Author: GuyHornsby

Music, writing, and living.
Posted in Album of the Month

JANUARY: Museum Of Love – Museum Of Love

Posted on by GuyHornsby

So, I wasn’t sure what to do for this month, because while I have been really enjoying this album, I honestly didn’t expect none of you to have it yet. Why? Well, there’s a few reasons: firstly, it’s on DFA, where I’ve devoured everything LCD have released, and Shit Robot, plus a few other things like The Rapture, and I know that’s the same for others as well. Secondly, it’s a two-man outfit that contain’s LCD’s rhythm section: Pat Mahoney, and also DFA family Dennis McNany, who’s been involved with anyone from The Rapture, Panthers and Shit Robot. So, that’s a surprise, but not the biggest surprise about this album, not by a long way.

It’s Mahoney’s vocals. Jesus, where have they been for the last ten years? Yes, LCD were all about the distilled elements of the trio: be it James Murphy’s gruff, heartfelt vocals and lyrics, or Nancy Whang’s keys and backing vocals, and then Mahoney’s inimitable, whirring percussion that seemed to be in a state of perpetual motion, even when it was slow and rumbling. But as the final notes of the compact opener, ‘Horizontaltor’, fade, in comes this sound that isn’t like anything I’d have ever expected. I’d actually – unusually – not picked out or previewed any of Museum Of Love’s previous singles, which meant that, despite them being around for well over a year already, I approached this with only a vague thought of what may be in store (synths, some great drumming, something hopefully LCD-ish) armed only with positive reviews from fellow LCD fans.

And this was the problem at the start. I just wanted another LCD album. Of course that’s idiotic, but it’s hard to separate my love for the three-piece from anything that involves any of them. That coloured my first few listens, even though there was a lot for me to enjoy. And then it just clicked for me. So, why? Well, I’ll return to Mahoney’s vocals first and foremost. On ‘Down South’ I thought I was hearing Bryan Ferry. It was a revelation. And just made me wonder why Mahoney’s vocals only ever appeared fleetingly in the background of some of my favourite records. It was pain, heartache, and this great falsetto. It was like my favourite band had included a hidden member I’d never been aware of. And while there are only nine tracks in its spartan forty-two minutes, there’s so much to like here. ‘In Infancy’ is probably the most ‘LCD-like’ track, with its heavily effected chorus vocals and familiar Mahoney percussion shuffle and synth motifs, while ‘FATHERS’ is a gorgeous lament – one of the standout tracks on the albums with a looped, rolling key that makes me think of ‘Home’ every time I hear it – and ‘The Who’s Who Of Who Cares’ leans towards Shit Robot.

Yes, I’m comparing this to other stuff I know, but given the label that’s inevitable. But, and it’s a big but, this is immaterial because Mahoney’s vocal, that gives the whole album its own feel, so in the end, after a few listens, it’s just simply Museum Of Love. There’s some really great stuff to love here – ‘Learned Helplessness In Rats (Disco Drummer)’ (what a title!) has this infectious, watery, drums, and brash chords, ‘Monotronic’ is rumbling, slow-disco vibes, and ‘The Large Glass’ is gloriously ‘out there’, but ‘All The Winners’ tops them all off. Lovely keys, and this wonderful balanced vocal, muddied in a delay. This isn’t an album that I’m infatuated with, yet, but I keep coming back for more and more because the tracks stick in my head and pop up at the oddest times. That’s always a sign of promise.

But, see for yourselves.

Posted in Album of the Month

FKA Twigs – LP1

Posted on by GuyHornsby

The Hype machine is well and truly in motion with FKA twigs. She’s got the Mercury nomination and she’s already proven to be a step forward from the usual  ‘next big thing labelled artist. For starters, she’s done her dues, working as a dancer for the likes of Kyliuwith some good and bad experiences lending themselves to shaping the independent character she is. She’s learnt Ableton to produce the bulk of her own work, she’s self-released her first EP via Bandcamp, and had creative control over both her music and videos from the start. Perhaps she’s just a bit older (26) than some of her contemporaries and that’s given her a more realistic worldview, but it’s refreshing to see someone so determined to ensure that what gets out there to represent her as an artist, but in a fiercely independent way, rather than anything as contrived as Gaga.

