King City- Swim Deep

Realise this isn't the best picture, but the guitarist is playing my guitar so fuck you

About this time every year every music magazine tries to find the Song Of The Summer. Whether it's a stupidly happy sunshine inducing pop song (hello Vampire Weekend) or the anthem everyone will drunkenly yell along to come festivals, predicting it The Song is key to having a good summer. Well, I've found it. This is the song.

Swim Deep come as part of Birmingham's new indie vanguard and show clearly why B-Town is the place to be right now.Although this is not your typical summer song (more than three chords), it just has something undeniably summery about it. Chiming synths and a driving bassline carry the reverby vocals in 4 minutes of pure sun. This is not the soundtrack to intensive heat and barbecues, but instead that point after a few pints when everything is chilling and the sun starts going down. The lyrics could have been put to three chords and made to sound like every other "anthem", ("with the sun on my back it's a nice day"), but the melancholic, echoy vocal gives it a different dimension. Although you're not going to be hearing this blaring out every festival tent this summer, nor sound tracking every Magners ad, this song needs to soundtrack your summer.

9/10




Embedded the video so you don't even have to click a link anymore (this took me ages to work out how to do)

April 12 Playlist

Another monthly installment of my crazy playlist. This has been another week where I've become obsessed with one sound. Last week it was reggae, this week it was really minimalist R&B and Soul. I'm musically schizophrenic.

1) Keep You - Wild Belle
2) Take Care - Drake
3) Initiation - The Weeknd
4) Superstition - Stevie Wonder
5) Null - Runaround Kids
6) 1993 - Dananananaykroyd
7) High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive - Pulled Apart By Horses
8) Tapes & Money - Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
9) BTSTU - Jai Paul
10) I've Seen Footage - Death Grips
11) Mercy - Kanye West
12) Soul Man - The Blues Brothers
13) I Heard It Through The Grape Vine - Marvin Gaye
14) Bright Copper Noon - Willis Earl Beal
15) Thursday - The Futureheads
16) Bury My Bones - Pure Love
17) Liiiines - Ghostpoet
18) Rolling In The Deep (Jamie XX Shuffle) - Adele
19) Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley
20) Summer Nights - Grease

I have been thinking about actually releasing this as a free mix every week if enough people want it. But it depends whether I can be bothered.

March 2012 Playlist

Again, I have been lazy so am making up for it with 2 posts in a day. MENTAL. Here's my playlist for last month.

1) Songs About Your Girlfriend - Los Campesinos
2) Red, Red Wine - Tony Tribe
3) Dynamic Pressure - The Music Specialists
4) Lose My Breath - Destiny's Child
5) Nothing To Do - Bleeding Knees Club
6) Born To Lose - Sleigh Bells
7) Why I Love You - Jay-Z & Kanye West
8) Fitzpleasure - alt-J (∆)
9) Uptown Top Ranking - Althea & Donna
10) Girlfriend - The Beautiful South
11) Shield Your Eyes - Dry The River
12) Perth - Bon Iver
13) My Door Is Always Open - Noah And The Whale
14) Anxious - The Housemartins
15) T=0 - Tall Ships
16) Compass Points - NZCA/LINES
17) Wicked Games - The Weeknd
18) Everybody Needs Love - Slim Smith
19) Walking Down King Street - Theophilus Beckford
20) No Regrets - Robbie Williams


I got into reggae a lot this month. Like loads

Band Crush - Runaround Kids

Note: I have been awful at posting recently. There is no reason apart from that I'm really lazy. Sorry faithful readers

So recently I was trawling through my Twitter, when I saw a link from This Many Boyfriends to a band they loved. After closer inspection I saw that Los Campesinos! followed them and so I obviously had to give them a look. I followed the link onto their Bandcamp and went and listened to their latest single "You'd Feel The Same". And from then on I was in love. It's a song that makes no apologies, jumping straight in with fuzzed guitar and shouty vocals, but then all of a sudden...it's calm and mellow. Oh but then straight back into the shouting. So basically it's brilliant. The band, residing from Wakefield, have been around for a while, releasing EP's and an album to a small but dedicated fan base. Like Johnny Foreigner if they'd been more lo-fi, the mix of noisey fuzzed guitar balances perfectly with their frustrated lyrics and slower, calmer moments. Fitting right in with bands such as Los Campesinos and Johnny Foreigner, they may not be massive, but you will love them.

Find the band at: @runaroundkids or at their bandcamp

Album Review: Dry The River - Shallow Bed

I'm going to start this with a warning. I will be using the words "massive" and "chorus" in conjunction with each other a lot during this review. I'm sorry, but it is totally necessary.

