Albums Of The Year... Part 2

Hello Friends,

5 more belters coming up for ya as I close my rousingly-verbal proclamation of the year's best LPs, starting off with a trio of art-rockers, one of which is named after an ancient EastEnders battle-axe.

London Grammar - If You Wait

For those of you who didn't work out the answer to my semi-riddle, London Grammar's keyboardist is called Dot. Anywhom... another must for this list were this daring, fashionable and experimental trio who met studying at Nottingham Uni and formed one of the breakthrough act of the year. There's been shouts of 'the new xx' but I consider them to be so much more, Hannah Reid's vocals are floaty, powerful and vibrant all at the same time and are the driving force behind the Grammar's success. That's not to understate the contribution of Dot Major and third man Dan Reid who provide all the musical nous they can muster to contribute with a wholesomely wide variety of instruments, sounds, tones and influences. 'Wasting My Young Years' was the one we all heard first, a ballad rich with empathic layer and solemnly reminiscent of another modern British female voice in Florence Welch - it was an ode to what's now being referred to as the 'quarter-life crisis', a theme frequently revisited by the three. The fear from the moment of its release was that they'd follow it up with more of the same, an album of lolling-ballads would be excellent for ten minutes but grating for sixty. Instead, If You Wait contains enough variation to feed the 5000 - 'Hey Now' offers us a choking riff the likes of which math-rock connoisseurs Foals would be proud of, 'Shyer' opens sweetly but closes brutally and allows Major and Reid to exhibit their formidable backing vocals and in 'Nightcall' they have as unique a cover as it comes, the song being the Grammar's take on a tune from the soundtrack of the Ryan Gosling 'he-doesn't-talk-much-but-boy-is-he-sexy' epic Drive. The talent is there to give these understated and humble twenty somethings quite the career as long as they continue to expand their repertoire and If You Wait  has all the potential to become a modern masterpiece in the same vein, it must be said, of that so very talked about debut xx release.

Jagwar Ma - Howlin'

Back in the summer, everyone's favourite Mancunian Noel Gallagher (the talented one) was asked for the umpteenth time by NME about the possibilities of Oasis reform. His paraphrased response - "Every time we get together a reformation is never mentioned because we're too busy talking about fucking Jagwar Ma" was high praise indeed from a man who you would have imagined hadn't even heard of this trio of Australian oddballs. On first listen to Howlin you kind of start getting what Noel's on about and by listen number three or four you're ready to preach to the masses about these guys. Jagwar Ma's debut LP is essentially the closest a band has come to reciprocating the care-free Britpop jungle sound of the Happy Monday's late 80s releases, a sound which inspired a generation of teenage pill-poppers. While you can't help but feel that had Howlin been released back in those times Jagwar Ma may have reached legendary status by this point, the album instead will have to settle for being hit with critical acclaim from all portions of the music press while sadly not really hitting major record sales. The opening minute of 'What Love' is enough to set the tone for the journey, with a powerful pulsing beat coupled with lead singer Gabriel Winterfield's loop-pedaled lyrical repetition. Other album highlights are thrown in thick and fast, 'Uncertainty' is an absolute banger and provides the lyrical inspiration for the title - 'How can you, how can you look so gloomy when you're gloomy howlin' look so good to me' is an absolute joy to listen to and is followed by trippy lead single 'The Throw'. As the LP veers onwards, it becomes more measured and with purely instrumental tracks like 'Four' giving the listener an idea of the talents of fledgling DJ Jono Ma, you feel like there could be a place for this bunch in musical idolatry some time in the future. For now Howlin' remains one of the most underrated releases of the year.

Darkside - Psychic

A collaboration to rival that of Mount Kimbie and King Krule, Darkside is the new double-moniker for DJ extraordinaire Nicolas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington. The two make for an unlikely duo, Jaar's chiselled boyish good looks coupled with Harrington's long-haired carefree and permanently sulky facial expression. The result musically has been nothing short of phenomenal. What's been most impressive about the way these two have been drawn together is the lack of compromise on sound. The album could easily be a solo Jaar record with a touch of guitar just as easily as it could be a Harrington record with a touch of electronic experimentation and yet it is clearly something that the two have put hours of work into in order to produce an undeniably polished piece of music with both their influences shining equally. 'Golden Arrow' was what we as baited listeners heard first, released on YouTube a few months previous to the album's issue date it is an eleven minute tribute to the subtle expertise these two have gained in their chosen fields. When the subtlety is removed however, we are allowed to see what these guys can really do and the talent that's been nurtured to get them both this far. Lead single 'Paper Trails' exhibits the underrated vocal side to Jaar's repertoire while allowing Harrington to show off that old-school funky side which they both know and love (Jaar does funk and he does it good - check out his edit of Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good' when you get the chance) but it was 'Heart' that really caught my attention when first listening to Psychic. This time Jaar unleashes a powerful falsetto to couple with a fascinatingly eery undertone which is matched and probably beaten by a thrilling riff from his collaborator, the closing minute is virtually orgasmic. The awesome twosome can give themselves a decent pat on the back as this is one bizarre collaboration which could stand the test of the time. Rather than linking one tune I thought I'd hit you with a classy Darkside boiler room broadcast from the top of a New York apartment a few weeks back.

