Kluster
We Were Promised Jetpacks
These Four Walls-
Scotland is seemingly the new New York, as far as a burgeoning indie-rock scene goes anyway. We Were Promised Jetpacks (WWPJ) join the likes of Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit and Glasvegas in leading the tartan-clad musical charge with their debut album, which was recorded near to live with producer Ken Thomas – who can boast about sitting in studios with Sigur Ros, Queen, Bowie and the Cocteau Twins. The album arrives on the crest of a critical wave that swelled from the band's first ever gig – winning their school's band competition in 2003. Said wave neared breaking with some highly regarded and buzz-generating shows at this year's SxSW festival. Their sound is a throttling riff and drum fuelled romp with quite large and soaring choruses, belted out with a voice that is half brogue, half Bloc Party, but also possessing a tender, introspective side too. Probably going to be quite big.
Jonsi & Alex
Riceboy Sleeps-
Some people are able to take everyday, throwaway phrases, and make them meaningful once again just by their actions. Riceboy Sleeps sees Sigur Ros singer Jonsi Birgisson and his partner Alex Sommers take the phrase “make beautiful music together” to a whole new level. Their self-titled album is a lovingly-languid collection of gently evocative tracks that are gentler than those of Brigisson's other act. In this setting, his striking voice is used more as an accompaniment to the atmosphere of the music than as an instrument of its own: the vocals rarely rise above an ethereal breathiness, melding into the soundscapes. Remarkably all recorded on acoustic instruments, there’s a particularly organic tone to the whole affair. Destined for late-night listening.
Malcolm Middleton
Waxing Gibbous-
To save you a trip to Wikipedia, the title refers to a phase of the moon, and nothing to do with hair removal from apes. This is Malcolm Middleton's fifth solo effort since he undid his ties with Arab Strap, and offers up another gritty and gruff collection of misanthropic musical observations. That's not to say there aren't some truly sprightly musical moments, the album bursts out of the blocks with the almost joyful 'Red Travelling Socks', but by song two, the “rain is coming down” and there's “desolation” afoot. The Scot's ever-present self-deprecation extends to recruiting some special guest players for the album, including King Creosote "to cover up the fact that I can't really sing that well", and Mogwai's Barry Burns on piano "because I can't really do that either". One to wallow in.
By Andy Ryan
Burnt Waffles
Florence and the Machine
Lungs-
Florence and the Machine have been bubbling on the indie scene for some time now but look certain to make an impact with their debut Lungs. Front woman Florence Welch is a Welsh-born lass whose impressive pipes beg Kate Bush comparisons. Her “Machine” is a wide range of collaborators from Paul Epworth to Devonte Hynes (of Light Speed Champion and Test Icicles fame) coupled with her touring and backing band. Lungs ties together an already exciting collection of singles, such as the anthemic ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’, and places them within an album of shifting sounds and sonics. Essential.
Ben Cooper
Patients-
Ben Cooper is a prodigious musical talent whose main pursuit is Electric President and best known side project among many is Radical Face. Perhaps his most intriguing effort to date is an intimate eleven-track compilation of unreleased tracks called Patients. The album is somewhat of a homebrew with Cooper personally burning 100 copies of the album and then decorating each disc with unique cover art using magic markers and spray paint.
Just as refreshing is the distribution channel Cooper chose: he put out a request on his blog for people to exchange anything but money for the discs. With sounds ranging from country to melodic pop to percussive instrumentals, the album itself is an eclectic assortment worthy of a listen (search the interwebs to find a download). For me the stand out track is ‘Mind Ur Manners’, which somewhat evokes The Postal Service. A list of the items that were exchanged for the albums is documented on Cooper's blog, along with the story behind each track.
IndieMuse
Deerhunter – Rainwater Cassette Exchange-
With the Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP, Deerhunter have crafted ephemeral accompaniment for longing on a rainy day. The title track opens with a waltzing pop reminiscent of times long-past, as singer Bradford Cox describes his macabre desire for an all-enveloping, entirely devastating love. It’s a theme echoed through time, but novel in this setting; he wants what he’s had, but not as he’s had it. The EP proceeds to flit through bizarre versions of Microcastle songs (a good thing) and showcases a breezier side to Deerhunter with ‘Game of Diamonds’, a sedated island groove driven by bongos (!?) and Cox’s particularly devilish brand of disillusionment.
