Animal Kingdom - Signs and wonders

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/weareanimalkingdom
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~192]
Filesize: 65 MB
Uploaded: 31-10-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Good morning Mr. Magpie 2:36
02. Signs and wonders 3:46
03. Tin man 4:19
04. Silence summons you 3:23
05. Into the sea 4:44
06. Two by two 3:53
07. Home 3:18
08. Walls of Jericho 3:24
09. Mephistopheles 3:54
10. Yes sir, yes sir 3:55
11. Dollar signs 3:55
12. Chalk stars 6:23




Review:
As an aspiring band, to be compared to the likes of Coldplay, Radiohead and Snow Patrol, can almost be a bit of poisoned chalice whereby you can be assured to expect one of two things; either be critically dubbed as a cheap imitation or worse yet banished to the proverbial musical wilderness as nothing more than a whisper in the wind. However, ever so rarely a band will come along and be elevated by such comparisons, thus spurring them on to equal or greater heights. Fortunately, for this South London quartet, I’m predicting the latter. With some assured assistance from producer Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses), the dark and melancholy ' Signs and Wonders' is every bit the debut proposition you might hope for it to be.
The stand out song not surprisingly, will most probably be considered as debut single 'Chalk Stars'. Although I’m not sure I’d agree it was a true anthemic ballad, you can't deny its brilliance. Ranging from ‘Good Morning Mr. Magpie, which could have just as easily found itself on an early Coldplay album to the love bereft otherworldly atmospherics of 'Tin Man'; ‘Sings and Wonders’ is delicate, cinematic, celestial indie-pop. Even when you're listening to some of the album's lesser tracks like 'Two by Two', 'Walls of Jericho' and 'Mephistopheles'; their music never seems to lose itself; as whether in the context of the album or on their own; they still provide uniquely emotive propositions. What’s more, despite their music's melancholic nature, ‘Signs and Wonders’ actually possess a deep rooted sense of positivity within it.
Central to the bands sound is ultimately, the vocals of front man Richard Sauberlich; his delicate and airy tones add a real quirky texture to their music, which is further enhanced when heard against the backdrop of the rest of the band's darkened atmospherics. Countering immediate pop hooks with unpredictable arrangements of dark, reflective soul; Animal Kingdom instantly, set themselves out to be a promising position.

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Mumford & Sons
Love your ground EP
Sigh no more


Mumford & Sons - Love your ground EP

Year: 2008
Genre: folk / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mumfordandsons
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~177]
Filesize: 19 MB
Uploaded: 31-10-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Little lion man 4:15
02. Feel the tide 3:28
03. Hold on to what you believe 4:03
04. The banjolin song 2:45











Review:
Marcus Mumford, he of husky vocals and lead duties in this band, was Laura Marling's right hand man until very recently. Forget this however because it’s about the 28th most interesting thing about him. His band of sons are the latest in the Marling, Pistolet, Noah conveyor belt of London folk and they are possibly the best yet. Quite how Mumford And Sons have arrived so fully formed is anyone’s guess but the fact they have is a treat for us all. Having released their debut EP on Chess Club (It Hugs Back, Arks) in June the band return with another EP, more assured and even more achingly beautiful than last time. The music acts as a window into Mumford’s heart, a black and white wheel operated camera into a troubled soul.
‘Little Lion Man’ is a vitriolic self portrait reflecting on the demise of a relationship, “It was not your fault but mine, I really fucked it up this time didn’t I my dear.” With a jaunty beat and fast paced rhythm it’s easy to let the song slip by as an upbeat affair but listen closely and you hear a man tearing himself apart. ‘Feel The Tide’ is the lyrical polar but musical twin to the first track, maintaining the poppy folk sound but infusing it with romantic uplifting words. The question raised with the bands of this ilk like the aforementioned Marling, Charlie Fink etc is the legitimacy of it all. Can a person in their early twenties from a commuter belt town really tap into and embody a style of music that is rooted in the 50’s and 60’s with visionaries like Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan? Personally I believe that whilst acts like Mumford & Sons et al may have a clear lineage the passion and emotion that powers their songs is so impressive and touching that to argue over the origins of the harmonica and slide guitar seems churlish.
‘Hold On To What You Believe’ and ‘The Banjolin Song’ make up a more morose second half of the EP but that is perhaps M&S better side. With time to dwell and wallow the words really resonate and the swelling in the key changes takes on a more profound effect. It is perhaps too early to predict properly but I wouldn't bet against Mumford & Sons taking 2009 by storm.

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Mumford & Sons - Sigh no more

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mumfordandsons
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~177]
Filesize: 69 MB
Uploaded: 31-10-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Sigh no more 3:28
02. The cave 3:38
03. Winter winds 3:39
04. Roll away your stone 4:24
05. White blank page 4:14
06. I gave you all 4:20
07. Little lion man 4:07
08. Timshel 2:54
09. Thistle & weeds 4:50
10. Awake my soul 4:16
11. Dust bowl dance 4:43
12. After the storm 4:09


Extra tracks:
Liar (from Lend me your eyes EP) 3:36
Sister (2009 WEB track) 2:56

Review:
Mumford & Sons finally release their debut album Sigh No More under a tremendous weight of expectation.
Having been buoyed by the enthusiastic response given to their various single and EP releases, as well as comparisons to both Crosby, Stills and Nash and Kings of Leon, they have a lot to live up to in ensuring the long-player realises the hype.
Fortunately, it does. While certainly perhaps more of an acquired taste given the propensity for country-tinged harmonies and banjo-heavy instrumentation, it’s a fine listen that signals the arrival of a major new talent.
Mumford & Sons are Marcus Mumford (vocals, guitar, bass drum, and tambourine strapped to his left foot and right), Ben Lovett (keyboards), Country Wilson (banjo, dobro, electric guitar), and Ted Dwane (bass)… and just from that roll call you can tell how musically talented they are.
Indeed, the scope of their instrumentation, and the way that they layer it into their engaging songwriting, is one of the major pluses of listening to Sigh No More.
Songs such as Winter Winds, for instance, contain a tremendously uplifting vibe courtesy of the keen mix of banjo and bass, while arriving in stark comparison to the more intimate likes of Roll Away Your Stone, which begins in utterly disarming fashion before opening up to grand heights.
The lovelorn White Blank Page is another tender slow-builder, with Mumford’s husky, lived-in vocals particularly effective in declaring his love against a slow-building instrumentation and ever more despondent lyrics (“oh tell me now where was my fault in loving you with my whole heart”). It’s a mini-epic and one of several highlights.
Another is former single Little Lion Man, a rousing a rampage about regret and unresolved heartbreak that contains thrilling banjo licks, and a rollicking sensibility that’s utterly infectious in spite of its downbeat lyrics.
The lyrics (“I really fucked it up this time, didn’t I my dear”) are also honest, heartfelt and pleasingly no-nonsense – and somehow designed to make you want to sing along.
And Awake My Soul is another slow-builder of terrifically rousing quality, unfolding into a foot-stompingly lively blend of banjo and percussion that enlivens lyrics such as “you were made to meet your maker”.
The album closes out with Dust Bowl Dance and the bluegrass After The Storm to ensure that it ends on as big a high as it began.
Mumford & Sons look like they’re here to stay… and should win countless fans along the way.

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Young Galaxy
Young galaxy
Invisible republic


Young Galaxy - Young galaxy

Year: 2007
Genre: indie / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/younggalaxy
Format: mp3
Bitrate: 128 cbr
Filesize: 45 MB
Uploaded: 31-10-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Swing your heartache 6:18
02. No matter how hard you try 3:50
03. Outside the city 3:23
04. Lazy religion 5:33
05. Wailing wall 3:52
06. The sun's coming up and my plane's going down 6:17
07. Searchlight 2:41
08. Lost in the call 3:32
09. Come and see 4:01
10. Embers 3:54
11. The alchemy between us 5:31




Review:
Like many of their fellow Arts & Crafts ilk, Young Galaxy craft pop music that is chock full of texture. Comprised of Stephen Ramsey, former touring guitarist for Stars, and partner Catherine McCandless, the comparisons to many other Canadian buzz bands is immediately apparent. However, at its best, their eponymous debut album carves out its own distinctive niche in the now saturated landscape of north-of-the-border indie rock.
Album opener and lead single “Swing Your Heartache” shows the band going for the throat right away. The six-minute songs paints a musical landscape the Flaming Lips would admire. The reverbed vocals and faint noise set over steady drumming gives the song a trance-like pulse. Ramsey whisper sings the verses until, well into the track, the band breaks into the sublime chorus. McCandless joins Ramsey here and guitars come in and the song elevates in every way possible. Just one song into the album, Young Galaxy appear to be a band both capable and unafraid to go for broke on a track.
“No Matter How Hard You Try” is another strong track, with the same brooding texture, and while it might not swell and rise the way “Swing Your Heartache” does, it keeps the stakes of the album up as Ramsey sings “You won’t get out of this world alive, no matter how hard you try.” The first half of the album continues the same formula, and while its solid, none of it matches up to the opener. Like Stars, Ramsey and McCandless share lead vocals on the record. She turns in a spirited performance on “Outside the City” where her voice is buried in the mix, but the play ends up working. Perhaps knowing all the layers she’d have to fight through, she belts out the words in a throbbing-forehead-vein shout that is as tuneful as it is plaintiff. She sings a few others on the record, but this is by far her finest moment. “The Sun’s Coming Up and My Plane’s Going Down” serves as a mid-album hinge and serves to sum up the albums strengths and weaknesses. It is as slow-building a track as you’re likely to find on any record, and is heavy on the same overcast miasma that’s set over much of the album’s first half. However, it also goes on too long and ends up settling for landscape and sacrificing song craft. By the end of the track, I don’t know what the song-title refrain is supposed to mean to me or to Ramsey. It ends up sounding more like an interesting idea for a song than an interesting song.
Also, as a hinge, it shifts the album away from all the best stuff going on. The layers and texture are almost totally absent from the second half of the record. In their place, we get bland rockers like “Searchlight” that might sound okay if Young Galaxy hadn’t already proven themselves capable of much more. “Embers” is a McCandless-sung ballad that is almost a clean, straight-up acoustic track that just doesn’t hold up to her other performances here. Closer “The Alchemy Between Us” tries to build the album back up in its closing minutes, by working up to the loudest use of layered instrumentation on the album. And though their notion to return to what they do best is right on, the execution is off. They build a thickly-settled landscape on the track, without a doubt, but there’s no restraint to it, no real choices made, so the song’s closing moments sound more cluttered than dense.
Lyrically, the album rests a little too much on a vague notion of personal choice as political action. “Swing Your Heartache” employs a “we” as narrator, and Ramsey sings the song as if pitted against the establishment. It no doubt makes for a unifying moment in concert, but lines like “Getting older doesn’t always mean you’ve grown” don’t pack the punch they could, and instead rely on the liberal leanings of the indie rock community as a whole to provide their power. Still, when Young Galaxy nails it, their music can be damn galvanizing, strong lyrics or no. At its finest moments, Young Galaxy holds its audience captive, and gives the listener the swelling feeling you get when you hear something working to its full potential, when you hear songs that make you want to spring into action, to create something, anything. One can only hope that in their future endeavors, Young Galaxy don’t subvert these moments with the more mundane offerings of their debut. They’ve shown their potential on this album, but haven’t quite realized it. Perhaps that’s the next step. They’ve figured how to swing their own heartache, maybe next time they’ll get you to swing yours along with them.

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Young Galaxy - Invisible republic

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/younggalaxy
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~193]
Filesize: 61 MB
Uploaded: 31-10-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Long live the fallen world 4:56
02. Oh sister 3:42
03. Destroyer 4:32
04. Pathos 2:22
05. Light years 5:46
06. Disposable times 4:26
07. Dreams 4:30
08. Queen drum 3:52
09. Smoke and mirror show 4:49
10. Firestruck 5:12




Review:
The steady influx of Canadian musicians has undeniably produced some fantastically individual artists.
From Death From Above 1979 to A Sliver Mt. Zion, the country has delivered a diverse collection of bands, a supply chain which continues down to this day.
Since 2005 (the year the group formed) Young Galaxy have worked hard to build a name for themselves and now, after three years and with the release of Invisible Republic looming, we finally get to witness their début effort in upholding their respected Canadian roots.
After all that suspenseful build-up, it's fortuitous that this album is something of a success.
Intro track and leading song from the new album Long Live The Fallen World is a electronic-indie hit just waiting to happen, only being held back by its slightly ominous vocals. The melody is ready for radio in every way possible but it's ten times more grounded than any other examples you would find in the mainstream music charts.
Dreamy, wandering guitars pick their way in and out, gliding on a constant stream of sound, punctuated by the oddly-built chorus and matching vocal melody. Mid-album track Light Years drifts along placidly, rubbing sleep from its eyes and yawning contentedly as drum and cymbal shatter quietly in the background, painting tranquil dream-indie in-front of your very eyes. It trickles wonderfully into successive track Disposable Time which also shows heaps of promise from its very first listen.
It's less 'epic' and hazy than its lead-in but shows a more arresting side to their strangely attractive pop. The rhythm is jittery and atmospheric, smothering repetitive guitar chords with electronic noise and reserved percussion. "In disposable times" repeats main female vocalist Catherine McCandless again and again through the chorus, psychedelic strings hypnotising all the while.
Whilst the majority of the material is fine instrumentally, a gripe does surface when the vocals are handed over to main male vocalist Stephen Ramsay. He's by no means terrible - in places, his melancholic timbre suits the atmospherics behind - all too often though, he interrupts their style and fails to integrate properly with their instrumental intent. On Dreams he taints the otherwise acceptable and melodious nature with grating nonchalance and no real mood. He takes their high jump and places a brick wall in front of them, a sad occurrence for a band of such promise.
Another niggle is the lyrics and again, although they never necessarily damage the records impact, they're just not up to scratch with the professional instrumentation and production. It doesn't seem immediately noticeable but with time, it becomes too clear to ignore.
So, what we've got here is a great record, a fantastic record in fact. One that isn't without its faults but openly overcomes them with delicately created, sweeping dream-pop. It may not possess the longevity of other 2009 releases but it's sounding pretty damn good right now.

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The Boxer Rebellion - Union

Year: 2009
Genre: rock / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theboxerrebellion
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~181]
Filesize: 59 MB
Uploaded: 17-10-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Flashing red light means go 5:25
02. Move on 4:16
03. Evacuate 3:32
04. Soviets 4:08
05. Spitting fire 2:50
06. Misplaced 6:16
07. The gospel of Goro Adachi 3:38
08. These walls are thin 2:33
09. Forces 4:04
10. Semi-automatic 3:22
11. Silent movie 5:10

Review:
The UK music industry is dying, we’re told. And fast. But here’s what that really means: the days of whacking profits that record label fat cats can stuff in their Savile Row suit pockets are over. The musicians – the music – will always prevail.
The Boxer Rebellion serve as a perfect barometer for these times. After carefully building a large following with countless live shows and a superb first album, Exits, released on Alan McGee’s Poptones label back in 2005, the band were suddenly homeless when the imprint folded shortly after their debut’s release.
That could so easily have been that, but The Boxer Rebellion refused to be beaten – even singer Nathan Nicholson’s burst appendix couldn’t stop them. The band continued to tour, spreading the word and gradually airing new material. Scraping funds together, they were finally able to commit the new songs to tape, and the band self-released the follow-up, Union, back in January this year as a digital-only download through iTunes.
The fact that Union has now arrived as a real, hard-copy release hints at the band’s digital success: the debut single from Union, Evacuate, became the first ever global iTunes Single of the Week, and was downloaded 560,000 times in its first week. Union then became the first digital-only release by an unsigned band to land in the Billboard Top 100 Albums Chart.
None of this, of course, would have been possible if the music wasn’t good. Union is that rare beast – an indie record with huge commercial potential, crammed with arena-filling melodies, that also wriggles with complexities and revels in brooding atmospheres.
Nicholson’s versatile vocals swoop through registers, in low murmurs, angst-ridden cries and graceful falsettos that scrape the sky. Shuffling rhythms borrowed from The National bubble beneath him, while ricocheting guitars slowly emerge from the darkness and take flight. It’s Mew-meets-Editors, but conveyed with delicate brushstrokes.
Union is a measured, beautifully crafted album that signals an exciting new dawn for The Boxer Rebellion – one where they’re in charge of their own destiny.

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Bonus post

Chuck Prophet - ¡ Let freedom ring ! (2009) [V2]
Depeche Mode - Sounds of the universe (2009) [V2]
Frontier Folk Nebraska - Pearls (2009) [192cbr]
Hello Saferide - More modern short stories from Hello Saferide (2008) [V2]
Hjaltalín - Sleepdrunk seasons (2008) [V5]
Jason Lytle - Yours truly, the commuter (2009) [V2]
Miike Snow - Miike Snow (2009) [aac,256cbr]
Moneybrother - Real control (2009) [V2]
Moriarty - Gee whiz but this is a lonesome town (2009) [192cbr]
Our Broken Garden - When your blackening shows (2008) [V0]
Pilot Speed - Wooden bones (2009) [V2]
Rod Thomas - Until something fits EP (2009) [V2]
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen autumns & fifteen winters (2007) [V2] mirror
The Twilight Sad - Forget the night ahead (2009) [V2] mirror

Enjoy!

Sea Wolf - White water, white bloom

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/seawolf
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~188]
Filesize: 55 MB
Uploaded: 05-10-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Wicked blood 4:26
02. Dew in the grass 4:24
03. Orion & dog 3:49
04. Turn the dirt over 3:00
05. O Maria! 4:00
06. White water, white bloom 4:30
07. Spirit horse 3:53
08. The orchard 3:26
09. The traitor 4:17
10. Winter's heir 4:21






Review:
Armed with his continually disarming, elegiac and acoustic-bloomed songwriting, Alex Brown Church has cast the autumnal mood of his Sea Wolf debut, Leaves in the River, over a far more energized set of songs on White Water, White Bloom (such as the exceptional orchestral stomp of“Wicked Blood”), crafting an album that sounds not only like a reinvigorated sense of purpose, but a powerfully eclectic and expansive step forward.
Alex Church carefully splitting his time between the organic and the orchestral. Church wrote the entire album alone, yet all ten tracks feature contributions from an army of musicians, including several members of Sea Wolf's touring lineup. With producer Mike Mogis (one of the chief architects of Bright Eyes' sound) behind the boards, White Water evokes a lush, chamber-country ambiance, sounding intimate one minute and grandly expansive the next.
Church and Mogis lace their autumnal anthems with strings, organs, woodwinds, and clash cymbals, creating mini-symphonies that leave their mark but rarely overstay their welcome. The resulting tunes are lush, but few are truly dense, and White Water's biggest asset is its ability to wield such a large sound without replacing the woodsy, cozy feel of Church's solo performances.
While the album’s best songs tend to be those that most echo Leaves—especially the gorgeous and spare “Orion & Dog” and the rustic closer of “Winter Heir”—it’s refreshing to a hear a songwriter stretching beyond his comfort zone with such moderately bombastic fare, while still infusing each track with the quietly lush and powerful melodies that made his debut so indelibly affecting.
Mixing the intimate, wood-creaked acoustics of Leaves with a bristling orchestral backdrop, White Water, White Bloom is by turns lovely, electric, sparse and breathlessly driving, sometimes within the course of a single song. It’s an album that not only lives up to the promise of its predecessor, but reaches beyond it as well.

