Mutes - Inertia

Hello again, gentle blog readers. It's been another while, hasn't it? There's been an awful lot of awful going on Chez TheGeneral and time has somewhat slipped away in a haze of something unmentionable (clue: life has been a breadless shit sandwich)

Nearly a month has passed without so much as a murmur, but I'm back again (briefly) to bring you glad tidings of great joy about a brand new EP from a wonderful act I've featured on here more than once.

If you're a regular visitor to this page (HI MUM I CAN SEE YOU!) you'll recognise the amazing Mutes who I've written about a fair bit. That's because I love them so. And I want you to as well.

James from the group is just about to release his 3rd solo EP called "Inertia", and the band's 4th in total. It comes out on 23rd February.

First of all, the necessaries:

The band's Twitter:

twitter.com/mutesmutesmutes

The band's Facebook

facebook.com/mutesuk

The band's Bandcamp

mutesuk.bandcamp.com/

I've been lucky enough to get a preview of "Inertia" this week and it's every bit as brilliant as I hoped it would be. It's a perfect mix of guitars, synths and shoegazy-breathiness.

Lead track from the EP is called "Less Existence" and if you go to their bandcamp page (linky above), you can stream and pre-order this track, like, now, dudes. I love the harmonies in it and the gentle repetition - it's got such a breezy depth to it and a feeling of space. The synths in it are just dinkily perfect and offer a great catchy hook.

The other main highlight on the EP for me, is "Soft Spots", which is simply beautiful - with its haunting guitar pick, and again, some dreamy, ethereal harmonies. This is real memory music, it's something to treasure and revel in. Every time you listen, you'll hear something new - and the EP bears repeated visits to get to the heart of it.

In total there are 6 tracks on this collection and every one offers something slightly different to the one before. Put 23rd February in your diaries and get this beauty downloaded - it's essential Spring listening!

Mutes - Starvation Age EP

And so, it continues. I welcome back theexistentialist for his second blog outing of the day. This time, he's also featuring another act I've written about before on these very pages. The spectacular Mutes...

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Mutes - Starvation Age EP

thegeneral has been kind enough to allow theexistentialist a 2^nd blog post. And once again, theexistentialist wants to talk about an artist first discovered by reading thegeneral’s blog.

Last year, thegeneral reviewed the brilliant debut EP by Mutes. thegeneral’s review can be found HERE. 

Well now, they are back with a brand new EP called Starvation Age. This is a cracking collection of tracks, and dear readers, you really ought to think about hoisting yourself over to this link on Bandcamp to buy the EP mutesuk.bandcamp.com/. 

The EP is beautifully sequenced, with each track weaving into the next, each song also manages to sound distinct and different to the previous. .

Boyish is a glorious and gentle intro that builds-up the noise level, and then unfolds into the more distorted, harder, rockier Holy Terror. The vocals are indiscernible, but are crucial to producing the disturbed and dark sound of this song. 

After a brutal opening, this melds into a soft, lilting, dreamscape. Memory Serves continues the quiet mood, adding just a hint of melancholy.

Kissing Trees has a rougher psychedelic garage sound. In fact, Kissing Trees reminded me so much of The Velvet Underground that I expected the ghost of Lou Reed to pop-up and provide some kind of vocal accompaniment.  However, the track is instrumental, which is fortunate, because James doesn't sound a bit like Lou Reed vocally :D (they are both great, just not alike, at all). 

The garage-psychedelia of Kissing Trees brilliantly leads into the title track and closing track, which is a pounding, thundering and noisy finale. An amazing way to end the EP – a fuzzy, noisy slice of psychedelic rock.

Flights of Helios - Succubus

Hello and Happy the day after "National Shut Your Door, Turn All The Lights Off And Pretend You're Not In So Kids Don't Hassle You For Sweets Day". Yes, I'm a misanthrope. No, I don't care.

I'm not so much of a misanthrope that I don't want to share music with you all and I'm back today to share with you a new release from one of my most very favourite and oft featured on these blog pages groups - Flights of Helios. If you'd like to read my previous features about them - follow this link: HERE.

Firstly, go to their bandcamp page and have a listen to their new single "Succubus", which was released yesterday:

flightsofhelios.bandcamp.com/

It's yet another wonderful song from a really underrated band and it follows on in splendid fashion from their last release "Factory", which is a major contender for my song of the year. I love the intensity of their music, I love their basslines and I love the delicately morose quality to everything they do. This is a song that starts slowly and fades with an intensely catchy drone. It's backed by the ambient and trippy "Palemoonlight" which provides a brilliant contrast - short, sweet, light and airy.

"Succubus" is a perfect song for this time of year and it's well worth a few moments of your time and a download if you want something to accompany the drawing in of the nights and the autumn season.

