Darkstar- North (Hyperdub)

Darkstar- North (Hyperdub)

Darkstar were/are underground dubstep masters but like many of the now famous tags ("Dubstep" "Emo" "Drum n Bass") over popularized and thus meaning often the exact opposite, Darkstar had to rejuvinate their sound if anyone going to pay attention. Dubstep is currently a horrible term, popularized to the degree that there are a half a dozen over zealous compliations trying to flog this "hot new thing" to tweenies desperate to be a enjoy tinie tempah with a side of the cool. Further judging by the supergroup team of the completley over hyped and under sauced Magnetic Man, which in a way proved that the sub genre was progressively running out of ideas and basically restepping the sound to the mass mainstream. Darkstar added vocalist James Buttery to their double minded production duo, it's not easy to forget the dubstep tag because obviously much of the album hypothesis comes from the famous style, but at the same time Darkstar have moved away from their roots on "North"

"North" opens with "In The Wings" A Huge Explosion of Sonical bliss paths the way for a piano solo pulled straight from 90s house and a delicate injured vocal harmony, which then in turns fades away into "Gold," a song which contains the same vocal aesthetic (comparison point- As if you robbed the disco joy out of the recent metronomy album) and a beat structure that could be created by Jimmy DNTEL/Postal Service if his broken beats were more inspired by minimal techno then fluid drum and bass. "Deadness" is accompanied by a pulsing haunting guitar line before jumping into the upbeat and better known "Aidy's girl is a computer" which takes the dubstep beat and time travels back to its underground garage form.

Darkstar is forward thinking in a time when the genre needed it to be, it takes risks but is also very willing to stick to the enjoyable and not overdone elements of the genre but can also be considered as beyond genre and simply an enjoyable downbeat dance album, for fans of minimal techno, downbeat electro and the (sic) term of Dubstep. 8/10

FTC Discovery 2: Water Borders

Water Borders

Water Borders hail from San Francisco, CA and conceptually aren't a million miles away from magnificient Glasser, the hotly tipped Kisses (although less fun) or the painedcore collective from the likes of Xiu Xiu, Former Ghosts and Paranthetical Girls, while also creating something mysterious, noisy and intensely distinctive. Recently released in the UK through uber blog 20 Jazz Funk Greats. Their self titled EP demands your attention if your a fan of any of the above, or just a fan of disturbing nightmares and a slave to the sonically destructive.

www.myspace.com/waterborders

Warpaint- The Fool

Warpaint- The Fool

Warpaint have taken a while with this their debut album proper, and while some may argue that the heat on the band has died down since the hype made them possibly the most namechecked and anticipated band of the end of 2009/2010, it takes you less than one song to appreciate the time we have all been waiting for this extraordinary album to come along. Without adding anything further "The Fool" is one of the effortlessly brilliant albums of 2010.

The gentle glide of "Set your arms down" opens with little more than a fractured guitar and simple drumbeats, before the graceful howl sets the song in motion, guitars growing in the background. It is painstakingly subtle whilst been lyrically blunt at the same time "They want to find me/They want to fight." While "Warpaint" opens with the pop stride of "How Soon is Now" before bewitchingly all with it's azure ray alike group vocal simplicity, and mathish guitar build, designed for repeated headphone enjoyable.

Nothing about "The Fool" is done without careful planning and plotting but everything glides beautifully as if the album was recorded in one take, its an uncomfortable beautiful listen with each song combining a shoegaze progression with the threat of maleviolent menace at any moment. The Fool references a few expected heroes within the songs, but underplays it so delicately that comparisons seem so incredibly lazy and useless that there is no time to speak of them here or anywhere else. "The Fool" takes a template and smashes it, piecing it back together with a downward soaring guitar, fade out drum machine samples and handclaps hidden under overlapping percussion. At times there is so much going on in the mix that it will take you several listens to fully appreciate the highs and lows it provides.

