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

Album Review // Good Shoes - No Hope, No Future

When you’ve been away for three years, the pressure is on for you to grab the notorious second album by the proverbial horns and drag it into a world where you’ve matured, the fans from your debut still burst with adoration and hordes of new listeners become hooked. But it can be bloody hard, which is demonstrated by a catalogue of one hit wonders throughout musical history and unfortunately Good Shoes’ follow up is no exception. In a contrived attempt to feign that they’ve gone and ‘done a Maccabees’, the second album has been stripped of the staple prepubescent charm that once made this London four-piece so endearing, leaving the ten new tracks drip rather bleakly with disenchantment. The pheromone-rich ‘Under Control’ leans towards the boy-ish charisma of pastures once visited and nostalgic ‘Do you Remember?’ smacks of their previous tales of Landan Town. But whilst rich with sporadic guitar riffs and snippets of familiarity, the rest of the album is smothered by a melancholy miserablism that hovers like a rather disappointing shadow.

Album Review // Chew Lips - Unicorn

Chew Lips debut album is a record of erotically charged pop that grabs you by the hips and pulsates against you until every part of your body longs to dance, with ‘Slick’ a clear standout track exuding as much effortless sexuality as a lover tracing their fingers on the inside of your arm. The album dispels the lazy musical comparisons to Karen O as whilst lead singer, Tigs, is brimming with exuberance when she’s hurling herself around stage, her musical style a lot more tame. Partly in that there’s an innocent inexperience to Tigs that Karen O’s inclination for deep-throating unsuspecting microphones wholeheartedly stamps out. It’s refreshing to see Chew Lips aren’t trying to be ‘the next [insert full-of-its-own-importance band name here]’, but by ‘Seven’ the album seems to peak, evoking the feeling of a break-dancer who’s used already thrown out their best head spinning moves and is only half way through a dance-off, especially by ‘Piano Song’ a ballad that feels like it’s trespassing in the form of a monologue from the seventies. A debut seemingly brimming with potential but falling at the last hurdle like an over-confident horse in the last ten seconds of a race.

Interview with Kasabian (Chris Edwards) - Noize Makes Enemies

After a whirlwind year for one of Britain’s most effortlessly cool rock acts and an incredible live tour, Noize caught up with Kasabian bassist, Chris Edwards to find out what 2009 has been like for the four-piece and what is next for the band who’ve taken the country by storm.

In terms of going from strength to strength, there doesn’t seem to be a band that can do it much better than Kasabian. Yet, the band have appeared quietly underrated and heaped with other mainstream acts in a way that subtly undermined just quite how good they are at what they do and quite how unique they are. But these latter factors have been entirely forced to the musical forefront with their current tour off the back of the band’s third studio album, leaving us in no disillusion just how ready for this Kasabian are.

The latest record ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Album’ propelled Kasabian to a level of success that was previously unthinkable as it sat smugly at number 1 in the Top 40 for a number of weeks. The album seemed to appeal to a larger demographic than its predecessors as it fought for a much bigger sound, whilst still maintaining all the characteristic swagger that has always made the four-piece so intoxicating.

But in spite of such great achievements, talking with bassist Chris, his natural humility is something that pours over his dulcet northern tones as he describes their hectic tour schedule so far in a way that effortlessly plays it down. “It’s going really well. We’re right in the middle, which seems a little weird as we’ve already done the London ones and they normally come at the end as a sort of a climax and a pinnacle.

“But since about May we’ve been non-stop. When we started off, we were doing little shows and then we supported Oasis in the Summer. The thing is with this tour, we’ve had this whole concept of the West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum so we’ve took that concept and put it on stage for these arena tours and really gone to town with ideas.”

With the new concept on board, it seems Kasabian have kicked their live shows up a notch to truly demonstrate their progression from small band who are seen to have a few similarities to Oasis, to a band that can cut it in a whole new league of their own. “There’s a gig, and then there’s a show. Anyone can buy a laser or loads of screens and put lots of concept on them but we’ve actually really thought about our concept. We’ve got props, we’ve got giant screens and we’ve painted all the floors. It all links to the album cover.”

The thing that is most clear about Kasabian and what, along with their musical prowess, seems to be the secret to their unmistakable longevity is there ability to reinvent. They're a band who know how to move forward and evolve, without alienating the fans who have loved them since the beginning. This is reiterated not only by their success with the third album, but according to Chris, by the industry’s reaction. “When our first album came out, Q Magazine voted us as one of the top 50 most overrated band of all time, so winning Q Best Album of the Year 2009 from them was an award in itself, you know what I mean!

