JUNE: This Month’s Releases In Full
words: Jamie Milton
The highlight of my month was seeing the lead singer of Friendly Fires sweat it out on the new turf of the Glastonbury Other Stage with the campest dance routine for some time. It worked, and the crowd loved it. It goes to show, all you need is energy, enthusiasm and people will find it difficult not to warm to you. Even though the greatest entertainer alive has passed, there’s still room for his take on wowing an audience. Hopefully in time, the crop of stars who merely look uninterested, staring down blankly will be abolished. It’s not one of the biggest problems in music, but it might be for live music.
In the recording studio however, things have brightened up. June has been our busiest month to date, releases coming in from all sides. Results vary, but the uniting feature of all, bar a couple, is this sense of determination to make something not just special, but vastly different. This was highlighted first and foremost in our album of the month, Dirty Projectors’ ‘Bitte Orca’. Dave Longstreth incorporated an “accessibility factor” into the record which I declared “makes the whole listen stick in your head rather than forcing you to scratch it in bewilderment.” Kasabian, a less likely act to twist and turn in such style, also produced a forward-thinking record that made no mistake of attempting to abolish a lager-swigging status thrown at them so early in their career. However, I saw it as an unsuccessful move: “It’s when the band stick to their guns that they become a more formidable prospect.”
A couple of “veterans” did indeed stick to their guns, with mixed results. Eels returned to some hostility and criticism towards his latest ‘Hombre Lobo’ concept album. Often deemed safe and restrictive, for an album that covered one single subject, ‘desire’, more could have been made of it. On the EP front, Deerhunter returned after only a short while with their surprisingly tight and coherent ‘Rainwater Cassette Exchange’, a project that provided an “even more accessible Deerhunter than the band exposed on the last record.”
Debut albums came thick and fast, artists ranging in the size of hype that upheld them. La Roux produced the finest debut of the year to date, a real shock to the system, a record refusing to be dictated by a couple of hit singles. We Were Promised Jetpacks followed a trend of emotional, Scot-bred songwriting, tweaking the sound of Frightened Rabbit and producing something more damaged and edgy. Let’s Wrestle released their first album proper: one “prolonged, aggressive but intelligent chant of triumph.”
The surprise of the month came in the form of Jack Penate – a previously interesting pop star but never one to make a fuss about, his Paul Epworth produced sophomore album inhales African guitars, drums and spirits, carrying the soul and confidence he exited with from his debut. Future Of The Left also turned more heads that previous with their latest. Matt McDonald put it best: “Future of the Left are still nowhere near a headline slot at Glastonbury and a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Pepsi. But each and every one of their songs communicates the idea that they would never want to be.” That was June.
JUNE’S RELEASES, IN SCORE ORDER:
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca 8.8 [mp3: Two Doves // alt ]
La Roux – La Roux 8.8 [mp3: Colourless Colour // alt ]
Jack Penate – Everything Is New 8.3
Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another 8.3
Deerhunter – Rainwater Cassette Exchange 8.0
White Denim – Fits 7.9
We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls 7.9
Broken Records – Until The Earth Begins To Part 7.9
Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer 7.8
Eels – Hombre Lobo 7.6
Let’s Wrestle – In The Court Of The Wrestling Let’s 7.5
Dinosaur Jr – Farm 7.1|
Amazing Baby – Rewild 6.7 [mp3: Invisible Place // alt ]
Regina Spektor – Far 6.7
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 6.1
Little Boots – Hands 5.0
The Gossip – Music For Men 4.3
ALBUM REVIEW: Kitsune Maison Compilation 7 (La Roux, Phoenix, We Have Band)
words: Jamie Milton
originally scribed for thisisfakediy
Kitsune’s prominent role in the music industry should never be underestimated. That said, their compilations, growing in popularity and reputation by the second, are beginning to act as a casual name-drop of the most buzzed acts around, inferring who exactly you should be listening to. This is all well and good however, because those at the label have good taste and the acts on the compilation, for the most part, are worthy of the hype.
The impressive result of Compilation #7 is although it needn’t force itself to, it flows with such ease. Acting as a warm-up to a night out, the dance-inclined content doesn’t just consist at half-arsed attempts at lumping in some remixes to blog about. Remixes are of the highest quality, particularly the Classixx version of one of the singles of the year, Phoenix’s ‘Listztomania’, and the Yusek remix of a surprisingly underrated AutoKratz who for some time have been deserving of the kind of limelight La Roux, another worthy addition to the compilation, finds herself in.
As for fresh faces, the slowly-establishing We Have Band will enjoy some more word-of-mouth recommendations due to their inclusion of the frantic, obnoxious ‘Time After Time’. Men exemplify the perfect combination of style, swagger and substance in ‘Make It Reverse’. Crystal Fighters stick out like a sore thumb with ‘Xtatic Truth’, a full-on dance anthem with unique, spirited samples, MSTRKRFT-meets-a particular act that shares one half of their name. The Golden Filter, another act on the edge of every hipster’s lips, mix smooth, unalarming vocals with well-timed, rich rhythms – the sound of the bright future.
