Album Review: The Automatic - Tear The Sun Down

A long way since the release of their debut novelty-pop rock debut, The Automatic is back and there’s not a monster in sight.

Well, at least not lyrically, as third album, Tear The Signs Down, certainly processes lycanthropic qualities. From the throbbing metal and relentless drums of Something Else to the roaring rock of Race to The Hearts of the Sun which echoes the structure of a milder My Bloody Valentine/ early Biffy Clyro progeny, there are all the signs of demonic outpourings.

Both these heavier tracks deftly build the long-player into something of a frenzied crescendo, but the thrashing pace - whilst more emo meets pop rock - presents itself from the get go. Opening track Insides kick starts the eleven track release bustling with distorted guitar riffs as Robin Hawkin’s trademark vocals cry /I’m not ready to fall/. That is before Interstate and Cannot Be Saved jump back to the chanting chart rock and memorable choruses we’re used to from the band.

With the exception of Run and Hide, which offers the same heavy guitar-led sound, the middle segment of the record shows interesting new sides to the Welsh quartet. List and Sweat Heat Noise – although tedious lyrically at times (/Give me sweat heat noise and I’ll give you the best of me/) – exude more Topman- Indie than the sweat-soaked-fringe rock of the rest of the album. On the contrary, High Time shows a more synth-rich Foals-esque style, which is disappointingly one-time showing.

Ultimately, Tear the Signs Down, is a varied third record demonstrating an inevitable progression. Whilst The Automatic’s debut was bursting with effervescent Indie gems and Wombats-esque joviality, their follow up This is a Fix showed the transition to the rockier, darker sound of the third player taking shape. But this second album evidenced a fear to take the whole leap into this rock cess pit, with the possibility of alienating themselves from their critical acclaim seeming too big.

Having since quit their major label, The Automatic’s newest album comes straight from their own label - something which has given them the balls to finally let their anarchic cannon loose. Whilst at times the lyrics let them down and the screamo-attempts and borderline self-indulgent guitar riffs brink on monotony, Tear the Signs Down is an altogether refreshingly organic record, with the band kicking Raul to the curb and proving it’s time to start taking them seriously.

Single Review: We Have Band - Divisive

We Have Band’s latest single offering comes in the shape of ‘Divisive; just under three and a half minutes of infectious pop-funk.

Toe-tapping contagion to one side and as the relentless repetition of the pulsing beat underpins the repetitive vocals of Thomas W-P; it’s the chaotic edge to this long-player teaser that truly possesses its Mancunian charm.

But in spite of the single’s likeable disco style, Divisive fails to truly encapsulate what makes WHB so deserving of the attention they’ve spent the last two years grabbing. Yet to be signed, this freedom means their musical style is effortlessly true to the band and not pigeon-holed to one marketable genre. And it is this very eclecticism that has made it nigh on impossible to not sit up and notice We Have Band as they dance from electro beats (Love, What Have You Been Doing?) to solemn indie (Piano) at the slide of a fader.

With so few bands able to draw comparisons to Hot Chip whilst echoing the plaintive depths of Editors - particularly so early on in their career - it is not hard to see why Divisive is a little disappointing. The third single’s simplicity does little to truly showcase WHB’s capability and resonates of anti-climax for those who have seen what else this promising new band offer.

Single Review : Foreign Office - Leaving The House/ Voices

Foreign Office’s double A-side release is the perfect mouthpiece to illustrate their irresistibly arrogant breed of electro. The disco beats of Leaving the House are complemented perfectly by the schizophrenic electro soul of Voices and the four-piece’s influences of Talking Heads, Hot Chip and Roxy Music.

Amidst the snake-hipped hysteria of the beat-filled two tracks, it’s easy to forget that whilst your eardrums enjoy the up-tempo rhythms, Foreign Office fail to actually offer up anything new. So far this year we’ve already heard new releases from Two Door Cinema Club and Hot Chip, to name but two of the main players in the already heavily proliferated musical style. But whilst the latter demonstrate an insatiable ability to rework this genre, pulling back the instinctive desire to dance that clouds your judgement - Foreign Office needed to step up their game to come close to this calibre and fail to.

