Indiepop Alldayer, Firebug, Leicester, 24 Feb 2018

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Another strong line-up in the upstairs room at The Firebug, kicking off with local duo Jitterz, who have claimed to be ‘the uncoolest band you’ll ever meet’ and the drums/guitar/vocal set-up is an ideal opener with some raw and smart own compositions. Like the White Stripes but more fun.

Charmpit carry an American attitude into some very British preoccupations and their infectious noise is accompanied by props, glitter and general likeability, including inviting everyone to the all-you-can-eat buffet afterwards. Personal Best were replaced at the last minute by multi-talented Emma Kupa, frequently reviewed in various guises on this site, this afternoon she was playing acoustic guitar and singing her heartfelt, emotional vignettes.

MJ Hibbert And The Validators play wistful, amusing songs showing that getting older doesn’t adversely affect your views on life, love and alternative music (‘…my boss was in an indie band once, he never sold his bass..‘). Nice bit of violin playing too.

After a short break to re-charge, Fightmilk opened the second half with the explosive ‘Bank Of Mum And Dad’, full of neat lyrics (‘…everything I own is in a box in the shed…’) they make a great sound, with a relaxed on-stage chemistry. They really are enjoying being on stage and the feeling spreads into the audience. The sinister, brooding ‘Your Girlfriend’ shows that the band are not just all-out rockers. A definite highlight of the day, can’t wait to see them again!

As soon as Suggested Friends kick into ‘Chicken’, you know you are in safe hands; with Emma Kupa back on stage on bass, pounding drums and tight guitar work, all held together by Faith Taylor’s extra-special vocals. It is a ‘Song 2’ for the indie DIY scene. ‘I Don’t Want To Be A Horcrux For Your Soul’ motors along pushing all before it and the high point for me is the superbly concise and scary ‘Please Don’t Look At Me On The Bus’ with a hookline you can’t get out of your head.

I had been looking forward to seeing Milky Wimpshake (returning to Leicester for the first time in at least twenty years!) and I wasn’t disappointed. Frontman Pete Dale has a substantial back catalogue to delve into and the bands sparse but sharp playing gives room for his tales of the politics of the nation and relationships or just the mundanity of everyday life, with some tracks going back to his recently re-released debut album ‘Bus Route To Your Heart’.

We had to leave soon after former Broken Family Band frontman Steven Adams And The French Drops started their bill-topping set, but they seemed to be hitting the heights early on with many fans in the audience.

It was a great musical mini-festival (and still only £8!!?)

https://jitterz.bandcamp.com/
https://charmpit.bandcamp.com/

New album out now!


http://mjhibbett.co.uk/
https://fightmilkisaband.bandcamp.com/
https://suggestedfriends.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/milkywimpshake
http://www.stevenjamesadams.com/

Franz Ferdinand, Corn Exchange, Cambridge, 23 February 2018

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Meggie Brown is a singer/songwriter/guitarist from London playing a mystical punk rock, showcased perfectly in her debut single ‘Coming Back Again’, (produced by FF’s Alex Kapranos). Tonight she was playing with her sharply dressed and tightly drilled band, who although as support they were all confined to one side of the cluttered stage, impressed and engrossed the steadily growing sold-out crowd. It was an enjoyable set, I particularly liked the sudden instrumental twists in amongst the spiky lyrics, and I am still pondering the meaning of ‘crying for 14 years’ appearing on Meggie and her companion guitarist’s frock coats..

Albert Hammond Jr has a reputation founded on his guitar playing in cult legends The Strokes, and he has continued to push boundaries with his solo work, soon to release his fourth album, ‘Francis Trouble’. Fronting a five-piece band he is a likeable and lively performer, able to share his affability with ease as he leaps around the stage, climbs onto speakers, plays guitar or serenades his stripy jacket. The band are reassuringly adept too, able to switch smoothly between wall of sound and sparser tracks based around single line figures.

