Our next show features a trio of music-types we’re tipping for great things in 2010. Come!
Another three-band spectacular. We’re so selfless!
This year’s hot stuff in outline, by us.
You’re going to love Brooklyn’s Sleigh Bells next year, promised.
Beach House - Teen Dream
For the intrigued/lazy amongst you we’ve decided to condense a month’s worth of blabber into an easy to digest Spotify playlist. Included are tracks from reviewed albums by Laura Viers, Beach House and Delphic as well as some January singles (OK and some late December ones) from These New Puritans, Late of The Pier, Plan B, I Was A King and The Strange Boys. … Continue Reading
The Dark Esquire - Situation
Our weekly look into the blogosphere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.
Track of the week:
‘Situation’ by The Dark Esquire (CFCF remix)
He, it is a funny thing, I loved all the remixes by CFCF last year. They were really good, and then came the album, and for some reason it never really grasped me. This though is another beauty. It is less disco and less dancey than what you might have seen from him next year, and the overall vibe is a bit more in line with his album. But he really turns up the atmosphere on this one. I also really love the vocals here, and how yearning they are, but also how they are not belting over everything and everyone but how it stays within the melancholic framework. Yeah, lovely late night music for insomniacs really, and oh boy do those people need some good music like this. You gotta love the restraint CFCF shows on this one. … Continue Reading
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
So here we are, one of 2010’s most anticipated releases…but can Putney’s favourite geeky dance-pop musos deliver the classic (and possibly career defining) album many are expecting?
Things get off to a strong start with opener ‘Thieves In The Night’. It’s all broody synth organ drones and a four-on-the-floor kick drum, which builds anticipation and excitement, as any album opener worth it’s salt should. Alexis Taylor’s instantly recognisable falsetto finally gets things going: “My friend once told me something so right, he said to be careful of thieves in the night.”
From here on, the track seems to be on an ever-upward pursuit for bliss and abandon, with layers of synths, beats and guitars being added on top of one another in a clever marriage of words and music, “happiness is what we all want.” Lovely stuff.
Next up is the piano led demi-ballad, ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’, which stands out as one of the record’s more instant tunes. In what seems like an attempt to remain “human” and “honest”, the band have opted for a distinctly acoustic drum kit sound in the intro and verses. It’s not what you’d expect from a Hot Chip song, but then again surprising listener’s is one of the things they do best.
Pretty string lines and delicious rising melodies ensure that it won’t be long before Erol Alkan decides he wants to sinks his dirty electro teeth into this one, as there is a filthy floor filling monster hiding just below the surface.
* “Don’t give a shit about the cool kids”
It’s no surprise that the album takes its name from the first single to be released from the album. ‘One Life Stand’ is an instant Hot Chip classic. It’s irreverent, completely mad and is filled with a seemingly bottomless pit of hooks.
The choreography on the video sums up Hot Chips’ “don’t give a shit about the cool kids” approach to their music and image, which has garnered the band such a devoted fan base. What’s a shame is that this sense of fun doesn’t appear elsewhere on the album. A few more tracks like this, rather than the insipid ‘Slush’ or ‘Brothers’ and One Life Stand would be the first must have of the decade, rather than just the very decent album that it is.
Other highlights include ‘Alley Cats’ and ‘We Have Love’. The first is more of an entity than a song and is quite simply one of the loveliest, most understated, tracks Hot Chip have written to date. It drifts in and out of focus like a sunshine drenched winter weekend morning and contains one of the album’s rare moments of Alexis Taylor’s and Joe Goddard’s beautifully idealised duel vocals.
‘We Have Love’ will certainly be featuring in several DJ’s set lists in 2010. It’s subtle dance hall and dub step ingredients are fused seamlessly with Hot Chip’s uncanny ability to produce dark, obscure mantras, which demand to be played time and time again.
* “How come they don’t just play like that cool part through the whole song?”
