Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews

JOSHUA KETCHMARK – The Bittersweet EP

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Singer-songwriter Joshua Ketchmark won a cult audience with his 2008 release ‘List of Regrets’.  Following that release, there was a relatively long gap before he returned with his second full-length ‘Karus Cruentus’.  For his third release, Ketchmark opted to try something a little different: rather than leave things too long and wait until the next full record was ready to go, he decided that his next works should be split into a series of EP releases.  In a world where physical CD sales are on the downturn and people are picking and choosing selected tracks for their portable music devices, releasing a few tracks at a time certainly seems like a good idea.

The first of these EPs, ‘The Bittersweet’ – released in the first quarter of 2012 – features four top class tunes.   The opening number ‘Covered In Roses’ is a superb piece of adult pop/rock which showcases a fair amount of Ketchmark’s talent.  The guitars ring clearly throughout, and the mid-paced riffs offer something of an atmosphere that could be best described as vaguely U2-ish.  Ketchmark’s relatively soft vocal is full of emotion while never overstretching itself and this already makes good listening.  By the time the chorus chimes in, things improve farther; it’s immediately obvious that Mr Ketchmark not only knows how to write and arrange a great tune, he also understands what makes a great radio hook.  Combined with those reverbed guitars on show throughout, the hook has track has a really classic sound, using its late 80s/early 90s influences to create something quite rousing.  ‘All These Eyes’ has a similar huge rock/pop feel at its core, though with one big difference: the U2-styled guitar parts are gone; in their place, some solid acoustic work backed by a fairly weighty sounding drum part.  The chorus beefs things up to some rather safe-sounding, radio-friendly soft rock, which although could never described as edgy is well-played and superbly produced.  Overall, another good example of the kind of rock/pop Ketchmark does so well.  [If you like either of these tracks, be sure to check out Dom Liberati’s album too].

The other two songs change the mood a great deal.  ‘The Take’ presents something more in an alternative rock vein, but retains a shiny commercial edge.  With a choppy riff, Ketchmark adopts a sound which borrows elements from Jimmy Eat World and American Hi-Fi, melding the punchy elements with another great pop chorus.  Across four minutes, his band sounds sharp as he delivers a vocal which has a slight sneer which suits the piece well.  Like most of the 2011 release by New Jersey outfit Readymade Breakup, this is hugely radio friendly and ought to appeal to a great many fans of the poppiest end of alt-rock music. ‘Cigarettes & Wine’ leaves things on a gentle, somewhat downbeat note.  Over a piano base, Ketchmark’s emotive vocal sounds great once again.  However, as good as his vocal may be, it’s not as great as the sound of his backing band: the bass is hugely warm, the steady drum beat has a huge presence and the harmony vocals add depth without being overdone or sounding showy, while a selection of keyboards flesh things out farther with string sounds.  Better still, the occasional moments of acoustic lead guitar have a great presence.  The end result here is not only testament to Ketchmark’s skill as a writer/musician, but also Denny Smith’s production which is absolutely spot on.

With such a feel-good punchiness, ‘The Take’ would be enough to warrant checking this out, but since it’s joined by three almost equally good numbers ‘The Bittersweet’ presents a great exercise in quality over quantity.  With no obvious weak elements, this is a highly recommended listen.

March 2012

PHENOMENA – Awakening

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Tom Galley’s previous offering from Phenomena bought together some great musicians, including Terry Brock, Mike DeMeo and Robin Beck. While it could be argued the vocal talent on ‘Blind Faith’ didn’t quite match the earliest incarnations of Phenomena with Glenn Hughes, Mel Galley and Cozy Powell, the album turned out extremely well.  Not a perfect record by any means, but a few of the arrangements and a couple of the featured vocalists made it a release well worth owning.

2012’s ‘Awakening’ picks up almost exactly where 2010’s ‘Blind Faith’ left off.  As you’d expect for a Phenomena record with Tom Galley at the helm, the arrangements are big (albeit occasionally old fashioned) and the array of vocalists should be enough to pull in a solid core of melodic rock listeners.

