Soft Metals – Soft Metals

Soft Metals - Soft Metals

Soft Metals

Soft Metals

Released: July 19 2011

Genre: Electronica 

Label: Captured Tracks

Rating: 3.5/5

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By: Alexandra Lyon

The self-titled Soft Metals album doesn’t give us any clues in its name as to what the album may sound like. Far from sounding like any kind of soft metal, this bundle of psychedelic 80’s-synth inspired album is absolutely fascinating.

The duo of Patricia Hall and Ian Hicks, hailing from Portland, Oregon, has created a car-crash of sound that is both exciting and thoroughly interesting. Reminiscent on some levels to the sounds of Crystal Castles, this ten-track album lacks the whisky fuelled energy and terror brought by Alice Glass, but instead replaces it with a dreamy, almost hypnotic undertone that any fan of electronica would appreciate.

The tracks that feature would not seem out of place on the soundtrack to any 80’s-related television series or film. Through the incredible use of synth and keyboards, it’s almost possible to see women disappearing down the street with poodle perms and polka-dot jumpsuits – shoulder pads optional.

The first song on the album, Psychic Driving, is everything that you would expect from an album such as this. Synth riffs that scream Duran Duran are layered over an effortless vocal from Hall, and the repetitive nature of the song has a trippy effect on the listener. The melody is melancholy and disjunct, a clever tactic used by most musicians to evoke feelings of sadness or fear. And yet, the track remains pleasant to listen to. This track, as well as the album on a whole, represents the oddity and originality of Soft Metals, and really showcases their ability in that the audience is clearly identified and the duo are staying true to a genre of music that they are clearly very passionate about.

The album in general is very emotional in terms of the voice and lyrics of Patricia Hall, notably in Voices and Pain. The poignant lyrics and the velvet tones from Hall combined with the surreal accompaniment of discotheque waves come together to really scream at the audience and notify them of the arrival of Soft Metals. Other tracks particularly worthy of note include Celestial Call, a sci-fi inspired track -haunting, resonate vocals and high-pitched scales muted with a dreamy computerised overlay of digital sound effects. This track is intriguing and allows it to be set on a different tangent from the other tracks – though they are all uniquely interesting, this track is set apart in its own right.

These ten tracks are enthralling in that they would be an outcast were they in human form, stood in a crowd. Unlike most other albums by different artists, their sound does not conform to a particular style that they have established. Though their influences and the general tonality and genre of the tracks stay same throughout, it is almost as though this were a greatest hits album with some of their more experimental tracks and some of their safer more well-guarded works. Their hypnotising keyboard ostinatos and catchy hooks in the lyrics ensure that this, their first full-length album effort, will be highly regarded by many critics and fans of electronica. They are a revival of the past, fused with the future, and their eccentric synth drones will surely be the fuel they need to ignite a promising career in music.

Soft Metals – Celestial Call

 

Essential Listening: June 13 2011

Copy Haho – Dying Breed

Copy Haho aren’t a new band by any means, releasing their critically acclaimed EP Bred For Skills & Magic all the way back in 2009. We’ve not heard a lot from them over the past two years, but finally they’ve got around to releasing their debut album – and it’s as good as we expected. Dying Breed is a choppy indie rock track from their debut album with simplistic, memorable vocals and raw guitar riffs.

 

 

 

Le Corbeau – Black Belvedere

The fifth track on the recently released album Moth on the Headlight by psychadelic Norwegian outfit Le Corbeau is Black Belvedere – a dark and spectral composition. Hush, menacing vocals overlay unnatural instrumental layers – as brass and string instruments play their part in evoking a frighteningly contagious orchestral piece. Le Corbeau isn’t exactly summertime pop music, but it’s superbly crafted deep and thoughtful music.

 

 

Airship – Kids

Kids is the recently released lead single by Manchester based Airship. There’s no doubt that Airship know exactly how to make captivating, feel-good rock music, and their forthcoming debut album Stuck In This Ocean will be eagerly anticipated by anyone with their ear to the ground. The rock/electronic crossover can be disastrous for many, but Airship have it nailed – without a doubt one of the more exciting outfits to emerge from Manchester recently.

 

Resolution 242 – Resolution 242

Resolution 242 - Resolution 242

Resolution 242

Resolution 242

Released: Unknown

Genre: Reggae / Punk

Label: Do The Dog Music

Rating: 4.1/5

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Politically driven reggae group Resolution 242, through their debut self-titled release, have showcased some of the best musical creativity available on the reggae/ska orientated Do The Dog Music record label. Resolution 242 is a record that effectively captures lively reggae instrumentals in combination with a clear and powerful left wing message. The Stratford based three-piece are undeniably superb lyricists, and for the listener, the messages and motives behind each track act as the catalyst for creating an extremely convincing final product.

