We all know about the ethereal properties of the harp; the ability to induce a wistful other worldly realm, often leading to some sort of time travel adventure. What is lesser known is what happens when horses play harps. As it turns out, it leads to me being able to directly predict the future.
So it gives me great pleasure and a large dollop of smugness to reveal that one of HPH’s 2012 predictions has come true already. To quote that previous post: “A full length record could really help Oxford’s-own Orlando Higginbottom (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs) etch his music further into people’s skulls.” And hey presto, as I chanced upon discovering this morning while buying the new Maccabees album online (it’s a bit special), Amazon told me that 2012 will see a debut album from Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
Of course, upon further research, I’ve now discovered that Orlando has been talking about this debut album as far back as summer last year, but this horse is a bit deaf. But who cares. The album drops in June and to whet your appetites, here is the excellent Household Goods from the EP of the same name which I was lucky enough to review for Culturedeluxe back in 2010.
At last, the moment we’ve all been waiting for – or at least the moment all the Clock Opera fanboys and I have been waiting for. Clock Opera have announced their debut album, called ‘Ways To Forget’ a) exists and b) will be coming out on April 9th. This is very exciting news.
As usual, I have to thank my favourite label in the world, Kitsuné, for getting me into the band in the first place. Clock Opera were on a comp album that I reviewed way back in 2010 for Culturedeluxe, and from that point on I’ve just been waiting and waiting for this news to come! I sort-of called it with my look ahead to 2012, but unless the band were planning to pump out a whole album worth of singles and not actually release an album, then it wasn’t much of a leap to see an album coming out this year. But for now at least we have a date to write in the diary, as well as waiting for April 28th (when they get round to playing in Oxford for only £7.00!). Big things await for these boys.
So in the meantime, to satiate our collective appetites, here is the insanely excellent video for one of their singles last year, ‘Lesson No. 7’. Have a goosey.
Well, this horse can be a bit pernickity about remixes generally. These days it seems pretty easy to slap a bass wobble on a track and think of yourself as some kind of magician. But don’t let this fool you, when a remix is done right, it is a beautiful thing.
So today we have something insanely charming and wondrous for you. A sweet, warming, fulfilling remix of the brilliant Daughter. I stumbled across their stuff (it’s effectively two people) on the Bandcamp website last year. They make blindingly beautiful, timid and delicate sounding music. I then got a chance to see them live while reviewing a Benjamin Francis Leftwich gig in Oxford. The lead singer has this wonderfully endearing shyness, but unfortunately the venue and the noisy / disrespectful crowd managed to overpower them. But here is a remix full of verve, electricity, and it just gels together so well with the original track. It’s just brilliant. Have a listen below.
Ahhhh, Bwani Junction. Supposedly, tomorrow (the 3rd Monday of January) is officially known as the most depressing day of the year. To help lift the prospect of that gloomy possibilty, this horse has just gone and bought Bwani Junction’s excellent 2011 debut album, ‘Fully Cocked’. After using up most of the monthly-10 hour Spotify limit gorging on their beautifully crafted, sunshine-filled songs, there was no other choice but to properly posess it. Drawing comparisons is a bit of a challenge too.
Being Scottish, you’d love to be able to spot some Scottish based musical-geographic reference points, but it’s the lightness of being and warmth in their sound that means you have to search further ashore than that. The afrobeat sounds can lead you to Cape Cod and Vampire Weekend (as much as the band may not be too keen on the reference), the political sharpness of a track like ‘Today’s Crusade’ sends you to to New York and Ted Leo.. But pidgeon holes are for pidgeons, and these boys are no flying rats. They are more like Fulvous Whistling Ducks (stay with it), in that they are native to warmer climes, have a cool name (a take on the John Masters book Bhowani Junction) and are noisy birds with a clear whistling kee-wee-ooo call (wasn’t that worth it?).
On a purely sonic basis, they just sound absolutely spot on. Any band that doesn’t make the listener strain to have to hear the bass guitar get a big thumbs up, especially when the base is as key as it is here. The guitars fret around merrily, the drummer has a set of bongos on his kit (judging from the aformentioned live clip). Lead singer and guitarist Rory Fairweather has an enjoyable vocal sound, retaining the Scottish accent but still melding in with the Afro-Caribbean sounds. That doesn’t sound like something that should work, but with this band, it just does.