For those who’ve spent time enjoying ‘Blind Faith’, ‘Awakening’ will have an instant familiarity since a few vocalists make return appearances.  Terry Brock, Mike DeMeo and Ralf Scheepers are present and correct, as is ex-Saga man Rob Moratti.  While fans will undoubtedly welcome such familiar faces and voices back to the fold, it’s one of the “newer” faces which makes the largest contribution.  Joining the Phenomena stalwarts is Lee Small, a man who made a big impact on the Escape Music label during the few months prior to this release: firstly on Shy’s self-titled outing and then with his own ‘Jamaica Inn’ – an essential melodic rock disc, released in January 2012.  Small is lucky enough to lend his vocals to two of ‘Awakening’s ten numbers and also contribute his song writing skills to a third.

His vocal on ‘Smash It Up’ is as commanding as you’d expect. But, while Small’s voice and the good time rock riffs make it an ideal opening track musically, there’s an obvious weakness in terms of lyrical content… Even if Galley was aiming for good-time rock, Small deserved more than an overly repetitive one-line chorus.   Still, in terms of upbeat rock that never claimed to have life-changing effects, it does what it says on the tin.  On ‘How Long’, Small takes an equally powerful vocal and adds it to Martin Kronlund’s meaty guitar chops.  Since the arrangement often alternates between those riffs and vocals, it provides ample opportunity for both musicians to really shine.  While lyrically it’s simple fare – something highlighted by another lightweight chorus – overall, it’s a great track; a good example of the Phenomena “brand”.

Better still, ‘Fighter’ – bringing together the talents of Strangeways vocalist Terry Brock and guitarist Steve Newman (of melodic rock band, uh, Newman) – has a much stronger lyric, with Brock wrapping his voice around the tale of a boxer.  While much more sophisticated than most of Tom Galley’s compositions, it never errs on the side of self indulgence, as the wordiness never feels like it’s trying too hard to be clever. Brock, meanwhile, is in great voice – far better than on any of his performances on the 2010 and 2011 Strangeways releases.  It’s not entirely given over to words, though, as between the storytelling aspects, there’s still ample time for some solid harmony vocals and a great solo from Newman.  Packed into just over three minutes, it’s a top piece of old school rock, which rarely lets up from the outset.  Alongside ‘How Long’, it’s the strongest offering this time around.

Less fortunate is ‘Reality’, featuring the vocal talents of Toby Hitchcock.  Well known for his work with Pride of Lions (featuring ex-Survivor man Jim Peterik), Hitchcock has become one of melodic rock’s heroes in the twenty-first century. While his 2011 solo release ‘Mercury’s Down’ gained rave reviews and certainly wasn’t without some great tunes, his contribution here is questionable.  He over-sings everything, almost to the point where it sounds like a he’s taking the piss.  Luckily, the hugely talented Mike Slamer guests on guitars and – as most discerning melodic rock fans will be aware – Slamer always brings an element of class to his session appearances.   Even this track is no exception, since he offers an absolutely superb lead guitar break.

On the previous Phenomena release, Ralf Scheepers pulled the short straw and sang on the weakest track (his voice, in turn, rarely doing much to improve things).  With that in mind, it’s great that this time out, on ‘Gotta Move’, he sounds much better.  A driving riff lays a solid foundation, while Tommy Denander’s lead guitar fills are superb from a technical perspective.  The aforementioned co-write with Lee Small, this is most definitely a track which brings out the best in Scheepers’s heavily accented voice, although it’s meaty Euro-rock sounds may not appeal to those who like things with a more American leaning.  That said, surely most melodic rock fans would be impressed by the lead guitar duel between Denander and Christian Wolff which takes place here…

