Black Soul Strangers - Animate

Year: 2010
Genre: rock / alternative / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/blacksoulstrangers
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V0 [~257]
Scene release: no
Filesize: 71 MB
Uploaded: 01-10-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Panic sets direction 3:53
02. Lies 3:04
03. The haunting 3:46
04. Leave 3:56
05. Monster 4:11
06. Tristia 3:29
07. Gallows 3:04
08. Witchita 3:25
09. You don't need it 4:11
10. Harp 4:10

Review:
Refreshingly straight to the indie rock point, Dublin’s excellently-named Black Soul Strangers wear their hearts on their sleeve throughout ‘Animate’ – their genuinely uplifting debut album.
An atmospheric intro to the opening track -‘Panic Sets Direction’ – belies the mood and is soon overtaken by chainsaw guitar riffs and pounding drums. Press references to Placebo are fair enough but BSS should not be categorised so casually even though the jagged vocals on the bands’ first single ‘Lies’, has a distinctly Molkoesque quality.
‘Lies’, a cracking track that grows with every listen, is followed by the brooding follow-up single entitled ‘The Haunting’. A lush production courtesy of Tom McFall, (Snow Patrol, Bloc Party & Editors) creates an almost psychedelic ambience enabling the vocals to truly soar giving the album a polished panache throughout.
‘Leave’ is a definite potential single that is joyously propelled by timeless synth harmonies layered alongside a restrained bass & drum backline that gathers momentum like a runaway freight train. ‘Monster’ meanders through edgy guitar rhythms and almost tribal drums reminding me of the massively underrated Manchester indie-Gods, The Chameleons. The trippy ‘Trista’ is vintage Velvet Underground circa ‘Sunday Morning’ and this is only intended as a compliment.
‘Gallows’ screams indie anthem as guitars and drums collide in a stop/start frenzy, but it is the vocals and lyrics that captivate. Similar themes predominate on ‘Witchit’a while ‘You Don’t Need It’ echo’s early Cure with a spiky guitar and relentless vocal line that really does sound like Robert Smith at times. Subdued and moody at first,’ Harp’ accelerates into a dreamy cacophony that reaches an almost Sigur-Rose-like crescendo to close this stunning album.
Dublin’s Black Soul Strangers have produced a mesmerising collection of songs that justify the Radio 1/ NME hype. OK, the influences are obvious, but BSS have created a big sound that is very much their own. Exhilarating and surprising in equal measure, ‘Animate’ will find favour with the ‘White Lies’ crowd, but much like their London counterparts, one suspects BSS have yet more in their locker.

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James Vincent McMorrow - Early in the morning

Year: 2010
Genre: acoustic / folk / indie
Listen: http://www.myspace.com/jamesvmcmorrow
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~175]
Scene release: no
Filesize: 58 MB
Uploaded: 01-10-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. If I had a boat 4:09
02. Hear the noise that moves so soft and slow 4:02
03. Sparrow & the wolf 3:43
04. Breaking hearts 4:52
05. We don't eat 4:55
06. This old dark machine 4:16
07. Follow you down to the red oak tree 3:30
08. Down the burning ropes 5:03
09. From the woods!! 4:00
10. And if my heart should somehow stop 4:36
11. Early in the morning, I'll come calling 2:37





Review:
James Vincent McMorrow released his debut record, Early in the Morning, in Ireland to widespread critical acclaim in February 2010. The record is now set for UK release this summer.
A stunning collection of songs recorded over 5 months in an isolated house by the sea, the album is a completely self recorded and played affair, filled with beguiling and vivid stories, fables that move from a whisper in your ear to a mountainous crescendo in the space of a song, all the while retaining the environment and sentiment in which they were formed.
“This record was borne out of my desire to create something singular, take the simplest of chords, wrap them in washes of melody, so lines come in, they drop out, everything ebbs and flows as the songs move towards their inevitable end. I don't sit down with an agenda when I write, I usually have a first line, and a vague sense in my head of where I'm going, but no real solid structure. Music tends to reveal itself to me over the course of weeks and months. It's probably quite like sculpting, you have a chisel, you know what's waiting for you inside the stone, all that's left is to chip away the pieces and reveal it.”
From the very first lines of the album, that singularity is there for all to hear. A 5 part harmony cascades in, followed by a growling organ and slide guitar line of the eeriest and spectral kind. 'If I had a boat' is not only a most fitting opener, but also a song that perfectly encapsulates the dense lyricism and compelling melody of the 40 minutes that are to follow. Its words intense but never over wrought, a vocal line that pulls you along towards a truly epic ending, an arrangement of swirling lines and inventive thought, it is a song to truly build upon for sure.
“I always knew when I wrote this song that it would open the album” acknowledges James, “the lyric is very much about transition, about change. That is definitely the underlying theme that ties it all together. The last 2 years that preceded this record being made involved some of the greatest change I'd ever experienced, physical, emotional, and spiritual. When I write lyrics they come together in a pretty uncoordinated way, lines get written, slowly link up until a story reveals itself. It was only when I was finished that I looked back and saw the words for what they were, realized what they meant.”
Over the course of the 10 songs that follow, Early in the morning captivates completely. From the simple beauty of “hear the noise that moves so soft and low”, the pastoral thump of “sparrow and the wolf', and the haunting grace of 'follow you down to the red oak tree”, the change and movement that James speaks of in the lyrical themes is perfectly reflected in the structure and pacing of the record itself. There is a deliberate sense to the tracklisting. When the lone kick and dual pianos of 'we dont eat' give way to the 1960's west coast folk of 'this old dark machine', its exactly the way James intends it to be.
Towards the latter half of the record a darker tone emerges, or as James puts it, “the closest I'll ever get to proper mythical fantasy writing!” These songs are where we find him at his most literate and ornate, creating ominous figures, and a wholly tangible sense of tension and foreboding. Drawing on his childhood love of Roald Dahl, as well as his fascination with American novelists such as John Steinbeck and F Scott Fitzgerald, James draws life from their writings because “they all examine the darker less spoken about aspects of life, solitude, disillusionment. I'm not one for defining a lyric, or what it definitively means, but songs like 'follow you down to the red oak tree', 'from the woods', and 'down the burning ropes' are certainly me exorcising the underside of my personality. The characters I create in those songs, the ones existing in the shadows, they are all elements of me for sure”
And then the album draws to a close just as it started, bucolic 5 part harmony. the title track of the record, which James describes as a “simple ode to the love that I have”, is backed by a banjo and a piano, a folk round that fades out as quietly as it arrives, the squeak of the piano stool a final reminder of the homespun nature of what has just occurred.
Currently playing live for James is a hushed and reverential affair, each show met with pin drop silence as people follow every word, every syllable. It will not always be this way though, as James dreams of a much grander affair in the near future. “I do want the music to be played how it is on the record, I dream in vivid Technicolor when it comes to my songs, not just black and white. I hear it with drums and horns and accordions and banjos and anything else that can be hit or strummed! Playing on my own right now is beautiful because it allows me to connect on a very primitive level, but I'd like to be in a place soon where I can be surrounded with friends on stage to share this with me”.
Whatever that near future might hold, you get the strongest sense that there are some truly wondrous things to come for this man. “Music to me is this fluid notion, I've captured one element of it with this album, but there are endless others out there to be sung and written about”.

