Tuesday, 22 July 2008 |
Hailing from the world's most isolated major city - Perth, Australia - it's as if Tame Impala have been sheltered from prevailing musical trends, instead forging their own unique mix of Cream, the Kinks and Kyuss. The three piece - who look like they have a combined age of 35 - make music from the 70s. With their lashings of fuzzed out guitars and hypnotic psych-grooves, Tame Impala could spell the end for spiky guitars and haircuts and usher in a psych-rock revival. By Dave Ruby Howe & Nick Christie
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Monday, 21 July 2008 |
Joining together two modern musical madmen like Beck and Danger Mouse seems almost dangerous, like it could easily descend into a battle of two outrageous imaginations. Instead, ‘Modern Guilt’ comes off like a sonic peanut butter and jelly sandwich, where the different elements meld together so simply and naturally that it defies the incomprehensible bent of their partnership. Beck and his music have always belonged in the sixties and Danger Mouse’s captures this in a twisted dream state. You only need to taste 'Modern Guilt' once before you’re stuck in its kaleidoscopic rapture. - Matt Shea
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Monday, 14 July 2008 |
Hercules And Love Affair, the musical odyssey of DJ Andy Butler and the likes of Antony Hegarty from Antony & The Johnsons, are the current stars of the dance scene. Their sound is so sleek and shiny that it makes you want to don your rollerskates and glide right back to the 70s.
Only, this is disco for the modern era. More underground than the pointless retro homages that clog up club playlists every weekend, there is something irresistibly dark and alluring hidden between the synths, trumpets and smooth vocals. Music critics are fawning over the album and the fashionistas are becoming wise to their ways too (Chanel used ‘You Belong’ in a Fall/Winter fashion show).
Tracks like ‘Blind’ and ‘Hercules Theme’ are so fresh they leave you aching to strut your stuff. Only in a really cool John Travolta disco way.
So, as Hercules And Love Affair finally starts to get the recognition it deserves, The Cool Hunter pays tribute to the label/production house DFA Records www.dfarecords.com/ behind what could be the album of 2008 by looking back over their best musical creations.
The Rapture ‘House of Jealous Lovers’
Although it’s little more than Talking Heads fighting Television over a synthesizer, this soundtracked a million teenage parties and had drunken scenesters admiring New Yorkers who had a penchant for jerky riffs and cowbells, rather than skinny jeans and Converse.
LCD Soundsystem ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’
James Murphy has a vocal style so unique it needs to be heard to be fully understood. Imagine a bear with a cold singing in the shower and you’re halfway there. Here, he simultaneously scares off the neighbours while inviting in for an impromptu rave.
The Juan Maclean ‘Happy House’
This dirty track is so sleazy it has ‘4am at some grotty indie disco, staring at some god awful concoction of a drink you’ve ordered and wondering whether that person with the angel wings and eyeliner is actually a man’ written all over it.
Hot Chip ‘Over and Over’
Not big but certainly clever, this is the sound of pre Nu Rave dance, when crisp yet clunky beats belonged to the streets rather than the High Street. By Rob Facey
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Wednesday, 09 July 2008 |
Economics, technology, ice hockey, tennis, personal grooming: the Swedish list of triumphs is long and extensive. With the new breed of indie pop artists emerging from the kingdom, the rest of the world has yet something else to be jealous about. Here are three brilliant exemplars:
When Lykke Li sings her voice is so delicate, so ethereal that she sounds as though she’s transmitting from a submarine stranded on the seafloor. What’s more, Li brilliantly plays to this amazing strength, matching it to productions so lean and carefully stripped back that they drive you straight to the heart of her bristling songcraft.
Lacrosse
West coast-flavoured guitars struck through with bittersweet lyrics and anchored by a skin tight rhythm section, with their debut ‘The New Year Will Be For You And Me’ this sextet have written the soundtrack to the relationship you’ve just ended and are taking a weeklong surf trip to forget. Sweet, cathartic tunes to sooth your irascible soul.
El Perro Del Mar
Imagine that Burt Bacarach once shared a piano stool with Brian Wilson while Neil Young crooned a lyric about the trio’s favourite girl. The girl they were singing about was probably El Perro Del Mar’s Sarah Assbring. Assbring matches beautiful laments on busted love with music that squeezes every last drop of hurt from her stricken soul. Amazing stuff. By Matt Shea
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Tuesday, 01 July 2008 |
Unlimited credits are in the offing for whoever brought the majestic Al Green together with producers ?uestlove and James Poyser. Green’s new album, ‘Lay It Down’, is the best cut of soul you’re likely to hear all year. With guest spots featuring Anthony Hamilton and John Legend this is one very modern album and an absolutely essential addition to your Al Green collection.
The other essential Al Green albums?! The Cool Hunter has you covered.
Let’s Stay Together – 1972
No introduction needed, with a title track that stayed at number one in the US for nine consecutive weeks. The rest of the album may not have been chart-worthy, but it’s nevertheless just as strong.