But editors change, it’s not the magazine that hated us . You know, you release a new album, they get to like you a bit more and then this album has just been really widely accepted by everyone to be honest. Our families, friends, fans. It’s got to a much wider spectrum of people as well, a lot more people seem to like us.”

With this year seeming like a hurricane of success for the band, who haven’t seemed to have been able to stop and admire the hysteria they’ve stirred up among fans all over the country, things don’t look set to slow down as we see in the New Year. “It’s been quite a busy year for us and next year’s just as busy. We’ll be out the country for the first few months touring in Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Europe. Then we’ll come back and build up to the festivals.”

In some ways, the grip that Kasabian have taken on 2009 has come as a pleasant surprise to many people. But you can’t help but feel that the band’s convinced strut and quiet confidence from the beginning eluded to the knowledge that even if we hadn’t realised, they were always going to become huge. And deservedly so.

EP Review - Cats and Cats and Cats - Oh Boy! - This is Fake DIY

Cats and Cats and Cats are as difficult to listen to as their name is to type after having to listen to Ben’s strained vocals yell over what could be quite good guitar chords and melodies...maybe. Whilst the band is undoubtedly innovative, sometimes there is a reason why it hasn’t been done before, or at least it hasn’t reached our ears before. And that is because it doesn’t work.

The three track EP appears too thought out and fundamentally comes down to being around 15 minutes of music which is simply quite hard to listen to. Eve’s vocals are soft and elegant but on ‘A Boy Called Haunts’ and ‘The Boy with The Beak’, the chaos and screaming just doesn’t do her pleasant voice justice.

Like the high frequency noise that only youngsters can hear that is blasted from Co-ops late at night in dodgy UK areas to keep the Vicky Pollards and Kidulthood riffraff from loitering, there may be some element to this EP that only the seemingly young target audience can hear to appreciate. And perhaps it is a sign of my age and a lot of teenagers will love just how ‘niche’ Cats x 3 are but for more mature ears, it just sounds like a bit of a racket. Think Los Campensinos! as a bad Britain’s Got Talent entry.

Album Review - The Brute Chorus - The Brute Chorus (This is Fake DIY)

Welcome to the shambolic, testosterone exuding, over-dramatic world of The Brute Chorus. Like a bull in the china shop, the four-piece come stomping in uninvited but a few minutes in and their presence becomes welcome. Full of so much youthful energy that its almost contagious, this, their debut album, plays and distorts a plethora of musical directions and styles of lo-fi, Indie, Pop and Folk, to name but a few of those recognisable.

Recorded, rather ambitiously for a debut, at The Roundhouse’s FreeDM studios, the album maintains all the best points of a live show, without the annoying attention-grabbing girl standing behind you screaming to hear herself fill the silence, rather than to show support. The atmosphere is catching and leaves the listener wishing they were at the live show and anticipating when they might well be.

Musically, it album smacks of the newest work of The Rumble Strips with all the chaos and shambles kept mildly under raps by the binding strings of retro 60s chords. There are hints of Franz Ferdinand style theatrics and early Matt Pritchard vocals but in a way that seems wholly organic and does not in anyway undermine the far-from-mainstream sounding tracks. Think of it as Pritchard meets Kapranos’ badly behaved younger brother, who, rather than follow in his model brother’s footsteps, has turned to legal highs and Marlborough Lights.

The Brute Chorus show has arrived and be warned, once they barge into your unsuspecting little world, you’ll have trouble getting them to leave.

Album Review - Stricken City - Songs About People I Know

Despite being based in London and having formed in the Midlands, there’s something seemingly quintessentially continental about Stricken City. The misshapen arrangement and disregard for conventional musical structure becomes an insatiable format as standout track “Sometimes I Love You” effortlessly shows a darker side to the four-piece. Accompanied with an accordion, the feeling of lying in the Parisian grass is conjured, with all the painful indifference of a long-suffering tortured heart prevailing in lyrics like /Sometimes I’m dead inside/ Call me a doctor/ Get me out of here quick/.

Juxtaposingly, “Five Metres Apart” is the perfect transition from the lyrical prominence of its predecessor to a quirky upbeat whimsical and toe-tapping gem, as with “PS”, which perfectly functions as a platform to demonstrate the warbling brilliance of lead singer, Rebekah Raa’s almost Bjork-esque vocals.

