Over Nights are a brand new duo from New York made up of childhood friends Drew Cooper and Russell Efros. They are about to release their debut ‘The Broken EP’ and ‘Broken Cabins’ is the first track to be unveiled. It will likely be followed by several others that also take on a broken theme but there is nothing malfunctioning with their song writing. I am reminded of a similar recent debut from an Irish band called Sans Chateaux who have beguiling vocals and a way to make their music sound ever so demo like. That is not a criticism [...]
Given the name it was never in any doubt that this was anything other than an Irish band. It's a phrase I haven’t heard since college mind you. The trio responsible for the language archaeology come from Lurgan, Co. Armagh and features siblings Rachel and Jonny Toman and bandleader Stevie Scullion. They’ve been releasing records for over 9 years now and this is from one of their earlier releases. ‘Life Rolls On’ has the banjo and the fragile vocals so comparisons with Sufjan Stevens are inevitable (there are hints of the Harvest Ministers too) but there is enough personality to [...]
It’s certainly odd and I’m a little behind on Alex Zhang Hungtai’s terrifically retro rendered pieces but good stuff never grows old. This little gem is taken from the Polaris long-listed album ‘Badlands’ from 2011 but if you want to get right up to date there is a complete soundtrack by Dirty Beaches currently free styling on bandcamp. ‘Lord Know Best’ sounds like the best bits from Lemon Jelly, Mean Lady and Quiet Village, a kind of supercool remix experiment involving plenty of legal stimulants. I’m sure my dad would have been all over it had there been internet in [...]
I have to admit to admiring Empire of the Sun’s ‘We Are The People’ for a long time before realising who they were. And following that revelation it took some further time to discover that one half of the Sydney act was Luke Steele from the Sleepy Jackson. Not sure I’m sold on their futuristic kitsch wardrobe but my this is an undoubtedly talented duo (Nick Littlemore makes up the flipside) who know how to coin a memorable hook. And if ‘Alive’ from newbie LP ‘Ice On The Dune’ (out on June 14) is anything to go by the best [...]
For a man who has won the Polaris Prize (for 2007’s ‘Close To Paradise) it is to Patrick Watson’s credit that he hasn’t let the quality dip (his later albums continually get nominations for the same award). I guess talent is funny like that, once it is nurtured outside the confines of ego and substances. ‘Into Giants’ comes from last year’s ‘Adventures In Your Own Back Yard’ and while simply set out reveals an ever changing army of nuances. Watson’s falsetto is given free reign but is joined on occasion by a flitting female vocals. The song closes sumptuously with [...]
It’s in the same league as the equally tongue tripping ‘If You Happy With You Need Do Nothing’ from Manchester’s Alfie and much like that album Judson Claiborne’s ‘We Have Not Doors You Need Not Keys’ is shaping up to be a cherisable affair. I’m basing this on the primer (and a thorough rummage through their previous releases) ‘Neo Pagan Lovesong’ which has been lolloping back and forth on my speakers all through a sunny Sunday afternnon. Never ones to hurry along this Christopher Salveter (formerly Low Skies who were signed to the great Flameshovel Records) troupe are doing [...]
Our last and brief brush with the hushed beauty of Iceland’s Ólöf Arnalds came almost 6 years ago which seems like an unforgivable oversight given that ‘Innundir Skinni’ passed by in the meantime. We join her at the beginning of new album ‘Sudden Elevation’ and my what an antidote to misguided noise ‘German Fields’. Quite Sufjan Stevens in its delivery it nonetheless is all about Arnalds vocal idiosyncrasies. And that’s not to muddy what is an uncomplicated instrument (made all the more so by her choice to sing in English rather than native words), a pure unobstructed monument to the [...]
Despite liking what I heard first time around and for the initial few days I have yet to return to ‘MBV’ beyond those early listening sessions. A curious turn of events given the altar that stands at my bedside to its predecessor, a sound which is replicated and reblended on this year’s successor. While it will never be as dispiriting an experience as ‘The Second Coming’ I’m beginning to think we’d have been better served living off the gift that ‘Loveless’ forever seemed to give. Perhaps a selfish notion given how much adulation has been thrown in ‘MBV’s direction from [...]
Gotta thank Gabriel Fulvimar of Gap Dream for leading me to the Squires, a forgotten garage band from the mid-60s’. For this is his cover of a b-side of theirs from a single called ‘Going All The Way’. How it was bypassed back then and quite how Tarantino missed it more recently is a mystery but both tracks are classics of their kind. It was to be the Mike Bouyea’s led quintet’s only ever release before they slunk off to do other projects. Fulvimar has done a brilliant job on cleaning up the original without ever distracting from its central [...]
