Her Records co-founder and South London electronic music maker Sudanim has released his new EP The Link this week. Wish Grime could take a few more steps forward into the modern age? Sudanim's got it all covered with this, his debut EP which hits you for 5 tracks of pretty intense and exciting music. Of course, across his genre, production is imperative and HR's co-boss delivers on that as well with Guy Fridge making the production sound incredibly tight whilst Sudanim creates music at the very cutting edge of club music.
We'll surely be seeing a lot more of the Her Records crew over the next years as the hotly tipped group play across the country and DJ regular shows in and around London.
For now though, have a listen for yourself. Best to switch the lights off first though, just to get a bit of atmosphere maybe?
Braden Fletcher
How much material is it safe for a band to release before
their debut record? Do you simply do a run of singles in the wind up or do you
release one or two EPs to generate hype? For the1975, this question has been
made even more difficult in that they’ve been a series of other bands before
finally settling down . As such, they’ve been sat on a lot of material for a
while, becoming a stronger unit in the process. Now ready to unleash a record
on the public in May, the Music for Cars EP is the third in a series of
releases that have stood out but not quite shone. The Facedown EP featured their first heatseaker in The City and demonstrated
their quiet side whilst the Sex EP’s hit was its self titled track (She’s got a
boyfriend anyway) and You also proved to be an indication that they could be a
big band without necessarily having to make the ‘big tracks’.
So why a third EP on top of this? The hope that the music will do the talking
starts to make some sense in Anobrain. Sounding like an electronic version of the
band Frightened Rabbit before kicking in to be standout track Chocolate, its
pretty much the same as we’ve come to expect from a 1975 EP. Chocolate’s feel
of auto-tuned edges lets it down comparatively to Sex and The City, but it’s
still got a big feeling around it; the kind of song that will most probably
ignite crowds at the many festivals the band have booked so far. The same can
hardly be said about Head.Cars.Bending though. Whilst we’re all aware by this
point that the1975 are using these EPs to experiment before launching an album
that has been ready for months, you’d just like them to skip to that point.
EP closer Me serves as a sort of part two to the Sex EP’s
You. A wind down with the kind of feel you’ve come to expect of Snow Patrol
should they have reached their synth influenced phase towards the front of
their mid-twenties. That’s not even a criticism really; whilst Snow Patrol
aren’t everyone’s idea of exciting and groundbreaking its hard to question
Lightbody’s song-writing abilities.
Maybe that then is the problem here, and it begs two
questions. Could the1975 have put Chocolate on the Facedown EP instead of Antichrist?
Probably. Would that have meant that two condensed EPs were significantly
better than three? Most likely.
Still, they’re one of the hottest properties to keep a watch
on and its worth doing it before the album comes out if you fancy keeping hold
of the contents of your wallet. The1975 are on their way up and all it’s going
to take is the removal of some filler. 6 Braden Fletcher
Swedish exports Icona Pop have had a pretty
enjoyable rise. Having been taken on by New York Atlantic-offspring label Big Beat Records
(Skrillex, Flux Pavilion, Metronomy) in America and having had nods from
Mercury to Kitsune here in the UK, their Nights Like This EP came through to an
interesting buzz. Now with the likes of hype artist Charli XCX on board, is
their six-track offering, the “Iconic EP” actually worth all of the attention?
Opening with the aforementioned Charli XCX
featuring track I Love It; you’re instantly thrown into a world that looks and
sounds a lot like the kind of music that not only graces the dance tents at
festivals, but seeps out across the whole festival. I Love It crosses the
upbeat bass of modern Ibiza and the catchy sounds of both Black Kids and the
Naked and Famous in a hugely enjoyable opener. If I were to be anal, I’d
suggest that the second track; Ready For the Weekend (hello Calvin Harris)
should be the opening track as it has the kind of sound that you’d hear
regurgitated by a host of djs in *Club Venue, Little Townsville*, but given the diversity of each track on
the EP, its hardly fair to suggest this has a huge impact on the enjoyability. Good
For You is the first genuinely weak track on the EP in that it’s every euro-pop
track that made it to the states in the late-nineties all over again and
frankly, it grates the ears.