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Lone Wolf - The devil and I

Year: 2010
Genre: folk / indie
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thisislonewolf
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~175]
Scene release: no
Filesize: 56 MB
Uploaded: 01-10-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. This is war 4:19
02. Keep your eyes on the road 5:09
03. We could use your blood 5:12
04. Buried beneath the tiles 5:04
05. 15 letters 2:52
06. The devil and I (part 1) 4:04
07. Russian winter 4:24
08. Soldiers 3:04
09. Dead river 5:25
10. The devil and I (part 2) 5:27






Review:
Having released his debut album 'Vultures' under his own name, Paul Marshall has chosen the moniker of Lone Wolf to release 'The Devil And I'. Opening ‘This Is War’ signals an album of troubling lyrics and sombre melodies. The lyrics fit perfectly with the moving melodies and tenuous delivery. Marshall narrates a tale of fear and distress. “We fear for our lives around her.” There’s something engaging about his voice, a sense of foreboding contained within.
The tension of the record continues with the mournful ‘Keep Your Eyes On The Road’. With changes in timing and sorrowful harmonies, it does its best to keep up intrigue, but unfortunately it flounders slightly under the expectations that ‘This Is War’ brought with it. ‘Buried Beneath The Tiles’ is haunting, anguished strings backing Marshall’s grievous delivery.
The songs of 'The Devil And I' are sombre and sinister, sometimes unbearably so. It’s hard to work out if the songs are pompous and pretentious or beautiful and sorrowful – they swing uncomfortably between the two. ‘15 Letters’ is a ominous tale of death; murder to be exact. “She led me down the garden path and bled me dry. She did her make up in the reflection of my glassy glazed eyes.” The rather detached delivery of these lines is striking and wonderfully affecting, making ‘15 Letters’ an album highlight.
'The Devil And I' is a bleak account of life, love and more often than not, death. Each song seems to follow a similar and slightly disturbing path – a brilliant one at that. The record is dreamy with troubling undertones, each song becoming a saga, the narrator wearily bemoaning his grim fate. However beautiful these songs are, this sombre feel can be dragging at times. The songs on the record that truly work are the songs that aren’t pompously obvious; the subtle strains of bleakness are far more affecting than the tracks that grab you instantly with their startling lyrics. At times, the album seems to be crying out to be noticed, the lyrics occasionally seeming far too forced and staged, desperate to appear sinister and bleak. 'The Devil And I' almost pleads for repeated listens, and if the bleakness doesn’t wear you down, the record is definitely worth more than a glance. Masked by the occasional showy lyrics is a record of genuine beauty. If you can lift the mask and find the body of 'The Devil And I' underneath, it is a wonderfully rewarding album.

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Everything Everything - Man alive

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/everythingeverythinguk
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~176]
Scene release: Everything_Everything-Man_Alive-2010-SiRE
Filesize: 66 MB
Uploaded: 01-10-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. MY KZ, UR BF 3:38
02. Qwerty finger 3:53
03. Schoolin' 4:40
04. Leave the engine room 3:10
05. Final form 5:28
06. Photoshop handsome 3:19
07. Two for Nero 4:23
08. Suffragette Suffragette 4:07
09. Come alive Diana 4:16
10. NASA is on your side 5:06
11. Tin (the manhole) 4:30
12. Weights 5:40

Review:
“I was making music in my bedroom [during my childhood]. My one rule was not to sound like anyone else.” Judging by his band’s debut album, lead singer Jonathan Higgs rarely had to send himself to the naughty step.
For while you might detect an occasional Yeasayer bass noodle or lei-wearing Vampire Weekend riff, this Manchester quartet flee from any identikit indie clique, throwing ever-changing, protean sonic shapes. They career between time signatures, changing keys and genres – often within bars, let alone songs – as they playfully elude categorisation.
Telling of teenage terrorists, war, homicidal lovers and the human condition, they leap and crackle, Jonathan’s voice a frenetic falsetto bounding like a Labrador on speed, to twisted brass fanfares or military stomps that challenge you to dance then trip you up. They grow wistful and sing in sync to a line of Baroque harpsichord (Two for Nero), or, on Schoolin’, drag you through as much terrain (pop, electro, jazz, funk, prog… and, er, whistling) as the most self-indulgent of Yes epics – but without the soporific effect.
Even on the relatively simple QWERTY Finger, which has an innocuous handclap-and-drums opening, they give us a rushing euphonic mash-up of scaling synths and chasing vocals, before turning and returning, pausing midway for an anthemic break, complete with yelping. Yet this track not only sounds coherent, it’s glorious – despite the fact that here, as on much of Man Alive, the boys seem to be stuck in the surreal environs of semi-consciousness, where Lewis Carroll is king. It’s a place where lyrics such as “So how will they remember us whole when we turn into salt / And it's mine, the fault, mine the dream, and the vein, home of whale-flesh, make soap out of it!” apparently make sense.
Whether they’re talking a load of gibber, spewing poetic profundities or playing auditory jokes (the criminally catchy chorus of Suffragette Suffragette demands a double take) it doesn’t really matter; it merely adds to their quirky brilliance. EE are wilfully eccentric, and endlessly entertaining, but they know more than most how to craft a song, how to make an album. They know how to give it depth, light and dark. The only thing that could have made this album even better is, that at some moments they should have known when to stop. You can’t escape the feeling that they’re trying to hard to be original. But remember this is only their debut; on their next record they may just throw off this musical adolescence.

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J. Tillman - Singing ax

Year: 2010
Genre: acoustic / folk / indie
Listen: http://www.last.fm/music/J.+Tillman
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V0 [~208]
Scene release: no
Filesize: 67 MB
Uploaded: 25-09-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Three sisters 6:37
02. Diamondback 3:43
03. Love no less worthy 3:13
04. One task 4:34
05. Our beloved tyrant 5:18
06. Tillman's rag 3:04
07. Mere ornaments 4:45
08. Singing ax 3:43
09. Madness on the mountain 3:20
10. Maria 2:33
11. A seat at the table 4:10





Review:
Despite his day job with Fleet Foxes, J. Tillman is not a man of peaceful, easy feelings. His solo albums are muted, grave, and of a single, sepia-toned piece: his husky, trembling voice, his acoustic guitar, and a pervading sense of nearly medieval severity. The characters in Tillman's songs bring to mind photographs of unsmiling Depression-era families, people too busy coping with drought or fending off consumptive disease to do much more. Singing Ax is his seventh full-length album, and it is one of his grimmest and sparest yet, sucked dry of even the pastoral grace that lightened 2008's Vacilando Territory Blues.
The bleak tone is established from the opening dirge "Three Sisters", in which Tillman moans about hallucinatory night visions over a slowly ticking guitar vamp. The production is vividly stark, drawing your ears to the sound the pads of his fingertips make as they lightly drum the body of his guitar. It is a measured, somber song, and the rest of the record proceeds apace. The album's title is apt, not just for the hint of menace the image contains but for the appreciation of yeoman's work it implies: You can almost hear the methodical whistle and thunk of the blade cleaving wood in the record's grave, prayerful progression.
"Prayerful" is not an incidental world choice: There is a lot of religious imagery in J. Tillman's music, and Singing Ax is no exception. The pensive open-string drone of "Diamondback" hinges on Biblical serpent imagery, while "Mere Ornaments" opens with the apocalyptic vision of a "pale moon at the end of days." What distinguishes Singing Ax from its predecessors, though, is its startling and sharp turn into Freudian territory. "One Task" and "Our Beloved Tyrant" locate their power in some fairly twisted familial drama. "I had one task in our home/ I had to draw water from the well for my father's horse/ I was the least among my brothers/ And I would be the last among them to hold the reins," Tillman bleakly sings in the opening of "One Task". "Our Beloved Tyrant" is even darker, with Tillman bitterly addressing a father figure whose reign of terror over his home is seemingly on the wane: "it's true, you strike me as less godlike with no son to crucify," he mutters. It brings to mind Daniel Day-Lewis's "bastard in a basket" speech at the end of There Will Be Blood, with Tillman playing the role of pale-faced H.W., and it taps into some of the same elemental power.

