Tag Archive: Errors


The BAMS 2012

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December 27, 2012

That’s Blogs and Music Sites to the likes of you, aye?

Yes, it’s the annual poll – marshalled by Peenko – of Scottish bloggers of the best album of each of the last four years. Previous winners have been the Phantom Band, the National and Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat and 2012 was as hotly contested as any that came before.

BAMS

You’ll know who the The Tidal Wave of Indifference voted for, but who else was involved?

This year there was a whopping 41 entries, including votes from the following bloggers, music sites and DJs:

Scots Whay Hae!, Jim Gellatly, Detour, Jock N Roll, Houdidontblog, Rave Child, Fusion New Music, Fish In A Sub, Manic Pop Thrills, Kowalskiy, 17 Seconds, Net Sounds, The Steinberg Principle, Songs Heard On Fast Trains, Hercules Moments, Dauphin Mag, JockRock, Play That Song For Me, The Spill, HP, Inverness Gigs, Elba Sessions, Fresh Air, Scottish Fiction, Tenement TV, Marion Scott MFR, Last Year’s Girl, Dear Scotland, Blues Bunny, The Pop Cop, Vic Galloway, Ally McCrae, Glasgow PodcART, I Hate Fun, Avalanche, Edinburgh Man, Everything Flows, Nicola Meighan, Aye Tunes and Song, by Toad.

So here’s the rundown:

Joint 9th – Chris Devotion & The Expectations – Amalgamation & Capital / Paul Buchanan – Mid Air / The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know / We Are The Physics – Your Friend, The Atom

8th – Admiral Fallow – Tree Bursts In Snow

7th – Sharon Van Etten – Tramp

6th – Miaoux Miaoux – Light Of The North

5th – Errors – Have Some Faith In Magic

4th – RM Hubbert – Thirteen Lost & Found

3rd – PAWS – Cokefloat!

2nd – Django Django – Django Django

1st – Meursault – Something for the Weakened

We’re a little disappointed that our top pick Human Don’t Be Angry didn’t feature anywhere, but pleased to see PAWS and Sharon van Etten in there. The winner is also pretty hard to argue with! And good ole Lloyd fae Peenko knobbled Neil Pennycook fae Meursault for a word about this sensational victory.

Congratulations Neil, you are this years’ winners of the Scottish BAMS award, how do you feel?

Neil Pennycook by Mike Melville (Manic Pop Thrills)I feel like the chubby lad at school after being picked first for the football team. I fear that any minute now I’m going to be told it’s all a joke and you’re going to burn my shoes and flush my head down the toilet.

It seems to have been a pretty exciting year for the band, what with European tours supporting Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to headlining the Queen’s Hall back in July, aside from winning this years BAMS, what’s been your personal highlight of 2012?

My highlight is probably the Queen’s Hall gig. I’ve wanted to play that venue since I was eighteen. Feels nice to have ticked that one off.

Last years the BAMS was won by Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells, who later went on to win the SAY Awards. Have you allowed yourself the thought that you might potentially be in with a shout at next years SAY Awards?

What? I thought this was the SAY awards? You ARE still giving me £10,000 though right?

I noted that once again you’ve decided not to head over to Austin for next years SXSW, is not something that interests you or are you just keeping our friends on the other side of the pond waiting?

It’s not something that appeals to me to be honest. I get really tired of the competitive aspect of playing music and do my best to avoid it. I’ve no interest in travelling halfway round the world (at great expense) to peddle my music to pissed up strangers in laminates. Playing in the States is something that I’m keen to pursue but not that way.

How important do you feel that the support of music blogs has been to the band?

It’s been hugely important for us. After all it was a blogger (Song, by Toad) who put out our first three records.

Seeing as we are on the subject of albums of the year, what have been your personal favourites of the last 12 months?

I’ve not sure if all of these came out this year but I’m going with them anyway… ChadVangaalen – DiaperIsland; Youth Lagoon – The Year of Hibernation; Charles Latham – Fast Loans; Grouper – Alien Observer and PAWS – Cokefloat! Cheers!

