Video - Exit: Pursued By A Bear

Cork veterans Exit Pursued By A Bear have just released their new single, Hug. The track, and the accompanying video, are of such fine quality that they definitely deign a mention here on the D.

The band have always skittered around the electronic and the ambient, and Hug is a perfect example of how their sound is becoming ever more cohesive. The track is bathed in reverb; heavily effected guitars slink behind the loose drums and immediate vocals. The song’s bassline and pre-chorus breaks are a definite homage to reggae and dub. The track has a few peaks and troughs, but never really takes off, preferrring instead to give little crescendos then run back behind the wall of reverb and effects. It’s not a pop hit, but it’s an incredibly strong track that demands further listens.

The track’s elegant music video was directed by Cork up and comer, Shaun O’ Connor. Shaun has had a long standing relationship with Exit Pursued By A Bear, having directed two videos for them previous to this, as well as working with other rising Cork bands like Toy Soldier. And with works from Echogram, Ladydoll and Dave Hope and The Henchmen on the way, he’s definitely carving himself out a position of respect in the local scene.

In this case, the video reflects the mood and subject of the song very well. It’s shot in faint slow motion, echoing the laidback, almost lazy feel of the track. The heady emotions that go hand in hand with sexuality are expoused throughout. The excitement, the fear, the embarassement, the lust, the anger, the frustration and the intimacy are all very distinct in the short video. It’s beautifully sharp, and very well executed.

It’s indicitive of the state of the music industry in Ireland, and in general, that a independently shot music video has become part of the ‘package’ as much as having good music, good recordings, and guitars. Now if every band could put out the as high quality audio and visuals as Exit Pursued By A Bear have done here, we’d all be better off.

You can download Bug now directly from iTunes, or follow the links on the band’s Facebook here. Check out more from Shaun O’ Connor at his website here, and stay tuned for his new videos.

Published on Drop-D.ie, 9th August, 2011

Epigene - A Wall Street Odyssey

It’s been a while since this reviewer has been so divided in an opinion on a record. It’s rare when a release can be so promising and be so downright awful at the same time, and Epigene’s A Wall Street Odyssey is one such release. The album is a twenty-two track concept album detailing the rise, fall, and ‘second coming’ of the Wall Street Trader, Yossarian.

Across the album’s two CDs we follow Yossarian from the heights of Wall Street, through his mental and emotional breakdown, his drug use, his exodus to the country, his rehabilitation in the ‘Settlement of Love’ and his return to the city as an enlightened hippy to warn society about the impending economic disaster and an inevitable imposition of an oppressive police state.

The music that this saga is hung upon is a mixture of electro and prog. It’s not particularly innovative but it’s tight and suits singer Sean Bigler’s vocal very nicely. Bigler’s vocal itself is for the most part fast-paced and it works for him. There aren’t any big soaring vocals here and the tracks are better off for it. There are a few cheesy vocoder parts in places but in general the music is interesting and cool in a very retro sort of way.

My issue here is not with the music but with the subject matter. There are themes in music that are as old as music itself, themes that are universal, such as Love. Bob Dylan sang about being scorned by a lover and put it in a unique way despite the fact that hundreds of people had sang about the same thing before.

Then there are themes that are less universal and intersect with a specific places and time. An example in our time is the current world economic recession. Subjects like this tend to be discussed so much by the media and by the average person on the street that they very quickly become types of clichés. So the unfortunate reality in this case is that Epigene have worked very hard on a piece of work that the second it was released became dated, clichéd and irrelevant.

That’s not to say that there isn’t potential in the subject, after all the fall and redemption of a man is one of the oldest subjects know to man. But here it’s not being put across in a nice way. The lyrics are so immediate, ‘I woke up at 3 a.m. and brushed my teeth’ sort of immediate, that they are almost cringeful. This reviewer also feels that the band could have left out the new age hippy preaching that pervades the work from track eight onwards.

If Epigene’s back catalogue (which consists of a number of full length albums) keeps the musical style and drops the poorly relayed concept lyricism there would be some serious potential in their work, which is why this reviewer is so torn on ‘A Wall Street Odyssey’. But as it stands this is one album that I would steer clear of.

Drop-d Rating: 4/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 9th August, 2011

ECHOGRAM - Remixed EP

This past week saw the release of Echogram’s Walk In The Sun REMIXED, a remix EP that contains a number of tracks by four electronic artists from both at home and abroad, Ghostcopy, Kurtis Mantronik, Real, and Cork’s own, Bantum. The artists have each reworked the song in their own distinctive manner and the result is quite interesting. The EP is a textbook example of how one song can be interpreted in many different ways, and each interpretation gives the track a new life.

The EP opens with what Echogram frontman Killian Petit describes a “hands in the air summer remix” by Ghostcopy. There’s a serious Chemical Brothers vibe off this track. Its relentless throb, the peaks and troughs put you in mind of ‘Star Guitar’. The extra lead synths added by Ghostcopy compliment Petit’s vocal line. It’s great to hear a contrasting but complimentary take on the band’s usual sound of electro driven rock.

With an Anglo-Jamaican background, Kurtis Mantronik’s take on Walk In The Sun is very different to the opener. This track would be right at home in any of the world’s clubs, or dance festivals. Listening to the swirls and pulses here, it’s hard not to imagine the tracks on a bigger stage. Kurtis gives equal priority to Petit’s vocal, something which Ghostcopy seemed to shrug off slightly, and the mix here is nicely balanced between the underlying rhythms and the vocal. The EP also features a subtly heavier version of the track for the remix’s true home on the dancefloor with a dub version of the song.

