a week away; hell to pay.

...

Memory Tapes.

A collaboration of Weird Tapes & Memory Cassette has hatched from one person earlier this year and morphed into Memory Tapes. One shady, and for all we know, dubious, producer has amalgamated his projects, which were two shades different anyhow, to form this one. 

The debut single is going to be released in the first week of August, Bicycle.

One sentiment I immediately cling to in it is the rough 80s feel; there's a bit of a tribal thing with cowbells, going nicely with a buttering of synths. It's got the genetic makeup of a lot of the disco-pop pumping this summer up, full of synth, guitar riffs & mystical vocals (Little Boots, Passion Pit et cetera), but that in no way detracts from the class of the song.

Memory Tapes - Bicycle (y.s.i.)

.x.

another week away. more hell to pay?

cheek by jowl & hand in glove.

...

Monday night The [A] TEAM gazoogled away to The Enterprise, Chalk Farm to hear Kid Harpoon and his supporting act Josh Weller. Although tonight wasn't officially part of Kid's tour, it was a chance for him to showcase a few of his new songs in preparation for the release of his single Stealing Cars, coming out 20th July.

Josh Weller was unknown to us before tonight but, my oh my, we liked a bit of him - from his Marge Simpson-esque hair to his painted skeleton hand - he was as enthusiastic as a child with an ice lolly to bosh and bash his drum, scattering glitter everywhere. Yeah, he verged on the twee indie with a vocal-driven performance but the undulations of his songs, swinging from very soft, almost folk, to a mad, ska-like deliverance made him more engaging. His single Push is out now on Yodel.

Kid Harpoon revelled in his show; sodding encores in favour of just continuing to play until he'd completely sweated out. 

I found him sexy...something about his gold earring and cheeky blue eyes grabbed me. There were other raving groupies, embarrassingly drunk ladies who clogged up the front and knocked over his microphone stand; but our composed if excitable selves were given a jam-packed set list, played with a kind of vigour that caused the giggers, that were, until then merely nodding in approval, to shake the room. 

the aftermath of when a particularly drunk groupie knocked over his microphone stand.

However, we weren't completely blown away to become fully fledged, t-shirt wearing Kid Harpoon-ers because his digression to playing the piano just came out all wrong; the cheek in his blue eyes turned to a kind of cockiness that he could play anything on the piano and the females would swoon. Once back, guitar-clad, his rendition of his old haunt burning down caught our attention, after he'd ranted too much about roses. 

Byesies.

.x.

Mama Do.. Mama Don't?!

So the next round of Brit-Pop Queen's have arrived. They're sharpening their knives and doing their hair and they want to give our good old girlies a run for their money. Having said that, I for one am just not convinced. Paloma Faith and Pixie Lott. Hmmm.

While Faith's single Stone Cold Sober is being released today in fact, Pixie made it to number 1 just a few hours ago. I am not 100% sure, they deserve our love nor the blogosphere's. I gladly find mostly they have not caused a stir online yet and while I wish them no harm whatsoever, their polished and different sides of the pillow voices are just...lacking.

Make what you will. It is by no means a mean feat to march straight into number 1, ousting the Black Eyed Peas on the same label. I am sure they will both go far.

Pixie Lott is a kind of soulful and tuneful song lady (not songstress) who repeats "Uh oh" a lot. Her MySpace fare is actually preferable in my opinion and it veers towards Jordin Sparks. There will be more from (P I X I E <3>)

Paloma Faith and her more 'heartfelt' rhythms harking from Hackney truly mark the beginning of the punk-blues that Amy Winehouse graced us with a while back. Her squeaky if powerful voice has plenty of potential but iffy lyrics don't make the most of it. That's not to say she doesn't try, in her single she is:

"wilder than the wind...You think I'm crazy, a little bit hazy/But I'm stone cold sober," - Right. These kind of semi righteous words back up her mix n match style sense but I don't think she pulls it off. In any case, it reminds me of a NHS teenage alcoholic campaign. Just peruse her MySpace for more 'information'. But in her defence, she was in St Trinians and worked with Basement Jaxx.

"I fly sometimes, sometimes I land with a thud. I am never what you think as I am multiple. Sometimes what isn't said is more powerful than what is." - ?!

I'll stick with Elly Jackson (La Roux), Little Boots and even Florence & The Machine, despite TheGirlWithThorn's weighty dismissal!

Peruse & abuse:

Pixie Lott - Mama Do (Linus Loves Radio Edit) (y.s.i)
Paloma Faith - Broken Doll (y.s.i)

time taints.

...

I liked her so so much this time last year. Oh yes. When a good friend showed me the enlightened voice of Florence Welch and her delectable clockwork Machine, everything she touched seemed to just sparkle, with that dangerous amount of power in her voice and the tingly-tangly accompaniment.

