It's that time again, Sound Supp.ly is back. This time with drop four. Included this time are brilliant albums from Civil Twilight, Kevin Devine, Conduits, Mansions and LA Dispute, amongst a whole heap of others. As I write this, there are six and a half days left to download these five albums, and five more, for only $15 (that's just under £9.50). This year I've found Sound Supp.ly to be the best way to discover new music in affordable, legal way, in which artists get properly paid for their work. Definitely worth supporting, whether you do it bi-monthly like I do, or pay $75 for an annual subscription.
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
3 Car Pile Up - Find Love
I'll write more about this later, but for now, just download the new EP from 3 Car Pile Up, a recently reformed 90s alternative band, featuring Josh Stump, a friend of mine. Josh is one of the funniest and insightful people I know. His band is brilliant.
Moro - Lay Down Your Ghosts EP
I can't remember where I first came across Moro - I think it might have been a tweet from Tim Hughes or something equally random. Whichever it was I'm glad I followed a link to Soundcloud and basked in the glory of the title track of this EP. Lay Down Your Ghosts is immense, soulful, dirty and heavy, but perfectly formed as the best pop song you've heard all year. You will love it. Your mum'll love it. Your dog'll love it.
This EP is the follow up to an album from last year, Slow River, which I really need to hear. All the rhetoric is that this new EP is a change of gear, a new direction. Motorcade, the second song, features some chiming U2-esque guitars, and a vocal performance with incredible energy and passion from Steve Hughes. Hunting For Gold is driven by a rock solid rhythm section and another soaring chorus.
There's so much invention here. Partly, I suspect, provided by the production team of Mo Hausler (U2, Lily Allen) and Adrian Hall (Sinead O'Connor, Alicia Keys) but also drawn from the musicality and skill of the band themselves. This EP provides a snapshot of a band on a major growth spurt. Probably, they are already in a place where domination of airwaves/live settings should be within their grasp, but woe-betide other indie bands if Moro actually have the temerity to grow even further over the coming months. We'll be powerless to resist.
This is most clearly seen on this wonderful taster EP's closer "Don't Need Your Love", a song which threatens to explode throughout and never does, as Hughes whispers and hollers over a bed of beautiful atmospherics.
Simply put, this is great, and I can't wait to hear more.
This EP is the follow up to an album from last year, Slow River, which I really need to hear. All the rhetoric is that this new EP is a change of gear, a new direction. Motorcade, the second song, features some chiming U2-esque guitars, and a vocal performance with incredible energy and passion from Steve Hughes. Hunting For Gold is driven by a rock solid rhythm section and another soaring chorus.
There's so much invention here. Partly, I suspect, provided by the production team of Mo Hausler (U2, Lily Allen) and Adrian Hall (Sinead O'Connor, Alicia Keys) but also drawn from the musicality and skill of the band themselves. This EP provides a snapshot of a band on a major growth spurt. Probably, they are already in a place where domination of airwaves/live settings should be within their grasp, but woe-betide other indie bands if Moro actually have the temerity to grow even further over the coming months. We'll be powerless to resist.
This is most clearly seen on this wonderful taster EP's closer "Don't Need Your Love", a song which threatens to explode throughout and never does, as Hughes whispers and hollers over a bed of beautiful atmospherics.
Simply put, this is great, and I can't wait to hear more.
Friday, 20 July 2012
Billy Vincent - Dead Man's Shoes Video showcase
Billy Vincent to showcase their new video for ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ tonight
Billy Vincent release the second single from their debut album ‘She’ on August 20th through Something Nothing Records.
Highlighted in Paul Moody’s excellent review in Q Magazine as “conjuring up visions of a debauched Mumfords”, ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ embodies the heady mix of influences that makes their debut album ‘She’ such an intriguing delight.
Centered around the fabulously playful lyrics of Billy Barratt - “If I was a preacher, I’d get Jesus to meet ‘cha……” - and an irresistible chorus, Dead Man’s Shoes initially embraces a country flavour, embellished beautifully by the guest appearance of pedal steel legend B J Cole, before heading into territory inhabited byThe Kinks or The Faces.
The video for ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ was directed by Brendan Cleaves and can be seen just above this.
Billy Vincent will be breaking into their festival schedule (placed at No1 in The Evening Standard’s “must see this summer” list), to headline Club NME at London’s Koko on July 27th to celebrate ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ release.
Billy Vincent are: Billy Barratt & David Vincent – vocals, guitars; Joseph Kinsey – bass, harmonica, vocals; Matt Woodward – fiddle, vocals; Jack Blenkinsop – drums, vocals.
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Ormonde - Machine
Ormonde - the new band from Anna-Lynne Williams (Trespassers William, Lotte Kestner) and Robert Gomez - release their brilliant debut album, Machine, on August 7th. This record has been a long time coming. Released on Hometapes, this is a beautiful record.
