Videos
Review: Horsepower Productions – Quest For The Sonic Bounty
Recently a genre has kicked down the door to the mainstream; it has strived to piss off parents of teenage boys and flooded the zeitgeist with all kinds of hilarious new slang words. Lock up your daughters, dubstep is in town. It has garnered, perhaps reasonably so, a reputation for being – well, how should I put this? Somewhat shit. The rooms of teenage girls and the dance clubs are shaking with THAT FUCKING BASS, so it’s easy to see why so many people would dismiss it.
However, I call on you to give it another chance. Look at Burial’s ‘Untrue’, in my opinion (and that of Thom Yorke’s) one of the finest electronic albums released last decade. It was moody, finely tuned and weirdly emotional. With its pitch-shifted vocal samples and mesmerising repetition it makes for a highly enjoyable listen; I implore you to listen to it, if only so you know the difference between ‘Untrue’, a very good ‘good’ dubstep album, and Horsepower Production’s ‘Quest for the Sonic Bounty‘, a very average ‘good’ dubstep album.
Now, a little background. Horsepower Productions definitely aren’t jumping on the dubstep bandwagon – as a matter of fact, they helped fashion the dubstep bandwagon. Forming at the start of the millennium, the experimental garage recordings they released would pioneer dubstep as we know it. Benny Ill (or III, or lll, his persona seems to change and frankly if you‘re going to change your second name to any of those I hate you too much to make an effort to get it right) can’t really be blamed for going back to that sound for this record then – it is unmistakeably a dubstep record. That bass is present, even if only in a throbbing, vaguely milder form. The shortest song coming up at the relatively lengthy 3:49, this obviously isn’t an album intended to smash the charts. That said, pop succubus Katy B does make an appearance on the last song, making one ponder whether dear old Benny really is looking for a place in the heart of the legions of thirteen year old boys who will, without irony, describe a song as ‘dirty’ or ‘banging’.
Also noteworthy are the almost Wu-Tang Clan-esque movie samples that are present on many of the tracks. They do little to help the anonymity of the tracks, though. There is very little diversity and they tend to drag a little. I wonder whether conforming a little more to the pop dubstep archetype and reeling back his experimental streak would make Ill less indulgent. Having listened to the album at least twice (what can I say, I do a lot of walking) I can honestly say that I can’t distinctly remember one track from another. The last album I reviewed, Fang Island’s self-titled, suffered from the same problem, but it didn’t matter then – you enjoyed the songs for what they were. It is harder to do that with ‘Quest for the Sonic Bounty’, because it just isn’t as good. It feels like Benny hurt himself making this album. To be honest I wouldn’t have bothered.
5/10
Liam
Guest Review: Fang Island – S/T
This is a review by an all new Liam, embarrassingly named after cocky former Oasis and current Beady Eye lead singer Liam Gallagher. Of marginally greater importance though is that his taste in music is quite impeccable and he, like the vast majority of mankind, has been given the gift of dexterity meaning that he can type reviews and shit. Here’s his take on Fang Islands début LP.
Fang Island, apparently, like to describe their music as “everyone high-fiving each other”. Now, even if this frightfully cheerful image does make you vaguely nauseas, do not fear! Unless you happen to be Piers Morgan, this album will still want to make you chug beer from the keg and mercilessly fist the sky like some second-rate Japanese porno.
The album starts with fireworks. Like, literally. Heavily treated guitar swarms in before the band begins to chant the ever-encouraging mantra of “They are all within my reach. They are free.” Before one has time to ponder the question of whether Fang Island have brought in the unquestioned party king, Andrew W.K, to scrawl lyrics on the back of a blood-stained wank rag, we realise that this album is definitely not going to comprise of ‘Healing & Easy Listening’ music, as the cunning fellows would have us believe. Mathy guitar stabs penetrate you and leave you feeling slightly dirty; this second track, ‘Careful Crossers’, is your first introduction to the band’s world, filled with never-ending college parties and casual alcoholism. It’s technically instrumental, but you don’t really seem to notice, the twinkly, bordering on Midwest-esque, swipes of guitar saying all that needs to be said.
Third track, ‘Daisy’, is a stand out track. Perhaps a predictable choice for a single, the band really pull all the punches. For starters, the track is of an epic scale, however it still sounds like a half-drunken jam a few of your high school chums are ripping the shit out of in your garage. All migraine-inducing power chords coupled with blistering and musically adept solos, like a less socially inept Weezer. After ’Daisy’, the band really introduces nothing new. The slow introduction to ‘Davey Crockett’ and the bookend track ‘Dorian’, although both good in their own rights, feel as if they’ve been included purely for the sake of juxtaposition. ‘Dorian’, in particular, throbs like an all-encompassing post-piss up migraine.
