For the Record: July

Easily the worst month of the year July has chuntered through barely noticed with most labels holding their new releases back for the October- Christmas period. The only album worth hearing really has been Florence and The Machine's debut 'Lungs'. Yeah it's overproduced in parts but anyone expecting something subtle and understated perhaps don't know Florence as well as they think. As predicted here over a year ago Florence Welch is well on her way to becoming one of the biggest pop stars in the country.

Elsewhere The Dead Weather did little to stop people thinking Jack White should try find his quality control again. Great in parts but slow and sludgy in others 'Horehound' sounds like a record just trying a bit too hard. Speaking of trying too hard Discovery released 'LP', a sickly sweet hyper white try hard of an album it's maybe the worst record of the year so far.

Florence and The Machine- Lungs (Album of the month)
The Dead Weather- Horehound

Download these

Florence and The Machine- 'Cosmic Love'
The Dead Weather- 'Treat Me Like Your Mother'

ROLL ON AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER.

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Discovery- 'LP'

Indie music is painfully white. Think about it and go through your record collection. Sure you’ve got Bloc Party, maybe a bit of TV On The Radio and the token hip-hop album (probably Outkast or Dizzee Rascal) but by and large the bands you like, the posters on your wall and the gigs you’ve been to are nearly as mono-racial as a BNP rally. This isn’t a problem per se; it merely reflects cultural choice and a historical lineage. You get the feeling though that it really bothers some people, to the point they are set on a mission to do everything they can to eradicate their liberal guilt.

Step forward Discovery, the side project of Ra Ra Riot’s Wes Miles and Vampire Weekend keyboard player Rostam Batmanglij. Having appropriated afro-pop and made a huge success of it in 2008 Batmanglij has turned his eye to glossy R’n’B for this latest project. It is admirable that Discovery have made an album that actually sounds as if it was influenced by Aaliyah, and Timberland rather than merely name checking them as influences in interviews to seem multicultural however in producing the tepid and embarrassing ‘LP’ they have damaged their reputations and come off looking like an MP trying to be ‘down with the kids’.

The production throughout ‘LP’ is solid to impressive, reverb drenched beats pound heavily and pretty glacial synth lines dance atop merrily. However, they clash awfully with Miles’s preppy and twee vocals and adding guest vocalists from Dirty Projectors and Vampire Weekends own Ezra Koenig make the record begin to sound like a bedroom experiment that should have stayed private. ‘LP’ is a difficult listen with heavy use of auto-tune and an awfully timed and in no way poignant cover of ‘Want You Back’ by Jackson 5, ‘Osaka Loop Line’ aside every part of the album sounds derivative, affected and offensive. If the duo wanted to make a modern R’n’B record they’d have been better working as producers with a vocalist who has soul and meaning to their voice. As it stands Discovery are making a preppy and diluted version of the music and playing it to blog reading nerdy white kids. It all feels wrong and worryingly ironic. Disovery’s love of this music may be indisputable but so too is the fact that they have made a painful hash of their homage.

4/10

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Discovery

For the acquainted: here is a 4-track sampler of the forthcoming Discovery record released on July 6th. It includes two new songs as well as the previously heard 'Osaka Loop Line' and 'Orange Shirt'.

For the unacquainted: Take one member of Vampire Weekend and one from Ra Ra Riot, leave them in a room in Japan with Timbaland's back catalogue and 'Give Up' by The Postal Service and you get the most interesting side project of the year- Discovery.

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New Music Monday

///Gigwise///

Graffiti Island

When another blogger recently wrote about Graffiti Island the posts subsequent comments were essentially list of abuse. Now anonymous keyboard warriors are nothing new but it shows how divisive Graffiti Island are- "This is shit" reads one closely followed by the baffling "They sound like Hare Krishnas". What these people were failing to hear however was the most exciting band around right now. Graffiti Island make music that couldn't sound more nonchalant if it tried and you get the impression they would never do anything so pathetic as trying. Like Johnny Cash fronting Beat Happening this London based three piece craft demonic and hypnotic scuzzy gems that positively drip with style. They are currently streaming two tracks online, 'Demonic Cat' is a typically bass heavy affair with the morose vocal telling of "666 lives" whereas 'Bad Potion' is a riotous garage rock workout that flies by in a whirlwind of energy. Go listen to them, come back and abuse them if you want- I trust that you'll fall for them too.

