I Only Want....

There should be no wonder Hot Chip can make one swoon in an instant: every dreamy loop and every quirky vocal charms you. Their laid back approach to music makes them an electro band for the bedroom and not the dancefloor. They add a heavy dose of emotion so that they give electronica a big pounding heart.

With Thieves In The Night, it’s obvious Hot Chip aren’t using a different recipe for the new album One Life Stand. Guitars that clash with synths while Alexis Taylor sings “Happiness is what we all want” only to make you take off those shoes, put on some cozy slippers and maybe have a cup of tea with your new best friend.

Hand Me Down Your Love’s almost Spoon-like piano and robotic vocals see the guys take out one of their best weapons: those quirky sensual beats that remind one of how white they are and how cool they are. And an Auto Tune used with a shitload of brain cells makes I Feel Better an instant slow-disco anthem. Pop music that sounds too good to ever make it into the mainstream charts this is.

I Feel Better’s lyrics are all but a prelude to the title track, One Life Stand. “I only want one night” morphs into “I only wanna be your one life stand” and Hot Chip veer into a sound that reminds one of The Warning days. But what is so delicious about the track is how it coyly builds up in the beginning and then the chorus takes it to a whole new level.

Brothers knows how to take you back to those slippers and that cup of tea and maybe make you feel a bit teary with all its cheesy lyrics and dreamy textures. And then Hot Chip hit you with Slush or the way they understand the concept of a ballad. It’s maybe weird this one is here as it sort of cuts though the energy of the album but it’s a good piece nonetheless.

With Alley Cats they trick you this is a Kings Of Convenience song only to insert little bits of electro along the way that remind you what’s it all about. And then Hot Chip throw you into a very Simian Mobile Disco world as they put together the layers of We Have Love, one song that calls for singing along and dancing on the beach at five in the morning.

But as Keep Quiet kicks in, they get back to their usual selves: dreamy guitars, sharp synths, high-pitched vocals intertwined with low-pitched ones, music that seems to have been written by black guys but sang by white dudes. Ending track Take It In should’ve, could’ve been part of Made In The Dark: sort of dark (shocking, I know), sort of sinister, bleeps that surround you. But the chorus seems to be the perfect antithesis: it’s solar and hopeful. There is even a dove mentioned in the lyrics.

One Life Stand is by all means one incredibly well-thought album: it’s pure Hot Chip but never boring nor repetitive. They manage to reinvent themselves without actually leaving their bubbly world or giving up being nerds. And they manage to make pop music with a brain and a heart, which, yes, is what they got us used to.

Attention, Overdose Might Be Fatal

Fleetwood Mac meets Grandaddy meets Radiohead – that's how I tend to describe Midlake's music. However, that might seem quite unfair, because their music wants to be more than just a good mix. And their third album, The Courage of Others, scheduled to be released at the beginning of February, tries to prove that.

The album reminds you even less about their lo-fi roots than the previous one, The Trials of Van Occupanther. Hell, let's forget about nice words. It yells "folk fucking rock" from one hundred miles away. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing, you know. But when you have an eleven tracks album composed only of slow tunes, you might get the feeling it's a little bit too much. At a certain point, I, too, got sick of the same dreamy, autumn-rainy-day-like atmosphere – and, as I was reaching the final track, my mind started to yell: That's all?

Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to say that this album is the worst piece of crap they ever released. No; the instrumentals are okay (even if I miss the keyboards, there's nothing really disturbing there – as a matter of fact, at certain points I thought I felt the phantom of Nick Drake coming up from behind, and yeah, this is a praise) and Tim Smith's vocals are as good as ever (please read: really, really good). But no matter how sweet the cake is, if you eat too much, you will get sick for sure. And that's how it is – The Courage of Others stands as a collection of good songs becoming, not bad, but rather boring after more than an audition on the same day.

*photo courtesy of Midlake official site

Love Story

Norway’s stellar atmosphere and its unfolding layers charm you instantly and what could be a lifetime. They creep in your bone marrow and Victoria Legrand’s Nico-like voice replaces your blood. It’s almost crazy that music can have such an effect. But Beach House, with their shyness, were always the kind to create moving tunes that turn out to be perfect bittersweet gems.