Thus, whilst both tracks of seductive disco brim with aural satisfaction, the double A-side falls significantly short of provoking the urge to seek out other Foreign Office material - all factors that make the longevity of Foreign Office questionable at best.

Interview - Scroobius Pip

As the phone rings out, I’m suddenly struck by uncertainty. Should I call him by his real name, David, or his bearded stage alter ego, Scroobius Pip? I make a snap judgement and opt for the former. It seems to go down well.

Catching one half of the genre obliterating duo that is Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip on a rare day off ahead of their UK Tour, Scroobius Pip is as down to earth and inviting as his lyricism would imply. In fact, chatting to one of the most observant and credible spoken word artists of this generation, he is everything you would expect; humble, articulate and humorous. But as he trips over certain words and takes short pauses before pronouncing others, the one surprise about Scroobius Pip is his noticeable difficulty in expressing certain words; a consequence of the little known speech impediment he used spoken word to overcome.

Whilst honing his poetic license, he teamed up with electronic veteran and musician, Dan Le Sac, in 2006. Two years later, they released Angles; a musical cacophony of beats, melodies and subject matters covering God, homosexuality, self harm and love. These often bleak topics and dark comedic undertones alongside their now trademark electronic, hip hop, spoken word musical style culminated in something of a cult following.

Touring extensively ever since, the duo started penning new material whilst on the road last year:

“I sort of envisaged we’d have all this time off to make the second album but we were pretty much still touring and gigging constantly. I think the longest we had without a gig was about a whole month and even when you’re doing that, there are tons of other bits and bobs going on so it was very much written on the road. It wasn’t until October last year that we were in the studio recording it and we had like a month and a half to get it recorded and in the bag.”

After the success of tracks like Thou Shalt Always Kill and such high expectations placed upon Dan Le Sav vs. Scroobius Pip, after two years away from the studio was the notorious strain of second album anticipation a cause for writers block? Not according to Scroobius Pip:

“I didn’t really think about it that much in that sense. I think that’s where I benefited from being on the road so much during it. There wasn’t that pressure of being in the studio and having to do it. We’d been writing it since we finished the last album, so bits and bobs had been coming together and on tour we’d drop songs in here and there, so it didn’t seem like too much pressure.

“I think we lucked out in that the first album got a lot of good exposure and good reviews but we’re still very much on an independent label [Sunday Best] and not a chart act as such. So there isn’t so much expectation that can be measured. It’s not like we need a top ten album, that’s not what we’ve ever done. Our goal is to write an album that we’re really happy with. If we make an album we’re pleased with, in theory the fans should like it ‘cause that’s exactly how we wrote the first one. We didn’t know that anyone was going to hear it really.”

It would seem nigh on impossible for a band or artist not to develop after so long away on the road and away from the studio. Rather, it is something of a necessity and the likes of Radiohead, Modest Mouse and Foo Fighters have this new album reinvention down to a fine art. But with Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip’s distinctive lyrical focus and dynamic genre bashing style, Scroobius Pip recognises that to start their sound from scratch in a bid to increase their fan base would not only have been uncharacteristic but also risked damaging their organic leftfield sound;

“I think it still sounds very much like us. I think it sounds developed and we’ve clearly learnt more and hopefully improved our skills. But it’s not like it’s Jack Penate completely redefining his sound. It sounds like us still. I mean we never really fit into just one genre so it’s still got that, but it feels developed. It’s up in the air as to whether it will win over many new fans if you know what I mean. But using Jack as an example, so many people got into his new stuff that didn’t enjoy his old stuff at all, but I don’t think we’ve had that change and I don’t think we want to

“It was weird with Jack Penate. I’m a big fan of him and gigged with him from early on and that first album I still love, its great pop music. But I think that because he’s a young lad, some of the backlash and criticism did hit through to him. So I was concerned when I was talking to him and he was writing his new album, he was saying, ‘oh I’m writing it this way.’ I was worried he was trying too hard but he nailed it and it was completely right. He did a fantastic job. I think also partly down to a lot of the subject matters we discuss in our songs, a lot of the fans will have that deeper connection than all that.”

