Cougar Microbes

First things first; Return to Mono are anything but monophonic. Their catchy guitar rifts, strong vocals, and solid synths form a fully fledged and fully phonic electro rock sound.

‘Song Of The Beast‘ is the bands largest slice of electro; crunched beats are supported with warps and synths to provide a harder edge to their sound.  Leading lady Tanya Kelleher adds some pop accessibility to the tracks with her vocal style sitting somewhere between Garbage‘s Shirley Manson and the Noisettes‘ Shingai Shoniwa.

The album title track ‘Framebreaker‘ has a dense MGMT style production sound to it combined with military percussion and rustic earthy vocals that add maturity and longevity to the track.  ‘Seeker Cicuit‘ is the most rock infused of all the album tracks, focusing more upon vocals and stripping back the normally saturated synths to expose some serious guitar solos.

Even those who wouldn’t describe yourself as a classic electro pop fan you’ll be surprised to find that this band’s genre spanning  San Francisco sound offers something for everyone.

Return To Mono release their new album ‘Framebreaker’ on Audio Villain Records early next year.

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Post by the villainous Ruby

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TRACKS:

End of Level Baddie is an upcoming electro producer whose work is an eclectic mix of vintage synths, retro samples, broken beats and saturated bass lines.

The self titled track ‘e.n.d.o.f.l.e.v.e.l.b.a.d.d.i.e’ is a basement break beat masterpiece. It kicks off with old skool style initialing then slopes into a sly sample of TLC before being beefed out with heavy baselines and  klaxon sounds.

Elsewhere, ‘What? More Wobble’ has a more rustic feel, heavy digital drums and bleeps to build on an aggressive and predictable bassline which almost treads into Stanton Warrior territory. There’s also sections of this track that set early dub step alarms ringing with a quasi Mr Oizo sound.

In contrast ‘Oww! Feel So Alive’ is a disjointed electro number and the lightest of the lot, but yet still contains a smorgasbord of sound effects to confuse you senseless.

There are times when you may feel there is some repetition in these overtly compact mixes. However, the fearless cross- pollination of genres that the Hull based producer has combined have left him with an impressive sound that is likely to provide him with a future of dance finery. Just check out his performances from Reading and Leeds festival for confirmation.

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Post by Ruby the high flyer.

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TRACKS:

Listen to Brooklyn based Selebrities for a few minutes and you could be forgiven for thinking you were revisiting the new wave sound of the late seventies but in fact it’s a current form of synth pop they’re serving which confusinglytakes us back to the future.

Lead track ‘Secret Garden‘ has a subtle instrumental backdrop that showcases Maria Usbecks‘ dry vocals beautifully. Her style is purposefully non-committal giving an air of jaded romanticism akin to a sultrier gothic version of Ladyhawke.

In contrast ‘Time‘ takes a more melancholic route with hopeful guitar pieces and pace driving percussion reminiscent of Whitest Boy Alive. The constant drive from the synthetic drums seems to purposefully remove any dwell time on the song and this is mirrored by Usebecks’ evasive and repetitive lyrics.

It’s as if the band have slapped a giant “I don’t want to talk about it” slogan across the track which has captures a feeling that every listener can identify with. ‘The Moonlight‘ and ‘Audition‘ seem simpler in their message and both bathe in a retro melting pot of deluded disco and eerie synth that makes them the more fashiony tracks of the EP.

Selebrities are mastering the ever-so-seductive with holding dance, just giving us a snippet of their sound with their EP ‘Ladies Man Effect’. They’re also playing the good old fashioned game of “treat ‘em mean keep ‘em keen” by holding out on an album release until later this year.

For now they are teasing us with début ‘We’ve Been Foolish’ due to be released on Cascine at the end of November.

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Post by Ruby the high flyer

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TRACKS:

Back in the beginnings of this blog we posted about I Am Not Lefthanded and their amazing ‘Long Goodbyes‘ track.  The 3 piece band with Irish roots but London lives are back on our radar with their soft melodic indie rock that melts in your mouth.

‘Lifelines’ taken from their current EP ‘Time to Leave’ has a soft and graduating piano accompaniment that strips the track of unnecessary complication to reveal the gorgeous sound of lead singer Kathryn’s voice that lays somewhere between Norah Jones and Lisa Loeb.

They are currently back in the studio working on a full length album which I’m afraid you’re gonna have to sit tight for but in the meantime you can console yourself with this little winter warmer.

