Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils

The band’s name gives you a clue of what they’ll sound like: As a listener you are the archaeologist discovering the fossilised remnants of The Beach Boys that have been weathered overtime by 1970’s American lo-Fi resulting in catchy guitar rhythm and drone tone vocals.

This band is fighting against time. Producing an album fitting for probably any decade prior to the present, they manage to create a listen that does not exhaust their influences but transmits the cool and retro. It’s a great introduction to anyone interested in music been and gone.

Like many present bands, Beach Fossils employ the jangled guitars and neat drums producing a compact sound. But this sound is accompanied by a thick layer of ambience throughout the album which effectively reduces the album from a train made up of eleven carriages to one long single carriage diverting every two to four minutes. It feels like a never ending ride that comes to an abrupt end all too soon, “And the seconds to slow but the moment’s all too fast”

Having said this, range would be nice. Listening to it for the first time you feel as though it’s magic, but once it’s over you wonder what you spent thirty odd minutes listening to. The second time and you wait for the magic you heard the last time and aside from a few sprinkles of gold dust, ‘Daydream’, ‘Youth’ and ‘Wide Awake’ are my particular favourites, the rest is just dark matter: it’s there but not quite there, hidden for the next album perhaps.

Beach Fossils make fine pop music suited for your washed-up ex stoner father to your hipster friend. This is only their first album and, as any good debut should, it leaves you wanting more.

Listen to: Youth, Daydream, Golden Age, Wide Awake

7/10 

The Drums: Forever and Ever, Amen Video

"Baby, It's Forever..."

Bombay Bicycle Club - Motel Blues (B-Side)

People should know about this song! If there ever was a song that engages with your sensitive side this is it.

Reflecting sexual desire and club love,  the lyrics are beautiful in an tongue in cheek manner. On the surface they appear to celebrate the life of the band, but they don’t. They explore the feeling of being ‘up-rooted’ when travelling the world, “I don't wanna make no late night, New York calls, I don't wanna stare at them ugly grass-mat walls” sings Steadman whose shaky vocals add to the sensitivity of the song.

Band life often sparks images of wild parties and loose groupies but the song's underlying meaning tells the other side: missing life before the interviews,  fans and tours.

As a teen I often feel trapped, but from this song, it appears that seeing the world can’t replace a home, a love, and roots. 


Found on: "Magnet" single (2009)

Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This

There are two of them, just two. Yet they are able to produce the noise of dozen men. Imagine a group of rowdy teens on a Friday night wielding guitars and drums and exercising hoarse vocal cords. Never has this noise sounded so good.

The Album title is fitting; as the album progresses the heat radiates. Its confrontational music, bound to flare up the synthetic anger of a mosh pit. The lead single “Light It Up” has a steady introduction preparing you for the riotous chorus. Prickly guitars, lawless drums, rebellious vocals all meshed to form something like a modern day punk song. The song is a convincing call to arms; Laura Mary Carter’s screaming of the track title conjures up your inner pyromaniac.

They have been written off as rebels without a cause constantly complaining about their angst ridden lives. This album does nothing to appease the critics and neither should it. They stay true to their roots and by changing their style they wouldn’t be the same Blood Red Shoes. What BRS fans want to hear is battle; every note has to be a fight, every word a hint of conflict. The proclaiming of ‘I can’t stand it, everybody out of hear’ on “It Is Happening” keeps to the BRS formula. “When We Wake” leads you into a false sense of security with the morose introduction but half way through the cantankerous musicianship begins.  The difference in this song is that Carter sings the lyrics rather than shouts reflecting a melancholic anger: ‘in the end is this all we can ask for’. There isn’t a song to be hated, but maybe a critique of the length of “Colour Fade” (7:08) which appears out of place on this fast-paced album.

Their influences are obvious: imagine the love child of anti-pop Nirvana and Doolittle Pixies with Brit-Pop bands as distant relatives. Yet they manage not to abuse these influences. The Pixies ‘quiet LOUD’ hybrid has been violated many times yet they are able to use this nugget of influence and create an even quieter quiet and louder loud, “One More Empty Chair” is an example of this.

The music has not changed from their debut effort Box of Secrets. Rather they have developed providing us with tighter play, more angst and in my humble opinion, better songs throughout the album. This album is an excellent listen.  The Brighton twosome have made created one of the best releases of the year so far. 


Listen to: Light It Up, When We Wake, Count Me Out, Heart Sink , Follow the Lines
9/10

Illegal Downloaders vs. the Music Industry: Who is the Enemy?

The Digital Economy Act (April 2010): With the law firmly on the Music Industry’s side, whose should we be on?

The illegal downloader is like marmite: loved by attention seeking musicians, loathed by music industry corporations. The creation of electronic commerce has enabled the illegal downloader, spiralling anti-capitalist sentiment which claims that ‘music should be free and accessible for all’, challenging the very foundation that western economic system is built on: Capitalism. The record label, dependent on this ideology, has seen its power slowly chipping away: built by music loving entrepreneurs, nurtured by money grabbing music executives, brought down by the power of the people. Marx is smiling in his grave. Record Labels hate the amount of freedom that internet users have; freedom for the ordinary man; freedom to explore, absorb and attain through the tip, tap and click of a few buttons. The clash of the internet Marxist and the big-name label is ignited and a long tug of war ensues. Through streaming sites like Spotify and We7 the all-powerful have made viable concessions. Among giants the seemingly powerless many were winning the battle, but as of April 2010 it appears the powerful few have won the war through the Digital Rights Bill.

