ANDREW’S ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Auckland three-piece Bandicoot are making all the right waves right now – after last years bFM Top Ten hit Emotional & Dirty they have now released a brutally good fuzzed-up / fucked up gem of an EP – clocking in with a total run time of twelve and a half minutes (40 seconds of which is Untitled ambient rcording) – this is going to be the best 12 minutes of your life.
It’s exciting, irreverent, and vital. It’s as chaotic as it is cohesive. Daniel beats frantically and stoically, Reuben rips and shreds his guitar lines dancing between glorious power-pop melodies and distorted noise perfectly while Pearl shrieks and rants sharper than any tack. I haven’t been this excited about a new band since the first time I ever saw the Mint Chicks. “Get your mainstream away from me” – fuck yes; this is the future and it’s going to eat you. AT

MATTHEW’S ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Having all but disbanded for five years, seemingly disillusioned and jaded, Tindersticks surprised us all with a great new record (The Hungry Saw) in 2008. Acknowledging their lost-ness and openly petitioning their fanbase to give them another go, and now it seems the cogs are turning faster and better than ever. Falling Down A Mountain was recorded over a three month period in both France and Belgium – and the joy (can you use that word for a band that trade in sadness and dark sexuality?) … yes, their joy of playing together is audible. New members percussionist Earl Harvin and singer/songwriter David Kitt both add their unique flavours to the mix, while – naturally – frontman Stuart Staples deals out the deep, wavering croon that gifts Tindersticks with their trademark sound. Seems to me Tindersticks are rather falling up the mountain… heading back towards the lofty peaks they once called home. MC

Talk about teen dream. The teen in me is swooning all over the lounge, with Beach House on repeat. Their third album continues the trend of what came before – with Victoria LeGrand’s husky charmer of a voice echoes out across her swirling organ, while Alex Scally’s guitar handiwork fills out the sound – combining their powers to dish out a sound that has become all their own. Gently dramatic and lullingly mournful, Teen Dream is the duo’s best record yet, haunting your heart long after the needle lifts off the record.

As a side note – Lawrence Arabia are currently on tour with Beach House in Europe – how awesome is that! MC

Andy Cato and Tom Findlay are back with their sixth album. Usually if I start a review with the words “back with their sixth album” it’s gonna end  with the words, “tired, regurgitated, and stale” – but I am excited to report that Groove Armada have ditched their lazy Sunday chilled out vibes and ‘joyful’ house bangers in favor of doing something current and reflective of today; and, thankfully, it’s not a shitty carbon copy of what they think ‘the kids are into’ – but actually something they should be proud of. Groove Armada fan’s will argue that they have always morphed with each release – but to me, this is the most significant and successful shift I have witnessed in a band with this sort of heritage in a very long time. Black Light is aptly titled, too – darkly themed ballads meld with dirty electro to produce something truly contemporary. Nick Littlemore of Empire of the Sun appears on four tracks as well as an unexpected collaboration with Bryan Ferry. Welcome to the rebirth of Groove Armada – it’s not music your mum likes to housework to anymore. AT

It’s been seven years since the somewhat disappointing 100th Window and twelve since the amazing and groundbreaking Mezzanine. It’s fair to say that that’s actually practically an entire music listening generation. So, while it might be easy to sit back and wank on about about how Heligoland compares to Massive Attacks early work, masturbating about how many years one has been “critically” listening to music – but I think it’s more interesting and challenging to listen to this new album with new ears; to consider it a new work refraining from comparisons to the past.
Guest appearances include TVOTR’s Tunde Adebimpe, Hope Sandoval and Damon Albarn was well as perhaps usual suspects like Horace Andy and Robert Del Naja.
The results are mournful and mesmerizing – eerily gothic, in fact. The aforementioned Hope Sandaval appearance on Paradice Circus is, dare I say it, Heligoland’s Teardop or Unfinished Sympathy; haunting, dark and hypnotic. Massive Attack are back and it’s worth the wait. -AT

Andrew Tidball (the other guy, not me) was all like, “Man this is so 90s dance music” when we were listening to this for the first time, and I was all like, “Well you should review it then because you were THERE man” and we was all like, “Ok well we’ll see how it pans out, maybe I’ll do it maybe you’ll do it”, and turns out I’m doing it, so I can tell you this: One Life Stand is HEAVY on the 90s dance influence! Synth strings, orchestral stabs and other shit – it’s all there. Hey, but apart from going on about that – I should mention that it’s a fookin’ great record almost completely dancefloor worthy. Let’s face it, there ain’t no party like a Hot Chip party – and if you already like them you’ll go peanut butter jelly time over this one. SMILEY FACE! MC

