Saturday, January 19, 2008

RUN IN THE SHADOWS

Jason did some album covers (the picture quality isn't great for some reason).

Ful Medames – 'An Atheist, thank God'

Long-time Seu Jorge roadie finally releases the much-anticipated debut. Although thousands have heard snippets in the form of various ‘sound checks’ Ful has yet to play his own show. Making the leap from 20 second riffs to fully fledged songs has not been an easy transition as evinced by the 9 year wait, countless introspections and the all too visible breakdown at the 2005 Latin American Grammies, But was it worth it?

Douglas Wood – ‘Somebody May Be Looking’
Debut release from Teddington based Wood, largely written whilst serving a 24 month stretch for his part in the UK’s biggest Skunk growing ring. Hauntingly melodic tunes are interspersed with meandering solos often going off at tangents and on more than one occasion seeming to stop abruptly as if lost.

CTXM – ‘Stop Giving Them Things’

Emerging from a Berlin meeting of minds between VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk and Nic Endo, CTXM, (pronounced Cataxiom) spew forth an intense, rhythmic 50,000V defibrillation on the seemingly deceased Digital Hardcore scene. Highlights include the guest appearance of Kyono (Mad Capsule Markets), sporting what can only be the evolution of a Keytar, on ‘Ode to Carl Crack’.



Cyanohydrin Reaction – ‘Are Brilliant at Breakfast’

Discovered by legendary Budgie bassist/vocalist Burke Shelley when he overheard a potential ridden yet shambolic rehearsal from the opticians. Shelley took ‘the reaction’ under his wing, installed his daughter Maz as vocalist and produced this symphonic rock masterpiece. Tours of Scandanavia and Italy will follow the release of the album’s first single – ‘Quest for Tarja’.


Pines – ‘to lie and cheat’

Written and recorded over a dark weekend in his parents Bovey Tracey farm Pines debut ‘to lie and cheat’ sees multi instrumentalist Kevin Kavanagh finally exorcising his life’s demons. Left battered and bruised after the humiliating breakdown of his relationship with Tesco’s cashier Chryysteen Smythe things didn’t look good but after some words of wisdom from ol’ Bernie at the pub on Friday night he locked himself away for the weekend and produced his finest work to date. You can feel the influence of Kavanagh’s daytime job as frontman for ‘Guzzlin’ Gobos’ but he somehow manages to break free from those harsh restraints and connect with a softer side. There is already much industry buzz about the follow up reputedly titled ‘not my cousin too’.

Sigdal – 'Nothing You Can Do'
Not much is known about Faroese nontet Sigdal, deeply layered audioscapes echo forth from this debut release perfectly capturing the futility of life in the North Atlantic whilst simultaneously warning of imminent dangers just around the corner.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

HUSH I'M NOT THE MARRYING KIND

More fake first albums:

I'm thinking that Transatlantic Business Dialogue play post-rock out of the west coast of USA, probably from Portland. Musical differences mean that this is their only album.

Electric Multiple Unit are a chillout style act from Bristol. They used to be hardcore DJs but age has mellowed their tastes, although they occasionally DJ at club nights.

Emblem Book count American Music Club, Death Cab For Cutie and The Jayhawks as their influences, but three of the four members used to play hardcore. Think Band Of Horses with a an epic feel.

I think this is all I'll do from now on.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

IF I WAS YOUNG I'D FLEE THIS TOWN

You're young, you've got a band, you've got songs but you've no band name, no album title and no album cover. Well fear not, you can do all this with the FIRST ALBUM GENERATOR (© not me).

First click HERE and take the entry title for your band name.

Then click HERE, and take the last four words of the last quote for your album title (you may need to generate a new list from the button at the bottom).

Finally click HERE and take the third image for your album cover.


Here are a few I've done:




The Curry-Howard Correspondence hail from Chicago and play dreamy indie-pop. The album was well reviewed in Pitchfork but the British press haven't gone for it.





Polsat 2 International are an electro duo from South London. It's sample driven but relatively minimalist. People thought it should have been Mercury nominated but they just missed out.




Finally we have Chrysler PT Cruiser who are most certainly post-hardcore from the Mid West of America. They rose from the ashes of a disbanded hardcore band (who I'm sure we'll see later) and sent waves across the genre when this album was released in the mid-nineties.

If anyone has a go, send me the results so I can post them here.