Next up is Real’s take on the song and again, we shoot off in another direction. It’s an altogether more laid back mix with a distinctly Garage tone. The standard Garage rhythm patterns open the song with pattering hi-hats, snapping rim hits and sporadic kicks as Real plays with the more subversive elements of Walk In The Sun. If Kurtis Mantronik gave a good balance between the vocals and the rhythms, Real gives whole bias towards the rhythms and vocals only feature slightly, and even then they are very much effected. Not that that’s a big gripe, but this reviewer is a sucker for a good vocal line, especially on tracks such as this. That said, the laid-back take on the band’s debut single here is great.

The fourth and final remix on the EP is by Cork’s own Bantum, aka Ruairi Lynch. Obviously each artist on the release brought their own style of music into their track and Bantum is no exception. Like his previous remixes for other artists have showcased, Lynch is a lover of reverb, big effected beats and even more effected vocals. All these traits are showcased here to great effect. It’s very much a shoegazey track and is easily the most lo-fi on the EP, but there’s a certain charm to that. As a whole, it’s an interesting EP; a nice departure from their usual sound. Definitely one to check out.

Drop-D Rating: 8/10

You can download the EP from iTunes. Echogram play the Crane Lane Theatre this Saturday, July 23rd. Watch this space for the band’s next single, ‘Conspiracy’.

Published on Drop-D.ie, 25th July, 2011

Classic Albums: Dinosaur Jr - Bug

As a music journalist (…ahem) and a fan/supporter of new music in general, I’ve been to a lot of gigs by up and coming bands. I’ve seen a lot of innovative groups, and a lot that were not so innovative. I’ve been left reeling both by pure talent, and by pure noise. I’ve seen the best and worse of what Ireland’s thriving alternative music scene has to offer…

So, in much the same way that a kid just getting into Nirvana will wear a Daniel Johnston ‘Hi, How Are You?’ t-shirt without knowing anything about Daniel Johnston’s music, a young band will blast barely intelligible lyrics, distorted guitars and crashing drums without knowing anything about Dinosaur Jr. For better or for worse, the band’s sound has spawned some of the loudest, heaviest, and in many cases, unlistenable music ever heard, and a lot of people just simply haven’t heard of them.

Well I’m here to try and set the record straight, and there’s no better way of doing it than taking a look at the band’s breakout record, Bug.

I really can’t underestimate how ingrained this style of music is in the alternative music world. Often the first thing that occurs to a young band is to throw distortion on their guitars and blast out three to four minutes of gritty guitar based alt-rock. Dinosaur Jr were the band that refined that sound and got it down to the essence of the style. The songs are short, range from the melodic to the downright throttling, and each one gives off an immaculate energy.

Bug opens with the marvellous ‘Freakscene’. This is by far and away the best song on the record, if not the band’s whole career. Aside from giving the founders of Ireland’s longest running alternative club night something to call themselves, the song itself is a testament to the melodic power of Dinosaur Jr. It balances the heavy side of the band, with their lyricism and there is a sweet simplicity to the lyrics here;” Don’t let me fuck up will you, ‘cos when I need a friend it’s still you”. The song is an alt-rock anthem, no two ways about it. And what’s more, it’s a great opener to a classic album.

‘No Bones’ slinks in after the opener and proves that the melodies seen on ‘Freakscene’ weren’t just a flash in the pan. The melancholy way that singer J. Macsis approaches the vocals contrasts beautifully with the leading bass line and the bright nature of the vocal lines themselves. This is seen throughout the whole album. ‘They Always Come’ follows suit and seems like a forerunner of the pop-punk style of Greenday, before they even existed.

Bug exists in two worlds. The painfully melodic world, and the angst ridden, frustrated world, and the album moves slowly from one to the other as you progress through the tracks. It’s almost like the joy is being slowly covered over by frustration as the songs become ever more laden with screaming, solos, and cymbals. The culmination of this comes in the form of the album closer ‘Don’t’. Inasmuch as ‘Freakscene’ is the epitome of a bright and melodic, alternative rock song, ‘Don’t’ is the epitome of a frustrated and angry alternative rock song, a song on which (supposedly) bassist Lou Barlow began coughing up blood due to the ferocity with which he sang the song.

In summary, Bug is a fine example of a classic album. The sound that Dinosaur Jr. showcased here has influenced thousands of bands across the western world, ranging from the likes of Nirvana to the smallest garage-rock band in the south of Ireland. Without a shadow of a doubt, Bug is one of the finest alternative rock albums ever recorded.

Published on Drop-D.ie 6th July, 2011

A Rough Guide To: My Morning Jacket

There are only so many bands that I can listen to and experience a complete, unadulterated joy. My Morning Jacket are one of those bands. There is a joy in their song writing, in their lyricism, and in their playing that endears me so much that they have become by far one of my favourite bands. So today, it’s my duty to give you a rundown of their material to attempt to relate the joy I experience when I listen to them. Here’s hoping I don’t cock it up…

My Morning Jacket released Z in 2005 and that album was my gateway into the world of MMJ. It would be easy to say that this was their definitive album, and that I came in at just the right time, but that wasn’t exactly the case. In a lot of ways Z was the best MMJ album, but there were elements of their sound that just weren’t present here. It’s by far their most ‘rock’ album, but their nouveau-country vibe, that was present at their beginnings, and in their current work, didn’t really feature on Z.

