Safari have become one of our favourites here on the blog, I even recently went down to London to buy their 7" début single 'Quicksand'. When I got back home I saw a message from Jonny Flynn (Keys) sent me a link to a brand new Safari song, and boy is it good!
Trumpets open the song with high pitched vocals accompanying it, then bass hit. The tension is broken when the drums and guitar drop. Great bass riffs and brilliant synth samples are used throughout the song. Safari have really crafted a song to be a big hit in the future, what is for sure is it suits the summer well! I wonder if it is them that has supplied this Indian summer we have been having as of late, hmm. What is for certain is this track is a killer, watch out for more from them in the coming months! They've even re-done 'Reason' which is also avalaible on their soundcloud page, just click 'this is SAFARI' below the stream.
There is something special about Theme Park, is it that they are a fresh new band on the music scene, or is it that Huw Stephens loves them as well as I do. I am not too sure, but what is a fact for sure is that they have just released two new songs on their soundcloud page, the songs are taken from their upcoming single. 'Wax' and 'A Mountain We Love' are the two songs that got released and they sound amazing, Indie at it's best, undoubtedly.
Both form their début double A-side single, which is out on a limited edition run of 250 hand-numbered 7-inches on August 29 through new Transgressive spin-off label paradYse. They're playing it low-key in the live stakes at the moment, though you can catch 'em at London's Lexington two days after the single comes out.
The Violet May released their début five track EP this June. The first glimpse of the EP was a free download of the track "What You Say" which has already been picked up for NME's "10 Best Mp3's This Week" and Q Magazine's "New To Q" playlist. The band have also confirmed a string of dates including London's KOKO this July as well as festival dates at Iceland Airwaves and Boardmasters Festival. In the words of The Guardian, "their time is now..."
With loud and lunatic tunes, leaving many a venue battered and bruised across the UK, audiences seemed hooked on the energy produced by a band in its raw stages. Singer Chris McClure’s aggressive charm is backed by the rough-edged guitar work of John Kubicki & Jono How, while the rhythm section of Dan Booth (Bass) & Alan Whitaker (Drums) have forged their own powerful live reputation. You can grab a free track via their facebook page, just sign up to the mailing list and you will get 'What You Say' for free! A stonker of a track!
The band formed in 2007 and began a rigorous campaign of gigging, cramming themselves onto countless stages of venues, town halls, festivals and pubs throughout the country leading to an acclaimed performance on the John Peel stage at Glastonbury Festival. With continuous recording of new material, the band fine-tuned their distinctive sound, and in the process gained themselves a flock of eager fans. Their live shows are a real spectacle, with infectious songs demonstrating professional musicianship.
“A real stomper of a song” Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 2
“Wonderful stuff” Music week
The video features lead singer Felix acting skills at its best, pretending to be an insane recluse. The video was shot in Dorset. The track was co-produced by The Animal Farm, responsible for hits for Muse and One Night Only. he single is out on the 26th of September.
Jupiter Mission, out as a free download on 8th August, is the first single from Beta Hector’s upcoming début solo album 'Sunbeam Insulin'. There is a real retro sci-fi feel, this single is the perfect introduction to the album, which reveals a shimmering mixture of heavy drums and psychedelic electronic sonics, soulful, bittersweet songs and soundtracks, with five vocalists including UK soul queen Dionne Charles and LA MC Shane Hunter.
Beta Hector is the solo project of Brighton based bassist, producer and DJ Simon Hill, a founder member of the erstwhile deep funk band Baby Charles who gained rave reviews in MOJO and Pitchfork for their debut album in 2008 and toured around Europe. With major radio play from Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 1), several sessions for the BBC including Mark Lamarr (Radio 2) and the 6Music Funk & Soul Show, plus heavy international support, they burned brightly in the funk/soul renaissance of the 2000s.
