Albums of the year (Part 2)

Hi again,

Four more of my personal favourite's from 2012 coming right your way.

Tame Impala- 'Lonerism':

Well they provided what was definitely my  live performance of the year, an absolutely packed out Sheffield Leadmill witnessed the Southern Hemisphere's finest rock performance for generations (maybe). For those who haven't come across them, Tame Impala are an Austrlian trio fronted by introverted genuis Kevin Parker, a man of many projects but few which can live up to the sheer strength of Tame Impala. 'Lonerism' is a total enigma from start to finish, but it is safe to say there's not a bad tune on it. Opener 'Be Above It', comes in with a whisper but goes out with an absolute racket and is followed by two melodies of the highest quality, in 'Endors Toi' and 'Apocalypse Dreams'. But the tunes don't falter. Lead single 'Elephant' was bizarrely used in an advert for 'Made In Chelsea' and may have even sparked a slight facial twitch from the cast of dopey posh clowns who make up the show. It is another to be considered in the singles of the year and is reflective of a new far more electronic direction from Parker and Co. which I for one will heavily encourage. The entire album is themed around the fact that basically when Kevin Parker was a kid he didn't really have any friends and spent most of his time in his basement alone and probably wanking. It's this socially introverted outlook which appears to have brought the best out of Tame Impala and placed them at number 1 in NME's top 50 albums of the year (although who in truth actually reads that shite). Topping 2010 debut and cult classic 'Innerspeaker' was always going to be a tough task but 'Lonerism' has achieved it with relative ease.

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Daphni- 'JIAOLONG':

If TEED managed to bring dance to a mainstream UK audience, Daphni was simply making a project that he  could enjoy, and yet has almost inadvertently  managed to produce one of the best electronic albums of the year. For those who haven't come across Daphni before, he is the moniker of DJ Daniel Snaith who has been operating under the far more recognisable guise of Caribou over the past few years. A change of name brought with it a change in direction. In interview, Snaith discussed how, as Caribou, he was incredibly careful over each song, spending hours mixing until he had reached what he believed to be perfection. With 'JIAOLONG' the opposite is true, as each song was pretty much recorded in one and this brave new approach gives the album a far more raw erratic feel than previous Caribou records have managed to achieve (although I'm not in any way looking to slander Caribou who I believe is equally as good). 'Ye Ye' is testament to this, a volatile track atop a simply-looped vocal sample which is demonstrative of what Daphni's aiming to achieve, it then slides listlessly into 'Light', a song dominated by a flute of all instruments but one which works an absolute treat. Album highlight for me is opener 'Yes, I Know', slightly more musically and vocally complex than the others but one which nonetheless has the ability to stick in the head for days. Whatever crazy new name and therefore direction Snaith's got in store for us in 2013, equalling this record is going to be a tough task.

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Of Monsters and Men- 'My Head is an Animal':

Music from Scandinavia has always had a strange impact upon UK culture. Forty years ago there was ABBA but more recently we've seen cult recognition of bands such as Sigur Ros and The Hives. Of Monsters and Men could well see themselves placed in this bracket in the not-too-distant future and with its delicate soulful melodies and the intricate interchangeing vocals of dual lead singers Nanna and Raggi, 'My Head is An Animal' may go down as a Scandinavian classic. Opener 'Dirty Paws' basically outlines the direction the entire album will take ( the second line of the song being the title for the LP). A quiet acoustic riff to start leads to catchy chorus and an inevitable crescendo in the final minute with lots of 'la-la-las'. However this element of repetitiveness is no issue, Oasis operated on the 'if it aint broke don't fix it' line for the entirety of their careers and that seemed to work out pretty well. 'Little Talks' is an absolute treat, being the first single I heard off the album after coming across a Bombay Bicycle Club re-work which doesn't really do it justice. Other highlights include 'Mountain Sound', 'Your Bones' and personal favourite 'Yellow Light', the latter drawing heavy comparisons with Arcade Fire which can only really be a good thing. However what I find really special about this album is the peaceful glow which washes over the listener when taken as a whole rather than song by song, separating it from other rivals in the 'alternative-epic' category. I anticipate similar high-quality records in the years to come.

