Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews

ANIMAL PARTS – Animal Parts

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Considering this self-titled offering is only his second release, Animal Parts’ frontman Joshua Cockerill demonstrates an excellent gift for song-craft, certainly one beyond his relative inexperience. Plenty of rootsy moods, a little pop and a few strong narratives each come together to make a record that has plenty of emotional pull.

The quirky ‘Poets’ is an instant standout, it’s mix of acoustic guitar, new wave keyboards and handclaps come together in a way which manages to be reminiscent of an early 80s power pop band reimagined by Wilco.  Vocally, the underplayed harmonies are great, while with his lead vocal delivery, Cockerill knows he has a natural sense of style – he doesn’t have to use any quirks or unnecessary affectations to catch the ear.  Another great jangler, ‘I Won’t Ever Let You Down’ breezes along with a sunny optimism, its tune recalling the best indie-pop of the 1990s.  While the bouncy air and simple chorus are the things which are likely to be considered the most striking about this particular number, its bass part should not be overlooked – the production values here really bring out the best in the performance.  It may not be completely original, but it is so well performed, it’s near impossible to dislike.

Although never flashy, ‘King of Kings’ is another instantly likeable offering, again hinting at a love of 90s jangle-pop/indie.  Throughout the bulk of this tune, Cockerill and his Animal Parts sound positive, bringing a real spark to their performance.  Despite this, it is not the song’s main part which ends up being its most memorable (even with a drum part that tips the hat to Phil Spector…) The real stroke of genius here comes during the songs coda, where Cockerill throws out huge ugly slabs of guitar drenched in levels of reverb which would befit Neil Young & Crazy Horse.  The influence here is as subtle as a brick – particularly reminiscent of ‘Don’t Cry’ from Young’s 1989 album ‘Freedom’.  Still, given this band’s Canadian heritage and their love of roots-rock, gaining influence from the mighty sideburned one was inevitable.

While those upbeat tunes sound great from first listen, it doesn’t take too long before some of the rootsier material proves to be just as enjoyable…and perhaps even more so. With just a finger-picked guitar leading the way ‘Running’ starts out very wistfully, with Cockerill’s voice taking the weight of the melody, its natural tone pulling in the listener once more.  His delivery wobbles a little, like a man who could crack at any given moment, but that’s half the charm – it’s an absolute pleasure to hear a voice that’s not been shined to perfection with various studio filters.  The slow and lumbering ‘Dream Where I Break Horses’ offers a particularly memorable lyric, blending thoughts of hours spent equine training in potentially lonely surroundings with a tune that would befit many of Animal Parts’ country-rock influenced predecessors.  The aching, country tinged lead voice works especially well with a slightly reverbed drum, electric piano and soft cello drones, creating an absolutely unmissable tune, which in the hands of Son Volt – for example – would quickly be heralded a genre classic.

Also from the top drawer, ‘The Bird Song’ places Cockerill upfront with just an acoustic guitar and quiet voice.  The finger picked acoustic notes are quiet and almost disjointed; with an incredibly sparse backdrop, the tune is wholly at the mercy of the vocal to carry any emotional weight, but the performance is more than up to the task in hand.  Fragile, beautiful, almost painful – this is Animal Parts laid bare.  A warm bass and droning crescendo fills any gaps at the inevitable climax. If alt-country is your bag, you’ll totally dig this…and then some.  It’s a close contender for this album’s finest offering, but it’s just pipped by the masterful ‘…Break Horses’.

While you may be able to spot a few obvious influences on this release, that doesn’t weaken its impact.  With a perfect balance between chirpy pop/rock and darker alt-country suffering, ‘Animal Parts’ is a great record which comes highly recommended.

October 2012

GNIYRG GNAARG – The Acolytes Feel Sleepy EP

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Aside from having an unpronounceable name that’s a nightmare for search engines, Gniyrrg Gnaarg are a Finnish doom metal/stoner rock trio.  Their second EP ‘The Acolytes Feel Sleepy’ presents two long and ambling epics linked by a shorter instrumental piece.  Musically, there are a few interesting moments, but it’s only fair to warn that in terms of performance these guys are pretty ragged, so getting all the way through requires some patience on behalf of the listener.