Singer Jim James’ trademark, reverb-laden vocal was still the centrepiece, but the country was only hinted at. It was, at its core, a full-on rock record. Standout tracks, of which there are many, would have to be the opener ‘Wordless Chorus’, the furious ‘Anytime’, and the majestic ‘Dondante’. It was a great album to come in on, but it wasn’t until 2008’s Evil Urges that My Morning Jacket struck the perfect balance between rock, country, and pop.

The album opens with its title track, and the song kicks in with what is perhaps the biggest sounding drumbeat ever heard. It’s not ‘stadium’ big, it’s just powerful, tight, evocative; everything that symbolises MMJ. A similar opening can be found in ‘Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 1’, and the result is nothing short of brilliance. Hip-Hop elements were brought into their sound here with the combination of the quick kick drum hits, synth pads, and interjecting guitar lines.

Evil Urges does err on the side of cheese at times also, a characteristic that is often synonymous with acts that dabble with the heady mix of hip-hop and country music. A perfect example of this is on Highly Suspicious. Hopping bass combines with an elevated vocal line from James and the result is a track that, although somewhat tacky, still showcases their genius.

Iffy tracks like this are forgotten when faced with the majesty of some of the other songs they have written. On Evil Urges, ‘Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 2’, ‘Thank You Too!’, and ‘Remnants’ all jump out, but there are such a great number of truly amazing, uplifting songs throughout their whole back catalogue, that it’s impossible to discuss them in such a short article.

I’m quite aggrieved that the band haven’t had much of a following in Ireland. The band played a sold out show in Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve two years ago while, earlier that same year, they played Oxegen to a handful of people at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. During that show they only performed six songs, and there’s no sign of them coming over again for a bigger show. But I suppose that it’ll just have to be enough that their music exists and that, with all of the music in this big crazy world, we were lucky enough to find each other.

To see how I felt when I first encountered MMJ, check out the episode of American Dad dedicated to the band entitled ‘My Morning Straightjacket’.

Published on Drop-D.ie, 4th July, 2011

Black Market Serotonin - Dead by Five O Clock EP

Black Market Serotonin are a hard/prog rock band based out of Manchester. Their sound is a brash mixture of soaring, accented vocals, thrashing drums and guitar solos. Or at least that is what their debut EP, Dead By Five O Clock, would have you believe. Each track is huge sounding, rock odyssey and the EP itself times out at just about thirty minutes, which is impressive for a five-track CD. It’s the first release by the band so let’s see how their first foray into recorded material goes…

The EPs title track opens the CD, and as one might expect, it’s rich with heavy drums and screeching guitars, while vocalist Andrew Pimblott wails over the track. The song has a serious epic feel to it, the mix of the acoustic opening section and the synths adding substantially to the big sound the band have going on. One thing I will say it that the song has a few too many parts and if the band could have funnelled down some of the material, maybe cut a few guitar solo breaks (of which there are many), they could have come out with a damn fine track. I mean, it’s all in there, and the chorus is a mighty one, although it does go on a bit. That said, ‘Dead By Five O Clock’ is probably the best song on the EP and it’s rightly to the fore.

The big long instrumental parts show up again in the next track, ‘The End of History’. Another ‘big’ song, all the constituent parts of a high energy/high emotion track are there, but the sound and structure just needs to be refined. Same goes for the rest of the EP. ‘Revelation One’ has a kicking chorus, and a Journey-esque breakdown; ‘Clarity’, though perhaps the weakest song melodically, still has a charm; as does the piano infused closer ‘Hours’. Yet all three just drag on too long. By the end the listener’s ears are awash with cymbals, distorted guitars and unintelligible vocals, so much awash that the gems behind the lengthy songs are almost forgotten.

I know that this band are just starting out, and maybe I’m being over critical, and I’ll always prefer snappier, to-the-point songs to 6 minute odysseys. But without a doubt, the EP shows a band that have a good grasp of melody and a strong songwriting sense. As is the way with bands in their early days, it’ll take a while for them to find their footing but, they have potential. If ever the phrase ‘watch this space’ applied, it applies here.

Drop-D Rating: 6/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 13th June, 2011

One Inch Badge Presents: The Best of Brighton

The Best of Brighton. This is one that anyone who is interested in the international music scene would be curious about. For years the Brighton music scene has been one synonymous with new music and has often been the trendsetter for ‘hip’ new music. The Great Escape, one of the world’s foremost music industry showcases is held there each year, so Brighton’s claim to be a home for music is well placed. Sea Monsters: The Best of Brighton is a snapshot of some of the key bands in the Brighton scene in 2011.

Now, to me, if you’re trying to show off how great the music of your area is, you don’t start your compilation CD with an out of tune guitar on a track that sounds like it was recorded on cheap tape recorder from the seventies. It sounds like a poor attempt at a demo by an old-school Californian dance hall act. But alas, these are the sounds of The Sticks and their “cool surf-rock” instrumental track, Night of Pleasure.

Thankfully, Pope Joan’s offering, Ground Is Shaky, follows and it’s altogether more together as a song. It’s exactly what one would expect from a new British band, guitar jabs, bouncing bass lines, and Vampire Weekend-esque rim hits and vocals. Innovative it is not, but as indie-pop goes, it’s very well done. The following track by Nullifier can be placed in the same Indie category. It adds a more synth edge to the genre, but really it’s just a variation on a theme and the same can be said for Hind Ear’s track. Here’s hoping that the standard Indie-pop ends with these bands…

Some respite comes in the form of Sons of Noel and Adrian and their quietly epic song, Black Side of the River. Almost Scandinavian orchestration gives way to an intimate, stripped down vocals, guitar and harp piece and is perhaps the most sweet and endearing of the compilation. There is something sweet about Us Baby Bear Bones’ Encore to a Fictional Idea, that precedes this, but the Sons’ track outstrips Bones’ contribution in both composition and sentiment. The upbeat and lo-fi Curly Hair has a charm to it too, and the tone of their lyrics definitely adds to this charm.