Although Resolution 242 is a very lyrically potent release, the instrumental side of the record should not be overlooked. In opening track, Bullets In The Ground, the contagious bass guitar riffs and melodic chorus are the obvious elements that make the song so captivating: “rise up, rise up, take your head from your hands / the streets will be a better place, when we stop taking demands”. Throughout second track, I.M.F, Resolution 242 truly demonstrate their ability to write passionately and convincingly. Resolution 242‘s use of anecdotal lyrics helps to boost their political views, such as their opinions on materialism and capitalism – “these digits are a fallacy”.

Not every track takes a complex, lyrical path to emphasise opinion; Pigs and Poets Town both deliver reggae hooks that stimulate comparisons to the like of The King Blues, suggesting Resolution 242 know how to deliver a memorable track as well as a political exposition. One of the highlights of the album comes towards the latter end of War Crimes, closing with a persuasive voice over reinforcing the Resolution 242 warning of media manipulation and their stance “against tyranny”.

It’s fairly evident that the social messages carried by Resolution 242 as a band and as a record are the central focus, therefore for some it may be difficult to engage with the music as well as those with corresponding beliefs. This may well be a factor that somewhat limits the bands success, however, it’s evident that the sole aim of Resolution242 is to create enjoyable and influential music – and in each sector they are highly successful.

~ Article by James Murray

Listen To: Bullets In The Ground, War Crimes, Poets Town, I.M.F.

For Fans Of: The Skints, Dirty Revolution, The King Blues, Mouthwash

 

Cheese People: Interview

Cheese People Interview

Cheese People

Interview

Date: May 09 2010

Genre: Electronic/Experimental/Acoustic

Label: Wow Now Records

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Russian band, Cheese People have been ‘jamming’ since 2003. Following the release of their self-titled electronic release, and the more recent acoustic release, Well, Well, Well, Cheese People have made a great impact on Russian music. Their next target is to break-through internationally – and truly change the universale views of their countries music.

Other critics have compared Cheese People to the likes of Datarock, CSS and New Young Pony Club. The female fronted four-piece only released their debut album; Cheese People, in 2009 – and less than two years later we’re led to believe that Cheese People aren’t far away from a third release. To find out more, Sound-Revolution interviewed Russia’s favourite disco punk group:

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Sound-Rev: What are the main influences behind Cheese People?

Cheese People: When we started, we were greatly influenced of mainstream stuff – like Prodigy, Jamiroquai, Red Hot Chilly Peppers, and others. Later, Anton and Olya started to work in a record store in Samara, and heard a lot of other different music – and nowadays we downloads tonnes of tracks from all over of the world… but we still like music of the 90’s – the music of that time when we touched strings at first time.

Last summer, when we decided to record the acoustic album, we listened to Soul Coughing’s CD “El Oso” – not sure if we call it an “influence”… But we are really proud, that Tchad Blake (who recorded “El Oso”) had mixed our record, “Well Well Well”. You know, it’s always great to “hold the hand” of a man, whose tracks you had liked – even if we never met him (we worked via internet).

Sound-Rev: What brought you to the decision to change your style of music, with the release of you recent acoustic album ‘Well, Well, Well’, – can we expect to hear more of the same with the next release?

Cheese People: Basicly we had never change our “style” – It better say we had found our own manner of song-writing and not we are touching different sounds. We had not worked a lot to record our non-electronic album “Well Well Well” – to be honest – almost all tracks was recorded during a 12-hours-long-jam, that happened in Moscow in September 2009. We just wanted to have this experience and play “real” instruments with our friends – but later, when we heard the record, we enjoyed it and decide to release it.

It’s quite hard to tell what kind of tracks we will release later: at this moment we work at

1) A hip-hop-song with Russian lyrics for local child charity project,

2) An experimental / electronic / avant garde soundtrack for an Austrian festival, that took place in December 2010.

3) New electo/dance songs (more equal to material from our debut).

4) A collaboration project with a Japanese post-rock band (completely unknown even in native country, but very talented guys). You see, we have much work to do – even if part of this project will be canceled, we will perform something completely new very soon

We would like to get back to electronic dance music and record a new groovy club album – but we would like to find a good co-producer for it. We have dozens demos of new songs already – and if we find a gold-mine in Samara and get some money to invite Teddybears or Dangermouse to our studio, we can finish it in a week! Unfortunately, there is no gold in Samara, and we are just lazy punks…

Sound-Rev: Can you tell us about some of your plans for the future? Would you consider touring in the UK?

Cheese People: We are always interested in shows outside of Russia – we will probably come to the UK sooner than you think. That’s why we always say to our listeners to share our songs with their friends – maybe this will help us to find a good booking-manager outside of Russia. We never planned to sell billions of CDs – but we love to travel a lot and have fun wherever we go.

Sound-Rev: What music are Cheese People enjoying listening to at the moment?

