The Pattern Theory - The Pattern Theory (Album)

Although, as a Newcastle resident, I feel enormously spoilt by our selection of bands, I must confess that I’ve always been just a tiny bit jealous of gig-going folk in Leeds, a city which seems to spawn another outrageously creative band every three days. Take The Pattern Theory for example, a band who are now Berlin-based, but whose roots are unmistakably Leodensian. Sound-wise, their closest kin would probably be the likes of Explosions in the Sky (or, if you’ll permit me to carry on the Leeds motif, maybe Vessels). While they don’t employ the world-endingly noisy crescendos of those two, the record is brimming with familiarly undulating swells of melodic build-up. The band build hypnotic little patterns of melody and deconstruct and rebuild them at their leisure, with Framed Fields the best example of this, starting off all plaintive and achy before it almost imperceptibly picks up the pace and turns into something more urgent. The overall result is an enormously listenable and beautifully eloquent instrumental album with an impact that is undeniably softer than that of its forebears, but which is no less enriching for that. One of the best debut records that will emerge this year.

4/5

MySpace Hop - May 2011 (Feature)

Echo Lake

http://www.myspace.com/echolakeandthestrangeera

Echo Lake are by far my favourite new band this year. Their Young Silence EP is a proper dream-pop head-fuck; a hazy, cloying cloud of warmth that swamps your brain in the most gorgeous way. It’s disorienting and soothing all at once, with the lush vocals counterbalancing the uneasy ambience that drifts under the surface. I’m expecting a pretty trippy dawdle across MySpace based on my starting point...

Banjo or Freakout

http://www.myspace.com/banjoorfreakout

I’ve struggled with Banjo or Freakout for a few months, I must concede. I think it’s this ‘British Deerhunter’ thing that sets my suspicions a-tingling. The parallels are really obvious though, so it’s hard to escape the nagging feeling that it’s all a little contrived. If you can somehow manage to get past that (and if so, you’re more forgiving than this old curmudgeon), you’re in for some perfectly competent reverb-heavy pop. I’d still rather listen to Bradford Cox though.

Walls

http://www.myspace.com/walls_band

Oooh, now this IS good. This lot proudly publicise 9/10 and 4/5 album reviews aplenty on their page, so I’m moderately embarrassed to have missed this. It’s beautifully considered ponderous techno, ideal for languid summer evenings in the garden. Burnt Sienna is about the pinnacle of the loveliness, but A Wirus Waits is pretty interesting too. The ingredients might be quite minimal here, but there’s still a hell of a lot going on. A lovely find.

Allez-Allez

http://www.myspace.com/allezallez

Man, it took some effort to click off Walls’ page. Dancey London twosome Allez-Allez, to be honest, aren’t quite as enticing a prospect. Their sound is much more souped up than that of Walls, but it’s also far less imaginative, with each dreary beat-heavy cut bleeding into the last. Even their Fever Ray remix sounds exactly bloody like one of their own tracks, with not even Karen Dreijer Andersson’s infrequent ghostly mewlings managing to kick-start the thing.

It’s a Fine Line

http://www.myspace.com/itsafineline

The final stop of a fair less sleepy hop than I had anticipated is at the door of nutso London pair It’s a Fine Line, who should maybe double date with Allez-Allez to discuss how to be interesting. Their rubber-limbed electro-pop is an enjoyably mental diversion from the daily cut-n-thrust, although I’m not sure I’d have the endurance to sit through an entire album of it. Their remixes are a bit more palatable, as they breathe a bit of life into The XX and sex up Au Revoir Simone a treat.

Roddy Woomble - Cluny 2 - 02/04/11 (Gig)

Roddy Woomble looks and sounds pretty weather-beaten these days. Perhaps it’s down to those rough Scottish winters (or maybe even Scottish summers, come to think of it), but it means he can play the part of fully-fledged grizzly folkster pretty convincingly now. If latter day Idlewild felt a little forced and cumbersome, then it seems like the freedom of going solo has done him good, because tonight he is relaxed and amiable, and his homespun folk songs come across as entirely authentic, giving us a heartwarming insight into his love affair with Scotland. The lovely enveloping cosiness of a full Cluny 2 helps augment this feeling of warmth and goodwill to all men, providing an intimacy which is lacking only a campfire. He works beautifully with his backing trio, weaving through his two solo records, with highlights including the unashamed MOR bounce of ‘Roll Along’ and the unfussy elegance of ‘I Came in From the Mountain’. So strong is the set that I’d almost forgotten about Idlewild by the time ‘You Held the World in Your Arms’ is dropped into the encore, but it’s a nice surprise, and speaks volumes about a man completely at ease with both his past and present.