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Ben Howard- The Burgh Island EP:

Thought I'd end with South Devon's favorite folk singer. This isn't technically an album but Ben Howard's always worth reviewing and to be honest it's a fantastic piece of music. After the popularity of 'Every Kingdom' (quite possibly my album of 2011), Howard quickly though to himself, 'Well I'm popular now so I can stop singing about love and woods and shit' and he picked up an electric guitar. 'The Burgh Island' is the result. The entire record is basically as dark as Howard could possibly make it but with a few deft touches which bring its technical appeal to the forefront, my two favourite moments being the rip-roaring solo in 'Oats in the Water' and Monica Heldal's guest vocals on the title track, the only one to be released as a single. If the EP is any indicator of whichever direction Ben Howard will choose to take on his next full-length, his 12 year old female fans may take issue with it but I have no problem whatsoever, long live doing whatever the fuck you want.

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So that's my two cents on the music that's really grabbed my attention over the past year, Why not tweet your opinions to me (@goldbart1) or leave a comment on the blog. Back to normal next week.

Many many many thanks for reading,

Max

Albums of the year (Part 1)

Bonjour, Hope everyone had a decent Christmas etc, etc.

Seeing as every other music blog in existence is doing it, I thought I'd take a break from Yorkshire music to talk about what I consider to be some of the best albums of 2012. Deep breath, here goes...

 Alt-J (a triangle)- 'An Awesome Wave':

They may be a highly pretentious bunch of wankers and sometimes I randomly punch inanimate objects at the thought of lead singer Joe Newman having the fantastic idea of naming his band after a fucking keyboard shortcut, but 'An Awesome Wave' was, for me, undoubtedly, the album of 2012. It's achievements are so high in number that it's at times easier to consider what it in fact didn't achieve. It was the most highly-backed LP in Mercury Prize history to win the gong and it duly did on November fourth bringing to an end a fantastic year for the Cambridge quartet. Filthy-bass drops ('Fitzpleasure'), goosebump-inducing melodies ('Matilda') and a ridiculously unique singing style (pretty much all of them) characterise an album with such incredible variation that it often sounds like three or four in one. This is all coupled with three fantastic interludes and a quality intro. If composed and performed with due-care, it's these kind of finishing touches which separate the good from the great and this particular album definitely belongs to the latter category. Second-album syndrome is highly likely to set in for this posse of hipsters but for now I am content to whack on 'An Awesome Wave' at any time of day or night and, if their live reputation is anything to go by, am thoroughly looking forward to watching them at Leeds Academy in May (knew I'd work Yorkshire in there somewhere). Single 'Tesselate' also wins the prize for greatest sex euphemism of all time.  The video for lead single 'Breezeblocks' is linked below and is pretty nuts even if the concept is ripped from Coldplay's 'The Scientist'.

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Django Django- 'Django Django':

Arguably the album which posed the greatest threat to 'An Awesome Wave' in the race for the Mercuries was also recorded by a group of four odd-balls, but these guys are Scottish and aren't in any way hipster so I automatically prefer them. I only began listening to this album a couple of weeks ago and have pretty much spent said couple of weeks wondering why it's taken me ten months to finally get round to listening to it. The album itself is a beautiful conglomeration of Beach Boys-styled melodies and modern electronic innovation. African drums form a huge part of what contributes to the uniqueness of the LP and manage to morph some of the album tracks from average fillers into songs which stick in your mind and don't let go. 'Default', introduced early and linked below, is the song which finally prompted me to give the album a listen and is 100% one of the tunes of the year. It is testament to the strength of the entire album, combining a sharp classical guitar riff with a ton of reverb in the intro. Anyone who hasn't yet given Django Django a try and has even a remote interest in either indie or electronica is thoroughly urged to do so and I wait in anticipation at the thought of  more similarly innovative releases from the oddly-clothed Highlanders (they seem to have this weird thing about all wearing very similar outfits in band photos).

