From Newton Faulkner “Due to Storm Ophelia we have taken advice to postpone the show tonight at Cypress Avenue in Cork until further notice” pic.twitter.com/3girLNABHs
This is it. This is the excitement we’ve been waiting for. Ok, it’s a jaded excitement but it’s LCD sonically and lyrically encapsulating their whole deal in one track. Ever the ageing outsider, Murphy ruminates on the current pop landscape’s monoculture that peddles limited edition sneakers before turning it back on himself “And what’s it you do again? Oh I’m a reminder / The hobbled veteran of the disk shop inquisition”. He’s still losing his edge and recognises he sounds like his mother. The generation gap is stark.
“You’ve lost your internet and we’ve lost our memories / We had a paper trail that led to our secrets / But embarrassing pictures have now all been deleted / By versions of selves that we thought were the best ones ‘Till versions of versions of others repeating / Come laughing at everything you thought was important / While still making mistakes that you thought you had learned from.”
In the end, Murphy suggests the culture prioritises the youthful superstars is a false narrative but offers a hopeful alternative narrative for living.
“You’re missing a party that you’ll never get over / You hate the idea that you’re wasting your youth / That you stood in the background oh until you got older / But that’s all lies.”
It’s not over and Murphy’s own “late era middle-aged ramblings” is proof.
2.
Alex Cameron & Angel Olsen – Stranger’s Kiss
A classic-sounding collaboration that has a curtain-closer feel. Olsen is the real star once she appears giving the tune a lift beyond the norm. Nice video featuring Girls actress Jemima Kirke too.
3.
James Holden & The Animal Spirits – Pass Through The Fire
It’s been a while since anything from Mr Holden has grabbed my ears. ‘ Pass Through The Fire’ is a discombobulating building track recorded with his new band The Animal Spirits. Holden will no longer be DJing so this is the new phase of his career and it’s a nu-jazz brass and wind modular synth folk /trance workout constructed live with the band Tom Page (RocketNumberNine), Etienne Jaumet, Marcus Hamblett, Liza Bec and Lascelle Gordon – have shared lead single ‘Pass Through The Fire’.
4.
Confidence Man – Boyfriend (Repeat)
One of those novelty-lite talky songs that would have gone down well at the indie-disco, ‘Boyfriend Repeat’ is a fun and funky pop song from an Australian four-piece.
5.
Julien Baker – Appointments
21 year-old Memphis songwriter Julien Baker’s debut was reissued on Matador earlier this year and now we had news of her newest Turn Out The Lights on October 27th. ‘Appointments’ is a torch-burning hopeful highlight. Baker plays Dublin in November.
6.
Four Tet – the one with a load of random symbols
I’m not sure where I’ve heard this before but it was posted under a load of random symbols on Spotify this week. It’s not the other track on the new limited 12″ release with ‘Planet’ on it, that’s ‘SW9 SSL’ Just don’t ask me what it’s called.
7.
Daughter – Burn It Down
Surprise! Daughter are doing the score for a video game. Not totally expected perhaps but their music is ambient-leaning and Florence And The Machine worked with Square Enix and Final Fantasy before so it’s has precedence. The band’s soundtrack for Life Is Strange: Before The Storm will be released as Music from Before the Storm will be released on September 1.
8.
The Horrors – Something To Remember Me By
The Horrors are at their best when they bring rock textures with more hypnotic elements and this new song from their fifth album V (Sept 22) does just that. It’s a bit New Order, a bit Caribou.
9.
Ardyn – Throwing Stones
After this Gloucestershire duo’s last song had a Fleetwood Mac vibe, their newest continues the trend of sounding like classic artist with Kate Bush being the most obvious touchstone. It was produced by Tourist (they feature on his new single) and the sense of foreboding common from watching Hitchcock’s The Birds.
10.
Anna Of The North – Money
From the new album from the Norwegian-Kiwi duo of Anna Lotterud and Brady Daniell-Smith out September 8, ‘Money’ is a warning to a friend, or ex about a coin-sucking lover.
The Horrors release their fifth album V on September 22 and in October they will play two Irish dates at Belfast’s Mandela Hall on October 16th and The Tivoli in Dublin on October 17th.
Tickets priced €24 go on sale this Friday 30th June at 9am through Ticketmaster for the Dublin date.
Blondie, Sinead O’Connor, Mogwai, James Murphy, Kelis, Neneh Cherry, The Horrors, Duke Dumont, Twin Shadow, Ham Sandwich, Clean Bandit, Drenge, The Orwells, Glass Animals, Wolf Alice, The Districts, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Vancouver Sleep Clinic, Vaults, Benjamin Booker, Moko.
The fourth album from The Horrors veers into baggy / shoegaze territory that doesn’t diminish their ability to create large-scale euphoric soundscapes.
As The Horrors progress in their career, they appear to dig deeper into older music, yet find their own place in it. ‘I See You’, the first song from their fourth album Luminous (May 2nd on XL), sounds part of the late ’80s rock world, as much of Skying did, and like that album, there’s still room for grand gestures, in this case light disco-synths and a dark and sparkling outro. This is a natural continuation of what came before – epic ambient rock with a sweeping of knowledge of historical music in its DNA.
