Forget about the warnings of storms, sub-zero temperatures and torrential rain, there’s a more elemental force coming in over the Irish Sea to the UK in the first couple of weeks in March; The Eskies are coming over to beat you into submission with a high-octane mixture of folk, jazz, klezmer and vaudeville. Picture a New Orleans jazz band jamming with The Chieftains and Gogol Bordello and it might sound a little bit like this. If the download-only single “Jesus Don’t Save Me” gets anywhere close to representing their live set, this tour could be quite a ride.
The single has a gypsy jazz feel that intensifies in the second half of the song through a few key changes and builds up towards an ending that leaves you wondering what on earth is coming next. And that’s just three minutes’ worth. But don’t take my word for it, have a look for yourself:
If you fancy seeing this maelstrom live, the English tour starts in March and you can see them here:
Fri 4 Nottingham Bodega
Sat 5 Bedford Esquires (with CC Smugglers)
Sun 6 Milton Keynes The Stables
Tue 8 London The Finsbury
Wed 9 Stroud The Prince Albert
Thu 10 Bristol The Old Duke
Fri 11 Newquay Whiskers
Sat 12 Falmouth Princess Pavilion (with Mad Dog Mcrea)
Sun 13 Birmingham The Rainbow Courtyard (with Mad Dog Mcrea)
We’ll be witnessing the mayhem as they take the roof off The Finsbury in London, and anyone catching the shows with Mad Dog Mcrea should be seeing something very special indeed.
It would be a little bit too easy to dismiss Giulia’s musical career as a vanity project but give this single an open-minded listen and you’ll probably change your mind. You’ll realise that she has an interesting voice with just enough of a raw edge to make it stand out against the background of the identically-schooled pop voices that you hear every time you turn on the radio. The combination of her songwriting and voice has managed to snag her a deal with M:89 records to release an album later this year and the single “Road Trip” this month.
The song is a rock-pop hybrid bouncing along on a wave of tribal drums, acoustic guitars and a Celtic-sounding keyboard hook which gets all the way to the chorus before the pulsing bass pushes it firmly into contemporary radio territory. It works as a pop tune, and it’s an intriguing taster for the album “Raze Me to the Ground” which is scheduled for late May release.
Don’t take our word for it. Have a look and listen for yourself:
Ok, how about this to create a bit of a festive mood? The Rubettes featuring Alan Williams have just released a Christmas single. They were one of the few high profile acts in the early seventies not to score a Christmas hit before the bottom dropped out of that particular market, so they’ve missed out on all the repeat plays that the likes of Wizzard, Slade, Mud and Showaddywaddy get every year on local radio, shops, bars and clubs. So they’ve done something about it.
They’ve reworked Plastic Bertrand’s “Ça Plane Pour Moi” (with full writer approval) as a Christmas song and put together some visuals for it full of cute animals and Christmas images. It’s either a work of genius or totally cynical media manipulation; maybe it’s both, but it’s brilliant. They even manage to sneak in a reference to their massive seventies hit “Sugar Baby Love”. It’s top Christmas fun and you really should have a look at it here:
OK, just to give a bit of a heads up, if Noel Gallagher had been influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (™) instead of The Beatles this is probably what Oasis would have sounded like. You know from the kick-off that Righteous Reprobates aren’t doing subtlety here; “My Psychosis” storms in with a noisy Les Paul riff and Charlie Kenny’s pounding floor tom and kick drum while the lead guitar gently feeds back before crashing in alongside Jack Collier’s bass and Rob White’s vocals. It’s melodic, it’s fast, a little bit noir and the band seem to have thrown everything they can into four minutes to grab your attention, including a sixteen-bar solo from Jack Griffiths which runs through most of the range of rock solo techniques, including the obligatory fret-tapping and whammy bar abuse.
Go on, just crank it all the way up, jump about and wind up the neighbours; that’s the kind of song it is.
“My Psychosis” is out on December 7th. Meanwhile, here’s the video:
Elisa
Here’s another little teaser from Black Casino and the Ghost to whet your appetite for the upcoming album “Until the Water Runs Clear” which is out on November 16th. It’s been a while since their debut “Some Dogs Think their Name is No”, and we’ve heard some of the new material live, so the expectations are high. “Veggie Tarantula” opens with an overdriven guitar riff followed by a thunderous bassline and you wonder if Elisa Zoot’s voice can cut through the wall of noise; the answer’s obviously yes, although you have to wait until the chorus to hear the raucous sound of the entire band playing at full tilt. And just when you think you’ve been battered into submission, there’s a bit of remission with a psychedelic breakdown and layers of ethereal vocals before everything goes back up to eleven. Absolutely glorious.
We’ll have the album review for you in the next few days; in the meantime, just watch this on repeat.
Once you get beyond all of the ‘man of mystery’ smoke and mirrors surrounding Jupiter in Velvet, the single “The World Didn’t Start with U” is actually pretty good. It’s a bit of a glam stomper that opens with programmed drums, a big, distorted guitar riff and a fairly simple guitar melody before leading in to a vocal with elements of Bowie, Bolan and maybe even Brett Anderson in the raucous chorus. It’s big and bold, and not too subtle, the hooks are effective and the voice has that suggestion of camp and androgyny that worked so well for the glamsters in the seventies (and nineties). The video combines a bit of mime performance with a suitably enigmatic storyline built around the viewer becoming part of the story. But here, have a look for yourself:
“The World Didn’t Start with U” is out on October 16th.
