Rattling Abacus

Esperanza - ‘Ink’ 

Welcome back me. It’s been a while. I suddenly went from having no job and spending all day crawling the neverending musical internet corridors all day (and occasionally getting dressed), to having two jobs and crawling my brain for excess stores of energy while I juggled the two and gave up sleep. Never rains but pours etc. (Appropriate, weather-centric add-in, since we’re all moaning manic about the lack of Spring. April showers is one thing, but someone’s taking the piss). Anyway, oh how I’ve missed you, old Abacus. 

Enter Esperanza, a holy triumverate of Italians creating ethereal electronic soundscapes that caress their way through Icelandic atmospherics, San Fran psychadelia and Dusseldorf electronica by way of 90s Detroit techno. The three muskateers are in fact producer Carlo (alias Cécile), whose already released on Gomma and generated some substantial buzz for his remixes; bassist Matteo, and indie-inclined producer Sergio. So evidently there’s a hefty wad of credibility and experience swirling around the Esperanza mixing bowl, aided by the fact that Cécile is also one of the prestigious Red Bull Music Academy 2008 graduates.

‘Ink’ is a release from last year’s Gomma catalogue, and has whispered its way into my eardrum and set up camp there like an Occupy zealot refusing to leave. It’s Sigur Ros, Korallreven, Telefon Tel Aviv, M83, Kevin Saunderson and Robert Hood careering through a Balearic Lavender field (in a manly way), with Apparat and Luke Abbott swanning around somewhere, probably making daisy chains or something equally testosterone-fuelled. It’s achingly summery, and all I need is one measly slither of sun in the sky to shove this on full whack and act like this hasn’t been the shitting wettest Spring since I sprung out the womb. So good is it, in fact, that I’ve just caved and paid for Spotify Unlimited. Sure I’m on a budget the size of a piece of fraying string, and often have to decide between actual food or enough pennies down the pub, but I can’t get enough of this and there’s only so  many times I can hear “Hi, it’s John from Spotify” before I hurl my laptop across the room and punch the nearest passer-by in the face. You’d think they purposely chose people with voices that grate across your ears, there’s Marketing 101 for you. 

Oh there I go again with it on repeat. What am I like. 

Listen to more Esperanza here

The boys play Sonar this year as part of “Red Bull Music Academy presents…” If you can get there, get there.

Fun. - ‘We Are Young’ (ft. Janelle Monae)

There’s going to be a lot of haters out there who diss this tune because it’s like so mainstream man, but, give a shit. Who can dislike a track that hails the spirit of youth, recklessness, and being full of shit? I certainly can’t. I kind of feel like this is the ‘Jerusalem’ for the young. Almost. Actually ‘Jerusalem’ is pretty rad in itself. The band are an indie trio from old NYC, lead by Nate Ruess, formerly of The Formats. They’re like a Spector vs My Chemical Romance cross-breed. Apart from the fun-and-fancy-free call-to-arms, my favourite bits about this video are:

1. The douchebag who starts the bar fight. Smashing that bottle over a girl? Nice one. Next why not have a crack at a disabled infant, they won’t be a able to crush your 190 pounds of bully either. 

2. Janelle Monae’s token part. Not that I don’t love Janelle Monae, or think she rocks a suit probably better than the band. But if I’m honest I didn’t even know she was on the track till I saw the video. And even then I’m straining to hear her. 

3. The song, obviously. Yes I’m in my twenties. Yes I pay rent. Yes I still feel seventeen and want to FUCK. SHIT. UP. most of the time but can’t really because I’m probably too old. ‘NO YOU’RE NOT’ this song says. No you’re not. You’re as young as you feel. Period.

On

Your

Marks

Get

Set

GO

Fun “We Are Young” from Nicole Olson on Vimeo.