The Belle Album – 1977
Expected at the time to be his last secular LP, Green produces himself and lets loose a cracking series of meditations from a man caught between the religious and the secular.
I’m Still In Love With You - 1972
Released at Christmas of 1972 this, the most slickly romantic of Green’s albums, begs to be busted out next to a roaring fireplace with only the most special of wine and women in accompaniment.
Gets Next To You – 1971
The template-setter for the early 70s Green albums, this sounds like tightly reigned wanton madness. Absolutely brilliant.
Call Me – 1973
Built on Willie Mitchell’s fastidious production, this is Green’s artistic zenith. A masterpiece that totally beguiles the listener. By Matt Shea.
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Thursday, 19 June 2008 |
Brooklyn quartet Yeasayer’s music is a concoction of indie rock and worldbeat that should probably come off as stilted and manufactured but the band instead, like a pack of hip-shooting alchemists, mesh these genres together in experiments that pay off brilliantly.
Guitars, sitars, mandolins, bongos, cowbells, and fretless bass are all run through with driving synthesisers, while ceaselessly harmonising vocals tend to stay deep in the mixes, adding to the ethereal quality of their music.
Obvious touchstones David Byrne and Peter Gabriel would be proud to turn out music as brilliant and thoroughly engaging as this.
By Matt Shea
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Wednesday, 11 June 2008 |
Seattle's Fleet Foxes are the perfect soundtrack to a cold, rainy afternoon. Like a calm Brian Wilson filtered through My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses, the band's lead singer, 21 year old Robin Pecknold is a remarkable musical talent.
Like a church choir led by your favourite indie band, the Fleet Foxes sound is a mix of glistening, layered vocal harmonies, softly plucked guitars and a sense of longing and wonder that only open skies and vast wilderness can evoke.
It sounds simultaneously now and forty and one hundred years ago.
Free of time, this album, this band, Fleet Foxes, are here to stay. By Nick Christie
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Thursday, 05 June 2008 |
Is it too early for lists? Never, we say. So here they are,
all the songs that have set the bar so high for music in '08.
10 - Foals - 'Balloons'
These Oxford boys "fly
balloons on this fuel called love". So they own my favourite
lyric so far this year. They also sport snaky, crystal
guitar lines and a gurgling brass section - what else can you do but
sit back and lap it up? Encore.
9 - Tokyo Police Club - 'In A Cave'
These young
Ontarions, do it straight up. The drum beat makes my neck snap,
the guitars make me want to jump and the whole thing, in all its raw,
snotty glory makes me feel like I did when I discovered punk for the
first time.
8 - Cut Copy - 'Lights & Music'
Even when they're cruising, Cut Copy churn out fabulously energetic pop gems. Tops.
7 - M83 - 'Graveyard Girl'
Would getting to second base in a cemetary be awkward/blasphemous? This makes it sound so right. And hot.
6 - Snoop Dogg - 'Sensual Seduction'
Snoop
can do anything he likes, basically. He could ditch the blunts and
8-Balls for a harmonica and some overalls and get all country and
western on us and he'd still drop a hot record.
5 - Santogold - 'L.E.S. Artistes'
Perfect pop. Without borders, without barriers. The best song from
hands down the best indie-reggae rock-hop album, ever.
4 - The Presets - 'This Boy's In Love'
Like some forgotten gem from Depeche Mode's bombed out basement, This Boy's In Love
thunders into the list. It's equal parts new romantic fey-pop and pure
dancefloor dynamite. Brilliant.
3 - Vampire Weekend - 'A Punk'
Every time lead
vocalist Ezra Koenig sings that hook: "Look outside, the raincoats
gone" he dangles just one, excruciatingly good 'Say Oh!' off the end of
it. I wish he would have given me a more traditional 'Say Oh, oh,
oh', but the fact he didn't is probably the reason I keep coming back
for more.
2 - The Teenagers - 'Love No (Delorean Remix)'
Week
old pepperoni pizza, Showgirls, broken English and blatant hipster
narcissism. Yes, the Teenagers have it all. And this Delorean
remix somehow manages to make them even better. Superb.
1 - MGMT - 'Kids'
Oh man. The little
rising synth, warbling like a bird to the sound of children
playing. Is there are more uplifting intro to a song anywhere in
the world right now? MGMT make you pump fists in the air, sing at
the top of your voice, dance like a fool and smile until you
hurt. Thank you MGMT.
By Nick Christie and Dave Ruby Howe
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 |
Breaking up can be hard. Clearly, nobody told the Futureheads this
little fact of life. After the ‘heads and their label 679 went
splitsville, the band haven’t slowed down a bit.
On their new
cut, The Beginning Of The Twist, the Sunderland four-piece come off all
perky and energised without the strings attached feel that sometimes
comes with the label world.
That track has their classic
neo-wave jerky guitar sound, ideal for kids in Converse All Stars to
freak to at their local indie disco, all mixed with a twist of big-time
production from the golden fingertips of Youth (Primal Scream, The
Verve).