Jeniferever - Silesia (Album)

I’ve always had a massive soft spot for Jeniferever. Right from the misleading Smashing Pumpkins reference of their name, to the incredible grandeur of their debut record Choose a Bright Morning (and, to a slightly lesser extent, its follow-up Spring Tides), they’ve always been right up my street. I’m sure, then, you can imagine my delight to be tasked with the duty of reporting that Silesia is an absolute fucking triumph, and the main reason for its success is that, crucially, there is absolutely no attempt to replicate the Sigur Rós-esque beauty of their snails-pace elegies of yore. Yes, Silesia is still stunningly pretty in places, but it is also imbued with a brand new sense of urgency, playfulness even, which is gratifying in a whole different way. Take Deception Pass for example; it’s a thumping, booming slice of unsettling weirdness with a rhythm that your ear can never seem to quite catch up with, casually placed slap-bang in the middle of the record. This is telling of a band who are refreshingly willing to take risks when they could have quite easily knocked out BBC ident soundtracks ‘til the IKEA trucks came home. You need Jeniferever in your life.

5/5

Times New Viking - Dancer Equired (Album)

Times New Viking’s sense of timing here is pretty serendipitous, given how the much-ballyhooed return of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has put fuzzy mumble-pop back on the public’s agenda again. In an enormously over-crowded genre littered by saminess, Dancer Equired makes a decent fist of standing out from its contemporaries, but then you’d expect that from old hands like TNV for whom this represents their fifth full-lengther. By their own scratchy standards, they’ve softened a little, with Dancer Equired lacking the abrasive trebly scree of much of their earlier work, which has, I guess, robbed them of one of their most satisfying ingredients, but which has also undoubtedly made them a more listenable prospect. Don’t worry though, they still sound grubby as fuck, to the point where you actually start to wonder if the likes of Ways to Go and Downward Eastern Bloc are a willful attempt to wind up the audiophile zealots to whom the mere mention of 192kbps is akin to cheerfully shitting in their shoes. All in all, Dancer Equired is nothing we weren’t really expecting from Times New Viking, but it's good murky fun all the same.

3.5/5

Iron and Wine - Gateshead Sage 16/03/11 (Gig)

I’m just going to say it. There are far too many singer-songwriter types. The main consequence of this surfeit is that we’re completely and utterly inundated with bland fuckwits who seem to think that the purchase of an acoustic guitar comes with carte blanche to bleat dully about girls’n’shit to any unsuspecting suckers who happen to be in earshot. Step forward opening act Daniel Martin Moore, then, a man so stereotypically boring I don’t intend to waste any more of my word count on him. Based on the recorded evidence, Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam could certainly teach him a few lessons about how to maintain a balance between good ole-fashioned songcraft and actually being interesting. Things start off promisingly tonight, with Beam appearing relaxed and chatty,and his seven accompanists injecting songs from both ends of the discography with real gusto. But gradually, and almost imperceptibly, a change begins to permeate the set. What started off initially as satisfyingly full arrangements of the songs descend into interminable free-jazz wank-outs during which all eight musicians appear blissfully unaware of the presence of the crowd. It’s a fucking massive shame that the night takes this turn, because it takes more than a little bit of the shine off the wonderful songs and Beam’s impossibly warm vocal which is even more affecting when teamed up with the Sage’s space-age acoustics. An enormously frustrating night then, but hey, even a flawed Iron and Wine performance is preferable to what preceded it.

Vessels - Helioscope (Album)

It’s lovely to have Vessels back. It feels like way too long since they unleashed the post-mathrock colossus of their debut album White Fields and Open Devices upon the British public. Sadly, as it turns out, the ungrateful bastards who inhabit these shores were paying no attention whatsoever, abandoning White Fields to a horribly undeserved fate as an overlooked classic. Alas, providence has given us the chance to right that wrong with the release of Helioscope, because Vessels have, very magnanimously, delivered another stunning record. Much of what characterised White Fields is still present; the lunatic creativity, the staggering musical proficiency, the sudden and delightful swells of volume and swerves of tempo. Hell, parts of Helioscope (‘Recur’ and ‘Art/Choke’ in particular) could have been lifted right off White Fields. But Helioscope also shows that Vessels have developed a new brand of subtlety, something neatly illustrated by the moody beauty of ‘Meatman, Piano Tuner, Prostitute’ or the paranoid brilliance of ‘The Trap’. I’ve always had difficulty imagining a record more ambitious than White Fields and Devices, but if such a thing could be said to exist, then Helioscope is it. Vessels are a fucking marvel, and hopefully they haven’t finished surprising me yet.

