The Middle East - The Recordings of The Middle East

Meet Australia’s best kept secret; The Middle East.

The five-piece first released ‘The Recordings of The Middle East’ themselves back in 2008 and sold it via their website. No doubt mesmerised by the band’s irresistible magic, Spunk Records have now decided to reissue the five track delight next month; a decision likely to make ‘original’ fans produce a considerable pile of pretentious vomit at the thought of (gulp) the band becoming successful. But in reality, The Middle East are brimming with too much subtlety to hit the mainstream or duet with Timbaland and their music only reaching the ears of music snobs or industry players would be something of a criminal loss to music.

The EP itself is smothered by juxtaposing beauty and heartbreak, which are stripped back to their most addictive bare bones. From the delicate melodies and multi-layered vocals of ‘Fools Gold’ to the enthralling bleakness of ‘Lonely’, The Middle East lead you into their very own haunted fairytale as male vocals fuse with the tinkling of gentle chords.

Opening track Darkest Side perfectly embodies the balance of melancholism and spine tingling enchantment that the five-piece have down to a fine art, something further complimented by first single Blood, which sounds like the chilling progeny of Iron and Wine and Bon Iver.

Whilst on paper, the gentle tide that drapes across the band’s debut EP could risk more ennui than an ITV2 Katie Price marathon, the Anthony Hagarty (of Anthony and The Johnsons)–esque wavering of truly unique sounding vocals conjure the feeling that to peel your intoxicated lugholes away from the 5-tracks would be to miss out on something significant. An idea that is validated by the surprisingly up-tempo guitar led Beleriand, a track reminiscent of Manchester Orchestra in structure, and that leaves us chomping at the bit to hear what delightful cacophony the full length album will provide.

The Middle East is undoubtedly one of the most interesting bands to have slipped under the radar so far this year. With their gentle but inescapable hold on the listener something that seems even more effortless than their dark charm, their success is as inevitable as it is deserving.

www.myspace.com/visitthemiddleeast

Interview with The Drums (Jonathan Pierce)

The Drums are the embodiment of what a difference a year can make. Whilst some bands spend years climbing the proverbial fame ladder rungs, others - either through luck or sheer talent - are propelled to stardom at a rate that their carefully formatted MySpace pages can barely keep up with. Combining 80’s synths, beach pop and sporadic shapes that rival The Rakes’ Alan Donahoe, less than 365 days since they formed, The Drums are already part of one of the most prestigious sell out tours of the year. So Noize caught up with lead singer, Jonathan Pierce, to talk that surfing song, supporting Florence and the Machine next month and being catapulted into the limelight.
Noize: Hi Jonathan, so where in the world are you at the moment?

Jonathan: Ummmm...That’s a good question! [Asks his tour manager Aimee]. We’re in Brighton! It’s all such a blur, I don’t know where we are in Brighton [said in his best British accent] but we’re here and I think it’s my best place of the tour so far

Noize: And you’re a week or so into the NME tour, how is it all going?

Jonathan: It’s going really great, it’s all really fresh and new for us. We’ve never done any sort of touring at all so to be on this tour is pretty incredible for us and really shocking. We never dreamt of such a thing. You know, we started this band a year ago and wrote a batch of songs, thinking we’d maybe play a few shows around Florida and things have really taken off. So, it’s just really incredible

Noize: With this all being so new to you, how were you feeling about touring with some really quite established bands?

Jonathan: Well, we really believe in what we’re doing and what has worked for us in the past is sort of jumping in at the deep end. The first show we ever played was in a cake shop in New York and the whole band had only rehearsed for a couple of hours, the same day as the show. There just happened to be press people at the show who talked well of it and things started moving really quickly. So yeah, we were nervous about it but we thought, let’s just go for it. As long as we believe in what we’re doing, I think that’s what matters.

Noize: So how long after the NME tour do you come back to tour with Florence and The Machine?

Jonathan: We’ll be back in May for the Florence tour. We’re so excited for that. We think she’s really rad.

Noize: And how did the tour with Florence come about?

Jonathan: I guess she is a fan of The Drums. She asked us to tour with her so we said yes, how could we say no! I think it’s going to be really cool. It will nice to come back and see how things have grown and what has changed. It’s something that we never thought would happen so I think it will always be exciting for us.

Noize: So what else have you got planned for the rest of the year?

Jonathan: We have our first single ‘Best Friend’, which will be released in stores pretty soon (05/04/10) and our album’s done and we’ll be releasing that June 7th. As far as the rest of the year, we’ll just be on the road touring. We’ll be over here a lot; I think the UK sort of owns us for 2010!

Noize: What can fans expect from the album?