Well, we hope you enjoyed that muchly. This is our last post of the year but 2013 is already looking braw with a fine slew of albums due in the first few months of the year alone. If you still fancy pissing about on blogs for the next few days however, may we direct you to the song and album of the year polls on Song, By Toad and the reader’s poll on Aye Tunes where you get to pretend that you both read and enjoy The Tidal Wave of Indifference in the ‘best blog’ category.

For us this year has seen a steady rise in readers right the way through which is awesome, so thanks all! We also put on four gigs too – we couldn’t possibly pick a highlight, as all the bands were amazing! If there was a standout moment, though, the sight of Philip from PAWS reacting to the news that his headline set only had one song left by launching his guitar across the stage, would definitely be up there!

Happy New Year, bitches!

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The Tidal Wave of Indifference Albums of the Year 2012 – 25-21

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December 17, 2012

cat santa hatHere we go. Into the big guns. But first, here’s a gratuitous picture of a cat in a Santa hat.

Hope you enjoyed that.

25. Errors – Have Some Faith in Magic

A marked change, this. A member down, the now three-piece experimented with vocals in a concerted fashion for the first time. They were largely buried in the mix, but it took them into new sonic territory with a lot of the guitar work stripped away.

24. Swearin’ – Swearin’

Instantly listenable, guitar pop from a hitherto unknown (to us, at least) Brooklyn four piece. Loud and scuzzy, but stuffed full of hooks.

23. North Atlantic Oscillation – Fog Electric

Largely overlooked, the Edinburgh band’s second album was more focused than their enjoyably mixed debut. The emphasis here was squarely on dreamy shoegazing. Early promise squarely fulfilled, we think.

22. We Are the Physics – Your Friend, The Atom

The sharply dressed, shouty Glasgwegians had been written off by pretty much everyone until this storming comeback. Back in ’08 angular guitar pop bands were ten a penny. Now they stand out and a huge pile of tunes helped immensely.

21. Cat Power

Chan Marshall may have blunted her edge with her last full album – a rather dreary selection of covers – this saw her doing absolutely everything herself – writing, playing, producing. The results were striking, and a million miles away from the high-grade country soul she perfected on The Greatest.

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Have Some Faith in Magic

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January 25, 2012

Album of the Week: Errors – Have Some Faith in Magic

Thank fuck for Errors.

In these times of economic Armageddon, Middle East unrest and what seems to have been a spate of rather grisly murders of late, you can always rely on Scotland’s finest exponents of math-funk (© The Tidal Wave of Indifference 2012) to transport you to another place as they beam down their altogether pleasant sounds.

2010′s Come Down With Me was a classic of sorts, and one which saw them start to throw off the supposed shackles of post rock, which were ill-fitting anyway. The dancefloor-friendly Supertribe and A Rumour in Africa sounded sod all like Mogwai, and hey, while we’re at it, just because bands share a label doesn’t mean they sound alike, eh?

Those shackles are well and truly off on Have Some Faith in Magic. Like its predecessor, it’s ten sharp sounding rhythmic blasts, but far from a facsimile, this is more focused on synths and beats than anything they’ve done before.

And there’s vocals too. The signs were there on pre-release freebie Earthscore as mumbled wisps of human utterances chased spidery guitar and juddering bass over the whole song, and it’s a theme that’s carried across the whole album.

Don’t expect a lyric sheet though. Most of the wordsmithery is incomprehensible and simply acts as a additional instrument in an already heady mix where nary a second of …Magic’s running time goes to waste.

Also where Come Down With Me blasted out a number of instant toetappers, the, approach here is more measured. Magna Encarta takes it time, but is still a big, big tune stuffed with time changes and synths that will get you whirling both physically and mentally, helping you forget that horrible big world outside. By the time the soung wraps up with crashing drums you’ll be bloody beside yourself.

