Obligatory best of 2010 list.

Ok, I know everybody does one of these, but on this occasion I am going to bow to peer pressure and just go with the flow. If you can't, just can't, be doing with the sheer tedium of another self-important, opinionated list, then kindly fuck off. For that matter, what were you even doing here in the first place? Anyway....

THE LIST

1. Geekk – Charlie Barnes

Let's be honest. This was his first time out to bat, and he came out with this fucking album. Jesus, if I didn't give first place to a twenty-one year old writing and recording a prog-pop album with string arrangements, I'd be told by my boss to hand in my pen and gun next time I'm down the station. 

Reading that back almost suggests that its very existence merits it first place; while there's a little truth in that, don't mistake my full meaning for a second- this is a great album, full of songs in varied in mood, style and tempo as can be whilst maintaining the overall consistency that is appropriate for the album format. That's the kicker, of course: this isn't just a great collection of songs, but a great album, and Charlie has, in a perverse way, shown just how intelligent and forward-thinking his music is by working within this supposedly 'outdated' framework and still coming up with something this arresting and innovative.

2. Grappling Hooks- North Atlantic Oscillation

In terms of sheer originality, there is only one contender for the crown: NAO. They are so damn quirky and original, it still shocks me that Kscope had the balls to sign them and put out the album; not only that, but getting Zane Lowe's Radio 1 Record of the Week award fucking blows my mind. Still only a critic's favourite, that's likely to change with album two, which I am ably informed will be released on Kscope next year. Their catchy electronic hooks, which initially belie a much deeper, more progressive- or post- rock feel to the arrangements, draw the listener in, and the substance and quality of the music keeps them engaged. Just a fantastic band in every important way, and one that repays every bit of effort you put into exploring their musical world.

3. Disconnect from Desire – School of Seven Bells

Look, everybody knows School of Seven Bells are phenomenal, but this record confirmed it; a difficult second, that while lacking some of the gleeful experimentalism of Alpinisms (in lieu of greater structure and more traditional songwriting), was still a great record in its own right, and one that can leave us optimistic about album three. Oh, and the artwork was pretty damn cool, too. 

4. Fever - Sleepy Sun 

This record is very fucking simple. It's desert-blues, pure psych freakout nonsense; it's easy to listen to over and over, and the riffs are just as fresh the hundredth time as the first. It makes the list on the basis of a single word: quality. This is a record that oozes quality- couple that with a earnestness about the music (if not the lyrics, which are basically nonsense, as far as I can tell), and it's somehow far superior to the sum of its parts.

5. All Creatures Will Make Merry – Meursault

I was a late convert to the Meursault bandwagon, joining shortly before this record came out. It has so many different aspects to it that the mind boggles; from industrial to shoegaze, via lo-fi folk, and all the more incredible for being recorded in Mr. Toad's living room (look this up and it'll make sense, I promise). I had the good luck of catching them live at Glastonbury festival- where they played a storming set- as well as in Manchester, and the sheer intensity of their live show is such that it actually reflects back on the record on subsequent listens. Whatever genre these guys actually belong in, they should be hailed as Kings.

6. Someone Here is Missing – The Pineapple Thief

As good (in fact better) than either of the last two Porcupine Tree records, the most recent Pineapple Thief LP is everything that is great about modern progressive; splashes of electronics, distortion and delay combined with a deft grasp of songwriting that even allows for all the instruments to be cast aside in favour of sparse acoustic versions. 

In the songs you'll hear echoes of early Cooper Temple Clause, Radiohead, Vex Red, Origin of Symmetry-era Muse, even hints of Mogwai. In particular, if you can get the Extended edition, the album being bookended by the acoustic version of opener 'Nothing at Best' is a delightful contrivance. Overall, it's an album as marked by its technical distinction as its songwriting pedigree; in terms of sheer originality they get beaten, sure, but in terms of the enjoyability or accessibility of this record, they are hard to beat, and I'd not be too surprised if this were my 'most played' album of 2010. 

7. Self-Preserved While the Bodies Float Up - Oceansize

It's very hard for me to be objective about a 'size record, but from initially really disliking this album, I've come around to thinking that maybe it's their best since their masterwork, Everyone Into Position. 'It's My Tail And I'll Chase It If I Want To' is not only the best cut on the record, but may well be my favourite thing they've ever done- it's just fucking mad. 

