François and The Atlas Mountains at Rise Music, Bristol - instore session

Warming up for their sold out show at The Motorcycle Showroom, François and The Atlas Mountains treated the faithful at Rise Music to a stripped-down, early evening performance at the Queen’s Road record shop.

 

Honoree Bristolian François and his colourful collection of band mates (sporting some charming knitwear) executed a glorious acoustic taster of their bi-lingual indie. They created a cosy atmosphere when the Gallic tones of François invited the audience to sit on the wooden floor and gather around the band; all that was missing was a drop in the lighting and a drop of wine.

With their first album on Domino, E Volo Love freshly released and a string of shows planned, this acoustic set had a warm, homecoming vibe as one-time resident of the city and bandleader François Marry smiled and acknowledged familiar faces in the audience.

In just twenty minutes or so we are all truly treated to sublime live performances of some quite remarkable songs. Piscine, Edge of Town and Les Plus Beaux shimmer with three-fold percussion and sizzling high-end harmonies.


Switching effortlessly between languages adds to the intrigue; the French-sung pieces seem to pack more punch, whether this is because the artists are more comfortable in their mother tongue or that my listening isn't blinkered by following the words. 

So good in fact is the dreamy, romanticism of the songs and pitch-perfect delivery, one can’t help but think that Dominos’ first French signings have somehow missed a trick in the making of their latest album. I feel that a little magic has been lost somewhere from when these natural gems, that fall the right side of twee that we heard tonight made it onto the processed, electric studio album. That said the argument is rooted in the excellence of the live performance rather than the shortcomings of the LP.

Underpinned by some African-infused rhythms courtesy of Amaury Ranger, perched on the ledge of the window this brief show, like the album, appears to be ultra casual, yet it is shows musical intricacies and expressive creation in great control and measure.

An array of school percussion is deployed at various stages, reminding the audience that our primary years were perhaps the last we had sat cross-legged on a varnished wooden floor! Though this wasn’t a boring assembly, but more a captivating story time; a magical music lesson with our favourite French teacher…..

Nick




E Volo Love is out now on

Domino Records

Howler - a review of Live in-store performance at Rise, Bristol

One of Bristol’s independent record shops, Rise played host to Minneapolis band Howler on Monday.

Receiving much critical acclaim (notably number three in the NME top new bands of 2012 list) and with their debut album, America Give Up sitting at number seven in the UK charts it seems Howler’s stock is in the ascendancy.

With the other band members relaxing around the Clifton store, Jordan Gatesmith and Ian Nygaard, both on electric guitar and vocals treated a modest 6pm crowd to a handful of their garage-rock tracks prior to their full-band show at The Louisiana.

The pair then confidently blasted through tracks such as Beach Sluts and Back of Your Neck at the same tempo as the album version, retaining the full band energy without even a hint of things being stripped-back or given in any way a slower, ‘acoustic’ version that we have become accustomed to at such events.

With the clean guitar tones and lack of bass, drums and keyboards these naked renditions sounded far more surf-rock than their album versions. Jordan’s deep vocal paired with the frantic, dueling, fifties guitar-riffing it sounded like it could have been Julian Casablancas should he have grown-up in California and made a band with his surfing buddies.

The friendly banter throughout and a youthful enthusiasm bore well as Gatesmith announced to the gathering “today is my Birthday: the big TWO – O ” to the sober on-lookers.


Howler, well forty-percent of them anyway, tonight added to their growing collection of fans, judging by the rush to the buy their album at the conclusion of the mini-set. 

When I told of my appreciation to Nygaard on his performance he seemed humbled; “really? Oh thanks, I’m a little jet-lagged..”.

Jet-lag or not there is no doubt about the potential of this band, whereas they won't get any prizes for originality, they know how to write tunes with a magnetic attitude and fizz.


What is surprising is that the opportunity to meet an act currently with a Top Ten album was taken up by so few. It certainly beat watching The Six O’clock News…..


Nick

America Give Up is out now on Rough Trade and for further band info visit howlerband.com

Difficult Second Album or Triumphant Third? The End of the Sophomore Slump?

The Maccabees’ Given to the Wild spiked the UK Album Charts last week, debuting at a giddy number 4. This made me realise just how many bands are now ‘nailing’ their third releases.

Artists tend to explode from nowhere with a classic debut album, with songs creamed off of the top of often years of hard song writing. Following it up is often a far greater challenge. 

House Party Massacre - Interview

House Party Massacre (aka HPM) have been ploughing punk/ alternative rock as a four-piece from their London base since the tail-end of 2009. 

They yield a sound that has obvious origins within late 1990s bands but also draw these metal/ punk/ indie influences from many decades; blending their own sound from this. 

Amongst playing and booking shows and writing new material, HPM’s sticksman Seb took the time to have a few words……

Hello Seb, so what is new with HPM?

Hi,we are busy rehearsing for the Emergenza battle of the bands gig; we are in the semi-finals at Dingwalls in Camden. Also we plan on recording a new E.P. to be released in the summer.

Busy then, the best of luck in the competition. Tell me what can fans expect from the new EP?

A more definitive sound. We feel as if we're starting to find our sound more, our first E.P. had different genres that we tried to experiment with and see what we found was better than others. Just a better quality of music all around...

