Back in the day.

I decided to put on The Vines debut album Highly Evolved earlier and it took me back to the music industry of old. A time when bands were allowed to enjoy growing from an unknown act to a festival headlining, multi-platinum selling, Grammy Award winning band without any rush. Fans could watch them evolve and feel like they played a part in their move from playing pub gigs to arenas for example. This was a time when up and coming bands would play at a Virgin Megastore and do a signing afterwards and you didn’t even have to buy a ticket to get in.

I used to regularly go to a humble little venue in Cambridge called The Boat Race. Now this venue is long gone now, I believe it is a wine bar these days in fact but when I went it was a dingy gig venue with a capacity that I can’t believe was more than 150 people. Sweat dripped off the ceiling and the crowd spilled onto the stage making every gig intimate and very high in energy. You’d hang out with the band afterwards getting to know the people behind the music as it were, and then chances are a couple of weeks later they would pop up in the NME as the ‘next big thing’.

Now I am not saying that every band I saw play there became huge - far from it in fact, but I should think that 90% of them went onto play bigger venues such as The Forum and The Astoria (RIP) in London maybe. But there were one or two that had good careers - The Datsuns went on to play main stage festival slots, I believe they are on their fifth album now and still going strong. However when I saw them for the first time I had the drummer come up to me afterwards to apologise for throwing a drum stick at my head. The Libertines became pretty huge (bit of an understatement), and I can say that I was a part of the beginning of their career as I watched Carl Barât and Pete Doherty fighting outside The Boat Race as I was thinking to myself “wow they are a rubbish band” (I take it back now I’d like to add).

These days the music industry doesn’t allow bands or music fans to have these moments. Most of the time the only acts you see at small venues are unsigned, and if they’re not then they are either simply terrible or the tickets are so exclusive the venue is only full of industry bods. As soon as an artist/ act begins to make a name for themselves they are put on some kind of NME Unsigned Extravaganza Tour with huge amounts of press and big venues like the Brixton Academy. They are kept well away from fans of the music and treated like superstars when they probably haven’t even finished writing their first album yet. I’m not saying that seeing unsigned bands is a bad thing, in fact I believe it is great for the industry and even better for the music but the odds of a band making it now are so slim that chances are your favourite unsigned act will always stay exactly that.

Feeling like I was there at the beginning of a bands career as I watched them grow was, and still is a great feeling. Listening back to albums such as Highly Evolved reminds how the music industry used to be much less money grabbing and intrusive. A band could go at their own pace and enjoy every moment of it and in turn probably appreciated it more as they got more attention. I can only hope that one day the the record labels and the likes of the NME will take a step back and allow bands to grow naturally - for the fans sake if no-one else.

The state of festivals today.

I went to my first music festival in 2002; back then a weekend at Reading Festival cost £90 for four days of entertainment and it was worth every penny. It was a great line-up (Foo Fighters, Muse, Feeder, The Prodigy, Incubus, NOFX, The White Stripes, Blues Explosion, Rival Schools, Aphex Twin… the list goes on) any modern day festival could only dream of a line-up full of acts that current and well established.

Fast forward a few years and Reading & Leeds boast what can only be described as an overpriced B-Festival. My Chemical Romance, bottled at previous years of playing Reading & Leeds and since have got more and more pop oriented - not the best choice to headline in my opinion. The Strokes who have done nothing in the last few years of note and are still living off the success of their first album (I am prepared to put money on them ending their set with ‘Last Night’). I’m not going to bore you by analysing the whole line-up, but as you look at all the bands playing, as with many other festivals this year they are either A) a rehash of festival line-ups from the past ten years, or B) just plain average. There is nothing really new for the festival goers to experience, so why then do the organisers feel they can charge through the roof???

I have had this argument with a few people recently; I think that £200 to go to an average weekend of music is ridiculous. Yes, I know if you wanted to go and see any of the headline bands separately it would cost £40-50 a go, but each of those concerts would be more intimate with better sound and a better atmosphere so that really is a non-argument for me. I also understand that if you see 50 bands over the weekend it works out at £4 per band, however the majority will only play for 20 minutes and to be honest, 50 bands over the weekend is near impossible unless you cut watching each acts set short. There is no way that £200 is justifiable and all it is doing it making it harder for ‘average earners’ to buy tickets.

Tell me I’m wrong if you want, but this is now being shown by the speed of ticket sales. Every year there is a rush to buy festival tickets with the major players such as Reading & Leeds, V Festival and Glastonbury selling out in a matter of minutes. Reading & Leeds tickets went on sale a couple of weeks ago and I can still get a weekend ticket or any day ticket now. I received an email from them last night explaining there are now four month payment plans in place to spread the cost of the festival, something that I have noticed with a few events this year. They are clearly starting to get worried that with the extortionate prices and same old bands they will have a half empty field come August bank holiday weekend, and so they should be. I have a horrible feeling that unless these festival organisers pull their finger out and organise a decent weekend of music, or at least drop their prices, this could be the beginning of the end for some of the most famous and well respected summer festivals in the world.

