Summer Camp

Summer Camp make music for people who fall in love every day on the tube, for people who enjoy walking home after a night out, for people who like the top of car parks, for people whose favourite smell is petrol or paint marker.  The London duo veer from floaty  electro sequences (new song Ghost Train) to jangly alt-pop (Round the Moon) with the joy of a child kicking through puddles.  Elizabeth Sankey’s vocals can sometimes be loud and stark, set against the lo-fi stylings, but there’s always a bleached-out keyboard to soften the blow.

Courting a jj-style mystery, Jeremy and Elizabeth previously pretended they were Swedish and tried for a while to remain unknown.  This interview with It’s Getting Boring By The Sea has recently surfaced.

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MP3: Summer Camp – Was It Worth It?

Monday Music – 26 April 2010

Back after an enforced week’s absence, here’s my weekly collection of five songs that I’m currently loving:

jj – My Life

This mysterious Swedish duo are severely mysterious.  Their trio of albums are titled No.1, No.2 and, yup, No.3.  They hate publicity and hated SXSW.  They don’t have a MySpace page. Best of all, they seem to have an unlikely love for Lil’ Wayne. After sampling Lollipop and use Wayne verses in My Way, jj now borrow lyrics from the rapper’s verse on a song by The Game for this haunting number.  It’s charged with pain, delicate as a floating bubble and over far, far too soon.

Gotan Project – La Gloria

Echoes of Manu Chao here as super-shakeworthy Latin breaks get the digital treatment.  In this case it’s tango fused with big beats (file under ‘shouldn’t work but does’), and, best of all, a fast-speaking mestizo who issues loud ‘GOOOO-TAN’ chants, setting everything off again.  Some days more than other, I wish I wasn’t a gringo.  Based in Paris, Gotan Project comprise a Frenchman, a Swiss and an Argentinian.  The origin of their name is vaguely interesting, and Wikipedia does a far better job explaining it than I ever would.

The Deer Tracks – Isbjörnskatten
Apparently based on a traditional Swedish fairytale about a cat who wants to be a polar bear, this latest from The Deer Tracks is pure musical cannabis. When I listen to it, I wind up in my imagined Swedish world, where elves drink grogg in large castles, beautiful blonde women serve me smorgasbords of fresh food, innocent children skate on frozen rivers and  ABBA never even happened. From new EP Eggegrund, the song gently presses my shutdown switch, and I’m really so happy to give in, to be its victim.

I’m Not A Band – March 23rd
I’m not sure what happened to I’m Not A Band on March 23rd, but they suddenly went all slow.  Spookier than David Cameron with make-up, this trancey affair has the German duo’s typical violins and intensity, but not the usual pace. And it’s kinda great. In between plain lyrics about foreboding birds, digitally-enhanced strings ache with sorrow and keyboards pound like someone’s pushing pins deep inside your brain.  The bleak technoscape reminds a little of Clint Mansell’s Requiem For A Dream soundtrack, and that can only be a good thing.

HEALTH - USA Boys
As well as helter-skelter dance-rock and dappy electro pop, HEALTH can also do digi-shoegaze.  In the case of USA Boys, it comes with a mellow, sundown feel: choppy synth beats, tripped-out vocals and guitar chords floating in the wind.  Gradually the pace increases to a real rat-a-tat fervour, but still that chill tone just refuses to budge.  Perhaps that’s Trent Reznor’s influence: this one was recorded at his home studio dontcha know…

All MP3s via song titles.

Fair Ohs

Is there a genre called summer punk yet?  There should be now.  It’s been (unofficially) invented by Fair Ohs, typical of a trio from London whose sound is a paella of influences.  As well as the tropical anger of Hey Lizzy, there’s soweto rhythms out of Africa, shouty beats apparently reminiscent of French yé-yé pop, soul-focused horns, and blissed-out Bridget Bardot covers that scream soleil. I would label them London’s version of Fool’s Gold, but there’s far more rock grunt going on here.  Madcap and maverick, Fair Ohs are like a world music compilation album drenched in good old-fashioned British ale. 

