Spectrals/Fair Ohs

The current D.I.Y scene in East London seems to be producing quality bands and recordings at an incredible rate, with a range and depth of sounds that means if one of these bands aren’t for you, then the chances are two or three others will be. A few of these artists have recently been brought together on the Italian Beach Babes/Paradise Vendors Inc compilation available here, which serves as both a summation of and introduction to what has been going on. While the scene’s most prominent band and driving force behind Paradise Vendors Inc, Male Bonding, are off to tour the U.S. with Vivian Girls before the release of their debut album on Sub Pop, back in the UK Fairs Ohs and Spectrals are busy building up their own followings with limited releases like this split 7”.

Fair Ohs take afrobeat rhythms and melodies and combine them with clattering percussion and noisy guitars. Vampire Weekend comparisons are perhaps inevitable, but you can still hear traces of the trio’s beginnings as a hardcore band in their punkish energy that means they steer away from the Brooklyn band’s polite precision. Don’t be fooled though – like Male Bonding, the noisey, ragged surface of their songs hide a phenomenally tight musical unit. ‘Hey Lizzy’ in particular fizzes with a kind of sunny-dark energy that is, in their own words, ‘like Paul Simon but… you know… punk’.

Spectrals’ songs, on other hand, are more maudlin affairs, steeped as they are in plenty of noise and reverb. They are the work of Louise Jones, a musician from Leeds and he filters influences as diverse as The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers, and The Modern Lovers through a love of garage rock and an unmistakably Yorkshire viewpoint and voice. While ‘Birthday Kiss’ swaggers with uncertainty, with the guitar sounding like it was plucked straight from the early ‘60s but daubed with My Bloody Valentine-esque hazy effects, ‘Keep Your Magic Out Of My House’ is a hidden pop song, complete with the attitude of The Supremes via Mark E Smith. Spectrals has an album due sometime this year on Captured Tracks.

Available on the excellent Tough Love Records, who have also released material from Male Bonding, Eat Skull, and Calories to name a few, this split is an interesting glimpse into the way the lo-fi aesthetic is being absorbed by UK musicians in different ways. Fans of Wavves, Vivian Girls, and Best Coast would do well to look to London for variations on a sound that has been dominated by Americans until recently.

Parenthetical Girls - Privilege, pt. 1 EP

A favourite of a certain Gareth Campesinos!, this is the first part of what promises to be an exciting endeavour – a series of five self contained, self released EP’s to release, in the words of singer Zac Pennington, “short, appetising bursts of anima”.  And appetising it certainly does sound.

Opener ‘Evelyn McHale’s jangling intro drum rolls into a distinctive, sumptuous croon, Pennington reminding his subject of “When you got crippled by that car / When we was martyred monthly / And scarred by the way that we are / We nearly broke your mothers heart”.  A morbid set of words indeed, juxtaposed against a rather more upbeat tune adorned with the aforementioned jangling and swooping swirls of sound.

‘Someone Else’s Muse’ starts with church style organs before launching lovingly into a further memoir of what once was, both good and bad (”We both said things that we’d come to regret”).  Dropping in with a mid section of clattering drums at one moment before turning in a second break of piano and hi hat tapping.  “It was all that I could muster / Just to kiss you”.  You can feel the emotion dripping from the vocals throughout.

The start of ‘On Death And Endearments’ oddly reminds me of The Corrs, in the breathy female boo-ba’s that mark the introduction of another tale of loss, remarking this time that he is “Shit at goodbyes”, later hoping that “History / She will surely forgive me” over wistful electronica.

There is something funereal about the EP’s closing track ‘Found Drama I’, with the return of the organ the angelic chorals and the single death rattle rat-a-tat ending.

The overall sound is one of a ramshackle loveliness, of both longing for something and of being totally at peace without it, all the while remembering…well, again I shall turn to Pennington to sum up his bands work - “…one of the album’s major themes is the beauty inherent in heroic, unequivocal failure”.

