ALBUM REVIEW - Kaiser Chiefs - The Future is medieval

To be innovative and brave in the record industry is certainly, for most artists a given when it comes to performing and recording. But with piracy on the increase, being bold with a records release is a minefield. Albums leak sometimes months before their time, leaving bands to recoup the cost with extensive touring. The CD is dead, download is king, because of this, bands need to try some gimmick or risk being dropped. Radiohead (and prior, The Crimea - but no one remembers them) tried the “pay what you like” scheme a few years back, and in some ways it worked - although true sales figures were never established.

Obviously, because of this surreptitious marketing scheme do these gimmicks help, or hinder sales? The Kaiser Chiefs, it seems are pioneers to a new concept entirely, having worked with ad agency Wieden+Kennedy (you didn’t think bands came up with this on their own did you??) a unique release - sprung on the public with no fanfare, it could be the first bespoke album. Allowing you to pick 10, from a selection of 20 tracks, decide the running order, create the artwork and then pay £7.50 for the privilege is certainly a radical and exciting prospect. Furthermore, you then have access to a HTML code, which you can place on your own website - selling “your copy” of the album. For everyone you sell, you make £1. Ingenious? Possibly...

The problem with this concept of course, is that this is not that different from just picking the tracks you like from iTunes. The concept is just stretched to a fixed price, of course if you are a hardcore fan - you have to pay twice for all the songs. As a result, reviewing the content is a nightmare - each music publication could in theory be reviewing a very different album, until of course, the impending CD release, probably based on the popularity of the songs bought in the custom package (NOTE: this is now scheduled for 27th June).

After repeat listens, the initial excitement of an album you have “created” fades and you are left with a collection of fairly mediocre b-sides. Then the self doubt comes in - you wish you had picked different tracks. Listening to it over again to try and make sense of your creation before finally admitting to yourself that this isn’t the fun poppy album you were hoping for. Sure, they have ‘matured’ as a band, but surely that shouldn’t mean that you are incapable of writing hooks? 


There is a distinct lack of bouncy, fun pop anthems like the bands previous material. The future is medieval feels utterly joyless and relatively bleak in comparison to their other work. Anthemic chorus lines, playful lyrics and fun keyboard stabs have been replaced with lyrical paranoia, dark 80’s human league-esque synths and bass.

As a collection of songs, its a few reasonable tracks amidst a very clever marketing experiment, perhaps its the only way they could have convinced us to buy the tracks in the first place.

HOWEVER... I have compiled a tracklist based on the more upbeat tracks in the collection.

If you buy the album, my recommended tracklist would be:

1. Back in December
2. Little Shocks
Cousin in the bronx
4. Dead or in serious trouble
5. Long way from celebrating
6. Saying something
7. Can’t mind my own business
8. Problem solved
9. My place is here
10. Starts with nothing

As a whole collection of songs - 5/10

Based on my recommended tracklist - 6/10

Based on the CD release - 5/10


UPDATE:

The CD release contains the following tracks:

Little Shocks
Things Change 

Long Way From Celebrating
Starts With Nothing
Out Of Focus
Dead Or In Serious Trouble
When All Is Quiet 

Kinda Girl You Are - NOT PREVIOUSLY RELEASED

Man On Mars
Child Of The Jago 

Heard It Break
Coming Up For Air
If You Will Have Me

ALBUM REVIEW: Thee Oh Sees - Castlemania

With the countless garage bands that have cropped up in recent years it can be hard to filter the diamonds in the rough. With Thee Oh Sees being veterans at this game, with their extensive back catalogue and numerous incarnations, they should be the jewel in this very mucky crown. At times they are.

The album has the familiar, slightly ironic - crackly, garage production value which follows a quiet / loud formulae with a few unconventional curveballs thrown in. Corrupted Coffin is like something Ted Bundy would go skateboarding to and title track, Castlemania is probably what the inside of David Lynch’s head sounds like. Interestingly, its when the slower, summery laid back, Violent Femme-esque tracks crop up, the albums experience is at its best, but still not perfect. Pleasure Blimps (yes, really) offers “la la laa’s”, “ooohs” and a playful glockenspiel, Blood on the deck is half surf pop brilliance and half psych-tinged nonsense.

Every track has tiny glimmers of musical brilliance, some brighter than others - which are ultimately let down by poor execution or bizarre off-kilter production decisions. As a result, it is too often the case of a combination of musical ineptitude and killer hooks. At times Thee Oh Sees have it nailed. Unfortunately, its more the former than the latter.