Norway is the most nervous piece on Teen Drama. It boils, it runs up and down, it has the most obvious feeling that any minute now something will crack or someone will have a breakdown. Not that when Legrand sings on the rest of the album, her heart’s not trying to pound out of her chest. But no, on a closer inspection, it’s not her heart, it’s the albums heart. And each song, with the chiming cymbals and blooming musical textures, seems to be a heartbeat.

But Teen Dream is quiet and clam, not once letting despair win. Each broken hint of disco and each polished edge makes it strangely solar. Each ghostly piano note gives the album a pureness that seems so rare these days. And, timid as it may be, the duo’s music oozes an incredibly sexuality, with each guitar crescendo leaving place for what could the breaths and murmurs of a shy lover.

“I’ll take care of you/If you ask me to” sings Victoria as the album draws to an end and it sounds by no means stupid or childish: it’s naïve and heartfelt even heart-wrenching. A fitting end for a majestic and tender album that paints the story of a young love. An album that will find its way into many people’s hearts and could easily be one of this decade’s best releases.

The Band Fool's Gold!

Fool’s Gold, the record label, the movie or the song from Stone Roses? Neither. Actually, a band. In a polluted environment filed with musical releases of similar cultural inspiration, words like African and Hebrew draw attention like new exotic words in relation with musical inspiration and foundation for an album.

The self entitled album from Fool’s Gold, as a whole, came out as a rather libertine movement wanting to prove that different instruments and styles put together can make good impression. Even if most of the time the lyrics are quite romantic (and sometimes funny ‘I’m trapped in air conditioning’), the rest of them you won’t understand (some lyrics are kept in Hebrew). Yet, the lyrical impressionism is very effective, even-leveled with the complexity of the melodies.

The album’s tracks are sort of divided in terms of tempo: one sort would be the slight merry Moroccan feeling Surprise Hotel, Poseidon and Night Dancing and the rest of the tracks, that lie in a tender melodic flow, with still Islamic tendency such as Nadine (whose chorus is reminiscent of non other than Dolly Parton’s Jolene). Yet in all of them the percussion is of clear African touch and there is also an omnipresent trumpet that graces the melodies. And this is done in a quite pondered way, never feeling musically displaced or ruining the harmony of all the other instruments.

The musical complexity, so many instruments and sound variety make this album a wide cultural exposé. It is to be admired that, for an album far from original in terms of oriental style, it still manages to be without any doubt a breath of fresh air with the most optimistic musical sensation.

*picture courtesy of Amazon

Chew On Something Else

Here’s a fact I am sure you all know: hype is a very bad thing. Attention is drawn to your band, but there are expectations to be met and you have to be really really good to get away with it. One can’t exactly call a band like Chew Lips a daring band: they don’t really run off on a boat to visit India and discover America, now do they? On the contrary, it’s like they still think the earth is flat. Their first songs tackle the some old indie-dance-whatever we all know so well. Sure, Solo and Salt Air are nicely executed pieces, but they are ordinary ones.

However popular they are, these two ones were left off the London-based trio’s debut Unicorn. Bold move, after all. And while the intro song Eight tricks you into believing there is so much more to this band (hence the absence of the said songs), mediocrity takes over again as soon as you get to the second track. In fact, the album is so mediocre the songs sound the same: same vocals that make you think of a fallen from grace Beth Ditto, same instrumentals that sound like a really washed out version of SMD’s Cruel Intentions (which wasn’t really one of SMD’s best), same chord shifts, same same same. They even try a bit of New Young Pony Club but it’s painfully obvious Chew Lips are a bunch of talentless copycats. And when they want to sound meaningful (the slower Piano Song and Too Much Talking), they end up being just risible.

It’s strange the trio decided to leave their debut songs off the record, given the fact that, well, at least then Chew Lips sounded like a band with some sort of potential. For, you see, Unicorn only tells us they should spare the world of yet another bland and unremarkable “indie” band and break up.

