Saturday 30 October 2010

Review: Avey Tare - Down There

The transition of Animal Collective from experimentalists confined to indie-blogdom to mainstream acceptance and acclaim, confirmed by the success of last year's Merriweather Post Pavilion, was the result of 10 years of honing their sound, writing more tangible and accessible songs and melodies, whilst  refusing to their boundary-pushing vision. What has also developed in that time, however, is a more personable side to chief members Dave Portner (Avey Tare) and Noah Lennox's (Panda Bear) songwriting. On A Highway, from last year's Fall Be Kind EP, contained Tare's most bitterly frank lyrics to date, "I'm sick from too much reading/ jealous of Noah's dreaming/ can't help my brain from thinking", catching him in deep thought whilst on tour with the band.

Whilst Lennox can't help but let beams of sunshine radiate from even his most melancholic songs, Tare is more prone to subvert and disorientate, so it's no surprise that Tare's first solo LP (not counting the back-to-front nonsense of his Pullhair Rubeye project with ex-wife Kria Brekkan) is a rather more dark and personal affair than we've come to expect from his day job. Tare has mentioned in interviews about its swampy theme and feel, relating to the crocodile skull on the cover, and so the album retains the watery feel of AC's most recent work. But whilst Merriweather's booming, cushy percussion was akin to bouncing off a giant marshmallow, Down There's clicks knocks and gurgles sound hollow and anaemic by comparison (save for the bass-drum beat on Heads Hammock). There's a murkiness to the album as a whole, far removed from the crystallinity of recent AC releases; songs are permeated by sinister, aquatic voices, and on a number of tracks Tare's vocals become submerged, only to re-surface again, as if something is continually pulling him under the murk and scum.

Down There opens with two of its more immediate offerings. The seven minutes of Laughing Hieroglyphic are relatively light and airy, thanks to its reverberating accordian, but still offers insight into Tare's mind-set ("and when I get f*cked up/ I do my best to make myself not f*cked up again"), whilst the ayyy-ohhhh backing vocals and twinkling carnival organ of 3 Umbrellas makes it the most AC-sounding thing here. But the subsequent warped textures of Oliver Twist and instrumental Glass Bottom Boat pull the album under, where it remains for most of its duration. The album's finest song, Heather In The Hospital, is also its saddest and most auto-biographical, as Avey Tare overviews his sister's recent battle with cancer over throbbing heart-beat percussion. As he sits in the hospital, he's visited by what seem to be ghosts or maybe personal demons ("Someone's in the room listening to me/ noone's in the room it must just be me") but even at his lowest ebb, Tare maintains this sense of wide-eyed wonder of the happenings around him; "It brings me down/ machines of modern magic keeping folks above the ground". The closing Lucky 1, which seemed somewhat slight as a lead cut, works much better within the context of the album, offering a hopeful hand to pull us out of its depths.

Those who arrived at Animal Collective off the back of the hype for Merriweather Post Pavilion might want to approach Down There with some degree of caution, or even hold out for Panda Bear's Tomboy which hangs just on the horizon. Down There is a wilfully more initimate and low-key affair, but none of this should be taken as criticism; Down There reminds us that these animals have very human traits after all.
77/100

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Animal Collective to curate May ATP!

Yes, the news is enough to make anyone's mouth water. Animal Collective are curating one of May's ATP Festivals, which will be held at Butlins, Minehead during the 13-15th May. Looks like they've already been extremely busy curating the line-up, which is every bit as varied and surprising as you might expect.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
GANG GANG DANCE
LEE SCRATCH PERRY
ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
BROADCAST
BLACK DICE
MEAT PUPPETS performing Up On The Sun
THE FROGS performing It's Only Right & Natural
IUD
OMAR-S
PRINCE RAMA
SPECTRUM
DENT MAY
GROUP DOUEH
THE BROTHERS UNCONNECTED
SUBLIME FREQUENCIES DJs + Films
DERADOORIAN
ZOMBY
VLADISLAV DELAY

Plenty more still to be announced. Tickets on sale this Friday; see the ATP website for more details.

Also, be sure to check here in a day or two for a review of Avey Tare's solo record Down There.

