Inland Empire

Coastal Cities have the kind of joie de vivre that only the young can exude. But it’s not just because they’re a group of 17-year-olds with unrestrained restless energy. Their songs are vibrant and empowering, enthusiastic and progressive. The quintet from High Wycombe, west of London met in detention and bonded over a mutual love of music (particularly ’80s new wave) and discovered a shared disdain for the tired trends dominating their uninviting local music scene. They sought an escape from the suffocations of inland suburbia through jamming in one of their dad’s garden sheds. This led to Coastal Cities’ refined repertoire of experimental dance pop.

All of their tunes barrel through thrilling guitar loops, with just the right amount of atmospherics to strike a balance between their adolescent energy and experimental tendencies. ‘Infinite Mind’ demonstrates their exploratory side where ‘Night School’ and ‘Thinktank’ are clearly radio-friendly single material. With jarring guitars panning into a tumble-down chorus referencing Bloc Party’s perfectionist dance pop and meticulous melodies reminiscent of Arctic Monkeys, there’s still a calculated math-rock element present that ties it all together. The group is just shy of a year and a half old, but they’ve come of age in that short time, where many of their peers – and elders – are still floundering.

Coastal Cities‘ Transgression EP will be released on December 5 via Once Upon A Time Music.

Raven Child

Blipping and tripping like a rave version of the Knife, Hugo Manuel of Oxford’s Chad Valley peaks early in his washed out rave-inspired chillwave pop. His gauzy vocals, glossy percussion and eerie-woodland-creature character wouldn’t be out of place in a Glass Vaults song. Manuel made his mark early on in his game touring Europe and went on to impress the folks on Pitchfork and many blogs, as well as earning a spot at UK festival T in the Park. ‘I Want Your Love’ is one of his most memorable songs, with its epically catchy chorus melody playing out in a seemingly endless cycle. ‘Fast Challenges’ shows a more slow-burning side that isn’t quite as captivating, but ‘Now That I’m Real’ (from his second EP, Equatorial Ultravox), while initially seeming to lack the emotional punch of ‘I Want Your Love’, has an awesomely ’90s-boy-band quality to the main melody, with a bouncy, tropical feel. If you’re anything like me, you’ll end up with this one on repeat. Manuel has just played a string of sets at CMJ, keep up to date with his whereabouts on his Tumblr.

Posted by Sarah Gooding under England, Oxford, UK
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Running In My Head

One of our favourite songs of the year now has a video. The lusciously epic ‘Black Cloud’ by Mozart Parties has dominated my playlist ever since Sarah posted the song back in July. The video, directed by Rob Heppell, Bea Wilson and Ben Adams begins in the forest before moving in to James Bennett’s home recording studio. The video then cuts between the two locations. Bennett grew up in the British Lake District, so it’s likely the video represents his love of the area – wandering over mossy rocks, fallen trees and a carpet of damp leaves in an old fossil burial ground. If you haven’t yet heard the song then you’re in for a treat – a heavy bass riff underlies a chiming chorus of ringing guitars, perfectly timed symbols and an amazing lyrical passage. The video premiered today over on The Fader, along with an interview with Mozart Parties’ James Bennett.

A couple of our other favourite songs of 2011 now also have moving pictures. Check out Neon Indian’s ‘Polish Girl’ and Bleached’s video for ‘Think Of You’.

Mozart Parties – Black-Cloud: MP3

Posted by Nick Fulton under England, Lake District, UK
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Removable Wisdom

Today I’m getting my wisdom teeth out. So I thought what better way to celebrate than by allowing you to remove some Teeth from EMJ? It just so happens that UK band TEETH!!! released an incredible, killer banger the other day that I’ve been itching to share with you. We’ve been fans of the band for a few years now, and they just keep getting better. More dynamic and edgy, they push the boundaries of thrash punk and electro, using gaming sounds and warped synths to get an awesome, aggressive dance punk sound. ‘Care Bear’ is so much fun, and some say, “better than coffee”. The band is definitely unique, having reportedly once hacked Lady Gaga’s twitter account to spam it with the message “LOVE GAGA??? LOVE T33TH!!” They’ve also toured with other favourites of ours, Dat Politics, Times New Viking, Sleigh Bells and Gang Gang Dance. They’re releasing their long-awaited debut album WHATEVER on September 20.

Watch their incredibly fun webcam-style karaoke drag video for ‘Care Bear’, on their website!

TEETH!!! on Facebook

Posted by Sarah Gooding under England, London, UK
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George’s Stanza

Imagine a Mozart party! Big curly white wigs, velvet and long socks, and piano jams? Perhaps. Anyway, I digress. 23-year-old Lake District by-way-of-London musician James Bennett definitely earns his extensive blog love of late with his project, Mozart Parties. Strong, defiant bass lines lead soft vocal melodies, crunchy distorted guitar and distant tin can drums, providing for very memorable dream pop with an edge. I was immediately taken with ‘Black Cloud’, which I found in a FMLY blog radio playlist. For a song with such a gentle feel, it’s got an incredibly succinct, direct pop focus. Much like Generationals’ clean pop sound, it has a sparing, economical sense but is unashamedly emotive and lush. The forest of clicks in ‘Wish My Thoughts Away’ lays a gentle bed for James’ swirling atmospherics but the main parts – his unfaltering voice and the striding bass guitar backbone – always sound stable. He has an incredibly mature approach, and peppers his songs with just enough psychedelic touches – like the jangly end of ‘Wish My Thoughts Away’ – to keep it different. Managed by Merok records (home to Teengirl Fantasy, Rainbow Arabia and Comanechi), he’s featured in NME‘s “50 best new bands of 2011″ list. The thoughtfully constructed, layered songs likely gained their maturity from the range of styles James consumes – from The Antlers and Gang Gang Dance to Bartok and Rachmaninov – saying in an interview with Portuguese blog Musica Escrita, “It’s important to keep stimulated from all ends of the musical spectrum.”