Listen to more Fun. here

The Jezabels - ‘Rosebud’ (Behind-the-scenes)

So Easter’s been and gone. Some eggs have been cracked, some lambs have been shot, some chocolate has been gorged, and some merry amusement has been had around a pretty random holiday. But hey, a four day weekend? I can’t complain. All that’s left is the dull thump that is the mountain-tonne of food I’ve consumed in the past 48 hours dragging itself through my digestive tract like Thor with a club foot. Probably whilst humming ‘All My Sorrows’ in a baritone voice. Good grief. 

Luckily for me then, I can just distract myself with this oh so interesting clip on the making-of The Jezabels’ latest video, ‘Rosebud’. It’s always fun to be a voyeur, to see the inside-workings of  the music video machine. But I wouldn’t really care so much if I didn’t completely love this track. There’s something darkly retrospective about it - like the sprites of 80s & 90s pop have been reincarnated in gothic splendour. Singer Hayley Mary’s voice slinks around the ghosts of music’s past, nodding to Chrissie Hynde, Sinead O’Connor and Nina Persson of The Cardigans. In fact it feels like the aural incarnation of The National’s frontman Matt Berninger and Nina Persson’s lovechild, wuthering with melancholy lust across a dark, mist-laden moor. It’s all cinematic grandeur and rich, brooding soundswells. In the movie-of-my-life scenario (which I basically think about all the time because let’s face it, it would be AWESOME), ‘Rosebud’ would definitely feature. Most likely in a scene involving epic 360degree camera-panning while I battle a tough romantic quandary. Or crack addiction. Harmony Korine eat ya fuckin heart out. 

The band hail from the sunny shores of Australia, and have already knotched up a wide and weighty fan base out there. That, and the 2012 Aussie Music Prize. A casual win. Their album ‘Prisoner’ is out now so, by all means, whack a few pennies out and bring that baby home.

And if that’s teased your interest, here’s the official video:

The Jezabels - Rosebud (Official Video) from The Jezabels on Vimeo.

Listen to more The Jezabels here

Widowspeak - ‘Gun Shy’

Not really a new jewel as such, since Widowspeak’s Gun Shy EP came out last year, but it’s still pretty darn shiny and mesmeric.

It’s the musical equivalent of Spring’s blue skies and soft breezes whispering erotic sweet nothings in your ear of Summer’s impending arrival, and if Summer were a sultry woman draping swathes of silk over your skin, this would be playing as she does it. It’s the sort of song that would probably have been played in Cassie’s episode of Skins (S1) as she floats along some tree-lined Bristolean avenue high on hunger. This, obviously, is when Skins was relatively interesting, i.e. before the focus became how cool it is to take MDMA at school, fuck strangers you meet at conveniently seedy illegal raves, develop some kind of tick-box psychological breakdown, murder creepy stalkers, attempt marriage, take more MDMA, fail your exams, become a drug dealer, and leave everyone wondering whether the writers are just trying to outdo each other with the ridiculousness of it all. One of them should just kill all the characters off in one doomsday-fuelled episode. Beat that fuckers.

The trio hail from the bastion of NYCool, Brooklyn, and have been lighting up the underground music scene with their melancholy blues-rock-tinged nostalgia and swirling 90s grunge. The influence fresh on everyone’s tongues is of course Mazzy Star, and Hope Sandoval’s musical ghost seems at times to trickle out of Widowspeak chanteuse Molly Hamilton’s lips like listlessly exhaled smoke. Alongside this are the sister nods to other early shoegazers The Jesus & Mary Chain, though it’s not just a case of rehash/repeat. The guitar line swirls with the ‘wet’ spring reverb of surf rock, like Surfer Blood on tranquilizers, or a Chris Isaak lullaby (a cover of Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ is the B-side to this EP.)

Also, don’t they just seem like such a fun bunch of guys, guys? Don’t you just look at this photo and think, hey man I wanna be their friend, we could like join an ironic bowling league and all get matching jackets or something.

