September 30th 2012

Django Django – Django Django (2012)

***** Five Stars

Pink Floyd meets Kraftwerk? This album is weird but in a fantastic way. This is fresh, fairly original material that I look forward to hearing more of! Not surprisingly this psychedelic quartet from Edinburgh all met at Art school. This album is very arty, one of the year’s best releases by far. Wavesforms if my standout track on the album. Love the African influences, which seperates this album from other similar sounding bands. The production is top notch too, very minimal, less is more.

Link: Official site

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September 29th 2012

Tim Burgess – Oh No I Love You (2012)

***** Five stars

NOT what I was expecting at all, which is wonderful. I was kind of expecting The Charlatans lite, this is definitely not that at all. We have 10 well crafted pop songs with an Americana folky spin to them. Manchester? I think not, Nashville more likely. Lovely melodies especially on The Economy, which is the album standout for me, with shades of Broken Social Scene in there. The opener White is such a brilliant way to open the album. Such a departure which is refreshing to hear.

Link: Soundcloud

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September 28th 2012

Mumford & Sons – Babel (2012)

*** Three Stars

A bit disappointed by this one, not sure what I was expecting but essentially this is their debut album part two. I suppose with their sound you can only take it so far. I guess I was hoping for something more forward thinking? Its a good album I should say, worthy of the hype? I suppose so as I’m sure masses do want an debut album part 2.

Link: Official site

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September 27th 2012

Metroland – Mind the Gap (2012)

***** Five stars

A concept album about underground rail travel. This album starts off with a lovely Kraftwerk like arpeggio, with choral pads and robotic vocals. It could be Europe Endless! Its great stuff, these guys are not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves throughout with some obvious homages to Kraftwerk, none more so than the Its More Fun to Commute.

Kraftwerk sound alikes aside, this is a very listenable album. Mine the Gap with the clever use of the London tube announcement soundbite. Theme For Metroland is just gorgeous and is the album center piece. Such a delicate synth lead, its infectious and will not leave your head for ages. The Passenger is another highlight, the sound is always moving forward. It’s More Fun To Commute is possibly my favourite track and could go on for much longer. If you like Kraftwerk you will love this record.

Link: Facebook

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September 26th 2012

Deacon Blue – The Hipsters (2012)

***** Five Stars

I was a bit nervous about this record, its been so long since the last Deacon Blue record. I shouldn’t have worried as this is classic Deacon Blue. From the off with the beautiful full of atmosphere Here I Am In London Town, which recalls their Raintown album. The lead single and title track is Deacon Blue at their very best. Stars is the best track on the album, Ricky Ross and  Lorraine McIntosh sparing off beautifully with a foot tapping piano raging throughout.Its infectious stuff and will no doubt be the next single.

Ricky Ross had one of the best vocals in his day, well his day is still today as his voice sounds better than ever. Turn showcases what a great lyricist Ricky Ross is. The Rest is catchy as hell and could be a single. Laura From Memory is the album’s most tender piece, its incredibly beautiful and will no doubt be a live favourite. Yes I love Deacon Blue, I’m not ashamed to admit. Their music reminds me of home allot, which is not a bad wee thing.

Link: Official site

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September 25th 2012

Alexander Tucker – Third Mouth (2012)

***** Five stars

Alexander Tucker is an English musician from Kent. This album starts off beautifully with A Dried Seahorse, a lush ballad of synths, strings, acoustic guitar and the most beautiful vocal. This represents the album well. I love Mullioned View, again some beautiful harmonies with a haunting violin playing throughout.

Andromen is a mega psychedelic guitar, violin strammash, probably my favourite track. The album has a ton of drone, swirling synths and delicate guitar work, so if you enjoy that you should love this record. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough!

