“You Took Too Much, You Turned To Dust”

This post has to be prefaced with that dreaded sentence: I know someone in the band. But fear not, despite any problems with objectivity I may have had, Shift-Static have made it very easy for me by being pretty bloody fantastic. A five-piece formed at Newcastle Uni, they played their debut gig last night in the lovely Head of Steam bar’s basement to a small but rapturous audience. It was also the first time I’d heard their work.

The music itself is hard to pin down, swapping from airy, sampled-beat soundscapes to more forceful, guitar-led sections. It meanders all over the place, resulting in lovely, sprawling songs that constantly take left turns, my personal favourite being the abrupt, and brilliantly fashioned change halfway through ‘Father’s Footsteps Pt. 2′, where the echo-laden first half is forced into the skittering Kid A beats of the second. The band seemingly want to shake the listener into not just drifting off and letting it all sweep over them. Laura Smith’s honeyed vocals worm themselves around each song, and (in the same fashion as Meursault lead singer Neil Pennycook’s voice) refuse to remain the focus, but drift in and out like some ethereal instrument. Every song seems to have been studied for its ability to seamlessly allow for interplay between Will Tasker’s lead guitar hooks, Gordon Bruce’s plaintive strumming and Laura Smith’s gentle piano chords. I’m not entirely sure whether it was intentional, but for the live show Joe Barton’s bass was pumped up far higher than on the recordings I’ve heard, which resulted in a more melodic, punchy role for the deeper notes too.  As you can tell from this rather scattershot summing up of their style, this band won’t let one sound dominate their music, preferring to explore every avenue available to them as they progress through the songs.

As a live show too, it was brilliant to see how the band is constantly on the move, occupying different roles. It was essentially a choreographed dance around the stage as every member, and particularly drummer Charlie Bayler, rushed to fulfill their duties for each song. With each song lasting over four minutes at least, the set was only made up of five songs, but every one was received with an appreciation of just how much work has gone into each one. This is not a group who have just formed and forced out their earliest attempts at music, the music has clearly been toiled over and researched, fine-tuning it into the brilliant show it became. The fact that the band were bookended by two godawful cod-punk bands just made them stand out even more, and with the speed the CDs were being sold right after the set, it looks as though we have a lot more to look forward to from Shift-Static.

You can catch them play again, supporting Foot Village, at the Head of Steam in Newcastle on the 11th November, and if that’s a little too far for you to come, then you can listen to and download all five songs that have been released so far from their Myspace.

Shift-Static – Haystacks (YSI)
Shift-Static – Father’s Footsteps Pt. 2 (YSI)

 

This Is The Future

I think of Future of the Left as the musical equivalent of the comedian Stephen Wright – they say hilarious, and often insane things, but in a completely deadpan way. Their odd mix of punk/metal music with satirical, and blackly comic lyrics is unlike anything else being made right now, and every time I listen to them I hear something else that makes me chuckle. Consider this verse from “Lapsed Catholics”:

Whose prison break is the most impressive?
I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go Tim Robbins in Jacob’s Ladder.
Such patience, such verve and poise,
But wait a minute, shit, that’s the wrong film.
Morgan Freeman would roll in his grave… if he were dead,
Which he nearly was, if you believe the hysterical gung-ho Technicolor crapfest
That is Sky News, or Murdoch live, or whatever the hell the devil calls himself.

Where else are you going to find that spoken in menacing tones over slowly intertwining acoustic guitars that eventually snap into momentary explosions of overdriven noise? I never reviewed FotL’s first album, Curses, because I started this blog after it came out, and I never reviewed their second, Travels With Myself and Another, because… well, I’m just lazy and stupid. So consider this a review of the band’s output as a whole.

If you crave something heavier than the norm, whilst retaining a sense of irony and self-reflexivity that only bands like Art Brut can truly pull off, look no further. This is a band that can switch between singing (or screaming) about Satan (‘You Need Satan More Than He Needs You’), dinosaurs (‘Yin/Post-Yin’), train vandalism (‘Throwing Brick At Trains’) and sausage on a stick (‘Wrigley Scott’) without a moment’s notice. And whilst all this goes on, their musical style varies just as much – old single ‘Manchasm’ sounds like an evil B-52s whilst ‘The Hope That House Built’ could be an apocalyptic war march. They’re an absolute marvel of a band, and I can’t recommend both albums enough. Oh, and did I mention that they’re absolutely incredible live?

