Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms

Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

Thump, thump, thump, thump…

Whilst I wouldn’t want to claim any sort of encyclopaedic knowledge of internet music journalism, there seems to me to be two specific musical aesthetics which have been especially successful in making bloggers cream themselves this year: lo-fi noise pop and one-man-and-his-laptop loops and samples. Neon Indian straddles both of these categories and, accordingly, is garnering a fair amount of e-attention. However, just as with any act who (presumably unwittingly) surfs the crest of a musical trend, the question is: should you believe the hype? I’d say no.

Thump, thump, thump, thump…

Initial signs for this act were pretty promising when album highlight ‘Deadbeat Summer’ appeared on the internet a few months ago. As the song splutters into motion, a stuttering wash of electronics swings freely in pitch along a dangerously loose melodic phrase serving as a great canvas on which to paint his song. Electronic riffs and guitar licks swim in and out of the mix beneath the well defined hooks of the songs’ verse and chorus. “Deadbeat summer/It’s just a deadbeat summer” isn’t going to win any awards for lyricism, but the irresistible, summery drawl of the song makes the thing a sultry little earwig – and, indeed, Neon Indian manages to pull off the same trick again a handful more times over the course of the album. … Continue Reading

Lou Barlow – Goodnight Unknown

Lou Barlow

Lou Barlow may sound like he’s giving lo-fi a crack at a mid-Western open mic night, but make no mistake, friend – he is the granddaddy of them all.

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First Aid Kit – Hard Believer/Waltz For Richard

First Aid Kit

If you didn’t already know that First Aid Kit’s Klara and Johanna Söderberg were Swedish sisters it’s likely that you wouldn’t guess their nationality from their music. They could quite easily come from the North West of the USA, home of Fleet Foxes who gave them a leg up by showcasing their heartbreaking cover of their ‘Mountain Tiger Peasant Song’ on their MySpace page. Now signed to Wichita, they have a debut album out next year and this lead-off single is a perfect showcase for them.

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The Xx – Islands

The Xx

‘Islands’ is a brilliant choice of single for The Xx. Most of the tracks on their eponymous debut do not make much sense on their own, but ‘Islands’ makes its breakthrough brilliantly, the girl-boy vocals of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim provide a superb introduction to what the band is all about.

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The Wave Pictures – Strawberry Cables

The Wave Pictures

The Wave Pictures have been quietly gigging as well as self-recording and releasing albums since the early part of the decade. This approach to their music is refreshingly old-fashioned – any other band may have sought out wider recognition long before now, or given up completely, but the band seem to have been content to just write songs, and have built up an impressive back catalogue as a result. Their albums look and sound like the work of just three men, while their songs are rooted in the strange, mundane reality of the 21st century.

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Omo – The White Album

Omo - The White Album

Very occasionally, an album arrives which leaves us scratching our heads. An album which, in spite of repeated listens, does not open itself up or click into place. An album which you just don’t quite know what to make of. The White Album by Omo is such an album.

Omo are a two piece outfit consisting of Berit Immig and David Muth, They’ve been playing together for about five years, and this, their debut long player, is an assemblage of what they describe as “domestic pop for domestic occasions”. And it’s an unbelievably frustrating listen.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Omo possess unbounded creativity and flair. The White Album a lesson in exemplary electro textures. There is no shortage of ideas lurking among the exquisite concoction of beats and lo-fi instrumentation. Penultimate track ‘Turtle Neck’, for example, marries a looped guitar line to a pounding electronic pulse and the result, although hardly anything new, is still something vitaland invigorating. ‘König’ is an edgy, atmospheric piece of music which shows a creepier facet to the band’s sound.

Sadly though, Omo give with one hand and take away with the other. The most exasperating thing about The White Album is the handling of the ‘zany’ subject matter of the lyrics which ranges from underwater robots, to making a cuppa, to why birds couldn‘t fly if their eggs were too heavy. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with humour in music. If Neil Hannon can pull off a whole album about cricket, then why shouldn’t Omo be able to give us a song about tennis? The key is in the way the songs are delivered. There’s precious little warmth in Immig’s spoken word vocal delivery, which means the absurdity of the songs just sounds forced. … Continue Reading

Cheatahs – Warrior/Minotaur

Cheatahs - Warrior/Minotaur

This double-header opens with a split second or two of faint hiss and crackle alerting us to the fact that we are almost certainly hearing a recording made in a band member’s bedroom or garage. Cheatahs, however, appear to be purposefully cultivating the low production value of the recording in an effort to create an atmosphere of distorted texture more akin to the hazy drone of bands like Women rather than the face melting abrasive lo-fi rock of someone like Wavves . Unfortunately, however, Cheatahs lack the charm or engagement of any of their shoegaze or lo-fi contemporaries.

The first of the two tracks, ‘Warrior’, is a simple verse-chorus-verse-chorus number with only two melodic phrases. “Like a waaarrrrior/Like a warrrriorrrr/Like a warrrrriorrrrruhhh” drones the insufferable chorus in a totally unengaged delivery. ‘Minotaur’, the other track on offer here, even abandons the idea of a B section and chooses to run one solitary melodic phrase into the ground over the course of a couple of minutes. This single melodic phrase does not, in case you’re interested, contain a hook. … Continue Reading

Japandroids – Post Nothing

Janapdroids

Art and music is nearly always worth far more than the sum of its parts. I mean, all Van Gogh ever did was slap some oil paints with a horsehair brush onto cheap canvas. And all Shakespeare did was to dip a feather plucked from some poor bird’s backside into a pot of ink and scrawl on some cheap parchment.

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Iron and Wine – Around The Well

Iron and Wine

It never fails to surprise me, the unexpected places you can find the music that you end up falling in love with.

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Woods – Songs of Shame

Woods - Songs Of Shame

In another of our world-famous head-to-heads, we’ve got two people giving a miniature take on the same album. Because we’re socialists and that. Have a read…

Take One – by Russell Warfield:

Songs of Shame starts in a fairly promising manner. Some of the bands within the current lo-fi movement could be accused of employing low budget production in an attempt to bestow their songs with a false sense of texture through the layering of fuzz and noise whilst neglecting to actually write solid tunes. In welcome contrast, then, the opening tracks of Woods’ album keep the mix clean enough for the listener to easily discern vaguely infectious melodies and guitar lines. … Continue Reading