The Meantime is a band from Australia composed of Daniel Bailey (guitar/vocals), Kurt Burns (drums) and Zack Edwards (bass). Their recent self-titled EP The Meantime should sound familiar to anyone who has had even the most limited exposure to rock music in the last twenty years.
The songs revolve around power chords, a pounding rhythm section and vocal melodies. Bands like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Local H and Stone Temple Pilots come to mind. Most of the songs are anchored in ‘90s alternative rock but a number of tracks stem from hard rock as well. Strip away the distortion and you are left with well-written if predictable pop. The songs are catchy enough and got more enjoyable after a couple of plays. They kick things off with the hardest, fuel driven song on the EP entitled “Feel The Same.” It’s the guitars that provide the extra octane that make the song on the verge of metal. The song doesn’t stray from what you would expect. You get some lead guitar and catchy hooks. Overall, a pretty good song but I think it will have a hard time sticking out amongst the crowd. “On My Mind” is straight from the ‘90s. In particular that chorus had me thinking of Foo Fighters. I thought the production could have been better on this track. The clean guitar is vacant of energy and I thought the vocals could have been treated better at times. Speaking of his vocals Bailey tests the limits of his abilities on the chorus where he has a difficult time pulling off the angry, visceral purge he was trying to capture. As the album progresses the songs stick to the same palette of sounds. There are some highpoints like the Smashing Pumpkins-esque style guitar parts on “Have It All” but in all honesty the song don’t require much explanation. The Meantime deliver a no-frills rock EP that feels content paying tribute to ‘90s alternative music rather than pushing the boundaries. There is nothing wrong with that but don’t expect to hear many things here that give the band much of a signature sound.
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Smooth yet rocking guitar riffs and biting percussion pulled me in to "Birds of a Feather" the first track on Lampwick’s self-titled album Lampwick. The vocals of the lead singer definitely took me by surprise. It immediately put me in the decade of the '80's and reminded me of David Lee Roth and Bon Scott. He changes his voice so many times in the first song I didn't know what to think. Overall, a very solid high energy song.
Lampwick peeked my interest with the first song, but it unfortunately did not last long, as I was introduced to the second song "Sunburst." It is essentially a six-minute ballad that turns into a ridiculously hard hitting metal song. The lead singer ends sup screaming at the top of his lungs leaving them bloody and bruised. "Crab Grenade" is much more my style and quite frankly the bands pulls it off better. I love the fast rhythm, and during the first verse it reminded me a little bit of a band like Primus. I guess it was a bit of a stylistic change I wasn't expecting, but I loved it. Very sweet riffs on the bass guitar being played as well as some pretty stellar rhythm guitar work. Well, the whole band was on point with this song. It was one of my favorites on the album. "Wretch" begins with a somber, moody bass chord progression. The guitars are my favorite aspect of the production on this track. And once they exploded with energy and the vocals were screaming - I was pretty taken back. What a contrast between this and the next track "Milk And Honey." Another one with booming energy and the vocalist here sounds angry and I can feel the emotion. It's like a good slap in the face. And with that being said, I particularly enjoyed the first half of this album more than I did the second half although "Cloud 9" and "Bloodlust" are heavy hitters that strike a chord. Not every song worked for me but there's enough interesting instrumentation and raw guitar play to outweigh the negatives. I will say that this does not feel like a typical rock or 'screamo' band.
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The introduction track "Working Hard" on Hordie’s album Votive Offerings begins with a bang and a nice sonic atmosphere with some vocal harmonization that was a throw back to bands like Roxy Music and 80's Style David Bowie. I was sure this was a sound of band but it's actually one guy named Mike Hord. Hord has some talent as a songwriter and the one of the only singers I have heard who reminds me of Jarvis Cocker.
With the second song "The Growth God" we hear what sounded like (at least to me) someone urinating into a trough. It caught me off guard and then that's when the song itself starts. It's got a clear vision – some very nice instrumentation that has a poppy/refined flavor to it. Some strings are added within the production and it becomes a solid addition to the song. It's when I hit the third track "Fly Me To The Moon" that I really started to dig sound Votive Offerings. It reminded me of elements of classic rock from the '60s/'70s, while the addition of the piano was a nice touch. The vocal work, as well, allows me to feel as though the song has lived decades ago while not sounding dated. The hook is simple but effective. Great musicianship with the guitars, the solo rocked. The rhythm and soundscape of this track was hypnotic, it struck a nerve. I loved it. "This Afluenza" features some sweet bass progressions in the beginning; the riffs all throughout work extremely well. It is moody and atmospheric. And then the production becomes more layered, it started to sound psychedelic from the reverb and delay effects. The lyrics and songwriting begin to stick out more, and their expressive nature becomes apparent. And then he hit us with the funk inspired "Special Lady." I instantly smiled and knew I was going to love this song which actually sounded like early Primal Scream. Such great instrumentation, alternative elements, the whole piece sounds nothing like the songs that came before it. It's just bursting with creativity, and because of the tracks that came before it, it makes this song that much more special. As the album progressed the other notable songs were "Man of Song" and "Birthday Wishes." Overall, the album has it flaws but they are far and in between. The majority of the songs are good and some are slightly above that.