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Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs- 'Trouble':

In 'Trouble', TEED has done something rather rare in bringing electro/house to a pretty mainstream UK audience. It debuted in the top 40 of the album charts and a number of the released singles can be heard in various dance settings across the UK. This most certainly has to be one of my favourites of 2012, each track is an album in itself, layered with electronic innovation after electronic innovation and all backed by Orlando Higginbotham's (yes that genuinely genuinely is his real name) monotonous yet strangely hypnotic vocals. Album opener 'Promises' kicks things off with a delightful bang, the opening minute is as soulful as this genre can get and crescendoes beautifully into an ode to women and drugs, 'come on set fire/burn up my night'. The title track is undoubtedly TEED's most well-known and from the recognisable loop-beat it quickly becomes clear why, while 'Household Goods' combines Higginbotham's original sound with slight elements of dubstep and also contains what's probably my lyric of the year, 'Forgive me if I'm wrong/but you look shit/on your own'. Linked below is my personal favourite, the lesser known 'Solo'. Cranked up and listened through headphones, without sounding horribly clicheed it lifts you to previously unexplored dimensions, and there's not much out there nowadays that I'd ever make an outrageous comment like that about. He wears the most fucking ridiculous outfits I've ever seen and looks about 12 but TEED's 'Trouble' has provided the foundations for the 2012 explosion in the popularity of slowed-down electronica.

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Jake Bugg- 'Jake Bugg':

About nine months ago, in a fit of boredom I thought I might check out who wrote the song from that advert for Greene King IPA (although I can't say I've ever tried a drop). Turned out it was some scraggy teenager, three years my junior, originating from the wholly unglamorous Clifton just outside Nottingham. Eight months on and I tuned into Radio 1 on a Sunday night just in time to hear that the Buggster had pipped Leona Lewis to the top of the UK album charts (take that you jumped-up bitch whose ridiculous popularity has been based on two reasonably average covers). Bugg's debut is a slap in the face to any of those outrageously cynical cunts who preach the old, 'rock music died in the 60's' mantra. Well Mr and Mrs. Cynic, I implore you to give this album a listen and then come back to me with the same story. 'Jake Bugg' opens as it means to go on, 'Lightning Bolt' is bolshy, packs a punch and carries lyrics which touch the heart. It was also used to soundtrack Usain Bolt's victories at London 2012 which is simply fantastic.What follows is vastly more of the same but with certain dainty melodic touches to boot, such as in 'Country Song' and 'Someone Told Me'. Bugg tells the stories of his adolescence with recognisable vigour, who reading this can't relate to, 'Was down in the kitchen/drinking white lightning', from 'Two Fingers' and, while it's arguable that a couple of the bottom tracks get ever so slightly stale, the linked track 'Seen It All' should be enough in itself to guarantee the appearance of Bugg's debut on the majority of mainstream 'Best of 2012' lists. Long live Clifton.

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Cheers for reading, Part 2 coming up tomorrow.

Max

Merry winter break... and Wet Nuns

Happy holidays (sort of),

Today's post is ever-so-slightly religious but only in the scornful 'I wish my religion was a little bit more like that one' sense. It's Christmas in three days and the vast majority of the country, whether you believe in Jesus, Allah or, Darth Vader (as many in recent censuses so claim), are absolutely buzzing with thoughts of trees, presents, roasts and all manner of other festive-related crap.

Being prim, proper and more importantly Jewish I've never celebrated a single Christmas in my life and while I hope I never intend to it has lead me to incredible levels of cynicism. Once a housemate spouts the all-too infamous, 'So what's everyone getting for Christmas' line, my yearly torture has officially begun and I sit and wonder what direction my life may have taken if, like the majority of seemingly more Jewish people than me, my parents had given in to consumer pressure and brought out the turkey and cranberry sauce on the 25th December.

Instead, my 25th consists of odd family jaunts to places like Cambridge or Richmond where everyone silently pretends that some miraculous pub or restaurant will be open when it's undeniably obvious that it won't be and we end up wondering around starving all day in some shitty park until we get home to a meal which definitely doesn't consist of turkey and cranberry sauce.

So there you go, a brief Christmas message but one which should bring inspiration to the lucky people out there who may be bloody miserable on Christmas day but at least have the consolation prize of it at least being Christmas.

