Posts Tagged ‘single reviiew’

Looking Tigers – They’re Coming

Posted: 19 March 2023 in Singles and EPs
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24th February 2023

James Wells

Looking Tigers is Marcel Moliner, based in Leith, Edinburgh, and he describes his style as ‘animal techno’, since it’s all based on or inspired by tigers. That’s Not to be confused with Techno Animal, although in reality, this is unlikely.

With a hard bass thudding insistently, this is one of those tracks that’s sparse and stark yet at the same time dense. It’s all about the bass. Or, as Marcel suggests, ‘a steady 125bpm kick acts as a safety net against all unforeseen turns, where tiger roars unveil a very primal experience that won’t be forgotten.’ ‘They’re coming’ is dark and brooding, foreboding, and has strong hints of instrumental remixes of Nine Inch Nails or Depeche Mode, as well as calling to mind early Factory Floor.

Yes, it’s danceable, but it’s also cerebral, and it makes you feel compressed and tense, paranoid, even. You can almost feel their breath behind you: they’re coming, but who are they, and what are they here for?

Equally big on groove and atmosphere, it doesn’t necessarily convey the energy of a prowling hunter or savage beast, but this is interesting.

Captain Zero – Bullseye

Posted: 20 December 2022 in Singles and EPs
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Christopher Nosnibor

If the pandemic gave us anything other than Acute paranoia, it’s a lot of new bands. Who’d have thunk it?

This of course highlights just how different the lockdown experience was for people, dispelling the idea that we shared a collective suffering during those months. Many suffered the lack of an income, but many revelled in the newfound time available to them. Some of us, for better or for worse, got to continue to work full-time remotely while also having to squeeze in home-schooling.

Captain Zero was another band who formed during lockdown, when the tones of ‘dirty fuzz bass batterer Steve James (Geisha, Steveless) were gently dripped into the earholes of David Edgar (The Get-Outs, Superseed) and beat basher Keith Hall (Big Joan, Flag Fen)’ And the tale goes that ‘It wasn’t long before they all got in a darkened room together, turned their amps up to 6.5 and began smelting demonic demos into a fistful of filthy rock n roll bangers.’

These are the realities of forming a band and actually making music, but Captain Zero do a great job of hiding that 6.5 amp level on ‘Bullseye’, an absolutely blistering rager of a track with thick, fiery riffs and gnarly as their beards.

‘Bullseye’ is a dense metal trudge and grit and heft that’s a blast of blistering hardcore punk that’s got hints of 90s Ministry and the entirety of the grunge scene compressed into a nutshell. It’s a belter.

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Moses – Mad

Posted: 6 June 2022 in Singles and EPs
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3rd June 2022

James Wells

Moses – described as a ‘genre-fluid proverbial rollercoaster’ – are impossible to place. Their latest single sound nothing like its predecessors. But they still have a distinctive sound, marked by energy and exuberance. That, and a knack for nagging, stomping basslines.

‘Mad’ has hints of Jane’s Addiction woven into its rambunctious (post) punk infusion, but then there’s a lot going on in this effervescent cocktail, from fast-moving organ work that calls to mind The Stranglers to anything post-millennial indie with some zip, and no, I can’t put my finger on specifics – because as the Jubilee procession on Sunday illustrated, everything post-nineties is simply a cultural blur and no-one knows where much of the last thirty years has gone or what defines any decade.

Moses aren’t set in any time or space – they somehow bring everything together and sound so very now. Dig ‘em? You’d be mad not to!

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break_fold – Welwala

Posted: 11 January 2022 in Singles and EPs
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11th January 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

Curse my brain. It’s so unhelpful at times. When Tim Hann – aka break_fold – emailed me his new single release, I managed to misread ‘Welwala’ as ‘Welawala’, and immediately my mental jukebox struck up ‘Summer Nights’ from Grease. ‘Tell me more’, you say?

Uh-huh, ok. Having recently connected with analog horizons, with whom this is his second release ahead of the fourth break_fold album, scheduled for release towards the end of 2022, Tim’s been gaining traction with support for previous singles ‘Meanwhile.. Up in Trump Tower’ and ‘Variant’ from BBC 6 Music DJs Gideon Coe and Steve Lamacq.

As is common for Hann, it’s a TV series that in part inspired the composition: on this occasion, it’s the sci-fi show The Expanse as well as Blanck Mass’ Calm with Horses film soundtrack (as far back as the debut album by I Concur, Hann was drawing on The Wire among his wide-ranging sources).

Gary Numan-esque synths and that crisp crack of a vintage drum machine snare sound. Beneath the bold strikes builds first a later of bass, then a bubbling synth loop, and then the drums kick up a notch and beat harder. As the elements layer up, the track takes on new depths and grows in intensity. The dropdown is perfectly timed, and from there it builds again. Compositionally it’s magnificent, and there’s a lot of action and dynamic work packed into three-and-a-half minutes. It’s tight, and the production is poised, just-so, and it all comes together with a precision that at the same time feels intuitive, and it’s that intuition that really gives it some force as it pushes the listener along in its swelling current.

As the press release explains, ‘Welwala is about seeing something from two different points of view. It is structured around two contrasting synth lines with focus shifting between them, evoking both optimism and threat. These are layered with an insistent drum track in a sequence that hints at narrative evolution.’ So, a bit like ‘Summer Nights’ then. I mean, ok, not musically, but my misread was right about the telling the story from two different perspectives, right? Right?

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