Because most importantly "The Fool" is an incredibly naked record, few tricks exist in the recording, and takes a lot of pride and it's subtle build in emotion. The vocals glide from near whispered to "you must listen" sensiblity. It's lyrically at times straight talking very difficult and accusing with "Undertow's" "Why you want to blame me for your troubles? You better learn your lesson yourself, nobody has to ever find out what's in my mind tonight." While "Baby" is strictly acoustic and once again reminisent of the work of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink, pointing to the same lyrical strive and strengths of their work together and solo with the heartbreaking refrain "You live your life like a page from the book of my fantasies. Don't you call anyone else baby"

If there is one complaint, "The Fool" doesn't display much growth from the critically acclaimed Exquisite Corpse EP, but there really isn't any need, Warpaint emerged almost fully ready for this debut, and have now created an album which will be unlikely to leave your head for a hour from the moment your hear it until the day you die. "The Fool" is something beyond this universe and should be the final chapter in our recent obsession with stripped back female fronted chill wave, which its contemporaries Zola Jesus and even the talened Tamaryn could only dream of... 9.5/10

CMJ Discovery # 1 Your Youth

Your Youth

Your Youth are among Brooklyn's finest, reinventing indie pop with some massive power chords and some lo-fi pop punk hooks.

Their Debut EP Aloha (Available from itunes) is effortlessly catchy and lovable, with an infectious energy of their own. Your Youth fit within the cool lazy creep scene and recommended for anyone who is a fan of the surf pop scene the likes of Wavves, Cloud Nothings, Surfer Blood and Best Coast http://www.myspace.com/yryouth

Women- Public Strain (Jagjaguwar)/Zola Jesus- Stridulum (Souterrain transmissions)

Women- Public Strain (Jagjaguwar)

The once heavily hyped Women are back with their 2ND album, after last January's debut, gone are their beach boys esque harmonies and the summer vibes, this is a comedown record although not devoid of their walls of sound opening with the haunting heavy "Can't You See." While "Heat Distraction" is the closest the album has to a hit, with it's hooky repetitive guitar line leading into a despondent pop song. However Public Strain takes five tracks to find its real stride and then on the instrumental "Bells" Women are taken hostage by white noise and the come out the otherside a lot better for it, as Public Strain is dominated by a guitar possibly stolen from sonic youth circa 1985, for some of the most intoxicating, violent and visceral songs this year often achieving some of the paranoid and edgy dystopia of Wire and the youth with clever incantations and a focus on the power of the guitar. The album closer "Eyesore" does suggest some spring after what it essentially a very dark and difficult second album, but Public Strains and Women are better for it, as harsh and cold as it's artwork suggests, this is one of this years most essential albums, challenging, blunt and aware of it's very obvious influences. 9/10

Zola Jesus- Stridulum ii (souterrain transmissions)

Not a sequel to Stridulum as such, more as a re-release with some extended scenes, Zola Jesus' UK awakening Stridulum II, showcases her haunting talent to anyone who is partial to atmospheric instrumental backing tracks (often looping synth lines, echoy guitars and lurking building beats) to a powerful and haunting voice, from Kate Bush to Tori Amos to the current string of similar (although not the same) artists, Zola Jesus is build on the same principles. No-one can deny her talents, ZJ voice is incredible and has an impressively large range and every song is passionately performed with the same umph as the aforementioned artists but also allowing her to stand out amongst her current musical contemporaries. But if earlier this year Los Campesinos termed the line "more post-coital and less post rock feels like the build up takes forever but you never get me off" seems to define Stridulum ii perfectly, or imagine someone standing over you with a knife to stab you death, lunging down but never stabbing you, and eventually himself getting so tired of not doing it, he wonders off. ZJ is the best of a group of acts that have kinda had their five minutes of fame in this particular style, not interestingly minimal enough but not nearly as complicated or lush sounding as intended and often derivative 6.5/10

Sky Larkin- Kaleide (Wichita)

Sky Larkin- Kaleide (Wichita)