*Photo courtesy of Rough Trade

No Hope?

Roll your eyes all you want, but truth is Good Shoes are actually a really good band. “Loads of potential” was the choice of words back in 2006/2007 when they were still not fully developed instrumentally but when their lyrics shone through and made every almost-too-generic chord worth it. On stage, they were a shy and quiet band, but, both I saw them, they were good and charmed the crowd.

As you hear The Way My Heart Beat’s pop-punkish vibes, you might think there is no or little change on their sophomore, No Hope, No Future. Alas, they shall fall in the pit of mediocrity. The first single, Under Control, makes a head or two turn: the video is off the hook (what’s going on there?!), but the songs sparkles and, while borrowing off Bloc Party, departs from the said generic chords and dives into the world of catchy dance-math-rock hooks.

Math-rock, which Good Shoes seem to be enjoying a lot: Then She Walks Away sounds like a minimalist approach to Foals’ music. I Know keeps some elements of math-rock, but veers in the land of lo-fi punk and sees lead singer Rhys Jones ranting on about religion. Not to forget the boys know how to treat you, as they play around on Everything You Do, a song that seems to be straight out of The Cure’s world, or on Our Loving Mother in a Pink Diamond, with its marching drums and prog rock solos.

But what’s really heart-wrenching and could turn easily into a favourite is the closing song, City By The Sea, with a minor progression chord and Rhys’s voice sounding completely hopeless. And, while the album has its faults (Do You Remember showcases the band's inability to get past the jangling pop of Think Before You Speak), there’s plenty of proof these guys are a well worth it band.

RE - Hadouken!

Hadouken! – For the masses. We all remember the previous album, that double ‘c’ product (catastrophe creation), that has clouded our opinion about Hadouken! and sadly an impression about any future creation released by them. When I pressed play on the new album, my fingers were even tingling to unleash my clear hate and distaste. I was convinced that my young but experienced ears will be hurt. Ha! I played the first one, the next, and continued. And then listened to the album again. Seriously, like the first track Rebirth, Hadouken! pulled a remarkable one. It feels good to say this: it’s a damn good album!

A reminder of Does it Offend You Yeah?, but the voice is clearer, yet it stands aside; a closeness to Prodigy, yet the younger touch is crystal clear.

From the first track until its last, it blends and pushes into beats and electrifying feelings. An album that is techno, is trance, is pushy and proves the veracity of a talented Hadouken!. Rebirth will blow your mind, the calm before the tempest. If Turn the lights out (and its well deserved two amazing remixes) is a tease of a Prodigy offspring, Bombshock is the clear offspring and Ugly is definitely the next step in the genre.

MAD is the album’s sensuality and that certain interlude (you’ll notice it for sure) is SICK! Evil and House is falling down will blend further into the album, but Mic Check (slightly reminiscent) will make you bounce that head and ass. Play the night is the trademark with its original touches and combined sound variations. And the start of Lost - the album’s roughness. Retaliate is what it all goes down to: a new sound and a new attitude.

Whether a track is more impressive than the other or edgier, all the tracks give a sense of soundtrack for either a dance floor out of control or even an action battle sequence. Not childish but rather young and impressive, after all the word ‘hadouken’ means a series of martial art moves. An album for the masses … to bounce!

picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Love Is All Around Us

Fly Yellow Moon is not only an album, but also a premiere for Fyfe Dangerfield – because it is his first solo album. I suppose that you're very curious about how Dangerfield's music will sound without his band mates, so I won't waste your time with any introduction anymore.

The album is basically a collection of love songs – by love I don't mean only its sad, full of suffering and pain aspects. It's also about love in its wonderful, full of warmth aspects – or, as Dangerfield himself says in opening song, When You Walk In The Room (which happens to be one of my favorites), "In this moment no one is pulling me down into the ground / I can't help it if I'm happy not to be sad". However, the dark side of love is not forgotten at all (Barricades is an example,among others), and it can't be said clearly if you really can surpass everything if that certain someone is beside you.

