Cheatahs - Cheatahs

NB: We're aware this has been out a month, but some things need shouting about okay?

In an age that we’re told what to listen to by Capital Radio pushing their YouTube ads of Will.I.Am and The Wanted at us all, it can be refreshing, even for an audience with an increasingly pop taste to hear something that’s both nostalgic and forward thinking in terms of modern rock and roll.

Of course, rock and roll these days is sold to us on the front cover of the NME as Alex Turner’s quiffed head stares deeply into our souls, as he queries those who gave his band the Brits limelight and those who, en masse bought tickets to a huge Finsbury Park show alike “R U Mine?” Most of us look back with moderate tentativeness, before admitting that yes, we probably are. For bands like Artcic Monkeys, Foals and Kasabian, it’s been a lucky ride at times. Kasabian themselves admitted that their signing and huge promotional drive felt like being the last band to jump on the lifeboats to success whilst Sheffield and Oxford’s finest used the new-fangled media that was MySpace and relentless efforts of playing solid shows to make it off the sinking ship that we call the music industry. Once in a while, bands like The Vaccines, Mumford & Sons and The1975 are allowed to swim to the safety of Brixton Academy and beyond, but by that point, they’re just pop bands for those living in the aftermath of Generation X.

Now, it’s not like a reviewer is going to tell you that, amongst the colossal pile of what’s often referred to as landfill, Cheatahs are the one band you can count on; but when you take a live show as energetic as the London band’s (see aforementioned The Vaccines mixed with the relaxed anarchy of MBV) and mix it with the kind of sounds that we hear from slightly grimier success stories (see Blood Red Shoes and Drenge) of recent times; it can be accepted of you to vanish into a pile of fuzz pedals and declare your Topshop-purchased Nirvana t-shirt to be part of your gateway down the slippery slope to the last track of  this, Cheatahs debut and eponymous record.

Perfect? Far from it. The production possibly leaves out more edge than you’d desire from a record of such distortion to do whilst lyrically, there’s not so much as a whisper of poetry from the majority. Of course, it’s difficult to demand from shoegaze-influenced modern-rock, but if Sonic Youth could occasionally touch the heartstrings, you’d like an inkling of it from this record. It, after all, is a debut; something pained over through teenage years of angst and bad decisions.

This then, is the start. Lord only knows what it’s the start of, but for Cheatahs, let’s hope it’s the start of something that lasts. When you can centre a record around two singles (The Swan and Cut the Grass) that don’t even sound similar, the sky can be the limit. Here’s hoping there’s another raft on its way that will pick up these feline rule-breakers.

7.9/10

Braden Fletcher

Sebastian Grainger – Yours To Discover

Believe it or not, there was once a time before The Ting Tings made two-piece bands a must for every major label roster. Now they’re ten a penny. Not all bad, but they are appearing in record numbers. The recent increase in popularity has probably got something to do with Japandroids ‘Album Of The Year 2012’ and the upsurge of positive exposure that soon followed.
However, back in the early 2000s, whilst Anastasia was explaining that she’s ‘Not That Kind Of Girl’ and we all wished Crazy Town had stayed in their cocoon, a Toronto-based noise punk band were starting to emerge that would ignite the upsurge of the duo.

Death From Above (the 1979 was added later) came and went faster than one of their furiously fuzzy riffs, and in the blink of an eye, with only one incredible full-length release, the band announced a hiatus. They didn’t resurfaced again until 2011.
Their eventual return was coupled with the exciting announcement of a new album; so how surprising it was to discover that Sebastian Grainger (the bands energetic drummer) was planning to release a record on his own. And more unexpectedly, it would be packed full of guilt free, fresh-faced pop songs.

Yours To Discover introduces a new element of musical expression for Grainger, and to be fair, it is most welcome. His seemingly effortless approach to producing an enticing pop song, without the need to lie to yourself about how much you enjoy it, proves to be very refreshing for the ears.
The hook-filled, 80s-esc powerhouse, ‘Going With You’ sounds delightfully glossy compared to Grainger’s past. But his distinctive grainy voice, coupled with a dishing of flirty, over-produced guitar solos and elegant pulsing synths forms a brilliant structure for the albums highpoint. There are moments that feel slightly disjointed, presenting a trivial unease (see ‘Waking Up Dead’), but those feeling are instantly overturned by tracks such as ‘The Streets Are Still A Mess’ and ‘Some People Are Ghosts Too Soon’. Which in comparison are constructed like the Shard, as appose to the Indian Commonwealth Games of 2010.