They first crossed this horses radar from footage of the BBC Introducing Stage at last year’s T in the Park Festival. The music they make is so infectious, it’s reminscent of Two Door Cinema Club. At least, you could easily see their paths following suit. TDCC chucked out their debut on Kitsuné without making much of a big splash, but that catchyness and brilliance meant that gradually, the whole world picked up on them. So with Bwani Junction’s debut album, ‘Fully Cocked’ being snuck out at the back end of 2011, it could easily grow and get bigger and bigger as the year goes on. Hopefully a few festival slots will help that along too.
But for the time being, for those too lazy to push anymore buttons, here’s my favourite track from the album, ‘Roots Too Deep’.
I’m in quite a list-tastic mood right now, so following on from HPH’s top 10 albums of 2011, it makes sense to have a little look ahead.
Well, as the post-dubstep genre continues to fire off into every possible direction, we have some interesting things to look forward to. First and foremost, there will be brand new Burial LP out early next year, which is so exciting it makes my brain want to explode. His little ‘Street Halo’ EP earlier this year was brilliant, but just too short for my greedy desires. So the opportunity to fall head first into the first Burial EP for around 5 years is beyond exciting.
I think it’ll be a big year for producers in general. After seeing the success of SBTRKT this year, moving from dishing out the odd track here and there to a brillant debut full length LP, I’m hoping to see more artists follow in his footsteps. Firstly, will Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs continue dishing out 3/4 – track records? A full length record could really help Oxford’s-own Orlando Higginbottom etch his music further into people’s skulls. Secondly, I really hope 2012 sees a lot more music from Jacques Greene. He’s such a talented producer, I’m pretty much just dreaming of a beautiful LP landing in my lap from the skies. In the meantime, we can just keep listening to what he’s done so far. So here’s ‘Another Girl’ by Jacques Greene.
Moving on, could this be the year that the ‘Blessing Force’ captivate the music world? For the uninitaited: (nicked from the Guardian)
“Blessing Force are a community of artists, musicians and writers in Oxford. Often found hanging out at Foals’ stable The House of Supreme Mathematics, the collective are a bit like The Young Ones meets University Challenge. Thankfully, there are a handful of really great bands involved, particularly Jonquil and their frontman Hugo Manuel, aka Chad Valley, Trophy Wife and former Youthmovies member Andrew Mears, aka Pet Moon.”
I’m a big fan of a few of the bands, like Motherhood, Solid Gold Dragons and Trophy Wife. It’s quite interesting to have a bit of a movement going on in Oxford, but they do seem to keep themselves to themselves a bit, in that there isn’t much of a physical buzz about them out on the mean streets of Oxford. Will any of the bands break through on their own to permeate the nation’s consciousness? Who knows. In the meantime, there’s a wonderful mix-tape of the Blessing Force bands that’s been stuck up on soundcloud. You can listen to it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/nov/28/blessing-force-stutters-1?CMP=twt_gu
Finally, there are a few more bands currently floating about in that pre-first-album fuzzy landscape. Various Cruelties look set for big things next year, Chemicals is an excellently executed track and excites me with regards to what else could be coming from them.
Polarsets are another band that have been on my radar for a while since they popped up on a Kitsune compilation I reviewed several months back for Culturedeluxe. I described their track Sunshine Eyes as: “Indie dance at it’s best,” and everything else I’ve heard from them since is equally as good.
Polarsets – Leave Argentina
Another helping hand from Kitsune led me to the excellent The Cast Of Cheers. Angular, Foals-esque fretful riffage leads the way here. The band recorded their debut album back in 2010 and stuck it up on bandcamp for free, but it’s now sadly disappeared from there. Hopefully 2012 will see more from them.
The Cast Of Cheers: I am a lion
And two more bands to end on. Clock Opera seem to have been teasing us for an eternity with a wealth of great singles. A debut LP is on its way next year, apparently. They’ve also thrown together some brilliant remixes too, including a reworked version of Everything Everything’s MY KZ YR BF.
