Up & Coming Artists #5: White Lies

White Lies

The New Editors or Radiohead Evolved

White Lies are already one of this years hottest tipped underground bands, despite only sporting two of their tracks on their MySpace page. The three-piece including session keyboardist from London only made their Live debut late last year, but were quickly snapped up by NME to play on their New Noise Tour 08' over the beginning of May and they're playing at the Astoria 2 on Wednesday that I'm fortunate enough to have tickets to, so expect a gig review on Saturday. This is also the perfect opportunity for me to explore their influences, style, rhythm, tone and all the other things that music reviewers usually do before they go to see a band live. I think. Okay granted NME have grasped them into their sphere of hype for this coming year, but the same was true for the Arctics and look where they are now!

There is something darkly exciting about this band, they're don't fuck around with music, and they aren't out to change your lives, shit around with your head , bust your pocked or for a matter of fact, put out a political statement. White Lies sing songs about the way things are, and the thing is, they don't care how thing are in the world, they've accepted it, gotten on with it and created some of the most original music this year in debut single 'Unfinished Business'. I think their personalities shine through in their music, and maybe that's the reason they've only posted two songs on the net. They feel they just want you to hear a snippet of the band, so that it draws you to go and see them and ultimately won't destroy the originality in their live performances. They also don't want you to learn the song word for word and scream them back at you, they just want you to shut the fuck up, open your ears and listen to some music for a change.
Although White Lies wouldn't like you to just stand still like a lemon while listening to it, they're upbeat new wave will still make you want to dance in a crowd of sweatiness, once you know the words of course; glowsticks not allowed. Their other song 'Death' was played out on 'Later With Jools Holland' recently to a well received crowd, and the appearance has done them the world of good. They're also on the bill for a host of festivals including: T in the Park, Oxegen, Latitude, Lovebox, Figi Rock and Field Day before embarking on a UK Tour that culminates in a very intimate show at the London ICA, that sadly has already sold out!
Ebay it will have to be for me then!

Storming The Charts #5: Pendulum

Pendulum
Propane Nightmares

The second phase of DnB/Rock band Pendulum is about to be launched into our lives. The first album release since their catastrophic explosion onto the world scene in 2005 is their second studio album 'In Silico' which translates to 'performed on or via computer simulation'. Not exactly an exotic title, but seeing how Dance music has invaded our lives over the past 18 months, it seems quite fitting.

The second single of this second album is titled 'Propane Nightmares', which is quite possibly the most powerful display of electronica technophobia, psychadelic riffs and neurotoxin drums conveyed by sound ever concieved by man. If the Greek god Zeus, was ever to participate in WWE this would be his soundtrack.

Darker than 'Blood Sugar', fresher and louder than 'Slam'; Propane Nightmares is quite literally an atomic bomb to your ears. The first time I heard that pulsating, yet harmonic chorus beat, I whacked my speakers up to full power and I had the porters lodge man at university come up and tell me to turn it down because 10 people who had assignment hand-ins the next day had complained about the noise.

It recieved countless radio play from Zane Lowe on Radio 1 and the music video on YouTube is fast approaching 250,000 views. It was released on April 21st and quickly rose up the charts. However, it wasn't until recently (June 2nd) that the song entered the Top 10 and claimed a whole new listenership and scope for the Perth originated band. The song may not have the dyanamic unique sound that 'Slam' has, but its surely one of this years biggest releases, and I can't wait to see the band at the upcoming Gatecrasher Weekender.

Five Songs You Must Hear... #7

This week I've been digging deep into my dads old LPs and CDs, and his old disco/soul/reggae classics and I've targeted five tracks that for the love of god cannot be ignored. These tracks define the genre they are placed in, and left an enormous influence on artists post-release for years.


#1: Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry


Surely everyone knows this track anyway, however it's definitely the masters' best known song, and one of the most purely written songs of all time. It can brighten up the darkest of days, and it may well be one of Will Smith's favourite songs, unless that's just because it was a film.