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J. Tillman - Year in the kingdom (2009) [V0]
J. Tillman - Vacilando territory blues (2008/2009) [160cbr]
J. Tillman - Cancer and delirium (2008) [mutt]
J. Tillman - Minor works (2006) [192cbr]

Cloud Cult - Light chasers

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / rock / pop / experimental
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cloudcult
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~198]
Scene release: no
Filesize: 81 MB
Uploaded: 25-09-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. The mission: Unexplainable stories (journey to the light, pt. 1) 4:38
02. The departure: Today we give ourselves to the fire 2:59
03. The invocation: You'll be bright (invocation, pt. 1) 3:54
04. The birth (journey to the light, pt. 2) 1:26
05. The baby: You were born 2:32
06. The lessons: The exploding people 4:27
07. The interference (journey to the light, pt. 3) 1:34
08. The battles: Room full of people in your head 4:30
09. The escape: Running with the wolves 3:30
10. The acceptance: Responsible 2:42
11. The strength: The guessing game (journey to the light, pt. 4) 1:49
12. The strength: Forces of the unseen 3:45
13. The invocation: Blessings (invocation, pt. 2) 6:35
14. The awakening: Dawn 3:02
15. The contact (journey to the light, pt. 5) 1:20
16. Arrival: There's so much energy in us 7:23

Review:
Listening to Minneapolis septet Cloud Cult is kind of like watching Kabuki theatre: It’s bizarre, melodramatic and even gaudy at times, but nonetheless surprisingly moving. With a career spanning 15 years and nine albums, the group has honed a sound that is equally baroque and beat-based, sample-heavy and orchestral, and full of lyrical meanderings that toe the line between ingenious and terrible.
Frontman Craig Minowa’s personal history is largely inseparable from the band’s music. In 2002, his two-year-old son fell asleep one night and never woke up; Minowa and his wife, high-school sweethearts, separated in 2003, unable to cope with the grief. All of Cloud Cult’s albums, beginning with that year’s They Live on the Sun, have been haunted by this loss, which has proved to be both Minowa’s greatest strength and his biggest flaw.
At times, his sorrow-soaked tunes have sounded heavy-handed, nearly as exhausting and difficult to endure as agony itself. 2006’s Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus was bogged down in protracted musical ramblings; three tracks of utter silence were interspersed throughout, and Minowa noodled on his guitar for overlong interludes, as though he were pouring himself into his music-making to cope, and losing himself in the process.
But a few years later, after the Minowas had reunited and time had somewhat eased their grief, 2007’s The Meaning of 8 and 2008’s Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) scaled back the stream-of-consciousness and saw the group returning to its signature sound: a melodic tug-of-war between orchestral swells and pounding beats. Lyrically, the albums also soared once again, incorporating autobiographical material with light, well-placed strokes. “May Your Hearts Stay Strong” summed up the couple’s loss in one of the most haunting verses of the band’s career: “Check under the covers just to make sure he’s still sleeping there / Turn wedding gowns to angel clothes for the baby to wear.”
Last year, the couple gave birth to a son. Fittingly, Light Chasers looks forward instead of back: Minowa has dropped his role as confessional tunesmith and taken on the role of teacher and father, addressing most of the songs to “You.” The album is structured like a New Age Pilgrim’s Progress, with titles like “The Mission,” “The Departure,” “The Birth,” “The Battles” and “The Escape”; it tells the story of a pure soul coming down to planet Earth, outlining the many snares and pitfalls life will inevitably introduce. It’s an exhortation to, as Minowa intones, “stay focused on destination.”
He mostly seems to have eluded his demons, but even so, he’s pulled back into darkness on a few tracks. In “Room Full of People in Your Head,” a distorted voice proclaims, “We are experiencing interference.” As the tempo shifts between a pounding piano melody and a crashing, bass-drum groove, Minowa cries, “Part of me is the hangman, looking for a scapegoat / And part of me is the victim always crying, ‘Why you picking on me’ / Lock up the gun cabinet, or its gonna get messy.” Even Light Chasers’ most joyful songs have nothing on these anxiety-riddled tracks. This interplay between extremes has always been Cloud Cult’s strong suit; the snaking tempos and sudden rave-ups and ear-jarring bangs have been necessary to balance out the self-serious personal lyrics. Here, the band does well to incorporate tension and volume—you just wish for more of both.

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Cloud Cult - Feel good ghosts (tea partying through tornadoes) (2008) [320cbr]

The Drums - The Drums

Year: 2010 (international release) / 2008 (original release)
Genre: indie / lo-fi / pop / rock
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thedrumsforever
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~174]
Scene release: The_Drums-The_Drums-2010-SiRE
Filesize: 54 MB
Uploaded: 25-09-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Best friend 3:27
02. Me and the moon 3:12
03. Lets go surfing 2:55
04. Book of stories 3:38
05. Skippin' town 3:22
06. Forever and ever amen 4:27
07. Down by the water 3:26
08. It will all end in tears 3:44
09. We tried 3:47
10. I need fun in my life 3:28
11. I'll never drop my sword 3:47
12. The future 4:10




Review:
As opinion splitters go, it's difficult to envisage another act causing as much of a divide in 2010 than Florida-cum-Brooklynites The Drums. While it could be argued that a lot of the hate has been born out of little more than the hype that's followed them around since last year's Summertime EP, there's also a nagging suspicion that they're in some way 'fake'. Despite the band's protestations that their main sources of inspiration come via a predominantly English underground scene stretching back to the mid-Eighties when Rough Trade, Creation and Sarah Records represented independent music in its most quintessential form, The Drums do have history in a former life, hence the cries of 'heretics' or worse. Indeed, while few if any could have predicted such a musical seachange between Elkland - vocalist Jonathan Pierce and guitarist Adam Kessler's Killers-lite outfit from the first half of the past decade - and The Drums, only the most cynical soul would view such a departure as careerist. After all, The Wake, The Field Mice and Felt were hardly million selling household names back in the day, yet all three's influence lingers throughout The Drums from start to finish.
It's also worth noting that what was perceived as the elitist's alternative 25 years ago - fey boys and pinafore dress adorning girls singing ramshackle love songs, mostly in desperation - has been replaced by what is widely perceived as the sound of a piano been thrown down a flight of stairs as the current favoured sound of the underground trendsetters. Add to that the fact that lyrically, The Drums aren't exactly the most complex creatures when it comes to analytical wordplay (sample lyric: "I thought life would get easier/Instead its getting harder without you...") and it's easy to see why they're not exactly getting everyone rejoicing their name in communal fashion from the highest rooftops.
Nevertheless, their strengths far outweigh any perceived weaknesses, and despite the odd trite lyrical observation, The Drums is undoubtedly the most rejuvenating, sprightliest guitar-based pop record released this year. Sure, there's absolutely no doubt they wear their influences quite loudly on their sleeves; 'I Need Fun In My Life' and 'Book Of Stories' unashamedly recall both The Field Mice's 'Sensitive' and 'Song Six' in both sound and structure, Kessler and fellow guitarist Jacob Graham's delicate patterns weaving through both songs in a similar way to Bob Wratten and co.'s signature sound from yesteryear. Additionally, the wavering keyboards and unobtrusive drums so intricately featured on the likes of 'Best Friend' and 'Forever And Ever Amen' vividly echo The Wake's faux New Order-isms, particularly on the latter's 'Carbrain' or 'Something Outside'. There's also a dash of Orange Juice here, a smidgen of The Smiths there, and a healthy dose of Felt in between for good measure, ensuring that The Drums is possibly the most un-American sounding album created by a Stateside outfit in many a year, albeit for Pierce's South Easterly drawl.
Its also worth noting that of the 12 songs which make up The Drums, only two appeared on the breakthrough Summertime EP, which more than hints at a band whose self-belief and confidence in their songwriting abilities is far from reticent. 'Let's Go Surfing' brings Beach Boys schtick into the 21st century courtesy of its timeless melody and incessant riff, while 'Down By The Water' is their attempt at a Shangri-Las style heartbreaker, Pierce declaring in Morrissey fashion "If they stop loving you, I'll stop loving you" like some downtrodden romantic.
Of the other ten pieces here, its fair to say that the musically upbeat and lyrically downbeat contrast makes for a surprisingly engaging listen, and even though it would be easy to label the likes of 'Best Friend' and 'Book Of Stories' as disposable pop, there's as much here to keep going back to as there is with say 'Sloop John B' or 'Ticket To Ride', also dismissed as music designed to be forgotten about soon after yet still held as a barometer of such fare over forty years later. It would also be easy to say that The Drums are little more than this year's fad, the annual style-over-substance tip dished out by the glossies every year while citing the likes of The Bravery and Joe Lean as other recent failures of a similar nature. Indeed, that accusation would probably be true were it not for the songs themselves. However, The Drums is packed full of tunes that even the most snobbish detractor couldn't fail to bury their miserable preconceptions for half an hour or so and enjoy to the maximum. So, what are you waiting for...?