Sounds like you are finding your sound, but what our your influences?

With a certain song we have that we're hoping to have on our new E.P.  John, our lead singer was influenced by The Deftones. 

Blue Youth (on the New Breed) has a Nirvana influence, as is one of our upcoming songs that we've finally finished. 

Another track we have, End of Me wasn't actually directly musically influenced but the Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Cobain suicides were the main inspiration of that track. 

I've written a song as well that we'll hopefully get done soon; I am aiming for something like System of a Down, especially the track Mind where it has a dark bass riff.

Any further ambitions for 2012 (or beyond)?

We want to just keep doing what we're doing, it's all going well at the moment and we basically just want to finish these songs off to show people our ideas. 

We're also fortunate to be able to go on tour this summer in the UK. We'll be going to Cheshire then onto Manchester and Liverpool. We'll be playing !Bidstock! Festival in Sandbach as well. 

In the future, we just want to get to a point where we're a successful band, playing big venues and making a living doing something we love doing...

In this digital age, where it seems anyone can make a record in their bedroom, it is refreshing to hear of a young band that have established excellent musicianship and song-craft from extensive of gigging and rehearsing. 

Only then deciding the time was right to release their début EP, New Breed with two sell-out shows at The Zenith in Islington back in July of 2011. 

I am interested to see where the band’s sound will progress from here, but with an outlook and cohesion beyond their years and a genuine love of playing to their fans this could be one party that outgrows its current house…..

 

New Breed is on iTunes

housepartymassacre.com

Single Review - Seluah - The Other Side of the Gun

After a six-year hiatus, Seluah, who are four respected touring musicians in Andrew Killmeier, Matt Johnson, Andrew Peace and Edward Grimes have regrouped with a bold, guitar-driven sound.

The Other Side of The Gun clocks in at just three seconds shy of the seven-minute mark and explores various themes in its hefty running time.

Solid and apparently untreated electric-guitar tones meld with live-sounding drums and a vocal that wouldn't be out of place in a more laid back a Nirvana-era moment. Tuneful and thoroughly listenable in its progress, with uncluttered production, The Other Side... delivers a robust and laid back alt-rock track that includes some purposeful vocal harmonies.

Three minutes in and the dirtier guitars join the drums and riffing bass in their building aggression, implying a crescendo or climax of some sort. Unfortunately this doesn't happen as there is a complete pause of a second or two before layered distorted guitars start their surprised assault over the continued tempo. Incorporating clean-delayed guitars also, the remaining two-and-a-half minutes is an interesting section of the song that won't be for everyone but sounds every-bit like the satisfying expressions of some creative musicians who aren't on a particularly tight leash.  

Seluah’s The Other Side of the Gun on Karate Body Records is now available worldwide from digital retailers.

Best New Bands 2012 - Ones to Watch

Half a dozen new artists, tipped for greatness in the new year.......

Zulu Winter

 Just released Lets Move Back to Front on Double Denim, with promise of an atmospheric album incorporating elements of Foals, Wild Beasts and The XX in the next first half of the year.

The History of Apple Pie

Causing a stir not just in London, but around the UK and Europe where touring has taken their scuzzy 'melody-over-noise' pop tunes. Initial singles and B-Sides show much promise.

Howler

Rather than play 'name the influences' sit back and enjoy a young, enthusiastic, guitar band that I think the industry is ready for in the new year. Debut America Give Up is out on 16th January.

Tribes

Another new band with a promising debut, Baby, released on 16/01/12. Tribes have that 90s-slacker-vibe but with some less-depressing passages and the odd (Heaven-forbid!) guitar solo.

Lucy Rose

Lucy is stepping out of the shadows, being backing vocalist for Bombay Bicycle Club and judging by the quality of her first three singles, there is little reason to be Red Faced about it (GROAN)!

Thanks

Nick

Single Review - Woman's Hour - Jenni / Human

Hailing from Kendal, the gateway to the Lake District and now based in London Woman’s Hour, are setting out to make both sparse dense indie-pop songs. This is perfectly illustrated on their Dirty Bingo debut: double A-side single: Jenni / Human, which encompasses influences from various prevalent trends in indie guitar music over the past few years.

Human has a slow-building extended opening half, blending warm synths, guitar harmonics and with a resounding dubstep snare delay. This then unpredictably transforms into a shoegazey, progressively grooving, disco ballad, built around higher-register bass lines and profound vocal wails. The stripped-back music allows for a pleasing minimalism and the use of space to great affect topped with singer Fiona Burgess’s pure voice.

Jenni is a denser track that sounds a bit like The XX, melded with calypso-jangle guitar pop in the vein of Vampire Weekend. It really is a charming piece but the discernible ‘riff’ marking the real start of the song doesn’t register until one-minute and four seconds of twinkling, building introduction have passed.Perhaps these, albeit tuneful and interesting, extended introductory passages should be edited from the single release. Also I would have liked to hear this track with more vocal gusto as the voice flirts with the weaker side of airy. 

That said across the singles’ two tracks Woman’s Hour have shown real promise, experimentally producing a couple of hazy and intriguing songs on an overall solid debut.

Nick