Wet Nuns aren't  my usual cup of tea but they're definitely masters of what their Facebook insists they aim to do, namely 'Death-dick-rock'. Give their stuff at the bottom a listen and you'll get what I mean in an instant. I stumbled upon them on YouTube when I found a remix of one of their songs by  self-confessed biggest fan Matt Helders of the Arctic Monkeys, which form part of the Mixed in Sheffield yearly CD's (the whole CD is worth a listen). Helders has pulled out a couple of cracking remixes  which I've  linked at the bottom along with recent single, 'Why You So Cold'.

Originating from both Sheffield and Leeds, listeners would  be surprised to hear that there are only two regular band members, Rob on vocals and guitar and Alexis on drums. 'Death-dick-rock' spans quite the variety of genres, delving deep into metal at points and back up the spectrum to conventional blues at others. Rob's voice is delightfully hoarse and suits his guitar sound down to a tea, while I also thoroughly enjoyed their list of influences as given on Facebook- 'women, booze, death, Enya' (anyone who's recently caught the first series of Peep Show will particularly enjoy the Enya reference).

So that's your Christmas lot. Haven't said this for a few weeks but if anyone's got any music from Yorkshire they'd like me to have a look at then give me a shout on twitter (@goldbart1).

Cheers for reading,

Max

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Farcical sports bullshit of the year... and Dead Sons

Ola,

Today's post begins in the form of a well-directed rant. Tomorrow evening sees the return of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, a rather exciting return seeing as this has probably been the greatest year for British sport since, well, ever, or certainly in my humble 21 years.  As a kid it used to be one of my favourite programmes and I'd spend hours scrutinizing the year's lists and trying to work out who was the most worthy of the award (I was a pretty boring child). I was over the moon when Flintoff won in 2005, and the sight of him receiving it, absolutely knackered at half 4 in the morning in Pakistan, was one which will stay with me for a while. 

However... 2006 saw Zara Phillips win and while I'm still undecided on the whole 'she obviously only won because she's a royal' line, it was an incredibly boring year. Does anyone really want to see a stupidly posh woman on a horse accepting what's meant to be Britain's most prestigious sporting award? Then came 2009, and Ryan Giggs won purely because he was nearing the end of his career and a hell of a lot of people in England support Man United. His 2009 was, by his standards, distinctly average, and then it turned out he was a massive massive cheating arsehole and no one even bothered to strip him of the award.

This year, choosing a winner is painfully impossible and therefore shouldn't be done. My nod might just about go to Wiggins but there's also the Olympic gold-medal winning poster girl, a wheelchair racer who won a stupid amount of golds (and has been blessed with classy nickname The Weirwolf), and lest we not forget a tennis player who got to the final of Wimbledon, won the US Open and also Olympic gold.

So basically it's now become kind of pointless, is hosted by three stupidly annoying people in the shape of Gary Lineker, Sue Barker and Clare effing Balding, and I urge everyone not to vote or, if you so choose, not to even watch. It's dead to me, which leads me on beautifully to band of the week Dead Sons (wow).

I first came across Dead Sons when I heard their song 'Shotgun Woman' on a CD given out by Jon McClure (the Reverend) at a Reverend and the Makers gig last summer. Dead Sons rose to prominence when they supported Arctic Monkeys at Don Valley a couple of summers ago, and since then they've developed a decent Yorkshire fan base. They call themselves desert rock, a refreshing genre which we don't hear too much about any more (the only other desert rock band I really like are led by the coolest ginger man in the world). They formed in 2010 alongside fellow Sheffielders The Backhanded Compliments and contain 2 ex-members of one of Yorkshire's finest, Milburn. At first listen they might sound like a ridiculous copycat of Arctic Monkeys but the desert rock aspect means the guitars are far darker and to be frank there should really be more music like this out there so I don't really see it as that much of an issue. 

Fun Fact of the day- for some reason which Wikipedia hasn't had the decency to clarify, 'Shotgun Woman' reached number two in the Turkish music charts and the band have a supposedly substantial following in the land of kebabs. I've put the aforementioned single at the bottom along with 'Hangman', a cracking track released for Bonfire night. They're also releasing an album early next year.

Finally, not quite Yorkshire- based, but my housemate insisted I popped The Courteeners new single in as well and it's quality. The rise and rise of Liam Fray and co. looks set to continue.

