BRITISH SEA POWER - Let The Dancers Inherit The Party album
The Brightonian art-rockers' first indie-rock studio-album (as opposed to their most recent soundtrack work) since 2013's Machineries of Joy delivers another string of memorable bright and breezy songs such as the chipper What You're Doing and RSD single Bad Bohemian, romper-stomper anthem International Space Station and the woozy Don't Let The Sun Get In The Way. In fact, much of Let The Dancers is worthy of being a single and in this day and age, that's a good (and all too rare) thing. Want To Be Free slows things right down with funereal pace and those familiar choral voices, previously heard on Man of Aran. 8/10
GĂSPEL - Your Thoughts single
Something of a departure from their previous slow-paced epics, Your Thoughts sees the London duo enter the realms of the dancefloor, via some chunky electro-disco and celestial synth-pop that demonstrates just how far Willsher, Anderton-Allen and co have progressed from those early wide-eyed days. And aren't we all just a little bit fond of off-beat funky hand-claps and portentuous synth basslines? You bet, especially if it means this pair shrug off the endless comparisons with London Grammar et al. Gospel's coming-of-age anthem. 9/10
FUTURE ISLANDS - The Far Field album
It's business as usual on this follow-up to breakthrough 2014 album Singles - the impassioned soulful yo-yo vocals from Samuel T Herring, the emotional synths, the insistent machine-like drums and not much to choose between the songs, to be honest. The best track is the album's curtain-call, the really rather pretty Black Rose. The whole thing sounds like The Wake before Herring puffs out his chest and pours out his delightful woes in that velveteen baritone of his. Time On Her Side and North Star are also pop champions worth a listen, but much of The Far Field drifts by just a little too serenely. 6/10
SAINT ETIENNE - Magpie Eyes single
Misty-eyed memory-joggers - Saint Etienne are purveyors of all things retro, without forgetting that there's a future out there too. Magpie Eyes is ridiculously catchy and a natural follow-up to the Words and Music album, easily their best since, ooh, their last one. "All I want to do, is spend more time with you..". Well m'dears, the feeling is mutual after copping an earful of this confident slice of heady synaesthesia that bodes very well for the album. 8/10
FAUST - Fresh Air album (due May)
Some forty years-plus after the band's formative albums hit the racks, FaUSt continue their unabated journey into the universe signposted 'left-field' with this multi-format album recorded in various locations across the U.S. with guests in tow and an ear for the sublimely weird. Faust don't do easy listening yet the opening title-track is, for all its impulsive chops, an engaging listen, a dervish of improvised percussion work and spatial passages without let-up for 17 minutes-plus. Contrastingly, Partitur is just 22 seconds short of hollering and shouting before the somewhat more structured La Poulie and Chlorophyl take hold with jazz-informed basslines and woozy vocals. Uncompromising, chaotic even, but never the same. 7/10
SOLYST & ROSS DOWNES - EP 1 (out now)
The inaugural release in Trestle Records' EP and Print series, basically a download and upgraded artwork (in this case Frauke Dannert) thus saving production costs, sees occasional Bureau B composer Solyst and label co-founder Downes collaborate digitally on a four-track EP of encouraging quality. Crystalline electronica and moody cinematic tech-dub permeates much on offer here - opener Push sounds like John Foxx and Burial in a dank underground bunker, Link is a little less straight-forward and recalls some of Patten's off-kilter work on Warp while Site is all steamhammer beats and industrial synths, layered to within an inch of their circuits. It's all a successful marriage between two like-minded individuals, concluded by the fraught fragmented Cut which sounds like all three previous tracks woven together by Bernard Herrman and Kraftwerk - rather essential. 8/10
The Brightonian art-rockers' first indie-rock studio-album (as opposed to their most recent soundtrack work) since 2013's Machineries of Joy delivers another string of memorable bright and breezy songs such as the chipper What You're Doing and RSD single Bad Bohemian, romper-stomper anthem International Space Station and the woozy Don't Let The Sun Get In The Way. In fact, much of Let The Dancers is worthy of being a single and in this day and age, that's a good (and all too rare) thing. Want To Be Free slows things right down with funereal pace and those familiar choral voices, previously heard on Man of Aran. 8/10
GĂSPEL - Your Thoughts single
Something of a departure from their previous slow-paced epics, Your Thoughts sees the London duo enter the realms of the dancefloor, via some chunky electro-disco and celestial synth-pop that demonstrates just how far Willsher, Anderton-Allen and co have progressed from those early wide-eyed days. And aren't we all just a little bit fond of off-beat funky hand-claps and portentuous synth basslines? You bet, especially if it means this pair shrug off the endless comparisons with London Grammar et al. Gospel's coming-of-age anthem. 9/10
FUTURE ISLANDS - The Far Field album
It's business as usual on this follow-up to breakthrough 2014 album Singles - the impassioned soulful yo-yo vocals from Samuel T Herring, the emotional synths, the insistent machine-like drums and not much to choose between the songs, to be honest. The best track is the album's curtain-call, the really rather pretty Black Rose. The whole thing sounds like The Wake before Herring puffs out his chest and pours out his delightful woes in that velveteen baritone of his. Time On Her Side and North Star are also pop champions worth a listen, but much of The Far Field drifts by just a little too serenely. 6/10
SAINT ETIENNE - Magpie Eyes single
Misty-eyed memory-joggers - Saint Etienne are purveyors of all things retro, without forgetting that there's a future out there too. Magpie Eyes is ridiculously catchy and a natural follow-up to the Words and Music album, easily their best since, ooh, their last one. "All I want to do, is spend more time with you..". Well m'dears, the feeling is mutual after copping an earful of this confident slice of heady synaesthesia that bodes very well for the album. 8/10
FAUST - Fresh Air album (due May)
Some forty years-plus after the band's formative albums hit the racks, FaUSt continue their unabated journey into the universe signposted 'left-field' with this multi-format album recorded in various locations across the U.S. with guests in tow and an ear for the sublimely weird. Faust don't do easy listening yet the opening title-track is, for all its impulsive chops, an engaging listen, a dervish of improvised percussion work and spatial passages without let-up for 17 minutes-plus. Contrastingly, Partitur is just 22 seconds short of hollering and shouting before the somewhat more structured La Poulie and Chlorophyl take hold with jazz-informed basslines and woozy vocals. Uncompromising, chaotic even, but never the same. 7/10
SOLYST & ROSS DOWNES - EP 1 (out now)
The inaugural release in Trestle Records' EP and Print series, basically a download and upgraded artwork (in this case Frauke Dannert) thus saving production costs, sees occasional Bureau B composer Solyst and label co-founder Downes collaborate digitally on a four-track EP of encouraging quality. Crystalline electronica and moody cinematic tech-dub permeates much on offer here - opener Push sounds like John Foxx and Burial in a dank underground bunker, Link is a little less straight-forward and recalls some of Patten's off-kilter work on Warp while Site is all steamhammer beats and industrial synths, layered to within an inch of their circuits. It's all a successful marriage between two like-minded individuals, concluded by the fraught fragmented Cut which sounds like all three previous tracks woven together by Bernard Herrman and Kraftwerk - rather essential. 8/10