Since Franz Ferdinand released their debut album in 2004 they have built a strong reputation based on live performance and a succession of contrasting albums, with constant experimentation weaving through their own distinctive sound. Now expanded to a five-piece, new disc ‘Always Ascending’ featured heavily tonight, with ‘Lazy Boy’ and ‘Paper Cages’ particular highpoints. In an artfully crafted set, old favourites also appeared at key moments, with ‘Do You Want To’ and favourite of mine ‘Michael’ (in the absence of ‘Jacqueline’!) which really kicked the crowd off. Some moody moog synth textures featured more in mid-set but of course the wall of guitars for ‘Take Me Out’ was stunning.
During the encore the back-projections of the band members and other effects went into overdrive and then the double header of new (‘Huck and Jim’) and vintage (‘This Fire’) brought the show to an explosive finale.

http://franzferdinand.com/
http://www.alberthammondjr.com/
https://www.facebook.com/meggiebrownmusic/

Faeland : All My Swim, LP released January 2018

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This is a very impressive debut from Bristol contemporary folk band Faeland, an acoustic collective led by songwriting duo Rebecca Nelson and Jacob Morrison.

Opener ‘Too Much’ starts quietly before a distinctly celtic instrumentation broods mysteriously underneath Rebecca’s vocal stylings, her voice being one of the huge strengths of this disc. Released as a single, ‘We’re Just A Love Song’ is a sprightly but sad tale about the destiny of a relationship, ‘Prayer Song’ is layered vocals and atmosphere with a clarinet adding to the texture.

A shimmering harp sound on ‘All My Swim’ makes this transformative track even better, as the narrator becomes one with the flowing river. ‘Chantress’ is a more traditional folk sound, with accordion joining in too. And there is much much more, including my personal favourites ‘Strings’, with beautiful voice and elegant acoustic guitar figures and the sparse strumming and lyrical nostalgia of ‘To The Green – Live’.

Highly recommended, fifty minutes of gentle, carefully-crafted quality sounds. It is an album to escape into and become part of; somehow it seems removed from the normal time stream….

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Shopping, Cluny 2, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2nd February 2018

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Cluny 2 is an intimate and characterful venue converted from a theatre which was formerly a Victorian flax mill. Tonight it hosted three contrasting but complementary bands. Openers Swine Tax were playing on their home turf; they describe themselves as 90s inspired indie-rock chaos which seems an accurate description. Showcasing a mostly new and unrecorded set, they pushed the standard three piece instrument line-up in all sorts of directions, with singer/guitarist Vince Lisle fronting the songs with an energetic stage presence. They made a good noise, with recent single ‘Feels Like’ as a standout track.

Leeds quartet Milk Crimes are full of DIY-pop melancholy and desperation, set to a great wall of double guitar, punky bass and relentless drums underpinning plaintive vocals. In punk rock tradition it seemed a very short set, with riches including the opening salvo of ‘Hanging Out’ and ‘Deadtown’ and the frenetic bursts and quiet interludes in ‘Hail Seitan’. Hopefully they will have some new recorded material out soon.

Shopping have the simplest of sounds but it works brilliantly, live and on record. With many tracks from their newly released album ‘The Official Body’ (produced by indie legend Edwyn Collins!) their set was a spiky sounding masterclass in concise, message-carrying danceable pop. Their eternal triangle of staccato drums, single-line clear guitar figures and one of the sharpest bass sounds you will hear anywhere are topped off with call and response vocal interjections, often single words or phrases that say it all. ‘Why Wait’, ‘Discover’ (with a squelching synth bass line) and the changing tempo of ‘Control Yourself’ showed the band on top form with the audience under the spell. The final track was ‘Suddenly Gone’ and then they were…

https://www.facebook.com/weareshopping
https://www.facebook.com/milkcrimes
https://www.facebook.com/swinetax/

Carolyn’s Fingers : Her Howl, single released January 2018

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Refreshingly new and making an impact on the Cambridge scene, Carolyn’s Fingers (named after a song by the Cocteau Twins) are bringing their original music to life in live performance and now on this sparkling first single release.

‘Her Howl’ is a hypnotic, ethereal journey of the mind, painting an intense, personal picture through words and music of the nature of depression and dark thoughts. The four minutes include so many sections falling into each other; it is as if there are several songs overlapping and one of the great strengths of the piece – there is no room for complacency or background listening here. The audience is drawn in to become part of the band’s private meditation.

Sparse keyboard and subtly programmed percussive glitches weave their way between echoing electric guitar and minimalist bass foundations as the multi-voice layers finally resolve into an a cappella style chorus which disturbingly drifts away taking you with it.

