Radio Over Moscow- Battletech
7/10

This album doesn’t sound like any of the bands mentioned in the press release, well Gary Numan perhaps but definitely not Nirvana, The Beatles, Primal Scream or The Smashing Pumpkins.  Radio Over Moscow is the solo assignment of Aucklander Dan Satherley (KittyHawk, Vetox, Luna Spark) and Battletech is his first solo release. Bringing ’90s pop-punk into the twenty-first century, Battletech covers common ground with just a subtle pinch of unfamiliarity; synthesisers and drum machines. Imagine if Blink 182 went electro or Placebo ditched the dark make-up, Radio Over Moscow brings the two together in a mechanical blender, adding slices of metallic sounding synths and sci-fi rhythms. Sprouting multiple seeds of futuristic punk, alien grunge, contorted new-wave and geographically nondescript Brit-pop, Battletech provides a moderately eclectic genre fix and is well structured, allowing the songs to merge together without sounding disjointed. Opener ‘The Purpose Of Man’ is an electro sherbet hit echoing The Faint and flows directly into ‘Anti-human Nous’ which utilises similar synth techniques but puts a vocoder effect on the vocals. ‘Policies’ and ‘Fiction’ both have a real pop-punk quality about them and would cross over nicely onto mainstream radio. Both come sprinkled with impressionist touches of pre-Emo punk but are much more classier and technological than most of their predecessors. ‘True’ sounds a bit like a lost Harvey Danger track, while ‘Where Are You?’ has its roots in a 1970s sci-fi flick. The final two tracks (‘Twist It’ and ‘The Sum Of Your Knowledge Is Nil’) don’t really fit on Battletech, their elusive acoustic guitar riffs and jangly pop vibes sound totally out of place. On their own they’re both great songs, but here they just give the album a padded anticlimactic ending. For a solo debut, Battletech is well guided and ambitious, and as a bonus it’s available in two versions; one is loud and compressed and can be downloaded for free from Radio Over Moscow’s website, while the other version has been mastered to have an old-school vinyl quality.
Nick

Visit radioovermoscow.com to purchase both versions of Battletech

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
[2] Comments

Islands- Vapours
10/10

Unsurprisingly, Nicholas Thorburn and co have produced an album that’s dauntingly broad in scope, exciting in experimentation, continuously generous in flow and eccentric like the man himself. Thorburn has built his musical catalog on eccentricity from the very beginning with the weird and varied output of his first band The Unicorns, who rank with the very best, and not just in the sentimentality stakes. His edgy, angular, brave, outsider pop has a heart so big it’s bursting, created in his own world in which he plays his often theatrical, always delightful and regularly death-obsessed (read: The Unicorns’ one and only album, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone) music. Now, after some varied and epic dalliances (the rap troupe Th’ Corn Gangg, the Hawaiian stoner collab Reefer, the impressive folky pop duo Human Highway, and no doubt many more to come), Islands has grown from a giggling baby (Return To The Sea), through the awkward teenage years (Arm’s Way) and into the luscious pasture of adulthood (Vapours). Thorburn’s still plagued by oddball thoughts, but it’s these thoughts that give such life to his absurd creations.

Starting with the cosmopolitan bliss that is ‘No You Don’t', Islands confirms they’ve paved their own way their entire existence. The reggae electronica is inherent in its swampy blues bass, and Thorburn’s trademark quirky croon adorns the song’s every beat with life full of concurrent hope and despair. Vapours brings the sass. Thorburn adopts various subtle demeanours throughout; vapid socialite commentary, a harsh bitter wail, a drifting, ceaseless croon. It’s every bit imaginative and thoughtful as I’ve come to expect from Thorburn, inspired and inspiring at every twist and turn – and there are many.

Every single song feels like a highlight. The title track is a sprightly, tightly-coiled pop affair, an obvious single standout. Its singalong chorus and driving drumming is empowering, with bristly brass punctuating each movement’s end. When the song segues seamlessly into the following blippy ‘Devout’, Thorburn’s direction becomes apparent and he sounds more assured than he may have ever sounded. The astounding vocoder on ‘Heartbeat’ proved to be an ecclectic highlight, a captivating, not overused effect that gently turns his voice into another kind of interesting, morphing Thorburn into the future. The stark and glaring electric percussion in ‘The Drums’, the strobe-effect rhythm in ‘Tender Torture’, bent with noodling synth and a backwards reverb sound, the syncopated, deathly drumbeat in ‘Shining’ featuring dark hip hop guitar rock with an intoxicating choir.

