On The Radar : Gender Roles

Down on the southern coast, a little to the right of the United Kingdom you’ll find Brighton the unofficial second capital of the UK. Brighton is home of The Palace Pier, Brighton Dome and The Royal Pavillon it has also produced such bands and artists including Fatboy Slim, Royal Blood, The Kooks, The Maccabees, Blood Red Shoes and British Sea Power to name but a few. Brighton is brimming with musical talent and in this write up the radar spotlight falls on punk-indie 3 piece Gender Roles. 

At first listen of radar track ‘Hey With Two Whys’ you could have mistaken them for Fresh Legs (if you know, you know) but further down the rabbit hole the throws of crashing guitar riffs and hectic drumming a kin them to that of the early 2000 indie bands like Good Shoes, Cajun Dance Party and ‘Making Dens’ era Mystery Jets. There’s a sold out sweaty Concorde feel about ‘Hey With Two Whys’, where you could quite easily find yourself in the middle of a pushing crowd with your arms aloft, or in equal measure right in-front of Gender Roles with them thrashing about around you. 

The track comes from debut EP ‘PRANG’ which is available from all good record distributers and digital platforms, and we find ‘Hey With Two Whys’ cuddled nicely at track 4 of 10 including heartbreaker opening track ‘You Look Like Death’ fast paced banger ‘Your War’ and what I only assume is a break up tune in ‘If Thats How You Want It To Be’. 

Currently on a European tour, Gender Roles return to the UK in April for a country wide jaunt, what is crystal clear for Gender Roles is that mainstream radio play and recognition is imminent. They’ve gained a fan here.

Album Review : Jack Penate - After You

Almost just over 10 years since Jack Penate gifted us with the critically acclaimed ‘Everything Is New’ and 12 years since fidgeting debut ‘Matinee’ he returns to the musical fold with ‘After You’. For 10 whole years most Jack Penate fans have waited with baited breath, some noticeably teased when Jack surfaced in the mid 10’s but to no avail disappearing once again into the ether. It’s said that Jack Penate made an album for every year that he was away, and each individual track from the ‘After You’ album is to represent those, apparently he’d lost a whole album to a fire and has matured with a terrible misfortune, grown alone and arrived at this extraordinary third album. 

When the news spread that Jack Penate was going to be Annie Mac's hottest record on radio one, social media pretty much imploded on itself, some cryptic instagram story posting followed then when the time came we got ‘Prayer’ a stripped back, raw and heartfelt dive into where Jack Penate had been. ‘Prayer’ takes us all the way back to first album ‘Matinee’ and the simple yet extremely effectively written ‘My Yvonne’ which featured none other than world beating but then relatively unknown Adele. A low sliding guitar backed with a gospel choir isn’t something we’d ever expected but there we were, all waiting for what could follow, some might say praying for this album. 

‘After You’ doesn’t rip roar it’s way from the first track, it doesn’t shoot from the paddock as we are lead into ‘Loaded Gun’ for what seems like a nod to everything Jack Penate wishes he was or is to become, the opening line of ‘I want to world to know my name’ links me back to the Mystery Jets album ‘Radlands’ and song ‘Someone Purer’, the twinkling slow jaunt and strum of the acoustic guitar is absolute haunting perfection, a totally refreshing restart. Things now pick up speed with ‘Round and Round’ a three wheeling spinner with an eastern influence, a truly significant addictive beat and the layered vocals we come to expect from Jack Penate, lyrically even three tracks in it is well highlighted that Jack Penate is wearing his heart on his sleeve with ‘After You’ committing clear guileless maturity. 

