Little Death Machine - Dreaming In Monochrome, EP review

I press play on the stream and I curse my internet provider for the juddering sound that must be a by-product of buffering...

But no, as the fullness of the track reveals itself in shimmering distortion I come to the realisation that the band must intend for it to actually sound like this.

And I'm genuinely intrigued... it isn't bad, it just isn't recognisable as the music that popular culture has conditioned us to accept.  In fact, the first track to emerge from the EP release, Healthy, draws so many audible parallels to 'a real song' that I could quite easily be led to believe that this is either a cover version or a remix by a collective of Berlin art-punks.  Everything a song requires is in place, it just sounds... different.

The entirety of the Dreaming In Monochrome EP as it presents itself proves equally as palatably challenging, opening track I Was Yours To Keep packs excess noise into its screamo stylings to the point that even metal-heads would be left shuddering, whereas the gentler Night After Night After Night, while much easier on the ears by comparison still manages to swerve settling for a pretty little dreamscape anthem by layering up glitchy electronic flourishes.

If you manage to make it four tracks into the release than Purgatory is the calm before the storm of closing track It Feels Just Like A Drug, a brief respite as the feedback and distortions are scaled back to reveal a haunting and sparse track brimming with inner turmoil, before giving way to a throbbing nightmare of rabid frequencies, pushing the sounds of The Cooper Temple Clause, Aphex Twin, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Crystal Castles through a wood-chipper and sweeping together whatever shattered shards remain.  It tests your patience and your mettle as a music fan, but somewhere within there is still merit that allows the release to play out to its own fragile conclusion.

And there must be an audience for this niche musical maelstrom that straddles the divide between 'songs' and 'noise', providing a near perfect balance of both but presumably too far from the norm to bridge a true cross-over appeal, that audience can no doubt be found at gigs and purchasing the limited multimedia EP release, and curiosity may convince me to join them.

Released 7th March via Glasstone Records

Yann Ryan - Time, EP review

It isn't very often that I discover the music I am reviewing by way of answering a listing on Gumtree... But so the story goes, my contract was coming to an end at work and I was scouring the internet for jobs, then I got bored and distracted and instead started scouring Gumtree adverts for musical collaborations instead of job vacancies.

And so I came to meet up with Yann Ryan, enjoy a few alcoholic beverages with him in a pub near Liverpool Street Station and slowly begin work by trading files and ideas back and forth across the internet.

At some point, these new re-imaginings of mine became stuck in hard-drive limbo as real-life sucked me in and spat me out, but I had felt fortunate enough to have been given access to the raw and effecting audio files, to be able to isolate the bewildering vocal take and sit there in wonder as it repeated over, wondering how anything I could do could possibly even attempt to improve upon such a rustic and fully formed talent.

Around a year and a half later or so and I feel my fortunes have changed, I think maybe I can check in on Yann and possibly put this project to bed, but in this time Yann Ryan has pulled together an EP that includes some the tracks I had a stab at reshaping in a far different form, and I'm happy that these songs are finally out in the world, the music that I had been so eager to share with others but felt that I had to sit upon for fear of over-stepping boundaries can now be accessed by anyone with an internet connection.

Released last December, the Time EP is a downtrodden and fragile affair that is buoyed by the gravitational pull of Yann's crisp, oaken voice, a voice that stopped me in tracks when I first heard it, and the strength and intricacies of his songwriting still captivate me.  Few artists would even dare to weave their lyrics with such obtuse vocabulary as 'inconsequential' and casually reference 'Bosnia Herzegovina', but Yann makes it feel effortless, and the unique outlook he adds to the remit of the singer/songwriter is refreshing.

I still hope that the tracks we collaborated on will still come to light in one form or another, but for now I am happy to support Yann Ryan's talents and selflessly share his music with the wider world without the cloak of self-aggrandising.

Regardless, I'd like to catch up with Yann again over a few more pints and wish him well.

Out now via Bandcamp

Married To The Sea - Cold War Love, EP review

previously published on glasswerk.co.uk

A trill synth relentlessly breaks down my defences as it thunders harmoniously through the title track, the first of three songs that make up Married To The Sea's forthcoming Cold War Love EP. Sprightly rhyming couplets pack a poppy punch reminiscent of early Phoenix, signalling that these lively Liverpudlian lads clearly know their way around a tune, and they have been paving the way to their fourth EP release with support slots for The Maccabees and the hotly-tipped Hinds and Gengahr, making for fine musical company to keep.

The wares on display are slim, but brilliantly concise. Two tunes that pop in the indie-est sense of the word, and one song to pull at the heart strings. Some people see mention of Snow Patrol as a dirty word, I for one am not one of them, and Save It For The Field has more than a passing resemblance to the output of Gary Lightbody's clan, a band that grew from independent roots on Jeepster to conquer arenas around the globe, and if that serves as a comparison in terms of musical quality then surely it is not a comparison to be sniffed at.