String Fiction is a duo from Australia comprised of Daniel Keating (vocals, guitar, drum machine) and Cassandra Scott (backing vocals, bass, keys) who are a work in progress. Their recent release Chapter Six isn’t competitive in terms of sound quality, production or songwriting against the best music has to offer today but instead offers a glimpse of potential.
Keating is considered the lead singer and I know this might be hard for him to swallow but his counterpart may have him beat. I don’t have much to work with here but the vocal performance Scott delivers on the third song “The Cycle” is superior to the performance Keating delivers on the first track. That being said, his vocals are improved on the fourth track. Scott has a powerful Amy Wilson style voice that should be taken advantage of. Keating is sometimes off-key on the first track and fourth track and his delivery isn’t exactly always flattering. Some of it does have to do with subpar engineering but some of it doesn't. To his credit they do sound good when they bust out vocal harmonies. The first song is entitled “Time Travellers,” which revolves around white noise from guitars and flaccid percussive elements. Keating sings, “It's the everything I wanted, Encased in Autumn months, Nostalgia by the garden swings, of our street cafe in France.“ At his best he sounds like a drunken version of Ian Curtis. The song tries to build energy but falls a bit short. The second track “Cerebral Dream” is an instrumental track that feels like it’s building up to something but instead goes nowhere. The guitars are repetitive and the riff isn’t bad but the song sounds unfinished. “The Cycle” not only contains the best vocal performance but also is the best written. It’s has a good structure and some notable parts. What the song lacked were any explosive moments that it was in need of. The closer “Everybody Sings” is the runner up. Keating delivers a better vocal performance on this track than on “Time Travellers” and the high point comes when they combine vocals and sing, “We’re going home.” I think this group has talent but have some work ahead of them if they are going to take this music thing seriously. I have hope for Keating as a singer. He definitely needs to practice but occasionally I heard some inspired moments during certain lines. Two of the songs showed they had some skills as songwriters but still felt empty in a number of ways. Overall, String Fiction is case of wait and see. It’s that simple.
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The District Heat is a four-piece indie rock band from Calgary who recently released this a full-length self-titled album The District Heat. They cover a couple of different sub-genres under the indie rock umbrella and their sound can bear comparisons to bands like Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, Weezer and Queens of the Stone Age.
Musically, the group keeps it simple from a technical perspective. Most of the songs revolve around power chords, root notes and lead work that any semi competent guitar player could easily pull off. There's nothing wrong with that as punk rock continually proves again and again but if you are the type that needs Satriani guitar leads and Neil Peart drumming this might not be up your alley. The District Heat is in the business of making friendly, easy on the ears type songs. The music is often predictable and never threw me for a loop. These songs are radio ready material that the masses can sing along to. The band’s biggest strength is their vocal harmonies. There were a number of times where their vocal harmonies helped decorate a song that needed a push. As far as the songs go the band was largely hit or miss for me. They start off strong with "Mask," which has a start and stop type feel to that of Queens of the Stone Age. That being said, they don't have the onslaught of energy that Queens of the Stone Age bring to the table. "Slingshot Stride" has its moments but doesn't completely hit the mark while "Whisper" contains enjoyable guitar picking and timing changes the band should have worked more. As the album progresses the band never goes full on poppy goodness and doesn't rock out enough for me to notice. Songs like "Wallflower" and "Moon Walking Is For Giants" sound like they could be theme songs for ‘90s sitcoms. Catchy, melodies that get stuck in your head whether you want them to or not, that type of thing. The District Heat may have some impact on casual music fans who prefer bands like The Killers and Fountains of Wayne but people who lean towards unique pop/rock acts like Dirty Projectors, of Montreal or Real Estate won't find much of interest here.