‘Hololuthrian’ is slow to start, as a solid bassline collides with a fuzzy guitar riff.  That riff shows promise with its tone reminiscent of other stoner works, but the playing is a tiny bit clumsy.  By the time the tune cranks itself up at about the two minute mark, the riffs swells to a full on monolithic metallic slab and in doing so become much more enjoyable.  Predictably, it then subsides in order to accommodate the lead vocal.  This is somewhat of a drawback: although Tommy’s basslines have a decent weighty quality, his vocal style is thin and rather waily.  His accented cries aren’t particularly suited to a metal band and are more than a bit difficult to endure in any more than short bursts.  Luckily, on the chorus section, parts of the vocals are disguised with distortion and all round extra fuzziness…   Add a rudimentary drummer whose playing doesn’t have a particularly huge presence and for nearly nine minutes you’re faced with a piece of music which tries hard – very hard, in fact – but doesn’t always live up to its potential.

‘Nay, A Prophet’ – the EP’s other long piece – is as bewildering as it is entertaining.  The bass lays down an ominous riff at first, with a couple of great high notes, while Leo noodles slowly on his guitar in a jazzy tone.  The drums, meanwhile, plod mechanically – and without any kind of exteme metal riff to disguise them (at least to begin with), the beats almost feel too slow, almost like a recording slightly slowed down.  Although it’s deceptively hard to maintain a slow and pounding beat, Ines, on occasion, sounds like a man who’s not been playing for a long time.  Instrumentally, there is something here potentially more enjoyable than ‘Hololuthrian’ – largely down to a superb fuzz bass – but on the flipside, huge parts of this number are crushed by a giant wailing vocal.  By the closing section, the band crank up into a high gear; with everything played much faster, it’s hard to tell whether Tom’s vocal is off-key on purpose in a gently avant-garde sense, or just plainly off-key…only Gniyrg Gnaarg know that for sure.

The short instrumental ‘A Wizard?’ is this EPs best tune.  It’s not necessarily to do with the lack of vocal especially, but everything to do with a much more focused approach. The riffs take a Black Sabbath blueprint and turns it up to eleven, cranking out long-ish notes in a loop for just over two minutes.  Those riffs have a fuller quality all round, while the brief playing time means there is no room here for needless noodling or padding.  It goes straight for your skull in terms of overall aggression, something helped further by Tommy’s loud rattling bass sound.  This proves that Gniyrg Gnaarg aren’t without talent – just based on most of ‘The Acolytes Feel Sleepy’, any talent they have is still very raw.

There are glimpses of goodness found within this EP and sonically, it’s a vast improvement over Gniyrg Gnaarg’s previous recording (2010’s ‘Mother Sun’).  Overall, though, at this early stage of their musical career, these guys just don’t have the tightness that’s necessary to make their sounds work over a long period.

September 2012

BEAR MAKES NINJA – Shouting At Bridges

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Bear Makes Ninja are a three-piece Mathrock band from Leicestershire.  At the root of the seven tunes featured on ‘Shouting At Bridges’ (their second EP), you’ll find lots of the usual musical complexity associated with the subgenre – the bastard child of alternative rock and progressive metal – but what makes BMN really tick is their love of a heavy riff.

Such a riff cuts through the middle of ‘Fruit Can’t Fly’, exposing a huge admiration for early Smashing Pumpkins.   While there’s very little in the way of a chorus, the push and pull between (almost) harmonious singing and all out shouting holds the attention well enough, while riff wise – alternating between the Pumpkins-esque groove and something much faster – the band show themselves have some decent rock chops.  Digging a little deeper, some of the drum work is of particular note, especially the rather fast hi-hat work.  Overall, this is a fantastic number…especially with the volume cranked; the EP is worth investigating on the strength of this track alone. On the more melodic side, ‘Human-zee’ shows jazzier leanings within BMN’s sound:  the off-kilter rhythm and jazz guitar lines are key here, but although their journey into such territory is enjoyable, it’s quickly apparent that James Palmer isn’t quite as adept at the guitar noodlings as Wot Gorilla?’s Ben Farnell.  Even so, his jazzier chops make a fine base for drummer Karina Lawrence to build a quirky rhythm to compliment Ben Kutzner’s busy bass riffs.

‘Beef Sweets’ pulls Bear Makes Ninja’s three key styles into one short instrumental piece.  A clean guitar riff played with some delay paves the way for an unfussy and rather chunky bass part.  These two elements provide the bulk of the tune, but BMN aren’t quite done: to round things off, another huge riff (of a Helmet-esque chugginess) pulls things to a gradual close.  Perhaps more could have been made of this tune – and the size of that riff in particular – but in terms of simply highlighting this band’s main sounds, it does a reasonable job.

