John & Jehn - Fear Fear Fear (Track)

Release Date: 14th July 2008
Label: Factory Records


Billing themselves as an amalgamation of all your favourite bands, John & Jehn have come up with a glorious ode to all things fearful, love and fear, love of fear and the fear of love. The instrumentation is just wonderful, so eclectic yet basic at the same time, the amount of nuances that make up 'Fear Fear Fear' enhances it's capability to encapture the listener into a trance state of ethereality.

The vocals are quite weird as well, very Lovefoxx from CSS, almost indistinguishable in fact. The very weird "ohm"-ing vacking vocals seem to add an extra layer to the mix, it's quite easy to think that something important would be lost without them. This is a song that should be played by scenesters all across the country, but it is hurtful to think that this song and it's amazing B-Side isn't not going to get the recognition that this genius deserves. What an utter, utter shame.

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John & Jehn: On The Internet

MySpace

These United States - A Picture Of The Three Of Us In The Garden Of Eden

Release Date: 30th June 2008
Label: United Interests

It's not often that folk seems to cross as many boundaries as These United States do on their debut ]'A Picture Of The Three Of Us At The Garden Of Eden', it's quite wonderful and thought provoking at the same time. But it's also easy to think that if the band are will to cross over to other genres that aren't very indicative of folk, are they ashamed of being pigeon-holed into such a category? Probably not.

There are many influences within the album from Garage Rock, Twee, Prog and Post Rock to name but a few. What it does give is an overwhelming sense that these guys know exactly what they're doing, they're going to take their listener on a rollercoaster ride where the twists and turns are totally unexpected.

The introduction, 'Preface: Painless', is undoubtedly beautiful and a bit misleading for the rest of the album. This ditty seems to scream "We are serious music people. Look how serious we can be." but the next track gushes in with it's plinky plonky folk and totally dissuades you from any preconceptions previously made. 'The Business' is very comparable Panic At The Disco's Pas De Cheval in that it's very cowboy, middle America, "YEEHAA!" sort of things. Straight after that it veers into 1950's motown with 'Jenni Anne', a song that's so very much like Dusty Springfield, albeit with a more masculine edge to it, needless to say, these genre turns can make for a weird experience.

'So High So Low So Wide So Long' has a bass line that is almost hypnotic, it’s understatedness is blatantly the best quality of the song. It lies there as a diamond in the rough, just waiting to be discovered and buffed up, hopefully this diamond will have a few friends there waiting for These United States' sophomore effort.

What we've got here is a band that likes to whore around different genres like certain peroxide LA A-Listers do around Greek shipping heirs. That's not to say that they don't do it well, it's just that they seem to be more of a jack of all trades but a master of none. All of the songs are pleasant but they don’t really seem to go anywhere, there’s no capitalisation on the inspiration. It would have been much more preferable if they’d have taken their talent and crafted an album with fewer genre crossovers and focussed on those rather than skipping around and falling flat on their faces.

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These United States: On The Internet
Official Site
MySpace

The Legacy - Beyond Hurt, Beyond Hell

Release Date: 23rd June 2008

Label: Visible Noise

Hardcore. It’s an acquired taste. To enjoy it, you must get pleasure from power riffs, furious drumming and vocals so harsh it could possible perforate an ear drum. The members of The Legacy are well versed in all these features of Hardcore music, so much so that the four piece are proclaiming themselves as the messiahs of the UK Hardcore scene. Their debut LP, Beyond Hurt, Beyond Hell, doesn’t really do much to justify this grandiose proclamation.

Starting off with Alpha, things get off to a decent start, an instrumental introduction which leads the listener into a false sense of security, like things aren’t going to be that bad at all. From here on in, things go downhill like someone falling from the peak of Everest. The next song, Ill Fated, is a physical assault on the listener, everything is so fast paced that it’s almost impossible make anything out, it’s only saving blessing is that it’s just over a minute long.

There are a few moments where things don’t seem to be too bleak, Sands And Time and The Sun Wields Mercy for instance. They both start off slow paced, giving time to catch breath, but unfortunately they follow the same formulaic structure half way through, which makes one wonder if the rest of the album is like this. Unfortunately it is. The fortunate thing is that the majority of the songs are less than three minutes long, therefore the thirteen song LP is only half an hour long. Thank goodness.

