Review: 'Bitter Rivals' by Sleigh Bells

Yesterday I was feeling like listening to some Sleigh Bells so I logged into Spotify and lo and behold, the new album was already available! I had completely forgotten about it, even though I previously wrote a bit about the forthcoming album and the lead single "Bitter Rivals". Whaddya know.

So, the Brooklyn-based noise pop duo are back with their sophomore record. Musically it combines the bubblegumminess of their debut album Treats and the underlying melancholia of their second LP Reign of Terror. In some sense it can even be regarded as a return to their roots. It's got the trademark Sleigh Bells sound with Derek Miller's loud, bursting guitars and beats combined with Alexis Krauss's saccharine vocals. Bitter Rivals, their third record, might not see the band exploring any radically different musical directions but it does showcase their more playful side that was relatively absent on Reign of Terror.

Review: 'When You're Done Here You Get To Go Home' by Soft Pipes

Remember when I mentioned Marmoset Music, the innovative music searching website? There you can filter the search results with a set of adjectives to describe you mood. I didn't want to make it easy for the search engine so I chose 'quirky', 'anthemic' and 'bouncy'. Two songs were left: the other one I forgot immediately (then again, the song was fittingly titled 'Whatever Etc.') The other one however had me instantly hooked - even though it was an instrumental version - so I looked it up on Spotify and fell in love straight away. The band reminded me a lot of the previously introduced Harlem Shakes and funnily enough, both bands have only released one LP so far whose artworks also bear a striking resemblance.

Right?

Watch V V Brown perform 'The Apple' on Later... with Jools Holland

Yesterday, BBC published a video of V V Brown performing her latest single "The Apple" on Later... with Jools Holland. The song - along with her singing - sounds amazing live but what really strikes me about it is the remarkable development that has happened during her career. While her 2009 debut Travelling Like The Light was a fun retro-pop album and all, her new style is much deeper, more mature and artistically more ambitious. I mean, could you possibly imagine that the woman who sings this...





...used to make music like this?





Talk about evolution!

Review: 'Technicolor Health' by Harlem Shakes

Before you ask: no, the band wasn't named after the goddamn awful internet phenomenon that was Harlem Shake. Instead, they were an indie rock band from New York. Sadly the group disbanded in 2009 after recording only one full-length album, Technicolor Health. Such a shame, considering all the potential they showed on the album. But then again, nothing lasts forever.

Anyway. There are endless ways of discovering new music. You could use Last.fm which recommends you new artists based on the ones you've previously listened to. You could use TuneGlue which I introduced earlier and actually uses Last.fm's database. Even Spotify recommends you new music these days. And if you want to go completely outside the box, you could try Marmoset Music. (It's brilliant, I've only tried it once though but I discovered a band I fell in love head over heels with. The band actually reminded me a lot of Harlem Shakes. I might have to write about them as well.) Well, it was the autumn of 2009, I was bored and hungering for new music. I wasn't really listening to anything 'current' around that time (I had a bit of an eighties phase back then) so I logged on to Last.fm, opened the '2009' tag and started skimming through the albums released that year. Based on the album covers. What a horribly shallow way to try to find new stuff! I did, however, get lucky when this particular album cover with all its dilapidated buildings and bursting rainbows attracted my attention. To me the record also holds a special place in my heart as it essentially provided a soundtrack for the last summer I spent in the town where I was born and raised and that summer was filled with sunny, carefree days - quite like the album, actually!

Siouxsie Sunday: 'Wild Things' by The Creatures

It's Sunday again and surely by now you know what that means: it's Siouxsie time! This Sunday's also the first time that a non-Banshee album makes an appearance in this review series. That's correct: this time the review is instead of an album (or actually, an EP) by The Creatures who were a splinter group of the Banshees. During their Juju sessions Siouxsie and Budgie (the singer and the drummer, respectively) experimented on creating a track with only drums and vocals. The outcome was "But Not Them", which made occasional appearances in The Banshees' setlists (even despite being left out of the album) but more importantly, ignited a spark to create more material like that. The Creatures was born.

Listen to the new album of Sleigh Bells in advance

Good news for all you Sleigh Bells fans (and listeners of noisy indie music): even though the album itself won't be released until October 8, you can stream Bitter Rivals via Rolling Stone. That's what I'm currently doing anyway. The album sounds like a return to the Treats era sound although it also retains some of Reign of Terror's edginess. The instantly catchy "Young Legends" is most likely going to be the next single. "You Don't Get Me Twice" sounds a bit like "Rill Rill" meets "Comeback Kid". Another highlight is "To Hell With You" which is pretty much as 'easy listening' as the band gets. It's all sounding very promising judging by the first listen, so do check it out yourself, too!

