of tracks to inspire your survival without food or water, but is definitely a collection to provide some easy listening as an alternative to your average evening with other indie bands on this kind of scene.

File Next To - Lackthereof / The Shimmer / The Invisible / Miniboone

Wilderness Survival - Well Made Ads (MP3)
Wilderness Survival - Byzantine Love (MP3)

Order On Belay Belay On on Itunes / Amazon.com

Live Review: Wild Beasts w/ Support @ 60 Million Postcards, Bournemouth (March 12, 2010)

Wild Beasts
60 Million Postcards Bournemouth
12 March 2010
Support - Erland & The Carnival, Lone Wolf, Lord Auch

I first saw Wild Beasts back in 2008, where I was assured by an overenthusiastic and evidently warped member of the Foals street team that they would be "the weirdest band you'll ever see, ever." It was pretty clear by about one song into their set that they weren't quite as unconventional as he had let on, but what I had definitely stumbled upon was a great new band, more than worthy of gracing the stage in the hours before Foals' Antidotes tour. With falsettoed dual vocals which spend more time out of their comfort zone than within it - Hayden Thorpe somehow manages to put his stunning singing voice through an awe-inspiring workout within the conventional realm of listenable music, without making it sound like scales and/or some sort of modern X Factor pop caricature. Whilst there are times that Wild Beasts music breaks into a steady pop beat, the vast majority of the music smoothly makes its way along - accompanied rather than manipulated by a complex set of alternately-tuned drums.

Live, their second album Two Dancers couldn't have translated better; neither of the two voices missed a note throughout, and although such a feat is commonplace in the top end of live music - if you've heard just how wide ranging some of the 'hoots' and 'howls' of Wild Beasts discography are, and taken into account equally the kind of stage manouevres and instrument switches which take place fluidly, and without second thought - you'd be impressed beyond my reasonable doubt. The band played through a huge range of material that definitely outsmarted me, and if there's one thing  i'll take away this gig other than a great deal more respect for the Domino Records signees, it will be that Limbo, Panto is a 2008 album that passed me by, and something involving a new Amazon order needs to be done.

The scratchy and at times theatrical demos and recordings which their previous efforts entail have calmed themselves second time around, and as with any serious band - they've matured along the way. With ardent passion and a look of seasoned accomplishment, Wild Beasts assimilated their efforts increasingly as the show went on, climaxing their natural build up pre-encore with 2009 single Hooting & Howling, before returning three minutes later with their fullest track yet Limbo, Panto's Devil's Crayon. Like The Invisible gone before them in January, Wild Beasts made fun of captivating the rarely treated Bournemouth audience into a state of inspired awe, simply by starting their set off tame and mild before taking a darker turn into the euphoric sections of their album material. 60 Million Postcards seems to know exactly how to pick fantastic live bands, and although it doesn't have a great amount of options with location so close to the South Coast, its yet to fail in my eyes to pick a band which has left its audience with its feathers ruffled.


Wild Beasts - The Funpowder Plot (MP3)
Wild Beasts - The Devil's Crayon (MP3)

Buy Two Dancers on Amazon.com

Album Review: Toro y Moi - Causers Of This (Feb 23, 2010)

Toro Y Moi
Causers Of This (US - February 23, 2010)
Carpark Records (US)
Chillwave/Lo-fi/Psychedelic

As much as I complain about Pitchfork's huge influence on the eclectic music scene and its often unfair distribution of hype and hatred - it has definitely brought over the years a lot of artists that I don't think i'd have otherwise heard about to my attention. Almost exclusively through its own articles it appears to have brought about a small scale revolution in terms of psychedelic pop, which starting off arguably with MGMT and others in the last half-decade has reached its pinnacle with the imminent successes of bands like Small Black, Washed Out and Neon Indian, and that's just the electronic side of things. Toro y Moi is yet another name on the list, and his debut, one of two albums he is seeing released in 2010, Causers Of This, came out last month on Carpark Records.