So with the new album out later this month and the eclectic duo soon to start a sell out UK tour, things look set to get pretty manic for them this year. But Scroobius Pip can’t wait to get back on the road and showcase their new material:

“For us, this tour is hugely exciting. With the first album, we were touring even before the album came out and that came out now two years ago. So we’ve been playing those same songs to people for about three years and it’s just gonna be great to offer up new stuff. The fan base has grown and grown and we were starting to feel like we were cheating people in some way. It was like another gig, another huge crowd but you’ve probably seen us four times and we probably played all the same songs –it was starting to feel unfair.

“Our key has always been to try and entertain people and give them their money’s worth. Obviously we’ve got a lot of songs which are quite dark and serious and we will play them ,but we don’t want people to come to the gig and just nod their heads and say ‘yep, yep that was a good point’. We do want people to have a good night out as that’s what they’ve paid to do. We have plenty of up tempo tracks in there, some theatrics- I’ve got some costume changes in one of the songs, and you know, stuff like that just to make it enjoyable and entertaining."

Amidst this already packed out year, Scroobius Pip has found the time to put his creative juices to another use; a book of poetry:

“It’s just another reason for me to just be stupidly excited at the moment. I’d been asked a few times if I would release a book of poetry and I never really read a lot of poetry; I like to watch it be performed live, I like to hear the writer perform it. So I decided that for me to release a book of poetry would be kind of arrogant, like ‘I don’t read poetry but you should read mine.’ But the thought of that made me question why I didn’t read poetry as a youngster, so I came up with the idea of putting together a graphic novel of poems.

“I used MySpace and it’s all from fans and the public. I got artists from all over the world to submit pictures of each poem and turn it into a comic strip almost. The work that came in was amazing and I half expected the standard to be quite average [laughs]. I then took it to Titan Books who put out The Watchman comic books and all sorts of amazing stuff. They saw the standard and loved it and that’s coming out on Titan now; which is a huge testament to the quality put out there”

www.myspace.com/lesacvspip

Interview - Editors

Since forming in 2002, Editors’ gothic smothering of indie rock has seduced a worldwide fan base. Now with the release of their third album, In This Light and On This Evening, the four-piece have once again drawn a breath, taken their sound to a new level and nailed it. Embarking on their twenty date UK tour this weekend, Noize caught up with drummer, Ed Lay, to discuss fame in the US, their live shows and new material;

Hi Ed, so where in the world are you now?
I’m just enjoying a couple of days at home, which is always nice. It’s good preparation before the tour I suppose.

What kind of thing do you get up to when you find you have a bit of free time at home?
Laundry and a bit of cleaning of my broken house. All the really exciting stuff.

All very exciting. What was last year like for you? Was a lot of it spent in the studio working on the new album?
The first part of it was getting the new record together obviously and that’s good for a band to be off the road and writing new songs. When you form a band that’s what you want to do; create albums. So that was a good start and since it’s been released, our feet haven’t really hit the floor. We’re a touring band. I think the best way to get our songs out there is to play live, so we played an awful lot of songs in a short space of time, and it doesn’t look like stopping until the end of the year like.

What was the album-making process for the third album? Was it harder or do you have a sort of system that works?
There’s no system involved. If you start to think about a formula for writing songs you’re going to be in trouble and write really boring songs. We just wanted to write something a little bit different for us. We thought about how to put the songs together a little more but in fact, recording the album was probably the easiest one we’ve done so far. When we first went in for our debut record, we were all slightly nervous and that was bound to happen going into a professional studio for the first time. For the second record, we wanted to get it done as quickly as possible and we were writing songs in the studio. But for the third record we’d rehearsed, we’d kind of been on tour for so long, we were so ready to get back into the studio and just get on with it.

