Montresor – Daybreak

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Dec 282011
 

We all know prog-rock is a sub-genre that covers anything from spliced 8-bit music from Alex Kidd in ‘Miracle World’ to long guitar-based songs to unlistenable self-indulgent noise. In the case of this recent release from Melbourne’s Montresor (a character from EA Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”) it’s listenable and often hummable but still retains that feel of improvised jams and exploration of sounds.

The short opening track, ‘Daybreak’, conjures up exactly that. A drawn out climbing bass riff flows through the song, starting on its own before being joined by guitars but no drums. It’s a relaxed opening to a record where so often bands start with both barrels blazing.

It’s in track two that Montresor start the commotion, with a crying atonal guitar over a background of noisy driving rhythm guitar chords, bass and drums. This song is almost ten minutes long and is made up of a number of distinct segments with various time signatures and swinging between tight structure and jazzy, fuzzy guitar strains. Compared to the variation found in many post-rock tracks by bands like TWDY and EITS this is more experimental yet still very much a complete song.

In ‘Bertrand Russell’ Montresor quickly announce that while there was time variation in the last song, that was just a taste, as they get straight into some nicely complex beats. There’s good variety and use of rhythm again in this seven minute effort with more improvised feel to the lead.

There’s an inward-looking soundscape ‘Longing’ before the guys rock out with ‘…To the Cosmos’, an entirely danceable and fun track that takes on an almost Spanish guitar influence in the closing stages.

The closing song makes use of moments of tension and contains some interesting bass passages, but doesn’t satisfy as much as the rest of the record, especially as a finale. It’s at this time I wonder how the record stacks up against bands or solo artists using loops, horn, strings, synth, keyboard and the like. More likely it’s simply the track order that lets it down a little.

The playing and song writing skills in the band are obvious, with the four members having come from a string of other acts. The record has some very strong tracks and Montresor shows that guitar times two, bass and drums is enough to produce a full sound, and it’s that simplicity, in contrast to the complexity of the compositions, that is part of ‘Daybreak’’s appeal. I look forward to seeing them live, because that’s when this kind of sound really shines.

Released December 29 2011 throughBandcamp

Echo Rating (((●●●)))

Posted by Gilbert Potts

 Posted by at 10:59 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Laura – Twelve Hundred Times

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Dec 222011
 

Describe a man, put him in a tree, rescue him from the tree. Short film/story writing 101. It works musically as well, either as a song, a long composition or as a record. And this is the basic structure of ‘Twelve Hundred Times’, except that Melbourne five-piece Laura put a man in space, let you think he will be rescued, then see him drift from your fingertips into the void. If this record was a movie, it would probably be ‘Silent Running’.

Timed bang on 44 minutes, the record contains eleven songs ranging from a minute to seven minutes. However, so complete is the record, that you lose all sense of the length of each song. What you feel instead is a huge ocean wave that slowly lifts you high before dropping you into its trough.

It’s clear from listening to Laura’s third record that it took a long time to write and lay down. What is astonishing is that it wasn’t written from the outset as a complete work, instead coming together from a variety methods before being moulded in the studio.

The attention to detail in ‘Twelve Hundred Times’ is mindblowing. Not one millisecond of sound is wasted, overused or out of place. It’s as though Laura are saying; “OK, you’ve heard that sound. That was for that moment and if you want hear it again, play the whole record again.” It is lean, and deliberately so.

Think industrial, post-rock, folk, indie rock, drone, post-metal, trip-hop – it’s all in there somewhere, but it’s not an attempt to cram what styles you can on an album. More simply I would describe it as counterpoint of vocals and strings against a series of walls of noise. Or most simply; perfect.

When we first hear singing, in the opening track ‘Visitor’, it’s muted and distant. It’s a call for help amid the noise and harshness of guitar and synth. In ‘This Grey Earth’ we are closer. We can hear the vocals more clearly, so mellow and calm, surrounded by stabs of sharp painful noise.

‘Gravity Hill’ is the first joiner track and we are introduced to cello playing over static, before we move to ‘Mark of the Day’. We are now close enough to hear the singer’s emotions. It’s not mournful, self-pittying or lamenting, it’s not depressing, melancholic or miserable, this song is absolute and utter despair, and if you can find a more beautiful song released this year, please let me know.

Then Laura throws us a lifeline. The upbeat ‘Glint’ is the rescue plan, fingers touch and our hero is safe! Until contact is abruptly lost, that is, and slowly he drifts off through each successive track. In the closing minutes, puffs of static remind me of the flashes of light from the manoeuvring rockets on a spacecraft. But they are not sending help closer.

I listened to this record eight times yesterday. Headphones, speakers, and at midnight alone on a Victorian country road on the vast Western Plains. I didn’t forward a single track, and I felt goosebumps at the same point each time. I can’t remember when music last did this to me.

Released October 14 2011 throughBandcamp

Echo Rating (((●●●●•)))

Posted by Gilbert Potts

 Posted by at 9:39 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Echoes And Dust Top 40 Records of 2011

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Dec 202011
 

Well, give or take a few days, that was 2011. As ever it’s flown by at an unbelievable rate of knots but it’s definitely been quite a year, both on and off the musical field of play, as it were. Special mention has to go to And So I Watch You From Afar who not only produced what turned out to be our album of the year but also probably our gig of the year with their utterly spectacular show at the Scala back in May.