Save It For The Field is heartfelt, it is sparse, yet lushly orchestrated, it is both simple yet aspiring in its nature. It is certainly deserving in gaining Married To The Sea some welcome attention.

And with every listen, the two musical touchstones that I keep coming back to are Phoenix and Snow Patrol. Both bands that came up under the radar, putting out music long before the commercial and critical acclaim came their way, bringing along with it bundles of new fans. Both bands that knock out a rousing tune and can find their way around the more electronic elements of the musical spectrum. 

The first taste I had of Married To The Sea was closing track I Dreamed I Was Disappearing, and it perfectly embodies the career defining aesthetics of the two bands I choose to compare them to melded into one joyful indie-pop stormer, that even sat listening to alone I can already envision the infectious bounce of an audience, I can see the fists-pumping and feel the euphoric wave that suggests a perfect crowd-surfing soundtrack.

I'm keen to see where their ambitions progress from here and hope that fortune sees fit for these guys to emulate a heady climb up the musical career ladder.

Released 11th March 2016

Franz Ferdinand - Evil Actions, Review

NME seem to grace us with the occasional covermount occasionally these days, certainly, with so much music available freely online, being a taste maker with freebies isn't a neccesity, so instead they have changed tack and are targeting the fanbases of established artists with, so far, divisive demo collections.

With new album upcoming and the marketing machine rolling into town, the spotlight this time falls upon the arch-dukes of pop, Franz Ferdinand, hoping to fire up interest in Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Actions, indeed, the title track of the album and preceding single opens this collection in demo form, although casual listeners will be hard pressed to spot the difference between this version and the one all over the airwaves.

And it is this polished finish, even on apparent demos and live studio versions that mark 'Evil Action' out in comparison to recent freebie demo collections in the same vein coming from The Vaccines and The Cribs. Franz are now seasoned veterans in this game, and even their demos are startlingly slick and well thought out, making this CD a well placed companion piece (or even cut-price alternative) to their latest release.

Four tracks taken from the new 10 track album are present and correct, either as demos or Konk studio sessions, and a further two tracks, including single Evil Eye, are presented as extended mixes courtesy of producer and DJ, Todd Terje, with the dance-tinged elements almost psychedelic production echoing back to Tonight: Franz Ferdinand and its remix collection, Blood.

Connecting the dots between Franz Ferdinand's previous exploits is also achieved by the inclusion of Do You Want To, presented as another Konk take, from 2005's You Could Have It So Much Better, and harking even further back, and rounding out the collection is a remix of breakthrough single, Take Me Out.

Daft Punk managed to steal the summer with uber-hit Get Lucky, and have been ahead of the music game for years, but when tasked with retooling Take Me Out, it seems the Parisian robots doth their metallic caps to the art-punk Glaswegians, their remix doesn't stray too far from the base template, instead it simply ramps up the tension of the chorus with some building synths, other than that, it lets the genius of the original recording shine through undeterred.

As a covermount, it is amazing value for money, and as a Franz Ferdinand artefact, it is a worthwhile addition to their growing back catalogue, showing that the world of angular pop and indie dancefloors just wouldn't be the same without them.

Clara Moto - ‘Joy Departed' EP

There isn't much time to form opinions when an email drops into your inbox on a Wednesday afternoon, the main gist of it being 'hey, would love your opinion on this new EP'.

So far, so normal.

'Oh yeah, it came out this week'.

So what you are treated to here is a breakneck review based on a couple of spins of what is thankfully an EP of music that I liked on the first listen.

I download the files, open the zip and bung it into itunes before being enveloped by a sonic experience that roughly equates to a spinning head in a dark room after too many whiskies, whilst being serenaded by Burial. To be absolutely honest, it is quite an unsettling listen... with haunted beats and clipped voices that pass through like echoes of a nightmare, this sounds like lounge music for a club full of movie maniacs, Freddie Kreuger, Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers all clinking their glasses of Bloody Marys and discussing their fondness of Twin Peaks.

Whilst all of the above may not sound overwhelmingly positive, I find a discovery like this to be rather thrilling, taking the chillwave template and subverting it, creating something wholly original from the key touchstones of The XX and Burial and taking them down darker routes, indeed, just consider
the cover version of Chris Isaack's already chilling Wicked Game that is now a rather terrifying prospect.

For The Love We Lost is a swooning atmospheric piece, providing breathing space before 6 minute plus closer Shade, that puts the bass back into 'basic four to the floor beat', neither of these matching the horrifying opening triumvirate for brooding terror filled genius and the darker aspects that delighted me.

Two listens within 24 hours, a quick turn around on a review, and now the whole world can read my hastily assembled assessment on exactly how I feel about the music of Clara Moto.