                                                                                             

But whose side should we be on? Speaking as an audiophile, my allegiance naturally gravitates to people who love listening to music but don’t want to pay the price. As a soon-to-be uni student, knowing that I’ll no longer be able to fish into mummy and daddy’s pockets, would I be willing to pay the price if I can get my songs through the tip, tap, click…? If someone asked me this question two years ago the answer would be no. I was reluctant to part with money then, even on musical terms. Had I been faced with the dilemma of choosing to buy The Strokes on CD or download them for free, I would always have chosen the latter despite my fanatical obsession with them then. I could not see the sentimental or auditory value of buying a CD when I could download it for free; not least appreciate the work that Julian Casablancas and Co. put in. Luckily if not selfishly, my dad bought me “Is This It” with his own money. Limewire was not known to me then…

But that was two years ago. After building a sizable library through… erhum, non-profit downloading, it suddenly came to me as a sat with laptop on lap: ‘if this specimen of modern technology were to fail on me right here and now, my music library would vanish’. For this reason and just to be different from my friends who incessantly downloaded music, I started buying CD’s with my own money. It quickly became routine: jump off the bus from school, pop into HMV and come out with a tidy 2 for £10 CD deal. Despite the monetary incentive, I appreciated the feeling of poring over album art work, listening to albums in the order intended, enjoying the High Fidelity, but most of all, the fact that I had paid for it.

I still contend that there is nothing better than saving up your cash to spend it on something you want, whether that be music, widescreen TV, a holiday, love… ok perhaps not love. If you really appreciate the artists who create the music you love, the one way you can show this is by buying there music, or going to their concerts. Money makes the world go round and musicians are part of this capitalist world we live in.

Tight fans often use pathetic excuses to justify why illegally downloaded music is ok. I read an interview with Frank Turner where a fan told him that while he illegally downloads Frank’s music, he pays to go to his concerts cancelling out his illegal activity. One word: Stupid. Frank Turner eloquently countered his argument stating: “that’s like saying it’s ok to steal a car because you’ll pay for the petrol later”. It’s not ok, and in a society that reviles any stealing of any sort, music is no different

         

So as you can see my thoughts have progressed from young girl with “short arms and deep pockets” using money only when she has to, to a young woman knocking on the doors of adulthood who more readily parts with money where she feels it's appreciated. I don’t have a personal vendetta against people who illegally download music, I just feel they are missing out on the ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling of knowing that your money is going to artists who have (generally) worked hard at their craft.

Review: Foals - Total Life Forever

Our Foals are All Grown Up.

From the first note of the track one, to the last of track eleven, you would not be a fool for thinking Foals are an entirely different band. Their debut "Antidotes" propelled them to indie fame as htey graced the cover of the NME. With Total Life Forever, we are served with a drastic and important departure from their first effort. 

The change is emotion and it is raw. In 2008 we filed foals under 'fun listen', 'party music' 'hedonist anthems'. But with TLF the new found sense of sensitivity and rawness exude from bar to bar. Blue Blood is a casing point: it has the most beautifully simplistic intro that exemplifies the increased delicacy in Yannis Phillipakis’ voice. forty seconds in there is a hint (just a hint) of Foals of the past – syncopation, staccato guitars and all. But,  where their first effort was entirely robotic, rigid and kinetic, TLF is sentimental, moving and fragile.

Foals have added another aspect to their game to support their new found affection. Lyrics are undoubtedly more important completing their fresh dynamic. Antidotes had words, yes, but words without depth. Writing a song in French about Andy Roddick’s serve did fit with the two-dimensional aesthetic of the first album with instrument and voice as focal points. But some prefer a listen with more feeling so a third dimension is needed: meaning. Yannis explores “identity, heartbreak, loss and Mike Tyson” to quote the man himself and while the sporting reference remains, the song in question ‘Black Gold’ permeates the general inspiration of the song by examining feelings of nostalgia and identity “they buried the gold, your ancestry’s sold and left”. 

For ardent “Antidotes” fans, this album may take a while to get used to. Some may write this album off as a mundane effort; Foals have always been a band to get you in the mood for reckless fun and frolics. But they are quickly becoming a band to make you think. The groove-funk style is still there "Miami" shows the 'fun' side of Foals, but what we are witnessing is a band exploring the conceptual. There is no question that Foals can play instruments but this is not what makes a band. The best have the ability to take their talent and use it to reflect the abstract in ways that discussion or debate cannot. Music is not just in itself but for itself and Foals have successfully intertwined their talent and emotion showing their collective progression. Total Life Forever surpasses their first jab creating an album that is cohesive, balanced and beautiful. One of the best albums of the year so far!!

Listen to: Alabaster, Blue Blood, What Remains, Spanish Sahara, This Orient, Black Gold



8.5/10