Beck Stacey
Speed (Self Release)
Described as a “sinister Joni Mitchell” means this second album has a lot to live up to. Comparisons with Tori Amos, Kate Bush and PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire are obvious, but with honesty so forthcoming she is able to rise to the pedestal of these other giants. Themes of the lonely night, time, emasculation, love and loss and the reality of relationships shine through with her often fragile, sometimes confident voice.
The skin-crawling Time is the Distance coos, “you’re never going to win my love” over a devastatingly moody piano. The instrumental intro on Thrilled lightens the mood until the line “I am thrilled, all love can kill,” is sang with heart wrenching gusto over beautiful guitars and keys. The charming Evangelene Fortune introduces the percussion and synths (“I couldn’t become anyone I wanted to”) before Fast Rain returns the album to its chassis of piano and vocals. The march of I Am Your Lover is unforgiving and begs us to “just stay the night” until Ugly Sister exposes underlying emotional weaknesses by giving in to anger; “well you’re naïve, well you’re lazy.”
Macabre love songs have never sounded so honest but with the waters neutered with the amount of female singer songwriters currently out there, Stacey runs into the danger of being forgotten. This is an album of sheer beauty with piano that could stick in a knife into the heart of most and the voice that becomes the antithesis of modern life, representing a women’s struggle to move on through what she sees. Ashley Clivery
Speed is available through request via Beck Stacey's Myspace or direct from her at gigs.
Feelings By Design
Grand Designs (Self Release)
Grand Designs opens strongly enough with The Die Is Cast, with a Kraftwerk-esque focus on motorik, cold beats, as well as robotic and organic vocal loops. The organic vocals have an immediate Nottingham twang, which feature prominently throughout the album. The simple synth lines squelch and whoosh, providing a fairly sparse skin to the percussive bones and muscles.
Service Level Agreement stands out due to some particularly well arranged opening background drones, but quickly evolves into a rather dirty version of its former self complete with electric guitar screeches, distorted bass lines and a beat filled with urgency (in comparison to its minimal and incredibly simple beginnings).
The album’s highlight kicks in mid-way. Black Night is immediately likeable due to the simple, yet effective piano notes twinkling through into the foreground of the track. A guitar solo brings some much-needed variation to the track, meandering lazily along until vocoder-treated vocals repeat the song’s namesake. Towards the end the drums pick up a bit, culminating in a sort of mini-crescendo.
Closer A Compromised Solution starts with pleasant piano lines, soon given immediacy by some very low-range bass The song takes a stroll through a range of electronic effects before the near-spoken-word vocals spout cynicism and bitterness.
This will grow on you after repeated listens, with the charm of Grand Designs being in the music’s arrangements. The album as a whole is a formidable effort. Ant Whitton
Grand Designs is available through the Feelings By Design MySpace.
Fists
Olympic Hits (Hello Thor)
Fists do exactly what they say on the tin – they pack a punch. Cheesiness aside, this is a band to be celebrated. With countless artists welcoming the return of Pavement with shameless imitation, Fists are something else. Although harkening back to the glory days of Lo-Fi superbrilliance, Fists are a refreshingly nostalgia-free and joyful listening experience. They do DIY, and they do it well. Imagine the infectious anthemics of Broken Social Scene arm in arm with the eclecticism of Belle and Sebastian. Underlying this star-gazing poppiness is a foundation of razor edged post punk.
Opener Weekend is an understated dream-like haze driven by a pounding sense of delirious adventure. It’s a song for Saturdays – a real Soccer AM montage moment. Squirl Squeak hits the bullseye of unhinged melodrama that a band like Liars would aim for. Fuzzy and disorientating and clocking in at just under 2 minutes, this track is a sharp and potent shot of acidic schizophrenic nonsense. Ace Is The Way is an alt-rock Wurlitzer, displaying the ear-bending insanity of early dEUS whilst closing track Roll Back My Eyes is a swooning lullaby of Arts & Crafts loveliness. From track to track, Fists effortlessly twitch and skip across hot coals with style and diversity.
Olympic Hits is a record dripping with confidence which more than lives up to its name. Mount Olympus is only 9,577 feet high, whereas Fists tower light-years above their peers. Soaring high above all others, Fists are going for gold, but could melt platinum with their feverish pop dynamics. They are just ace. Andy Trendell
Olympic Hits is available from Hello Thor records or from the band's gigs.