But what about the music? I’ll add a disclaimer here: I come to this album with curiosity, but also the understanding that this music isn’t likely to light my fire. I’m no pigeonholer, and this is far from the slick R’n’B that lazy jounalists will paint it as. It’s much more than that, with loose structures, odd sounds, clicks and off-beat persusion. Volcas are double-tracked falsetto and deep whispers, drenched in reverb. And then there’s the lyrics. Overtly sexual, and not in a trite way that’s the standard for rap and hip-hop or some more mainstream R’n’B, but really unashamedly gritty and open. That’s caused a lot of buzz, and that’ before you get to the videos. You only have to have a look at her videos, especially Two Weeks, to see that she’s something different.

But is it for me? I don’t know. I’ve listened to the album four times already, and I just don’t connect with it at the moment. It’s an odd mix of sexual lyrics, but woven into a structure that seems cold and detatched. It’s very modern, and from the way the music sounds and is produced, I take my hat off to her for almost pushing against the standard template, even to a point where it will lose her fans or sales, but then that’s what great artists do. She’s some way off that but you have to applaud it.

I’d compare it to Grimes in many ways, an album that many loved but really grated when I first encountered it. I think a lot of the problems I’d had with that album were more around interviews I’d read with Grimes and fond her to be pretentious and irritating. For FKA Twigs, I actually like everything I’ve read from her and about her, but I’m struggling to penetrate it at the moment. Maybe, like Grimes, I’ll listen to it after a break and it’ll gel.

Get stuck in and let me know your thoughts.

Posted in Album of the Month

April Album Of The Month: Space Dimension Controller – Welcome To Mikrosector-50

Posted on by GuyHornsby

The first time I came across Space Dimension Controller was at ADE in 2012, and I honestly knew his stuff only by name. I knew he was from Ireland, so it’s fair to say that I was a bit thrown by what was coming out of the speakers: the sound of a throaty deep black voice over a Prince-like groove. I had to stand there for a few minutes to see what was going on, but it became clear he was doing a live effected vocal, and it kind of blew me away.

Come through to 2014, and I’ve finally got the album after months of being recommended it, and what an odd, strange, brilliant, crazy beast it is. A concept (ugh) album of sorts, with the ‘Space Dimension Controller’ a futuristic time traveller arriving back on his home planet to odd goings on. It sounds preposterous and daft, but then you realise the guy is in his early 20s, and he’s making music that sounds like a melting pot of Prince, Rick James, Mike Oldfield, Afrika Bambaata, Josh Wink and you start to realise the guy has chops.

On top of that, there’s something quite endearing about an album that reminds me of some of the semi-B-movie films of my youth (think The Running Man and Total Recall). It’s a bizarre package for a 20-something Irishman to make, but I’ve not heard anything like it in the last ten years, and the more I listen, the more it grows on me.

So, here’s April’s album of the month. Listen, enjoy (I hope) and comment away….

Posted in Mixtapes, Music chat

Bangers!

Posted on by GuyHornsby

MeatTransmission

I’ve started doing a radio show on Meat Transmission, which is part of the Meat Liquor stable, in Hoxton. It’s a mate of mine, Tom Real, and me, playing just big party records, or BANGERS. It started off as a night at the Big Chill (which got WAY out of hand usually), but it’s translated as fun fun fun to the radio. It’s not serious, unless having a hilarious two hours is serious. SonOfBangers is two shows old, and on every other week in 2014, and it’s just 120 minutes of us playing a loosely thrown-together mix of hip-hop, house, d’n’b, rave, funk, soul, disco. You name it.

Have a listen, hope you enjoy it.

Posted in Album of the Month

January 2014: Lorde’s Pure Heroine

Posted on by GuyHornsby

 