Blank Media is a woozy affair before Pleasure Palaces well and truly hits the spot with some uptempo techno. The keen of ear may even be able to pick up a lyric or two with ‘my soul’ seemingly cropping up regularly.
Once we pass the thumping Earthscore, it feels like the album is starting to hit a comedown but then along comes Holus Bolus to up the ante fizzing out on wall of feedback.
Overall, this feels like at least the equal of Come… and god knows we need more records like this to help drown out the DEATHDESTRUCTIONPESTILENCEMELTDOWN happening right outside your door.

We grabbed a chat with the band’s Steev Livingstone last week.

It feels like a non-stop few years for the band – ever plan to take your feet off the pedal?

On the inside it doesn’t really feel like that. I get guilty if I’m sitting about not doing very much, so that kind of ensures that we are quite productive. But I’m still in bed typing this up and it’s one in the afternoon so it’s not like i’m Mr Motivator or anything.

What’s the album title about? Has one of you been practising witchcraft?

We argued about where this came from and who came up with it. Simon believes it was words of wisdom that he gave to Greg before recording a guitar part that he was unsure about. As with most of our titles, to us it doesn’t really mean anything, other people always will explain what it means for you so we could really call our albums anything we wanted and people would interpret them or read into them in what ever way they wanted to. In our video for Earthscore, there is a white witch performing a ritual where he blesses a crystal for us to protect us on tour, he sent it up to us on the post and now I carry it with me everywhere.

How do you feel your sound has developed since Come Down With Me?

I’d say this is our most consistent sounding record yet. It also has a lot more space in it and we’ve learnt how to give things space to breathe a little better I think. Most obviously we’ve included vocals on nine of the ten tracks on the record, so I reckon for a lot of people that will be a big difference for them. We adopted a sort of stream of consciousness approach to writing on a lot of the tracks where we were trying not to repeat or return to sections that had already happened. The tune “The Knock” is a good example of this.

Touring again, we see – ever get sick of it?

The only thing I don’t like about going on tour is not being able to write any music, I’ve tried it in the past and it’s a very frustrating experience.

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All That Glitters

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November 15, 2011

Album of the Week: Homework – All That Glitters

Ok, so we’re breaking our golden rule with this one.

All That Glitters isn’t STRICTLY an album. Six tracks long, clocking in at around 25 minutes, it falls squarely into the mini album bracket.

Some things are worth bending the rules a little for, however. All That Glitters may be short, but it’s not lacking in power and crams more ideas into its runtime that a lot of bands manage in an entire career.

How Homework (an Edinburgh-based four piece, who’s component parts hail from all round the country) got to its creation is detailed below in an interview with singing guitarist Oliver Kass, but we’re glad the band got over various trials and tribulations to release it.

So what does it sound like? Well, imagine if Errors decided to go pop and also do a bit of singing and you’re probably about halfway there. We’re saying pop, but over course everything is relative. Hook-laden opener Surfacing is full of synth-y bounce, and in terms of getting the attention of a casual listener works just nicely.

But Why Oh Why has more depth and ominous drums and scratchy FX make it sound considerably darker. Strip away the vocals from Fireworks and you’ve got the kind of spiralling, atmospheric funk that really could sit nicely on the next Errors album.

Ok, that’s twice we’ve mentioned Scotland’s finest instrumental electro fiends and we promise we’ll stop it. Even though it’s certainly meant as a compliment. And anyway, Oceans eases up on the synths and drifts towards the waters marked ‘dreamy, glacial guitar rock with a fine vocal melody’. It’s fair to say we rather like it.

If full length record enthusiasts are to be sated next year (see below) then we’re a tad excited.

Just remember though, this is a MINI album – NOT an EP. That means we’re still not reviewing EPs, mmmkay?

So Oliver had this to say…

It’s been a while since your debut EP (that would be 2009′s Sleepless Nights)- what have you been up to?