Alain Weber – Hoover Cover (Poor Records)

Alain Weber is a musician and DJ from Switzerland that has been writing and producing music for the past twenty years. However he shows no evidence of this on his latest release ‘Hoover Cover’. Forgive me for being blunt here, but very little if any musical experience is displayed through this painfully dull forty minute album. 

The melodic ideas are that of an extreme beginner; someone who has sat down at a piano for the first time and played a couple of notes. Broken chords are used and overused throughout by a plethora of cheap sounding instruments. I can only think that Mr Weber has never listened to an album by an esteemed artist before. In fact he may not have listened to any music before. If he had then he would surely realise that a few chromatic scales, broken chords, drone notes and randomly placed timpani don’t actually create music per se. 

It is embarrassing that artists like this (and I use the term ‘artist’ loosely here) can get a record deal and release music when there are so many more incredibly talented musicians/ composers/ producers out there that are getting no recognition for what they do. I don’t really want to give this album a mark out of ten, however as I have in the past, I have to praise Alain Weber for being so brave as to release something that in my opinion is utterly terrible. So for that alone ‘Hoover Cover’ gets a solitary 1/10 

www.myspace.com/alanweiber

Caro Snatch – Til You’re No Longer Blinkered (Emms)

I always look forward to hearing something slightly obscure, and with the likes of James Blake and Jamie xx hitting the headlines in recent months it seems obscure might just be the ‘cool’ musical genre to be part of for the foreseeable future. Caro Snatch is definitely going for a place in this genre bracket with her mix of avant-garde, electronic, spoken word and operatic stylings on her latest release ‘Til You’re No Longer Blinkered’. So how does she fare alongside the likes of Blake and Jamie xx? 

The only answer I can come up with for that question upon listening to this, her second full length album, is “not very well”. Caro Snatch has been releasing music for the last seven years and all I can think is that now, when her style would be appreciated most, she has run out of ideas. The songs on ‘Til You’re No Longer Blinkered’ are long and drawn out: The spoken vocal style is quite uncomfortable to listen to (imagine your grand mother talking to you in what she considers her ‘sexy voice’, it’s not very pleasant). Then there is the attempted singing: I say attempted because it isn’t very melodic, and any harmonies added are painfully out of tune. The only saving grace for this album is that some of the backing tracks are beautifully crafted. The transitions from electronic to classical influences are seamless and add a real depth to what on paper might seem quite empty and bland. However the vocal lines are so overpowering that it becomes near impossible to block them out meaning it is often hard to be able to appreciate the great production on the backing tracks underneath. 

‘Til You’re No Longer Blinkered’ definitely can be categorised under ‘obscure’ music, however that doesn’t mean that it is also musically viable. Without the terrible vocals this record would be worth listening to, but then it wouldn’t be a Caro Snatch album. As it is, I can’t help but feel like some great musical ideas have gone to waste. 3/10 

www.carosnatch.com

Tahiti 80 – The Past, The Present & The Possible (Human Sounds)

I have been accused in the past of passing judgement on some bands far too quickly, which although it hurts me to admit is probably true. Well Tahiti 80’s latest offering ‘The Past, The Present & The Possible’ was one of those moments that I realised I need to give bands a chance. As I started listening I immediately decided that it was going to be another standard electronic pop album and was ready to give up. But I didn’t and am so glad that I carried on intently hoping for something more, because what I discovered after my first full listen was that in fact this album is a great mix of genre flipping, electronic rock full of highs, lows and lots in-between. 

Album opener ‘Defender’ gets the ball rolling with layers of fuzz bass, dirty guitars and synths building up until it explodes allowing room for luscious vocal harmonies and big drum fills aplenty. They switch from electronic drums to live drumming taking the chorus line to a whole new musical level; a technique that is used effectively throughout the album. The songs are fast paced, eccentric and very memorable with a style that is similar to Super Furry Animals at one moment, ‘Kid A’ era Radiohead the next, and with the occasional hint of Aqualung in there for good measure. But it is when the band really let themselves go that everything gets that little bit more exhilarating: Their extended version of ‘Crack Up’ comes in at eight minutes long and is without a doubt the highlight of the album. Initially sounding like a pretty standard disco rock song, it is allowed to grow into something much more spectacular as synth tracks are layered on top of one another. The resulting sound is heavy and dance driven, like it were plucked straight out of The Chemical Brothers’ album ‘Come With Us’. 