It’s clear that Grainger isn’t going to get a whiff of mainstream success from this album, despite its gratifying approach to the world of pop. But we are ok with that. Because what he has produced is something that is much more worth while for society; a pop record that holds firmly onto its own integrity, whilst providing an honest and genuinely enjoyable listening experience. Go forth and discover people. 

7/10

Rob Bramhill

Grouplove - Spreading Rumours

Remember the summer of 2011?  The summer you couldn’t avoid Foster The People whilst their equally good Californian counter-parts Young the Giant and Grouplove skirted the edges and touring Ameri-rocker friends Cage the Elephant and Manchester Orchestra also released solid records?
You’l probably only remember Pumped Up Kicks, but on the smaller stages at all of the festivals you’d find Grouplove tearing it up in joyous and energetic fashion and out of all of their East Coast fleet, they’re the first ones to return. So how is their ‘difficult second record’?

Spreading Rumours starts with the enchantingly dense I’m With You. At first listen it sounds like a pulsating trip into the more grown up version of a band that was in their debut and preceding EP full of reckless abandon. The further into it you venture however the more you realise that this is a band that have spent plenty of time in the studio making their version of an American Carnival sound like the complex yet enjoyable time it is. This care to the complex continues in Borders and Aliens, as the band take a more mathematical backline and give it the kind of chorus that you’d expect to fall somewhere between The Maccabees and Biffy Clyro’s newest work.

Schoolboy and Ways to Go have more of the summertime feel that was on their first record; the latter of which sounds much like Tongue Tied’s older brother, before the middle-filler of the record comes in. It’s in this though that Grouplove show their true colours. Whilst the tracks themselves lack the hooks that could make them great sounding live songs, the lyrical content feels more honest. Sit Still deals with the issues of being noticed whilst in response to much of the ‘hippy’ criticism that came from the media two years ago “I’d rather be a hippy than a hipster // So come sit at my table” is blasted out of Christian Zucconi’s powerful voice.

Hannah Hopper’s voice too has matured and strengthened also. On Didn’t Have to Go, she rivals the power that the likes of Charlotte Cooper and Hayley Williams have honed over the years whilst filling it with raw emotion. If it didn’t have such a strange backing track, the track could be heartwrenching.
Raspberry feels just like Cage the Elephant at their best whilst album closer takes from the similar closing style as album one and the kind of sound that Dry The River tried to pen down last year. It’s a fairly cop-out ending but at the same time; it feels fitting to a record that even in the predictable parts feels like a keeper.  

8.5

Braden Fletcher

No Ceremony ///

No Ceremony/// gave up anonymity last year in favour of playing shows and having their own band identity that wasn’t shrouded in mystery. The buzz that had surrounded their faceless sound continued in a way that must have relieved them, especially considering their secrecy was only a way of making sure people listened before they looked.
So when Kelly, Victoria and James performed live, in many ways, nothing changed. Which leads us up to this point.
The point in which their debut album has been out for a fortnight and in many ways appeared to fail to convert the hype, radio play and admirable touring into chartable sales.

Of course, as I’ve stated before, there’s no magic formula for charting, but the hope that you can turn a solid touring schedule and amount of popularity into a top40 chart position is a fair one. That’s not even to say their debut and self titled album isn’t any good, but the theory that good music doth a chart position create was lost some time ago. No, No Ceremony’s record is a powerful, pulsating 35minutes in which its singles are hardly distinguishable (in terms of quality and structure) from the remainder of the 9 tracks that feature.

It was last year that my mate John first yelled the words No Ceremony at me. He’d read an article by the Guardian’s Paul Lester and was really very excited. He demanded we go see them at the next possible opportunity, which for me was Brighton’s Great Escape. Hundreds of bands on the coast, including No Ceremony who were on at past midnight. A Red Stripe or three for breakfast accompanied by some fish and chips and we were on the way to midnight via lots of exciting music. Night approached and we made our inebriated ways to No Ceremony. The venue’s rammed, many of the viewers blogger-types and the similarly informed to John and myself.

