Album Review: Childish Gambino - Royalty

Album Rating: B-

It seems unfair to judge an album by its name but for Childish Gambino, nee Community’s Donald Glover, it seems necessary. His introductory EP, I Am Just a Rapper, cemented his style as ironic- Gambino was writing for 30 Rock and doing stand-up at the time, but clearly wanted to be known just for his rapping chops. His second EP that introduced him to the masses, EP, showed us how truly non descript he can be at the time, choosing to blend in rather than to stand out. Now, with Royalty, Gambino tells us what he thinks he has collected: a circle of regal guest stars ranging from Ghostface Killah to other rising star Danny Brown. The question presented to the listener is: does Childish Gambino belong in the high court of hip-hop?

Live Review: Richard Hawley - Whitley Bay Playhouse - 13/07/2012

Whether it's the slicked back hair, the trademark leather jacket or the velvety retro croon, it's fair to say that Richard Hawley has always exhumed a distinct air of class. Perched on a stool before the all-seated Whitley Bay Playhouse, the sleazy Yorkshireman emphatically extended that notion to his live shows, producing a masterclass in musical finesse attainable only from a true sophisticate. This theme was also reflected in his crowd (of which I seemed to be the youngest by a distance) but such was the superlative nature of his performance that by its end even the most seasoned observers were on their feet in a state of bewildered admiration.

Artist Spotlight: Aerials

I know I've covered the band before, but Aerials just keeps popping up with more and more material. Christoffer Franzén is Aerials, a one man post-rock project based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and he tends to be fairly back and forth with his releases, as well as his release dates, doing a lot of promotional free streams for limited periods of time, which really helps him garner a lot of interest in the band. The latest song he's put up is called "Reanimation," a very cinematic, heavenly sounding track that combines the brightest and best tracks of the post-rock world into a song that puts the listener in the clouds, floating alongside their fluffy white majesty, looking down over reflective lakes and lush, green mountains. It's a beautiful place that only Aerials can truly bring you to, and Franzén does it perfectly.

Keep an eye out for new Aerials songs on his SoundCloud, as well as his Facebook for song and album news! You can also find much of Aerials' previous work on the SoundCloud page, so take a look at that too, since it's all free streaming.

Artist Of The Day: Melvins

It must be hard for the Melvins. They've been going for nearly 30 years, established themselves as underground legends and retained a frighteningly prolific work ethic, and yet despite all these achievements the most common port of call for many observers is still that they were "Kurt Cobain's favourite band™." Whether they're used to it or not, it's an ignorant and borderline insulting way of referring to a band who, aside from Black Sabbath, have arguably done more than anyone to shape the hostile, scorched and barren landscape of heavy metal. Amid a backdrop of constant lineup changes and swivelling musical directions, the Seattle natives have played an enormous role in the development of a multitude of genres; be it sludge, doom, stoner, drone, or indeed grunge. Traditionally a trio, the band now perform as a four-piece having merged with members of Big Business, but their power, hunger and individuality remain completely undiminished - even after two decades of questions concerning about their star pupil.

Album Review: Clonki - Seize The Smoke

Album Rating: C+

Obscured in the murky waters of Google’s Russian-English translation, the lack of information about both the artist and Rainy Treehouse, the label, sets us off on uncertain ground. It’s a novelty in the Internet era to be left with no basis on which to view an album, but especially in the case of Seize The Smoke it’s refreshing; possibly because it’s a difficult album to stomach in the first place. Not content with mixing three of the smoothest genres known to man - jazz, hip-hop and downtempo - Clonki polishes any sharp edge from his melodies completely. Notes don’t change: they shift; and as such the tracks develop into this loose, wave-like saunter. Not too unlike an old radio scrambling to tune-in as the notes lazily reach their right tones. Mixed in with the classic sample-based jitteriness, it’s an interesting endeavour - indeed it’s one that almost defies explanation - but to the extent that Clonki chooses to pursue it in Seize The Smoke, it’s a small, highly enjoyable step into the great unknown.

Artist of the Day: The Contortionist

It's no secret that The Contortionist is tearing the very fabric of progressive metal as we speak. In fact, the group's upcoming full-length Intrinsic has been causing quite the stir, for being incredibly opposite of its predecessor.

Intrinsic is coming out July 17th, and yes, the artwork is pretty as hell.