This French six piece (as they are now) have gone through a lot in their extensive career, and have made many attempts at releasing something that will not only be able to define them as a band, but also help to make a name for themselves. It may have taken fifteen years to come to fruition but better late than never – ‘The Past, The Present & The Possible’ could indeed be that album. This is a record created by a band that are experienced at what they do and quite obviously love every minute of it, and that comes across perfectly in what is an outstanding sixth album for Tahiti 80. 9/10 

www.tahiti80.com

Emmy’s Unicorn – Singular [Demo]

Emmy’s Unicorn are singer Emmy-Lou Kay and Welsh composer/ producer Mr Ronz. Having made a name for himself working on many television and film scores previously, Mr Ronz’s sound falls somewhere between a cinematic soundscape, hip-hop and electronica. Emmy’s Unicorn are no different on this front, being very hard to define maybe Emmy-Lou Kay describes it best when she labels them ‘Dream Pop’. However you would like to think of it, ‘Singular’ itself has a dreamscape that is easy to get lost in: Charmingly smooth pads layered with delicate arpeggiated synth sounds and clean guitars are contrasted perfectly by a busy rolling drum track. Add to this the quite haunting 'Number Station' breaks and giant vocals from Emmy-Lou Kay and you have something quite special. 

After the success of their two shows at the end of 2010, Emmy’s Unicorn are planning a host of other live dates in the near future with the accompaniment of a string quartet which will be something not to miss. However if you can’t wait until those dates are announced, they will be releasing a free single soon to whet your appetite; recorded at their show at The Union Chapel in December, it is sure to give you a taste of what is no doubt going to be a great year for the duo. 9/10 

http://emmysunicorn.blogspot.com/

Not Squares email interview:

Having said yourselves that you draw influence from the likes of Soulwax, LCD & Crystal Castles and with such a fast paced, dance heavy debut in ‘Yeah OK’, who/ what was it that inspired you to write music like this in the first place?

We wanted to make upbeat music that continues to move in directions. For example, recently we have felt compelled to explore the world of disco (and Arthur Russell). 

How does the writing process work? Does it come from jamming as a band or do you bring in ideas individually and work on them etc?

We jam as a band and quite often leave a voice recorder on, then maybe end up jamming on a certain part and start the process again, we each bring ideas to the mix at that point and work it out from there. We often play new songs live before they’re finished just to see if the live setting can mould them somehow more organically with the atmosphere of an audience. 

Looking at your tour schedule for December alone it looks like things are pretty hectic for you guys. Do you get tired of playing the same songs every night, or do the crowds keep everything fresh for you?

The gigs are always different, for example we’re going from Two Door Cinema Club shows where the venues are huge and we’re playing huge sound-systems to small inimate club venues and hopefully the odd house-party (basement show in Leeds next week Rich?!) 

What could someone expect from a Not Squares live show?

Wide-eyed dance riots, catchy bass riffs, and screaming grown men. 

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

Probably our album launch at the end of November, we were surrounded by friends who enjoy going nuts with our music and dancing their asses off. 

You’ve been extremely well received from the media so far in your career, is that in the back of your mind when you’re working on new ideas?

We don’t really think about media as its hard to predict, but feedback is always welcome. I guess we probably think more of what friends, bands or musicians would think rather than critics. 

What can we expect from Not Squares in 2011?

New material, remixes, a second album hopefully, we’ve already got a few new songs on the stove and we’re currently testing a couple out live. We’d like to take a couple of months in February and March to focus on writing and recording new stuff. A mega European and Japanese tour would be nice too. 

What is on your CD player right now? Or if you don’t have a CD player (I can’t quite believe I’m saying that) what was the last song played on your generic MP3 player?

On the way to Galway today we listened to Selda Bagcan and Ratatat. 

Where can you see yourselves as a band in ten years time?

Ten Years is too far away to think about seeing anything – a greek architect Christos Papoulias once told me nobody should plan anything more than 6 months in advance and I believed him. 

Finally, if you could open for any band past or present then who would it be and why?

Fleetwood Mac cos its Fleetwood Mac!

2000 Fast Women – Letters From Vienna (Ashley Beedle Remix) [Single] (Wrapt Up)

2010 has without a doubt been the year of dubstep; I would predict that the vast majority of new acts, new releases and high charting singles have fallen into this genre over the last year. Its dirty dance sound reminiscent of drum and bass, dub, garage and grime is very heavy and infectious, add to that (usually) some sweet vocal melodies over the top and you all of a sudden have something completely unobtrusive and very catchy. So when I heard that Max Taylor (bassist for Roots Manuva/ Groove Armada/ Clor) and drummer John Maiden (Tricky) were starting a new project I have to admit I was expecting them to be doing something from this growingly popular genre. How wrong I was; in fact the original version of ‘Letters From Vienna’ is nothing short of a pop rock song. However there are a couple of remixes that are picking up a lot of attention, including this Ashley Beedle mix. 