Instrumentally speaking, Dangerfield passes from slow, acoustic tunes (sometimes piano, other times acoustic guitar) to songs filled with energy (those drums are magical). In other words, ups and downs – the feeling that you habe the world at your feet followed by melancholy and the dangerous approach of an end. As I said before, it's all about love.

All in all, this is a really remarkable album, and hearing that Dangerfield recorded it in only five days just makes me appreciate it even more. And I can't help but be curious about what the next Guillemots album will bring us.

*photo courtesy of Fyfe Dangerfield official site

War Tactics

Bands develop as time goes by. They add new layers to their music, shift creative direction and play with structures, concepts and melodies. The Horrors did that with Primary Colours and the world’s jaw dropped. People barely had a chance to recover after the shock and These New Puritans released We Want War.

Now, if you had a bite of Beat Pyramid, you are aware that these boys aren’t exactly the normal ones out of the post-punk-Horrors-group. They indulged in sickly passions, three to be more precise. Number one: an obsessive love for Mark E. Smith, hence the insane repetitions. Number two: a snobbish usage of French. Number three: guitars that were at war with the rest of the instruments as done by Gang Of Four (a band we’re all sure TNP have a shrine of).

But, alas, being artists, TNP were not content with being just the odd post-punk revivalists and, with Hidden, they aim to take the crown from the likes of Animal Collective and cover the whole “alternative” area. So they borrowed like mad from different areas: opera, operetta, classical music and, yes, non-musical structures. Rest assured, their old loves are still present on this musical project.

For ‘album’ is not the word to be used when talking about Hidden. “Musical project” is because Hidden exists to alert the imagination and sharpen the senses. Appropriately, the first thing the four Southenders hit you with is Time Xone, a sea of calm that’s sole purpose is to wake you up from the lethargy. And so, they continue the attack. We Want War is half menacing drums, half choral chants and swords being sharpened. No, no radio play for you, puppet!

Three Thousand feels like it flows out of We Want War but brings in the equation part of the nauseating love for The Fall: broken spoken words. “They keeping the obsessive repetitions for later”, you think. And that’s when things take a 180 degrees turn: Hologram has a delicate piano and soothing vocals. Endless loop and we’re back. Attack Music finally showcases the same paranoid band that created C±16^th: it’s incredibly hypnotic and maniacal. You know you’ll be singing the lyrics next morning. And yes, you get swords again (or maybe knives, who can tell?).

Shamelessly, TNP sink deeper into repetition: Fire-Power and “I’m in the fire, fire”, while adding marching drums and a bass that cries out for a good soundsystem. Orion takes the drums further and that’s when you know Thomas Hein is one of those out of this world drummers. Among all these intricate instrumentals, you get another sea of calm this time in the form of a flute and called Canticle. One minute and twelve seconds of rest before yet another climax: Drum Courts – Where Corals Lie. Mechanical drums, whispered lyrics, a choir, cold synths, elements of electronica.

And, as it draws closer to the end, Hidden brings you White Cords. Dub-scented, Jack Barnett’s barely sung (yet, sung!) lines, heavy drums that fill your speakers. And, at the very end, TNP remind you their love for something else: cyclic things. Yes, Beat Pyramid began with ...ice I Will Say This Twice and ended with I Will Say This Tw… . While it’s not that obvious this time, 5 with its xylophone, choirs and trumpets does bring you back to the zone of the intro.

So, you press play again. And while you listen to Hidden one more time, you realise all it needs is a big stage production to underline the beauty and complexity of the instrumentals. I’m thinking something involving an apocalyptical landscape.

Kids, it's WAR time!

Cold War Kids and a new EP called Behave Yourself. Four songs, that’s all. I had no expectations, made no assumptions. Rumor has it the songs were leftovers and pushed from one side to another, eventually they were given the spotlight. Impression: oh dear!