All of Islands’ releases have been beautiful and impressive, but Vapours is the most fun and genuine feeling of all. Its predecessors Arm’s Way was so expansive it felt confused, and Return To The Sea, while tremendously majestic, meandering and boasting many memorable pop gems (including ‘Jogging Gorgeous Summer’ and ‘Where There’s A Will There’s A Whalebone’), fell short with its frequent “in-between” songs. Vapours is a non-stop, no filler album. It has a live band quality that its precursors lacked, which gives the impression it could be the most fun album live too. Islands have found their footing with Vapours.

Buy on CD or MP3 at InSound | LP available October 20- Pre-order on InSound

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Album, Reviews
No Comments

 Jookabox- Dead Zone Boys
9/10

Prepare to have your head blown clean off by an exploding concrete ball of ferocious bass drums and guitars that’ll shock your spine with their intense therapy. Jookabox’s new album is a kaleidoscopic martyr; a hell-raising alert signalling the end of human existence. David Adamson’s third album, released by Joyful Noise in tandem with Asthmatic Kitty Records throws the doors wide open, tearing away any remnants of old-blues and psychedelic folk left over from his two previous albums (2007′s Scientific Cricket and 2008′s Ropechain) and cuddles together multiple genres of music that normally sit worlds apart. Hip-hop beats align with glam rock vocals (‘Phantom Don’t Go’, ‘East Side Bangs/ East Side Fade’); trashy RnB vocal effects feed across urban country hymns (‘Glyphin’ Out’, ‘F.I.T.F. #1′); Gospel singers join in chorus with howling sirens (‘Don’t Go Phantom’) and folk guitars side with rockabilly rhythms (‘You Cried Me’).  It’s a colourful mess, but it’s also one of the most beautiful musical fusions of recent time.
Nick

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
No Comments

Kurt Vile- Childish Prodigy
7/10

Kurt Vile has an apt name, his rich tapestry of work punctuated by spitting angst spoken word poetry amidst rolling waves of thunderous drums and great grungy/shoegazey guitar strums has a menacing, almost uncouth tone. But his hazy seasonal drones feed feeling and good intent into his work, and it’s quietly captivating. His second record Childish Prodigy finds him branching out on expansive, experimental notes, weaving both dulcet and antagonising tones into his rough and ragged lo-fi folk rock. Encompassing occasional elements of Dylan’s delivery and subtlety and Reatard’s excitability and expressionism with the psyched reverie of an underground bedroom-producer, Vile’s stylistic scope is definitely interesting. The swimming reverb emulates the voices of a psychotic cult choir as they hack their catchphrases into trees; the bark splintering away like the eerie accompaniment that is Vile’s otherworldly noise. At once soothing and discomforting, familiar and inhuman, classic and ahead of its time, Childish Prodigy is undeniably inventive but can drag if you concentrate on it; it’s definitely more of a background burner.
Sarah

Out October 12 on Matador

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Album, Reviews
No Comments

 Taken By Trees- East Of Eden
8/10

Braving some of most unruly man-made conditions on earth, Victoria Bergsman chose to challenge the prejudicial views of Pakistani culture by travelling to the country to record her second full-length album East Of Eden. Her admiration for the likes of Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan drew her to the region, and to explore the cultural diversity of Pakistan’s second largest city Lahore, situated in the Punjab province on the country’s Eastern border. Upon her arrival in Lahore, Bergsman discovered a thriving music community, stumbling across a group of local Sufi musicians who regularly gathered to play music at the hotel she was staying at. The notes on the recording process describe a long passage of discrimination and sexual desire, but most of them are too detailed to go into here. However once many of the social barriers were overcome, Bergsman was able to take control of the recording process, leading the ensemble of Sufi musicians through her musical arrangements to create an album contextualising Middle Eastern music with her softly spoken Swedish folk. Weaving an open cast spell through a mine of pan flutes, native string instruments, percussion and bells, East Of Eden is a unique collaboration between two colliding worlds. Opening track ‘To Loose Someone’ sets the scene, with a simple Middle Eastern rhythm dubbed to Bergsman’s idyllic voice. ‘Anna’ then enters via a cultural chant before easing into a mellifluous lullaby with backing vocals from Noah Lennox (Animal Collective, Panda Bear). Later in the album (track 7) Bergsman covers Animal Collective’s ‘My Girls’, altering the title to ‘My Boys’ and adding her own dark, psychedelic, Middle Eastern twist. ‘Watch The Waves’ is an obvious single, taking a more Western approach classically driven by a simple guitar and vocal melody. It’s the most likely song to attract a wider pop audience and is a good lead in track for people who may be unfamiliar with Bergsman’s previous work. Final track ‘Bekannelse’ sums up the emotional instability and the many challenges overcome by Bergsman throughout the recording process. It is an improvised musical poem originally written by the 1946 Nobel Prize-winning Swiss laureate Hermann Hesse, set to an electronic drone complete with chimes and pan flutes. Encasing many intricate details, East Of Eden is a fine example of two very different cultures coming together to make an album that many in today’s society thought was impossible. It has been described by some as the first collaboration by such culturally eclectic artists in the history of popular music; that’s a rather bold statement, but the truth is that this album is unlike any other.
Nick