The Contortionist first broke onto the deathcore scene with their versatile debut titled Exoplanet, and it's remarkable to see how much the band has developed since those days. Back then there existed only gentle plodding into progressive terrain, while the band's "core" elements were fleshed out. This caused a bit of a backlash at those wanting something a bit more cerebral, those tired of the same old process of rinse and repeat, breakdown and recycle. There were hints at evolved songwriting between the bombshells - "Axiom" was one such example of mature composition, a lull to soothe those uncomfortable with the deathcore elements common in the other tracks. Overall, though, the group's music has always been tastefully done. While I won't claim that the group's influences in their earlier days were terribly creative ones, The Contortionist at least found a way to pull off prescribed heaviness with a touch of refreshing charisma.

The charisma is even more evident on Intrinsic, one of the more anticipated releases of 2012 for progressive junkies such as myself. I'll keep my lips sealed now in terms of specifics, but it's safe to say that the group has evolved in refreshing ways.

Artist Of The Day: Frank Ocean

It’s difficult for me to imagine Frank Ocean being in any way associated with the Odd Future collective. I mean no offence to fans of said collective, but I haven’t found anything particularly worthy of note from its members. For the most part they sound as you’d expect: young, amateurish hip-hoppers - Tyler, The Creator being the most juvenile and naive of the lot. It’s surprising, then, that the visionary of the group would be working in the realm of R&B, a genre that, aside from Abel Tesfaye, hasn’t seen much innovation for quite some time.

Instead of asserting sexuality and themes of misogyny and ‘club life’ (or what have you) as many of his contemporaries are wont to do, Ocean presents us with themes of unrequited love and class disparity (“Super Rich Kids”). He’s something of a lyrical virtuoso in how he employs literary devices and details his songs through emotional confessionals. He’s also rather culturally and economically conscious; in “Super Rich Kids” he speaks of economic inequality: “The maid comes around too much / Parents ain’t around enough / Too many joy rides in daddy’s jaguar / Too many white lies – and white lines.” His cattiness is amusing and very refreshing. Channel Orange is a definite must for fans of the genre, and possible a stepping-stone for those unsure.

Stream Channel Orange here.

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Single Review: The Neat - New Kids

Despite convincing myself that The Neat is the single greatest band the world has ever known, I was a little apprehensive when I discovered that they were to release 'New Kids' as their third single. It's not a bad song by any means (indeed hearing it live had me in fits of giddy excitement), but the initial recording which surfaced late last year seemed to have jettisoned practically everything I'd grown to love about the Hull oddballs. Smooth, cumbersome and infuriatingly restrained, it appeared they'd finally succumbed to their inaugural misstep, a realisation which struck my fanboy heart like a ton of lead bricks.

Artist of the Day: Om

Om is an anomaly in many ways, existing within many realms of the musical world and blending seamlessly with each.  Featuring a sound that mixes parts of metal, doom, psychedelic, ambient and even some post rock, Om has crafted four critically acclaimed records worthy of all the verbose hyperbole they've gotten.  What makes the band even more appealing is the fact that they are so consistent.  Each album grows in some way, making each listen rewarding whether it be more interesting, heavier, or more experimental. 

With their latest, Advaitic Songs, Om has brought together every influence that has ever defined them. The opener, "Addis" proves this with its tribal approach, as eerie and beautiful female vocals float above the violin and guitar.  Whereas some Om material is decidedly heavy, with booming guitars and bass, it is selections like this that display how the band is capable of conceptual heaviness.  Not the booming in your ear type, but rather, the immediately effectual type that creates a pervasive, all-encompassing atmosphere.

Advaitic Songs, and the band as whole, is full of surprises such as this.  However, to give them all away would ruin the wonderment of discovering them for yourself.

Album Review: Caught in the Wake Forever - Against a Simple Wooden Cross

Album Rating: A-

What happened to your biggest demons? How about the moment when you realized your life wasn’t quite what you thought it was, or that night you were tossing and turning, hoping to find your old self? The key moments of your life you’d prefer to keep buried are wedged together effortlessly by Fraser McGowan to make a panorama of tangible loss on Against a Simple Wooden Cross. This album was constructed with glimmers of hope, but its defining factor is its pervading grief, its raincloud of despair. While the positive moments are a certifiable force they can be chalked up to the necessary yang to the yin of nights without sleep, snapshots of a life lost in a single nightmare. Skirmishes with our worst demons. Protests with life, and brushes with death. McGowan is a shining example of a man successfully combating his despair, turning his biggest nightmare into something tangible and admirable.

