Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

Beatsteaks

Beatsteaks – Limbo Messiah
Warner Bros.
myspace.com/beatsteaks

The BeatsteaksLimbo Messiah finally gets its UK release this week and boy is it worth the wait! The German punks have been doing their thing for 15 years now and have built up a hardcore fanbase – they sold out London’s ULU in June. More than just a fine punk album, Limbo Messiah incorporates nuances of many types and styles of music resulting in a varied record that mixes up the pace to satisfying effect. There are hints of the King Blues in there but also a more classic straight-up punk backbone akin to the likes of Rancid and Bad Religion. Lead single ‘Jane Became Insane’ (the music video can be seen below) is only the tip of the iceberg as tracks like ‘Demons Galore’ dig a lot deeper with an uneasy driving offbeat that opens up to the most simple yet wonderfully melodic refrain to the lyrics “This is mine, it will never be yours”. I challenge you not to have that little snippet in your head for days after listening!

The Beatsteaks are good at what they do. Very good. Over their years in existence they’ve honed their craft to perfection and here they’ve produced a collection of catchy punk songs that incorporate their own unique outlook and have a twist of originality about them. Driving punk beats and ever-so-slightly-gruff but wholly melodic vocals coupled with the knack to write a good tune and a catchy chorus mean that Limbo Messiah is a winner.

Winegums

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

Panda Bear

Tomboy/Slow Motion
Paw Tracks

myspace.com/pandabear

My excitement for new music has the unfortunate tedency to peak only once every ten years, this was during 1997 and 2007 if you want to be specific. Now, given that the contemporary life expectancy is reduced to whatever age they are in the winter of 2012 I have been hopeful that this pattern will change. Thankfully this year my hopes had already been answered in the form of excellent releases from Flying Lotus, LCD Soundsystem, Spoon, Mr Oizo, Arcade Fire and potentially even Radiohead. But wait, aren’t all these just artists that released material in 2007? Yes, they are.

But in each example the music has changed, dramatically. Much the same can be said (and it has) about the new Panda Bear single Tomboy, which sees a radical departure from 2007’s dreamy jangle pop soundscapes of Person Pitch into something haunting, penetrating and unhinged. Tomboy carries the inherent reverb of Noah’s so-high-and-angelic-I-could-eat-a-fucking-star vocal in a rickety guitar journey across a landscape very distant from the imagined beaches we laid on in 2007. The year is 2010 and excited barely defines my hurried approach to the haunted festivals that are promised in the filtered wobbles, punctuating handclaps and uncertain delight of the incredible b-side Slow Motion. It’s simultaneously exactly what I hoped and expected from Noah Lennox, and yet totally different. A trend that hopefully continues as being excited about new music and then being rewarded with something slightly different and new feels good man.

Stanley

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

Big Boi

Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty
Def Jam

www.bigboi.com

Outkast have always been boundary pushers both with their music and their attire, though the limelight always seems to shine on Andre 3000, thanks in no small part to the huge success of Hey Ya. But for that one track of Andre’s, Big Boi had Ghettomusick, he had The Way You Move and he had The Rooster. So when his long-awaited album finally dropped, it was always going to be huge. Nothing could quite have prepared me for just how good it is though – a fun rap album with huge beats, great guest appearances and the smiling-swagger of Big Boi firmly in the foreground.

The early appearance of long-time collaborator Sleepy Brown on Turns Me On gets proceedings going with a simple keyboard melody and backing chords before the first really huge track comes in. Normally a guest vocal from a band that seems to be some kind of Gym Class Heroes-lite group would have me reaching for the skip button, but somehow Antwan Patton makes it work with some boom bap drums and another simple melody. That’s why the beats on this record work so well, they’re not too dense, but they pack a punch and are the ultimate in sing-a-long-ability, and from Follow Us [“Before the fame I was the shit and now I’m just big, y’dig?”] the energy ramps up even further.

