On The Radar : MO

As the month of January closes we are all still sat firmly on our seats still waiting for the first movements from the bands tipped to make 2013, but there are always that fair few diamonds in the rough. Channeling somewhere between Gwen Stefani, Lana Del Rey and Azelia Banks sits MO, hailing from everyone’s favourite European musical export Sweden.

Radar track ‘Glass’ partners the elements of 2012 breaking band Alt-J with the vocals of previously mentioned Lana Del Rey (think ‘Breezeblocks’ v ‘Born To Die’), a duel vocal chorus with a sing-a-long of native noises with added addictive guitar riff churn together to make an instant pop gem.

Album Review : The Enemy - Streets In The Sky

The indie blogroll of bands from the noughties is particularly full of now folklore legends,  bands like The Fratellis who are now defunct but can continually be heard on every indie dance floor across the land,  The View who have endlessly teetered on the edge of separation and now totally new band Razorlight of whom the lead singer self-imploded and sacked the backline.

But a indie band to survive the noughties is leading the renascence, 2 top 10 albums under their belts, numerous festival appearances and a whole list of critical acclaim is left in their wake. The Enemy.

Back in 2007 they released storming first album ‘We’ll Live And Die In These Towns’, it was a bovine, valiant and confident debut written on the bog standard level of the average male/female who wanted more, a call to arms. The album went straight in at number 1 in the UK charts alongside tracks ‘Away From Here’(#8) and ‘Had Enough’(#4) standing up in the top10. This lead to the band receiving awards from NME, Q Magazine and XFM that same year.

After the storm died down The Enemy took to the studio to write second album ‘Music  For The People’, which charted at number 2 in the UK album charts. An album heavily influenced and sounding like every big indie band of the decades past. Think The Clash, Pulp, Blur, Queen…And you get the picture. It seemed like The Enemy had been plucked up and were heading to the indie scrap yard, casualties of ‘the second album curse’.

Around 4 years of silence followed, Tom Clarke planning world domination once more VIA ’boring’ Coventry with band mates in toe. It was then out of nothing an announcement was made by Clarke that the release of ‘Streets In The Sky’ was to hit shelves in the spring of 2012.

What to expect from ‘Streets In The Sky’ after such a disappointing second return is quickly diminished, opening track and album teaser ‘Gimme The Sign’ is brash and full of promise. The lairy vocals of first album Clarke, guitar firmly in hand and more than certainly meaning business.  No time to think between tracks ‘Bigger Cages (Longer Chains)’ boasts a Subways like guitar lead, lyrically once again Clarke is levelled going from what felt plaint in ’Music For The People’ to something so much more indurate for ‘Streets In The Sky’.

Sing-a-long third track ‘Saturday’ is built for football stands and Saturday afternoons, a song made to play on iPods across the world to then imbed in the brain and drive you until you repeat. Only 4 tracks in ‘1-2-3-4’ teases and prods in a modern life in rubbish type manner, pointing the finger at the 9 to 5. Seamlessly asking ‘Why settle for second best?’. ‘Like A Dancer’ settles the heart rate but not the beat becoming the ‘Technodanceaphobic’ of the album.

‘Come Into My World’ furnishes the gap between start and finish of the 12 track release followed by album anthem ‘This Is Real’, another stand on the soapbox for The Enemy. Narrate the feeling of waking up on Sunday morning after painting a town all the colours you can think of, ploughing through the working week with every conscious thought aiming towards the clock out on Friday evening, ‘This Is Real’ is that track.

Sentimental feelings emerge through ‘2 Kids’, a acoustic laden 4 minutes depicting the story of best friends through school and work, how they will never grow up but know the times had will never return. ‘Turn It On’ growls in the aftermath of ‘2 Kids’, taking the adult approach to first album hit ‘Away From Here’ listen really hard and you can hear the same bass riff. A clear two fingers to everything ‘It’s A Race’ is crossed between punk and pop with added catchy chorus.

