words: Jamie Milton
originally scribed for gigwise
They called it an ‘Indian Summer’, and we knew it was coming. It seems very boring to start a review with the weather situation but it did seem to dictate the days of everyone who eventually made it to the Hanbury Ballroom by 9 in the evening. What had preceded was a monsoon of sorts – rain, not just rain in fact: sheets of water coming down from the skies, constant, merciless. When you experience a long, dry summer it’s always nice when rain first arrives but by the time the day filtered out, life was pretty miserable. And so it seems particularly apt that once dry, covered and free from the onslaught, the gig-goer is welcomed by two of the most warm-sounding, wholesome acts around today, rousing enough to help you forget about the damp smell tightly wrapped around everyone’s clothes.
An annoyingly dry looking pairing of Swedish sisters, First Aid Kit, commence proceedings with just a single acoustic guitar accompanied with the kind of whimsy, perfectly-tuned vocal harmonies you’d expect from those related by blood. Their relationship is a little too intimate at times; on stage banter drifting off for those watching, but still clearly leaving a whole lot to talk about for Klara & Johanna Söderberg. Their set, albeit limited due to the lack of instruments onstage, is endearing, cuddly – just as good as a pair of warm tracksuit bottoms to put on after coming home drenched.
Fanfarlo begin minimally too. A stripped-down performance of ‘Drowning Men’, with just three of the six members on stage, remains uplifting despite its lack of the uplifting, arm-in-arm grandiose found on debut album ‘Reservoir’. Once fully-formed, Fanfarlo treat the busy crowd to an all-out rendition of said passion, intense but smile-inducing crescendos in ‘Finish Line’ and set highlight ‘The Walls Are Coming Down’. They manage to silence a rather talkative faction of onlookers who happened to put a slightly hindrance on First Aid Kit’s set.
But it’s only common sense to save the finest for the tail-end of the set. ‘Luna’ and ‘Ghosts’ – the closing pair – are the most energetic, fruitful tracks that ‘Reservoir’ offers, providing a refreshing get-up-and-dance aspect to the more static but triumphant bulk of the performance.
Once closed, the Hanbury Club only offers you the exit door, for which the rain awaits to plummet itself down on you more more. But the occasion gives you this false sense of bravery, prepared for anything. In reality, you’re back to being soggy and hopeless within ten seconds of leaving, but the memory of such a balmy night in the company of First Aid Kit and Fanfarlo is a comfort.
mp3: Fanfarlo – Luna
LIVE: Crystal Stilts–The Shop Assistants @ Windmill, Brixton–13/02/09
Brooklyn has been at the centre of a garage-pop revival of late, born of stripped-back diy-rock that finds its feet somewhere between the dreampop of C86 cohorts The Shop Assistants and lo-fi post-punk outfit Young Marble Giants. Key players on the scene include Cause Co-motion, Vivian Girls, and tonight’s Windmill headliners, Crystal Stilts.
First up from Italy, A Classic Education are a sextet with an unpretentious yet unoriginal take on tambourine-bashing indie-pop of late, a la Arcade Fire (the band once opened for Win Butler and co. last year). Despite hailing from Bologna, their lyrics curl with a thick American accent that reminds of Deathcab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard. Two guitars give the band sound depth, while a violinist lends an orchestral element that veers towards the grandiose, but is limited by lyrics that tend to lack guile. They finish with ‘Stay Son’, a track from the ‘First EP’, and depart the tiny corner stage to disperse among the tight-packed crowd.
First impressions of Crystal Stilts confirm them a frosty bunch. The sporadic elements of their sound, shot with lo-fi romance, seem in constant conflict, which lends itself to a stuffy tension. Vocalist Brad Hargett towers at the front, but his voice is barely audible beneath rattling tambourines, the tinny chimes of a sixties organ, reverberating surfer guitars and what can only be described as ferocious drumming on the part of ex-Vivian Girls’ percussionist, Frankie Rose. It’s at once gloomy and infectious.
