Starring
Blitz Vega, brownbear, Collins, East Village, Hinds, Melenas, Youth Lagoon
The Front Runners
Northern Gentleman : Blitz Vega
Blitz Vega’s take on late 90s / early naughties festival sized rock builds to a satisfying climax.
The band were formed by late Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, and former Happy Mondays member Kav Sandhu. One point of interest is a reunion on ‘Strong Forever’ between Rourke and Smith’s guitarist Johnny Marr.
If Blitz Vega were a football team they’d be a Bournemouth or Leeds United. They’re an outfit that are comfortable playing with big teams, capable of stylish performances and always promising a decent cup run. Or maybe they’re more like Chelsea - a team of musicians at the top of their game yet somehow not quite breaking free of the also rans.
There’s not much of The Smiths sound coming through, but there is something of the Happy Mondays in Kav’s swaggering and louche delivery. ‘Lost Myself’ is a template for rock manners with its sneery slur ‘ not ‘you’ but ‘yeurrh’ for example. Most strongly, you hear something of bands like Kasabian with their festival sized rock anthems full of decent shouty choruses.
Where Blitz Vega stand out is in their ability to whip up a storm and, more prosaically, structure and sequence a running order. After three songs to warm us up without quite producing the moment of magic that wins over the fans, they produce the rowdy ‘Big Nose’ marking a step up to another level at exactly the right moment. And I’d be surprised if any other album this year builds to such a satisfying and rousing finish as that provided by ‘LA Vampire’ and ‘Pass The Gun’. It’s an excellent climax.
Blitz Vega are good enough to be a band that have everything to play for, and that will keep it interesting for their fans.
Taster Track : Pass The Gun
Ahora : Melenas
Our second helping of the week for female fronted Spanish bands, and it’s an attractive set of woozy, catchy melodic pop.
You’re welcomed to this record with ‘Ahora’ and its chants and rhythms of a secret rite of passage. That’s fitting because there’s something that’s not quite of our daylit world in these songs.
I thought about what that might be quite carefully, and I’ve concluded that this is music as you might hear it after receiving a bang on the head. That doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it is. I’m talking about the kind of cartoon bang on the head that has you seeing cartoon stars and tweeting birds. It’s also the kind of bang on the head that first attracts the concerned attention of the future love of your life.
The album is a balancing act. On the one hand songs like ‘1986’ transport you to a whirling world of musical colour. On the other, it sounds like music that could let rip, but something is holding it in check. Perhaps it’s the detached, matter of fact vocals set against the bright music. It means that the songs offer both the heady rush of a fairground merry go round in full swing, and the impressive sight of a huge dayglo hot air balloon that remains tethered to the ground.
What does that sound like? It‘s a combination of infectious bass lines and 60’s psychedelic organ, both contributing great melodies. It’s the unexpected contrast between the growling bass thrum of ‘Promesas’ and the songs top layer of staccato keyboard
There’s a lot to enjoy in this album. It’s unpolished but there’s a low key gem at its heart. It remains appealing throughout and one of the most consistently catchy song collections for a while.
Taster Track : Dos Pasajeros
The Chasing Pack
Demons : brownbear
Light, catchy and safe - brownbear’s street pop is perfect for mulit-generational celebrations.
Even the occasional expletive isn’t going to offend anyone in these songs. You can imagine him trying them out as a busker on a Saturday morning outside Poundland in your local High Street. ‘All I Want’, for example, is folk pop from the man on the street. It’s immediately likeable but completely disposable.
This is entry level pop. Brownbear is the youth club leader who’s on the side of the kids. He’s someone who’s perfect for your daughter’s first gig. In days gone by she’d have had his poster on her bedroom wall. These songs are soaked in the quality that sticks them in your head. You’ll love them for a while, hate them for longer when they refuse to leave and eventually look back on them fondly as a guilty pleasure.
And don’t think I’m knocking him for that. If he’s playing it safe, he’s doing it very well. In the past, record companies have listened to songs wanting to hear a single. On this record they won’t hear an album track. Even the darker moments on ‘Little White Lies’ are light and poppy.
You can’t go wrong with shuffling percussion, nicely strummed guitars, occasional flashes of banjo and keyboards, steady bass lines and arms aloft melodies. His vocals are friendly and a little husky. This is music with a smile on its face. Brownbear is a less distinctive Paolo Nutini, and less of a lad than Gerry Cinnamon.
Put this on next time you have your parents and the grandchildren in the same room. It’s just the ticket.
Taster Track : Demons
VHS : Collins
Slasher horror films meet 70s disco, 80s synth and 21st century electronica. Perfect for Halloween, it may not be a place to linger during the rest of the year!
The thing about slasher horror films is that they often feature characters who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I fear that I may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time to savour this record. I woke up feeling that I needed something wholesome. That’s not a quality this album has in abundance.
The album cover provides a clue, matching a glitterball to a severed head. This starts with the disco dancer as a scary clown, but it ends with a feeling of drab Soho streets as a wet dawn stains the sky.
It’s an album that sets the scene with the first few tracks. ‘Another Lover’ is over the top, but full of tense energy, ugly voices and sleaze. And it’s disco to its core. The stripper in ‘Stripper’ didn’t jump out of a birthday cake dressed as a police officer. She’s into bondage, S&M, pain and pleasure and she likes it a lot. The song has an infernally catchy tune though. ‘The Deuce’ takes us a few years closer to now, more electropop and incorporating a version of part of Hello’s ‘New York Groove’. It’s music for when a good time starts to become a bad time, the victim of one or two drinks too many.