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Tommigun - Come watch me disappear

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / rock / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tommigunmusic
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~173]
Scene release: Tommigun-Come_Watch_Me_Disappear-2010-ADK
Filesize: 49 MB
Uploaded: 11-09-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Spotlight 3:40
02. Cage aux ours 4:35
03. Turning point 3:21
04. Midnight spoon 3:01
05. Blame me 3:35
06. Square des blindés 4:21
07. Nightwalk 3:36
08. What happens next 3:15
09. Donkeyboy 3:39
10. Come watch me disappear 2:28
11. Fast heart 3:46





Review:
Tommigun is the new Belgian project of Thomas Devos (Rumplestitchkin), Joeri Cnapelinckx (Kawada) and singer Kaat Arnaert. The band name Tommigun refers to Tommy Gun, the nickname for a submachine gun developed by John T Thompson that was popular among American gangsters during the Prohibition. A weird name, no? “A pet name for a murder weapon – this perfectly suits the music. It’s dark and cute at the same time. And of course, there’s the link with my name.”, says Devos.
Musical friends are the likes of The Black Heart Procession and Scout Niblett... and that is no accident. Tommigun makes music that sometimes sounds desolate but at the same time delicate and at other times raw but reserved. Or as they say themselves: ‘heartbreakhangover tunes, explosive bursts of anger’. The recordings for their first album ‘Come Watch Me Disappear’ took place in San Diego with musicians from the Californian indie-rock scene and with Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession) as producer. This spring they toured Europe as the warm-up to Daniel Johnston.

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The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

Year: 2010 (international release) / 2008 (original release)
Genre: Americana / indie / folk / rock
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theraa
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~197]
Scene release: The_Rural_Alberta_Advantage-Hometowns-2008-pLAN9
Filesize: 53 MB
Uploaded: 11-09-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. The ballad of the RAA 3:29
02. Rush apart 1:54
03. The dethbridge in Lethbridge 2:13
04. Don't haunt this place 2:35
05. The deadroads 2:42
06. Drain the blood 2:48
07. Luciana 2:56
08. Frank AB 3:25
09. The air 3:24
10. Sleep all day 3:45
11. Four night rider 1:54
12. Edmonton 3:50
13. In the summertime 2:37

Review:
Over the course of the past 10 or so years-- from Neutral Milk Hotel to Arcade Fire to Bright Eyes-- winking detachment has ceded an increasing amount of indie rock ground to unmockable earnestness. Next in that line of serious, and seriously emotive, songwriters are the Rural Alberta Advantage. The Toronto-based trio, led by born-and-bred Albertan Nils Edenloff, has created an affecting debut that's full of nostalgic songs about hometowns (hence its title) and heartbreaks, marrying salt-of-the-earth acoustic rock to energetic rhythms and grand orchestral arrangements. Even Edenloff's nasal, impassioned singing and lyricism are practically naked in their straightforward sincerity and will turn off many people who value shine and polish over emotion and authenticity.
Though these tracks may be serious in content and delivery-- "Frank, AB" even nods to the titular mining town's deadly 1903 landslide-- they are buoyed by majestic arrangements. All 13 songs on Hometowns are built on a foundation of quirky synthesizers and sober acoustic guitars, but the drums (which are front-and-center in the mix on so many of these songs) sprint with breathless insistence on "Four Night Rider", some elegant strings add organic warmth to the skittering rhythmic intensity of "Don't Haunt This Place", and the glittery innocence of the acoustic arrangement adds whimsy to the earthy stomp of "Rush Apart". The band's theme song, "The Ballad of the RAA", combines all these elements for a thumping gem of rich, mournful cello, hopeful glockenspiels, bittersweet synths and even a surprising a cappella moment.
The lyrics are the plainspoken, wistful longing for the details of small-town life on the prairie. With odes to the night sky as seen from a particular part of Alberta or descriptions of an old apartment, Edenloff mourns for relationships and homes lost or gives voice to the uncertainty one feels when moving on from people or places. Given his reedy tones and preoccupation with the past, it would be easy to compare RAA to Neutral Milk Hotel (the death-haunted lyrics of horn-studded "Luciana" make it the track most easily confused for a lost Jeff Mangum opus). But with more intensely vigorous drumming, more obviously personal lyrics, and a more blatant interest in glossy electro-pop, Edenloff's band carves out their own niche. It is one that masterfully blends the masculine and the feminine, the refined and the coarse, the dark and the bright.
Hometowns ends with "In the Summertime", a solemn ballad (the lone true ballad of the whole collection) of droning organs and heartbeat drum thumps that's one part Postal Service synthesized sentimentality, one part final-merry-go-round-ride-of-the-summer calliope melody. In barely two and a half minutes the trio evokes the serenading cicadas and sticky skin of uncertain but excited young lovers. "In your summer dress, I was holding you, but you were holding less/ It's not the words, it's the ones you stress/ I love you is I love you, just don't love me less", sings Edenloff, proving why the Rural Alberta Advantage were known as the best unsigned band in Canada before Saddle Creek snapped them up and re-released this debut. And it's a good thing they did; these songs are good enough to be heard by audiences as large as their sonic scope.

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Villagers - Becoming a jackal

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / rock / folk
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/villagers
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~183]
Scene release: Villagers-Becoming_A_Jackal-2010-CaHeSo
Filesize: 59 MB
Uploaded: 11-09-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. I saw the dead 5:04
02. Becoming a jackal 3:20
03. Ship of promises 4:37
04. The meaning of the ritual 3:14
05. Home 4:41
06. That day 3:10
07. The pact (I'll be your fever) 3:29
08. Set the tigers free 3:22
09. Twenty-seven strangers 3:25
10. Pieces 5:26
11. To be counted among men 4:45