On the live front, honourables also have to go to Future Of The Left (Hoxton Bar & Kitchen), Tormenta (Knowledge As Our Weapon), Frank Turner (Barfly) and Alright The Captain (Knowledge As Our Weapon) for showing just how exciting and vital music can be when it’s right up in your face. There’s been plenty more but those are the ones that have really stuck in our minds.

Anyway, we hope you agree with us that 2011 has been a pretty fine vintage. Here’s to more of the same in 2012.

Here’s our de rigour list of our favourite records of 2011. There’s probably loads that we’ve missed and will no doubt kick ourselves for not including, and we’ve no doubt that you’ll disagree with us on many of them, but they are all top quality records so enjoy.

1. And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs

2. LaFaro – Easy Meat

3. US Christmas – The Valley Path

4. Brontide – Sans Souci

5. Fashoda Crisis – Him Make They Learn Read

6. Maybeshewill – I Was Here For A Moment

7. Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones

8. Alright The Captain – SNIB

9. Firesuite – You’re An Ocean Deep, My Brother

10. Black International – In Debt

11. Tormenta – La Ligne âpre

12. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die

13. Low – C’mon

14. Monsters Build Mean Robots – WeShouldHave DestroyedOur GeneralsNot TheirEnemies

15. Papaye – La Chaleur

16. Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys

17. EastStrikeWest – We’re Important And We Keep The City Running

18. Johnny Foreigner – Johnny Foreigner Vs Everything

19. Arbouretum – The Gathering

20. Killington Fall – Keep Your Eyes To The Sea EP

21. Dan Mangan – Oh Fortune

22. United Fruit – Fault Lines

23. Minion TV – Arecibo EP

24. Up C Down C – Calaveras

25. Kellar – The Beloved Dean Of Magic

26. True Widow – As High As the Highest Heavens

27. Young Legionnaire – Crisis Works

28. Three Trapped Tigers – Route One Or Die

29. Khuda – Iecava

30. Matt Stevens – Relic

31. Trojan Horse – Trojan Horse

32. White Hills – h-p1

33. Polinski – Labyrinths

34. Vessels – Helioscope

35. Russian Circles – Empros

36. Lanterns on the Lake – Gracious Tide, Take Me Home

37. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

38. Cyril Snear – Fluent In Seven Types Of Monotone

39. The Fierce & The Dead – If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe

40. The Antlers – Burst Apart

With thanks to Gareth O’Malley, Polly Holton, Hannah Morgan, Geoff Morey, Jake Gillen & Aicha Boyd for their input to this list.

 Posted by at 11:16 am

Niss – Inspiriando

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Dec 202011
 

Discovering what you can do with six bits of wire on a wooden frame with mains voltage running through it is something millions of people around the world have enjoyed. A much smaller number become proficient and truly innovative, and with Niss we get to share the genuine excitement of someone embarking on that road.

Niss is Robin Stjerndorff, from Sweden. He played acoustic guitar for 10 years before plugging one in and experimenting with effects. He is on a voyage of discovery and he’s excited about it. ‘Inspiriando’ is his first release, recorded in his home, and it is distinctly better than the average one-man-band following the path of self-recording and Bandcamping.

Robin writes: “I don’t really see a money aspect of this project as a whole, it is more of a way to document the development of my music. And if people like Niss then that is good, but I don’t blame them if they don’t. I’ve always liked the different side of things and I hope this reflects in my music.”

I love good post-metal and death-metal guitar, although I’m not a huge fan of the screaming. The range of sounds under the banner of post-metal is almost boundless. Alcest with its jangly guitar, full-on reverb and understated dream-like vocals; Encircling Sea with songs that run well over 30 minutes with anything from silence to a wall of noise; and then the large number on Bandcamp like Forks of Ivory and Cosmonauts Day – metal without vocals. It’s in this crowded and diverse style that Niss seeks to create a new path. It doesn’t quite make it, but you can see the spark in its eyes.

A simple bass riff is a great start to the record. Enter some drum beats and jangling guitar over the top and we’re away. A minute later and ‘Rigid’ heads off in another direction, then almost immediately taking another corner where power chords and experimenting with time signatures are the order of the day. Another third of the way and the guitar sounds almost banjo-like and the whole thing quietens down before suddenly things just stop and the last note fades.

‘Concrete Hills’ starts with a little drone before a pulsating dischordal guitar comes in, swirling through your head. This is followed by slice after slice of different phrases – all characterised by loud guitar and drums. At the half-way point a pause leads into ambient noise (generated by wind on the guitar strings) before we are off again at walking pace through the last two minutes, including a few bars of melody.

The mid way point of the record is ‘Electrical Potential’ which gives us two minutes of noise, reminiscent of the likes of Nekrasov but quieter and with a bit of scratching.

To the last two tracks and there is plenty of listenable material in small bites all held together by unobtrusive drumming, and both fading away on single notes, the only hint of a cadence being in the final track ‘Living in the Rain’.