Recorded on what sounds like Animal Collective's old four track, album opener Blessa begins by combining 70s surf harmonies with trippy Panda Bear-esque synth reoccurences, before developing into a slow ambient dance track, a vague order of transition which shows itself up as common throughout. With beatmatching synths and the occasional flicker of a heavily manipulated electric guitar string, the music resonates like the soundwaves of early electronic experimentation - drawing together several decades of influences, both organic and electronic, into a vaguely danceable, passive and trippy pop album. The late and great Michael Jackson's influence (as it does also curiously on Yeasayer's latest) shines through as strong as ever on some of the vocals, which in falsetto format captivate otherwise dreamy and at times aimless snippets of music into something more vaguely resembling pop music - eventually resulting in songs which remain in essence dreamy enough to associate themselves with the psych-pop/shoegaze/dreamwave movement, but definitely not direct or hard-hitting enough to claim Yeasayer's potential pop album of the year status.

Toro y Moi is at his best when his songs are harsher and more expressive - the tracks from the album with the most clearcut melodies tend to be the ones which last in your head. Talamak and Causers of This are two of the best examples of this. Talamak starts with simple jarring keyboard lines and a rhythmic squeak which is joined by falsetto vocals in just the second bar, and title track Causers Of This is even more to the point. With distinctively 80s electro-funk bassline and hurried singing, quickly backed up by a delayed set of keyboard inspired 'ooohs' and 'aaahs', the song develops into a tangled mesh of samples and unconventional percussive elements brought to an abrupt stop after the 3 minute mark - just before from the final stretch of Causers of This emerges a hidden track - and probably the most funky balaeric dance track Toro Y Moi has written yet.

Maybe none of the tracks for me quite lived up to My Touch's Bend Your Body (the main source of my enthusiasm for this artist in the months around Christmas) but Chaz Bundick, from his lowly Carolina music-scene origins, has brought us a prolific collection of tracks which knock the average up extremely close to that stunning single. Following in the footsteps of Joy Division, Aphex Twin, Michael Jackson (check his Human Nature cover here) and many others as genre defining musicians - Toro y Moi has accomplished a lot musically and is sure to re-emphasise his mark later this year, with his imminent second full length release.

Toro y Moi - Causers of This (MP3)
Toro y Moi - Talamak (MP3)

Causers of This on CD / Vinyl / MP3 via Amazon.com

Album Preview: Casiokids - Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar (June 8, 2010)

Casiokids
Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar (US - June 8, 2010)
Polyvinyl Records (US)
Electro/Indie Pop/Afrobeat


Bergen-based electronic four piece Casiokids have announced the US release of Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar (roughly corresponding to 'Good atmosphere at a local bar'), due June 8, 2010 on Polyvinyl records. As opposed to a full-length album, the Norwegian electronic four piece have chosen instead to put out a 2CD compilation, featuring all of the 4 double A-side singles they dropped throughout last year as well as a remix disc (featuring the likes of Lo-Fi-Fnk, Busy P and James Yuill) with full MP3 download code available with every purchase. The compilation will be the first Norwegian language pop music ever to be released in the US, and although there's no new original (non-remixed) material available, the Polyvinyl release, with all its quirky sections and Royksopp-esque finishes, translates into a balaeric and at times euphoric indie dance album, with contributions from all sorts of big names from the Scandanavian music scene. Expect a review in the coming months, possibly around May time - while I get comfortable enough with my copy to write at length.


Casiokids - Hun er min venstre hånd (By James Yuill, Casiokids translation) (MP3)
Casiokids - Verdens største land (MP3)

Pre-order Topp stemning på lokal bar via Amazon.com MP3

Preview: Foals - Total Life Forever (May 10, 2010)

Foals

Total Life Forever (May 10, 2010)

Transgressive (UK), Sub Pop (US)

Indie/Math Rock/Electronica

After spending the last two years in shelter following the monumental success of Antidotes, Oxford dropouts Foals emerged from the mystery shrouding their recent activity to announce Total Life Forever, produced by ex-Clor member Luke Smith in Gothenburg, Sweden, for UK release on May 10, 2010. Although album previews are limited, Spanish Sahara provides us with a surprisingly downbeat recording, drawing from trip-hop, post-rock and ambient music to display marked changes from the hyperactive guitar pop of Foals' universally well-received past. This track came out on Monday night, and although most have probably already heard this - it'd be a crime not to post such a strong return to the public eye. 

No more posting from me probably until Monday, i'm off to Brighton for the weekend, this time not to see a gig - I'm missing the Antlers there tomorrow night!