Listen to more Widowspeak here

Kindness - ‘Swinging Party’

It’s Sunday again. OH GOD NOT SUNDAY. Monday looms like a wet sock filled with sand squatting on my forehead. The fun of the weekend is dusted and done for, like an empty Calypo tube (strawberry) once you’ve sucked out every last dribbling drop of syrup. It was the first weekend it felt like Summer might actually drag it’s lilo across the continent and get to us so we can give Winter the finger as it crawls back into its soggy cave. AND I DON’T WANT IT TO BE OVER.

So I’m going to whack on ‘Swinging Party’ by hypestermatic Adam Bainbridge a.k.a. Kindness, turn on my lava lamp, and boogie. In front of the mirror. By myself. Yeah man.

He’s ravaging the ones-to-watch lists with his futurist funk that sounds like a forgotten out-take of Boogie Nights: Dirk Diggler leaves his porn co-stars to wade through their cocaine volcanoes and staggers into the fledgling night to swig whisky at a basement disco run by a man in a Hawaiian shirt called Merv. There’s definitely an LED dancefloor, and probably one other person on it - a fifty year old drunk with a moustache and a missing tooth who thinks he moves like Jagger.

Though Bainbridge’s funk is decidedly less depressing than this image and it’s missing tumbleweed. ‘Swinging Party’ sounds like the waning hours of a New Year’s Eve party hosted by Lipps Inc. and Fleet Foxes, or the Beach Boys after a xanax and a bottle of wine. It also kind of doesn’t sound anything like either of these at all. It’s late and I don’t really know what the fuck I’m saying. It’s a cover of the original track by The Replacements, and fits my Sunday mood pretty darn perfectly thanks. If only I had an afro, then I’d swing it round like I was a giant microphone.

The debut album ‘World, You Need A Change Of Mind‘came out March 19th.

Listen to more Kindness here

Trim The Barber - ‘Occupation’

TTB describe themselves as “wailing fuzztone psychadelic post-punk shoegaze”, which should be laughable since it’s essentially enlisting a massive chunk of the alternative genre spectrum and smooshing them together in the hope that at least one will make sense. It’s like asking someone’s favourite colour and them saying “the rainbow”. Helpful as fuck. However, in TTB’s case, they just get away with it. They’re music is an ominous wall of sound that does tip its toes into each of those genres, sounding like a cross between Gang Of Four, Oasis, Sonic Youth, Wire and The Brian Jonestown Massacre all rolled into one giant ball of energy. No small feat.

‘Occupation’ is taken from their eponymous debut EP, which will be released April 9th. It follows a string of supportive plays on such alternative milestones as BBC 6, Amazing Radio, and XFM Exposure. If this were Scrabble they’d have just hit the triple word score.

I do like this band, they have the kind of sound that could be mesmerising live, but I have to make a slight dig at the photo. I mean, am I the only one who finds it slightly unnerving? It’s like the mugshots from the aftermath of some apocalyptic, cult-led attack. “Marvin was such a shy boy, but we knew something was wrong when he painted his bedroom black and insisted on sleeping in a cage with seven ravens and a fork.”

Listen to more Trim The Barber here

Reptar - ‘Rainbounce’

Reptar….Rep-taaaaaaar…….Reptar? That niggling sound in the back of your head is your memory whizzing round the clandestine corners of your brain trying to find the reason that this Triassic sounding bandname is so darn familiar. At least, it is if you’re a child of the 90s and snigger with a-purer-time nostalgia when anyone mentions Little Monsters, Catdog, Dexter’s Laboratory or Hey Arnold. Reptar, in case you’re wondering, is the goofy godzilla-type creature/man-in-suit that cropped up every now and then when the Rugratsneeded an injection of drama. I got love for you if you grew up in the 90s etc.

On a more relevant note, Reptar the band are a foursome from Athens, Georgia, who make abstract pop a la ‘Rainbounce’. I want to say it’s ‘funky’, though I say this with trepidation since it’s a word I pretty much never use on the grounds that it’s what saddo dad’s use when songs like Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’ come out, thinking they’re in touch with the younger generation. But ‘Rainbounce’ is pretty funky. It’s got this indie-funk, groovy-synth thing going on. Again, I tread cautiously with ‘groovy’, I’m aware 1976 has come and gone, but it’s apt. Lead-singer Andrew McFarland shoots out the lyrics with the same idiosyncratic tenacity as Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, or Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes. It’s like he’s daring you not to listen.

