SEVEN NOISES

I've never made a post about a musician passing away before. This blog's purpose is another but Today was a very sad, sad day. Broadcast was one of my favourite bands ever and when I received the news I felt like a friend died. I've heard her voice so many times it became so close to me. It is music I always revisit and go back to. I never get bored to listen to again and again. It was a very sad, sad day.

Manchester was the centre of the universe back in the late 70s with bands like Joy Division, The Fall or The Buzzcocks and then again in the 80s with The Smiths, Stone Roses or Happy Mondays. Everything got a bit quieter afterwards (with exception of Oasis) and nowadays while the city has risen from the post-industrial decadence to a more modern cosmopolitan city its musical influence over the world has been fading to nearly disappeared. If you walk around the city, its record shops and bars, you can see a general nostalgia for those glory days that now look more like a tourist attraction / theme park. But we still have, from time to time, a new band that appears from the small live circuit of bars as it's the case of The Louche F.C.
After growing up from gig to gig / mouth to mouth they will release their first single next month on Sways Records, the double A side Back Bedroom Casualty / Only in a Dream. They define their sound as 60s post-punk / Orbison shoegaze which is obvious on Only in a Dream.
You can pre-order it here .

Anika, a 24 year old German girl settled in the UK and Berlin, released an album at the end of last year that's been massively overlooked (probably because when it appeared all the lists were pre-designed) although it had all the elements to be a candidate to be on the end of the year lists: produced by Geoff Barrow from Portishead and Beak>, mixing experimentalism with a post-punk attitude that makes the whole thing retro, current and timeless and approaching the cover (Bob Dylan's Masters of War, Yoko Ono's Yang Yang or Julie London's popularised End of the World) as a weapon reminding The Flying Lizards crazy covers of the late 70s.
It's impossible to read a review of the record without seeing the name Nico all around, clearly an influence but also the consequence of making the obvious association of German female vocal artist with strong accent singing in English with a love for dark and mysterious melodies, all very European sounding. Anyway, there's more to the record than that as it filters dub "a la Metal Box way", Krautrock, 60s pop or synthwave.
You can catch her live at London's Lexington on the 26th this month or later in France, Belgium, Spain or at the Portishead's All Tomorrow's Parties events next Summer.

Zoo Kid makes us think, we that are far away from our youthful years, that we through away the best years of our lives. How can a 16 year old make songs like this? Has he been making music since he was 2 to get to this level of composition abstraction and sophistication and make it sound natural and innate? (The credits praise written, performed and produced by Archy Marshall)
His song Out Getting Ribs has already been praised around but the B side to the single, Has This Hit, out on House Anxiety Records and probably soon to be sold out (so you better run) is as big as the A side. He sounds as he's been listening to lots of music (he can sound like Ian Curtis without wanting to sound like him in a time everybody wants to sound like him but fail trying) and filtered everything in a way it only ends up sounding as himself. It's definitely a one to follow from really close in the British scene in a time there's not much interesting going on here.

I haven't mentioned Beko for a while now. It's hardly impossible to get track of all what they put up as every Monday you have a new (virtual)free single, compilation, boxset, etc.. and if you get distracted for a while, you've missed some weeks and have lots to catch up. This last Monday though, is obvious that I would mention, taking into account the previous post, the free 11 track compilation they put together on collaboration with La Station Radar. 11 artist that have previously released something for this label hands out a new / unreleased track for our enjoyment, including some personal favourites like Ela Orleans, Dirty Beaches, Jeans Wilder or Archers by the Sea. You can download the whole thing (and many more free great music) here

This 7 inch has already a couple of months but the hibernation of the blog + how long it takes the postage from France to the UK during the Christmas season have delayed the whole thing. Probably you've heard something about Jeans Wilder before, maybe one of his numerous tapes or maybe the split single he put out with Best Coast, as well as this for La Station Radar, one label that has increasingly become more and more indispensable. This single contains three songs of noise surf that work as a perfect companion for his first proper vinyl LP, Nice Trash, out at the same time as a collaboration between this label and Atelier Ciseaux which is more sampled and melody based and explores other quieter territories.
You can get both things here

Next Monday, the never ever resting Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls fame will release her second single with her solo project La Sera after the dream pop beauty of Never Come Around. This second single called Devils Heart Grow Gold will also feature in her first album out on February 15th that will be simply called La Sera and will be another reference on the newly imprint Sub Pop branch label Hardly Art. The B side Dedicated to the One I Love, which will not appear on the album, sounds like is a cover of the classic song many times covered and popularised by Mama Cass between others.
In other news she will be touring Europe once again next month including White Heat in London. See you there.

Last year we saw a couple of releases from a band called Sleep ∞ Over who investigated into the atmospheric parameters of bands like Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil and other 4AD bands from the 80s. After some months of silence, a new project from two of its members called Boy Friend appeared yesterday at BandCamp. Not sure if this means that Sleep ∞ Over are not more but seems logic as their first EP called simply Boy Friend follows what their single for Forest Family Records started and if these songs where not signed under this new name it would be impossible to guess it's a new project without knowing it in advance.
It was up for download for free yesterday. From today you'll have to pay $4 USD for the whole thing (4 tracks) or $1 for individual tracks, but it's worth the money as it is even better than what they've done before.