Mike DeMeo and Martin Kronlund collaborate on ‘Shake’, a track with a monster riff which promises so much and then fails to back it up with anything beyond the simplest sentiment.  It’s somewhat unsubtle, but it’s likely to get a thumbs-up from DeMeo’s loyal core of fans.  This is balanced out by ‘If You Believe’, a track featuring Chris Antblad and a gospel choir.  The music comes with a greater lightness of touch than much of the Phenomena output, resulting in a lovely melody.  Antblad’s slightly thin vocal style finds him in danger of being swamped by the choir on occasion, but nevertheless it’s one of the record’s most enduring numbers.  Elsewhere you’ll find decent performances from melodic rock cult heroes James Christian and Rob Moratti (who still sounds like man with a cartoon voice), alongside the guys from Coldspell, bringing their brand of Scandi hard rock to Phenomena for the first time.  Like so much of the material this time around, lyrically the Coldspell track (‘Dancing Days’) suffers a little for having an overly simplistic almost one-line chorus, but for those who enjoyed Coldspell’s 2011 release, it’s a track which more than hits the mark vocally.

The press release for ‘Awakening’ says that “In short [this Phenomena album is] a must”.  It’s certainly not a must.  While most of the tracks are actually quite good in some way and there are a couple of obvious standouts, Galley has written better material in the past.  Also, at around forty minutes playing time, it feels too short by twenty-first century standards – just as things appear to be getting warmed up, the disc ends.  Maybe Galley could have been better holding off for a little longer…at least until he had two or three more numbers ready to go.

The presence of Lee Small and Rob Moratti are certainly major plus points and ‘Awakening’ is far from bad on the whole, but it leaves a definite feeling of being short-changed.   If you’ve not already done so, you’d be better off shelling out for Phenomena’s superior predecessor ‘Blind Faith’ instead.   …Or maybe even for Lee Small’s marvellous 2012 release ‘Jamaica Inn’.

March 2012

TEAM ME – To The Treetops!

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Team Me provided 2011 with one of its best releases. The Norwegian indie-pop band’s self-titled EP may have displayed some obvious influences, but the overall mix of Flaming Lips, Polyphonic Spree and Arcade Fire-esque sounds resulted in a handful of really engaging songs.  The EP promised great things ahead, and while 2012’s ‘To The Treetops!’ also has its share of great songs, it is, perhaps, a little more of a mixed bag than it could have been.

This is partly down to the longer playing time allowing the band a greater luxury to stretch out.  Two of the album’s compositions – ‘Riding My Bicycle’ and ‘Favourite Ghost’ – clock in at a rather prog-rock friendly eight minutes plus.  In the case of ‘Favourite Ghost’, longer doesn’t always mean “better”, despite the more experimental slant.  Although its beginning lays down the foundations of a story, it really drags musically.  The vocals are just too breathy and the guitars too twee; the combination of both doesn’t give the listener much of interest to really latch on to.  By nearly four minutes in – despite the addition of some choir voices – not much has changed.  By four and a half minutes, just as you’re tempted to reach for the skip button, the band explodes into an instrumental flourish. Louder guitars, superbly crashy drums and some echoed wordless vocals lurking in the back all adding together to create something more substantial.  The second half wouldn’t have been able to stand alone, of course, just as the first could have dangerously sounded like filler material. After a while, these contrasting pieces – clearly glued from musical ideas created on separate occasions – sound like they belong together.  ‘Riding My Bicycle’ is much quirkier.  It’s first five minutes are a lovely example of what the band are all about – xylophones, booming drums and multi-layered vocals all present and correct – as the band powers their way through a piece of music which sounds like Wayne Coyne orchestrating Arcade Fire.  With a well-produced sound – both musically and vocally, and most definitely a product of studio environs – it would have been wise to leave it there.  The last three minutes reprise a couple of earlier musical themes while adding a few more electronic percussive bits, albeit presented in a far more ambling and disjointed fashion.  It’s almost possible to sense the band’s indecision on where (and when) to stop.  Despite this padding, the first five minutes or so provide one of a few album highlights.