Yet, the mini-album is not without its flaws. The almost draining nature of final track “Terrible Things” (ironically) finds the pitch of Raa’s vocals grating over melancholy piano notes and the eerie, over-thought capella intro track can be included in these.

What this does do is showcase the diverse capabilities of what is a fairly new band with the perfect balance of innate unconventionality, 80’s overtones and an addictive Indie personality, all seemingly fluently fused into an impressive debut that Stricken City should be proud of.

Interview with Sam Johnston of Flasguns -Noize Makes Enemies

Four boys with an equal adoration for Kurt Cobain and bursting with the-world-doesn’t-understand-me teenage angst come together to form a band. Boys leave school and grow into young men, forcing their lyrics to be all the richer from their experiences of growing up and brother-like mentality. Same old? Perhaps on paper:

“We were childhood friends and the drummer and I played in bands before and then we came together in our last year of school and started making music a bit more seriously and it just went on from there. It’s just the three of us now, seeing as our keyboard player left not long ago, but it’s just sort of some mates making music which is how it came about and it’s just sort of got more serious every month or so since we left school.”

But Flashguns are far from the same old clichéd musical outfit. With their eclectic jangley sound, it is the well-thought, mature lyrics that function as the fraying string, binding the epic chaotic synth guitars in place as its unexpected vastness hits with full force on each and every Flashguns track. Something no doubt largely inspired by the band’s impressive back catalogue of influences;

“All the stuff I used to listen to a lot is still some of my favourite music. Like Deftones and Nirvana stuff, but more recently I got more into bands like Biffy Clyro and The Killers are absolutely one of my favourite bands ever. And then stuff like Moby and Sigur Ros, which is a bit more like more musically advanced. So a big mixture of sounds.”

With such an effortlessly unique and three-dimensional sound, even lead singer, Sam Johnston, struggles to pinpoint its description:

“It’s definitely rock. Like a grungey sort of sound I think. Quite reminiscent of the ‘Never Mind’ album, mixed in with more of a modern synth twinge which, I don’t know, is like a Killers’ sort of vibe. It’s kind of like grungey, epic, sort of soundscapey stuff. It’s cool. A lot of guitars, a lot of chorusy guitars and big vocals. It’s a sort of big imposing sort of thing. It’s hard to explain!”

As Sam stumbles over his words and amidst his neologisms exudes his youthful self-doubt, it is almost hard to believe that he is the same charismatic front man who appears on stage full of such lyrical wisdom and self-assuredness. But his vulnerability is undeniably endearing and reminiscent of the likes of the face-to-face shyness of Flashguns’ touring buddies, Bombay Bicycle Club. Talking to Noize the day of their final gig with the band following a sound check (“But I’m bunking off loading up the van so that’s not too bad”), Sam explains how it all came about:

“We’ve been on the Bombay Bicycle Club tour for about two weeks now and tonight’s the last show. It’s going to be a weird change having the go-back-to-normal life again but we’ve got tonight still which is going to be a wicked show.

We’ve played with them and toured with them a bit before and we’ve known the guys for a while now. We just happen to be on a similar sort of keel if you know what I mean.”

It’s easy to see how the two bands get on so well with the same intoxicating stage present and quiet likeability away from the bright lights. Yet, with the future looking so promising for Flashguns, it would seem that the band are likely to find their time away from the media frenzy less and less common as they plan for their debut album;

“We’ve got an EP out which is called ‘Matching Parts, Similar Hearts’ and that’s got 4 tracks on. I think we’re kind of starting to think more seriously about recording an album but for now the EP is our main thing and where people can get an idea of what we’re about. I think we’ve come a long way with our sounds since then, we’ve done a lot of growing since the release of the EP.”

Since playing Reading in 2008 and with a lot of support from new music connoisseur, Zane Lowe, earlier this year, Flashguns are now starting to see the rewards from all of their hard work pay off. But for the next few months at least, having been bitten hard by the touring buzz, the band’s plans are to stick to the open road:

“I think earlier this year was probably when I would like see the beginning of Flashguns really and it’s kind of like a slow growth kind of thing. We’ve had a lot of support from the BBC which has been amazing and has been a massive help. It’s not been like a massive hype but its been like a flow of growing and it’s been really good.” “I think we’re going to try and book another support tour which would be really cool. Probably the wrong time of the year for it but it would be great to get in another consistent session. We’ve got a lot of writing to do, I think we’re going to be trying to write a whole new bunch of songs. Preparing for recording an album at the end of the year or something, I think that will be the plan. And gigging as much as possible, just playing shows all over the place and just trying to grow the fanbase.”