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Post by Ruby the infiltrator.

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TRACKS:

I Am Not Lefthanded -Lifelines

The first thing to strike you about this young songstress from Detroit is the uniqueness of her voice.She’s got a sickly sweet nostalgic twinge that’s a little bit Lykke Li and a retro flair that’s a little bit Paloma Faith and the rest I just can’t place.

Refreshingly, her tracks show the kind of production and instrumentation that other current pop records glimpse at but never fully grasp. Take ‘Choice Notes’ for example, with its plucky piano chords, hand clap percussion and xylophone tinkering. It’s rammed packed with musical entertainment yet it still manages to retain a light happy –go- lucky pop feel.

‘Medicine’, is equally whimsical with layered backing vocals and choral chanting. With lyrics such as “I won’t take my medicine” and ‘so thanks for nothing’ there’s a nursery rhyme feel to it that adds some playful personality. In contrast, ‘Gimme Me Heart’ graduates towards more teenage years and is drenched in a school-crush-style cooing that makes you wonder if Winston had cartoon doves fluttering above her whilst in the recording studio.

Normally, the idea of a female singer /songwriter producing theatrical boutique pop would see me run to the hills or at least towards the nearest record collection in search of an auditory antidote. However, in the instance, Alex Winston has won me over and wooed me with her form of picture perfect pop and shall seek no immunity from it.

‘Choice Notes’ is out now on HeavyRoc.

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Post by the vanishing Ruby

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TRACKS:

The Legendary producer and songwriter Daniel Lanoi is debuting his newest project Black Dub this month and we believe it to be very good.

He’s enlisted the help of Brian Blade, Daryl Johnson and most noticeably the vocal wizardry of Trixie Whitley whose silky jazz vocals give this track an old school soul feel. With graceful melodies and Peggy Lee Fever esque percussion this record has the foundations of a modern classic with a twist.

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Post by the vanishing Ruby

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TRACKS:

Black Dub – I Believe In You

Camden artist Leelou is bringing us a powerful slice of post- punk pop with her debut EP ‘Kiss. Death. Love. Come’. After working and touring with French legendary cover band Nouvelle Vague she’s made a welcome return to her solo roots and has meet her musical match in production partner Paul Simm’s.

Her first Single ‘Burn Your Houses Down’ (written about the MP housing scandal) is a catchy piece of unpretentious socio-political pop, believe it or not. With the pop accessibility of her tracks and her rich tremulous voice you could be fooled into likening Leelou to modern day artists such as Marina and the Diamonds but with her dark and charismatic sound comparisons to iconic artists such as Siouxsie would be far more fitting.

Of all the tracks ‘Gasoline‘ is less punchy than ‘Burn Your Houses Down’ and is probably the most indie of the EPs outputs but still manages to maintain some punkette percussion and edge. In contrast, ‘Kill For Your Love‘ and ‘Kiss Like Carnivores’ are stripped back, slower in pace and overlaid by a soft vocal drawl and that sees her move towards a more grunge inspired sound reminiscent of her cited influence Nirvana.

There’s is something very powerful about Leelou’s voice and indeed her song writing skills and in a market where post punk female artists are not common place I hope her offerings will go someway to filling the vacant void.

LeeLou’s debut EP ‘Kiss. Death. Love. Come’ is released on Enso Records on the 8th of November

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Post by the Clark Kent-esque Ruby

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TRACKS:

Darwin Deez have taken 2010 by storm with their own brand of “genius pop”. Using specially tuned 4 string electric guitars and lyrics inspired by children’s books they have managed to create a form of Indie rock pop that is unlike any other.

Tracks such as ‘Radar Detector‘, ‘Bad Day‘ and ‘Constellations’ are best described as musical earworms. They go in through the eardrum and then hit the brain where they will squirm around for days, weeks or months even. The album has garnered much success; gigs and festivals have been greeted with shoals of sing- along fans, tons of radio airplay not too mention an almost sold out UK tour, heck even hit shows like The Inbetweeners have enlisted their musical help.

And If that’s not enough they’ve added an unusual twist to their live performances by inserting random displays of Calisthenics to music from the likes of Miike Snow, The Pointers Sister and Beyoncé Knowles.

In short Darwin Deez have dropped like a musical hand grenade onto this year’s music scene and if you’ve think you’ve pulled out all the shrapnel think again, because we’ve got some knockout remixes for you.

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Post by the inexhaustible Ruby

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TRACKS: