The Hall of Mirrors have revived the sounds and sentiments of the 60s with their dark and beautiful Love Child . Its reminiscent of the Mamas and Papas with such sensitive recording techniques as to pick up every consonant and nuance of Jessica Winters' sweet, unadulterated voice. The piano phrases accompanying the verses initially enrich the melody with bright, delicate tones, before descending into something far more chromatic and dark. The chorus provides some upbeat irony as the drum beat kicks in and a descant wails along to such lyrics as 'I fought for my fathers love, but he's frozen cold'.... HAPPY SUNDAY. [...]
Bird Milk - sweet, best extracted using tweezers, apparently . This is the latest concoction from the conjoined Kwes and Micachu , Kwesachu, to be released on their second mixtape which they'll be showcasing TONIGHT at Southbank Centre . Cancel all your plans and go - this is going to be an engrossing aural experience. Bird Milk features DELS , the MC who regularly ambles into the surreal, and Bella Wilde a vocalist with 'tude. There's a raw, industrial quality that is common to a lot of Micachu's material (she even builds her [...]
This is YADi . She has been compared to the likes of Florence and the Machine and Bat for Lashes. Her new song Guillotine provides a metaphor for love conquering evil in the form of a (you guessed it) GUILLOTINE. What do you mean you don’t get it? Guillotine blade = evil, queen standing in front of guillotine = love, OF COURSE. Who knows what the sucker having his head chopped off thinks about all this. It’s a tenuous metaphor, but this can be forgiven as one gets swept up with the ticking time bomb drum beat, [...]
Time for a tale of hype, delivery and a dickhead. The hype was all for Arthur Beatrice , a London fourpiece band who had Guardian.co.uk rave reviews, sell-out shows and Metronomy-supporting tour s all well before a single full recording was available to the plain old public - that's you and me, dear listener. The delivery came when that first full tune did emerge - Midland - the first song down there. It's majestic and multi-faceted: a triumphant, fulsome pop song tailormade for heady summer evenings. And the dickhead ? [...]
There's something about wild, rainswept, raggedy days like these that leaves me feeling dangerously reckless: a risky freedom to roam through memories best ignored, and to voice truths that shouldn't ever come out. The whip of the wind and the scattergun rain only encourages me further. So too does the electronic, shoegazey drudge of Roman 's latest, Dangerous Love : where previously came dizzy, rappy digitalism and disco tassels (second track below) now appears a honky guitar, lucid vocals and a shimmering, suggestive drum beat, all encouraging me on. (via Don't Die Wondering ) [...]
Bristling with anger, this epic rock rouser from Kent (meh - it's near London) sixpiece Lion is the most pulsating song I've heard in yonks. The guitars carve out grimly-determined chords, while the singer seems to scream with the last, starchiest realms of his throat; listening almost has to involve an furrowed face, as if the music's very intensity translates physically. If it were a food, Lion Share ( mp3 ) would be a mustard-and-adrenaline burger ; if it were a car, a snarky old Mustang that refuses to go quietly. And yet, behind all this boombast, the track boasts a solemn, toe-tapping goodness. Thanks to BBC Kent Introducing for unearthing [...]
Monday Music’s the one weekly post where Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only focus. Dirty Gold - California Sunrise Ahhh, is that ocean spray on my face? No, its mild acid rain. BUT I CAN DREAM. San Diegan Dirty Gold’s California Sunrise has that hazy, happy summer sound, with seagulls (literally, seagulls squawking. Nothing beats the power of suggestion) and sand being kicked in your eyes as you skip over dunes, laughing, smiling, having fun. Until you fall and land on [...]
Due to be launched (at a Barfly gig ) on 21 June, Channel Cairo 's second single (for gaspings about the first, see here ) A Year is a thing of rare accomplishment: soaring, swirling pop-rock that seems to have been tailormade for those back-of-the-neck hairs. It's nostalgic, whimsical, fraught, fulsome and destined to make for some real 'moments' at this summer's festivals. No surprise then to learn that, when featured in a weekly battle of new songs on 6 Music DJ Tom Robinson 's blog, Fresh On The Net , it won by a mile. [...]
According to an excellent interview with singer and main man Guy Connelly by Londonist , Clock Opera 's latest single Man Made is partly "constructed from a story in a 50p magazine about a beauty pageant in a Siberian women’s prison, whereby the winner was granted parole". This case history aptly demonstrates the breathless inventiveness of this fourpiece, and that fact's also loudly, proudly on show in the newest offering. For here are vintage Clock Opera touches: jangly and catchy up-tempo beats, a powerful video and vocals packed with emotion and feeling. [...]
