Competition: Win Two Tickets to Kyla La Grange in London

We're fans of Kyla La Grange here at Sound Influx. The dark-pop songstress has been on many of our individual speakers for months now since the likes of the gorgeous Vampire Smile and Walk Through Walls (below) made it into our ears for the first time.
Right now, she's on tour and will be playing her biggest headline show to date in London at Scala this coming Tuesday. We've been given a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky Sound Influx reader and all you have to do email bradenfif@live.com (that's me) with the subject as SCALA LA GRANGE and include your name and number and we'll get in touch with you if you win. Remember to tell your friends to maximise your chances of winning and tweet/share this post around.
The competition closes at 7pm on Monday and you will be informed by 9pm, 24 hours before she takes to the stage.
Good luck



Braden Fletcher

How To Dress Well - Total Loss

After The Weeknd’s triumvirate of great records, introspection, ghostly falsetto and Class As are once more back on the menu for RnB. A development which plays right into the hands of Brooklyn via Cologne philosophy graduate, Thomas Krell aka How To Dress Well.

As the curtain rises on opener ‘When I was in Trouble’ a distant train can be heard passing through a station but the gentle clip of wheels on the track seems far away, as though you’re walking a dark street and feeling the vibrations beneath your feet. It hardly counts as the calm before the storm, when so much of this follow-up to the acclaimed ‘Love Remains’ is hushed and downbeat but it serves to usher in a record which like The XX is all about the subtle shifts in mood.

Throughout ‘Total Loss’ there’s a tremendous sense of the space between notes; like snatches of melody fleetingly glimpsed from a moving vehicle. Krell’s Prince-ly falsetto is impressive but never showy, merging seamlessly with the sleek electro-soul arrangements. Track five ‘& It Was U’ also adopts Prince’s penchant for dropping letters but more than makes up for its incorrect orthography with cleverly layered vocals and heavy bass drum while ‘Cold Nites’ piano and clicking rhythm track recall the XX as Krell wraps his vocal chords round a vaporous melody.

At the centre of the record the otherworldly instrumental ‘World I Need You, Won’t Be Without You (Proem)’ could easily pass for Sigur Ros, with gorgeous visions thrown up like puffs of snow by little more than strings and a few touches of percussion. You don’t get this with a Chris Brown album.

For a record inspired by the death of one of Krell’s best friends often there is little in the way of concrete imagery, instead relying on icy string samples and echoing drum machines to cover the gaps between his haunting vocals. One of the weaknesses of ‘Total Loss’ is that if don’t you approach it in the right mood, the down-tempo sonics coupled to helium vocals can be difficult to embrace but persevere and you’ll be treated to an album which turns the pains of depression and loss into a creative triumph.

Overall ‘Total Loss’ is a haunting and intelligent album that will play well with a particular type of intellectual pop fan even if it won’t quite knock Frank Ocean off his throne this year.

7.4

Max Sefton

SBTRKT - Terminal

Ahead of his mammoth tour starting tomorrow, the masked dance master that’s captured the imaginations of the mainstream Aaron Jerome aka SBTRKT has launched new track Terminal out across the internet today. After a series of releases including last year’s huge self-titled record; which made our top 10 albums of 2011.

Listening to this new track however signals something of a step away from this, however. With the kind of sound you’d expect to fill a DJ set rather than the kind of shows SBTRKT pulls off with the likes of Sampha live it’s not so much a curveball as a floor filling, ostinato heavy SBTRKT half-way house.

Everything we’ve come to know as trademark for Jerome is there, the pulsing bass line, the like for sparcity and insanity at the same time and the want to be commercially acceptable without pushing too hard for pop. Counting in at under three minutes however, it’s more of a sampler for future beats than it is a ready-to-go release though so for now, that’s our appetite whet.

Braden Fletcher

Tweak Bird - People

Tweak Bird are the answer to question "What would Oasis sound like if they smoked way too much weed and decided to pay homage to Spiritualized rather than The Beatles?"