It’s about a year since we first picked up on Mollie Marriot, when she popped up doing backing vocals (with Izzy Chase-Phillmore) for Jim Stapley on his debut album and at a London gig last year. It was obvious to anyone who didn’t have tin ears that she had an outstanding voice. What we didn’t know at the time, but discovered after a few gigs, was that she also has at least an album’s worth of great songs which she’s worked on with a bunch of co-writers that includes Jim Stapley, Sam Tanner of Brother Strut and Judie Tzuke. Lyrically, it’s not always comfortable because it deals with some troubled times in Mollie’s life, but the arrangements and performances create positive feelings from negative experiences. And she’s put a phenomenal live band together as well.
“A Million Miles” is her third solo single (following “Ship of Fools” and “Transformer”) and it might just be the one to make the breakthrough, ahead of her debut album “The Truth is a Wolf” which is due for release in early 2016. The song opens with Johnson-Jay’s shimmering guitar weaving in and out of Sam Tanner’s trickling keyboards evoking a seventies Californian drivetime feel before Mollie’s voice comes in, gently at first, with just a suggestion of Stevie Nicks and the story of an unravelling relationship. As the instrumental intensity builds, the vocal goes up through the gears from pure and clear to powerful and emotional, building to a climax before fading to a gentle finish. It’s a song that takes you on an emotional journey, so buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Mollie Marriott’s made a lot of great decisions in the last couple of years; she’s surrounded herself with superb musicians and collaborators who happen to be lovely people, and she’s created a very tight little family that just happens to be a musical powerhouse. If anyone can achieve popular success while pursuing their own artistic vision in today’s music business, my money’s on Mollie.
“A Million Miles” is out on MITA Records on October 23rd.
Well, this is certainly a change of pace from their last single “Lonely Road”. The song opens with some gently strummed guitar, followed by understated drums and bass before the vocal comes in. The lyrics are in the classic singer/songwriter doomed relationship style which the laconic vocal delivery and close-miking weave into a powerfully emotional and melancholy performance. The cello-like guitar in the second half of the song acts as a counterpoint to the vocal, balancing the over-driven and ornate electric sound with the simple and plaintive voice. There’s nothing over-complicated or flashy here, just a good song performed well.
“Deep” is released on September 7, with the album “Yeti Love” following on September 21.
Just un-bloody-believable! What an absolutely glorious racket Nova Twins make – thunderous basslines (a little nod to “Seven Nation Army” but with balls), raucous guitar and proper drums and a totally in-yer-face rap. Maybe the title, “Bassline Bitch” should be a bit of a giveaway, but this is a raw, visceral fusion of rap and rock; you can love it or hate it, but you won’t be able to ignore it, not even if you wear your health and safety approved ear plugs.
Nova Twins are Amy Love (vocals and guitar) and Georgia South (bass and backing vocals) and I can guarantee that once you see and hear them, you won’t be forgetting them any time soon. According to the press release, their genre‘s urban punk, but that’s not even getting close to describing this aural onslaught; it’s big and distorted and nasty, but there’s a naggingly catchy melody in there as well.
“Bassline Bitch” will be the first release from Rob Hallett’s new RoboMagic company, and Nova Twins will be playing some London dates to support the single over the next few weeks, including:
Friday August 21 The Finsbury
Friday August 28 Club NME, Koko, Camden
Tuesday September 01 The Old Blue Last, Shoreditch
And just to make your Friday, here’s the home-made video for the single:
We had a sneak preview of this one a few weeks ago when we reviewed the lead track, “The Confession”, as a single, but this time around it’s the full four track EP with additional songs “All for the Best”, “The Fear” and “Together Alone”. Previous Sound of the Sirens work has focussed on two voice/two guitar/stompbox arrangements that can be recreated live as a duo, but “All We Have is Time” features upright bass, violin and a little bit of piano, which add a few more colours to the palette. Lyrically, there are a few familiar themes, including breaking or broken relationships and encouragement to fulfil our personal potential, but it’s fair to say that “All We Have is Time” is a step forward into new territory.
We reviewed the stomping, violin-driven “The Confession” a few weeks ago, so I’ll skip over that and start with “All for the Best”. Violin and piano dominate the intro, creating, with vocal harmonies, a very traditional, folky sound which ebbs and flows to illustrate the theme of a relationship which was once beautiful but has run its course. “The Fear” is where the introduction of violin and upright bass has the greatest impact, combining with a very catchy vocal hook to create an uptempo Eastern European feel as the lyrics delve into the attempt to create the perfect physical and spiritual union. Several key changes towards the end of the song ratchet up the tension before the resolution comes in the final phrase, ‘Go all the way’. The final song, “Together Alone” is already a live favourite and it’s easy to see why. The song demonstrates the assured use of dynamics with changes in volume and tempo, and finishes with a show-stopping a cappella ending. Add that to a lyrical message that we should all try to transcend our limitations and you’ve got yourself an anthem.
When you listen to Sound of the Sirens, you hear two voices which work really well together (they do homophony and counterpoint beautifully); they have a tremendous understanding of the construction of songs and live performance, but they also write lyrics which reference the darker themes found in folk music and stories. “All We Have is Time” is a pretty good introduction to the Sound of the Sirens, but you should do two things: listen to their album “A Long Way to Fall” and make an effort to see them play live. You can do the first one any time and their next live appearance will be at Chris Evans’ Carfest this weekend. We’ll keep you posted.