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
No Comments

 The Sing Songs- Sing Five Songs (EP)
6/10

When The Sing Songs first graced us with their presence in 2008 they had an exciting chic about them. Their songs were well constructed, witty and charming in a way that we hadn’t really heard from a New Zealand band before. The Brunettes sung about candyfloss and cars, but The Sing Songs sung about building websites and pushing prams, doing it with sense of jovial sarcasm. Their original version of ‘Pamphlet Baby’ became an instant favourite of mine; an unusual song about a woman whose child had died at birth and her subsequent job delivering pamphlets from a pram, a strange but growing trend across suburban New Zealand (the pram bit). A year later, The Sing Songs have reworked the song and included it on their debut EP. While it’s only a minor makeover, the dulling of the nylon stringed acoustic guitar is instantly noticeable along with a more acute flute and keyboard sound. The soft guitar strums surprisingly added a lot to the earlier version of the song, helping to make it a jangly pop number rather than the new prototype which sounds more like a church jingle. ‘Pamphlet Baby”s imperfections become even further exposed by ‘HTML”s faultless composition about the difficulties of understanding technological language. It’s The Sing Songs’ finest opus, removing twee pop’s traditional cutesy cardie complexity while maintaining a sense of nerdiness. Ending on such a high, the EP ends up becoming quite a frustrating listen. Their songwriting is world class, but unfortunately at times their instrumental compositions don’t quite reach the same high standard.
Nick

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
No Comments

Times New Viking- Born Again Revisited
6/10

Born Again Revisited sees the TNV trio place more kooky pop in their gritty, sludgy mould they use for carving out their own niche of noisy bedroom pop. They could be crowned the arch kings of this new noise revolt, while Wavves is middling and Eat Skull is buried under white noise. TNV captures the bubbling excitement of pop confusion well. This is their second album for Matador and fourth in total. With a shaky start, they regain their step with the weird title track, and retain classic old pop ideals succinctly with ‘Half Day In Hell’, the cute oddball pop buried in the middle of all the fuzz. Recorded to VHS tape (a step up from the cassette master of last year’s Rip It Off), it almost feels like every second song is good. All could benefit from some strong production and mastering, but this is TNV’s trick (though it gets gritty to the point of gritting your teeth). With this style they’re able to emulate a stoned ‘60s Syd-era Floyd experience in the opening bars of ‘2/11 Don’t Forget’, ‘These Days’ and the blistering ‘Hustler, Psycho, Son’. They certainly regain momentum in ‘(No) Sympathy’, with the skewered guitar work and synchronised drawls. Oldie ‘Move To California’ is an instant classic, catchy and memorable, while ‘Take The Piss’ is the last gasp. TNV is all about the specifities, specifically the sonic joy, uninterrupted noise, and Yo La Tengo/Sonic Youth-inspired melodies. Born Again Revisited has moments that shine through, but otherwise it all sounds and feels like dusty rubble.
Sarah