From the start of the track there is a bongo line that sounds like it was stolen directly from Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band’s version of ‘Apache’, but it only takes forty seconds to change into something much darker. In come the bass lines so familiar with dubstep now, heavy on the reverb and very distorted. It could be mistaken for some kind of 90’s speed garage track if it weren’t for the vocals holding it together and giving it a more modern feel. The general idea of the original song is there, the offbeat guitars and the eerie synths are all included here but the overall sound is much more accomplished. It sounds like a finished article rather than the original track that only sounds like the beginnings of something that could be much better. It shows off Ashley Beedle as a great remix artist and someone who can take something quite plain and bring it to life. Don’t get me wrong the original song is alright (it’s got to be near impossible to make a good remix of a terrible track) but I think that this mix of ‘Letters From Vienna’ has much more substance behind it and a much more mainstream feel… for now at least. 7/10 

http://www.myspace.com/2000fastwomen

Butterfly Fan The Inferno – Brassneck [Single] (Self Release)

Jam bands were one of the best things to come out of the 90’s for me: A group of talented musicians get together, have a jam and make some crazy-ass music. What amounts from this situation is usually veering towards the funk rock style; lazy, dirty, psychedelic and heavy on the solos. Butterfly Fan The Inferno’s latest single ‘Brassneck’ is exactly that: Starting with a laid back groove between the bass and drums that is layered with vocals and an almost constant guitar solo that fills out any of the gaps left in the audio spectrum, it immediately reminds me of US jam bands such as Umphrey’s McGee and String Cheese Incident. With a sound like that I wasn’t surprised to see that this Birmingham based quartet actually started up across the pond.

Their sound is big and boisterous with a ska twang in there for good measure, but I can’t help but think that the song lacks a little depth. It feels like it wants to move away from the initial riff at some point, taking the track somewhere unexpected instead of sticking to the comfort of a verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. There isn’t a strong enough hook for this song to warrant staying safe and a little bit of thinking out of the box wouldn’t go amiss. Because of this it ends up sounding like a jam band attempting a pop song, which just isn’t quite right in my opinion. That doesn’t mean to say that what they have created in ‘Brassneck’ isn’t good, I just think that with a little bit more thought it could turn into something quite amazing. 6/10

www.myspace.com/butterflyfantheinferno

Nickel Pressing – Uncanny (Loaf Recordings)

Every once in a while I hear of a new band that when described to me gets me genuinely intrigued. Whether it’s because I’ve heard they sound like another band I love, they have amazing live shows, or maybe because they just they’re a little bit ‘out there’, it could be the tiniest thing and it makes me sit up and take notice. Well I had one of these moments when I heard about Nickel Pressing: Having read that this French three piece took guitars out of the equation and replaced them with a violin, yet still sound like Dick Dale meets Sonic Youth meets Nirvana I got very excited. Well who wouldn’t be interested in hearing that?

As I press play and start listening to the first track I wonder if I’ve been given the wrong CD… No, I double checked and it definitely says Nickel Pressing ‘Uncanny’ on it. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hasty to judge but unfortunately after a bit more of a listen my first thoughts are indeed correct; they sound absolutely nothing like Dick Dale, or Sonic Youth and certainly nothing like Nirvana. What is coming out of my speakers is ineffably bad – I suppose it would be considered electro punk if I was forced to pigeonhole it. All I know for certain is it is completely out of time, very repetitive and grates to the point that you want to switch it off even if just for a moment to give your ears a rest. This is by no means helped by the appalling violin playing that sounds like a child scraping away at the strings, not an accomplished violinist in a professional band. The only moment that they step it up a notch to the slightly bearable is during their cover of Kraftwerk’s ‘Neon Lights’ which sounds similar to Arcade Fire with lots of warbling backing vocals behind what sounds very much like a full live band. With more tracks like this on the EP they might actually be going somewhere more positive.