Play their other intricate tracks on SoundCloud, watch their YouTube channel and better still, catch them in live action at the Portland Arms in Cambridge on 18th April…

https://carolynsfingers.bandcamp.com/track/her-howl
https://www.facebook.com/carolynsfingersband/

Laura Mardon : Black Rainbow, EP released January 2018

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Laura Mardon describes herself as a ‘softly spoken Australian folk-punk songwriter’, so the titles of London boroughs on this EP may at first be disorientating; but she was born and raised in Kentish Town before she eventually embraced a new life on the Gold Coast. Her earlier experiences form the lyrical backbone of these very personal confessional songs, underpinned by sensitive acoustic guitar work.

‘Borough’ features minimalist accompaniment and a lyrical reminiscence that stops and starts the musical backing. Never has ‘…took a bus towards Deptford…’ sounded like such an inviting proposition as on the next track but the bleak words ultimately reveal an empty experience. She then slows down to the waltz of ‘Camberwell’, with a bitter and ambiguous lyric giving an extra emotional weight.

Worthy of a novel opening line ‘Brighton’ begins with ‘… I stole a bible from my hotel room when I ran away from London…’ then the disillusioned narrator escapes the traumas of New Cross to seek a possible destiny at the ocean side. Laura says “Living on the Gold Coast is like living in a permanent holiday vortex”, and the final track Gold Coast is much more optimistic, with positively upbeat guitar picking and a sparkling inflection in the voice.

An EP of spiritual and physical odyssey; it gains in depth with every repeated listen.

http://www.lauramardon.com/

The Weebles : In Your Corner (Charity single), released February 2018

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The sport of boxing is featured in many songs, from the reflective ‘Boxers’ by Morrissey, the cryptic Simon and Garfunkel ‘The Boxer’ and the injustices of ‘Hurricane’, one of my very favourite Bob Dylan tracks. The aspirational metaphors and phrases around the sport provide the lyrical substance of ‘In Your Corner’; a new charity single by The Weebles, a collective of Cambridge musicians co-ordinated by singer/songwriter Gavin Chappell-Bates.

Gavin has written this fund-raising single with and for Iain MacIntosh who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2008 and is overcoming constant adversity to live an independent life. Although Gavin has used his own vocal talents on similar upbeat songs in his own work, the lead is taken here by Freddie Hall, a respected interpreter of soul and blues classics and a frequent performer around the Cambridge area. He certainly rises to the occasion and adds some heft to this uplifting Motown-style stomp.
It is all here; a drum beat opening, funky guitar (especially the solo from Neil Bruce), sparkling bass from Charlie Howell, punctuated with plenty of saxophone and brass punching throughout the song. All of the sporting/fighting back/determination references are included in this concise lyric and there is a neat middle-eight too.

Characters from the ‘Rocky’ movies are listed at the end but the key message of ‘…you’re always in my corner…you always pick me up again…’ emphasises the supportive nature of this musical enterprise and worthy cause.

http://www.theweebles.bandcamp.com
http://www.gogetfunding.com/macca-fighting-for-a-better-life
For interview / image / MP3 requests please contact tony@manillapr.com / 07792 647760

Psychic Lemon : Frequency Rhythm Distortion Delay, CD released January 2018

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Psychic Lemon continue to challenge the senses with this new long-player; their sound has moved on substantially from their first album which now seems almost light and song-based in comparison.
It is an accurate recording of their live sound; as when I saw them perform this album at the Portland in Cambridge last year, comfortably holding their own against headliners Scandanavian psych behemoths Flowers Must Die. In December they were enthralling a freezing crowd once again at Cambridge’s Mill Road Winter Fair, and now here at last is the new album release.

‘Exit To The Death Lane’ begins with moody ritual drums then the layers of guitar and bass creep stealthily in, including some incomprehensible vocal chants. A jarring guitar solo ensures the vibe does not become complacent and at eight and a half minutes there is time for the groove to be fully explored.
The establishment of the rhythmic shape of ‘Hey Droog!’ (the slang term for friend in cult novel ‘A Clockwork Orange’) is pile-driving drum and riff, a distant choir fills in the texture and the effect-laden guitar does the rest before ending the piece in a solo riot of feedback.

‘You’re No Good’ is definitely not the early sixties hit for the Swinging Blue Jeans, but it does have a more sprightly pop touch than what has come before, also with the bonus of a manic saxophone and a bit of singing at the end; this is the nearest they get to their debut album sound. The last two tracks are nine minutes plus; the band have been opening their live sets recently with the paradoxically named ‘Interstellar Fuzz Star’, the fuzz of this celestial object being the guitar effect inextricably pulling the listener towards its gravitational centre. Some impressive bass playing on this track too.
The final track is ‘Satori Disko’, a reference to a state of spiritual awakening, in this case waking to the sound of a hypnotic undulating drum pattern, rock solid bass and a guitarist ripping up the effects pedals and reassembling them randomly.

