Seluah _ Red Parole

Opening with We May Never Make It Home, Seluah are a far weightier band (and I am not referencing  waistbands). The band adds a couple of additions for this track and makes full use of the added instrumentation with a sharp intake back to the ’70s festival zone. Immediately the listener is riveted to a genuinely crafted track which resonates with a shining piece of guitar work – simple yet elegant, which is something of a context changer with the ‘festival’ referencing – think more an Oberammergau experience, set to floating psychedelic rock and the decade between performance seems apposite, rather than the mud at Woodstock.

The Other Side Of The Gun builds gently as the band recede in to the shadows, tempting the ears to chase the music, yet each guess is off the space that Seluah lead, so the whole experience of the track becomes a zig-zag of listener playing catch-up – delicious.

Seluah, “The Other Side of the Gun” by karatebody

The release heads to Killing The Angels, which, well with the bass that challenges the speakers – particularly when on full blast – how could this not make sense to my ears.  Seluah wrest the meat from the bones as the basic instincts of survival and I find my mind wandering off to the Lascaux paintings, this is primeval and thank you Karate Body Records for getting in-line with this release.

Sail Straight Into The Bombs paints images of a high flying plain, Seluah comprises not merely capable musicians but very smart songwriters. The bass is lost until we are up to altitude as the resonance of flying though the clouds hits the ears.

This may be a story of an ocean voyage, but far more importantly it is the tale that envelopes the listeners ear.

Black Sand finds the band back with a construction that delves the depths of the lower keys, set to a slower tempo, there is a sense of  ’awareness of concern’ which is picked through with stingingly sharp direction.

Drifting on to Hell And Back the sounds floating around the room resonate with acoustics as the synchronicity of electricity and tempo slide the track towards a staged rock opera.

I feel I have been on a sojourn as the penultimate track Disengage sets stall that we are nearing journeys end. Suddenly my feet are tapping to rock-a-billy and life is looking good, I have survived the release – but, I just want to play it all again.

For the finale -  Elysian Fields – wanders to a more ethereal space and there is a sense that Seluah are not to be expected to return soon as the mind is drawn to the spaceship heading off from earth. Let’s hope there is not another decade to wait for the next release.

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Vaganza Trailerpark

The Five track EP opens with classic guitar but none of the clichéd feedback. Punk is a raucous opener, with burning energy which sears through the speakers. Volume of drum is permitted to rise above the barrage of guitar until the guttural vocal interjects and the instrumentation becomes the supporting act.

Dhaka Girl provides a glimpse in to the real strengths of the band, as a a raging tempo finds the band working together in a far more harmonious format as they make full use of the instruments and the overall effect is captivating. The vocal is permitted to soar like a hunting eagle far above the ground as the instrumentation adds an ever present menace.

I know that Radio, continues to showcase the abilities of the band, with the sound pared back further, almost creating the sense of music through a tunnel as the vocal leads the direction of travel. This is a well written track, it retains all the essential ingredients of a thumping rock song, yet manages to do it with subtlety.

Vaganza Dynamite, is as you would expect from the title – rapid, explosive and to the point. Opening with a screaming vocal, this doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is, crunching rock music.

The EP finishing with the appropriately named Final Round – finds the band in classic American Blues Rock territory and once again the quintet raise the bar.

… and you will know us by the trail of pink feathers is an entertaining EP, which affords Vaganza Trailerpark the space to demonstrate their skills, without it ever becoming self-indulgent.

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Whistle Peak - Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls

The 11 track album opens with Big And Bright – As though waking from sleep, the opening track gradually picks up instruments as the resonating beat slams through the room. The track sets the scene for the release and has the essential sound that is Whistle Peak, lo-fi electro-folk.

Hurry, Hurry put simply, raised a smile to my eyes. The off-beat is unhurried as the vocal is given space to drawl across the track. The tempo is infectious and required a couple of plays, ensuring that I will spend the rest of the day wandering around like the grinning village idiot.

Wings Won’t Behave – contains so much delicious delay I had to check the speakers hadn’t broken. There is sense of warmth which strangely emerges from Whistle Peak. The content is poignant and the music somewhat brooding, but none the less, there is comfort to be found in that ethereal sound that is prevalent on Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls.

Whistle Peak, “Wings Won’t Behave” by karatebody

Elephants introduces a new set of instruments and the band are in experimental mode with a track that hurls the listener in to Blue Grass territory. There is something in the material that is reminiscent of The Kinks.

With that Play the Ghost steps off to an up-beat tempo and the vocal transforms to roots reggae and we are back with the strident bass tones. A mixture of reflections are transformed by the band, as they demonstrate both depth of song-writing an adroit ability to keep the listener quite literally on their toes.