With psychedelic wailing harmonies and swathes of reverb-laden guitars, the Illinois homegrowns have made quite the comeback on 'People' following from their self titled effort back in 2010. It's one of those tracks that sounds effortlessly cool as you suspect that despite their image, these guys might actually give a shit about making good music. And remarkably for a stoner-rock outfit, it's not disposable and throwaway like so many other male duos in the field that have fallen off the hype wave in recent years (Who are Bleeding Knees Club again?).

This is good stuff, and is generously available for free download from their soundcloud.
Look out for their forthcoming mini album 'Undercover Crops' on October 9th too, if it's as good as this track we could be hearing a lot more from these two.

Toby McCarron

Green Day - Uno!

I mean, what did I expect, the new Green Day album not to sound like a Green Day album? Clearly in their regression period. They didn’t want to lose all their fans from yesteryear and blaze their American Idiot trail until the end, so they tried to win them back with a jaunty pop punk return. A return to form, some would say, to what they were famous for. And sure, ‘iUno!’ is a fine representation of what Green Day are well known for - writing upbeat, catchy sort-of-punk songs that boil the insides of young misfit 14 year olds and leave them feeling a little bit less like the outcasts that they thought they were. And hey, who am I to say that’s a bad thing? I was that kid once. We all were. Unless you were one of of the popular kids who’s only bully was their father. Then you’re in a different club.But the underlining idea I'm trying to snobbishly smuggle into this review is that: whatever happened to moving on? Green Day, you wrote Dookie just under ten years ago, let it go. You don’t really have to give a shit about the morons who think that you should just keep remaking that album until you die of an illness mainly caused by your creativity drying up so much that you can’t even feel where it is in your body anymore.

Listening through this album, every song kind of pulls the same punch and tries to achieve the same idea with variations on the same chords and harmonies. Also, it grates a little, how much the lyrics of the songs are as angsty as their fans. And that would have been fine ten years ago or more when the band were still in the same age bracket as said fans (I mean, they were pushing the “I don’t give a fuck! fuck you! yeah!” kid punk thing for far too long by then anyway). But now, they are adults, have kids and are married and are still dressing like their fans, acting like their fans, and basically trying to fill the idea their fans want them to fill. And sure, I’m definitely not an advocate of the ‘you reach a certain age then you’re passed it and you should develop into your stagnant arm chair forever’ thing, but I dunno. If I said “the girly-punk section of Claire’s Accessories” , would you get what I meant then? Also, why are you still singing songs about chasing after girls, dude? You’ve been married for eight years. I’ll admit, I did grow up on Green Day, was a huge fan and I had a special place for them. But, I’ve moved on, and I’ve opened myself up to newer things. Maybe they should have too.

2.3

Eliot Humphreys 

Live: The Xcerts / Yearbook @ Borderline, London

When you’re one of the most popular underground bands on the rock scene, surrounded by quite a lot of good vibes about your future, it always seems easier to pull off momentous occasions so when the Xcerts announced they’d be performing their second (and slightly less good) album, Scatterbrain in full at the Borderline in London, you’d be right to be cautiously excited.

On the night however, there’s a strange name on the bill. It’s Saul Goodman! For those of us who aren’t as hooked on Breaking Bad’s skirting characters as the Xcerts, we quickly learn that it is infact tonight’s headline act playing a series of new tracks including what must be a future single in “Shaking in the Water”, the band warm up for their own warm up act in short but sweet style.

So with the crowd having already had four songs of excitement, it’s time for Yearbook. The five-piece, whilst not yet a fully touring band, have created a buzz around their live set that just refuses to stop snowballing from the moment they plug in. The likes of -single “Everything I Own” fits in with the chant along “3’s and 6’s” from the free EP Squares and Circles in a well rehearsed and tight knit sound as lead singer Andy Halloway’s elastic voice dominates the small venue. With more material of a similar quality, Yearbook could see themselves selling out the Borderline very soon.