Overall, listening to this is a unique sensory experience, a combination of you feeling like you are weaving amongst the buildings in a flying car as part of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis or being plugged into the endless pulse of primal signals emitted by distant galactic objects…

Frequency Rhythm Distortion Delay Space Rock Power!

http://psychiclemon.co.uk/

Wooden Arms, Portland Arms, Cambridge, 13 December 2017

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On a damp December evening, the welcome prospect of three acts making waves in their own not easy to classify genres.

The show started with the ethereal dreampop soundscapes of upcoming Cambridge trio Carolyn’s Fingers. Named after a song by the Cocteau Twins they weave their music from a simple combination of bass, keyboard and an echoing guitar that sounds like it is appearing over a distant horizon. Add hypnotic vocal cadences, unpredictable taped percussion clicks and bursts and you have their signature track ‘Glemora’. Their lyrics address some difficult issues such as the mental state of residents in a detention centre in the minimalist ‘Vapour’. A new single was being filmed during the set for video release and I think we will be hearing much more of their haunting sound.

I last saw Xavier Watkins fronting psychedelic revivalists Violet Woods a couple of years back, here he was back at the Portland with his new project Twenty-Three Hanging Trees; one man and his analogue modular synthesiser. He builds up electronic textures in extended pieces, requiring concentration from the audience to absorb the ever-changing sonic layers. With blurred back projections of images in reds and greens and the visual necessity of plugging in and removing wire connections it was all strangely involving.

Norwich band Wooden Arms describe themselves as a ‘genre-fluid contemporary quintet’ and with the addition of a new bassist they are creating a thoughtful acoustic-based ensemble sound, playing tracks from their new album ‘Trick Of The Light’. Seated at his electric piano singer Alex Carson is the creative drive behind the band, drawing on difficult personal experiences for many of the lyrics. Co-writer and lead vocals (and trumpet) on some songs Jeff Smith has a similar but subtly different voice. All of the band contribute backing vocals, adding an extra dimension to the infinite variations of instrumental light and shade.
The tempo of songs is sedate but there are so many intriguing touches; the sprightly birdsong violin on ‘Brevity’, the John Barry string motif on the smooth roll of ‘Cole Porter’ and the way the plaintive piano figures seem to underpin the direction of the songs. From the novel by Patrick Hamilton, ‘Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky’ is a great title and the song seems to lose itself in an evocative journey too. The final two tracks, the older ‘December’ and newer ‘Burial’ (released as a single) are fine summations of the band’s work, ending the show on an emotional crescendo.

http://www.woodenarms.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/23hangingtrees/
https://www.facebook.com/carolynsfingersband/

12 Highlights from 2017 : A Sampler of The Year

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A distillation of tracks taken from some of the memorable albums and shows of 2017…

1. False Hearts: Cynical Love
Belting rock song, takes your breath (and ears) away

2. Luna Falls: Falling To Pieces
Three part harmonies, acoustic guitars and a gorgeous descending chord sequence chorus. Sounds great live too.

3. Tom Robinson Band: Man You Never Saw
Age does not weary the societal condemnation of the ‘Power In The Darkness’ LP, Tom is still loud and proud live.

4. Elma: Butterfingers
Heart-stretching ballad, just perfect.

5. Goldblume: Wisconsin
Live or recorded, Jethro and the boys put on a great rockshow.

6. Hannah Peel: All That Matters
Hypnotic, ethereal gig and plenty of experiment on a multi-layered album.

7. Seán McGowan: No Show
Sterling live support and heir to Billy Bragg, the minutiae and poetry of a zero hours contract in this ode to the minimum wage.

8. Dos Floris: On The Road
Stunning voice and electronic complexity working very well in a live forum.

9. Baby Arms: Eviscerator
The semi-underground DIY scene is home to this gem of a single.

10. Peaness: Oh George
Chester trio turn the mention of an ex-politician into poptastic gold.

11. Dream Nails: Tourist
Scarily good live band, getting their message across in short punk bursts.

12. Public Service Broadcasting: Progress
Surprising choice of theme for the new album, look forward to seeing it all in concert next year.

All tracks featured on…..