Somehow, Castlemania is paradoxically a masterclass in DIY ramshackle brilliance and an incomplete E-grade college music project. Wonky “out there” guitar lines, disjointed time signatures, hypnotic buzz saw wig-outs and vocals that sound like Moe Szyslak from the Simpsons with a sore throat, its certainly an interesting ride. If your brain is already fried from listening to the psych-garage Nuggets compilations, its probably your thing.

As experimental as it is unfinished. Headache inducing as white noise, annoying as a hyperactive puppy with a squeaky toy and as difficult as quantum physics. Those are the compliments.

3/10

Lawrence Vaughan

"Sound" of 2011

Around January the baboons of the music press report on what they think the breakthrough acts of the year will be. I usually scan through the lists and give them all a fair listen and make note on ones that resonate. This year it seems, the journo primates have had palms greased by some record execs to dry hump the same empty, hollow corpse that is indie rock. (Hey! It sells) This corpse has been rotting away for some time now, the final straw for its poor existence was the pecking of crows, in the bland physical entity that is Mumford & Sons, Two door cinema club et al. The two bands that are on the top of everyone’s list, from the Guardian, BBC and NME are The Vaccines and Brother. I thought I’d check them out and post my initial impressions on this “future of music”.

The Vaccines are reminiscent of Glasvegas. Not because their songs are tales of self indulgent misery, but because they have seemingly shared the heavily thumbed and now dog eared “how to make songs ‘n play guitarz” almanac. Their first song, Wrecking Bar (ra ra ra) sounds as junior skool as you can imagine, like the Ramones covered by four down-syndrome 6 year olds. A cruel comparison perhaps, but seriously – listen to it.



That being said, it isn’t as bad as their newest single, Post break up sex, which is a different sound altogether. One could be mistaken that it is in fact an entirely different band. It sounds like the Drums mixed with Glasvegas’ fake attention seeking melancholy. Because of this mixture the band have absolutely no discernible personality or trait to call their own. The Vaccines are so undeniably bland they don’t register in my emotional response. I don’t hate them, I don’t like them. They have nothing I can remotely relate to. The shuffling of chords, bad lyrical rhyming and monotone melody just makes me…pity them. Because of this, they shouldn’t exist. But then, it has the word ‘sex’ in it, so teenagers will buy it anyway.



Brother, the first of these bands of 2011 are allegedly the rebirth of Britpop. Initially, I admired their arrogance. Having just signed a “massive” record deal with Geffen they stated; “We always expected a big reaction,” says singer Lee. “The most surprising thing to us is that all this hasn’t happened sooner.” Fair play you could argue, bands need bollocks, arrogance and self belief. Any act that can land a “massive” record deal in the age of digital piracy and economic climate, MUST be good. They then claim they will be headlining Glastonbury and that they are “the future of music”. I hoped that now Oasis are sadly long gone, these could be the band to fill that gap for the new generation. Before I heard anything I was excited. Unfortunately, on the third listen of their Stephen Street produced debut single “Darling buds of may” their clever interview patter and record deal felt unjustified, it’s the same bland four chord, forgettable yawnsome toss that has been plaguing our airwaves for far too long. It is hard to feel the same passion that Brother believes in. How they have landed a massive record deal on the basis of this song is frankly mindboggling, I have heard far better unsigned acts on myspace. You can’t help feeling they were signed just to have it all crumble down on them in a cruel but slightly amusing game created by record execs. If all it takes is some clever opinionated arrogance and four, very contrived chords to get a massive record deal I might have to dust that guitar off myself…



Conclusion / Rant:
Last year was awash with indie-lite. Bands that are so bland the litmus test would reject them. These are no exception. The same chords, melodies and lyrical content we have heard long before now. Stop ripping off your peers and create your own sound. What’s more, these bands are getting in massive amounts of debt signing to deals that will inevitably die. Neither of these two bands will be around in 3 years, let alone headlining Glastonbury. The dry, over fucked husk of indie is long gone. Until a proper band resurrect it, it shall remain so. Record labels, sort yourselves out. People are downloading music illegally because the vast majority of music YOU release is crap. People won’t buy shit. Music is supposed to be a creative art, all we are hearing is photocopies of music previously released.
For fucks sake. We are in 2011. Where is music made by aliens in tinfoil suits? Where is the mind blowing, anthemic cosmic electro space rock I ask? The human race isn’t trying hard enough. We are a disgrace.

Best album of 2010

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today

There aren’t many albums that spring to mind that on the initial play come across like a confused mess only to reveal themselves as works of genius after repeat listens. Before Today is a collection of new and old alike. The older songs have been kicking around Ariel’s home made tape collection for probably decades, now recorded with a real band they sound sublime. Not in a slick way you understand, but now with a sense of purpose. Fully realised.

