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