This may be a theme perhaps, but not a result.  Not at all.  The Privilege is all mine.

Boris Dlugosch

When I loaded the latest single from the German deep house producer Boris Dlugosch onto my iPod I was half expecting it to go into a state of shock due to the presence of such a foreign body on its hard drive. Not that I have anything against German deep house but I guess I always tended to equate it to doner kebabs, brilliant at 3am when you’ve had a skinfull but not so advisable at any other time. Which is why I was somewhat shocked when I heard ‘Bangkok’… and actually quite liked it!

This German barrage of bass kicks off with a rather straight drum beat and synth line, however this is just regular façade of what is, on the whole, a rather edgy track. The main hook sounds like a Smurf with a hollow wooden arse having its head slammed in a door whilst being smacked on the rear end with a drum stick, well it does to me anyway…..and I love it, and you should too!

The background to this Smurf-related assault is provided by a deep, crunching bass beat so dark and murky it should be housed in London Dungeons; equally brilliant.

However, this track also seems to have one foot in the past as a vintage sounding ascending synth line conjures images of old Daft Punk albums, before being crushed by the London Dungeon bass blob and Smurf assaulting drummer.

Thank you, Boris Dlugosch, for giving me my first pleasant sober experience of deep house, and thank you also for deciding what I should have for lunch tomorrow… extra salad and garlic mayo please!

Cass McCombs - Dreams Come True Girl

The inclusion of the word ‘girl’ is a tricky one. Musically, depending on its placement within a sentence, it can have the detrimental effect of dating a song quite dramatically.

Glancing at the title to Cass McCombs’ debut single, from his forthcoming album Catacombs, may work to instantaneously highlight how the song might sound. It does. Add to this the fact that when Cass McCombs croons in with, “You’re not my dream girl/You’re not my reality girl/You’re my dreams come true girl”, the plodding patter of the music weighs down the words in a way that renders them simply drab. The aforementioned line requires straining the “dreams-come-true-girl” over an already flaccid beat. It’s cringeworthy.

There’s not an awful else to go on. It’s got a ‘Stand By Me’ bass line; elsewhere it’s an oft two chord acoustic dirge with the occasional twang thrown in. Some might enjoy the monotony; alas the song is a scroll of nothingness. The inclusion of Karen Black does little to add any colour, but instead busies an already long track with a warbling drone akin to your drunk aunt at karaoke. The guitar solo toward the end shows promise, but elsewhere the music goes nowhere in highlighting the abilities of Mr McCombs. In fact, it does quite the opposite. One only hopes that his other output is not as colourless as ‘Dreams Come True Girl’.

The Blackout

Ah, emo, I’ve missed you. Only kidding. You might hide behind a lie of being “post-hardcore”, but I can spot you a mile off. The preposterous band name, the pretentious song title, the dumbness of having yet another heavy rock outfit from Wales (we already have to put up with Lostprophets, what have we done to deserve this?), it’s just not possible to take it seriously.

That said, this The Blackout song’s not all bad, it crunches along happily enough for a bunch of depressed kids, Sean Smith has the perfect voice for the band and it all seems harmless enough. It’s disposable, mass produced commercial fast-food mush. You won’t be “begging for more”, as Smith hopefully claims.

They’re hugely indebted to My Chemical Romance, but don’t let that put you off if you wear only black clothes and have a nine-inch fringe, as you’ll probably love this. Having had recent success on the UK Rock and Indie charts, this is a big chance for them to cement their future. They probably just about do enough.

'Allo Darlin'

There’s a special place in every girl’s heart for twee pop. The Cardigans doing ‘Carnival’, Belle and Sebastian doing, well, any of their songs – it’s enough to make any red-blooded chick wear Hello Kitty slides in their fringe, get a uke and wear their boyfriend’s ratty brown cardigan.