#2: Madness - Baggy Trousers

If you're just about to start university and you want to DJ or your already do DJ at you're student union, lets say the nights a bit flat and no body seems to want to dance, just shove this song on. It really is mod madness, and it'll have those filthy freshers week stopouts dancing like crazy gypsies on meth!


#3: Wham! - Club Tropicana


Released way back in 1983, it's still to this day one of the most popular songs produced by the duo. Of course theres something very camp about this song, which may have something to do with it's high chart position in Norway. Now that I've just pissed off an entire nation, lets move on!


#4: Tom Jones - She's A Lady


This post has bordered insanity, cheese and just down right wrong, but this track could not fail to pick u up off your feet. The only problem is, its the perfect track these days for some kind of tampon or thrush advert for women. Its not nice to watch and it just ruins a classic.


#5: Billy Paul - Me & Mrs. Jones


Possibly one of the greatest songs of all time. Released in 1972 it topped the US Billboards for 3 weeks and since then it's been covered by a number of artists, including when Freddie Jackson released it again in 1992. A powerful balled about primarily an affair, so seedy but yet so epic.

Album Review #5: Hadouken!

Hadouken!
Music For An Accelerated Culture

It is widely accepted these days that if you’ve never heard of Hadouken!, then you really need to get a life! Exploding onto the music scene in late 2006 the bands unique sound completely revolutionised the indie/grime scene.
The original, four, but now five piece set-up from Leeds and London are most famous for their debut 7” ‘That Boy That Girl’ that was released early last year and limited to just 500 copies on the band’s own label Surface Noise. The track was coined an Internet Phenomenon, with the band gaining a huge nationwide fan-base as a result of ‘The MySpace Generation’. It was soon followed up by Top 40 hit ‘Liquid Lives’.
They toured the UK over the summer and autumn of 2007 and released their first EP ‘Not Here To Please You’ in November of last year, which was the first extended play or album in history to be released as a USB.
After the digital-only release of track ‘Leap of Faith’ at the same time as the EP, the band struggled to continue with their identity. With album opener ‘Get Smashed Gate Crash’ they have gone back to producing tracks like ‘That Boy That Girl’, where the band feel the rawness in their sound was what made them exciting in the first place.
Their debut studio album ‘Music For An Accelerated Culture, to be released in a few weeks (May 5th).

Review

Track #1: Get Smashed Gate Crash
Building up a tense and explosive opening James Smith explodes into an exchanted chasm of heart rendering electronic nuclear bombs. "Lets get this party started" exclaims the limey indie grimster. At this point, my palms begin to get sweaty and my pulse races to this contageous infection of electronica.
Get Smashed Gate Crash was released as a 10" vinyl last month and saw Hadouken! fly back to their roots after an experimental EP in 'Leap of Faith' last november.

Track #2: That Boy That Girl
Epic and classic Hadouken! the post Klaxon 2007 hit maybe a little old in new music terms, but to leave this track out of their debut album would be a crime against humanity to say the least.
The hoxton-heros and indie-cindy's of the UK might be filtering out into new spectrums of weirdness this year, but this is still one quality tune.

Track #3: Gameover
The first new track from the band that I've heard as a result of this album, and its clearly not as good as Liquid Lives, but think Bounce with the swagger of Superstar.
The beat is old skool big-beat and the vocals catchy, it rounds off a deafening opening... I might need to turn it down a tad as my flatmates are starting to moan though!

Track #4: Declaration of War
The new single sees the first release of a slow H! song, well slow to some respect. The verses are faster than the chorus which is odd, but works well. On some parts of the song, the keyboard riffs have been nicked from Bounce and cut on the speed a bit, but they really add depth to the sound. The bass is shattering on this track, I think it's James & Co's first attempt at a real pop song, and the media have really picked up on the poppyness, which is a shame, because I think its a great song.