Yeah it has been a while hasn’t it. We made a conscious decision at the end of 2009 to go away and record an album and really make an effort to find out where we wanted the band to go. With hindsight we probably weren’t best placed to be starting an album from scratch in the studio. We played a few gigs in 2010 including a trip over to Hungary for a show but mainly we just got holed up in the studio and started writing. We didn’t really know how long this would take or what the results were going to be like. We finished All That Glitters in April.

What was the inspiration behind All That Glitters?

Well like I said it was really about trying to establish where we wanted to go as a band and a lot of the tracks on there now, sound very much like a stepping stone to the next record. We spent a lot of time creating sounds and trying weird combinations of studio gear. Some of it was a success – like the bass sound we managed to get on Why Oh Why. Some of it less so. But I guess that’s what experimenting is all about. There was chat of not releasing All That Glitters for a while as we thought we could do better, but we’ve had a good year of festival shows and a lot of strong support from radio for the singles so we thought why not. It’s good to know that folk are into it. There’s always a danger that if you stay away for to long you struggle to come back again.

This obviously isn’t a full length piece – any thoughts of an album yet?

One things for sure, it won’t be a long wait for new material. We are pretty fucking excited about releasing more stuff early next year. It will most likely be another 5 tracks in the spring. Originally All That Glitters was a full-length album but there were certain tracks that got the boot and will probably never see the light of day. What came out of the process though was a four-month period at the beginning of 2011 – after …Glitters was finished - where I was able to work on music full time and started fleshing out the bones of the next release. These tracks have been gigged all summer and it’s really starting to feel like we are hitting our stride.  So it’s back to the studio again in two weeks to record them. This time however we are aiming to do it in two days rather than 18 months. Come January we are also going to start pulling some more new tracks together. The intention is to have another five tracks ready to lay down around May. Who know maybe the first full length Homework album will be out before the summer… It definitely seems like the time is right for us to push ourselves. 

Can we expect to see you on the road soon?

We just learned that we’ve been invited out to an industry showcase in Belgium in December so that’s hopefully gonna end the year on a high note. Perhaps slightly dangerously we are going via Amsterdam. There will be a lot more shows next year although probably less around Edinburgh. Our manager is on the case already. There’s a week set aside in Easter for a tour which will mostly be down south Newcastle, Manchester, Cardiff, London, that sort of thing. In the summer it’s gonna hopefully be a busy festival schedule again and we’d also like to do some more European shows.  If anyone wants to see us sooner rather than later there are still a few tickets left for the launch this Friday at Sneaky Pete’s. We’ve been building up to this for a while now and can’t wait.

You heard the man. The All That Glitters launch show is Friday November 18 at Sneaky Pete’s, where you can get one of only 200 copies of the mini-album.

Alternatively head over to their Bandcamp page for tunes. And if you’re really THAT lazy, we’ve one right here:

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Final Surf for 2010

Filed under: Albums, Random Nonsense — 3 Comments
December 17, 2010

Now that my Annual Xmas Album Countdown has been announced, this feels like a good time to reflect on what others have been saying.

Magazine-wise the unashamedly mainstream Q made a good choice with Arcade Fire while both Uncut and the Skinny plumped for Joanna Newsom’s latest opus, which I’m slightly ashamed to say I haven’t heard yet.

NME made a brave,  surprising and very welcome choice by picking out These New Puritans and overall, their list wasn’t bad. I actually find the NME’s list to be usually pretty good, despite the guff they cover through the year and this Christmas was no different.

Of the big websites, Drowned in Sound made a very obscure choice with Emeralds and Pitchfork opted for Kanye West, a result which both baffles and fascinates me, not being a fan of the self-important jackass. But who am I to argue – muso scientists Metacritic also have his latest album sitting top of the pile for 2010.

But what of Scotland?