The upbeat ‘Patrick Wolf & Daniel Johns’ offers another near perfect representation of the Team Me “sound”.  The pianos stab mercilessly in the intro before multi-layered vocals and a marching drum pull the listener through almost three minutes of unrepentant musical sunshine.  If you’re approaching this album after falling in love with the EP, ‘PW&DJ’ is everything you’d hoped for.  Choirs of vocals laying down the repeated refrain of “wake me up my love, wake me up right now” take just a couple of plays before lodging firmly in the memory, while the fairly cluttered arrangement manages to stay afloat without it’s combination of voices and percussion ever sounding overbearing.  Musically, it’s blend of power pop and indie rock is cool enough to make Wayne Coyne rethink the Flaming Lips’ sense of the absurd.  This is the sound of wonder: the sounds the ever-popular Lips could make if only they stopped trying to be deliberately madcap.  Slightly simpler, ‘Show Me’ offers more choirs on a track that’s so radio-friendly it borders on the ridiculous.  A mid paced riff collides with bell-like percussion and a great sense of melody.  Imagine Arcade Fire lightening their mood, channelling their poppiest side, and you’ll get a sense of what Team Me achieves on this particular number.

The intensely named ‘With My Hands Covering Both of My Eyes, I’m Too Scared To Have a Look at You Now’ is nowhere as musically anxious as its title implies.  In fact, it’s one of the album’s breeziest cuts – all tinkles, harmonising vocals and a retro synth that sounds like a bad 80s sci-fi soundtrack.  At first, there’s a sense of the musical arrangement disguising the hook, but eventually the title surfaces as part of a pop singalong which feels like it’s powered by sugar.  File next to ‘Show Me’ and ‘Weathervanes and Chemicals’ as a standalone example of Team Me at their most focused and absolute best.

While – as promised by the 2011 EP – ‘To The Treetops!’ is loaded with multi-layered, often enthusing pop nuggets, it’s not without a couple of musical mis-steps.  The four and half minute ‘Looking Through The Eyes of David Bewster’ is so heavily accented in the vocal department it makes the obvious Scandinavian pronunciation during The Wannadies’ cult classic ‘You & Me Song’ sound like cockney shouting. This, of course, is not a downfall in itself: beyond that, the music constantly threatens atmospherics and elements of an unsettling nature, but is largely inconsequential.  ‘Fool’ is musically tight, beginning with quietly played finger-picked strings accompanied by a breathy voice.  The choruses are fleshed out with some predictable choirs giving the sense of a building momentum, though it never quite takes hold.  At the point you’re expecting a huge climax, the band moves on to something else.  It’s by no means a bad track, just not quite as formed as Team Me are so obviously capable.  An obvious rhythmic similarity to the familiar ‘Weathervanes’ in the drum department (though nowhere else, especially) makes it sound a little lacking in inspiration.  This may be enough to hint, at least temporarily, Team Me could be a band with a limited selection of musical tricks: if they are in danger of ever resting on tried and tested musical themes, it’s lucky what they do can be so enjoyable.

Aside from the specifically written tunes, this album revisits a couple of Team Me’s earlier compositions.  These are, however, more than mere filler material.  A re-recorded ‘Weathervanes’ retains everything that was terrific about the original EP take but expands the percussion elements, resulting in a much fuller sound.  Similarly, ‘Dear Sister’ comes loaded with an extra few voices in the choir and a nice nod to new wave keyboard sounds during the closing moments.  Like ‘Weathervanes’ any changes are tasteful embellishments as opposed to a complete overhaul, but with the fuller sound and bigger budget, both tracks are improved.  For those already familiar with the first recordings of these numbers, their 2012 beefier counterparts show how the band have become a little more confident in their art; for other listeners, both numbers go some way to showing what the band can do at their best.  ‘Weathervanes and Chemicals’, particularly, stands alongside The Polyphonic Spree’s ‘Light & Day (Reach For The Sun) as one of choral/symphonic pop’s greatest achievements.

There are moments where the band loses a little focus or the songs are unnecessarily padded out, and in that respect, maybe ‘To The Treetops!’ is not quite the classic full-length debut some were hoping for.  Some of the musical pieces will require far more effort on behalf of the listener than the likes of ‘Dear Sister’ and ‘Weathervanes and Chemicals’ ever suggested, but stick with it all…you won’t be sorry.  Despite the not always warranted wandering moments, there’s more than enough gold standard material to be heard throughout this record to suggest Team Me are just as talented as some of their closest musical peers.

