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)

Blyth - Brilliant Mind

Welcome to Monday evening. We've made it through the most hateful day of the week and not killed anyone with fire - so that's good, intit?

This is kind of a pretty special post. Not least because I'm going to introduce you to a brilliant album by another wonderful band, but also because it marks the last release from probably my favourite wee record label, Tiny Lights Recordings. More on that later, but first - the music. The necessaries - hoik your trouser creases off to the Tiny Lights bandcamp page to have a listen to Blyth by Brilliant Mind.

tinylights.bandcamp.com/album/blyth

This is, and I'm actually going to break with my pact never to use this word lest I chew my own arm off with anger, a wonderful journey of tracks. Journey. I know, I'm sorry. I loathe that word with a passion, every fucker is off on one these days - but there's no other way to describe this album, it IS a journey of tracks, it's a beautiful meander through the North East, not only in terms of the song's contents, but also in the way the music is performed. These are songs with accents - they are songs with nuanced vocals, sung properly, and performed with real heart - they are the North in a capsule.

Opening track "Don't Give Me That, Rob" is an absolute corker, fantastic, catchy bass (thegeneral LOVES BASS) and such a lovely lovely vocal - muted and delicate. It sets us up nicely to amble into track two "Two Lies", another utter delight - there's a real sense of pathos here, a faintly plaintive vox marries with more catchy bass and organ. It's an odd mix, because the music feels really jaunty in many ways, it pops along merrily, yet there is a real undertone of emotion as well. Something that grabs your chest.

"The Room Upstairs" starts with a really delicate guitar, a great pick, it's a soaring song, with a gentleness to it, it's the song on the album that you want to lie back and shut your eyes to. Finally we end with the title track "Blyth", and it's a strong way to finish. It's really poetic - the opening line "You drop the latch on the front door, slides your legs off the bedroom wall until you're on your back, 'cos the light comes pouring in..." is so evocative. It's sepia, sixties and dust almost. The song itself, poetry aside, is just a delightful way to complete this collection. Again, deceptively powerful, emotional and wandering.

I really would urge you to go and spend some of your money and support not only Brilliant Mind, but also Tiny Lights, too. It's with quite a large amount of sadness I make this entry as it does indeed mark the end of Tiny Lights Recordings. Many of you who read these pages regularly will know how many times I've featured bands from the label and how much I tried to champion the music that they were putting out. It's been a genuine pleasure to discover bands like Blank Maps, By Toutatis, Lionhall, Tusk and Rivals - not to mention my favourite band of stroppy bairns Tissue Culture. You'll only need to flick back through the last few months of blog entries to find all these acts and acquaint yourselves with their brilliance. I think, by featuring Brilliant Mind, they're going out on a total high - so it just finally remains for me to say farewell and thanks to Tiny Lights. It's been a total joy and you're leaving behind some amazing music - and if you need further proof, please just go to their bandcamp page and have a listen (and for fuck sake, buy!!) So long, it's been a total DIY as Fuck blast...

tinylights.bandcamp.com/

Stereo Off - NY EP5

Happy Saturday, you great big bunch of motherfudgin' music lovers. It's been a week since I last entertained you with something (or bored you with my rambling, I'm easy either way), so I thought it was high time I hit you with another post to tickle your aural muscles.

Here it is, oh baby, here it is.

Today, I'd really like to introduce you all to a fantastic band called Stereo Off and their brand new EP. The guys contacted me last week and asked me to take a listen to this collection of songs. Which I did. I knew straight away they were a group I had to feature on here. So, for those of you who are regulars to my humble little page, you know this is the time I tell you to hoik your trouser creases off to bandcamp to listen and download their music. Today is no exception, so here you go:

stereooff.bandcamp.com/

So that's dead dead good, isn't it? Don't argue with me, because I'm always right.

I think what immediately attracted me to this were the bass lines and the absolutely bang-on riffage. Every track has a super funky feel to it, like really super-funky. Opening track "Photographs" is a blinder, it's a fantastic indie-pop slice of heaven that you can properly bop to. It's sliding riff is really laid back and infectious - married with a massively cool vocal.

"Bullet Time" has a really dubby feel to it - this is the sort of track that really benefits from being blasted loudly and with the bass turned up. When it starts, it just feels like another great indie track (sounds like I'm doing them a bit of a disservice, but I'm not), however, if you listen deeply to it, the more it kicks in, the better it gets - the bass in this is outstanding, and the vox is nicely chilled - it's a really good marriage of dance and indie - and a great crossover kind of track - especially for those who aren't certain about whether they like either genre enough...this should be enough to pique their curiosity.