Prior to this first major release Ariel has been the master of bedroom producing, making ‘music’ in one take, using his mouth as a drum kit and playing a broken sounding guitar. Now this has been cleaned up slightly the songs stand on their own. I first head this when driving to Manchester to see Flight of the Conchords. Mix in the noise of traffic and the car on the road I was certain that this was the reason for the lo-fi rumble and disjointed sounds confused me. I wrote it off for a couple of weeks, but there it sat on my hard drive silently knowing I would return.
Fortunately, I did. But it took time. I saw the light when I was driving next to the beach whilst the sun was setting. No one was around, it was silent – except the lead single “round & round”. There I was, nodding my head when the chorus kicked in. I got goosebumps all over my arms. It was emotional. I mouthed the F word and drove on, knowing that not only was I listening to one of the greatest songs ever, life was good. It is the kind of album that you associate with a time and a place. Memories that stay with you that have their own soundtrack.

What makes this album resonate and perhaps stick out from everything else is that it sounds like no other band in the world. It spans multiple genres and is retro but familiar. You could swear you have heard snippets of the songs before. They feel like old worn homemade tapes you find in a second hand car. Jingles from TV adverts you subconsciously digest whilst channel flicking. This will be an album unearthed in 20 years time and hailed as a classic. I guarantee it.

I cannot recommend this enough. It will require repeat listens, give it the time it deserves. I love it so much I could sincerely place it in my top ten albums EVER. Seriously, its up there with Forever Changes & Dark Side of the Moon. If lead single “Round & Round” doesn’t open up some recess in your mind that makes you re-evaluate what you consider music – there is probably something wrong with you.

Other honourable mentions:

Vampire Weekend - Contra
Lupen Crook – Pro’s and Cons of eating out
Les Savy Fav – Root for ruin
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Magic Kids - Memphis
Unkle – Where did the night fall?
Liars – Sisterworld
Klaxons – Surfing the void
Oh no ono – Eggs
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
She & Him – Volume 2
Local Natives – Gorrilla Manor
Emeralds – does it look like I’m here?
Morning Benders – Big Echo

Biggest gaming disappointments of 2010

No, really. A tie! This time THREE woeful titles.

First up is Alan Wake. After waiting what felt like a decade of delays Remedy entertainment had plenty of time to make this the standout title of 2010. In the first hour of gameplay it felt like they had nailed it. Creepy, mysterious and ambiguous story telling coupled with solid graphics and gameplay it truly felt like you were playing an episode of the twilight zone. Then, after the initial honeymoon period ended you were left with a game that was bogged down with repetitive combat, scenery and gameplay. The trouble with Alan Wake is that you can imagine on paper the developers had some amazing, grand and fabulous ideas. Only when they tried to make them happen in reality they were hampered with the technology they were using and the constant deadlines set by Microsoft. As a result the finished product is a damp squib, it was the biggest disappointment of the year purely because it could have been a landmark in gaming, instead each level just felt like a photocopy of the last.

Red Dead Redemption also promised so much and delivered so little. Once again on paper, potentially amazing. GTA in the wild west sounds exciting. The problem is, RDR suffers from GTA4 syndrome. Initially its great, getting sucked into the wild west atmosphere is exciting, until you realise that all of the missions are achingly familiar to a point of boredom. Either, escort someone to a destination and defend from attackers OR travel to a destination, kill bad guys when you get there and travel back. Rockstar truly forgot what gaming is all about – having fun. The repetition crippled the entire experience beyond boredom itself.

I was going to mention Crackdown 2 at this point, but felt that it was an obvious choice. Hardly worth the wear on my keyboard it was that shameful (see my review). Instead Splinter Cell Conviction was another with potential. A reboot of a franchise that was unnecessary. At times amazing, slick and polished - kicking down doors and taking everyone out with just two button presses made it feel like you were playing 24. Unfortunately the game suffered from too much reimagining. It was only Splinter Cell in name. It felt dumbed down, too slick and simple. Gone were the sections of creeping around in the shadows and hiding, the clever enemy AI and stealthy takedowns. Instead these were replaced with out and out combat. The developers must have decided that although Splinter Cell was great, they wanted it to attract a wider demographic. It feels like they made an entirely different game, but knew it would fail under a new moniker, so they stuck the Splinter Cell name on it. If it was a new franchise, people, including myself would have enjoyed its dumb, action movie charm - but by making it a Splinter Cell game, they missed the point and ruined it beyond repair. Boo!