March 2012

YOUNG JESUS – Home

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This Chicago based outfit bill themselves as a “party angst” band.  There’s a small amount of angst cutting through the core of their debut full length album ‘Home’, but rarely any emotions you’d want to spend any length of time with. In fact, any decent levels are angst often end up swamped by bigger levels of dirge and whining. ‘Home’ sounds rough around the edges, as if most of it was taken straight off the mixing desk as a live in the studio recording; this approach suits many blues and garage rock bands, but given Young Jesus’ s more complex sound, this technique squashes half of the album’s more intricate elements, while making most of the album unlistenable.

Things start relatively softly with John Rossiter’s vocal – a croon in every sense of the word – backed by jangling electric guitars.  Various rimshots are used as percussion, while the actual drums are used almost as sparingly as the rest of the instrumentation.  Interest builds, and the band launches into the song’s key sentiment: “Your family and friends will never die”.  This becomes a line repeated almost ad nauseam throughout the remainder of the number, until it becomes, at first, almost numbing and then various states of boring.  The vocals lift from a wobbling croon to a full on shout in a farther attempt to build any tension.  Nothing here holds any interest beyond the third listen.

‘David’ ups the ante musically, but has a really hollow sound.  The vocals move between the previous croon and an indie yelp as Young Jesus’s frontman shamelessly models himself on Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, although without any of the charm.  The drums add a few moments of interest – as do the layers of garage rock fuelled guitars which present during the closing moments – but, on the whole, this is little more than a four minute slog.  For the first half of ‘News’, the band jangles away merrily (but often unremarkably) while Rossiter’s voice croons and cracks.  There’s a brief moment of light midway, as the drums and bass come together in an almost 60s mod/soul fashion, but then for the inevitable climax, the band crashes through a few more bars unconvincingly.  All the while, Rossiter squeals and shouts like he’s suffering from internal bleeding.

Presenting the band’s quieter tendencies, ‘Earthquake’ pits Rossiter’s vocal against a softly plucked acoustic guitar – kind of in a Tindersticks fashion – and the ghostly backing vocals add something extra to the generally haunting mood.  Sparseness is obviously this band’s strongest suit, so it’s a pity most of the record is far more intent on being filled with ragged, noise based material.  ‘Not Quite Dead’ has elements which never quite gel, as the band pound out a slow repetitive riff over several minutes, often masked by distortion.  Each end of the song is bookended by slightly threatening softer material, which has the end result of making the whole thing sound like two half formed ideas welded together.  It may just about work as a brooding, lengthy mood piece, but something resembling a song? Just forget it.

‘Away’ is another mid-paced slab of indie rock that’s driven by pounding drums and buzzing guitars.  During the verses, Peter Martin’s drums add a few nice rolls while the rest of the band ambles along like a cut price version of The Wedding Present.  If you like The Wedding Present, obviously, their influence could be seen as a good thing. But, then again, if you do happen to like The Wedding Present, then there’s no point in listening to this; time would be better spent with your much-loved and well-worn copies of ‘George Best’ and ‘Seamonsters’.  The chorus turns up the intensity and volume – and, sadly, yes, the yelping – and does its best to kill the mood.  Similarly, ‘The Greater Boulders’ brings a few reasonable elements via a solid bassline and crashy chords, but half the time the vocals are at odds with the music…and even if you can find anything to hold your interest for more than a minute, there’s no avoiding the whole thing resembles a Pixies reject which outstays its welcome.

They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but this release by Young Jesus is an album that’s as unremarkable (and as low-budget) as its packaging.  A few more bucks spent of beefing up their sound may have improved things sonically, but there’s little help for a frontman who spends most of the time channelling various David Gedge-ism’s, piss-poor Nick Cave impersonations or sounding like a drunk on a karaoke machine who thinks he sounds like Ian Curtis.   There are a couple of brief glimpses of talent, but unless you’re an indie-rock/pop fan with far too much time on your hands, this release offers absolutely nothing to get excited about.  As for the promised party angst, that often equates to “mood killer”.  Avoid.

