Posts Tagged ‘melodic’

Argonaut – Move Fast

Posted: 28 February 2023 in Singles and EPs
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1st March 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

The title of their new single is a fitting one for a band that really doesn’t piss about when it comes to getting things done. Nathan and Lorna, who make up half of this London-based energetic indie-punk foursome cranked out lo-fi bedroom-recorded cuts at a remarkable rate during lockdown, and now, despite working dayjobs and all the rest, the band have not only reconvened but released a new EP Songs from the Black Hat on February 1st, for which they’ve been unveiling in instalments (a number of which have found exposure here, not least of all ‘Futoko’ a year ago) by way of promo.

‘Move Fast’ is pitched as ‘Channelling Gen X Silicon Valley sloganeering,1980s pop synths and nineties noise!’ – which is in many ways quintessential Argonaut – big on energy, some bright, breezy melodies, but a dark undercurrent and a degree of social unrest.

With its clean, chorus-tinged guitar sound, there’s a Cure-esque post-punk element to the track, with a cute, almost bouncy vocal, there are classic indie-pop / shoegaze aspects dominant here, and then of course, the chorus breaks out the big fizzy guitars and busy, dizzy synths. It all comes together to give us an energetic tune which comes on like a lo-fi Blondie, and it’s a winning formula.

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Watch: ‘1,2,3’ by Rogue Jones

Posted: 18 February 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Like much of the album, this song was initially composed by Bethan on the piano. It features Ynyr and Bethan on trumpets but also features Ioan Hefin, the man responsible for performing Welsh music’s greatest and most iconic trumpet solo in Eryr Wen’s Gloria Tyrd Adre. It’s a song about love and the feeling of trying to comprehend the magnitude of the love that you can feel for someone. It can relate to any form of love but in this instance it was written when their daughter turned 3 years old, with Bethan trying to articulate and comprehend the outpouring of love felt for a child and the hugeness of childbirth; the challenge, escalation, triumph, glory and the raw vulnerability of it all.

Watch the video here:

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Listen: ‘Icarus Equation’ by Witch Ripper

Posted: 7 February 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Witch Ripper have unveiled their next single, the slick mid-tempo crusher ‘Icarus Equation’, which is taken from the forthcoming album The Flight after the Fall. The sophomore full-length of the American melodic sludge metal outfit is scheduled for release on March 3rd, 2023.

Witch Ripper have announced the first US shows in support of the new album. A European tour is in the making.

The title of the track ‘Icarus Equation’ hints at the ancient Greek mythological character Ikaros, who flew too close to the sun on wings held together by wax during a daring attempted escape.  The wings melted and Ikaros fell to his death, and the story is generally used as a metaphorical warning against having unrealistically high ambitions.

Listen to this epic cut here:

Witch Ripper comment: “The new single, ‘’Icarus Equation’ was the first song written for the new album”, guitarist and vocalist Curtis Parker writes on behalf off the band. “I think that we rewrote the final part six times before we landed on what’s on the record. We’re incredibly happy with how that ending turned out. ‘Icarus Equation’ represents perfectly how our two vocalists can not only juxtapose against each other but come together in unison – like we do on the bridge.  In the story of the album, this song represents loss. A loss of life and a loss of wanting to carry on. Our protagonist is at his lowest during this song. That being said, we wanted to show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel by ending on a giant major key ballad-style moment.”

Live

18 MAR 2023 Seattle, WA (US) Substation
29 MAR 2023 Portland, OR (US) High Water Mark
30 MAR 2023 Eugene, OR (US) Old Nick’s
31 MAR 2023 San Francisco, CA (US) Kilowatt Bar +Brume +Nite
01 APR 2023 San Jose, CA (US) The Caravan Lounge
02 APR 2023 Los Angeles, CA (US) Redwood Bar
04 APR 2023 Tempe, AZ (US) Yucca Tap Room
05 APR 2023 Albuquerque, NM (US) Moonlight Lounge
07 APR 2023 Denver, CO (US) Skylark Lounge
08 APR 2023 Salt Lake City, UT (US) Aces High Saloon
09 APR 2023 Boise, ID (US) The Shredder

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Pic: Jake Chaplin

Listen: ‘Nostromo’ by Rabbit Junk

Posted: 1 January 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Taken from their album ‘Apocalypse For Beginners’, Rabbit Junk have released ‘Nostromo’ as a taster of their bold technoindustrial/electropop/metal crossover sound.