When you hear something as powerful as PARTOFME and HURTLOVE on record, you expect your organs to tremor in a live scenario. To be disappointed by something sounding no better than record isn’t usually an issue, but for some reason with No Ceremony it just is and that’s where their problem lies. FEELSOLOW, the band’s newest single was another track that filled you up with nocturnal energy and possibly the strongest track on the record, AWAYFROMHERE which features the vocal stylings of James Vincent McMorrow takes that energy and compresses it into how you feel at 4am on a Saturday morning. That feeling of having a great time but having little left with which to enjoy said time with. AWAYFROMHERE is enchanting and it gets better the more exhausted you are, which, by the end of a night listening to No Ceremony, John and I were.

You can’t write the formula for success, not even when you’ve laid the foundations so well and created a solid record. You can however, enjoy the creation regardless of its failings, and that’s the point we are at.

8

Braden Fletcher

The 1975 - The 1975

The 1975 are the kind of indie story as old as the genre itself. Spend a few years on the egde, holding back your best material and then release it all in one to create almost overnight success. This formula has yielded Bastille and Alt-J in the last year alone, but for Drive Like I Do, Talkhouse etc etc, the 1975’s past has been slightly more littered.

Every time the buzz built, they went away again. This, their final form made up of some big singles and a long lasting partnership with Dirty Hit Records (Ben Francis Leftwich, Little Comets) has proven to be the one that stuck.

Four EPs down the line (the fourth of which wasn’t in ‘the plan’) and two top 40 singles under their wing, the 1975 have finally got round to making a record. Starting with their trademark atmospheric-electro sound, so trademark in fact that it shares their name, it gives way to debut single The City . It pulses with power as mission statement before becoming the chilled out pop sound of M.O.N.E.Y. Echoing with the kind of sound that features across many of Bastille’s album tracks before breaking out into Chocolate, its easy to see how the 1975 have created success. Chocolate’s still as infectious as it was when Huw Stephens first caught wind of it on Radio One and yet it’s still not the biggest track on the record. That accolade’s left for their recently re-recorded single Sex.

Old time ’75 fans will have seen this develop from noisy bedroom recordings to the highly produced monster it is now. As with much of the record, it’s in danger of being too shiny, but it’s hard to deny how catchy the “She’s got a boyfriend anyway” is.

After this, its onto the easily forgettable Talk! and yet another 1975-mosphere minute before indie’s answer to the Drive Soundtrack, Heart Out opens the second half of the record. It’s begging for a remix driven by the bassline and chorus but as a standalone track, it just about works as counter-culture-pop. The same can be said for the offbeat Settle Down in which you can practically see the teenagers on eachother’s shoulders during the chorus. 
Robbers proves to be the surprise of the record. Another track taken from the Matt Healy history vaults, the quality of his vocals resembles that of KIGH’s Aled Phillips (and that’s a compliment).

From here sadly, its relatively predictable. By putting 16 tracks on their debut effort, the 1975 have put themselves in danger of creating too many tracks that should have been B-sides. If left at a 10/11 track, this could have been one of the standouts of the year, but left to trail off in the way that this does, all those years of preparation has been let down by a lack of leaving some of their children to die, the 1975 have let some of their great ones down.

7/10

Braden Fletcher

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Three

Like his home country of Japan, Ryuichi Sakamoto can be categorised completely objectively under one word: pioneering. He's an old man now, but whilst many might associate age with being stuck in the past or unable to change, Sakamoto has led his career on exactly opposite principles. Born in 1952, he's lived a life that's found it's own chronological parallels in music. As a young boy learning piano, he became fascinated by Debussy. As a teenager, he found himself listening to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and later on - much to the disapproval of his classical teachers - electronic pioneers like Kraftwerk.

For each of these musical influences, there was at least one album. Leading a career on the fringes of the mainstream, he kept his artistic integrity with experimental electronic albums being made alongside his work on film scores and other grand orchestral callings, from award-winning films such as 'The Last Emperor' (Bertolucci, 1987) to pieces for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

However, whilst Sakamoto has proved to work within every bound of music possible, whether that be rock, ethnic, electronic or classical, he does so by no means in any particularly chronological order. Like any creative genius, he works on his own terms, doing what he wants when he sees fit, and of recent - as though in a sudden ironic fit of retrogression - this has seen a focus on acoustic arrangements. Enter stage left his latest release: 'Three'. 