Monday 25 October 2010

Spotlight Artist: Low Sea

Galway, Ireland's the Low Sea have enjoyed a busy but ultimately successful year. The band's debut album Las Olas (Spanish for The Sea) provided an excellent showcase for the duo's sultry electronica, and was good enough to see them snapped up by the fast-emerging Lefse Records (who also boast the likes of Neon Indian, Keepaway and How To Dress Well amongst their ranks). Their first official release under Lefse is new 6-track EP The Light, which includes a couple of cuts from Las Olas, plus a bundle of new songs.

Such is the sophistication of the Low Sea's sound, it's easy to forget that they comprise just two members; when Billie turns up the sass on the likes of Save My Soul, her enunciated drawl recalls Mazzy Star, whilst the dark, scuzzy soundscapes provided by Bobby D bring bands such as Spacemen 3 to mind.

The Light is out now. A limited edition of the band's debut Las Olas is available from the band's website.

Listen to Save My Soul for a limited time on the Hear The Secret music player.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Review: The Phantom Band - The Wants

Scotland has, and continues to produce a lot of fine bands. There's something about the painful earnestness of a Glaswegian accent which sells itself so much better than, say, a Mumford & Sons, not least when it's put to bruising guitars. Yet as good as the current likes of Meursault and Twilight Sad can be, there's perhaps a tendency to play on that scottishness. Not so The Phantom Band; whilst there's no mistaking the locality of Rick Anthony's baritone, their music has its own distinct identity ("proto robo-folk" is their take on it) which makes their Glaswegian roots seem inconsequential. Their second album, The Wants, is an album that confirms the sextet as a strikingly original band, and one that is thrillingly hard to define.

If I was to draw a comparison with any band (and it's a pretty weak comparison admittedly) it would be Portland, Oregon trio Menomena. Both bands thrive on attention to detail, adding little nuances (a saxophone here, a xylophone there) which run through and characterise their songs. Both bands skilfully integrate electronic elements with more organic instrumentation, with the ability to arrange these myriad sounds into crisp, uncluttered songs.

After the brooding glam-stomp of opening track A Glamour, The Wants' first major surprise comes in the four-to-the-floor of O. Filled with falsetto vocals and gurgling synths, it nonetheless carries some serious weight behind it thanks to Damien Tonner's thumping beat. Throughout The Wants, the Phantom Band possess an innate ability to up the anté; three minutes into The None Of One's rootsy folk, the song clicks up several gears with a brisk shift in tempo and a sinuous synth-line; suddenly a song that initially appeared to be a long and patience-testing 8 minutes skips past you before you know it. That's followed by Mr Natural, the album's most propulsive track thanks to its surging rhythm, police-siren guitars and Anthony's authoritive, sure-footed vocals.

The detail within each of the 9 songs on The Wants is meticulous, and whilst in some bands hands the end result might have been sterile, but The Phantom Band never forsake atmosphere for craft. On the album's best track Into The Corn, the band deliver something akin to a bugged-out version of Bunnymen classic The Killing Moon, right down to that song's dark undercurrents as Anthony intones "Into the corn I fled / everyone I knew there was dead". The Wants is wanting of very little: an expertly executed and yet very human record, from a band only too happy to experiment, but far too accessible and consistent to be deemed experimental.

84/100

Monday 18 October 2010

New A Sunny Day In Glasgow album, available for free!

It's been a busy twelve months for Philadelphia shoegazers A Sunny Day In Glasgow. Following on from this year's Nitetime Rainbows EP, the band have self-released a follow-up full-length to last year's massively underrated Ashes Grammar, and they've made it available for free. Autumn, Again maintains the same ethereal sound aesthetic of Ashes Grammar, but whilst Ashes Grammar ebbed and flowed over its great expanse, the relatively slight (just 34 minutes) Autumn, Again wisely goes down a more concise route, offering up some of the band's most immediate pop songs to date, on the likes of the Cure-esque 100/0 (Snowdays forever) and Calling It Love Isn't Love (Don't Fall In Love), which sounds like Dinosaur Jr's Freak Scene being covered by The Cocteau Twins.  The only sprawl on this album comes from the song titles; Violet Mary Haunts Me Or Loss Of Forgtfulness On Renfrew Street takes longer to say than the song's duration. The band have rather humourously genre-tagged the album as "Awesome"; that's not really that far off the mark.

You can download the album from the band's website. Consider it an early christmas present, but for those of you with a conscience, you can also make a donation; this band deserve it, so go on go on go on go on go on.

