Björk – Biophilia

Bjork - Biophilia

By Jonathan Hopkins

A Björk release always finds me hammering the keyboard for an umlaut. Discovering the correct formation of keys is like cracking the Enigma code… for hipsters. So I’m thankful for two things: a) that Björk doesn’t go by her full name (Björk Guðmundsdóttir), and b) copy & paste. Then there’s Biophilia, which, whilst sounding like an Icelandic yogurt that’d have an ad narrated by David Attenborough, in fact relates to biophilia hypothesis (here comes the science bit); a study concerned with a bond that exists between humans, nature and science. Oh, Björk. Why you so kooky? It’s subject matter Björk’s no stranger to; her music’s always felt very telluric, and never been a chum of the spellcheck. … Continue Reading

The Horrors – Skying

If you’re not a fan of The Horrors, turn away now. What follows is only likely to upset you; having likely had enough of the dangerously tight trousers and near hysteric levels of hype this album’s generating. It’s fair enough: the trousers are worryingly tight. However, for a band that courts a wide range of influences, it’s difficult to find much to disagree with on Skying. … Continue Reading

The National, Manchester Academy

The National

November 27, 2010

I’m quite prepared to dislike The National tonight. Manchester Academy’s capacious and characterless space is thronging with bearded 20-somethings all moping around like middle-aged emo kids. The Academy’s a painfully featureless venue that’s currently playing host to a painfully featureless support act. Talking throughout gigs is infuriating at the best of times. Right now though it’s quite justifiable.

Space is getting scarce. Men all around me are clapping, squealing with excitement. Many of these men clamber stage-ward. I hear one of them confer to his friend as he walks past, “I hope Matt looks at me!” before shrieking off into the melee. … Continue Reading

Afrirampo – WE ARE UCHU NO KO

Afrirampo - We Are Uchu No Ko

This is gonna be a glaringly biased review. You’ll struggle to find two-bit reviewers such as myself who won’t offer to review an album by a band they love. And as far as I’m concerned, my beloved Osakan noise spirits Afrirampo can do no wrong. They belong in a stratum of magical musicians that draw a smile so broadly across my face that I don’t even recognise what a bad song by them sounds like. This is annoying because WE ARE UCHU NO KO (We Are Kids of the Universe) is a genuinely dazzling album, so just pretend that you’ve read that first bit about my bias. … Continue Reading

Quack Quack – Slow As An Eyeball

Quack Quack - Slow As An Eyeball

We’ve heard great things regarding a raucous live show, so we jumped with fervent glee when this debut from Leeds based trio, Quack Quack fell through the door.

Often, omitting a winey fop-headed front man can be a massive boon. Rather than layering your sonic masterpieces with wretched mewling, the real musician is free to survey realms of aural perfection, unhindered by emotional anchorage and blessed with the opportunity to explore the expansive plains of musical wonder. Sorry. How annoying it is then, when Quack Quack fail to embrace this possibility. … Continue Reading

Dour Festival: win five pairs of tickets!

Dour festival

ALERT! ALERT! GIVEAWAY PRIZE ALERT! FREEBIES BELOW!

We are giving away five pairs of tickets to Dour, including camping! All you need to do is send your name, your guest’s name, and both of your email addresses to musosguide (at) gmail (dot) com. Easy as. You don’t even have to answer a question! These are the T&Cs from the lovely festival-running people there…

You have until Monday July 4 to enter…

And now you can read the preview… … Continue Reading

Singles of the week!

CDs

Welcome to Muso’s Guide’s new singles column, written by a different person every week. Here’s to free reign, and to this week’s henchman – one Jonathan Hopkins of Manchester town centre… … Continue Reading

The Ruby Suns – Fight Softly

The Ruby Suns - Fight Softly

The Ruby Suns is the nom de guerre of the wonderfully named Ryan McPhun. Having relocated from California to New Zealand, McPhun released his eponymous debut to critical acclaim. Five years later, away from the beach scented and world music melodies of previous offerings, we have third release Fight Softly, an album that finds McPhun et al dallying with a more electric sound, a sound that looks likely to polarises opinions. … Continue Reading

Summer Camp – Ghost Train

Summer Camp

So Summer Camp are not Swedish, but in fact Jeremy Warmsley (interviewed here) and Platform Editor Elizabeth Sankey.

We also now know there’s this single which is really rather good, and painfully few songs on their MySpace that hint at a band who are great in creating the kind of hazy music that you can quite happily get lost amongst this summer. ‘Ghost Train’ is such a song.

As with Summer Camp’s other tracks ‘Ghost Train’ begins with a line from another ’80s movie classic. This time Cameron Crowe’s, Say Anything…. “I’m sorry, it’s just you’re a really nice guy, and we don’t wanna see you get hurt” before the response, “I wanna get hurt!”. While ‘Ghost Train’ isn’t homage to the film, it does share themes of interactions and potentially putting distance between them.

It has that traversing landscapes aura about it. Coupled with overtones of adolescent long distance relationships, struggling to exist via poor connections and cross-country trains amid changing seasons. It’s a sweet and airy chug along with an O Superman-esque “Dear, dear, dear, dear, dear/I, I, I, I, I/You, you, you, you, you” over an awkward, infectious and darling synth line. The vocals are subtle and light yet bloom on the chorus.  … Continue Reading

Yeasayer – London Heaven

Yeasayer

February 23, 2010

In Heaven, not everything is fine. The beer tastes like ass, and the men’s toilets smell worse than ass. But ass isn’t important here, not tonight anyway, because the sound at least is near divine.

There’s a hell of a lot of people, a varied grouping at that. Not surprising given the fervent hysteria Yeasayer’s Odd Blood is currently stirring among the music press. If All Hour Cymbals was Dad’s little folk secret, Odd Blood is the electro-psychedelic party music for da yoof, and all have gathered this evening.

Yeasayer’s support comes from fellow Brooklyn twosome Javelin. Their set is accompanied by an ’80s movie montage of assorted promo videos featuring Casio keyboard demos, tennis lessons with a mulleted Andre Agassi and BMX biker clips. Javelin’s synth and drum pad shtick provides quite the novelty soundtrack, and while I’m sure this ironic gimmickry goes down a storm in Brooklyn, here the 80s was an achromatic time, and the two dimensional songs do little to stir an attentive audience now cramming into the vault of Heaven. It’s the curse of the support act. In their defence, Javelin play with genuine moxie that keeps the audience captivated. But that’s not why we’re here.

… Continue Reading