January 2010

Gorillaz return with a rush-released track after 'Stylo' was leaked onto the net. Bobby Womack, the soul great, does a wonderful turn on this slow-burner of a song. It's unlikely to repeat the hummability or long-term success of the likes of 'Dare', but give it two or three listens and this will be right under your skin. It's really smart, modern music, as you would expect from Damon Albarn. The bass line that runs throughout is the killer bee here, Mos Def adds a rap and there you have it. A wonderful way to spend five minutes or so.( reviewed 28.01.2010 )

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Treetop Flyers relocated from New York/America to London in search of a break. Straight out of the box as soon as 'Mountain Song' comes on your stereo, you'll be thinking 'Neil Young'. You may also think Crosby, Stills and Nash but it's more Neil Young to my ears. They even see fit to include a very young-esque guitar solo throughout the middle of 'Mountain Song'. Not really original then Treetop Flyers, yet what is in this workaday world? Well, Treetop Flyers are bearded. The EP artwork is an idylic, faded and artistic countryside scene. 'To Bury The Past' lasts for a satisfying twenty five minutes and the key point is probably this. If you saw absolutely no point in 'Fleet Foxes' you'll see no point to Treetop Flyers either. It's a shame if that's the attitude you take, because they really do have their Neil Young type sound right down pat. It's spookily eerie actually how well they evoke the folk scene of the early seventies. 'Is It Worth It' deserves a mention before I go, like an intelligent, acoustic and utterly beautiful mix between Fleet Foxes and Kings Of Leon. Yeah, really. ( reviewed 28.01.2010 )

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You've heard of dubstep artist Burial haven't you? Sure, we all have! Except me. Well, Joy Orbison joins the likes of Burial in being part of the new dubstep scene which is making waves in the UK - finally, a new sound and movement! Anyway, the quite frankly marvellously named 'Joy Orbison' joins the higher profile likes of Burial in being one who could, possibly, enter the mainstream, or at least the inside pages of NME. He's more danceable than Burial, he's got grooves, beats and a dancefloor hat on. Two tracks here then, 'Hyph Mngo' being a phasing synth driven dance-floor number with plenty of spaces to rest in before the beats come back in. Repetitive yes, but isn't that really the entire point? Second track 'Wet Look' has been doing the rounds on the free music MP3 blogs and is well worth tracking down if you want to try before you buy. It's got a beautifully metallic sound and the repeated sample "i'm falling" fits just right. You will fall - deeply into an ecstatic trance to this wonderful intelligent dance music that's also firmly fit for the dance-floors. Hotcha!( reviewed 28.01.2010 )

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Trash-talk is a form of boast or insult commonly heard in competitive situations. It's also a thrash metal band from Sacremento, California. Represented by thelegacygroup.com in Europe and the USA in case you want to book them for your eight year old daughters birthday party, East Of Eden is typical of their output. We've got that motorbike type 'grrr' bass sound, Black Sabbath style drums on speed and a suitably growly vocalist. Even though Trash Talk don't hail from Nottingham then, they do this thrash lark very very well and 'East Of Eden' is by association a great track to annoy your dance music loving neighbours with.( reviewed 28.01.2010 )

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The first track on this bands first release is called 'Let's Go Surfin' and it's absolutely marvelous. Jaded old ears like mine, that somewhat oddly, are attuned to surf music and songs about surfin, even if (because of?) my terrible fear of water are bound to perk up at something like this. The sound of 'The Drums' is simple, a bit like early Violent Femmes albeit without the ironic lyrics about sex. These lyrics are charming fantasy and naivety, most wonderfully so. Every track here is happy, makes me grin. 'Submarine' is the pick of the bunch for me, just for the silly backing vocal wine the incongrously chirps away during the chorus. All in all, an absolute winner of a release and well deserving of five stars. ( reviewed 16.01.2010 )

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Is Toni Braxton really still making records? God, the music industry moves slowly these days - keeping hold of artists way past their sell by date. Anyhow, Toni has used the same trick Whitney used on her recent comeback album, auto-tune. If auto-tune is so obvious it's clearly audible on the finished recording, you just may as well not bother recording in the first place. 'Yesterday' is a slow-moving power-ballad that would sound weak sung by an American Idol winner - in short, it's not suitable material for Toni Braxton. If this is all she can do, she really needs to think hard about how she's allowing her career to slide. Record producers be damned, I say. Get in a room with a piano and a bass player and an analogue recorder and sing. Just that, sing. ( reviewed 16.01.2010 )

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Under the sheets?

"Boys, boys, boys...."?

"You left your blood-stain on the floor" - eeew!

Yes, it's a single from hotly hyped Ellie Goulding, signed to Polydor records. She's been tipped to follow in the footsteps of Florence And The Machine and Adele, to give you an idea of where she's coming from. She's been described as 'future-folk' or 'folktronica' when in reality, judging by 'Under The Sheets' and nothing more, there's not the slightest hint of folk in what's she's coming up with. A modern dance production with pulsing synths in the mode of the current eighties revival trend, and lyrics aiming for both the dancefloors and the vote of teenage girls. With a brit award already under her belt, the peak position of number fifty-three for 'Under The Sheets' seems likely to be swiftly forgotten as radio play and tv appearences lodge her firmly in the minds, if not necessarily the hearts, of the 'never' gullible british public. ( reviewed 16.01.2010 )

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