Back in January we wrote about Future Sound Share , a brilliant London-based project dedicated to supporting new and emerging artists, and mentioned its first forthcoming gig. That show went so well that one band, Trophys , have subsequently been signed - especially good news since a second show is now looming large. Taking place at The Star of Kings bar, near Kings Cross, it features various bands I've not heard of (such as Tree Pit and Saturday Night Gym Club ) but who are probably ace, and one that I know are great - [...]
When we first wrote about Toy , the London quintet were merely a hot tip; fast-forward a few months and you've got The Guardian writing sentences like "the Brighton outfit with the cult-rock credentials might just be an exceptional prospect." Not sure where they get the Brighton bit from, but otherwise we're not disagreeing. The latest offering is a slower, more drifting proposition, but just as classy: a video of them playing the Motoring B-side When I Went Back for Topman CTRL last month. [...]
Sometimes it feels nice and indulgent to be sad, to wallow like a hopeless hippopotamus.
Monday Music's the one weekly post where Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only focus Alt-J - Fitzpleasure Named as headliners of the fabulous, invite-only In The Woods festival (for which the below video is an enticing advert), Leeds lads Alt-J proffer a highly unusual 'folk-step' style, complete with lashings of genuine dub, pop, rock and electronica. They'll be sodding brilliant on the main stage at ITW; before that, debut album An Awesome Wave is [...]
Recently we featured High Hopes , a side project for the Fair Ohs ' drummer Joe, and now it's time for singer/guitarist Eddy's own hobby, Les Pharaons . Including the free Amandine ( mp3 ), the EP, Opio , features a quartet of short, sexy songs, each sung in French and each a lusty, heady timeport back to the carefree Gallic '60s music. This is the s0-called 'YeYe' style: psychedelic, fun-in-the-sun type stuff from those days of yore. Fans of Fair Ohs' previous Bardot cover should be first in line.
When we last looked in on Tigercats , they were producing lo-fi bedroom ditties about Blue Peter presenters and Hackney Downs. These days, though, the East London outfit are a much bigger, more polished deal, with rave reviews in the Sunday Times and waves of 6 Music love fuelling them on. The appearance of a debut album, Isle of Dogs , is the trigger for all this; Full Moon Reggae Party ( mp3 ), below, hails from it, and provides a short, summery blast of indie pop, all perky guitars and frivolous catchiness. The [...]
Yoofs ' excellent recent single Hazy Dayz ( mp3 ) is the musical version of how you feel after a balmy summer afternoon and too many beers in the park: hot, woozy, a bit desperate for something, someone, you don't know what. Scroll to Top
Molly's Lipps ' Scars commands the attention like few songs I've heard recently; listening to it is like being pinned roughly against a wall with the hint of dire ramifications should you dare to lose concentratation. Generating the tune's pulsating magnetism are rancorous guitar crashes, boomy vocals, soaring final section and constant pace-changes. It's as exhilarating and frantic as something by Breton, and that seems set to be an apt comparison when the London sixpiece's forthcoming EP's teaser is digested. Judging by these three chaotic minutes, this subsequent record will be a breathless melange of electro, rock, punk and the occasional louche lounge sound.
I'm tired. I did a bit too much today, and now I just want to lay and be quiet, be still, be stable. Fortunately, I have the perfect medicine to hand: the sleepy, slumberous soul of new Chile-via-London talent Jassy Grez . Serve with a supersize cup of Horlicks for best effects. (via Don't Die Wondering )
From the depths of South East London emerges the mysterious and intoxicating Black Seas . They write: “[we] have decided to record ourselves in an attempt to raise ourselves up out of the state of imperfection we were born into (‘man is a god in ruins’ as Waldo Emerson said). We made our tune to emotionally connect, to howl our emotions outward and achieve some kind of glory for a few fleeting moments.” ‘Nuff said really. Apart from the *slight* imperfection which they are yet to raise themselves up from, being that the below is [...]
From the depths of South East London emerges the mysterious and intoxicating Black Seas . They write: "[we] have decided to record ourselves in an attempt to raise ourselves up out of the state of imperfection we were born into ('man is a god in ruins' as Waldo Emerson said). We made our tune to emotionally connect, to howl our emotions outward and achieve some kind of glory for a few fleeting moments." 'Nuff said really. Apart from the *slight* imperfection which they are yet to raise themselves up from, being that the below is all [...]
Some Of It Was True!
Weekly Mix Vol. I
[new]: Kanye West – New Slaves
Watch Queens of the Stone Age on Jools Holland again