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Sea Wolf - Leaves in the river (2007/2008) [V2]

Moderat - Moderat

Year: 2009
Genre: electronic / indie / dubstep
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/moderat
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~192]
Filesize: 95 MB
Uploaded: 05-10-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. A new error 6:07
02. Rusty nails 4:33
03. Seamonkey 6:15
04. Slow match (feat. Paul St. Hilaire) 5:09
05. 3 minutes of 3:17
06. Nasty silence 3:13
07. Sick with it (feat. Dellé aka Eased From Seeed) 3:46
08. Porc#1 2:40
09. Porc#2 3:03
10. Les grandes marches 4:29
11. Berlin 1:23
12. Nr. 22 5:40
13. Out of sight 5:41
14. BeatsWaySick (feat. Busdriver) 4:23
15. Rusty nails (Shackleton remix) 9:38

Review:
Though the outfits Apparat (Sascha Ring) and Modeselektor (Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) are both practically household names in German techno by now, the two groups actually collaborated on a lone EP as Moderat before the bulk of their recorded careers got underway. With the full intention of transforming their cooperative into a career path, the four painstakingly intricate glitch-hop tracks were dubbed Auf Kosten Der Gesundheit, or “At the Expense of One’s Health”, in honor of the exhaustion endured during their creation. Perhaps traumatized by the event, the three split and were not heard from again until now, seven years down the road.
They didn’t necessarily avoid each other in the years to come; they’ve swapped remixes here and there, and Apparat helped Modeselektor and Paul St. Hilaire produce “Let Your Love Grow”, the best song from 2007’s Happy Birthday!. But a chance meeting at a public pool found them challenging each other back into the studio together. Their long-awaited return sounds less labored than their previous outing, but it is still the work of some of the most studious boys in the studio. It bears little resemblance to the abstract techno of their debut EP, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still the thoughtful fusion of the vast bilateral output by the Moderat members, following that rare early release on Bpitch Control (minus perhaps Modeselektor’s predilection for shtick). It may have been recorded with a bunch of 1970s analogue synths, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sound like a computer record from 2009.
Modeselektor’s kitchen-sink diversity is very much present, as is Apparat’s stately sophisticated electropop. But in a rare twist of fate, the styles actually seem to flow together, perhaps even better than on Modeselektor’s compilation-style albums. This is likely due to the smooth transitions that glide many of the tracks into one another. “Slow Match” is a reserved patch of atmospheric underwater dancehall (not unlike the kind found on the Pinch album of the same name) with chop-suey vocals by the
Basic Channel standby Paul St. Hilaire that were recorded years before Bronsert and Szary rekindled things with Ring. The funereal strings of “Slow Match” bleed into the Kranky-ish harmonized drones of “3 Minutes Of”, which promises to be three minutes of said ambience, but actually splits at the two-minute mark to form the prologue for “Nasty Silence”, a persistent little tune that keeps the echolocation of the former track and slaps it atop a Martyn-esque shuffle beat.
The dubstep influence is definitely felt here, but none of the tunes ever really sound like dubstep proper. There’s no wonky insectoid riffs or brown-note piercing bass drops, just the intimation of subterranean riddim. Ring’s two vocal performances in particular take on the air of David Gahan with Burial as his beat architect. The opening rhythm of “Rusty Nails” has the same feel of transit and memory that Untrue wore so effortlessly, but the vocals wail out in gloom. Electro-house embers and ghostly shadows combine to manifest a presence whose trajectory is pointed vertically upwards, though its lyrics are underground. “Down’s the only way out”, Ring says, “because hell’s above”.
The other Ring-fronted outing , “Out of Sight”, is slightly softer and evokes less of a chill-down-the-spine desolation than a kind of placidly defeated state of grace, alternating between warm buzzes and pulsating strands of rogue looping. This being the final track, the terminal spot, Ring is not even looking for a way out anymore. “We will all be forsaken”, he says with quite certain doom at one point. And later, “There’s no peace for a vicious happy ending / Out of sight”, signifying that the title of the cut is less about a state of grooviness than a state beyond hope, implicitly prefiguring dubstep’s apocalyptic roots in fire-and-brimstone dread-lock music. Pessimistic? Sure. But its elegant instrumentation makes it beautifully so.
On the polar opposite side of the album is “A New Error”, which has a bit of a melancholy mood about it as well, though its momentum is more of a march than a swagger. The machine beat is very simple and drum-machine-derived, centering attention away from the rhythm tracks for the first and last time on the album. The synths contain the slightly detuned erroring of the song’s namesake. The anthemic buzz bass recalls The Human League’s “The Dignity of Labour”: noble, proudly dated, and poised for world domination.
Unmentioned thus far is just how unbelievably listenable all this lithium-dosed eclecticism is. “Porc #1” and “Porc #2”, with its New Order chord progressions, might even attract the indie dance squad to the table. Moderat is a wonderful second take on a pairing that only now, after years of self-development through the Modeselektor and Apparat brands, seems a coupling destined for greatness.

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Wild Beasts
Limbo, Panto
Two dancers


Wild Beasts - Limbo, Panto

Year: 2008
Genre: indie / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/wildbeasts
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~181]
Filesize: 54 MB
Uploaded: 26-09-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Vigil for a fuddy duddy 4:43
02. The club of fathomless love 3:45
03. The devil's crayon 3:39
04. Woeboegone wanderers 4:54
05. The old dog 4:28
06. Please sir 3:27
07. His grinning skull 4:36
08. She purred while I grrred 3:30
09. Brace bulging buoyant clairvoyants 4:02
10. Cheerio chaps cheerio goodbye 4:39






Review:
When it comes to creativity, the Wild Beasts have an embarrassment of riches. The band's full-length debut, Limbo, Panto, is exotic, exciting, fascinating, and forced in equal measures. "Vigil for a Fuddy Duddy" opens the album by spotlighting the most divisive, and definitive, part of the band's music: singer/guitarist Hayden Thorpe's vocals. He careens from a warbling falsetto to a suave croon to a feral growl, sounding like a hybrid of Antony Hegarty, Tiny Tim, and Mika (with shades of Tiger Lillies howler Martyn Jacques and possibly Dame Edna to boot), not just during the course of one song, but sometimes within a single syllable. It's an attention-getting sound, but it often crosses the line between distinctive and difficult, especially since Thorpe's fondness for wordy lyrics such as "don't render me the sorriest parody" and the Seuss-like internal rhymes and alliteration on "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants" and "Cheerio Chaps, Cheerio Goodbye" are already extremely stylized. However, Limbo, Panto is more than Thorpe's love-it-or-hate-it lightning rod of a voice. The rest of the Wild Beasts' music is relatively restrained but still far from conventional, fitting around Thorpe's vocals in more subtly unique ways. Relying mostly on a traditional guitar-bass-drums lineup (along with the occasional keyboard), the Wild Beasts evoke cabaret, vaudeville, jazz, disco, and Afro-pop, depending on their whims. "The Old Dog" could be a lost and very warped '70s pop single, while "Please Sir" fuses doo wop rhythms with chamber pop delicacy and "Woebegone Wanderers" flips from a disco strut to a carnivalesque oompah beat. Over the course of the album, the band's experiments teeter between genuinely intriguing music and just trying way too hard. "The Devil's Crayon" is excellent, with percolating guitars and lunging drums that come together in strangely graceful, romantic ways. This song and "His Grinning Skull" -- another standout that makes the lyric "I'll eat this young whelp's heart, I will" seem perfectly conversational -- feature bassist Tom Flemming's throaty vocals. "She Purred While I Grrred" is a highlight that is all Thorpe's, however; he sounds like he's in heat as he purrs and grrrs his way through the song's jungle-like carnality. These moments balance tracks like "The Club of Fathomless Love," where everything that is interesting about the band's music just sounds grating. In its own way, the Wild Beasts' volatile flamboyance is more difficult to embrace than an overtly dissonant experimental band's music, but that's just another way that this group sets itself apart from the rest of the pack -- and there's something very liberating about that, even if it's baffling at times.

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Wild Beasts - Two dancers

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/wildbeasts
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~174]
Filesize: 47 MB
Uploaded: 26-09-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. The fun power plot 5:35
02. Hooting & howling 4:35
03. All the king's men 4:00
04. When I'm sleepy... 2:09
05. We still got the taste dancin' on our tongues 4:36
06. Two dancers (I) 4:07
07. Two dancers (II) 2:38
08. This is our lot 4:33
09. Underbelly 1:55
10. Empty nest 3:25






Review:
In a day where Hot Topic peddles guyliner to millions of male teenage mallrats, it's hard to imagine a time when glam-rock was truly shocking. But there remains one gender-bending device whose provocative, polarizing power remains undiminished: the falsetto-- a sound that tends to elicit both laughter and skepticism, if not outright hostility. Still, it remains a highly effective weapon in the endless war against safe, overly earnest indie-- and few bands brandish it so wantonly as Leeds art-pop quartet Wild Beasts.
On the band's 2008 debut, Limbo, Panto, frontman Hayden Thorpe unleashed his shrill, glass-shattering shrieks as a means to project both the vulnerability and depravity of his sexually frustrated protagonists, and he didn't care if he went hoarse in the process (you can practically hear his vocal cords disintegrate on the galloping single "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants"). Perhaps as a means to avoid chronic laryngitis, on follow-up Two Dancers he's deferring more frequently to bassist Tom Fleming, a deeper-voiced foil in the Nick Cave crooner mold. But that's just a surface indication of the transformation Wild Beasts have undergone in the past year-- in contrast to the first album's fidgety, impulsive baroque'n'roll, Two Dancers sees Wild Beasts refashioned as a steely art-funk outfit that's no less alluring in its austerity.
Granted, some old horny habits die hard-- we're not two verses into album opener "The Fun Powder Plot" before Thorpe hollers, "This is a booty call! My boot, my boot, my boot, my boot up your asshole." But his words feel less outrageous and much more ominous when set against the song's metronomic groove and melancholic jangle-- pulse-tempering measures that keep the cheekiness in check. Likewise, first single "Hooting and Howling" benefits from a patient, linear build that transforms the song from a quiet trill into a heart-racing anthem, with Thorpe's circular vocal and guitar lines burrowing the melody well into memory before the first chorus is out.
Fans of Limbo, Panto's chandelier-swinging flamboyance may be less enthused with Two Dancers' more organized presentation, but it allows Wild Beasts to better achieve their singular balance of aristocracy and anarchy: the debonair funk of "We Still Got the Taste Dancin' on Our Tongues" speaks of class warfare under the serious moonlight ("Us kids are cold and cagey rattling around the town/ Scaring the oldies into their dressing gowns/ As the dribbling dogs howl"), while the two-part title track suite finds Fleming sharing a grim, first-person account of some horrible attack before the song erupts in a tribal, psychedelic surge. He could very well be talking about a public stoning in the 15th century or a gang rape from last week-- and it's not even entirely clear if he's singing from a male or female perspective-- but the lack of specificity makes the transgressions described all the more unsettling, as if they could happen to anyone.
Wild Beasts certainly aren't the first rock band to stand up society's dregs and outcasts, but few others immortalize them on such a wondrous, mythic scale. And in the grand "This Is Our Lot"-- the sort of song everyone wants Radiohead's perpetually imminent "return to rock" to sound like-- we quite literally have an anthem for the ages. Over top a rubbery bassline and shimmering guitar riff, Thorpe tips his tipple to the enduring passion of youth: "We find ourselves dancing late/ Like young reprobates/ By the milky light of the mighty moon/ Find someone to nuzzle you/ And waltz from the room." Of course, come sunrise, those kids will have to clean themselves up and get to work on time. And perhaps the more accessible approach of Two Dancers suggests a greater willingness on Wild Beasts' part to interact with the straight world. But for them, every night is still a full moon-- and when it comes, Thorpe will be ready to howl.

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Frankmusik - Complete me

Year: 2009
Genre: pop / electronic
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/frankmusik
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~201]
Filesize: 65 MB
Uploaded: 26-09-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. In step 3:40
02. Better off as 2 2:56
03. Gotta boyfriend 3:20
04. Confusion girl 3:00
05. Your boy 2:42
06. When you're around 2:52
07. 3 little words 2:51
08. Wonder woman 2:58
09. Complete me 2:57
10. Vacant heart 3:31
11. Time will tell 3:08
12. Done done 3:43
13. Run away from trouble 7:53

Review:
Wasn't Frankmusik, aka Vincent Frank, on the Sound of 2008 list? It certainly feels as if he's been around for ages, constantly about to release this, his debut album. With Stuart Price helping out on the production controls, Complete Me is about as 'of it's time' as you can get, Frank seemingly created in some kind of pop laboratory; wacky haircut? Check. Mildly irritating falsetto? Check. '80s influence? Oh yes. The odd flash of pop genius? Thankfully, it's here in abundance.
If Dan Black's recently released ((un)) album was electropop trying to hard to be hip, then the music Frankmusik makes is pure, unadulterated, sugar-coated pop with a capital 'P'. In fact, at times, it can all be a bit too much, as saccharine melodies and cheery sentiments overload the songs themselves. Wonder Woman, for example, has a nice sentiment - essentially, even Wonder Woman had to take a break from being amazing - but it's almost too catchy, too needy.
More often than not though, Frank and Stuart Price hit the mark, not least on the run of songs that open the album. In Step is an odd concoction of stuttering beats, vocal samples and a deliciously staccato chorus, whilst recent single Better Off As Two is undeniably triumphant. Better still is the cheeky Gotta Boyfriend, which sums up the conundrum of multiple partners in a succinct lyric and with shimmering keyboards.
Elsewhere 3 Little Words and new single Confusion Girl are stellar, radio-friendly singalongs; whilst the hypnotic Done, Done shows Frank can do mean and moody if the song warrants it. In fact, much of Complete Me was written following a nasty break-up, so even the most hi-energy tracks are laced with sadness. Better Off As Two, for example, hinges on the brilliant lyric, "we were always trying to be stronger at our weakest points". It's a sentiment Neil Tennant would be proud of.
Two songs are based around recurring samples. The first, When You're Around, uses the riff from The Stranglers' Golden Brown, whilst Time Will Tell interpolates MARRS' Pump Up The Volume. It's the latter that works best, creating a genuinely fresh-sounding three minutes that builds and falls away with dramatic effect. It also harnesses another melancholic lyric about desperately trying to hold onto a relationship even though it's over.
It's this sense of genuine emotion that elevates Complete Me above most other electronic pop albums. Unlike Dan Black, or La Roux even, Frankmusik is able to translate genuine human emotion through his songs, creating a warmth where some electronic music can leave you cold. Strangely, he's not yet mastered the art of putting this skill to good use on the slower numbers. Songs such as Your Boy and Run Away From Trouble are pleasant enough but Frank's voice grates, whilst the title track ventures too far into power ballad territory.
It's actually quite hard to decide whether Complete Me is a dreadful pile of over-processed, overloaded frippery, or if it's a work of genius. It could purely come down to whether you've got the stomach for it. For me Complete Me is a clever, well crafted and painstakingly produced pop concoction. Vincent Frank may look like a bit of an idiot - that hair, those achingly hip clothes, the startled rabbit-in-the-headlights pose - but he sure knows how to write a pop song.

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Ohbijou - Beacons

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / pop / folk
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ohbijou
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~184]
Filesize: 63 MB
Uploaded: 12-09-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Intro to season 2:34
02. Wildfires 3:51
03. Black ice 3:41
04. Cliff jumps 5:04
05. Cannon march 4:48
06. Eloise and the bones 3:00
07. Thunderlove 3:43
08. New years 2:58
09. Make it gold 4:44
10. We lovers 4:54
11. Memoriam 5:45
12. Jailbird blues 2:54

Review:
For a few years now, it has been a widely-acknowledged fact/cliché that Canada has lately played home to a disproportionately high number of bands who are gently crafting elegant baroque pop. You wonder what they put in the water over there. Or perhaps the sneaky beggars did a surreptitious deal with Old Nick to make ‘Canadian’ such a rich and identifiable sub-genre.
Whatever means they employed to nurture such a handsome crop of bands, they’re still creaming off the dividends. Ohbijou is a case in point. Having started off as the solo endeavour of singer Casey Mecija, the band have gradually snowballed into a seven piece, and in this shape they arrive with their second album Beacons.
Although it’s a full band piece, on first impression Beacons appears to be little more than a vehicle for Mecija’s beautiful, delicate voice. Scratch the surface, and it becomes clear that the whole album has been painstakingly assembled piece by piece like a ship made from matchsticks, with Mecija’s voice being draped gently across a framework of lovely cello, piano and guitar. The gentle hooks gradually snare you further with each listen, like a more sedate Land Of Talk (Also Canadian, naturellement).
Of course, the fact that it is so lovingly crafted does not automatically make Beacons a good album. What does make it a good album is its emotional impact. It’s actually a little difficult to get past the loveliness of the vocals at first, and focus on the songs themselves, but once you do, it’s difficult not to be moved by the plaintive romanticism therein.
The album finds its emotional centrepiece in its sparsest song, 'Thunderlove'. The strings are dropped down a notch and we are left with just Mecija backed by a simple acoustic melody, delivering the song’s opening couplet in typically heartbreaking fashion, "Give me some loving / ‘Cos I’ve been thinking about dying under heavy snow".
Very occasionally, Ohbijou emphasise the orchestral element to their sound. 'Black Ice' and 'New Years' are both stirring examples of the impact they can make when they crank things up even a little bit. There are other instances (albeit scarce ones) where Mecija really casts off her inhibitions and her little girl lost voice soars into something more powerful. It’s perhaps a shame they don’t submit to these urges a couple of more times, because it might stop the album from running out of steam a little towards the end. It could also infuse a splash of variety and lift Beacons from being a very good album to a great one.
That said, there’s no denying that this is a beautiful, warm record. Ohbijou might not have made their classic yet, but they’re on the right path.

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David Kitt - The nightsaver

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie / electronic
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/davidkitt
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~189]
Filesize: 57 MB
Uploaded: 16-08-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Move it on 4:52
02. It's yours 4:10
03. Beat a retreat 3:09
04. Learning how to say goodbye 4:58
05. Alone like that 5:15
06. Use your eyes 2:35
07. A real fire 3:54
08. Nobody leaves 3:46
09. Don't wake me up 4:26
10. No truth in your eyes 4:50






Review:
Since his debut album, Small Moments, Kitt has struggled to put out a record that flows as well with the quiet spontaneity that he had perfected. But this, his sixth, feels like a far better fit than previous efforts. Injecting energy and some sounds which have overflowed from his Spilly Walker guise, along with his trademark voice-against-your-ear vocals, he's probably made his best album. Often with Kitt, there tends to be nice ambience to his sound but a space where serious sparks of emotion should be. You can't really say that of The Nightsaver, which is full of beautifully jaded jaunts blanketed with pleasant beats.
In The Nightsaver, Kitt flirts with pop, folk and electronica, tossing them together in an admirably cavalier fashion. There are more than obvious overtones of Tom Vek here, but the atmosphere of The Nightsaver has a more laconic, yielding feel than Vek's only album: 2004's We Have Sound. Kitt's vocals in particular are more melodic and less urgent in comparison, their languor setting an ethereal, laid-back mood.
It’s a real pop album, but without the naivety or shallowness that often goes along with that. Below the surface all songs are rather complex. David combines guitar melodies with layered vocals, warm synth pads, beats and samples but still manages to make it all sound modest and relaxed. This results in dreamy songs like “Don’t Wake Me Up”, as well as more danceable songs like “Nobody Leaves” and “Alone Like That”.
The dreamy relaxed feel, both to his voice and to the charismatic casio keyboard songwriting, gives this whole thing the feel of being invited back to his house after a late night out to hear his latest musical efforts shortly before a bedtime story, and a much needed sleep. The Nightsaver is completely comforting, from the night, for the night, made to usher in sweet dreams.