The album mutates though, becoming darker but also softening what might have become too much horror schlock. Something like ‘Mr Midnight’ is more like early electronic act Space, or a stripped back Jean Michel Jarre. In Sleaze Cruiser, you can hear the spirit of Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ - if you’d fallen asleep in the car and woken to find it being driven by a drug crazed, blood stained maniac.
This is an album that is a victim of its own success. It’s a panoply of strong cultural references to a bygone age. It’s an album that has a lot going for it in its chosen style but, ultimately, it might leave you a little cold.
Taster Track : Mr Midnight (1983) (but, at Halloween, ‘Another Lover’.)
Music For Mushrooms : East Forest
This is ambient, new age music intended to support your bid to attain a state of higher awareness. But does it work as music?
There’s a technical issue at the heart of this album. This is not music made for its own sake. It has an agenda. East Forest
want you to let go and enter a state of near hypnosis, impervious to your surroundings. I need to keep my wits about me to provide a meaningful review. And I’m mainly interested in the music, not in the outcomes.
So…. as music this is soothing and ambient, using spoken word mantras and natural found sounds. It’s slow paced and beatless. The 13 minute ‘Solstice Song’ meanders its way like a river, never twisting the same way twice. It’s a masterclass in seductive sedation and it’s tempting to give in to it. It could become quite addictive. If I’m honest though, it’s not leading to a path of higher awareness but a desire to go back to sleep.
There are two pieces that are particularly successful as music. ‘Highest Truth’ has lovely, if meaningless, vocals. Its treated accordion is a beguiling surprise, an example of music that touches the perfect sound for relaxing and triggers a sudden flow of feel good serotonin. ‘Flight’ is simply a great tune, the most structured and purposeful piece here. It’s a piece that’s the equivalent of pictures momentarily formed in wisps of smoke.
If this is an album intended to lull you into receptivity, then it’s fair to say it succeeds. If you’re looking for a pleasant, ambient, musical listening experience you're in luck too.
Taster Track : Flight
Viva Hinds : Hinds
Hinds aren’t messing about. Their raucous, reckless album retains the rebellious attitude of early rock and roll and it’s great.
They rock with the attitude of a five year old given a hammer and told to wreak havoc in a greenhouse. They know exactly what to do and they’re going to have a lot of fun doing it! Hinds are a two woman brat pack , wild childs having a great time. 150 years ago they’d have run with Carmen’s gang and taunted bull fighters with relish.
This is their first album as a duo, but they have help from a couple of collaborators - Beck and Grian Chatten from Fontaines DC. Nothing changes where they’ve brought their music from though. It may be a different time but, beneath the noise, they mine the same pop vein as early Blondie, Suzy Quatro and The Go-Gos. I should say, though, that they are a lot louder and that’s good.
On ‘Hello, How Are You?’ they quickly drop the pretence of a solicitous enquiry in the title and deliver rock that’s scuzzy to the point of distortion. They jangle noisily on ‘The Bed, The Room, The Rain and You’. ‘Boom Boom Back’ sees them venture into dance rock. ‘En Forma’ is exciting head rush music and assaults your personal space as it leaps from the speakers to yell in your face. ‘On My Own’ captures the sense of fun and desire to shock that characterises their music.
This is music that encourages you to let your hair down, crowd surf and scream yourself hoarse. It’s brash and extremely enjoyable.
Taster Track : Superstar
Rarely Do I Dream : Youth Lagoon
Taking the discovery of a box of old home videos as their inspiration, the songs here demonstrate the distance travelled from childhood to present day.
Youth Lagoon says “rarely do I dream” but, if that’s true, these songs are memories that serve the same purpose. There’s something particularly evocative about the soundtrack to your childhood. Hearing yourself as a child and the reactions of others to you is unsettling.
There are times, as on ‘Home Movies (1989 - 1993)’, when that time travel can be a pleasant reassurance of a time of innocent happiness, a good reason for lapsing into a reverie. For the most part though, they’re the sounds of uncomfortable dreams. The happy, excited and innocent child becomes the adult in ‘Football’ who observes
“Mary on the pole
Her faith was wearin’ thin like an old shoe sole.
Mary holdin’ tough
She would fuck the preacher if he only
Paid enough”
There’s not a lot of innocence there.
Dark and bitter memories settle in much prettier tunes. Just listen to ‘Neighbourhood Scene’ which is fuzzy and melodic. ‘Seersucker’ finds him lost in thought to a tinkling background. ‘Football’, for all its damaged innocence, is wrapped up in a great tune.
This is the sound of dreams that are uncomfortable, taking you in directions that you may not want to go. They’re not nightmares, more fevered dreams. but there is a hint of the film ‘Nightmare Alley’ in the tone. The returning sweetness of the home videos, the melodies and the man child vocals stop you from falling into an abyss.
All told, this is a strange concoction. It’s eerie but not unpleasant, a strong new taste with complex flavours. There’s not much out there that’s like this. If it has a parallel in music, it’s probably in the album ‘Either / Or’ by Elliot Smith. There his tortured soul is held in check by perfect melodies.
This is an interesting, thought provoking album that is well worth some of your time.
Taster Track : Football
As ever this week's Taster Track playlists can be accessed at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/42qDXrw3nLMlCSg45kCnRy?si=4499207642034207 or via the Spotify link on the Home Page.
The link to the Youtube playlist is https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV-OogHy7EjHZr5_M3m0Zn5LEu_F3fMm&si=OhQF-ZPaBjUn4VMT
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