Grizzly Bear
A fine return from Droste and co sees Getintothis’ Matthew Wood once again dives head first into a pile of new releases.
Single of the Week
Grizzly Bear – Three Rings
After some subtle action via Instagram accounts and teaser videos, we’re finally granted access to the new material from Brooklyn’s wonky pop quartet, Grizzly Bear, and boy is it a belter.
Three Rings is a thick, dreamy helping of melody-rich psychedelia that pulses unexpectedly with varying rhythms and shimmering with Ed Droste and co’s remarkable vocal talents. A mesmeric drum beat scuttles throughout giving it a wild ‘free-jazz’ feel, while monstrous bursts of darkened synths fight amid the more structured twangs of guitar and crystal synths.
It’s a wondrous jam for your mind to wander through, never looking both ways and letting it wash over you from all directions. Tuck in!
Thyla – Ferris Wheels
The Star Trek nerds amongst us may know that Thyla is a Vulcan meaning ‘friend’, I know I certainly didn’t until I Googled it, but anyway, you may find a different kind of friend in Thyla the dream-pop band hailing from Brighton.
Having already stormed through support slots with the outstanding Dream Wife and Luxury Death, the female-led quartet utilise energetic rhythms and sweet, shimmering guitar tones informed by the more pop-tinged brands of shoegaze.
Ferris Wheels skips skilfully along on a head-bopping bass line while Millie Duthie‘s vocal glides swiftly over the racing backdrop, powerfully but not overly dominant, her lyrics cruise in an 80’s pop manner and meet divinely with the elegant guitar chords.
Man & The Echo – Very Personally Yours
Another cracker from these lads, who for me are yet to release a tune that isn’t as catchy as it is socially relevant and flippin’ hilarious. Very Personally Yours depicts a working-class wedding in a working man’s club, yet this turns sour when parents of the middle-class groom get a bit too snobby for their own good.
This The video sees front-man Gareth Roberts dressed a beaten priest, hitting impressive high notes and laying them over a sweet barbershop quartet-style series of backing vocals. There’s a downtrodden ‘surf’ vibe to the track’s opening, plodding along on single strikes of guitar before launching into an irresistible chorus, perfect for any sunny morning.
Man & The Echo have recently announced a UK Tour with The Rifles, sadly there’s no Liverpool date, but they’re well worth the train ticket!
Annabel Allum – Eat Greens
London-based Annabel Allum is causing quite a stir with her grunge-pop that this time sees her torn between excessive drinking and eating all her vegetables. Jarring chords and dark, fluid bass lines recall both Courtney Barnett and Savages, combining a lyrical innocence with pounding rhythms and consistently building towards meatier riffs and yelping vocals.
Equally the contrasting sound mirrors Allum‘s internal conflicts between peer pressure and following that age-old advice we’re dealt as youngsters. It’s a hefty, well crafted track and is more likely to have you swigging from a bottle of Smirnoff wailing ‘eat all my vegetables‘ than it is going to get you gobbling up a plate of veg. But there’s always tomorrow for a health kick, right?
XamVolo – Old Soul
For a lad so young, Xam Volo oozes a wisdom beyond his years, single handedly spanning generations with his sound. He delves deep into the archives of soul and hip-hop while simultaneously crafting a sound that’s so prevalently at the cutting edge of modern music.
Old Soul resonates with all that Big Sam is about; an instant groove is set underway by some intricate Spanish guitar before his smooth falsetto greets the groove in a manner not dissimilar to funk icon Thundercat. He then launches into a chorus that swells and builds, revelling in the simple pleasure of kicking back with pile of records and whiling away the days without a care in the world.
Get on that Al Jarreau-esque scat vocal around 2 minutes in, too, the lad really has all bases covered here; marvellous. Xam Volo is also up for the GIT Award, could this seal the deal?
LCD Soundsystem – Call The Police
Seven years on since the release of This Is Happening, James Murphy marks his much-heralded return with a minute for every year gone by in whopping track, Call The Police. Intense, raging and rich with energetic textures, the track drives along incessantly on a monster of a bass line.
Despite it’s breakneck speed, the track seemingly roars towards something that never really arrives, and rather than opening our eyes to a future unbeknownst to us, we’re faced with a myriad of similarities to what’s been before. And by ‘what’s been before’, I mean more specifically tracks from U2 and The Killers, with Murphy‘s vocal sounding strikingly similar to a sub-par Brandon Flowers.
Don’t get me wrong, this will go down fantastically with a live audience, hectic and menacing, giving you an irresistible urge to flail some limbs, but let’s face it, it’s never going to get us to dance ourselves clean.
Shabazz Palaces – 30 Clip Extension
Having just announced their latest album, Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star, in which it’s claimed the band’s musical missionary Quazarz discovers a world in which humans and technology become one. Following this, they’ve just announced yet another new album, Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines along with our first flavour of what’s to come via 30 Clip Extension.
The unnerving lyric video initially urges you to ‘join up‘, before pinning us to the year 1968, then 1974, 2017 and the launching us forward to 2064, all the while lyrically riffing around the topics of ghostwriters, our favourite rappers, computers and futuristic armies.
An eastern-tinged loop of plucked strings reappears throughout the track while the lyrical structure and beat remain consistent and threatening. It’s certainly one for interpretation, and a step into a time portal with our newly acquainted Quazarz.
Black Lips – Can’t Hold Onto Nothing
Taken from the rad Atlanta rockers’ new album Satan’s Grafitti or God’s Art, produced by Sean Lennon, this is our first helping of brand new Black Lips.
Encapsulating all we’ve come to love about the garage-punk rockers, Can’t Hold Onto Nothing thrashes and pounds along in abrasive fashion with Cole Alexander‘s vocal rasping throughout, and as always embracing the absurdity of life and giving zero shits along the way.
Latino horns, flaming cars and a frantic guitar solo fills you to the brim with rage, fun and self-destruction, as they always seem to do.
The Boxing – One By One
A serious dose of gloomy psych from Leeds for you here. Malcontent trio, The Boxing offer up a sonic blast of dark rock as a response towards the silence surrounding depression, delving deep into the human psyche to develop their captivating sound.
Harnessing a sound somewhere between TOY, The Black Angels and Pink Floyd, it’s a driving force that takes time to stop and reflect upon it’s moody landscape, and then reacts with wistful interludes before launching into a reverberating blast of effect-soaked chords, blasting any uncertainty clear out of the water.
Simian Ghost – When You’re Ready
Sweden’s chart-topping, alternative pop outfit have had critics raving over their succulent, feel-good sound, and have shared stages with the likes of Mount Kimbie and SBTRKT.
When You’re Ready opens on an immediately infectious lick before bursting into a fully-fledged summer jam, sickly sweet and intoxicating like any good cocktail. Slick grooves and a distinct androgynous vocal make this one as unique as it is catchy and you can instantly see why they’ve received so many plaudits since their formation.
The band are in safe hands working with Thomas Hedlund of Phoenix and their fourth record is firmly in the pipeline; the future’s bright for the Swedes.
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