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Joker's Daughter - The last laugh

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie / electronica
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jokersdaughter
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~186]
Filesize: 54 MB
Uploaded: 29-08-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Worm's head 2:05
02. Jessie the goat 2:54
03. Go walking 3:44
04. Lucid 3:45
05. JD folk blues 1:40
06. The last laugh 2:08
07. Under the influence of Jaffa cakes 2:19
08. Jelly belly 2:05
09. Cake and July 3:04
10. Chasing ticking crocodile 3:17
11. Nothing is ever what it seems 3:44
12. The running goblin 3:18
13. The bull bites back 2:46
14. Yellow teapot 3:50


Review:
Given the preeminence of Danger Mouse's position as the producer with the midas touch and one half of Gnarls Barkley, it would be entirely understandable if singer and multi-instrumentalist, Helena Costas were to be somewhat overawed or perhaps, overshadowed by his considerable presence.
Yet far from being an uneven contest this is in fact a partnership of equals delivering an engagingly lavish set replete with quirky, off-centre atmospheres.
Whilst her lyrics frequently invoke a kooky magical realist vibe involving fairies, goblins, hooded men and walking trees, songs of real substance loom out of this fantastical ephemera.
Go Walking (arguably the best song ever written about Hadrian's Wall) and the poignant Nothing Is Ever What It Seems enthrall and inspire goosebumps. Like many of the current crop of breathy singer-songwriters, her voice wavers and swoons alarmingly, like a canary in a coal mine at times.
This quietly intense singing is often wreathed in exquisite string arrangements by Danger Mouse regular, Daniele Luppi, reminiscent in places of the way Robert Kirby's scores framed Nick Drake's introspective tones.
The album is dripping with the subdued, trippy pastoralism you find on albums by The Incredible String Band, Amazing Blondel or Trees. However, this rests comfortably alongside the squalls of day-glo 21st Century electronica that leech into The Last Laugh's sonic landscape.
However, the real star is not the production values but Costas herself, leaping from one improbable song to another, emanating a strange, alien grace and a beguiling dream-logic all its own.

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Sam Isaac - Bears

Year: 2009
Genre: pop / rock / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/samisaac
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~165]
Filesize: 56 MB
Uploaded: 29-08-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Bears 3:44
02. Come back home tonight 4:11
03. Fire, fire 3:40
04. Sticker, star & tape 3:17
05. Annie, why are you so angry 4:07
06. Sideways 3:47
07. Berlin 3:56
08. I traded my friends for you 3:35
09. Carbon dating 3:41
10. Calender 3:22
11. What good did that do 5:20
12. Apple tree 4:29




Review:
Sam Isaac’s self-released debut album Bears has taken an unexpectedly long time to see the light of day.
He’d been busily making a name for himself when he suddenly became seriously ill with a disease caught from a mackerel (that’s normally exclusive only to fish).
But having recovered, he set about completing the LP with extra relish and has delivered a collection of songs that range from earnest, hopeful love songs to rousing indie-pop efforts.
It’s not entirely successful and there are certainly some filler sounding songs among the material. But on the whole this marks the emergence of another interesting UK talent.
Songs like Come Back Home Tonight, with its twinkling piano, folksy guitars and “woo hoo/aah haa” melodies, and Fire Fire, which had 3,000 people singing along at the Latitude Festival, have already helped Isaac to generate a strong following.
And while they remain two of the highlights on the album, there’s plenty more where those came from.
Album opener and title track Bears is a nice entry point that slow-builds its way into your heart with a keen sense of melody, some subtly inter-woven guitar riffs and a really rousing chorus.
Sticker, Star And Tape is a foot-stomper of a rock-pop effort that’s brimming with energy and positivity, while Annie, Why Are You So Angry displays some welcome sensitivity and a nice sense of hopeful romanticism.
Berlin, meanwhile, trades guitar riffs and piano chords in suitably low-key, even vaguely melancholy fashion for another enchanting love song, and Calendar intricately builds to one of the more euphoric choruses. It’s another late highlight.
Just occasionally, songs such as I Traded My Friends For You and What Good Did That Do? dip in quality and sound more busker-ish and less polished. But even then, Isaac delivers them so earnestly that it’s hard not to find him endearing.
Bears is therefore a strong debut offering that deserves to shine a very bright spotlight on Sam Isaac.

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J. Tillman - Year in the kingdom

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie / acoustic
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jtillman
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V0 [~198]
Filesize: 50 MB
Uploaded: 15-08-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Year in the kingdom 2:39
02. Crosswinds 4:20
03. Earthly bodies 4:20
04. Howling light 3:35
05. Though I have wronged you 3:24
06. Age of man 5:15
07. There is no good in me 5:05
08. Marked in the valley 4:04
09. Light of the living 1:35







Review:
Year In The Kingdom unravels some kind of galactic wilderness. Tillman's 6th album lyrically borders on mystic; proffering a transcendent union, an effortlessness. Strange and honest, this song cycle inhabits it's own idea-scape; one seemingly obsessed with wrestling death. These are afterlife dialogues of a mysterious future. Celestial badlands.
Unknown to just about everyone, Tillman started recording in April, tracking most of the instruments during the two week session himself. Hammered dulcimer, banjo, recorder, cymbals of varying size and wheezing air organs all feature heavily and lend YITK it's bizarre scale, conjuring tidal shifts with tiny movements. The string arrangements, performed by Jenna Conrad, as well as transposed from Tillman's sung direction, were intended to rest on chords almost counter-intuitively, bringing to bloom complex, decontextualized tones. Most noticeable upon first listen, however, is the production itself. While most of Tillman's records evidence some shambolic home recording, YITK is undisturbed throughout. Out up front of the mix, and dry as a bone, Tillman's voice is featured in a way unlike any of his previous records.
YITK sounds liberated; it is far and away Tillman's most joyful work. Created with little input or context, it is seemingly disinterested in communicating much else than a meditation for the few who allow themselves to listen with an open heart.

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J. Tillman - Vacilando territory blues (2008/2009) [160cbr]
J. Tillman - Cancer and delirium (2008) [mutt]
J. Tillman - Minor works (2006) [192cbr]

The Mostar Diving Club - Don your suit of lights

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/themostardivingclub
Format: mp3
Bitrate: 160 / 192 cbr
Filesize: 37 MB
Uploaded: 08-08-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. In the garden of forever 3:28
02. Ghost train 1:46
03. The great explorers 3:22
04. The honey tree 2:17
05. The medicine show 3:17
06. Then came a thousand elephants 2:44
07. Tricky hands and radios 3:49
08. Vagabonds and clowns 3:20
09. With his new armour 2:23
10. You be me 3:05






Review:
The Mostar Diving Club is the solo project from the singer and song writer of Obi, Damian Katkhuda. Published by Chrysalis, The Mostar Diving Club is an outlet for some of Damian's more quirky and unconventional tunes and songs, and a chance for him to experiment with different instruments, unusual arrangements and his trade mark melodies. The songs on his latest offering, "Don Your Suit of Lights" were written in a woodland farmhouse in the south of France, isolated and tranquil, reflecting the mood of this charming debut solo album. Produced by Will Worsley, who was responsible for much of Obi's early output (including the single "Somewhere Nicer," which was a-listed on radio 2 and virgin and led to several European tours and festival performances) the album travels through many musical genres and contains everything from large scale productions "Vagabonds and Clowns," to just a simple guitar and vocal recorded in the garden, "There Goes My Mind (Plastic Girls)." Recorder orchestras, violins with trumpet attachments, bowed saws, accordions, harmoniums, glockenspiels, banjos, auto harps, and ukuleles are just a few of the instruments that Damian and producer Will tackled during the making and recording of this highly eclectic album. Amongst the many critics that have praised Damian's work, his Obi albums were described as "keys to the kingdom of lovely... an almost flawless example of up and downbeat folk pop story telling" in the Times. Mojo described "The Magic Land of Radio" as "utterly charming .... a melodic master-class", and metro said Diceman Lopez had "a sense of dreamy transportation to somewhere else. a lovely work." The name, The Mostar Diving Club is taken from a town in Bosnia, where his fathers family hail from; as a right of passage into adulthood, young men dive from an old bridge into a very shallow river below, a distance of some thirty meters, get it wrong and you are in serious trouble. Having made several trips to this part of the world, both before and after the war he has met with the divers and seen them do their stuff.

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Regina Spektor - Far

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / pop / folk / acoustic
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/reginaspektor
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~172]
Filesize: 66 MB
Uploaded: 08-08-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. The calculation 3:09
02. Eet 3:49
03. Blue lips 3:30
04. Folding chair 3:32
05. Machine 3:51
06. Laughing with 3:13
07. Human of the year 4:04
08. Two birds 3:14
09. Dance anthem of the 80's 3:40
10. Genius next door 5:03
11. Wallet 2:24
12. One more time with feeling 3:55
13. Man of a thousand faces (bonus track) 3:08
14. Time is all around (bonus track) 3:06
15. The sword & the pen (bonus track) 3:49

Review:
What does one do when faced with a spirit as elemental and electric as Regina Spektor? The natural response is an awestruck infatuation, at least if you’re a guy of a certain age. I’m not immune. I remember seeing her perform at a homecoming show at the Warsaw in Brooklyn. Afterwards, she swept past in a blur of red lipstick/brown curls, and my companion reflexively stuck out a hand. “Congratulations!” he said. “Thank you,” she said, not stopping. Years later, we both remember. She was a vision as present in that small moment as the larger-than-life figure of her music videos and magazine profiles.
Part of what makes her so addictive, of course, is the persona she has created from the beginning. On Songs and Soviet Kitsch, her characters are quirky but deep-feeling, and engage in the kind of stupidity and confusion most of us can easily identify with. There are messy love affairs, carefree odes to New York, and this unexpectedly sharp, flickering disdain for shallow people. At the same time, Spektor demonstrated early on that her cabaret-performer roots were just a springboard—the pop moments on Soviet Kitsch, e.g., are near-perfect. (And, oh, there’s “Us”.) Begin to Hope took these tendencies further, edging the balance of pop:quirk towards pop and, yeah, eliciting some squeals from the faithful at the saccharine pizzicati and sentimentality of some of the material. For all its mainstream orchestrations, the album retained a strong sense of character. And she still sang about little bags of cocaine and overdosing and this haunting loneliness of summer in the city—in other words, it was the same messy/vital Regina Spektor.
There’s a natural but sometimes depressing career path for singer-songwriters that starts in acidic idiosyncrasy and ends in balladry and confluent cliché. Spektor’s not there yet, but Far, her new album, will likely be criticized for its continuing drift towards the centre. In a short interview with PopMatters in 2007, Spektor said, “I love the people who were always changing, always looking for a new way forward. People like Madonna and Dylan, who’ve lasted for a long time because they make their own space and then bring us into it. People who can grow and change and take us with them.” The space she’s inhabiting now is less personal, more narrative. These are new characters: a frustrated waiter stuck in a small town; a humble church-goer; the owner of a lost wallet. As she delves into these often poignant subjects, though, Spektor is veering away from what made her most appealing in the first place—her own personality.
That’s probably why things feel different on Far. It’s as if the lightness across Begin to Hope were all drained up. No longer bouncing on pizzicato strings, Spektor instead chooses to return to the sedate piano accompaniments of her earlier work, filled out this time with synths, organ, or a growl of electric guitar. There is the occasional unexpected arrangement or vocal trick that we’ve come to expect from Spektor—most notably on a song called “Machine”. Filling the same slot as “Apres Moi”, the rattling piano bass arpeggii are this time accompanied by the crunch of distortion and a clicking percussion track. Then there’s the gloriously silly “The Folding Chair”, a persistent, attractive song that includes a dolphin impression. Incidentally, 2009 may be the year of aging hipsters imagining families; first it was
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone singing about raising the kids on “Schlitz and Mickey Mouse”, here it’s all safety-pinning pants and graffiting up toys.
Her song structures are also becoming more predictable—slow piano introduction, lite-radio percussion, fuller second chorus, perhaps a return to sedate coda. The two songs that have been circulating from the album pre-release, “Blue Lips” and “Laughing With”, are fine songs with something of Spektor’s skewed perspective, but they won’t be remembered as her best. And elsewhere, though there are a few flashes of her previous thrillingly inventive take on the genre, a few too many songs fall into familiar melodic and structural boxes.
Regardless of what critics end up saying about Far, it’s more or less guaranteed a positive reception from the fans who play guitar and sing into webcams and upload them to YouTube. Plenty of that went on post-Begin to Hope. But as she gets more widely known, more popular, Regina Spektor will paradoxically have to work harder to maintain that persona she’s built up over the past eight years. The old fans want that feeling of discovery again, the new ones can have their sweet melodies.

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Broken Records - Until the earth begins to part

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / rock
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/brokenrecordsedinburgh
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~167]
Filesize: 50 MB
Uploaded: 02-08-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Nearly home 5:37
02. If the news makes you sad, don't watch it 3:52
03. Until the earth beings to part 3:29
04. A promise 4:55
05. Thoughts on a picture (in a paper, January 2009) 4:04
06. If Eilert Loevborg wrote a song, it would sound like this 3:43
07. Wolves 3:25
08. Ghosts 3:57
09. A good reason 4:09
10. Slow parade 4:29






Review:
Until the Earth Begins to Part is the full-length debut from the band NME dubbed “the Scottish
Arcade Fire”. From the first track on, it’s easy to see how such a moniker could be given, but it’s also hard to see how it could be denied, so apt is the comparison. The violin’s prominence, swelling and fading throughout the opener, “Nearly Home”, does evoke the lush, string-filled ambience of that certain Canadian band, especially as vocalist Jamie Sutherland whimpers, “I had a good idea / Let’s lay these bones to rest.”
“If the News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch It” is a decidedly more Scottish number; the brass and the danceable beat construct a triumphantly vulnerable folk rhythm. Three minutes in, the song takes a turn and becomes a plaintive love song that showcases the vocalist’s skill for hitting a perfect falsetto at certain moments.
The title track is a bit slower to get started, especially with the song’s midsection being somewhat repetitive. By the finale of orchestral swells, though, the album is back on course and ready for the sparse piano ballad, “A Promise”, a song so perfectly full negative space that the Arcade Fire can only aspire to it. The quietness of the song also helps demonstrate Sutherland’s voice, which is so full of subtle complexities that it is often drowned out by fuller songs. Yet, the orchestra enters right on schedule three minutes in—it’s lovely, but it undoes the beauty of having a more sparse song amid such busy songs. “Thoughts on a Picture (In a Paper, January 2009)” features a melody eerily akin to the Arcade Fire’s “Intervention”, but the prominent brass and quasi battle-march that form quickly undo that point of reference. Once again, the repetitive nature of the lyrics as the song ebbs subtracts a bit from the song’s ethos, leaving the listener wondering whether the drama of one repeated lyric about bone-stealing has been earned.
“If Eilert Loevborg Wrote a Song Like This” is the most Scottish number on the album, made for folk-dancing. (To save you a Google search, the titular character is in the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler.) The following track, “Wolves”, is one of the most heart-wrenching songs on the album. The production is flawless, allowing both the violin and the vocals to soar, and bringing in more driving percussion at just the right point. The following song, “Ghosts”, is similarly relatively slow and quiet, with the bigger orchestration that enters (again at three minutes) more subtle than in most tracks on this album.
The penultimate track, “A Good Reason”, is the most rock-inflected one, featuring sharp percussive stabs and distorted electric guitars. The Scottish folk-sound kicks in soon as well, but including a more rocking song this late on the album still seems like an odd choice. It’s sure to be a live favorite and definitely could wake sleepy audiences, but after eight tracks that decidedly feature less standard rock elements, the song is a bit off-putting despite its palpable energy.
The closer, “Slow Parade”, is another perfectly fine song that would have been placed better elsewhere. “Slow Parade” is another excellent example of Sutherland’s falsetto, and the rise and fall of his timbre, paired with the crescendos and silences of the song, make for a particularly nice treat. Predictably, the song takes a bit of a turn three minutes in and turns into a vivid, nearly post-rock tsunami of ceremony.
Until the Earth Begins to Part is a very good album; each band member is skilled at his or her craft, and the album benefits from it. The fusion of Scottish folk with orchestral rock is nicely done and gives a unique edge to a band that will surely face the curse (albeit an earned one) of too many comparisons.

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The Low Anthem - Oh my God, Charlie Darwin

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie / americana
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lowanthem
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~176]
Filesize: 53 MB
Uploaded: 02-08-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Charlie Darwin 4:33
02. To Ohio 3:20
03. The horizon is a beltway 2:52
04. Home I'll never be 2:43
05. Ticket taker 3:07
06. To the ghosts who write history books 3:30
07. (Don't) tremble 4:39
08. Music box 1:51
09. Champion angel 5:35
10. Cage the songbird 4:03
11. OMGCD 2:08
12. To Ohio (reprise) 3:40

Review:
While enjoying the acclaim heaped upon finally-made-it Brooklynites Grizzly Bear, it’s been frustrating to read that so many mainstream music journalists attribute this success to the influence of Fleet Foxes. Animal incompatibility aside, most Grizzly Bear fans know that this is a fallacy, because the Bears have been making albums at least three years ahead of the Foxes, and if anything were amongst the first to hone that layered, Sixties-influenced vocal sound.
Still, the music industry deserves to bask in Fleet Foxes’ success. Not least because any independent record going platinum in our post-Spotify era is a cause for literal street-dancing. And we should brace ourselves for a period of time where any band from America using any hint of a harmony, or a musical reference to Neil Young, will be heralded as ‘the next Fleet Foxes’. It’ll be much like the time when anyone with both a full drum-kit, violinist and/or female backing singer, was the next Arcade Fire; a trick, you’ll remember, not even Arcade Fire managed to pull off the second time round.
But this is a tangent, arising from the fact that one week ago, on the arrival of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, Fleet Foxes were the last thing on my mind. Knowing very little about what I now understand to be three East Coast graduates, I had imagined The Low Anthem to be a group of slightly grizzled, almost middle-aged Americana stalwarts, rising through the ranks with the likes of Gillian Welch or Ryan Adams in their sights. I did not know that they were about to be handed the mantel of this year's version of last year's success, who also happen to be their label-mates. I noticed that they were on Bella Union, but, in spite of the label's increasingly on-the-pulse roster, I assumed The Low Anthem to be back-burners, meant for a more mature audience, and not expected to sell.
How wrong was I? According to every major newspaper this week, this band is set to be one of the major indie breakthroughs of the summer, with dates at all the big festivals, a sell-out show at the Union Chapel, lots and lots of glowing reviews, and, of course, a heap of Fleet Foxes comparisons from the likes of Uncut and Steve Lamacq. Furthermore, my image of them couldn't have been more wrong. Instead of Gallon Drunk after a bar-fight, they're all preppy and fresh-faced, like Vampire Weekend after a shower. They met while studying at the exclusive Browns University, and one of them is classical composer in her 20s. None of these things are bad, it just required a re-appraisal of how I viewed the album. Surely a record thats charm lay in its apparent authenticity would be compromised by the acute marketability and nowishness of its authors?
Wrong again. Part of what makes this album so compelling is purity, and purity, when done well, is hard to knock. Recorded to unfashionably high standards, the album spans several facets of traditional Americana, from bluegrass to country to choral, and has a loose theme running through it of American history, beginning with references to the Mayflower on opener 'Charlie Darwin'. With its adherence to the traditional, this could easily be completely unremarkable, were it not for its consistent quality, which is perhaps where the band's youth comes into play. The lyrics are always just on the philosophical side of standard, and the music is always on the experimental side of orthodox, using the palate of their genre in slide guitar, harmonica, squeezebox and organ, but always manipulating them to the right level of interesting. It's notable therefore, that the other most voiced comparison should be with Tom Waits, because this album has a great deal of similarities with Scarlett Johansson's recent album of Tom Waits covers, right down to a track backed only by music box.
What I fail to see, is what it has in common with Fleet Foxes, besides all the vocal harmonies, which neither band invented. With the former's album produced with highly-credible Shins producer Phil Ek, I imagine they would have balked had someone offered them a style as polished as The Low Anthem's. And any listener fed a diet of recent US indie, be it Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Yeasayer or anything like it, will be shocked by the sentimentality of The Low Anthem's sound. But I'm telling you, just see it through. There's something quite brave in the decision, and it may remind you that - awesome as the fertility of the US leftfield is - there's other music out there to enjoy. It also suits the songs in a way that a cooler, more art-house sound wouldn't have.
One criticism you could make of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (shortened mischeviously on one track to 'OMGCD') is the difference between the two modes of the album. One is the solemn, hymn-like folk numbers, as exemplified by new single 'To Ohio', some of which are so pious they sound like musical parables; the other is the raucous, celebratory loud ones that are so-fucking-American it’s like watching the Superbowl on a Mississippi steamboat while winning the War of Independence, while super, super drunk. So different are these in style that at first you'll wonder if it's two bands that are playing them, but as you get to know the album you'll see how they fit together. Between them they form a wide tapestry of American iconography, from the first settlers of 'Charlie Darwin', across the great expanses of the Midwest in 'Oh Ohio', to the hobo spirit of 'Home I'll Never Be', and, beneath them all, a wild romantic heart. And with this all-encompassing view of their culture in mind, it starts to seem apt that it should have been assembled by the graduates of the Ivy League, more so because of the scholarly aspect of collecting history. And the fact that the two founding members bonded over a love of baseball makes the picture complete, like the musical cadences employed by the band in their songs, that leave the listener awash with comfort and the sense of homecoming.
So, while the Fleet Foxes references still don't sit well with this reviewer, the other cliche -comparison to Tom Waits - works for this very reason. Just as Waits has the power to infuse you with familiarity with the return of a chord, so do the songs of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, like an embroidered pillow on an old porch that says ‘home sweet home’.