The vocalist, Adam Cox, has quite clearly taken inspiration from The Gallows as there are elements of the band in most of the songs. Quick, furious and an onslaught on the listener. The vocals are so similar it’s quite unreal, it’s just a shame that The Legacy don’t have the same song writing talents. Maybe if the band had tried to vary their style just a smidge, they could have broken through these quite obvious comparisons.

Ashes To Ashes is quite clearly the standout track. It strays away from the obviously formulaic trend and veers in to screamo and there is a tad of punk in there too. It’s wonderful to hear a song in which there has been a lot of effort in the structural layout. It’s such a crying shame that this isn’t more prevalent in the rest of the album.

Even though it’s only half an hour long, Beyond Hurt, Beyond Hell is still such a horrible prospect. If these are the Saviours of UK Hardcore, then the genre is doomed.

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The Legacy: On the internet

Official Site

MySpace

Circuits - The Choir Invisible (Track)

Release: 23^rd June 2008

Label: Try Science

It’s always upsetting to listen to a song that has so much promise, yet fails to deliver. It’s infinitely more upsetting than listening to an out and out horrible song. Unfortunately, this is a case of the former. Circuits have been lauded by many sources for their debut LP, Bright As Midnight, but it seems that the praise may not be apt for such a languid single as The Choir Invisible.

The pacing seems to be all skewed. It seems as if the band have tried to utilise it, so they can build up to a spectacular finish. Needless to say, this doesn’t happen. The lyrics are also uninspired and have no depth. The melodies, however, are very summer-y and light, which is the only thing that saves this from being unlistenable. There just doesn’t seem to be a saving grace in this 4 minute ode, which is an utter shame as there’s a glimmer of potential here. All it requires is some well needed cultivation.

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Circuits: On the internet

Official Site

Elle Milano - Laughing All The Way To The Plank (Track)

Release: 23^rd June 2008

Label: Brighton Electric

With the recent spurt of bland and boring Indie bands surfacing in the past couple of years, such as The Kooks and The View etc, Elle Milano has defied preconceptions of what “Indie” actually is. Coming across as more of an Indie / Pop Punk hybrid, their latest single is a dance floor stormer that is sure to flood the clubs as hipsters dance so hard that they forget about their perfectly styled hair cuts.

The pacing seems just right, until it approaches the chorus, in which Adam M. Crisp’s vocal veers from singing to full on screeching along with a perfect combination of staccato piano and honey drenched guitar riffs. The background vocals add an air of ethereality to the mix, which just makes you realise the little idiosyncrasies of the instrumentation, the Bells, Whistles and Glockenspiel. The sad state of affairs is that this masterpiece won’t be recognised by the general Radio 1 listening public. What an utter travesty.

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Elle Milano: On the internet

Official Site
MySpace

Dumb Instrument - No-One Knows What It's Like To Be Me

Release Date: May 3rd 2008
Label: Bad Tool Records

It was with quiet trepidation that I inserted this disc into my computer. I was not only worried about the style of music that was about to fall into my ears but also about the listing of the Harmonica on the inside cover; fortunately, Dumb Instrument's debut was nothing to be scared about.

The first thing that hits you upon listening to the opening track, 'The Exterminating Angels', is the strength of Tom Murray's accent. It's one of the components that make this album so utterly charming; in fact, you can't help but be utterly enchanted by the tenacity of the accent. The song itself tells the tale of asbo youth culture, in the terrorisation of community by hoodlums, this use of mundane social commentary in the songs leads to comparisons to similar acts such as Final Fantasy.

The following track, 'Hard On Heart', crashes onto the scene with heavy piano chords that disguise some thoughtful lyrics. After the chorus, the song introduces some melancholic strings that coincide with the wonderful line "looked up while smoking a regal, I looked out me airgun and murdered a seagull". Along the lines of reflective lyrics, 'What A Load Of Rubbish' uses the metaphor for household waste as a reflection of the protagonist's unhappy existence.

Despite the gorgeous entwining of the strings and piano on the majority of songs, 'That's What All the Hard Work Was For' decides a change of tack and substitutes the previous instruments for an acoustic guitar, which lends the song a sense of evolution compared to the others. Although, two thirds of the way through, it begins to tread water, one might think that if it had outstayed its welcome any longer, we might have been gasping for air.

