Errors - Come Down With Me

Wow! There's a good chance that some of you may have already heard Errors. They formed in 2004 after all. But they've been pretty niche and somewhat low key despite releasing their debut album and a host of Eps and singles. That is very likely to change soon.

So you might have heard the single 'A Rumour in Africa' which came out this week and proceeds the album's release. All bouncy prog-rhythmic it is. I'd like to say that 'Come Down With Me' is the first album of the year which has got my heart racing. But as Hidden by These New Puritans beat them too it I can't. Errors sophomore release does take it's rightful spot as the second album of the year to give me a rush.

There's a lighter tone at work here. The aforementioned Africa and Gallic infused Supertribe being key examples but the traces of Kraut-rawk and gloom still loom with welcome intent.

The Glasgow quartet have managed to embue these songs with an organic fairy dust which tempers the harsh but (mostly) melodic artifice of electronic jabs and stabs. At times this is like listening to "Post-Rock: The Bontempi Years" and I say this as a fan and someone who considers this a compliment even if it doesn't sound like one!

It's obviously very early days yet but this could be a contender for album of the year come December. Yeah you heard.

http://www.myspace.com/weareerrors
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

The Knife, Planningtorock, Mt. Sims - Tomorrow, In A Year

It's not like I expect a rehash of Heartbeats or anything. But I know that left field and experimental can still yield melody and chorus in the form of Fever Ray (The Knife's own Karin Andersson no less). But when it comes to giving hugely experimental opera on an ambitious scale a fair crack of the whip I'm pretty limited in the goodwill department.

It's probably a matter of context. The point of this collaborative operatic effort - telling the story of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species - wasn't really meant for the confines of the MP3 player or the stereo. And listening to it, no matter how intently, feels like only part of the story - there's a whole mass of accompanying visual data missing.

You can argue the merits of Olaf's forays into the rain forest to collect sounds. Or the fascination premise whether you think it's a successful endeavor or not. But ultimately it's a difficult listen at the best of times. Impenetrable occasionally.

There are perhaps a working narrative and the drama plays out in a semi-traditional opera format whilst the music and vocals shift around this with a life of their own. Trouble is you have to listen a few times to make these connections and I just haven't got the stamina to go that route.


http://www.theknife.net
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

Marina & The Diamonds - Live: 18th Feb 2010

Synth-based pop with a confident front woman is just what the record buying public want at the minute right? Well, okay we are spoiled for choice actually – Florence, Little Boots and La Roux being the most visible and newcomers including Ellie Goulding in the wings, so how does Marina differ?
 
There’s a lot of wordy, sarcastic flexing of personality for starters – like Kate Nash if she grew a pair and wasn’t so passive. Marina wants to be the star, thrives on the attention and the adoration.
 
With a sold out crowd to please and adorned in a faux-fur oversized green cardigan complete with frog eyes she’s certainly not hiding any lights under bushels – probably doesn’t even know where the bushels are. Appearances on numerous Big Things for 2010 lists have helped draw in the crowd, a previous visit bringing only a couple of dozen souls as she notes mid-set.
 
It’s a confident show then, belting out the shiny pop nuggets of 'Girls', ‘I Am Not A Robot’, ‘Are You Satisfied?’ and ‘Seventeen’ with determined energy and unbridled glee. However, once these fade into the ether there are few reasons to get excited and I’m left questioning whether Marina really has the depth to give her crossover appeal.

www.marinaandthediamonds.com
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

These New Puritans - Live: 5th Feb 2010

Capturing live the glacial sounds and rib-shattering rhythms of their new album ‘Hidden’, might have seemed a daunting prospect for These New Puritans. Having stitched together a series of vaguely militaristic songs in the studio which by turns flay the skin off your bones and then wrap warm brass around everything to soothe the pain they could be forgiven for failing to quite live up to expectation and the praise which the album has had heaped on it since it’s release.
 
But these fears aren’t justified. With Jack Barnett, rake thin and inherently serious, firmly the focus of tonight’s proceedings – the eye at the centre of this particular storm – These New Puritans rip things up with a maelstrom of angular threat, ‘Attack Music’ and ‘Fire Power’ particularly. Barnett’s brother George drives the rhythms forward seemingly with the focus of an autistic savant, completely oblivious to anything but the beats.
 
Whether evangelising their messages or intent on drilling the tribal, insistent beats into the crowd These New Puritans have managed to bottle something really special here which more and more people deserve to hear for themselves. Rally the troops and spread the word.
 
www.myspace.com/thesenewpuritans
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

Beach House - Teen Dream

One of the best things about music is that it's great for all moods and emotions. One of the best things about writing about music is that you get to turn people on to stuff they wouldn't otherwise hear. Beach House meet both these criteria in spades.

Despite forming back in 2006 and releasing two other albums to date, 'Teen Dream' is their first Sub Pop release, the Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally may have passed you by thus far.

Stop then and drink in the delicious, heady cocktail of dream pop that is Teen Dream. Ooh, it's fresh and intoxicating. Plays with the senses. Victoria whispers her French tinged vocals directly into your ear from the opening bars of 'Zebra' to the last breath of closing song 'Take Care'.