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Bowerbirds - Upper air

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bowerbirds
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~197]
Filesize: 49 MB
Uploaded: 11-07-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. House of diamonds 2:58
02. Teeth 4:11
03. Silver clouds 4:30
04. Beneath your tree 3:41
05. Ghost life 5:23
06. Northern lights 2:54
07. Chimes 4:18
08. Bright future 4:01
09. Crooked lust 4:04
10. This day 3:08






Review:
Bowerbirds shouldn't work. A boyfriend and girlfriend, he equipped with acoustic guitar, she with accordion, singing intensely earnest songs redolent of natural imagery that espouse with near-monomaniacal zeal a belief in the deep interconnectedness of human beings, animals, and the Earth. At a glance the whole thing smacks of hippie bullshit, but Phil Moore and Beth Tacular aren't trying to guilt you into making a donation to PETA, and they sure as shit aren't trying to take you on some lysergic-fueled trip. Certainly these guys have a particular worldview, but it's largely because of that purity of vision that the group's music succeeds, creating an immersive listening experience that can yield beauty and magic for anyone who isn't wholly given over to cynicism.
Bowerbirds' second LP, Upper Air, is nearly a carbon copy of its predecessor, Hymns for a Dark Horse. I'm going to let the band off the hook for the holding pattern; in the meantime, we'll simply revel in the general loveliness of these 10 compositions, which utilize the debut's blueprints in the creation of sublime melodies, absorbing lyricism and delicate harmonic interplay.
As I said before, listening to Bowerbirds demands immersion. It's not hard to scoff at a line like "At the margins of the land I get to know your skin" or "I live in your tall tree amongst your fearless leaves" if you're only dipping a toe. However, once you surrender to the group's internal logic, its values and ways of speech, the effect is routinely mesmerizing, not to mention far wiser and more self-aware than you'd expect at first blush. Take "Teeth", where Tacular's accordion seems to teeter between sorrow and resilience while the words offer the matching promise of "a brilliant flame in a dark time." Or "Northern Lights", which grounds its flights of fancy ("I don't need from you a waterfall of careless praise") in faintly Zeppelin III-ish acoustic strumming and the great line, "I don't expect a Southern girl to know the Northern Lights." Once you've surrendered to Bowerbirds' verdant landscapes and convinced yourself they're not so drastically different from your own, it's suddenly not so hard to follow Moore as he spirals out tendrils of imagery like "Further up in the Ponderosa/ The nervous coyotes caterwauling their choruses."
Above all else, two moments stand out, and mostly rectify the fact that the middle third of the album is sparse on melodies and the closer ("This Day") is a dull dud. Aside from providing a great potential name for a Pavement cover band, "Crooked Lust" finds Moore compellingly stretching outside his usual vocal range atop subtly entrancing marimbas. Meanwhile, "Silver Clouds" perhaps constitutes the most beautiful thing Bowerbirds have yet committed to record, as Moore's voice dips and breaks in all sorts of spine-tingling ways, cautioning, "You could move like a silver cloud through the skies/ You could move like a secret and slip past my life." It's just another fragile, evocative snapshot of an insular world that's paradoxically as big as all outdoors.

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Bowerbirds - Hymns of a dark horse (2008) [V0]

The Rumble Strips - Welcome to the walk alone

Year: 2009
Genre: pop / rock / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/rumblestripsuk
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~171]
Filesize: 39 MB
Uploaded: 11-07-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Welcome to the walk alone 2:45
02. London 3:10
03. Not the only person 2:21
04. Daniel 2:58
05. Douglas 2:38
06. Back bone 3:11
07. Sweet heart hooligan 1:54
08. Running on empty 2:28
09. Dem girls 2:56
10. Raindrops 3:50
11. Happy hell 3:24





Review:
On early singles and subsequent debut album Girls And Weather, there was a Dexy’s Midnight Runners-shaped hole that The Rumble Strips would be popped into for ease of categorisation. Nice snug fit it was too. But then, how could you not think of Kevin Rowland's feverish new soul vision when there were Charlie Waller’s aching and elastic vocals sat atop a horn section that propelled and shook every track?
Yet a deeper look would reveal, as it always tends to, that any similarities were really just skin deep. In Rip It Up And Start Again Simon Reynolds describes Dexy’s as an outfit whose militaristic routines and high sense of collectivised purpose could only ever result in absolute devotion or derision.
The Rumble Strips however seemed to be the complete antithesis of this straight-faced front. There was still passion but also wit and warmth and no trace of Dexy’s ‘emotional fascism’, instead just sounding like a group of battered and bruised romantics that have gotta keep dancing to keep from cryin'.
However, the one major similarity comes from Reynolds throwaway description of the Dexy’s sound as ‘pugilistic’. This goes a little way to describing the music of Rowland and the gang, but absolutely nails Girls And Weather. Listening again with this description in mind, you notice the intermittent jabs of drum and brass and nervy scratch of the guitar, the way most songs will drift and hold back, taking their time before erupting in full flow. However, on follow-up Welcome To The Walk Alone, there is little explicit trace of this bare-knuckled debut sound.
It isn’t a change that would hit too much by listening to recent releases 'London' or 'Not The Only Person'. Hear them with the crackle of the radio and you wouldn’t think that too much has transformed at all, but the album's opening title track tells you everything about how their sound has developed. It begins with a slow and steady, sober pound of brass and piano. This falls away to Waller’s restrained vocals set to a steady beat and tambourine echo that soon gets caught by sweeping, shivering strings and groaning brass. It’s far less dramatic and frenetic but with definite echoes of 'The Seventh Seal', opener to Scott Walker's Scott 4.
So if the focus of Girls And Weather was punching Sixties soul and swinging rock'n'roll, then Welcome To The Walk Alone mostly moves its focus towards a broader Sixties pop sound. The album is scattered with more luscious Walker strings, bobbing Beatles brass and woozy Bowie piano lines. When the guitars and drums gallop and the strings soar, it’s an attempt at a more dramatic, and in some instances almost cinematic, sound. ‘Daniel’ again goes for more ‘Seventh Seal’-style epicness, while there’s an elegantly icy Bond feel about album closer ‘Happy Hell’, and ‘Back Bone’ arrives with a flurry of fluttering Hitchcockian menace. But these sumptuous orchestral strokes don’t completely dominate the album. The aforementioned releases rattle by with the dynamic ardour of the first record, as does the frantic ‘Running On Empty’, with ‘Sweetheart Hooligan’ a simple and delicate gin-soaked lullaby that slows things to a canter. ‘Douglas’, a lilting summer waltz that comes halfway through the record, is probably the perfect example of the newly-developed sound and one of the album's highlights alongside the title track.
The lyrics, on the whole, seem to contribute less of the happy-go-lucky atmosphere that scattered the first album. There’s no-one getting satisfaction from a boozy afternoon spent looking at the clouds, but instead the album is bookended by allusions to the hell that awaits us and the slow walk it will take to get there. Whereas the protagonist of the first album daydreamed about his bicycle transforming into a motorbike so he could escape, this time on ‘Running On Empty’, the bike is here but its lack of fuel leaves him sodden and stranded at the side of the road, crying out at those idly passing by.
It doesn’t necessarily feel like a strict attempt to reach for seriousness, but the difference is evident nonetheless. With the appropriation of this new pop sound but the preservation of the band's natural punch, the tension is always between the grand and the epic and the scrappy and spirited, but, with Waller's vocals as the glue that binds it all, on the whole it’s a pretty seamless marriage. Though you can draw a comfortable comparison to The Last Shadow Puppets (Owen Pallot having arranged the orchestras on both records), WTTWA isn’t a complete absorption of galloping, glistening orchestral drama and slick ballads, and that’s the key to the album's success. For the first record they always sounded like they were tearing up a seedy backroom, needing to play as loud and as fast as possible to be heard over the smash of glass and the indomitable buzz of the boozed up clientele. Here that same innate passion is retained, but supplemented by the new musical tricks.
So while many artists’ may dread that ‘difficult second album’, The Rumble Strips have managed to combat the whole process quite brazenly. They’ve tweeked their sound a little, grown somewhat more epic (perhaps thanks to the Ronson), but all the while, have managed to maintain that key sense of happiness and fun.

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Scott Matthews - Elsewhere

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/scottmatthewsmusic
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~171]
Filesize: 64 MB
Uploaded: 11-07-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Underlying lies 5:27
02. Jagged melody 4:15
03. Suddenly you figure out 4:48
04. Fractured 4:03
05. 12 harps 5:01
06. Speeding slowly 4:03
07. Into the firing line 3:42
08. Up on the hill 5:35
09. Elsewhere 5:01
10. Fades in vain 7:04
11. Nothing's quite right here 3:24





Review:
Scott Matthews’ debut album, 2006’s Passing Stranger, was a remarkably big record for a virtually unknown solo artist. Its seventeen tracks covered a variety of genres, including folk, blues, and pop-rock, and Matthews seemed capable of playing all of them effortlessly well. The album did not chart well, but it was well-received by critics and its lead single, the Jeff Buckley-esque “Elusive,” got a fair amount of radio play in Matthews’ native England and went on to win the 2007 Ivor Novello award for “Best Song Musically and Lyrically.” With a growing fan base and sudden expectations to be the next great singer/songwriter, Matthews returned to the studio and has now delivered his follow-up album, Elsewhere.
If its title doesn’t make it obvious, the first drum beats of the opening track “Underlying Lies” immediately introduce a tone darker than anything found on Passing Stranger. Matthews is backed by a full band and a string section for this moody piece, and while the music swells and the strings take over for the instrumental conclusion, the song never gets anywhere near being pretty. The lyrics follow suit, as Matthews croons “spare me your bull***” to open the chorus, which is a line that should surprise any fans of his debut. The song works fairly well, but it turns out to be a red herring as only two of the remaining ten tracks could reasonably be called rock songs. The first of these is the lead single “Fractured,” which features grungy, chugging guitars in its chorus and gives Scott a chance to flex his vocals cords a bit more than usual. It’s a good song that stands out as the hardest-rocking song he’s written, but it works better on its own than as a part of the album, where it feels out of place around the mostly-intimate music. The other is “Into the Firing Line,” which recalls “The Fool’s Fooling Himself” in its up-tempo, drum driven nature, but it is lighter and ultimately not as good as that excellent track from Matthews’ debut.
The first half of the album also features a trio of wonderful, gentle folk songs. “Jagged Melody” provides a nice change of pace from the preceding “Underlying Lies,” in both its simpler arrangement and more hopeful lyrics. “Speeding Slowly” is one of the catchier songs on the album, and while it utilizes the full band and strings again, this time the arrangement is much more melodic and lush. Finally, there is the song that got the most press prior to the album’s release, “12 Harps,” a duet with the legendary Robert Plant, who, like Matthews, is a native of Wolverhampton. The song is just the voices, acoustic guitar, and some ambience, and it works wonderfully as Plant’s aged, frailer voice nicely compliments Matthews’ younger and more robust one. It is the highlight of the album and one of the best songs Matthews has written, and would even have been a highlight on a few Led Zeppelin albums, where it would not have sounded too out of place.
The problem with this album comes in the second half. After the aforementioned and average “Into the Firing Line,” the remaining four tracks suffer from a lack of variety and hooks of any kind. Scott Matthews has proven he can make very good folk songs with just his voice and guitar, but if one’s not paying attention, the last 21 minutes of this album can pass by without much notice. “Up on the Hill” is probably the best of these, but five minutes after it’s over it’s hard to recall anything about it. In fact, while Elsewhere is still a pretty good album, there is a noticeable lack of variety on it as a whole, and it takes a few listens before the better songs set themselves apart from the rest. Considering how well he pulled off multiple genres on his debut, it’s a bit disappointing that he decided to make this album reside mostly within one genre, with basically no bluesy or poppy numbers to be found. It’s tough to say if he’s playing it safe or trying to make a more serious artistic statement, probably the latter, but hopefully on his future albums he will bring back some of the fun and humor of Passing Stranger and draw from more of his wide array of influences.

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Scott Matthews - Passing stranger (2006) [~144]

Golden Silvers - True romance

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thegoldensilvers
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~189]
Filesize: 58 MB
Uploaded: 27-06-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Another universe 4:52
02. True no9 blues 3:33
03. Magic touch 4:05
04. My love is a seed that doesn't grow 4:05
05. Here comes the king 4:05
06. Shakes 3:52
07. Queen of the 21st century 5:01
08. Please Venus 5:01
09. Arrows of Eros 5:39
10. Fade to black 2:50






Review:
This album features a song that could well be the single of the year. True No9 Blues (True Romance) is a joyous amalgam of glam, funk and electro with a dash of modern-day synth pop thrown in for good measure. It sounds like Prince fronting Spandau Ballet, remixed by Nile Rodgers. Lyrically it's utter nonsense - "love your brothers and sisters" - which only makes it that much more uplifting, especially when you find yourself wailing the chorus whilst playing 'air keyboard' in a packed tube train.
But we're not reviewing the single, rather the accompanying album, which after all that promise is something of a minor let down. Unfortunately there's nothing as inventive or exuberant as the (near) title track. But perhaps we need some perspective though. This is, after all, their debut album and though there are faults there are also enough signs that they know what it takes to make a good pop song. Plus, in front man Gwylim they have a focal point, a man who dresses like a psychedelic street urchin, dances exuberantly behind his keyboard (they don't have a guitarist) and whose voice resembles the London lilt of Elvis Costello were he to gargle marbles. Words don't just tumble from his mouth; they seem to flop out, almost lazily.
Opener Another Universe is a brilliant introduction, all dramatic synth strings, pounding drums and twinkling piano. Just as you begin to settle, the chorus lurches up - reminiscent of Super Furry Animals at their most symphonic - before a juddering, machine-gun beat adds a dash of danger. Magic Touch and Arrows of Eros are equally brilliant, the former utilising a penchant for delicious three-part harmonies, whilst the latter features a delirious keyboard riff that actually makes you laugh.
Credit must also go to producer Lexxx (Crystal Castles, Esser), who helps create surprises at every turn, from the minute long coda on Arrows of Eros that is best described as a horn section in meltdown, to the undulating beat that underpins the melancholy The Seed.
Things go slightly awry, however, when the band dip their toes in the forbidden waters marked 'jaunty'. Queen of the 21st Century is pretty awful, a mess of do-wop backing vocals, Vaudeville piano flurries and a neon sign that reads MOR in ten foot letters. The 50 seconds of keyboard noise tagged onto the end hints they might have heard it themselves.
So, is True Romance merely one killer single and a load of filler? No. Does it live up to the quality of its lead single? No. But somewhere inbetween exists an album bristling with invention, a debut that harks back to '70s-era David Bowie, the synth-lead pop of the '80s and the effortless merging of the two in bands such as Mystery Jets and The Long Blondes. Plus, if you get bored, there's always that single to go back to.

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My Toys Like Me - Where we are

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / electronic / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mytoyslikeme
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~171]
Filesize: 54 MB
Uploaded: 20-06-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Superpowers 3:58
02. Sick couple 3:48
03. Sweetheart 3:33
04. Barnaby 3:41
05. All over my face 3:19
06. Grin & wriggle 5:39
07. Making fire 3:42
08. Skylights 4:25
09. Quiet please 4:16
10. Bats 3:53
11. Young lovers 3:54

Review:
My Toys Like Me is a strange hybrid of indie pop, dub and trip hop. It seems that in today’s misery of diminishing genre returns, the only way to stand out is to mix as many sounds together as possible, throwing in your entire record to the mix, meaning that every new record these days seems to be ‘eclectic.’ My Toys Like Me are an interesting proposition, despite the unnecessary many ways people try to describe them. Imagine ‘Ponderosa’s Tricky trying to make a dance album with Martina Topley-Bird still doing vocals for him and you get an idea of what My Toys Like Me are like.
‘Superpowers’, their single, skitters along witha two-fingered instinct, pumping and off-kilter with child-like lost vocals of singer Frances Noon. ‘Sick Couple’ contains some evil violin following a couple falling out of love through alcohol. It clitters and threatens to lift off. ‘All Over My Face’ has the smooth feel of trip hop and the bounce of goodtime Bristol music, slightly mariachi in its dub threat. Enough interesting things happen on this album to keep you interested throughout, despite it never really realising its full potential in pace and power. It’s good, catchy and as endearing as Martina Topley-Bird once was on ‘Ponderosa.’ An interesting and playful debut showing British music to, once again, be the sum of a lot of parts and influences, a brave attempt to create a boisterous mix.