'Reverse The Hearse' is the first song in which things come to a standstill. The ethereal introduction almost screams for attention but the concentration wanes quickly. An ode to the daunting prospect of mortality seems limp and unconvincing; particularly due to the lyric "You can shove death up your arse". Along with 'Jaffa Baws', a criticism at the segregation that ginger haired people seem to come across, which builds up tension sufficiently but fails to use it proficiently.

One of the highlights of the album is at the end of the final song, 'Suffering From Scottishness', in which there is a telephone call from an elderly woman. Even though it is superfluous in nature, it just doesn’t fail to delight and bring up a smile reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat.

The Scottish trio have produced a fantastic album which completely obliterates any previous misconceptions about Scottish Folk. But maybe not about Harmonicas.

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Dumb Instrument: On the internet

MySpace
Official Site

Hercules And Love Affair - You Belong (Track)

Release Date: June 9th 2008
Label: DFA / EMI

When listening to this track, it's pretty simple to see the ethos behind it - plain and simple funky dance music. It is quite easy to imagine the surroundings where this might be played, most likely at the end of a night in a hot sweaty club as one of the tracks in the "comedown brigade". It's not too complicated either, with only three basic components: Nomi’s singing, Antony (from Antony And The Johnsons fame) and his strange backup vocals, and the uncomplicated synths.

Although, the melodies are quite nice to listen to, they get repetitive incredibly quickly; which is a shame as they seem to overpower Nomi’s wonderful vocals. Antony’s backing is quite strange as it sticks out like a regular Joe at a rehab centre. All in all, the straightforward tune does exactly as it intended, it produces wildly hypnotic synths that just can’t help the listener to want to hop straight down to the dance floor.

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Hercules And Love Affair: On the internet

MySpace

Seether - Finding Beauty In Negative Places

Release: June 9th 2008
Label: ADA Global / Wind Up Records

For a band that has been devastated by tragedy, the death of Shaun Morgan's brother, one might wittily say that this album doesn’t show it. Full of references to death, suicide and lyrical abuse, 'Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces' is not the correct choice if you want to listen to happy and uplifting music. Even the album artwork is littered with disturbing images of ghosts.

This album marks a departure into the mainstream for the band with a few of the songs that are markedly different and more radio friendly than the rest. 'Rise Above This' is one such song, recognisably lighter and positive compared to the rest, it's the shining beacon in the depths of despair that is the record. Another enticing song is 'Fallen', good use of less lyrically demanding verses alongside the call and response makes it much easier to listen to. All this hides sneakily hidden social commentary on women who will do anything, including plastic surgery, for another male conquest.

It seems the focus point for the band was to produce more anthemic songs, such as 'FMLYHM'. The aggressive ode growls along until the powerhouse of a chorus crashes in and almost forces you to sing along, regardless of the company you’re in.

Embedded with an uninspired array of guitar riffs, the album fails to allow the songs to create an identity that is too different from the others. The only way in which to distinguish between songs is the vocal style that the South African front man uses. Yet, the singing appears to only be between heavy singing and screaming.

The middle of the album is punctuated by the seven minute long 'No Jesus Christ', which regrettably gets repetitive incredibly quickly. The only variation in the song is the slight use of screaming in the bridge. It also has the worst lyric on the album with the horrific "your verbal defecation I can’t wash away", which just clangs like a pink mouse on the moon. Unfortunately, 'No Jesus Christ' seems to signal a nose dive for the end of the album.

'Eyes Of The Devil' is overly long, overly repetitive and overly boring. After three minutes of the same riffs and religious connotations, the imagination seems to wander into a much more interesting place, that place isn't here. The last two songs on the album aren’t much different either.

At 50 minutes, the album can be trying, but despite the lyrical themes, there are parts in which glory shines.

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Seether On The Internet:
Official Site
Myspace

With thanks to The Music Magazine.

Hadouken! - Music For An Accelerated Culture

Bursting onto the “scene” in the summer of 2006, Hadouken! have pretty much been front and centre in the stakes of exciting new bands throughout most of 07/08. They’ve garnered a large fan-base on a certain social networking site and been (sort of) championed by the NME. But alas, the band have garnered the worrying title of being a “marmite” band, in which people either love or hate them. With that, they release their debut effort, Music For An Accelerated Culture, but does it stand up?

One thing that’s immediately noticeable is the inclusion of their previous singles, That Boy That Girl and Liquid Lives. While the former stands up to the 18 month period that it’s been available, the same can’t quite be said for Liquid Lives. Both have undergone a bit of spit polishing and while That Boy That Girl has stood the test of time, Liquid Lives seems to be a bit of a misfit in the second half of the album where it’s been placed. It doesn’t just doesn’t seem appropriate. Maybe this could have been rectified with an alternate track listing.

