Beach Fossils-This Year (Song Review)

Brooklyn’s very own Beach Fossils are back with their first piece of music since 2013’s ‘Clash The Truth’, an album so well produced people have desperately been waiting on any signs of life from the band. The first single ‘This Year’ from return LP ‘Somersault”, said to be released June 2^nd under front man Dustin Payseur’s label Bayonet Records. The single already shows the maturity this band has gained since their debut in 2010.

The song is well composed and well written by the members (Dustin Payseur, Jack Doyle Smith, Tommy Davidson), and is supposed to be first of 11 from the LP that were all made up in their collaborations. Absorbing voice tone and stringy-pop guitar riffs and a string symphony to join the melodic flow. This comes after the band has said to of shied away from basic instruments and added "more complex instrumentation, including string arrangements, piano, harpsichord, flute, and sax”.

With the sounds of the single and recent live performances, the band seems to have settled into a new pop direction and with that maybe break from their underground success into a more mainstream audience.

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https://youtu.be/39F2B-EW9ms 

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Blaenavon - "Orthodox Man" (Live at WFUV)

King Gizzard And The Wizard Lizard-Flying Microtonal Banana

One of Australia’s bright under the radar talents King Gizzard and The Wizard Lizard, are in for a chaotic year as the psychedelic rock band are said to release five albums in 2017. The first comes to us under the title ‘Flying Microtonal Banana’ the band's ninth studio album since 2012’s 12 Bar Bruise. The band brings more experiments to their acid-garage rock, not shying far from their progressive style only adding raga pop influenced guitar riffs, and jazz styled tracks.

Opening track ‘Rattlesnake’, the first single released prior to the release keeps momentum with 2016’s ‘Nonagon Infinity’ fast tempo krautrock with minimal/repetitive lyrics. ‘Melting’ may be the band's ode to global warming, the jazzy drums and piano are a perfect example of the band's lack of ear to try new sounds. The other two singles from the album ‘Sleep Drifter’ and ‘Nuclear Fusion’ are both very well done raga pop progressive rock tracks with frontman Stu Mackenzie signature flute.

‘Billabong Valley’ has Old Western vibes similar to Cage the Elephants latest. Mackenzie finds no lack for his confusing choice in words “Bloodthirsty/Tendencies/Anti-Authority/Mad dog Morgan” to tell a story of a brutal death to a savage man. The album is well crafted from beginning to end showing the bands talents in making tight rock music with unordinary change-ups and continuous use of genre experimentation.

8/10

CHECK IT OUT HERE! https://youtu.be/D0BsgJxw208

Bad Sounds- Meat On My Bones// Song Review

Originality in music nowadays is hard to find, artists lack in finding ways musically to stand out amongst the rest.  Bad Sounds a band from Bath, UK consisting of brothers Ewan and Cullum Merrett and 3 other members (Charlie, Olivia, and Sam) are getting much hype in recent times for their music, and Newest Track ‘Meat On My Bones’ proves why.

The band brings an original flare to indie-funk, adding all textures through guitars, bass, and hip-hop beats. ‘Meat On My Bones’ is a song that represents much more than just a song for the band. The song is so unique in style from beginning to end, opening with a poppy guitar but throwing that out the window with a bass drop that would be appreciated by all types of music fans.  The band's vocalist Ewan Merret finds the perfect moment to enter the song with his vocals over a funky keyboard, Ewan’s vocal style is comparable to Damon Albarn on some of the best Gorillaz tracks.  That isn’t the only Gorillaz reference I’ll make because the song includes some backup vocals that are similar to Gorillaz song Clint Eastwood but singles it out over a bass line that gives it it’s own flare.