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My Latest Novel - Deaths & entrances

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / rock
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mylatestnovel
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~197]
Filesize: 70 MB
Uploaded: 20-06-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. All in all in all is all 5:24
02. Dragonhide 5:00
03. Lacklustre 4:03
04. I declare a ceasefire 4:47
05. A dear green place 5:13
06. Argument against the man 3:32
07. Man against the argument 1:32
08. If the accident will 5:58
09. Hopelessly endlessly 4:50
10. Reappropriation of the meme 3:26
11. The greatest shakedown 5:54

Review:
One of the earliest and best adopters of the baroque-pop movement, Greenock's My Latest Novel, seemed to have vanished off the radar after their well-received debut Wolves which mixed the soaring histrionics of Win Butler with a much earthier Scottish folk element. While a little rough around the edges, the record promised much more from a band that, if nothing else, didn't lack ambition.
After a gap of three years, then, it wouldn't be surprising to find that new record Deaths and Entrances felt a little behind the times. That it doesn't is as much to do with the band's skill at crafting beautiful, if not a little frustrating, melodies as it is to do with a large cross-section of the rock industry's biggest bands (Coldplay and Snow Patrol the worst culprits) still playing catch-up with Montreal's finest recent musical exports.
Deaths And Entrances - named after a volume of Dylan Thomas poetry (there's a literate element at work here, which we'll come to in a minute) is a marked step up in both songwriting confidence and production values for the quintet from their debut, but luckily it still retains some of the pastoral quality that set that record apart from the raft of similar-sounding acts around at the time.
Album opener All In All In All Is All begins with a wash of warm static before diving into a pounding, three-part harmonised track with frontman Chris Deveney's whisky n' fags baritone delivery of lines like "I'm at war/ With thoughts of dragging you down with me" bouncing perfectly off his fellow bandmates voices.
This and one of the record's poppiest moments, Argument Against The Man, are where Arcade Fire's influences lie most heavy, but there is a constant, deliberately stirring, anthemic quality that can be also be heard in fellow Scottish 'Fire worshippers Broken Records. It's no coincidence that the band's most likely breakthrough hit I Declare A Ceasefire is built around the same piano line as Rebellion (Lies) and is My Latest Novel's simplest track by some margin.
One thing that must be said about the record is that it makes more sense listened to as a whole than as individual tracks. Either by accident or design, Deaths And Entrances takes a couple of listens to fully appreciate what the band are trying to achieve, and often the songs' best melodies can creep up on you without warning. The fact that If The Accident Will takes two and a half minutes to get going, for example, before finally bursting into a glorious, cacophonous mess that echoes Doves' best single There Goes The Fear, can either be seen as individual and intelligent songwriting or really bloody annoying, depending on how long you're willing to give the record.
There are other criticisms that can be levelled against My Latest Novel, of course. The album can feel a little one-note, especially on first listen, and if you're not willing to put up with a band wallowing in slightly portentous flag-waving then you'd best have a skim through on Spotify before deciding to invest. But give it time, and a picture of a band going about their business slowly, steadily and confidently will begin to emerge.

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Metric - Fantasies

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / pop / electronic
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/metric
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~212]
Filesize: 65 MB
Uploaded: 07-06-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Help I'm alive 4:46
02. Sick muse 4:17
03. Satellite mind 3:43
04. Twilight galaxy 4:53
05. Gold, guns and girls 4:06
06. Gimme sympathy 3:54
07. Collect call 4:46
08. Front row 3:35
09. Blindness 4:26
10. Stadium 4:13






Review:
Emily Haines is not the first lady of Canadian pop. She's not even the first lady of revolving-door double-figure Canadian indie collective Broken Social Scene (in which she has regularly featured, along with Metric's guitarist James Shaw) - that privilege on both counts goes to Leslie Feist whose alt torch balladry was deservedly jerked into the worldwide consciousness by an iPod ad a couple of years ago. But she has, with a careful solo record (Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton's "Knives Don't Have Your Back"), Metric's synth-underpinned indie stomp and various cameos, been gathering the kind of cult lauding over the past few years that threatens to teeter over into something much bigger at any moment.
A major growth spurt came with their last album's biggest single "Monster Hospital". Though it was as infuriating as it was infectious, being some sort of riot grrl bubblegum reworking of The Clash's version of "I Fought The Law" and a little too obvious for it, it was voted for insatiably by the MTV2 crowd and did them a lot of favours. The album at least perpetuated the excitement, being a proponent of measured and tuneful bedlam, at its best sounding like The Breeders on space-hoppers but rarely bouncing hard enough to leave a firm impression. Which is where "Fantasies" comes in.
Haines herself has previously been a tricky one to get a handle on; a plainly dedicated vocalist with a sly poetic grasp to boot, but with such a ruthless, almost emotionless, delivery it's been hard to buy into her. Here though, like on her pared back solo record, she's softened the edges just enough for you to find a way in and it pretty much liberates the whole record.
The transformation overall is nothing short of terrific. Though the core components remain identical to 2005's "Live It Out" - chunky beats, clean melodic runs, a slightly boisterous edge, equal dancefloor/headphones compatibility - their own quality benchmark is splintered within moments of "Help I'm Alive" opening with near-industrial beats and overlapping Yeah Yeah Yeahs angularity, and they barely fall beneath that line for ten towering tracks.
From the dream-pop enormity of "Sick Muse", virtual waterfall pyrotechnics powering all the way through its honeysuckle chorus, to glam arse-wiggler "Stadium Love" and the kind of blissful-slick '80s pop that The Killers haven't re-struck since their first album on "Gimme Sympathy", it's like skyscraper dominos from start to finish. And these tracks are the rule, not the exception.

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The Maccabees - Wall of arms

Year: 2009
Genre: rock / indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/themaccabees
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~187]
Filesize: 50 MB
Uploaded: 07-06-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Love you better 3:21
02. One hand holding 3:02
03. Can you give it 2:55
04. Young lions 3:00
05. Wall of arms 3:04
06. No kind words 3:40
07. Dinosaurs 3:16
08. Kiss and resolve 3:08
09. William powers 3:31
10. Seventeen hands 3:50
11. Bag of bones 4:41





Review:
Bookish tendencies are by no means a bad thing, but there’s always been an air of wimpy feyness about The Maccabees that suggests Orlando Weeks and his crew spent their art-school days stalking the corridors like nerve-wracked velociraptors, bobbing their heads appreciatively at fetching pairs of clogs. So while 2007 debut ‘Colour It In’ was a commendable set of art-pop confections, it was short on bite and big on cutesy, cuddly songs with titles like ‘Toothpaste Kisses’. The solution? Simple: The Maccabees have ‘gone dark’. Or at least, darker.
By now you’re probably familiar with ‘No Kind Words’, given away as a free download and a genuine departure for the band, with Weeks’ dispassionate delivery about “Tempting disaster, testing water with another’s daughter” and Rupert Jarvis’ oscillating bassline lending a sense of gloom to proceedings. Suddenly there’s lovelorn cynicism where once there was doe-eyed optimism and songs about swimming pools, and this suits them a lot better.
If nothing else quite matches ‘No Kind Words’, a lot comes close. ‘Colour It In’ was troubled by lack of cohesion; as Weeks himself has admitted, it felt like a collection of songs rather than an actual album, and a lot of them were merely pleasant diversions until the next single came along. That’s not the case with ‘Wall Of Arms’; from the anguished opener ‘Love You Better’ on, this feels more complete than its predecessor. There are subtle Arcade Fire influences (no doubt encouraged by ‘Neon Bible’ producer Markus Dravs) on the military march of ‘Can You Give It’ and the scratchy ‘Seventeen Hands’, while ‘One Hand Holding’ has a whimsical ’80s pop feel that’s underscored by more inner turmoil (“Why would you kill it before it dies?” demands Weeks). In fact, only when they revert to their puppyish former ways – like the title track, or the hatefully nice ‘Dinosaurs’ – is the spirit of Athlete terrifyingly summoned, like some over-amiable djinn from the ether.
That aside, ‘Wall Of Arms’ sounds mostly effortless and unstudied. No longer too pop to be art and too art to be pop, The Maccabees are evolving into their own entity.

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Red Light Company - Fine fascination

Year: 2009
Genre: rock / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/redlightcompany
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~222]
Filesize: 60 MB
Uploaded: 31-05-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Words of spectacular 3:41
02. Scheme Eugene 3:25
03. Arts & crafts 4:14
04. First we land 2:50
05. With lights out 4:11
06. New Jersey television 3:40
07. The architect 3:38
08. Meccano 3:16
09. When everyone is everybody else 4:51
10. The alamo 3:41






Review:
Continent spanning perfectionist quintet Red Light Company finally decide the time is prime to display their unashamedly populist debut wares.
Red Light Company are a stadium band in waiting. Their single Meccano is already linked with the terraces courtesy of Football Focus, and its companion tracks on Fine Fascination lend themselves to nothing if not a big crowd and the open sky.
Formed from an ad less than two years ago - an ad that was evidently so appealing that it drew bassist Shawn away from his native Wyoming via a protracted visa problem - the band are a truly eclectic bunch with roots in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Scotland, Wales and, less exotically, commuter belt Maidenhead.
Their lack of shared history compensated for by an extensive and deliberately instigated period of rehearsals during which they made no live appearances, the band finally launched themselves with the tellingly polished single With Lights Out. Meccano followed, but it was the anthemic indie of Scheme Eugene, with its emphatic singalong chorus, "what you don't have, you won't miss it when you're gone", that really pricked the ears of those outside the realms of new bands list compilers and industry scenesters.
Mainstream commercial success is surely only a matter of time: fourth single Arts and Crafts is keys-heavy and just inventive enough in its chorus to catch the attention and stick. When Everyone Is Everybody Else seems to mix the emotive elements of Coldplay's Yellow and Blur's The Universal, while The Alamo is cleverly descriptive in its galloping pace.
Already lightly blessed by good time associations, this album is primed and ready to go down for prosperity as the soundtrack of many people's 2009.

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The Leisure Society - The sleeper

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / folk / americana
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theleisuresociety
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~164]
Filesize: 46 MB
Uploaded: 23-05-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Give yourself a fighting chance 3:33
02. The sleeper 3:51
03. The last of the melting snow 3:33
04. A short weekend begins with longing 3:17
05. We were wasted 2:56
06. Save it for someone who cares 4:02
07. The darkest place I know 3:50
08. Are we happy 2:54
09. Come to your senses 2:31
10. A matter of time 6:03
11. Love's enormous wings 2:31





Review:
Released just as the daffodils are on the wane, the confident debut album by this Brighton/London-based group suggests they've been hard at work over the winter, in spite of their moniker. The Sleeper is lush, pastoral and very English, but also peppered with wistful American influences from simpler times – most obviously the 1960s. Though occasionally twee and chocolate box pretty, it's garlanded with lovely melodies that soon anchor themselves in the memory.
Singer/multi-instrumentalist Nick Hemming (ukulele, mandolin, banjo, guitar) and keyboardist Christian Hardy form the core of the group, with impressive arrangements also featuring strings, flute, pedal steel, glockenspiel, and thumb piano among other instruments. Hemming's voice is easy on the ear,
whether unadorned or cloaked in close harmonies that sometimes echo The Beatles. The closest comparison might be The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon – without the sardonic humour – but there are other times where both his tone and the tunes suggest influences as diverse as Squeeze, The Kinks and Teenage Fanclub.
The Leisure Society's debut single The Last Of The Melting Snow is a swooning, instantly accessible waltz and was deservedly lapped up by BBC radio at the end of last year. New single A Matter Of Time is even better – an ambitious, multi-layered song that unfolds over six minutes with the inexorable, melodic logic of all great pop music.
The album does sag significantly on its second half, beginning with The Darkest Place I Know (where style wins out over content), the lightweight ditty Are We Happy? and the pleasant but unexceptional country chug of Come To Your Senses.
But there are enough other highlights to ensure The Sleeper adds up more than two great singles and some filler. The post-apocalyptic nature imagery of the title track hints at Fleet Foxes, while A Short Weekend Begins With Longing sounds like a lost artefact from San Francisco’s Summer Of Love. We Were Wasted shamelessly nicks the guitar motif from Leonard Cohen's The Stranger Song to nifty effect, and the euphoric rush of Love's Enormous Wings has a satisfying sense of resolution, which makes it a fitting closer.

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Patrick Wolf - The bachelor

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / electronic / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/officialpatrickwolf
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V0 [~245]
Filesize: 93 MB
Uploaded: 23-05-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Kriespiel 0:47
02. Hard times 3:33
03. Oblivion 3:24
04. The bachelor 3:13
05. Damaris 5:28
06. Thickets 4:08
07. Count of casualty 5:03
08. Who will 3:31
09. Vulture 3:22
10. Blackdown 5:22
11. The sun is often out 3:33
12. Theseus 4:40
13. Battle 3:07
14. The messenger 3:39


Review:
Still young, free-thinking, still excavating into new depths and territories, amazingly Patrick Wolf's career has barely started. But since 'Lycanthropy', the head-turning debut he released at the tender age of twenty, it's fair to say he's been under pressure. In truth, Wolf spent a good eight years going in and out of writing and recording his masterpiece, his breakthrough. Ever since he's had a hungry loyal fanbase, widening from one country to another. It came to a stage when he had more people to please as each day passed...and he lost it. Patrick locked himself away in his London flat for weeks.
Thankfully he returned, refreshed after a walk with his family on the South Downs, convinced that he had to write about the period, not because he was short on inspiration, but because he simply had to go back to writing on a personal level. 'The Bachelor' covers one half of Patrick's last two years, the adventurous times and the traumatic. The original title for this two part release was going to be 'Battle', but subsequently changed to 'The Bachelor' and we can expect the follow up album 'The Conqueror' to be released in 2010. The album depicts Wolf's emotional metamorphosis from depression and dark feelings of political unrest with songs like 'Battle' and 'Count of Casualty' to the more hopeful and optimistic outlook of songs like 'Hard times' and 'Theseus'.
And whilst the music he explores has no definitive mood, this album is anything but contrived. Throughout, he goes with his heart and it's there that a small minority of this record is off-putting, too immersed in its own intentions.
Fortunately enough, the ratio of the good and the ugly swings vastly in the listener's favour. But for every pack of uplifting, grand anthems come a failed attempt at a heavier track. By the time I came to 'Battle', an Alec Empire assisted fist-pump, I became unconvinced of Wolf's goals. Either he's really covering the most important, unbalanced period of his life or he's just trying to provoke a response. It just seems almost wrong for an album to contain both flute-led ballads ('Damaris') and this full on, almost half-hearted attempt at diving into a new genre. Whilst no doubt Wolf has emerged from his "depression" retaining his identity, you wonder whether there are still dents to his confidence.
But 'The Bachelor' could have stuck to a safe formula of maintaining a dark and gloomy outlook, with Wolf playing his ukulele and a violin, weeping occasionally and expressing sadness to an extreme. A fair few albums that cover these obscure, indistinct periods glue solely to this sort of output. And therefore it's refreshing for Wolf to include duets (Tilda Swinton, most noticeably on the pulsating highlight 'Oblivion') and sweeping orchestras. By the time he finally exposes himself fully on 'Blackdown' and 'The Sun Is Often Out', the most affecting period on the record, it stands out and sure, you yearn for more.
Whether he intended it or not, 'The Bachelor' isn't Patrick Wolf's tour de force, the one he's ultimately remembered for. However, without a doubt he also intended to make something bold and inventive and regardless of how uneasy this record might make you feel, that much he's achieved.

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Patrick Wolf - The magic position (2007) [V0]

De Rosa - Prevention

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/wearederosa
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~196]
Filesize: 63 MB
Uploaded: 16-05-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. A Love Economy 5:00
02. Nocturne For An Absentee 4:44
03. It Helps To See You Hurt 4:26
04. Pest 5:09
05. Stillness 4:15
06. Under The Stairs 3:45
07. In Code 4:31
08. Swell 4:07
09. Flight Recorder 4:39
10. Tinto 4:21






Review:
How fitting that the artwork to De Rosa’s second album references that of their debut Mend, being as they are a band acutely aware of history and its impact, no matter how minute, on the present. There’s nothing quite so direct and scathing as Mend’s Hattonrigg Pit Disaster here, but singer Martin Henry is still looking for “communities that care and nurture" on the incongruous disco-fuelled Nocturne for an Absentee.
Clearly the swelling from a trio to a quintet between albums reveals itself in a deeper creative pool from which De Rosa now dip into. However, Prevention is still very much a folk album, albeit one writ large. Their previous sojourns into scratchy guitar rock à la Camera have been jettisoned, giving the sense that the Lanarkshire lads are comfortable where they are, no longer subservient to ‘obvious single’ pretensions.
There’s something bleak and raw in the lyrics - “desire crawls on my back like a rat” runs the one line in the splendid ‘Pest’, while ‘Under the Stairs’ sounds like a Glasgow GP’s worst nightmare - but the folky stylings are often sweetly married with subtle electronica and beats, as in the anthemic ‘Stillness’. It evokes an atmosphere and a sense of place, which would be called “psycho-geography” if this were a novel, and to which this powerfully dark music adds authentic emotional depth.

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DM Stith - Heavy ghost

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dmstith
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~194]
Filesize: 61 MB
Uploaded: 30-04-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Isaac's song 1:38
02. Pity dance 4:21
03. Creeksong 4:10
04. Pigs 4:54
05. Spirit parade 2:23
06. BMB 2:43
07. Thanksgiving moon 3:59
08. Fire of birds 5:13
09. Morning glory cloud 3:55
10. GMS 2:34
11. Braid of voices 5:26
12. Wig 2:35

Review:
Bloomington, IN’s David Michael Stith—occasional remixer, disciple of Sufjan (who signed him to Asthmatic Kitty), and multi-instrumental etherealist—chose an apt title for his first full-length. Not only is Stith possessed of an otherworldly voice that has a penchant for lamenting wails, but as an album, Heavy Ghost is filled with lingering spirits, shades of things that should have long ago departed for some other existence. A melange of regrets, unfinished thoughts and people working up the courage to do what needs doing, Ghost has the remarkable quality of feeling both barely there and utterly enveloping, an empty house come to life through sounds and melodies of indistinguishable origin.
Stith sets the tone early with second song (and first single) “Pity Dance”, which opens with easy guitar strums and a sort of artificial cricket chirp before layering its way into something far more lush and evocative. “Oh I ought to learn I can’t please myself every time”, Stith offers sleepily, a broke-down intro to a song that, if not as outright regretful as its name might suggest, is certainly tinged with the knowledge that we create most of our own problems. By the time Stith moans, “Come on fire / Don’t leave me waiting for the world to replace me”, he needn’t say too much more. But to his credit—after a dense, swirling spectral orchestra ascends into the mix, piano, strings, and handclaps equally foreboding—he offers the conciliatory “I have been sleeping with the lights on ever since I left you”, a touching recognition both of his own mistakes and that, despite them, he will continue. Stith has something of a gift for this kind of world-weary resignation, a sense that he might perhaps prefer to escape but will soldier on regardless, armed with the muted optimism that he might somehow learn from his regrets.
We see this sentiment pop again on “Thanksgiving Moon”, another song whose simple beginnings slowly build to a lush soundscape. Though early on Stith mentions—such a delicate voice seems too precious for something like a declaration—“We’ll start over / We’ll start new this time”, it’s not long before his more ambivalent nature shines through; soon after, he tosses off “We’re all stars / Yes, yes I know”, less a recognition than a dissolution of some pretty if misguided sentiment. When it comes time for his closing lines, “Is that a star / Oh, shallow victory”, we’re hit with the full brunt of this kind of advancing but injured mood, Stith creating a character moving reluctantly, but still moving.
Though Stith tends to keep his themes close, much to the album’s benefit, he is adept at adjusting his mood. “Morning Glory Cloud” is an exultant tune, Stith celebrating the fact that he “only realized today / [he has] been hiding”, his oft-used wail something more celebratory here, an affirmation of a new day dawning. “Creekmouth” is a seemingly darker, more foreboding song, backed by the thump of tribal drums, though he does find some kind of hope in clinging people and cankered waters. On “Pigs”, he seems to feel an urgent need to break with the lingering halfheartedness of much of the rest of the album, opening with “I’m through accepting what you want from me” in as angry a manner as his voice will allow, and the song’s easy strums betray a restless mood, a man fighting against his own nature to feel strongly.
Still, though, the overall mood is more ambiguous, that of a man caught in some kind of in-between, armed with the knowledge that change should be afoot, but not always so eager to move forward. Set against a rich, ethereal backdrop, it’s a mature, moody debut, the type that makes one hope Stith will choose to linger on the music scene for some time to come.