For me the highlight is probably ‘Dodging Pitfalls’ and the only track that really carries a theme all the way through.

Being the only member of your band and recording and producing your own material has artistic limitations. Yes you are free to do what you want, but without others sharing the development of your songs, you lack that second opinion and a range of other ideas. Those limitations are evident on ‘Inspiriando’ in two areas: tying together the components of a song, and a good ending.

But Robin has bravely bared his soul and is asking music fans to listen and give their feedback. He knows the dangers of a one-man-band and he has chosen what he sees is a way around it, dodging Pitfalls, you might say! Already it has been suggested that he adds vocals and he has responded with eagerness.

I admire what he’s done here. It’s not a masterpiece but it’s no dud, with plenty of innovation and originality. Why not have a listen, give some feedback, and play apart in Robin’s musical development. Because it’s worth developing.

Released November 11 2011 through Bandcamp

Echo Rating (((●●●•)))

Posted by Gilbert Potts

 Posted by at 9:36 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Russian Circles – Empros

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Dec 202011
 

The new album by Russian Circles, ‘Empros’, reminds me of driving at night; the pleasure of absorbing all senses with the music blasting and just you and the road. The unification of only what is ahead in the headlights and images flying past, looking familiar but slightly different on the outer edges of your vision and as the miles pass and the album plays it opens up glimpses of a dawn exposing its layers of times new and familiar. Building on the magnificent ‘Geneva’ this album is a tour de force finally showing the potential promised in ‘Enter’ and ‘Station’.

For anyone that has seen Russian Circles live it is evident that Sulivan/Cook/Turnkrantz are trying to bring their live experience to record, and succeeding. Building layer upon layer of sonic dynamics that take you along the journey from the opening bars of ‘309’ to the closing song of ‘Praise Be The Man’ with its spiritual uplifting crescendos that have elements of dream drone pop that J Spaceman would be more than ecstatic with writing. Which somewhat belies some of the influences on this 6 track opus.

When I think about Russian Circles I think about how the rhythm section adds a bedrock to the songs, while Sullivan layers textures that invoke memories or dreams past and future. Turnkrantz drumming is something to behold and drives the songs into areas that leave you gasping. Sullivan sculpts atmospheres that span the ethereal sounds of his acoustic guitar to a feedback clarion call to the metal gods which transcend a gut wrenching heaviness that is shocking in its beauty.

For me, the stand out track is ‘Schipol’. It contains in its 6 minutes everything that is right about Russian Circles but without the post apocalyptic visions set out by ‘306’ and ‘Mládek’ before it, I feel it’s respite from the heavy riffs wouldn’t work. If I have one criticism it is that ‘Empros’ drifts a little after ‘Schipol’ but that can be forgiven in light of the force that comes before it and the album’s sublime ending.

This is the album that Russian Circles have been promising for a number of years and puts them at the top of the tree in Post rock/metal/whatever you want to call it genre. The only thing better than this album is to see them live – but this is a very close second.

Released November 07 2011 on Sargent House

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Posted by Chris Hughes

 Posted by at 9:07 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Echoes Of The Future 13 – Hearse Pileup

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Dec 192011
 

There’s something of a swagger about Hearse Pileup’s music that really appeals to us here at E&D. A trio from South London who’s trademark sound stomps the line somewhere between Queens Of The Stone Age and The Stooges. So, we tracked them down & popped them some questions.

1. How long has the band been together and how did you all meet?

We’ve been around for about a year. Matt and Tony first met at 6th form and were in a band for four years, disbanded due to Uni for another four, then met up again to start a new one. Wojciech, who couldn’t pursue his beloved past-time of fox hunting after it became illegal, joined the band to attend to his other passion – drumming. Wojciech worked the same warehouse job as Tony and they and Matt quickly formed a tight power trio.

2. Where did you get your name from & what does it mean?

Hearse Pileup. Being both slightly tongue in cheek and a nice visual image, it kind of represents the ultimate bad luck – life can still be shitty after you die! Also it is kind of in reference to the idea of punk being dead. If punk is dead, then we’re zombie rock and roll!

3. Describe your sound for us & who would you say were your biggest musical influences?

Our sound is pretty raw, being influenced mainly by 70′s rock music like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, the Stooges as well as some newer music like Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, the Foo Fighters, maybe a little bit of Muse too. Matt’s usually a pretty chilled out guy, but that’s because he bottles up all his rage to be spewed out on stage!

Wojciech also has a solo project called Electrocock, and takes a lot of inspiration from Daft Punk, Vitalic, Justice, etc

4. And what about non-musical influences?

Matt is heavily involved with sukey.org in his other life – a website dedicated to protecting demonstrators, so a lot of the lyrics are mildly political. We’re also influenced by having to work long, mind-fuck hours and having to deal with the general shittiness of people. Rage unites the three of us.

Pretty Shiny Things Polished Demo by Hearse Pileup

5. Music can be a fickle mistress, what is your biggest high & low as a band so far?

We’re still pretty young so the highs aren’t very high, and the lows aren’t very low. High point has to be recording our Demo at Dropout Studios in Camberwell – they use all this awesome old school equipment there. We recorded onto tape and the results really punch you in the face! Our low is probably losing a set of Zildjian cymbals at our first gig!