Track #5: Mr Misfortune
Possibly the closest song on the album to 'That Boy That Girl' B Side 'Tuning In'. "Don't Be Down in the Dumps" James opens to the darkness of H!, fusing a bit of grime and garage with break-beat goodness. The lyrics are class and it placing on the album splits up the old skool H! with the new songs they've recorded over the past few months.

Track #6: Crank It Up
Just when you think they might be letting up on the tunage, they drop a H!-Bomb!
Crank It Up is this albums answer to the current state of the music industry. Its cheesy lyrics are really remeniscent of yet again, Bounce, but with an insane beat that pumps up the album bigger than a pornstars 'special' lips!

Track #7: What She Did
H!'s attempt at some Dub-Step and some Acid-House beats. This album really is getting better and better with every listen. I can't understand how NME have slated the album and given it a 6/10, its far greater than that!
What She Did is brain churning electronica, and you can really see the influences of Kernkraft, Prodigy and Crystal Method coming through into certain parts of this track. There is no mercy for anyone listening to this album, it's not possible for anyone to arise from the ashes of Music For An Accelerated Culture the same person prior to it.

Track #8: Driving Nowhere
Possibly an opening gig track, Driving Nowhere is the experimental song of the collection. The sort of song you write, frustrated and stressed with song writing, as evident with the Biffy Clyro esc beats on 2:37 onwards. I think this track suggests the spectrum of sound that the band can cover, this track is short and to the point. H! want to let people know the time spent since their first single release early last year wasnt spent didding about clubbing and getting pissed, they are on a mission that they want to finish, and finish well.

Track #9: Liquid Lives
Drink! Smoke! Fuck! Fight! Ok, maybe some of the time was spent getting rather a bit too pissed, but it's what the band are all about, not standing around at gigs 'apreciating music' as the old-folk like to call it, but getting off your tits and making some darn loud noise!
Always will be my favourite track from H! the message is timeless and it will stand the test of the time as one of the lyrics of this decade, if there is anythng to remember this weird decade by?

Track #10: Spend Your Life
A social mockery song, finally something to do with a wee bit of politics. I'd thought James wasn't capable of writing such a song until I interviewed him with my podcast (http://www.earstotheskies.com) just a couple of weeks ago. That's when I found out for myself that he isn't just a rock star, hes actually a pretty intelligent so n so, who knows exactly what is going on in the world, and don't flamin' like it.

Track #11: What For You
This song almost acts like the morning after pill, or some nurofen after a night on the town. It seems to clense all the nastiness and filth from a night out at a H! gig. The album closes on a downer, but you can't really notice it after the previous 10 track rape of your entire body

Verdict

If there are any problems that I've got with the album, then I would tell you; but I don't. It's not perfect in a sense that, it's going to leave you feeling as if you will never hear a better constructed and written album EVER; but to be honest for me, there's nothing wrong with it. It's got all the ingredients of Hadouken! and with the band exploring a more electronica sound rather than sticking to the 'nu-rave' tag they seemed to have developed out of choice of other critics.
There's a lot of indie/electroness out there at the moment, Does It Offend You, Yeah?/Justice/The Whip/Kissy Sell Out/Simian/Late of the Pier, however, for me Hadouken! are the band that started it all. Obviously not started it all, we'll leave that down to the good old Minimoog and Yamaha YX-7, but they seem to have inspired a lot of top new bands that were born around the same time post-Klaxons to explore a more electronica based sound, reminiscent of the 90s LA Scene and everything that goes with Prodigy and Crystal Method. If Hadouken! could produce a second album anything near to the par in a conventional-band sense of 'Music for the Jilted Generated' or 'Vegas', then fuckin' bring it on!