Artist of the Day: Mojib

Coming to prominence with some (admittedly rather tasty) Radiohead remixes, I think it’s fair to say that no one expected too much from Mojib’s debut album. Not that it would be bad, per se, it’s just hard to shake off the sentiment that artists used to playing with other peoples’ music might struggle to create something more personal. Never has this been more wrong as the album (titled Whimsical Lifestyle) turned out to be a heavily stylised, closely interwoven masterclass in emotional trip-hop. Strong DJ Shadow influences were obvious, but as they battled it out with strings, distortion and piano flutters it became evident that the Swede was mixing his personality with the bleeps and bloops as well. Above all else, however, Whimsical Lifestyle managed to be angry whilst retaining its composure so consistently. “Home Is Where The Heart Is” displays this perfectly: developing from a steady, catchy piano loop into a cacophony of noise and frenzied, political vocals.

The reason Mojib bears mentioning is not solely because he released one of the best albums of the late 00’s, but because he just kind of vanished. Initial attempts at a second - though this time completely remix based - album were met with failure after a label dispute. Likewise, a much more recent attempt seems to have disintegrated completely. My heart lit up on viewing a teaser for this new release, though sunk immediately on realising this was posted almost a year ago. It’s possibly a bit selfish for me to be disappointed despite the fact that Mojib’s already succeeded in entertaining me for hours on end, but one can’t help pining for just a little more.

Album Review: Miniature Tigers - Mia Pharaoh

Album Rating: B+

Up until the release of Mia Pharaoh, Brooklyn band Miniature Tigers career could best be defined as a "beautiful identity crisis."  The Miniature Tigers had crafted two superb albums, but they had also made two albums that were essentially polar opposites.  Tell It To The Volcano was the ultimate workout album: the album was filled with insanely catchy pop-punk songs, was around 30 minutes in length, and had just about every song possible (the love song, the break-up song, the "you're a whore!" song, etc.)  The bands next release Fortress was the ultimate stoner album: it combined the spaced out instrumentation of Deep Purple, The Moody Blues, and Deerhunter, the general weirdness of Iron Butterfly and the Peter Gabriel Genesis, and the quality of material of modern day giants such as Deerhunter and Animal Collective. With Tell It To The Volcano and Fortress the Miniature Tigers released two brilliant albums, but the band still did not know if they were a pop-punk treadmill band or a stoned out psychedelic band.  On Mia Pharaoh the band figures it out and the result is nothing short of spectacular.

Album Retrospective: Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk

Album Rating: B+

Monsters of Folk sounded like a colossal failure on paper.  That was because the band was made up of three different artists, three different audiences, three different sounds, and most importantly three different and large egos.  How could the sentimental and rambling style of Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) possibly coexist with the classical and scholarly sound of Matt Ward (M. Ward)?  How could the sexy and experimental style of Jim James possibly match the sounds of Oberst and Ward? How could they possibly blend three different song writing styles together in one album? How could they sacrifice their egos to make one song that wasn't trying to "one up" the other song? And how could they possibly convince us that this was actually anything more than a shameless promotion for their solo and group works?  To make this album a success each artist would have to sacrifice the identities they have worked so hard building, they would have to sacrifice some of their ideas, and they would have to come together to realize that the genre and this group was more important than anything they ever done.  Monsters of Folk being successful would be more than simply a pleasant surprise, it would be a greatest feat of altruism and a great example of sharing and sacrificing ego's for the better of a group or an audience: it would be the musical equivalent of Kobe and Shaq deciding to move in together to do a hilarious reality show, the musical equivalent of the Socialist and Fascist coming together to pass a law that actually helps people, it is the musical equivalent of McCartney and Lennon sharing a drink in the afterlife (Paul died in a car wreck, duh,) and it is the musical equivalent of Spider-Man and the other new Spider-Man deciding to make another movie with another Spider-Man.  Monsters of Folk being successful not only seemed implausible on paper, it seemed to go against everything we believed about human nature and human behavior in general.

Artist of the Day: Ben Nichols

Ben Nichols can usually be found howling with boozy swagger as frontman for the alt country rockers of Lucero. While the group's bluesy and rambling Women & Work stacks up against the year's heavyweight records so far, Nichols' best work lasts for seven songs and 27 minutes, sans the energy of his backing band. No rollicking drum fills. No raucous jukebox brass bands jumping into tracks. No jaunty barroom piano chords. Just an acoustic guitar, the occasional harmonica and a wide-open landscape of heartbreak.