6. What one fact about the band do you most want to share with the world?

We’re all dying, slowly and painfully. The planet’s fucked and no-one’s acting fast enough to save us. Everyone knows that something’s wrong – we’re just trying to highlight that. Well, that and our live set – come on down, you won’t regret it!.

7. The old model of record demo-do gigs-get signed-make millions is pretty broken these days, what’s your plan to deal with this?

These days technology saves the good music. You can access all the good stuff any time through your cell phone. Soundcloud & Bandcamp and all that is the new model of it all. We’re trying our best to get word out there – Twitter seems to be helping a lot; most traditional ways of distributing your stuff are so overcrowded that people just switch off. As for making money? Well, that’d be awesome. DIY seems to be the way to go though, there isn’t enough security to being signed any more for it to be worth it with a major label.

Generation Y Demo by Hearse Pileup

8. We journalists like to use easy labels to describe bands, what’s the worst thing you’ve seen yourselves described as?

The worst thing is that we haven’t been labelled yet, this is our first piece!

9. We’re loving what you do but who’s floating your boat right now?

For a long time we found it very hard to find a lot of decent modern music. Indie doesn’t sound as good as it used to – the genre has kind of stagnated a little in our opinion. Wojciech has his own views too: ‘I absolutely hate Emo stuff; 30 stm, Paramore etc can suck my ass!’ However we love Lightning Bolt (though they’re a little old now), the Dead Weather are pretty cool. We’ve also had the great pleasure of playing with Dactyls who are doing some really cool stuff!

10. What’s up next for you guys?

Well we’re still looking to get our Demo mastered, which should be pretty soon, after which we’re hoping to do a proper release of it as our EP. We’ll get it out on Bandcamp after that. We’ve got some awesome ideas for music videos, which we’ll shoot ourselves as Matt is a film maker. Except for that we just want to put the pedal to the metal in terms of gigs as the set is now finely honed, we can guarantee a good show, all that’s missing is crashing a hearse through the wall for our stage entrance!

 Posted by at 11:37 am  Tagged with: ,

This Quiet Army – Resurgence

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Dec 192011
 

As a package, this triple-gatefold two-CD release promises so much from the start. The wonderful illustrations by Mandi A Morgan display a marriage of precision and chaos. It suggests we will see the same from This Quiet Army, which is in reality Eric Quach, who is both a fully fledged mechanical engineer and prolific writer, performer and recorder of music. It’s now that I really wish I had gone for the vinyl, but there you go.

Removing the disc called ‘Resurgence’ reveals the lyrics of ‘Gone to the Unseen’, an adaptation, by Meryem Yildiz, of the wonderful Rumi poem. I look forward to hearing it. I’m intrigued by the extent to which Rumi, an early 13thcentury Persian poet and theologian among other things, is an influence on ‘Resurgence’. By extension, perhaps the record will embody the Sufist search for Fira, or perhaps some secular equivalent. After all drone and repetition is consistent with Sufism.

Or perhaps it’s simply a bunch of songs.

‘Rebirth’, ‘Revival’ and ‘Renaissance’ are the first three tracks, with almost synonymous titles. As I lean back the soft drone starts and before long a powerful, deep, fuzzy phrase begins as the drone becomes louder and yes, I can feel that something is breathing; something purposeful and determined. It is indeed a rebirth and I am easily swallowed up by the caressing tones. Some shrill effects dance around but they are the dolphins around an oil tanker, not the prima donna. This song is my friend, or at least not my enemy and I want to follow its journey alongside, and I hope it will let me stay.

Before I know it I am in to ‘Revival’ and it builds on those foundations, becoming more self-assured. The pulse now beats faster in the form of drums, but the heartbeat of the fuzzy driving guitar is back too. Now a tumbling, lighter guitar starts to take much of the limelight before passing the baton to more swirling effects. It’s as though this creature is swallowing the layers of sound, making itself stronger. I picture it in the context of Rumi-is Quach wanting me to feel the creature getting closer to its God?

But now I’m in ‘Renaissance’, and suddenly my deep drone has deserted me leaving stark drums and guitar. But after a minute of anxiety the comforting drone is back. The creature had just been regaining its strength and now it is more powerful than before. In a way these three tracks are a work in themselves, and I wonder where we go from here.

‘Birds, Ashes & Fire’ pulls the creature back into line. Perhaps it is wondering how to find enlightenment. The rich drone is still there and the pulse of the drums, as is the multitude of layers, but without the confidence I heard for the last 15 minutes, and the song ends by fading with some uncertainty.

‘Whispers in the Trees’ has an altogether different feel. With each listen I am no clearer if it is uplifting or depressing. It’s not that it doesn’t say anything, it’s just not clear to me what. I no longer feel connected to the first three songs and I wish I did. It’s a good track, but I’m lost.