Graffiti Island@ Myspace

Magic Magic

Magic Magic are the sort of band only America can make. There must be something in the British gene pool that has eradicated romantic and tender alt.pop in favour of writing songs about kebab shops and small town resentment (It's probably all the sunshine). Like The Shins or the underrated Little Ones this Boston band make naive and semi-twee music wrapped up in falsetto vocals and the sound of a heart broken boy tapping the triangle. They are so much the polar opposite of Graffiti Island I am thinking of writing a flat-share sitcom about the two bands. Lazy journalists have compared them to Arcade Fire which is about 54 kinds of wrong however they have lauded praise on the bands album which sneaked out at the tail end of 2008 to not even a solitary trumpet parp never mind a fanfare. Magic Magic's debut album is available now and a single ('Sleepy Lion') will be available via Chessclub Records soon.

Magic Magic@ Myspace

5 to download

Discovery- Osaka Loop Line. A second week running that Discovery feature in this list. The Vampire Weekend/ Ra Ra Riot spin offs second track is an absolute monster. Showing their love for 90's R'n'B and Japan it sounds like Postal Service produced by Timbaland (in his prime) lost in Tokyo at 4am. Essential.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson- Buriedfed. Like Brangelina before him this long named troubadour has kindly shortened his name to the more digestible M-BAR. Naming issues aside this uber-talented young song writer is possibly the best connected man in the game right now. Working with TV On The Radio main man Kyp Malone and Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor he has produced a rustic country anthem sounding both modern and antique at the same time.

Gringo Star- All Y'all. 2009 has already given us Titus Andronicus, The Soft Pack and a new Black Lips record but if that isn't enough gravelly and dark garage rock then Gringo Star are here to join the party. They've certainly got a sunnier outlook than the aforementioned and add Beach Boys harmonies and slick guitar solo's to the mix. This track is symptomatic of what you can hear when they tour the UK with Black Lips in May.


New Look- Function Of Your Love. People besides boy/girl duos can make dance music in 2009, I don't think it's been made illegal or anything. You can see why they're not bothering though when chic acts like New Look are around. This track slinks around with big basslines and zeitgeist synths chiming in the background- it's trashy and disposable but then that's kinda the point.

Perfume Genius- Learning. Brittle to the point of breaking this young Seattle singer is crafting such delicate and deft music you positively have to cup your ears to hear the intricacies. With light vocals and soft piano PG sounds like a man out of time.

Albums out this week- Golden Silvers release their critically acclaimed and long awaited album 'True Romance'. It's a wonky and off-kilter affair that will take the casual indie pop fan by surprise- a good thing if ever there was one. Laura Groves a.k.a Blue Roses also releases her debut record this week.

Hot Gigs- This weeks number one artist (isn't that crazy? but in a good way) La Roux begins her tour in Nottingham on Wednesday then moving on to Bristol, Cardiff, Oxford and Wrexham. Support comes from Magistrates. Hockey: Are they great or are they awful? make your mind up as they support Friendly Fires in Manchester, Wolverhampton, Norwich, London Southampton and Brighton. Micachu plays two London dates on Tuesday and Wednesday. thecocknbullkid plays three London shows as well as Hinterland festival in Glasgow on the 30th alongside Metronomy, Wet Paint, Two Door Cinema Club and Three Trapped Tigers. Leeds has its own multi-venue festival too on Saturday featuring Mumford and Sons and Bombay Bicycle Club alongside local heroes Sky Larkin, Grammatics, Dinosaur Pile-Up and Wild Beasts.

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