Back to the record though; I hate using the word 'mature', so, er, it makes them sound old. In a good way. I'm sadly beginning to think that maybe this band will end up never getting the recognition they truly 'deserve', but with Biffy Clyro now fucking massive, and the second generation of bands like In Casino Out drawing influence from them and now starting their own careers, maybe this will change. I sincerely hope it does. 

8. Growing Pains – Dinosaur Pile-Up 

GRUNGEGRUNGEGRUNGEGRRRRRRILOVEGRUNGE. 

Seriously though, the first indication that grunge is coming back, and damn am I ready, especially if it all sounds as good as this. What music writer, musician, or general layabout can't sympathise with lines like "my rock n' roll's been causing all sorts of trouble/bless my poor mother, she always knew something was going on/with her son..."? 

9. The Octopus - Amplifier

This is only so low because the general release is next year (January), but I got mine now, so I slotted it in even though I've not fully marshalled my thoughts enough for a review yet. Its inclusion in this list should convince you of its quality, though. 
 

10. 3am, the Beautiful, the Bittersweet - Fears

This is tacked on the end because I only just realised it came out this year. I've actually had some of the songs for nearly four years, so it almost skipped my mind. It's essentially a download compilation of Terry Abbott's work as Fears, and if I actually counted it as a full album, it'd be at Number One, simple. If you want to know what all the fuss is about, check out my review in the archives, or find a copy of the album and have a listen for yourself. 

Honourable mentions:  

Pale Silver & Shiny Gold - Sad Day for Puppets

SDFP's second turns out to be just as good as their first- a storming grunge-shoegaze concoction whose best cut, 'Monster & the Beast' is up there with the best tracks released this year. Heartbreakingly good.

Small Craft on a Milk Sea – Brian Eno 

How the fuck does he still stay relevant? 'Paleosonic' and 'Two Forms of Anger' prove he's still got it; not only that, but he's got more left to say. 

British Brains (EP) - RIBS

Another first outing, Boston-based RIBS take that industrial-grunge template briefly championed by Vex and TCTC and shake it up with a bunch of stuff that's happened since, not to mention some shades of trip-hop. Were it not an EP, it'd be in the list above. 

Brothers - The Black Keys

Speaking of bands who've 'still got it', there's this. Not as lo-fi as their previous efforts, and perhaps a little less riff-heavy than Thickfreakness, but 'Ex-Girl' is undoubtedly one of my tracks of the year, and for the sheer pop joy of 'Tighten Up' they deserve a shout. 

Scratch My Back - Peter Gabriel

I know it's covers, but it's Peter fuckin' Gabriel, ok? Though there are admittedly a few weak patches (er, 'Street Spirit' what?), it deserves to be here for the covers of Magnetic Fields' 'The Book of Love' and Bowie's 'Heroes', which are so beautiful that they make me stop whatever I'm doing just to listen whenever I hear them. 

Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed it! Check back in a few days for a review of the elusive Octopus (nearly a week in the making, seriously).

Awwww....

This is just plain lovely- SVIIB's drummer proposing onstage...

http://www.spinnermusic.co.uk/2010/10/25/school-of-seven-bells-drummer-proposes/

This story warmed my heart...

Checkitout: http://songbytoad.com/2010/07/thank-you/#comments

Now that's a lovely story.

Allllllllllso, I will be posting links to a bunch of stuff I've been upto of late- for the non lazy, click the link on the right of the page- including an interview with SVIIB, fuckloads of album reviews, and interviews with Sleepy Sun (whose album Fever is fucking incredible) and the ever-excellent Sad Day for Puppets. I'm hoping to snag an interview with Oceansize about their new album, but that's proving harder to arrange...

Oh, also a copy of People in Planes' second, but-not-very-recent-anymore album Beyond the Horizon dropped through my antiquated letter-box this morning, so I will write things (hopefully good things) about it as soon as I'm free to do so. 

Now to record an EP.

Does anyone remember....... Curve?

Gather round, and let me tell you a tale. In the early 90s, from the ashes of the shoegaze scene there emerged a band so original and inspiring that they still haven't been bettered today. The name of that band was Curve, and in their psychedelic electronica-meets-shoegaze-with-a-little-bit-of-grunge-in-the-mix attitude they created a sound that is still striking even today. I've decided to write about them because I saw a review that said SVIIB's second album wasn't anything new for anyone that remembered Curve. Well, I do remember Curve, and I suppose that's true to some extent, but Curve were always way darker, closer to the 'dark ambient' of Massive Attack's Mezzanine than the dream-pop of Lush. Also, let's not forget that on the Ten Little Girls EP they wrote a track that has what is possibly the only instance of rapping on a shoegazing record (to my knowledge).