But for one of Britain’s most exciting and deserving new talents, it would seem developing more fans shouldn’t be too much of a problem as we eagerly await their first major release.

Single Review - Lulu & The Lampshades - Feet to the Sky - Noize Makes Enemies

Lulu & The Lampshades are a quirky playful brand of folk pop with a wholly loveable musical style that is both rich in fun and highly addictive melodies.

Their debut single “Feet to the Sky” reveals their desire to escape. To take a gutsy spontaneous step back from everything that is familiar and throw themselves into the unknown; something that the joining of sweet indie melody tunes with poignant, smart lyrics like /Shake me from the things I think me whole/ leave the listener wishing that they could runaway with them too.

With glottal stops aplenty, their informal narrative talking-meets-singing vocal style bounces along upbeat backing in a way that instantly draws likely comparisons to Laura Marling, Those Dancing Days and most notably, Peggy Sue and The Pirates, the latter of which they have frequently shared a stage with.

As the cooler nights draw in, Lulu & The Lampshades’ quirky style of sunshine folk alongside handclapping and sharp lyrics, bring welcomed warmth to ears all over London Town this Autumn, not to mention a great deal of anticipation for the follow up from this exciting new band.

Single Review - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday - Noize Makes Enemies

/All I know is that you’re perfect right now/ As Kip Berman’s soft vocals purr over the lo-fi pop guitar strings, the sheer vulnerability in The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is unavoidably endearing. As their heartfelt lyrics, bulging with teenage angst, ride the waves of their own personal brand of noise pop, the collision of juxtaposing extremes seem to justify the buzz that has surrounded this New York four-piece so far this year.

‘Come Saturday’ has a harsher feel than previously release tracks, with its highly distorted guitar input at times overpowering the trademark fragility of Kip’s vocals. Yet the track stands strong with their influences of The Ramones prevailing and undertones reminiscent of The Cure. But it is the subtleties in the track that make it so appealing. The intoxicating combination of dirty pop rock with the twee innocence of lyrics like /you don’t have to dress to please/ perhaps undress for me/ make it clear that these are set to be exciting times for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. And rightly so.

EP Review - The Voluntary Butler Scheme - Trading Things In - Noize Makes Enemies

/If you were broccoli, I would turn vegetarian for you/

Yes, possibly more fitting to the lacking lyrical prowess of the likes of the Jonas Brothers, but there is something, as much as your natural instincts will fight it, quite unavoidably endearing about Rob Jones’ soft vocals and twee pop melodies.

The one-man-band’s EP hosts all the sunshine exuding Indie chirp of the early works of Noah and The Whale and latter tracks contain poignant lyrics like: /My heart’s too bored to beat without you here/ effortlessly encapsulating the dim gloom of a broken heart over a typically upbeat backing ditty that is almost, structurally, similar to the likes of The Beatles.

Final track ‘Vending Machine’ also stores the same buoyant atmospherics as the previous but a sort of lo-fi distortion over the tracks, manipulating Rob’s delicate vocals with a harder edge, a welcomed darker shade is also contributed.

Whilst at a glance, the EP stands quite forgettable amongst the plethora of exiting releases of 2009, there is something likeable about The Voluntary Butler Scheme that culminates in a cloud of intrigue around Rob and his future releases.

Single Review- Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar - This is Fake DIY

Fuck Buttons are back and ‘Surf Solar’, the first release from their forthcoming album, is just over three minutes of characteristically dark electro that storms in and leaves you up to the neck in vast unrepentant beats.

Sounding like Do Make Say Think on a particularly enthralling acid trip, the track grips you with its effortlessly addictive urgency in a sort of futuristic War of The Worlds inspired soundtrack, unapologetically invading every part of the listener.

Retaining the undertone of Mogwai-esque melodies with frustrated distortion and lo-fi drones that so defines their previous releases, the Bristol-born duo once again seem to firmly push all the right buttons with their innovative take on all that is experimental.

Album Review - Get Back Guinnozi - Carpet Madness - This is Fake DIY

Get Back Guinnozi is a quirky French-meets-English five-piece that fuse electro kookiness with European overtones. They delicately dabble with all the quirky foreign simplicity of the likes of CSS and Indie eccentrics of Those Dancing Days….but like decaffeinated coffee or food that you’ve cooked for yourself, there seems to be just something missing, something that reduces its appeal.