‘Mechanical Heart’ is chillingly cold and sparse, with powerful beats and layers of noise. This is contrasted by the uplifting crescendo of ‘Whirring Brain’. ‘Summer Isolation’ is another sparse and this time joyless track, the last minute or so becoming quite intense before fading off.

The CD ends with the almost-13 minute long ‘Gone to the Unseen’. The build-up is slow and tinged with an improbable mixture of despair and achievement. I am lost in thoughts of death and failure and birth and hope. It’s when Meryim Yilditz’ hauntingly beautiful voice enters the picture that the record’s title seems most appropriate. She arrives to bring order and reason to the uncertainty of Quach’s song. Rather than the music being built around the words, it feels like she has daubed her impression of Rumi’s poem over the top. I have no idea which is the case, but it feels almost improvised and it works so well, with Rumi’s poem captured in a fitting end to the disc.

So looking back, was the record a collection of tracks or a complete story?

Reading interviews with Quach suggests he seeks to achieve what he wants in his own way, caring little for how others do things or how they think things should be done. Naturally you will hear familiar styles and sounds in this record; reviews of his work are full of the terms ambient, shoegaze, post-punk, krautrock, drone, industrial, effects, etc. But is it unique? Does it make the listener dream?

I wanted to hear a complete theme or story in this record. I’m not convinced I did, but neither is it a random collection of disparate tracks. There is a common feeling of Quach seeking to meet his own standards and visions in all the tracks, but this doesn’t mean they all sound the same or unoriginal.

With my eyes closed as I listened to the opening minutes of ‘Gone to the Unseen’, I recalled footage of the set of Jaques Tati’s ‘Playtimebeing’ pulled down against his wishes. I heard his story in the music. You should find it easy to become immersed in this record and there is enough there for everyone to hear it in your own way.

Released November 2011 OnDenovali

Echo Rating (((●●●•)))

Posted by Gilbert Potts

 Posted by at 10:26 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Kellar – The Beloved Dean Of Magic

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Dec 182011
 

Let’s get it straight from the outset – this is noisy and it won’t get much radio play. Most listeners will not make it through the first track and I’ve seen this kind of stuff empty a bandroom when played loud enough. For those of you who do like it noisy and who like improv that flows between freefall and structure, then this should be for you.

Although tagged on Bandcamp as doom, I found the record to be lots of fun. Not surprising if you follow Kellar‘s conversations on Twitter. Largely up-beat with plenty of variation within and between each track. “Noise”can often be code for “all sounds the same” but that’s certainly not the case here.

Opening with ‘The Royal Illusionists’, Kellar throw almost everything at the listener. It’s as though they are throwing down the challenge to see who wants to stick it out. Flourishing guitar improvises over a loud industrial drone and spasmodic drum beats.

If you’re still there, Kellar rewards you with a change of sound. ‘The Vanishing Lamp’ with its fuzzy bass, pulsating drone and strong nod to metal is a great second track. There’s even a hint of melody for a brief moment, not that melody is what you will be after.

‘Self Decapitation’ is held together with the drums that are the closest you will get to straight up rock on this record. Even the bass lumbers from one giant foot to the other, but this is not rock as you know it.

’The Nested Boxes’ takes me back a long time to sitting in my bedroom with a morse code oscillator recording all the sounds I could make onto cassette. This track is a hoot and best illustrates the fun Dave, Dan and Andy are having.

The final, title track (allegedly recorded in a public toilet) rambles along as you might expect an 18-minute final track to do. Probably the most accessible in sound I’m convinced the length is deliberately ironic.

Kellar has released this one-hour record through Bandcamp as a download or as a CDR. Interestingly they have gone down the path of charging a set price rather than name-your-price. Again, this is not surprising given the confidence they radiate.

You need to be in the mood for this record. It’s one I don’t ever foresee putting on as background music, to get the party started or as drive music. I think I will only ever listen on my own when I am relaxed and comfortable. I do know that when I do listen to it I will be smiling.

Released December 19 2011 through Bandcamp

Echo Rating (((●●●●)))

Posted by Gilbert Potts

 Posted by at 11:06 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Pontiak – Echo Ono

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Dec 142011
 

A while back, like less than three months ago, my son suffered a ruptured appendix, which led to a really bad set of infections that landed him in the hospital for 21 days.

Why am I sharing this?

We are back in the hospital as I am writing this! But this time, fortunately, that damned useless, vestigial organ is out of my young progeny’s body for good. Needless to say, I am an extremely happy person/Daddy today, and I feel like writing a review!

My latest band to review is Pontiak, another of the outstanding North American Neo-Psychedelic Stoner-ific bands that occupy the same headspace as White Hills (another fave of mine, and one I have reviewed this past year, (Pontiak and in fact labelmates on Thrill Jockey Records, and I highly recommend that you check out just about any Thrill Jockey act.) and US Christmas.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I am not being crass or insulting when I call this group Neo-Psychedelic or Stoner Rock. Pontiak is definitely making rock that pays homage to the forefathers of stoner rock, but it’s not a copy or knock-off in any way or shape. Yes, there is heavy soloing, lead guitar over a driving and hard-charging rhythm section, and there are even shades (just momentary glimpses) of Doors-ian croon, but Pontiak hold their own and deliver an enjoyable melodic experience on ‘Echo Ono’, the latest in a pretty long line of EP-and-full-length albums.