There then follows a number of tracks that are again a variation on a theme, but this time the theme is folk. They range from introspective, string driven songs like Jane Bartholomew’s Fiery Son, to the folk rock, full band songs like Salter Cane. They range in quality also, Stuart Warwick is chilling and beautiful, Bird Engine is somewhat cringeful, and Crowns on the Rats Orchestra nine minute epic, The Markov Charade/Markov Parade lies somewhere in between.

Brighton’s electro is represented by Soccer 96. ‘California’ blips and grooves along in the way electro tends to do. It’s quite a melodic track and shows that Brighton’s electronic underbelly can stand up with some of the best. The instrumental prog of Illness follow with the track ‘The Guardian’. As instrumentals go it ticks the all the boxes; the variety of parts, the odd times signatures, and the distorted guitars but besides that there isn’t anything spectacular here. The same can be said for the furious ‘Proof of Man’ by Cold Pumas. They attempt to channel old-school punk from both sides of the pond here, but all I hear is something brash and disjointed.

Drum Eyes are another 8-bit group, similar to the sounds of Soccer 96, but they’re altogether heavier which gives them an added edge, but as with a lot of heavy music, they tend to stray from the point and their offering clocks in at five minutes twenty, which is a good deal longer than it needed to be. Squadron Leader’s longwinded closer echoes The Sticks’ opener and that is one track I wish I hadn’t been reminded of…

I know I’m being hard on some of these bands, but I was hoping for something more spectacular from the home of new music in the UK. It seems to me that you could have gone into any town in England and picked out eighteen bands that sound exactly like this. In every town you’ll have your heavy bands, your electro bands, your gritty core of acoustic folk bands, your tight alt-pop bands and you’re left of centre soul/jazz/funk bands. Brighton is no different. Sons of Noel and Adrian and Soccer 96 are a notable exception, offering something a bit more than the standard, and maybe that’s enough, maybe that’s what makes Brighton shine. Yet I think that this compilation isn’t what makes Brighton stand out, but what makes it like everywhere else.

Drop-D Rating: 5/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 13th June, 2011

A Plastic Rose w/Time Is A Thief - Crane Lane Theatre, 10th June, 2011

Last night saw Belfast post-hardcore band, A Plastic Rose, take to the stage in Cork’s Crane Lane Theatre and support came in the form of Drop-D favourites Time Is A Thief.

I was the first in the door, but thankfully I wasn’t the last. As is the way with gigs for small bands, and gigs in the Crane Lane for that matter, the crowd can vary, but luckily for the two acts, there was a good sized, receptive audience by the time Time Is A Thief took the stage.

I’ll tell you one thing; the ‘Thief’ boys are one hell of a group. They are the tightest rock band I have seen live for a very long time, and more than that, they’re probably the most ‘rock’ band I’ve seen in a very long time. There’s an energy and a fury that comes across in their live shows, that is seldom equalled by a band at their level. Their audience wasn’t substantial, but you wouldn’t know it by their performance. Never once did their façade drop, and that made their show all the better.

Their set wasn’t long, but it was extensive, showing off the band’s live prowess and song writing skill. The sound in the Crane Lane can be a bit off at times, and there were instances where the balance between the instruments was a bit off. Parts of the drums were lower than others, and the bass volume was never totally constant, but that isn’t the fault of the band. There was a good clarity to guitarist Jimmy’s sound, and Adam’s vocals were perfect, attributes that will shine through in any venue.

After Time Is A Thief concluded their all too brief set, it was time for headliners, A Plastic Rose, to take to the stage. I hadn’t heard much of their material, save for a brief stream of their album on their Bandcamp page, so this was very much a first impressions kind of a gig. Their set got off to a pretty good start and I was impressed by the vocal range of both the band’s joint lead singers, reminding me of a strange mix between R.E.M. and Biffy Clyro.

As the band finished their first song, there appeared to be technical issues with one of the guitars, an issue that the band deigned suitable to share with the entire venue by speaking it into the microphone. And that wasn’t the end of their troubles. A rack tom fell from the drum kit as the band were half way through their current single, ‘Oceans’ prompting them to stop, mid-song, and fix it, again making light to the crowd about their poor luck. Now this brings me to a point I feel I have to make…

As I mentioned with Time Is A Thief, the façade of the band never dropped. You never felt like you were watching a whole load of technical equipment onstage with a few guys operating it, trying to keep the stuff in control. For TIAT, the instruments were an extension of themselves and they performed. With the A Plastic Rose, you felt that they were just keeping it together, because they were telling you they were just keeping it together. You felt that any minute something else would go wrong. You were watching the instruments, reading the looks on their faces, waiting for the next problem and not enjoying/interacting with the music they were making.

I think that’s a big problem with a lot of bands at this level. There’s a mix of not giving a shit, and not knowing/caring about how to put on a show. I’m not saying that it’s necessary for every band to either pretend their audience isn’t there or pretend there isn’t something going wrong onstage if there. I just think that band’s need to think about their performance and if they do, people like me won’t cringe every time they go see a new band.