Haim - Days Are Gone

Another release which as much as I tried hard to ignore it was never really not going to make the list. 

Myself and the rest have virtually run out of superlatives for this trio of Jewish sisters who have now been populating the hearts of Brits for coming up to a year. Days Are Gone was delayed and delayed and delayed, from the Spring to Summer to late September as the girls tweaked and u-turned and polished but the result was never particularly in doubt. Every single track adds a new layer, a new ability and a new understanding of the chemistry which separates these three from other similar all-female groups who didn't happen to all come out of the same womb. 'Forever', released a good many months before the album, displays a riff of pure quality, a quality of which is replicated in recent single 'The Wire' and also dark r 'n' b track 'My Song 5'. However it's the 70s and 80s influence which is most exciting, the synths and raunchy drum beats consistent with wonderfully subtle intertwining vocals give off a Fleetwood Mac meets Depeche Mode kind of vibe. What did I say in October's blog post on Haim - "the phrase "breath of fresh air" barely even covers it". Strangely I imagine this still ringing true in five/ten years time about undoubtedly one of the best LPs of the year.

Kanye West - Yeezus

It turns out that the 'I am the next Mandela' interview broadcast by global satirical The Daily Currant  was a hoax but one only has to look back at Kanye ripping in to Taylor Swift at the Grammys to appreciate that he is just a little bit of a cunt. However this is about the music not the man and as much as it may pain me to say it, Yeezus is in fact a wonderfully-crafted album. While I would never profess to exactly be a hip hop expert (although in fairness both Ghostpoet's Some Say I So I Say Light and Danny Brown's Old were within touching distance of this list) I feel there's a certain grit to this work which leaves it almost genre-less and that's a tribute to the excellently varied samples Kanye chose to mix in with his convoluted beats and warped overly-arrogant lyrics ('I am a God/Hurry up with my damn massage' being just one example). The release itself was as under-hyped as West could possibly manage, carried out on a Tuesday with absolutely no publicity behind it it was very quickly picked up by all sections and heralded as one of the year's most interesting albums. Of the two singles released after the event, 'Black Skinhead' is an undoubted success  and while the official video for 'Bound 2' appears a parody of itself and has in fact been parodied  brilliantly by Messrs Franco and Rogen, the song is an uplifting ode to being in love with the world's most fucking stupid woman. Each to their own and all that. However, if I was to pick just one track to represent the album then it would simply have to be the Frank Ocean collab 'New Slaves', one which on a personal level operated for some unknown reason as the self-appointed soundtrack to my travels around America and allows us to hear Kanye crooning 'You see there's leaders and there's followers/ but I'd rather be a dick than a swallower' before a blissful sample ripped from a 60's hungarian rock band bursts free from its shackles ('New Slaves' 'shackles', see what I did there??). Supposedly, West pieced this album together in just a few solitary days spent in the bedroom of a Paris hotel before enlisting the help of multi-award winning producer Rick Rubin to strip it down and give it that minimalist edge. Fair play to the guy, maybe time to focus less on the dickish personality and more on the creative juices flowing out of it.

So there you have it, a list which I hope has given you a balanced look at what's been blaring in 2013. Here's a few which narrowly missed the cut but which I still consider to be some of the best:

Foals - Holy Fire
Maya Jane Coles - Comfort
Austra - Olympia
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Daniel Avery - Drone Logic 
Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze
Black Books - Black Books
MSMR - Secondhand Rapture
Chvrches - The Bones Of What You Believe
James Blake - Overgrown

As always, thank you so much for reading and I would love to hear your take on the albums included. Any ridiculous choices on there? Or anything glaring I missed out?

Now out of seemingly nowhere there's a storm raging outside so I'm off to stick the fucking kettle on. Have a good Chrismas!

Cheers to all,

Max

Albums of the year... Part 1

Good evening one and all,

It looks like that time of year is upon us again. It's easy to look back on 2013 and recite the old, 'music aint what it used to be, I wish I lived in the 60s, kill me now', kind-of mantra but when attempting to compile this list, this being the Ball and Biscuit's second albums of the year post, I found narrowing down my ten ten LPs from 2013 a deviously tricky task. Therefore, below is a list of what may not necessarily be my absolute favourite ten albums of the year as to be frank my opinion on that manner of list changes daily but more a breakdown of what I believe this year has had to offer us music-wise. As with last year, they are not in any particular order and I have semi-tried but pretty much failed to not write about albums which haven't at some point this year featured on this blog. So without further ado I present to you an album which featured on this very blog back in March when I referred to them as 'the best new band I've heard this calendar year' (although it seems March is slightly early to be making these sorts of claims). First five coming right up!