Fortunately,
if you’re after a big pop track, the only other “new” track on the record is
the one for you. Top Rated is better than anything Katy Perry has released in
years and a rich dance sound without having to listen to David fuck-face
Guetta. The remaining two tracks on the record are tracks taken from the
previous EP; each of them moderately enjoyable in their own right but with
little place in the 2012 release.
Beginning to end, Meantime feels complete. Not just because the tracks flow together so perfectly or because the rapid flits between styles makes it feel like no stone’s left unturned musically, but because it seems like a perfectly executed statement of Kwes’ ideals as an artists.
I say this with no trace of pretension: this EP reinvents pop. No, it isn’t a year-zero kinda thing, it’s more a deliberate deconstruction of what makes a song perfect. Of course, there isn’t a chance in hell anything here is going to get played on commercial radio, but the having the innate workings of a song spilled in front of you with the precision of a surgeon means it’s difficult imagining the tracks in any other context than by each other’s side.
Not that this should distract from the songs themselves, all of which are fascinating to no end. Opener Klee is a delightful, meandering, almost ambient affair, what with its fluid structure and lack of a discernible backbone. Bashful is even better, four and a bit minutes of overlapping percussion lines, a synth line that simply bubbles and best of all a chorus that’s at once simplistic and heart-wrenchingly sad. It’s probably the track that best represents the tone of the rest of Meantime in that it packs in most of the tricks and sounds that litter the rest of it, from water noises to a sudden beat change to an ending that seems both distant and symbolic of whatever’s proceeded it.
Closer Igoyh is the only time it all unravels. Starting off well enough and building to a wonderful midpoint crescendo, it all devolves into a mess of electronic whirrs and refuses to return. It’s far from unlistenable; more simply it feels remote and unfriendly when compared to the warmth that emanates elsewhere. Though it lends a rather definitive end to proceedings, it leaves the listener unsure and unfulfilled.
Sandwiched roughly in the middle of all this is Honey, a simple love song with a sweetly innocuous refrain and hook upon hook upon hook. It sounds like mid-noughties UK R’n’B recorded underwater, or a doped-up Hudson Mohawke producing a Xenomania track. It’s thrilling stuff, bolstered by a sprightly running time and the best vocal work Kwes has offered to date. It makes you realise that you’re in the company of someone a bit special.
I'll get it out of the way at the start, Sean Carey plays in Bon Iver, and as such his new EP (and his debut album 'All We Grow' from 2010) sound a bit like Bon Iver. Echoey vocals, sparse music, and so forth. Infact, Hoyas was part produced by Justin Vernon. There is less of the classical elements found on his debut present here, favouring layered synth and vocal loops, reflecting the EP being recorded with "a lap-top and little else". Indeed, when 'real' instruments do appear they bring great contrast to the music. The guitar that cuts into 'Two Angles' half way through instantly brings new energy to the track.
The Bon Iver comparison really is too easy to draw, but it's also what you'd expect from a man who has spent the best part of the last year playing in Bon Iver. It is far more synth based than Bon Iver of course, the throbbing bass that opens 'Avalanche' sounds closer to a dark Postal Service than Bon Iver, it's also one of the strongest tracks of the year so far.
Hoyas comfortably retains the beauty created by the layering within All We Grow, but whilst that was an album for the summer, this is for travelling alone at early hours of the morning. At times the music is barely present, but S. Carey has found the perfect balance between sparse and too much happening. Beautiful stuff. 8.0 Sean Collison
V4P are a sound similar to that of a musician trying to grind a chainsaw into a piano. But then all of a sudden, finding a place of harmony and smoothly retiring to the piano stool and indulging into a bittersweet session of piano playing. Jay Lancaster (the one man band that is Videosforpictures) has a very unique and experimental quality to his music. Never lacking a second and neither underestimating the beauty of a held note, I'm not sure what you could call his sound specifically. Some may bandy 'Piano Rock', but I don't think that would do it justice in any way. There is too much of a delicate nature and thirst for experimentation for it to be considered anything too genre specific. In fact, there isn't an artist quite like Videosforpictures.