5/5

Band of Horses - Newcastle O2 Academy 26/01/2011 (Gig)

When the fuck did Band of Horses became big enough to be packing out the Academy’s main room? I’d suggest it might be something to do with Twilight, but the ratio of males to females here tonight gives lie to that little theory. Whatever it was that brought about their popularity, the band, making their return to the live arena after a few months off the road, are for the most part in awesome form tonight. They emphatically cast aside the limpness that has latterly started to creep into their recorded output, playing with a pleasantly surprising vitality and transforming their sun-dappled Americana into bona fide arena-razing anthems, accompanying the whole thing with some beautiful backdrops (Seriously, why don’t more bands make an effort with the visual side of their shows?) Given the highs of the set, it's a shame that there are odd occasions when it can sag, which may have something to do with the general flatness of the possibly-vampire-enhanced crowd. Thankfully though, even this sorry bunch come to life during The Funeral and Is There a Ghost?, two songs which perfectly encapsulate all that is good about Band of Horses’ gorgeously warm songcraft.

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Album)

Due to their status as demi-Gods of beard-caressing experimentalism, any new music recorded by Mogwai will inevitably be accompanied by gallons of hyperbolic messageboard bullshit both positive and negative which, if you aren’t careful, could completely distort your perceptions of the music before you even hear a note. Hardcore Will Never Die... has inevitably continued this grim trend, prompting all manner of bitter bollocks about the band having been shit for ten years. Stepping away from the vicious context for a moment, the record is possibly their most direct effort yet, and one of their most upbeat too. Indeed, the propensity for straight-up rock instrumentals like Death Rays and San Pedro comes as a slight surprise after the misleadingly murky pre-release download of Rano Pano. There’s unmistakably less introspection here than normal, with the gorgeous Letters to the Metro representing the only moment where the album skulks into its shell, and even the quiet is shortlived, as the band immediately resume their mission to live out their alt-rock fantasies. It’s all pretty exhilarating stuff, and just because their pant-destroyingly brilliant previous work might still shade it, that doesn’t mean you should believe the naysayers that Mogwai are dead as a creative force.

4/5

The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar Preview (Album)

It’s only been four years since they formed, but somehow it feels like it’s taken The Joy Formidable forever to get around to releasing a debut album. Having spent the last three or four years consistently appearing in ‘ones to watch’ lists and diverting us with an array of awesome dream-grunge singles and a barnstorming mini- album, the Welsh three piece have finally deigned to bless us with their first full-lengther The Big Roar which will land on record shop shelves on January 24^th. It’s worth ignoring the post-Christmas credit card bill just a little bit longer in order to grab yourself a copy, because this is a band who have been consistently growing in strength with every release, making The Big Roar a candidate to be the first great record of 2011. The album blends a load of new songs with a few that have been around for yonks (Whirring, Cradle and Austere), but sadly there is no place for the ridiculously moreish Paul Draper collaboration Greyhounds in the Slips or ‘festive’ single My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder Than a Thousand Dead Christmas Trees. To a glass-half-full type like me, this would suggest that the songs which have made the cut might be even better. Besides, if you’re peeved by the absence of the aforementioned oldies, they feature on the stupidly comprehensive double CD and DVD box special edition, so indulge yourself. The band play the O2 in Newcastle on February the 8^th too, so if they are still strangers to you, there’s no excuse not to familiarise yourself with their music in the coming months.

December Singles Round Up

Those of you with a stock pile of back issues of Narc and too much time (or perhaps a worryingly precise memory) will be able to note that the last time I manned the singles column I made an ill-fated crack about how futile the attempts to sabotage Cowell’s dominance of the Christmas singles chart usually are (and subsequently lobbed my crystal ball in the Tyne). Well, I’m in no mood for such folly this time round but I will at least make a not-that-bold guess a that none of the singles I’m highlighting this month are likely to top the charts come Christmas day. Not that it’s a bad month, mind you, it’s a bloody strong one actually considering December’s usual truce between good taste and big bucks.

Unquestionably foremost among December’s 45s is the double A-Side from Vancouver’s Shimmering Stars, a band who appear to have shamelessly lifted the best bits of C86 and The Beach Boys and mashed them together in expert fashion. East Van Girls and its more laid-back cousin I’m Gonna Try are both exemplary chunks of sunny guitar japery, which are as impressively well-crafted as they are exhilarating. You can expect blogging types to be absolutely all over this lot next year.