Last track "MI6" starts with a super speedy riff and merges into something a bit different to the other tracks on the album, with fuzzy distortion and a chippy melody - compared to the other tracks it really is more out and out rock, which shows just how the band can adapt themselves to different styles and make them work so well. It's actually got a little bit of Doors-esque distorted Organ in it for good measure and even though the track stops really abruptly, it's actually a really fine way to end this excellent little collection of tracks. It feels like a neat way to do it.

So, what can I say - for some brilliant "open your windows and let Spring in" music, you actually won't find much better than Stereo Off, this is a wonderful collection of tracks not to be missed. Get them in your life. Like now.

Flights of Helios - Factory

Welcome to the weekend and a brand new blog to see it in (well, technically speaking we're halfway through aren't we, but sod convention, I've been awake for nearly two days)

I have a right gem and a half for you today, you lucky buggers. Those of you who pay attention to this page on a regular basis (and I know there's at least one of you, and that you do have all your own teeth) will remember that way back in December last year, I featured a mini-series of acts from PinDrop Publicity, based in Oxford. One of those was the frankly awesomesauce Flights of Helios. I adored their last single and was so pleased to get an e-mail this week asking me to feature their newest gramaphone recording.

First of all, as always, the necessaries, here's the link to their bandcamp page so you can listen for yourself:

flightsofhelios.bandcamp.com/

It's a wonderful sound. It starts off slowly, but opens into an almost Neu! like Motorik beat, reminiscent of Krautrock - a driving, pulsing rhythm, in part reminding me of "Hallogallo" from their eponymously titled album. The vocal is, in the nicest possible way, delicately downbeat. It's full of pathos, it feels achingly drawn - with a Curtis-esque like sense of emotion. As the track progresses it moves into fuzzy distortion, into the realms of drone-pop, it's a track of many different layers, which on paper shouldn't work, but in reality, does. I felt as though it was really familiar after only one listen, after a few it felt like it was something I'd known for years. I genuinely love these guys and think that this is probably my favourite track of theirs to date.

There is also an accompanying video to go with the single, which I highly recommend you watch. It was shot by friend of the band Liam Martin and features members of the Awkward Actors group:

Flights of Helios - Factory

Please if you can, give this new single from Flight of Helios a moment of your time, and also go back, read my previous post and visit their last single "Star//Crows", also highly worth investing your time and money in.

Plantagenet 3 & A Little Orchestra - The Dark Ages

"In days of old when Knights were bold and ladies weren't invented, the Knights drilled holes in telegraph poles and they had to be contented" So wrote an ancient chronicler of the time. Possibly. They used all big words back then, didn't they? Like "wheelbarrow" and "chopping block".

Welcome to a brand spanking new post for ye olde Tuesday night. Tonight we're going back in time, to a place where women like me would have been flogged to death and lightly roasted for daring to even think about starting a blog. That's right, it's 1987.

No, seriously...

I'm here to introduce you to something rather utterly fabulous from the wonderfully named Plantagenet 3. Now, being something of a total history nut, when the band contacted me, they could have told me they only played Bonnie Tyler covers on Shawms and I would have been sold. Just their name alone had me rapt. However, they do so much more than that (though guys, if I find that's what you've done for your next release, I want a cut of the royalties...)

Right, to get serious. I was so pleased when they contacted me and asked me to review their new single. First of all, the necessaries. Go to their bandcamp page and have a listen:

plantagenet3.bandcamp.com/

Now cometh ye back over here.

Isn't that just a total joy? The new single is called "The Dark Ages" and is a wonderful mash up of styles and themes. It's part Western, it's part film soundtrack, it's like what Dick Dale might have been like if he hadn't been like Dick Dale. It's everything. It's got a sixties feel, but it sounds modern, it's got ethereal strings and a catchy, chirpy melody that draws you in - the guitar sounds are incredibly pure. It's something totally different, really. The first track "Canute (The Irresistible Surf)" is a perfect piece of instrumental gorgeousity. In fact, I reckon if Canute was around now, he'd have forgotten about the tide, kicked his throne out the way and had a good bop to this instead.

The second track "Godiva and Tom" is something that starts of gently, lulling and insistent - but that turns into something quite beautifully melodic and entrancing. It has slightly more of a distorted edge than the opener, which makes it feel quite different in tone, but it's no less wonderful.

You can also stream the single in full on soundcloud here:

soundcloud.com/plantagenet3/sets/the-dark-ages

I recommend you give Plantagenet 3 a listen and lend them your support. We need more original, fabulous music like this.

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.