For more, see this interview with Dummy Mag - including why they gave up Jazz, why they mixtapes, and why they’re “pretty much a hardcore band not playing hardcore because (they) have the ethics of a hardcore band”.   There’s also news of a forthcoming co-release with fellow Tough Love Records act Spectrals.  Check out Fair Ohs’ neat lil blog for details of upcoming gigs.

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MP3: Fair Ohs – Eden Rock
MP3: Fair Ohs – Summer Lake

The Youth

I often spend long spells gazing out of windows, eyes loosely focused on wall kinks and vapour trails as my mind ambles along sluggishly.  The soundtrack for these soporific moments must always be a melancholy, undemanding noise, a soothing lullaby that’s content to pretty up the background.  Good for the job are new young band The Youth (formerly Spills & Thrills), from the Home Counties outpost of Leighton Buzzard.  Offering tender guitars and cracked vocals, their mournful, maudlin tunes work in happy collusion with with painkillers and super-sized mugs of tea.

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MP3: The Youth – You’ve Done Nothing
MP3: The Youth – Synchronised Hands

Yuck – an update

The biggest trends of the last fortnight have been TV election debates, volcanoes and Yuck.  Since they first surfaced, the London fourpiece has picked up a lot of kudos, plus been added to the Field Day bill.  I’ve collated some more great Yuck tracks (below) to complement the aforementioned Georgia. First there’s Suicide Policeman, wistful pop which sounds distinctly like an 80s/90s band I can’t place and cooks poppy hooks, deadpan vocals, brass toots and pretty lyrics in an washed-out cauldron. Then Sunday, an philosophical tale featuring rivers of reverb, guitars so grief-laden that they might be made of stone, and a fleetingly Counting Crows-like intro.  And yup, it sounds a little Dinosaur JR-esque, a band Yuck are soon to support.  And finally we have Automatic, a solemn and initially library-quiet boy-girl duet that ghosts along on a blue piano wave, like The xx on Benzedrine.

These last two are demos, so, as The Fader point out, the minimalism and brevity is kinda to be expected.  Not that this makes Yuck any less exciting a prospect.  I’m aiming to catch them at White Heat on 4 May, so maybe see anyone there…

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MP3: Yuck – Suicide Policeman
MP3: Yuck – Sunday
MP3: Yuck – Automatic

Creatures of Love

My terrific and often angry flatmate, known as The Drill, was recently trying to name a film: it featured waif-like women in watery scenes, and equal doses of innocence, whimsy and lurking anger.  The movie turned out to be Heavenly Creatures, and it might as well have been scored by partial namesake Creatures of Love.  The London act’s aptly-named ‘dreampop’ revolves around the voice of Bonita McKinney, a stupurous, swirling love potion of a sound that, in league with throbbing keys and chiming guitars, slowly convinces you that your eyes… are better… closed….. And yet there’s a intensity present here, too, the lyrics being a fevered maze of pent-up emotions, honeyed lust and see-through social masks.

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MP3: Creatures of Love – Book Thief  (kindly provided by the band)

Trim The Barber

London sextet Trim The Barber added me on MySpace.  There’s only one song to listen to there (although a previous EP is on last.fm), but never fear: Now The Joke’s On You is a captivating, energised injection of post-punk rock with a grim political overtone.  Guitars screech and the slalom through solos, drums thrash in all the right places and Matt Potter sings cute hooks like a baleful Sid Vicious after one too many ciders in the sun.  There’s even some vioin in the final instrumental section, and violins are always nice.

Apparently, forthcoming EP ‘Dead End Wall’ offers “a brand of post/psych/pop/gaze with powerful yet melodic harmonized vocals., wailing, reverb soaked guitars, big fuzzy breaks and off-kilter drumming”.  Bring it on!