Future of the Left – Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood (YSI)
Future of the Left – Stand By Your Manatee (YSI)

 

What A Joy

Sometimes you just forget how good a band are. Yesterday, I decided on a change to my listening, and stumbled across a little band called Joy Division. I can’t say they’re one of my all-time favourite bands, nor can I say I know all of their work (I only have the Greatest Hits, not the albums) but every time I listen to them again it amazes me just how special they were. Their sound is so ghostly yet powerful, and any idea that that style of production could limit a band are quickly erased as you listen to their work. They may ply their trade in negative songs, but they cover the whole spectrum of negativity – laments, anger, depression, it’s all there.

Just listen to the two songs below. ‘Warsaw’ is a scratchy, punky bustle of noise. It’s an early song, but it shows the band’s intent perfectly. On the other hand, ‘Auto-Suggestion’ is a shambling beast of a track, the slow drumbeats, Hooky’s insistent, menacing bass, the fevered wails of guitar and Ian Curtis’ deep, sliding vocals add up to make 6 minutes of wonderfully odd music. That one band could make two songs that are so different, and yet so recognisably Joy Division is frankly amazing, and this is why they’ve survived like they have for this long.

Joy Division – Warsaw (YSI)
Joy Division – Auto-Suggestion (YSI)

 

Mix-Up

As much as I love quiet, assured, beautiful music, there’s nothing quite like hearing something loud that just arrests your ears from the moment you hear it. So imagine my surprise when I got a bit of both, courtesy of Bath’s Kill It Kid and their song “Burst Its Banks”. There’s not really a clear way of explaining the sound they create here, but in a completely non-literal way, it sounds as if they’ve taken a heavy metal ethos and applied it to folk music. The song jumps between sheer balls-out riffing, to noisy, Mumford and Sons-esque folk portions to far quieter, more melodic portions (and everywhere in between). It’s an exhilerating journey and Chris Turpin’s incredibly odd, deep vocals (think an angry Antony Hegarty) add another layer of brilliance to the mix. Judging on this song, their debut album Kill It Kid sounds like a very appealing prospect, and I’m looking out for any live dates in Newcastle with baited breath.

Kill It Kid – Burst Its Banks (YSI)

 

It’s All About The Voice

I’m sitting in front of the TV now, hearing the endless stream of power ballads coming from X Factor. I’ve unwitttingly become sucked in this year as my housemates insist on watching it, and I have to say I’m yearning for something similar, but just much, much better – “You’re The Voice” by John Farnham. I fell in love with this song mostly as a joke – it’s used towards the end of one of my favourite comedies, Hot Rod, to amazing effect, but after downloading it for the laugh of playing it to friends, I’ve slowly come to the opinion that it’s easily my favourite “cheese” tune. The chorus is just so incredibly uplifting and bombastic, and the song holds up well after so many years and changes in style to this genre. Take a listen, and once you’ve done that, go watch Hot Rod too, both are absolutely worth it.

John Farnham – You’re The Voice (YSI)

 

I Bloody Told You!

http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/47758

I said it was all a fuss about nothing, didn’t I?

Radiohead – No Surprises (YSI)
The Hives – Hate To Say I Told You So (YSI)

 

Damn.

After really getting into them this summer, I had the distinct pleasure of being asked to go and listen to an exclusive play-through of The Flaming Lips’ new album Embryonic last night at my Student Union. Having got their last three albums within a month, and loving each one, I was pretty excited to say the least. Unfortuantely, I have to say I was a little disappointed. My real love for the band tends to be because they manage to use all their experimentalism and noodly weirdness (yeah, that’s a term), but always reign it in. They are that rarest of things, an experimental band with pop sensibilities, an ear for a hook or a catchy riff, something to make you remember the song afterwards.

Embryonic didn’t seem to stick to this ideal at all. Full of freak outs, jams and general messing about, it had so little of that melodic loveliness that made me fall in love so quickly, and I have to say I came away a little despondant. Of course, this was a first listen, and repeated listens are a must, but I can’t see myself falling quite as hard for this album as the others. That being said, it did have its highlights: My favourite song, “Silver Trembling Hands” had already spread over the internet, but its strange screams, galloping drumbeat and echo-heavy vocals keep you hooked throughout, and provide a much-needed injection of energy at the tail-end of the 18-track monster. I’m sure I’ll be buying it, but I have to say, for now, Embryonic is not what I was hoping for.

The Flaming Lips – Silver Trembling Hands (YSI)

 

We Love World Headquarters

A couple of nights ago, I had an incredible experience at a club. I don’t like clubs that much, I prefer to drink and talk in bars and dance to music at gigs. But Newcastle has a special little something called World Headquarters. It has a brilliant history, which you can learn more about by clicking on the website link, but essentially it was set up as a bastion of tolerance and good taste in a city that, in the past at least, didn’t really hold up to either of these things.