It’s hard to pinpoint what it is exactly, the band contains all the ingredients that work so well for the afore mentioned outfits. Yet, tracks like ‘Go Back to School’ indulges the childish chants that so toxically saturate, and ruin, pop songs of the like whereas ‘King’s Song’ sounds like Kate Bush trapped (against her will) amongst some disappointingly damaged instrumentation.

But Get Back Guinozzi are in fact, likeable, and as their diverse influences surface and comparisons to the likes of Animal Collective can also be derived, the debut pans out as a sort of schitzophrenic production with sudden lyrics demanding /Don’t get mixed up/ I am fucked/ and an entire minute dedicated to deep erotic breathing.

Credit where credit due, the band seem to drip with innovation as they continue to surprise and alter what we expect. Regardless of their lack of mass appeal, Get Back Guinozzi seem pretty bloody interesting as they dare to veer entirely from the mainstream and stick two fingers up at conventional structure and genre, leaving listeners unsure what to make of the musical whirlwind but intrigued as to what else the five-piece are will deliver next.

EP Review - The Just Joans/ The Smittens- Split - This is Fake DIY

Often when two things come together, the end result is something enhanced and something that already seemed perfect, suddenly appear even better. Think Those Crooked Vultures; the culmination of Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Jon Paul Jones combining and utilising all their years of expertise and musical prowess to create one effortlessly brilliant supergroup.

And then there are the others. Much like when Walkers’ Crisps brought out Chicken Tikka Masala flavour crisps, the end result is something of a huge disappointment. Not only are both individually, at best, marginally enjoyable, but when forced into an unnatural proverbial blender; the taste is bitter in every sense.

The Just Joans and The Smittens fall into the latter category. The EP provides each band singing one of their own tracks, as well as covering one of the others in a hope that the Live Lounge style of production will inspire a new lease of life and exciting new version. Instead, the cutesy Scottish quintet’s Alphabeat inspired ‘ba- lit' be a lack of anything truly memorable on 'he sunshine exuding little set of ditties something endearing and fun, there seda-ba’s’ and high-pitched High School Musical happiness stirs feelings of nausea.

The Just Joan’s version of ‘Gin & Platonic’ sits better when the female vocals are non-existent but the overall feeling, as with all tracks, is that the self-indulgent joining of two groups of band buddies has overshadowed the actual compatibility or talent of combination.

Whilst fans of all-things-twee may indeed find this sunshine exuding little set of ditties something endearing and fun, there seems to be a lack of anything truly memorable on ‘Split’.

Interview with Dom Hoare (Echaskech) - Noize Makes Enemies

“When you’re an electronic music artist these days, it pretty much means you bring out a laptop and not a lot more. And it’s not that exciting to watch someone check their emails [Try telling that to Little Boots!-Sub-Ed]. But we’re not at all like that when we play live”
It’s half six on a uncharacteristically sunny September evening in London and one half of Echaskech, Dom Hoare, dives right into explaining what sets the Electronica duo apart from in their peers in such a saturated niche.

“We wanted to be a visual thing as much as a music based thing. We’re far more organic in kind of the live aspect, we end of meshing all kinds of things and making all sorts of noises out of all sorts of boxes. So it’s fun to watch anyway, even if Mark’s [visual artist, Mark van der Vor] not there, which he isn’t always- fpr example if you’re at a festival you cant really get projections working so then it’ll be just the two of us.”

Mark van der Vor is the newest sort of honorary member to the London duo, providing a visual experience to work alongside the beats produced by Dom and Andy Gillham, who’s musical journey started over a decade ago:

“Me and Andy are old school mates, we used to go to the same school. We both studied music there and we also sort of grew a love of electronic, or dance, music I guess. In the late 90s we used to go down to Metal Heads quite a lot , down in Shoreditch, which was sort of drum and bass night and an excellent venue on a Sunday night. We kind of formed a group then, which was drum and bass.

“We had a sort of moderate success there, kind of left it and had a hiatus until about 4 years ago, we re-formed as Echaskech and decided to do it as more of an audio visual thing. We got Mark V on board and sort of mashed it all together one night. It was totally random; we went down to Brick Lane and played a gig there. We met for the first time that night and sort of said; ‘Lets just pretty much jam’ at a live performance and it came off really, really well so we’ve stuck with it since then really.”