Safari, where to start. Great live performances reflect brilliant songs and well rehearsed band members. They are based in Hertfordshire and play Indie-Rock with a Electro-Dance edge to it. Riffs may sound familiar to some but even if they do, they make it their own by combining it with beats to dance yourself crazy to. I have heard only good things about them in the past few months, and no doubt a highlight of their year would be playing 'Rhythms Of The World' Festival in Hitchin in their home county. I heard about the masses of young fans ramming the small stage and people bouncing along to the grooves.
The track of the week is called 'So I See' and is one of the best Dance orientated Indie songs I have heard for some time now, knocking Fenech-Soler/Delphic and even Groove Armada from their Indie-Dance podiums. After the local festival they played the track was given a free download release. So grab it now and understand why this track is off the hook!
A band located in the sleepy town of St. Ives in Cambridgeshire. They play rock with a brit-pop twist to it. Their singer said that their influences are "The best of Britain" with the likes of The Stranglers, James, The Prodigy and Oasis cropping up. Drummer Tom Powell said "We don't categorise ourselves into certain genres and outfits. We have big sing along songs, I'd say that's our concept"
Below is a review I have done of Sterling when they played Club Blub @ Half Moon, Bishops Stortford in May of this year.
They have the right combination of attitude, catchy lyrics, showmanship and (most importantly) really good at playing their music live! Their sound ranged from Arctic Monkeys to on the cusp of Brit-Rock. They are a force to be reckoned with and with another strong local following be sure to pop along to one of their gigs as you won't be disappointed, and may I say 'A Sterling performance'!
You can hear the Oasis influence more than the rest but I'd hardly say that's a problem. They sound better than Oasis, and this is evident in the track that's up on their bandpage on facebook. 'Heading For The Sun' is (in a nut-shell) what this band is all about, a perfect advert for them.
Runaround Kids, Wakefield’s emerging Indie-rock trio, are set to make first and lasting impressions in the summer of 2011 with their début album 'Linked Arms' on August 8, 2011. The record, released mid-August, shouts and shakes unadulterated, gloriously crafted DIY. In preparation the band are revealing their new single out July 18, 2011 titled 'Can't Lose Lover' as a pay-what-you-like on their bandcamp.
In the build-up to Linked Arms the band have played their part well in 2010’s strong BBC Introducing line-up at Reading And Leeds Festivals’ and Live At Leeds 2011 and have also released their Kiss Chase EP and No Dreams/Falling Into Better Hands single in 2009 and 2010 respectively. This build-up has helped them acquire fans like BBC Radio One’s Huw Stephens along with acquiring a growing reputation across the blogsphere.
Like a bolt from the blue, The Drums return with their second album, ‘Portamento’ to be released on September 12th through Moshi Moshi / Island Records.
Tracklisting: Book Of Revelation Days What You Were Money Hard To Love I Don’t Know How To Love Searching For Heaven Please Don’t Leave If He Likes It Let Him Do It I Need A Doctor In The Cold How It Ended
‘Portamento’ - released just over a year since their debut - reveals a band tugging lightly at the boundaries of their sound while still retaining their recognizable sonic signatures. Sweet rushes of melody and brittle synthesizer sheens colliding with wiry Spector-esque guitar lines are still very much present, but singer, Jonny Pierce’s lyrics have assumed a deeper, personal tone and coupled with the band’s own more expansive production, ‘Portamento’ is a more complex, but ultimately more rewarding listen than their début.
Of the LP’s almost autobiographical lyrical contents, Pierce says, “This new album touches on everything from my extreme religious roots to transgenderism to violence, and of course there’s plenty of heartbreak stuff, which I couldn’t get away from even if I tried.”
To accommodate the record’s sonic expansiveness, the band has swollen to a quintet live, augmented by two auxiliary members including good friend Myles Matheny on guitar and bass. Also gone are the backing tracks used for the bulk of their live shows to date, thus lending their performances a more visceral, spontaneous feel, in line with the aesthetic of the new album.
With a rough live recording showing up on the internet it seems that they want their fans to listen to a proper recorded version. This is a slight departure from their first album but has more keys and synths on. I guess it's a natural progression for any band to add layers album after album.