What Crystal Stilts lack in variation they make up for in sonic consistency, adopting a contrived unbalance that makes their sound lysergic and dour. Hargett reminds of Ian Curtis as he sways, arms swinging, steely gaze fixed and voice deep and droning. When the band address the audience, the words come from Frankie on drums, drenched in sweat and grinning, or muffled and vacant from Hargett. There’s something irrepressibly revivalist about the spectral guitars and faux-romanticism of the doom-pop Crystal Stilts purport. But they carry the flag unapologetically ahead of their Brooklyn-based peers and if art reflects life, Crystal Stilts are the perfect soundtrack to empty purses in the half-light of this wintry city.
S I N S/ /
LIVE: Late of The Pier//Micachu and the Shapes –@Brighton Concorde–18/02/09
words: Jamie Milton
When you approach a packed-to-the-brim, intimate venue that consists of a couple of hundred people, average age about 16, with an energetic, obnoxious, fire-starting band as the headline act, there’s little more to expect than a broken toe. Naturally, that’s how I exited the concorde. Maybe extra padding would have helped, or maybe one should have just avoided getting in the middle of the “carnage” during what many claim to be one of the most uplifting, destructive minutes of sound of the 21st century so far, the closing period of ‘Focker’.
Prior to ‘Focker’, prior to the opening of Late of the Pier’s frantic set even, t
here’s a whole lot of atmosphere floating about. It’s a gift to the delighful Micachu and the Shapes, one of the most exciting, original acts in the UK, about to unveil their debut album. The crowd is split in half, loving or hating the spiky, unashamed loop-pop that is much more coherent on ‘Jewellery’. On the live stage, much of it is inaudible, amended by the occasional glimmer of unmitigated pop. Sure, their set is patchy but it leaves a taste in your mouth, urging any newcomer to explore a little when they finish their journey home. You don’t get the full effect of the looped sound of a tapped spoon or a saucepan, phone-dial, whatever else lurks in the debut album. But you do get the same energy, particularly during ‘Just In Case’, which earns plenty of audience participation.
But ‘participation’ wouldn’t be the appropriate word to seal on the audience’s contribution to the night. From the very second ‘Space In The Woods’ revs up its engine, excluding those at the back who’d prefer to settle with a pint in hand, the whole venue escapes into a flurry of energy and giddiness. Those that remain from start to finish exit with complete satisfaction, plus that broken toe. Those scurrying out of the frenzy should have known better. ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ (which judging on one more pre-gig listen, is a criminally overlooked album), may have been rich in ideas and synth-led sounds but it lacked a range of purposes. It’s main priority was to let the kids dance and evidently, that mission has been accomplished.
‘Focker’ is the defining moment. Little time is spent focusing the eye on Samuel Dust and co., except from the outstanding appearance of a new song which receives a friendly applause instead of a tone-death wail. Any moments of respite are subsequently replaced by another physical injury that has little damage due to the adreneline pumping through the body. And while to an onlooker this whole experience could sound offputting, it’s as good as it gets to your everyday thrill-seeking teenager.
IM GETTIN LOST
IN YR CURRRLS
LIVE: Animal Collective – Brighton Concorde – Jan 15th 2009
words: Jamie Milton
originally scribed for gigwise
top photo: acb
You get the feeling that amongst the 500+ crowd awaiting an appearance from the buzz-band of the year thus far, that some of them are expecting one of the most staggering live performances they’ll ever claim to have witnessed. You prepare to be taken away by Animal Collective on the live circuit just as you would from listening to one of their records; their sound, so inhuman yet so unbelievably natural that you urge to be swept along with the sample-fused beauty of it all. At times during tonight’s show you really are lost in a swarm of uplifting spirits, no substances required. At times you really do pinch yourself to check whether what’s right before you is actually there. Close your eyes and occasionally optical-illusions form, illusions akin to the band’s most recent album artwork, simply due to the rate at which the elaborate light show gives everything it has. Dancing like a maniac to something so sonically wrong at first glance yet something that feels so right, is about as good as it gets when it comes to gigs.
But Avey Tare and co. start slowly. Even the ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ standout-track ‘My Girls’ never kicks off like it should. Panda Bear looked at times frustrated, at times bored. But then something clicks. Either Geologist turns the bass up or the following songs just have that little more oomph when played live. But what’s certain is, what was at one point heading for a major disappointment, suddenly becomes as awesome as it had once promised. It arrives in the
form of the bass-heavy ‘Also Frightened’. The audience yelp in unison to Avey Tare, the tempo is raised steadily and finally the crowd begin to lose themselves and the band clearly get in the mood to impress.
