Aberfeldy – Somewhere To Jump From

Aberfeldy - Somewhere To Jump From

Despite being tour support for many high profile acts and featuring in a Coca Cola advert, Scottish indie-pop outfit Aberfeldy have somehow managed to elude any meaningful widespread recognition. Somewhere to Jump From helps us to understand why. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that it’s unassuming and modest to a fault – shuffling through the ears almost unnoticed, leaving no footprints in the wake of its gentle harmonies and acoustic strumming. … Continue Reading

The Count And Sinden – Mega Mega Mega

The Count And Sinden - Mega Mega Mega

It seems like a trend – producers or musicians who invite a host of singers to sing on their music. Earlier this year you had Kasper Bjorke, later this year you’ll have Maximum Balloon, and smack down in the middle of that you have The Count and Sinden with their debut Mega Mega Mega. This kind of approach makes sense, because it is so easy to do this. You don’t even have to meet the person (although the Mystery Jets collaboration was probably done together, them being neighbours and all), you can all do it via the internet. So collaborations are easier to do now than ever before, and it also makes more sense to do it now – think of the tags and consequent blog hits this can generate. … Continue Reading

of Montreal – False Priest

of Montreal - False Priest

After hearing the single ‘Coquet Coquette’, an early version of ‘Hydra Fancies’, and a televised performance of ‘Sex Karma’, we knew False Priest would be a great album. And after seeing the album artwork, we knew it would be a colourful and bizarre concoction of genius. Now that we’ve listened to False Priest in its entirety, we can safely say that this Athens, Georgia-based, modern-day glam band’s 10^th full-length studio album is worth all of the hype it’s been receiving. With cameos from Janelle Monae and Solange Knowles, a baffling hodgepodge of lyrics and the soulful falsetto of Kevin Barnes, this is one album we just can’t seem to turn off. … Continue Reading

The Super Vacations – Thicker Milk

The Super Vacations - Thicker Milk

Being let down following the big build up of a band’s new release seems to be an occurrence of increasing frequency these days. The Super Vacations, unfortunately for them, do nothing to reverse that trend. In the year that old hands The Coral come up with a career defining album, anyone else trading in anything even vaguely resembling Sixties psych, or garage at the lighter end of the scale, has a tough job on their hands already – but even without that benchmark being set these guys were never onto a winner. … Continue Reading

Wildbirds And Peacedrums – Rivers

If you take a little look at the bio of Wildbirds and Peacedrums on Spotify you will see that they are described as ‘almost unclassifiable’. Rather than being a cop-out of an attempt to compartmentalize, perhaps this is a fair description. If we were forced, I guess we would say blues as an over-arching style. Nonetheless, Wildbirds and Peacedrums’ latest, Rivers, is a compilation of two previously vinyl-only EPs – Retina and Iris - and both could conceivably come from different bands. This becomes all the more impressive when one remembers that this band is in fact a duo. Swedish vocalist Mariam Wallentin and drummer Andreas Weliin each have their own variable styles and these come together in an interesting number of combinations in Rivers and result in an enjoyable collection. … Continue Reading

Fennesz/Daniell/Buck – Knoxville

Fennesz/Daniell/Buck - Knoxville

A lot of music journalism is a bluff. Upon being assigned an album to review, writers often fall immediately to sniffing around Google in an effort to contextualise the record within its zeitgeist and genre. The eventual hope is that the reader hears a voice that Gets The Record and Knows What It’s Talking About. Sometimes, however, a reviewer is forced to throw their hands in the air and confess that a record has left them adrift in a sea of experimental abstraction. Live recording Knoxville by three of the world’s most well respected purveyors of improvised experimental music – Christian Fennesz, David Daniell, and Tony Buck – is such a record. My critical faculties cower in the presence of what is essentially a physical experience, rather than an aural one. … Continue Reading

Tame Impala – Innerspeaker

Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

When you first sit down to Innerspeaker, it’s not advisable to drive or operate any heavy machinery for an hour or so as you’ll likely be awash in a musically-induced euphoric high. Drawing influence equally from The Beatles and Cream (amongst hints of British music of latter decades), the Perth trio Tame Impala serve up an accomplished example of modern day psychedelica that will simultaneously chill spines and liquefy thoughts.

Right off the opening track ‘It Is Not Meant To Be’, Tame Impala capture the drug-addled essence of the 60s and 70s with guitars that lead ears past normal aural boundaries and drums that tether you to conscious planes with hypnotically precise rhythms.  Indeed, a passing listener could easily mistake this album for some classic stoner record from last century.  After all, the effects used on the vocals and guitars give a dated sound, verging on an almost-underwater feel to large parts of some tracks. … Continue Reading

Holy Ghost! – Static On The Wire EP

Holy Ghost! - Static On The Wire EP

Since the end of Carthage a battle hasn’t been fought as valiantly as the one DFA is fighting for the disco genre. Through DJ sets, new bands, old bands with new albums, and by their general aesthetic, the DFA label is doing their utmost to get the underground New York vibe out there. One of the exponents of that label is the band Holy Ghost!, who have just recently finished a tour opening for DFA labelmates LCD Soundsystem. On the back of that stint they’re releasing their EP Static on the Wire with three spanking new tracks and old single ‘I Will Come Back’. … Continue Reading

!!! – Strange Weather, Isn’t It?

!!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

Ah, Berlin. Any band or artist worth their salt has decamped there at least once in their lifetime in an attempt to soak up some of the energy of the city and its clubs and transfer it into music. It worked for Bowie, it worked for Iggy, and if Strange Weather, Isn’t It? is anything to go by, and it is, it’s definitely worked for !!!, albeit in different ways as their latest effort sounds a million miles from anything remotely dark and mechanical. … Continue Reading

Les Savy Fav – Root For Ruin

Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin

The future existence of Les Savy Fav has been a hot topic of speculation amongst the fans since the band finally emerged from a self-imposed, two-year hiatus with 2007’s Let’s Stay Friends, which in itself was only the band’s second studio release in a six-year stretch. The same break-up rumours surfaced again during the intervening years between said release and Root For Ruin but once again Tim Harrington and co have returned and surprised the doubters.

And what better way to state your intentions and calm the potential worries of the growing legions of fans with album opener ‘Appetites’? In trademark Les Savy Fav fashion, spiky, effect laden guitars howl across the snappy three and a half minutes, accompanied by an ever present and prominent bass rumble. The song’s message isn’t a subtle one in the stomping punk shout-along chorus – “We still got our appetite! We still got our appetite!” … Continue Reading