Brown and Squire, Morrissey and Marr, Malkmus and Stairs – the annals of history are plagued by double acts who, after separations, have failed to produce anything like the majesty they created together. To a select few of us devoted fans the split between Will Sheff and Jonathan Meiburg, though it had been a long time coming, was akin to Jonny Greenwood vowing to quit Radiohead and exclusively work on film scores, or “The Edge” at last coming to his senses and giving Boneo the slapping he’s always deserved. This was to be a big year in the histories, and futures, of both Shearwater and Okkervil River, bands once shared by the two songwriters, but now exclusive commodities. Continue Reading

What is it with American bands and their love of early 90’s British music. Last month All The Saints breezed into town, sounding melodiously similar to the likes of Loop and Thee Hypnotics, so much so that I had to check I hadn’t fallen asleep with an old copy of Lime Lizard over my face. Not that I’m complaining for a second, as at that period in musical history I was very happily part of that crowd, moodily swaying my head from side to side like a polar bear in a French zoo. Continue Reading

Look elsewhere for the second coming. I don’t know where, but certainly not here. I mentioned the Chinese Democracy ad campaigns in my review of the “Chinese Democracy” single and unsurprisingly, for all the bombast, anticipation and outright ridicule the album has stumbled across, it turns out that the finished product wasn’t really worth waiting 17 years for. That’s not to say it’s a disaster - the new Guns N’ Roses haven’t disgraced themselves here, and in some respects it’s actually a triumph (not least because it’s actually out!). But anyone expecting either a full-blown return to form or a hard rock opus for the 21st century will be disappointed. Neither of those targets are fulfilled, but in listening to Chinese Democracy it often seems that Axl Rose never aimed to achieve them. Derivative in parts it may be, but this album is still fiercely individualistic, dominated almost always by Axl himself, who frequently sounds like he’s singing with his back against the wall. In parts, these songs sound like a document to the chaotic and epic story that the creation of this album has been. Continue Reading

As an English Literature student, words are my tool. I love language and all its connotations, permutations, and possibilities. A quick glance at my most listened on last.fm will reveal that this spills over into my music tastes, the wordy bookishness of Will Sheff and the meandering folk-tales of Colin Meloy being exemplary of what takes up a vast proportion of my listening time. With a singer spewing out his carefully considered lyrics, there is an instant psychological – and, in the act of singing along, physical – connection between the artist and the listener. We hear the words, and soon enough we are convinced that we have “so felt this song!”. Continue Reading

The music press may prefer lionising Glasgow’s certain own Jesus & Mary Chain of Broken Britain, but Scotland is proving pretty good all round at producing dramatic, elegaic yet emotionally howling bands and not all as retrogressive - Kilsyth’s The Twilight Sad, Selkirk’s Frightened Rabbit, Glasgow’s We Were Promised Jetpacks and now, following fellow Edinburghians Broken Records and from right out of next to nowhere, the debut album by Meursault, lynchpins of the nascent local Bear Scotland collective. Interesting proposition, they, mixing lo-fi electronica with emotive folk-rock deploying all manner of ukeleles, banjos and so forth behind Neil Pennycook’s plaintive, cracked wail - not dissimilar to Broken Records’ Jamie Sutherland in more than just locale, actually - while keeping both Postal Service-alike ground level suspicions and the dead hand of Tunng-sponsored ‘folktronica’ well away from the door. Continue Reading

Murcof is the moniker of Fernando Corona, a Mexican born Spanish based electronic artist, who has been releasing work since 2002. His music has so far explored minimalist, austere, glitchy, sample based loops, which draws inspiration from 20th century composers such as Arvo Pärt, orchestral pieces are abstracted and processed through electronics to create elegiac and colossal atmospheres, with each album taking a different perspective. This release is not supposed to be seen as a follow up to last year’s Cosmos, it is the result of a commission for Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes, a yearly event focusing on sound, light and water held at the palace of Versailles, former residency of Louis XIV and many leaders of la France over the years. Musicians were asked to perform various pieces by baroque composers using 17th century instruments such as viola de gamba, violin and harpsichord, these pieces were then manipulated electronically by Corona. Continue Reading

A polyp is an abnormal growth of tissue projecting from a mucous membrane (and that is a fact!). Why anyone would wish to sing about such subject matter is questionable and to accompany the music with a bizzare, disgusting and a “what the fuck is it?” artwork, really makes you question the sanity of the musical protaganists. Continue Reading