Fists website
Grande Duke
Grande Duke (Fight Me Records)
If you've ever been on Chatroulette, you will be aware that it is a...erm...roulette as to who you are going to get next looking back at you on your computer screen. One minute it could be some cute 18 year old girls all cleavaged up, the next it could be someone who has a lot of confidence in their own genitalia, so much so, that they want the whole world to see it all proud and standing to attention, or it could even be Ashton Kutcher.
Much like that odd insight in to human behaviour, with this self-titled EP by Grande Duke you are never really sure what you are going to get next. Not just track by track, but the songs themselves twitch and turn at every opportunity, much like being thrown down a toboggan course at high speed and not knowing the route, but enjoying the thrill of it all the same.
These are a band who aren't afraid to mix up styles. Jazz, metal, even hints of heavy blues are all mixed up with asymmetrical time signatures, making this sound like Metallica if they were jazz freaks, but spent their time listening to bands like Trans AM and Slint. For instance, Stonecutter locks you in to a hypnotic groove, Duke of Rain creeps around like Jack The Ripper on the prowl for his next victim, before the last track Chora does the deed at slices you a new smile on you neck with obvious glee. This is both challenging and rewarding. Paul Klotschkow
Grande Duke is available from gigs or direct through the band's website.
Grande Duke website
Kingclaw
Dragon Liver b/w Save Your Mind (Self Release)
As soon as you drop the needle on this 7” you are transported to a place where dragons and wizards live side-by side in a landscape dominated by smouldering volcanoes, which is ruled over by a shadowy Order that features Alistair Crowley, Richie Blackmore, Robert Pant, and JRR Tolkein. If this all sounds a bit too much World Of Warcraft for you, don't despair, as this is a far away from that soul sapping geek heroin as you can imagine.
The first side, Dragon Liver, rumbles through your speakers like a tornado ripping through a battlefield of knights on horse. As clattering drums and brain haemorrhaging bass lines fight it out with wailing vocals and searing guitars, who's only intention it seems is to turn your brain in to something resembling the contents of a can of condescend mushroom soup.
Flip it over, and things start of a little bit more considered, before the growling bass kicks in and the song immediately leaps for the jugular like a dog with fangs. What comes next is akin to what Alice must have felt as she stepped on through the looking glass. Vintage sounding organ's cut through the carnage and guitars taking flight like a B52 bomber that has swapped it's usual artillery for some of Timothy Leary's sweetest pharmaceuticals, with the intention of dropping it's load over Stone Henge. This will possess your mind with an army of evil spirits all wearing their best bell bottomed flares. Step on through to the other side. Paul Klotschkow
Dragon Liver b/w Save Your Mind is available from the band at gigs.
Kingclaw on MySpace
Mascot Fight
Losers Can't Be Choosers (Cassette County)
Following on earlier EP and album Mascot Fight (comprising so messes Tom, Sean, Rich and Matt) unleash their next record in the shape of early 'Losers Can’t Be Choosers'.
The new material sees the Nottingham 4-piece fly into, for those who know them, familiar, uplifting indie-pop that would have any good venue bouncing. The 6 tracks on the EP vary from the very first track.
Trawler, is a seemingly summer-kissed classic sounding indie anthem with satisfying chord changes with elements of Pixies in there. There’s Something I Ought to Tell You offers a more Americana rock aspect, with trebly guitars and thrashing explosions of cymbals, and a massive middle eight to revel in. One of the more unexpected dimensions of the EP is the fourth track Shonan Bellmare; a mere 85 seconds long and what can only be likened to a homage to Beach Boys Good Vibrations with billowing vocals layered to create an almost orchestral ensemble.
The finale, Hah, That’s Not Anarchy, winds up what is essentially an emphatically uplifting taster of a modern indie pop summer band with innovation, ability and the proverbial balls of brass. Mascot Fight have earned themselves a sumo sized lump of praise for their high energy live performances and although they dub themselves ‘indie pop with noisy bits’, their crafty ability to play on words is evidence enough to those who still need it that there is a number of tricks to this musical pony. Nik Storey
Losers Can't Be Choosers is available from the band at gigs. Check the band's website for further information on how to buy it.