Pretty & Nice – Get Young-
Pretty & Nice spent six months recording Get Young in their all-analog basement studio, putting in long hours and agonizing over every slight detail. The resulting songcraft is unique and infinitely charming. The album progresses from frenetic punk epic to sagacious pop classic, blending abrasive guitars bursting from broken amps with subtle vocoder hooks and pretty, oh-so-pretty, pop falsetto. The guitars on ‘Pixies’, lilting and winding, are a mélange of late Of Montreal and early Queens of the Stone Age, while the immaculate closure of ‘Wandering Eye’ hits with an unexpected poignancy and ends with an immediate sense of withdrawal. Dammit, it’s already over! And clocking in at just less than thirty minutes, listening to Get Young in its entirety relates an even stronger sense of accomplishment; like doing an intense work out – with your brain.
Berkeley Place
- William Elliott Whitmore
Animals in the Dark -
Who is William Elliott Whitmore? He's the real thing. That's so much more complete a description than to say he's a blues/folk banjo player: his voice would make the devil jealous and bring tears from the hardest man. He's hope in the dust: a wise man whose songs sound as old as the Earth.
And when you see his face you'll realize something even more astounding: he's a white guy!
The album begins with ‘Mutiny’, a marching song that begins, "It's a Goddamn shame what's going down/How it got to this I just don't know/There's a sick sick wind that's going around/And the captive's got to go". When he gets to the chorus, singing about how he wants to wrap his hands around the captain's "crooked neck" and declare a mutiny, he could be singing about the state of the America today, during 1943, the Civil War... Or he could be recording a tune for a soundtrack to the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. (No. Wait. It's way too good for that.) The song sounds traditional, like William Johnson or Blind Gary Davis or Willie Dixon, until Whitmore cries, "We don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn". He follows up this inspiration, get-on-your-feet-and-stomp tune with a quieter, acoustic guitar number called, ‘Who Stole the Soul?’ It's equally inspiring, but full of sorrow: "They won't stop/Til all the good men are in jail."
Every song is like these two opening numbers. Whitmore sings of the pain of the downtrodden, like Woody Guthrie and Tupac Shakur, together, in the voice of a man who bears the weight of the world.
This is an astoundingly rich album, an experience akin to Springsteen's Nebraska in the way that it claims the ground not only of country and Americana and country rock, but also of blues, folk, and awesome power.
If you don't like this album, you just don't love music. Period.
The Album Project
Eye Alaska
Genesis Underground-
In 2003 Brand New set the indie music scene on fire with Deja Entendu, an album which fused indie, emo, and hardcore elements into an explosive release. Eye Alaska may be coming from a different musical direction, but Genesis Underground has the same potential to spark a fury of copycat artists who seek to follow in the same indie hip-pop style that the band has arguably mastered on their first attempt.
Interestingly Eye Alaska’s first introduction to the world was with their Yellow Elephant EP that had a ton of groove, but didn’t really include any hip-pop flavour. ‘Roll Right Over’ was the stand out track from the six-song album, and an obvious choice to re-record for Genesis Underground, with bass and drums providing a groove so thick it’s hard not to get caught in its path.
Tracks like ‘Show Me DaLuv’, ‘Star Pilot’, and even ‘American Landslide’ will probably be written off as a good time, but not essential. There are moments, like the beginning of ‘Show Me DaLuv’, which simply come off as cheesy or gimmicky. Songs like ‘Miles Don’t Mean Anything’, ‘My Soul, My Surrender’ and especially ‘All Hail The High Sea’ however, are the defining essence of what makes Eye Alaska’s contribution to the music scene powerful. ‘All Hail The High Sea’ lays low at first only to be unleashed like a storm, raining down with a satisfying intensity.
Using a multitude of sounds and styles to convey their messages, the band has put together an album that people may not know they’ve wanted so much, until they actually hear it. Beyond anything else, and no matter what your final opinion of this record is, the band were able to put out something different and exciting in the face of so much plastic pop/punk.