So if Curve were so good, then why hasn't anyone heard of them? Good question. They released four albums on a major label- Doppelganger, Cuckoo, Come Clean, and Gift, as well as two download compilations and a number of EPs. More than this, if you listen to their most successful (and best) album, Come Clean, you'll hear a number of tracks that could- and did- become radio favourites, or even club tunes: 'Coming up Roses', 'Something Familiar', or 'Killer Baby', for instance, whilst I've heard singles 'Hell Above Water' from Gift and 'Chinese Burn', the lead single from Come Clean on Top Gear. 

What happened then? Garbage. Garbage happened. 

Every time I try and introduce Curve to a friend, they usually take one listen, scrunch up their nose and say words to the effect of 'kind of sounds like Garbage...' and that's that. There's a reason for this. Butch Vig, the driving force behind Garbage had worked with Curve and seen a gap in the market for a more stripped-down, post-grunge slash electronic version of their sound. I'm usually pretty generous on imitation leading to creation, but in this case, it's simple: Garbage ripped Curve off, and fucked them over. How? Let me explain. Garbage's more simple arrangements took Curve off the playlists, jumbled up people's sense of which band came first, and when the inevitable backlash came against Garbage's platinum-selling debut, Curve got buried completely, while Garbage were big enough to weather the storm. 

It's just a case of bad luck really; with the right timing, and backing, Curve could have been as big, but they remained the perennial outsiders, despite their musings increasingly becoming more mainstream-acceptable dream pop. With each album they changed tone and approach, and in terms of sheer musical ability, the partnership can have been matched by few since. So, if you want to discover a hidden gem of the mid-90s, check Curve out. Yes, they are quite electronic, and yes, they have a female singer, but that's where the Garbage comparisons should end; they have oh so much more to offer than Garbage ever did.

Albums:

Curve's first record, essentially just a shoegazing outing, riding the back of the scene that was popular at the time. Highlights include opener 'Already Yours', the sublimely vocal-led 'Horror Head', sinister 'Lillies Dying' and more aggressive 'Split Into Fractions'. The closer, 'Sandpit' is worth a mention, as it bears some resemblance to a melancholy 'Tea in the Sahara' by the Police.... at least to me. 

 

Cuckoo, Curve's second album, is darker and more industrial in feel- the guitars are more agressive, less washed out in the mix, and the dark electronic influences that were later to tell are beginning to surface. That said, the highlight is undoubtedly the shoegaze mammoth of 'Superblaster'. The album performed poorly, both in sales and in critical reception, and overall it's by far Curve's weakest effort. After this, the band would break up.

 From the word go, this album, by the newly- reformed Curve is unstoppable. From the sheer madness of 'Chinese Burn', which is like Nine Inch Nails covering The Cure, it just gets better and better. There's only one bad track on here- the inexplicable noise-punk of the title cut, which cuts in just as the album is tripping out towards the end. My personal favourite is possibly 'Beyond Reach'. The sheer restrained malice and bitterness in Toni Halliday's delivery of the lines "never pick a fight with someone bigger than you/ that's what I learned when I was at school", and "I'm a tosser for thinking/ it was anything more than it was" are the most plain her lyrics ever get, as well as the cathartic high-water mark of the album. 

By Gift, major rifts had formed between Curve and their record label Universal, and it seems they can have had few illusions about this record being their last; a gentle progression from their previous effort, with the guitars all but gone, the downtempo 'Polaroid' and 'Hung Up' steal the show, while a guest appearance from Kevin Shields adds magic to the best track, 'Perish', and the lyrics, "we're staying together for the sake of our memories" and "I'm scared of the bugs, a millionth of the size of me" could as easily be about the breakdown of the band as the other loss they describe. Other guests (including Flood and members of Filter and Depeche Mode) bring subtle changes of mood to the tracks they feature on, and add a backstory to the album that gives it a fitting weight for a final outing. Curve go down swinging, and as Halliday screams "I should have seen it coming!" at the end of 'Bleeding Heart' you feel her trademark vocal restraint finally crack, as she moves from ethereal to pure, elemental anger amid a wall of fuzz distortion, and the heaviest passage of any song in their career.