Here I was thinking they’d disappeared with Kaiser
Chiefs to planet suck, but the Futureheads are back and they sound
better than ever. By Dave Ruby Howe.
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Wednesday, 21 May 2008 |
While hipsters the world over are salivating for distorted bangers from
the likes of Justice, Teenage Bad Girl and the rest of the rabble,
there’s something far more exciting happening just out of the
spotlight. It’s called Valerie (scene, sound, label and blog). It’s
sunglasses at night, John Hughes, Molly Ringwald, old Sega Megadrive
cartridges, endless summers and high drama romance all rolled into one.
Purveyors of the Valerie sound include founders the Outrunners,
Anoraak, College, Mathelvin and Minitel Rose and more recently
Parallels and Aedyhawke, all brought together through their shared
adoration of retro synths and Miami Vice re-runs. Good thing they all
found each other because they’re hitting all the right marks, from
Maethelvin’s car-chase disco to the teenage anthems of College and
Anoraak’s make out sesh scores. In three years time Valerie might be an
inescapable, designer-tee-spewing, branding monstrosity. Right now, it
just sounds so good. Touch it while it's still pure.
myspace.com/valeriejetaime
myspace.com/theoutrunners
myspace.com/maethelvin
myspace.com/anoraak
myspace.com/minitelrose
myspace.com/collegeoflove
By Dave Ruby Howe
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Friday, 09 May 2008 |
Yeo Choong,
from Brisbane, Australia is smart. I say this not because he is
the mastermind behind Yeo and The Fresh Goods, or because he makes
music with mathematical precision.
I say it because he
is a 21 year old Masters student in Audiology and because his debut
album 'Trouble Being Yourself' sounds like a nerdier version of
N.E.R.D. Indeed, the production on his standout track 'Two Sides
Of A Door' would make Pharrell proud.
But Yeo isn't just in the
mood for making funk rock and singing in a slight falsetto. He
jumps and jerks between genres, sometimes in the same song.
The
reggae-pop intro of 'Fishin' With Aidan' melds into a salsa infused
party jam, all the while mixing the ska-delivery of Sublime and the
'Thank You' message from Dido's long-forgotten hit of the same name.
From
his sneaky horns to his hand-claps and Super Mario samples, Yeo
recorded, mixed and produced the entire album. It's catchy,
cheeky good fun.
Fresh goods indeed. By Nick Christie
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Monday, 28 April 2008 |
Context is everything.
To record 'For Emma, Forever Ago', Bon Hiver - aka Justin Vernon - retreated to the remotest corner of Wisconsin and recorded alone for three cold winter months.
That sense of loneliness, that dull, confusing ache that swells up when things just fall apart, it's all captured here in hearty acoustic strums and softly whispered vocals.
Bon Iver is a play on the French words for 'good winter'. And that is notable because what could have been a very bad winter for Vernon was salvaged by the recording of this extraordinary album.
Sitting on the sonic spectrum between Iron and Wine and Jose Gonzalez, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is nine songs of subtle, layered acoustic guitar and Vernon's healing falsetto.
It's an album you spin when your lover leaves you. In that context, Bon Iver will make you feel better about being sad.
Context is everything and 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is brilliant. Download 'Skinny Love' here:
myspace.com/boniver
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Tuesday, 22 April 2008 |
Santogold’s 'L.E.S. Artistes' is a whole lot of good. With a spin of the single and the accompanying faux-gore video, it sounds like it was pieced together over several late nights at M.I.A.’s loft with help from with invited guests Tegan & Sara serving drinks, Nick Zinner controlling the stereo with all those obscure late ‘80s noise bands you’ve never heard of and revered UK beatsmith Switch twiddling a knob here and there for effect.
All the while Philly native, Santogold, bellows above it all with rousing, fists-clenched intensity. CSS’s Lovefoxx was there too, overseeing the green sausage guts aesthetic of the clip but she passed out in bathtub before the end. Sounds pretty damn great, don’t you think? Me too. By Dave Ruby Howe
myspace.com/santogold
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Friday, 11 April 2008 |
Foals make me jealous. I mean, how embarrassing is it to see these kids blast their way onto the scene with the kind of awe-inspiring, frenetic indie-meets-dance-punk you wished that second Valentinos EP would’ve had? Pretty embarrassing. In the spotlight for less than a year and Foals have already featured on a Kitsuné Maison compilation, inked major deals, and had their drummer pose for Burberry’s Spring/Summer line. Shit, these kids get their record produced by TV On The Radio’s main man Dave Sitek and essentially scrap his mixes in favour of their own. Next thing you know they’ll be ignoring all those MySpace messages from Timbaland. Damn them.
Then they go and rub it in my face with their terrific debut album Antidotes. Look at them…flaunting those nervous guitar lines, those booming drums and fevered vox. Even the horns can’t slow down the raucous second single Cassius, nor the stomp of Heavy Water. By Dave Ruby Howe
Get envious at myspace.com/foals
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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