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M83 - M83 "Midnight City"from the album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming2011iTunesIt's been a long and fruitful journey for M83's Anthony Gonzalez. Started in the early '00s, the once-duo-but-now-solo project has been pumping out albums of top-tier electronic shoegaze for the better part of a decade. That said, M83's been kind of quiet since the release of 2008's excellent Saturdays=Youth, but it seems that the time off was a necessary evil: Gonzalez recently announced the imminent arrival of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, an epic double LP due out October 18. With that release date slowly approaching,... The Chemical Brothers - The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole If their debut, 1995’s Exit Planet Dust, set the Chemical Brothers stall out as purveyors of large beats and chunkin’ funk, then Dig Your Own Hole shot them right into the stratosphere. With its number one singles, Grammy award and multi-platinum status, Dig Your Own Hole took Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons from the backrooms to the stadiums. In a year that saw some incredible albums such as OK Computer, Ladies & Gentleman..., and Homework, Dig Your Own Hole sits easily in such company, a joyous melange of psychedelia, acid house, hip hop, funk and colossal beats... Cribs - Cribs (Latitude 2011) Despite a gigantic fan base, I still see The Cribs as being a hugely underrated band - pigeonholed into the reputation of being a pretty standard and fairly indistinguishable indie band. But there's more to the Jarman brothers than meets the eye. The band are well respected by some of the top musicians - a prime example being Johnny Marr becoming a fourth member of the band. Marr was originally supposed to play with the band at Latitude, but unfortunately announced his resignation shortly before. In his place was David Jones of Nine Black Alps; not the same as seeing... Pop Levi - Pop Levi - Motorcycle 666 After what can only be described as a massive kiss of death, Pop Levi is bouncing back from being tipped by Lauren Laverne four years ago. Since then, he's kept himself busy by making more obscure films than most people would admit to, and having a nice line in accessible indie. "Motorcycle 666" is like a male-fronted version of the Gossip, all driving guitars, insistent bass and rhyming couplets while the drums keep time. It's indie disco fodder and should live long enough in the memory of drunken revellers to go and download the morning after. It's a bit pointlessly long,... Gomez - Gomez - Whatever's on Your Mind It’s a long time since Gomez won the Mercury Music Prize. Thirteen years, to be precise, since they beat The Verve, Massive Attack and Pulp to the award back in 1998. And after one spin of this, their seventh studio album, you’ll think it was even longer ago. Perhaps in another life altogether. To be fair, Gomez have been sliding towards middle-of-the-road mediocrity for a while now. Those first three albums - Bring it On, Liquid Skin, and In Our Gun - were rife with a sense of raw, youthful experimentation, blending British and American folk... Portugal. The Man - Portugal. The Man: In the Mountain, In the Cloud Portugal. The Man’s sixth album is also its major label debut"a fact that is notably striking, mostly because it’s unclear why record labels have taken so long to hop on this bandwagon. The Alaskan foursome (who now live in Portland, Ore.) retains much of its established stylistic tendencies here: the soaring psychedelic melodies; frontman John Gourley’s soulful, soprano vocals; and the underlying sense that you are witnessing a spontaneous fusion of psych-rock with woodsy indie folk. “Everything You See (Kids Count Hallelujahs)” is a swirling, contemplative number with acoustic guitar riffs that wouldn’t be out of place beside a campfire... Dawes - Dawes: Nothing Is Wrong In two short years, Dawes has emerged as one of the finest bands in the burgeoning neo-folk-rock scene"the four group even scored a gig backing none other than Robbie Robertson has at some upcoming live dates. In fact, there is no act that Dawes is more closely related to than The Band. Building off 2009’s surprise debut hit North Hills, Nothing Is Wrong is a nearly perfect combination of incredible songwriting, brotherly harmonies and loose grooves that dip from Neil Young crunch to CSN grace. There’s a growing confidence and earthly honesty in these songs, but it’s the brilliant lyrical... Caribou - Caribou (Latitude 2011) Electronica music is always bound to go down well at a festival; it's danceable, atmospheric and energetic; the perfect way to keep spirits high and leave the crowds buzzing. Few are better in this field than Canadian Daniel Victor Snaith, with many musical monikers and projects under his belt, but none more popular and with a larger discography than Caribou. Snaith's set exuded professionalism; entertaining the packed Word Arena with synthesised tracks and complicated time-signatures causing awkward middle-class Latitude-goers (who were already cautiously coming out of their shells) to bop their heads all the more awkwardly, which only added to the... Robots In Disguise - Robots In Disguise - Happiness... This, believe it or not, is Robots in Disguises' testimonial year. After three albums, "Happiness v Sadness" marks the fourth full-length effort from the British and German duo, with ten years removed from their debut. This album has been funded by the innovative Pledge Music crowdsourcing scheme, which means that enough people have backed them to make this record, as well as clearing their karma a little� a percentage of pledges went to the Alzheimers' Society. So, with promises of voicemails and acoustic gigs for those willing to spend a little more, how does the record itself stack up? It's a frantic... Thurston Moore - Thurston Moore: Demolished Thoughts Thurston Moore’s Demolished Thoughts sounds"maybe unsurprisingly"a lot like acoustic Sonic Youth. But that’s no small feat, given Moore’s band’s love of noise, re-tuned guitars and left-turn song structures. In fact, Demolished Thoughts is stunning. Moore’s sexy/jagged guitar melodies find a rich, new life amid violins, harp and subtle arrangement maneuvers by producer Beck Hansen. A quietly lush chorus emerges in “Blood Never Lies.” An even more lush string-noise crescendo caps “Orchard Street.” Moore’s laconic romanticism is on full display throughout, sounding like his beloved Television, but just as much like the celestial jazz logic of Joni Mitchell, Astral Weeks era... |