In 1994 a law was introduced in France by then culture minister Jacques Toubon protecting the French language. One of the outcomes of this globalisation-resisting move was that two out of five songs on French radio must be sung in la langue maternelle. It was a move that was seen by some as a kind of censorship and others as a way of promoting and protecting French talent and culture against a tide of (largely American) English-language influence. But it is no coincidence that successful French artists who have found success abroad in recent times - Daft Punk, M83, Air, for example - have chosen to sing in English in order (I assume) to find a wider audience. This is a shame. While the language barrier may hinder English-speaking fans from appreciating Serge Gainsbourg’s brilliant word play, for example, it shouldn’t stop us appreciating his gifts as a sonic innovator. It is also typical of Anglophone fans to look upon non English-speaking music as simply ‘world music’ - a category that lumps an enormous spectrum of styles into a reductive and condescending pigeonhole. This is changing: music from French-speaking Africa in particular - long-embraced by the French, who have a tradtionally had a more inclusive attitude to the sounds of the African continent - is getting greater recognition in the UK: from Amadou & Mariam’s fusionistic pop to Toumani Diabeté’s soul-stirring blues. Meanwhile, fashionable indie artists (admittedly from the US) from Yeasayer to Vampire Weekend are employing a more pan-global sonic palette. However, French pop itself - cited as an influence on many artists from Feist to Stereoblab - is in a fairly sorry state. I would like to see more French music sung confidently in a language thought by many throughout the world to be the language of love but which is not recognized as such in a globalised music industry dominated by English. Continue Reading

A harmonium creaks its billows open and a bass groove starts to propel the song forward on the opening title track of Hayden’s latest effort. With a hushed vocal that calls to mind Tim Hardin, Hayden has long been the hidden treasure of the Canadian music scene. Switching easily between piano led tales of melancholy and fuzzy guitar driven efforts there is a lot going on In Field and Town. Horn sections here, twinkling glockenspiel elsewhere, swooning synths on ‘Worthy of Your Esteem’. The list goes on. Continue Reading

I think I have reviewer writer’s block at the moment, or something. And, defying easy description (or, you know, well I’m ideologically obliged to say ‘evaluation’ or whatever because I fervently believe music writing should be anything *but* “just describing the music”), is Danielson, aka the musical tribe of ever-quirky Daniel Smith, the squeaky-voiced acceptable indie face of US evangelical Christianity, whose Trying Hartz is a somewhat inscrutable (from a reviewing point of view, not a listening one by any means other than, you know, finding the time/inclination to actually sit down and listen to the whole damn thing) trawl through his pre-Ships discography. Ships being his ‘breakthrough’ record of sorts I guess, well… the cast of backing musicians was more high-profile- Deerhoof, Why? and the likes, and it got a rightfully positive ‘Best New Music’ review from Pitchfork back in the days when such things could still cause your career to genuinely explode… I don’t know why but it seems like it doesn’t matter so much anymore, maybe its just me… I mean Fleet Foxes kind of exploded but still… according to my girlfriend they’re on a compilation CD they play in Clarks called ‘Retail Moods’. Nuff said… Continue Reading

Before you read this review you need to click HERE. Or HERE. or HERE. Now, while you wait for Jai Agnish’s ‘Awake When You Dream’ to download, you can read what it’s all about.

Armed with his computer, an acoustic guitar and an 80’s synth, New Jersey native Jai Agnish set out to record an album free from machines. Occasionally joined on sweet harmonies by Peg Carlin, the album treads a familiar path, producing a particularly American sound. The harmonies and melody of opener ‘New Parade’ and closer ‘An American’ come on like a more up-beat Red House Painters, sans reverb.

Agnish is a friend of the Asthmatic Kitty Label, and Danielson Famile, and it shows. A sense of playful innocence pervades this release. The multi-tracked harmonies sooth and present little in the way of a challenging listen, but rather provide a warm, intimate experience. At places the reliance on the old eighties synth sound lets him down, as on ‘Walls’, where one can’t help feel would benefit from a fuller production. Whether dealing with his feelings on a visit to connect with heritage in India (‘This journey’s been sanitised’) or telling fantastical tales to his 2 year old nephew on Lightning Bugs there is an amiable warmth on display here. Eschewing the standard man-with-guitar rhythms pays dividends here, as the layers of the guitar play together in harmony in a way that lifts this from simple singer songwriter territory.

Best of all, by now the record is probably stored safely on your hard drive, so you can see for your self. I would suggest if the likes of Half Hand Cloud or Wolf Colonel and their K record’s ilk could do a lot worse than download this record. After all, what have you got to lose?

If you do download the record, please feel free to post your reactions below.

As for me I’ll give it a solid, enjoyable…
72%

Jai Agnish on MySpace

Woah, a ’social commentary’ album! I LOVE these!