This weeks track of the week comes from a band that have featured in the 'Un-Signed' mixtape, so here is proof that this site can come across some real bangers! They are based in Australia and the latest offering entitled 'Orlando' is just as good as their last song 'Not The Hero'. I'd say they are the best young band Australia has to offer right now!
According to their Triple J page they state they sound like... Two Door Cinema Club, Last Dinosaurs and The Holidays. And as far as their influences go its, Jonathan Boulet, The Wombats, Bombay Bicycle Club. You really can hear the Two Door influence on them as well as the wonderful vocals the singer has, it does seem he has taken a leaf out of Jack Steadmans book. This track starts off slow but them bursts into life with guitars and bass inter-twined with the perfect drums.
A spoonful of tasty alternative pop – the ‘Summer Shade’ 3 track EP is available as a free download from Izabo’s facebook page and the suitably summery video is on YouTube too!
This summery EP is a flashback to when I first found out about 'Darwin Deez'. Brilliant melodies and vocals soothe you as your ears are treated so whirring riffs, fantastic. I would have to say the first track of the EP sets the tone for it, just wonderful, seriously! I'd love to go and see them live as I would imagine they would blow the socks off your feet! Head over to their facebook page to download the FREE EP!
The Horrors know all about deceptive appearances. Their mid-00s emergence saw the music press in a lather, hype peaking with inevitable derision creeping forth from (perhaps rightly) cynical corners of the blogosphere. So it’s no surprise to find that album three positions The Horrors in a brand-new musical (for them anyway). From the melodies and hypnotic hooks of Primary Colours, distinctly 1970s they have landed in the 1980s with anthemic synth-powered pop-rock.
Favourite tracks off the album would be 'Still Life' which I have posted a couple of times on the facebook site. All of which adds up to a second straight helping of flawed brilliance from The Horrors. 'You Said' with its 'Madchester' vibes, I am really finding it easy to like this dream-like, druggy sound without being too cliché. A supreme display of confidence just two short years after Primary Colours woke people up to their subtler charms.
A belated track of the week but blame work for that one... Still, worth the wait I assure you! Wu Lyf are one of the bands that have grown up from rough demos to producing a wonderful début album. 'Concrete Gold' was originally a rough demo with all of the others with nothing special coming from it.
My gosh has the album version produced one of my tracks of the year, the piano chords, guitar style, the vocals and even the drumming and bass are all in-twine here and it is a happy Indie track that makes you forget about everything and just enjoy the track. It's rare for an artist to get a track of the week from me and even rarer is getting two in the same year. Wu Lyf are one of those artists with a big future ahead of them!
A fellow interviewer Coco Wong is back with an interview with Lou Vainglorious from Hoodlums, (Vocals/Guitar). Here they talk about the début album and what they have been getting up to.
First of all, congratulations on the release! As a quick introduction, can you tell us the story behind the name ‘Hoodlums’?
Thank you very much; it’s been a long time coming for this band and we are all very excited about LANDMARKS.In regards to the name obviously we are very much gentlemen and not ‘HOODLUMS’, unfortunately our collective past was peppered with some unsavoury types. In homage to their failed attempts to break our spirit we named our band ‘HOODLUMS’ after them.
Regarding your new single which is out on Monday, ‘Landmarks’, what exactly are the landmarks that the song’s about?
I’m a terminal reflector it seems, and sometimes I feel like I can only move forward through looking backwards in songs.Landmarks is just a little day dream I had not to long ago about the crooked path that led me to this point in my life. Not so much a yellow brick road kind of thing, more like a series of dead ends, trapdoors and tightropes followed by one singular red fire exit being held open by a certain ginger double bassist.
‘Landmarks’ sounds very different from ‘Forget A Friend’. I wonder what inflicted that change in style?