What’s most notable about ‘Merriweather…’ is the sheer power of the bass. It rises above the many other elements, including the thousands of summery-samples incorporated into each song. And once that bass is turned up a notch, the highlights on the band’s ninth album come to life like you never thought capable. ‘Summertime Clothes’ is as likeable and dance-inducing as expected, ‘Lion In A Coma’ is exceeded on stage, mainly thanks to Avey Tare’s vocals being raised up an octave in unexpected fashion. Exciting as it is, the material played from the ninth album sounds patchy at times, requiring a few more performances before it can come to life. Th
is is confirmed when the highlight of the set, ‘Fireworks’, from the previous record, raises the most enjoyable 10-minute-segment of the set. Lengthy, improvised at times but always hearty, it’s the finest example of the band’s great knack for tackling spontaneouity, flawlessly.
And the mood keeps on heightening, the bar keeps being raised and you almost want to persuade the band to finish on a high, due to the small likelihood of the performance getting even better. It seems most appropriate, when the three-piece play ‘Brothersport’. The eccentric crowd enter into a frenzy, a mass of half-naked bodies jump as high as possible, in complete contrast to the band’s London performance, which consisted of a horribly static crowd, apparently. Once that closes, the band promptly exit. But a resounding jeer seems to persuade them back on-stage. The crowd remain ecstatic, almost too so. When you begin to wonder whether you’re going to end up shouting lyrics back at Panda Bear in an Oasis-esque, “let’s ‘ave it” manner, the band instead decide to devote their encore to more low-key yet equally as impressive efforts. ‘Leaf House’, a crowd favourite but one not capable of inspiring someone to accidentally break someone’s saw, wraps things up perfectly. You exit the Concorde to repeated mutters of “spiritual experience”, “arty but not farty” and “I think I might faint”.
It’s difficult to decide whether you’d have been better off dancing like a lunatic or oppositely, standing still and simply appreciatively witnessing their performance. Either way, jumping endlessly or not, you exit the venue having got what you came for; a breathtaking performance.
mp3: Animal Collective – Lion In A Coma (zshare)
[Buy 'Merriweather Post Pavilion']
ALBUM: Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
words: Jamie Milton
Is it wrong, heartless even, to put an albums tracks on shuffle? Yeah, probably. Try getting the same effect from ‘Kid A’ or ‘Untrue’ when you let iTunes make its own tracklisting. So it’s quite obscene that ‘Skeletal Lamping’ it more enjoyable when the tracks are scattered -they were scattered in the first place so by all means you can cross out the “heartless” part of the opening question above. This is only really because Kevin Barnes is a scatterbrain of the finest kind, a melting pot of weird ideas that the finest of psychedelic drugs couldn’t force out of The Beatles or Floyd. Barnes has always been a flickering light, changing his works before they can be classed as perfection, simply because one idea after another, things are improved. And even though Georgie Fruit (sex-obsessed-alter-ego) is the frontman of the band for the majority of the time, and even though that’ll make you feel a tad uncomfortable to start with, whoever’s behind the voice, things sound busy.
One piece of advice: try to forget what Barnes has said in interviews during the build-up to the record. This is an album made up of segments, true, but it’s difficult to believe that he’s randomly assigned places for these segments like say, your media player would. Because if he has, things have turned out suspiciously well. There is variation though, to say the very least. ‘Plastic Wafers’ is determined to confuse, to prevent you from working out exactly what this record is about whereas the highlight on the album, the more straightforward ‘Beware Our Nubile Miscreants’, has it all figured out. At times ‘Skeletal Lamping’ is reflective (‘Touched Something’s Hollow’), at times it’s joyous (‘Id Engager’), at times it’s seductive (‘St.Exquisite’s Confessions’) and it all provides a startling insight into that mind we all want to aquire a piece of, that belonging to Kevin Barnes. Lyrical conte
nt provides us with interest more than anything else, Barnes is vunerable and egotistical when he shares with us that he “wanted to fire all my friends, and just start over again” and all of a sudden he’s alive, “I wanna show you off, I wanna tell you lies, I wanna write you books, I wanna turn you on, I wanna make you come, two hundred times a day”. This album will go down as the most scitzophrenic of all their releases to date, and to some, their most compelling.