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Emmy The Great - First love

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/emmythegreat
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~157]
Filesize: 52 MB
Uploaded: 14-04-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Absentee 3:58
02. 24 3:02
03. We almost had a baby 2:56
04. The Easter parade 3:27
05. Dylan 3:33
06. On the museum island 4:11
07. War 1:54
08. First love 4:37
09. MIA 3:25
10. The Easter parade 2 1:45
11. Bad things coming, we are safe 4:01
12. Everything reminds me of you 5:55
13. City song 3:09

Review:
As Emma Lee Moss said in a recent interview: “I have a male friend who said he heard my album and felt defensive on behalf of men.” If some incredulity could be detected in the words of the London singer who performs as Emmy the Great, it’s understandable. Over the years, male songwriters haven’t been going out of their way to canvass the reactions of their own muses.
Given the tone of Moss’s debut album, you don’t imagine that’s about to change here. Even in the kangaroo court of the female singer-songwriter, it’s hard to think of a man who gives a worse account of himself than the one who unwittingly stars on several of these songs. On Dylan, he tells her that women can’t hope to understand the music of Bob Dylan the way men do. Keen to ensure that the song doesn’t come over like a “diss on Dylan”, Moss adds in the liner notes that such temerity “would be like an amoeba picking a fight with Albert Einstein”.
She needn’t have explained. Perhaps more so for the forensic precision of its sparse delivery, 24 makes Dylan’s Idiot Wind seem like Day Trip to Bangor by comparison. In it, she’s 24 today, watching him watch his box set of the TV show 24 in real time. “Man on the screen, he has done more in a minute/ Than you have achieved in your entire life.” We Almost Had a Baby hits the ground waltzing, from the lines “You didn’t stop when I told you to stop/ And there was a month when I wasn’t sure”, playing out a hypothetical morality tale amid cello and piano.
She’s at her best, however, when sifting for emotions amid the pop cultural debris of our lives. Like her closest contemporary Laura Marling, Moss frequently points out that not everything she sings should be taken as pure memoir. MIA, set in a car that crashes as a song by MIA plays on the tape deck, is a case in point. Who, after all, has tape decks these days?
However on the title track it’s hard to imagine that she’s singing about anyone other than the psychological tormentor of Dylan. Years after the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah, but before its X Factor resurrection, it seems that he played it to her as she fell for him. There’s a certain kind of man who uses music snobbery as a subtle tool of manipulation. And here, we know he’s not to be trusted because it was “the original Leonard Cohen version” (only the obtuse would favour the cheapo synths of Cohen’s original).
“You stroked me like a pet/ But you didn’t own me yet,” she sings. Plucked notes somehow mimic the righteous needlework of a woman who may yet reserve the right to choose crochet over men in perpetuity. Minutes earlier on Museum Island, she ponders: “You know what they say about terrible hate/ It will breed something good when it’s through.” Her tone here is sceptical - though, at the time of writing, she had yet to put out an album such as First Love.

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Oh, Atoms - You can't see the stars from here

Year: 2009
Genre: pop / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ohatoms
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~177]
Filesize: 60 MB
Uploaded: 14-04-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Sugar mouse 4:14
02. Nylon & leather 3:01
03. Brooklyn cheesecake 5:00
04. This is not you song 4:01
05. Five over stripe 4:15
06. Ice cream blonde 4:43
07. Shaftesbury drill 4:12
08. Lucky motel 2:41
09. Silver spoon 4:28
10. Transcontinental 3:14
11. Little victories 4:43
12. You can't see the stars from here 1:29

Review:
The variety of instruments that can be heard on each track is one of the things that makes this record so absorbing; violin, keys, mandolin, melodica, banjo, lapsteel, theremin, the list goes on. Remarkably, all this gentle, tuneful noise is created by just two musicians, Gwen Cheeseman and Marc Withecomb; the fact that they are a boy/girl duo has led to a comparison with Ting Tings which is a little obvious and thankfully not very close to the mark (Ting Tings technically pale in comparison and have never been this dreamy or inventive).
Sparkling and sweet melodies fill “You Can’t See The Stars From Here”; their debut album is warm and breezy right from opener ‘Sugar Mouse’, which appeared in the Brit flick “Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging” in the Summer and now also threatens to be the sound of Summer 2009. Sugar sweet vocals from Gwen soar over strings, gentle strumming and some really decent tunes. Moments of duel vocals work very well and add more depth and the mass of instruments on hand are never overused, meaning that the tracks are still slightly minimal at times and never overworked or drowned in needless fuzz; each sound is clearly defined and identifiable.
They are more like a blend of Belle and Sebastian and Saint Etienne but with many other interesting touches, like the retro feel on 60s tinged ‘Nylon and Leather’ (counterbalanced with the folk-pop violin and acoustic guitar) and the Calexico style brass and echoes of ‘Shaftesbury Drill’ to name but two. Tracks like ‘Silver Spoon’ are a joy, showering you with dreamy violin and wobbly theremin over a solid melody; and the ukulele on ‘Transcontinental’ is superbly well judged. The tone of each track is different; from slow, moody and melancholic folk to indie-pop, you never quite know what’s coming next but you can be sure it’s all going to be well formed, well played and memorable.

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SixToes - Trick of the night

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/sixtoes1
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~179]
Filesize: 64 MB
Uploaded: 26 - 03 - 2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Trick of the night 4:44
02. Chicken 3:58
03. Four leaved clover 5:17
04. Same again 5:07
05. The rest 4:24
06. A jaundiced eye 5:02
07. Raven 5:30
08. The reggae song 4:21
09. Single siamese soul 5:36
10. Curse go back! 5:41

Review:
Hailing from London, via Cornwall and Cambridgeshire, Sixtoes seem to naturally embrace the dark and mysterious. Having composed these carefully constructed songs in a 16th century former mental asylum, there are dimly - lit, mystical qualities all over this debut album. After all, Hollywood doesn’t quite suite everybody.
Sixtoes are led carefully into these dark corners by two very distinctive vocalists. One reminiscent of Antony Hegarty’s strained drama via an occasional dash of Tom Waits’ weather worn authoritarian character. The other complimenting it with a softer, higher pitched fragility, but equally as strong. The combination of the two makes for an enchanting sound, particularly on single "Four Leaved Clover", a thrillingly beautiful 5 minutes of soft strings and captivating harmony.
With the twin vocals, cello, double bass, brushed drums and nylon string guitar at the heart of their sound, there is a plaintive, bare quality to the texture in everything here. The combining vocals and the guitar picking style which owes much more to John Williams that Johnny Marr means there is a definite air of a classical construction and sensibility here, but it suits these dark, carefully arranged songs absolutely perfectly.
Opener and title - track sets the mood of foreboding in quietly cinematic style. Awash with brooding intent - fuelled strings, as if set to the opening sequence of a rather classy, yet still rather bloody, Victorian serial killer movie. Murder ballad "Reggae Song" ratchets up the already sinister mood brilliantly and closer "Curse Go Back!" builds a dramatic tension to boiling point before disappearing leaving something of a chill.
Thinking about it, "Trick of the Night" sounds exactly the sort of genre - defying work that gets the Mercury Music Prize judges reaching for the superlatives, and in this case understandably so. "Trick of the Night" is the mysterious unveiling of a superbly understated band with a mightily original talent and vision.

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Telepathe - Dance mother

Year: 2009
Genre: electronic / rock / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/telepathe
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~171]
Filesize: 53 MB
Uploaded: 22 - 03 - 2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
1. So Fine 3:29
2. Chrome's On It 4:11
3. Devil's Trident 4:24
4. In Your Line 4:28
5. Lights Go Down 4:47
6. Can't Stand It 6:11
7. Michael 4:09
8. Trilogy 6:59
9. Drugged 3:04







Review:
Pulsating rhythms and synth riffs are the order of play for Brooklynites Melissa Livaudais and Busy Gangnes' debut album as Telepathe, Dance Mother. It follows 2006's EP Farewell Forest, which was recorded on an eight - track, and a smattering of festival appearances in 2008. As such, it feels like it's been a long time coming.
Indeed the album took the duo nearly a year to record. They started with vague ideas for songs in December 2007, after which they took Dave Sitek of TV On the Radio on board as a producer, which was only going to up the ante of expectation. How much of the resulting record's sound is down to him is necessarily moot, but the dense, shifting sonic layers will sound familiar to Sitek aficionados.
So far, so experimental, but there's an unmistakable pop touch in amongst it all too. So Fine's synths take us to a place slightly to the left of Eurythmics' pop, further down the road from Ladytron's synth - noir and, with their mix of vocal harmonies and tribal drum patterns, especially on Your Line, towards the same cafe in which sits Animal Collective.
Can't Stand It also calls the '80s to mind, possibly due to the producer's collection of vintage synthisers, but especially through an acknowledgement of the era's leftfield big hitters The Cocteau Twins and their modern - day disciples Asobi Seksu, while Michael suggests someone's left a late '80s/ early '90s synthpop CD on loop.
Chrome's On It is memorable, but you wouldn't begin to try to sing along with the obscure lyrics. Instead you're likely to wonder if the coda was culled from M83's Saturdays=Youth.
The centrepiece, skewed to the end as it is, is the seven - minute Trilogy - Breath of Life, Crimes And Killings, Threads And Knives. Its echo - laden collage of noirish sounds, expletive - laden lyrics and pounding bass suggests some raw, urban landscaped grit. "This is why I do this, this is why you do this," come the lyrics, but the explanation leading to the conclusion is rather lost.
Dance Mother is not, and is clearly not made to be, easy listening - it's an admirably ambitious rather than lovable record, and it doesn't reveal its secrets in a single listen. It's also not at all danceable. But its adventurous textural melding of outré and familiar should reward anyone prepared to be patient.

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Peasant - On the ground

Year: 2009
Genre: folk / acoustic / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/peasant
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~174]
Filesize: 45 MB
Uploaded: 22 - 03 - 2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. The wind 3:17
02. Fine is fine 2:28
03. Stop for her 2:32
04. We're good 2:27
05. Raise today 3:15
06. Exposure 2:11
07. Those days 3:42
08. On the ground 2:29
09. Missing 2:40
10. Birds 2:09
11. Not your saviour 3:20
12. You don't know 2:48
13. Impeccable manners 2:29

Review:
Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Population 8,227. Sounds like the quiet and unassuming kind of place where things flow by at a little slower pace and life can be excruciatingly dull for those dreaming of bigger and better things. Apparently that pining for a more meaningful existence was the case for Damien DeRose, a Doylestown native who records under his musical alias, Peasant, and speaks of "finding comfort and satisfaction in the mostly dismal environment" he grew up in. It's a suitably quiet and unassuming nom de plume for a musician coming from such humble roots and recording honest, lived - in songs that sound as if they were freshly plucked from the Pennsylvania soil.
The history of the sensitive boy with a guitar and heart on sleeve is one as old as the history of music itself, so it takes a rare talent to rise above the glut of singer - songwriters cooing their "woe is me" tales in coffee shops and clubs across the country. Paul Simon was one such singer, Elliott Smith another. DeRose may not quite be on the level of that pair, but he draws inspiration from both and packs his album On the Ground full of songs that strive for the kind of emotional honesty and warmth that they have poured into their impressive discographies.
Smith is the most obvious comparison and influence on DeRose's music, most tellingly when he employs the double - tracked vocal technique on songs like "Fine is Fine" and "Exposure". It's a simple trick, but the warmth and texture it adds keeps these songs from growing as stale as they would in other, less talented hands. But the neatest trick in DeRose's arsenal is his delivery, striving for an emotional honesty that relies more on simple beauty than the pained, overwrought emoting that sinks so many other vocalists (see one Chris Carrabba). When he sings "you make me feel real again / and I'll do the best that I can", as he does on "Exposure", you really believe the guy.
The album does begin to lose a little steam towards the end as these quiet, acoustic numbers start to pile up on one another, but there are a few songs that point to bigger and better things ahead for Peasant. Most interestingly is the biggest sonic divergence from the rest of the album, "We're Good", which fleshes things out with a full band and finds DeRose sounding a little like Jeff Lynne on a long - lost ELO demo. It proves that once he gets tired of his acoustic guitar and quiet confessionals, we may find him plugging in and pouring out the kind of upbeat pop that would make Nick Lowe and A.C. Newman proud. As he continues to grow as a songwriter and gains more confidence in his own natural talents, more people will be hearing the name Peasant and we may be thanking Doylestown for such a motivating environment.

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Grammatics - Grammatics

Year: 2009
Genre: rock / indie / alternative
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/grammatics
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~206]
Filesize: 84 MB
Uploaded: 22 - 03 - 2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Shadow committee 5:11
02. D.I.L.E.M.M.A 4:29
03. Murderer 5:00
04. The vague archive 3:56
05. Broken wing 4:58
06. Relentless fours 6:39
07. Inkjet lakes 4:38
08. Polar swelling 6:39
09. Rosa flood 3:32
10. Cruel tricks of the light 4:02
11. Swan song 6:03
12. Hidden track 1:37

Review:
Take a deep breath, turn the lights out and put some headphones on. This could take a while.
It's rare that a new band comes along who divide opinion - critical and otherwise - quite so much as Leeds' Grammatics seem to have done thus far in their short musical career. They're a Marmite band, plain and simple. Chances are, you'll either love their sound, or hate it, because indifference isn't really an option when confronted with something as extraordinary (twin meanings: 1. So far removed from the norm, and 2. Utterly brilliant) as this. And if you're left nonplussed, listen again. Sooner or later it'll take hold, one way or another.
But let's rewind for a second. It's five months into 2007, you're a music writer. You get handed a demo CD, about which you instantly forget. As usual. Somehow, it survives the long, painful train journey home and, the next day, makes its way on to your stereo. What you hear is, basically, a confusingly artful mess - so many ideas, so many instruments, all vying for a space that never quite seems big enough. It sounds angry, at times to the detriment of the melodies. It also sounds a lot like Cursive's hyper - literate paranoia - pop. Crucially, though, it still reeks of promise.
Now it's March 2009, and that same quartet (well, with the addition of Emilia Ergin who replaced original cellist Rebecca Dumican last year) have delivered an album that not only fulfils their early potential, it surpasses it by some distance. With swooping string arrangements and dense layers of fizzing electronics supplementing guitar, cello, drums and bass in songs that rarely follow conventional verse - chorus - verse structure, it's also as complex, cerebral a debut LP as you'll hear all year.
The signs were always there, of course. Early single 'D.I.L.E.M.M.A.' - second up here - was a complex, polyrhythmic dance - beast that never quite reached the dancefloors, possibly because Foals got there first, and possibly because it was trying to be a bit too clever. That's a common criticism of the band, and one their debut elegantly sidesteps. Still, it's not like they've ever ventured anywhere near Mars Volta jazz - wank territory; no, this is a band who've always had choruses to spare, it's just that they've often chosen to bury them a little deeper than many listeners might expect. For fans of ambitious music, this record shouldn't be a problem. And if it is, well, you've got the likes of 'Murderer', 'Broken Wing' and 'Inkjet Lakes' (featuring the vocal talents of Laura Groves, aka Blue Roses) here to offer a more immediate fix. And it's the contrast between those two opposing enthusiasms, that accessible, immediate light and complex, slow - burning shade, that makes Grammatics such a rare, rewarding listen.
Following 'Broken Wing' is album - and live - highlight 'Relentless Fours', an epic six - minutes - plus showcase of twisted electronica, jagged noise, razorblade cello and - of course - that beefy rhythm section. Reviewers might always focus on singer Owen Brinley (as reviews are wont to do), but there's no question that Dominic Ord and Rory O'Hara's input, on drums and bass respectively, is one of the keys to their appeal.
And, in truth, it's Brinley's voice that a lot of the naysayers take issue with. See that phrase from earlier: Marmite (See also: Conor Oberst and Matt Bellamy). It's all subjective, of course, but at no point on this album do his vocals sound overbearing or histrionic... at least to these ears. It's a band record, not a showcase for a talented singer, hence Ergin sings backing on a number of tracks, and Groves on two (she also appears on 'Relentless Fours').
Reviews shouldn't be rebuttals, though, particularly when there's so much that's good (nay, great) about the record in question. The way the tracks run into one another via samples and background noise to form a continuous, cohesive, whole, for instance. There's the way they lurch schizophrenically from one mood to another; the transition from 'Polar Swelling' to 'Rosa Flood' proving particularly brain - churning.
Everything here sounds like nothing we've heard in recent times from a new act. It's that all - too - rare example of a band combining myriad shared influences (early Blur, Radiohead, Suede... The Faint?) into something that seems to exist only in its own brilliant context, regardless of trends or cultural norms. That's the point, really: for better or worse, love 'em or hate 'em, at this moment in time, Grammatics are doing something brave and truly exceptional - not something that can be said for many of the current crop of new acts. Their debut is not only a rewarding listen, it's also a record which will to continue to reveal its brilliance over the coming months. And most excitingly of all, it's only the first full - length statement from a band whose dramatic development over the past couple of years suggests even greater things might just lie ahead.

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Friendly Fires - Friendly fires

Year: 2008
Genre: electronic / pop / indie / rock
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/friendlyfires
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V0 [~253]
Filesize: 67 MB
Uploaded: 11-03-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Jump in the pool 3:37
02. In the hospital 3:52
03. Paris 3:55
04. White diamonds 4:13
05. Strobe 3:06
06. On board 3:43
07. Lovesick 3:55
08. Skeleton boy 3:34
09. Photobooth 3:24
10. Ex lover 3:51






Review:
Thankfully Friendly Fires haven’t been too tarnished by the endless glow stick paradigms associated with the now dreaded nu-rave tag, and their laboriously recorded, self-titled debut only serves to confirm the burgeoning distance from a world of garish neon and questionable colour combinations.
Eschewing the acid revivalism of Klaxons, Friendly Fires are the laidback older sibling to their snotty, demanding, attention-deficit little brother. They make music with dancing in mind, and while they’re more than happy to expose an electronic underbelly, disco sirens are replaced with pernickety percussion. Falsettos serve more than a novelty purpose and the end result is a lean, trim ten track hit of blessed-out halcyon pop and shifting shoegaze.
You might be surprised to know they used play in a hardcore band. You probably already know that the purveyors of 2008’s slickest, disco punk filth don’t hail from New York, but St Albans. Despite the lack of cultural kudos, Friendly Fires don’t just pull it off, they revel in it. It’s a debut that bubbles with elements of DFA’s cooler-than-thou production and the house party inclinations of The Rapture, riotously polished off with Ed McFarlane’s vocal.
Now ten tracks might initially represent a measly return for two years of toil, but apart from a brief Epworth dabble on album opener ‘Jump in the Pool’, it’s a self-produced, heartfelt debut that’s been tinkered and trimmed to dizzying effect.
Last year’s single ‘Strobe’ fleetingly slows the album tempo to a glistening electro lullaby, ‘Lovesick’’s bass slide and incessantly catchy chorus screams single potential and ‘Photobooth’ runs with the angular, self assured attitude that might see it grace a Kitsune compilation.
An album brimming with stand alone tracks; it’s as comfortable and capable of gracing dance floors as it is commandeering mainstream radio playlists. Swathes of rapturous synth and punchy, rhythmic basslines are twisted into an immediate melange of daytime friendly anthems and itchy indie disco floor fillers designed to get your feet moving independently of your body.
Porn star guitar skitters over bongo snaps and pan pipe blasts in the thoroughly restless ‘In the Hospital’, ‘Paris’ briefly takes up the itchy rhythm challenge before enveloping itself in colossal washes of synth, before the epic, choral stomp of ‘White Diamonds’ slow burns itself to a thunderclap close.
Assured, short and ultimately sweet, Friendly Fires is a glib reminder that you don’t need an M6 underpass, New York penthouse or guestlist to have an all night disco party, and remind us there’s no shame in getting your groove on.