Two albums in and the band seem to have stumbled across a formula that works. Something undoubtedly spurred on by the effortlessly likeable nature of the band, as Dom talks of their future plans, there is sense that Echaskech have a more advanced sentiment with their music, less so chasing the bright lights of stardom and more like the fame is something that found them in the most natural and organic way:

“When our first album came out, our launch party was one of the best gigs we’ve ever played just cause everybody’s there in good spirits and celebrating your music and you know, it’s not too judgemental so the pressure is off a bit. Although the album’s already out, we’ve got a delayed album launch at the end of October (28th) which will be at the Queen of Hoxton. It will be open to everyone, it’s kind of first come, first served for that night. But we’re already really looking forward to that.

“Also, every month we curate a night at the Haywood Galleries called ‘Concrete’, In fact, this Saturday it’s going to all be a bit of a jump up rave experience [laughs]. We have all sorts of acts that play there from basically, folktronica to the sort of thing this weekend, which is AGT Rave Crew, who have been described as the ‘Chas n Dave of Rave’ and they’re exactly that. They just mash any kind of bass noise to brakes and it sounds fantastic. And every month from there until Christmas we’ve got some fantastic acts booked, some real beauties. We’re doing a special Christmas gig too”

The end product of Dom and Andy’s clear vision and knowledge of the industry means their output spills out influences with tracks like ‘Every Touch’ sounding almost Postal Service meets Sigur Ros meets DJ Shadow. Something truly diverse.

Any band that can stir up such heightened emotions amidst beats that cause legs to dance like they wouldn’t get another chance to, but minds to pause and get lost in the beauty of the band’s Mogwai-esque style, clearly have more talent than most of us could wish for.

Far from your average electro music, forget stereotypes of the genre. Forget Justice, Simian Mobile Disco or even those bloody awful remixes, Echaskech produce something different, something awe-inspiring and something truly unique.

New Music - Interview with Lemonade (Noize Makes Enemies)

“Extreme bass, new age synthesizers, carnival, dolphin noises, swimming”

As far as musical influences come, you don’t get much more obtuse than this. But for a band whose very fibres embody diversity and a hybrid sense of self, anything but randomness would seem somewhat out of character.

Step into this vibrant world of Lemonade. An exciting new band from Brooklyn, a state which seems to churn out off-mainstream gems at a pace that matches the rate that China spews out air pollution. Yet, unlike their predecessors, the likes of MGMT, TV on the Radio and Grizzly Bear, Lemonade keep it funk but pile in their dubstep and house influences.

So how did this new breed of dark beats meets infectious upbeat overtones begin between Callan Clendenin, Alex Pasternak and Ben Steidel?:

“It was very spontaneous. Alex and Callan had the concept for a while and when the opportunity to play a show on 2 weeks notice came up, they got together with Ben and made it happen. It's been going pretty well since then.”

Rather an understatement for a band that have already received such great feedback, with ‘Big Weekend’ hailed as Nick Grimshaw’s single of the week and with the three-piece’s self-titled album out this week, it seems things are really about to take off for the band. Something the band seems quietly confident of, promising that their debut will be a good mood provoker amongst the listeners:

“They can expect joy and dancing.”

It would seem the listeners can also expect an album jammed with innovation and a whole host of genre-dodging musical delights, particularly with percussionist Alex’s training in Arab and Latin music to bring that extra slice of originality to the band’s carefully crafted music. And following a busy Summer, things look set to continue at a fast face for our new favourite electro mavericks:

“We’ll be writing new songs and playing more shows. We’ll also be getting a Swatch sponsorship (hopefully)”

Typically jovial, it’s often hard to know when Lemonade are being witty, as their welcomed especially dry sense of humour colours so much of their speech, or being serious; having also told us “We all met at a casting call for the popular American children's show Kids Incorporated.”. But it is completely clear that they are a band that give their everything to the music; a completely admirable quality in an industry where it seems so easy to get lost in the trivial falsities.

Whilst, Lemonade may well be a band of few words, short of musical talent, they ain’t. Enter their vivacious world at your own peril, it’s pretty bloody infectious.

Reading Festival Review - Noize Makes Enemies

Reading Festival. An opportunity for music fans of all ages to drink a justifiable vast quantity over the bank holiday, a reason to step away from reality for a long weekend and a chance for a lot of teenagers to set fire to things in a pointlessly destructive way (something demonstrated by the 600 person riot that took place Sunday night).

With some of the best weather we’ve seen all Summer, Reading Festival 2009 may well have been one of the most chaotic, but it also showcased some of the most incredible talent the music industry has to offer.