A similarly lovely effort is Cambridge brother-sister duo The Cordelier Club’s Don’t Let it Go By, which is a lush example of how good guitar pop needn’t necessarily be particularly complicated, or even all that original. Indeed, both of the aforementioned bands could teach We Are Enfant Terrible that being derivative doesn’t always have to mean being boring. Sure, their double A-Side Wild Child / We Are Flesh n Blood Kids shows them to be perfectly competent handlers of catchy synth-pop, but there’s absolutely fuck all separating them from the dozens of bands making basically exactly the same records. The same thing could also easily be said about Primary 1, whose single Never Know is just as inoffensive a piece of electro pop as WAEF’s, and just as unremarkable.

Speaking of imitators, this month sees the welcome return of Panda Bear, a man who has almost single-handedly initiated a generation of low-fi sonic explorers, which is both a good and a bad thing. Last Night at the Jetty incorporates his usual dreamy ambience, his usual starry-eyed wonderment and his usual blissful sense of disorientation underpinning the song. With new album Tomboy due to land next year, this is an early indication that the record could be pretty special.

The second of this month’s more experimental efforts is Dog Bite’s Machino Machino, which takes its cue from Deerhunter’s recent work, so it’s heavy on echoey vocals and muddy guitars. It’s enjoyable enough, but there’s no denying that it feels a bit lightweight, to the extent that it’s difficult to keep your attention focused on it. A decidedly more engaging piece of music than this is Civil Civic’s Light on a Leash, which is a beautifully laid-out instrumental which veers unexpectedly from an ominous post-punk intro to a barmy synthy meltdown about halfway through. It’s addictive stuff, and in a weaker month would probably be top of the heap.

The only cover in the pile this month is Dirty Projectors’ take on Dylan’s As I Went Out One Morning, which, mystifyingly, turns out to be crushingly non-descript. It’s a shame that a band normally so adroit with a bit of loveable lunacy would bother to toss out a half-arsed effort like this, but at least it’s only a between album space-saver. A much better bit of folky fun comes from Lupen Crook with Dorothy Deserves, which is an exhilarating and enormously likeable bit of quirky stop-start pop which is up there with the best of this month.

Minus the Bear - O2 Academy 2 - 16/11/2010 (Gig)

It takes a hardy soul to brave the rancorous North-East winter when it is not absolutely necessary, so it is to the credit of Serious Young Men Newcastle-wide that the Academy 2 is two-thirds full on a night when the freezing fog stings your nostrils. Those present tonight are rewarded for their courage with an exemplary set of beard-stroking virtuosity from a Minus the Bear who are taking a welcome side-step from their current Jimmy Eat World support slots. This, in fact, may be the reason why tonight feels like a one-off rather than just another leg of a tour, and may be why the band are so relaxed and engaging between songs, in a manner which belies the solemn nature of their music. It’s the sheer skilfulness of their musicianship which is most impressive though, constantly illustrating the fact that these are five fucking talented people. The intricacy and melodiousness of their playing often calls to mind a less abstract version of Battles, although unlike their meandering countrymen, Minus the Bear’s musical detours usually give the impression that they are leading somewhere. Tonight we have witnessed a criminally underrated band whose passion and skill deserves a wider audience.

Munch Munch - Double Visions (Album)

Prior to recording their debut album, Bristolian quartet Munch Munch felt compelled to lay down some ground rules for themselves, (apparently in order to curb their maximalist tendencies), which included sacking off guitars entirely and limiting themselves solely to live percussion. You’d think such restrictive tenets would result in the whole thing sounding a bit constrained, but Double Visions is a gloriously creative hotchpotch of songs. To call it pop is simultaneously accurate and misleading, because, sure, there are hooks present, but there are bloody dozens of them. The record seems to have been built from little 30-odd second snippets which have been chopped up, put back together in no particular order and then sliced into ten songs seemingly for the sake of convention. As a result, it’s a pretty disorienting listen initially, but it doesn’t take long for the boisterousness and sheer fucking fun of the likes of Wedding and Bold Man of the Sea to come gushing over you like some heaven-sent remedy to the miseries of the Northern Winter. Not many bands are ambitious enough to attempt an album like Double Visions, even fewer are clever enough to actually pull it off.