I sometimes wonder what people see in bands like Nickel Pressing; there has to be a market for them somewhere or labels such as Loaf Recordings wouldn’t pick up on them. Maybe it’s just not my thing, or maybe it’s a French trend that I don’t get because I’m English, like an inside joke that you’re not involved in. Perhaps I’m just getting old and past it. Whatever the reason (and I desperately hope it’s nothing to do with me losing touch with ‘the kids’) Nickel Pressing just don’t do it for me. 2/10

www.myspace.com/nickelpressing

The Megaphonic Thrift – A Thousand Years Of Deconstruction (Deadly People Records)

The Megaphonic Thrift hail all the way from Norway and are considered somewhat a supergroup over there consisting of band members from Casiokids, The Low Frequency In Stereo and Stereo21. If like me you have never heard of any of those bands then you might feel that the supergroup side of TMT is not necessarily important, but I would beg to differ. I have noticed in the past that a supergroup tends to write more accomplished material, bringing with them different influences and experiences from previous bands that is absolutely priceless when trying to make decent music. So although I might not know the roots of where this band came from and ‘A Thousand Years Of Deconstruction’ is their first EP, I’m not going to let them off easily, no more Mr Nice-Guy and all that. This band is experienced and I should treat them so.

This is where I’m meant to write a barrage of criticisms down, kind of setting you up for the fall, but I can’t do it. Right from the first chord to the last fade out this EP is full of songs that I can’t help but fall madly in love with. From the high energy opener ‘Acid Blues’ to the beautifully soothing title track, each song has its own place while sitting perfectly next to one another. The tracks range from fuzz heavy, pounding indie shoegaze that sounds like it was bottled up in the ‘90s specially to be opened in 2010 to reverb filled noisescapes to get lost in that build up and up to the point where you’re willing them to explode into life. It is in fact these quieter couple of songs that make the EP for me: They show off a band that can write diverse styles of music to a very high level; it’s relatively easy to write a fast paced song that people can dance to, but to also be able to pen an intoxicatingly serene track and put them next to one another only adds to their effectiveness. This is exactly what a supergroup is capable of doing even when it is only their first EP. A newly born band would have to be something special to make an EP like this on their first outing. This is the sound of experience, and something I can’t recommend more highly to listen to. 9/10

www.myspace.com/megaphonicthrift

Not Squares – Yeah OK (Richter Collective Records)

I can’t decide if it’s a good thing when a band describes themselves as a ‘mutant Cyclops lovechild’ of various other very well-known artists. On the one hand it shows that they recognise their roots and realise that they fit into a certain genre that can be defined by those artists, on the other it suggests straight away that they’re going to be unoriginal and a carbon copy of something that has already been. Not Squares claim to be the lovechild of LCD Soundsystem, Soulwax and Crystal Castles – but I needn’t have told you that if you had listened to the album already.

The album sets off at a fast pace with ‘Release The Bees’; a drum and synth heavy track not dissimilar to The Chemical Brothers. The next two songs come around before you know what’s really happening amongst the incessant rave that has suddenly started pouring out of your speakers. The songs reek of every stereotype you could think of from an electropop band: Lots of half-spoken, quite unclear vocal lines, fuzz bass all over each song, synths screaming out sporadic sounds all over the place. This is all fair enough, these are the sorts of thing that define a genre and without them they wouldn’t be that electropop band that they’re obviously aiming to be. But then something completely unexpected comes along; a multitude of cowbells. By the fourth song on the album ‘Smith & Carlos’ all of a sudden there is a rhythmic overload of cowbells, it all sounds very familiar. And so it should, as this is one of the first things I think of when I think of LCD Soundsystem. They use cowbells to create an almost carnival like atmosphere within their songs and it turns out that Not Squares have gone for the same approach. It is at this point that they also decide to ditch some of the synth parts and replace them with simple picked guitar and bass lines making them all of a sudden sound like a band rather than a dance act. They sound exactly like LCD Sounsystem to be more precise.

I could be mistaken that for being in the process of giving Not Squares a bad review with all this talk of them sounding like everyone else and in particular LCD however this is not the case; although it has all been heard before it hasn’t necessarily been done a huge amount better than this. If they were to clean up some of the rough edges on a couple of the tracks, Not Squares would be up there with the bands they aspire to be. If they could then add to that a unique edge that none of the previously mentioned bands have used then they really could become something quite special. 7/10

www.myspace.com/notsquares

Catfish & The Bottlemen - Bodies [Single] (Self Release)

For such a young band Catfish & The Bottlemen have definitely had an impressive career to date. Having formed at the beginning of 2009, they have already been lucky enough to support Twisted Wheel and Ash, have lots of radio airplay and be named BBC 6 Music’s Unsigned Band of the Year 2009. So what’s all the fuss about? Well if forthcoming single ‘Bodies’ is anything to go by, they thoroughly deserve all of the critical acclaim and success they have had so far. It is a catchy and buoyant pop song full of shiny guitars and crisp rhythms. Not dissimilar to The Kooks and the Wombats, the track is hook heavy and flows through picked guitar sections, harmony heavy vocals and punchy riffs. Although not completely original in style they aren’t mere copycats; they have a bit more of a gritty edge to themselves than the aforementioned bands with Ryan McCann almost growling his vocals at times and a slightly more punk feel about their music rather than just catering for the pop rock market. The B-Side to the single ‘Collide’ emphasises this as well, with effect heavy guitars and once again a hook line that is neigh on impossible to get out of your head.

