30.04.2024-MARCUS FOSTER Nameless Path (Communion,2011)

 

FOLK ROCK

    Rather than the mysterious road less travelled that the title of his debut album suggests, Foster’s steps are pretty easy to trace. Released on Communion, the label that sprang from the Mumford-associated club night, the emoting folk-rock here is hardly a surprise. Yet if his path is well-trodden, he swaggers along it in style. There’s more room in this world for the sassy, moody, Tom Waits-styled ‘Shadows Of The City’ than there is for the mopey balladry of ‘I Was Broken’, but the range of moods here is impressive. A little further from the beaten track, and we might have something.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/fuiloq

29.04.2024-BEATY HEART Till The Tomb (Nusic,2016)

 

INDIE POP / ELECTRONIC

     Some of the best British pop of 2016 bursts from this south London trio’s second set. Lustrous opener Flora demonstrates a new radio-ready confidence without fully junking their trademark weirdness, and the sinuous, serrated bass of Raw Gold is Metronomy spooning Hot Chip on Jungle’s bed – the best song Beaty Heart have ever written. Powerful with a warm intimacy, thanks to Josh Mitchell’s plaintive vocals, Till the Tomb strips back their excellent debut’s fussy tribal psychedelia and strafes each song with miniature addictive riffs and motifs instead. Occasionally it sounds like the worst sort of shallow, awfully English electronic funk, but mostly the seductive cradle-rock rhythms drag you in deeper, like quicksand for the ears.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/9062uf

28.04.2024-STOOSHE London With The Lights On (Warner UK,2013)

 

R&B

     The album seems a little immature. Not in a kid-friendly way, but more like the girls need a year or two more to really find exactly what works for them and how to use those strengths to the best of their ability. However, I kind of feel like it's not their fault. My modern ears are just not used to hearing an album steered sonically by the same team and as variety nowadays really is the spice of life, this is where the album falls flat. 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/4e4li1

26.04.2024-GIRL RAY Earl Grey (Moshi Moshi,2017)

 

INDIE ROCK

     It’s an album full of small songs about big feelings, and in scope and sound, it’s closer to the original C86 source material than any of the twee-revival records that I’ve heard in recent years. The songs aren’t lo-fi, exactly, but they have an analog warmth that helps them stand out. And leader Poppy Hankin’s lyrics are direct to the point of near-artlessness, which of course is what makes them artful: “You’re so cool / Dunno what I’d do / If you say, ‘I like you, too.'” But for all the echoes of scenes past, Earl Grey never sounds like the work of revivalists. Instead, it’s almost like these young women have immersed themselves completely in the same music that inspired the original C86 bands. 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/y658ae

24.04.2024-MATTIEL Mattiel (Burger,2017)

 

ALTERNATIVE ROCK

   ‘Whites Of Their Eyes’ is raw and garage-y, with stripped-back production and a rough-edged cool, something akin to early White Stripes. ‘Send It On Over’ is primal and seductive, with hazy organ swimming in the background while Brown spits out lines like ‘You think nobody knows, but they know’. The album is built on buzzy guitar riffs and the odd solo. Vintage-sounding, this certainly is.

   ‘Salty Words’ is a highlight, a dose of Ennio Morricone-esque cowboy blues, but initial enthusiasm for this record starts to evaporate in its latter stages as the same-sameness of the tracks starts to mount up. There’s a sense, too, of songwriting to order, with each song ringing vague bells of over-familiarity somewhere in your mind – ‘Baby Brother’ is pure sixties US teen pop, and while ‘Count Your Blessings’ is powerfully delivered, it feels like a composite of classics.  

https://www.sendspace.com/file/tpbh9i

21.04.2024-SNAIL MAIL Lush (Matador,2018)

 

INDIE ROCK

     The record ticks off the checkboxes of indie rock record construction (hazy intro that features material from later on in the record; lead single as second track; big, swelling track in 6/8 that caps off the Side A; muted interlude that kicks off Side B; big penultimate track that segues into less-orchestral but still emotive finale) but the record is anything but by-the-numbers. It uses the genre's unspoken conventions as a launching pad for her raw, honest performances.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/cu7kgr

19.04.2024-ORIELLES Silver Dollar Moment (Heavenly,2018)

 

INDIE POP

     The Orielles are good at making music sound human - there's something very alive about vocalist Esme Dee Hand-Halford's slightly wobbly, English-accented singing style, while the guitar sound on 'Sunflower Seeds' has more feeling than some bands' entire back catalogues. A couple of things about 'Silver Dollar Moment' are hard to understand:

   a-what they're actually singing about (most of the time)

   b-why they decided to open the album with 'Mango', which sounds like a bad Britpop song.

     Mostly, though, this album is a masterclass in how to produce guitar music that feels anything but futile: by making it specific, strange and superior to much of what's come before.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/dmxvsi

17.04.2024-DEEP SEA DIVER History Speaks (Not On Label,2012)

 

INDIE ROCK

   Their sound pierces you with it’s freshness– Jessica Dobson’s voice and band member John Raine’s bass lines demand attention, some rip into action like a Karen O dance number, such as on “You Go Running”, with her husband Peter Mansen keeping a tight drum beat. Other tracks are melodious and dreamlike, with Dobson on piano and often Vox, such as the fantastic title track “History Speaks”. Although there are pop music elements to these songs, I think their sound also has a unique rawness that gives it a slightly punk edge, in songs such as “Weekend Wars” where Dobson wails “I wont meet my end/ At the hands of the dead/ Because I hear them call/I hear them call my name/I hear them call!”

https://www.sendspace.com/file/6ecnbg

15.04.2024-FITZ & The TANTRUMS All The Feels (Elektra,2019)

 

INDIE POP

   Indie-pop band Fitz and The Tantrums returns with their LP “All The Feels,” a stimulating experience that will have listeners yearning for more. 