Penultimate track ‘Get Up And Dance’ has a feel about the 90s to it, Birmingham’s very own Ocean Colour Scene can be proud of the guitar work beside a Queen type drum beat. Think ‘Under Pressure’ meeting ‘Hundred Mile High City’. Ending track ‘Make A Man’ takes us back to track number 1, with the pace of ‘Gimme The Sign’ the sing-a-long chorus of ‘Saturday’ and catchy lyrics of ‘Like A Dancer’.

The Enemy have returned to what we once knew, and personally I cannot be more thankful. Social commentary, sentimental feeling and a fuck load of attitude. ’Streets In The Sky’ is one album I think will happily repeat itself a fair few times from start to finish.

ClubNME Portsmouth with The Sheepdogs & Kassassin Street

I started Saturday 12th May on a train from London Waterloo to Portsmouth, I’d just played Propaganda London with Russ from Bloc Party and DJ Dan. It was a spectacular night.

On my journey south I was blissfully made aware that an impromptu guerrilla gig was to take place in local Southsea shop Dresscode, where ClubNME headliners The Sheepdogs and locals Huw Olesker & The Barebackers were to play.

Fair to say anything impromptu takes a bit of work and effort, pulling numerous strings and a hell of a lot of patience the ClubNME Portsmouth team brought it together and packed out the tiny shop, all of whom attended then taking to social networks to praise and urge all to The Wedgewood Rooms for The Sheepdogs performance that very evening.

Previous ClubNME Portsmouth shows have seen Australian beach pop Bleeding Knees Club, NME lauded Cerebral Ballzy, album chart topping King Charles and indie upstarts TOWNS take to The Wedgewood rooms stage alongside a multitude of local talent to boot which has included Melodramas, Clayton Strange, The Planes and Curxes. With DJ’s poised, doors opened and we began to fill.

First act on the nights bill are indie-electro outfit Kassassin Street, with a recent EP release in motion they plough into their set headfirst. EP opener ‘Finger On The Pulse’ is a build hit, vocal harmonies ensue around a smattering of electronic vibes and some of the best guitar work I’ve seen locally for a long while. Kassassin Street bring 90’s indie to the modern day with their own edge, a set which is both pleasing to the eye and ear.

The nights headlines were Saskatoon, Saskachewans (That’s in Canada) The Sheepdogs. A band heavily praised by Kings Of Leon front man Caleb Followill, A band who are in history the only unsigned band to grace the front cover of Rolling Stone magazine and a band who in the previous few days had played at a venue called Sticky Mikes, which in fact lived up to it’s name.

Draped in late 60s vintage attire, beards a plenty and a handlebar moustache The Sheepdogs eased us all into their set. Closing you’re eyes for a second would instantly transport you from the moody red light of the stage, back into what you could mistake The Wedgewood Rooms to feel like in the 60s.

With a vocal that is clearly from the soul, front man Ewan Currie holds a guitar like a plastic toy (I’m unsure if he is a distant relative to WWF wrestler Big John Studd). Alongside Leot Hanson on guitar, Ryan Gullen on bass and Sam Corbett on drums they play The Beatles meets The Doors in the deep south with influences of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creedance Clearwater Revival and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Throughout the whole set The Sheepdogs entice their audience deeper, while at intervals exchanging banter and anecdotes of back home. Tracks ‘Please Don’t Lead Me On’ and ‘Learn & Burn’ go down well though the odd shout for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Free Bird’ could be heard on occasions.
Ending their set wasn’t enough for the ClubNME audience though who chanted for more, The Sheepdogs then returned to play well known hit ‘I Don’t Know’ ending with monstrous applause.

It’s clear to see that the sounds that The Sheepdogs are making are seeping into the current musical climate, with bands like Alabama Shakes, Howler and Jack White taking it to the psychedelic euphoric vibe.
For those who attended The Sheepdogs at ClubNME Portsmouth will be well aware they have seen something special and it’s only a matter of time before we see them playing bigger shows and festivals in the United Kingdom.

Reviewed : Mystery Jets - Radlands

Eel Pie Island has never quite been the same since the Mystery Jets upwards thrust into Indie, and they’ve come a long way since the famous island parties also.