There are a lot of reasons WHQ is great. Firstly, any place that has a sign behind the bar saying “You look lovely tonight and it’s fantastic to see you” is amazing. Secondly, they have murals of their heroes (Darwin, Marley, Attenbrough et al) all over the walls. Thirdly, they have rare funk and soul records everywhere. Fourthly, they essentially have no agenda for their music, meaning their DJs (who are, without fail, fantastic) can play whatever they like and generally have a good time with the rest of us. This also leads to incredible mixes like ABBA with Beastie Boys. It’s just a beautiful, wonderful place, and I wouldn’t choose any club over it. If you’re ever in Newcastle, give it a bloody go, it’s incredible.

Beastie Boys – Intergalactic (YSI)

PS. Here’s a brilliant remix/cover that I played at my own DJ set the other day:

Florence and the Machine – You’ve Got The Love (xx Remix) (YSI)

 

Oh Thom, How You Spoil Us

I’ve been positively inundated with new Radiohead related material recently, and with a new Thom Yorke single out so soon after the new Radiohead songs, it’s just getting better and better! The Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses / The Hollow Earth 12″ was released on the 21st, and the songs will be available for download on w.a.s.t.e. from 6th October.

“Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses” was originally titled “Reckoner” but a coda to the song became the In Rainbows version of “Reckoner” that we know, and I dare say love. This version was played along with Jonny Greenwood, and alternates between echoing, distant drum samples alongside Thom’s swirling treated falsetto and sparse bass rhythms. There’s a very sinister vibe to this track – it’s a long one at 6:41 and it feels like it’s taking its time to get where it wants to go, throwing in odd moments like short pitch-altered samples of speaking that eventually meld and incorporate themselves with the percussion. It then segues into a mass of synth noise, growing in volume before fading again just before you think it might just start leaking out of your speakers.

“The Hollow Earth” is said to have come out of The Eraser sessions, and that seems feasible given its skittering drum beats and the more central role for Thom’s vocals. With looped “oo”s combing with incomprehensible, mashed up samples of Thom’s voice acting as instrumentation in between verses, this is another song to show Mr. Yorke’s brilliant idiosyncracies in all their glorious weirdness – the song sounds like it’s leading us somewhere, until we get to the end where the messed-with high hats and synth drums finally skitter their last and it all ends more suddenly than you’d expect.

So, he’s done it again, and with more solo material supposedly in the pipeline, it’ll be wonderful to see what direction Thom wants to take us next time.

Thom Yorke – Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses (YSI)

 

I’m Not Sighing

It would appear my tardiness knows no bounds. 10 days? I suck, I know, but if you’ll forgive me, I have something important to say. Mumford & Sons’ album, Sigh No More, whilst very, very good, doesn’t quite match up to xx. However, it is unfair to compare the two because they’re  completely different styles of music so I’ll be focusing just on this album for now. There’s always end of year lists to unfairly compare bands anyway!

Mumford & Sons have always been about grand buildups, uplifting harmonies, Marcus’ imimitable, keening vocals and the sheer joy of hearing folk music taken to a completely different place to its usual quiet, reserved self. The album delivers on every front. Drawing from all three EPs they’ve released previously and adding new tracks to the mix, there are parts of this album that feel like old friends by now, anthems (at least in my head) that I’ve learned and loved since I first heard them, whilst the new friends will soon be just the same I’m sure. It’s a perfect mix, not making you feel as though the band have turned their back on their older tracks, whilst showing that they aren’t merely one-trick ponies. Stylistically as well, there’s a nice flow to the album, moving from the sheer gloriously explosions of “The Cave” tempered with more sombre tracks like “I Gave You All”. This is clearly an album that has been thought through and designed with the listener’s experience in mind. The band aren’t afraid to show they can go in different directions either, with “Dust Bowl Dance” wholeheartedly embracing the sheer noise of the electric guitars they introduce, whilst “Thistle & Weeds” almost sounds like a piano-driven Muse track at points.

Overall, this is another assured, and more importantly, fantastic debut album from a band I hope will be around for a very long time. Mumford & Sons have showed that there is a whole other world of folk music to be explored, and with their album, they’ve crystallised their mission statement perfectly, here’s another album you just can’t afford to miss.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get clearance to post any of the album tracks, so here’s a fantastic session of the title track and album opener, “Sigh No More”

Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More (BBC Session) (YSI)