BAMS Logo by Struan Teague

Well, I was privileged to take part in the second annual BAMS vote. That’s Bloggers and Music Sites to the likes of you. My top five albums post should be an obvious signpost to who I voted for – my choices didn’t win but a couple did rather well, with The National running out clear winners. Here’s the top 30 in full:

1. The National – High Violet
2. Admiral Fallow – Boots Met My Face
3. Meursault – All Creatures Will Make Merry
4. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
5. Kid Canaveral – Shouting at Wildlife

6. The Phantom Band – The Wants
7. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
8. The Last Battle – Heart of the Land, Soul of the Sea
9. Broken Records – Let Me Come Home
10. Bronto Skylift – The White Crow

11. Beach House – Teen Dream
12. The Fire & I – Stampede Finale
13. Sufjan Stevens – Age Of Adz
14. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
15. Best Coast – Crazy For You
16. Mitchell Museum – The Peters Port Memorial Service
17. Teenage Fanclub – Shadows
18. The Scottish Enlightenment – St Thomas
19. Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
20. Jonsi – Go

21. RM Hubbert – First & Last
22. Errors – Come Down With Me
23. Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
24. Sleigh Bells – Treats
25. The Boy Who Trapped The Sun – Fireplace
26. Micah P Hinson and the Pioneer Saboteurs
27. Bruce Springsteen – The Promise
28. How To Swim – Retina (Or More Fun Than A Vat Of Love)
29. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
30. Silver Columns – Yes and Dance

The National were overcome with joy and told poll compiler and Scottish blogging demi-god Peenko: “That’s great news. Thanks for the support!” Ummm. Ok.

Alongside yours truly, the other sites that took part are as follows:

Timothy London, Jock N Roll, The Daily Dose,Resound Scotland, The Steinberg Principle,Dauphin, Hercules Moments, Argos Barks, The Web Is Not A Cold Dead Place, Ed Rock, Off the Beaten Tracks, Found In Sound, Elba Sessions, Kowalskiy, Have Fun At Dinner, Ayetunes, Edinburgh Man, 17 Seconds,Scots Whay Hae, Open Till Midnight, Products of a Gaseous Brain, The Spill, Last Years Girl, Is This Music, JockRock, Dear Scotland, Manic Pop Thrills,Favourite Son, Peenko, Jim Gellatly, My Portis Wasp says, Never Make Friends, Detour, Jenny Soep, Net Sounds Unsigned, Listen Before You Buy, Song By Toad, The Daily Growl, Earz Mag, Glasgow Podcart, Rokbun, The Pop Cop, Pin Up Nights, Traffic Cone Music, Radar and Blueback Hotrod.

I hadn’t even heard of some of these sites but will be mounting a full investigation shortly – even some of the albums that figured weren’t on my radar, but that will also need to change.

Some – in fact probably most – of the sites listed above have drafted their own lists. I’ve not had a chance to look at them all but here’s a few links to those that I’ve been enjoying.

- Ayetunes’ all-Scottish extravaganza

- Peenko doesn’t just co-ordinate the BAMS, he does his own list too

- Our man in Korea, Scrawls & Bawls continues to stalk a fast-rising American indie rock band but likes some other stuff too and has also evoked the spirit of Peel with a Festive Forty where you might recognise one of the guest contributors 

- High quality recommendations from broadcaster Dougie Anderson

- Vic Galloway’s 75 (!!! – count ‘em) albums of the year

- Kowalskiy was still counting down his list at the time of writing.

At the time of going to press, Last Year’s Girl hadn’t yet published her chart but if I were a betting man, I’d stick a few quid on the National figuring highly; and while Matthew from Song, By Toad dithers over his personal choices, he’s calling on readers to nominate their favourites.

On a different footing, my regular podcast contributor Slide Into My Hand has posted a Christmas special here. He’ll be talking about – and playing – his favourite tracks of the year and there’ll be tunes from Mogwai, Cee Lo Green, And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Beach Boys, These New Puritans, PJ Harvey and loads more.

Finally, there won’t be a chart on Radar, but they’ll be publishing nominations from their contributors (including moi) for their bands and gigs of the year in the coming days.

Right that’s just about me. I’m about to go into hibernation with my ladies until the New Year – a period which will be sadly sullied by coming into the office. Before I pull the shutters down, here’s some festive cheer courtesy of my favourite Christmas movie of all time – Die Hard.