The great thing about Curve though, over say, Vex Red, is that they had time to develop and actually put out a body of work before they finally went under. There's still the inevitable 'what if?', but with three truly great albums under their belts there's equally enough to get your teeth stuck into. By the time that 'Bleeding Heart' is fading out in your speakers, you'll have been with the band on a real journey, and an increasingly personal one at that, as the lyrics become progressively more transparent album to album. They are an obsessive music fan's dream- and more than that, they genuinely were an excellent band.

(For the interested) Live Rig for Dean Garcia:

The bottom image is (c) Guitargeek.com 2004.

SVIIB are back...

School of Seven Bells

Disconnect from Desire

Full Time Hobby

Release Date: 13/7/2010

Rating: 5/5

Right, so I interviewed Ben Curtis for HV a few days ago- hence an advance copy of the album. I’m in no way objective about this band, so the HV review is going to be done by someone else- but that’s not going to stop me from scribbling a few words about it here. It’s so good I had to write a review. Simple as.

So what does it sound like? More structured, firstly- that’s the thing that strikes you immediately. It’s still all pretty oblique, but there’s more of a sensation that you are being led through passages of verses and choruses rather than drifting sounds and textures linked by recurring riffs or vocal lines. Ben told me that they’d written the music before playing it all together this time around, and it shows. At times the album gets bizarrely close to electro-pop at its most driving, but usually peters out to a more krautrock ambience before it gets too mainstreamy. This aside, on cuts like ‘I L U’, it’s exactly this potential crossover that could lead to a wider audience for this criminally underrated band.

On first listen, the standout tracks are clearly ‘Windstorm’, ‘Dust Devil’ and ‘Babelonia’, but after a couple, new tracks like ‘Dial’ (incidentally Ben’s favourite) 'Bye Bye Bye' and ‘Camarilla’ come to the fore. It’s worth also saying that the flow is never broken by an overlong shitter like ‘Semipiternal/Amaranth’, as happened on Alpinisms; in general, Disconnect from Desire, whilst somewhat different in tone is superior purely for its consistency. This does mean that there are no amazing highs like ‘Wired for Light’ or ‘My Cabal’- there are merely tracks that are slightly better or worse than the average. The much more pronounced use of synthesisers does go some way to creating perhaps an undesirable uniformity to the sound of many of the cuts, but usually this impression is removed just in time by the entry of Ben Curtis’ guitar, more subtly employed, and downplayed in importance compared to their older material.

Above all though, it’s great to hear that Alpinisms wasn’t a fluke, that these guys can still pen a decent tune, and that the sophomore sickness hasn’t touched them. It’s not got the sheer creativity and experimentalism of their first, but it is still unmistakably the sound of School of Seven Bells, and thus absolutely essential. If this is their ‘difficult’ second album, then I can’t wait to hear what their third sounds like!

School of Seven Bells

Alpinisms

Ghostly International

Rating 5/5

When Benjamin Curtis left the Secret Machines to concentrate on his side project, School of Seven Bells, I took an instant dislike to it. Reasoning: how could it ever be as good as the Secret Machines were? Consequently, it was only shortly before the release of this, their debut album that I finally gave SVIIB a serious listen. Let's be honest here, it's a fucking great record; possibly the only way Ben Curtis could have gone 'up' from his amazing work on TSM's Ten Silver Drops. Whilst TSM's new self-titled album had its moments, it was the sound of a band in the doldrums. Here we have the sound of a band in full flight.

The vocals, provided by the Deheza twins (formerly of On!Air!Library!) are impeccable, and in 'Wired for Light', a My Bloody Valentine influenced tune with overtly eastern- sounding leads (think maybe an electric sitar imitating the call to prayer... with delay) they have managed to write a contender for my favourite song ever. EVER. Without a live drummer, they have the potential pitfall of being let down by boring electronic beats, but once again Curtis (presumably) comes to the rescue: the drummer of 90s psych band Tripping Daisy, under his guidance only once (on the over-long Sempiternal/Amaranth) does the music drag.

For the most part, despite being drifting vocal melodies over a virtual sea of guitar wash and synthesisers, the music has an unexpected drive to it, and all the best songs on the record have this in common-namely single 'My Cabal', as well as 'Chain', 'Half Asleep' and 'Connjur'. In fact, there are more potential singles on this album than not, and the quality and the consistency of the songwriting is frankly astonishing. It's very hard to come up with anything that doesn't draw instant comparison to anything else, and besides the obvious namechecking that comes with the 'shoegazing' scene (My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins etc. etc.) in all honesty SVIIB do have a sound all of their own. Not only that, but it's original too, and you can quote me on that.