To Kill A King - Cannibals With Cutlery

While 2013 has indeed been a good year for music, it hasn't been such a great year for emerging new bands - this becoming most apparent when considering the lack of debuts on this list. Cannibals With Cutlery  is one of those 'how didn't it make the mercury list? Those judges are all fucking twats' sort of albums. While not being particularly alternative or 'out-there', the whole LP listened to as a collective communicates the feeling that lead man Ralph Pelleymounter and co have written an album for themselves, not particularly seeking massive fame but one that people can sit back, relax and enjoy, and in this idea is transmitted a radiant beauty which shines throughout each of the thirteen tracks. Opener 'I Work Nights and You Work Days' is an ode to a busy lover while follow up 'Cold Skin' relates to brotherly love and friendship (the repetition of outstanding lyric 'Place your head on my own' is pertinent in all the right ways) and is responsible for the admittedly minuscule amount of mainstream success the album has achieved. As 'Cannibals With Cutlery' gathers pace these radiant occurrences only grow in their frequency. 'Choices' is probably the pick, Pelleymounter's voice noticeably quivering when he reaches the emotional crescendo before belting out repeatedly, 'She's at our doorstep/ laden with flowers/ his garden is freezing, teasing you leaving me for hours', the most strangely memorable lyrics of the album only rivalled by 'Letter to my lover (the Dylan fan)'s closing proclamation, 'You can have your balcony by the sea, watch the waves come crashing down, each one erasing me'. It's all beautiful, it's all memorable and it's all worth a listen. There isn't a bad track on it and while something would halt me from considering this my album of the year, it was indeed the first to pop into my head when compiling this list. As an afterthought, finding a fellow TKAK fan, while not the easiest of tasks, is a source of immense enjoyment and one which has led me to one or two memorable conversations in the past twelve months, .It would seem they are already in the mould of reaching that often enviously sought-after 'cult' status.

Arctic Monkeys - AM

Well it was obviously going to turn up on this list somewhere so I may as well get it out the way. Smooth, sexy and reflective of yet another twist in their sound, the fifth offering from South Yorkshire's finest could in some respects be considered their best. When the Monkeys dropped 'R U Mine' in February 2012, over 18 months before AM reached our ears, we knew that the tweaks this formidable four-piece were making to their sound were going to eventually boil up into something special. 'R U Mine' is a peach of a tune, one which intertwines golden riffs with Alex Turner's lolling, lackadaisical LA-inspired vocals to phenomenal effect and even leaves us with the added bonus of Matt Helder's falsetto (lovely jubbly). The rest of the album may have come a lot later but it followed suit. Each of the singles have followed in 'R U Mine's vein, Turner oozing out sensational lyrics like there's no tomorrow - 'Why Do you Only Call Me When You're High, 'Arabella's got some interstellar-gator skin boots' and 'like the beginning of mean streets you can be my baby' reverberate round the mind just as the writer intended and with huge dollops of panache. While no one is accusing them of losing any of that stunningly northern grit which made them such 'rebels without a cause' in the first instance, the development of the now somewhat Anglo-American Monkeys has been greeted with a firm cheer and rave reviews and long may it continue, losing even a remote section of their fan-base appears an impossible task. We wait with baited breath for number six and at the rate Turner's moving at the moment (five Monkeys LPs, one Last Shadow Puppets release and a cult film soundtrack since 2006) we may not have to wait too long.

Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Fault Less Youth

This is an excellent release. London duo Dominic Maker and Kai Campos are fast becoming amongst the elite of Britain's electronic artists with 2010s debut Crooks and Lovers garnering critical acclaim and placing the two Kimbieans on the map. May saw the release of Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, an album gleefully pleasing critics similarly to that of its predecessor and for good reason. Mount Kimbie know exactly what they're about, they stay relatively bound within the walls of their tried and tested method of genre-defining ambient dub and post-dubstep but it's the subtle variations which most catch the ear. This time round, they employed the services of one of 2013's breakthrough acts, the unmistakably ginger King Krule. I raved about the collaboration between the two on 'You Took Your Time' in a blog on Krule a few weeks back but the album also includes, 'Meter, Pale Tone' a second collab between the two and one which runs at a faster more engineered pace, a raunchy drum beat driving it the entire way. Krule's semi-contribution in a third tune and personal album highlight 'Break Well' proves to probably be the most important. As the track slows to what appears to be a floaty outro, Krule's voice suddenly flutters sharply and cuttingly into life with a simple wail and is followed up by one of the most scintillating bass lines I've ever heard - a minute of pure bliss reflecting just what these two do best. The album doesn't falter here, other standout tracks include' Made To Stray' which has come to feature in many 'top singles of 2013' lists in the world of the alternative music press and also 'Home Recording'. All in all, this is an album full to the brim with layer upon layer of innovation and is well worth its place on this here list.