   The LP is comprised of 17 songs with high-tempo productions and a modern indie-pop sound as themes of self-belief and perseverance are reflected in the feel-good lyrics of each track.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/oqs85o0q4u5vctl/FTFeels.zip/file

14.04.2024-JAMES PANTS James Pants (Stones Throw,2011)

 

ELECTRO BOOGIE

     Taking sounds that were unusual or anachronistic to begin with, this Stones Throw artist synthesizes the past in a seamless and intensely retro way.

     James Pants is his third album, less goofy and party-focused than 2008's Welcome, and a little less brooding and funky than 2009's Seven Seals. 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/977t290be8twm9s/JPants.zip/file

10.04.2024-SOL SEPPY I Am As You Are, Pt.1 (Not On Label,2018)

 

DOWNTEMPO

     Not quite as incredible as her debut, but she still manages to evoke some incredible complex emotions with these simple but unique compositions and melodies.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/xlf0b6

09.04.2024-DEWOLFF Strange Fruits And Undiscovered Plants (REMusic,2009)

 

PSYCHEDELIC ROCK

   Psychedelic-hardgroovin-funkyrock-n-rollin-hotbluesdrivin-hellhounding-supersweet-sixties-explosion! DeWolff is a three-headed teen-rockmonster that crawled right out of the Mississippi mud to shake, rattle and roll the world with some raw, psychedelic sixties bluesrock. Armed with a screaming Hammond-organ, a muddy, howling guitar, thunderous drums and a soulful voice, these three Wolfmen take you back to those wonderful 60s and 70s, when bands like Led Zeppelin, Cream, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple ruled the world of rock ´n´ roll. DeWolff released their debut album "Strange Fruits and Undiscovered Plants". DeWolff is an absolute live-sensation: their partly-improvised songs sometimes last more than 15 minutes! It´s got style, it plays loud and it plays with soul and passion: that´s DeWolff? Truly an excessive TRIP IN TIME!

https://www.sendspace.com/file/x05pdt

08.04.2024-PAPOOZ Night Sketches (Half Awake,2019)

 

INDIE POP

     While the Parisian two-piece have always, for the most part, concerned themselves with a rhythmic sensibility, this new album adds a disco element. Tracks like Pacific Telephone and Theatrical State of Mind showcase this with a more rounded sound of choppy guitar lines over long-held synth chords and syncopated percussion. Prohibiting the tunes from entering full blown Motown/soul territory is singer Penicaut’s wispy vocals and the band’s insistence on various stops and starts in the groove.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/zirbrq

07.04.2024-LES SAVY FAV Let's Stay Friends (Frenchkiss,2007)

 

ART PUNK

     Essentially, this is a band who manage to conjure an anthemic chorus out of the unlikeliest material – songs about abduction (the pseudo-disco of “Patty Lee”), sex with female showjumpers (single “The Equestrian”), and the Black Death (“Raging In The Plague Age”). Vocal contributions from the Fiery Furnaces' Eleanor Friedberger and nu-folk Zelig Devendra Banhart are buried in the mix alongside members of the general public – the band set up a phoneline and taped fans singing into the ansaphone.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/yqio2y

05.04.2024-SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS SVIIB (Vagrant,2016)

 

INDIE POP

     VIIB is an excellent, joyous album which never gets overwhelmed by the circumstances surrounding its creation, and shows School of Seven Bells moving on to the musical afterlife at the peak of their powers. SVIIB is not so much a tombstone as a monument to the things we live for in the first place.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/as1w5p

04.04.2024-SHABAZZ PALACES The Don Of Diamond Dreams (Sub Pop)

 

FUNK / R&B

     Ishmael Butler, the MC of the futurist hip-hop duo, looks in a new direction for inspiration on his latest project: his own son, emo rapper Lil Tracy. 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/6b79h1

02.04.2024-LAUREL HALO Quarantine (Hyperdub,2012)

 

AVANT-POP

     Veering from claustrophobic sci-fi dioramas to meditative synth drones to nakedly expressive confessionals, Laurel Halo's Hyperdub debut is unified by an underlying perspective and personality that commands attention yet still leaves plenty to the imagination.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/gmblcn

01.04.2024-JENNIE LOWE Ghost Tracks (Not On Label,2020)

 

INDIE FOLK

   

 "What strikes at first is Jennie's carefully laid - almost naked - vocals on a gorgeous reverb. A genuine instrument that goes from whispering to declamation, almost like calligraphic technique, striped, powerful and fragile at the same time. A splendor that perfectly conveys the rainbow of emotions embedded in these songs: trust, distrust, abandonment, hope, envy, fear and disappointment, love - and its absence."

https://www.sendspace.com/file/69gt5y