Sunday 17 October 2010

Cam FM Breakthrough: Live session with Fuzzy Lights TONIGHT 9-11pm

Cam FM Breakthrough, my music show dedicated to unsigned and up-and-coming artists, made its debut on the newly launched Cam FM last Sunday. This Sunday I'm delighted to have one of Cambridgeshire's finest, Fuzzy Lights coming in for a live session on the show; expect discussion and songs from their excellent new album Twin Feathers. Tune in tonight (and every Sunday) from 9pm on 97.2 FM Cambridgeshire, or online at www.camfm.co.uk.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Review: Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz

I'm getting London Bus syndrome with Sufjan Stevens at the moment. You wait 5 years for a proper release from the guy, and then two come along at once. August's All Delighted People EP (an LP's-worth of material to anyone else) was a closet clearer in the very best sense; a varied and at times exuberant collection of odds and sods that both nodded at the Sufjan who made Illinois and Michigan, whilst making clear hints towards pastures new.

Nothing, however, could quite prepare anyone for The Age Of Adz, an immense and initially almost unfathomonable work which sees Sufjan embrace all kinds of electronic bells and whistles in what is his busiest sounding record to date. Opening track Futile Devices is a red herring, albeit a fantastic one, full of the intricate guitar-picking and floaty vocals that Sufjan is so good at. Then Too Much squelches its way into view, anchored with the hums and drones and skittery beats that littered Kid A. Yet whilst Kid A was the sound of a band eschewing traditional instrumentation, The Age Of Adz still retains most of Sufjan's hallmarks: the angelic female backing vocals; the flourishes of orchestration; the fluttering of flutes. Now though, there's an added sense of urgency and desperation, something which translates into the lyrics. On Too Much a chorus of voices sings "there's too much riding on that" over a clattering coda. "Barricade the bathroom doors" cries Sufjan on Get Real Get Right as the song constantly raises its key, seemingly spirally inexorably toward the skies. Then there's his Thom Yorke-esque strangled delivery of the refrain "I'm not f*cking around" over I Want To Be Well's frantic mantra, one of the most exhilirating songs he's ever put to tape.

Self-doubt looms all over The Age Of Adz too, not surprising, given Sufjan's recent bouts of depression. On I Walked, he remarks "I walked/ 'cause you walked/ but I won't probably get very far". No longer restrained by a state-sized concept, The Age Of Adz is one of the personal offerings in Stevens' canon. Even so, the androids and extra-terrestrial deities that adorn the album's artwork don't feel out of place; you could imagine the hisses. gurgles and foreboding orchestration that usher in the title track soundtracking some skyscraper-sized robot laying waste to a city.

Yet amidst the chaos, there are moments of unadulterated beauty here. Now That I'm Older is formed on heavenly backing vocals and ripples of autoharp which swell and shimmer, allowing Sufjan's vocals to echo weightlessly over the top. It's one of the album's simpler arrangements, devoid of the clutter that appears elsewhere, and no more so than on the culminating 25 minute-long Impossible Soul, which features auto-tuned vocals, joyous exclamaitons of "it's not so impossible" and "boy/we can do much more together!" and a whole bundle of right-turns which eventually see the album go full-circle to the rustic playing which opened proceedings some 75 minutes previously. When guest vocalist Shara Worden's soothing tones tell us "don't be distracted", it's hard not to be, what with so much going on.

So yes, The Age Of Adz is overwhelming at times, and for the less patient it will be met with admiration but little love. But when things fall into place, as they so often do, Sufjan hits heights of songwritings that his contemparies cannot even see, let alone reach. In another crisis of self-confidence Sufjan notes, seemingly in disgust that "ordinary people are everywhere you look/ everywhere you turn". He needn't worry.
89/100

Monday 11 October 2010

New album, new label for Deerhoof

It's been more than two years since the last Deerhoof record Offend Maggie appeared, which in Deerhoof terms is eons, but the wait is almost over. The fantastically titled Deerhoof vs. Evil is out on January 25th and they've jumped ship from Kill Rock Stars over to Polyvinyl (although the album will still be released through ATP Recordings on our shores). The album is self-recorded, mixed and mastered, and includes a cover of an instrumental from the soundtrack of a greek movie. Polyvinyl describe the record as "The musical equivalent of hormones raging out of control, it explodes out of the speakers with its gawky triumph and inflamed sentimentality". Sounds suitably barmy and loveable. Track-listing is below. Click on the link to download first single The Merry Barracks; it sounds especially awesome through headphones.

