Listen Before You Buy

“Ester” may not bowl you over completely, but it is definitely a winner for hazed out nights and early morning monologues.

You may well have heard of Nedry before, since their debut EP, “Condors”, kicked up a veritable cack-cyclone of press interest. That said, my sources inform me that an LP is on the way, so there’s no time like the present for making sure you’re all keeping your eyes and ears out for this genre-bending London threesome.

We have London-based Bobby Tank to add to the roster of artisan producers out there taking dubstep in a more innovative direction. There are moments in amongst the vocal slices and slap bass samples when you could almost be listening to Justice or Daft Punk.

YOUAREHERE’s debut “As When The Fall Leaves Trees” display their spatial songs that let you drift to their wallpaper quality, while somehow staying true to their inherent danceability. They’ve got a Mogwai post-rock infinity, downtempo grooves that Board of Canada might be proud of and everything you loved about early M83.

Dry The River have become a regular name in the “bands to watch” slots that appear in the media around this time of year, and their single “No Rest” has over half a million views on YouTube – not bad for a band who’s first official EP, “Weights & Measures”, was only released just over a month ago.

Named after “a multi-coloured pudding” from the Philippines, Halo Halo are a dance-sinawi-pop trio based in London (who just may have invented their very own musical genre).

TweetShareWatch Feist perform “The Undiscovered First” for London’s Black Cab Sessions below, taken from the album “Metals”.

TweetShare New Manhattan are like an unsigned ball of indie perfection. One listen through “Come On” and I was already referring to them as a stripped down version of  The Strokes meets the younger and even more angsty  We Were Promised Jetpacks.  By about the sixth listen I put all comparisons aside, “These guys are [...]

TweetShare I would be lying if I said that remixes and the like were totally “my kind of thing”, but when I read about a band offering a remixing of The Supremes I couldn’t help but have a listen at least to satisfy my curiosity. What I heard made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up [...]

TweetShare Chicago, Boston, Europe … You could be forgiven for thinking that Netherlands might be, you know, Dutch. They’re not, though. They’re roughly as Dutch as I am – in name only. Did you know the name Rutherford was originally Dutch? Did you care? Anyway, the point is that Netherlands are from Southampton, are now based [...]

TweetShare I think I bumped into the repeat button in a way that I can never leave. The South London band Zulu Winter hit me hard this time with their intoxicating guitar riffs over promising vocals. They’ll have their first single released on November 7th through Double Denim Records. The 7″ will lead with “Never [...]

TweetShare When I first heard the single “Close Your Eyes” by The Bullitts I knew I had to hear it again. I listened the song over and over and over again, ’til I was bobbing my head and singing along. The single’s hypnotic opening monologue, repeated throughout like a mantra, ebbing perfectly with the beat; the [...]

TweetShare There is something very intriguing about “If You’re Listening,” in that it first appears as merely a solid electronic track but then there is this explosive guitar work from the seventies that feels entirely held back but not quite estranged from the song which forces everything to feel as if it’s on the edge [...]

TweetShare At first I thought it’s an obscure cover for “Always On My Mind”, but it quickly absorbed into my head and now I can’t get it out from there. Former Simian and Black Ghosts member Simon Lords from London, UK hooked up with Rafter Roberts from San Diego, California and together with a little [...]

TweetShareHaving just appeared on the band’s website, this video which splices concert footage with non-concert footage is for something, we just don’t know what yet. A documentary about belly buttons, perhaps?  See what I did there…..? I’ll get my coat. It’s possible that it’s for a live film or concert DVD but there’s no confirmation [...]

TweetShare The debut album “Nothing Hurts” from London’s Male Bonding was a raucous affair, harnessing the elements of the punk DIY ethos mixed with Lo-Fi jitterbug-rock and hazed out to the smog and back, but even though a multitude of bands in 2010 had a similar sound, Male Bonding never found the success of their [...]