The Ruby Suns’ third album sounds like a glorious synthesis of all the musical goings on inside Ryan McPhun’s head – it loops and lurches and glides and slides throughout a gambit of influences and inspirations. From quasi 90s rave to the precision of modern R&B artificial beats to the fuzziness of psychedelia to the bounciness of tropicana and African rhythms and back. Most striking about this new record,  for me, is the gorgeousness of Ryan soulful upper-register vocals which, in many moments, are reminiscent of the best of early soul-based garage house. Fight Softly is most definitely a beat-laden record with clever pop-hooks hidden, tucked away neatly, waiting for you to discover them – and therein lies the joy of this record; repeated listens reward you with new exciting moments; each time discovering a new favorite. Fight Softly is clearly a meticulously crafted affair. – AT

If there’s one man who knows how to turn clinically cut samples and slowly pulsing beats into emotionally resonant music that transcends any particular genre, I think we can all agree it’s Mr Kieran Hebden – aka Four Tet. Founding member of UK post-rock gang Fridge, Hebden has been a magpie to all genres from free jazz to folk and electronica, more recently plundering the interesting side of dubstep to add to his collages of sound. There Is Love In You (possibly a slightly misquoted tribute to Luke Skywalker’s final speech to Darth Vader? Maybe not..) leans toward the slightly colder side of electronic (who can forget the warm surrounds of his classic album Rounds?) – possibly a direction informed by old chum Burial (with whom Hebden has now collaborated)… Never fear, however, there’s a beating heart behind it all, and like a Wampa with its entrails keeping Luke Skywalker alive in Empire Strikes Back, Four Tet will always take care of you. MC

It’s a very rare thing that rock and hip hop can be combined without it turning to utter shit. Without pulling the race card (Ok, actually I am) but it’s usually poo-tastic when some wack middle class suburban white guys think that they can be hip hop but all they are really doing is shouting and mimicking those who can actually do. But occasionally the two worlds collide and combine to wondrous and fantastic results. Blakroc is one such project – where the guys from The Black Keys are joined by the likes of  Raekwon, RZA and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard; Pharoah Monch, Nicole Wray, and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.
This works because none of the parties involved are pretending to be anything that they are not. It feels genuinely organic – this is what hip hop might have sounded like if they made it in the 1940s. This is truly rhythm and blues stripped back to bones – it’s raw and gutsy and from the heart. It’s got mutha-fucking soul. AT

Formerly known as Final Fantasy, Pallett is a kind of Andrew Bird meets Patrick Wolf type; a musical prodigy, theatrical and fantastical, and using looped violin (and more) to create a sound that’s as influenced by role playing video games as it is wide-eyed wonderment. Recorded in Iceland, mixed in Toronto and Brooklyn, and with strings recorded in Prague – Heartland should by rights ooze pixie dust and goblin fur for its efforts. Pallett himself oozes pretty wonderful stuff – he’s remixed the likes of Grizzly Bear and Stars, as well as providing string arrangements for Beirut and has just been working on the new Arcade Fire album (not to mention working on their previous two!). Curious yet? You should be! MC

Cold War Kids return with a 5 track EP – a collection of songs that “…were recorded some time between “Loyalty” and now. They didn’t belong there but kept hanging around, started trouble, made friends, and insisted they be heard” – according to the handwritten scrawl on the cover; I think it’s kinda cool when a band does something like this – releases a small collection of songs that don’t fit anywhere else rathrr than forget and bury them or try desperately to squeeze them into the next full album where they don’t actually fit. Sometimes the result, though, is less than satisfying (the bitter disappointment last year that was Modest Mouse’s No One’s First and You’re Next springs to mind) – but here we are treated to songs that truly do bear the scrutiny of being committed to a physical artifact – and perhaps also give some hints to where they might go next. -AT

The gentle breeze that is the music of The Clientele is blowing once again, and the fifth album from the London quartet is possibly their sweetest yet. singer/songwriter Alasdair MacLean breathes autumnal life into a brand new set of songs – ranging from the upbeat hazy R&B-pop of opener “I Wonder Who We Are”, to the trembling guitars that complete the bookend. Mel Draisey (who when we last saw the band was a fairly new addition) reportedly had a lot more to do with this record – layering o’ so lushly with string arrangements and piano. Bonfires on the Heath is a seriously dreamy treat. MC

Jesus H Christ, this is good.
Memory Tapes is, as is the fashion these days, just one guy (New Jersey-based Dayve Hawk) with, presumably, a bevy of electronic equipment which he deftly twiddles to meld together sleek synths, drifting vocals and kick-ass bass lines and big juicy beats. Somehow creating perfect contrasts within itself between dreamy, woozy atmospherics and driving, danceable beats – Mr Hawk has, on his quest not only sought out magic he’s damned well created it here. It’s hard to stop listening to this record because it’s so good, it’s like if ice cream wasn’t bad for you and it didn’t make you feel sick if you ate too much of it. Imagine that; but in music form. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, Jesus H Christ, this is good. – AT