Of course none of this was helped by A Plastic Rose’s songs. Though there were some interesting vocals here and there, there were just too many parts in the songs, they were too mid-tempo and there were too many time signature changes for there to be any kind of flow. Of course there were people dancing to the band, but there wasn’t much to keep them going. Except for alcohol of course, which was flowing free by the time the band had finished their set, proving that with enough drink, you can sit through anything. Sláinte!

You can download A Plastic Rose’s album ‘The Promise Notes’ from their Bandcamp page here. Time Is A Thief release their new single in Cork’s Cyprus Avenue on July 1^st.

As yet published.

April 26^th saw the release of a five soundtrack set from acclaimed British group Tindersticks. The soundtracks are taken from a number of films shot over a course of fifteen years by French director, Claire Denis. As with any soundtrack, they mean to echo the sentiments of the work of Denis, and give an insight into Tindersticks’ own material. Well, it goes without saying that taken either as a soundtrack, or as a standalone work, the Claire Denis Film Scores is an immaculate collection. We here at the D were given a sample of the five CD set to help give an overview of the cinematic collection as a whole, so let’s get into it.

It may seem painfully obvious to say so, but the composition of these works is beautifully cinematic. Each track taken individually has a life, a flow, and a profound subtlety. Take for the opening duo of Opening and Train Montage taken from 2008’s 35 Rhums. On the surface, both tracks are an ideal accompaniment to a French film. The Jazzy/Folkish nature, mixing with the accordions, and flute, simply project a continental and cinematic aura. But if you take both as pieces of music, as an extension of Tindersticks’ usual material, you arrive at a similarly beautiful and parallel conclusion; that the group have a mastery of a myriad of instruments and their ability to weave them together into a rich aural tapestry is to be marvelled at.

Their mastery is further expounded upon in La Paseserelle, taken from Denis’ first outing with Tindersticks, 1996’s Nenette Et Boni. Here, the instruments hang in the air along the track. The
electric piano, the natural piano, the hi-hats, all seem to barely stay grounded as the number slips in and out of existence. This is one of the looser tracks in the compilation as some of the instruments barely stay in time with each other. Now, personally I’m a stickler for timing, and usually when instruments don’t stay together, I cringe. But here, they contribute so well to
the atmospheric whole, that the band can be forgiven. Rhumba, the track that closes this short compilation, closely echoes La Paseserelle, although the instrumentation in Rhumba is sped
up, keeping it closer to the ground.

Stuart A. Staples only leads his vocal to one track on this compilation, and that is the remarkable Trouble Every Day, from the 2001 film of the same name. It keeps the jazzy nature of some of the earlier material, but by combining by Staples’ vocal is makes this track a subtly haunting one. It also reminds the listener of what a profoundly interesting and unique vocal Staples has. It’s nasal and fragile, but holds a sort of power, a weight that renders it both haunting and chilling.
This is the stand-out piece of the compilation, not simply because it’s the only one with lyrics, but because it brings together so perfectly all the elements of Tindersticks’ work with Denis on one track.

I’ve had very little prior contact with the work of Denis, and not much more contact with the work of Staples and Tindersticks so I came into this compilation knowing very little of their fifteen years of work. But having turned the pieces over and over in my head, and listened to them
completely, they give me a pretty good picture of the beauty their long relationship together. I know I’ve only looked at a small selection of the five CD set, but I can say whole-heartedly that this is not one to miss.

Drop-D Rating: 7/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 8th June, 2011

Classic Videogames: Spyro the Dragon

As Drop-D move through some of the best classic video games, there comes a time where we must move consoles. So today, we move from cartridges to CDs, and take a look at some of the best Playstation games ever made. In the first of these Playstation nostalgia trips we’ll be taking over the coming weeks, we’re going to take a look at the classic PS1 3D Platformer, Spyro the Dragon.

Released in 1998 by Insomnia Interactive, Spyro the Dragon was one of the first 3D platform games. Where Mario left off, Spyro continued and he expanded the genre of a platformer in ways never before seen, and only copied since. Spyro breathes fire, charges and glides, as he takes you through the game’s six worlds on your way to a final showdown with the games baddie, Gnasty Gnorc (no relation to the Gnu). Moving through the worlds, you pick up your standard platform collectibles, in this case gems and eggs, as you seek to free the other dragons imprisoned by Gnasty Gnorc for insulting his questionable beauty.

Now, I’m not railing against the ‘old school’ platformers and all their glory, but Spyro was one of the first platformers to allow you to move in 3D seamlessly, while maintaining gameplay. 3D platformers had been attempted before on the Playstation, but most fell short. Unnatural controls and sub standard camera movements crippled other games (see Blasto). But Spyro the Dragon fixed all the mistakes made by other botched attempts at 3D level based gaming, and became one of the first proper 3D Platformers, on a par with Crash Bandicoot, a game with which it was often twinned.

As with any classic platformer, the subject matter of Spyro the Dragon is light-hearted and the world it’s set in is almost a Disney fairytale. Everything is brightly coloured. You’re followed by a chirpy dragonfly that protects you, and helps you collect gems. You save your games by interacting with a fairy. Spyro himself is animated in almost a feline manner, giving him an added cuteness and endears you to him as you play through the game.

But don’t think the game is childish. It’s an incredibly challenging game, despite its sugary facade and low age rating. It attracted a core group of completionists who agonised over gaining the much sought after 100% game rating. That was no easy task requiring the player to collect all the gems, eggs, and rescue all the dragons across all thirty-six diverse levels. The game’s enemies were unique to each level and grew in difficulty as the game wound through its increasingly perilous, vertigo inducing stages.