Link: Label site

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September 24th 2012

Sir Richard Bishop – Intermezzo (2012)

***** Five Stars

To be honest I’m not really aware of this guy’s past work, I really should be as this album is breath taking . The sounds he pulls out of an acoustic guitar is something else. The music sounds Spaghetti Western meets Egyptian like. Its all very elegant folk. Inner Redoubt has him working several guitar solos around each other, at almost 15 minutes long its still not long enough as there is room for another 10 minutes, its that good. I cannot wait to check out his earlier work. The work of a genius I suspect.

Link: Official site

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September 23rd 2012

Gravenhurst – The Ghost In Daylight (2012)

**** Four Stars

This beautifully haunting record by singer/song writer Nick Talbot, who lives in Bristol, England. For the most part its just him with his acoustic guitar, some piano, strings and some background electric pads. Beautifully crafted songs, by a highly skilled mulch-instrumentalist. It really ratchets up a notch with the mesmerizing synth lead led Islands. This singnals are more darker second side of the album.

Link: Official site

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September 22nd 2012

Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N 2 It (2012)

**** Four Stars

Perfume Genius is Seattle based singer/songwriter Mike Hadreas. This is a very intimate record, low-fi along similar lines as Youth Lagoon. The album is just full of subtle electronics, acoustic guitar, piano  and beautiful melodies. A simple effortless sounding album, but one well worth spending time with.

Link: Official facebook

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September 21st 2012

The Presets – Pacifica (2012)

Three stars

The Presets are an Australian electronic duo, Its very much a throw back to 1980s pop, to be honest it sounds a bit Jason Donaan meets Yazoo. A couple nice tracks, but for the most part it isn’t for me.

Link: Official site

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September 20th 2012

Maria Minerva – Will Happiness Find Me? (2012)

**** Four stars

Maria Minerva is a Estonian underground musician now based i London. This is a beautifully crafted album, not too dissimilar to yesterday’s pick actually. This is a headphones album,lots of layers and different sounds you wouldn’t catch without them. Mad Girl’s Love Song is a gem. A great album, check it out if you enjoy Enya and the like.

Link: Facebook

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September 19th 2012

Laurel Halo – Quarantine (2012)

***** Five Stars

Laurel Halo  is a Brooklyn-based experimental electronic artist. This is a beautiful album of synth textures, atmosphere. Its all quite fabulous, and ends with the quite beautiful evocative Light & Space.  It puts me in mind of the vocals of Stereolab meets the music of Air sort of if you get my drift? I couldn’t recommend this album any more if I tried!

Link: Official site

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September 18th 2012

Woods – Bend Beyond (2012)

**** Four stars

A really lovely lo-fi stripped down indie pop/folk album. Nothing too remarkable sticks out on this record, its just a really enjoyable listen from start to finish. Is it Honest is as good any pop song you will hear this year. They broke out of the mold on Cascade for a psychedelic romp, Pink Floyd would have been proud of it themselves! Its a great track. Space folk rock at its best, which they repeat several more times on the album. Well worth checking out if you enjoy Mumford & Sons and Pink Floyd!

Link: Official site

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September 17th 2012

Vatican Shadow – Kneel Before Religious Icons (2012)

**** Four stars

Dominick Fernow aka Vatican Shadow. This is political electronic music with a ton of tape hiss, drum machine rhythms, fatty pads its quite the dark record. Hailed by one of my favourite blogs The Quietus as one of the year’s best albums, its easy to hear why. Its not quite my cup of tea hence I have not given it five stars. But the atmosphere and texture on display on this album is stunning. Imagine Godspeed You! Black Emperor switching guitars for synths, this would probably be the result, or something similar anyways. Industrial synth music with some beefy drones, well worth a listen if you enjoy dark electronic music

Link: Soundcloud

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September 16th 2012

The Shins – Port of Morrow (2012)

*** Three Stars

Not a bad album, its a bit generic in places though. 40 Mark Strasse is a lovely track. Lead single Simple Song has been ruined really by the overplay on the radio here in the US. Title track is interesting, with some cool sounds. The production of the album is well done. I doubt I’d be tempted to listen to more from the Shins to be honest.