Peace - In Love

2013 saw a semi-revival of the Birmingham indie-rock scene. Now there's a sentence which I certainly imagined I wouldn't be writing at this point twelve months ago. At the helm were four slightly odd-looking blokes who's music displays influence from the very very best - Oasis, Stone Roses, Kasabian, The Smiths, Blur and Nirvana are thrown in there for good measure and have led  to the production of what I consider to be one of the most important albums of the year. We can always take a given calendar year and pinpoint those who led the supposed 'rock 'n' roll revival (The Vaccines, White Lies, Palma Violets and even Alt-J in recent times) but these breakthroughs have become less and less frequent and more and more underwhelming it seems in past years (the fact that I've even considered Alt-J is worrying, they're brilliant but certainly not rock 'n' roll), not something that can be said of our good friends Peace. I may not be the biggest fan of the name and it's lengthy disambiguation in Wikipedia but these guys do a job and they do it bloody well. 'Follow Baby' is a punch to the gut of an anthem and displays the quartet's love for grunge but it's the softer moments of the album that I feel have granted In Love its joie de vivre. The glistening oriental solo during opener 'Higher than the Sun', the dreamy Beach Boys 60s vibe of fan favourite 'California Daze' and the metronomic ambience of 'Float Forever' and its rousingly hippy instruction to 'Swim down through the fathoms of your soul/ If you don't try and get your feet wet/ You're a liar and a troll' making it an absolute banger. Peace may evaporate into thin air like so many others before them but at least they can say they tried bloody hard and at least put a smile of a number of adoring fans faces for a good year.

 Jon Hopkins - Immunity

I think if there was a gun being held to my head and I simply had to pick one of these to be my album of the year it may well have to be this one, mainly considering the basis that I could literally have it on repeat all day without either tiring or at any point feeling the necessity to switch it off. Immunity is an emotional roller coaster of an album, told in beats and in tempo-change rather than vocal prowess but with devastating affect. There's no point describing each song as a separate entity (although I will say that the linked track 'Open Eye Signal' below is an absolute thrill ride and not one for the faint-hearted), the entire thing must be listened to as a whole in order to be properly understood but if you do, and once you have reached the closing title track, then and only then will the true genius of this work be properly established in your mind. Next up for Hopkins is a collaboration with Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes, a match-made in heaven if you ask me and one which I look forward to hearing. For now, this masterpiece remains firmly embedded in top-ten 2013 album lists across the globe, it is the shit.

The next batch of five albums coming soon to a Facebook or twitter page near you... (probably at the latest Thursday, I do always like to place a timeframe on these things).

Peace out.

A Collaboration Like No Other From Down Under (Flume and Chet Faker)

Good evening one and all,

The Ball and Biscuit is almost 1! A little look back at my archive tells me that on Saturday December 1st 2012 I first posted 'Forced Introductions... and The Crookes' and that my first proper line after an initial 'Good days my friends' in German was the unbelievably corny 'I'm a 21 year old history student studying in the greatest city in the world i.e. Sheffield'. I then went on to blab about Sheffield for what seemed like an eternity, mentioned the Arctic Monkeys about a hundred times and finally ended up settling into my groove with The Crookes who I still listen to all the time and am happy to report to anyone who cares are still going strong and currently recording their second album. It's always slightly cringey to look back at past writings but also very strange for me to think that's it's been an entire year since I first set out on this little endeavour, much can change in the space of 365 days.

First mini-report of the day is probably the funniest video of the year linked at the bottom of the page. Everyone's been raving about it so I won't go in to too much detail but Seth Rogen and James Franco have mimicked Kanye West's bizarre and frankly pretty terrible video for his new single 'Bound 2' with Franco playing Kanye and Rogen cast in a dream role as Kim Kardashian. The greatest thing about it is that rather than doing the standard youtube spoof of which there are ten-a-plenty, they've simply imitated West and Kardashian's exact moves during the video to amazing comic effect. It's rare that I show such obvious admiration for two people as much in the public eye as Seth Rogen and James Franco but those two are just too funny for words. What I admire even more about them is their quite obvious lack of celebrity ego (Rogen more than Franco I would say in this case). They've both been around for quite a while now and getting on a bit in years but the personalities emanating from their more recent films communicate to us that they are still simply guys who like to get high all day, have a laugh and have happened to come across the perfect medium for their talents where they can still get high all day and have a laugh. 'Bound 3' as it's now become known can join many a 'top viral videos' of the year list for 2013.

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Collaborations come in all shapes and sizes and the one I want to discuss today is a duo that I would never have thought to put together but one which has in my opinion emerged with one of the most cutting edge EPs of the year.

For those unfamiliar with the two artists in question, here's a cheeky little rundown. Flume aka Harley Streten is a Sydney born electronic producer and DJ who hit the world dance stage with his self-titled debut around about a year ago. Flume, the LP, was the crowning glory of debuts, one which immediately popularised Streten in America and showcased his multi-talented ability to span genres while still breaking boundaries with a favoured electro-sound. With guest appearances on his tracks ranging from Aussie rapper T-shirt to the sweet tones of Jezzabel Doran and slightly closer to home the lovely London-born George Maple, it sold well and made him a success and he's been touring and spreading the word on his music ever since.

One other feature artist on that particular LP was none other than fellow Aussie Chet Faker (full name Nicholas Murphy, you can see why he might want to stick with Chet). This particular track was called 'Left Alone' and found the pairing of Chet's sharp vocal tones with the floaty beats pioneered by Flume was a bit of a match made in heaven. The Faker himself had entered the stage with his debut EP Thinking In Textures released that previous March, a demandingly and soulfully underrated piece which included his fantastic cover of Blackstreet's 'No Diggity'. It's a great track but he's no one-trick pony and even though the cover made it to a Super Bowl advert for Becks and left him far more in the mainstream eye, the rest of his music shows variation you wouldn't have initially thought possible.