Personally, I still have a fondness for Spyro after all these years. I was twelve when I first played it, I’m twenty-three now and the game still has some serious playability despite looking a little dated. Furthermore, and as is the case with a lot of older platformers, the music in Spyro is spectacular. I’ve rarely seen a game with a soundtrack that suits the mood of the game. The wonderfully atmospheric soundtrack, crafted by Stewart Copeland of The Police, gives the perfect audio counterpart to Spyro’s character and his world.

There’s just so much to like about this game and you can’t argue that its charm has endured, whether you were a fan of the game thirteen years ago or not. The sugarplum world of Spyro the Dragon was one of the greatest triumphs for a 3D platformer game, and one that was rarely equalled. So hook up your emulator, plug in your controller, and delve back into Spyro. You won’t regret it.

Published on Drop-D.ie, 23rd May, 2011

Rough Guide to: Mew

It’s hard to explain to someone why you like a band. It’s harder still to put it onto paper. But today that’s my job, so allow me to try to relate to you why I like Mew. I’ve always been a fan of well-made music, and to me, Mew are the epitome of a well-made band. They’re up there with Massive Attack for their grasp of rhythms, with Sigur Ros for their grasp of ambiance, and with The Beach Boys for their grasp of melodies. By the end of this article I hope you’ll see them the same way.

I’m just going to look at a few key tracks to give an overview of their sound.

Mew are a band from Denmark and they make, in their own words, ‘dream-pop’. That’s a term that would normally turn me off but I implore you to have faith, there’s much more to them than that. They have been making music for about fifteen years now, and have released a total of five albums. Their fourth, and breakthrough album, was released in 2006 and entitled ‘And The Glass Handed Kites’. US website Pitchfork described And The Glass Handed Kites as “a masterpiece for people who haven’t smoked weed yet but are thinking about it”. Although I’m not sure the drug reference is necessary, I’d definitely agree that it is a masterpiece.

I wasn’t introduced to them through standard media however. I was introduced to them by a fellow musician, and fan of well made music, who played me their track ‘Comforting Sounds’, the closing song off their album Frengers. An anthemic track, it moves from simple guitars to a euphoric and crashing outro. So as not to bore you with a rambling and critical description of instrumentation and lyrics, here’s the song itself.

It’s the way the guitar moves, the melody of the vocals, and the percussion that builds up to the climax around four minutes that got me. I was instantly hooked.

But Mew aren’t just a pleasant, melodic band. Some of the instrumental prowess and hooks displayed in their material is astonishing and nowhere moreso that than on their fifth album, , No More Stories Are Told Today, I’m Sorry They Washed Away. The album opens with the duo of New Terrain and Introducing Palace Players and these tracks proved to be another highpoint in my history with Mew.

The effects on the vocals of New Terrain, combining with the off-time toms and the crashing cymbals just gave off so much energy. It was an absolutely triumphant opener, and the way in melded seamlessly into Introducing Palace Players, I was cemented as a fan. Introducing Palace Players is a stomping track, and the tone of the guitars at the outset had me intrigued and was the beginning of a serious affection for the band.

The last song I’m going to show you is from ‘And The Glass Handed Kites’ and it’s called ‘Why Are You Looking Grave?’.

This a monstrous track, but in a different way than Comforting Sounds. It almost stand on a knife edge. The percussion never lets up, and the guest vocal by J Macsis of Dinosaur Jr. gives the track an almost call-and-response, internalised conversation element. The subject matter is darker, but it’s contrasted by the synths in the chorus, and the high vocal range of singer Jonas Bjerre. The duality of songs such as this, is key to my passion for this band.

As I said that the start, it’s not easy to explain exactly why you love a band, and I’m not sure I’ve done that good a job here. All I can hope for is that you listen to Mew, engage with them, and make up your own mind. But for me, my mind was made up a long time ago. I am, and always will be, a Mew fan.

Published on Drop-D.ie, 18th May, 2011

Blanck Mass - Blanck Mass

There are people in the world that would be enthralled by music like this. I, unfortunately, am not one of them. A short readout of Blanck Mass’ biography reads as follows

“Blanck Mass is Benjamin John Power, a young musician in thrall to Carl Sagan, Ennio Morricone
and the infinity of nature, both universal and personal.

His eponymous debut album, [is] a collection of tracks loosely themed around cerebral hypoxia and
the beautiful complexity of the natural world.

An interstellar journey that defies classification, revealing itself further and further with
each listen; offering more with each visit.”

That says it all. I did listen to this album, and I did try to decipher it, to reduce it down to a coherent article, but I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. If the description of Blanck
Mass appeals to you, then I can guarantee you will enjoy this album. For me however, it was all too much.

Drop-D Rating: ?

Published on Drop-D.ie, 4th June 2011

Dutch Uncles - Cadenza

Manchester based Dutch Uncles, have just released their debut album, Cadenza, on Memphis Industries last week. The Uncles claim to put “clear water” between themselves and ‘Mancunian clichés’, and herald their cross-dressing ways and performances in churches as a key part of their identity. Well, at a first listen it’s clear that Dutch Uncles are anything but your standard Manchester band, bringing us Indie-pop in the style of MGMT, The Sleepy Jackson and Mew. They’re definitely not Oasis…

The album consists of eleven, strangely titled, tracks and the stomping opener Cadenza ushers us into the Uncles world. It’s a sweetly tinged, melodic little number and avoids the more introspective baggage of often associated with northeast England. Instead its sentiment dwells more in clouds. The album stays in the upper atmosphere with the euphoric Fragrant and Sting , the former gives prominence to a semi-synth guitar line, bringing to mind other stargazers such as Clor.

