Midweek Round-up #15/4: New Deer Tick, LCD Soundsystem, The National, Crystal Castles + More

I spent the first half of this week locked-up at The Ranch Recording Studios in Southampton recording my band's first EP (more news on that coming soon), but despite this minor pre-occupation taking up twenty four hours of my last three days - what filtered through the blogs and news services in terms of new music certainly didn't pass me by. Monday saw the fantastic announcement from Reading Festival organisers that Surfer Blood, Girls and Wild Beasts were to be added to the already improved 2010 line-up; one which has already seen Yeasayer, Crystal Castles and Phoenix booked in on the Radio 1 Stage. The festival was at no point going to compete with the provisional Glastonbury, Great Escape, or even Bestival line-ups for this Summer, but perhaps in the light of these further announcements, my vain and naive hope that Reading Festival might become a collection of great musicians as well as a festival of under-age drinking, becomes ever so slightly more realistic.

Surfer Blood - Floating Vibes (MP3) from Astro Coast - Out Now

On the subject of Girls, in the lead up to Mates of State's projected release of 'Crushes (The Covers Mixtape)' - they've dropped us a cover of Laura from 2009's 'Album' to wet our appetite - and although slightly cringey at times, the boy-girl harmonies from the Peter Katis produced duo certainly bring out a different side to the surf-pop anthem. The National, yet another band on that coveted Katis roster, had news of their own this week when they revealed the star-studded collaboration list that May's High Violet will feature. According to The Quietus Justin Vernon is the main harmony on 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks' and Richard Reed Parry from the Arcade Fire also features heavily on the record. Sufjan Stevens also personally revamped 'Afraid of Everyone' on what is promising to be The National's strongest instalment yet.

Mates of State - Laura (Girls Cover) (MP3) from Crushes (The Covers Mixtape) - Summer

The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio (MP3) from High Violet - May 11

In terms of new tracks, the biggest news of the week came from LCD Soundsystem, whose new songs are sprouting up across the blogosphere. A radio-ripped version of erratic dance track Dance Yourself Clean politely reminds us that James Murphy belongs with Hot Chip, and official single I Can Change is sounding equally as good, if a bit Caribou-esque. Murphy has stated that 'This Is Happening' is most likely the last LCD Soundsystem album. As mentioned in the post title, Deer Tick also dropped a new track last week from his upcoming album, The Black Dirt Sessions. 20 Miles features a twangy acoustic guitar and soulful blues/country vocals. The new one is out May 8, 2010 via Partisan Records. 

LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change (MP3) from This Is Happening - May 17
Deer Tick - 20 Miles (MP3) from The Black Dirt Sessions - May 8.


As pictured at the top, my next update deals with new London based band The Shimmer, who have already created quite a stir with their lo-fi rock tracks No Surprise At All and Lovers Void. In return for your email address, they've agreed to hand over another free download - Crash. Its not got quite the same pop-vibe as the former tracks, but with a dark overdriven bassy sound, and distant vocals - The Shimmer use the Kasabian electronica formula to create captivating shoegaze pop music.

The Shimmer - Crash (MP3)

Crystal Castles aired their new track Doe Deer on Radio 1 this week, and I found a Radio 1 Rip this morning on We All Want Someone To Shout For. The post has got it pretty spot on, its short, bad sound quality and tagged up by Radio 1 DJs - but at least its food for thought for those of us too eager and intrigued to wait until Record Store Day to find out what the band have been up to musically since 2008. The song sounds like electro-thrash, with a short repetitive riff clipping the sound quality joined by aggressive and inhuman screams from Alice Glass. You have to hear it to believe it, the new album is definitely going to be interesting. Joining Doe Deer is the Midnight Conspiracy Remix of Crimewave, an airy French Disco influenced take on the 2008 hit from the Chicago-based remixers.


Crystal Castles - Doe Deer (MP3) (Radio 1 Rip via We All Want Someone To Shout For) from Crystal Castles - June 7, 2010.

Crystal Castles - Crimewave (Midnight Conspiracy Remix) (MP3)

Search Amazon.com for Crystal Castles

Finally, if you're a regular reader, you'll appreciate my love for Technoir MA. This week, they've dropped a new video for their track 'Sparks', shot in Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts by Evan Ragon. You can watch it below or read my 2/B EP Review, which the duo released themselves in 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbXvPwhwGRU (for some reason Youtube's embedding is failing today, however the link is well worth a click)

Technoir MA - 2/B EP REVIEW

Technoir MA - 2/B (Feb 2, 2010)