Half-way through the release – Us Two Can Play – is a suitable pivot for the LP, designed to challenge, as the quintet play around with song-structure and sound.

Land To Land opens the second half of Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls with an acoustic feel where the reference point is the open spaces in the track. The five players manage to avoid bouncing in to one another and the listener is left with a sense that this is a band full of well placed confidence.

Sleepy Pants  is another well judged piece as the ticking clock holds the material like glue to it’s metronomic pace.

In a Boat on a Lake floats out of the speakers with an urgent drive to deliver a party feel. Pitched to perfection, the high notes add a sense of fun to the double time percussion.

Sailor retains the same pitch, yet slowed down dramatically as the percussion switches moods and the whole atmosphere takes a far more serious direction. That is smart song-writing and these two tracks lying side by side demonstrate the capabilities of the band.

The final track on the album – The Laws – rounds off a well judged release with the signature beat coming to the fore, as the band reverse back in to the familiar parking space that is Whistle Peak. Slightly brooding, yet somehow still ensuring the smile remains.

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Middle Class Fashion - Girl Talk

A 14 track release, Girl Talk opens with Lightning Bugs – Immediately we find this is an album with a story to tell, as the slow opener sets the scene to the album. Piano accompanies the harmonised vocal. Don’t get that wrong, one of my favourite LPs of all time is by Sham 69 ‘That’s Life‘ their debut album followed a ‘day in the life’, makes for a sublime album when done in the right way and already with Middle Class Fashion I am in the space.

Powder Blue finds the tempo steps up a pace and I can hear the war-paint going on – This looks like a fiery day as the acerbic lyric slices like hydrochloric acid in contempt.

My Attack opens with similar keys, a little more jolly than may be expected, but a point well made. The concept of Middle Class Fashion is one of that self-effacing diatribe. Who said Americans don’t understand irony?

The guitars are let loose on Fun Whoa as the day breaks to a less introspective space.

Jamie finds a new dual vocal plaintiff to an even more classic construct as guitar and drum come to the fore. The use of the second male vocal adds a layer of depth and the band come together far more instrumentally, this is a decent story, stick with it.

The title track – Girl Talk – has some wonderful construction as Middle Class Fashion head out of the woods to let their hair run free, we find some natural space in which the band resonate.

Abomination picks up the theatrical constructs from earlier in the album. I have a sense we have classically trained musicians and a visual band here, as the storyline develops towards the half-time curtain.

Vacation opens the second-act with the tempo raised and the listener looks forward to the story unfolding.

July 31st – and the band take us to another stage setting with a reminiscence as the depth song-writing skills are permitted to come to the fore. The construction here is sublime.

Piano, percussion and vocal sit with equal power on Griffin as the band head towards the final section of the album, the real strengths come bouncing out of the speakers, I did say sit with this.

Will Barbarella live up to the expectations now raised? Once again the band play in harmony and the whole construction is making sense. I am happy to wait for the abilities of the band to be given space to develop, but will the short term concentration, now so prevalent allow this  indulgence, of that I am not so sure, but it is that short span which misses out on so much.

Sugar Heart Candy, does exactly as you would expect on the tin. Popping corn in the saucepan comes lightly floating out in to the room. I wish Middle Class Fashion had arrived here earlier, the album is on a roll, but we only have two more tracks to go.

The penultimate track is another delightful tune, Sweet is the pinnacle of a superb release, which in my perspective took too long to showcase the superb abilities of the band.

Girl Talk finishes with Birthday, which resonates with piano, bass and vocal. A lyric sheers away façades as the music develops an ever present cloud.

Middle Class Fashion consists of highly competent musicians who in brief pieces of music are able to convey immensely powerful emotions. The construct of Girl Talk is of an immensely powerful piece, I just feel they have left the best ’til too late. The final few tracks of the album are a soaring success, but how many listeners will get there I wonder.

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Longbeach

Taken from the Album, Seven Streets Ahead, Take Me Away is 5 minutes of glorious indie rock. Rather than merely rehashing the genre, Longbeach add some layered echoed vocal that adds an interesting depth to the single. The lead vocal contains all the essential smokers rasp, which bounces neatly against the offset crystal-clear supporting singing. While the instrumentation flows along well trodden paths, the band add some high pitches to the chorus, which melds well with the whole mood of the piece.

This is a neatly mixed piece of music, which adds some new directions to add significant value, whilst being sufficiently rooted in its natural ground to make perfect sense.