See you in 2011!

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Best Albums of 2010 – 10-6

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December 14, 2010

10.       Errors – Come Down With Me

After a so-so debut, Glasgow’s finest genre-hoppers came of age with this twitchy but mature sophomore effort. Spanning math rock, post rock, Krautrock and god knows what else – underpinned by electro sensibilities, Come Down Me was a minor classic with a couple of floor fillers in Supertribe and A Rumour in Africa. Extra marks for calling the remix album Celebrity Come Down With Me – genius.

9.         The Phantom Band – The Wants

Love, love, loving the work of the Phantom Band at the minute. This was an effortless follow-up to last year’s Checkmate Savage and every bit its equal. There was melody, claustrophobia, yearning and above all, a supreme level of quality. I spoke to the band about the release recently and the results are here.

8.         These New Puritans – Hidden

This was quite the record. I’d written TNP off a while back, thinking them to be simply NME fodder, but I hadn’t factored in Jack Barnett’s talent or ambition. Hidden was a dark, claustrophobic trip into his subconscious, piled high with aggression and the first use of the bassoon on a non-classical album in living memory.

7.         65daysofstatic – We Were Exploding Anyway

This remarkable record saw twitchy math rock outfit 65days turn into dancefloor behemoths. Managing to sound both focused and utterly unhinged at the same time, this is their fourth – and best – record and it really should push them overground. But while the public refuses to divert James Blunt records automatically to landfill, that could still be a while off. This live video for Tiger Girl is a bit shaky and amateurish but I think it captures what the album’s about.

6.         Warpaint – The Fool

Four pretty ladies make an album. Not a remarkable story. Four pretty ladies make an album that’s really, really good? Now you’re talking. That first sentence may seem a little sexist but the fact of the matter is that genuinely decent albums by girl or mostly girl groups are thin on the ground. This was different – sparse, spellbinding, shoegaze that will be remembered for a long time.

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The Twilight Sad/Errors, Edinburgh Liquid Room, October 12

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October 13, 2010

Thank god the Liquid Room is back in business.

While the Glasgow scene is awash with multiple medium-sized venues, Edinburgh has suffered badly since the fire of 2008 that did for this local institution. Coupled with the closure of the Venue earlier in the decade, it’s meant that attention has been almost completely focused on the West of late.

It’s hard to see where else in the capital could have hosted this showcase of Scottish music (the Picture House is surely too big and Cabaret Voltaire too small), so three cheers for its renovation and reopening.

So having thrown its doors back open for the Edge Festival in August, two of Scotland’s best bands have pitched up at the Liquid Room at the end of a short tour that’s probably involved a wee dram or two.

Errors are first up and look utterly at home on a slightly larger stage compared to the venue’s previous incarnation.

This year’s album Come Down With Me was a real treat and an obvious progression in sound, so it’s no surprise that their set leans heavily on newer material.

Bridge or Cloud is a nice slow-burning opener before the pacey Supertribe whizzes in. It’s a song that exemplifies what Errors do best – bouncy, twitchy electro, underwritten by some subtle guitar work.

Pic by Christian Storstein
Errors 12/10/10

It should evoke bouncing and twitching from the crowd but it seems like a subdued mob that’s in tonight with only a few tapped toes and nodded heads in evidence.

If they notice the lack of flailing limbs, to their credit, it doesn’t remotely get to them. And despite being entirely instrumental, sort-of frontman Simon Ward isn’t afraid to take the mic and lob in an amusing comment or two between songs, including a few pleas to ‘buy our stuff’, most notably the fantastically named remix album Celebrity Come Down With Me.

The problem with it being a remix album, of course, is that they can’t play anything from it, so they have to settle (!!) for rolling out a number of regular album tracks. Salut! France and A Rumour In Africa sound great and a pounding Pump rounds things off rather nicely.

