Boy-Girl band dynamics can be brilliant… or totally cringe-worthy. On the one hand, X-Factor dropouts Same Difference. On the other, the XX.
Romy and Oliver should watch their backs, for My Gold Mask, aka Gretta Rochelle and Jack Armando, are on the scene. I haven’t seen them live (that pleasure awaits me at SXSW) but bootleg [...]
Operator Please have grown up. I’ve been hard on them in the past, but they’ve happily sapped up all the negativity over their respective ages and kitsch pop music, holing up to record their second album. Everybody could see that underneath all the hype around “…Ping Pong…” and their debut album lay a potentially incredible [...]
Big Stereo, aka blog buddy, has entered the unsteady world of releasing records. It’s a pleasure to see any independent raising their head above the parapet in these times, but the fact that a blog in the driving seat sends further signals: blogs can make a difference.
For their first foray, Big Stereo founder Travis wisely [...]
Phonat, aka Michele Balduzzi, dropped his self-titled debut in September 2009 to instant industry approval and the unofficial title of ‘dance album of 2009′. His latest single “Love Hits The Fan” is musically entertaining, but works far better when coupled with the loopy animated video (courtesy of the “Savants Collective”).
Their Grammy win has only served to emphasise how much of a hot topic Phoenix are. Whether their next release will reach such heights as Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix remains to be seen, but it was a serious win for the Versaille band.
On October 31st, 2009, Bloc Party publicly announced their hiatus. Three albums into their career and with intensifying rumours of discord, some critics say that was the end. Why couldn’t it just be a break?
It sounds like the soundtrack to the next Final Fantasy, full of huge overblown brass, backing choirs and off the wall beats. “We Want War” is a ride. Let’s not kid ourselves, we listen to music for originality, to find things that we have never heard before. “We Want War” ticks all those boxes. Mind = Blown.
We have an innate obsession with the past and HURTS capitalise on that. “Wonderful Life” is a perfect slice of pop music, fully realised in the way that their image, videos and general brand has been built up from nowhere. They may only just have arrived, but Hurts know exactly what they are doing.
The original was a grower, chucking aside the heart-felt vocals of “I Am Not A Robot” and “Obsessions” and heading straight for glamour.
This version of “Slick”, performed in band member’s James’ living room, is ridiculously tight, and adds in some extra bells and whistles. Their music is charming, fresh and very danceable. Expect to hear more in 2010, with their debut album Unicorn out on January 25th.
Category: The Moment