Look up travelling troubadour and mostly like the entry will feature an image of Alynda lee Segarra, a bard so infiltrated in the cause she could be nothing but born to do it. The trouble with these free spirits is that much of the time they are accomplished without ever thinking there is a need to have a parallel talent. Luckily for Segarra and her Hurray For The Riff there are acres of the latter to match every bit of the former. When this New Orleans troupe hit the road they do so with gusto but it has led to [...]
It is genuinely great to see Gaz Coombes back in the saddle again where he belongs. Ever since his 14 year old debut with the Jennifers this Oxfordian has shown himself to be a songwriter of the highest caliber. Supergrass was his biggest venture and you probably know all their biggest hits so I won’t bore you with a rerun. The band broke up in 2010 and 2 years later Coombes released his debut album ‘Here Come The Bombs’ to generally positive reviews. ‘One of These days’ is the somewhat quieter follow-up single to that album and proves that sideburns [...]
Away from the spotlight that was trained on the chart success of ‘Wake Up Boo!’ lay one of the best bands from the 1990’s. Their genuine classic ‘Giant Steps’ had already been released 2 years previous before they had that huge hit in the summer of 1995. The album is was taken from was never going to be in the same league but it had some great pop moments. Gone was the untamed spirit of adventure and in stepping pop’s mercurial head. Thankfully they didn’t play it all completely straight as evidenced by the album’s standout ‘Martin, Doom! It's Seven [...]
All told this is quite a demented piece of work. Thankfully and with little help from that moniker it's nowhere close to being a turkey. Cecil Frena, Megan James and Corin Roddick are the mad hatters at the controls (James and Roddick went on to form Purity Ring while Frena ditched Gobble Gobble for Born Gold ) as sounds seep from a mixing desk that is about to keel over. As the plumes of smoke threaten to consume all within the room the last vestiges of normality apply themselves to a tape marked 'End of Days' and [...]
This is our second visit to the ‘Distractions’ EP from London trio Knocking Ghost and this time it’s the title track that has tickled our retro fitted fancy. Every child of the 80’s will be able to identify where they are coming from and while ‘Distractions’ is a tad more future proofed than ‘Independent Girl’ the delicious sense of time travel remains. On this occasion they also sound a little like an electronic version of Tap Tap, that grand creative led by contemporary genius Thomas Sanders. All told Knocking Ghost are weaving a hypnotic yarn that could yet be fashioned [...]
KD This is our second visit to the ‘Distractions’ EP from London trio Knocking Ghost and this time it’s the title track that has tickled our retro fitted fancy. Every child of the 80’s will be able to identify where they are coming from and while ‘Distractions’ is a tad more future proofed than ‘Independent Girl’ the delicious sense of time travel remains. This time they also sound a little like an electronic version of Tap Tap, that grand creative led by contemporary genius Thomas Sanders. All told Knocking Ghost are weaving a hypnotic yarn that [...]
Peter Gabriel supposedly recorded a version of this song but I’ll be damned if I’m going to sledgehammer my feelings for it. Better to stick to the original as coaxed from the brain of Stephen Merritt. Said action was conducted around the same time as he performed 68 similar feats of inspiration as ‘The Book of Love’ is taken from the literal ’69 Songs’. Now 14 years old this Magnetic Fields recording continues to beguile a consistent level of new worshippers, probably down to its genius for the most part. This is one of the best lullaby’s for adults that [...]
Given the night that’s in it here is a song from Germany Germany. Not a German in sight mind, just Drew Harris from Canada. And what a pioneer Harris is, making sweet electronica and involving himself in internet projects that might have huge potential. But tonight we are using him for football purposes to register our excitement for the football fest that awaits us from Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in the Champions League final . Two great teams but oh the romance of the occasion were Dortmund to win it. ‘Just Go’ is taken from Germany [...]
Arches deserve credit for recording a song for those Friday nights when all that can be achieved is a slow form of shuffling from room to room while either engaging in dump truck imbibement or freewheeling but utterly fruitless channel surfing. Not at all slovenly I might add, just a necessary series of wind downs to seal the previous 5 days of salaried activity. And Arches make it all sound so gloriously hip, as if laziness can be turned on its head into an art form. The ponderous steps that could easily be misconstrued as the result of several decades [...]
They may have changed their name to Making Marks but we will always know this Oslo band as My Little Pony. Hard to accept the change in fact given that they released an album called ‘My Little Pony Plays The Hits of My Little Pony’. A band with a sense of humour and one capable of turning the tragic nature of growing old into something sweet and uplifting. ‘A Song For You (On Your 40th Birthday)’ glories on the journey to that point through the prism of the best music ever made. If your life hasn’t yet begun then this [...]
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