Shutterbug is going to be a staple hip hop club track in years to come, alongside Dead Prez’s Hip Hop, Joe Budden’s Pump It Up and anything Snoop or Dre put out in the late 90s, Scott Storch’s production is just what Big Boi needs to go in on and it’s followed by General Patton, which features fast-paced hi-hats, squashed horns and a handclap snare, the definition of a banger if ever there was one. Following that might not be easy but the Andre 3000 produced You Ain’t No DJ featuring my favourite new rapper Yelawolf [who states “Yeah you might be famous so what? I bet you can’t hitch that semi up to this tow-truck”] is just what Southern Rap should be.

There is no let up as the record nears its end either, Fo Yo Sorrows managing to bring together George Clinton and Too $hort in perfect harmony, Night Night which is the most Outkast sounding song on the record reminiscent of ‘Morris Brown’ from the Idlewild soundtrack and ending with a track featuring Gucci Mane. Big Boi has put together a record that was a long, long time in coming [and not without its problems] but was well worth the wait. Quite possibly the album of the year right here. Bangers.

Abjekt

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

United Nations

United Nations – Never Mind The Bombings, Here’s Your Six Figures
Deathwish Inc.
www.unitedfuckingnations.com

United Nations is somewhat of a supergroup yet they’re one that doesn’t really shout about it. They play shows, write and record music, release the music independently (through Deathwish) and occasionally play live. People like them. Yet there hasn’t been a great song and dance about them yet. I guess it helps that their name is virtually ungooglable. And the exact identity of the members is somewhat of a mystery, apparently partly due to certain people being obligated by certain record contracts. However, they are led vocally by Thursday’s Geoff Rickly and it’s really awesome to hear him properly let rip on some rather aggressive vocals as opposed to his more melodic tendencies in (the equally awesome) Thursday. Glassjaw’s Daryl Palumbo and Converge’s Ben Koller are also rumoured to be involved.

Never Mind The Bombings… is the band’s latest release and has been released as a 7” EP and download. It’s a full-on onslaught of crushing drumming, searing riffs and head-combusting vocals that’s definitely not for the faint-hearted. The music lies somewhere between Converge and Thursday and comes across as a viciously cathartic experience for all involved, whoever that may be. The EP is a melting pot of hardcore and metal influences and is really just a taster of what this band is capable of doing live. Fast, hard and uncompromisingly heavy, let’s hope there’ll be more touring soon.

Winegums

Categories
Album Reviews

The Roots

How I Got Over
Def Jam
www.theroots.com

The Roots have seemingly been around forever. Black Thought and ?uestlove‘s group have been the pioneers of live instrumentation hip hop and have garnered fans from all points of the music spectrum. I have to admit, whilst I’ve always listened to their releases and thought they were cool, I was never the biggest fan. So what’s the new album like, coming as it does two years after their last release and in a period where they’ve become the house band for Jimmy Fallon’s US chat show? Well, simply, it’s great.

It can be worrying to look down a tracklisting and see so many guest spots, yet there isn’t too much wrong with the ensemble cast they’ve brought together for How I Got Over. Some guests are definitely out of left-field, with Joanna Newsom and the Monsters of Folk appearing in amongst the more obviously guests such as Blu, John Legend and Little Brother’s Phonte. Yet they mix well, Newsom’s trademark high pitched vocals delivering a brilliantly catchy hook on Right On and Patty Crash‘s similar vocals on The Day wrap around Blu’s raps perfectly.

It may be the case that there aren’t any bangers on this album, but that’s not to the detriment of the overall feel of the release. As the sun shines and the sky remains light at gone 9pm, this is the album that will really get the floating vibes going. Whether it’s ?uestlove’s crisp drumming or one of the rapper’s punchy vocals, The Roots have brought together what could be seen as one of their strongest albums to date.

Check out How I Got Over to see just how well they do their thing. Grab this album, you won’t regret it.

Abjekt.