So, I’m late to Lorde’s album, only by a couple of months, but it’s been worth the wait. The hype’s been around for months and months, following her single, Royals, earlier in the year, which I’d realised had permeated my brain thanks to the peerless 6Music, which seems to sow the seeds of records I like without me even realising it on a weekly basis (see also: Midlake).
Let’s look at the facts: Lorde is Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O’Connor (yeah, Lorde’s easier, isn’t it?), a 17-year old New Zealander from Auckland. She first came to prominence with her Love Club EP back in the second half of last year (when she was still 15!), and this album was produced by local Joel Little. What’s it like? Well, it’s very modern electronic pop, if we’re going to get all genre-y. You can see the influences – she’s often cited James Blake’s sparseness – and it’s pretty stripped back, with clever, barbed lyrics, very much showing a love for hip-hop, but putting it in the prism of a girl that, at the time, had never left her home country, it’s pretty startling that it’s actually written by someone that’s tucked away in the end of the southern hemisphere. And that’s not being patronising, it’s just that it’s an unlikely result of such a situation, especially in terms of her age (one lyric on the album states “pretty soon I’ll be on my first plane”, which says it all).
But it’s a great example of lyrics and songs that a 25-year old over here may have written, but likely with songwriters and other producers behind her, as soon as the hype machine took hold. While those not in the know (or too lazy) dismissed her as another record-company construct, she’s the opposite, arriving as a pretty fully-formed artist, most likely a product and a benefit of the cultural or musical isolation of sorts. There’s hints of stuff like James Blake, Massive Attack’s more Spartan arrangements, Lana Del Rey’s languid style (which she’s also stated as an influence) and most obviously the xx (minus the guitars). Most of the album’s dubby pop, but there are a few dancefloor moments too. And there’s a good slab of irony in there, which sings to my ears. Having been to NZ a few times – and this is no slight, as it’s an amazing place – the ennui that also sits throughout the album isn’t faked. Small-town life out there is pretty dry when you’re near to Auckland, let alone coming from London.
I’ve only had a week or so with this album, so my opinions aren’t fully formed yet either, but it’s clear that Lorde’s a precociously talented artist. There’s a bit of a dip in the middle of the album, but then considering that I was busy drinking cider and scooting around Surrey in my Mini at 17, and she’s writing music like this, I can’t really get my head around just what it must take to do that at that age. And most of all, it’s refreshing to have someone emerge like this from an unlikely location, without the taint of record companies and hype or being pushed to work with producers or use songs written for her. Only time will tell how she develops, and one would hope that, while she absorbs the expanding world around her, it doesn’t affect her ability to do what she does.
She’s touring now, especially in the States, where I think her songs will go down as well as they do in the UK, and I can’t wait for her next album.
Enjoy, brothers!
Posted in Music chat

2013 in Review….

Posted on by GuyHornsby

So, another year ended and some great music from January the first to now. Aside from the albums of the month, there’s been some brilliant music, and here’s a bit of mine, so what’s yours?

Albums – (aside from our albums of the month, where my top 3 was AM, Pale Green Ghosts and Modern Vampires Of The City, but more of that later)…

Arcade Fire – Reflektor: I know this has got a lot of stick, but it’s been an essential album since it came out. It’s a change, it’s distorted, overlong in places (not in my opinion really), but it’s a step forward and brave doing it.

David Bowie – The Next Day: How do you manage to record an album in secret as one of the biggest artists in history and release it without anyone knowing? God knows, but even better is that it’s a great album. An elder statesman still on form, and some of his best work in 20 years.

John Hopkins – Immunity: Electronic album with emotion and atmosphere? This nailed it for me. I can’t wait to see him live.

James Blake – Overgrown: I did an air punch when this won the Mercury. It was a leap on from his first, and something that managed to combine the booming, hollow reverberation of dubstep with a very intimate vocal and melody. I wish I had 10% of this guy’s talent. It’s mesmerising music.

A Sagittariun – Dream Ritual: Another electronic pick, but one of the most inventive albums I’ve heard all year. Shades of so much of the music that first introduced me to clubs, but way more than that. (I wrote about it here: http://www.4clubbers.net/2013/music-reviews-161/).

Haim – Days Are Gone: Love it or hate it, it’s not hard to agree this is brilliant pop music. Bits of Fleetwood Mac, 70s soft rock, hip-hop (seriously) and modern guitars, there’s nothing else really like it about this year. And the hype was outlasted. I still love it, even if I’ve listened to it to death.

Phoenix – Bankrupt!: Another festival-inspired album, but more great pop music. A band that’s dismissed as being hipsters, but they can write a tune to remember. Their gig (hazily) at Glastonbury convinced me completely.

Daft Punk – Random Access Memories:  Ok, so the hype was relentless, the single, Get Lucky, played almost (almost) to the point where it got too much, but there’s something great about an album that goes big on traditional production. Strings, horns, guitars, on a massive studio desk, and not Pro Tools. A complete contrast to most of music in the charts today, and therefore a GOOD THING. It’s not perfect, but then what is these days?