Clock Opera – Lesson No. 7 (In Session)
The Heartbreaks make fantasticly Byronesque indie rock music. They’ve got a great vocalist with great lyrics, catchy riffs and I have absolutely no idea if they have a full-length debut out next year, but it’s about time they bloody well did!
December is a time of lists. Everyone is at it, from Pitchfork to Santa Claus (he’s checking his twice, you better have been nice). Last year at CultureDeluxe, we attempted to make some kind of communal top 10, combining together all of our votes to select an overall top 10. In the end there was quite a plethora of selections, with nothing clearly leading the way, so we all chose an album or two that we loved from the previous year, and scribbled some words about said album/albums.
However, now Horses Playing Harps exists (I can hear your cheers from here), so I can have my say on the best 10 albums I have had the pleasure of hearing in the last 12 months. Hopefully you all wildly disagree, otherwise something has gone terribly wrong with the world. Here goes:
1. SBTRKT – SBTRKT // Came out of nowhere with a thrilling and engrossing post-dubstep sound.
2. Ghoestpoet – Peanut Butter Jam and Melancholy Blues // Brilliantly British rapper with great production and great lyrics.
3. Little Comets – In Search of Elusive Little Comets // Anyone who can write a song about a former chancellor of the exchequer and make it sound good deserves a spot in the top 3.
4. Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind of Fix // Another album of new ideas, new sounds and same old greatness.
5. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar // Lion-hearted post-Britpop with addictive hooks and a great frontwoman
7. Rustie – Glass Swords // Like the party-animal version of SBTRKT, never a dull moment.
8. Drake – Take Care // What he does best: introspective rap, well produced, with some great guestspots and a dash of the late Gil-Scott-Heron.
9. I Break Horses – Hearts // Briiliant warm and fuzzy indie noise.
10. Hyro Da Hero – Birth, School, Work, Death // Breathing fresh life into the rap-rock genre, with ex- Mars Volta/ Sparta members making some great noise.
This is a bit of a strange one. I toddled along to see Dananananaykroyd on Thursday night in Oxford to see their 3rd final show ever before the band call time on their existence. When I told friends this, the usual response was something along the lines of: “Well they must be a bit shit then, as surely anyone deciding to stop doing something must be stopping because they aren’t good enough/popular enough to keep on going.” Well, two positively received albums and huge dollops of praise for one of the best live acts that the United Kingdom has to offer show that not to be true. But in some ways, it feels like a good time to call time.
Looking around at the world of pop culture, sometimes things go on for longer than they should. Jurassic Park? Great. Jurassic Park 2 and 3? Made me want to kidnap David Attenborough, force him to bring dinosaurs back to life just so I can be locked in a room with them so they can tear me limb from limb so I don’t have to live in the knowledge of the fact that I sat through those films. Leave people wanting more. And so despite the fact that there are plenty of us who are gutted that Dananananaykroyd are calling it a day, we’re left with happy memories of a band at its peak.
And besides, there is something gleefully anarchic for a band to be on a tour where they know it is their final tour. It’s like planning and attending your own funeral; a celebration of the life of the band, and celebrating its forthcoming death with the people who love it by melting faces. The band had been referring to their last gig as a FUNeral, and dressed appropriately for the occasion.
The purpose of this live review seems a bit weird now, since as I am typing this, they played their final show ever in Newcastle last night (mind you, I half-jokingly asked 1/6th of Dananananaykroyd John Baillie Jr about a reunion tour minutes after the end of their gig in Oxford, to which he half-jokingly replied ‘perhaps 2016-ish’). There is also talk of a new band forming with a few Dananananaykroyd members, so all is not lost.