Categories
Album Reviews

Hard Ons

Alfalfa Males Once Summer Is Done Conform Or Die
Boss Tuneage

www.myspace.com/hardonsband

A brand new 19 song album from Sydney’s perennial noiseniks The Hard Ons, and if you’re having a little trouble trying to unscramble the title, it reads a little better as “Alfalfa Males : Once Summer is Done : Conform or Die” – in other words three album titles in one, and as good a directive as any to the musical mission you are about to embark on.

There are big, burly punk rocking numbers, laden with chunky riffage and snotty fuck-you vocals that hit you right in the chops. There are sugar frosted songs dripping in melody and a general sense of feel good fuzziness. And then hellfire and damnation is unleashed to the tune of crushing bolts of frenzied cranium crunching noise to batter your senses in a brutal sonic attack.

Are you keeping up with all this? There are no half measures, and whether the boys are laying down some primo syrupy tuneage or shredding your senses, the delivery hits you like torpedo. And there’s some typically not-so-obvious humour, “The Media Frenzy That Followed” especially cracked me up and reminded me of a hilarious conversation about sport being like cuisine!! Whilst “Keep Talking My Eyes Aren’t Completely Glazed Over” is one of the best song titles you’ll hear all year!

It would be so fuckin’ easy for the Hard Ons to rest on their laurels and just rehash the old hits, but they refuse to comply and pander to the masses, and that’s why I always look forward to hearing what gonzoid jams they’ll come up with next. And this album is right up there, quality collection of songs.

Pete Craven.


PRETEND IT’S VANILLA

HARD-ONS | MySpace Music Videos

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

Pulled Apart By Horses

Pulled Apart By Horses
Transgressive

www.pulledapartbyhorses.com

If you’ve followed the progress of Pulled Apart by Horses over the past two years, their self-titled debut shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

The majority of the tracks have been set-list regulars since the band’s very early days; a few of which have been previously released in a different form, and others which fans will undoubtedly recognise from their live show. While some might consider this retreading of old ground a failing of Pulled Apart by Horses, I would argue that this is precisely what makes it the thrilling debut that it is.

Clocking in at just over 35 minutes, the eleven songs contained on PABH have been condensed, road-tested and significantly accelerated to recreate the raucous energy of their live performances. While the band could probably have holed themselves up in a studio and squeezed out an album’s worth of new songs, here we have a record that the band (and their fans) has lived with long enough to feel comfortable within. Old singles “Meat Balloon” and “I Punched a Lion in the Throat” might feel familiar, sure, but they’ve never sounded better and more polished than now.

Out of the new tracks, highlights come from “I’ve Got Guestlist To Rory O’Hara’s Suicide” and the equally brilliantly titled “Yeah Buddy”. The former is a snarling, straight-up punk number, frantic from the off before breaking down into its glorious shouted refrain – “Enjoy your fucking misery!” The latter, meanwhile, is the closest the album comes to a genuine pop crossover track, with good use of backing vocals and strong riffs as ever.

If its riffs you’re looking for, incidentally, you’ll be able to dine off this album for a very long time – or at least until they get around to recording a follow-up. The 7 minute “Den Horn” quite appropriately closes the record by taking the pick of these, and hammering it out for most of the songs duration. As the feedback trails off you should feel thoroughly battered and bruised from Pulled Apart by Horses, but it’s unlikely to stop you reaching for the play button again.

Sleekly Lion

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

Fashawn

Ode To Illmatic
Free Mixtape

www.myspace.com/fashawn

It takes a brave man to do what Fashawn has done on Ode To Illmatic. The Fresno MC has taken beats from Nas’ seminal 1994 album and states in his introduction aimed to “pay homage to one of the greatest MCs in our generation” rather than bite the album. As great as his debut album Boy Meets World was, he could easily have fallen flat on his face by trying this, but, to his eternal credit, he makes a great job of it.

