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.

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

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.