Okay, so maybe I don’t. And any compact disc that starts off with a train coming to a stop and the lyrics ‘there’s no more trains going that way, there’s no more trains coming this way, you’d better make your way home son, there’s something going down in London’ is well, not making any attempt to hide its intentions. And maybe London Undersound isn’t actually a pretentious album, but reading the utter pants that is emblazoned in the liner notes makes it very hard to push past the huge roadblock that is Nitin Sawhney’s ego. And please, Nitin, having your music labelled as the genre ‘unclassifiable’ on media players is pretty fucking horrible. That is probably one of the major gripes I have with ‘London Undersound’, as if you look past the whole socio-political humdrum lyrics what you end up with is an album of perfectly listenable music. Continue Reading

My experience with the university town of Manchester, England is about as reductive as you can go without sounding like a complete outsider, or buffoon (take your pick). Links are few but pictures of students punting about the River Cam, Slyvia Plath’s motionless head in an oven, Nick Drake’s plaintive folk music, Pink Floyd, and Robyn Hitchcock don’t provide a particularly happy or fair picture of the place. Beyond that, in the contemporary realm there’s Muse and you know they love to sing about apocalypse don’t they? Just to make sure, I’m not slighting any of these people or Cambridge itself (well, maybe Muse just a little). I’m just setting up the dark and beautiful mood for Fuzzy Lights’ debut album. You know, they call it the introduction and this one is getting way too long. Continue Reading

Mateus Rose, Piri Piri Chicken, Cristiano Ronaldo, The Algarve, even Luis Figo, all great Portuguese exports, but not their finest according to the rhetoric that accompanies this release from Burako Som Simesta. Continue Reading

Despite being on Rock Action, you can’t really describe Remember Remember as ‘post-rock’, it just doesn’t fit. Typical received wisdom dictates that if you are an instrumental band that uses guitars, bass and drums then you must play post-rock, and if you play post-rock then you must use the quiet-loud-quiet-loud rule. There just isn’t much scope when there aren’t any vocals, right? Well, as this self-titled debut shows, you’d be dead wrong to think that. Graeme Ronald is the sole member of Remember Remember and whilst he does use guitars, bass and drums, he also makes use of piano, violins, woodwinds, glockenspiel, and shows a flare for found sound, which is to say bubblewrap, a hole-punch, a sellotape dispenser and a few other similar things, which he incorporates into the music. Continue Reading

Well, Michael Eavis certainly seems to have fallen for The Travelling Band in a big way. As winners of the New Talent competition at Glastonbury, the festival organiser hailed their music as “the sounds (that) took me back to my musical roots”. They have also picked up praise from Marc Riley on 6Music and an endorsement from Stuart Maconie (though he expressed reservations over their name, quite rightly). This is their debut album, and follows an important rule - put your strongest material at beginning. Opening track “Only Waiting” is completely brilliant, a tight, old-fashioned song that sounds as if it has been around for years. Continue Reading

A sombre flute, the clunking toll of a bell, a solemnly plucked acoustic guitar … cue medieval clichés: misty moats, drawbridges, hooded monks, damsels in distress. But hold on, it’s not Led Zeppelin IV … a shimmering drone, Mellotron, and suddenly all manner of spiralling antiquated synths and warped B-movie effects. Thus begins ‘You Won’t Be The Same Ever Again’, the opening track of Greg Weeks‘ The Hive, and it is this oddball fusion of synthetic textures and baroque folk that flickers and sparks throughout the album. Continue Reading

Da da da da-da da-da DUM DUM DUM DUH-DUH DUH-DUM. Not the most eloquent of introductions to an album, but having played ‘Snakecharming The Masses’, the fourth track off Oceans Will Rise for the umpteenth time, I have found what is quite possibly one of the best tracks I’ve heard this year. It’s a moody, emotive piece that screams People In Planes, and it’s constantly being pushed along almost robotically by a kick drum/tom combo that doesn’t leave the brain enough time to truly figure out what’s going on until it all winds up to a ear-bruising end. It positively demands a second listen as soon as it’s finished. If only the rest of the album was this strong. Oh, wait, it is! Oceans Will Rise is the third album by The Stills, and it’s a bit of a corker. Continue Reading

I guess its really hard describing stuff you really, truly love satisfactorily, or at least it is for me, because its not really like there’s that much *to* it, loving something (or someone, for that matter). Its just… you know. I love it. I love Pavement. Pavement are my favourite band of all time. Its not something I particularly have to think about. It’s just something that *is*. Same as my mother is my mother and I live in Manchester and I just saw that episode of the Larry Sanders show where Hank gets to guest-host. All of these things are because they just are - I don’t really have much of an opinion on them that I really need to express beyond that. Any way I could describe Pavement would be a much weaker description than the fact that I consider them the greatest band that has ever existed, and I consider the music they make to have been the best music that has ever been created by anyone ever and that this fact was basically… well its was basically a fact from the very moment I first heard the opening notes and perfect, perfect lines of ‘Summer Babe’ and then the rest of Slanted & Enchanted happened and that was me for life. Continue Reading

It is always good to try something new, and I have to admit having never heard of The Uglysuit when passed a copy of this, their debut album. I’ve worn a few ugly suits in my time, but that’s about as far as it goes and these Oklahoma noise freaks were a very pleasant surprise. They do share some similarities with Oklahoma’s other famous sons, The Flaming Lips, as there is a psychedelic edge to their music. Thankfully though, this does not cover up the craftsmanship of their songs. There are some great melodies here, enhanced by the off kilter moments rather than smothered by them. Continue Reading