Artist Of The Day: Dikembe

The boys in Dikembe have been friends with MuzikDizcovery for quite some time, allowing us to conduct one of their first ever interviews, as well as donating a track to our fantastic free sampler Dizcovering Muzik: Volume Two. So when their long awaited new album Broad Shoulders was finally put up for preorder, I had to bite immediately. The album is a fantastic continuation of the gruff emo sound that the band began to showcase in Chicago Bowls, and it shows Dikembe varying up their style ever so slightly. This still young band has a very bright future ahead of them, and the release of Broad Shoulders should only expand their very devoted fanbase. You can preorder the album on vinyl on their Tiny Engines page, and every order comes with an immediate download of Broad Shoulders. I also suggest ordering the package deal with Wavelets' most recent record Athaletics. Wavelets features the vocalist and bassist of Dikembe, and was one of the best "twinkly" emo records of 2011. It's a must have if you enjoy Dikembe.

Album Review: Gold Motel - Gold Motel

Album Rating: C+

Pop acts are held to the expectation that an enormous hook makes a song, and to a point, that expectation is very valid. Songs need to "go somewhere." Post-rock has its climaxes, metalcore has its breakdowns, and pop music has its choruses. A song needs to end up somewhere, and that conclusion is usually what satisfies the listener. Gold Motel's self titled album is a showcase of the instrumental talents of the individual members, but the songs never seem to explode into anything that will implant itself in a listener's mind.

Artist Spotlight: We Are Fiction

Post-hardcore group We Are Fiction wear their passion on their sleeves. The group's latest single "Earth Medicine" constructs gorgeous swirls of atmosphere that breeze delicately alongside denser, more coarse elements seamlessly, clinging onto them relentlessly like raindrop to umbrella. Grittiness guides blissful naïveté, an impenetrable paternal relationship that builds itself higher and higher.

"Earth Medicine" is a refreshing track, one that satisfies just enough to leave one very curious what direction the group will take on their debut album. Check out the track and its accompanying music video here.

Album Review: Stevie Jackson - (I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson

Album Rating: B-

Many a guitarist has emerged from their band in pursuit of a solo career, but scarcely has that move seemed so inevitable than with Belle And Sebastian's Stevie Jackson. Indeed ever since his contributions appeared on The Boy With The Arab Strap, the question on most fans' lips has been when - not whether - the Glaswegian would take his creative enthusiasm to its logical conclusion. Now that (I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson does exist, however, a more taxing set of queries has risen to the fore: Are its songs leftovers from his day job? Is he entirely comfortable taking the lead? And most importantly, has he learned from previous misdemeanors, some of which played a significant role in the Scots' late 90's early 00's decline?

Artist Of The Day: The Early November

With the end of an "indefinite hiatus" behind them, a signing with the slightly-too-scene Rise Records, and a new album due towards the beginning of next week, I figured it would be a good time to feature The Early November. I know, if you've followed my posts, you know this is a very strong deviation from the material I normally feature. However, The Early November has some really homespun roots, and I think that attribute plays into their music being simplistic and true, instead of excessive and gaudy like a lot of pop-punk and alt rock is in the present day and age. The sound that the band lends to the music industry is much closer to indie pop, despite the similarities in instrument tone, vocal timbre, or facile song structure.

Artist Of The Day: Rush

Simply put: Clockwork Angels is Rush’s best album in 30 years. Moreover, it’s an album that challenges Rush’s heydey material and sees a return to the concept album. Neil Peart, through a loosely tethered narrative, casts a young man pursuing his dreams in a world of chaos and fantastical steampunk themes. I shan’t delve too much into it, but know that it’s typical Rush (that is to say it’s goofy but awesome). The music at hand far overshadows that of Rush’s 2007 misfire Snakes & Arrows; it’s far more proggy (but doesn’t compromise the hooks), focused, and polished. Through a convoluted plot, Clockwork Angels (unsurprisingly) comes full circle in the end, and, beyond its intrinsical narrative, it’s very musical. Neil Peart is at the top of his game: his acuity of technicality makes his playing sound second-nature to him -- so unmanufactured and instinctive. Likewise, Geddy Lee’s bass playing is masterfully mixed and given more prominence than on previous albums, easily servicing to be a highlight. It may be a little difficult to digest at first, as Rush albums are wont to do, typically being exhaustively long, but it’s a ridiculously strong musical statement, and a fine, fine return to form. In fact, I’d like to amend my original statement to this: Clockwork Angels might just be Rush’s best album, period.

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