Sunday, 16 January 2011
Friday, 14 January 2011
Tomorrow...
... this blog will be one year old. I only attached Analytics to it in April, so I can't do full stats, but at a conservative estimate about two thousand people actually took time to read (not just view) this in its first year. That makes me very happy. Thanks, if you're reading this.
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Monday, 10 January 2011
From the label that brought you Wingman....
Comes this beauty. Fear and Records' other hot ticket, Masks, have got a track called '7 of 9', presumably a Star Trek reference, up for free download today. Apparently they are doing an album in the near future, which can only be a good thing. They are kind of like a heavier I Concur, and there's definitely a sludgy Soundgarden vibe about their louder passages. Check it out:
Edit: They are actually a lot like Failure around Fantastic Planet, aren't they? Cool stuff.
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Thursday, 6 January 2011
WHAT THE FUCK
...is all this hype about Brother at the moment? I mean, seriously, I know I'm out of touch with the mainstream in a colossal way; none of my top ten albums of 2010 (off the top of my head) were on the NME's 'best of', let alone anyone else's, and I really do try and bear this all with some grace, but for fuck's sake! Signed to Geffen after five gigs? ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID? THEY WERE FUCKING SIGNED BEFORE THEY PLAYED THEIR FIRST CHORD! IT'S ALL A STUNT! IT'S ALL A CYNICAL MARKET- ah fuckit.
I fucking hate Oasis.
Go listen to some Massive Attack. I command you.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Another form of procrastination...
Don't ask how I found this, but apparently I had a letter published by The Economist three years ago and didn't even notice. Idiot. It's about gun control, just after the Virginia Massacre, and actually all the responses are pretty interesting. As you probably guessed, the majority of the US respondents were anti- gun control and the rest of the world (ish) was pro. Nothing new there, then.
Letters Page for May 2007
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
In Casino Out
Shields EP
Released September 2010
Rating: 4/5
I guess a little preamble wouldn't be such an evil in this instance. Way back in May 2009 (feels like a long time ago, right?) I caught a band opening for My Vitriol on their fan club tour called Connectingflight. Now, Connectingflight were kind of the style of music I thought Manchester would be full of- influenced by Biffy, Oceansize and a general desire to be as forward-thinking with a guitar as it is possible to be. Unfortunately, shortly after releasing the Fix EP (I've still got a copy around here somewhere), they broke up. Sometime later, they came back with a new band, with only singer/guitarist John Murray and (superb) drummer James Lorenzo retained from their old outfit. A few months later, they saw fit to grace us with this EP, and it's much to my discredit that I haven't reviewed it before now.
Well, as I touched on before, it's influenced by that whole At the Drive-In post-hardcore sound, and at times it's pretty heavy going, certainly more so than Connectingflight, which was rather more lush in a kind of Effloresce sort of way. Opener 'This Year's Noise' is the obvious 'single' (read introductory) track, and serves as a kind of concise almalgamation of the various parts of their sound; the triple-guitar attack of Radiohead, the band interaction of Oceansize's 'Catalyst', the atmospherics of second-album Coopers, and the vibe of all those turn-of-the-2000s southern rock bands (Reuben, Redefine and Vex spring to mind). In fact, though it's only been released since then, their heavier moments (particularly on highlight 'Megan Fox') sound nothing so much as The Octopus; MF in particular has the same deep rumble as 'Fall of the Empire'. 'Plans' in all honesty sounds kind of like those scratchy, early Rage-inflected b-sides from the first Muse record, as well as obviously early Biffy Clyro. Belying their bandname, if they take from their post-hardcore uncles, I'd say the influence is more the raw energy of Acrobatic Tenement, even if I will concede to this being hidden under quite exceptional production values. Seriously, I often bitch on here about the unfashionability of heavy rock, but as long as musicians continue to make such exceptionally challenging loud music, who gives a fuck?
Trojan Horse
Out February 2011
Rating: 4.5/5
There is really only one word that can truly describe this record: bold. Long would probably be easier, but then again that wouldn't in any way do justice to the sheer audacity of a (relatively) young band making this their debut release, even if it has been three years in the making. If that weren't enough, they brazenly describe themselves as 'Prog Nouveau', at a time where, Kscope Records fanbase aside, prog has never been more uncool.
With music like this at your fingertips though, who needs to be cool? From the demented pirate breakdown in 'Mr Engels Says' to the dinner-music feel of '...and the Lights Went Down' (probably my favourite cut), Trojan Horse keep shifting the mood, feel, style and genre seemingly every minute, or at the very least whenever it suits them. It's gloriously self-indulgent, at turns witty or coarse, heavy or dreamy, and I honestly can't remember when I heard quite so bipolar a record. In short, it's bloody brilliant.
I could go through track by track and analyse it to death, but I've been listening to this album all day and I'm still having difficulty making head or tail of it. As a result, my conclusion is that you should just go out, get a copy and decide for yourself. Somewhere, buried between 3:21 and 3:56 of a track you'll find, however fleetingly, something that blows your mind; it's inevitable, because there is everything you could ever want jammed in here somewhere, if only you have the patience to find it.
As long as artists are prepared to go out on limbs like the one that Trojan Horse are straddling, you've got to conclude that in spite of downloading, falling sales et al, rock n' roll has never been in better shape.
With music like this at your fingertips though, who needs to be cool? From the demented pirate breakdown in 'Mr Engels Says' to the dinner-music feel of '...and the Lights Went Down' (probably my favourite cut), Trojan Horse keep shifting the mood, feel, style and genre seemingly every minute, or at the very least whenever it suits them. It's gloriously self-indulgent, at turns witty or coarse, heavy or dreamy, and I honestly can't remember when I heard quite so bipolar a record. In short, it's bloody brilliant.
I could go through track by track and analyse it to death, but I've been listening to this album all day and I'm still having difficulty making head or tail of it. As a result, my conclusion is that you should just go out, get a copy and decide for yourself. Somewhere, buried between 3:21 and 3:56 of a track you'll find, however fleetingly, something that blows your mind; it's inevitable, because there is everything you could ever want jammed in here somewhere, if only you have the patience to find it.
As long as artists are prepared to go out on limbs like the one that Trojan Horse are straddling, you've got to conclude that in spite of downloading, falling sales et al, rock n' roll has never been in better shape.
Freebies from Battleships...
It seems at the moment that there's a slew of bands coming out of Liverpool doing that At the Drive-In/Biffy/'Size thing, and it's just so fucking cool. Why can't they be in this city instead? Hmph. Anyway, I was distracted from revision by this offering from Battleships, a band I discovered through the simply exceptional In Casino Out. Up on their site now is their new video for track 'This Home', as well as a link to get an mp3 of the song. How about that?
If you want the mp3, I'd suggest that you follow this link.
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