9/10

Up & Coming Artists #4: Health

Health
Opposites Attract = Epic Win

Four piece experimental noise rock band Health are from Los Angeles, home of the 'rich and famous' and also all things gloriously fake in this world. The destination of promise and prosperity, where anyone can become famous for 30 seconds.
However, it seems this falic reality has not rubbed off on these guys.
Health are most known for their collaboration with Crystal Castles, where the two bands remixed Health's track 'Crimewave' for CC's debut album, which debuted at #9 on the UK indie singles chart.
The band have already released their self titled debut album back in September 2007, that received an 8/10 from NME and Drowned in Sound.
Looking at the band collectively, they look like an odd bunch. Grown up math/emo rockers with a dance kick to their inspiration and a hunger to really fuck people up with their experimental goodness. I suppose you could sum up Noise Rock as just American bands who try to be Pendulum, but without the whole DnB take on things. Except I don't think Health really are Noise Rock, they're something completely new; well obviously there have to be some bands out there that sound a bit like them, but I've never heard a band for a while with such a diverse sound. Like an indie version of Reuben, but with a bit more swagger.

The opening track to their album 'Heaven' is 2:37 of pure instrumental goodness, that only actually starts at around 0:17. At first I thought there was something wrong with my speakers, so I decided it would be a good idea to turn them up full blast and click in the middle of the song, at which point my dad yelled up the stairs: "Turn that fucking shit OFF!". Nice to know my father can talk to me civily sometimes.
The real gem in their sound can be found in 'Triceratops', it sound like Muse gone goth, only that Matt Belamy have developed a speech impediment. I can sense influences of The Strokes, Foo Fighters and Gun 'n' Roses in their music, but also less well known synthony rockers Earth, that specialise in songs that last for decades.
I really think that at the end of listening to their album, I've aged about 10 years, but also remarkably I'm now 50 years wiser!
Health is a band that laughs in the face of stereotypes, they break all the rules of conventional dance/punk and re-write the rulebook in track 'Courtship', only to blow it up with a heatseeking RPG from 100 miles away on track 'Tabloid Sores'.
They literally are the experimental rock version of Crystal Castles. They make you feel nauceous and overpowered, like staring at a strobe light for more than a minute. Although, they also astound you and blow you away with every strum and every bang. Tracks to look out for on their album are 'Triceratops', 'Glitter Pills' and 'Perfect Skin'.
They are quite simply, An Epic Win!

Storming The Charts #4: Wiley

Wiley
Wearing My Rolex

Undoubtedly one of the hardest working rappers in the UK Grime scene over the past four years, Wiley has established himself as one of the most important Urban acts in the country; however, don't tell Dizzee that.
Born in 1979, the Trinidadian originated Londoner was born into a poor family in the East-end of the Capital. Despite this he has become one of the biggest UK Garage producer's and MC's with his solo work, and with his work in UK act Roll Deep. He's also been album nominated for a MOBO Award.
With two albums on the way this year alone and two clothing ranges selling strongly on the high street, Wiley is setting the bar higher and higher each year for fellow Grime producers.
Although his last outing on the charts 'Pies' only reached #45, his most recent hit 'Wearing My Rolex' is a thunderous bassline energised dancefloor vapouriser.
From the very first beat, you can tell just how massive this tune is; it comprises conventions of both the Grime scene and the 06/07 European House Scene that came about in the mainstream via releases from Bodyrox and David Guetta.
The single is due to be Released on Monday on CD and 12", yet via it's downloads on iTunes, it's already flying in the top 5 thanks to it's constant airplay on Radio One via Zane Lowe and Annie Mac, and from various DJs on fellow BBC Station 1Xtra.
I'm really looking forward to his upcoming album Grime Wave that features collaborations with MC's Frisco, Flo Dan and Brazen.
Although it's been debated in the press that the album will be released as a Mixtape only, similar to 2006's 'Da 2nd Phaze' and that the other album that's scheduled to be released in September this year titled 'The Race Against Time' will be Wiley's next official studio album.
Whatever the hype and whatever the real rumours are, its surely going to be the biggest year yet for the East London man, and I wish him all the best.