Static Future - Marseille

So it goes and so it is. Welcome to Tuesday and welcome to a brand new blog. We're almost in Spring now, so that means that thegeneral is going to look back to review an EP which she should have posted about last Summer. I know, check me, always going against the tide and laughing in the face of forward thinking. AH AH AH. Like that (that was a backwards laugh in case you were wondering what drugs I was on).

There is a good reason for this though, so bear with me.

Today I'd like to introduce you to Static Future. Static Future are from Glasgow. Aside from the North East, Scotland is also producing some of the best new music I've heard in years and I count these guys as one of the acts to watch over the coming months.

They were formed in 2011 and the EP I want to bring to your attention today is the third of their releases - which came out in August last year. It's called "Marseille" and as always, I want you to hoik your trouser creases off to their bandcamp page to have a listen and buy:

thestaticfuture.bandcamp.com/album/marseille

Now. Come back over here and tell me that's not utterly wonderfully gobsmacking in every single department? You can't can you? No. Don't even try to argue with me because I will win. I will win. Don't question me.

From the moment the opening track kicks in you're instantly uplifted. "Marseille" is a brilliantly syncopated track, it manages to be sprightly, happy, engaging and brilliantly laconic all at once. I always want to jump around when I listen to it. In fact I'm doing so now. It's making typing this hard work, but it's worth it in the name of musical science. Don't tell me you're not thinking about doing the same. I can see you swaying in your seats - mind you don't knock your glass of Um Bongo over.

The second track on the single "Last Exit" has got a brilliant, jumpy, chirpy bassline. It sort of wrong foots you a bit, the opening chord makes you think for one minute it's going to be something much darker, but it breaks into something so gloriously tempered that again you want to shake yourself along.

Static Future's music is an interesting juxtaposition though. You can quite clearly feel undertones of something rooted in much heavier tradition - they admit they're influenced by bands like Talking Heads and The Wedding Present. You sense this even more in the rich vocals, heavy with presence and beautifully pitched against the music - they've got real depth to them and lift the guitar riffs and bass even more.

So - why am I highlighting this great band and their wonderful EP right this cocking minute?

This Saturday - March 1st they're playing a pretty special gig at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, with The Band of Holy Joy and The Monty Hall Problem. If you're in the area then try and get along to see them if you can.

I'm reliably informed that the guys are also working on some new material over the coming months and I'm really looking forward to being able to bring that to you once it's ready to be released. In the meantime, give Static Future a moment or two of your time and immerse yourself in something quite fuckawesome.

That's an order.

Ninetails - Radiant Hex

It's been too long since I last wrote, dear readers. Too long. Life has been a maelstrom of weird shit just recently. So here we are on Friday night, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, so we might as well have some fantastic music to listen to, mightn't we? Or is that just me? Yeah. Thought so.

What can I offer you? I can offer you Ninetails. That's what.

I absolutely adore these guys. In fact I adore them so much I wrote about them way back in June 2012. You can, if you like, read that post here. They're a band that have been off my radar for too long, and I was massively delighted when they announced that they were going to be releasing a new EP at the start of this year, cos I was about to like, send out a search party and stuff, to see if they'd got lost on the way back from their last gig.

First of all, take yourselves over to their soundcloud page and have a listen to Radiant Hex, which is one of the preview tracks taken from the new EP:

soundcloud.com/ninetailsband/ninetails-radiant-hex

Anyone who loved their last release "Slept and Did Not Sleep" will find this is equally as beautiful and captivating. See here: Superstar Destroyer Records. It's kind of in the same vein, but shows how the band are developing their style and are unafraid to experiment and play with soundscapes. Radiant Hex is beguiling. It's full of suspense and has some real moments of stillness in it, combined with distorted, echoy, guitars and a gentle, lulling vocal that evokes a nicely trippy feeling. It's slightly ambient, a bit chilled out and feels like nothing else I've heard in a long time. It's quite a departure from their earlier sounds, which were much more guitar driven (though incredibly beautiful - Ghost Ride The Whip is still one of my favourite EPs of recent years)

The rest of the EP is to follow shortly and I'll update the blog as and when to remind you all to buy it and support this fantastic band from Liverpool. In the meantime, fill your boots with this amazing preview track and get to know one of the brightest groups to emerge from the northwest in recent years.