Rabbit Junk draws subtle parallels between the challenges facing our species as a whole and the challenges facing our own personal lives. These challenges are characterized as foreseeable and yet tragically unavoidable. As such, the album communicates the fatalism and frustration of modernity alongside the lack of control we often feel over our own lives.

The album’s lead track “Stone Cold" (Feat. Amelia Arsenic) exemplifies Rabbit Junk’s willingness to take risks and defy genre norms. “Stone Cold” is a gender-fluid and genre-mashing anthem with an infectious sing-a-long chorus. The song featuries lyrics in both German and English delivered by masculine and feminine vocal textures floating over a mélange of punk, drum & bass, metal, and hip hop.

Other standout tracks include “Nostromo”, a sci-fi influenced art-metal meets synthwave track which is quickly becoming a fan favorite, and “Love Is Hell”, a decidedly danceable and gritty homage to everyone’s broken hearts.

Check it here:

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Marc Todd – I Got Life

Posted: 29 December 2022 in Singles and EPs
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6th January 2023

James Wells

In my youth, I considered the likes of The Wonder Stuff and The Levellers to be ‘Indie Folk’, being, y’know, bands that were equal parts indie and folk, but apparently, I was mistaken, as the ever-reliable Wikipedia informs me that the former were al alternative rock band and the latter are folk rock. You live and learn, eh?

Indie folk, then, is Eliot Smith, Kristin Hersh, The Magnetic Fields, and Marc Todd. It’s a good job I did my research before making any judgement of Marc Todd, and I suppose there are hints of Magnetic Fields about ‘I Got Life’. It is, at least to my ear, more psychedelic than folk, but it’s an easy-going little tune, an easy-strumming, rolling melody with positive lyrics. There’s nothing demanding about it, but then, I guess for many, life’s demanding enough.

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Marc Todd Artwork

The Yets – The Yets

Posted: 18 December 2022 in Singles and EPs
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12th December 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

The eponymous debut EP by South Carolina indie pop-rock duo The Yets is steeped in the tropes of quintessential vintage alternative pop, absorbing a range of influences, while keeping a clear eye on classic and ultimately accessible forms – embracing Fleetwood Mac and Cocteau Twins in equal measure, as the press release suggests with remarkable accuracy.

Robin Wilson has a superb voice, delicate, emotive, easy on the ear, and at the same time rich and gutsy. It’s key to the sound of The Yets, and the six songs on this debut EP really showcase both her versatility and that of their songwriting.

There’s a weird booming sound – not quite a beat, not quite a bass note – that cuts through the mellow drift of ‘Waterline’, and it’s one of those things that once you’re attuned to it, you can’t detune, like the duck in Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’ or the cowbell on ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’, but if you can ignore it, it’s a superbly-executed song with a clean guitar chug that keep it moving along nicely while the lead guitar chimes and washes melodically.

‘Remember’ is perfection, a layered, easy alt-rock tune that’s Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ and it floats along in a dreamy drift that closes out with a delicate guitar solo.

They strip things right back for ‘Lesser Evil’, which swings between brooding indie and moody post-punk with hints of Siouxsie, before spinning into ethereal shoegaze territory on the dreamy ‘Letter to a Boy’, which really does find the band revelling in the misty ethereal shadows of Cocteau Twins.

‘Fades to Grey’ makes an obvious reference to Visage, and the band’s 80s leanings are on clear display, but that’s where the connection severs: this is a smooth, atmospheric rippling piece with chiming, echo-heavy guitar that owes much to Disintegration-era Cure, and ‘Happy Now’ builds on that thickly atmospheric sound with a loping rhythm and layers of vocals that really fill out the sound as the guitars and it’s the most overtly goth song of the set.

With a broad pallet of tuneful wistfulness and textured, layered instrumentation, coupled with some smart and sensitive production, The Yets have landed with a seriously accomplished debut: there’s a lot happening here, and there’s a significant range but at the same time a cohesive feel to it.

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The Yets 4 - photo by Gordon Backman

Photo: Gordon Backman

Watch: ‘Austerity’ by Katatonia

Posted: 2 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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With eleven full-length records under their belts, Swedish melancholic metal masters Katatonia don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Yet, it comes as no surprise that the band is about to impressively solidify their unique stance in the world of metal and beyond once more with their 12th album, the hauntingly beautiful Sky Void of Stars.