Luke Solomon – Timelines: An unsung hero of UK house music, this album was much more than 12 dancefloor tracks. It was personal, it was poignant (in the case of Lonely Dancer, Solomon’s tribute to Kenny Hawkes) and it was wandering, in fact it’s everything a house music album usually isn’t. That’s why I loved it (and I reviewed it here: http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=12961)

Atoms For Peace – Amok: What do Radiohead do when they’re not making their own music? If you’re Thom Yorke then you’re assembling a superband (Flea from the Chilis, Nigel Godrich and more) and making haunting, fractured music that skirts between electronic and guitars. It’s pretty unique – and acquired taste too – but their gig at the Roundhouse was incredible.

Midlake – Antiphon: A late entry but one of my favourite American bands. They may be minus their frontman now, but this is just as good as their previous work. Lush, ethereal, wistful, painful, and sensational.

As for the rest? Singles and gigs were many, and here’s my highlights:

Singles:

Tons really. Mostly electronic, as that’s what I get and what I listen to, but there’s been a lot of great ones around. Obvious ones and less so.

Todd Terje – Strandbar: You’d have to have been a hermit to miss this, but what a track. Ubiquitous, and no less catchy after the 50th listen.

Bonar Bradberry – 3two5: 50% of PBR Streetgang, it’s a cut of grooving house that is both deep and energetic, and those vocals… we didn’t know Bonar had it in him!

Deadstock 33s – The Circular Path: One of many of Justin Robertson’s alter egos, this is a rollercoaster cut of acid-tinged house that makes you want to find a sweaty basement and stay there until it’s light. Genius.

Jammhot – Chrysalis:  Leeds outfit debut on Saints and Sonnets sounded like 90s garage hijacked on a spaceship and brought back 20 years later. In a good way.

Dan Mangan – About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All: A great title, a total fairground of a record. Every time I listened to this, it felt like I was walking down a street to the closing titles of my own film. Superb, and cinematic.

Daft Punk – Get Lucky: Obvious, yes. Still brilliant though. However you may hate it, hearing this will always mean summer 2013.

Justin Timberlake – Suit & Tie: The album may not have lived up to it, but this was the best thing he’s done in years and showed a lot of the noisy r’n’b nonsense of late just how it should be done.

Vampire Weekend – Ya Hey: Infectious, and better than Diane Young for me. A great album from a band I couldn’t really love before, but this changed my mind completely.

Ms Mr – Hurricane: I saw them for the first time at Glastonbury, and they were brilliant. This was the standout single from an album that helped fill an LCD-shaped hole.

Jagwar Ma – What Love: Another Glastonbury epiphany, like a sweaty Aussie rave build on the Stone Roses and Madchester’s hedonism.

Phoenix – Entertainment: Opener of a poptastic album from the French outift. The video’s almost as good (and odd) as the song itself.

David Bowie – Valentine’s Day: What a comeback, and what a record. A clever pun in the chorus, and a brilliant guitar hook. It’s like 1974 all over again.

Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know: Sheffield’s finest reborn as a west-coast power pop band. Many hated it. I loved it.

Haim – Don’t Save Me: I could’ve picked about five, but this was one of a great clutch of radio-friendly songs that you can’t stop singing. Seeing them in March next year can’t come too soon.

Arcade Fire – Reflektor: The opening single of an album that’s divided opinion. But this was a statement of intent, and you can see James Murphy’s fingerprints all over it. Seven minutes plus of majesty that revealed more and more every listen.

Gigs:

John Grant: It may have toured Pale Green Ghosts, but both solo albums got an outing, and the fragile singer with the molasses voice proved even better live. Mesmerising.

XOYO Loves – The Coronet in November gave us DJs (Lindstrom, Waifs and Strays, Aeroplane and Greg Wilson) but it was live sets from Crazy P and Hercules and Love Affair that topped it.

The Reflektors – Ok, so Arcade Fire, but who cares? Seeing a band that big in a venue like the Roundhouse and them playing from their new album and back catalogue, while the whole crowd was dressed up like a circus…. I wish I could do gigs like this every week.

Despacio – not a gig specifically, but James Murphy and 2ManyDJs’ own disco in December was a glorious throwback to pre-superclubs, lasers, glitter cannons and jets. Just an amazing soundsystem and brilliant tunes, for 5 hours.

