Sunday, 22 August 2010

Rain collapse

Lightly chiming raindrops cascade

Whistles and drips a serenade

It coats the town and resides

Passing as the tide

Soothing but a cackling bluster

Covers the ground in a porcealin luster

Shifting and rustling through the trees

Refreshing the land, hydrating in ease

Watch it sheen and from the sky collapse

Rolls down my window until it's humble elapse

Thursday, 12 August 2010

Album review ! : Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest


Photobucket


Much has been written about Brooklyn band "Grizzly Bear", with earlier releases "Yellow House" and "friend" Grizzly Bear have quite a following. But with their latest album "Veckatimest" (2009) they have grown a much bigger fanbase and have been pushed into the limelight. They played alongside Radiohead and more recently the other stage at Glastonbury.


This album sounds like a summer campfire in an enchanted forest, full of whispers, melodies and Folk inspired sound. The production on the album is near perfection, a much less lo-fi sound to their previous work. The tempo is mellow and steady on nearly ever track but none-the-less this is a very interesting album and far from boring. There's some amazing walls of guitar sound, almost a shoegaze sound on the guitars (see track "Ready, able"), accompanied by pitch perfect vocal harmonies which really make this album; I don't like to make comparisons but think of a cross between Animal Collective's "Sung Tongs" meets a less crazy Dirty Projectors' "Bitte Orca" and you wont be far off. Opening track "Southern point" sets the mood for a dreamy psych folk album with a really sleepy sound which is full of energy at the same time.

The drumming is slow to mid-tempo yet quirky and unpredictable, they particularly build up really well on tracks like "Two weeks" "All we ask" and "Cheerleader". There is a few dull points on the album where it can feel a bit slow, but definitely a great album to chill to with some great harmonies. Just look at how many good things have already been written about it already! Listen for yourself, if you're looking for a mellow indie album with a unique sound you will not be disappointed.


8/10


Check them out!

Monday, 2 August 2010

Introduction to Grrrrl Britpop !

Okay, so we all know Blur, Oasis and Suede, but what about the great girl-fronted Brit pop bands? (No, not the spice girls)

In it's glory days in the 90's there were many greats! And if you haven't heard much, heres some good places start.




Moving on from their shoegaze sounds in their earlier work Lush were a great brit pop group. Listen to the "lovelife" album for more stuff.




Another great band in the brit pop days were Sleeper; wrongly they're most well known work being their first album "Smart" and their cover of Blondie's "Atomic". Their best work is in their "The It Girl" album, full of personality and catchy guitar pop !




Echobelly were a great band, check their "On" and "Everybody's got one" albums for more catchy songs. There's rumours about a new album in 2010 under a different band name "Calm Of Zero".




Other bands worth a look are:

Elastica

Republica

Garbage (though not exactly brit pop)