The problem with ‘Beware Our Nubile Miscreants’ being the album’s peak-point though is the fact that it’s the first and only real break you receive after enduring, yes, enduring, a relentless frenzy of concepts and musings that refuses to die down, refuses to go to bed, sort of like a 4-year-old-child who’s been given too much orange juice. And so as this delightful refrain becomes your personal favourite, you come to realise that a giant proportion of ‘Skeletal Lamping’ may be fascinating, but that’s about it. ‘Mingusings’ combines two straightforward pieces together, and that’s perhaps the way the rest of the record should sound. Because when the opening ‘Nonpareil Of Favor’ suddenly breaks into a gigantic clashing of sound and noise, it’s dissatisfying – something that Of Montreal have rarely been previously.
Listening to Fruit’s erotic threats of “making you come two-hundred times a day” is enjoyable on face value but it makes you question whether Barnes is all head and no heart. ‘Hissing Fauna’ excelled in giving us this distorted but exposed and fractured personal content throughout about Barnes’ divorce. ‘Skeletal Lamping’ represents the moving on of that period but perhaps we’ll all be wishing personal trauma on this kind fellow once more, as unkind as it may be. Once observed a little closer though, this album does have personal touches to it. Its purposeful lack of direction represents the indecision on behalf of Barnes, his confusion at the present time and that’s what makes ‘Skeletal Lamping’ a lot more than just a messy bedroom of a concept album. Eventually, after a seemingly never-ending quest of discovering just what the Hell is going on, you come to terms with the fact that this is just too difficult to understand. Instead, you just await the “best bits”, listen after listen.
7.4
PLAY: Of Montreal – Misgusings [Buy 'Skeletal Lamping']
ALBUM: Los Campesinos! – We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
words: Jamie Milton
Sometimes it’s an achievement to boast about – to be able to release more than one album in a year, to resist the temptation of sitting back and opening the cigars whilst the royalties arrive in their masses. But it’s been proven that some things are worsened when rushed; handwriting, Tottenham Hotspur’s growth as a bidding football giant, the Pigeon Detectives’ second album as a particular example. Musically, good things tend to take time. But when you have a true incentive to move onwards, that may not be the case. Los Campesinos! perhaps wanted to clean the slate of a dubiously-produced and dubiously-received debut record, to move onwards hastily and to shun away and scepticism towards their ability to support what was an unimaginably huge cloud of hype emerging prior to ‘Hold On Now, Youngster’. With their second “record” (members have recently dismissed this to be a proper, official album release), the erratic Welsh troupe have well and truly defied all odds by bettering their debut album with what has now be declared a spur-of-the-moment project.
This is all but confirmed with plenty of time to spare. The opening three tracks of ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ are every bit as thrilling as each other, topping the majority ‘Hold On Now’ simply because of the feeling that’s given off. There’s the sound of enthusiasm, the sense that these sounds are fresh and exciting to the band themselves. We get the second-hand effect of that inspiration. A grungy opener in the form of ‘Ways To Make It Through To Wall’ documents the introduction of a dark-tinged album full of shameful anecdotes and the most extreme cases of self-doubt. Yet this isn’t mimicked sound-wise, with a chirpy and traditional sounding guitar line never escapes an outlook of optimism whilst an expectant Gareth declares, “we are waiting here for catastrop
he!” This consistent sense of doom and gloom is echoed throughout, particularly so in the following couple of tracks. The lengthy passage of “I cannot emphasise enough that my body is a badly designed, poorly put together vessel harbouring these diminishing, so-called vital organs, hope my heart goes first, I hope my heart goes first!” on the title-track is enough to fuel self-confidence in any listener, regardless of emotional state. Again, there’s an ironic contrast musically and the piece is all the more for it.