Is there an album you love you play live because of certain drumming sequences or tracks?
[Laughs] Sort of! Purely selfishly, the first two records are actually quite difficult ‘cause there are a lot of fast songs [laughs] But on the third album, it’s a bit more relaxing; there’s some real slow grooves in there.

So you’ve got your March tour starting soon, how are you feeling? As a ‘live band’, you must be pretty excited to get back out there?
We’ve literally just been in America for sort of three or four weeks so we’ve been playing this year and over Christmas we were in Australia, so we’re very settled in the sort of touring routine already. But to come back and play a really long stint in the UK, that’s cool for us. A lot of bands will only do a sort of week and a half, but we’re going to a lot more places on this tour. Some of the places and venues we haven’t been to and that’s interesting.

For a band who’s been touring as long as you have, that must be really good for you to be playing new venues and perhaps even towns you’d never played?
You’re right, we have been going quite a long time so we enjoy having more of a back catalogue to pick our set from so we’re going to see that for the first time. So we’re very excited about that, it’s taken a lot of people a lot of hard work to put it together.

With such a distinctive sound, how have you been received overseas?
Well we’ve always done pretty well over in US and have toured there quite a lot in the past. We tried to build up that following like we did in the UK throughout the years, so to go back there after 2 years away with a new record; we were really well received and really enjoyed our time there. You know, the American record industry is more fucked up than the English one is so it’s difficult to gage how well you’re doing in record sales and stuff. But seeing sold out venues there and stuff, it’s very positive.

Having played so many live shows over the past eight or so years, does playing live still have the same impact for you or has what it means to you changed?
I think it does. You feel more conscious about the audience I guess. It’s not just a personal feeling; you worry about what other people in the crowd are thinking. You just want it to be as perfect as possible every night. It’s only really on the very rare occasions that I get really nervous. As you say, we tour and play an awful lot of shows per year and some of them can be pretty big, you know festivals or our big headline shows. It takes something quite out of the ordinary to get me really nervous but that still is a buzz. To play all those gigs and suddenly get that feeling is a burst of nervous energy and that’s what we do it for I guess.

Are you going to try and squeeze anything else in this year?
There’s not a lot you can squeeze in but we all want to record a record as soon as possible. There’s not point sitting around and congratulating yourself about what you’ve done previously. You’ve got to go in there and record new material. So hopefully before the year is out, we’ll have either demoed some stuff or even got the opportunity to fully record some stuff. We’d quite like to get our own rehearsal space set up but that’s hard because we all live hundreds of miles away from each other.

The new record would be your fourth album, any idea where you would take your sound next? Any inspirations etc?
We’ve kind of spoken about it briefly but I don’t think there’s any point in planning; just see what we fall into; see what mood we’re in at the time of writing. We’d quite like to go a bit heavier. Not like cheesy rock heavy but something that’s got real muscle behind it. We all like live shows and going to see music that really hits you in face.

Bad news for your arms though...?
[Laughs] Yeah, it probably will be!

http://www.myspace.com/editorsmusic

Album Review: Music Go Music - Expressions

With each track free-falling beyond help back into the 1970s like a less endearing grandparent, Music Go Music's debut album is retro pop at its worst.

From the camp dance beats of Love, Violent Love to Eurovision entry sounding ballad Explorers of the Heart, it is at times hard to tell whether this Abba nostalgia is ironic or a genuine attempt at 'proper' music. Rather awkwardly, it seems to be the latter.

Opening track I Walk Alone kicks off things misleadingly promisingly with electro beats suitably shaping the warbling vocals, but the melodramatics of Reach Out and piano led Light of Love prolong this time-warped hysteria on throughout the rest of the disappointing debut.