Audience is a sick masterpiece; the track, until its middle, tempts like a new shiny music box and once you open it you get transfixed, believing you’re the one audience they play for. Then on to Coffee Spoon the metaphoric serenade of a resurrected soul “inside my china room / you are my coffee spoon’’. Santa Ana Winds holds the geographical touch in the EP as well as the edging beat. The ‘Santa Ana Winds’, a meteorological phenomenon famous in Southern California, emerge as poetical influence for these kids. And Sermons, the bitter vision over life. The track’s lyrical content is its forte, praised by its dramatically beat – a strong track nonetheless. Amazing EP, grounded, impressive and intelligent.
Yup, they’re good.

Tomorrow... In Two Months

On 4th of August last year, The Knife announced they will write an opera for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. The opera is called Tomorrow, in a Year, and is based apparently on Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species. Recently, the band announced the studio release of this opera, which will include fifteen tracks (nine on the first CD and six on the second one) plus one bonus track. The album will be released on March this year. Meanwhile, you have the chance to listen to Colouring of Pigeons, the first single, which can be downloaded for free from the band's official site.

The eleven minutes track starts with a drum line, with tribal influences, soon accompanied by some ah-ah-oh-oh-eh-eh vocals (not surprising, considering that we're speaking about an opera here). The instrumental turns little by little to something more melodic, with synths in the background, which bring a really creepy note, somehow balanced by Karin Dreijer-Andersson's vocals (yeah, she's as good as always). From a certain point on, the voices disappear and the instrumental slowly fades away, leaving you with your mouth opened and with a "what the hell was that?" in your mind. I don't know what exactly it was, my friend, but it wasn't a track that can be easily forgotten, that's for sure.

Considering the fact that this song is actually just a part from a biggest story, it is a little difficult to say something about the meaning of the lyrics, but I guess time will help us here. We'll talk about it in March.

*photo courtesy of The Knife official site

(We're sorry for the lack of posts lately. We're all a bit busy with exams right now, so we'll be posting every other day, not daily as we use to. But have no fear, this will only happen for the next two weeks. See you guys on Monday)

Soon

“Really, it’s too easy for this album to turn you into a pretentious twat. Be very careful!!!” writes Mike McGonigal, editor of Yeti, an American arts and culture journal. He’s talking about a modern masterpiece, and I am well aware this strikes you as a shocking statement. Part of the 33 1/3 book series, he writes about his favourite band and its seminal album. My Bloody Valentine and Loveless, the masterpiece Kevin Shields & co never followed.

But what this book stands out for is not the album and musicians it talks about. It’s McGonical’s own writing style, the way he talk about the album and makes you feel sick in the stomach after every vivid description of a feedback, that way he sinks deep into culture to find similarities between painters and the Irish band. He is a fanboy and not afraid to show it. He is a rabid music nerd before being a journalist and a professional. He knows very well that music is a visceral experience. And here he presents his own insides.

You really don’t have to be a MBV fan or even know the band that well in order to enjoy this book. All it takes is a passion for well written idiosyncratic material and teach your brain new figures of speech.

Great OK!

In a world with tendencies towards strict rules, like risotto with white wine and no ice in your whisky, Ok Go have managed to spring and conquer like chips dipped in icecream: fabulous! Wtf, not ‘wtf’ to what I just said, but rather the first track that is a clear itch for scratching of the whole album. Ok, so Ok Go got the itch and the rest of the album is definitely the irritation - in the most positive way. Let me explain: irritation not from creepy leaves in the forest but from too much truffles pumped into you after two whole days with no sweets in the house – that kind of irritation!

One of my first thoughts regarding the negatives is that the album should be listened to on loud speakers and an incredibly good sound system. On something else, you are listening to just noise, not music. That thin, is the line between considering the album brilliant and considering it stupid. I have no idea what these boys were thinking, but they proved to be bolder and attempted at being cryptic and above all suave. If sometimes the voices are reminiscent of Lenny Kravitz and even Prince, the negatives are reminiscent of clear jazz and blues. The guitar solo on Skyscrapers is … wow. White Knuckles takes you to the dance floor where you can swirl around a guy/miss and sing along with the tune on “I want you so bad I can’t breathe”. End Love is so techno and edgy you have to make out with somebody.