 The band also seem to be specialists of extraordinary changeups, using a bell to completely pause the song and come at us with more funk adding in a great guitar riff and tambourine to bring up the tempo, but the build up is complete with the three crashes that make room for the catchy chorus.  The story behind the song being about a friend who got a tattoo when their dog died, seems to be a greater success than the band had ever imagined. The future is bright for the band and a future album could see some major success.

https://soundcloud.com/realbadsounds/bad-sounds-meat-on-my-bones

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Austra- Future Politics

Is 2017 the year Synthpop takes over? I highly doubt it but you could make an argument with Austra’s third studio album ‘Future Politics’, via Domino/Pink Fizz Records. The Toronto electronic group first broke the scene with the 2011 album ‘Feel it Break’ a great debut, but you can tell how far they have come with ‘Future Politics’ the name even suiting the state of the world right now with the election of Donald Trump.

Opening track  ‘We Were Alive’ sets the mood and lightens your soul to a peace. Katie Stelmanis lead vocalist brings similar vocal range to Florence Welch (Florence and The Machine). The track focuses on this and the execution is beyond successful, behind the chill-tempo drumbeats, the song builds multilayered synths to create a beautiful opening.  The titled track ‘Future Politics’, changes the tempo, a heavy trance-like bass, easily worthy of finding yourself getting lost to, so you can only imagine the remixes to come. Stelmanis doesn’t make the song too political but doesn’t shy from stating her opinions, “The system won't help you when / Your money runs out”.

‘Utopia’ the first single released sets another bar, one of the most prestigious tracks of the record, a great dance track, layered with a string orchestra. “Like a hunter with teeth/There's nothing I wouldn't do”, Stelmanis is continuing a theme of feeling like the outsider, but she has grown out of her fragile/victim state and has become hungrier and that has made her colder along the way.  This theme is continued in ‘I’m A Monster’, “I'm a monster/I am on fire, I'm blooming,/ baby Why don't you care for me anymore?”.

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There are calm moments on the record, and they come through tracks ‘I Love You More Than You Love Yourself ‘, ‘Angel in Your Eye’, and ‘Beyond a Mortal’.  All three tracks are Stelmanis’s opportunity to show her skills as a songwriter, writing tense nervy songs. The tempo is brought back up through tracks ‘Freepower’ and ‘Gaia’, ‘Gaia’ being one of the most outstanding tracks of the record. ‘Deep Thought’ an interlude played out on a harp sets the tone for the closing track ‘43’. Stelmanis finds this as her last opportunity to get out her emotions and confess to her love that she has been trying to convince throughout the record.

7.5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sISTDuW0OW0

Half Moon Run- ‘Sun Leads Me On’

Montreal indie- multi-instrumentalists Half Moon Run known for there incredible harmonies and heavy bass based tracks return for what is clear to be heavily focused around influences, almost making an album on their best impressions of a band, but it doesn’t fail to impress. After their small success of the first LP, ‘Dark Eyes’, grabbing gigs opening for Metric, City and Colour, and Mumford & Sons, and a slot at Glastonbury, Half Moon Run created something special.

An intro to the album brings MGMT ‘Congratulations’ instrumentals that brought influence from The Beatles six years ago. Each track bringing energy the band are known to bring, being well produced to be captured on this record.  ‘ I Can’t Figure Out What’s Going On” a song I feel could have made the track list for Radiohead’s classic ‘In Rainbows, the song grows to singer Devon Portielje breaking into Thom Yorke like screams.  

‘Consider Yourself’ an edgy, dark Muse and Foals like synths, and bass line bring satisfaction to any music fan. The powers of this album are far more complex to put them into words. The ease this album brought to listen to, made the experience one to be lived over multiple times.

‘Hands in The Garden’ my personal favorite on the album, shows how good these guys really are instrumentally and with their level of musical knowledge. The harmonica and guitar match up perfectly and also show how well crafted production was.

The leading single from the album ‘Turn Your Love’, is a well made top 100 radio hit, and the tool from this album for the band to crack into the spotlight. The album does really follow a pattern musically it just sounds basically like whatever the band may have been listening to at the time. R&B and blues also make appearances on this album until finally, the last song ‘Trust’ made to be heard in clubs all around the world.

A mature return for the Montreal rockers, will bring a smile to the fans of the band, and most likely make a lot more fans for the time to come. The quick success well deserved for the extremely talented quartet,  and an album that will open the gates to even more unique sounds in the future.

8/10