Catfish & The Bottlemen deserve every bit of praise they have received to date and if they keep on writing songs like ‘Bodies’ then I think it is fair to assume that they are due a lot more. Although what they are doing is nothing particularly new they are going about it in such a way that will make them stand out from the rest and hopefully will get them the recognition they deserve. 8/10

www.myspace.com/catfishandthebottlemen

Middle Class Rut - No Name No Color (Bright Antenna)

I first encountered Middle Class Rut in 2008; having heard ‘Busy Bein’ Born’ on the radio, I was immediately captivated by their sound. Somewhere between Jane’s Addiction and Rage Against The Machine, it is full of a raw power and aggression that very few can replicate. I invested in their Red EP and proceeded to play it to death for a few weeks until I realised just how samey their songs could sound. Well now, two years down the line and with a spate of subsequent EPs released they are finally presenting a full length album to their avid listeners. There’s just one catch; it’s a bit of a best-of-the-EPs kind of thing with a couple of new songs on there for good measure, so if you have all of their EPs and singles to date you might feel a little hard done by before you even press play.

The album starts with ‘Busy Bein’ Born’ which although having been on many of the bands previous releases still sounds surprisingly fresh. “I aint dead yet!” screams Zack Lopez as it kicks in, the same can be said about this song which sends shivers down my spine and shakes my bones to the core just as it did on first listen two years ago. The album plays through for the next few songs quite predictably; sounding more and more like Jane’s Addiction and Rage from track to track. Until ‘Are You On Your Way’ begins; starting off much more calmly that its predecessors, it is a six minute song that can only be described as epic. It builds up to huge highs and breaks down to nothing but a whisper without any warning leaving you wondering what you have done to deserve having your emotions toyed with by this Californian duo. (Oh I believe I failed to mention this earlier; MC Rut are a two piece and nothing more believe it or not, something that is hard to comprehend given the amount of noise they are able make.) ‘Are You On Your Way’ marks a change on this album for me; everything from this point onwards sounds much more mature. They become a band that knows how to write a song, how to keep the listener interested and how to sound original. Yes, it is still possible to draw the same comparisons as before, but they suddenly have their own edge. It’s no longer all one pace with each song fitting into the same mould of building up and then hitting their instruments as hard as they can to fade. A bit more thought has gone into it, a few more harmonies, thinner guitar sounds complimenting the huge distorted fuzz that was becoming all too familiar and a lot more variety with drumming styles.

MC Rut have come a long way since their first EP release back in 2008. Admittedly it seems a little lazy of them to keep re-releasing songs over and over again, but I suppose if they are good tracks that you don’t feel have got the exposure they deserve yet then why not? From the new material shown on this album they have obviously improved since the days of that initial release, so I’m looking forward to a record full of new songs as powerful as ‘Are You On Your Way’. However in the meantime ‘No Name No Color’ is a compelling album to keep you going. 7/10

www.mcrut.com

Crispian Mills – Healing Hands/ Be Merciful [Single] (Ho Hum Records)

I’m guessing it’s probably been a long time since you heard the name Crispian Mills? The genius behind one of the most successful bands of the Brit Pop era, Kula Shaker, and some of the best pop songs of a generation in ‘Govinda’, ‘Tattva’ and ‘Mystical Machine Gun’. Well he is still around and writing music, in fact he has hardly stopped since Kula Shaker’s initial split back in 1999; originally forming the band Pi, then having reasonable success with The Jeevas, and more recently reforming Kula Shaker with two new albums having been released. But now comes the release of the first single under his own name; ‘Healing Hands/ Be Merciful’ were both songs written after Kula Shaker disbanded: Mills took to the studio in 2000 to try and produce a full album but the songs never saw the light of day at the time.

It must have been a huge decision to release these songs ten years later as there would always be the worry that they could sound past their sell by date. You would be right to worry as ‘Healing Hands’ does indeed sound dated, but not just by ten years. Crispian Mills’ love of various 60’s and 70’s bands is extremely obvious within this song, from the rough acoustic guitar sound and various percussion parts that open the track, to the layered vocal harmonies in the chorus and the bass groove that drives it up to full speed. Sounding almost psychedelic it has no hint of modern day music about it other than Mills’ extremely recognisable vocal tone and wah-wah guitar sound. ‘Be Merciful’ also sounds dated, this time reflecting the more acoustic side of Kula Shaker. The song is opened by an acoustic guitar playing what sounds very similar to the raga musical mode so notable within Indian music. Mills sings about losing the one he loves using metaphors of snakes and hypnosis as only he can while what sounds like a flute (possibly a pungi which is an Indian version of a flute) provides a drone to get lost within. Although the song is very short at little over two minutes it is extremely soothing and delightfully charming.