Admittedly, Music Go Music earn praise for branching away from the mass-produced beats filling venues around the country and so crafting their own colourful niche in an often monochrome industry. But the lack of relevance and actual enjoyability makes this inflicted theatrical drivel seem entirely unnecessary.

Album Review: Shy Child - Liquid Love

Shy Child's fans will not be disappointed with their latest ensemble of electro delights. Fusing Empire Of The Sun-esque new age, spacey beats on 'Disconnected' and the psych-rich 'Take Us Apart', two tracks in and even the most resistant of hearts struggle to avoid seduction.

Stand out release 'Criss Cross' is a darker bass heavy offering before clichéd 'The Beatles' functions as a disappointing filler as the duos long-player begins to trail off. The bland beats of 'Depth of Feel' and the mellow harmonising of 'Dark Density' struggle to chase the captivating start and leave ears desperate for more of the murky bass sampled previously.

Fans of Shy Child's debut may find themselves craving the hard hitting throb of the likes of 'Drop the Phone' with the final few tracks sinking to a much lower ebb, but the hard hitting standouts seem to pack enough of a punch to overshadow this change in tempo and overall deliver an impressive record.

Album Review : Eight Legs - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Previously the soundtrack to an anti-binge drinking campaign and several fashion functions, it seems with the release of their second album Eight Legs' versatility and ecclectic style has not gone unnoticed.

Lead singer Sam Jolly's laid back vocals spew all the glottal stops and lazy pronunciation you’d expect to accompany knuckle grazing indie rock. So when it's teamed with the sort of ‘whoops’ of sunshine pop present on album opener 'I Understand' and 80s inspired defiance of 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test', it's undoubtedly throwback and entirely unexpected. Yet, on guitar driven 'Best of Me' and scratching rock nostalgia of 'Wish It Was the 60s', the combination of testosterone pumped vocals and harsh guitars is more enthralling than its somewhat novelty predecessors and what the teenage band do best.

Releasing 'The Electric Kool Aid Cuckoo Nest' on their own label Boot Legs, the four-piece utilise the likes of The Beatles on tracks like 'Just So You Know'. This, combined with lad rock tendencies and a sprinklings of upbeat pop through, culminates in an album bursting with more creative licence than a Hollyoaks omnibus.

EP Review - Screaming Maldini - And The Kookabura

If the purpose of a debut is to showcase every musical skill and inch of potential your band has, then Screaming Maldini has nailed it. The five-track EP unapologetically grabs you by the balls with all the force it can muster, meaning like it or not, you have to listen up. But it kind of works.

This eccentric cacophony is entirely over the top but like the youthful exuberance that radiates from these three students, it’s contagious. The chaos and vivacious instrumentation on tracks like 'Secret Sounds' and 'I Know That You Know That I Would Wipe the Snowflake from Your Eye' are so intruding they are almost obnoxious. Yet the infectious enthusiasm seems to shake your very bones, juddering out any cynicism towards this sunshine mentalism.

But as you’d expect, the band do get it wrong. 'Albatross' shoves the band from eccentric electro pop to Disney-esque drivel which sounds like Sophie Ellis Bextor sat on a trumpet recorded for our very own displeasure. The intensity of each track also means that as most songs plough on through to four minutes in length, the blood starts to drain from your head. Screaming Maldini does manage to bring things back on track and the EP to a close with typically theatrical 'Miniature'; blasting out more instrumentation than a big band on acid.

Whilst by the end of twenty minutes with Screaming Maldini, you may feel the urge to plunge your head into a bucket of cold water; their overtly dramatic style is not their downfall. In fact these are the very same qualities that have thrust bands like Yeasayer to the forefront already this year. But what separates Screaming Maldini from the afore mentioned is that the busyness of their tracks make the eccentricity seem more forced than organic. Perhaps with a bit of a production tidy up and a deep breath so as to stop working their tracks so hard, the band’s brashness and the musical abilities the EP showcases could work better.