Ear PWR – Super Animal Bros. III
Ear PWR
Sweet shitting Jesus, what’s just happened to my ears? Am I bleeding from them, am I?!
Ear PWR
Sweet shitting Jesus, what’s just happened to my ears? Am I bleeding from them, am I?!
The New 1920
Some music just jumps out at you, you hear it on the radio or in a bar and you just have to know who it is, trying to remember one line to Google search for it later on. The New 1920 aren’t like that, because they’re crap.
Dan Black - Symphonies
To start with, I can’t place Dan Black’s voice; I thought “I’ve heard this voice before, it’s whiney in a way, but not annoying”. I thought I was just associating it with an artist I hadn’t heard in ages and was tempted to leave it at that.
Turns out, after a bit of digging, that Black sang for The Servant, and all became clear.
He seems to have gone in a bit of a different direction with this solo release, while the vocal and lyrical style remains much the same, Symphonies has a more R&B/Hip-Hop vibe, but the fact that the drum loop is sampled from Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ could well be the cause of that. Then again, Black himself says on his Myspace that he’s a Jay-Z fan, so fair dos. … Continue Reading
Fredo Viola - The Turn
My review is ruined before its started, I typed out a big rant about how I love the chocolates that look like half-frog half-man beasts and then, after seconds of ‘research’ on Google, realised that it’s actually spelled Freddo, bollocks.
Since that’s failed, on with the rest of the review.
This whole record is filled with great soaring vocal harmonies and choruses, mixed with eclectic sounds, including synthesisers, what sounds like a jew’s harp, and what I strongly suspect is a stylophone; yes, technically it’s still a sort of synthesiser, but it’s the only one that I know of that Rolph Harris endorsed.
The opening track, ‘The Turn’, is held together, rhythmically by finger snaps. In my book that makes any song immediately great, at least in part due to my Addams Family obsession – if you’re a band and want me to like you, just put some finger snaps in, throw an organ in there too and you’ve won me over. … Continue Reading
Wave Machines
This new single from Wave Machines annoys me, it really does. It seems to be an exercise in “how much can I make a song sound like it’s from an 80’s soundtrack?!” and the answer is, quite a lot, the song just isn’t very good.
Golden Silvers - True Romance
This just isn’t fair. It’s the second album I’ve reviewed today, and the second I’ve liked. And I like disapproving of bands, it’s more fun; these damn bands just keep sucking me in with their goodness and I suppose I’m sucking in theirs (that was a sentence I’ll aim never to repeat).
First off, the album thrilled me. And I mean fucking THRILLED me by having organs right at the start, finger snaps and organs. That’s all I need, I’ll not go into it again, but it’s to do with a show involving disembodied hands and tall butlers.
This offering from Golden Silvers is full of some great tunes, ranging from choppy Dylan-esque funky vocals on the title track through to the great ’80s dance-along ‘Arrows of Eros’ which makes me jig along like a train. … Continue Reading
Fenech Soler
I suspect that King’s Cliffe is lacking in great electro bands, but at least they have one, Fenech Soler. Incidentally, putting Fenech into your image search engine brings up a lot of pictures of a 1960s erotic actress, so just be careful if you’re at work.
Voxtrot - Trepanation Party
You know what makes it hard to review CDs? When your girlfriend is in the room attempting to sing along without knowing the words, so all you can hear is the beat and a voice in your left ear going “Nahnahnaaahhnaaaaahhh!”. That said, it shows the strength of the track’s solid groove, created by big splashy piano chords and percussive guitars, with just enough drums to hold it all together.
White Rabbits
When I first heard this offering from White Rabbits I thought I was uninspired to write about it because it was around 1am and I’d had a long day of lounging, but with the help of second opinions from third parties and repeated next day listens I’ve realised it’s just because it’s incredibly dull.
At first I thought Tommy Ludgate was a man [Ed - uh oh, déjà vu anyone?] , just going on the name, it turns out I was wrong and she’s a 22 year old singer from London, who has a very non-manly smoky jazzclub voice, not the kind of voice that’s generated by smoky clubs, like say, Lemmy from Motorhead though. I love Lemmy, I’ve heard his warts are insured, though that might just be a rumour, anyway, back to the song. … Continue Reading
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