Music Video: Toy Soldier - Summertime

Another in a recent run of music videos from Cork director Shaun O’ Connor, electro pop band Toy Soldier have just released the video for their new single Summertime. A slow paced ballad, the track showcases the subtlety of performance that’s creeping into the band’s music. Every note, every effected beat and every lyric is placed perfectly.

Having been brought into the band’s lineup just about a year ago, singer Ciara Budds takes the lead vocal here, with the group’s other vocalist Cian Walsh taking a very much supporting role. It’s indicative of the work that Ciara has been clearly putting into Toy Soldier that she’s taking the lead here and it shows just how well Cian and Ciara work together vocally.

The video echoes the slow movement of the song, and Ciara’s prominence on it, as the focus is pulled between her and the ever changing background. The track is all about subtlety and the video is the same. Another great piece from a great director and band. We here at the D look forward to seeing their next outing together!

Published on Drop-D.ie - 8th September 2011

The Eulogys - Ambergris and Tigerblood

I’m sorry to say that this CD has been sitting in the ‘To Do’ pile for a long time, and it’s a shame that the D hasn’t mentioned something about locals The Eulogys sooner. However, this reviewer will now rectify their absence with a look at their recently released EP, Ambergris and Tigerblood.

Hailing from Cork and, like many other talented home-grown musicians, now based in Dublin, The Eulogys is the new project masterminded by Mr. Kenny Hyland. A talented singer and pianist, Hyland possess some very strong pop sensibilities and this is showcased here on his self-recorded and produced EP.

The CD opens with Bouquets which, like a lot of The Eulogys music, is very much piano driven. It’s almost like a ‘just about’ restrained orchestral piece. Hyland’s Matt Bellamy-esque vocal taking the place of the strings, brass and percussion, as he sings of the complications and uncertainties of a failing relationship is the real hook of this song. So let’s just put it out there, Hyland seems very much pre-occupied with love and ladies and the second track, Trees in the Painting does nothing to disprove this theory. The high register vocals are present here again, along with the piano but the real drive is the off kilter percussion.

Closer De Profundis takes the sound in a slightly different direction to the other two tracks by dropping the piano and picking up the guitar, and in this reviewers opinion, the track is the strongest on the EP. All the bravado that went along with the piano is shrugged off here and it makes the track more immediate, personal and much sweeter.

Overall, the EP showcases a raw talent. There are moments of beauty on the CD, and moments where, when the production quality slightly falters, the veneer of beauty is slightly dullened. That said, and as I just mentioned, this EP shows off Kenny’s talent in both song writing and composition. One to check out and definitely one to watch.

Drop-D Rating: 7/10

You can download Ambergris and Tigerblood for free from The Eulogys Bandcamp page here.

Published on Drop-D.ie - 15th August, 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

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