Both being based in Australia the two have obviously been in cahoots for a while and slyly released their new EP Lockjaw in the UK last Monday. There are only three tracks but each are deserving of a mention in their own right. 'Drop The Game' is a perusing opener, the intro setting a vibrant but crooning mood perfected by Faker on Thinking on Textures but within thirty seconds we've had a drop and aaaaaah man it's good, Flume's productive influence reaping rewards and combining with Faker's soprano 'woo-woo-woos' as the tune reaches climax. Faker bemoans in the lyrics, 'I've been feeling old, I've been feeling co-o-o-o-o-old' and yet judging by this vocal performance there's a certain irony embedded in that line.

Next up is 'What About Us', a track which seems to reverse what happened in 'Drop The Game' with the opening belonging to Flume then sliding effortlessly in a far more Chet-dominated direction as the saxophones and trumpets which have become such a feature of his own music are brought to the front-line, the results being intriguing. Faker did contribute to some of the production as well as the vocals unlike with 'Left Alone' and that contribution is far more noticeable on 'What About Us' than the other two. The EP ends with a healthy bang, 'This Song Is Not About A Girl' is undertoned by a cracking drum beat, coupled with a spacey bass-line and arguably Faker's strongest vocals in quite the while as he traverses between monotone and traditional at the drop of the hat. The final minute is worth waiting for the entire EP just to listen to as Flume drops an epic beat for the second time and Faker almost lets out a scream of orgasmic musical pleasure as the two come together in what they do best (slightly disturbing image I know so take it totally at face value).

It's well well worth a listen and as I said one of the more innovative pieces of music of the past year or so, hopefully an album is on the way.

Here they both are, Flume looking a little bit like he could make it onto the Aussie cast list for their version of the Inbetweeners and Chet Faker with the most epic ginger beard of all time. All hail...

Until next time, Cheers to everyone for reading and all supportive and sometimes constructive comments they've given me about this blog over the past year, every single one has made me all the more chuffed. Below is the sound cloud rip of Lockjaw although it can be gotten for just £2.50 off iTunes if you're that way inclined. I've also popped 'Bound 3' at the top and also included 'Left Alone'. Listen on dear people.

Max

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Back On The 'Tet Offensive'

Afternoon all,

Sitting in my room with a handy day off work for reasons I can't be bothered to go into, I feel I've been given the perfect opportunity to write about an album I've been enjoying for some time now. I'm watching the wind rage outside and am sadly transported to the Island of the Phillipines where thousands of corpses lie awash the streets and many more thousands face the reality of a short-term future at the very least without a home. Aid is now arriving in droves, especially it has to be said from the US who are said to be providing support on an 'unprecedented scale'. But with a current confirmed death toll of 2300 and the grave admittance from the UN that more than 11 million people will be affected by this typhoon, the affects aren't going to be felt for weeks; they will be felt for years. Horrifically depressing stuff to think about but it's definitely at times like this where our lives can be placed into perspective by events in the world thousands of miles away. The Phillipines has always been a country in jeopardy, battling with democracy ever since World War Two as varying dictators have attempted to take hold since its independence and it has equally experienced natural disasters, not to the scale of this one but fearful nonetheless. Now the mass rebuilding operation can slowly begin, and with as much help from the west as humanly possible I hope it can be as successful as an operation of this size could possibly be.

This week I've been listening pretty much non-stop to Four Tet's new LP Beautiful Rewind. It had been only a while since we'd heard a peep out of Kieran Hebden a la Four Tet but enough of a while to lead to the slight beginnings of a genuine frustration at the lack of a current release from one of Britain's most influential dance producers of the recent decade. 2012's Pink was mostly a collection of previously released 12-inches with a couple unreleased but listened as a whole it was a masterpiece and one which I enjoyed for some while, far more experimental than some of his previous work but with a beautifully metronomic feel to it which lend itself very well to the type of background music you could have playing while say revising for an exam or having a kip. Beautiful Rewind was released back in mid-October (I'm a tad late on the uptake but wanted to get a good listen in first) with virtually no hype attached to it. It was simply announced by one tweet stating there would be 'no pre-order, no youtube trailers, no itunes stream, no spotify, no amazon deal, no charts, no bit coin deal, no last minute rick rubin'. This hasn't in any way prevented from either selling badly or gaining highly favourable reviews. 