Taylor and Goddard have clearly decided to save one of the biggest choruses they band have ever summoned for the album’s closer ‘Take It In’. The song employs a familiar song-writing trick of minor key verses and major key choruses, which reminded me of a scene from Beavis and Butthead where they discuss Radiohead’s ‘Creep’:
Beavis: “What’s going on? How come they don’t just play like that cool part through the whole song?”
Butthead: “Well Beavis, if they didn’t have like a part of the song that sucked, then it’s like, the other part wouldn’t be as cool.”
To say that about ‘Take It In’ is a little harsh, but you get the idea. The minimally melodic verses become more attractive with repeated listening and act as a perfect counterweight to the gorgeous falsetto chorus: “My heart has flown to you just like a dove, it can fly, it can fly. Please take my heart and keep it close to you, take it in, take it in.”
The album still has room for Amnesiac era Radiohead in the minimalist electronica of ‘Keep Quiet’ and an attempt at a 90s dance pop revival in ‘I Feel Better’. I used to live next door to a halfway house for young offenders and elements of this track certainly come from the same ‘Dance Anthems’ stock, which used to haunt me during the delinquents’ all-too-frequent all nighters. That said, ‘I Feel Better’ isn’t unpleasant, but as with a few moments on the album I can’t help but feel that it doesn’t quite reach it’s potential.
So back to the key question, is the album any good? It’s certainly a strong addition to the Hot Chip oeuvre and a must for any fan however, I would still recommend 2006’s The Warning to any newcomers. Key tracks ‘One Life Stand’, ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’, ‘Alley Cats’ and ‘Take It In’ are undoubtedly great Hot Chip songs, but they don’t quite reach the dizzying heights of ‘Over And Over’, ‘Boy From School’ or ‘Ready For The Floor’.
Perhaps Hot Chip are just too eclectic and experimental a band to write an album that will be widely regarded as a classic. It’s unlikely they will ever write a record that will be universally viewed as a cohesive ‘whole’. But perhaps that’s not the point. Their inventive and often risky approach to song writing means that not every attempt works as well as it might, but this is precisely why they are admired as one of the most unique bands of the past decade.
So anyway, dance your nuts off to ‘One Life Stand’, find your heart swept away by ‘Alley Cats’ and ‘Take It In’, play ‘spot the steel drum Leitmotif’ that runs throughout and prepare yourself for the brilliant remixes to follow. This might not be a ‘classic’, but don’t be too surprised if it ends up on a few top ten lists at the end of the year, after all how many bands are capable of sounding completely out of place and in perfect harmony with their surroundings at the same time?
Fiery Furnaces - Take Me Round Again
Heard it all before? It all sounds the same is a common complaint, and one often thrown at folk-tinged garage bands. The Fiery Furnaces do at least try to do things a bit differently – from the throb of electronic beats they sometimes sneak into their output to the bizarre cut and paste approach taken to last year’s live album Remember, which had about three years’ worth of gig recordings spliced together into an odd aural patchwork. But there is a reason their latest effort seems familiar. … Continue Reading
Night Slugs
Since this month’s sudden thaw fucked our already frayed wiring, Short Circuitry’s been in slow recovery on top of the kitchen radiator and has taken the opportunity to catch up on over a month’s musical backlog. Thankfully, we’re now back to our usual shepherd selves, rounding up and processing the usual herd of electronic releases into pre-shaped, bite-size portions – now with an added ‘free stuff’ section. … Continue Reading
Mike Doughty
February 2nd 2010
“I want to be on you”. Ron Burgundy’s “immortal words” are those chosen by Mike Doughty to sell himself to the British public.
Doughty, formerly of alt-rock band Soul Coughing, is pretty popular in the States, but relatively unknown here. My question referred to selling himself to us in the style of a dating ad. His witty answer, I come to realise, is standard.