47th Helen from Austin, TX's P'Like sounds like a gloomy electro soundtrack to Alan Moore's V For Vendetta, if the occupant of room 5 happened to be a little girl with emotional problems. 47th Helen, the first solo record from P'like, is a short, conceptual EP about a character named Helen (or is it?), who's been sequestered in a psychiatric hospital, undergoing untold experimental treatments that leaves her identity in fragments. Each track is named after one of the personalities - The Baroness, Temperance, Emma, Persephone and Lucy. Each part is more like a piece of the whole rather than individual tracks, which suggests that perhaps "Helen" isn't as fragmented and damaged as she might believe. It also makes this EP flow more like a DJ set or mixtape, which is no bad thing. P'like is the creation of the mysteriously monikered EM, who started out playing bass in a rock band, before moving on to the experimental industrial outfit Bishop Buzzkill, where she learned how to play keyboards and sequence, then moving on to drum programming. The sound is in the orbit of the rigid trap sound with the gauzy, spectral séance of witch house, which I miss to the depths of my soul. Woolen, thudding ponderous beats meet staccato strings - similar to Beyonce's "Flawless" - with the ethereal vocals of Veela from the band Blackmill, whose samples appear throughout, along with the requisite old newsreel footage and documentary snippets about psychiatric drugs and mental treatment. I won't beleaguer the fact that EM is a woman, except to say: 1. It's nice to see a lady producer. I know there are probably tons and tons of them out there, and I just need to dig. But recently I googled "female techno producers" and the results were so scarce it was embarrassing. 2. There is nothing stereotypically "feminine" about 47th Heaven, which is dark and brooding as they come, but there is an airy and ethereal air, mainly in the vocal samples, and light, chiming, childlike samples, which creates some lovely, haunting cognitive dissonance, and is a welcome respite from the normally thuggish and leaden sounds of trap, grime and witch house. Electronic music can be a bit of a boy's club with an emphasis on gadgets and gizmos and flashy tech, but it needn't be that way. Do a quick scan of any dance club anywhere, and ask yourself how much ladies like dance music. In fact, it is one of the genres that has the greatest capacity for true androgyny with its emphasis on futurism and transcendence. We all are one in the machine. So I applaud EM and encourage her to keep going! P'like is short for "pretend like," a game of make-believe EM played with her sister, growing up. This short and very sweet EP reminds us that we need not give up childish things when we grow old, nor do we need let our hearts die. Instead, our imaginations grow richer, more fertile and we're more capable of bringing those fancies into the real world. P'like is off to a banging start, so climb on board now, before you have to dole out $350 for SONAR or Burning Man.
I remember listening to Dungen a couple of years ago and thinking this Swedish band does classic/garage rock better than a majority of American bands. The album Skabt Værk Består by Syreregn gave me that same feeling. These guys may be from Denmark but it’s close enough to Sweden that it’s apparent these regions have good taste in music. To get to the point fast this album rocks in the best way possible. If you are a fan of bands like T. Rex, Cream and Led Zeppelin, you will want to make sure not to miss this. I reviewed Velvet Moth recently and like that album Skabt Værk Består is able to sound like it was made in the ‘70s rather than trying to copy the aesthetics from that era. As much as this album rocks there are some unexpected twists and turns, which we will get to shortly. The album starts off with the title track “Skabt Værk Består,” which begins with a loose collection of sounds. Atmospheric pads, bells, and guitars tinker about until a prominent baseline is inserted into the mix. The album slowly builds with anticipation as if you are listening to a breakdown from The Doors. Vocals enter into the picture. I couldn't understand a word (because I don’t understand the language) but it sounded great to my ears. The song is eventually covered in distortion but not too long before it transitions into a smooth, improv style breakdown revolving around an organ. The second track "HypnoKongen" is a rocking good time. There are some great, crunchy guitar riffs on this track and the song contains another loose breakdown. I was thrown for a loop when I heard the sitars at the beginning of "Marana Tha" that reminded me of Ravi Shankar. I loved the dreamy, psychedelic eastern feel. The thing that is really cool is how they starting layering guitars and drums into the mix. This song is twelve plus minutes long and it eventually gets into metal territory and somehow managed not to sound like a gimmick. The last song "Psychedelic Baby" wraps things up nicely and is the hardest rocking song on the EP. These dudes are the real deal. Can't wait for more. The Gardeners are a duo from Los Angeles who recently released an EP entitled Where Do We Go From Here? The band is similar to The Postal Service in that they have a proclivity for electronic music that mixes up disparate sounds that form the foundation of pop songs. Other than that, this is where the similarities end. The band is a bit schizophrenic jumping from acoustic guitar based pop songs to atmospheric synth based music. Some of it works, some of it feels like a work in progress but either way they are in a good spot creatively to really come into their own within the next release. The album starts with one of the strongest songs entitled "Free Fools Love," which has an interesting