The album itself moves away from Pink's sleepy metronome and draws in part upon Hebden's DJ work (a residency at East London's Plastic People) mainly in the UK garage and grime scenes but with some  traditional floaty two-step infused for good measure. This is noticeable more than anything on the most publicised of the tracks, 'Parallel Jalebi'. This tune opens with and is suffused throughout by a speedy garage beat which lends it pace but it is overtoned with a certain female vocal 'airy-fairyness', breathing life into it and making it a personal highlight. As with the majority of tracks off of Rewind, we are greeted with an approximate 30-second mini-pause in the middle, before Hebden throws a new surprise at us or simply continues where he has left off. Opener 'Gong' follows a similar formula but is far more influenced by the Middle-Eastern and African beats which Four Tet so loves and has been so noticeable on his previous works. This tune is far sharper, the vocals are all-male and are more reflective of an MC rather than a singer. They are used to good effect on many of the other tracks and help to back up my main point about the album which is Hebden's keen ambition to demonstrate to his listener just how much he is enjoying his DJ-ing at the moment. 'Kool FM', a shout-out to one of his most-loved London radio stations, begins in a similar vein to 'Parallel Jalebi' but is turned on its head in the traditional mid-pause by a yelp of 'Hey-hey-hey' which appears totally disconnected to the track and transports us to the underground. It is fascinating to listen to and is something we haven't heard much of from the Tet before. 

'Buchla' follows and shares a similarity with 'Kool FM' in the sharpness of its over-dubbed MC track, while being slightly too grimy for my tastes it certainly isn't bad and with the right atmosphere would be an absolute banger. Nearing the end of the LP, Hebden veers off course into a totally different direction and treats us to album closers 'Unicorn' and 'Your Body Feels'. 'Unicorn''s intro sounds strangely like the soundtrack of an old Nintendo adventure game but is quickly hurried along with more foreign drumming and a sweet under-layered bass line, it is another undoubted highlight of mine. 'Your Body Feels' closes the LP in a style which Hebden has imbued into his more recent work, this time he involves trumpets and saxophones along with a constant eerie clap and more of the tried and tested repetitive female vocal outlay which works a treat. 

Overall this is an album of heavy multi-layering - spanning different genres, influences, sounds and possibly most importantly professions (think Hebden as performing DJ compared with Hebden as bedroom sound producer). It is one of the year's most intuitive releases and one which should be heard by all, more surely to come from Four Tet in the not-too-distant future. Here he is in one of those roles:

I hope everyone enjoyed and apologies for the wrist-cuttingly painful thought of the day placed serenely at the top of this page, don't know what I was thinking! Also check out the beautiful Disney-esque video for 'Parallel Jalebi' below, I only discovered it today and it's a goodun (got a live version of 'Kool FM' as well, think it showcases it in its best light even if the camera is a tad on the shaky side and the people in the background won't shut the fuck up).

Enjoy the day people,

Max

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Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves (Haim & Chvrches)

Good day to one and all,

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend. Been meaning to write this blog for quite a few days now but obstacles to my writing were frequent so now here I am on a grey yet mild Saturday afternoon relishing the idea of spending the day doing absolutely shit-all. In the news, the Daily Mail has once again been revealed for the blood-curdling spineless drivel spouter that it has always been, using the diary of a scared 16 year old refugee miles away from home to communicate him as 'hating Britain' and laying down an 'evil legacy' while its sister paper had the sheer audacity to send a reporter only days afterwards to a memorial service for one of his close relatives and the uncle of the man they were truly trying to slander (Ed Miliband). Miliband's popularity has only been increased by the debacle, all mainstream politicians have leapt to his side and yet the Mail refuses to apologise. But there you go, the same brand of crass idiots will still be reading that paper by the time we enter the apocalypse.Skin-crawling stuff. Here's the idiot that allowed all this to happen, balding egg-head and all. And if you want to have a butchers at his deputy being torn a new a-hole by Alistair Campbell then head over in this direction.

The last couple of weeks have seen albums released which have spawned a mini-revival of girl-bands with edge but with far more of a focus on the 'edge' part and far less on the 'girl-bands' bit. Haim are undoubtedly the most talked about new-band of the year, ever since being tipped by the BBC back in December as the 'ones to watch' for 2013. Their debut Days Are Gone has been hotly anticipated but unlike many new bands they continued to dispel the pressure to release a first LP quickly and tweaked and tweaked for months until it was finally issued last Monday (a solid year after the release of first single 'Forever'). Turns out it's just a little bit of a masterpiece. What these raunchy sisters have somehow managed to do is fuse about three decades worth of high-quality music (70's - Fleetwood Mac, 80's - Phil Collins, 90's - RnB) and span genres which many thought previously unspannable - the phrase 'breath of fresh air' barely even covers it.

The trio made that always rather ballsy decision to throw in all the singles right at the top of the tracklist leaving the listener initially compelled to listen to more without having much knowledge of what's to come but each new track supplants fresh ideas about the girl's individual talents. It takes a few listens to understand the more nuanced successes of the album - the sleek production of the synths in 'If I Could Change Your Mind', the dreamy lyrical shapes constructed in 'Honey and I' and 'Running If You Call My Name' and the spectacularly sharp guitar riff in Yeezus-esque RnB ballad 'My Song 5'. Anyone who watched these girls perform at Glastonbury or Reading will have known they witnessed a performance akin to that of a headliner and an extreme vision of what may be to come, the energy was electric. When listening to Days Are Gone two things are for sure, one is that contrary to earlier comments made in this blog Haim are in no way actually a 'girl-band' in the traditional sense of phrase but a musical tour-de-force in their own right and two is that it's certainly not looks which have carried them this far but sheer talent and grit albeit they are all very very hot, especially when surrounded by balloons. 