Another track passes for you to be brought pondering on Last Leaf, that is such a sweet track you need another truffle. Last time I heard somebody mention Kathmandu was in this amazing animation called Anastasia (with Meg Ryan and John Cusack); well Ok Go revives the word in Back from Kathmandu where the boys intertwine dreams with reality and say this truth: “everybody needs to get through the night”. Amin! The boys continue with While You Were Asleep that is, go figure, a sweet lullaby and then round it up with the last track, by resurrecting the beat one more time with In The Glass. Magnificent percussion, a tiny of piano, a tempered base and a decisive organ, all sustain the boys with the chorus “What have I done?”. Well, I say the boys did great. 2010 for music is looking quite promising when starting with albums like Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky from Ok Go.

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Far Away

Retribution Gospel Choir strikes again. In my terms it means they've released a new single, called Hide It Away. While we're at this point, I'd like to say that I always have been fascinated by the idea of double personality (by that I mean two very different personalities). No, don't shoot me, I don't want to say Alan Sparhawk is one of those people… but his music certainly gives this impression. When it's about Low, it's like a calm ocean with no storms. When it's about Retribution... back off, a hurricane is coming!

And this single proves this approach to be right. It's the same noisy instrumental we know that seems to have nothing to do with Low's sound at all (at least at first sight). The same I'll-make-you-stand-up-kicking-your-butt-and-making-you-screaming-out-loud vibe. And even if some of you might think of it as the kind of song you hear for the first time and go "I might have heard this before..." it's nevertheless a nice experience and certainly an interesting hint to the next album.

*photo courtesy of Retribution Gospel Choir official site

Beneath The Veil

Marina and The Dimamonds - Obsessions

Ok, I don't really like her previous stuff, but this Regina Spektor-scented piano song got straight to my heart and it reafuses to leave my taughts. I went to sleep with it in my head two days ago and I'm still repeating the 'we've got obsessions' bit.

Hurts - Wonderful Life

Slow-disco at its best. Get your quirky dance moves on, this is going to be one of this year's most played songs.

Parallel Universe

On 12 January, Owen Pallet will release his third album, called Heartland. It's also the first one released under his real name, and not under the name of Final Fantasy, due to copyright infringements. Hearing he worked with the Czech Symphony on this album made me really, really curious about how it will sound.

If you ever listened to Atlas Sound, then the first name that will come to your mind while listening to this album is Bradford Cox. That doesn't mean their styles are similar to core – it's more about the atmosphere (which is so strange that is actually wonderful). Presented as a concept album, Heartland tells, according to Pallet, a one-side story that implies a farmer named Lewis and a fictional world, called Spectrum.

The story might be difficult to follow at first due to the fact that the music seems to stand out the most, with the vocals left somewhere behind – another thing that contributes to that atmosphere we talked about earlier. Basically, the sound is a mix between classical (remember that little detail about the Czech Symphony?) and contemporary (translated: the electronic sounds). We all know it is difficult to find a good mix, but I'd appreciate Pallet managed to do so, and if you like experiments, then this one will captivate you for sure.

I'd dare to say that phrases like "I love this song" are somehow inaccurate in this context, as every song represents a step in the story rather than just a story on its own. This is an album that it has to be listened entirely, without skipping tracks, if you want to fully appreciate and understand it. But it's worth it.

*photo courtesy of Owen Pallett official site

Public Announcement

The (Hypothetical) Prophets – Person to Person

The (Hypothetical) Prophets were an early 80s French electronica act. And when I say electronica I mean a weird, spaced out approach of instruments that even today seems so hard to emulate. Person To Person is one extremely sexed out track that will make you feel a little buzz just when you hear the word ‘garters’. If you don’t know it, dig it up anywhere you find appropriate. It’s well worth it.

Love Is In The Air

Ladies, gentlemen and Jessica Simpson, I have the pleasure to announce you that soon… very soon (8^th of January, to be more specific)… you'll have the chance to hold in your hands a copy of Adam Green's new album, called Minor Love. The album has fourteen short tracks – and when I say short, I mean none of them is longer than three minutes, not that would be something unusual for Adam Green.