Opening with a clatter on '0VERTURE', it feels more like a transition than a song as such. Embracing dissonant and noise led influences here; the song tests the audience as the piano keys clatter and splatter, like the footfalls of a herd of wild animals in an echo chamber. Also played backwards, the song sets a very specific and uncertain mood for the EP, which is only distorted by the following track 'BUTCHERBIRD'. The first true song on the album, it introduces a lot of what Videosforpictures is. It is no one thing; in fact, it is very much anything it wants to be.
Said second track finds its way through the song quite neatly, and then builds to a climactic chorus and finds its end, quietly settling down after quite an abrasive conclusion. The torn and beautiful vocal stems of Jay himself are always gut wrenching and speak more than is quite describable. This follows into the third track, 'ISOLATION ANTHEMS'. This track is quite an interesting one, and not like one I've heard from V4P before. Although usually a piano and vocal led sound, this song is complimented by a very rusty, mildly lax and lo-fi drum beat that almost sounds sampled in the way it is spliced, adding to the track’s rawness. Both the beat and the melodies play off each other quite beautifully, beginning subtly. Neither seem to compete with each other beat-wise, but they quietly dance stunningly still. The ranging and passionate melody and dusty sound add a lot to the atmosphere, and although it only lasts just over two minutes, it progresses until the flow is punched out at the end, as if the temper in the song had peaked and the song needed to be struck dead with hard blows.
'PEREPELKA' is an interlude, showing off Jay's thirst for experimenting with shrill sounds and percussion. Sounding like a beat played on a set of tight unheld strings, there is a slight oriental feeling to the sound, with occasional cacophonous notes flying here and there, filled out by echoed muffled moans in the background. As I alluded to briefly before, there is a definite double-sided nature to V4P, flicking for strikingly majestic piano chords to loud and abrasive sounds, sometimes per track, other times the songs will just take a route down that way, seeming to shape Jay as a very complicated and tortured character.
The final track of the EP 'OPTIC FLOW' is an unusual one, more so than most of the others. Where the two main tracks of the EP 'BUTCHERBIRD' and 'ISOLATION ANTHEMS' had dark, and melancholy elements, neither appear as lost this track does. For the first half of the songs, there is a steady atmosphere to the track, with quiet whispers and dank, yet pretty piano. However, as the track finds its final isle, it is beautifully complimented by bell-like notes, shimmering all around, as if a character is surrounded by beautiful lights and hopes for tomorrow. This is until the joy is sucked out, as the song starts to fade into a pitch bended whirl, climaxing in distorted hits, ending it all.
Videosforpictures is a very distinctive artist, flying the flag for solo pianists (with a bit of a rough edge). This EP is in fact up for free download on his bandcamp, along with the rest of his work. Which is also free, because it's totally rad.
Despite their name involuntarily adopting them into the family of crystal related bands (think Crystal Antlers/Fighters/Castles) it’s good to see Crystal Stilts pave their own way through 2011’s music scene with their unique style, not stopping to rest after the release of their second album this year.
Opening with ‘Dark Eyes,’ the EP starts well with a steady syncopation to lull the listener in, and whilst the seemingly lost voice in the darkness is soothing, it begins to become droning and repetitive three quarters of the way through. Not to be disheartened though, sticking with it, they make the smart move of opening up the ‘Radiant Door’ on their second aptly titled track. The promising chord progression is certainly radiant underneath the veil of nonchalance of Brad Hargett’s crooning, evident of the band’s clear grasp on the importance of the balanced juxtaposition between the two. Still As the Night,’ is anything but static, like a musical time machine, it conjures up imagery of a crowded house party and a room full of socially awkward teenagers who are too cool to dance, bobbing their heads while smoke from their cigarettes rises as fluidly as the music. Can’t you just picture it?