01 Qui Dorm, Només Somia
02 Behold a Marvel in the Darkness
03 The Merry Barracks
04 No One Asked to Dance
05 Let's Dance the Jet
06 Super Duper Rescue Heads!
07 Must Fight Current
08 Secret Mobilization
09 Hey I Can
10 C'Moon
11 I Did Crimes for You
12 Almost Everyone, Almost Always

The safe bet is Deerhoof will be victorious.

Friday 8 October 2010

Gig Review: Of Montreal @ The Koko, Wed 6th October

Is there a more fitting setting for an Of Montreal gig than the Koko? The decadent red and gold of the former theatre provided the perfect setting for Of Montreal to play out their unique and, frankly, homo-erotic stage drama to an enthusiastic crowd.

Looking back over the colourful mayhem which ensued, it's easy to forget that the night began with the rather excellent support band Cats In Paris. The Manchester-based trio dished out a frenetic set; Michael J Watson dashed between keyboards and violin on songs about vampires, serial killers and traditional English cookery, all to a colourful video backdrop. Great fun, and the perfect mood-setter for what was to follow.

Whilst on record False Priest falls short of its two illustrious predecessors, there was never any doubt that the songs would translate into a whole barrel of fun in a live setting, and so it proved. Kevin Barnes, dolled up in a skirt, bandana and a technicolour dream-coat, was given free reign to prance around the enormous Koko stage and his army of musicians, immaculately clad out in white. Amongst a set almost exclusively comprising material from Hissing Fauna... onwards, the new songs found their natural home; Like A Tourist aspired to hit the R'n'B heights it never quite reached on False Priest, thanks to its throbbing basslines and diva chorus , whilst our Riotous Defects (known to one and all as Crazy Girl) cemented itself as a firm fan singalong favourite. The one disappointment? No Janelle Monae; following on from her Jools Holland appearance the previous night, I could have put money on her duetting with Barnes on Enemy Gene, but it was sadly not to be.

Amidst it all, Barnes et al were constantly molested by the usual (for want of a better word) array of costumed fiends, including gun-toting fish-robots, silver-winged creatures and crazed men in blood-stained strait jackets (who on freeing themselves confirmed that the lunatics truly had taken over the asylum). The crowd too were not immune to molestations, with frequent invasions from masked misfits and band alike; one such moment of indulgence during She's A Rejector gave Barnes sufficient time to drape a silver veil over himself and put a noose around his neck, appropriately morbid attire for the set's sole downer Casualty Of You, before immediately bouncing back with Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse. The main set closed in spectacular fashion with an explosion of streamers and confetti fired from the palms of Barnes' hands.

Once a guy in a pig mask and another guy in a blonde wig had roused the crowd into a frenzy, the band returned with the now-obligatory encore of The Past Is A Grotesque Animal. Officially recognised (well, by me) as one of the 10 or 15 greatest songs of modern indie, an intense Barnes actually played it straight (for once), fixated to the mic over the song's 12 stormy minutes, before throwing a fit in the middle of the stage. In short, a gay time was had by all, quite literally; the sight of Kevin Barnes singing "we can do it softcore if you want/but you should know I take it both ways" over a video backdrop of male body-builders may have scarred me for life.

I've included more pics than I usually would for these things; it was the only way to do an Of Montreal gig any justice.




Tuesday 5 October 2010

Forthcoming Releases: October

Whilst not quite as jam-packed with goodies as last month, the release schedule for October looks pretty healthy. The glittering highlight has to be The Age Of Adz, Sufjan Steven's second release in as many months (I should think so too after making us wait 5 years for a proper follow-up to Illinois). Avey Tare also pre-empts his AC cohort Panda Bear with his first proper solo release Down There, though he has some way to go to match Panda Bear's 2007 masterpiece Person Pitch; the squelchy but somewhat slight first cut Lucky 1 is available to download here.

04/09
British Sea Power: Zeus EP (Rough Trade)
Clinic: Bubblegum (Domino)
PS I Love You: Meet Me At The Muster Station (Paper Bag)

11/09
Anthony & The Johnsons: Swanlight (Rough Trade)
Belle & Sebastian: Belle & Sebastian Write About Love (Matador)
Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty)
The Walkmen: Lisbon (Fat Possum)
Zola Jesus: Valousia EP (Sacred Bones)

18/09
Marnie Stern: Marnie Stern (Kill Rock Stars)
A Sunny Day In Glasgow: Autumn, Again (self-released)
Mount Eerie: Song Islands Vol.2 (P.W. Elverum & Sun, ltd.)