‘Healing Hands/ Be Merciful’ is a great return to form for Crispian Mills. Although the last couple of Kula Shaker albums have gone down well with the fans and press I never really felt that they were as good as they could have been, and this double single more than makes up for it. However I don’t think that they would ever sell well now: With both songs sounding very much out of place in today’s market they are definitely being aimed at fans of Mills’ career rather than new listeners, but these fans will definitely not be disappointed. 8/10

www.hohumrecords.com

The Radio Dept. – Never Follow Suit EP (Labrador Records)

‘Never Follow Suit’ is the third single to be taken off Swedish pop act The Radio Dept’s third studio album ‘Clinging to a Scheme’. The single is being released as a five track EP that contains a couple of new songs and a remix of the title track rather than just a standalone song, which is a pleasure to see.

The EP opens with ‘The One’, a mass of trip hop beats crossed with dub pianos and mouth organs; initially sounding like Massive Attack until the song develops and takes on a more Lee Scratch Perry kind of edge. It isn’t until track two that we hear ‘Never Follow Suit’; running smoothly on from the previous song the slow groove of the bass and drums is immediately apparent and very dominant. All the decoration on the song which includes more off beat dub pianos and various other cheap Casio keyboard sounding instruments are very forgettable. In fact, take away the bass line and it becomes extremely similar to ‘The One’, and if anything a little more dull. As you get further through the EP there are improvements though; ‘Stay Off Route’ has yet another very catchy bass line throughout, with a touch more power helped along by the uplifting guitar sound and addition of synth strings, while ‘On Your Side’ features a simple yet striking acoustic guitar part that once again takes the EP up a notch. Unfortunately both of these tracks are undeveloped though; they get going and then stop in an instant becoming more like little ditties than fully accomplished songs. The EP is closed with the ‘Never Swallow Fruit Dub’ of the title track remixed by Pistol Disco, which milks that bassline for seven minutes to the point that you will be unable to get it out of your head for some time. It does nothing more for me than the original version of the song, once again it becomes very generic and monotonous with nothing there to keep any form of interest.

It is such a shame that the two tracks in the middle of this EP are both so underdeveloped. If they had been written as full songs I believe they would have been stand-out tracks and may have saved the record from becoming so tedious. But as it stands they do nothing more than spark a tiny bit of excitement in what is an otherwise mind-numbing release. 3/10

www.theradiodept.com

Tapso II – Tapso II (Self Release)

I’m starting to enjoy listening to Italian rock music; from my growing experience it is always unconventional both in sound and structure, but never to the point where it becomes inaccessible to the listener. So it was with great pleasure that when first taking in Tapso II, they fell into this exact stereotype. A three piece from Sicily, they are an experimental rock band with one of those never-gonna-work kind of line ups; drums, guitar, vocals as standard, then the addition of a violin and electric organ make for what is no doubt going to be an intriguingly bizarre mini album.

As the opening song ‘Bulldog’ crashes in it is immediately evident that the violin and organ is by no means going to be an obvious addition to the sound of the band. Everything besides the drums is laced with distortions, phasers and seemingly any other effect they could lay their hands on making all the lead instruments blend into one mass of noise. The vocals in the songs are very sparse and often not much more than softly spoken lines, but they can change the dynamic of each track very effectively, at times adding some much needed bottom end to a bass-less line up. The songs themselves vary from jagged jazz rock sections to long winded psychedelic moments where that violin sound all of a sudden becomes very apparent and out of place. It is unfortunate that as you get further into the record these long winded sections seem to take over. It takes nearly four minutes of not much happening in ‘Almond Galaxy’ before the song fully kicks in and actually starts making an impact, whereas ‘Il Mostro’ never really gets to that point even after seven minutes of constant drones and gratingly amateur sounding violin arpeggios.

It is a pity that Tapso II lean so heavily towards the obscure and slow side of their music; when they do kick in and start playing their instruments to their full potential they make one hell of a racket, in a very good way. With occasional moments that sound like they could have been taken from Jon Spencer’s ‘Now I Got Worry’ or Beck’s ‘Mutations’ there is an obvious potential there, but I do think realising this will involve sacrificing some of those lengthy moments of calm for something more appealing. 5/10

www.tapso.it

Shipping News – One Less Heartless to Fear (Africantape/ Ruminance)

Having previously released four albums (the last being in 2005), US band Shipping News have decided to go all out with their fifth LP: Who needs to record in a studio, doing take after take on each instrument until you get the sound exactly as you were hearing it in your head, when you can just go and record everything live? That is exactly what Shipping News set out to do, and they have done it in style with ‘One Less Heartless to Fear’.