The second half of ‘Shouting At Bridges’ never stretches beyond the musical themes laid down within the first three tracks, but even so, it’s not without enjoyment.  ‘The Duke and The Rogue’ sounds great during the noisier moments, a wall of guitars hinting at influences from Oceansize and Tool, while the shouty, English accented lead voice shows a fair lack of restraint (in a good way); ‘A Welcome Break’s intro includes the EPs strongest drum part – crossing slightly jazz inflected rhythms with a marching solidity.  Both are standout moments that suggest that while Bear Makes Ninja aren’t always quite as consistent as a couple of their peers [namely Tubelord and the aforementioned Wot Gorilla?, both of whom BMN have supported], when those sparks of brilliance are there, this are capable of more than holding their own within a burgeoning scene of mathrock bands.

Closing the EP, ‘Keep Wandering’ is a short, light piece that features a simplistic guitar part with a gentle echo, giving the track a nice live sound.  After a while, a one-line vocal creeps in, with all band members singing off kilter (not quite in a round) and slightly off-key.  While it completely dispenses with Bear Makes Ninja’s metallic oomph and is far from their best tune, it seems like an appropriate way to wind down.

For those who feel largely unmoved by the mathrock movement, as good as they can be at times, Bear Makes Ninja aren’t likely to change any minds.  For those who love a few screamy vocals, huge riffs and aren’t adverse to a bit of proggy twiddling, although ‘Shouting At Bridges’ is a little uneven, there will certainly be a couple of tunes here which rattle the brain cells.

October 2012

SUNDAY SUN – III EP

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Recorded during the same sessions for their second EP, this third release from Dutch power poppers Sunday Sun finishes a trilogy of EPs released throughout 2012.  While that second EP wasn’t quite as strong as the first, this final part makes up for any previous minor disappointments, delivering the band’s strongest set of songs.  Those who took an instant liking to Sunday Sun’s previous work will be pleased to note that ‘III’ offers no musical curveballs or surprises… As such, it’s less important to go into any lengthy details here – everything you need to know about this band has likely already been said.  In a nutshell, though, this third EP takes the band’s strongest elements and – if anything – improves on them, giving the listener seven slices of near-perfect pop.

The most instant “hit” comes from ‘Better Than That’, a track featuring lavish pop harmonies, crisp sounding guitars and tinkling glockenspiels.  It takes everything you’ve loved about Sunday Sun’s prior work and turns it up to eleven, perhaps showing a strong love of Fountains of Wayne in the process.  Almost as good, ‘Light Up The Sky’ at first sounds like it’s going to be a little different, with a strong focus on tinkling pianos.  It’s not long, though, before a very strong rhythm section reinstates their beloved rumpty-tumpty marching beat (as heard on ‘Sunday Sun’) and the band drop into the kind of pop they could write (and possibly perform) in their sleep.  ‘Sing’ is a sugary number which includes another upfront bass part (expertly played by Jan Teerstra) against ringing guitars worthy of many 60s Merseybeat recordings and a hook delivered with a world of Teenage Fanclub-esque harmonies.  The wordless “woo-ooo’s!” are maybe a little unnecessary, but considering all other elements here are superb, the track still works brilliantly.

The rest of ‘III’ is very good, despite Sunday Sun’s insistence on sticking rigidly to the kind of pop at which they’ve previously excelled.  The semi-acoustic ‘Beating Low’ offers another slight 60s influence, more great harmonies and a lovely simple chorus; ‘Honest & True’ melds a doo-wop vibe with some perfect power pop chords, a strong lead vocal and ‘Imagination’ mixes dreamy keyboard chords, marching beats and bell percussion, topping them off with harmonies culled straight from the Beach Boys school of vocalising.  While never thinking outside of the box in terms of arrangement, it is guaranteed these tunes won’t take too long to get right under the skin…

Ending this release, ‘White Is All I See’ is a wistful acoustic number, where natural sounding vocals meet a string section to create something showing a more emotional side to the band’s sound than ever before.  Whereas Sunday Sun’s earlier attempt at acoustic gentleness (the first EP’s ‘How Come I Miss You So Much’) ended up being little more than filler material, this is fully formed and well orchestrated and, as a result, more sophisticated. It’s a fine way to bring this trilogy of releases to a close.

Sunday Sun’s EP trilogy comprises eighteen songs in all, most of which are incredibly fine examples of sun-filled power pop.  Had the band trimmed the selection down and issued their best twelve/thirteen tracks as a full-length LP, that LP would have been one of the greatest power pop debuts ever – up there with Jellyfish’s ‘Bellybutton’.  As it is, all three EPs are very good indeed, but ‘III’ outshines them all.