For lovers of all things Mazzy Star and/or Galaxie 500. Tell a friend. Damn it, tell the world, what they're missing. And then tell me if 'Silver Soul' isn't the one of the most beautifully sad songs you've ever heard.

http://www.myspace.com/beachhousemusic
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

A Place To Bury Strangers - Live: 13th Nov 2009

You really have to hand it to Jukebox, they consistently manage to book some stunning bands you wouldn’t get an opportunity to see anywhere else and A Place To Bury Strangers are certainly no exception.
 
With the Brooklyn, NYC band’s recently released second album ‘Exploding Head’ (out on Mute records now) still very much box fresh and confidently swaggering all over the blandness of record industry ‘Best of..’ pre-Christmas releases The Other Rooms is swamped in a heady concoction of lacerating guitar and intoxicating beats as they tear through a set list bursting with intrigue and imagination.
 
The unassuming greatness of their self-titled debut album  - a collection of chaotic demos and EP recordings with brilliant songs like ‘To Fix The Gash In Your Head’ and ‘She Dies’ evoke the JAMC wall of sound and undulating Cure bass lines which brought wider renown and the deserved moniker ‘loudest band’ you’re likely to see. So it’s with unbridled anticipation that I’m here waiting to be literally blown away – late on Friday 13th (appropriately enough) when, sad to admit, I’d usually be tucked up under a duvet welcoming the land of nod.
 
It’s all in the delivery and jeez do they deliver? The scene stealing tonight definitely comes from ‘In Your Heart’, ‘Deadbeat’ and ‘Ego Death, all from the latest album but it’s genuinely impossible to isolate a few songs though from what is the most pulsating, squealing, invigorating performance Newcastle is likely to witness for a long time to come.

www.myspace.com/aplacetoburystrangers
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

Mark Eitzel - Klamath

This has been a long time coming. There have been numerous collaborations and asides since his first solo album 60 Watt Silver Lining back in 1996, released after 15 years with American Music Club, but the naked, stripped back Mark Eitzel in reflective mood is the rarest of beasts, seen as frequently as Haley’s Comet these days.

It could be argued that this is a back to basics approach, an album recorded simply, at Eitzel’s own pace and featuring all sorts of small musical embellishments the subtly of which will in all likelihood not be reproduced when he tours the album in the coming months but this isn’t a criticism by any means. However, as quietly delivered as Klamath is, and it is a very respectfully and modestly whispered album, I do miss the angrier Mark Eitzel. The one with passion, with spit on his lips and a series of great axes to grind.

There was more life in that incarnation than the restrained cipher present here. I’m not simply clamouring angst for angst’s sake, at it’s heart Klamath seems to be in a happier place, most of the traditional vitriol and (self)loathing long banished into the past and I know that wishing pain on someone for the sake of their art is dumb and ultimately selfish it’s just that as a result Eitzel’s pain free music sounds slight and incomplete in comparision to his own extensive back catalogue.

It may say more about me than Eitzel that the lighter touches and lack of savage threat in these songs feels like a lack of confidence or substance. Perhaps without the stuff to rail against it’s harder to say anything with great meaning? Or maybe it’s unfair to even want that. Hey, we’re not getting any younger least of all Eitzel who turned fifty this year so maybe time has smoothed the rougher edges or perhaps a change is as good as a rest in recharging for any future releases dealing with ‘issues’. He’s always been a difficult read and a contrary songwriter capable of delivering beautiful hate at times, aimed at himself as much as others. So maybe now is a time to reflect.

The sparse feel of Klamath does hark back to certain points in the musicians own songwriting history with early American Music Club and the folkier influences of Nick Drake and John Martyn. As an exercise in late night acoustic stillness it’s exemplary. Wistful tones and social mores refracted back to the listener through his succinct lyricism and part confessional, part conspiratorial singing style.

Whilst Eitzel’s emotions are kept in check throughout the album it’s far from a toothless effort it’s just that rather than appear too judgmental there’s an aspect of seeing both sides of the story. Showcasing his songwriting maturity to hopefully a wider, newer audience than might otherwise be the case. It’s something he’s deserved for years, personally I hope it doesn’t make him too happy because I’m sure there still more life in him yet.

http://markeitzel.blogspot.com
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

Times New Viking - Born Again Revisited

Delivered with characteristic klang and echoed distortion, Born Again Revisited sees tri-cornered Columbus pop constructivists Times New Viking notch up their fourth studiously lo-fidelity album in as many years.
 
Without a care for the convention of production values and (let’s be honest) rather stupidly delivering the album as a master tape on VHS, it’s a difficult juggling act to hold the core of their songs in your head whilst the maddening frisson of scrapes and reverb whirl hectically in the background. On the plus side most tracks are kept to around two minute mark in case your patience begins to ebb.
 
Essentially this is another installment of clever-dumb noisy rock ‘n’ roll tunes passing by so quickly you shouldn’t care about titles but ‘No Time, No Hope’ and ‘Martin Luther King Day’ manage to stick their head above the clamour long enough for particular attention.
 
Despite the DIY, arch-art they scatter over their musical output it’s a real surprise to find on repeated listens the familiar ghosts of early Pavement and Guided By Voices emitting from the tinny sound and before long the ennui turns to vigour as TNV's obvious sense of joy grips you as infectiously as swine flu.

www.myspace.com/timesnewviking
www.mekongdelta.co.uk