Whilst inevitable annoying clashes between lots of our favourite bands unavoidably occurred and occasionally the testosterone-fuelled activities of fourteen-year olds setting fire to their farts made you wish you were at Glastonbury, in reality, we wouldn’t have had it any other way.

It’s been a week since we all crammed as much of our lives as we could into rucksacks and hoped security didn’t notice our 100ml dry shampoo, yet it seems almost a lifetime ago now we’re all back in the rat race. So here’s a run down for those who missed it… or for those who want to nostalgically mourn its passing.

FRIDAY
The weekend got started with crazy young things, Dananankroyd (no, we couldn’t pronounce it either). Flocks of people rushed to the NME/Radio 1 Stage, if only because it was the only tent to shield from a sudden downpour. Full of youthful energy and enthusiasm, the band started off with song that allows everyone in the crowd to learn what to call this chaotic band (Dana-nan-ana-KROYD). 2.30pm and with the skies clearing, an impressive set by The Virgins is followed by an immaculate hour of The Airborne Toxic Event. Lead singer, Mikel Jollett, effortlessly pours out charisma and the tent is soon full of long-standing fans and curious new ears with ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ spurring an eruption of applause. Anticlimactically, Little Boots, full of industry-formulated clichés followed on the NME/Radio 1 Stage, with the rain causing the tent to look misleadingly full, amidst the same-sounding electro boredom.

Later, Jack Penate played to a rather unexpectedly packed crowd. With his set list showcasing his older pop tracks like ‘Spit at Stars’ with new singles like ‘Pull My Heart Away’, it seems Jack finally reached the level of credibility he has been striving for and deserves as oppose to being a guilty pleasure for many. Clashing Placebo and Florence and The Machine and Friendly Fires with Bombay Bicycle Club no doubt caused a lot of festival-goers distress but Florence characteristically stole the show. With the gig falling on her birthday, after climbing up the tent scaffolding, Welsh told the huge audience “I said I’d get higher than I did at Glastonbury, and I have!” Whether she meant due to narcotics or geographically, ending with her renowned ‘You’ve Got the Love’ cover, her astounding vocal ability was left in no dispute. Friendly Fires followed with an opportunity to show how far they are from just another electro band, with lead singer Ed Macfarlane keeping the audience captivated with his vocal prowess and metrosexual dancing shamelessness.

Fans of Jamie T later flocked to see their favourite chav scream out his trademark lyrics before leaving 10 minutes early to catch headliners, Kings of Leon on the Main Stage…and to be disappointed. With Caleb telling a sea of fans “I know some of you are sick of Kings of Leon, and so are we. But if any of you don’t think we deserve to be where we are. Fuck You.” The band went on to play an uncharacteristically un-interactive set before Jared threw his guitar into the audience and shoved his finger up. Perhaps a result of a noticeably more aggressive audience this year or whether KOL are attempting to step back from the pedestal they’ve so long resented, fans felt noticeably let down. Yet, spirits would have undoubtedly been lifted by Marmaduke Duke’s set on the Festival Republic Stage midway through Kings of Leon. With showmanship in the bucket loads, Simon Neil crowd surfed as he sang his way through the band’s back catalogue, playing more mainstream releases including ‘Silhouettes’ and ‘Everybody Dance’ as well as the lesser known metal. As he sang “I wish you weren’t ordinary”, audiences were left instead feeling pretty chuffed that Biffy Clyro’s frontman’s side project is so far from it.

SATURDAY
The Rakes were the third band to grace the Main Stage on the sunny second day. Whilst the open air was less suited to a band that strive in more intimate gigs, singer Alan Donohoe, brought the set to life with his eccentric vocals and trademark dancing like a sporadic fit of ADHD, something that makes the band appear wholly endearing. Yet the highlight of the Saturday for those ‘in the know’ was no doubt the unannounced band that sandwiched themselves between Patrick Wolf and You Me at Six on the NME/Radio 1 Stage. Them Crooked Vultures took to the stage at 4pm. The supergroup, made up of Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Led Zepplin’s John Paul Jones rocked an amazed audience, not least because of their astounding status as musicians individually, but because of their musical prowess as a band. The Maccabees clashed with Maximo Park on the Main Stage later, but The Maccabees showed their worth with a spine-tinglingly good set. Working their way through the old and new tracks, Orlando’s vocals pierced the hardest of hearts in the way that he does so well. Changing the pace entirely, The Prodigy followed on the Main Stage with thousands dancing like their lives depended on it. Second headliners of the weekend, the Arctic Monkeys, showed a lot less resentment towards the crowd and played a predictably good set, fusing their new sounding tracks with classics including ‘Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’; much to the crowd’s delight.