Incidentally, making this sort of music have ‘Allo Darlin’ veer the same way – kooky, uke-y, and, on ‘The Polaroid Song’, very Lenka.

Elizabeth and Bill are from Australia, Mike and Paul are from Kent, but they’ve come together here in the UK to make the sort of fey indie pop that we should all demand more of. ‘The Polaroid Song’ is an upbeat, uptempo pop classic with its feet firmly in the past, telling tales of camera film of old.

The backing vocals add a richness to Elizabeth’s sweet vocal, and the whole thing is the aural equivalent of a hot chocolate packed with marshmallows – sweet, comforting and repeated consumption is never enough.

What would have been, in days of yore, the ‘B-side’ is the seasonally appropriate ‘Would You Please Spend New Year’s Eve With Me?’.

Steeped in some of that lovely ukelele tunefulness, Elizabeth’s breathy voice is both sweet and sultry, as she suggests we “hide in my bedroom and watch cartoons all night”. There’s a special place in every girl’s heart for that, too.

Mumford and Sons

Mumford and Sons played a gig in New York a few months ago, at the legendary Mercury Lounge, as a warm up to their SXSW performances.  Foolishly, I didn’t go, despite all the hype I’d heard about them.

Foolish, because if this track is anything to go by, Mumford and Sons would have been quite a treat to see.

‘Winter Winds’ is a delicious concoction of dreamy melodies and sweet lyrics. Banjos and trumpets feature heavily in this track, a somewhat strange combination, yet it works.

An upbeat little fellow, the song reminds me a lot of a tune which might have been played in some sort of medieval court; the trumpet solo near the end is particularly fanfare-like.  The music makes way for the verse, leaving Mumford’s voice enough room to tell his story without too much getting in the way, but the chorus is a rich mixture of vocal harmonies and band.

Lyrically poetic (“As the winter winds/litter London with lonely hearts/oh, the warmth in your eyes/swept me into your arms”), the song tells of the classic head vs. heart battle over love.  There is talk of beating hearts, and the fast paced strumming on the banjo does a good job of emulating the quickening of a heartbeat upon seeing a loved one.

The folksy feel, the use of banjo and the poetic lyrics could be compared easily to Fleet Foxes and possibly even Willy Mason (although this is slightly more cheerful) – both of whom are critically acclaimed artists.  Mumford & Sons have also had their fair share of praise, and having heard their material for the first time here, I think it’s thoroughly deserved.

The Toxic Avenger

Simon Delacroix, better known as The Toxic Avenger has released another electro-thrash single (although from what I’m hearing it would be better coined electro-trash for the 4 minutes of pain endured by my ears!).

‘Toxic is Dead’ is missing a strong bass-beat and as such seems weak in comparison with other tunes in this genre. Not sure this has the “colossal bass lines” it claims to have and I feel it’s unlikely to be the huge hit the label may well have dreamed of! The track is designed for audiences to lose themselves in, but this is not possible until at least 2 minutes into the tune, prior to this it’s just a mass of noise.

The so-called melodic rage of this track is indeed hair-raising but not in a good way. The screaming synths may indeed make you lose your mind – quite literally. The orchestrations and pulsating rhythms unfortunately do nothing to pull this track up – it is certainly a sincerely sinister, lost effort.

If these are the sort of tracks by which the electro community benchmark future pieces of work my heart goes out to them, for they have been lulled into this unbelievable drivel replicating something thrown together in the bedroom of an acting-out teenager – grow up and put some real weight behind your tunes.

Blue Roses

Let’s get this straight – Blue Roses (aka singer-songwriter Laura Groves) is in possession of a ‘voice’.

And not just a pretty voice, not even just a strong voice – but a voice with a remarkable, unique quality which may have warranted legions of favourable Kate Bush comparisons, but ultimately means Laura transcends them.