Review:
Conor O'Brien, slight-framed leader of earnest folk-rock project Villagers, tells his publicist he's "terrified of bands." No wonder: The Dublin-based singer and songwriter's former group, the Immediate, imploded three years ago over "existential differences." In February 2009, hometown label Any Other City released Villagers' The Hollow Kind EP. There's a YouTube video from around the same time where O'Brien can be seen fronting at least a quartet, and the performance is stirring, though the guy looks a bit like Conor Oberst and Tracey Thorn in a "how would their kids be?" Photoshop mash-up.
Much as Oberst has wrestled with his own identity crises, shifting from Bright Eyes and Desaparecidos to his given name, Villagers' debut album obsesses over the gap between electric band and acoustic troubadour. In a recent appearance on "Later... With Jools Holland", O'Brien performed solo; in fact, he plays almost every instrument on Becoming a Jackal, and his portentous lyrics, falsetto-prone quaver, and Simon & Garfunkel tunefulness are essential to the album's appeal. At the same time, the record is a bit more varied than the typical singer-songwriter drabness-- check the Battles-battling drum break at the end of mask fable "Ship of Promises", the bossa nova lilt to the Leonard Cohen breakup of "Set the Tigers Free", or the jarring crash that ends orchestral-pop opener "I Saw the Dead". O'Brien promises to "meet you in between what I say and what I mean," and he's savvy enough to know the difference.
It seems significant that Villagers signed to Domino, a label better known for Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, and Animal Collective; O'Brien recently told Brooklyn Vegan that Cass McCombs, another singer-songwriter with indie-rock appeal, was the matchmaker. So sure, O'Brien's falsetto-prone quaver suggests the righteous sincerity of Irish vocalists from Bono to Damien Rice and Glen Hansard, but Becoming a Jackal's title track-- also its first single-- keeps 21st-century disillusionment beneath its sepia-toned teenage dreams: "Before you take this song as truth/ You should wonder what I'm taking from you." In a recent Resonant Frequencies column, Pitchfork's Mark Richardson talks about the thin line between maudlin and sublime, and to be sure, effort-laden over-seriousness occasionally combines with a tendency toward lazy rhymes here to put dirges like "The Meaning of the Ritual" and "To Be Counted Among Men" slightly on the wrong side of that divide.
Still, if you're willing to follow O'Brien over the top, there are glimmers of I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, or even that fleeting moment on Funeral when the Arcade Fire break out into a Motown bounce. "Pieces", the song Villagers perform in that old live YouTube clip, reappears on Becoming a Jackal, still exploring that line between band and balladeer, but also person and persona, emotion and cheap sentiment. Amid doo-wop piano and lofty strings, O'Brien describes the dilemma of the public artist who airs private confessions: "There's a way down/ That I wish I had not found/ You split yourself in two/ One for them and one for you." Shoring these fragments against the ruins of modern-day romance, O'Brien before long starts howling like a wolf, or a jackal, or a singer-songwriter, or a band leader. It's worth watching to see what he - and Villagers - will become next.

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James Yuill - Movement in a storm

Year: 2010
Genre: electronic / indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jamesyuill
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~204]
Scene release: no
Filesize: 69 MB
Uploaded: 29-08-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Give you away 3:41
02. Crying for Hollywood 4:13
03. First in line 4:37
04. Foreign shore 2:20
05. On your own 4:19
06. Sing me a song 4:19
07. My fears 4:19
08. Wild goose at night 2:48
09. Ray gun 4:22
10. Taller son 6:51
HFr bonus: Frozen (Madonna cover) 4:45





Review:
Summery 80s synths abound all over this ductile carpet of an album. James Yuill has clearly been spending a fair bit of time in a blissed-out state on beaches across the Med since his last effort, 2008’s critically acclaimed Turning Down Water For Air, which placed him firmly at the vanguard of the folktronica movement. However, the dreaded term "folktronica" seems inadequate for James Yuill, because his second album does so much more than put beeps and clicks on top of the work of a singer-songwriter: Movement in a Storm is modern pop album that happens to have been made by someone who can also write and play folk music.
First In Line is a fantastic slice of chunky disco in the mould of classic Saint Etienne, meaning that there’s just the slightest trace of melancholy in Yuill’s adroit tones as he softly tells us when the “sea starts, it’s life”. On Your Own sees the beats turned up to something approaching Calvin Harris territory, but Yuill’s tender voice succeeds in trampling any outright big-beat aggression contained within the track down into something infinitely more touching and vulnerable. It’s as if, despite the sweaty vibes of an endless summer night of clubbing, there’s always knowledge of the weary daybreak that is sure to follow.
This hedonism is broken up with slices of bonfire folk. Foreign Shore has a wonderfully creaking concertina effect in places as Yuill, whose voice takes on a pleasantly throaty drawl, warns us of an unwanted guest wading in from the deep waters; someone who “is known, known by law, to be a traitor from a foreign shore”.
Some listeners may feel Yuill has attempted to cram too many disparate styles into one relatively short album. And it’s true that the rapid alteration in styles, from pounding electro to hushed acoustic instrumentals, shouldn’t work. But like an old mixtape from a friend, made in the pre-iPod era, the stylistic judder between tracks only renders Yuill’s precociousness ever more endearing. Beach parties in 2010, from the soaring highs to the migraine-induced aftermath, won’t get a better soundtrack than this.

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James Yuill - Turning down water for air (2008) [V2,~156]

Fol Chen - Part 2: The new December

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / pop / electronic
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/folchen
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~193]
Scene release: no
Filesize: 50 MB
Uploaded: 29-08-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. The holograms 3:49
02. In ruins 3:01
03. Your curtain call 3:51
04. This is where the road belongs 3:50
05. Men, beasts or houses 4:10
06. C-U 3:20
07. Adeline (you always look so bored) 3:28
08. The holes 2:42
09. They came to me 3:14
10. The new December 4:23






Review:
Fol Chen is not just another electro-pop band, nor another electro-pop-cum-noise band. They are an electro-art-pop-noise-lite-whateverhaveyou band with a concept. In a continuation from last year’s debut, Part 1: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made, their tale of an ongoing battle with Vladimir Nabokov creation John Shade and a language-eating virus, and the subsequent apocalypse, continues to unfold. Not much progression should be expected from such a blatant continuation as Part II: The New December, but in the short time that has passed, Fol Chen’s blips have become blippier, their pop moments have grown poppier, and their clashes with noise have gotten noisier. Although the concept is valiantly overblown, the journey it takes a listener on is mostly enjoyable.
It can be argued that Part I‘s highlight was the sleazy goofy single “Cable TV”. With it, and without the artifice of a concept weighing it down, Fol Chen revealed their secret weapon of multi-instrumentalist and sometime vocalist Melissa Thorne. Thorne possesses neither a distinct nor full-bodied voice, but something about its detached creepiness endeared long after the song concluded. On Part II‘s “In Ruins”, Thorne, or perhaps another female Fol Chen cohort (most of Fol Chen’s members like to use stage names or remain anonymous) layers the apocalyptic come-ons over dainty electro beats and arises just as saucy as any pop diva of the moment.
After that early highlight, Part II dips and rises. It should not be surprising that the other standout tracks are “Adeline (You Always Look So Bored)”, where detached yet seductive female coos again step to the forefront, and “C/U”, a successful exercise in R&B with a smooth chorus that would be quite at home on mainstream radio. Elsewhere, songs are percussive, wordless, or both, and contain just the faintest of hooks. On tracks such as “Men, Beasts, or Houses”, acoustic and percussive elements intermingle to produce a heady sonic assault. As befitting of an album that deals in part with a language-eating virus, the device of using barely discernible lyrics works well. Songs such as “This Is Where the Road Belongs” don’t fare as successfully, with repetition wearing the hooks down to just a vague memorability. Part II‘s less poppy endeavors need not be classified as failures, but after a listener hears what Fol Chen can do as a pop band, their artier stabs can leave one feeling a little vacant.
Although genre-jumping bands who employ “electro” elements to their approach seem to stick around for a shorter period than those who do not, Fol Chen certainly show signs of brightness. They already have fans in Liars, a band that doesn’t defy genres to the same extent, but one that is highly capable of mutating its sound. Fol Chen’s more experimental side should not be shut off completely, it would just be nice if they contributed some more of their energy toward further sharpening their killer pop hooks and R&B grooves. Doing so could see them laying waste to not just John Shade and language viruses, but to the charts as well.