It can be quite hard to pinpoint why Fashawn is so good. His voice doesn’t have that distinctive twang of a Lil Wayne or Blueprint, he doesn’t try and be a punchline rapper nor does he aim to impress with verbal gymnastics. But when going in over these classic beats, he just seems to fit perfectly into the music. CA State Of Mind, his own take on NY State Of Mind and The World Is Yours highlights his ability over Premo and Pete Rock production and sets the benchmark for the rest of the mixtape.

The proof of his ability is that this mixtape doesn’t make the listener want to turn it off and put on the original. In fact, it makes the listener ride Fashawn’s version out and then play the original because it has come as a reminder of what a brilliant album it is. He even brings in Talib Kweli for a little cameo, replacing AZ on Life’s A Bitch. Fashawn doesn’t just hold his own, he takes another step up on the hip hop pedestal. All this fun for free? Baller. You can grab the entire thing, absolutely free, here.

Check out CA State Of Mind below for a taster while the mixtape is downloading.

Abjekt.

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

LCD Soundsystem

You Wanted A Hit (Soulwax Mix)
DFA/EMI

www.lcdsoundsystem.com

The last time these two acts collided we were treated to a record that left club-goers’ ear drums reverberating that drumbeat during the weekend, and the week that followed. I am of course talking about when Sound of Silver’s Kraftwerk-inspired opener Get Innocuous was given the Soulwax-on wax-off remix treatment. Though I’m a huge fan of James Murphy’s punk-infused cultural commentary over a glittering multi-instrumental electronic soundscape, I cannot hide my preference towards the Dewaele brothers kick-snare, kick-snare bass overhaul.

LCD Soundsystem’s last album (a 40 year old man’s verbal confusion of what the hell is going on in music right now while simultaneously making music better than anyone else is right now), This Is Happening, was a sublime conclusion to a ride I’m sure Murphy never expected to take. It’s a long departure from the wry ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House‘, which of course was played at the very house parties it gently raised an eyebrow towards. The Soulwax remix of that track did just the same, but when music is made to be danced to then there’s no stopping them, hipsters, music fans or casual head-nodders close to whoever’s house Daft Punk is playing in. Why should we stop them?

So when Soulwax went about their usual business for ‘You Wanted A Hit’ off the final LCD Soundsystem LP it was unquestionably a case for writers and bloggers to avoid awkward ‘you expected a hit’ wordplay and just let the beat do the talking. And it’s huge, utterly massive. Another testament to back up the part of the weekend never dies belief system. But you expected that, right?

Stanley

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart

Off With Their Heads

In Desolation
Epitaph

www.myspace.com/offwiththeirheads

‘In Desolation’ is OWTH‘s debut for Epitaph, with Mr Brett himself personally endorsing these Minneapolis Punkers, and with good reason.

I’ve seen OWTH a couple of times (they’ve toured the UK twice) and liked them a lot. As for their recorded output, I have a couple of seven inches, and the previous LP ‘From The Bottom’, which although quite good, did not exactly blow me away. So, I stuck this disc in the player, and was ready to be… well… entertained. Here’s hoping!

Hey… wait… the opening number ‘Drive’ is fantastic! And song # 2 ‘My Own Medicine’ has literally grabbed me by the throat… “if your looking for a reason, you got one in each hand” – yeah! Jeez, not just entertained, blown away!!! Wow! By song # 4 ‘ZZYZX’ I’m rocking to the OWTH sound, big time, all the way through to closing number ‘Clear The Air’. This is bloody excellent!! It’s been on repeat in my stereo for days…

This is a magnificent collection of rough edged melodic Punk, and Ryan Young’s craggy vocals cut through like a power saw. This hits me with a wave of general feel-goodness, as when I heard Avail, Dillinger 4 and Hot Water Music for the first time. And the songs Ryan sings might dwell on loss, loneliness and separation, but are anything but downbeat. And that’s the point; to cure the heartache and elevate the spirits through the music. Oh, they did mine!

A highly recommended album that’s a definite for my year-end Top Ten. OWTH are back on these shores in August, go see ‘em, sing your heart out…

Pete Craven