Link: Official site

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September 15th 2012

Motor – Man Made Machine (2012)

*** Three stars

Motor is a duo from New York/France I believe. Its not a bad album, though you do get the feeling or at least I do that I have heard it before? Think Gary Newman meets Depeche Mode. Its an affable album for sure, I really love the crunchy opener Messed Up, sadly the rest of the album doesn’t quite hit the same heights. Personally I would recommend you listen to And One’s Bodypop album instead.

Link: Beatport

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September 14th 2012

The Maccabees – Given to the Wild (2012)

**** Four stars

The Maccabees are an indie band from South London. This album is a slow burner I think, it took my second listen to really appreciate the songs. Second track Child is a beauty. The album is 2-3 tracks too long, its rather samey in places. That said the sonics/production on the record sounds well good, hence my initial three start rating has been bumped to four. Ayla is the stand out track.

Link: Official site

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September 13th 2012

Bloc Party – Four (2012)

**** Four stars

I was all set to hate this record without even listening to a note. I enjoyed their first two records, the last was ok but I don’t turn to Bloc Party of electronic textures, there are plenty bands that do it better. So any road this album doesn’t start off great with the rather beige So He Begins to Lie, and the worse 3×3. It gets much better from here on. Octopus is classic Bloc Party, as is I love Day Four, and Valis. A good solid effort, though start with their best effort A Weekend in the City if you haven’t heard their stuff before.

Link: Official site

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September 12th 2012

Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky’s Edge (2012)

***** Five stars

Its such a cliche but really if you enjoy Doves & Elbow, you will love Richard Hawley. This record is bold from the off with the rip roaring opener She Brings the Sunlight. I love this guy, so its quite shameful its taken me this long to check out this album.  The titled track follows, its a bit more subdued but the effect is just as powerful, it reminds me of later Peter Gabriel. The best track though is Seek It, just beautiful. A brilliant album, another easy five stars.

Link: Official site

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September 11th 2012

Bob Dylan Tempest (2012)

***** Five Stars

Love the opener Duquesne Whistle. The album is really good, its Bob Dylan a couple tracks are a bit long in the tooth, but an easy five stars, like I said it Bob Dylan!

Link: Official site

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September 10th 2012

Oberhofer -n – Time Capsules II (2012)

*** Three Stars

Oberhofer is a band from Brooklyn, New York, the founder being Brad Oberhofer. This album is not my favourite by any means but it ain’t all bad. Its an uptempo indie pop album, almost reminds me of Pulp. Not sure I dig the truncated text for song titles, but maybe I need to get with the times?! Moving on..

Link: Official facebook

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September 9th 2012

Geographer – Myth (2012)

***** Five stars

Indie trio from San Francisco. This album is a real mix of guitar hooks & killer synth beats. The opening track Life of Crime could be an OMD track with the blazing synthesizers that sound fantastic. The second track The Myth of Youth starts off sounding like a Stone Roses track then goes into a full blown indie anthem. The rest of the album follows in similar vain of the first two tracks with some dream pop, indie rock and synths with the singer’s really cool falsetto vocals. A great mix, if you enjoy indie music.

Link: Official site

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September 8th 2012

Wild Nothing – Nocturine (2012)

**** Four stars

An American dream pop band from Virginia, USA. They remind me a bit of the Cure meets Depeche Mode (The Blue Dress). A really enjoyable album, if nothing earth shattering? This Chain Won’t Break sounds a bit New Order like, is my favourite track. If you enjoy Beach House then this album is for you! It was almost a five star album, a couple doozy tracks in the middle of the album kind of lost me, hence the four star rating. Well worth checking out though!