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Bombay Bicycle Club - Flaws

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / folk
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bombaybicycleclub
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~182]
Scene release: Bombay_Bicycle_Club-Flaws-2010-SiRE
Filesize: 44 MB
Uploaded: 29-08-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Rinse me down 3:12
02. Many ways 2:45
03. Dust on the ground 4:05
04. Ivy & gold 2:58
05. Leaving blues 2:59
06. Fairytale lullaby 2:23
07. Word by word 2:40
08. Jewel 3:07
09. My God 2:29
10. Flaws 3:02
11. Swansea 4:15



Review:
Bombay Bicycle Club – BBC to their friends – have arguably effected the most radical volte-face of all. Their first album, 2009’s I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, was promising indie noise-pop, also bearing a pleasing MBV influence. Right at the end of the album, though, there was a relatively pared-down piece of poignant acoustica called The Giantess that, little did we know, pointed the way towards their second release. This release, called Flaws, sees the band re-invent themselves as an acoustic-only ensemble and thus avoiding the difficult second album syndrome.
Most of us will be indebted to our folks for informing our early musical tastes and Bombay Bicycle Club are no different: the band admit to thumbing their parents' folk collection for nuggets of inspiration and Jack Steadman even had an epiphany of sorts when he heard Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk for the first time recently. So from the Appalachian-tinged, Sufjan Stevens-esque banjo of 'There Are Many Ways', to the disappointingly safe renditions of Joanna Newsom's 'Swansea' and John Martyn's 'Fairytale Lullaby', the album maps this musical pilgrimage.
Although the four band members roughly share instrumental duties, and guitarist Jamie MacColl (who was probably plucking banjos in the womb), did employ his dad's production skills to lay down some of the earlier tracks, it was in fact Steadman who penned the majority of the album and produced the whole shebang all by himself, in his bedroom. So aside from the faintly skipping drum beat and distant banjo underlining Steadman's vocals, the rest of the group remain largely obscured by the frontman's ego-centric ramblings. Nothing new there then.
Chalky, bluesy vocals occasionally hint at Nick Drake, but Steadman's nasal timbre invokes Damien Rice (or is it Paolo Nuttini or Marcus Mumford?) and is slightly marred by this familiar ring. Lucy Rose's appearance on title track 'Flaws' doesn't do the album any favours either: overly saccharine and contrived, it verges on the cringeworthy: male-female duets should be confined to the bittersweet.
Beginning on an upbeat country note with 'Rinse Me Down', the stirrings of sunshine Americana are quickly hushed by the self-deprecating lyrical content of 'There Are Many Ways': “I've always been a coward,” whines Steadman, espousing an achingly maudlin tone throughout. These incessant outpourings of emotional tripe continue as the front man complains of a broken heart in 'Jewel' and 'Leaving Blues'. And although there's a tiny flicker of optimism offered by the fast-paced Spanish style guitar and whooshing drums of 'My God', the track is tainted by self-doubt and cosmological anxieties. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, this guy really needs to get laid. Someone hand him a glowstick and take him to a Skins' party! Quick. Flaws is serious stuff, far removed from the sex, drugs and rock and roll of adolescent youth: the phrase 'old before their time' constantly springs to mind. But if that's their bag, then that's fine.
Flaws is perfectly executed and well produced and if you inhale the album in short, sharp breaths, then you may just find the middle of the road a charming place to be, for a brief moment anyway. You've got to hand it to Bombay Bicycle Club: carving a whole record from this minimal aesthetic is brave, to say the least. As the band nakedly expose their talents in a brazen act of plucky self-confidence, we know these boys have balls, even if they haven't dropped yet.

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Cherry Ghost - Beneath this burning shoreline

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / pop / rock / folk
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cherryghostband
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~199]
Scene release: Cherry_Ghost-Beneath_This_Burning_Shoreline-2010-404
Filesize: 79 MB
Uploaded: 14-08-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. We sleep on stones 5:47
02. A month of mornings 5:37
03. Conquered heart 1:05
04. Kissing strangers 4:36
05. Only a mother 3:31
06. The night they buried Sadie Clay 5:29
07. My God betrays 4:09
08. Barberini Square 5:49
09. Conquered part 2 1:14
10. Black fang 4:20
11. Luddite 6:18
12. Diamond in the grind 4:50
13. Strays at the ice pond 2:11



Review:
Their follow-up to 2007's Thirst For Romance finds Cherry Ghost making huge strides beyond their former country-tinged indie stylings.
With songwriter Simon Aldred maturing at an alarming rate, Beneath This Burning Shoreline suggests the Bolton combo may be the Tindersticks of their era, mining the subtle twists of emotion in his songs through arrangements that deftly balance grandiosity and pathos. Another comparison that comes strongly to mind is Nick Cave: like him, Aldred favours storytelling shadowed with gothic portents, animated by arrangements of great theatrical moment. Take the opening track "We Sleep On Stones", a murder ballad in which wartime bereavement leaves a lingering legacy of death and retribution, sketched out in carefully-wrought images like "photographs we cling to still call our names" and "100,000 heartbeats twist and turn the bedsheets" over a dramatic arrangement in which piano and guitar are whipped into a red mist by the stirring strings.
Or "The Night They Buried Sadie Clay", a tribute to the heroine's refusal to go gently into that good night, which opens with a subtly stalking groove, as if spying on its subject, with strings lamenting at its heart, before the song breaks down into a funeral march of noble brass and strings; but like a New Orleans funeral, the way back from the grave side is taken at a celebratory clip, in a galloping swirl of sound. It's a marvellous piece of work which confirms how tight a grip pop can take on art, with a little focus and determination.
Aldred apparently travelled round Europe while writing these songs, spending time notably in Rome and Berlin, which perhaps accounts for the weary, fin de siècle manner of some of the material. The prevailing tone throughout is akin to that chastened postwar mood captured by Carol Reed in The Third Man; certainly, Aldred's characters would not be out of place gazing down upon ant-people from a ferris wheel, or fleeing through sewers.
There's the "well-groomed weekend brute" of "Kissing Strangers", and at the other extreme, the victim of domestic abuse in "Only A Mother Could", poignantly persisting with her positive viewpoint – "Tide will turn, and in time I'll learn to love/What only a mother could" – amid the smothering swirl of strings and organ.
Elsewhere, "Black Fang" employs a florid, European version of early Velvet Underground drone-rock to capture the most ambivalent of passions ("Be my midnight swimmer, I will be your sea-salt lips/Be my cold-blood killer, and I will be your fingertips"), while the most powerful impact is perhaps wielded in the wretched "My God Betrays", where solemn acoustic guitar is haunted by creepy bowed bass and birdsong as Aldred muses upon the quixotic nature of a deity who "watches my love bloom, and curses it down... strangles the life of my day". With friends like that, who needs hope?

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Cherry Ghost - Thirst for romance (2007)

Cadillac Sky - Letters in the deep

Year: 2010
Genre: americana / alt. country
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cadillacsky
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~124]
Scene release: Cadillac_Sky-Letters_In_The_Deep-2010-404
Filesize: 45 MB
Uploaded: 14-08-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Trapped under the ice 2:53
02. 3rd degree 3:46
03. Human cannonball 4:17
04. Trash bag 4:17
05. Lee of the stone; east 0:45
06. Ballad of restored confidence 4:09
07. Hangman 3:28
08. Break my heart again 4:34
09. Lee of the stone; west 0:45
10. Hypocrite 3:41
11. Kiddie pool rag 0:44
12. Bathsheeba 2:45
13. Pitiful waltz 2:57
14. Part of my heart 4:18
15. Lee of the stone; north 1:30
16. Tired old phrases 3:02
17. The long sigh 0:56