SUNDAY
Master Shortie kicked the last day off on the Dance Stage, playing a highly energised set. Reminding audiences of his debut album’s release and his future tour repeatedly, the nineteen-year-old soaked up the atmosphere and pumped energy into a rather hungover crowd, soon getting everyone dancing and screaming ‘Dance Like a White Boy’.

1pm, the sun still shined down on Reading as Noah and The Whale took to the Main Stage. With Charlie’s vocals cooing over an orchestra of musical instruments fitting the open air perfectly, even an electric toothbrush was used for sound, demonstrating the attention to detail that has got the band so far. Metronomy and Passion Pit took to the NME/Radio 1 Stage later in the afternoon, with both impressing audiences but Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos’ vocals perhaps less suited to such a grand stage.

Vampire Weekend played to the high-spirited crowd, keeping everyone energised before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs graced the Main Stage with Karen O dressed typically eccentrically. Playing an astounding hour of tracks from ‘Heads Will Roll’ to the notoriously intoxicating ‘Maps’, the band looked delighted as the crowd cheered ceaselessly and it soon became clear that for many, this would truly be one of the performances that defined their weekend. Bloc Party followed and despite concerns that they would struggle to perform to the best of their abilities on the Main Stage against the open air, the band played an astounding set. Regardless of the British drizzle, festival goers danced harder than they had all weekend as the band played songs from all three of their albums, with Kele’s vocals reaching into the hearts of their loyal fans.

Radiohead rounded off the weekend, making the lives of their decade-long standing fans. A little late to start, the band was the first to re-adjust the lighting and screens to fit their set and it made all the difference. A truly atmospheric and incredible end to a weekend that showcases some of the best bands in the world.

Interview with Jonathan Corley (Manchester Orchestra)

Following an impressive set on Reading’s NME/Radio 1 Stage last weekend, Atlantic indie rockers, Manchester Orchestra, release their second full UK album ‘Mean Everything to Nothing’ this week. Noize caught up with five-piece’s bassist, Jonathon Corley, to find out a bit more about the release and one of our new favourite bands.

“I think everyone in both camps is excited about the upcoming tour. It's been awhile since we've been out with those guys. We all lost our minds in the desert last time we toured together. Maybe that will happen again.”

‘Those guys’ are the Metal meets Emo tyrants, Brand New, and with the pairing of this, and the band’s exciting support slot for Biffy Clyro’s upcoming UK tour – it is more firmly set in stone than one of mythological Medusa’s worst enemies, that just another indie band feigning to be credible in some half-arsed industry move, they ain’t.

The band’s new album fuses true rock in its more mainstream format with lyrics that dare to spit the words of painful truth like /You’re not alive when I need you/ but manage to still exude an overarching endearing sense of poetry, in the way only the best songwriters can muster.

Defining themselves as “Abrasive southern indie rock... or music to listen to during a shakedown”, the band’s creative juices flowed further than just a traditional album release – instead choosing to treat their devoted fans to a video series to go alongside the end product as a sort of narrative interpretation:

“Each song has a video that weaves discovered 8mm film into a story that flows all the way to "The River" [end track]. It was a massive project tackled by a couple of guys from Destroy Rock Music (Clay Lipsky and Jason Bognacki). They had about four months to complete the entire project, which is a feat in and of itself.”

Yet, the multi-media end result seems to more than justify the means. Having spent 300 days on the road with the last album, you can be sure that the band can also promise some polished and spine-tingle inducing sets on their upcoming live shows:

“We're constantly working on new things. The schedule we've chosen to maintain keeps us on the road and out of the studio, at the moment. When we're home, however we're usually recording. You can find new video podcasts from tour updated regularly online. There is sure to be something exciting musically out later this year.”

Manchester Orchestra’s diverse sound and unique output combines all the best aspects of American rock acts such as Weezer with sprinklings of the divine likes of Right Away, Great Captain in a way which conveys their bottom-line vulnerability in a way which is impossibly likeable. Having received positive press and even shining comparisons by Caleb Followill himself (that’s the front man of Kings of Leon for those of you who’ve only really heard ‘Sex on Fire’): “"They remind me of us. They are country boys from Georgia and sing this raw passionate music”, it seems that the next few months are set to be pretty life-affirming for one of the most understated, but exciting, bands in a long while.