Today, Katatonia unveil the second single and Sky Void of Stars’ album opener ‘Austerity’, along with a visually palpable video. The heartfelt offering crashes through the dark with memorable, mind-bending rhythms as it shifts with elaborate guitar riffs that perfectly showcase the musical expertise and experience of the band. Topped off by the dark, conjuring voice of Jonas Renkse and mesmerizing lyricism, the gloomy mood for the album is set. The song is now available via all digital service providers worldwide.

Katatonia on ‘Austerity’: “We hereby present you our new single and the opening track of Sky Void of Stars – ‘Austerity’. Energetic and dark, stern and disenchanted. Enjoy.”

Watch the official video for ‘Austerity’ here:

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Mayshe-Mayshe – Indigo

Posted: 1 November 2022 in Albums
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11th November 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

Yorkshire based Mayshe-Mayshe’s bio references blending ‘dreamy art-pop and electronica with rich storytelling, skittering percussion and infectious melodies’, and how her ‘deceptively simple songwriting – at once universal and deeply personal – incorporates choral vocals, vintage synths and the occasional hairdryer.’

Said hairdryer was observed in a couple of live reviews I’ve penned in recent years, in catching her live in 2016 and 2021, but what always stands out during her performances is just how deftly she combines an array of elements, both stylistic and instrumental. She’s by no means just ‘another’ loop pedal artist, but a musical who judiciously uses the tools available to conjure textured, layered, detailed works which are, at the same time, simple and radiate aa unique sense of – for wont of a better word – naivete. But equally, her capacity for understatement is a defining characteristic. The fact that while playing a number of regional shows to launch Indigo, her second full-length album, her hometown show in York on the release date is in a record shop/café with a capacity of about 30 speaks for itself.

Performing as Mayshe-Mayshe, Alice Rowan presents as not necessarily shy, but introspective, considered, contemplative and as much as immersing her work in reservedness, there’s a certain sparkle of sass and levity in the mix, as titles like ‘You Throw Lemons, We Throw Parties’ from 2019’s Cocoa Smoke indicates.

Indigo is simultaneously simple and complex. As the lyrics to the title track demonstrate, she’s given to exploring emotional depths by balancing the direct and the oblique to create an obfuscating haze. And, in record, the same is true of her compositions.

‘But I Do’ kicks the album off in a style that’s minimal and poppy and kinda urban but at the same time ethereal and shoegazy, with busy fingerdrums and a crystalline distillation of mood that invites solid and favourable comparisons to The XX.

‘Dark Mountain’, released as a single in September, is really rather buoyant, with a bouncy bass and busy lead synth and twitchy urban vocal delivery that’s quite at odds with the tense lyrics and the ‘I’m drowning, downing’ hook which speaks to anxiety and panic. I suppose you might call it a sugar-coated pill, but it showcases Alice’s capacity to pen bleak yet buoyant pop tunes.

In contrast, ‘Moonflood’ is altogether darker yet dreamy, in a Curesque way, while ‘The Colours of Anxiety’, which originally featured on the 2019 Long Division compilation, is looping, lilting, and easy on the ear in a way that brushes over the tension it channels via a stuttering beat akin to a palpating heart. In this way, Mayshe-Mayshe conveys sensation beyond the words, beyond the explicit, and does so beautifully, in the most subtly resonant fashion.

In many ways, ‘Eczema’ speaks for itself, an itch that just won’t go away, sore and raw, uncomfortable and irritating, but presented in a palatable fashion, and ‘How to be Happy’ feels like a conscious attempt to be uplifting – which is it, but there are strong undercurrent which are less joyous. ‘Zachter’ is another previous release, having featured as the lead track on the two-track Zachter EP last year. With its lyrics in German and its instrumentation sparse and gloopy and with a hypnotic minimal dance groove, it’s something of an oddity which sits apart from the rest of the album.

The title track, released as a single only the other week, rounds the album off in a hazy, intricately detailed style. Accessible, and often breezy-sounding and easy on the ear, Indigo is an album that’s rich in depth and complexity. It’s thoughtful and emotive and dark and tense yet still extremely enjoyable. It’s a wonderful thing.