Some of you might have already listened to the sixth track, What Makes Him Act So Bad, as it was released as free download on Green's official site. If you liked that song, you will probably like the whole album as well. It all goes along the same idea of instrumental simplicity that allows the voice to stand out. And while we're here, I'd like to mention that apparently Green tried to play all the instruments on the record, allowing only a few fellows to join him in the studio. Thumbs up for that.

At certain moments, I had the impression I was listening to a friend that took a guitar and started to play in front of me just for fun. By that, I don't want to mean that the sound of the album is bad or unprofessional – it has to do most with the songs' atmosphere, which is cheerful, colourful, and it makes you to completely forget the cold world outside (in my case). There are moments when Green seems to repeat himself, and moments when the atmosphere seems to lose its lightness, but that doesn't count for the album as a whole. All in all, it's a very pleasant experience.

Literature 101

Five songs that were influenced by books

1. Boo Radleys – Wake Up, Boo (remember To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee?)
2. Babyshambles – La Belle et La Bete (well, this is obvious)
3. Manic Street Preachers – Patrick Bateman (b-side to their single Life Becoming A Landslide, based on Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho)
4. The Cure – Killing An Arab (pretty much fanboying Albert Camus' L’etranger)
5. Pete Doherty - Salome (because Doherty is one of the last Wilde-like stars)

A Call To Arms

Mgmt say on their song The Youth that “this is a call to arms to live and love and sleep together’. Very nice thought, one might say, maybe a bit too hippy for my tastes. Delphic drop any sort of reference to any period in time and are a bit more liberal. The opening song on their debut Acolyte points out that this is a “call to all, a call to arms, a call to everything you wanted”. And, in some ways (atmosphere it creates, instruments, way the keyboards are used), in sure feels like a declaration of independence.

Clarion Call is also something like the first song off a compilation. Remember what Rob Flaming said in High Fidelity about good compilations? That the intro song has to grab one’s attention. Well, it does. And Doubt, second in line, takes it one step further, so there, Rob is happy. It bites straight into the idea of broken trust and relationships that are too complex for us to make them work. You know it, sure, the same saccato vocals, same anger, just that now the chorus is not so much of a burst of strangely uplifting energy. It’s more low-key, the chorus, in fact and so the song’s overall feeling is more genuine.

And now we get to the next track you have to add to your perfect mixtape. Actually, cd, cause we live in the modern age. Yes, the third song has to be something low-key to calm the listener, to help him relax because we don’t want to stress him. This Momentary is quite a relaxing experience, it’s really aural and out-of-this-world.

So, by now, we need to get back to the grab attention-set it up-relax scheme. Red Lights is the first proper dance-y track (and remainder of why Delphic got tagged as an indietronic act) on the debut. It’s rather New Order-meets-Kraftwerk and it has a rather ‘whip it’ (no, not the song, just what you do with a whip) vibe and it seems like there are 20 people singing not one.

Acolyte is where Delphic do it The Mars Volta way, electro style: almost nine minutes of epicness and ego boasting and beats taking over every inch of the space around you and sheer keyboard virtuosity. But Delphic are cheeky ones and don’t think that on should be left yo rest after such a song. So they say goodbye to our little scheme and take on Halcyon, Delphic’s grasp of nu-rave. Yes, insane rave beats, guitars riffs and burst of vocal energy are to be heard.

So it’s rather surprising (or rather not) to hear the cold 80s beats of Submission. Yet again, Delphic have a great deal to thank to New Order and maybe a bit of early Depeche Mode. Counterpoint is hyper and it has a great beat repeating itself in the back (which kind of makes it psychotic) and helps understand why Bloc Party are listed as one of their influences. Ephemera is, well, an interlude, an announcement that things are coming to an end. And then there’s Remain or what a beautiful album closer should sound like: dronish a bit, ethereal, perfect for the morning after the big party.