Starting out, strong I might add, is ‘Lions of Least’, belting and distorted, but at just over two minutes, is too short for me. Listen for the Hammond Organ in the middle portions of the song, it is understated and just enough, adding a nostalgic touch (Hammond was seriously overused for my taste by folks like Deep Purple, since a little goes a long way!). My only criticism, again, is that the song ends too soon, but since there is plenty more to love and listen to on the album, that’s minor.

Track two ‘The North Coast’ starts out slower, almost bluesy, and with those Ghost of Jim Morrison vocals I alluded to before. This song showcases all that is best with Pontiak, meaning a soaring lead voice, a catchy and addictive lead guitar riffing away, heavy hard-rock drumming punctuated with almost marching-band-precision tom beats, and a double-dose of distortion. This track leads almost seamlessly into number 3, ‘Left with Lights’. These two songs could easily be one, and they both rock out pretty damn hard.

The next two tracks are the almost Dylan-esque, ‘The Expanding Sky’ and ‘Silver Shadow’, which slow the tempo a bit, and take out the fuzz and feedback of the first half of the album. Shades of Country-Folk make an appearance, and a bit of Jerry Garcia-like harmonizing is also there, under the omnipresent twang of the lead guitar’s riff. These are definitely tracks that sounds to me most like tributes to ‘60s tunes, but these tracks are original and Garage Band or rough enough to still be fun, and stand up on their own. There are plenty of highlights left on the rest of this album, including some late-60’s Santana keys and organ for you Psychedelics out there.

I have to emphasize that I am enjoying the hell out of this album, and it is a fun and melodic rock record, but its strength is in the fact that Pontiak play this music really well, and add their unique flavor to it. It’s not the most original music of the year, and that’s okay in this case. It rocks, I recommend it, and I am hoping to see Pontiak live, since I can tell that they like to improvise and jam when not constrained by album track lengths and such. Ideally, I would love to see White Hills and Pontiak together, since they have a complementary sound and style, and both like to jam.

As always, if you like this music by Pontiak (or any of the music reviewed here), please buy it so that these artists can keep making music that matters!

Released February 06 2012 onThrill Jockey

Echo Rating (((●●●•)))

Posted by Jake Gillen

 Posted by at 11:04 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Echoes Of The Future 12 – The Narrows

 Future Echoes, Interview  No Responses »
Dec 122011
 

The Narrows are amongst the cream of an extraordinary crop of great bands currently lighting up the Manchester alternative scene. A band that creates broodingly dark atmospheres in their songs may not be the obvious choice to release a Christmas single, but then The Narrows are anything but obvious. On the day that ‘Santa, Is That You Outside My Window?’ is released, we caught up with the boys to find out more….

1. How long has the band been together and how did you all meet?

The Narrows have been together since 2010 and we released our first EP in July that year. We’ve known each other since we were about 14 and were in various bands with each other. The Narrows was different though. Something kind of clicked and we were all on the same page.

2. Where did you get your name from & what does it mean?

The Narrows comes from a pretty geeky source in all honesty – it’s the name for the ghettoised area of Gotham City in the Batman graphic novels. Something about it felt dark and odd and intense, which matched the music we make. At one point we thought about calling ourselves The Sunshines. That’s obviously a lie.

3. Describe your sound for us & who would you say were your biggest musical influences?

Our sound is electronic horror guilt-pop with added paranoia and fuck-off guitars. Our biggest musical influences are Bjork, Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age, Scott Walker, Kraftwerk, Bernard Herrmann and Serge Gainsbourg.

4. And what about non-musical influences?

Film Noir // Politics // Conspiracy Theories // Fear // Hitchcock // Liberalism // Camus // Hunter S. Thompson // The State of The Nation

5. Music can be a fickle mistress, what is your biggest high & low as a band so far?

High: Playing T in The Park. Walking out onto a festival stage is unbelievable. The free beer was also pretty great.

Low: You sometmes feel like you’re shouting into a bottomless void. Social media and the internet has liberated new bands, but it’s also made it far more difficult to get heard.

6. What one fact about the band do you most want to share with the world?

We are MASSIVE fans of the Grease soundtrack. No irony.

7. The old model of record demo-do gigs-get signed-make millions is pretty broken these days, what’s your plan to deal with this?

Our plan is to be innovative and passionate and thoughtful and boundry-pushing and fearless and hard-working and positive.

8. We journalists like to use easy labels to describe bands, what’s the worst thing you’ve seen yourselves described as?

Someone said we were like Kasabian once. That wasn’t great.

9. We’re loving what you do but who’s floating your boat right now?

For us at the moment, we’re excited about what’s happening in Manchester. Artists like Mount Fabric, From The Kites of San Quentin, Trojan Horse and Vei are all very, very good. They transcend their genres and excel at creating quite breath-taking musical landscapes.

10. What’s up next for you guys?

The debut album is consuming us at the moment. We obviously want to keep gigging around the country and play some festivals in 2012, but the main focus is to finish the album and then figure out how to get as many people as possible to hear it.