You can find out more about the band here

http://flightsofhelios.co.uk/

and you can follow them on The Twitters here:

https://twitter.com/FlightsofHelios

Do it.

Mutes - M.P.D.G

It's been a while dear readers, hasn't it? I know, and I am eternally sorry. Thank you for all the e-mails and letters that didn't flood in, demanding to know where I'd disappeared to. It's nice to feel loved and wanted. By no-one. I could tell you what I've been up to, but I'd have to kill you - and that wouldn't be nice, would it? It might sting a bit.

Anyway, yes, I am back, after another short break and I'm ending my radio silence with an EP that I had sent to me just last week by Mutes. I was mightily impressed with it and wanted to feature them as soon as I could.

So, as I always start these posts - here are the necessaries, hoik your lapels off to the bandcamp page to have a listen to the sneaky pre-release preview track:

mutesuk.bandcamp.com/

Now, I've been lucky enough to have the entire EP to play, not just this track - however, being as that's the song you've all just listened to, I'll start there. Hands up if you were a shoegazer in the 1990s? This should, in the nicest possible way, take you back there. M.P.D.G has such a nice feel to it, spacy, distant, aloof, ever so slightly trippy and muted. It rattles along at a really nice pace, the guitars on it are elemental and rhythmic, and sort of blend in with the slightly hard to discern androgynously ambiguous vocal.

The rest of the tracks mark a slight departure, but are equally as beguiling. "Hope" - the opener, is a paean, a delicate chant, that paves the way into "M.P.D.G". It's ever so slightly haunting in it's simplicity. Then we move into slightly more trippy, ambient territory with "Port Sunlight" and "Phonophobia", again, both haunting tracks that feel as though they could seep into your brain and disturb your sleep. They're sepia toned, blurred at the edges and although they're slightly experimental in nature, they work as a nice contrast between the opening two tracks and the final song of the collection "Smother" which has a nice hook, a wispy vocal and moves back towards shoegazing again.

The tracks all have an ache to them. I know that probably sounds like rather a strange comment to make, but there's a feeling of isolation in them, a sense of everything being slightly off kilter. It's hard to explain until you've played them through a few times and come to understand how they're layered and put together, but that's how it feels. It's the sort of music you'd probably want to listen to if you were needing a bit of head-space and some time alone, to just sit in stillness.

The EP itself is coming out in full on 22nd April, via onenoteforever records - they also look after the mighty Toliesel - who I featured not that long ago on these very pages. I'd highly recommend you take some time out of your day and give Mutes a go. If it's something a little out of the ordinary you want - this new EP should be your go to.

7th May Update - Mutes have officially released M.P.D.G today, so please go to mutesuk.bandcamp.com/ or store.onenoteforever.com/album/mutes to download, like, right now and stuff.

You might also want to check out this performance of "Smother" from the EP, which is beautiful and highly recommended by me.

Mutes - Smother (LIVE)

The Machine Room

'Alo. It's Bank Holiday Monday, an extra treat this weekend in the shape of a band called The Machine Room. This group from Edinburgh have a new EP out called Love From A Distance, and it's really rather a lovely listen. They're a sort of 21st century shoegazing lot, sometimes a bit synth-y, sometimes a bit rocky-y-y-y. They have a good sound. Nice ethereal vocals and some solid guitar work. Well worth a quick run over to their bandcamp site to have a squint.


the-machine-room.bandcamp

STRANGE HANDS

So here's one to get Saturday night off to a flyer. Strange Hands are a brilliant French band - formed in 2008.
They're about to release their new album "Dead Flowers" in May and it's up for a four track preview at Bandcamp - have a listen and let me know what you think.
They're a really interesting band, not exactly anything groundbreaking or new, but just a really nice listen. I like the fact they produced their album in conjunction with an Italian record label called "SHIT MUSIC FOR SHIT PEOPLE" all capitalised. That's an added joy. Anyway, there you go. Give them a listen...

strangehands.bandcamp

Discopolis

Discopolis are a three piece electronic band that hail from Edinburgh, comprising members Fergus Cook, Laurie Corlett-Donald and Dave Lloyd. They've got a really good sound going on and as yet remain unsigned (note to record labels - sign them you twats, they're brilliant!). Anyway, they describe themselves as sounding a bit like "digital fucking", which is...original...

If you like Boards of Canada, M83, Daft Punk and music of that ilk - chances are you'll like Discopolis.

This is one of their first singles "Lofty Ambitions", funny video - nicely shot, with a sweet nod to Kraftwerk at the beginning. It's really kind of infectious. You only need hear it once to have it stuck in your head, and I like the fact they sing with their Scottish accents intact. "You alwaes doot ma loove", or something :D. Anyway, seriously give them a go. They're worth a few moments of your time and I reckon they could go on to big big things in the coming year or two.