As for the show itself, what can I say that hundreds of critics haven’t said before me? The energy levels were manically high as they blitzed through a frantic set. Those post-hardcore, positively cheerful guitar riffs come catapulting through the speakers; now with only the one drummer playing (as they used to play with two) although he often looked like he was attempting the work of two, a little like Animal the drummer from the Muppets (surely what all drummers aspire to). Frequent ventures from various members of the band into the crowd were made: for a dance, a jump around, a cuddle or perhaps just an attempt to get close to the lady in her mid 40’s at the front who was swaying around in a blissed out state, looking like she was having a flashback to a Stevie Nicks gig 25 years ago.
The Infinty Milk riff is one of my favourite noises in music and closed the main set, before Pink Sabbath and Some Dresses filled the encore. And of course, with Some Dresses comes the infamous ‘Wall of Hugs’, which is the equivalent of the Wall of Death, except it involves running towards and then cuddling a stranger instead of attempting to bludgeon their face in.
It’s also worth mentioning that Traps and CDX writer Pete Hughes band Narobi were supporting. Nairobi in particular were clearly trying to outdo Dananananaykroyd with the number of time signatures they could squeeze into a track, but both were good fun.
And so now we have to enter the post-apocalyptic Dananananaykroyd-less barren musical wasteland, at least until 2016 (please?). Hats off to the boys [and girl] who have made such giddy live music a pleasure for so many over the last several years.
Bombay Bicycle Club rode their merry way into Oxford for the latest night of their biggest UK tour to date, in support of their recently released third album, A Different Of Fix.
Supporting were Dry The River, a five piece who spent most of their time attempting to prove why they aren’t a four piece. Unfortunately for them, their violinist was expertly hidden near the edge of the stage, and well obscured by a well-placed tall gent in front of me for a large amount of time. So imagine my surprise when two and a half tracks into their set, I suddenly spot this violinist, because I had certainly struggled to even notice his sound. Other than that, Dry The River sounded good, with a nice mix between the softer, quieter moments, and some huge eruptions of alt-rock noise. The voice of lead singer and guitarist Peter Liddle was particularly impressive; it’s a powerful voice that is full of feeling, like a slightly more rocking version of Guy Garvey.
After some Fat Man Scoop and House of Pain to get the crowd in the mood, an even more fractured cut of the already off-kilter piano loop from Shuffle burst out from the speakers, and the band took to the stage. Opening with Shuffle worked nicely as it showed the band had no fear in blasting through one of the most anticipated tracks of the night as they know they have a great depth of material to choose from. The band tore through a good chunk of new tracks from Fix, such as Your Eyes, Leave It and one of my favourites of the night, What You Want. Lucy Rose, who recorded vocals alongside lead singer’s Jack Steadman on Fix has also joined them on tour, which helps bring those tracks to life.
A couple of tracks from their second album, Flaws, got an airing too, and they got as big a reaction as anything else that was played. On the whole, the set list was designed to store up the big numbers from their first album to unleash towards the end. There were a few hugely pleasing aspects to this. Firstly, that it seems easy to forget just how many brilliant tracks there were from that first album; secondly that these tracks have grown, matured and really taken root within people’s consciousness. Thirdly, the band look like they still have such a great time playing these tracks; they are not a burden to bear as can be the case for some bands who have decided that some part of their older material was ‘shit’ (take a bow Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, et al…..).
While it was enjoyable hearing the new tracks played live, the older tracks completely won the day. On Evening/Morning, the two bass bridges felt like they were erupting through the walls and the floor, twinned with the lights blitzing frenzied white colour, it was an awesome spectacle. An often overlooked or overplayed element, the lighting was great throughout. On the haunting Still, played as the first encore track, Steadman sat at the piano bathed in blue light while Lucy Rose sat at the opposite side of the stage, and was bathed in orange light while assisting Steadman with vocals during the chorus, then disappearing back into the darkness when falling silent. It was a nice touch as it created a feeling of solitude and coldness to match the lyrics of the verses, while the chorus’ felt warmer.
The most impressive thing from the show is how full the set list feels. There are no flat tyres here on this bicycle, this is a band with a mighty selection of tracks to choose from and who have a captivating live show.