After all this excitement, you’d be forgiven for not even needing the headline act to go home happy, but you’d be sorely mistaken. From the opening pulses of Tar Ok, breaks title track “Scatterbrain” as the album play through gets underway. The crowd start to get on board as “Gum” gives them a respite but as “Slackerpop” blasts its way through the speakers, anyone contemplating standing still is won over. Considering the record as a whole isn’t exactly the best around, The Xcerts prove against the odds that on their day, they can be be. Roll on record three.

Tame Impala - Lonerism

Have you ever felt like the Beatles’ psychedelic era was cut too short? Do you consider Sgt. Peppers as one of the greatest musical achievements of the 20th Century, with all of its LSD-influenced wonderment and surrealism, but have been unsatisfied with everything by anyone that came out after? In these cases, listen to Tame Impala. Everything about this act is like a spiritual explosion of everything the 60’s hippie movement set up, and acts as a propulsion unit to make it relevant again today. 

2010 introduced listeners worldwide to the Australian psychedelic/space rock outfit Tame Impala with the record Innerspeaker. This compendium wowed the world’s population and made those interested in the psychedelia scene stand up and take notice. This was achieved by its complexity, boldness and striking string of tracks that never seemed to let up in trippy ecstatic quality. The same vein has been struck for 2012’s follow-up, Lonerism. This record largely feels like a follow-up to Innerspeaker, as the same paths are retread, the same musical ideas are presented and little new ground is covered. Not necessarily a bad thing however; considering how impressive and accomplished the band’s debut was, more of the same could be exactly the route that should have been taken.

Many of the tracks present here are very similar on first listen, although their unique features start to unveil themselves after an indulgence into the sound that is being offered. ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ mixes the formula up a little somewhere through the midpoint of the album with an understated, simple drum pattern and an infectious, interesting synth warble throughout. The vocals and basslines that shimmer over the top combine to create an attractive mix, and as a result, a highlight. “Keep on Lying” on the other hand, seems to be an attempt to make the band seem as retroactive as possible while still sounding contemporary, the pop structure and key progression is so dated that it actually works as an adventurous move.

The result of a continuation of the band’s sound is a cohesive and direct space rock album that achieves its goal of providing an aural soundscape of a pleasant drug trip. The guitars still sound warped and operatic, the drums still reverberate around the studio and the synths create a beautiful wavy backdrop with which the rest of the band sails upon. (...and yes, vocalist Kevin Parker still sounds exactly like John Lennon.) While Lonerism doesn’t demolish expectations and paint new canvases with unforeseen and unprecedented modern songwriting techniques, it provides an entertaining listen that keeps the classic sound of the 60’s rock movement alive.

7.3

Matthew White

Toy - Toy

With three ex-members of swiftly imploding indie-poppers Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong on board, this London quartet have spent the last 12 months picking up rave reviews for a brand of psychedelic post-punk which shares more than a few strands of musical DNA with their much-heralded tour mates The Horrors.

There’s been plenty of discussion of the Krautrock influence on ‘TOY’ but titles like ‘Kopter’ and ‘Motoring’ aside actual songs still tend to dominate over grooves for the young five piece. Rather than Neu or Can more accurate touchstones would be The Cure and My Bloody Valentine, bands who married an independent aesthetic to the kind of grandiose romanticism which colours ‘Lose My Way’ and the eighties-ish ‘My Heart Skips a Beat’.

Like Faris Badwan’s bunch, at their best Toy make music which is epic yet starry-eyed; repeated rhythmic or melodic phrases spun into mantras, teased out then sucked back into the hypnotic chaos like stars into a collapsing black hole. Burbling basslines dominate ‘Colours Running Out’ and ‘Strange’, and although the experimentalism clearly owes its debt to 80’s alt-rock, it’s a welcome addition to their pallet. At the albums’ centre, ‘Drifting Deeper’s musical flourishes sound like Ennio Morricone adrift in space; a stunning instrumental whose gorgeous ebb and flow twists the group in its dark embrace.