The American singer-songwriter is a fairly open book, regularly tweeting (find him @mikedoughtyyeah) and blogging on his website, where he comments honestly on his day to day activities and thoughts on the happenings in the world; two recent tweets include “Lousy night. Crowd couldn’t have cared less” and “Salinger gone – perhaps we’ll at last hear his Rock Opera”. Is it important for him to keep in touch with fans? “I think it ends up being important, but the reason I do it is just my general obsession with killing time online” he says. “I think my crowd feels pretty close to me because of the access I give to myself, but I don’t think it’s necessarily vital to being a musician these days”.
This openness has extended to a book about his previous life as a drug addict, which he’s in the process of writing. Mike claims “writing prose is a lot more time consuming than song writing” and that “linear thinking” is not his strength. He’s currently struggling to write about his time with Soul Coughing, describing it as “pretty shitty”.
… Continue Reading
Hot Chip confirmed for Bestival 2010
January is only just over and already we’re gearing up for the festival season – Glastonbury rumours were rife yesterday, but today’s announcement on Bestival’s line up reveals a host of impressive acts. Dizzee Rascal, The Flaming Lips, Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem and, er, Rolf Harris are all on the bill.
The full line up can be found over at the Bestival website, but there’s a strong mix of the old (Marc Almond, Gil Scott Heron, Echo and the Bunnymen), the leftfield (Four Tet, Flying Lotus, Here We Go Magic) and the hotly-tipped (Joy Orbison, The Antlers). There’s also dan le sac v. Scroobius Pip, but you can’t have everything. … Continue Reading
Jazzie B
On February 17, Red Bull Music Academy are hosting a wondrous sounding event at the very splendid Roundhouse. Entitled Clash Culture/Culture Clash, the line up features Soul II Soul Soundsystem, Jazzie B, MC Chickaboo, Metalheadz, Goldie, Roots Manuva and many more special guests.
It’s being billed as an all-seeing night celebrating the role of sound-systems in London, and the emergence of reggae, dub and lovers’ rock. Jazzie B’s Soul II Soul will bringing “positive vibes”, with Goldie’s Metalheadz offering something altogether different – the hardcore. Dubstep’s infamous Digital Mystickz will be bringing the sounds up to date, and Trojan Soundsystem offer their sounds too.
Culture clash and clashes make culture – it’s pretty darn innovative!
Tickets are available from here for just £10.
Male Bonding
Dalston’s very own Male Bonding will release their much-anticipated debut album on May 11th. Entitled Nothing Hurts, it will be released on the legendary Sub Pop Records.
New York band Vivian Girls appear on the album’s final track ‘Worst To Come’. The full tracklist is below. The band will embark on a U.S. tour in March and April in the lead up to the album’s release. They also have a compilation coming out on their own Paradise Vendors Inc label at the end of this month, featuring the likes of Teen Sheikhs, Fair Ohs, Spectrals and Cold Pumas – Alan McGee likes this.
Muso's Guide
We are looking for short dramatic pieces, to be performed as part of a one-day event at The Camden Head we’re hosting on Sunday 4th April. In association with Broken Glass Theatre Company, the day will showcase innovative approaches to theatrical and musical performance.
If you’re a band, please post links to your MySpace page as a comment to this piece – we’ll listen to all of them.The Muso’s Guide half of the event is looking for new bands and artists to be brought to our attention.
We are open to submissions of complete pieces from theatre companies and individual performers working with fresh approaches to live theatre, with a maximum running time of 25 minutes. Please email a short CV of previous work and proposals of no more than 300 words to alex@brokenglassplay.co.uk or vicky@brokenglassplay.co.uk by Monday 1st March.
Norway's electro pop quintet CASIOKIDS play Camden’s Barfly on February 25, and we're giving away a pair of tickets.
After the release of a few stellar singles in 2009, 2010 is looking exciting for this lot. Their bouncy percussive basement music, eerie melody and distorted bass are the product of inspiration from such diverse sources as Paul Simon's 'Graceland', Ivor Cutler, King Tubby, Bob Hund, Cornelius And Fela Kuti.
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