Unfortunately, while ‘Low Profile’ isn’t unpleasant to listen to as such, it’s just comparatively disappointing, almost like the soundtrack to the end of the aforementioned party and the throng of teenagers abandoning it in search of something a little more powerful. That said, you have to give them credit for the continuous balance of sulky vocals and optimistic synth, which seems to be the key ingredient to this EP. It seems as though ‘Frost Inside the Asylum’ marks the end of the evening, like a haunting lullaby, it ties the EP up with a catchy melody, a difficult feat to achieve with a slow song, yet Crystal Stilts’defy conventions of shoegaze-lo-fi post-punk-pop or whatever other combination of styles you want to apply to them, and the ‘Radiant Door’ EP is a testament to that.
]It’s almost indefinable genre highlights Crystal Stilts’ impeccable ability to draw inspiration from so many areas of music yet produce a completely original sound that would be almost impossible to recreate, (who would have ever anticipated the possibility of the sound of a sonic Johnny Cash & Joy Division collaboration?) is really what sets them apart and proves that the three year wait since their first album was definitely worth it.
Zambri are a New York five piece with sisters Jessica and Cristi Jo Zambri on vocals. Sounding somewhere between an apocalyptic Warpaint (especially on ‘On Call’) and a more understated Sleigh Bells (with less guitars and more rusty metal sounds), this intriguing EP contrasts abrasive, industrial sounds and metallic drumbeats with soft, beautiful vocals. With such a reliance on those metallic beats, Zambri could be in danger of becoming repetitive. No fear; they manage to keep interest with varying beats, such as the multitude of handclaps on ‘News’.
‘Glossolalia’ may at first be a strange listen. Understandably, this music is not going to be for some. A lot of people probably won’t ‘get’ it. However the EP is in fact full of hooks and pop sensibilities, despite the harsh exterior. It’s actually quite orchestral at some points too, with beautiful harmonies between voices and music, especially on ‘To Keep Back’. As well as the contrast between the music and the angelic vocals, the lyrics are also quite tender: ‘take care .../ on call’ (‘On Call’), ‘my heart is jumping / right out of my skin’, ‘time doesn’t exist’ (‘To Keep Back’).
The hip-swaying, sultry ‘Heather’ with the purring lyric ‘you can call me Heather/ or whatever’, off beat drums and strange raven-like noises is a highlight, but so too is the ‘other’ mix of ‘On Call’, named ‘On Call (biddibiddi)’. The downright creepy ‘biddibiddibom’ at the start of the track only adds to the slightly uneasy feeling this album imparts; Zambri create such a spooky atmosphere. This too-short EP definitely leaves me eager to hear more.
Imagine a calypso bar in the middle of New York where Belle and Sebastian were doing an impromptu set and you wouldn’t be far off the tone of the latest EP from Swedish musician Jens Lekman. The palm tree on the cover art says it all.
The EP begins with ‘An Argument With Myself’, a confident and witty opener demonstrating Lekman’s self-deprecating delivery ability. Drawing on some of the more catchy elements of Barenaked Ladies it features a trippy, reggae bridge featuring a literal argument with himself. ‘Waiting for Kirsten’ is a story about trying to find a girl to tell her how he feels, a fairly normal premise for a pop song but Lekman manages to make it sound not only fresh but heartfelt. The narrative is simple, again indicating Lekman’s supreme lyrical aptitude as he casually comments that "they drew a swastika in your cappuccino" and the listener cannot fail to be touched and sad as Lekman is told that he is too drunk and has to leave, failing to reach the girl.
‘A Promise’ is a rather bizarre story about promising an ill friend that they will go on holiday and it is here where it becomes evident that Lekman’s music can be very hit and miss. This track fails to quite reach the kooky wit which allows Lekman to be superior to many other musicians trying to do a very similar thing. ‘New Directions’ begins with a trumpet solo before a drum beat bounces into the toe tappable style and dreamy flutes introduce ‘So This Guy At My Office’ which is much slower than the rest of the EP and an appropriate end and outro.
In a world where you have to be complex to stand out Lekman takes music back to its roots, with an EP that is an unashamedly simple set of songs telling engaging stories. And he is definitely someone you’d want to have at a dinner party.