5/5

Feature - The NARC. Issue 55 Mixtape

The first of a new regular feature in NARC., a 10 track Spotify Mixtape

http://open.spotify.com/user/browno2/playlist/1pTxezMllmTs441dO3TOaa

Vessels – An Idle Brain and the Devil’s Workshop (Errors Remix) – A reworking which sees Errors deconstruct the wandering grandeur of the original, and replace it with a far more playful, glitchy aesthetic.

Trouble Books – Houseplants – Trouble Books are one of the USA’s best kept secrets. Here, they infuse the most minimal of musical elements with an abundance of space to create something beautifully fragile and affecting.

Emmy the Great – Canopies and Drapes – An offcut from Emmy’s impressive debut record which later emerged on the extended version. She namechecks The Magnetic Fields, S Club 7 and KD Lang among others on a lovely folk workout.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Higher Than the Stars (Saint-Etienne Remix) – The EP from last year’s biggest word of blog successes was arguably as good as their debut record, and this remix adds a new air of dreaminess to their sunny C86-isms.

Elliott Smith – Son of Sam – While his sparser work is his most lauded, on Figure 8, Elliott showed that a fuller sound didn’t strip his songs of their emotion. Opening song Son of Sam is an undoubted highlight.

Her Name is Calla – Nylon – Her Name is Calla are one of our most interesting, creative bands, and Nylon illustrates their darker side, building slowly and menacingly to a histrionic crescendo.

Everything Everything – Photoshop Handsome – Any band hyped to fuck like Everything Everything will be met with suspicion, but the infectious bounce of Photoshop Handsome illustrates why they are worth (most of) the hyperbole.

Los Campesinos! – The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future – 2010 saw Los Campesinos! apparently outgrow their twee pop origins. This is the apex of the new LC’s achievements, at once euphoric, despairing and thoroughly enriching.

Asobi Seksu – Thursday – Taken from 2006’s Citrus, Thursday is the perfect blend of Asobi Seksu’s twin strengths, Yuki Chikudate’s gorgeous vocals, and the sometimes overpowering tumult of guitars.

Sonic Youth – The Diamond Sea – Clocking in at just under 20 minutes, this is Sonic Youth’s most decadent work, but also the most liberated they have ever sounded, as Thurston’s weary vocal gives way to 20 minutes of exquisitely meandering noise.

Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth: Remixed (Album)

Beast Rest Forth Mouth is likely to end up one of 2010’s great overlooked records, destined to be overshadowed by Yeasayer’s similar, inferior effort. Entering the minefield of the remix album seems at first a curious decision, especially given the near-perfection of the source material but the result, by and large, vindicates Bear in Heaven. Undoubtedly, the album’s shimmering pop charm is lost, but in its place comes a subtler new appeal, particularly on The Field’s remix of Ultimate Satisfaction, or Deru’s Deafening Love, which experience two of the most radical deconstructions here, both taking on an unnerving, ghostly air. The BRAHMS remix of Fake Out, meanwhile, is a less drastic tweak, enhancing the song’s essence with a skittering little beat, the result of which is probably better than the original. As with practically every remix album ever made, not every reworking is a success, with Pink Skull’s version of Wholehearted Mess turning the song into a shapeless mush. On the whole though, the band have presided over a real success, adding an interesting new dimension to their album, which will hopefully bring it back on the radar to those who missed it first time round.

4/5

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest Preview (Album)

These days, it feels strange to bemoan a period of less than twelve months as too long to have gone without recorded output from any artist. But such is the outrageously prolific nature of Bradford Cox, a man usually good for at least two records a year, that it seems like an age since his last release, October’s Atlas Sound album Logos. He even stopped spewing out the formerly frequent Virtual 7” recordings which litter the archives of the Deerhunter blog (most of which are well worth exploring if you find yourself with a spare afternoon and a fuckload of hard drive space). His quiet spell is due to end on September 28^th, as he and his Deerhunter cohorts knuckle back down to the day job with the release of their fifth full-lengther Halcyon Digest. Lead single Revival (quite fittingly, given the name), picks up the thread left by last Deerhunter EP Rainwater Cassette Exchange, taking on the same lazy, mildly shoegazey ambience of its predecessor. That’s not to say you should expect any kind of rehash of past glories, mind you, because Deerhunter are most definitely not that kind of band. There may be some vague sense of narrative logic running through their back catalogue, but a huge part of their overall appeal lies in their unpredictability and their sublime meandering tangents. In fact the only thing about Halcyon Digest that isn’t likely to surprise is its inevitable prominent spot in the end of end of year love-ins.