Foals - Spanish Sahara (MP3) (from Total Life Forever)

Foals - Spanish Sahara (Mount Kimbie Remix) (MP3)

Monday Night Folk - Bella Ruse, The Ancients, The Middle East

Something about this quiet Monday night has put me in a very appreciative mood; and the pluck of folky guitar strings is feeding my musical appetite even more than usual this evening as a result. My daily blog crawl has come out with some unusually organic products - aside from my usual hazy mix of electronic music, lo-fi and pop which TMW has seen a lot of recently, the music i've compiled for you this evening takes music back the basics in its truest sense - we're talking poetic female vocalists (think Rosie & Me), with the crisp guitar tones of old; simple, aesthetically pleasing melodies with little more manipulation than some added reverb to alter the authenticity of these honest sonic translations.

photo - the middle east.

#1. Bella Ruse - Bella Ruse EP (FREE ALBUM)

The first song I bring you goes by the name of 'Dark Horse' by acoustic duo Kay and Joseph (also of Americana band Hurricane Hearts), or as they are more commonly known, Bella Ruse. If singles aren't your thing, most of the Bella Ruse EP (6 tracks might I add) is available at whatever your preferred price is through their Band Camp. They class themselves as 'Feist plus a little jazz', and this proves with just a few listens to be a comparison not worth any arguments. There's a distinctly bluesy feel about some of these lazy afternoon arrangements - and a maturity astonishing considering the debut EP was initially a last-minute entry to an 'album-a-month' competition. The finish is deceptively smooth, the vocals stunning.

Bella Ruse - Dark Horse (MP3)

#2. The Ancients - The Ancients 2

The second track i'm going to share is from the upcoming album by The Ancients, and goes by the name The Rambler. The band is a Melbourne based project led by Jonathan Mitchell, also of Mum Smokes and Breaking The Law fame, and play dreamy alt-folk with finger-picked melody and a small dose of clean electric guitar interference. The result is a beautiful winding introduction, broken only by the effortlessly manipulative vocals of Mitchell, in to what turns out to be a disappointingly short acoustic jam. For the short running time it plays to, The Rambler sees a twisting opening melody, vocal section, then a concluding jam to finish. Short and sweet.

The Ancients - The Rambler (MP3)

The Ancients 2 is due out this year via Sensory Projects.

#3. The Middle East - TBC

I introduced The Middle East a while back as 'Local Natives in minor', posing the question whether they were likely to re-emerge on the scene with as much hype, after the hiatus which had halted their creations since 2007. The answer to this question it seems pretty clear is yes, and the Australian band are currently bedroom recording their new material ahead of the Brooklyn Vegan SXSW artist showcase, which kicks off their busy schedule from mid-March. Their late summer night acoustic finesse provides the perfect skeleton for post-rock influenced dream folk build ups. Often furnished with grand orchestral outros, the songs start off low-key, and in their own time crescendo into lazy, Vetiver-esque conclusions.

The Middle East - Blood (MP3) (from The Recordings of The Middle East)

Buy The Recordings of the Middle East on Amazon.com

Preview: Frightened Rabbit - The Winter Of Mixed Drinks (Mar 9, 2010)

Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land/Living In Colour
FatCat Records
The Winter Of Mixed Drinks (March 9, 2010 US/Today UK)
Indie Folk/Folk Rock/Pop

Frightened Rabbit are receiving infinitely more mainstream attention than they did back in the post-Midnight Organ Fight days. They placed top of my albums of 2008 list at a time when their rallying Scottish folk-rock had barely brushed the top of the blogosphere, with the occasional lowly tabloid feature - and now, a week before the release of their third album The Winter Of Mixed Drinks - they have taken the title of the most streamed artist on the UK Myspace chart. All of this from a band who a couple of years ago could sell out 400 strong venues across the US, whilst barely filling local pubs in Scotland or the UK. Their new album has been streaming in full for a week or so, and sounds fantastic - and although i have a few MP3s from the new one; strictly speaking i'd be breaking copyright by putting them up. So you'll have to live with the singles, which as fantastic as they are, have been around for a few months. The Winter Of Mixed Drinks drops March 9, 2010 in the US and today in the UK; expect a review in the coming days.

Full Album Stream @ FR Myspace.

Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land (MP3)
Frightened Rabbit - Living In Colour (Marc Riley Session) (MP3) (more Marc Riley Sessions)


Pre-order The Winter of Mixed Drinks on Amazon.com