Cheers for reading,

Max

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Moving into the 21st century... and Submotion orchestra

Afternoon,

Want to start by saying thanks to all those who read the blog last week, and especially you lovely re-tweeters, the page got to almost 100 views which is quality.

Breakthrough of the week is that I now have an iPhone. A bit of context, while the last five years have seen mobile phones develop at an unwaveringly fast rate of knots, I've hung on to one of those incredibly shitty but Incredibly reliable temp phones that the Carphone Warehouse give you when you're waiting for your actually good phone to be fixed. This jump has been a bit too much for me and I keep staring at the (remarkably sleek)  iPhone's display thinking that it's just a figment of my imagination. I also have no fucking idea how to put it on silent which is a bit plaguing.

To get my number transferred across I had to wait a couple of days to use it so was briefly phone-less and this got me thinking about the old 'we rely too much on technology' crap which must run through everyone's head once or twice a year. Not having a phone for two days was like being an extreme claustrophobia-sufferer trapped in a really really small closet (not in the homosexual sense). Suddenly, more than anything, I needed to get hold of people and a fb or twitter message just wouldn't do it. When I think back to it, the first 10 or 11 years of my life were spent with 5 TV channels and phones which resembled under-sized bricks. Unbelievable how things change, I'm about to sit down to watch full coverage of an Arsenal 3 oclock kick off, a distant dream a few year ago. Anyway that's my two cents on the matter, bloody hope we win.

On to the matter at hand, Submotion Orchestra formed in Leeds a few years ago and are made up of 7 experienced masters of their trade. They are simply class. Seen them a couple of times now at Sheffield's TTC and they've blown me away. They're minimalism personified, and are made up of literally hundreds of genres, describing themselves on fb as, jazz, grime, dubstep, classical etc etc you get the point. Definitely worth a live viewing if you get the chance (will only cost 6 or 7 quid), especially as lead singer Ruby is simply a delight and the guy on trumpet is unbelievable, one of the best musicians I've ever seen live.

I've put what's probably their most commercial song at the bottom, along with 'Hymn for Him' which I love and a quality remix by Maribou State that popped up on their Soundcloud. Also they've just released an album, 'Fragments', which has made it onto hard copy, great to see they're getting a bit of commercial success.

Cheers again for reading,

Max

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Forced introductions ... and The Crookes

Guten Tag Meine Freunde.

I'm a 21 year old History student studying in the greatest city in the world i.e. Sheffield.

That's probably the first ever time the last part of that sentence has ever been written in the history of the internet but there you go, I'm a firm believer.The music scene here, and in Yorkshire as a whole, is absolutely cracking and ranges from a ridiculously popular underground scene to great gig venues and has produced some of the best bands of the past decade. People think that all Sheffield music has ever been good for is the Arctic Monkeys, Leeds with the Kaiser Chiefs etc etc.This couldn't be less true so I'm going to look to publish a weekly blog showcasing the best musical talent in Yorkshire.

I've started with the best of the northern converts, The Crookes. If anyone has any bands or acts they come across from Yorkshire then feel free to give us a shout on Twitter (@goldbart1) and I'll have a butchers. Any genre, it doesn't really matter.

 So, as already said, The Crookes are pretty much northern converts personified. A group of mates studying English Lit at Sheff Uni and originating from mysterious far off lands like Ipswich came to love their newly adopted city and formed a band where they could pen their man feelings on all things Yorkshire and all things literary. Their success has been barely matched by  bands of similar ilk in what's fast becoming a farcical industry (had they been around in the mid-noughties I'm convinced their success could have matched that of The Enemy or The Pigeon Detectives). They've even got their own cult underground following, The Bright Young Things, and have given birth to a new musical style known as 'New Pop'.

I reviewed their gig for Counterfeit mag last week and realised there was shit loads of truth in what people say about their live performances being the real key to their success.

Below I've linked probably their most famous track 'Backstreet Lovers', a vintage 'New Pop' song (although I have no idea what vintage 'New Pop' actually is). There's also one of the singles off their latest album for you to get your teeth into. There's something very Morriseyesque about the lead singer and both tracks are definitely worth a listen, along with most of their other stuff to be fair.

Till next week,

Max Goldbart

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