Jonathan: Well we wrote all the songs on the album pretty much the same time as the Summertime EP. What happened is we wrote about 30 songs in Florida and looked at what we had done and realised we had a whole handful of summery feeling songs. So we decided to put them all on one EP and called it ‘Summertime’ and be really blatant about it.

Then naturally, what’s left is the more darker, more brooding, serious, introspective kind of stuff. It’s more personal, it definitely sounds like The Drums but it’s not all handclaps and whistles, it’s a much more serious.

Noize: Do you think fans of The Drums will be able to get to see a new side to you with the new album?

Jonathan: That’s what we’re hoping. We put out that ‘Let’s go surfing’ song as our first song off the EP and we just thought it would be a fun little thing to put out and it kind of took off and became this big thing that everyone knows. We kind of just don’t want to be considered a surf band, you know.

We have a bunch of songs and there’s only one out of all of them that mention the word surfing, so to be called a surf band is not the worst thing in the world, it’s just not who we are. If anything, we just want to be a rock and roll band that writes pop songs. Perhaps more of a tender side of rock and roll; our own sensitive brand. I think the full-length will sort of put out that sort of surfing flame so that people can sort of see what we really are.

www.myspace.com/thedrumsforever

Interview with Bombay Bicycle Club

Few sounds can evoke such instantaneous goose-bumps as the vocals that Jack Steadman purrs. These heart-melting lyrics, combined with Bombay Bicycle Club’s own brand of lo-fi indie pop, are the ingredients that have lead these introverted young musicians to achieve critical acclaim with their debut album and a series of celebrated live performances last year. Now supporting The Maccabees on the NME Awards Tour, BBC’s very tired guitarist Jamie MacColl and even more sleep depraved drummer Suren de Saram put aside their touring exhaustion (more or less..)to speak to Noize about their plans for a new album and what 2010 has in store for them.

Noize: Hi guys, so how is the NME tour going so far?

Jamie: Yeah it’s been going good.

Suren: It’s been a bit messy the past few days, a lot of people being sick.

Jamie: Yeah, there’s been a bit of a stomach bug going around.

Noize: Is that a cover story for alcohol induced illness?

Jamie: [laughs] yeah it’s alcohol induced as well.

Noize – So have there been any nights that have been especially enjoyable or memorable so far?

Suren: There’s been a few really good ones.

Jamie: Birmingham was a really good gig.

Suren: you all really enjoyed Nottingham didn’t you?

Jamie: Yeah and Leeds. I enjoyed last night as well. I’ve enjoyed all of them to be honest.

Noize: Were there any bands looking forward to meeting or playing with before it kicked off?

Suren: Yeah, The Maccabees. We’d met them a couple of times before and they’re really nice guys.

Noize: And is this the first time you’ve done something like this?

Jamie: Yeah, in fact it’s the first time we’ve done a support tour so it’s quite unusual for us, not being at the top of the bill [laughs] But it’s quite nice. It takes the pressure off a bit and adds a bit of healthy competition.

Noize: Ahh so there’s a bit of competitive banter between the bands on tour about sets and who played best?

Suren: Hmmmm...I don’t think so.

Noize: Oh, so it’s just you then, Jamie?

Jamie: [laughs] Yeah, it’s just me!

Noize: And you’ve been doing a lot of free gigs and in store signings throughout the NME tour, is this something that comes with the tour or something that’s just important to Bombay Bicycle Club?

Jamie: Well yeah, it’s just what we wanted to do. We like doing acoustic gigs and we like doing them in unusual locations. One of them was in a Barber Shop in Bristol.

Suren: And we played in a couple of canteens in universities which was pretty crazy.

Noize: What are your plans after this tour? Am i right in thinking you’re doing an acoustic album?

Jamie: We are, yeah. I don’t know when that’s coming out, June probably. Then we’re going to Europe the week after we get back and then we’re recording again.

Noize: And what will the second album be like? Will it be influenced by any bands your into or anything on tour?

Jamie: I’d hope it wouldn’t be influenced by one band, no.

Suren: One is the song is about sleeping actually (laughs)

Noize: Finally, you’re up for Best New Band at the end of the month at the NME Awards and are up against tour mates The Big Pink, who do you think should win?