Back in 2006 the band released ‘Making Dens’ on the brink of the NME awards tour alongside the established Maximo Park, (winning their first Brit award) Arctic Monkeys and the always audacious We Are Scientists. They hit a modest #32 in the UK album charts but gathered a loyal following from TV exposure as well as the release of ‘The Boy Who Ran Away’ and  re-release of ‘You Can’t Fool Me Dennis’. The band then parted company with Henry Harrison and began to tour the U.S.

They returned with ‘Twenty One’ in 2008, produced by DJ Erol Alkan and featuring Laura Marling on ‘Young Love’ the album had a new romantic 80’s feel and reached #42 in the album charts. Regardless of chart positions the band went on to release ‘Young Love’ and massive indie hit ‘Two Doors Down’ which led to performances at RockNess and the Reading & Leeds festivals that same year.

Suffering from the second album curse the band then parted company with record label 679 and signed with Rough  Trade records to then announce third album ‘Serotonin’, still firmly on a pop vibe ‘Flash A Hungry Smile’ was released as a free download before the releases of  ‘Dreaming Of Another World’ ‘Show Me The Light’ and title track of the album ‘Serotonin’. The album again reached #42 in the UK album charts leading them back into the studio to the now released ‘Radlands’.

The album starts gently sombre, speaking of ‘shit shaped holes in the sky’ Blaine obviously touching the subject of heaven and delving deeper lyrically. Significantly the first track on the album is titled ‘Radlands’ which has a Californian type intonation that influences the whole album. ‘You Had Me At Hello’ is a deep based love song committing to then letting go instantly, something most 18-30 year old are conscious of continuously in life. It feels that in only two tracks the Mystery Jets found their hearts and began to feel the music that they are creating, Blaine and William intense throughout.

‘The Ballad Of Emerson Lonestar’ has a desert feel, telling a story astronomically speaking. Questions of love once again arise slow and steady but left open ended with the lines ‘This time I want to show how it feels/This time love is real’. ‘Greatest Hits’ has a 70s Stealers Wheel sound, telling the same story…Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right ‘Greatest Hits’ is a greatest hit.

I’ve never been to church to praise but I imagine ‘The Hale Bop’ is what it would sound like, choir like vocals backed catchy chorus with Christian rock based guitar brought slamming to the ground by ‘The Nothing’ a track still within the four walls of church. Repent sin and acceptance of everyone around us, the album is said to be influenced by a meeting with a missionary named ‘Sister Everett’ who is mentioned further on through the album in the medium of music.

‘Take Me Where The Roses Grow’ is haunted by a current unknown female vocal, fathomed in lust but composed within each other with both vocals entwining beautifully. As previously mentioned ‘Sister Everett’ is dedicated to a missionary, organ based again accompanied by unknown female vocals. William was said to be on the edge of converting religiously which would answer why so much is asked of her. Towards the end of the track a choir joins leading into ‘Lost In Austin’.

Heaviest of the 11 tracked album ’Lost In Austin’ eases in but promptly bursts into a cataclysm of vocals, drums and a very prominent guitar. It’s what feels like a premature finish, 6 minutes and 20 seconds of build and drop, of guitar solos and screaming vocals which I feel would end ‘Radlands’ superbly alas ‘Luminescence’ follows. To the end again, stripped back to band and guitars leaving me with a glowing feeling inside and ignorant to suggest the earlier finish.

Mystery Jets came through with ‘Radlands’, a different direction hugely influenced by religion and the deep south. An album I feel on the right journey would be the perfect partner. No matter where ‘Radlands’ charts the boys can be happy as I am. A welcome addition to an ever growing collection.

Services resume...

It’s been a good few months since I posted blogs continuously, let’s just say life got a bit busy and I neglected bringing music to ears for a while (minus being a DJ)…Agreed?…

Business as usual will proceed from here, general articles on opinions and such, new bands and breaking news. We have a lot to catch up on. I do want to start bringing  in what I get up to in day to day life too, from what I’m listening to on my iPod to nights I’ve just played and setlists from those nights.

Hello from me again, I’m Rob Troubadour. 24 from Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom. I’m a DJ, I occasionally dabble in radio and travel A LOT!…