The band shows off their guitar skills once more in the frenzied Dressage which harks to the styles of some of the more recent British guitar bands like Maxїmo Park but it remains unique largely due to the vocal stylings of singer Duncan Wallis. This leads way for the track OCDUC where the band exercise the non-standard time signatures that are a central feature of the whole album, and Dolli shows off some intricate vocal harmonies. Both tracks put to the fore some key characteristics of Dutch Uncles’ sound.

X-O introduces the second half of Cadenza and it echoes the sounds of more recent underground artists close to home like Enemies and ASIWYFA before Wallis’ melodies returns us to the lofty home of the Uncles’ sound. The heavier Orvil follows in X-O’s footsteps, but gives way to a more stark contrast in its verses, with the drums being paired back, synth lines and pattering guitars taking control.

Pounding drums and distorted guitars seem to have been only a passing fancy for Dutch Uncles as the floaty The Rub follows the crashing tracks that preceded it. An intricately woven track, it rests on a bed of soft electric piano chords, gentle glockenspiel and subtle bass before being joined by lightly brushed drums. It’s easily the most pleasant and melodic track on the album. The Ink comes as a return to furious guitar playing from the album’s earlier tracks and the closer Zalo sees the band chose to leave us with a more grandiose depiction of their sound.

To me, Cadenza is almost a patchwork of left-of-centre artists of the present and the past. Mew, Clor, and Maxїmo Park can all be heard here, the result being a charming, but at times impersonal, album. Still though, there’s something marvellously ambitious and infectious about Cadenza. It’s an album firmly rooted in the present but striving for the future.

Drop-D Rating: 7/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 16th May, 2011

The Young Knives - Ornaments From The Silver Arcade

I was a fan of the Young Knives… Some time ago… And I use the term ‘was’ not as an insult, but as pure matter of fact. I fell out of listening to them around the same time as I fell out of listening to The Kaiser Chiefs and The Futureheads. In fact, I fell out of listening to any band with a heavy British accent around the same time and genuinely never looked back.

So it goes without saying that it’s with a sense of nostalgia, and underlying apprehension, that I delve back into the world of The Young Knives at the time of the release of their third studio album, Ornaments From The Silver Arcade. Let’s see how much they’ve come on.

Their accents haven’t changed anyway, not that I expected them to. It’s apparent from the album opener and lead-off single, Love My Name, that in terms of vocal style, they haven’t changed a bit. What has changed however is the tightness of the instrumentation. An up-tempo track, Love My Name is tightly knit around the band’s standard three-piece structure but a serious effort has been made to keep things tight.

That seems to be the way many of the Indie bands have matured, the core of their sound gets more synced and frenzied, while complimenting instruments are improved upon. On this track for example, synths drip and move about behind the guitar, bass and drums, but not in an overpowering way. The band are still sticking to the brash vocals that got them where they are in the chorus of the opener, “I love my name. I love my name”.

The second track on the album, Woman, shows the growth of other instrumentation. There’s an almost Stop Making Sense era Talking Heads feel from this song, with the assorted African percussion, female backing singers and ‘parps’ of brass. The “look at your reflection” section of the song stands out, but I found the lyrics a bit jarring in the stabby bridge so it gets a bit of a mixed reception. It’s clear that The Young Knives are pushing their own boundaries in places, but the core of their sound is coming across as being a bit dated.

The tracks Human Again, Running from a Standing Start, and Vision of Rags, all move to further the fact that The Young Knives have simply embellished their once sparse guitar-bass-drums sound with synths and orchestral instruments without giving the songs anything special or anything new. The only track where the band seem to stray from their comfort zone is on Go To Ground, giving more dominance to the synths and big chords, resulting in an anthemic sound and the most evocative song on the album.

On Ornaments From The Silver Arcade The Young Knives have begun maturing. The core sound that garnered them success is still there, and it’s still strong. But the limitations of a heavily accented Indie-band are many and often there isn’t much they can do to move past that. The Young Knives are starting down the road to a more unique sound, but I fear they may have set out too late.

Drop-d Rating: 6.5/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 13th May, 2011

tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l

tUnE-yArDs…

What can I say…?

Headed up by Merrill Garbus ,‘w h o k i l l’ is the sophomore album from the band, and it’s absolutely bonkers. The album comes not long after Garbus made a splash on the international live music scene with her somewhat DIY debut Bird-Brains, which was initially recorded on a handheld cassette recorder. The follow-up, released on 4AD and an altogether much better produced affair, promises more energy and intensity, and tUnE-yArDs deliver. It seems almost unfair to go through this album in a standard track by track format, so let’s take a look at a few choice tracks…

First and foremost we’ve got the lead-off single, Bizness. Garbus bases her live show around the use of a loop pedal to loop multiple vocal lines, and the loops form the almost synthesised opening to the track. Amidst the pattering of drum rims, the soul of Garbus’ voice has a field day, giving off an almost Mo-town feel at times, particularly in the “Get up, stand up, get up stand up get on it” section. A remarkably sparse track by comparison to the rest of the album, it’s a natural choice for a single, and the brass infused chorus (“I’m a victim yeah!”) makes Bizness the most ‘pop’ track on the album.

The incredible Gansta is another stand out track, if only due to its place as the maddest song on a very mad album. Opening with an ambulance siren, (promptly imitated by Garbus’ own unique vocal wailing), the song is almost a ghetto anthem parody with its “Bang bang bang!” refrain and hip-hop-esque lyrics, “What’s a boy to do if he’ll never be a gangsta?”. As always, vocals are the centrepiece to tUnE-yArDs’ sound, and nowhere moreso than on this track. Garbus whispers, shouts, screeches and raps on Gansta and we’re given an insight into the constituent parts of the song when it disintegrates around the two and a half minute mark.