Cheese People: At THIS moment, we are sitting at the train station called Taiga (funny, yep?), waiting for a local train to Krasnoyarsk, where we will play this evening. We are little bit tired of touring in Siberia, so listen to the night trains, but, if you ask, here is a list of 5 records we love listening to recently:

White Pony “K Stomp” (2010)

I Monster “Neveroddoreven” (2003)

Tobacco “Maniac Meat» (2010)

Pink Punk “Zombie God Delicious” (2009)

School Of Seven Bells “Alpinisms” (2009)

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~ Article by James Murray

Listen to: Wake Up, O.M.E, Ua-A-A!

For Fans of: Dead Disco, CSS, Datarock, The Prodigy, New Young Pony Club

 

Pin Me Down – Pin Me Down

Pin Me Down - Pin Me Down

Pin Me Down

Pin Me Down

Released: Apr 19 2010

Genre: Indie Pop

Label: Animalized

Rating: 2.8/5

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Pin Me Down: the first of several Bloc Party side projects to deliver a full length album. Consisting of Bloc Party lead guitarist Russell Lissack and New York based vocalist Milena Mepris, Pin Me Down are the latest attempt at indie pop. If we thought Bloc Party lead vocalist, Kele Okereke was the single influence behind the transcendence from the raw sounds of Silent Alarm into the electronic sounds of Intimacy, we were very wrong.

Pin Me Down is a very straightforward and simple record. It is evident that the couple have attempted to create pop music, and in all fairness, that’s exactly that they’ve delivered. Each track is catchy through its simplicity; however, at times it’s just so simple that it seems to offer nothing at all to the listener. Lissack’s catchy guitar riffs are often drowned out by sloppy production, when Lissack’s guitar abilities should really have been the unique selling point of this record. In tracks such as Cryptic and Boy Who Cried Wolf, Lissack’s raw guitar riffs shine through, but even on the rare occasion that this happens, it just sounds like a dumbed down, more generic version of the guitars from Silent Alarm. Apparently Lissack’s guitar playing hasn’t really evolved whatsoever over the past 5 years.

Although Pin Me Down as a record offers plenty of opportunities for critics to tear the songs apart and laugh at them; in terms of listen-ability, Pin Me Down is actually very catchy, and at times very successful in terms of being a reputable pop record. Tracks such as Meet The Selkirks and Everything is Sacred work well at being captivating and up-beat – which as a generalisation is what this record really aims for, and accomplishes. A few tracks such as Ticking, offer great and memorable choruses, yet unfortunately at times poor production just takes away the edge – the opening of the track sounding like it’s been put together in Ejay Dance 3 – a repetitive kick drum opening a track isn’t the most inspiring.

The final track, Fight Song, works well as an ending to the record. Down-beat and melancholy, the track is an emotional ending to a very up-beat album, which works well in changing the mood for effect, and suggesting that the listener has come to the end of a musical journey. Pin Me Down is a mediocre record; however, it works well at being catchy pop music. It’s just impossible not to feel that the album could have been so much more.

~ Article by James Murray

Listen to: Cryptic, Pretty In Pink

For Fans of: Bloc Party, Two Door Cinema Club, Ellie Goulding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL0QIKOOFSQCryptic

 

Grammatics – Grammatics

Grammatics

Grammatics

Grammatics

Released: Mar 24 2009

Label: Dance To The Radio

Genre: Indie/Alt Rock

Rating: 4.1/5

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The argument that generic indie rock is becoming omnipresent, getting monotonous and similar is undoubtedly a talking point at the moment; generic is anything but a label suited to this new ‘indie’ band from Leeds, with great song writing skills, very diverse vocals and deep instrumentals, with the use of Cello’s executed by Emilia Ergin throughout the album.

‘Shadow Committee’ slowly brings us into a Grammatics journey of complexity, each track dramatic in the arrangement of instrumentals, often giving the album an overall royal feel. The album flows perfectly; the choppy riffs and vocals shift into melodic anti-climaxes, flawlessly moving on to the next theatrical track right up to the final track. Each track is filled to the brim with a vocal and instrumental combination of sound, making the album seem very busy and at times almost endless.

One criticism of the album is the perhaps over-complexity of some tracks; despite the effectiveness of dynamic vocals and instrumentals, other critics are pointing out that sometimes their sound seems over-complicated which perhaps somewhat over-impresses some audiences. As a result of this, the band seems to have created a very much ‘love or hate’ situation – appealing only to those who can appreciate the very dramatic sound.

Grammatics are still fairly unfamiliar with the majority of music fans and indie fans in the UK, despite a rise in recognition as a result of the release of this generally highly acclaimed debut album. In October Grammatics will tour the UK with Bloc Party, offering a great opportunity to expose their music to an audience who may appreciate their unique, non-generic indie sound.

~ Article by James Murray