The jaunty, shaky ‘Miserabilia’ makes up the third piece of this simple-to-complete jigsaw and from then onwards hints of experimentation overwhelm the melodies and the ideas when the record isn’t listened to with eager ears. The album becomes far too soaked up in its own spontaneous thoughts of shame and misery at times, with a couple of exceptions. ‘You’ll Need Those Fingers For Crossing’ disguises a simplistic verse-chorus formation with another stunning offering of lyrical darkness – “You worry a million raindrops will die, with the last memory of you and I, in a soft-porn version of the end of the world”, the delicate touch of xylophone and strings make it a heartbreaking tale of, you guessed it, pessimism. ‘All Your Keyfabe Friends’ supports the view that this record had even more to offer if it was given a year’s worth of attention and work. A thrashing crescendo of energy and self-loathing comes to an abrupt end and even though at various points, ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ sounds fatigued, it’s a fact that’s entirely forgotten about with a quick-fire listen to the more fearless tracks on the album.
The clever thing about this album is that it’ll have an effect of swinging those “haters” towards a guilty love of the band, whilst the hardcore fans remain endlessly in love with no distractions. They’ll fall weak at the knees for the lines “As if I walked into the room to see my ex-girlfriend, who by the way, I’m still in love with, sucking the face of some pretty boy, with my favourite band’s most popular song in the background, is it wrong that I can’t decide which bothers me most?”, as any music fanatic would. Doubts will be cast aside in all corners. This is something to rejoice.
8.0
PLAY: [Los Campesinos! - The End Of The Asterisk] Buy ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’
Live Initial Thoughts: Metronomy – Nights Out
words: Jamie Milton
A few months back I interviewed Joseph Mount about his second record. The main talking points were the manner in which Metronomy were treated in their long-distance relationship with a label, Joseph’s hangover and the aim of the record – to express how much fun he and his newly-appointed cronies were having. After getting my hands on a copy of ‘Nights Out’, I’m about to press the play button….
#1/ Nights Out Intro
0:18 – Droney, disheartened stuff so far. A low-pitched horn enters and is eventually followed by the now traditional, clunky sounds of Mount and co’s duo-guitar harmony.
1:24 – In enter the synths, equally chunky, equally different to your status quo electro-indie act.
2:13 – It builds well, before giving away to the quieter sounds once more.
#2/ The End of You Too
0:25 – A lot of what I’m hearing is looped, a gentle drum machine loop budged aside by some more determined guitars. The structure changes for a few seconds to house-warm the entrance of a ditsy, glitchy keyboard line.
1:47 – We still haven’t heard any vocals yet but this is very much classic Metronomy.
2:03 - Constant pitch and structure changes, this isn’t for the faint-hearted but to me, it makes it all the more entertaining and enticing.
3:06 – What’s evident is that this long wait for the album’s release may be due to excessive mixing, finely-tuned production. One buzzing sound comes out of your right ear, a few bass notes in the other. Of course it’s been done before but Mount’s worked it all out very well in this track.
#3/ Radio Ladio
0:10 – I’m anticipating the vocals now – ‘Radio Ladio’, one of MFM’s singles of the year last year, is pretty much going to kick-start the record into a higher gear.
1:16 - “So what’s your name? You’ve taken my breath away” – this is cheesy pop at its finest. ‘Radio Ladio’ used to be the sole reason why we loved Metronomy – that was until we discovered the b-sides that came with the single and then the material released after that!
2:15 – The key moment – “R-A-D-I-O” etc. is sung out in full enthusiasm but once that previously-unveiled riff kicks in once more, then we have a song.
#4/ My Heart Rate Rapid
0:10 – Another familiar face – second most recent single and equally as appealing as the previous song, ‘My Heart Rate Rapid’ is a sure-fire way to get a shit party on the way up.
1:20 - the trio formation comes in handy – all three experimenting with high-pitched, very unnatural but very ear-pleasing vocals.
3:26 – This goes over the four minute mark. Too long for a song that’s so focused on a single tune? Nah.
#5/ Heartbreaker
0:04 - When I first saw this on paper I thought there might have been a slim chance that Metronomy had gone so pop that they’d recorded a cover of Will.i.Am on their most important album to date. Seems like that won’t be the case when a fidgety bass riff enters.
0:30 - It sounds like there’s a sample of creaking doors in the background. Very original.
0:60 - Could this be Mount’s ballad? His vocal range certainly seems up for it, “This girl’s no good for me” he whimpers. Then the chorus arrives, this is no ballad.