 Posted by at 10:05 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Minion TV – Arecibo EP

 EPs  No Responses »
Dec 052011
 

It’s been almost a month now (in fact today, 4 December, is exactly a month!) since the latest from MINIONTV, a 5-song EP entitled ‘Arecibo’, was released. I really wish that I had written this review a lot sooner, but life being what it is…Now that I am sitting down to write this, FINALLY, I am actually very glad that I have had the extra listens of ‘Arecibo’. It’s been a solid and enjoyable album since the first listen, but the extra time that MINIONTV, ‘Arecibo’ and I have had together has been quality, and has really deepened my appreciation for this work and this band.

Believe it or not, I am not a professional writer and music reviewer, but a wage slave in the IT field. Work sent me to the tip of America’s penis last week: Miami, Florida. It’s a lot like my hometown and state, San Diego, California, there, but at the same time it was almost like being in a strange country without a great grasp of the language. I speak a little Spanish, but I learned a slower, Mexican-influenced pronunciation and tempo, whereas in South Florida, the Spanish is much more European and South American-sounding, along with being spoken at a breakneck, machine-gun tempo.

I spent most of the last week alone, working in an empty warehouse, not speaking for many hours at a stretch. The whole time, my only constant was this EP by MINIONTV. I basically had it on repeat for much of the day, every day, and right now, back at home, listening to it again, it sounds as familiar as anything in my beloved collection, yet as fresh as it did on first listen. That to me is a true measure of success in music: after many listens, it’s not stale and it’s not getting the least bit tired dated or tedious.

MINIONTV’s bio page tells me that they are a 5-piece instrumental band from Liverpool, and that they are heavily influence by atmospheric and ambient music, as well as electronica. It’s pretty obvious that these fine musicians have listened to a wide variety of music, since there is a little bit of many genres apparent within.

But rather than follow the standard ‘Sounds Like’ review style I usually do, I am going to do what some of my fellow EchoesandDust’ers have done, and just tell you what this music makes me feel like, which, like their style, runs the gamut. My favorite is the upbeat-ish title track ‘Arecibo’, with the drums really taking center (or centre) stage, layered over electro-beeps and guitar. This tune really builds and builds, and is really pretty complex when you start to break it down. At over 7 minutes, the band give themselves time to develop the track, to let it flow.

Next for me in order of favorites, is ‘Keep the Negatives’, which has piano as its focus. It’s a slower song, and has a catchy sort of almost melancholy riff as its main hook. Again, the drumming is almost like military marching drums at times, heavy on snare, but also with a ton of cymbal. At about halfway, a heavier more direct interlude occurs, but the song retains the almost sad vibe. It sounds to me like finality, if that makes sense; not hopeless, but sort of a sad resignation. Give it a listen and call bullshit if you disagree. Either way, it’s a damn good song.

The last track, ‘Vi’, really sounds to me like it should be on some sort of ‘Blade Runner’ soundtrack. And guess what? MINIONTV mention on their site that they ‘consider film a major influence, and that their music has been used in TV and film worldwide’. I could definitely see this group being composers for film soundtracks on the same level as Vangelis and similar others.

Tangerine Dream anyone?

Another thing I really like about MINIONTV, is that on their band website, they give you a list of what each of the band members have been listening to for the last X number of days, and I love that sort of thing; I feel connected to bands that want to share what inspires their work and their tastes in music. I think it’s a really good thing. As a Music Nerd, when I see that an artist I like also likes Talk Talk (just for example), I go ‘Yeah, me too!’ and that somehow makes me feel, at least, like I have an even greater connection to the band.

Now that I have gone way over my word count, one last thing: Please check this band and their music out, and if you like it, please buy it. Please, let’s keep integrity and creativity in music.

Released November 04 2011 on Bandcamp

Echo Rating (((●●●●)))

Posted by Jake Gillen

 Posted by at 2:53 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

Dan Mangan – Oh Fortune

 Albums  No Responses »
Dec 052011
 

There may be a few album openers from 2011 that are better than ‘About as Helpful as You Can Be Without Actually Being Any Help at All’, the wonderfully-titled first song on Dan Mangan‘s latest album, ‘Oh Fortune’, but I doubt very much if they are anywhere near as ornate. It is a song so perfectly constructed and orchestrated that barely has it ended before the listener is wondering if the album has already hit its high point. It’s one of those rare songs that immediately sets the bar, and I hardly would have blamed the other ten songs if they’d all striven to live up to it.

However, ’Oh Fortune’ is not one of those albums where its other songs try fruitlessly to catch up to the highlight. It has more pressing things on its mind, like filling its 41 minutes with as much sweeping grandeur as it is possible to do without collapsing in on itself. The thunderous ‘Post-War Blues’ gives the lie to its melancholic title by presenting itself as an upbeat rallying call, with lines like, ‘Let’s start a war for the kids, a purpose for which to unite‘ showing that Mangan has set his sights on the big issues and sounds supremely confident that he’ll hit his mark. I can imagine that very few people will fail to be moved by the song’s triumphant finale.