Get it here

Boy Friend - The False Cross

Hello everybody. It's been a while since my last post, nearly a couple of months. The reasons for this hibernation are many: time, technical difficulties and some other reasons I'm not going to name.
The fact is I'll try it again. Some things have changes meanwhile like the way you can stream / download songs. My upload provider stopped accepting more uploads and I've struggle to find a new one that offered the same conditions. Anyway, here we are again. Hope you enjoy it.

Memoryhouse have proofed to create some of the most beautiful songs we've heard this year, from first single To the Lighthouse and second Lately (both songs also included in the free to download The Years EP) to the other songs they've been putting out in compilations or that tour only CDR full of instrumentals. When i saw them live though it was slightly disappointing as the addition of a guitar that sometimes rocked too hard for their songs destroyed the atmosphere of these songs mostly based in quiet and delicate ballads that didn't need those guitar riffs at all. Anyway, the new single out on Suicide Squeeze Records doesn't take an approach to their live sound, but more to their previous recordings, although the presence of the guitar is more prominent than on those first tracks, but always as a companion to the songs without overtaking all the power of the songs.
Get the record before is sold out here. It's limited to 750 copies but it's nearly sold out.

I was a huge Mogwai fan, back on the days of the first singles, Young Team, Come On Die Young and Rock Action, and those perfect EPs they put out on between. I saw them like 10 times live during those years and it was always a mind blowing experience.
Everything began to change with the release of Happy Songs for Happy People: From the title to the cover everything looked bad from the beginning. Maybe I'm not a happy person but I found the record quite bland and nothing to do with Mogwai at all. The records that came afterwards were not any better in general: Mr Beast was a try to go back to basics, the quiet-noise-quiet pattern they followed in their first releases but although the ingredients were there the final result was far from the anthemic songs the got famous for. Zidane, the OST was better, some beautiful passages that put a bit of hope for further releases but then, The Hawk is Howling proofed us wrong, developing some songs closer to hard rock mannerisms than anything else.
Some months ago, the news that the were going to release their next album for Sub Pop in America put them again on the map. Not sure if the signing for a label can actually affect the final result for an album, even less a label like Sub Pop that doesn't put any pressure in the artistic part of the making of a record but, anyway, it could only be regarded us encouraging news. And now, the first single is available as a free download before the actual physical release that will be in January and will include a non-album B side and a classic Sub Pop singles club style cover. I approached to it with mixed expectations but, after listening to it, I have to say that it's probably the best song they've done in years. Rano Pano, an advance from Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will it's as far from their first songs as it is close: The melody is there, the noise is there but processed in a different way but, what's more important is that the song is good and escapes from the self-plagiarism of the last records, looking for new sounds and ways of expression but being loyal to their name.
I cannot help it but to have hope again and look forward the new album, to be out next February, but I'm also afraid of another deception, even more taking into account the name of the record. Cross your fingers.

This is the forth single from Fort Lowell Records, and last for this year, a label from Tucson AZ that specializes in releasing singles from local bands. If you still don't know it, they've put out records by Young Mothers, ...Music Video?, Wet & Reckless / Tracy Shedd and now Dead Western Plains, all of them still available on their website.
This is the Dead Western Plains debut and it sounds really elaborated for a first record. The production is rich on details and you can get the sensation that many hours have been invested in getting the final result. With complex melody lines and, although they don't have an obvious chorus, both songs have the common element that, with quite an abstract structure they manage to have a catchy organ arrangement that works as glue for all the different parts of the songs.
The songs sound big, hymn-like and kaleidoscopic, mixing psychedelia, electronic sounds and pop. They mention Arcade Fire, Animal Collective or Caribou as references, and I can definitely see those in these songs, although not individually, but very well mixed and assumed.

Seapony's first ever physical release is just been put out by Double Denim Records, a UK label that also released Blackbird Blackbird's Pure. Seapony are from Seattle but far from getting inspiration to that city's music background they get closer to the British sound of 80s bands like The Pastels, Heavenly or The Vaselines, although I've also read comparisons with Best Coast around the blogs. Actually, the first time you hear Dreaming, one of the three songs on the single, it sounds so familiar you may think you've heard it before. The guitar riff and the melody are so simple it looks impossible nobody has already done it.
You can also visit their bandcamp and download their first virtual EP for free here.

Lately there's been a huge amount of low profile bands whose names consist on symbols or a combination of symbols and letters. Most of them they share a love for dark sounds, scary synths and heavily processed vocals and they are influenced by dark dubstep and hip hop as much as they are by gothic and post punk sounds. After the rise of Salem, Burial or even Fever Ray in the last years the door's been open for this type of effects and many projects are flirting with a kind of music would perfectly suit the goriest and darker of the films and scare the bravest of the mums.
GR†LL GR†LL is yet another band who's just released a CDR on Disaro, a record label whose bands include another hieroglyphical bands such as , ✝ NO VIRGIN ✝ or †‡† and which logo may you think it's more a cult than a record label. Pretty scary everything. GR†LL GR†LL's music is not for everybody's ears but you'll probably find it interesting at least if you've been loving Salem's LP. The artifact even contains a Nirvana cover more suitable for Doom lovers than grunge fans.