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The Coast - Expatriate

Year: 2009 (int. release)
Genre: indie / rock / alternative
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thecoastmusic
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~193]
Filesize: 56 MB
Uploaded: 07-03-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Tightrope 2:49
02. Nueva York 3:25
03. The moon is dead 4:01
04. No secret why 3:21
05. Song for gypsy Rose Lee 4:08
06. Floodlights 4:23
07. We're the ones 3:22
08. Killing of our friends 4:23
09. Ceremony guns 3:37
10. Play me the apostle 3:36
11. All the boys 3:12





Review:
For all of our investment scouring the Internet for the “next big thing”, it’s fair to become somewhat calloused towards the hyperbole and oversaturated acclaim surrounding each new blogosphere darling. But The Coast, a relative unknown from Toronto, has just penned an indie rock album that serves as a sparkling expedition into thick, layered pop music that is equal parts Tokyo Police Club simplicity and U2 crescendos. And, for whatever reason, nobody is talking about it.
There is a refreshingly direct element to The Coast. Yes, their rock songs are radio-friendly and geared for overly emotional teenagers, but there is an unavoidable charm to frontman Ben Spurr’s hopelessly sincere, quivering vocal lines. Reverb-soaked guitars create an opaque air to complement shoegaze-influenced six-string squeals and snare-heavy percussion. There is an undeniable sense of the epic in each of the album’s songs; the tracks are exceptionally layered, a mess of hazy instrumentation that culminates in luscious pop grandeur.
With that sense of dense songwriting, The Coast dips their music into various subgenres: the aforementioned shoegaze comes through on tracks like “Ceremony Guns”, whereas “Tightrope” is pure pop rock. Tokyo Police Club is written all over the infectious, single-worthy “Nueva York”, while “The Moon Is Dead” emphasizes the noodling, near-math rock guitar effects of groups like British Sea Power. Wrapped together, the album is surprisingly versatile, both mastering a sense of stark emptiness and overpowering apexes.
Indeed, there are hits and misses, as to be expected from any young band. “No Secret Why” and “Song for Gypsy Rose Lee” muddle the middle of the album. Spurr’s trembling vocals aren’t meant to carry a song, but rather fade into it, and when Expatriate slows down, it struggles. But when the instruments weave into a collective mess of noise, The Coast finds something worth holding onto: a dramatic interlacing of densely composed rock and charmingly earnest pop music.

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Bat For Lashes
Fur and gold
Two suns


Bat For Lashes - Fur and gold

Year: 2006
Genre: indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/batforlashes
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V0 [~212]
Filesize: 69 MB
Uploaded: 28-02-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Horse and I 3:05
02. Trophy 4:01
03. Tahiti 3:39
04. What's a girl to do 2:59
05. Sad eyes 4:16
06. The wizard 4:17
07. Prescilla 3:34
08. Bat's mouth 4:25
09. Seal jubilee 4:44
10. Sarah 3:57
11. I saw a light 6:24





Review:
Fur & Gold is the stunning debut album from Bat For Lashes, aka former nursery school teacher Natasha Khan. Inspired by tales of Joan of Arc and a particularly vivid dream, Natasha set about crafting an album of exquisite beauty - one that haunts and captivates in equal measure. Her music is cinematic in scope, no doubt inspired by her degree in film and music, and in live form includes thunderous marching bands, desert guitar, ballet school piano, harpsichord, sub-bass snarls, hand-claps and naive beats. Underpinning many of the tracks is a sombre piano - heartbreakingly beautiful but tellingly effective. While Natasha’s mournful vocals emerge as a cross between the ethereal quality of Bjork and the fragile beauty of Imogen Heap. Thematically, it embraces Natasha’s vivid imagination and tells of natural forces and animal kingdoms, rugged English cliff tops and engulfing oceans.
Opening track Horse And I was inspired by a dream involving a black horse at her window and unfolds in suitably mesmerising fashion – delicate chords hooking you from the outset before a marching band-style drum kicks in and Natasha’s voice transplants you into a different, magnificent world. From that point onwards, as the lyrics themselves state, “there is no turning back” – you should be hooked. Second track is the brooding live favourite Trophy, one of three tracks to feature the backing vocals and guitar of Josh T Pearson. Vocally, it’s very striking, thriving on the moody boy-girl trade-off, while the instrumentation is extremely atmospheric. Sombre love song What’s A Girl To Do? is a gutsy lament about a dwindling passion that unfolds in curiously upbeat fashion - the beats are top-notch. And they come in stark contrast to the achingly poignant Sad Eyes - a piano ballad that has reduced many fans to tears in live form. It’s supremely fragile and packed with sad but beautiful words. Prescilla is another highlight, built around hand-clapping beats and more layered instrumentation that seems to work in perfect accompaniment to Natasha’s tender vocals – the chorus, in particular, is genuinely inspiring. And Bat’s Mouth is another firm favourite, once again placing the piano to the fore to intoxicating effect, as well as some background strings.
Fur & Gold is nothing short of a stunning debut - an album as unique in style as it is breathtakingly brilliant. You can’t fail to be captivated by its charms.

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Bat For Lashes - Two suns

Year: 2009 (april 6th)
Genre: indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/batforlashes
Format: mp3
Bitrate: 320 cbr
Filesize: 103 MB
Uploaded: 28-02-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Glass 4:33
02. Sleep alone 4:03
03. Moon and moon 3:09
04. Daniel 4:11
05. Peace of mind 3:29
06. Siren song 4:59
07. Pearl's dream 4:45
08. Good love 4:30
09. Two planets 4:48
10. Travelling woman 3:47
11. The big sleep 2:55





Review:
Bat For Lashes second album sees Brighton's Natasha Khan introducing some special guests, notably Scott Walker and Yeasayer, and, more bizarrely, her alter-ego, Pearl, described by the press release as "a destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale of a persona who acts as a direct foil to Khan's more mystical, desert-born spiritual self."
The bombastic release goes on to explain that the follow-up to Mercury Music Prize nominated Fur and Gold is "a record of modern-day fables exploring dualities on a number of levels – two lovers, two planets, two sides of a personality," with Khan meditating on "the philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos and balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence."
Two Suns was recorded in segments in California, New York, London, Brighton and Wales. Co-produced by Khan and Dave Kosten, her collaborator on Fur and Gold, the album also features Bat for Lashes' touring band, The Blue Dreams, on several tracks.

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In-Flight Safety
The coast is clear
We are an empire, my dear


In-Flight Safety - The coast is clear

Year: 2006
Genre: pop / rock / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/inflightsafety
Format: mp3
Bitrate: VBR [~144]
Filesize: 46 MB
Uploaded: 21-02-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Coast is clear 4:42
02. Time and place 3:55
03. Surround 4:39
04. A lot to learn 3:45
05. Letting go 4:17
06. Turn me around 4:48
07. Fear 3:35
08. The world won't 4:36
09. Silent treatment 4:47
10. Lost (the march song) 6:16






Review:
The Halifax-based quartets’ first full-length album The Coast Is Clear exceeds all expectations. The disc is a superb cinematic pop experiment that tugs at your heartstrings upon first listen.
Starting out in Vancouver, the band began work on five tracks with producer Warne Livesey (Midnight Oil, 54-40), who took the band under his British wing for a month-long recording adventure. On their return to Halifax the band enlisted Laurence Currie (Sloan, Ghandharvas) to help bring the record towards the finish line. But, when it came time to sculpt the album into a satisfying wall of sound, In-Flight Safety opted for the hands on approach.
The groups first release, the 2003 mellow-pop gem Vacation Land, won over countless fans and critics upon release, landing the band two Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia Award nominations (Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album). The same bedroom recording helped score a green In-Flight Safety their first gig in Toronto at the NxNE Festival where the band won 2003s Fan Choice Award which led to a distribution deal with Universal Music.
The disc, which received a four NNNN/Critics Pick review in Toronto’s Now Magazine, also generated a video for the single ‘Somebody’s Watching You’ that has been featured prominently on Much Musics The Wedge and Going Coastal. The video was filmed in a 1940s movie theatre located in small town Sackville, NB where the band members met as university students who juggled computer, geography, classics and fine arts courses while quenching their insatiable desire to play music.
Now signed to Emm Gryner’s Dead Daisy Records and distributed through Outside Music, Mullane feels confident about the bands future. I don’t think there is a label in the world that will work harder for us than Dead Daisy Records, he says. Emm has supported us from day one and we know we are in good hands.
It doesn’t hurt that the band has spent the last year performing alongside some of Canada’s best independent artists. In-Flight Safety has toured with Stars, The Most Serene Repulic, and gigged with Broken Social Scene, Metric, Sam Roberts, The Constantines, Hawksley Workman, Joel Plaskett, and Matt Mays and are fast becoming one of Atlantic Canadas top draws.

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In-Flight Safety - We are an empire, my dear

Year: 2009
Genre: pop / rock / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/inflightsafety
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~210]
Filesize: 73 MB
Uploaded: 21-02-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. I could love you more 3:19
02. Big white elephant 4:19
03. Model homes 4:06
04. Crash/land 4:20
05. Torches 3:06
06. Actors 3:42
07. Amy racina 4:02
08. Cloudhead 3:46
09. Paperthin II 1:39
10. Paperthin 3:57
11. The warning 3:44
12. Fill our wounds 4:13

Review:
If there were any justice in this world, We Are An Empire, My Dear would be one of the year's most hotly-anticipated albums. In-Flight Safety would be on every magazine cover, they'd be about to embark on a sold-out world tour, radio stations would be playing singles from it ad nauseum, and every record store worth its salt would be opening at midnight to give fans an early chance to buy the album.
Obviously, most of those things are impossible now: music magazines, "modern rock" radio stations and record stores are all dropping like flies, while only aging dinosaurs can afford to have spectacularly extravagant world tours. We could debate the advantages and disadvantages of these developments, but my basic point remains: it boggles my mind that the release of We Are An Empire... isn't a huge event.
After all, In-Flight Safety sound like the second coming of Coldplay or U2 (take your pick), and I mean that in the absolute best way possible. Nearly every track on We Are An Empire... sounds like it should have the phrase "number one hit single" attached to it, and even those that don't sound like they should be rare import singles that hit the top of the charts in, like, Bolivia or something. Frontman John Mullane has one of those dazzlingly emotive baritones, the kind that has just the right combination of range and warmth, so that even when his vocals are soaring he still sounds like he's singing just for whoever happens to be listening at the moment.
Better still, he's backed by some truly incredible music. The riffs are catchy and the songwriting seems fairly concise, yet at the same time the band has given each song room to breathe. Just listen closely to the way the band lets the closing guitar notes of songs like "Torches " or "Model Homes" drift into silence, or the invitingly warm and cozy tones of a track like "Amy Racina ", or the brief moment of vocal bliss about three-fifths of the way into "CloudHead". The band has put a lot of care into making sure that each song sounds just right, but they've done so in a way that doesn't suggest they've made anything sound overthought or overproduced.
Really, We Are An Empire... is such a gorgeous album that it's kind of depressing that it (probably) won't bring In-Flight Safety the kind of acclaim they deserve for having made such a masterpiece. Then again, sometimes massive success like that has a way of spoiling an album via overexposure, so perhaps it's for the best. If We Are An Empire, My Dear is only going to become a hit by the comparatively modest standards of our time, then it will certainly deserve every bit of whatever success it achieves.

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De Staat - Wait for evolution

Year: 2009
Genre: rock / indie / roots (?)
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/destaat
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~197]
Filesize: 69 MB
Uploaded: 14-02-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Sleep tight 4:07
02. The fantastic journey of the underground man 3:25
03. I am here to lose control 5:23
04. Wait for evolution 3:30
05. Habibi 3:15
06. We're gonna die 3:59
07. My blind baby 5:15
08. Kill the man 4:13
09. Meet the devil 6:22
10. You'll be the leader 3:01
11. Taste it 2:27
12. Love it 3:29


Review:
“Josh Homme will ride the speakers when he hears this record" wrote the largest Dutch music website 3voor12 about De Staat's upcoming full length debut Wait For Evolution, right after calling them the most promising band for 2009.
Fully recorded in the old house of singer/guitarist Torre Florim, who's been producing some of the filthiest underground bands in Holland, Wait For Evolution had a more unusual approach than the average rock record.
With the help of befriended musicians like The Bloody Honkies and Fuck The Writer, Florim worked layer by layer, in his 'Fun House', for over a year on songs with attractive titles like... 'Meet The Devil', 'The Fantastic Journey Of The Underground Man' and 'We're Gonna Die'.
In September 2007 De Staat found its perfect line-up. With Tim van Delft on drums, the Croatian Vedran Mircetic on guitar, Jop van Summeren on bass and Rocco Bell mastering the keys, beatring and cowbell, there's no question that Torre Florim has some diverse company on his side. A powerful five-headed coalition, showing its love for the old roots music, though not afraid to put that in a new and refreshing perspective.
Since then they've done shows in every possible setting, from small bars to big clubs with bands like Fu Manchu and the Belgian dEUS.
"2009 will be the year of De Staat" said Eric Corton, DJ for the biggest Dutch radio station 3FM. So it won't be a surprise that they've recently got a record deal with the unique and legendary dutch label Excelsior Recordings.

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School Of Seven Bells - Alpinisms

Year: 2009 (UK release); 2008 (US release)
Genre: indie / pop / electronic
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~212]
Filesize: 84 MB
Uploaded: 08-02-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Iamundernodisguise 3:48
02. Face to face on high places 4:41
03. Half asleep 4:21
04. Wired for light 4:57
05. For Kalaja Mari 4:18
06. White elephant coat 4:17
07. Connjur 4:41
08. Sempiternal-Amaranth 11:25
09. Chain 4:23
10. Prince of peace 3:05
11. My cabal 5:09





Review:
Gone are the days when female vocalists are obliged to define their sound as "pretty." Janis Joplin enabled a sound both harsh and pained; Courtney Love, a dead girl snarl; Björk, a full-bodied Icelandic yodel. Breaking out of the "pretty" standard has become the norm in non-mainstream music circles. Ironically enough, the challenge now is how to reinvent the "pretty" vocal in a way that is novel and compelling. At first listen, the stoic multi-part harmonies of School of Seven Bells' siblings, Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, are jarringly poignant. Perhaps "pretty" isn't dead.
Formed in 2007, School of Seven Bells features former Secret Machines' guitarist Benjamin Curtis and the Deheza twins of On! Air! Library! Named after a fictitious South American pickpocket school, the trio melds the surreality of dream-pop with the wooziness of contemporary psychodelia. Their debut, Alpinisms, pairs electro-infused drone with a pop sensibility; add the twins' unwavering angelic harmonies and the album glows.
Spacey, ambient, and vaguely tribal, Alpinisms creates a landscape to get lost in. Despite their differing musical backgrounds, the band has a cohesive sound. Similar to the midrange vocalists of Jem and Azure Ray, Seven Bells brings airy authoritativeness even in falsetto. The album opens with the liturgical "lamundernodisguise" and easily transitions to the eerie "Wired For Light," a track that operates on equally striking ominous dissonance. Later, mysticism meets technology on the sonar-like pulse of "Prince of Peace," but not before the 11-minute "Sempiternal/Amaranth" offers a minimalist start that builds to muddled mash of sound. Somewhat disappointing is the auto-tune processed "Chain"; its robotic effect unnecessarily distracts from an otherwise organic feel.
Alpinisms is a sensory experience, like downing a few tumblers of foreign liquor: too much will leave you lightheaded. Then again, everything is a better with a buzz.

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Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Year: 2009
Genre: rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/franzferdinand
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V0 [~254]
Filesize: 79 MB
Uploaded: 07-02-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Ulysses 3:12
02. Turn it on 2:21
03. No you girls 3:42
04. Send him away 3:00
05. Twilight omens 2:30
06. Bite hard 3:26
07. What she came for 3:52
08. Live alone 3:29
09. Can't stop feeling 3:03
10. Lucid dreams 7:57
11. Dream again 3:18
12. Katherine kiss me 2:55




Review:
How did Scottish people ever have sex before the existence of Franz Ferdinand? No offense to the Highlands' cozy twee-pop lineage, but until this Glasgow band's lusty 2004 debut, the height of Scot-rock ribaldry was either (a) Shirley Manson or (b) Rod Stewart in a kilt.
Tonight is Franz's boldest attempt at a full-on disco record. The synths on "Twilight Omens" recall Giorgio Moroder, while the bass line on "Can't Feel Anymore" is straight outta Larry Levan's Paradise Garage. But because the dance floor is far less interesting when couples pair off and leave, Tonight is all about the art of the extended flirt. "I wrote your name upon the back of my hand," Alex Kapranos sings in "Omens." "Then I woke up with it backwards on my face." Few of the would-be lovers here close the deal, thanks to distances both physical (the globe-trotting "Lucid Dreams") and emotional (the stomping "no You Girls Never Know").
Even at just 42 minutes, Tonight is relentless, yet the comedown is exquisite: "Katherine Kiss Me," the closing acoustic ballad, is a Ray Davies daydream about a brief alleyway encounter. It's not quite a love song, and like all fleeting hookups, the pleasure comes not only from the consummation, but also from the knowledge that the whole process can start again tomorrow night.

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Loney, Dear - Dear John

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / folk / singer-songwriter / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/loneydear
Format: mp3
Bitrate: 320 cbr
Filesize: 96 MB
Uploaded: 25-01-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Airport Surroundings 3:28
02. Everything Turns To You 3:49
03. I Was Only Going Out 3:38
04. Harsh Words 3:16
05. Under A Silent Sea 5:32
06. I Got Lost 2:52
07. Summers 4:08
08. Distant 2:56
09. Harm 4:29
10. Violent 3:52
11. Dear John 3:53

Review:
There's a frenetic, cyclical rhythmic pattern to so many of the songs on Emil Svanänen's fifth album as Loney Dear, Dear John, that it's no surprise to learn that the Swedish multi-instrumentalist was once a pro cyclist. Indeed, there's a subtle '80s-horror-film underpinning to songs like the opening track "Airport Surroundings" and "Everything Turns to You," which rollicks with an undercurrent of electricity (or adrenaline, if you will), that gives them an urgency one imagines a marathoner might feel in his or her quest for some distant endgame. Svanänen wisely paces himself, building songs one layer upon the next until they cascade into cacophonies of plucky strings, bursts of brass, sparkly synths, and clattering percussion. Svanänen's voice isn't unpleasant, but whenever the meter drops below 120 beats per minute, as it does on the suicide dirge "Harm," his nasally, somewhat nondescript indie-timbre leaves much to be desired (halfway through the song, the original melody is replaced by Albinoni's "Adaggio," which deserves better than the clumsy phrasing and awkward vowels Svanänen offers to accompany it). What makes Dear John stronger than last year's Loney, Noir, then, is Svanänen's ability to compensate for his shortcomings with arrangements that reference his disparate influences (Kraftwerk, U2, and – presumably - his childhood clarinet teacher). The whimsical whistling of "I Was Only Going Out" nearly rivals Peter Bjorn and John's "Young Folks," the propulsive "Distant" is buoyed by an angelic choir seemingly cheering him on from the heavens, while the album's centerpiece, "Under a Silent Sea," is a folk-techno hybrid that climaxes in a heady mix of beats and buzzes that would make a perfect accompaniment for any long-sought finish line.

