Reviews

When Oasis’ manager stated that the band, ‘Does not exist anymore’, after an altercation between the Gallagher brothers in the bowels of a Parisian music festival in the summer of 2009, some feared the final nail in the coffin for a brand of contemporary rock & roll music which harks back to its original roots of carefree swagger, attitude and intrigue.

Talent scouts and the collective music media alike continue to search in desperation for the next guitar band that will supposedly ‘save rock & roll’, but arguably not since The Libertines, or more recently the Arctic Monkeys, have we witnessed a band able to command the attention of a nation in the manner of the Nineties Britpop-dominated music scene, when rock music transcended a basic style with anthems capable of uniting an entire generation.

In steps Cold Committee, a four-piece guitar band jointly hailing from the North Wales coastal towns of Prestatyn and Rhyl, with influences sourced from decades of past rock luminaries such as The Who and The Beatles, all the way up to the present day with the Arctic Monkeys and Oasis. The intrinsic link with Oasis in particular goes beyond merely a strong musical inspiration however, with the band having recently played a string of private in-store gigs in aid of Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green clothing line.

The kid can sing.

23-year-old Winston Yellen, better known as Night Beds, possesses a voice of tremulous, outstanding beauty. It’s something he is highly aware of, that much is evident. For on debut album ‘Country Sleep‘, when Yellen unleashes his vocal gymnastics of heartbreaking vulnerability over lashings of rumbling Americana, he holds nothing back.

Before we go any further, this isn’t an album by The Smiths.

No matter what, any new music released by Manchester’s greatest ever guitarist and all round nice guy will always be held up against the stunning legacy of the band he left aged only 24.

That won’t be happening here. All clear on that? Good. Glad we’re all in agreement.

‘The Messenger‘ then, is billed as Johnny Marr’s first fully solo album – which means that tellingly, Marr is quietly distancing himself from the boorish, sub-Oasis swamp rock of 2003’s ‘Boomslang‘ (he’s right to do so of course, it’s crap). Pleasingly, we instead find that Marr is now as comfortable with the Johnny of today as he is embracing of the Johnny of yesteryear.

There are so many ways to enthrall and overwhelm an audience with your film’s soundtrack.

Do you raid your obscure vinyl collection, Tarantino style? Do you hire Hans Zimmer and let him off the leash to wreak musical genius?

Or do you just grab an up-and-coming band by the collar and empty a suitcase of money in front of them? “Yup, let’s do that” said Beautiful Creatures director Richard LaGravanese. Probably.

By the time the spring of 2010 rolled around, Ruban Nielson had already removed himself from the unsettling clamor of the award-winning New Zealand punk outfit the Mint Chicks in order to live a quiet and unassuming life as a graphic designer with his wife and kids in Portland, Oregon.

Flash forward nearly three years and that quiet and unassuming and decidedly non-musical life that Nielson once hoped to cultivate couldn’t be further from the truth. After cautiously creating a Bandcamp page to display a track that he recorded in his basement under the mysterious banner of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, the would-be nine-to-fiver has since transformed his personal project into a live power trio, released a stellar self-titled debut for Fat Possum Records, locked himself into a rigorous international touring schedule, and signed on to indie juggernaut Jagjaguwar for a hotly anticipated follow-up.

As demonstrated by the debut album ‘Becoming A Jackal’, Villagers’ Conor O’Brien has a real talent for stitching strong melodies to a foreboding lyric; his ominous words cosseted by a saccharine coat.

In 2010 this was rewarded with a Mercury Prize nomination and an Ivor Novello Award for ‘Best Original Song’ – two of the UK music industry’s most prodigious awards.

Yet Villagers seem to have taken the pressure and anticipation for ‘the difficult second album’ in their stride. Whereas many artists would be tempted (or pressured) to repeat the formula of their success ‘{Awayland}‘ is a progressive affair. Indeed, O’Brien seems to have tired a little of his more traditional songwriter approach and adopted other influences to keep things fresh.

“I think we’ve invented a new genre. Funk folk. I’m not sure the world is ready for it, but we’ve done it anyway.” – RT.

Ready or not, Richard Thompson’s ‘Electric’ is upon us. Along with Taras Prodaniuk and Michael Jerome, the core of his touring band for the last 10 years, Thompson has put together a record of remarkable depth and powerful folksome flavour.

His guitar playing, so inimitable and unpredictable, has never been easy to define. Now it veers between wild fantasy and weary fable, stirring up all passions of untamed youth alongside the hardened discipline that only comes with long maturity.

Somehow I Am Kloot have always remained on the periphery of ‘commercial’ success; smouldering like a dormant volcano waiting to erupt. But, intentionally or not, ‘Let It All In’ is the game changer.

With Guy Garvey and Craig Potter on board as co-producers once more, Kloot’s eighth album has a touch more polish than, say, the 2010 Mercury Prize nominated ‘Sky At Night’. And although Garvey’s influence is inevitable, I Am Kloot are definitely not clinging onto Elbow’s coattails.

Fast approaching their twentieth year since inception way back in 1995 during a Britpop dominated UK music scene, seasoned alt-rockers Biffy Clyro are looking to raise the bar on sixth studio record and double album ‘Opposites‘.

Approaching a double sided record is a tentative beast for bands and fans alike; difficult to get right even for the most varied and ambitious of groups, such is the unusual demand on listeners to sit through potentially over an hour’s worth of material. ‘Opposites’ is unlikely to soundtrack a commute to work, being a record rewarding extensive listening through a volume dialled up speaker system as opposed to headphones – just like the good old days.

After high charting recent records in 2007’s ‘Puzzle‘ and 2009’s ‘Only Revolutions‘, long-term members of the Biffy fanbase may seek refuge here, with several tracks comprising meatier elements reminiscent of the barbed-wire punk rock sound found on earlier records such as ‘Infinity Land‘. The album effectively analyses the good and bad fundamentals of human consciousness, while aiming to appease a growing, diverse demographic gained largely after 2010 X Factor winner Matt Cardle’s cover of ‘Many Of Horror‘ alerted mainstream ears to a band experimenting with a vulnerable, soft-hearted pop sensibility amidst soaring choruses.

After nearly a decade of silence, David Bowie has made an appropriate return to public life with the haunting single ‘Where Are We Now?‘, a precursor to an album due for release in March.

In a curiously emotive style, the song reflects upon the artist’s early career in Germany as the lyrics take us on a musical tour of Bowie’s Berlin, when at the peak of his career in the mid-to-late seventies he lived and played in the city whilst working on three albums.