Jamie: I think we should win! [laughs] But I don’t think we will. I think the XX will. It would be nice to win but we always have quite low expectations really so just to be nominated we were like ‘oh that’s nice’. Plus we get to go to the Awards show and make fools of ourselves!

www.myspace.com/bombaybicycleclub

Interview with The Big Pink (Robbie Furze)- Noize Makes Enemies

After winning the prestigious Phillip Hall Radar Award at the NME Awards last year, The Big Pink unapologetically grabbed 2009 by the lapels and hurled it into their statically charged world of gloomy electro-rock. The band’s debut album ‘A Brief History of Love’ articulated all emotions along the spectrum of romance; from love-bite lust to wandering eye uncertainty. All the while validating the critical acclaim the band had earned. Now bringing a welcome dose of grit and murky rock to the NME Tour, Noize sat down and chatted with lead singer Robbie Furze and his dog, Alfie, to find out what The Big Pink have got lined up next.

Noize: Hi Robbie, how’s tour going? Any shows really stood out so far?

Robbie: Yeah it’s been amazing. Really fun. Glasgow was really cool and Brighton last night was awesome. I think every time we have a day off, it seems to take us a day to get back into it. We hate days off. We’ve been getting better and better but we’ve done so many shows now that it’s weird for me to say that. It’s quite pathetic to think we’ve done over 400 shows and still getting better; maybe you always get better, I don’t know...or worse!

Noize: And so what are the dynamics like between the bands on tour?

Robbie: To begin with everyone didn’t really communicate and stuff. Maybe a few people were quite shy , but now we’re all mates. We already were mates with The Maccabees but didn’t really know the other bands.

Noize: What are your plans for rest of the year once this tour is over?

Robbie: After this, we go to Australia and then from there, we go on almost a two month tour of America. Then we come back and we do a UK Tour. That starts on the 7th May and that’s like our biggest headlining tour so far.

Noize: And how are you feeling about that?

Robbie: I can’t wait. We’re playing the Forum in London and the tour will be that sort of size capacity and it’s a little daunting but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Only a year ago we were playing sets to like 500 people so it’s really taken off.

Noize: Do you think you’ll be looking to do any new material towards the end of the year perhaps?

Robbie: Yeah, well we’re thinking about putting a new tune in the set for Australia. We wrote it just before we came on this tour and we really like it. We’re just going to see if it works.

Noize: So is this new track typical The Big Pink or is it slightly different?

Robbie: Yeah it is kind of different. I guess it is a bit more about beats and stuff. But it has piano in it and a big chorus.

Noize: Has anything sort of inspired that change in direction?
Robbie: Well we love hip hop, we love beats and we love simple melodies. I think for the next record, we have been talking about cleaning it up a little bit in its production perhaps. It’s hard because when I say a bit more hip hop production, it’s not at all like it sounds.

I mean, you know songs like ‘Crystal Visions’ or ‘Count Backwards’, like less of that and more of a beat driven kind of thing. That’s just where our heads are at at the moment.

www.myspace.com/musicfromthebigpink

By Laura Routledge

Album Review // Errors - Come Down With Me

Errors are a band that know how to move you; a fact that ‘Come Down With Me’ perfectly embodies. The second album from the Scottish four-piece lures the listener across a spectrum of varied musical terrain but in a way that seems entirely organic and not some contrived rebellion against being categorised.

Instead, the ten tracks trace the steps of Lo-Fi Do Say Make Think-esque noise rock on ‘Sorry About The Mess’ and ‘Germany’, before grabbing and tugging their sound onto the sticky dancefloors of Indie meets Electronica. Here the melancholic murmurs are replaced with all the compulsion of Foals on ‘Rumours of Africa’ and mesmerising string twanging of ‘The Black Tent’.

The invisibility of Errors is something that wholly adds to the appeal of the follow up, with the instrumentals typically needing no words to conjure pathos or evoke the desire to dance. The end result is a journey showcasing simplicity at its finest and the seemingly effortless fusion of Errors that fans of their previous work and label mates Mogwai will not want to miss.

Release Date: 01/03/2010

Interview with Hugo, The Maccabees

The Maccabees are a band that will woo you. Everything from their jangling guitars and demanding bass lines, to the romantics that lace their lyrics, delicately tug at all the heartstrings you possess until you find yourself fully intoxicated by the Brighton-hailing five-piece. Resistance is wholly futile. So The Maccabees kick-starting 2010 by headlining the NME Awards Tour seems a fitting tribute to a band that has softly seduced fans across the country since their 2005 debut.

And what a journey it has been. From the band’s debut album, the progression of The Maccabees is as clear in their physical evolution from fresh-faced boys to experienced musicians, as it was apparent from the change in tempo when ‘Walls of Arms’ was release in May last year. Two years since the hormone ridden ‘Colour It In’, the eleven track follow up left no uncertainty about just how far The Maccabees had come. Tales of Chlorine, Colgate and Lego had been replaced with a believable despondency and a new found maturity that somehow still brimmed with all the trademark Maccabees charm.