Almost immediately it has finished, the gathering momentum slackens a little as Mangan brings to mind an even more despondent Conor J. O’Brien with ‘If I Am Dead’, a song that would not have sounded out of place on the Villagers album from last year. Far be it from me to compare the two, but it must be noted that, in a similar way to ‘Becoming a Jackal’, ‘Oh Fortune’ skilfully balances light and shade, its optimistic opening run giving way to a more introspective feel that is reflected in songs like ‘Daffodil’ and ‘Regarding Death and Dying’.

Mangan could hardly be said to have a fixation with death in the way that, say, White Lies do, but the more maudlin aspects of his third album towards its close, with ‘Jeopardy’ finding him relentlessly questioning his existence yet still managing to end the album on a happy note with a trumpet-laden finale. In a way, ‘Oh Fortune’ could be said to be a misleading album, but all eleven of these songs, from its simplest to its most ambitious (the three-part mini-epic ‘Starts With Them Ends With Us’), uplifting, despairing or anywhere in between, are unquestionably beautiful.

Released December 05 2011 on Arts & Crafts

Echo Rating (((●●●●)))

Posted by Gareth O’Malley

 Posted by at 2:32 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

Clock Opera @ Electrowerkz 01-12-2011

 Gigs  No Responses »
Dec 032011
 

Clock Opera @ Electrowerkz, Islington, London. December 01 2011

Clock Opera are, without any shadow of doubt, the most exciting thing happening in music at the moment. I say this not as my opinion, but as an unequivocal statement of fact. Strong words, I know, but this is what I want to say to every single person I know. I want to stop people on the streets and say it, sending them home immediately to look the band up. Actually, scratch that, I want to plug strangers into my iPod and have them listen straight away, watching their faces as ‘White Noise’ drops; searching for signs of the same wonder and excitement I feel every time I hear it.

In this age of X Factor finalists recording banal covers of classic songs in a bid to claim the no-longer-coveted Christmas No 1 crown; when middle-of-the-road indie bands are being hyped beyond all sense of proportion by faux-controversial music magazines which sadly still seem to command a shocking amount of influence, I fail to understand why the independent music world isn’t gushing over Clock Opera in the same way I am, isn’t putting them on a pedestal, grabbing music fans by the shoulders and shouting “Look! Listen! Learn! This is how it should be done. This is what’s possible”.

I’m sorry. I realise I am in danger of drowning you all in a sea of hyperbole, but simply put, Clock Opera are something else.

I have seen them perform many, many times over the past few years, but every single time they manage to lift me out of the suffocating mudanity of the daily grind, move me beyond coherent expression and lose me in a realm of emotion-laden electronic perfection, full of densely textured wonderfulness, climaxes, drops, poignant vocals and gorgeous harmonies.

I’m afraid there is a limit to how much I can actually speak about the gig, in this..erm…gig review, but Clock Opera are one of those too-few bands who I can lose myself in utterly when I see them live, and so I do. I close my eyes, I forget about my surroundings and I just let the music wash through me, restoring my faith in possibilities. But seeing as this is a gig review and that’s assumedly why you’re here, I will do my best.

Opening to a great reception with 11th Hour, it was clear from the start that this was going to be a great night. A good crowd of people were packed into Electrowerkz, and there was excitement and anticipation in the air. I was expecting Clock Opera to move from this into one of their more well known tunes, but instead they played ‘Lost Buoys’ – another relatively new track that’s possibly less ‘explosive’ than some of the others but has an incredible understated beauty – before knocking everyone away with ‘Man Made’ and ‘A Piece Of String’, by which time everyone in the room was well and truly buzzing.

Electrowerkz provided the perfect backdrop to a band of this nature; from the thick black paint on the walls and the bare metal struts on the ceiling to the small pieces of fluff stapled to the walls and lit with UV light to look like stars to the bare light bulbs strung across the back of the stage which made it look as though it went on forever, every aspect of the venue seemed designed to heighten the experience of watching Clock Opera perform.

‘Move To The Mountains’ came next, which I absolutely adored when hearing it for the first time at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen recently, and again it blew me away, before ‘Once And For All’ truly made everyone go wild. Clock Opera seem relatively shy in terms of between-song-banter, but Guy is a very funny man, and when someone shouted out “I love you Guy” during a period of relative quiet, immediately shot back “Thanks, Dad” before going on to thank the people who had bought t-shirts and weren’t his parents (“I’ve been informed we’ve sold four, so there must be some of you out there”).

They brought the set to a thundering conclusion with ‘White Noise’ (which has utterly astounded me in its brilliance ever since I first heard it), ‘Belongings’ and closing with the fantastic ‘Lesson Number 7’, their current single. Leaving the stage to a wall of cheers, they came back on to play their second ever encore: the first, apparently, being in Luxembourg where a woman threatened to attack Guy unless they played something else; they didn’t have any other songs so repeated their last song again. Tonight, however, we were treated to ‘Fail Better’ – a brand new song that had never been performed live before, and which I can’t really find the words to describe, except to say: go and listen to this band. You will not be disappointed.

Words & pictures by Hannah

 Posted by at 2:06 pm  Tagged with: , , ,
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