Mascot Fight website
Moules & Wiggins
Blues For The Soul, Rhythm For The Feet & Advice For Sinners (Self Release)
Moules and Wiggins are a local rhythm and blues duo that combine fresh new blues with old roots, creating a very pleasurable blues experience.
The boys open with Can't Be Satisfied, a real blues treat with a firm blues guitar that is tight but free flowing. It's hard to pull off classics that have been mastered by the likes of RL and Muddy Waters but these guys do it. Through instrumental jams, where perfectly bended harp notes swirl with the guitar strings, Moules and Wiggins treat us to a quality that is maintained throughout the EP.
You know when you hear a screaming blues harp that sends shivers down your spine? That's what you get with Checkin Up On My Baby. This song epitomises what is so special about the blues; tales of woe and not bothering who hears about it.
With It Ain't Right is driven by its powerful vocals and the harmonica resembles that of Sonny Boy Williamson, which, for those non-blues fans out there, can only be a very good thing.
You Gotta Move is the well covered blues standard written by Fred McDowell and Rev Gary Davis, but which is more commonly recognised from the Rolling Stones' 'Sticky Fingers' album. Moules and Wiggins' version is painfully honest, slightly country-fied and slow in tempo but don't be fooled; this only makes your blood run quicker.
A cracking selection of blues standards by some accomplished musicians. I think I'll be seeing these boys perform soon. They're well worth it! Jack Tunnecliff
Blues For The Soul, Rhythm For The Feet & Advice For Sinners is available through the bands Myspace.
Nephu Huzzband
Elementary (Deep Recording Company)
The opening track of Nephu Huzzband's debut album begins with a long feedback heavy intro, that kicks you in the face unleashing a post hardcore racket, which blends elements of 70s punk, 80s hardcore, giving you a strong sense these are very much their own band. These know who they are and how they want to get things done. They draw on influences then make them their own, creating an original and compelling debut that will appeal to punks, rockers and indie kids alike. Look up the word 'elementary' in the dictionary and you’ll see that it means basic; simple - which is a fitting description considering the stripped down hardcore style of this album. Yet, even that doesn’t quite do them justice due to the complexity and song writing skill they manage to cram in to every tune.
Nurse! Nurse! is a highlight, discordant yet melodic. I Are Resistance is a complex and arty bristling with power and confidence you wouldn’t normally expect from so young a band. However don’t expect them to be just another local band for much longer. They are already drawing media attention with play on MTV2 and BBC’s Six Music and deservedly so, their music being too good to ignore. With too many bands following the rules and trying to sound the same, Nephu Huzzband push the boundaries of genre and style, making them one of the most exciting young bands to come out of the Midlands in recent years. Lauren Walker
Elementary is available from Rough Trade, iTunes, and other good record outlets.
Nephu Huzzband on MySpace
We Show Up On Radar
A Loaf Of Bread, A Container Of Milk, And A Stick Of Butter (Hello Thor)
If you need some convincing that there is still some good in the world, look no further than this record. Andy Wright (the man behind WSUOR) has lovingly pieced together an EP from such gloriously uplifting elements that it's impossible to come away from listening to it with any less than a contented smile and a tingle on your arm hair. It is a trickling stream of experimental folk-pop with an undercurrent of electronica and an unmatchable whimsical charm.
The subject matter spans love, relationships and heartbreak; stories told almost as if through the eyes of a child, with Wright's classically English, endlessly delicate voice lilting through every song like a comforting, sage character who explains the ways of the world in the gentlest possible way.
The lyrical feel of the EP is encompassed in a line from A Spider on a Thread, "When I said I didn't need you, I might've lied a little bit. Musically, the record is led throughout by acoustic guitar, intricately intertwined with synths and keyboards, unusual electronic clicks and pops, vocal harmonies and tuned percussion to create a unique fusion of simple folk and contemporary electronica.
To say that this is a carefully produced record would be an understatement; you can hear the love and time that has been spent creating each one of these tracks, building each one into a mini aural marvel. Buy this EP and treat your ears and mind to some charming, unique and just ruddy lovely treats. Sarah Morrison
A Loaf Of Bread, A Container Of Milk, And A Stick Of Butter is available to buy from Hello Thor records.
We Show Up On Radar on MySpace
Read comments and make your own
Comments