Review:
Cadillac Sky’s third album finds them in a difficult position that many young bluegrass bands encounter. They are trying to balance more traditional-style songs while simultaneously reaching out for a more expansive sound. Letters in the Deep was produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, not exactly a go-to guy for bluegrass music, although the Black Keys’ penchant for blues traditionalism is at least theoretically in similar territory. Still, Auerbach had the band record the album as a live ensemble, emulating old time bluegrass recordings. But primary songwriters Bryan Simpson and David Mayfield have more on their minds than aping the bluegrass acts of old.
This may be evident from the first track, “Trapped Under the Ice”. Whether the title was intentionally chosen to evoke Metallica is unknown, but the song itself is a mid-tempo minor-key lope with lyrics like “I am a monkey in a cage / I am a prisoner of your love” and a furious distorted electric guitar solo in the final 20 seconds. The next track, “3rd Degree”, goes even darker, as Simpson tells the tale of a man coming home late and being interrogated by his wife. Although the man hasn’t done anything wrong, his wife’s angry, paranoid questioning eventually leads him to falsely confess, which makes things even worse. Chugging guitar and banjo set the mood, and Ross Holmes’ swirling violin adds an air of frantic desperation to Simpson’s already on-edge vocal delivery. After this opening one-two punch, the band goes with the more traditional love ballad “Human Cannonball” and follows it with the piano-heavy “Trash Bag” and the instrumental interlude “Lee of the Stone: East”.
Letters in the Deep has three of these “Lee of the Stone” tracks and two more short instrumentals. All of them are engaging, but even the longest only lasts 90 seconds. And it’s the band’s other three members, banjo player Matt Menefee, bassist Andrew Moritz, and Ross Holmes, who contribute these songs. It would be nice to hear fully fleshed-out, longer versions of these instrumentals, but even as brief interludes they break up the album nicely. Still, Simpson and Mayfield have no problem shouldering the songwriting load. The duo have plenty of good ideas for the band on this album, both musically and lyrically.
“Ballad of Restored Confidence” is an appropriately-named post-break-up song with a cheery, easygoing vibe and a great violin solo from Holmes. “Hypocrite” is sparsely arranged and lets Moritz’s bass carry the song under the layered vocal harmonies. When the trio of mandolin, guitar, and banjo (plus some nicely-placed waterphone effects from Auerbach) take over mid-song using short notes and strange harmonics, the effect is genuinely eerie. The speedy “Bathsheeba” turns the standard uptempo bluegrass jam on its head. Instead of quick-fingered banjo picking driving the song, the band plays down-stroked chords in unison while Simpson sings about the dealing with the titular crazy girl, “It might be me / But it’s probably you.” It’s probably the closest a bluegrass outfit can get to punk rock.
With all the interesting stylistic experiments going on during Letters in the Deep, some of the more typical bluegrass tunes get a bit lost in the shuffle. They tend to be the more plaintive love songs that are decently written but not as memorable. Cadillac Sky may not gain fans among bluegrass traditionalists with this album, but the same boundary-pushing spirit that turns off the traditionalists will likely open the band up to a wider, more eclectic audience. They’ve put together a very strong record here with no true weak spots.

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Jim Guthrie - Now, more than ever (extended edition)

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / pop
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jimguthrie
Format: mp3
Bitrate: 320 cbr
Scene release: no
Filesize: 182 MB
Uploaded: 14-08-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Problem with solutions 4:35
02. All gone 4:07
03. So small 3:58
04. Save it 4:36
05. Broken chair 4:05
06. Lovers do 6:17
07. Time is a force 5:27
08. Now, more than ever 3:24
09. The evangelist 5:11
10. You are far - Do you exist 2:32
11. Hug me 'til I'm blue (previously unreleased) 1:39
12. Time is a force (demo) 4:04
13. All gone (string only mix) 4:09
14. Lot to learn (previously unreleased) 1:25
15. Save it (8 track demo) 5:12
16. Something don't feel right (previously unreleased) 2:51
17. Lovers do (string outro) 1:31
18. So small (4 track demo) 1:37
19. All gone (slap chop mix) 4:00
20. Wuthering heights (previously unreleased) 3:50
21. Love hurts (previously unreleased) 2:38
22. Ain't got no / I got life 2:27

Review:
A lush gorgeous record that is small and still. Full of unassuming first-person monologues; acoustic without being folksy, poppy without being pandering, and quirky without being annoying. Jim Guthrie has created a masterful soundtrack of peace and tranquillity, a crowning achievement.
Royal City founding member, Jim Guthrie dragged his acoustic guitar out into the open, opting to heavily indulge in some bold studio bluster and multi-instrumental antics for the fulsome Now, More Than Ever. The album’s approach is docile, but its impact is immediate: this is a record packed with gorgeous, intricate pop songs, carried by Guthrie’s plaintive whispers and delicate strums. It is almost glossed to perfection (excluding the handful of broken plates, squeaky floor tiles, and toys exploding in the background), but nonetheless provides a 
substantial pedestal for Guthrie’s stronger-by-the-second song writing.
The well-balanced use of strings, provided by the Hidden Camera’s Owen Pallett (Violin) and Mike Olsen (Cello), is the album’s ace in the hole. Adding a dramatic flare without resorting to, as so many string-laden pop albums do, an over-the-top, Disney-esque grandeur, the strings offer a fluid counterpoint to the bouncing drums, skipping guitar and banjo finger-picking, complicating the seemingly simple folk melodies to grand effect. Guthrie’s vocals, which may seem a bit lackluster at first, eventually come to complement this tender balance by hovering somewhere between melancholic and blissful.
Standout tracks, like the album opening “The Problem With Solutions” and “Time is a Force,” show why Guthrie is in fact a better lyricist than his Royal City partner Aaron Ritchies. Guthrie’s detached yet oddly personal observations on identity and mortality are effective in their modesty; pseudo-wisdom on “The Problem”: “Sometimes words just sound like noise / other times noise makes the prettiest sound” is followed by “That’s the silliest thing I’ve heard”. Both Guthrie’s lyrics and melodies seem to be searching for beauty in simplicity, and thus contain measured amounts of spontaneity and familiarity – a fine balance that points to Guthrie’s ability to recognize, then one-up his influences.
Now, More Than Ever is an album that has all the elements necessary to be a pop classic. It is one of those albums that people thank you for turning them on to.

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Ginger Ninja - Wicked map

Year: 2010
Genre: pop / rock / indie / electronic
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/gingerninjamyspace
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~207]
Scene release: Ginger_Ninja-Wicked_Map-2010-ADK
Filesize: 60 MB
Uploaded: 07-08-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Crying shame 2:45
02. Sunshine 3:16
03. Red lips 4:22
04. Bone will break metal 3:57
05. Wet like a dog 3:40
06. You're wrong 3:29
07. Soldiers 2:59
08. You can have it all 3:23
09. Out of sight / Out of mind 3:39
10. Get there soon 3:46
11. The boy who grew bitter 5:02





Review:
Ginger Ninja, an electro poprock band from Denmark, released their debut album "Wicked Map" early this year. Slowly, they are getting known outside their home country, mainly because of their summer hit single “Sunshine”. This song gives you a perfect impression of the poppy sound of the whole album. Catchy opener "Crying Shame" could well be the next single and is a good indication of what to expect the next 10 tracks. Like almost every album there are ups and downs. To start with the downs: the lyrics of “Red lips” are awful and the 80s sound is overdone. But immediately after that comes “Bone will break metal” with trance like synths that are catchy but provide a well needed sharp edge.
The second half of this album brings more of the same poppy songs. Many people will lose their attention here and maybe even skip to another album. But overall this is a promising debut that will make you wondering how it will be played live. It will be interesting to hear where they go on their next album: aiming for the mainstream or creating their own sound.