Chvrches have a far more localised following than the Haim girls but have still excelled themselves with much-anticipated  debut The Bones Of What You Believe . OK so with only 33.33% of their members being female the 'girl-band' label becomes even less applicable to these guys but in Lauren Mayberry they have a lead singer capable of following in the footsteps of the Kate Bush's and Sinead O'Connor's of this world and this is coupled with her having quite the smart head on her shoulders, writing in The Guardian Music blog this week on the perils of online misogyny. 

I personally have been looking forward to the release of this album for a good many months, ever since I first heard lead single 'Lies' followed by Chvrches fantastic remix of MSMR's 'Hurricane' and became addicted to the Glasweigan trio's strange brand of authentic electro nu-folk. Don't be fooled by the strong dialectical accent, these guys are no Biffy Clyro, in as much as, well, they're not shit. Instead they're very very good and just as with Haim, what's so intriguing about their debut LP is not the already accredited singles but the new and unheard genre-spanning tunes. 'Tether' begins in a slow-riffed ballad form but ends with epic synths-galore as Mayberry belts out 'I feel incapable of seeing the end/I feel incapable of saying it's over'. Just like with King Krule's album as discussed in the last blog, there is a raw honesty to the lyrics of the album which adds to the bands aura of modesty. 'Lies' follows 'Tether' and still remains one of my favourites but a real pearler comes slightly later on in the form of 'Science, Visions'. A daunting intro juxtaposed by Mayberry's sweet vocals and a vocal loop undertoning the entire thing is then joined by thumping bass and the somehwat underrated backing vocals of Mayberry's bandmates Iain Cook and Martin Doherty. The tempo is upheld throughout the three minutes and 58 seconds of awesomeness and the closing three tracks are equally as bold, the industrial bridge in 'Lungs' is exquisitely placed as is both guitar and drum riffs working side-by-side in epic closer 'You Caught The Light'. Chvrches began with a tiny internet-based Scottish fan-base and are now attracting a far wider range as interest in their brand goes global, the only way from here really appears to be up.

So that's that then, two bands I've been looking forward to writing about for ages and whose music deserves to be listened to across the land. Hope everyone enjoyed and as always cheers for reading.

Max

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Being Krule To Be Kind

Hi everyone,

The weird title will be explained in due course.

The age of mainstream social commentators gravitating to the top of the charts seems to be nearing its end. Morrisey, Shaun Ryder and more recently stand-up figures like Mike Skinner and the young Dizzee Rascal are far harder to come across and their likes tend to be buried deep within the musical underworld. That is why I'm hear today children to talk about what I believe to be one of the most important, underrated and probably unnoticed albums of 2013. Archy Marshall aka King Krule may look like a lactose-intollerant pre-pubescent teen but he is in fact one of the most talented musicians I've come across in quite some time.

The bare facts - As London as it gets, Marshall began his career operating under the moniker Zoo Kid and released his first single in 2010 'Out Getting Ribs' (a crowd favourite which has made it on to the album) but he developed into King Krule when he released his first self-titled EP in late 2011. King Krule being so named after the Donkey Kong character King K.Rool but quite why the reason for this change in stage name I'm not too sure, personally I prefer it. His talent was under no doubt from an incredibly young age. Very few people know that Marshall attended Brit School (graduates include Ed Sheeran and Amy Winehouse) from 2008 till 2011, meaning he would have been just 14 when in his junior year. A child prodigy destined for stardom then, but since leaving he has followed a very different path to that of the likes of his ginger compadre Sheeran.

Krule's debut 6 Feet Beneath the Moon has been virtually on repeat on my iPod since its release but it is by no means an easy listen. More of a conceptual piece than an album laden with tunes, it really has to be listened to as a whole for its full affects to be soaked up. Each track floats over the listener and creates a beautiful sense of paradox between the rhythm of the synths and Krule's rather cutting tone. Make no mistake, if you're looking for a strong vocal range then this isn't the album for you but fuck me his lyrics are good.

Krule is the voice of reason, the voice of a generation toiling with the frustration brought about by an extreme lack of opportunity and being stared down upon from all sides by the educated yet somewhat totally uneducated elite. His take on the state of modern Britain indicates a maturity well beyond his 19 years (hard to believe he's almost three years younger than I am). This is apparent from early on in the LP, opener 'Easy Easy' is an outspoken attack on modern-day policing, "The same old bobby same old beat/ but yeah they got nothing on me" and it sets the tone for an hour of pure unashamed anger. The honesty of his propositions are as emotional as their actual content, spinning phrases such as "Another disappointed soul/ well I tried, tried to keep it in control/ well I will end up on the dole" from 'Has it Hit' alongside the simple realities of just another disappointed teenager failing to get himself laid in 'Baby Blue' - "Edging closer/ You swing my way/ I've got no chance/ and nothing to say".