The remainder of the LP follows the same recipe – bubbly synths, noodly guitar lines backed by power-pop blasts of good fun and a thick sense of fake nostalgia. That said, it is a fine recipe, like a truffle made out of happiness and rainbows, so you never manage to bring yourself to tire of the band. Fang Island seems to be like that much-younger cousin of yours who, despite technically being the most irritating prick on the planet, you never find it in yourself to maim or even seriously injure. It’s no surprise MTV has used the band to soundtrack adverts to their ADD-inducing television broadcasts – this is music for parties, for smashing a car up at the bottom of an unused quarry, for getting smashed on cheap beer and vomiting on your cat too. In short, this is a very fun album, which although nothing new, will fill your post-summer world with much-needed warmth and epilepsy-inducing excitement.
8/10
A series of short reviews, including Tonetta, Dustin Wong, Shrag
Tonetta – 777
Tonetta has a debut album. TONETTA HAS A DEBUT ALBUM. It’s an album so twisted, so weird and sexually perverted and it actually transcends those usually insurmountable obstacles and becomes simply an album full of great songs. Helped along by some remastering magic from David Vandervelde (who working from songs recorded on amazingly crappy recording equipment and VHS recorders over 25 years) Tonetta’s ’777′ is a sprawling exploration of a -more than likely- mentally ill man’s career in music and sex. It’s quite amazing.
Buy.
P.S that song above was written for me and fellow Misc.Music writer JT on the fake premise that we would record a TV show, our very finest moment.
8.5/10
Dustin Wong – Infinite Love
‘Infinite Love’ is an album seemingly designed to promote the use of quality headphones and the virtues of being awake at unreasonably hours in the morning, it’s compromised of two full album length ‘compositions’ written entirely on guitar. Call it Godspeed You! Black Emperor with too much sugar and a few guitars laying around or call it a sometimes gloriously effective mixture of Indian, Chinese and western influences. In fact, don’t call it either of those things because they aren’t catchy and don’t make much sense. It does lose points for it’s iTunes ordering (split into 30 tracks for easier navigation) because it really does fuck with your shuffle and Last.FM count.
Does it sound like I’m nitpicking? I am.
7/10
Shrag – Life! Death! Prizes!
Shrag have taken what they consider to be their first stab at a ‘proper’ LP (them considering their debut to be closer to a collection of songs rather than a fully formed effort), and behind all the conventions of post-punk influenced British indie rock their songwriting skills have grown rapidly. ‘Their Stats’ is a exemplary slice of the genre and ‘The Habit Creep’ combines ludicrous amount of sex offender tension with intelligent vocal turns before busting out into a chorus crafted out of pure passion. Sadly not every song stands out for multiple listens, the album often falls into a slightly predictable lul, which is a shame. Shrag still have more to give, I’m sure of it.
6/10
Alec
The Ting Tings – Hands (yeah we know things are slow okay?)
First of all, I think its only fair Misc.Music apologise for Music’s behaviour of late. Admittedly its been a bit of a stubborn bastard recently, with the only things of semi-interest being churned out concerning Kings of Boredom (want some ice for that THIRD DEGREE BURN HUH?!), ego emperor Kanye West and *shakes fist* The XX. In the interest of continuing this mind melting trend, I present to you The Ting Ting’s latest effort ”Hands”. You might be asking why bother posting this at all, but there is something quite peculiar about this promo…No not the music, the ”art pop” duo’s progression seems to have consisted of taking Hercules and The Love Affairs ”Blind”, mixing it with classic ”Funky Town” and STILL managing to make it shit. No the odd thing is the pair seem even more aggressive in their battle against the ravages of age, despite Jules DeGeorgeMichaelsbestmate close to being eligible for a bus pass, and Katie White looking more like the present day Deborah Harry by the day. Fuck you music, get it together you dick. Seriously I’d even take another chillwave right about now…
JT
Tandem reviews: Salem and Gallops
If you’re anything like me, then a quick venture into the world of ”Witch House” should send you into a seizure of equal parts bafflement and inconsolable rage. Thankfully such a scene fizzled into existence, as without it we wouldn’t have masters of bedroom produced synth fuzz, Salem and this their debut ”King Knight”. ”KK” is everything the trio’s early output promised and more, effortlessy combining their trademark ghostly synth wash and hip hop vocals/drum tracks into something equal parts coherent and disorientating (think of an almighty collaboration between The Big Pink, Crystal Castles and Lil Wayne, yeah seriously…) Despite its 11 tracks beginning to melt into 1 after a continuous listen, there’s still enough originality and innovation here to warrant purchasing (or listening by what other means…)
