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Here We Go Magic – A Different Ship

May 16, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship

By Matt Churchill

An incongruously industrial introduction to A Different Ship leads into an intimate folk track, singing about how it’s ‘Hard To Be Close’, with a gentle vocal positioning itself near enough to your ears to make it seem, in fact, quite easy. Building from an upbeat acoustic guitar accompaniment, the backdrop to this track gradually layers up to a plush landscape, continuing to grow in stature right to the end of the song. This broad sound then snaps us into a claustrophobic shuffle with ‘Make Up Your Mind’. Whilst the gentle build up of the album opener does take you away from the simple opening, it does not prepare you for this that would fill an intelligent dancefloor. Probably the most immediate track on Here We Go Magic‘s new album, with hushed, clipped lyrics and an enticing lilt of a chorus, it only disappoints when it ends without an ending. … Continue Reading

Simian Mobile Disco – Unpatterns

May 16, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

Simian Mobile Disco - Unpatterns

By Kenny McMurtrie

Album number four from Simian Mobile Disco and the duo have taken their feet off the pedals and decided to freewheel on this one it seems. Nary a decent hook throughout its length. Instead they’ve leant heavily towards the third word in their name and come up with a set of mid-paced background music which wouldn’t induce you to even tap your feet. So it’ll probably go down a storm live in a tent in a field when you’re off your face. Sans drugs, however, it’s all rather boring. … Continue Reading

Richard Hawley – Standing At The Sky’s Edge

May 15, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

Richard Hawley - Standing At The Sky's Edge

By Joe Bates

Hype can work in mysterious ways. More of a system in which all acts can exist than a force that lifts up certain artists, even the shiniest ‘undiscovered gem’ is not immune to it. Not that long ago, it was Elbow who benefited from not being hyped or over-exposed. ‘Elbow are doing this sort of thing but ten times better’, was the reaction when a particular Coldplay or Snow Patrol song became bafflingly ubiquitous, ‘so why is no one buying their records?’ When enough people began to voice variations of this, suddenly Elbow got massive. … Continue Reading

Beach House – Bloom

May 14, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

Beach House - Bloom

By Russell Warfield

2010’s Teen Dream was a colossal leap forward from what we’d previously heard from Beach House. Preserving the dream-like quality of their lauded nostalgia-laced ruminations, the duo refined their processes, tightened their structures and sharpened their melodies in comparison to the looser mood-piece feel of 2008’s (equally excellent in its own way) Devotion – a move which paid off to excellent effect. Hearing Teen Dream for the first time was enrapturing; a catalogue of quiet revelations – Legrand’s hooks hitting straight between the eyes with a previously unheard confidence, bolstered by a newfound clarity within the shimmering arrangements. Bloom, on the other hand, marks the first plateau in Beach House’s trajectory – not necessarily conceding a quasi-objective drop in quality, but undoubtedly signalling a stasis in their evolution; an album which sounds cut from exactly the same cloth as its predecessor. … Continue Reading

Peasant – Bound For Glory

May 11, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

Peasant - Bound For Glory

By Richard Wink

I reviewed Peasant’s second album On the Ground back in 2009 for The 405. I unfavourably scored the album, and questioned Peasant’s artistic integrity. When re-reading the review I perhaps was a little harsh. Therefore when the opportunity to review Bound For Glory arose I was intrigued hear if Peasant aka Damien DeRose had grown as an artist, and I could somehow make amends by writing a more positive review. Subconsciously, I wondered – was I looking to restore the karmic balance in a ‘My Name is Earl’ kinda way? … Continue Reading

S. Carey – Hoyas EP

May 10, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

S. Carey - Hoyas EP

By James Blake

There’s something suspicious about side projects. Accusations of unrest instantly attach themselves to the act in question with rumors of a dreaded farewell tour looming large. But do the same rules apply to Bon Iver, a band born from a cabin in the woods of Wisconsin? They survived their frontman’s rendezvous with Kanye but, traditionally more reserved drummer, S. Carey’s latest offering Hoyas could hold more answers. … Continue Reading

We Were Born Canaries – We Were Born Canaries

May 10, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

We Were Born Canaries - We Were Born Canaries

By Richard Wink

Scandinavian music tends to conjure a sense of theatrical fantasy. Whether it is satanic Norwegian Death Metal, impish Swedish pop, or Icelandic maverick music makers such as Bjork and Sigur Rós; but what of Denmark? We Were Born Canaries look to imprint themselves onto this great Scandinavian fairy tale with an arresting self-titled album which extols the vitality of half-forgotten youth. … Continue Reading

Off! – Off!

May 9, 2012 Album, Reviews 1 Comment

Off! - Off!

By Russell Warfield

It might sound paradoxical, but sixteen songs in sixteen minutes is a lot to take in. Press play – fucking hell - done. People talk about appreciating albums which they can fit into the time it takes to commute to work. You can nail this one on a coffee break. Twice. Of course, if you’ve any prior familiarity with Keith Morris’ work as part of Off! – or either of his previous seminal punkrock outfits Black Flag and Circle Jerks – you won’t be too surprised by this news. Off!’s debut LP is largely what you’d expect this pack of hardcore veterans’ debut LP to sound like: sixteen more gut-punches of exactly what came before it. Razor sharp riffs of choppy powerchords, super-tight drum patterns with a dangerous amount of fills-per-bar, searing five-second guitar solos, and Morris’ unmistakable vocal growling and snarling and spitting – all packed into tightly controlled explosions of thirty to sixty seconds. Hardcore punk exactly like they made it in the eighties. … Continue Reading

PS I Love You – Death Dreams

May 9, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

PS I Love You - Death Dreams

By Harry Bainbridge

The inspiration for Ontario heavy pop duo PS I Love You’s second offering Death Dreams is, funnily enough, vocalist and guitarist Paul Saulnier’s nightmares based around his own mortality. Whilst on tour last year he began to experience reoccurring dreams that would shape the direction for the band’s next LP. A suitably dark premise to start from, then. … Continue Reading

Damon Albarn – Dr Dee

May 8, 2012 Album, Reviews No Comments

Damon Albarn - Dr Dee

By Kenny McMurtrie

If John Adams ever writes a musical setting for the Latin mass there’s a good chance it will sound like large parts of Damon Albarn‘s Dr Dee. His efforts may be more listenable however, as Britpop this is clearly not. Nor are there any obvious African influences, given Albarn’s forays into the musical milieu of Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent years. Some sort of Olde English song cycle is maybe the closest reference point with his own vocals being more in line with The Good, The Bad & The Queen than Blur or Gorillaz. … Continue Reading

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