Now, it scratches and scathes. I know I shouldn't be saying this on the verge of her hitting the "big time", but I can't help but feel it just doesn't feel right. 

The video for her next single, Rabbit Heart, released 21st June and seen below, seems a little too much (I think the mouthing is out of sync as well).

Maybe I should just take a rain check and renew my faith once her album, Lungs, comes out on July 6th.

Here's some old magic in the form of a Bruce Springsteen cover duet with Kid Harpoon, whom I'm ecstatic to be going to see on Monday at The Enterprise, Camden:

Florence & Kid Harpoon - Going Down (y.s.i.)

.x.

Because Sometimes It's Easier To...

To reach out and feel... something.

Why? - The Vowels, Part 2 (y.s.i)

"Did anyone hear me cry there?
Through a toilet stall divider
I swear I care, raw"

If one feels a bit down, which one often does, Why? are here to try and articulate all these strange and unruly emotions. Well actually, they try to capture various curious emotions that crop up from deep down and their majestically quirky lyrics seem to do just that. From Fatalistic Palmistry's beautiful and breathtaking love story to The Hollows where we follow a darker trip to Berlin, Why? manage to combine a lyrical narrative thought-train into a powerful and perverted in their album from 2008, Alopecia.

Incidentally, a new album recorded at the same time labelled Eskimo Snow will be released this Autumn and should see a supposedly more introspective take on the Alopecia sessions than the word crazy pop we heard last year. The Bay Area trio will hopefully deliver the goods on Anticon's label.

Why? - Fatalistic Palmistry (y.s.i)

Byesies.

a blur is far more enticing.

...

Young Galaxy. 

Dream Pop/Shoegaze/Drone Music; whatever you want to call that strain of indie pop that swoops and soars to stirring vocals and constant chords, Young Galaxy play it.

Young Galaxy have supported acts such as Death Cab for Cutie, which could lead to some confusion as to their space rock (there's another one!) allegiances, but the Canadian quintet most definitely have a greater Galaxie 500 affiliation and Luna sound. Their first release of 2007, the eponymous Young Galaxy, was picked up by many, shaken around, and generally decided upon as alright but not that great - Young Galaxy are made up of former Stars guitarist, Stephen Ramsay, and his girlfriend, Catherine McCandless, which, I can only gather, has restricted Young Galaxy broaching these influences. Although their lyrics aren't nearly as interesting as folks like Joy Formidable, to whom they could easily be compared to, their new release of 2009, Invisible Republic, creates the atmosphere to compensate, using McCandless' vocals predominantly, as opposed to Ramsay's. It's set to be an epic little LP full of frustration and a definite hark back to the 1980s roots of the Shoegaze sub-genre. 

Young Galaxy - Long Live the Fallen World 

Joy Formidable - Whirring (y.s.i.) 

.x.

beards and brows; stuck in the gold rush.

Human Highway.

//The feeling isn't there, like it was all a bad dream; now we're looking everywhere//I'm just gonna follow the sound.//

I'm still working through the black hole of SXSW bands; Human Highway jumped up at me yesterday, nagging for my attention. 

Named after the Neil Young 1982 film, I can only presume, Human Highway are two men - Nick (Thorburn) and Jim (Guthrie) - who do the simple-beautiful very well. Light guitars, light drums and light voices; that's what they do wonderfully. Apathetic Summer Sundays suit this music to the [cup of] T.

Human Highway - The Sound (y.s.i.)

.x.

my feelings float; empty and heavy.

...

We Plants Are Happy Plants.

driving past a town.

We Plants Are Happy Plants is a one man machine called Peter Bergmann who's based himself in Budapest and sets about making the kind of euphoric (and still experimental) dance music that can make the grumpiest of souls crack a smile. It flows out the speakers/headphones in a constant cascade of synth and reaches to every nook of the room giving an incredible atmosphere. It's the music for the one-time moments of your life; when you're feeling on the top of the world and you'd shout but that'd ruin the mood; when you're with someone and the tingles are jumping; when you're driving at night and you feel alone and oh so content. That's what We Plants Are Happy Plants is for. 

We Plants Are Happy Plants - Apollo (y.s.i.)

.x.

[you'll never know quite how much you affect me.]

just sit in the dribbles of light and freckles of sun, playing lyrics.

Yellow Ostrich.

Why can't we be friends? said one peakish-looking ostrich to another. The another just frowned.