Of the two longer songs which do find the group drifting into groove-based territory, ‘Dead & Gone’ co-opts the relentless forward momentum of Pulp’s ‘Common People’ but without Jarvis Cocker’s warmth and verbosity whilst closer ‘Kopter’ locks down a Hawkwind-esque space-rock groove of splashy drums and widescreen synth.

If there’s a slight criticism to be levelled it’s that Tom Dougall’s voice can be rather characterless. He lacks Robert Smith’s variety of phrasing and his brooding manner can come across as flat and facile rather than mysterious and compelling but fortunately his bandmates kick up such a swell noise that for the most part he’s carried along on the crest of the wave. One of the best British debuts of the year.

8.0

Max Sefton

Why? - Mumps Etc

If there was ever a sub-genre which reeked of posh kids slumming it, it’s indie hip-hop. Even the name of this Californian quartet comes across as a second-hand, smart-aleck jibe. Back in 2001 the Strokes asked us ‘Is This It?’ but came good with a debut which was not only definitely ‘It’ but possibly re-defined what ‘It’ was. On the other hand, as a moniker, Why? topples precariously on the line between glib cleverness and writing their own epitaph.

Primarily the output of Ohioan producer, label owner and provocateur Jonathan ‘Yoni’ Wolf, Why? deal in sunny sounding but abstract snapshots of an intelligent American youth. Opener ‘Jonathan’s Hope’ teases with a bucolic humming and delicate piano but spins into a mind-warping tour into a world of doves, deathbeds and disease, alternating crudeness and crooning.

From a web of percussion and delicate piano Wolf and his bandmates are just about capable of spinning out a pleasant tune but these are too often fleeting moments of lucidity between his rapping. Lyrically dextrous he may be but too often he comes across as a snarky tourist with the unappealing nasal tone of a bored high school kid. The whistling assisted ‘Strawberries’ offers a heady mix of the confessional and the crude ‘I don’t wear rubbers and I don’t wear sunscreen’ but its ‘I’m not ok’ refrain feels lazy and trite and there’s not a lot else that appeals to either head or heart.

Sometimes this is twisted to his advantage such as on “Way High on Highway 13” in which he uses the solid rhythms of hip-hop to complement a shifting roadtrip through his own psyche but even on these occasions he sounds like Ben Folds’ parody of a suburban teenager. The general themes seems to be mortality and alienation from a world in which everyone else ‘in their late 20’s just wants to make money’ but ‘Mumps Etc’ finds our privileged narrator yearning for the conventional lifestyle and ‘kid with the best report card’. It’s a interesting dichotomy but not one that’s explored with any real insight. Lyrically, the finest moment is ‘Thirst’ which finds Wolf picking through the detritus of his basement in search of some object which will connect him to the world around but ultimately he doesn’t find any answers and ‘Mumps Etc’ is too insular to make riding shotgun on his journey any fun.

So at the end of this musical odyssey there’s one very important question the band have to answer: Why?

2.5


Max Sefton

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Swim And Sleep (Like A Sharp)

With the continual stream of bands making music that sounds like it should have been released in the 1970s not looking to run dry, it looks like most of the harshest lo-fi critics have just come to accept that this style of pop music is here to stay. Unknown Mortal Orchestra are certainly one of those bands who don't necessarily belong in this decade, but have such undeniably hummable tunes, there's not much to complain about.

This track taken from a forthcoming tour only 7" is just as melodic and vibrant as the tuneful songs they hammered out on their much loved eponymous debut last year. The guitar riff treads the line of Real Estate's meandering dream pop, while frontman Ruban Nielson's vocals come across more wistful and comforting than they perhaps did before when talking about his ffunny ffriends. It's not a progression, but UMO deliver the goods once again, forecasting promising signs for their forthcoming second LP.

Toby McCarron