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Handsome Furs - Face control

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / rock
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/handsomefurs
Format: mp3
Bitrate: 192 cbr
Filesize: 53 MB
Uploaded: 25-01-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Legal Tender 2:52
02. Evangeline 3:42
03. Talking Hotel Arbat Blues 2:43
04. (Passport Kontrol) 1:26
05. All We Want, Baby, Is Everything 3:11
06. I'm Confused 3:38
07. (White City) 1:29
08. Nyet Spasiba 4:20
09. Officer of Hearts 5:47
11. Thy Will Be Done 3:18
12. Radio Kaliningrad 4:53

Review:
It has been suggested that one of the reasons that last year's Wolf Parade album was so dramatically inferior to their debut was because Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner, the band's two principal songwriters had used up most of their best ideas on the albums that they made separately from each other following Apologies To The Queen Mary. One listen to Face Control hints that it's not quite accurate, Boeckner had plenty of other good songs. He just kept them to himself.
Boeckner and his then fiance-now wife Alexei Perry's first album Plague Park was a sparse affair, underneath Boeckner's guitar sat minimal mid-tempo electronic beats. Face Control however, even though the instrumentation remains the same is far more joyous. The songs are upbeat, the arrangements are a lot fuller. The spare electro-beats, spiky power chords, and sharp synth riffs that are the Handsome Furs’ stock in trade are strongly in evidence throughout Face Control, so be prepared to get hit with more hooks than a bait-and-tackle shop. Of special note for the New Order lovers among Furs fanciers is ”All We Want, Baby, Is Everything,” which comes off like a love letter to the Manchester icons’ “Temptation”-era glory days. But then, there are sonic splashes of numerous stripes waiting to tickle your ear on Face Control.
It's a strong album throughout with opener "Legal Tender", "Talkin' Hotel Arbat Blues", "I'm Confused" and the barely 90 second long "(White City)" all standing out but Perry and Boeckner save the best for last. "Radio Kaliningrad" begins with a wave of electronic noise and overdriven, reverb heavy guitars before giving way to a driving beat that's soon joined by some typically ferocious for Boeckner guitar.

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Howling Bells
Howling bells
Radio wars


Howling Bells - Howling bells

Year: 2006
Genre: indie / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/howlingbells
Format: mp3
Bitrate: VBR [~144]
Filesize: 44 MB
Uploaded: 14-01-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. The bell hit 3:15
02. Velvet girl 3:19
03. Low happening 3:05
04. Broken bones 3:20
05. Wishing stone 3:32
06. A ballad for the bleeding hearts 3:42
07. The night is young 3:50
08. Across the avenue 4:01
09. Setting sun 3:51
10. Blessed night 3:16
11. In the woods 4:28
12. I'm not afraid 2:45

Review:
This is an album unlike most albums. Where much music now dwells in city centres in the midst of the Saturday night scrum (Hard-Fi, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs) or in an uptight 21st-century scratchy paranoid urbania (Bloc Party, The Rakes), the nearest Howling Bells come to the city is a lonely, dusty road with the twinkling lights of a distant township that could bring salvation or doom. From the opening naked guitar strum, it's clear the band have no wish to revive the corpse of Britpop or post-punk or block-book Wembley stadium for soppy balladry when it opens.
No, the closest comparisons are cinematic. Howling Bells' self-titled debut has got the same unsettling atmosphere as Lost Highway, Badlands and Donnie Darko. In common with all those films, this music resides at the unsettling fringes, a place where dreams, daydreams and reality cross over. On the final - redemptive - song 'I'm Not Afraid', reflecting on all that's gone before, Juanita Stein sings: "I've been where the sun don't shine/I've been where the trees have all died/I've been where there's no pathway or door", as her brother Joel picks at a fragile southern, gothic guitar line.
Like their fellow Australian Nick Cave, Howling Bells' music lives on dirty plains and in lonely churchyards, weaving pre-dawn paranoia into a woozy tapestry of sex and death. And Juanita's extraordinary voice curls around the haunting guitar lines like cigarette smoke.
On 'Setting Sun' her voice transforms from a sultry whisper to a roar as mournful as slide guitar, sighing backing vocals and stuttering drums build to a chorus so massive it could be seen from space. Its range and expressiveness is a kind that hasn't emerged since PJ Harvey first sang of church gargoyles and Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star of becoming one with her lover. But while these are decent touchstones for the uninitiated, both were hamstrung by becoming merely showcases for a brilliantly talented singer, whereas Howling Bells always sound like a band, united in their vision. Indeed, Joel Stein's guitar-playing is never less than inventive, forging the bridge between tunesmithery and mood.
On 'A Ballad For The Bleeding Hearts' Juanita howls as her gymnastic vocals leap for the top register, but she resists the temptation to show off; all of her vocals are informed by emotion rather than smart-arsery and likewise they always serve the song in such a way as to make the lyrical barbs as compelling as possible.
And if this all talk of movies and dreams sounds a bit poncey, don't worry. Howling Bells have taken great pains to ensure that this isn't just atmosphere for its own sake. Where previous seekers of this romantic vision have become so obsessed with the sound that they forgot the songs, here Coldplay and Sigur Rós producer Ken Nelson has ensured that each of Howling Bells' tunes will implant itself in your consciousness.
So the grinding intro of 'Velvet Girl' gives way to a beautiful melody that crosses the line from suggestive to sensual, and will already have you rapt. "Be my velvet boy", she implores above her rising "ooh, ooh, oohs". 'Broken Bones' goes into darker territory, hinting at a relationship bordering on abusive ("Broken bones may hurt/But
a broken heart will never mend", she cries as if flinching from a raised fist), while 'In The Woods' floats through with the beauty and delicacy of moonlit cobwebs on the breeze.
Debut single 'Wishing Stone' perhaps showcases all of Howling Bells' strengths: an insistent riff and crystalline arpeggios build to a chorus that erupts with emotion, as Juanita's vocal dives along with the precipitous wailing guitar line, singing, "And I'm walking faster/Losing my breath/But it takes me further from here". And any song that breaks down to a rhythm of drifting guitars and syncopated handclaps is surely worth a place in anyone's collection.
By turns beguiling and enthralling, this is an extraordinary album. The band are brave enough to reject current trends and create their own worldview. Its true brilliance is revealed over the course of several listens, as the tunes burrow into your skull.
The, er, bells and whistles of the dark obsessions will be what attracts the psycho fans, but it'll be the tunes that keep you coming back. Abandon the cities, head out down the less-trodden paths.

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Howling Bells - Radio wars

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/howlingbells
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~205]
Filesize: 55 MB
Uploaded: 14-01-2009
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Treasure hunt 2:45
02. Cities burning down 4:13
03. It ain't you 3:17
04. Nightingale 4:07
05. Let's be kids 3:55
06. Ms. Bell's song (radio wars theme) 5:28
07. Golden web 3:23
08. Into the chaos 3:15
09. Digital hearts 3:35
10. How long 3:25






Review:
Listening to Howling Bells often feels like you’re being bewitched and slowly, subtly seduced, as they draw you into a world where beauty and nightmares are never far from the surface. Their songs are invariably haunting, menacing and unique, unique in the sense that you really couldn’t imagine anybody other than Juanita Stein singing them. She breaths life into each song, giving them depth, meaning and beauty, whilst the band provide the perfect stage upon which Juanita’s vocals can weave their subtle magic.
Radio wars, the follow up to their 2006 self titled debut album, sees the band expanding their sound and moving forwards, yet still managing to retain the key elements that made their first album so hypnotic and exciting.
The bands next single “Cities Burning Down” has a mesmerizing, futuristic, post apocalyptic vibe; one imagines if The Sunday’s Harriet Wheeler had fronted Joy Division, it would sound something like this. “Radio Wars” is without doubt the sound of a band on top form, fully focused, who know exactly where they want to go. Yes, maybe the production has been ratcheted up a notch ; it is not however, a band radically changing direction, as some feared. The album is a natural progression from the eponymous debut, and as such should delight old fans, whilst reaching out to a new audience, which will hopefully lead to them adding to their already dedicated fan base.
Of the many highlights notable tracks are “ It Ain’t You” ( a future single surely) “Nightingale” which is thing of shimmering gorgeousness, a beautiful sultry Gothic lullaby, that is both moody and beguiling, whilst lead single “Into The Chaos” is an insistent, driving slice of cinematic pop. Not every track hits its mark, “Mrs. Bells Song (Theme from Radio Wars) ” has a rather unconventional outro, as the band inform us “Radio Wars are coming/ they’re here” but it fits perfectly with the sweeping, futuristic feel of the album. Then again, Howling Bells songs can often take a number of listens before you “get them”. “Golden Web” is a great song, but was having Juanita’s sentences being finished by one of the chaps in the chorus, strictly necessary? However these are but minor quibbles, and the albums penultimate track “Digital Hearts” provides a glorious final flurry of moody magnificence ahead of the sensational closer,the country infused “How Long.” Juanita’s sublime voice invokes memories of the velvety siren tones of Hope Sandoval at her sultry, seductive best as she laments “How long before I let you go/ how long before I let it show.” It’s quite magnificent and a fitting climax to a fabulous album.This is an album that takes the listener on a journey through a myrriad of differing emotions, and leaves them exhausted, but ultimatley satisfied. Howling Bells truly have the ability to illuminate the darkness and paint the sky with stars.

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HFR’s album top 2008

A hell of a job! But don’t feel burdened or honoured, because I do this for myself.
Firstly, my album year list helps me remember which albums to buy when the price is right (if I don’t have them already of course). I refuse to pay more than about 10 euros. And every album becomes available for that price, sooner or later.
Secondly, the album release mix compilations are for my own enjoyment when driving. It’s kind of like my own radio station in the car, without having to fear those awful tracks that come along, even on the best radio stations, and make you switch channels all the time.
And when I finish these 2 compilations, why not share them with others? So, here they are. Please don’t discuss this album top because everyone has a different taste for music. But do feel free to add your album year lists. Enjoy!

50. Weinland - La lamentor
49. Matthew Barber - Ghost notes
48. Notwist, the - The devil, you + me
47. Lightspeed Champion - Falling of the lavender bridge
46. William Fitzsimmons - The sparrow and the crow
45. Seasick Steve - I started out with nothin' and I still got most of it left
44. Portugal. The Man - Censored colors
43. Margot And The Nuclear So And So’s - Not animal
42. Pete Greenwood - Sirens
41. Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong - Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong
40. J. Tillman - Vacilando territory blues
39. Gotye - Like drawing blood
38. Alphabeat - This is Alphabeat
37. Stills, the - Oceans will rise
36. Declan Bennett - An innocent evening of drinking
35. Sun Kil Moon - April
34. Kings Of Leon - Only by the night
33. All New Adventures Of Us, the - Best loved goodnight tales
32. Sam Amidon - All is well
31. Cloud Cult - Feel good ghosts (tea partying through tornadoes)
30. Acorn, the - Glory hope mountain
29. Friendly Fires - Friendly fires
28. Department Of Eagles - In ear park
27. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Searching for the hows and whys
26. Corrections, the - Repeat after me
25. Colin Macintyre - The water
24. Calexico - Carried to dust
23. Heart Strings, the - Try fly blue sky
22. Foals - Antidotes
21. Vampire Weekend - Vampire weekend

20. Friska Viljor - Tour de hearts
19. Ane Brun - Changing of the seasons
18. Sea Wolf - Leaves in the river
17. Get Well Soon - Rest now, weary head! You will get well soon
16. I Was A Cub Scout - I want you to know that there is always hope
15. Yoav - Charmed & strange
14. Syd Matters - Ghost days
13. Fleet Foxes - Fleet foxes
12. kIM NOVAk - Luck & accident
11. Chad Vangaalen - Soft airplane
10. The Miserable Rich - 12 ways to count
9. James Yuill - Turning down water for air
8. Talk - Reset, start again
7. Bon Iver - For Emma, forever ago
6. Bang Gang - Ghosts from the past
5. J. Tillman - Cancer and delirium
4. Bowerbirds - Hymns for a dark horse
3. Elbow - The seldom seen kid
2. Hyacinth House - Black crows' country

1. Devotchka - A mad & faithful telling

HFR’s album release mix 2008, disc 1 (incl. HFR’s album top 2008, # 1-20):
HFR’s album top 2008 part 1 HFR’s album top 2008 part 2
Part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8 part 9
Total size: 698 MB

HFR’s album release mix 2008, disc 2:
Part 1 part2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8
Total size: 699 MB

HFR’s album release mix 2008, removed tracks (to fit 2 discs):
Part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4
Total size: 356 MB

HFR’s album top 2007

HFR’s album top 2006

Enjoy!

The Miserable Rich - 12 ways to count

Year: 2008
Genre: indie / folk / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/themiserablerich
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V0 [~222]
Filesize: 84 MB
Uploaded: 29-12-2008
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. Early mourning 3:26
02. Pisshead 3:53
03. Boat song 4:42
04. The knife-thrower's hand 4:29
05. Monkey 4:51
06. Muswell 4:21
07. North villas 3:21
08. The time that's mine 1:49
09. The barmaid's canon 4:30
10. Poodle 3:15
11. Merry go ground 4:40
12. Button my lip 8:58




Review:
Describing their music as 'the sound of one lip kissing', this Brighton based five piece create an atmosphere on 'Pisshead', the standout track on their debut album that could perhaps more accurately be described as the sound of one drunk lamenting.
"I'm dead as a dodo, I'm flat on my ass" is the unexpectedly melodious sounding refrain from front man James Malplaquet. Though this is no Tom Waits style, booze sizzled gutter rant. Rather, the sound of kazoo, violins and even a bell calling time on the number at its end creates a rustic sounding dipsomaniacs love affair that's too warm and hazy to ever prompt an AA call.
This is chamber pop folk that has dismissed the beardy woollen jersey cliché to instead don a fine layer of cashmere before entering a dusky world full of tales of boatmen, matinees, teenage crushes and waiting for pay day. "I'll be rolling up in backseats, I'll appreciate the view", croons Malplaquet on the sonorous, violin soaked lament to small town boredom Button My Lip towards the close of the album. Both deft and enchanting with their ability to embrace the pastoral flavours of trad folk and some winningly playful pop hooks, 12 ways to count has tear-jerkers and caustic wit in equally charismatic measure.
With strong connections to Lightspeed Champion and Brighton's Wilkommon Collective, The Miserable Rich aren’t going to struggle for recognition - particularly on the evidence of this superb album- but its Malplaquet's voice, a clarion call that sounds uncannily similar to early 70's troubadour Colin Blunstone, that really endears.

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J. Tillman - Vacilando territory blues

Year: 2008
Genre: indie / folk
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jtillman
Format: mp3
Bitrate: 160cbr
Filesize: 58 MB
Uploaded: 29-12-2008
Hosted by: uploaded.to / mediafire

Track listing:
01. All you see 0:48
02. No occasion 3:51
03. Firstborn 3:30
04. Vessels 3:47
05. James blues 2:30
06. Steel on steel 4:40
07. Labourless land 3:25
08. Barter blues 7:24
09. New imperial grand blues 4:02
10. Master's house 4:56
11. Someone, with child 3:17
12. Above all men 3:54
13. Vacilando territory 3:31

Review:
Some might be surprised to learn that Tillman—who joined Seattle sensations Fleet Foxes as drummer last spring, along the way enhancing the group's spine-tingling harmonies—is now five albums into a solo career stretching back to 2004.
In a strange inversion of pop's customary bent for instantly generated mass culture, Tillman's output has, for the most part, inhabited a secret universe. Pressed on tiny labels in minuscule numbers—100 here, 150 there—and passed around like the holy grail among the knowing few, those discs nonetheless form a body of work heralding the arrival of a major songwriter.
Carving out a darkly brooding persona with roots in Neil Young's early '70s output, Richard Buckner's elliptical Americana, Nick Drake balladry, and assorted, harder-to-pinpoint gospel, country, blues, and folk idioms, Tillman’s two most recent solo long-players—Cancer and Delirium (2007/2008) and Minor Works (2006)—are packed with memorable songs. Often built upon the simplest, ingratiating musical maneuvers--like the little stair-step acoustic guitar on Minor Works' "Crooked Roof"--Tillman's songs rarely hew to the literal, instead deftly navigating allegory and alienation, the occasional revelation stacked against heaps of melancholy.
On Vacilando (so named from the Spanish term, indicating a wanderer for whom the experience of travel is more important than the reaching of a destination), though, he strips away his tendency for over-production, resulting in a more focused, refined approach. Tillman's cavernous vocal range, all texture and nuance, is front and center; meanwhile, a wise-beyond-his-years lyrical depth that, one fathoms, springs from (or, more accurately, is a reaction to) his restrictive religious upbringing, results in pithy imagery, i.e., "Suffering doesn't know God's name (from "New Imperial Grand Blues") or, from the album's opening salvo, "All that you see, you have dominion/All you don't know, you are forbidden."
An existentialist’s song cycle, Vacilando's grim, lonely songs reinforce each other with an impeccable internal logic, fashioning its own little world-weary universe, wherein less is more, simple guitar strums signal seismic shifts in mood, shadows bump into one another. Like Neil Young’s On the Beach or Jason Molina’s Songs:Ohia incarnation, it’s best heard late at night, alone, lights down low, one last bottle of wine in the wings.
From its atmospheric, old-world opening, "All You See," chorale vocals over a barely audible guitar, the album initiates a haunting sweep. The baseline is austere: minimalist arrangements hinging on acoustic guitar, occasional keyboard flourishes, Tillman's sad, aching voice, the occasional wordless vocal passage. Elaboration is present when needed, like the forlorn banjo on "Barter Blues" or rolling drums on "Laborless Land," which has the timeless feel of an American Civil War ballad. It's the new High Lonesome.
Tillman cradles the hushed aphorisms of "Firstborn" like a week-old baby. "Vessels," built around a deceptive guitar riff, features Tillman's most tender vocal turn, even as the apocalypse looms; brittle piano fills lend a slightly sardonic touch to the pitying “James Blues” a pre-WW2-style parlor blues. Penultimate track "Above All Men" represents an apotheosis of sorts, putting aside personal turmoil long enough to recognize simple blessings.
The record's insistently bleak tone threatens to tilt into claustrophobia at times, but Tillman winningly subverts expectations. The striking full-band cut, “Steel on Steel,” with delicious French horn/pedal steel interplay and Fleet Fox Casey Wescott on keyboards, melds agonizing romantic heartbreak to an epiphany on life's ephemeral nature. It's a leftfield instant pop classic, Tillman winding his silkiest vocal around the song's glistening melody. "New Imperial Grand Blues," in contrast, is a pulsating rocker, a jarring peek into the Crazy Horse side of Tillman's brain.
It’s a bone-rattling blues called “Master’s House”, however, that best embodies Tillman’s talent: “How easily the heart of man is tamed” he surmises, over the music, his quivering, floating tenor gaining a steady, stoic determination. It’s an explosive assessment, with implications reverberating into personal, spiritual, even geopolitical realms. Tillman’s own spirit, meanwhile, you suspect will be tough to quell.

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