Glastonbury – So many bands, so many memories. Some missing ones too. Haim, Ratpack, Rolling Stones, Seasick Steve, Phoenix, Jagwar Mar, Ms Mr, Chic, New Build and all sorts of other shenanigans. Going back here reminds me there’s nowhere else that comes close to it, anywhere.

Posted in New Tunes

Midlake – The Old And The Young

Posted on by GuyHornsby

Seeing as this isn’t the album of the month for Jan, this is worth posting. I’ve been a fan of Midlake since I was put onto them about the time The Trials Of Van Occupanther came out in 2006. They’re a band that sounds very much like they were born in the 50s (1850s), with a real Americana feel, as if they’d lived in a log cabin (see Roscoe, for that whole vibe from that album) and worked on the railroad. It could be affected, but actually it’s great, and they don’t really sound like much else I own, though the vibe is quite similar to the isolation of Bon Iver’s debut album.

This is the single from their new album, sans original frontman, but they’re still just a potent, and this is such a rich sounding record, but they have an amazing way of evoking world-weariness and regret and emotion in their music. I like this A LOT.

Posted in New Tunes

Arcade Fire – Reflektor

Posted on by GuyHornsby

Well, I’ve been waiting for this to a while. And I absolutely love it. I think with James Murphy on board it’ll be really interesting to see what the album’s like. Even though it sounds like Arcade Fire singing an LCD Soundsystem cover, in fact more like half that and half Metronomy, and after a few listens I’ve lost that and just think it’s an absolutely stonking record. It’s good that they are happy to go with James Murphy’s direction and not feel that have to make Suburbs II. Can’t wait to hear the rest of the stuff for the new album. Every one’s been a bit of a change so far, after all.

I didn’t warm to the Suburbs at first, but I actually love it as much as all their other work. It’s got this slight feeling of decay to it, in that it’s actually much more subtle than you think at first, and while it’s a bit long, there are some incredible songs on it. But each album’s been a progression. Funeral sounded like nothing I’d ever heard, then Black Mirror was this bleak treatise on the world, capitalism (but beautifully melodic) and then The Suburbs moved them into middle America, capturing this ennui and post-crash boredom and decay. I can’t wait to hear what the new one is like. They are – like them or not – brilliant musicians, and understand they need to change, and this is mouthwatering. I’m sure they won’t just make a bunch of disco-fied Arcade Fire tracks, I’m sure there’s a few tricks up their sleeve.

Posted in Album of the Month

SEPTEMBER – AM by Arctic Monkeys

Posted on by GuyHornsby

So brothers, here we are in September. The summer’s gone, the days are growing shorter, and we’re at a bit of a landmark for me, one that I’m happy to admit that proves that, however slowly, a leopard can change its spots. Since they first came onto the scene all those years ago, I wanted to like the Arctic Monkeys, in fact being from Sheffield (I spent 3 fantastic years there in the 90s at university) and young, brash, singing interesting, sly lyrics in an unashamed regional accent, I should’ve loved them. But I didn’t. And I’m willing to admit that some large part of that was the tidal wave of obsequious press coverage, as if the Beatles were reincarnated in Crookes. The NME were a lot of the problem, and I tend to push back everything they launch (ironic, as three of my good friends now were writing for them at the time). See also Amy Winehouse, Jake Bugg, in fact take your pick.

So, what’s changed? Me, and probably them a bit. Not, I’ll laugh, on my behalf. I’ve liked a lot of what they’ve done, and they’re one of these bands that, if you played a ‘greatest hits’, I’d know most of it. They’ve grown on me for all the reasons that I should have  liked them in the first place. But I think the turner for me (pardon the pun) was Glastonbury. And no, I didn’t even see them, but I’d heard they were amazing. When I got back I watched their set, and pretty much watched it all the way through, and it was a bit of a revelation. Here’s a band that are so far moved on from their early days, so confident, and owning one of the most revered arenas in music. They’re unbelievably tight, and Alex Turner’s really the finished article as a frontman, in a very English way.

I’d heard the new single – Do I Wanna Know – on 6Music, many times, and also You Only Call Me When You’re High, and really liked both, and snippets of other tracks and I haven’t heard anything I’ve not liked. So I’m willing to sit here, and confess to you, my brothers, that I like the Arctic Monkeys. So there. And I’m looking forward to digesting the album.

I hope you like this too.