Howdy doody – a new Adam Green record! The former Moldy Peach has really done a u-turn on his rough-around-the-edges “anti-folk” shtick and taken on a pretty rare combo of crooner / indie darlin’ / giant show off… He’s also fairly prolific, Minor Love being his 6th since 2002. The record takes off with “Breaking Locks” – a kind of lo-fi tribute to Sinatra’s “My Way”, then gradually turns into a whole lotta fun… see the noodly “Goblin” for proof that Green is still as much of a funky kook as ever. I still dream of wandering into a dive bar in Brooklyn to discover an aged and drunken Adam Green dressed in leather jacket and puffy shirt, belting out these tunes to a crowd of three or four factory workers and alcoholic singles… but until that day, I’m going to spin Minor Love in my lounge and pour cheap, cheap whiskey into plastic cups and make a ton of prank calls. MC

Songs, for the unfamiliar of you, are a Sydney based four-piece fronted by the elder Max Doyle, a successful Sydney photographer; with American born New Zealander Jeff Burch on guitar and fellow ex-This Night Creep – er Steve Uren on drums; joined by Ela Stiles on bass. They released a split 7″ single last year sometime with The Bats and would easily fit quite comfortably on a mid-late Flying Nun roster had they been around at the time. They make mesmerizing dreamy and drone-y shoe gaze pop favorably comparable to the very best of the ilk. It feels inspired by rather than influenced by. Guitars fuzz, pulsate and wash over you while vocals weave in and out of melodies gorgeously throughout this very fine debut long player. -AT

Sigh sigh sigh. Does anyone else remember listening to the first Eels album, all those eight records ago? Despite being still kind of downer music, it was pretty awesome and something quite different to what we 90s kids were used to. “Wow this is kind of like Beck but all lonely and shit”… Well anyway, that was then and this is now – End Times is the album that same affected weirdo wonder Mark “E” Everett is calling his “divorce album”. It’s a stripped back affair, just man + guitar + a few bells and whistles… a seemingly far cry from the theatrical ringmaster we saw at the St James Theatre not so long ago. Lyrically, End Times is like a stoned friend’s rueful monologue at the end of a party – literal and honest but kind of poetic. Released only seven months after their most recent record, these songs are farewells – not only to a life-love, but the universal love of life. Sigh sigh sigh. MC

This is the debut album from this Silver Lake, Los Angeles five piece who made some good ripples at last year’s SXSW and are presently touring around Europe and UK to good receptions before returning to the Austin festival in March, this time with the album to peddle. If Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes are your bag – then this is gonna be right up your alley; and it’s well and truly up my alley right now – joyous hooks, crescendos and harmonies that swim around your head long after the CD has stopped playing brim forth from this record in multitudes. Gorgeous stuff. I want to eat it. AT

What’s with these homies dissing my girl? Why do they gotta front? What did we ever do to these guys that made them so vi-o-leeeent? Dah dah, dah dah, SAY IT AIN’T SOoooooooooooooOOOOOOooooo… pull this thread as you walk away… and then a decade and a half later, the next great guitar anthem album came out, and it was by Surfer Blood! Often tied in with the other surf-obsessed newcomers the Drums, this Florida quartet have really been making WAVES in the bloggyspheeeeere, and kind of rightly so. From start to finish, it’s all simplicity and awesomeness. It kind of makes me want to play hackey sack, but not in a Ben Harper way. MC

London four piece led by Marcus Mumford (and they are not his sons, at least not biologically; blinkin’ liars!) are getting a fair bit of attention with their record; BBC’s Zane Lowe  named the lead single Little Lion Man “Hottest Record in the World” and Aussie’s Triple JJJ voted it number one song of the year in their 2009 countdown.
After two or three listens I think it just sounds like a second rate Kings of Leon meets third or fourth rate Arcade Fire; and, let’s honest being compared to Kings of Leon, these days, is not ever gonna be favorable, unless it’s an antithesis comparative perhaps.  The songs feel naive and in-genuine, which to be fair, unless you are actually from the Appalachians and your mum is also your cousin and girlfriend it might be hard to pull off being ‘authentic’ but this has been described as Nu-Folk – so let that be a warning to you. Nu. Say no more.
But the guy from The XX was raving about them; so maybe he’s more right than me… AT

Like the first time you heard Granddaddy, like the onset of summer, and the fizzy feel of a brand new crush – Brooklyn gangsters Bishop Allen will have you bopping in your seat or up on your feet within the first thirty seconds of opening tune “Dimmer”. Shit it’s lovely. Put simply, it’s impossibly catchy indie pop that’s not only cute but really fun, and funny, and clever. Core members Justin Rice and Christian Rudder surround themselves with good friends (including Beirut’s horn section!) to put together a family affair that won’t be arguing on Christmas Day or forgetting your birthday. If you’re ready for a good time, and you’re prepared to let that good time last for at least thirteen tracks – grab your new best friend and some rollerskates and share your iPod headphones as you hang out in the domain drinking milkshakes and chasing ducks around screaming, “I’ll give you fucking BOTULISM!”. Glee! MC