Whilst returning to acoustic work after such a wide variety of genres may seem at first to be backwards, this is only partly true. The idea behind the album is indeed of doing things backwards - but in an entirely new way. Whilst touring with a trio around New York, Sakamoto played his older, more well known pieces alongside his newer creations. It was around this point that he realised that the done thing is to write an album and then tour it - despite the fact that the music matures on tour. In order to help the music adapt and change into it's best form, Sakamoto decided to record the album after the tour, as opposed to before: "Music that was made a hundred years ago could be played again today and it would change - it breathes."

The album is itself beautiful. Whilst many of Sakamoto's previous releases would focus on one theme or work at a time, Three manages to be ranging across this whilst remaining a step above a 'Best Of' album. His cherry-picked best works are placed along his fresh work, but as opposed to dusting off the old recordings or remastering them, they are re-imagined entirely, and change dramatically in the process. 'Tango' - originally an upbeat salsa tune, is stripped of it's drums and vocals for the trio, and becomes a much more atmospheric theme one might play if you found yourself in possession of a satin boudoir and a fluffy white cat.

Just a glance at the cover gives an idea of the album itself - sleek and minimalist, like the finely tuned portfolio you can imagine Sakamoto handing to anyone who hadn't heard his work. Portfolio is a word which does not do it justice, but gives one an idea: Three is an album you would want to have on your coffee table, a complete and beautifully crafted idea - a satisfying takeaway box of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

8

Luciano Shaw

Sigur Ros - Kveikur

In recent years, viking funerals in which the deceased is sent out to sea on a burning pyre have somewhat decreased in popularity. However, if a standard cremation simply isn't your thing, Sigur Ros' latest release 'Kveikur' will serve as the perfect soundtrack.

In an interview with Pitchfork back in January the band described their new material as ‘more aggressive’: this is evident straight from the first track and first single from the album, Brennistein, a thumping song with a distinct lack of gravity pulling you out of yourself. There’s something distinctly worn and tribal about the album, as if it were not written but discovered in paintings on a cave wall. Kveikur – which translates as ‘Candlewick’ – marks a departure from Sigur Ros’ previously more prog sound, and into a world of tribal drums and campfire rituals.

Another strength of the album is a certain naturalistic quality with which the band is not entirely unfamiliar. Sigur Ros use as many amps and guitars and pedals and production tools as the next band, but there’s something inherently real and uncreated about their music. I guess this lies partly in the fact that the album is so well produced – they have their singles, but they’re not a band you remember for one song, doubly so if your Icelandic isn’t very good. Each song on the album melts together beyond recognition. There are nine tracks – but you only listen to Kveikur. And it's certainly a worthwhile listen.

7/10

Lewis Shaw

Crystal Castles - iii

Crystal Castles have had a relatively painless career to date. Since the wave of popularity swept in whilst all the kids watched Skins on E4, Ethan Kath and Alice Glass have been riding the top like a schizophrenic Poseidon. Their 2008 debut album sits pretty comfortably with a Metacritic rating of 73 whilst their second effort two years on had an equally comfortable surf into shore; but as the Canadian duo enter their third record, will more of the same suffice?

Well if the first track we heard from the imaginatively titled iii, Plague was anything to go by; possibly. Whilst the howling Alice Glass that we’ve grown to love over the years is present, Kath’s more reserved pulse signals some distance from the more reckless days of Castles. What it builds into is a frenzy of beautifully produced synthesia that proves to be a standout from their entire catalogue to date. The confidence in reservation doesn’t hold up either as you power through the record. Kerosene sees the video-game samples that made the likes of Crimewave so enticing take a backseat role as Glass presents a more delicate version of herself. “I’ll protect you from all the things I’ve seen” she sings, recognisably.

The attention to aggressive soundscapes that found its way through the first two records has been all but replaced by attention to slow crescendos and a refinement of a sound that could fill more grandiose scenes than perhaps they’ve been used to before. If Crystal Castles had written Pale Flesh, Transgender or even Telepath three years ago, they would have been a (more than welcome) assault to the senses. You’d have a hugely increased pulse from the raw energy Glass demanded from you whilst Kath would stand behind, sulkily forcing wave after wave of computerised sound into your nervous system. Now however, they sit, delicately placed in the Crystal Castles roster, comfortable in their maturity. That’s not to say that they’re not enjoyable, nor is it true that there’s not still some of these tracks left. Sad Eyes, whilst the smoke is Glass’ echoed voice, the smoke at the bottom of it is a throbbing beat as full of impending doom as Baptism. Insulin too has a bass sound that will make your ears tremor.