And so to the Twilight Sad, nominally tonight’s headliners despite it being a co-headline tour. It was probably the right decision – a quick straw poll of other gig goers showed it was definitely this lot they were there to see and the band certainly didn’t need to encourage the crowd to shuffle forward unlike the opening act.

Like Errors, they also have a record to promote, but actually able to play something from it, opening with the epic title track from The Wrong Car EP. Sadly its impact is lessened by James Graham’s vocals being inaudible until halfway through.

Thankfully somebody upstairs eventually remembers to flick a switch, so by the time That Birthday Present roars in crashes in, Graham’s on-stage, on his knees, emoting is audible.

The sound remains muddy throughout, however. Perhaps their reputation as the loudest band in Scotland has prompted them to seek ear-shattering, MBV-esque infamy, but that approach won’t work in a small space like the Liquid Room.

Photo by Christian Storstein
The Twilight Sad 12/10/10
Like Errors, their set is dominated by more recent material. I Became A Prostitute is a wall of guitars and The Room, already creepy in its album incarnation, becomes a sinister squall live.
 
Graham, flanked by largely static bandmates, puts everything into his performance, howling vocals that seem to touch upon child abuse, alcohol and violence at regular intervals. His passion is such that the listener can’t help but wonder just how autobiographical these harrowing tales are. It’s disturbing stuff throughout.
 
After almost an hour of feedback and walls of distortion, the crowd are sent on their way with a deafening And She Would Darken the Memory (literally) ringing in their ears. It’s a shame that the sound undermines their performance but it doesn’t stop the Twilight Sad from being an intimidating live proposition.
 
Let’s hope that the Liquid Room hosts many more nights like this in the years to come.
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Holy Fuck Vs. 65daysofstatic

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June 3, 2010

This week’s featured albums:

Holy Fuck – Latin

Holy Fuck

65daysofstatic – We Were Exploding Anyway

65daysofstatic

Ok, ok, so I just couldn’t decide what to feature this week. I haven’t managed to lay my mitts on the new Fannies record as yet, and lacking anything else decent out this week I’ve gone back to a brace of albums acquired a few weeks back.

Heard of either? Give yourself a pat on the back. Heard of both? Let me shake you by the hand.

Holy Fuck came to prominence ‘over here’ with 2007′s noisy but danceable ‘LP’ and attracted a fair bit of attention, and not just for THAT name.

65days have been around for quite a few years now, primarily playing a glitchy electronic version of post rock to little commercial or critical acclaim. But on this record – their fourth – they’ve tried to make their thrashy rumble a bit more dancefloor-friendly, hence my pitching them into the ring with the aforementioned Canadians to see who’s made the best instrumental post-dance rock glitch-core album this month. Ahem.

And….. fight!!

The first thing that’s apparent from Latin is that Holy Fuck have toned it down a little. Where LP sounded dense and claustrophobic, Latin’s mood is lighter with the gentle piano melodies on Latin America and Stay Lit almost moving into pop territory.

Certainly, in its opening quartet of songs, where once Holy Fuck sounded like two badgers fighting in a sack, the badgers now seem to have made peace and are sharing a cigar and a good chuckle.

Meanwhile, over on We Were Exploding Anyway, 65days (they’re from Sheffield by the way) are changing their sound a bit too. Their early records were dominated by heavily programmed guitars but pre-release talk of a more techno-orientated direction is pretty much on the money. Dance Dance Dance says it all really, and Crash Tactics is a frantic, joyous collision of clattering percussion and uplifting synths.

Six-stringed instruments haven’t been chucked out entirely but they’re much deeper in the mix and the first half of the album is characterised by some fabulous electro.

Round 1 to 65days? Well, Holy Fuck haven’t changed completely… Silva and Grimes would sit happily on their previous albums with its angry Korg-bashing before moving up the gears with rapid fire drumming. SHT MTN is ferocious despite being sparsely instrumented, and adds in some sampled vocals, while Stilettos sounds as if someone has set a keyboard to play one of those dreadful demos before smashing the shit out of it with a baseball bat. Lovely.