Post-Punk/Alternative Dance/Live Electronics

Yesterday saw not only the official release date of Technoir MA's debut EP '2/B', but also its perfectly timed arrival in my letterbox, and by that time, unbeknownst to its creators, it had become a certainty for me to review. Justin Vassalo and Colin Green have featured before on my blog - i called them a band to watch in 2010 back in January - and i make no apologies for featuring them again in a very much positive light. Their brand of New Order meets tech-dance drum machine pop music has been captivating my recent listening to a stage high enough that i've been excitably jumping at every parcel waiting for this one to arrive in the last week or so, and here's why. Richly decadent lead guitar lines intertwine amongst themselves, subsiding only for short and euphoric sections of clear cut overdrive - which, all the time almost drowning out the distinctively New Order-style vocal sound in its entirety, make for 4 minute interludes of intense and euphoric guitar pop music. Heavily instrumental, the two musicians masterfully wind their full sounding melodies around each other, and let the Alesis SR-16 retro drum machine sit in the driving seat. Building to almost mechanical peaks, their awkward and colourful flamboyances excel through stunning guitar work into a four-track masterpiece of brilliantly and tactfully written alternative guitar music. Technoir MA are nothing short of a thrilling new pop duo from Massachussetts who wear their Joy Division and New Order influence on their sleeve (they even name their tracks in exactly the same style, rarely using more than one word in their song names), and with a clear enthusiasm for high octane pop music this hard-hitting, its difficult to blame them. Return however is a melancholy and drooping shoegaze anthem with the awkward vocal styles of Ian Curtis and controlled background overdrive of his more downbeat punk contemporaries. Use Of Force is a nine minute outro to the EP which at first swaps the guitars for airy synthesized swirls before developing into a crunchy and upbeat, if slightly erratic, ending song to 2/B. The length and accomplishment of the ender matures the album from the two opening tracks of the four, which seem to portray a much younger band obsessed with floor filling drum beats and shiny leading melodies. 2/B is a short EP at 22 minutes, and definitely starts off better than it finishes, but as long as the band continue churn out music with enough of a new angle on what has gone before it, they shouldn't have a problem in building up some serious industry consideration in the coming months.

7.5/10

Technoir MA - Sparks (MP3)
Technoir MA - Return (MP3)

 

buy the album direct from the band

Three More Bands To Watch in 2010 #2: Technoir MA, Ellie Goulding, Sleigh Bells

bands to watch #1 - #3

4. Technoir MA (UNSIGNED) (Noise Pop/Alternative/Live Electronics)

Technoir MA are a drum machine/electronics duo from Somerville, Massachusetts made up of Justin Vassalo and Colin Greene. They formed in Summer 2009 and put out their first self-titled EP in Autumn (download here for free via Gimmesound) and their follow up, the four-track 2/B EP, is out this month. They are in the process of booking their US tour and are starting it on February 5th with their Massachusetts-located EP launch party. Their sound is almost the perfect crossover between 80s alternative dance and 90s shoegaze - creating Jesus & Mary Chain style walls of sound broken only by the blistering New Order style alternative lead lines. Roundabout (MP3) from the first EP is the best example of this. With a strong drum-beat, drowned vocals and thick dual guitar lines, the song weighs in at almost 6 minutes, and not a second of this epic alternative anthem is wasted. Sparks (MP3) is the promo track from the new album, and does something quite different within in the sonic boundary Technoir MA have spent the last 6-7 months creating - it is an equally overdriven, but far more 90s affair than Roundabout. Its far less dance and far more shoegaze, venturing further from New Order and more towards the J&MC and MBVs of our generation.

buy the music direct from the bands myspace, they aren't on amazon yet!



5. Ellie Goulding (Pop/Indie Pop/Folktronica)

I have mentioned Polydor Records signing Ellie Goulding a number of times before, after all, she has been on constant rotation on my itunes since the release of her EP back in November (download: Under The Sheets (MP3)). But despite me raving on about how she's going to be huge for the last few months, I feel the size of her impending launch to stardom in 2010 needs reiterating. Just think how huge Florence & The Machine and La Roux were in Summer 2009? Well Ellie Goulding is 100% set up to equal that success, if not eclipse it. With Radio 1, BBC and NME behind her - she's already picked up the Brit Awards Critics Choice (as did Florence) as well as the prestigious BBC Sound of 2010 award. Her debut album (produced by Starsmith of Marina & The Diamonds fame), is going to be called 'Lights' and, following single Starry Eyed (Feb 22) (MP3), March 1, 2010 will see the LP released in the UK. Whether you like it or not, Ellie Goulding is going to be everywhere you look in 2010.

preorder Lights on Amazon.com (due March 1, 2010)



6. Sleigh Bells (Lo-fi/Pop/Experimental)

Sleigh Bells are a hardcore noise punk duowho burst on to the scene after last year's CMJ Marathon and since then have got down to work on their latest album with esteemed producer Diplo. Lead singer Alexis Krauss used to sing in a pop band before turning public school teacher, and electronics man Derek Miller used to sing for Florida hardcore band Poison The Well; once more, former members of the band in turn went on to form Surfer Blood. The duo that remains make production clipping noise pop, with huge hip hop beats and warm crunchy overdrive. They sound like Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot love child Discovery when they first discovered the overdrive on their amps (like that would ever happen?), or Crystal Castles recorded on a four-track. Both Crown on the Ground (MP3) and A/B Machines (MP3) take massive percussion and mix it with hard-edge electro to make ecstatic and noisy punk tracks with all the attitude of Karen O and Alice Glass and all the underproduction of lo-fi bands like Wavves and Small Black. What results is nothing short of incredible, and with the perfect sound manipulation of Diplo and the ecleticness which comes with so many years in the business - Sleigh Bells new album looks likely to do nothing short of blow us all away when it finally heads to stores in 2010.

stream tracks and find out more about this band on their myspace.