Pulled Apart by Horses - Pulled Apart by Horses (Album)

I’m not sure exactly what it takes for a post-hardcore band to cross over successfully to indie-land, but Pulled Apart By Horses might be able to answer that question. Like Rolo Tomassi and Dananananaykroyd before them, they have managed to get check-shirted types a-quivering with anticipation for their debut record. They might not have Rolo’s lunatic creativity or Dananana’s insane levels of unbridled energy, but PABH are still quite adept with straight-up dumb shouty rawk. They have a sense of fun which is pretty appealing. This is music which doesn’t take itself too seriously, something that is clear from a mere passing glance at the track-list. The likes of ‘I Punched a Lion in the Throat’ and ‘The Crapsons’ are more than just silly one-liners though, they are backed up by satisfyingly meaty riffs and are catchier than all the yelling might lead you to believe at first. A lot of this might be a bit tongue in cheek, but there’s still a convincing amount of anger present, particularly in ‘I’ve Got Guestlist to Rory O’Hara’s Suicide’. It’s unlikely to reveal much more of itself after the first few listens, but PABH is still a decent rock knockabout.

3.5/5

Idlewild - O2 Academy 2 - 26/4/2010 (Gig)

Most indie fans will have seminal bands, those with a big role in shaping their tastes in their formative days, and for me, like many others, Idlewild were one of those bands. Tonight a completely crammed Academy 2 sees them on their final tour before an indefinite hiatus. It’s a strange night, because it serves as a reminder of the brutal creative force Idlewild once were, and the lifeless shadow of their former selves they eventually became. However, dips into the last three records are thankfully infrequent in a set which is heavy on 100 Broken Windows. The likes of ‘Idea Track’, ‘ Little Discourage’ and ‘Roseability’ are glorious throwbacks, searing flashes of anger which are brilliant examples of the bracing energy of Idlewild at their best. Not that all their post-2000 work was dreadful, mind you. When ‘American English’ closes the main set, it is genuine lump-in-the-throat stuff. Really, the best way we can remember Idlewild, is illustrated by the mid-set one-two-three of Hope is Important songs. They are delivered with a particularly savage intensity, and go a long way to eliminating the limp radio rock of recent years. For these wonderfully visceral moments, we will remember Idlewild fondly.

Holy Fuck - Latin (Album)

By allowing their third record to drift unhurriedly into your conscience with the creepily ambient scene-setter MD, Holy Fuck toy with us a little. Fans of their infectiously experimental electro may even fear that they’ve forgotten how to write a tune this time out. But then the almost comical funk of Red Lights kicks in, and such fears are rendered groundless. Latin is another massively accomplished piece of work, a beautifully rendered blend of noise and surging rhythm. All of Holy Fuck’s work is marked by sheer danceability, and this will inevitably make them a popular festival band, but what will make this record worth revisiting in future years is the range of moods encapsulated by its layers and textures. It is hugely evocative, often roaming into darker territory than usual, but you still sense that for all the seriousness, their funster instincts are always lurking under the surface, occasionally making a break for freedom in the mischievous basslines. After the major artistic breakthrough their last album represented, Holy Fuck have been successful in building on this, and have given us one of 2010’s most creative, inspiring albums so far.

5/5

Blank Promotions First Birthday Bash - The Cluny - 28/03/10 (Gig)

With the exception of the lovely folky songcraft of opening act Lesley Rowley, tonight’s birthday bash for Blank Promotions is heavily laden with the new wave of post-rock bands. Sona Di exemplify this, as their fantastically tight musicianship builds up to a raging, roaring crescendo. Late additions to the bill worriedaboutsatan also display post-rock tendencies, albeit mingled with their beautifully textured electronica. Tonight their set is a bit of a mixed bag. When they step away from what appears to be a fascinating game of laptop Battleships and really let go, they are excellent, but there are times when it is difficult to take them seriously as a live band. Fellow Leodensians I Concur are far more engaging, ripping through a speedy set of their well-honed Mogwai-gone-pop songs. Lanterns on the Lake provide a nice gap in the gloom with a beautiful set of elegant, twinkling pop songs. Their lightness of touch belies the plethora of musicians crammed onto the Cluny’s stage, and were it not for the scintillating form of the headliners, they would be the band of the night. If Lanterns on the Lake represented a break in the clouds, Her Name is Calla prove to be the storm which engulfs the Cluny entirely. Just when it seems they will wander off into muso noodling territory, they pull it back with waves of crashing, doomy noise. Their set is an exhibition of their creativity and virtuosity, and serves as a tantalising taster for their new album later this year.