One of the new tracks is Game Over, upon listening to it, while it has a good groove to it despite pacing issues; it feels very similar to some of the band’s previous work, primarily Superstar and Do This Do That. The alarm bell rings. Is this a sign that Hadouken! have gone all formulaic on us? Yes and no. We come to Spend Your Life, while it has a listener dividing acoustic guitar in its midst (personally, I like it), the lyrics are sub-Alex Turner and clichéd at best and What She Did closely resembles a decent amalgamation of Declaration Of War and Liquid Lives.

One of the stand-out new tracks is Mister Misfortune. Strangely hypnotic synths and guitar riffs blend excellently into the worryingly anthemic chorus. Throughout listening to the track, it’s far too easy to imagine the hoards of people chanting along with James Smith. Unfortunately, following this is Crank It Up, a song which seems to pander to the web 2.0 generation by reeling off plenty of mindless technological terminology. It seems far too desperate for a band that is supposedly heralding a new wave of band/listener interaction.

2006, there was no variation in the singing styles, just the plain rapping that seemed to anger the Grime circuit. Now, if you told me that there would be ballads [sic] on the album, I wouldn’t have believed you. Alas, Driving Nowhere is a straightforward ballad, unlike anything else they’ve done, therein lies its appeal. Pure singing all the way through. Along side this is Wait For You, the most downbeat song and the album closer. Almost relying on drums and synths alone, it has the ability to almost put the listener into a trance, uniquely so. Its strangely hypnotic drums curiously taunt the listener, as if Timbaland has suddenly been roped in.

Although it’s not going to convert any haters, Hadouken! have produced an album that seems to manage the hype they garnered. Slightly disappointing in places, but when they get it right, you can almost hear the hoards of fans jumping about.

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Hadouken!: On The Internet.
Official Site
Myspace

Delays - Everything's The Rush

Upon hearing that Delays had left Rough Trade and signed with Fiction, many had doubts about the band's direction. Fiction being the label that had seen Virgin Radio-playlist-fodder Snow Patrol skyrocket into success on both sides of the Atlantic. Would Delays give up their fable-esque story telling in favour of a more commercial and, more importantly, in record company's eyes, successful style? Fortunately, this isn't the case.

Their third album, Everything's The Rush, seems to be an amalgamation of their previous albums, 2004's Faded Seaside Glamour and 2006's You See Colours. Gone are the more synth-driven melodies in favour of a higher rate of string and guitar based anthems. While synths are still around on some songs, such as Love Made Visible, the album's teaser that was released on it's self titled EP, and Girl's On Fire, they don't seem to overshadow the rest of the instruments used on the album, as what happened occasionally on the wonderful You See Colours.

Delays have a reputation for making songs that combine incredibly sombre lyrics with amazingly uplifting melodies, one song in point is Hooray, the album's lead single. For a song that tells the tale of Greg Gilbert's affliction with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), the song has the habit of making the listener smile, either with the music or the cheerleaders than inhabit the promo. But while the Southampton based band can make bewildering song combinations, their most successful and traditional ballad appears on their third effort.

Pieces is a reflective composition that has the ability to calm the listener in the midst of sure fire foot tappers like Friends Are False and Keep It Simple. It's brilliance relies on it's simplicity, anymore knobtwiddling and overproduction would have ruined this piece, luckily, that hasn't happened. While One More Lie In is a gorgeous ode to a loved one, in which the protagonist tries to uplift his suitor by having... one more lie in. While it's not the most lyrically adventurous outing for the four piece, it's charm simply overcomes it downfalls.

The last quarter of the album feels weak, underthought and trite. Jet Lag seems to be too slow and cocksure, as if it's supposed to be a successor to Hideaway, but with an campfire "let's all sing around and forget our troubles before we sleep" feeling. Meanwhile Silence pales in comparison to it's balladry brethrin. It connotes the feelings between a pairing that doesn't need to be indicated by using verbal signals, which, shockingly enough doesn't really come across to the audience.

The album is quite blatantly, on first listen at least, a sure fire festival album. Anthemic to it's last note, easily rememberable and pure summer music.

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Delays: On the internet.

Official Site
Myspace
Youtube