I can see why you might think that as we have only allowed a select few recordings out into the world thus far. The truth is ‘Landmarks’ and ‘Forget a Friend’ both belong to a vast family of songs which when presented at the same time should make perfect sense. You could say different rooms in the same house...........if so ‘Forget A Friend’ would be the bedroom and ‘Landmarks’ would be the cellar.
Aha...have you been doing any recording lately? When can we expect a new single / a début album maybe?
The second single will be out in October and its called 'Dark Horses', then another one just after Xmas. The album is going to cost a bit more money, for it to be everything we want it to be creatively there’s got to be a half decent recording budget. Our manager will be working on finding us the right long term home as this filthy tale unfolds. For now we have three cracking singles lined up.
Wow! I can't wait to listen to Dark Horses! Are there any anecdotes that took place in the studio?
'Landmarks' and forthcoming single 'Dark Horses' were both recorded at Leeder’s Farm studios out in Norfolk a few months back. We were locked up there for a week like 5 Randal McMurphy’s in a follow up to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. During one particular bout of cabin fever myself and Hoodlums drummer Henry Tyler recorded a version of the Bee Gee’s 70’s hit Saturday Night Fever and its exquisite. Everyone has their own way of going round the bend.
Since summer’s coming, are there any festivals that you’re looking forward to playing at?
We are very much looking forward to another monumental year playing at Secret Garden Party, last year we did three shows and it was combined with some of the most shameful drinking and decadence this band has seen.At one point our keyboard player Ollie was scaring the life out of a young boy in a backstage Jacuzzi while Henry was wandering around in his pants with an inflatable pink flamingo around his neck.On the way out the bouncer had “NO MORE HOODLUMS” written on his clipboard, the shows rocked too.
Thanks Lou and Chris for making this interview possible. - Coco Wong
A new track by Mumford & Sons has hit the internet amongst speculation that the song will feature on the band's forthcoming second album.
The track has not been given a name formally, but is has already being called 'Home' by the group's online fan base. With so many B-Sides on the last album and covers played live there is still a question over if there will be or won't be an album due this year. But while there has been no official announcement for when the folk quartet will release their follow-up album to 2009's 'Sigh No More', rumours suggest it could on the shelves by the end of the year.
Listen to 'Skying' one week ahead of its release, there will be a review up on Thursday (7th July). Skying' is the band's self-produced third album and the follow-up to the hugely acclaimed 'Primary Colours'. It is released on July 11.
The other day Stereogum passed along details for the second volume of Radiohead’s King Of Limbs 12″ Remix Series, though the first installment, featuring Caribou’s “Little By Little” b/w Jacques Green’s “Lotus Flower,” isn’t out until next week.
Caribou’s “Little By Little” b/w Jacques Green’s “Lotus Flower” is out 7/4 in Europe and 7/5 in the US/Canada via XL and Ticker Tape. Remember, too: Today the BBC’s broadcasting Radiohead’s performance of The King Of Limbs on Nigel Godrich’s From the Basement webcast series. If you forgot to order a copy of that one, or want to sample the goods before you do, take a listen below, I will be posting a review tomorrow to stay tuned!
I will be reviewing just the title track on this review as there is (sadly) too many remixes to cover. Following this 12”, Domino / Weird World release the début album by Atlanta, Georgia based producer and songwriter Ernest Greene, AKA Washed Out. His first release, 2009’s home recorded 'Life Of Leisure EP' became an instant hit across blogs and press alike and catapulted Greene into the end of year polls - inspiring legions of imitators and several dubious new genres along the way. Two years in the making, 'Within And Without', recorded with Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley, Deerhunter), is the full realisation of Greene’s pop vision – nine songs of emotional, psychedelic dance music that is almost orchestral in its composition.
Eyes Be Closed: The song itself is a shimmering piece of 80s nostalgia. Borrowing from New Wave, lo-fi and shoegaze movements, Washed Out has created a track of unadulterated joy. This is pop music at it's very best! If you're not already a fan of Washed Out's brand of fuzzy, summery anthems, this single is going to change your mind. Out of 10: 8/10