If anything, a compilation shouldn’t be analysed on merit of how well it flows, whether it has high points or low points, because surely any mistakes should be the artists’ responsibility, right? Well, no. Kitsune, unlike NOW 92 or any other former favourite at Woolworths, takes pride in providing the listener with a musical assault of the finest talent to go by their name, without any interruptions or jolts towards the skip button.
Viva la compilation.
7.6
mp3: Phoenix – Listztomania (Classixx version) [alt]
mp3: The Golden Filter – Favourite Things [alt]
OPINION: The Revival of 80’s Music
words: Martyn Young
As we come to the end of the first decade of the 21st century the current trend in popular music is not for bands to be pushing musical boundaries, establishing new styles and forms of music to go with a brave new digital age, no the pervading sound of 2009 is eighties revivalism. Every aspect of this much maligned decade has been rehashed and reused by almost every new act both mainstream and underground, from the bleak post punk of White Lies to the bright airy new pop of La Roux, the hip new sound in pop is the eighties.
The reason why this trend is so unique is that unlike the sixties and seventies, the eighties have always been thought of as the worst decade for music for all manner of musical crimes, we all remember with horror the likes of Agadoo, and Kylie and Jason. Yet there is a very good reason why so many acts today are appropriating eighties sounds and influences and that is when you look past the awful synth pop, cheesy production and materialistic attitudes of many of the most successful acts during the eighties era of Thatcherism it was actually a time of great innovation and a golden age for British pop.
The new pop sound of the early part of the decade featured wildly disparate styles and bands that all had huge personalities and an innate sense of glamour and melody. The electro grandeur of The Associates, the style and sleaze of Frankie goes to Hollywood, the wholesome indie pop of Orange Juice and Aztec Camera.
The sense of the importance of glamour and the desire to entertain, to perform, has always been important to British music and musicians and this was exemplified at its best in the eighties. New romanticism and the preponderance of synths and new electro music encouraged people who were a bit weird, a bit wonderful but yet hugely creative to indulge all their musical ideas leading to an explosion of new sounds. Electronic bands like Soft Cell, The Human League and Eurhythmics managed to merge hip up do date technology with the classic British song principals of 
melody and rhythm it is the influences of these classic electro bands that is being most highly felt in today’s eighties revivalists.
Little Boots and La Roux are two of the artists who have been most responsible for bringing the eighties new pop sound into the noughties mainstream. What they both share in common along with their eighties influence is an shameless love of pure pop, the sort of bright airy pop that characterized the eighties, they are not burdened by a desire to appear cool or edgy they just want to make catchy music for people to dance to.
It is not just glamorous girls with synths who are using the eighties pop sound. White Lies have gained success with their amalgamation of Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes by way of Joy Division and even the archetypal garage rockers Yeah Yeah Yeah’s have explored the use of synths and an eighties sound on their new record It’s Blitz!
Like most musical trends, eighties revivalism is characterized by a desire for change, a desire to fight against the pervading musical sound. In the case of the eighties pop vanguard it is the scourge of “Landfill indie” that is stifling all creativity and leading to a stale mainstream musical wasteland.
Today’s hip young things are all listening to the sound of swinging eighties Britain and expect to hear a lot of this sound before the year is out.
mp3: Yeah Yeahs Yeahs – Hysteric (zshare)
NEW BANDS ‘09
PT.4 – AND THE REST…
words: Jamie Milton
This part is just rounding up the rest of the names that’ve caught our eye, just so we can say that we did see them before they got massive. It’s all about pride ’round here. A couple of these weren’t included in our main batch of new bands because they’ve already got records out. We would mention Lady GaGa but her “debut” single is a big opinion splitter round here…
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AMAZING BABY (MGMT-esque alt indie) —— listen to: Head Dress
FACTORY FLOOR (dooms-day post punk) —— listen to: You Were Always Wrong
FRANKMUSIK (“cool” sample-fused pop) —– listen to: Vacant Heart
IPSO FACTO (glamorous synth-pop) —— listen to: Ears and Eyes
LA ROUX (stylish electro-pop) —— listen to: Quicksand
MUMFORD & SONS (charming folk)—— listen to: Hold On To What You Believe
S.C.U.M (Gothic underground punk) —— listen to: Smile
TELEPATHE (experimental gadget-loving duo) —— listen to: Chrome’s On It
WAVVES (Lo-fi grunge) ——– listen to: Side Yr On —mp3 –zshare
WOMEN (Lo-fi grunge/folk)——– listen to: Upstairs — mp3 –zshare
MFM @ HYPEM