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Marina & The Diamonds - The family jewels

Year: 2010
Genre: pop / (indie)
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/marinaandthediamonds
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~200]
Scene release: Marina_And_The_Diamonds-The_Family_Jewels-2010-H3X
Filesize: 66 MB
Uploaded: 07-08-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Are you satisfied 3:21
02. Shampain 3:12
03. I am not a robot 3:36
04. Girls 3:29
05. Mowgli's road 3:13
06. Obsessions 3:30
07. Hollywood 3:51
08. The outsider 3:17
09. Hermit the frog 3:36
10. Oh no! 3:03
11. Rootless 3:29
12. Numb 4:17
13. Guilty 3:41



Review:
In pop terms Marina Diamandis is rather unusual. Not because she lacks the genuine weirdness and fearless invention of Micachu (although she does), or the songwriting ability of Florence Welch (although she does). No. She’s strange because she appears to have based her entire singing style on the odd rhythms and insane lurches of Sparks’ This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both Of Us.
In small doses Marina can be magnificent. Her first major label single, Mowgli’s Road, includes insane lyrics about cutlery (“Ten silver spoons coming after me”), the beats and pacing of Green Day’s Hitchin’ a Ride, and Tori Amos-ish baroque soundscapes and wild animal noises. It’s as much Lord of the Flies as The Jungle Book. Guilty is just as interesting: bursts of harpsichord, beats more at home on a Burial record, looped background vocal motifs and perhaps Marina’s best vocal performance on the album. And recent single Hollywood may sound as bombastic and ridiculous as Arnie driving a Humvee through a plate glass window, but it’s superbly enjoyable.
The consistently diverting changes in style across the album are fine – the wonky 80s shoulder-pad pop of The Outsider is nothing like anything else here, for example. But over 13 songs of Sparks-voice and many similar staccato piano riffs listeners may feel bludgeoned by Marina and her slightly overbearing presence. On Oh No! she sings, “Don’t do love, don’t do friends / I’m only after success, don’t need a relationship.” Then there’s the opener, Are You Satisfied: “It’s not my problem / is my problem / that I never am happy / my problem is my problem on how fast I will succeed.” Ambition and talent is useful, but a having a massive ego and being friendless is not. Hopefully she’s just singing in character.
Judging by the auspicious critical and commercial reception to Hollywood, there will be many who find a great deal to love about Marina and her whacky voice; but there will be just as many who despise her. A tiny minority may be indifferent, the Abergavenny-born singer will mostly polarise opinion.

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Stars - The five ghosts (deluxe edition)

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / pop / rock
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/stars
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~185]
Scene release: Stars-The_Five_Ghosts-(Deluxe_Edition)-2CD-2010-FNT
Filesize: 76 MB
Uploaded: 24-07-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Dead hearts 3:29
02. Wasted daylight 3:42
03. I died so I could haunt you 3:04
04. Fixed 3:26
05. We don't want your body 3:25
06. He dreams he's awake 4:04
07. Changes 4:13
08. The passenger 4:16
09. The last song ever written 3:17
10. How much more 2:56
11. Winter bones 3:00
12. Opinions versus the sun (Stars vs. The Album Leaf) 4:17 13. The five ghosts 4:04
14. The black house, the blue sky (Stars vs. Montag) 4:25
15. The dead beg for more (Stars vs. Of Montreal) 5:23

Review:
Nine years ago, Stars burst forth with Nightsongs, their intelligent, delirious debut. It was Leonard-Bernstein-does-Europop, surging skyward with a sunny warmth that would inform their subsequent albums, Heart and Set Yourself on Fire. With their newest release, though, that flame has flickered into ash. On The Five Ghosts, the love-letters and sing-songy refrains of Heart are nowhere to be found; gone, too, are Fire‘s passions-set-ablaze. What’s left is a world much graver, where lovers die just to haunt each other - and it seems like an absolutely natural progression for the band.
Like the volatile relationships that Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell sing about, Stars’ oeuvre has evolved from ebullient to frantic, and occasionally grim. And although autumnal moments have slipped into all of their albums, Ghosts is their first full-on plunge into dysphoria. Millan’s exquisite voice flits from smoldering on “Wasted Daylight” to angelic on “Winter Bones”; its beauty, coupled with the band’s theatrical flair and a handful of punchier tracks, rescues the album from overwhelming ennui. Despite following the requiem of “I Died So I Could Haunt You," “Fixed” especially lightens the mood without cheapening it.
Stars’ dramatic arrangements remain very much alive here, their instrumentation gleaming - as always - with allusions somewhere between New Order’s shimmering waveforms and The Smiths’ guitar rock. Ghosts’ 2007 predecessor, In Our Bedroom After the War, applied extravagant orchestral layers to poppy hooks; it was the band’s most dramatic composition to date, and the new album doesn’t even attempt to compete. Instead, Ghosts skirts its predecessor’s instrumental self-indulgence, allowing its tracks to swim in grandeur - but not drown.
The album does have one bizarre moment of inconsistency. “We Don’t Want Your Body” is egregiously glib for this otherwise careful record; after the mournful pageantry of the preceding tracks, it’s discordant to hear Millan chirp words like “so you can have some sex with me.” Maybe the band’s just having some fun amidst all the gloom. Can’t exactly blame them, but they’re better when they’re moping.

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Uniform Motion - Life

Year: 2010
Genre: indie / folk
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/uniformmotion
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~179]
Scene release: no scene
Filesize: 48 MB
Uploaded: 24-07-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. Roll over 4:58
02. Saving up for Sundays 4:12
03. Back up your soul 3:36
04. Storm eye 4:16
05. Dry eyes 3:00
06. Oskar 4:33
07. The black box 4:18
08. Words run on ice 3:48








Review:
The “Anglo-French illustrated indie folk” duo Uniform Motion, Renaud Forestie and Andy Richards, combine wistful melodies with visual arts. Their live performances consist of Renaud live sketching using a video projector while Andy plays guitar creating a very appealing audio-visual experience. The concept of the band is rather innovative, which sort of separates them from a lot of other groups trying to get noticed any way they can, and the fact that it looks as if the duo create the art themselves as opposed to perhaps a marketing team, certainly merits credit.
Life is the band’s sophomore album following their debut Pictures, and on this effort the duo crafted an uplifting spongy-acoustic experience that will calm your nerves on a stressful or hectic day. The opening track “Saving up for Sundays” is silky and delicate making it easy to absorb, “Roll Over” is catchy and charming and “Dry Eyes” is a melancholic poem fairly reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens. Life is an engaging record, the songs are superbly constructed and so enjoyable that the 8 tracks seem to fly by in the blink of an eye. Life’s most beautiful element is its simplicity; it has a soothing effect on the mind, and it’s content to sit back and relax and not scream out for attention making it that much more endearing.
This album induces you to use your imagination as you listen to the striking melodies and amazingly written lyrics. Life lacks intensity, but there is really no need for it, the vocals and the music links perfectly to build a melodic and subdued artistic triumph.

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Uniform Motion - Pictures

Year: 2009
Genre: indie / folk
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/uniformmotion
Format: mp3
Bitrate: V2 [~176]
Scene release: no scene
Filesize: 85 MB
Uploaded: 24-07-2010
Hosted by: uploaded.to / multiupload

Track listing:
01. The pen fallacy 3:57
02. Citizen grave 4:01
03. Rain and soil 3:50
04. Cast iron 3:20
05. Fathers of our homeland 4:20
06. Falling off trees 5:30
07. Earthly diamond 4:31
08. Selling pictures 3:47
09. Such a shame 5:04







Review:
As you wait for your train on the platform, you look up and glance at the girl standing right across at the other side. She looks spaced, staring directly in your direction yet not seeing you. You stare a while longer and suddenly you're overcome with an urge to talk to her. Say hi. Maybe invite her for coffee or simply hold her hand. Instead of running to the stairs and race to the other side of the platform, you simply wait and look at her. The train comes, its doors open, it closes. She disappears with it.
Obviously, if this was your movie, you need a good soundtrack to go with that, Uniform Motion’s Pictures can help you out with that. Aaahh-records have got themselves a keeper. Inspired by circumstances and events that "hit" them, the band echoes music along the lines of Deathcab for Cutie on their opener Earthly Diamonds while a hint of Elliot Smith peeks through in Selling Pictures. Naysayers might think it's a little too close in sound to Seth Cohen's favorite band, but I beg to differ. Pictures create an undeniable image in your head of things that you should have done but never got around to doing or maybe you simply let the moment slip by your fingers.
This album, rightly titled Pictures, sends us visions of both broken sunlight and dripping rain, heavy flowers and weightless walkways. It’s as if we’ve reached the end of the world, and these guys are here to unassumingly express what’s happening all around us: circular pain and hope. Regardless of one’s endeavors Pictures is a brilliant accomplice to a pensive existence, best enjoyed while lying on the floor in the middle of the night in the dark, waiting for the light to come in.

P.S. The album comes with a marvelous comic book with a story for each song.

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Special thanx to kerrso05 for introducing me to this band.