We drop once more into murky depths with ‘Cipralex’ this song peregrinates through a fog that in the modern day a majority of individuals struggle with, this song represents every dark feeling people will feel during a depressed stage, but also it identifies the fake highs of ‘Cipralex’ itself. We could never have expected a man of Jack Penates talent to not struggle with a demon that lingers above. it’s written from the heart and experience, what seems like a continuing reminder that you can hit the bottom, but you can bounce right back up again. While we are in the murky depths, bouncing right back up again seems to be trend and ‘Murder’ becomes just that, once again we throwback to Jack Penate of the past with touches of ‘Every Glance’ which featured on the ‘Everything Is New’ album. There is no doubt that ‘Murder’ is to become the consummate dance floor filler of ‘After You’ it’s a foot tapping, hand clapping total stamping certified banger from top to bottom, yeah. 

You really feel while listening to ‘After You’ that you are in it, that you are among all of these feelings and emotions or in some way you can attach yourself to the 10 or so years that Jack Penate has been away, lost to the music industry but living his life. ‘Gemini’ is a melody that had been stuck with Penate for a long while then mastered on an old piano he found in the street, the poem written by his grandfather Mervyn Peake while his uncle recites the words themselves. Everything is once again on the table with ‘Let Me Believe’ as Jack Penate opens the door to his creative psyche, while he takes a figurative shotgun to it and blows it across the ceiling. Emotionally impelled, ‘Let Me Believe’ is Jack Penates swan song to himself, an ode to the journey that bought him and us to this album, another reminder. 

Backed by a beat that is prominent from start to finish ‘GMT’  is a hip-hop jazz infused tableau, something that has me wanting to dig out my Mr Hudson & The Library album ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’ and give it another little spin for good measure. It’s got that piano chord progression feeling from Jay Z’s ‘Dead Presidents’ alongside a pure raw vocal, a great track among the 10 but easily lost to some of the more emotionally charged. Effortlessly prominent on ‘After You’ is the ethic that everything has been stripped back to a less is more kind of attitude, lots of Jack Penate doing what he felt was right for him ‘Ancient Skin’ would be another one of those tracks that he was able to take it back to basics, see the absolute bottom of what love was suppose to be lyrically yet here he would be trying to make sense of it all with just words and his feelings. As we move into the end game ‘Swept To The Sky’ was the beginning of the end of ‘After You’ hearing something with a clear reflection hitting that half way mark of the song and it grabs you right in the middle of your body and lifts you, a bit like ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’ by Coldplay but a lot slower and thought provoking. 

What can I tell you about ‘After You’, I can tell you that it is emotionally engaging, thought provoking and at times draining. For the pinnacles we reach within ‘Murder’ and ‘Round And Round’ we also feel the nadir within ‘Loaded Gun’ and ‘Cipralex’. Jack Penate is a man that has spent the last 10 years ageing, maturing, having his heart broken and rebuilding himself from the bottom up and ‘After You’ is the product of that. 

(Images courtesy of TomLangfordPhotography)

On The Radar : Atlas Genius

Remember when I said the southern hemisphere was creating some great music over the last year, well, I’m not going to say it’s the weather, or possibly something in the water but there are some wonderful sounds coming from down under.

Radar 3 piece Atlas Genius hail from Adelaide, they grew up among a very musical family and were heavily influenced by The Beatles, but fame wasn't to come first hand in their native country.

A track recorded in their very own self built recording studio by the name of ‘Trojans’ was scooped up by US blog Neon Gold which catapulted them into the spotlight. Since then they have charted in the US Billboard chart and gone top 10 in the US Digital charts, as well as appearing on numerous American chat shows and becoming Zane Lowe’s next hype on Radio 1.

Radar track ‘Symptoms’ is Bastille, with a twang of Empire Of The Sun and just enough Foster The People to get by. It’s an acoustic guitar layered with a persistent drum beat nicely partnered with some dulcet tones. A melodic lo-fi pop hit that’s going to surf its way into the UK charts within the year. And I ought to mention, they've just finished a tour with previous Radar band Imagine Dragons.

You can catch Atlas Genius debut at London’s Elektrowerks (Tickets : http://www.livenation.co.uk/artist/atlas-genius-tickets)  on 7^th May, a day after the release of radar track ‘Symptoms’.

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.