I've already had a long relationship with Sky Larkin without even knowing it, I'd mistakenly got their debut album mixed up with Ida Maria's on HMV Western Road's multi-disc random CD changer when they came out around the same time 18 months ago, often confusing their three minute girl pop with irritating Maria's whiny odes to nakedness and nicotine. While I wasn't over impressed with the Leeds trio's female fronted rocked up pop debut, Sky Larkin's live show (which I've seen by accident and then eventually with intention several times) was more pointed and throughly entertaining, their snarling drummer bringing fear and laughter to me on every occasion and proved that it would be only a matter of time before they produced an album really WORTH repeat listening. Their debut was just too familiar, too samey and as an album there was little to go back to over and over. Sky Larkin were more of a mate that you meet for a drink every six months and chat shit with then the person you call after a long and hard day at work.

If your looking for Sky Larkin to become anything more (and suprisingly I was) Kaleide is the album you've been sweet dreaming about. Dramatically varied and light/dark/light then its predecessor and lyrically increasingly pointed, poppy and precise. The first single and album opener "Still Windmills" dismisses criticisms from it's initial blast "I Know there's potential like still windmills" and works as the albums mission statement slamming through pop hooks which recall the class of nineties female pop of Throwing Muses and The Breeders with a British confidence, "Just like all that's waiting to get made, stacked up and filed in brain cell hallways, you anticipate the day that everything somehow click into place... Why Wait?"

The Album then precedes to answer it's own early question by introducing the listener to a collection of massive sounding pop songs easily bettering even The Golden Spike's most memorable moments. Lyrically the album takes some aspects about personal experience whilst dealing with an overall ambition as a band. "Kaleide" sets up along the lines of classic Pretty Girls Make Graves with the same intense ambition mixing simple chords with the unknown. While "Tiny Heist" deals with taking something small and trying to make it larger and hoping for a positive outcome by "decide whats brave and what isn't wise." While "Anjelica Huston" is simple with it's lyrical refrain "As the train pulled out of the station, the light hit your face like Angelica Huston" but its one of the albums most musically ambitious track (and the bands) thus far. It's beats pulsating with malice, while the synth mourning laments behind frontwoman Katie Harkin's often innocent but weary vocals. Then "Year Dot" proves to be Larkin's most personal with the thought provoking inditement of friendship "Aim your parts at mine as they fall off, let's leave a message for the next year dot, so when life begins again, there'll be one pile of bones so they'll know we were friends." Lastly, "ATM" proves to be a pained anti-love song with its hopeful yet mournful "Things we will always wonder, Things we will try to measure, Things we will never shake, never shed. ever. Things will we will always wonder. There are questions written through bone as if words are sticks of rock, like whether a selfish heart is a truthful muscle or not... I will always wonder If I gave up..."

Kaleide is ambitious, experimental and a personal listen, often reflecting on the personal/band successes, failures and the bigger picture seeking to secure a future, deal with the past and find something to rely on. It's ambitions seek to expand their simple set up and give it a soaring edge and capture their largely exciting live show in a way the debut did not. As with Los Campesinos "Romance is Boring" John Goodmanson's production makes the loud and quiet dynamic still seem as personal as if Katie Harkin was singing directly to try and capture you soul on every take. It relies partially on the simplism of the three piece limitations but also shocks when several tracks build to capture a large anthemic sound. Ultimately with this record Sky Larkin have achieved something near impossible and re-defined their genre, its pop rock, its indie, its shemo, its a plethora of ambitions often only assigned to the US Underground, whatever it is, Kaleide has songs which will haunt you for months, heartful and addictive like a blossoming new romance. 9/10

Intermission

I'm really sorry It's been so long, I've moved to London and started flogging Ipod Speakers to weirdos, despite not having an ipod or caring about technology or headphones or phone covers whatsoever, hopefully this feeling of angst will end shortly, but there's nothing more Alanis Morrisette Ironic then moving to London to get a job in music to be working a filler job so close to music yet so far away.



My pours are literally screaming new reviews onto the computer and I will post them very soon!!!