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MP3: Trim The Barber – Now The Joke’s On You

Ray Dar Vees

Step aside, step aside, and make room for the best new London band SOIWT has heard in yonks. Probably named after the Kinks lead singer who they sound nothing like, Ray Dar Vees seem to mix stirring, lighters-in-the-air rock anthems (debut single Heart Attack) with burnished softies better suited to subdued Sunday nights (White Gold Tears).  Or, in the case of It’s A Feeling I Get, something betwixt the two.  The lyrics are pleasantly introspective, and the guitars and drums played with gusto, but I most like singer Fred Murray’s earthy, earnest tones: he’s all heart, and it’s fabulous to hear.  

With renowned producer Craig Silvey on board, and a contract with the Pure Groove-linked Seven Sevens label, the future looks mighty promising for this threesome.  Indeed, Heart Attack is so good, it could yet be a song of the summer if Xfm and Absolute really push it - although, secretly, selfishly, I kinda hope that doesn’t happen…

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MP3: Ray Dar Vees – Heart Attack

MidiMidis

Sorry for my relative quietness lately – my girlfriend’s been staying, and she’s very attractive.  I’m fully focused now though, so let’s consider MidiMidis, aka London duo Ant Struselis and Marcus Fairley.  Are they London’s answer to MGMT (two strange-os making fiercely intelligent, bedroom-based electro pop)?  No.  MidiMidis are a bit less grandiose than their famous fellow twosome.  But their songs are just as appealing: as sugary as candy-floss and as innocent-brackets-fucked-up as Alice in Wonderland.  Throw in Super Mario electronica sounds and a unexpected gravelly, punkish male voice and you’ve got a winning cocktail of confusion.  Much more in this interview with the excellent A New Band A Day site.

MidiMidis current single, There’s Just Too Much Going On Upstairs For Me To Feel Truly Comfortable With Myself, the enemy of word-counts up and down the land, comes with a viral-buzz video (above), wherein Struselis and Fairley get themselves Tangoed before bemusing rampaging around London with balloons and a children’s bike.  Well worth a watch.

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MP3: MidiMidis – Note To Self

Music Mule’s Acoustic Consequences

Desperate for some sort of organised musical event this coming weekend?  There are three very different events are competing for your attention.  How to choose?  Simple -  just read SOIWT’s pocket-sized* guide to the tempting trio:

Thurs 22 April – Art Plus Music
Got a spare £185 knocking around?  Who hasn’t, right?  In exchange for that piffling amount of pounds, Whitechapel Gallery contractually promises the following: odd collaborations including Bat for Lashes with a string quartet, and Bobby Gillespie and Jamie Hince teaming up with fashion designer and artist Julie Verhoeven, works by Jefferson Hack, Giles Deacon and Tracey Emin, a new song from Jack Peñate, an auction raising funds for the Gallery’s Education and Community programme and celebs DJing into the night.  Best guesses say that it’ll be worthy, wanky and appealingly weird.

Fri 23 April – Land of Kings festival
At the opposite end of the poshery scale comes the return of this Dalston knees-up.  Held across various E8 venues, it’s a cheerful, madcap melee of local talent, and one covering art, music, politics, poetry and more.  Topping the audio side of things are rugged poppers Yuck, the mellow punk of  Detachments and the psychedelic digitalisms of Gyratory System. There are big-name DJs (Tayo, Firas), bands on the decks (Little Boots, The Horrors) and well-regarded promoters hosting venues (Greco-Roman Soundsystem, Rory Phillips).  It promises to be a right good night.  Tickets are a tenner in advance or £12 on the day.

Sun 25 April – Music Mule’s Acoustic Consequences
Music Mule takes all the good things about SOIWT (London music), and throws in good writing, efficiency, contacts and, in Acoustic Consequences, a sometime live night showcasing acts they have the hots for.  This time round, those acts are Paul Thomas Saunders, Royal Hunt Of The Sun and Round Ron Virgin. Respectively, they offer messed-up soulful warbles, psychedelic pop and folksy ditties.  Frankly, anyone called Round Ron Virgin can’t fail to be brill.  FACT. A few £5 concession tickets remain; afterwards, they’ll be £6.  The venue is Kings Cross nosh-pub The Fellow. 

* Unless you read this on an iPad