One For The Weekend: 'Animale' by Don Diablo feat Dragonette

The weekend's here again. Too bad I've caught a cold so no partying for me... the chilly Danish weather got the best of me, it seems. So hear me guys, remember to look after yourselves. Oranges, for example, are an excellent way to take care of those vitamin C levels - just make sure they're not that kind of oranges as seen in the 'Animale' music video.





'Animale', the 2010 single of the Dutch DJ Don Diablo (try to say that after a couple of drinks) is a killer tune with infectious synth riff that makes you want to go bananas with citrus fruits and dance like you're living in a Skins episode. And hey, any music video that promotes fruit consumption is good, right?

Of course the clip actually refers to Requiem for a Dream, the heart-breaking and disturbing drug drama, and the oranges are obviously a metaphor for something less innocent they're getting high with. Which you probably noticed yourself. Anyway, the brilliant track also features Martina Sorbara of Dragonette (of whom I recently wrote about) in the vocals, so there's one more reason to love the tune. So go ahead, knock yourselves out to this song and have a great weekend!

Fun fact: after discovering this clip I started to get enormous cravings for oranges whenever hungover.

Another fun fact: people have told me I bear a striking resemblance to the protagonist of the video. After that I haven't been able to unsee it and now watching my unfortunate doppelgänger's fruit-fuelled adventures feels a bit weird, I'm telling you.

Basement Jaxx's 'What A Difference Your Love Makes' EP is now out

Remember when I wrote about the new Basement Jaxx single "What A Difference Your Love Makes"? And then about the lovely latin-tinged b-side "Mermaid of Salinas"? Well, the EP (also titled What A Difference Your Love Makes) featuring both tracks and then three remixes of the former is now out! On their Facebook page the duo also encouraged their fans to spread the word:

Which is obviously exactly what I'm doing now. Not only the sharing part of it, but also the other thing: dear readers, oh "What a difference your love makes". It would be rather pointless to write a blog if I had no readers, wouldn't it. If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Similarly, if a blogger writes blog entries and no one reads them, does it make any difference? Well, with your love, it makes. So thanks again for reading the blog, and remember: if you like what you see, feel free to share with others as well.

Alright, enough with sappiness and on with it. The EP has three remixes of the title song. The first one, by Miguel Campbell, is a groovy disco version of the original that resembles Daft Punk's current music style-wise. The Huxley remix is much more urban in sound and sounds like something you could hear at an underground club in the middle of London. The third one is not a remix as such but rather an extended version of the original and is pretty much what you'd expect from an extended edit: it's essentially the same but in larger quantities, clocking at 6:00. Most importantly, it's a wonderful thing that the EP actually features also something else than just the standard remixes - b-sides are getting rarer and rarer these days! So yeah, that's about it, go to iTunes and enjoy! Now, if only we could get some news about the album itself...

Review: 'Galore' by Dragonette

I've written about glorious debuts before - some bands just nail it straight away. That obviously comes at a price: it's hard if not downright impossible to write a follow-up to a flawless debut. Many of the groups whose debuts I'll review in this series have struggled to top their first albums, and Dragonette is no exception with their 2007's Galore. This is not because their latter albums wouldn't be excellent - they are - but because they went on and wrote a perfect pop album at the first attempt. 'Perfect' is a tricky word, I know, as it implies that nothing could be done better. However, the world we're living in isn't perfect and with an album this good and this close to pure pop perfection I dare to use it.

One For The Weekend: 'Royal T' by Crookers feat Róisín Murphy

Once again the weekend's here and people's dancing feet are getting restless. So go out, go have fun! And if you're looking for catchy beats and infectious dance tunes, well, boy are you in for a treat! Here's "Royal T", a great tune from the 2010 debut album of the Italian electronic duo Crookers. Not only is it super awesome but it also features vocals from none other than the wonderful Róisín Murphy so what's not to love!





And if you've run out of flashy new moves, you can always look up the group routine choreographed to this song in So You Think You Can Dance for inspiration. I can guarantee, with moves like that you will stand out from the crowd. For better of for worse.

Anyway, have a great weekend!