Anyone who has followed my writing for a while will know that I have made a point of keeping up with what Anna-Lynne has been up for a number of years now, ever since I discovered the wondrous Trespassers William album Different Stars. I have to report that this, by far and away, is the best release I've ever heard from her. As I've said before, she has one of those voices. The kind that you could die happy listening to, the kind that you'd thank for telling you you needed a tooth extraction because the news would be delivered so lyrically. Here, with Robert Gomez, she has struck the perfect collaborative note. Indie yet immediate, pop. yet dark enough to appear dangerous, retro and vintage, yet incredibly insistent and vital, as the press release attests, every track here could be the opening track, or the first single. This album will deservedly sit atop many end of year best of lists, so completely does it tower over any "opposition" which it may face.
Beginning with the Midlake-like Can't Imagine (hear it below) the album proceeds serenely through ten perfectly formed paeans of poeticism and indie beauty. The temptation to describe the magisterial magnificence of each and every song is immense, but just writing words upon words would not be enough. There are inflections of creativity in the mixing and arrangements here which bely the fact that this was a collaboration between two artists who barely knew each other when they began. Both have their chance to shine, vocally, with Williams' best moment on the organ-infused title track, while Gomez features prominently on Cherry Blossom. Best, though, is where the two magical voices intertwine together, as heard most clearly on Sudden Bright, with it's lilting acoustic riffs and persistent synth flourishes, and the slow build of Hold the Water's woodwind and percussion.
Throughout the interplay between the acoustic and bass guitars is wonderful, as arpeggiating figures of acoustic underpin most songs, weaving in and out of the mix, carried along on beds of probing bass. The attention to detail here is staggering. Every note, every flourish, feels just right, like it had to be just where it is, at just that moment
Previously I cited Midlake as a potential influence influence, and it does seem to me as if the shadow of that brilliant band is cast long over this album. Rhythm section sounds are pleasingly similar, and the almost playful musicality which is at the record's core as a counterpoint to the minor key chord progressions which pulse throughout seems to take the pastoral folk template of an album like The Trials of Van Occupanther, and improve on it ten-fold. Machine is a clearly distilled alt-folk masterpiece, a combining of powerful creative forces and visions which has resulted in the best thing released by either artist in any of their previous incarnations and iterations. A clear must buy and album of the year shoe-in.
Anyone who has followed my writing for a while will know that I have made a point of keeping up with what Anna-Lynne has been up for a number of years now, ever since I discovered the wondrous Trespassers William album Different Stars. I have to report that this, by far and away, is the best release I've ever heard from her. As I've said before, she has one of those voices. The kind that you could die happy listening to, the kind that you'd thank for telling you you needed a tooth extraction because the news would be delivered so lyrically. Here, with Robert Gomez, she has struck the perfect collaborative note. Indie yet immediate, pop. yet dark enough to appear dangerous, retro and vintage, yet incredibly insistent and vital, as the press release attests, every track here could be the opening track, or the first single. This album will deservedly sit atop many end of year best of lists, so completely does it tower over any "opposition" which it may face.
Beginning with the Midlake-like Can't Imagine (hear it below) the album proceeds serenely through ten perfectly formed paeans of poeticism and indie beauty. The temptation to describe the magisterial magnificence of each and every song is immense, but just writing words upon words would not be enough. There are inflections of creativity in the mixing and arrangements here which bely the fact that this was a collaboration between two artists who barely knew each other when they began. Both have their chance to shine, vocally, with Williams' best moment on the organ-infused title track, while Gomez features prominently on Cherry Blossom. Best, though, is where the two magical voices intertwine together, as heard most clearly on Sudden Bright, with it's lilting acoustic riffs and persistent synth flourishes, and the slow build of Hold the Water's woodwind and percussion.
Throughout the interplay between the acoustic and bass guitars is wonderful, as arpeggiating figures of acoustic underpin most songs, weaving in and out of the mix, carried along on beds of probing bass. The attention to detail here is staggering. Every note, every flourish, feels just right, like it had to be just where it is, at just that moment
Previously I cited Midlake as a potential influence influence, and it does seem to me as if the shadow of that brilliant band is cast long over this album. Rhythm section sounds are pleasingly similar, and the almost playful musicality which is at the record's core as a counterpoint to the minor key chord progressions which pulse throughout seems to take the pastoral folk template of an album like The Trials of Van Occupanther, and improve on it ten-fold. Machine is a clearly distilled alt-folk masterpiece, a combining of powerful creative forces and visions which has resulted in the best thing released by either artist in any of their previous incarnations and iterations. A clear must buy and album of the year shoe-in.
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