So after last year’s critically acclaimed Flaws, a delicate, acoustic driven sophomore LP, Bombay Bicycle Club have returned with their third album, entitled A Different Kind Of Fix, and how right they are. Within 15 seconds of opening track ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’s’ looping guitar riff commencing, it sounds like the sound of their first album. But there is something new lying beneath the obvious indie-guitar driven sound this time around; it’s something that shows a band willing to take chances, to play around with their sound, and ultimately, a band getting it very right.
With Animal Collective collaborator Ben Allen having an input in this record, the swooning, fractured electro sound associated with Animal Collective seeps into several of the tracks. As mentioned earlier, the opening track has a very reminiscent Bombay Bicycle Club riff, but then we get jittered, jumpy vocals in places, with smooth harmonies sandwiched in there as well. First single ‘Shuffle’ plays a similar trick, but with a fantastically wonky piano track running as the main ingredient around which everything else is built. Lucy Rose lends her vocals alongside Jack Steadman’s on Shuffle, and it’s a trick that is repeated on other tracks. It works well due to her having the same timid sounding voice as Steadman, while also having this charming sweetness quality to it. Shuffle is pinned down as track six, and really feels like the lynchpin of the album. Everything that precedes it feels like it is brought together in that one track and everything that follows it takes that sound in other directions.
Another stand-out track is ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’ as Steadman and Rose’s vocals intertwine sweetly. ‘Beggars’ opens up coyly in a Flaws kind of way, before the pace picks up, with the bass and percussion being as creative and imaginative as we’ve come to expect from this band, providing a whole extra level of depth to their sound. ‘What You Want’ is energetic and beautiful, with perky runaway-train sounding guitar riffs slicing through the peak of the chorus, as Steadman sings: “You can rearrange me now,” just about summing up the ethos of the album.
It’s a triumphant success for a band that are merrily riding their bicycles through whichever genres they please, as they continue to grow, develop and firmly cement themselves as one of the best bands this fair country has to offer.
Well it certainly feels like a long time in coming, but Copy Haho has finally treated the universe to their debut, self titled album. After their 2009 EP, Bred For Skills and Magic, and a few singles in between, the record is being released on the band’s own label, Slow Learner.
Opening track ‘Factory Floor’ offers the perfect introduction to the self-deprecating, melodic, indie-rock flavoured sound that lies ahead. Lead singer Joe Hearty lays down a marker early on in chiming: “But I remain the same dumb artist, chasing sales.” Immediately the growth in their sound from that earlier EP is recognisable, with an extra depth both melodically and lyrically.
Track 3 ‘Wrong Direction’ showcases some meatier guitar riffs, with a fantastic current of energy running throughout. However, those dancing, arching guitar riffs that Copy Haho is so well known for are still in abundance. ‘Waiting For Something To Happen’ flings itself around excitedly as Hearty turns a neat phrase in smirking: “I’ve been so busy, waiting for something to happen.”
On ‘A Winter On The Run’ and ‘The Be Good’ we get a taste of the slower Copy Haho sound. It comes off feeling a little flat, as the band sound at their best when whizzing past at 140mph. ‘Demons and Gods’ opens up with one of the best riffs on the album, frantic and jagged, ably assisted by the crashing of drums. This is the kind of track that either makes you want to learn to play the guitar, or to smash one up in rock and roll style after pretending to play that delicious riff.
Rather than end on a slow song about death (When It Gets Dark), the album closes on the band at their peak, on the mesmerising ‘Accent Changed’. As Joe Hearty mentioned in his interview with CDX last month, the track was initially recorded as the opening to the record, with a fuzzy, echoey intro which still remains intact. Once through the cloud of haze, the drums crash, the guitars weave their magic, the bass fuzzes along underneath, keeping everything cogent. The last minute and a half is one of the few moments on the album where they allow themselves to get away from a particularly set structure as things get a little more free-form, and it’s blindingly brilliant.
It’s an album that is a lot more hit than miss, with some big memorable moments, sharp lyrics, and a lot of energy coursing throughout.
We all know about the ethereal properties of the harp; the ability to induce a wistful other worldly realm, often leading to some sort of time travel adventure. What is lesser known is what happens when horses play harps. As it turns out, it leads to me being able to directly predict the future.
Horses Playing Harps 