(I have a 'Best of Indie 2006' playlist that still exists from those times when a deluded one might consider the Libertines still to have some bearing of cultural relevance. If you still think that today then you're just a dum dum. Anyway, on that playlist is the song Motorcycle by The Rumble Strips. If you ignore The Bad Bits about, say, the vocalist's style and all, it's a great pop song.
Also great (by comparison with the rest of their back catalogues) is the sunn o))) / Boris collaboration, Altar, from, like, last yr, or the one before. If you want to get yr foot in the door of Japanese rock (what Boris do a wee bit of the time), drone in a metallic nuance (Magnesium-coated Oasis records and also sunn o))) a bit of the time and their ilk) or just wish to immerse yrself in a kvltest path to helicon then NLT from this album is where to go, yo. A really dumb description of this piece of definite music is that it sounds like a thousand doors shutting at once (wow, I haven't forgotten everything about Baucis and Philemon!). I keep willing myself to delete it from my iPod but listening to it is an act of immersion. Yr not ripped on fascist ideas, yr tenuously flying into a bladed fan. Yr a swan. NLT. Check it.
If you want to die in bass, but you want that bass to be the one of a maybe-ironically-bearded indie musician, Spires by The Longcut. No, not the album version, you... tit. Find the Airtight Session version. It is actually a vacuum. Hear the wailing (whaling) and the drumming that hasn't sounded so much like progressive murder since Tyson (or his porno-name equivalent) banged his drums about killing someone for Two Gallants. This is probably what I mean when I say post-rock. Do you post-rock? Very nice.
Socks are therefore those of sense. I need to run down the weekly charts. Or monthly. Or biennial, right? Sorry! Sorry, I meant to tell you all about my opinions on these recrods like four weeks ago. I told you about The Morning Paper's album and The Rascal's EP like two weeks ago. I just casually admired Slow Down Tallahassee's The Beautiful Light and these three (?) tracks from Kidnapper Bell away and from afar. Sorry. Do you want me to re-submit the best of my best ever bestest work? Yeah? Well I'm Phil and I've never, ever, written anything worth yr time (seriously, kill yr idols) and henceforth:)
The Sonic Hearts - To Be Someone
So, this group's signed to EMI, toured with Scouting For Girls and had their album produced by, uh, dude who's "worked with the Stereophonics and many more". If you're looking for a gift for your Mum and want to go with something more "mellow" or "irresistibly inspiring" (read "insipid") than The Kooks' new, uh, album, you can have this off me. Granted, it's only two tracks long, and one is an instrumental version of the other, but then you wouldn't want to confuse your Mum, would you? The album will probably be bursting with new ideas and major chords and powerful vocals... Well, it'll probably be like this, but even more "distinctive". Seriously, email me with "I Think Your Sarcastic Attitude Stinks - The Sonic Hearts Are A Fantastic New Indie Rock Band That Do Genuinely Make Me Sing Along And Have Captivated My Mind" in the subject line, and I'll send it to you. Or just throw it away.
The Psychotic Reaction - Genre Music Is The Enemy
Nice spirit, guys. But "better than oysters"? I know oysters can leave you in rapturous diarhhoea and all, but generic indie rock, a singer who can't sing (in a bad way) and a band with very few ideas leave you with an end result sounding, on "Hand-Me-Downs (Made Me The Man I Am)" like a 20p single found in an Oxfam bin by a group who "can't understand their failure to capture the hearts and minds... blah blah", and on "Knickers in the Photocopier" like whining lad rockers. "A Moment of Clarity" does manage to suggest they can sustain a catchy verse and guitar line, though overall, it's pretty uninspired stuff. Like, if half the members of Super Furry Animals left, and the others had 2 days to record an album, when they were all totally drunk.
The Morning Paper - It's Getting Clearer
A breathless opening 2 minutes. The question: will it get clearer? Here's hoping not.
There's almost transcendent here, yet remove a couple of layers and there are some Scandinavian vocals. They ain't obscured, they're floating on the surface; mysterious and strongly accented English words have a surprisingly lush effect. They're disembodied amongst the gleeful keyboard, drums and whatever-effects.
Where am I? Um, Skarmabrink, 2007/2008. The three members of The Morning Paper are shimmering.
"Making You Up" allows for the holding of breath and a touch of chimes, the constant swirl of the melodic drums lending a blown and windy feel to this record. The chatter of the "Sidewalks" breaks in, and if you listen carefully, so does traffic and an '80s-treated synth. David Kyhlberg's words echo in to this sweet collection of chirps, reflections and sweeping dreams of tainted friendships. When "Thin Rain" takes a break, about 2 minutes in, it's only so we can hear the idle talk in the village, and appreciate the scenery (note: birdsong) - so it's a collection of summer songs. "Paint A Dream" wishes to be found. "We stood still in the face of feeling" - although any pretence of emotion of nullified by female vocals (Ida Bergstrom) over a techno backbeat, that just about manages not to impose over the top of what sort of had to be the most anthemic song on the album. "Young" is kind of a fitting, wordless death to the album suitable because by then I'm already well out of it.
Wojtek Godsisz - The Moon and the Yew Tree
Former singer in 90s "teen punk" band Symposium follows April's "Burning Ideals" EP with a rock song which is about supernatural personalities turning a man insane. Perhaps the man is the aforementioned singer. "Time of the Wolf" is the b-side. The title might further suggest Wojtek's insanity. Bloody hell, look, he's even got cellos and accordions! Probably mental.
Evidence on the contrary: the guy's got a nice voice (apart from on "Time of the Wolf", where he tries his best to sing like Dave Grohl without being too obvious and ends up sounding stupid), nicely deranged song ideas and lyrics (unfortunately not quite bordering on psychotic) and repetitive, meandering messes of music to back him.
Whether or not he's mad, the single is a disappointment. He's got traces of anger, of a storyteller and of excitement somewhere in him, but for some reason he's writing fairytales for 14 year olds who like the Magic Numbers.
Burning Star Core
If you ever wondered what tying yr limbs into knots felt like then you weren't even close. Would you like to inhale coffee for eight straight hours? This wld be illegal in Singapore but cld well be what North Korean FM radio sounds like. Blood? Check. Lightning? Check. Houston, teleport me to the surface of the Sun.
BTW, lad rock is cool.