October 2012

RAH RAH – The Poet’s Dead

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In the summer of 2012, Rah Rah’s Erin Passmore released ‘Downtown’, an excellent EP mixing quieter singer-songwriter moments with occasional bursts of rock.  The result was wholly charming, but only really a stop-gap until her band were ready to unleash their next album.

That record, ‘The Poet’s Dead’ (Rah Rah’s third full-length release) is a monster.  While there are a handful of tunes offering straight up indie rock (almost guaranteed to please those who still have a fondness for Pavement etc), its more distinctive tunes are the few cast from a much bigger range of influences and sounds – sometimes all thrown together.  Those busier tunes care not for subtlety.

One such number, ‘First Kiss’ features an incredibly loud drum and droning keys, which are both joined by almost equally loud guitar chords to create a particularly rousing piece of rock.  Although most of the tune sounds not entirely unlike something The Flaming Lips would have created during their ‘Satellite Heart’ period, it is not without its quieter more moments, where violin, some plucked strings and soft wordless female harmonies add a little more atmosphere.  A simple refrain of the song’s title passes as a hook, but like the aforementioned Lips – or perhaps fellow Canadians Arcade Fire – any chorus hooks take second place to multi-layered bombast.  Almost as full-on, ‘20s’ has verses combining slightly waily vocals (courtesy of keyboard player Kristina Hedland) and a noodling guitar, while the chorus – and ensuing instrumental parts – present a wall of guitars crashing their way through everything, backed with something which sounds very much like a mellotron.  Between these two elements, there’s not much room for much else, and yet, Rah Rah find space for a world of harmony vocals and a rattling bassline which really captures the general aggression within the loudest parts of the arrangement.

The title cut – one of the disc’s more instantly likeable numbers – bares a passing resemblance to The New Pornographers with its male/female dual vocals and breezy approach.  With a simple chorus, some electric piano, a bridge with handclaps and more besides, it’s generally sunny approach is quite welcome.  Given Marshall Burns’ liking of a slightly flat vocal, perhaps some will hear just as much of a latter-day Pavement influence, although it’s unlikely Stephen Malkmus would ever release anything quite this chirpy… Whatever you glean from it, it shows Rah Rah in an excellent light.

Pulling a huge influence from the 90s, the slow and brooding ‘Dead Man’ has a distorted, lead guitar part which would please J Mascis, while still finding room for the obviously melodic – in this case wordless female vocals singing in harmony (possibly Erin Passmore multi-tracked).  The juxtaposition of these two disparate styles lifts the tune above being merely a piece recycling old alt-rock ideas from two decades previously.  Keeping with a similar mood, ‘Fake Our Love’ works around an incredibly jangly base, where Rah Rah wind up sounding like a cross between The Decemberists, The Jicks and Wilco, with a little of their own natural flair helping to carry it off.

Fans who either loved Erin Passmore’s contributions to Rah Rah previously – or else came to Rah Rah via her solo outing – are treated to a couple of first-rate numbers in ‘Prairie Girl’ and ‘I’m a Killer’, where Passmore’s voice is placed right up front. Musically, ‘Prairie Girl’ has a simple base where loud-ish guitar chords provide a pleasing choppy rhythm and the drums follow suit, rarely breaking from a march.  While this may sound musically simple, maybe even a little harsh, Erin’s softer vocal provides a wonderful contrast, capturing all of that crying wonderment which made her EP special. ‘I’m a Killer’ is bleaker, preferring instead to build from an electronic base, which gives a rather unnatural feel in places.  Rather than borrowing from classic synth-pop, all electronic sounds featured within are very cold, almost with the mood of an 8-bit Nintendo soundtrack.  Luckily, a world of chiming indie-rock guitar lines are waiting in the wings, and what eventually blooms is another tuneful (albeit slightly mechanical) rocker which really suits Passmore’s vocal delivery.

While some of the vocals are a touch, uh, wayward, most of ‘The Poet’s Dead’s songs are strong enough to carry off any potential weaknesses. Some of these tunes are wonderful from the off, but due to the band’s occasional tendency for delivering their music in such an extravagant way, some take a while before the various elements really sink in.  However, once everything clicks, ‘The Poet’s Dead’ shows its full potential – the result is an album with barely a weak song in the bunch.

October 2012