This collective development is not something that the band is oblivious to. Instead, catching up with guitarist Hugo White ahead of the Glasgow leg of their 14 night prestigious tour slot, he cant quite seem to believe it:

“We went to see some of these shows on the NME Tour with The Killers and The Futureheads and Bloc Party. That was years ago when we were standing in the crowds watching the bands and we didn’t expect that we’d be headlining it a couple years down the line. So we’re in a good position and we’re pretty happy about that."

Touring with the likes of The Big Pink, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Drums, it’s only a day in and Hugo is already suffering from burning the proverbial rock candle at both ends:

“We did the first show last night in Newcastle and it was great. I’ve already got a headache and feel a bit dazed, but it’s alright! The other bands are really cool and it’s nice to play with good bands really.

“I was quite interested to see the Drums, I’d heard a lot about them but hadn’t really listened to much. You know one of those bands where you hear a lot of hype about them and then you want to see if they’re living up to it, but they were great last night. I really enjoyed it. So yeah, I wasn’t disappointed by that. And then The Big Pink are great, it’s all cool. It’s gonna be fun.”

In of all the media hype that has built like a resilient hurricane around these indie pinups over the past year following their powerful festival performances, The Maccabees have yet to let their feet leave the floor. Instead, the band remain humble and being pitched against the likes of Oasis and Arctic Monkeys for Best Video at the NME Awards later this month is something the band aren't taking too seriously:

“Yeah, its a good video that one. But it’s not really anything to do with us, that whole nomination thing. It’s nice to be nominated. It’ll be good if we win because we’ll get it for the kid in the video, he’s pretty amazing. The award can go to him.”

The 'kid' Hugo is referring to is seventeen year old, Thomas Allan, and the music video for ‘Can You Give It?’ follows his success at the 2009 cheese-rolling championships. The end result is something that each band member agreed on. An occurrence, which Hugo admits, is something of a rarity:

“I think it was Orlando’s idea and we got talking about this cheese-rolling event and filming it in a documentary style and trying to capture it like that. The guy that went to film it all and the director just kind of hit the nail on the head. It was one of those videos where you sort of watch it and for the first time, everyone agrees on it being great. That doesn’t usually happen with us so everyone was happy.”

It's been a crazy year and a half for The Maccabees and with plans to now start work on a new album, things aren’t likely to slow down anytime soon. But with the transition from ‘Colour It In’ to the so-called difficult second album so recognisably poignant, how will the band dig even deeper to produce another record that is equally, if not more, mesmerising? Hugo recognises just how difficult it will be:

“We’ve decided to write this one in a different way. With the last one, a lot of it was just sort of battled out in rehearsals or whatever and I think we’ve just sort of decided to take a bit more time before we go and battle it out. I think we’re going to write a bit more individually and then bring the pieces together a bit later on.

“It feels like a pretty huge task because the other record doesn’t seem like that long ago and we really pushed it to be the best it could possibly be and now to sort of up that is going to be challenge, you know.”

And Hugo is right. The Maccabees have got a seemingly unsalable task ahead of them, with reinvention of course being the key to longevity. Thus, the band will need to release an album that demonstrates further progression but continues to nurture everything we’ve been so enchanted by since it all started. It’s undoubtedly a tall order but there is something about the quiet confidence The Maccabees exudes that leaves us convinced they can do it.

Album Review - First Aid Kit - The Big Black and Blue

Typically, teenagers spend more time applying clumpy mascara to their hungover eyes than actually thinking about anything substantial. Or do they?

Swedish sisters, Klara and Joana have caused quite a frenzy among Britian’s twenty-something music lovers. As their gentle European vocals purr over twee guitars, First Aid Kit tap into the disenchantment of every mortgage-burdened man and his unappreciated wives. But with their median age reaching just over seventeen, their maturity as they delicately exclaim /Life is tough on me/ is enchanting but somehow wholly believable.

Perhaps it’s because as we cast our minds back to our misspent youth, we remember how we saw the disappointment of marriage firsthand and endured the backbreaking pain of losing a first love. We felt everything Klara and Joana feel. We just lacked the nomenclature and inordinate musical abilities to articulate it in the way that the likes of Laura Marling and First Aid Kit do so well.

Combining the spine-chilling simplicity of ‘The Morning’ and stripped folk gloom of ‘Hard Believer’, First Aid Kit’s debut album is dripping with preverbal sepia tones and miserabalism in a way that serves as a welcome reminder that not all teenagers are as toxic to society as Lady Sovereign. Honestly.

Release Date: 25th January 2010
Label: Wichita
Rating: 7/10


By Laura Routledge