Blog: Music Liberation

Dead Wolf Club are pretty energetic. Single ' Radar ' starts with a lone guitar line that sounds like the song is going to explode into a raging flurry of head-nodding, chaotic rhythms and riffs that will make you want to lose track of space and time in a dingy indie club somewhere off Charing Cross Road as you slowly inhale tequila and cover yourself in a thin balm of stale beer and sickly sweat on a packed dance floor. It's unfortunate then that such a hypnotic climax seems [...]

Having made the Music Liberation ' Future Sounds of 2012 ' list, Lucy Rose was a name we were always going to look out for during the year ahead. So when the opportunity came about to catch her playing her largest gig to date at the Jazz Cafe in Camden , we jumped at the chance. Not even the ' heavy onslaught ' of snow which decided to engulf the capital the moment we set off could dampen the spirits and anticipation of checking out the young lady from Warwickshire, who in a [...]

A little while ago an emerging apparel company from the USA called ooShirts.com got in touch to find out whether we would like some Music Liberation tshirts printed. They specialise in creating custom tshirts for their clients, with a user friendly website which makes designing your own professional looking shirts easy. So we gave it a go and were super pleased with the results! The material of the shirt is of a high quality and the logo itself doesnt feel as if it will peel off in the first [...]

Cloud Nothings used to be mediocre. Cloud Nothings used to be forgettable. Cloud Nothings used to be a solo-project. Of their show supporting Crocodiles at the Camden Barfly , this time last year, I referred to their " brand of jangly pop-punk " as " upbeat and energetic but exceptionally bland and generic ". However, Cloud Nothings' new record – ' Attack On Memory ' – is the sound of a band revitalised. It is the sound of a band emerging as vital . [...]

With a slightly odd and potentially unfavourable name, The Cast Of Cheers make up for it somewhat with their brilliant debut single ' Family ', which will be released through School Boy Error / Cooperative Music on February 20th. It's jaunty, mathy, and unquestionably fun, and the video is splendid too. We are very much looking forward to keeping an eye on these guys over the forthcoming months. You can catch them playing alongside Theme Park (who you might recall from making the top 5 of The Blog Sound [...]

Better late than never, here is this years 'Future Sounds' post, which contains a collection of artists we can't wait to hear new material from this year. Hysterical Injury // Facebook / Twitter Ever since we put forward Hysterical Injury for the Emerging Talent Stage for last year's Glastonbury, we've told anyone that will listen just how great they are. At the back end of last year that even included [...]

To round off the Music Liberation's Writers takeover week we have Moker ... "Well this is a little surprising. Looking back at the artists I've managed to review in 2011, the one thing that's abundantly clear is that I've heavily favoured music with female vocals and showgaze, layered guitars. This must be some kind of subconscious shift in my tastes as I'd never have normally ticked such boxes if I had to describe my favourite music. [...]

Here's Clive Rozario with his thoughts on 2011 and his tips for the forthcoming year. "Do you know what I told myself on New Year's Day, 2011? I promised that after burning myself out in 2010 attending endless gigs, squandering (the majority of my) funds on an unnecessary eight festivals, clogging up my accommodation with Cd's that were only used once (to upload to my iPod), and destroying my Mac with an addiction to downloading new music, that I would [...]

Day 2 of the Music Liberation Writers takeover week. Chris Meredith picks his favourite reviews of 2011 and gives us his tips for the year ahead. "My top 3 reviews are: 1) The Bullitts & Jay Electronica – Run and Hide 2) Modual- In all Kinds 3) [...]

The week Music Liberation is being taken over exclusively by its Writers , as I, Mr 'Editor', hang up my boots and have a week off before we get back into the usual new music loving swing of things next week. First up, our newest writer, Tom Nash , kicks things off by choosing his favourite review of 2011. "Coming to the ML team late in the year, I only covered two [...]

Here is the top 5 artists of the The Blog Sound of 2012 ... 1. Friends 2. Theme Park 3. Beth Jeans Houghton 4. French Wives 5. Daughter

1. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints // Reviewed 4th July by Moker "Past Life Martyed Saints is an organic beast, seemingly fluid, changing with each listen. Anderson has gone headfirst into these songs and the results are so honest, so desperate, so vulnerable that by the time the superbly somber and well placed ' Red Star ' unfolds as the closing track, you'll feel dazed; plunged into Anderson's crazy world and gently escorted out the other side once [...]

1. Daughter - The Wild Youth // Reviewed 9th December by Jon Sidwell "Elena and Igor have an ear to create space within their music, moments where their instruments can breath and the listener can fully appreciate the beauty that is being played out before them. The poignant combination of Elena's lingering vocals and the delicate acoustic/electric guitars demonstrate how simplicity in music is something to be applauded." || Daughter [...]

We begin our round up of this year with our top 5 tracks that we reviewed in 2011. This will be followed later this week by our top 5 EPs, Music Liberation writers picks of the year, and finally our top 10 albums of the year... 1. Cloud Nothings - No Future / No Past // Reviewed November 18th by Jon Sidwell "Beginning in a haunting fashion with distant [...]

Merry Christmas from Music Liberation... Lucy Rose - Driving Home For Christmas by weaponofchoice

Likes Lions are an alternative rock quintet from Sheffield, UK. They are not the indie band In Like Lions , nor are they the electro-pop band Live Like Lions . And they are certainly not the hardcore punk band Like Lions from New York. Ever heard of SEO boys? This Likes Lions formed in 2009, and ' Future Colours ' - released in October 2011 - is their debut EP. They take the more accessible aspects of math-rock and post-rock, and fuse them together to [...]

Released earlier last month, ' Atlantis ' is the new EP from FaltyDL . Known to his friends as Drew Lustman , FaltyDL has steadily been making a name for himself stateside as ' one of the hottest names in electronic music '. He has an impressive work rate, putting out two albums, an EP, and three singles all since 2008. Now the New York based artist is ready to release another in the shape of this four-track EP, which is his first record for Ninja Tune . 'Atlantis' [...]

Standing at seven tracks in length, Sea Oleena's new release ' Sleeplessness ' could be considered more mini-album than EP, but that still wouldn't justify the enormity of the music recorded by Montréal multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Loseth . The record is a beautiful warm blanket of songs, each one an epic cacophony of layered sounds, reverb and haunting female vocals delivered with the unassuming charm of a girl humming a song in her bedroom. Each hushed swirl of a song bleeds into the next, joined together by the rumbling and eerie ambient sounds throughout. For [...]

Recently released through Highline Records , ' British Explorer ' is a new three track EP from Oxford's Alphabet Backwards . With apparent support from the likes of Huw Stephens , Tom Robinson , and Steve Lamacq , the band have been making steady inroads during 2011, with their simple mission statement being to ' champion the noble art of pop music, dancing all the way '. Opening track ' Big Top ' brings up a clear comparison with Cardiff's Los Campesinos! with the [...]

Daughter are Elena Tonra and Igor Haefeli , a double act that have swept through 2011 with numerous gigs across the UK, put out an EP titled ' His Young Heart ', and they end the year with another record, ' The Wild Youth ', which is out through Communion Records . Personally I first discovered Daughter whilst they were supporting Benjamin Francis Leftwich during his Autumn tour, catching their intimate and spell-bounding show at the Union Chapel in Islington, where their exquisite performance equalled if not better that of [...]