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Hickory Dickory by Talk to Angels

Hickory Dickory is three and a half minutes of unadulterated fun. These guys are the potential of the Nirvana of the 2010′s. Wander out to many venues and you will hear this pouring from the speakers, but is it done with such aplomb? No. After coming up to 5 years, Talk to Angels rise a head and shoulder above the mosh-pit. Chanting oesophagus  stretches over the bounding guitar as the drum snaps fast on the heels with a bass given plenty of space to sweep up the stragglers, but of key note is the keyboard which is used to raise what passes for a smile on my face. That keyboard, which I recall someone setting up one day on one of my band practices and being met with such derision, it was destroyed and the suggester removed with less politeness from the studio, is used to immense effect, like the necessary salt on a bag of chips.

I thought I would also take the opportunity to review another track by the band - Off the Radar, well this takes the band from being a leading local band to a national contender. Here we find a highly competent construction with all the elements necessary for a feel-good factor. While the track runs for just over four minutes, the elements combine instantaneously and your ears know they are listening to something special, enabling the track to wallow around the head, as Talk to Angels ratchet up the depth (if that is possible) and stake their claim to what has been  a sublime start to new releases in early 2012.

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Foxes!

Sometimes while I write about music, I wonder, should I be doing something else, then I am drawn back in to the shell of the cochlea and it all makes sense.

Opening with Aisle No. 3 ,  this plaintiff cry rings around from all self-service stores around the world. You queue, you pay, you are but a ticking clock, a slave to the system – ‘wait in line before we let you proffer your money’, which will be scrutinised. Brief and to the point, more than that, a sharp and direct composition – I think I am trying to say, I danced around the room in joy at the opening track – I am not the only one who feels the abhorrence, humour and sheer despondency of the consumer society, so desperate to pay, it waits as cannon fodder to permit the retailer to take the money.

We follow with The Panda Bear Song, which strikes a higher tempo and Foxes! permit themselves their home ground. A strong lyric is traversed by scything guitar, like the Eigerwand classic routes – scarred ice ravines, yet fresh every day – The lyric refocuses the angst, all over in just over 2 minutes.

6 O’ Clock – Here we are rushing to a dead-line. Scintillating vocal floats above a high octave guitar. I feel myself drawn out to a birds-eye view of the railway stations, the fantasy of ‘tonight will be better’ as the commuters head home.

Welcome To The Jivin’ finds Foxes! offering a new perspective, as the band permits themselves space to explore interpolation between personal relationship against a back-drop of advertising jingles. The track has time to evolve and the listener finds the band delivering a tight and accessible number and  we find that the band has some really interesting  and evolving spaces to explore .

Oh Rosie – We have bass, depth and humour, quite different to the early part of the album, these guys can put heart and soul together in addition to angst, not to mention up-tempo.

Half-way through the LP finds It’s Ridiculous, Adam -  The contrasts on this track make it an ear bender, as the vocal drops half an octave whilst the beats ratchet higher, but the whole pitch drops. This is a superb track which showcases the musical abilities of the artists.

Alex Badamchi  you just feel obliged to ask Alex who? Some smart time shifts sees the band becoming a performing circus and a marching band.  Instruments explode through the speakers whilst the vocal mourns, scorns and hates.

Who Killed Rob? introduces a dual vocal  and some less frenetic energy. I am not convinced this is the best track on the album, shoegaze?

Now we dance back with the delightful A Letter To A Mine , which has the band in superb form, as they range between dance-a-thon and far more depth of theatrics with classical resonance. Yet the listener is drawn to follow as the progressions are faultless.  This is the pick of the album.

Heading towards the conclusion - Descartes finds the band on a similar musical construction, whilst the vocal pursues the philosophical reflections you would anticipate from the René referencing. I really enjoy tracks like this, but sometimes wonder if they are set as a conundrum to the listener to prove an intellectual point, rather than to elucidate.

The penultimate track - Art Girl – I sort of feel the title sets the theme of the album. Whilst the artists are talented, I wonder whether they are spending too much time sneering at the world, which can spill over to the listener also. A group of talented musicians and superb lyrics flow through the release, but it all seems a little superior, which is a shame, as in essence I really enjoyed the release, let’s see how the final track pans out.

Apples To Apples is the conclusion, a reprise and extremely clever. I was smiling through the whole track, well all 1:45 of it.

Foxes! has the essential elements of a great novel, the introduction intrigues and the whole album gathers pace and depth as the listener flows with the tracks. Is it too clever for it’s own good? I fear so, but please keep throwing this out to the world Foxes! as it is sublime.

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Spekulation EP by Spekulation

Opening with the appropriately named Introduction – Spekulation flings open the doors to an exciting release. Strings tune-up as the vocal rap emerges and then we are off to an orchestrated piece which uses the powerful Violin and Cello which form a superb back-drop to the vocal. The depth of texture the strings create contrast with the stark imagery of a black and white photograph against the machine gun rattle of the vocal.