Now did I mention vocals above? Because over on the 65days record, one Robert Smith – he of the dodgy make-up and Scissorhands hair fame - has dropped in to sing a few bars on Come To Me, looped constantly over some house-y piano. Go Complex has annexed some FX from the Empirion remix of Firestarter and is a major headfuck. Thankfully Debutante slows things down a little before it spins out of control.

So in order to try and keep up this flimsy boxing metaphor, who’s the winner? 65days are probably winning on points until their final track Tigergirl kicks in. Bombastic danceable rock at its best which delivers a knock-out blow.

The Holy Fuck album is good but 65days have finally turned into something pretty special. Both are exploring territory arguably already covered by the magnificent Errors but both have their own spin on the sound and are seriously recommended listening.

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The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Filed under: Albums — 1 Comment
March 3, 2010
The path to fame and fortune is littered with the corpses of promising Scottish indie bands.

My Latest Novel left it too long between two – admittedly excellent – albums and the momentum they built up evaporated quicker than you could say ‘Caledonian Arcade Fire’.

Aberfeldy shed members at an alarming rate and the follow-up to 2004′s folk-pop classic Young Forever was something of a dud.

De Rosa called it a day before last year’s Prevention even had a time to register on the public’s radar, never mind nestle at the top of our ‘best of’ lists.

And Broken Records appear to have faltered after releasing a so-so debut album.

So what now for Frightened Rabbit, Selkirk’s finest and creators of my hands down favourite album of 2008, The Midnight Organ Fight?

With contemporaries the Phantom Band, Errors and the Twilight Sad probably a bit too left field to truly cross over, Scott Hutchison and co now seem to be Scotland’s great white hope.

Pre-release chatter for third album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, was of a bigger sound, songs for stadiums and comparisons to Sn*w P*tr*l and C*ldpl*y.

So should we be worried?

Should we fuck. The Winter of Mixed Drinks is an absolute treasure.

Sure, these songs are better produced, but Frightened Rabbit have maintained a genuine sense of intimacy about the whole thing. The Midnight Organ Fight wasn’t without its singalong choruses either, it’s just that here, they really soar.

And Gary Lightbody and Chris Martin shouldn’t lose any sleep just yet. The comparisons are ill-founded, but I can imagine that playing venues the size of the Queen’s Hall (I had the pleasure of attending last summer’s landmark gig) will become the norm for Frightened Rabbit, as opposed to pokey, glorified pubs.

So, what’s on offer here? Why should you go out and buy The Winter of Mixed Drinks?

Each of its 10 ‘proper’ songs are blssed with beautiful melodies. Scott’s vocals are heartfelt and swoonsome. If, after 2 mins 45 seconds of the Loneliness and the Scream, you are not covered in goosebumps, you really ought to check your pulse.

Frightened Rabbit, BA Club, Fort William, Nov 27, 2009

Frightened Rabbit storm Fort William

Swim Until You Can’t See Land was a slowburning teaser but I can now acknowledge that it’s chorus is truly wonderful. And it’s not the only tune here with an aqueous theme. After Floating in the Forth saw Scott deciding against a watery grave at the end of Midnight Organ Fight, The Wrestle and FootShooter also evoke strong thoughts of large bodies of water.

Epic centrepiece Skip the Youth builds ominously before crashing to earth and then crackling into life once more with multi-layered melodies. By the time it climaxes, it has become a pounding, rhythmic beast of a song – and possible the best thing they’ve ever done.

Musically, there’s not a massive progression, but something has certainly been added to give them that bigger sound I’ve mentioned. Perhaps it is just better production, maybe it’s down to them now being a five-piece. But the guitars now chime louder, arrangements are tighter and the percussion veers from the delicate to the thunderous.

Anyone who’s been following my tweets over the last nine months will know that I’ve been droning on about Frightened Rabbit for ages. But now there’s no excuse not to be listening.

 

 

 

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