Posted by Sarah Gooding under England, London, UK
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Beautiful Things

When I first heard London’s Pet Scenes they instantly reminded me of New Zealand band The 3D’s; full of shearing guitar chords and alluring pop-punk melodies. But to be fair to the band, they’ve probably never heard of the NZ noise-punk pioneers, with influences more likely to have come from British Gothic groups like Bauhaus and recent punk revivalists The Horrors. Pet Scenes however have a heavier hardcore sound that differentiates them, delivering a wall of guitar noise with an attacking vocal style.

Pet Scenes have a new demo EP available on Bandcamp, and later in month will take the stage at the 1234 Festival in London alongside The Black Lips, The Raveonettes and Damo Suzuki.

Pet Scenes – Dell Sez: MP3

 Pet Scenes’ Facebook

Pet Sounds’ Tumblr

Posted by Nick Fulton under London, UK
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Dream Magnet

Love Is A Dog From Hell

Yesterday a press release from Shock Records reminded me of Noah and the Whale, a band whose debut album in 2008 I adored, but then only briefly listened to a few tracks from their follow-up album The First Days Of Spring. That album was also accompanied by a short film, directed by front-man Charlie Fink. Now the band are about to release their third album, named after Charles Bukowski’s poetry collection The Last Night Of The Earth. Fink admits to being a huge Bukowski fan and of the “loser pride” that is portrayed in his peotry and in Lou Reed’s Berlin. Noah and the Whale’s third album is titled Last Night On Earth, reflecting on hard times and Fink’s obsession and admiration of poets and songwriters during their darkest days; Lou Reed, Tom Waits and Arthur Russell. With that theme running through the album,  and the fact that this album has a guest performance from Michael Jackson’s once famous backing singers The Waters Sisters (most famously heard on Jackson’s 1982 hit ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Something’), Last Night On Earth is an album for those who appreciate good literature and a story told using indirect rhetoric and poetic narcissism. Already two tracks have been released off the upcoming album, both strong on storytelling with a essence of down-and-out characters battling themselves and society. ‘Wild Thing’, released in December last year shows the band has come together more than ever before, working together to fuse Fink’s masterful lyrics with a much cleaner, richer sound that reflects the band’s tighter grouping. ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’, the second single has more of a pop direction, somewhat suited to easy listening radio. It was perhaps chosen for the sing along vocal chorus, but it appears to be more of a bridging track that will sound much stronger when heard in context with the rest of the album.

Last Night On Earth will be released in the UK and the US on March 7. A New Zealand and Australia release date is yet to be confirmed. 

Noah and the Whale – Wild Thing: MP3

Noah and the Whale’s official website

Posted by Nick Fulton under London, UK
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The Unicorn Lives

Having a penchant for silly things like unicorns is more common than you might think. If memory serves, I think that’s how I discovered insane band Gay Against You long ago, whose song ‘Gay Unicorn’ brought me endless joy (and still does). Nowadays Joe Howe has moved away from the high-pitched exuberant glee of that band and is making some spacier, deeper, but still crazy songs in their own right. Joined by Bastian Hagedorn, Joe now creates clumsy, fun and unpredictable messy electronics by the name Ben Butler & Mousepad, splitting their time between Berlin and Edinburgh. I think they are resigned to the idea that “more is more”, as every part of their songs are filled with silly synth wobbles, patchy drum beats and shattering stabs of higher notes.

They have some darker, denser songs like ‘Electric Bamber Boo’, where moogs battle over dance beats with the persistent, unbridled energy of Disasteradio, but I prefer the typically more light-hearted fare like ‘Hum Ghar Sajan’ and the friendly, bendy ‘High Life’.

Their output is varied – ‘Supermotion’ manages to sound both retrospective and futuristic, with its gleaming synths and shuddering bassline, replete with decorative keyboard swipes. And the mutant collage that is ‘Formed For Fantasy’ reminds me of parts of Jonny Greenwood’s epic Bodysong.

BB&M’s multi-pronged songs feel like they’re piecing apart your brain and replacing old memories of sounds with new ones. They’ve worked on a synth opera, and released an EP that was recorded using only analog vintage synths. Their latest, debut album Formed For Fantasy, is available for pre-order from their Tumblr, and will be out on London’s LOAF records.

Ben Butler & Mousepad- Future Tent: MP3

Ben Butler & Mousepad- Bandcamp

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Berlin, Edinburgh, Germany, Scotland, UK
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Upgrade Your Chassis

Olugbenga Adelekan, bass player in UK band Metronomy and part-time DJ/producer recently sent us this remix he pieced together of So So Modern’s ‘Give Everything’ and ‘Berlin’. The song was originally arranged for a remix compilation that So So Modern had planned to release in conjunction with the NZ/Aus release of their debut album Crude Futures, but unfortunately the remix compilation never happened.

Olugbenga wanted you, as fans of So So Modern and Metronomy to hear it. Adding Nigerian church music and vocals spoken in his father’s native Yoruba language, the remix centres around the looping of Grayson Gilmour’s voice and a yelping “hey”. Electronics squeal and whisper away amid a remixed drum beat with African undertones, while the rhythm runs on a well timed mathematical cycle.  It strips So So Modern back to a minimal house sound, while retaining the band’s schizoid energy and strict structure. There’s layering towards the end of the song that makes it somewhat spacey and primeval.

Purchase Crude Futures from Transgressive Records

Posted by Nick Fulton under New Zealand, UK, Wellington
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