vibe that is hard to pinpoint. They combine fuzzy synths, what sounds like a vibraphone and electronic drums into a concoction of sound for the vocals to go over. This song also contains some of the best vocal melodies. The high point comes when the vocalist repeats the song title "Free Fools Love." "May I Offer you a Drink?" combines digital orchestral elements with a percussive heavy palette of sounds. The song offered some exceptional transitions such as the one they pull off about three-and-a-half minutes in. Unfortunately, not every song is as strong as the first two. The guitar based "And She Catches Me Flying" comes up short while "Universe Nothing" sounds vacant of the programming that made the first two songs good. It became clear to me that band is at their best when they tinker with electronic based sounds. The band gets back on track with "Interrupt," which is oddly dissonant and disconnected but works. The closing track "Into the Wasteland" has its moments but isn't flawless. It seems to me the band is on to something but still has some work ahead of them. Overall Where Do We Go From Here? is strong and enjoyable but has some kinks in the armor. Looking forward to more from the Gardeners. Bands seem to be releasing music faster and faster these days. Same Pinch managed to release their first four songs on their self-titled album Same Pinch after the first few months they had formed. As you can maybe have guessed the band hasn't reached its full potential and showcases a band that is still wearing its influences on their sleeves while trying to find an engaging, unique sound. As far as sound quality goes there are some issues but nothing too offending. The sound quality is about that of a demo where you can notice pockets of potential. Thankfully the band doesn't use a lot of distortion, which would have made the songs harder to listen to regarding sound quality. The four-piece band made up of Dan Friedman, Surya Giru, Will Davis and Ryan McNamara have some skills in their songwriting but at this point the band lacks any defining features. As I listened I heard tinges of bands like Interpol, The National and Local Natives. The songs are relatively catchy and everyone in the band has some noticeable technical and creative talent. The band kicks things off with "Feel Bad Culture." Clean, reverb laced guitars and precise drumming back up the singers’ vocal melodies. The subpar recording quality affects the visceral impact of the song when they start to rock out. It's a good song if not really memorable. Next up is "Flimsy," which starts with a strong bass line and drumming which is the backbone of the song. The band interjects strategically placed vocal harmonies and guitar parts, which were done well. The highlight for me was the third track "We Don't Know Why." I was digging the start and stop guitar parts and thought this track had the most infectious vocal melodies. They get loose and have a noteworthy instrumental breakdown. They close the album with "Stop The Clocks ft. Rakae Jamil.” It wasn’t a bad song but the recording sounded too narrow and distorted which diminished my enjoyment. Same Pinch has some work to do if they want to compete with the upper echelon of indie rock but they have some potential. Hopefully we hear some more material as soon as the band finds their niche.
M.S.T. Entertainment is an independent record label based in Philadelphia that is made up of Nixon, D-Rellz, Don Chette and AG & M-O (who is also the CEO/Founder of M.S.T. Entertainment). The label recently released an album entitled Apollo, which is a bit of a sampler of the unique artists on the label. There is no doubt that all the artists on the label are talented and some of the beats as well as the rapping are inventive. One thing that needs mentioning is the explicit nature of the material. It seems like every other word on some songs are fu@!, sh*!, bi#@! and the N-word. I have to admit that relying on the same words had me questioning - why? Hip-hop has been elevated in recent years by artists like Run The Jewels who implements creative metaphors, puns and more or less incredible verbal gymnastics. I have to think that using the same striking language not only loses its visceral impact but also restricts the artist’s creative expression. There are twelve songs on Apollo and it offers quite an eclectic range of material. Some of it has a southern gangsta feel while other songs showcase an experimental nature. The beats are well done all the way through the album. There was some exceptional production on some of the tracks that prove that M.S.T Entertainment is a label that is on the cusp of breaking. The album starts off with “Apollo, “ which carries a hefty beat and seems most destined to be played at the club at 2:00 am in the morning. It’s a good choice for an opener because it showcases four different rappers and also contains a memorable hook. “Kingdom” had some very creative programming when it comes to the production. It contains a deep low end that blow up your subs but its best moments are the come about a-minute-and-a-half in. “Cinematic” is a highlight that displays engaging vocal harmonies. The vocal style changes often and make the track one of the most engaging out of the batch. As the album progressed “Young & Reckless.” “Pot of Gold” and “Half” were a couple of the notable songs. M.S.T. Entertainment has got some talent but can they hang with acts likes of Run The Jewels, Kendrick Lamar and D’angelo? As of right now they come short but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. I’ll be sure to to keep my eye on this label and how it develops. There is certainly a lot of talent here that has the potential to compete with popular hip-hop acts. |
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