From punk rock caricatures on their debut album Strange Life to psychedelic Kraut-rockers on Primary Colours and now ’80s revivalists, The Horrors have traversed an increasingly interesting path over the last six years. Skying finds them celebrating and re-appropriating strains of British rock music from “baggy” to late ’80s histrionics to ’90s indie rock. That the band assimilate all of this into their third album and add another string to their bow without sounding like copyists is a testament to their growing talent andd why you should be paying attention.
That’s not to say that the entirely self-produced Skying is an easily identifiable record. While much of the album has a laid-back, room-filling, brooding feel, there are diversions into psychedelia and lush soundscapes. In the same way that bands like Primal Scream and Death In Vegas have done so previous, The Horrors are echoing the past while sounding totally themselves.
First single ‘Still Life’ could be a Death In Vegas joint with its Contino Sessions-esque backwards Indian guitar, heaving bassline and uplifting synths. That song has also been compared heavily to Simple Minds thanks to Horrors’ vocalist Faris Badwin’s similarly spectral vocals (his voice is a consistent record highlight) to Jim Kerr but there’s certainly a valid comparison to be made with early ’80s Simple Minds music too as there’s the same snaking drum, bass and guitar insistency on a lot of Skying.
Synthesizers play a big role in adding colour to the songs – they effortlessly breathe in and out of the other instrumentation adding an certain swash of ambience to proceedings while brass is used to great effect on ‘You Said’, ‘Endless Blue’ and ‘Wild Eyes’ inviting the Primal Scream comparison. There’s an overall less frenzied fluidity to the record with occasional diversions into uptempo passages.
It’s somewhat ironic that a band who arrived with a style over substance tag are now making some seriously substantial music, forging their own take on marginal genres of rock music made in the past 30 years. The Horrors are so stylistically out of step with what’s happening, that they are now even more interesting than anything thought they ever could be.
Skying is out on XL Recordings in Ireland this Friday and everywhere else next week. Stream it below…
Not many bands can say their debut gig took place in The Vatican but Cat’s Eyes, a duo consisting of The Horror’s singer Faris Badwan and the Canadian opera soprano Rachel Zeffira (who plays piano, violin, English horn, oboe, cathedral organ, harmoniuma and Indian tambura) did just that. The contrast between the scornful-sounding rocker and classical musician is at the heart of Cat’s Eyes appeal as they take on ’60s girl group sounds with psychedelic tropes, synthesizers and multi-tracked vocals. It’s an expansive project. The album came out yesterday in the UK. Listen to 30-second samples after the jump or check out three full songs from it first.
A selection of photos by The Noise In Our Heads‘ Danielle Graham from Electric Picnic. In order of appearance: The National, The Horrors, Friendly Fires, Two Door Cinema Club, LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, The Antlers, Villagers, Redneck Manifesto, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, ASIWYFA, Roxy Music, Foals, Jonsi, Laura Marling & Marc Almond.
The good (no make that GREAT) folks at Lex Records sent some sweet remixes and mixtapes this way this week. Hold on to your pants.
First up a proper dub remix of Willie Isz’ ‘The Grussle’ from Hyperdub’s LV. Grab the original which is on the album Georgiavania out now from eMusic or Lex Shop. Proper dub-sided. Willie Isz are Jneiro Jarel & Khujo Goodie.
The Horrors return to the remix game once again to remix Heartbreak’s ‘Akin to Dancing’, adding some further Italian sounds to an already Italo-disco template. Pick up the vinyl.
Tomorrow I’m splitting from dull overcast Dublin for the weekend in favour of the three-day Rock en Seine festival near Paris. The lineup includes Vampire Weekend, Bill Callahan (really looking forward to this), Oasis, Faith No More, Passion Pit, School of Seven Bells, MGMT, Baaba Mal, Klaxons, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party, Vitalic, The Horrors, Dananananakroyd, Metric, Yann Tierson and The Asteroid Galaxy Tour.
There’s even a free mini-Rock en Seine for kids who haven’t got too old to scoff at Oasis yet. Should be good.
The trip has been made possible by Eurostar and We Are Social who are bringing myself and some UK music bloggers over for the festival on a little break (see previous art and fashion breaks). I’m looking forward to travelling by the Channel Tunnel for a laugh (especially as it’s a FREE bloody trip – blogging can have its perks and it’ll be a nice respite from 18 hour days). If you’re interested in following suit, check out Little Break, Big Difference for ideas for entertainment and culture-themed breaks to Paris, Brussels and Lille. Here’s a track from Danish band The Asteroid Galaxy Tour which reminds me of something else.. Anyone know it?
New butterfly psychedelia retrograde video from The Horrors excellent Primary Colours album which was debuted through NIN.com. Evidently, Trent is a fan.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) sees the announcement of the shortlist for the 2009 Mercury Music Prize and the BBC Music Blog have asked various blogs (myself included) to give their thoughts on a possible shortlist. The Mercury Prize is awarded to albums of any genre, with the only key entry condition being that they had a UK/Ireland release between July 15 2008 and July 13 2009 (full rules here). Where possible, I’ve linked the album name to the Spotify page so you can listen yourself. So let’s start building my list: (more…)
The good (no make that GREAT) folks at 
Tomorrow I’m splitting from dull overcast Dublin for the weekend in favour of the three-day 
Tomorrow (Tuesday) sees the announcement of the shortlist for the 2009 Mercury Music Prize and the 