25/09
Avey Tare: Down There (Paw Tracks)
The Octopus Project: Hexadecagon (Peek-A-Boo)

Sunday 3 October 2010

The Quarterly Review: Jul-Sept '10

The third quarter of this year provided further evidence that 2010 really has been one of the best in recent memory for music. There was the usual glut of September releases, including my Album of the Quarter, Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest. If truth be told though, picking a favourite album from the last three months was extremely difficult as the competition was fierce; Andrew Cedermark's fabulous solo debut was the big surprise, whilst the sheer consistency and vision of the new Arcade Fire record confirmed that they have well outgrown any doubts over their longevity. The new Working For A Nuclear Free City record showed that the Manchester band was as ambitious as ever. Then there was the first Swans record in 14 years, a glorious black smear across the bright blue sky which has been most of this year's output.

This quarter also saw a couple of bands take big diversions with their sound. Some (Abe Vigoda) were surprisingly successful, others (Blonde Redhead) rather less so.

Album of the Quarter
Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest

On Heavy Rotation
Andrew Cedermark: Moon Deluxe
Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
Sufjan Stevens: All Delighted People EP
Swans:  My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
Women: Public Strain
Working For A Nuclear Free City: Jojo Burger Tempest

Doing The Rounds
Abe Vigoda: Crush
Black Mountain: Wilderness Heart
The Electronic Anthology Project: The Electronic Anthology Project
Les Savy Fav: Root For Ruin
Grinderman: Grinderman 2
Matthew Dear: Black City 
Menomena: Mines
M.I.A: /\/\ /\ Y /\
Lower Dens: Twin Hand Movement
Mogwai: Special Moves/Burning
Of Montreal: False Priest
School of Seven Bells: Disconnect From Desire

On The Shopping List
No Age: Everything In Between
Arab Strap: Philophobia (Reissue)

On The Discard Pile
Blonde Redhead: Penny Sparkle
The Thermals: Personal Life

Saturday 2 October 2010

Cam FM: it's finally here!

Yes, CUR1350 is no more, but Cam FM, the official radio station for Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin universities, successfully began transmitting today at 1pm, launching to the sound of Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol. It marks the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication, work which saw the station pick up the gong for Best Student Radio Station just a couple of years ago. Now the station's reach is further than ever before; tune in on 97.2FM, or else listen online.

It's been an enormous pleasure to contribute to the station, and see it take the next step forward. I look forward to continuing to promote the best in unsigned and up-and-coming artists on my show Cam FM Breakthrough, which starts Sunday 9th October (time TBC, more on that soon)

All that leaves me to say is a big well done to all involved, you should be proud of your efforts!

Gig Review: Fuzzy Lights @ The Portland Arms, Thu 30th Sept

Still riding on the high of some fantastic performances at last Saturday's Wish You Were Here Festival, Cambridge's the Portland Arms held another spectacle in the form of local orchestral rock band Fuzzy Lights, who released their second album Twin Feathers on Little Red Rabbit Records last month. The night was made all the more memorable by the two support acts who both successfully proved that less can be more.

First up was Hitchin's own C Joynes, whose nimble and unorthodox playing of both banjo and acoustic guitar, occasionally coupled with hiss-ridden tape recordings, proved utterly bewitching. He was followed by the no-less-impressive You Are Wolf, a one-girl act (save for some sparse bass-playing from her husband) performing  forlorn folk music carefully constructed from vocal loops and melodica. As well as her wide vocal range, her ability to mimic the sound of waves crashing was second to none.

Fuzzy Lights tick all the orchestral/post rock band boxes. Female violinist? Check. Songs that start quietly and then crescendo into behemoths? Check. Guitars played with violin bows? Check. Singing saws? Actually, I wasn't expecting that so much. And that's the thing with Fuzzy Lights; whilst they undoubtedly evoke the likes of Dirty Three and Do Make Say Think, they are no mere copyists. Even the drummer felt the need to stroke his kit with a bow (no euphemism intended). Over the hour-or-so length of their set, Fuzzy Lights continuously wound up their songs into cathartic, yet graceful blasts of noise, steadily increasing the intensity, until they wound everything down again by closing with the gentle swoon of a lap-steel guitar on The Sea & The Heather, the closing track from Twin Feathers. It was a fine ending to a successful homecoming.