7/10
Download:”King Night” ”Tair” ”Killer”
Anyone else yearning for more of the furiously paranoid Antidotes era riffage of Foals? Well don’t go pestering the Oxford lot for more, (they’ve moved on to more reverb heavy pastures…), instead delve into this debut EP from Welsh ”Battles”-alikes Gallops. Yannis fanatics should be smitten with the sound ravaged out, particularly on closing track ‘Miami Spider’s halfway turning point, from synth pounding angry riffage, to what could be a top quality Foals track that should have made it to ‘Antidotes’. Sonderhof is, well, a GALLOPing (sorry) tumbling thump of a track, utilising 8-bit (cough Crystal Castles) synths, and grated guitar noodling, culminating in something that references others, but is somehow still their own. Moments such as the pun-tastically named ”Oh, The Manatee” make up for what’s lost in math rock intricacy, with singular unified riffage, confusingly in this instance it sounds a little too much like some sort of robot sea shanty (a good or bad thing depending on your opinion on cyber pirates…). So not entirely original, but when something sounds this aggressively, ear pummelingly dense, does it matter? (Answer: No.)
8/10
Download:”All of it you fer christs sake, its an EP not a double album!”
Joe Thresh
Klaxons – Surfing The Void
The collective disbelief that its been ”4 FUCKING YEARS OMG!” since the ”Nu Rave” (remember that?) champions were active, has without fail been in the opening statement to any media mentioning the boys over the last 12 months…(shit I just added to that…). However here’s hoping this doesn’t hinder the collective expectations of their once fluoro clad fanbase, because the songs spanning ”Surfing The Void”s 10 tracks, are everything you could ask from the ”grown up” Klaxons and more.
By now you should be well acquainted with opener ”Echoes”, a swelling, piano led stomp of an epic, and the spiritual cousin of oldie ”Golden Skans’. Consider this the bridge between ”Myths of the Near Future” and ”Surfing the Void”, easing you in gently with its recognisable familiarity.
”The Same Space” however doesn’t share the same, 90′s dance infused danceability. Instead what’s offered up is a call to arms march, as heartfelt in its sentiment as it is angry. The vocals contrast the crashing, plodding, feedback heavy instrumentation brilliantly, with James Righton singing ”When we wish for the same things many see signs – some others find
When we’re together we come alive when we organise”. The results are like a rendition of Romeo and Juliet, staged in the midst of ”War of the Worlds”.
By their own admission, rather than fumbling their way around guitars/synths, the boys can now (gasp) play their instruments, with tracks such as ”Twin Flames” being the testament to that. Walls of guitar and synths, use space, ringing out and expanding, where once only former producer James Ford’s (brilliant) studio wizadry could. ”Twin flames in our heart, as we move towards our very start, Twin Flames in our mind, when we move emotions multiply” comes the call and response between Righton and Reynolds, making for another track as much about romance as it is other dimensional beings.
Unfortunately its tracks such as the aptly named ”Surfing The Void”, that raise those nagging doubts concerning label interference. Even the most casual of Klaxons fan, couldn’t fail to notice the glaring similarity between this number, and trademark tune, ”Atlantis to Interzone”. It’s almost identical shout/sing chorus, and psych-surf hooks come off a little jackhammered, making for something that seems to be trying to recapture a sound that’s long since passed.
As forced as the nostalgia may feel on ”Surfing The Void” (the track that is), their former sound is picked up and dusted down with expert ease on closer ”Cypherspeed”. If ”Echoes” is ”Golden Skans” part 2, then this is ”4 Horsemen of 2012” speeding through a wormhole. Paranoid angular bass and distorted synths synchronise, while Simon’s guitar noodlings are back to the pedal happy, distorted bashings of old. The whole affair, wails and screeches to a climax, ending in a dense mesh of feedback, and a creepy throbbing heartbeat synth, over which is the boys breathless harmonised monk chants.
Part of me believes the 14-15 year old inside me, couldn’t dislike anything Klaxons released, and fingers crossed there’s enough like minded fans out there to make sure this album gets the welcome it deserves. It might not be the direction/giant leap people expected, from the same troupe of wide pupiled, rave starters, who spawned a movement from the ground up all those years ago, but then again, when were Klaxons something anyone expected?
8/10
Joe Thresh
