indie
Kieron Tyler
The cape is not an everyday item of clothing. Worn by magicians, it brings an air of the extraordinary. It billows in the path of superheroes. The cloak of invisibility confirms the cape’s singularity. Basia Bulat was first seen in a sparkly gold cape on the sleeve of her recent Good Advice album and last night it was integral to the renewed vigour of her music and stage persona. Moved to say how hard it was play guitar with its folds fluttering, she nonetheless did not take the easy path and discard it.None of this is to say that Bulat would lack anything without the cape, but it is Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Considering that it was recorded in North California, that she now lives in Los Angeles, that her musical co-conspirators include a member of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and that the album’s co-producer Noah Georgeson was behind a raft of Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom albums, Cate Le Bon’s Crab Day could sound American. It does not. Her fourth album proper evokes the greatest mavericks of pre-punk British art rock: Kevin Ayers, the Brian Eno of Taking Tiger Mountain, Slapp Happy and Robert Wyatt all come to mind as its 10 songs unfold. So do the slightly later Art Bears and David Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“If we want to keep this free and democratic Europe of ours free and democratic, we must enlist ourselves, our skills and our commitment to liberty and justice. The problems we face are too great to simply say let the politicians do it. I say this as a President.” Making this declaration in his country’s capital on the opening morning of 2016’s Tallinn Music Week, Estonia’s President Toomas Hendrik Ilves stressed that the power for change is in all our hands and also confirmed the all-too prevalent view that the international political class is unlikely to address, let alone solve, the world’ Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
In the run-up to the release of his second album Grapefruit, Kiran Leonard has revealed the musical touchstones which map out his world. Boredoms, Kate Bush, the jazzy French Canterbury-rock types Etron Fou Leloublan, Fela Kuti, Swans, Scriabin and Sleaford Mods all colour his prog-tinged vision of music. And he looks elsewhere for ideas. The album's “Ondör Gongor” takes its title from a Mongolian giant while “Half-Ruined Already” is inspired by a Werner Herzog film.Leonard has also declared that his liking for Bush is based on a surmise that her music is not spontaneous: she has, he says, a Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Damien Jurado’s last album, 2014’s Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son, was, as theartsdesk noted, about “a man setting off in search of himself but never returning”. Its follow-up tracks the same unnamed character and his companion Silver Katherine on a road trip which may or may not be in his mind. Following a concept album with another integrally linked to its predecessor – and the album before that too, 2012’s Maraqopa – suggests Durado has faith in his listeners. They are, implicitly, going to follow the singer-songwriter on this journey.Ambition, creativity and an overarching vision Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The second album by Russian shoegazers Pinkshinyultrablast neatly side-steps any language-barrier issues either by submerging their mono-monikered singer Lyubov’s voice into their sea of noise, or ensuring that what is heard could be wordless singing along the lines of The Swingle Singers – even though she sings in English. As it should be with music so much about texture, the sound of Pinkshinyultrablast marks them as virtuosos of the indirect.However, where they draw from is clear. As it was with their debut album, 2015’s Everything Else Matters, Cocteau Twins, Lush, Slowdive and, of course Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
For its 6 April 1985 issue, the NME chose The Long Ryders as its cover stars. The colour picture of the band was emblazoned “A Shotgun Wedding of Country and Punk.” The Los Angeles outfit attracted attention as part of a wave of California bands overtly drawing from the past. Local peers included The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate and The Three O’Clock.Competition was tough. Bands from elsewhere in the States were also voguish during the pivotal years of 1983 to 1986: Green on Red, Let’s Active, R E.M. and The Replacements amongst them. The directly punk-rooted Black Flag and Hüsker Dü were on Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
If you haven’t fallen for Emma Pollock by the end of the first two songs on In Search of Harperfield – you know, on the off chance that you have somehow been immune to the first lady of Scottish indie over the past 20 years – then there’s probably no help for you. In just two songs, Pollock perfectly showcases her dynamic talent: there’s the dreamy, ghostly “Cannot Keep a Secret”, as immersive a song ever written to fit Pollock’s husky, beguiling voice; and “Don’t Make Me Wait”, a catchy rocker that’s as insistent as its name.Five and a half years since 2010’s The Law of Large Numbers and Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The nature of Europe, its administration, institutions and its porousness are hot topics. Sectors of Britain’s media and political class hyperventilate over trumped-up concerns while real issues which are just about impossible to address remain unresolved. In this climate, the European Border Breakers Awards are ripe for misinterpretation. Instead of being for those devising the shrewdest ways to slip in and out of countries, they are an annual European Union-sponsored award presented to pop musicians achieving success beyond their own borders.There are rules in this contest, one which no one Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
A Coliseum Complex Museum is defined by its density. The Montréal band’s fifth album begins with a flurry of percussion which gives way to treated guitar and frontman Jace Lasek’s almost-falsetto vocal. Opening cut “The Bray Road Beast” is initially ethereal, with the space between each musical contribution suggesting a tantalisingly unfinished picture. By the time it finishes, after five minutes, layer upon layer of guitar, Mellotron, double-tracked vocals and more have been added. The result is a steamrolling assault on the ears.The Besnard Lakes’ favoured mélange remains a constant: Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Head straight for Disc 2, Track 4. A drum thumps while spring-loaded guitar feedback pulses. Suddenly, a wall of cascading guitar hurtles forth like an electric hare pursued by greyhounds. A distorted, amelodic guitar solo contrasts with the sweet melody carried by a female vocal. The energy level is extraordinary. The whole has a lightness of touch. Then, abruptly, it stops.This beautiful, wonderful performance is “Crystal Eyes”, a 1990 single by the Dutch band Nightblooms (pictured below left). My Bloody Valentine were clearly inspirational, but the track sounds as fresh as if it were Read more ...
Katie Colombus
All eyes are on Daughter to see whether the indie-folk trio’s second album Not To Disappear can live up to the first. If You Leave (2013) was lauded a critical success, and the band fronted by North Londoner Elena Tonra earned a fiercely loyal following.There’s no great change in direction for their music but Not To Disappear is basically more and better. The tracks are immediately recognisable for their shadowy and intimate signature style but they are – not more mature, exactly – but kind of deeper, darker. Recorded in New York with Nicolas Vernhes (War On Drugs) the new album has Read more ...