February 2012

LOWLAKES – Lowlakes EP

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Australian four-piece band Lowlakes were born from the ashes of a band called The Moxie.  Relocating from Alice Springs to Melbourne, vocalist Thomas Snowdon, bassist Bill Guerin and drummer Jack Talbot decided a fresh start was necessary.  Under their new moniker of Lowlakes, these three musicians teamed up with guitarist Brent Monaghan and decided to explore music with a sense of atmosphere.

On their debut EP, the music creeps into the listening spectrum very gently.  Monaghan’s clean toned guitars lay a foundation over which single piano chords are played, gently, creating something so simple, it leaves the listener to wonder where things are headed…And then Thomas Snowdon begins to sing.  His opening statements on this release comprise of a few wordless vocal sounds, strong yet somehow unsettling, a little grating even, not necessarily what such music required at all.  By the time he breaks into the opening verse properly, there’s just too much of a leaning towards the hugely, hugely overrated Jeff Buckley in his delivery.  It almost stops ‘Song For Motion’ in its tracks.  Despite this, that atmospheric tune bubbles away beneath, until finally revealing a warm bass and soft percussion.  Snowdon’s voice stays in the centre of it all – far, far too high in the mix – and for those whom dislike Buckley Jr, this could prove a huge stumbling block with regard to Lowlakes…

…That is, at least to begin with.  Somehow – feeling like nothing short of a miracle – by halfway through the EP’s second offering ‘Catch The Breeze’, his voice sounds more palatable. This, perhaps, has a lot to do with the rest of the band.  Here, they adopt a musical stance that’s more immediate than before – a fuller, if never truly busier sound – which helps fill the previous gulf between voice and music.  Jack Talbot’s drums lay a solid base over which the bass, which rumbles unassumingly throughout.  As before, most of Monaghan’s guitar parts are concerned with filling space in their own equally spacious way as opposed to any kind of big riffs, but it’s an approach which definitely works.  Even the falsetto vocals sound like a natural accompaniment.

The rhythm section gets their “big moment” on the relatively upbeat ‘Buffalo’.  Both the bass and drums come in a more indie-rock style as opposed to previous dreampop experiments.  While there’s nothing obviously complex about either the drum parts or basslines, both have an enjoyable quality.  It’s great to hear the bass really high in the mix, which goes some way to carrying the tune briskly for just almost four minutes.  While it may not have the overall sense of atmosphere or invention for which Lowlakes prove capable elsewhere, its upbeat edges make it this EP’s most immediately accessible track.  ‘Arctic House’ brings together the best elements of ‘Catch The Breeze’ and ‘Buffalo’.  The rhythm has an almost metronome feel, but over that, the sparse guitar parts and bass rumbles hold the attention well.  There are fleeting moments here which make Lowlakes sound like they are about to break into one of ‘The Joshua Tree’s more spacious numbers at any second, though that’s not to say they sound particularly like U2…it’s more of a mood thing as opposed to an obvious style.  Throughout, the repeated line of ‘would you believe it’ (where Snowdon sounds like some kind of oddball Buckley/Nina Simone hybrid) constantly threatens to reach a climax, but the track fades, leaving Lowlakes to disappear almost as unobtrusively as they appeared over the musical horizon about twenty minutes earlier.

This EP is an interesting release: at first it sounds like it is going to be hard listening…and then things slowly fall into place.  There’s a nice warmth hiding within a lot of Lowlakes’ arrangements which eventually turns out to be a great strength.  There’s a strong temptation to call ‘Lowlakes’ (both the EP and band) “a grower”; there are some lovely basslines throughout, but with that vocal, they’re unlikely to win mass appeal.  Still, they’re likely to happy creating music on their own terms and winning a decent cult audience.

March 2012