In their third record then; Crystal Castles haven’t taken their ripped clothing and sent it out for another lap, nor have they burnt it in favour of new clothes all together. No, in iii, the Toronto duo have simply taken those clothes, cleaned them up and added a jacket. At their core, they’re still the band that played to Tony and the Skins gang, only now they’ve grown up and that’s fine with me.

7.8

Braden Fletcher

METZ - METZ

Any up and coming act signed to Sub-pop is subject to a whole variety of comparisons; and rightly so given the label’s history in championing the alternative and rock scene. They’re responsible for the rises of Nirvana and Sonic Youth as well as giving fresh life to the public profile of Beach House, releasing the hugely acclaimed Teen Dream back in 2010. Of course, not everything they touch turns to gold, but the majority of their back catalogue has its own cult following (even The Go! Team have somehow achieved popularity with their god awful dross). So when they signed Toronto rock outfit METZ, the hype built and now we've got a debut record. People will want to compare it to old Nirvana, but they shouldn't because in a time in which everything is a condensed and refined version of the past, METZ have managed to find a sound that takes what’s out there and makes it feel fresh and invigorating in a very rock styled way.

It’s got a DIY sound because it was produced in a barn, but at the same time, everything sounds exactly the way it should; the work of Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh and Alexander Bonenfant. It’s got the kind of sound that you will almost never hear on the radio but at the same time, tracks like Wet Blanket that come in at just under 4 minutes long that don’t seem a far cry from the kind of rock that’s slowly creeping its way back onto the airwaves. Add the bombastic opening track Headache and the likes of Wasted into that mix and you've got a record not just rooted in rock and influences from old punk, but with the structure and stylings of pop.

Its no coincidence that they’re branded as noise-pop at all because at the speed this album hits you and the reputation they’re building as they tear up venues across both sides of the Atlantic, they could very easily be one of the most popular noisy bands around in no time whatsoever. They've already had queues of two hundred plus outside the Old Blue Last in London and with more shows scheduled to be added in Europe soon, they’ll only continue to live up to the hype. The only danger they’re in is that with one record built primarily of tracks under the 3:30 mark, there’s simply not enough to satisfy the ravenous demand.
8.4


Braden Fletcher

Tall Ships - Everything Touching

                

If you ignore One Direction breaking every record around, Chris Brown winning awards, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tulisa, PSY, David Guetta etcetc, its not been a bad year for music. There’s more bands breaking through now than ever before, giving you a plethora of new music to listen to on a weekly basis from Lana Del Rey to Alt-J via Grimes and Peace. Some push music out thick and fast to create a Hype Machine fire that burns for a few weeks and then sits on your iPod, occasionally noticed by onlookers who’ll ask if you’ve heard the *insert artist here* remix before scrolling past as if last weeks’ band no longer matter.

Luckily, not all music is born the same premature way. Some acts grow through EPs and a notorious live show over time and develop in such a way that when their debut album finally arrives, they deserve to engulf the underground with the hunger that they’ve built. This week sees Tall Ships finally release their debut record “Everything Touching”. Does it justify their years of work?

In short, yes. Whilst there’s tracks on this record that have been around for a while, possibly disappointing the more dedicated Tall Ships listener, the likes of “Ode To Ancestors” has been reworked in a way that takes it in a more delicate and borderline enchanting direction. Whilst there are occasionally tracks that are difficult listening (does “Oscar” really need to be five and a half minutes long?), you’re rewarded for your patience almost instantaneously by the album centerpiece “Gallop”. It’s brash, its powerful and it sweeps you along into the world of Tall Ships’ fixation with time even more. Not that the band are worried about time, it only took them 2 years since their first EP to put the record together.

What you have with Everything Touching is a record that, given the chance, grows and encapsulates both the stunning intimacy of music and its overwhelming power. With Tall Ships you have the ability to completely lose your shit and then regain it in the space of two tracks and enjoy the whole thing right up to the incredible closers of “Books” and “Murmurations”. Its 65Daysofstatic mixed with the most grandiose rock bands and a bit of mathy intelligence.

“Time is precious, time will forget us” sings lead vocalist Ric. Time spent with this record is indeed precious, but definitely not forgettable.   

9.0

Braden Fletcher