Link: Label site

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September 7th 2012

Dan Deacon – America (2012)

***** Five Stars

An American composer and electronic musician based out of Baltimore, Maryland. This is not an easy album to write about, as its all over the place. Its easy enough to say its an electronic album, but its so much more. Opener Guilford Avenue Bridge is an avant-garde romp, it reminds me a bit of Klaus Dinger.  The album is full of distortion, driving beats, big phatty synth lines. The album is in two halves, I love the second part especially Rail which is just hypnotic, almost Krafwerk like. As I said not easy to review, but if you enjoy LCD Soundsystem you should like this album., its for the mos part very accessible.

Link: Official site

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September 6th 2012

Toy – Toy (2012)

***** Five Stars

A young exciting band on the ever reliable Heavenly Recordings. Toy’s brilliant debut Neu! inspired debut single Left Myself Behind didn’t even make it onto this album, which tells you how strong the album is. It opens with the quite majestic Colours Running Out. Dead & Gone is one of my favourite tracks, Motoring is Toy wearing their krautrock influences on their sleeve with no problem. The album is packed full of wonderful krautrock grooves and spacey textures, with layers upon layers on synth. However the best track for me is the simple Heart Skips a Beat, a simply stunning track with a memorable melody. Check this album out, it wont disappoint I promise.

Link: Soundcloud

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September 5th 2012

Tanlines – Mixed Emotions (2012)

***** Five stars

Electronic/Indie duo from Brooklyn, New York. This album has a bit of everything. Lots of electronics, disco, punk and lots more. Its not an easy album to define which is great. The best track is the single All Of Me with the electronic melodic synth-plink riff. Its exhilarating stuff, and is by far the album high point. Brothers is again synth heavy, with hints of OMD/Kraftwerk flying synths, its a lovely piece. If you enjoy electronic music then this album is a MUST listen to! So what you waiting for..

Link: Official site

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Sptember 4th 2012

Stars – The North (2012)

***** Five stars

A really solid effort from my one of favourite Canadian bands. Its hard to believe they are already on their 6th album. This album sounds like a collage of all their previous work. The last album was synth heavy and was a nice departure, but they kind of lost something for me. This album recaptures that Stars magic. Think Metric meets Broken Social Scene, and you wont be far off.

Love the opening The Theory of Relativity. Single Backlines is catchy as hell. The album is heavy on melody, very poppy which is what they do best. Hold On When You Get Love is epic Stars, they back to their best and I cannot wait for them to roll into Chicago here soon.

Link: Official site

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September 3rd 2012

North Atlantic Oscillation – Fog Electric (2012)

***** Five stars

The cover of this record caught my attention, from the same label that released yesterday’s pick. Here we have a band from Edinburgh. The name really does reflect the sound of the record. Lots of sweeping icy synths, strings and ice cold like vocals that evokes images of the Atlantic Ocean. The key to this album is all the layers, its a bit Doves like kind of. in that respect The experimental nature of the record is quite exciting, though the songs stick to a regular 4-5 minute song structure, rather than post-rock, though the record does have some post-rock tendancies.

Think Sigur Ros meets Boards of Canada. Its a thoroughly enjoyable album, well worth checking out!

Link: Official site

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September 2nd 2012

Mothlite – Dark Age (2012)

**** Four stars

Mothlite is Daniel O’Sullivan, to be honest not sure what to say about this album. Think Tears For Fears meets Talk Talk meets Kraftwerk at times. Bizarre I know, but this is a strangely addictive album. There are no real highlights as such, but as an album its really good. I had to listen to it a second time to get a better grip of it, this record is a grower for sure. The title track is fantastic! It a curious album, check it out if you enjoy something abit more mellow.

Link: Label site

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September 1st 2012

John Talabot – Fin (2012)

***** Five stars

A producer/DJ from Barcelona  Spain. This album is a wonderful example of modern day fusion of disco, house, dance and synth music. The record has a beautiful warm sound.  The epic Journeys is my favourite track, but by no means the stand out on this strong album. f you are a fan of Four Tet then this album is a must for your ipod!

Link: Soundcloud