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Shows:

Nov 10

Cobalt Studios

Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Nov 11

FortyFive Vinyl Cafe

York, UK

Nov 12

Hatch

Sheffield, UK

Nov 14

Dubrek Studios

Derby, UK

Nov 15

The Holy GrAle

Durham, UK

Nov 17

Oporto Bar

Leeds, UK

Nov 18

The Peer Hat

Manchester, UK

Nov 19

The Studio

Hartlepool, UK

Nov 20

The Grayston Unity

Halifax, UK

Nov 26

Blues Night

Richmond (North Yorkshire), UK

Family Jools – California Sunshine

Posted: 23 July 2021 in Singles and EPs
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23rd July 2021

Christopher Nosnibor

Let’s get this covered off before I start: I’m a grumpy, curmudgeonly git, awkward and obtuse. I’m one of those people who hates Christmas – because festive cheer is false and everything’s just about oiling the cogs of capitalism – and I loathe summer because anything over eighteen degrees is too fucking hot, I can’t think straight while an uncomfortable mess of sweat, and people turn into absolute dicks. And by people, I mean practically everyone: it becomes the new norm once the mercury rises above twenty-one, and the level of dickness seems to increase incrementally with each degree. And to some, it may sound like a strange and perhaps petty niggle, but summer hits – songs specifically written to be played on the beach and at barbecues, in the park and in cars with the windows open evoke a unique level of ire and inspire a quite specific kind of fury.

Maybe it’s because as a teenage goth, I’d spend my summer holidays holed up in my room with the curtains drawn and trying not to die of hayfever while listening to The Sisters of Mercy and The Cure in semi-darkness while reading Stephen King novels that

I have no truck with this shit. Or maybe it’s just that people are generally insufferable.

But my job is to be objective, at least to a reasonable extent – ant prejudice shouldn’t colour a review, and certainly shouldn’t demolish a band – unless they’re Kasabian or Glass Caves, in which it’s entirely justified and why do these bands even have any fans in the first place?

There’s something TV / movie aspirational about California, the so-called Golden State which is renowned for its beaches and of course, Hollywood. With so much media propagating this image of sunkissed perfection and carefree living and celebrity lifestyles – often soundtracked by breezy ‘summer’ tunes, it’s no wonder it’s acquired a status that’s almost mythological over and above the reality and that it’s a popular travel destination.

But it’s 29֠C in the shade in my back yard and anyone with aspirations of travel should simply step outside and feel the melt. And if you want to enhance that sunny, summery vibe that’s a cut above the bland-as-fuck Radio 1 wallpaper, then Family Jools’ ‘California Sunshine’ is a solid choice. It’s got some strong classic rock vibes with some strong lead guitar work, whipped together with a really nice strolling bass that hits a nagging groove without being too much funk. In fact, there’s not too much of anything, and Family Jools deliver easy without being corny, and without the technicality of their playing being an obstacle to delivering a good tune. Nice.

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The Beatflux – Fading With The Morning

Posted: 10 July 2021 in Singles and EPs
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The Secret Warehouse of Sound Recordings – 29th June 2021

Christopher Nosnibor

The thing that fades with the morning is the night, the hours of darkness in which so many of us find ourselves, if not sleeping, in contemplation or otherwise tormented with thoughts, while others find the memories of the night before receding with the sunrise. And what is so often vivid in those dark hours becomes hazy, intangible, and moved further out of reach with every hour that passes. And it’s that sense of loss, of the passing, of an absence that permeates ‘Fading with the Morning’ with a palpable ache.

Over the course of five finely-crafted minutes, The Beatflux build from a delicate, twinkling guitar intro that’s almost post-rock in its persuasion, into a colossal country-tinged grunger and Enrico Minelli’s gritty vocal has a grainy timbre that’s thick with emotion and a tone that says ‘drunk it, smoked it, lived it’.

Musing on how the ‘Sunlight cuts our eyes, changing hue’ may not be a startlingly poetic or vivid image, but it’s all in the delivery as the band conjure something far more evocative in the moment than on paper. ‘Fading With The Morning’ very much harks back to the sound of Alice in Chains, with a keen sense of melody and a layered subtlety in the arrangement that means it gains momentum as it progresses to truly anthemic scale.

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