In today’s overcrowded British female singer-songwriter market, where Kate Bush comparisons are bandied about willy-nilly, and have almost become lazy journalistic short-hand for ‘Female singer-songwriter, looks slightly bonkers’, Laura is a misfit – she has none of Florence Welch’s embarrassing histrionics, none of La Roux’s trashy futurisms, or any of Natasha Khan’s art house glamour – instead she has embodied the earthy, demure appeal of a wounded Bronte heroine, each of her songs possessing a swooning, gauzy romanticism reminiscent of a female Chris Garneau, or Soap&Skin at her most complacent.

The EP opens on the title track; the delicate ‘Does Anyone Love Me Now?’ which introduces a gentle, undulating guitar motif before spiralling off into flurries of dizzying whimsy, Laura’s steady, increasingly strident vocals balancing themselves atop the waves of the gently building, waltz-time melody. ‘Does Anyone Love Me Now?’ was always one of the more immediate tracks from Laura’s self-titled – and although there’s nothing as prosaic as a chorus, the instantly recognisable “woah-woah-woah” refrain grounds the track, and lets Laura experiment with different orchestral textures – such as the clickety-clack percussion and buoyant handclaps that introduce themselves near the end of the track, or the twinkling harp that strings itself over Laura’s plaintive cries of “Two nights in a row, I didn’t see the moon hanging in the sky!”

Next up is a live version of ‘Doubtful Comforts’- also taken off Laura’s self-titled – surprisingly, with Leeds-based indie rock band Grammatics. However, Laura hasn’t quite ripped off her petticoat and swathed herself in leather just yet – the live version stays strictly faithful to soft guitar chords and kitsch cowbells of the original – the only difference is that Grammatic’s lead singer Owen Brinley chimes in for the second half of the song. As a duo, Laura and Owen work well together – Owen’s fervent yelps contrast nicely with Laura’s flouncing, feminine trill – although if I could have chosen Laura’s duet partner (I wish!), I would have went for someone with a highly masculine voice – like Bill Callahan or Zach Cordon – to heighten the concurrence between the bellowing male voice and Laura’s high, girlish quaver.

The third and final track is a cover of blues singer Irma Thomas’s ‘Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)’. On this track, Blue Roses manages to sound exactly – and I mean exactly – like St. Vincent. The combination of the pounding drumbeat, ghostly, sixties-inspired harmonies and whirring background synths makes Thomas’s classic sound exactly like an outtake from ‘Actor’ – and although Blue Roses may not have exactly put her original spin on it, the transition from soul standard to wonky pop song is remarkable.

Although the quality of material on ‘Does Anyone Love Me Now?’ is remarkable, at only three tracks long – and none of them new material – this is a slim release, even for an EP, and essential only for hardcore Blue Roses fans. For new listeners, I’d suggest picking up a copy of her fantastic debut self-titled album, if you want to get more ethereal prettiness for your pennies.

Plasticines

If you’re not familiar with the Parisian rock chicks that are Plastiscines then strap yourselves in and prepare to go on an exciting musical journey.….

This single is the first time the girls have written their songs in English as opposed to French, not an easy task I’m sure you’ll agree, but the result of which is sounding extremely fresh and sultry at a time when we are being bombarded by much of a muchness in terms of musical output from female groups.

The all-girl rock band, made up of Katty on vocals, Marine on guitar, Anais on drums and Louise on bass, have released their second single, ‘Barcelona’, which starts out with great, punky hard beats – a totally memorable impact. Although this particular track evaporates quite quickly into a sound extremely reminiscent of many other girl groups gracing our stages (Girls Aloud etc), the French foursome add punchy kicks and a splice of husky, honey-dipped tones to ensure their originality stands them apart. And indeed it does, the track is fun, upbeat and bound to have you begging for more.

‘Barcelona’, is the first single from Plastiscines album About Love which is due out 2010 and set for big things. Having had their first interntional hit whilst still in high-school, appearing on Gossip Girl and supporting Little Boots these spunky four are clearly totally rocking-it!