2:42 – The catchy chorus is now being whispered by the trio. It’s clear what the intention of this was. I’ll be whispering tomorrow morning anyway….
#5/ On The Motorway
0:15 – The most foot-tapping track on the record so far. Big on tempo, big on synth, big on cheese. This is what ‘Pip Paine…’ would have sounded like if they’d completely nailed it.
0:57 - I think I recognise this from live shows, went down a crowd favourite. An instrumental, rightly so. Metronomy sound at top of their game when all three are giving it their all on said instruments…
2:34 – That was pretty brilliant
#6/ Side 2
0:05 - Presumably the opening track when you flip your 12″ over. Everything sounds out of place but almost meant to be at the same time.
0:50 - The pre-minute-long mark seems like Mount’s favourite time to throw a riff into the cauldron.
2:30 – A slight doubt, is there too much instrumental stuff? ‘Holiday’s up next so that might shove this doubt out the way but Mount claimed that the debut record’s weakness was the lack of pop and the lack of vocals making it less accessible
#7/ Holiday
0:30 – You can tell this is going to build and build in typical Metronomy fashion. Slightly darker that what we’ve heard so far though.
1:00 – Slightly twisted vocals but it’s all pulled off. “So you want me to yourself/Well you must know that won’t happen” confesses a pessimistic Joseph.
2:39 – This isn’t quite single material, even though it’s just been released. My theory: Metronomy were expecting the record to be due out at the same time as ‘My Heart Rate Rapid’ and it simply didn’t happen for one reason or another.
#8/ A Thing For Me
0:31 – Wow, they’ve really upped the standards in the “how high can your voice go” competition.
1:05 - The least distorted Mount vocals to date and we’re feeling slightly more comfortable. This is just as dancey as everything else and we still haven’t discovered that “ballad” yet. Maybe it’s for the better.
2:22 - A few more lyrics about getting girls’ numbers in clubs, there’s nothing deep about ‘Nights Out’ so far – again, probably for the better.
3:06 – It’s happened again. The song gets progressively better, you’ve got room to breathe at the start of each song but eventually you’re trapped again. This is thrilling but not to be enjoyed in large chunks.
#9/ Back On The Motorway
0:46 – Continuing on from ‘A Thing For Me’ tune-wise, Mount breaks into another verse of song. ‘Back on The Motorway’ is suggesting that there’s a story to be told on this record.
1:18 – It’s becoming passionate now. The beats are fast, the trio aren’t tired yet. Nor are we, a good sign.
2:00 – I’ve just realised (and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long) that Metronomy are a whole lot cleverer than they make out. Intricate themes are to be picked out, pop isn’t just being played simply, this record’s been developed over and over again, plunged through several balances and checks and the final product really isn’t bad at all. Target market? Still haven’t worked that one out yet. Too interesting for the simple-minded, I won’t say “kids”. Too poppy for the narrow-minded.
#10/ On Dancefloors
0:43 – A soothing synth effect enters previously recognisable sounds. The formation of rapid, danceable beat with some toe-tapping bass might have been used too much. Those synths were a breath of fresh air.
1:50 - “I wanna get more from this” demands Mount. Maybe the weakest chorus so far on the record but maybe I’m just getting nit-picky. Neil Diamond’s on the tele, fortunately I’m more interested about ‘Nights Out’ still.
3:05 – Ratatat-esque guitars done with less style although it sounds more genuine.
3:46 – ‘On Dancefloors’ isn’t as big an “anthem” as the rest on the record. Here’s to hoping Metronomy go gung-ho on the final track.
#11/ Nights Outro
0:09 - Oh wait, it’s just an outro
0:15 – Behold the first piece of recording on ‘Nights Out’ that could have been achieved without electricity.
0:50 – Of course there’s more than one acoustic guitar. Of course there’s more than one thing going on. That’s what we love about Metronomy. Attention’s never forced.
2:41 – Essentially though, the last two tracks or so have been a bit of an anti-climax. All the less there’s no forgetting tracks 2-5.
Album length: 44:12
Initial verdict: In the regions of 6-8 out of 10.
PLAY: Metronomy – Heartbreaker
PLAY: Metronomy – Back On The Motorway
[Buy 'Pip Paine...']
MFM @ HYPEM