The incredible graphics-orgy of a video, directed by Ross Brubeck, feels like what happens when you eat way too much cheese before going to bed and your dreams get fucking weird. Or like Derek Zoolander’s head after Mugatu’s homo-erotic hypnosis. More to the point, however, it’s basically a visual representation of the band’s myriad influences. On noschooltalk, Reptar claim these come from “everything all around. The printed circuit boards inside our brains, the spiral rainbow pattern seen in a long fabled instrument called the Z-tar, people we met, people we don’t meet, the human urge to travel through space and time, communication and the lack thereof.”

So not at all esoteric then.

The track is taken from the band’s debut EP ‘Oblangle Fizz Y’all’. They’ve also just been snatched up by Lucky Number. High five y’all.

Reptar - Rainbounce from Lucky Number Music on Vimeo.

Listen to more Reptar here

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Acid Reflex EP (Record Store Day 2012)

Ah those Brooklyn beauties TPOBPH have crash landed back onto my musical radar with a special EP of remixes for Record Store Day 2012 - that day of days when musos can wave their vinyl encrusted flags, stick two fingers up to the conglomerate evils of corporate chains and stand up for the little guy. It’s also a day when each and every musician that hasn’t been manufactured by Simon Cowell and his high-waisted minions releases a special, one-off EP of unheard tracks, remixes, drafts, you name it. It’s the Willy Wonka’s golden ticket of days. Calloo, Callay.

TPOBPH 2011 album ‘Belong’ stayed on my daily ipod rotation for a good few months, and it still shoves its head above water each month for another listen. They make visceral swirling shoegaze indie-pop, led by male lead Kip’s androgynous soft-spoken vocals, as though he were singing to you on the cusp of sleep, languidly letting the words drip from his mouth as he falls into a dream. The Acid Reflex EP is a collection of four remixes of tracks from ‘Belong’, by mainstays in the alternative scene Twin Shadow, Violens, St. Etienne, and Washed Out. Right on sister.

Record Store Day lands April 21st. Stop shaving, get out that sowing kit and start stitching that flag.

Listen to more The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart here

Exlovers - ‘Wicked Game’ (Chris Isaak Valentine’s Cover)

I know that technically Valentine’s Day was two days ago, but I was too busy doing important things like watching four movies in a row with my flu-ridden housemate to get anything else done. I’m also not that big on Valentine’s Day. It’s like Hallmark and third-rate giftshops inhaled Westlife and Wet Wet Wet and then threw up over London.

HOWEVER… every villain needs a hero, and VD’s saviour-of-the-day came in the shape of Exlovers and their beautiful cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’, which they’re giving away as a free download from the goodness of their hearts. They obviously got tons of Valentine’s cards. The download precedes the release of new single ‘This Love Will Lead You On’ and debut album ‘Moth’, which will be released through Young & Lost Club on May 14th.

The track has a mesmeric, ethereal quality that wraps and winds itself around your head like purple fog a la Alice In Wonderland’s smoking Caterpillar. It retains the signature Exlovers swirling, layered, lo-fi shoegaze while capturing the sense of melancholy heartache and despondency that encapsulates Isaak’s original. In light of this, thank god I didn’t post this on Valentine’s Day. Its spellbindngly sombre tones would have probably broken up happy couples and sent the singletons to Beachy Head. Love is tough kids, so take a leaf out of the idiot in the photograph’s book and pounce. It’s eat or be eaten. Then get it tattooed on your lower lip so that you can forever remember the awkward shit stuff that comes with the territory.
Plus it’s a semi-fun party trick. For about ten seconds.

Listen/Download ‘Wicked Game’ here