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Album, Reviews
No Comments

The Rural Alberta Advantage- Hometowns
5/10

Re-released in 2009 via Saddle Creek Records after being originally self-released in 2008, The Rural Alberta Advantages’ indie rock debut refuses to let the curtains be drawn on a sound that’s been travelled by many before them. The one difference that sets them mildly apart from a raft of other bands is their drum beats, which on several tracks sound electronically induced. But even then they sound a bit like The Postal Service and it’s only a momentary buzz. Throughout the album you get a sense of deja vu and while the band do mix it up a bit, it’s all along similar parallel lines. Of the thirteen tracks, seventh ‘Luciana’ and eighth ‘Frank, AB’  are as loud as the band gets; both could benefit from a few more woos and wahs, but then it would probably make them sound like The Midnight Youth. Ninth track ‘The Air’ is the highlight, a slow Emo love song with a gentle rhythm, it’s then followed by the similar sounding ‘Sleep All Day’. Both blossom brightly; it seems like the band has genre referenced their songs and paired them up. Several tracks make use of the electronic sounding drum beats (‘The Ballad Of The RAA’, ‘Don’t Haunt This Place’) and they surprisingly add a lot to The Rural Alberta Advantages’ sound. Unfortunately they loose their impact due to Nils Edenloff’s overly abrasive voice, which is really pushed hard on these tracks, sounding a bit like Billy Corgan with a throat infection.
Nick

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
No Comments

 Kid Harpoon- Once
4/10

Tom Hull aka Kid Harpoon has been bounding around London since 2006, but due to certain creative delays he is only now releasing his debut album. Disappointed with his songs and feeling lost within his musical space, he paid a visit to Trevor Horn (The Buggles, Yes) to get some inspirational guidance. Horn advised Hull to discard his songs and start again with him at his side. The pair then flew to Los Angeles to re-record the songs with a whole new cast of musicians personally recommended by Horn. The result is a jangly pop album of semi-soft, care-bear voices and Disney style instrumentation, contained in twelve emotively happy songs. Lyrically complex, Hull is a storyteller from the Donovan school of Barabajagal weirdness, tailoring his voice into different characters and sniffing out his subjects with a confused sense of curiosity. His theatrical antics burst to life on ninth track ‘Running Through Tunnels’, growling like Ian Anderson and attempting to change tempo with Aqualung acuteness. Except he becomes a bit tangled in his design, raging over-the-top and loosing a lot of cohesion between his voice and the vast array of instruments. ‘Death Of A Rose’ continues the theatrical performance, this time with piano as a backdrop and singing more like the pied piper than Anderson’s poor beggarman; it grates a little with its cheesiness. However, Once does have it’s glamorous moments. ‘Buried Alive’ is a gently strummed acoustic number with a simple vocal effect put on his voice to add a soft echo. It’s the only folk song on the album and it displays his song writing much better than the other songs.  ‘Flowers By The Shore’ is another more tolerable song, a kind-hearted pop song with pretty guitar picking and a catchy melody. Unfortunately the tired cheesy songs outweigh the more interesting moments. His storytelling and word play often don’t work well with his choice of instrumental riffs and the melodies fail to peak through the hot bed of theatrical vocals.
Nick

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
No Comments

The Fruit Bats- The Ruminant Band
7/10

Between The Fruit Bats’ last album Spelled In Bones (2005) and the band’s new album The Ruminant Band, songwriter Eric Johnson spent time playing with his friends in Vetiver and The Shins. Time has been worthy for The Fruit Bats, they now have five members and for the first time come across as a unified property. Johnson’s songs are bought to life, capturing mid-western energy and southern pride the songs have a cutesy pop twang that sparkle in the metropolitan shadows. Spiralling between acoustic folk, electric blue-grass, country-esque twee and jangly pop numbers, the band swims confidently, breezing through a number of genres turning heads and hearts. Johnson’s ability to sound like John Lennon (post-Beatles) one moment and Paul McCartney (Think ’70s Wings)  the next, coupled with the bands channelling of The Beatles’ pop, Allman Brothers’ hippy crop-rock and Yeasayer’s wallowing firecracker country makes for an entertaining night around the camp fire. Title track ‘The Ruminant Band’ is a fine example of The Fruit Bats’ new five-piece structure, deeply rooted in twang and twee the song has a sense of travel and adventure. ‘Tegucigalpa’ sounds a lot like Hamilton’s Dynamo Go, with Johnson’s voice providing a strong focus for the songs simple country-pop riffs to gather momentum, while ‘Beautiful Morning Light’ is a gentle folk ballad that Fleet Foxes fans will cherish despite tiring slightly in length. There’s the odd, slightly less inquisitive tracks like ‘The Hibo Girl’, which fails at Barbara-ann type chatter and ‘Being On Our Own’, a wet attempt at a Beatles-esque Abbey Road song. ‘The Blessed Breeze’ is a late highlight; an upbeat track of perfectly timed twee hooks and catchy lyrics, it has mix-tape single written all over. With only a slight lapse in brilliance, The Fruit Bats’ fourth album is a bright collage of musical stains that will be very hard to remove from your memory, despite failing to deliver a clear radio hit.
Nick

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
No Comments