If I could pick a favourite, it would have to be 'Lizard State'. This bucks the one-tempo trend of the majority of the album and is a far more upbeat rant at those bringing Marshall down - "In my head I'm getting dead tired of this shit/ you fucking bitch". The trumpets are interesting and a worthy addition and the vocals represent Marshall's highly influential hip-hop background, it's a necessary tune to break up an album which could be accused by certain portions of the music press of being a tad samey. As it goes, 6 Feet Beneath the Moon has generated increasingly favourable reviews and is nearing universal acclaim on metacritic with an average score of 77(always a good indicator). It is deserving of every accolade it receives and long may the King's future as a vaunted musician continue. He may not be the easiest listen but boy can he write a song, I would urge all to give him a chance. Below I've linked a couple of tunes from the album along with the feature vocals he added to electronic duo Mount Kimbie's 'You Took Your Time' which is an absolute banger. And if you had no clue what I was on about with the earlier description "Lactose-intollerant pre-pubescent teen" then this photo should stand you in good stead.

Cheers as always for reading and remember you can give me a tweet with any recommendations at any time - @goldbart1.

Max

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The Rise and Rise of Arctic Monkeys

Afternoon to everyone,

As promised in Thursday's post I've taken great pleasure this afternoon in writing a few words on the new Arctic Monkey's album AM. Had to wait five days for the darn CD to arrive and then immediately uploaded it on to my laptop making me truly appreciate just why no one buys CDs anymore, if I'd downloaded it I could have done the exact same thing for free and got it on the day it came out with absolutely no drop in sound quality - the album picture might still have even popped up on my iTunes. Instead I spent 9 quid to twiddle my thumbs for five days.

Anyway the problem subsisted and now I'm here with Alex Turner crooning 'Do I wanna Know' in my ear and I'm bloody loving it. If I could compare the Arctic Monkeys to any band of a past generation then listening to this, their fifth LP in just seven years, I would probably have to shout the Rolling Stones. The Stones started out as a protest band but it wasn't much time before they developed into an outfit developing records which were far more sexy than they were angry. Having a little listen to the masterpiece that is the Monkey's debut Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not, the development draws many a similarity. While once upon a time Turner was penning lyrics about being thrown out of grotty Sheffield dive bars, the boys are now based in LA, sporting teddy boy haircuts and producing songs with titles like 'No1 Party Anthem' and 'Why Do You Only Call Me When You're High'. Does it matter? Course it fucking doesn't because the music remains simply fantastic.

We knew exactly what to expect having already been treated to opener 'Do I wanna Know' and singles 'R U Mine' and the aforementioned 'Why Do You Only Call Me...' but each of the other new tracks delivers its own little piece of happiness, be it with a cheeky lyric, a riff of pure originality or one of Matt Helder's trademark drum solos (plus way way more of his beloved falsetto). And the brains behind it all... Mr Turner. If You didn't know it already, Alex Turner is an absolute lyrical genius. I read and strongly agreed with a review of the album the other day which claimed he has an unfounded ability to find rhyme in the middle of a sentence where other songwriters simply wouldn't have a clue, 'I'm sorry to interrupt it's just I'm constantly on the cusp of trying to kiss you' is a prime example. This gives each melody it's own unique Monkeys feel and sets a tone for something new in every crevice of his work. For me, he leaves his best lyrical prowess for last, producing scintillating metaphor after metaphor in perfect closer 'I Wanna Be Yours' - 'If you like your coffee hot/Let me be your coffee pot' etc.etc. These lyrics challenge my previous favourite Monkey's metaphor - 'Your rarer than a can of dandelion and burdock/and those other girls are just post-mix lemonade'.

Lyrics aside, 'Mad Sounds' finds the Monkeys at their most touching and is probably the most anthemic of the tunes, alongside the wonderfully titled 'No.1 Party Anthem' of course, both of which sound like they were ripped straight off Turner's EP for the Richard Ayoade directed Submarine (another work of absolute genius from the Sheffielder, where does he get his time from). 'Knee Socks' features vocals and production from Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and a riff to die for alongside a slightly fresher poppier feel while earlier on in the LP there's Arabella' and FUCK ME IT'S A TUNE. Each instrumental addition is bathed with funk and the chorus has to be one of the best these guys have ever produced, moment of the album for me has to be the pre-chorus in which two sliding chords cut across Turner's claim that 'My days end best when this sunset gets itself' before launching into 'As Arabellllaaaaaaaa'.

What this album has confirmed is that the Monkeys can really do what the fuck they want and keep on and on producing LPs of better and better quality. Some are saying that this is only the beginning and connecting this record with the first in terms of its importance for the band but on this point I strongly disagree and point to the strength and success of the three albums which came in between. There is however a layer of fresh maturity on top of AM which has guaranteed the critical acclaim along with the mass album and single sales ('Why Do You Only Call Me...' reached no.8 in the UK charts, no mean feat for a guitar band in 2013).The  hope and moreover the assumption is that the Monkeys continue to release LPs of this calibre and as prolifically as they have been over the past few years. I don't doubt it, and what I also don't doubt is that if this is to be the case then there's no reason why in thirty years time we can't be talking about them in the same terms as we're talking about the Stones in 2013... we can certainly begin to compare Turner with Jagger. And who wouldn't love to see the Arctic Monkeys headlining Glastonbury 2043?

Many thanks as always for reading as I've certainly enjoyed writing.

Max

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