Then we have the album opener, My Country. A kick/snare combo opens the track and the first of Garbus’ vocal loops/synths are heard. In a parodic manner, she sings “My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty”. I’m unsure whether this was a politically conscious move on her part, but it’s definitely possible as she sings, “If nothing of this is ours, how will I ever know if something’s mine”. But if such depth exists in the song, it’s hidden by the manic instrumentation and Garbus’ occasionally unintelligible rapping in the verses. It’s a furious opener to a furious album.

Just commenting on three specific tracks, may seem like short-changing ‘w h o k i l l’, but I can assure you, it’s not. It’s definitely an album to be experienced personally. It’s already being hailed as one of the top albums of the year but I suspect that it might grate on me after a while. However the energy and madness that present on the LP is so fierce that you’ll never forget the first listen.

Drop-D Rating: 8/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 5th May 2011

The Chapman Family - Burn Your Town

Born out of apparent frustration at “bands from Newcastle singing in a cockney accent, trying to be The Libertines”, The Chapman Family formed in 2006 with the ethos of being the antithesis to the fashionable Indie bands of that time. Burn Your Town is the debut album from The Family and it claims to stand as a brainy, dark, and punk counter to Indie values. That’s a big claim from a band that played a well-received stint on the NME Radar Tour so let’s see if their claims are justified.

As it is with any group claiming to be a major departure from what came before, the apples tend not to fall very far from the tree and that’s the case here. For one the cockney accents might not be front and centre on the album, but they do feature, particularly when singer Kinglsey hits the higher register on choruses, the track Anxiety being a prime example. Indeed I found that The Chapman Family often come across as a heavier, punkier version of Maxїmo Park, right down to the guitar tones. That said, their style can’t help but work in their favour however as the people that may be drawn in by their ethos will stay for the familiarity.

There are moments here when The Chapman Family separate themselves quite a bit from the Indie-kids, in particular on the track 1000 Lies. Here the band echo sentiments that are profoundly dark, bringing to mind QOTSA and Joy Division. It’s an anthemic track and probably one of the most evocative songs on the album. Amidst industrial, distorted samples, and tom rolls, band ringleader Kingsley Chapman sings “It takes a million to hold, it takes a million to beat you”, and the darkness the band claim to is finally realised.

As we progress into the album’s second half, the darkness remains. She Didn’t Know comes as another epic track, although its apparent depth is marred by the lyrics which, when you look into them, are more whiney than hardcore. That only a side-note however, as the track crashing along quite happily, love song lyrics or no. Adding further to the darker tones, the track Kids starts out as the most raw, heavy sounding song on the album. But after half a minute, the song shifts into a pseudo-punk pop song. Kingsley chants “the kids are not alright, the kids are not okay”, and sings of Hollywood bungalows in the most Maxїmo Park-esque track on the album.

For me, the anti-Indie ethos falls down at even the most cursory glance at the album and an “alternative version of Pet Sounds” it most definitely is not. To me it’s much more of a darker sounding Indie album rather than a breakout punk-metal album in a sea of bland guitar bands. It must be said though, I would not normally put so much effort in trying to equate what the band say they are and what they actually are. It’s just that The Chapman Family are telling you what to think they are before you even listen to them. It’s not that this isn’t a strong album; it’s just that the band need to focus more on who they are than who they are trying not to be.

Drop-d Rating: 6/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, May 4th, 2011

To The Chase - When You Believed

To The Chase are a three-piece Indie/Soul band from Hackney, East London. With a claim to dominance over a myriad of musical styles, the band are releasing a number of singles in the run up to the release of their self-produced debut album, ‘Listen Close’, on their own label. The first single is entitled, ‘When You Believed’.

There is a serious energy to the title track, When You Believed, almost bordering on a fury. The drums are behind this, with drummer Jim Rooney refusing to sit idly by and play one snare/cymbal hit at a time. The sticks bounce of the skins at a rate of knots in each bar of the verse and chorus, relenting only at the stops in the pre-chorus and bridge. The self-produced trio are sure to have put a lot of effort into keeping things tight and it shows.

Complimenting the drums, the bass and guitar playing is equally as tight on the track, guitar screeches giving the intro some edge before the band fly into the indie-pop verses. The level of edge and intensity of this track in a much needed progression from the typically laid-back approach that many indie bands still cling to, and . The track is definitely more of a grower than a shower. The indie elements stand out initially, but the more energetic and intriguing elements shine through on further listens. Perhaps not the most interesting song in the world, but it’s an infectious one nonetheless.

On the flip side, we have the brass infused The Return. Sounding almost like the theme-tune to a cheesy 70’s detective show, the track revolves around the edgy three-note guitar line and the stabs of brass. It’s not all cheese however. In keeping with the more ‘poppy’ A-side, singer Aaron Kravitz keeps the vocal melody light, contrasting with the almost overpowering instrumentation.

This track seems to give a more ‘live’ feeling than When You Believed, serving to give the listener an inkling into the band’s live performance with the prominence of the brass section. First of five singles running up to the release of their debut album, it’ll be interesting to see if the band can push the genres any further. The band tells us, “each of the song’s are very different, you won’t hear any repetitive sounds here”. Well, we’ll see…

Published on Drop-D.ie, 22nd April 2011