Yellow Ostrich is the solo project of The Chairs' frontman Alex OSTRICH (real name Schaaf but how dull...). The Chairs are a debutant indie outfit from Wisconsin whose EP November covered Neutral Milk Hotel's "Aeroplane Over The Sea" and absolutely nailed it. This is more like the side project then; Ostrich has got all the panache of Bon Iver, minus the distinct, pained wail [and beard] of Justin Vernon, and a kind of Death Cab for Cutie lyricism. 

Yellow Ostrich - Time Machines, Pt. 1 (y.s.i.)

Bowerbirds. 

What is nu-folk? For I should know not. Is it different to anti-folk? because I only quite grasped the meaning of that a while ago. Bowerbirds are a "nu-folk" group from North Carolina where Beth Tacular (rhymes with Count Dracula !) plays the accordion, Phil Moore (honestly!) vocalises and Matt Damron (...nope.) hits a few pig skins. They have that honesty of folk; they're not over-produced but their lyrics and melodies still haunt. 

Bowerbirds - House of Diamonds (y.s.i.)

.x.

Friday Is Thong Day, Saturday Is Song Day

This is Helen

Ahhh... Summer. It's coming. I can feel it. It's nothing to do with man made accelerated global warming. No really, it's sunny and for a while I cannot cease to be happy. Therefore, music has shifted from the likes of gloomy, brooding types like Bat For Lashes and Sally Shapiro to Neon Neon and Jenny Owen Youngs or whatever it is that gets you all summery. For me, I personally think no summer is complete unless it is accompanied by that sound. The one where you pump it out so loud you can't hear anything else, as you get ready to go out into that balmy, ochre strewn world. Could have been MGMT a while ago, VEGA this summer or even dare I say it La Roux's Bulletproof or even one of the awesome remixes like Skream's RMX.


But, part of me feels there is [potential] in the slow but energised rhythms of The Glass, hailing from NY/Berlin. Even though most of their stuff is a little 'out there' for a summer sound , their new single (slightly not new) 'Wanna Be Dancing' is a real slick, lucid, eery piano driven piece. We think it's certainly got us dancing in the right direction.

The Glass - Wanna Be Dancing (y.s.i)

On the other hand (and side of the world) maybe its in the form of Melbourne based The Dukes Of Windsor. It all depends on your idea of that blend of electronica, pop laced feel, 80s, or AustroPop (I just made that up). The DoW remind me of my other Australian babes, PNAU and of course Empire of the Sun. Ladyhawke; our Kiwi deserves to be there too. Their The Others
made significant waves in the blogging community in 2006 and the exhilirating rock sound mutated into a more synthy one that is no doubt familiar to most of us, but one that is respectively better than more copycat acts that Australia produces. I couldn't get their new Down In Dirt track nor The Others which is well worth checking out.

The Dukes of Windsor - Land Of Strangers (CB Remix) (y.s.i)

I also want everyone to take a look at a really really summery sound that's been around since 2001 but didn't really take off until 2003. They're really neighbours. It has to be said that nobody does it better like the Frenchies. It's M83. The eternal sound originally created by the duo, Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau, has now become the singular sound of Gonzalez. But it's alright because the more melancholy electronica sound of Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts featuring desperate beats that delves into minimalism has now developed into a bit more of a cohesive tranced out sound that reminds me of Friendly Fires. Their 2008 album focused on the eternal theme of youth and uncertainty and schtuff like that. Anyhoo, I think Couleurs is an excellent summer send off for us young 'uns; long, unrelenting and deep.


M83 - Couleurs (y.s.i)

That's all for now folks (as I write this, it's pissing it down.. sigh)

Britain's Got Cooties

So, this is terribly un-Kosher of me... I'm going to write about Escala, the previous finalists of Britain's Got Talent. This is NO Susan Boyle, thank you very much. Now I don't want to dwell on the depraved state of Britain, nor the celebration of mediocrity, or the show, but, seeing as I'm terribly patriotic and they're gorgeous, talented and a bit different, I want you to take a serious look at them. I hate to admit it, but I am a sucker for electronica and a bit of rock, so why not an electronic string quartet?

The reason I chose to shed light on one of the more lucky and talented products of Simon Cowell's music factory was because their album reached No 2 in the UK two days ago. Simon is quite nice in person by the way. For quite a polished, successful if strange brand, the album has classics from Kashmir, Clubbed To Death and Chi Mai - so quite a varied scoop huh. The best one, in my view is the (arguably) outstanding rendition of Children (orignially by Robert Miles, a childhood memory). Now, just to be clear, it's classic meets new wave rave and I think it does the job very well. However, I suspect, if you're a fan of the classical genre, you won't be impressed, although I don't know of any other classical remixes of Children.

Oh and if you do love Britain, vote tomorrow!

See what you think...

Escala - Children (y.s.i)

That's all for now children, (giggle), byesies