The songs possess a raw energy that would never be there if too much thought was put into the recording process. You can hear the sound reflecting off the walls of the venue, the spill from one microphone to the next. None of the songs are played perfectly; they speed up and slow down throughout with a few bum notes here and there, but that is what makes live music so great. You wouldn’t want to go to a gig and hear the band play everything note perfect, would you? The tracks themselves are entirely suited for this live sound; the guitars are a mess of crunchy chords and flickering high notes, the bass is reminiscent of Lemmy’s aggressive and fast paced style, and the vocals spoken manner can sound soothing and seething at the same time. They remind me of Refused if Refused had been able to tone it down every now and then to create a five minute breakdown which built up to a mass of noise that was barely audible through its own distortion.

‘One Less Heartless to Fear’ is a great example of a live album; it shows off not only the bands song writing, but their ability to perform their material with enough energy and passion that it comes across perfectly on a recording. It leaves you wanting more, wanting to experience the Shipping News live show first hand and desperately wanting to hear what they played as an encore. 8/10

www.facebook.com/shippingnews

King Cannibal - The Way Of The Ninja (Ninja Tune)

Ninja Tune are celebrating this year; twenty years ago Jon Moore and Matt Black (Coldcut) decided to create a label that wasn’t influenced by trends, fashion or selling millions of records. Instead they wanted people to hear cutting edge, eclectic and fresh new music. Artists that were actually good at what they do being given the opportunity to get their music heard with none of the hidden extras that come from major labels. Ninja Tune was born, and now they want to celebrate turning twenty in style. Along with many other events and a hefty Ninja Tune XX box set being released one of their most prized artists, King Cannibal, decided to celebrate by making a ‘mix tape’, a bit of a retrospective but with over 250 tracks used in just over an hour…

The album is split into twenty tracks, all representing a different side to the label such as ‘Big Tunes. Big Hits’, ‘How About Some Rock & Roll’ and ‘King Of The Junglism’. Prefaced by an introduction that states “The purpose of this little demonstration is to give an idea of everything you always wanted to know about Ninja Tune” this is exactly what you’re going to hear over the next hour or so. Everything from the big releases such as Roots Manuva ‘Witness’ and The Cinematic Orchetra ‘All That You Give’ to lesser known artists such as Amon Tobin, The Qemists and of course the founders of the label, Coldcut. It is a journey that twists and turns, keeping you on your toes and never stopping for a breather. It is seamlessly mixed together, both as an album and within each individual track, occasionally surprising you with the use of samples that you will recognise but maybe not know where from. I have got a few bits and pieces from the label over the years, but nowhere near enough to be able to say that I’m an expert in all things Ninja Tune, however I was impressed with how many of the samples I recognised just from my everyday music listening.

I think it would be fair to say that King Cannibal has done an excellent job with ‘The Way Of The Ninja’; both its concept and execution are a great way to celebrate twenty years of Ninja Tune in 70 minutes. It will leave you heading straight to the website to try and find out where some of the samples came from, and consequently will no doubt increase any Ninja Tune fans record collection and get any newcomers off to a good start. 10/10

www.ninjatune.net/thewayoftheninja

Tender Trap – Dansette Dansette [Single] (Fortuna Pop!)

Tender Trap release the title song off their third album ‘Dansette Dansette’ on 1st November. After four years of silence, the band reformed in 2009 as a five piece sporting a new, seemingly more lethargic sound and now including a live drummer after years of playing along to a backing track. 

The single itself isn’t exactly mind blowing; there are twangy guitars and copious vocal harmonies right from the start, while the drums and bass plod along at a snails pace sounding like something straight out of a 70’s pop record. There is nothing here that hasn’t been done before, in fact it all sounds very tired, but it does have a certain charm. The songs vintage sound is very warm and welcoming in an industry currently full of polished and perfect pop records, and will no doubt make you want to flick through your old vinyl and reminisce on the days when a pop song didn’t consist of autotuned vocals over computer generated instruments. Becoming a five piece was a good move by Tender Trap, the addition of the extra vocals and live drumming make them sound like a proper band rather than a group that is uncertain of where exactly they fit in. Maybe it is just down to personal preference then that ‘Dansette Dansette’ does very little for me other than remind me of some of the great music from yesteryear. 4/10 

www.myspace.com/tendertrap