Something is Happening Here takes up the next space: Here the listener runs up against the inimitable Bob Dylan, and yet that powerful protest singer is matched by this revision and the Spekulation update to the 21st Century resonates just as sharply. An extremely well thought out track as the wind instruments are given a work out.

I’m Not Sorry which features Michele Khazak, finds us over the half-way mark in an inventive and successful release. Free-style Jazz, meets hip-hop (ouch neither of those sit on my must listen list), but the combination here brings a smile to my face. The two vocalists are so far apart I can imagine the run through session – Have you lost the plot guys? That couldn’t be wider of the mark, this is sublime and I never thought I would write that about rap or jazz, never mind the two in tandem.

The penultimate track I Want It All, ploughs a different furrow, as the EP heads to a vocal led piece, which is supported by the Orchestra developing a picture frame of chaotic decadence on to which the vocal paints a wild imagery of thick blue oils smearing the canvas. I Want It All is very much of it’s time and slots neatly in to the puzzle of the Spekulation EP.

The EP finishes with Inception, which sits as a bizarre title, given the appropriateness of the opening track name, but as the eternal optimist I assume this portends to some similar depth and exploration from future Spekulation material. The listener is taken back to strings as the track opens prior to a warm percussion which is soon joined by an emotive vocal.

Well, well… the bar has been set high for this year and the release for this is only a fortnight in to the year – 10th January. What a sublime release, a lyrical tour de force which has depth and colour added by some signature instrumentalists.

Thanks Spekulation, if this is a foresight in to the music of 2012, it is going to be a superb year.

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Stellarscope by Stellarscope

You always know, opens the album with the familiar space-pop that is Stellarscope, before hurtling in to a strident chorus. Highly echoed vocal hums behind a powerful drum and the guitar swirls around the track as the band set their marker for the album.

Cosmo Jarvis Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange?

There are various versions of the album, so I’ll just concentrate on the 11 core tracks in this review.

The album opens with Gay Pirates, which initially reminds me of Friggin’ in the riggin’ by the Sex Pistols, but then sets sail on it’s own direction. Cosmo stirs in a cocktail of sea shanty and rock-a-billy to create a sweet tasting opener to the album.

Gay Pirates by CosmoJarvis

Following with the sublime Sure as Hell not Jesus, which was reviewed as part of the earlier EP release Sure as Hell Not Jesus

Blame it On Me gushes in to blue grass and Jarvis reverberates apologetic lyric against high tempo instrumentation. My feet haven’t had a chance to stop stomping – a great three opening tracks to the release.

Does Dave’s House stand up to the opening of the album? From a completely oblique angle we find ourselves listening to a rappish release. Experimentation is always to be welcomed and the piece wends an interesting path, in this case the track is supported by much of the material surrounding it on the album, which continues in this vein of rich discovery.

The title track Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange? continues with a rap note. With a chorus that is delivered in the more familar construct. The real pleasure in the Cosmo Jarvis material being the constant chunks of irony he rips out of himself and others, a modern day Tenpole Tudor.

Let Me Out Of My Head, zig-zags the ears to a new space, as on this occasion Latin American beats are slowed to a crawl, gradually lifting as we drift off to Peru for some pipes with the constant gnaw of whining vocal. A piece of theatre which I happen to think is a load of fun, perhaps that’s because I appreciate Mornington Crescent from the long running BBC Radio 4 programme Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. One of those marmite moments.

As We Just Wanna Talk, opens, I can’t help but think I am listening to John Cooper Clarke, delivered with the same intonation and acerbic manner.

She Doesn’t Mind, pulls out some genuine dub reggae, with the plaintiff vocal taking a swathing scythe to the 21st Century. Laugh, I could have cried.

Opening with a flurry of violins The Wave That Made Them Happy, takes its turn next. Rapidly the orchestration disappears, it doesn’t even fade, only to return later. In trying something new Cosmo Jarvis is prepared to throw out the gauntlet once again to the listener.

So we arrive at the penultimate track – My Day – and we are back in familiar foot stomping ground, albeit a raw rock number. While I feel the side-steps along the album are of superb quality, it is once he gets back to the core elements that Cosmo Jarvis sounds most confident.

My Day by CosmoJarvis

The central album finishes with Betty, which was reviewed as part of the Sure as Hell Not Jesus EP release.

Betty Part I by CosmoJarvis

Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange? is as fine an example of driven acerbic music as you will find anywhere. Cosmo Jarvis is unafraid to extend the audience and drives through his perspective on the 21st Century, like a hammer ramming home a nail.

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