Nearly one year ago exactly, Dry The River released their first proper single, "New Ceremony". It wasn't the largest or pompous single release, but those that bought it new they had some thing special. The bands mix of delicate folk, harmonious vocals and catchy writing. One year on and the bands constant gigging and stream of singles mean they have quickly gained adoration both from fans and critics. "Shallow Bed" is not exactly a collection of new songs. Of the 11 tracks on the album, only 3 have been previously unreleased. Several versions have been re-recorded, but it is largely made up of old tracks. This is no bad thing. Opening with "Animal Skins" pounding drums and bassline, the band show they mean business and step away from the constant Mumford comparisons. It quickly sets the blueprint for the album: Delicate acoustic guitar, distorted guitar lines, harmonies and (sorry) massive chorus'. And they really know their way round a chorus. Lines like "I loved you in the best, I loved you in the BEST WAY POSSSIBBLLLLEEEE" were literally built for stadiums. The re-recorded songs are also heavier and bolstered by extra orchestration. The single trumpet rise at the end of "History Book" is brilliant, as is the new version of "Lions Den". The heavier, messier, intense ending reflects the bands live working of the song and is far better than the original. The album pounds you with sing-a-long chorus after sing-a-long chorus all carried by lead singer Pete Liddle's beautiful voice. The band has set their sights high with such a massive sounding album, and managed to pull it off with ease.

(Only said massive chorus once. Surprised myself)

9/10 

February 2012 Playlist

I'll start off by apologising at how incredibly late this playlist is. It has been sitting on my i-tunes for ages but I am just very lazy. So, sorry faithful fans. Also I have been playing around with the idea of starting a monthly online podcast/radio show to give you THE READER the chance to hear all my genius selections. Anyway, the playlist is as follows:

1) Comeback Kid - Sleigh Bells
2) Nothing's Gonna Stop Us - The Darkness
3) That's My Bitch - Jay-Z & Kanye West
4) Sappho - Tribes
5) Teenage Girls - Bleeding Knees Club
6) School Spirit - Kanye West
7) We Are All Accelerated Readers - Los Campesinos!
8) The Chambers & The Valves - Dry The River
9) No One Lied - Jack Penate
10) Holocene - Bon Iver
11) Evening's Kiss - Willis Earl Beal
12) Life Of The Party - The Weeknd
13) 212 - Azealia Banks
14) Filia - Islet
15) Told You Once - Howler
16) Infinity Milk - Dananananaykroyd
17) Old Red Eyes Is Back - The Beautiful South
18) Lucifer - Jay-Z
19) Club Tropicana - Wham!
20) Catch - The Cure

Modern Gems

I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about great albums that never got the recognition they deserved. The sort of album you cherish, but no one else gives a shit about. The one that blew you away whilst everyone else was only slightly ruffled. You get the idea. Well here are the 5 top albums that no one cared about, but were totally awesome.

N.B This is most definitely in no way inspired by NME's "100 Albums You've Never Heard Of" article. Promise

1) Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone (2009)

For a band with such an awful name, this album was brilliant. The Scottish band seemed to take in all things that would make a bad album, (two drummers, mashing together of genres, shouting) and make a master piece that combined math-rock and hardcore. Bolstered by two drummer and two singers, it's a loud album that doesn't need to hide behind a fuzz of distortion. "Black Wax" is definitely the highlight, and is one of my favorite songs ever. Intricate guitar lines mesh with the hyperactive yelps of the lead "singers" to create this "fight-pop" explosion.


2) Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel (2008)

In the hazy days of nu-rave (2007), the entire music press was watching Klaxons every move. However, if they'd managed to tear their eyes away for a second, they would have realised that this album was, to be honest, better. Where Klaxons made drug-fueled party anthems, Late Of The Pier made...well the same thing really. But their's were more controlled, more clear. Their lyrics are more understandable, and actually kind of make sense, but still retain that mysticism. They use the disco drum patterns and fun synths synonymous with nu-rave, but also Thin Lizzy-esque guitar lines. Each track explores a different genre, but you're still able to dance to it. And that's what music should be like.


3) Jack Peñate - Everything Is New (2009)

Poor old Jack Peñate. After ditching his cockney scamp sound of his first album, he was lost in the musical wilderness. Luckily, he came bounding back two years later with his brilliant new sound, inspired by calypso rhythms... only to be beaten by Friendly Fires. Panned by critics, Jack was left looking very silly. But if you actually listen to the album, you'll find one full of original ideas and one that takes a massive leap from his first. The thing is, Jack just has a brilliant voice. And so whatever he sings, it sounds brilliant. Not to say that the music sn't great. Dancey, yet emotional, the songs are drenched in reverb and samba rhythms. Lyrically much better, the songs have more depth, yet he still knows his way round a chorus. Every song should have been a single, and in a better world, each one would have been a chart topper.


4) Noah And The Whale - The First Days Of Spring (2009)

Heartbreak is always the best subject for an album, and this is definitely one of the best heartbreak albums going. Often over looked due to the twee-folk of the first album and stadium-aiming third, Noah And The Whale's second is written enitrely about singer Charlie Finks break up with fellow folkie, Laura Marling. And boy was he sad about it. The bleak imagery of new beginnings finds love-lorn Charlie hoping that "one day you may come back". The silence and sparseness of the album juxta-poses with the bands other work. The tenderness and pain in Charlies voice is so overwhelming and you know he means every word he sings. Accompany this with single violin lines and bursts of orchestra, and it's enough to bring a grown man to tears. Take that Laura, you bitch! 


5) Harlem - Hippies (2010)

This is what all punk would sound like if no one found a distortion pedal and were slightly upbeat all the time. And it's totally awesome. Their clean, reverby take on garage rock is minimal and fun. The Austin trio write simple and stupid three chord songs. Garage rock doesn't have much room for experimentation, but Harlem just sound more fresh and exciting than many of their peers. Although the album got good reviews, the band have remained fairly underground and the better for it.