BROADCAST – ” The Future Crayon “

Posted: July 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Warp Records reissue. Originally released in 2006, “The Future Crayon” is a collection of Broadcast’s early rarities, B-sides, compilation tracks, and other hard to find material. For Broadcast completists, this release is a must. Our vintage Lab review from the original release: After toiling in Warpscurity for the better part of the late 90s / early 00s, Broadcast have had a quick come-up in the past few years, ever since the Pitchfork massive started catching on. It stands to reason that they’d wanna capitalize on their newfound fanbase with this collection, which features almost 20 tracks, all of which are hard-to-find or just plain out-of-print.

Broadcast were formed in Birmingham in 1995 by Trish Keenan (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and James Cargill (bass). Their musical style blends elements of 1960s American psychedelia with experimental electronica, incorporating samples from various sources, Keenan (formerly of folk duo Hayward Winters) and Cargill met in the mid 1990s at the Sensateria psychedelic club, and formed Pan Am Flight Bag in 1995, renamed Broadcast after several concerts. The band’s first release in 1996, was the 7″ single “Accidentals” (issued on Wurlitzer Jukebox Records), which was written based around a sample from Joseph Losey’s 1967 film Accident. The same year, they released The Book Lovers EP (issued in November by Duophonic Records). In 1996, the band recorded a Peel Session. for BBC Radio.

Warp released a compilation album, Work and Non Work, in June 1997, compiling the EP and two singles. The 1999 Broadcast track “You Can Fall” was included on the soundtrack album for the film Morvern Callar.

You get the entire Extended Play, Extended Play #2andPendulum EPs, plus a handful of B-sides and compilation appearances spanning from 1998 to 2003. Highlights include “Illumination,” “Chord Simple,” the hazy and beautifully psychedelic “Where Youth and Laughter Go” and “Locusts.” Not necessarily a collection for the Broadcast neophyte, but everyone will find something to like here. 18 tracks; 69 minutes.

  • official reissue of Future Crayon, a collection of Broadcast rarities and B-sides
  • originally released in 2006

Trish Keenan died on 14th January 2011 at the age of 42, following complications with pneumonia, which she suffered from after earlier contracting H1N1. Cargill, the sole remaining member, said in a 2011 interview with Under the Radar that a new Broadcast album was in the works, featuring vocals recorded by Keenan shortly before her death. He later said: “Trish left a lot of tapes, four-tracks and stuff, and I’ve been going through those. It’s difficult, and I’m connected to it at the same time. It’s wonderful, but I’m also feeling a sense of loss. The next thing I release with Trish on it will be more like a monument and a tribute to her rather than this obsessive thing I used to have about making albums.” As of 2020, however, the album has still not been released.

Band Members
Trish Keenan
James Cargill

BROADCAST – ” The Noise Made By People ” Reissue

Posted: July 26, 2020 in MUSIC
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The Debut full length album from Birmingham band Broadcast.  formed in 1995 by Trish Keenan (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and James Cargill (bass). Their musical style blends elements of 1960s American psychedelia with experimental electronica, incorporating samples from various sources, and earned the band a cult following. “The Noise Made By People” came after the band signed to Warp Records and spent nearly three years in the studio. It was time well spent, as they built on the sounds and textures they explored in their earlier singles (archived by Warp on the excellent Work And Non Work). Reared on a heavy dose of vintage British psychedelia, Broadcast drew early (and somwhat lazy) comparisons to their mentors Stereolab. The slick pop song writing and expert production on “Unchanging Window” and “Papercuts” feels vaguely familiar yet hard to pinpoint; in retrospect, more similar to the nostalgic aura conjured by labelmates Boards Of Canada. More experimental tracks like “Minus One” and “The Tower of Our Tuning” reveal influence from The BBC Radiophonic Workshop and similar sound effects units. Considered at the time to be a left-field choice by Warp’s A&R staff, as the indie powerhouse had dealt exclusively with artists working in the fields of techno and dance music, Broadcast’s signing to Warp makes much more sense in hindsight, and it’s hard to imagine them having such a fruitful run on any other label.

This was the group’s debut studio album, The Noise Made by People, was released by Warp Records in March 2000. It was self-produced in the group’s own recording studio after having been through three producers to get a particular sound. Regarding the expensive two year production of the album, Keenan said, “There [were] no financial benefits in getting it right.” The band issued two EPs in the same year, “Extended Play” and “Extended Play Two”.

The Noise Made By People indeed rocks, but there are hardly any noticeable guitars in the mix at any time throughout the course of the record. Their inventive approach to a five-piece band setup and non-purist attitude predates the ubiquity of electronics in indie rock that would follow in their wake. While James Cargill has been working intently on finishing Broadcast’s final album since the tragic and untimely passing of Trish Keenan in 2011, the uncanny brilliance of Broadcast continues to shine most brightly on The Noise Made By People. Recommended.

Broadcast have released three studio albums—The Noise Made by People (2000), Haha Sound (2003), and Tender Buttons (2005)—as well as several EPs and a collaboration album with the Focus Group titled Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age (2009).

official reissue of Broadcast’s debut album with gatefold sleeve
originally released in 2000

BROADCAST – ” Tender Buttons ” Reissue

Posted: July 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“Tender Buttons” was new terrain for Birmingham band Broadcast. The group had been known for taking the lithe psych-pop of the ’60s and smearing it with feedback, muscular percussion, and crunchy synths on their landmark albums The Noise Made by People and Haha Sound. But in 2005, the group shaved down to a duo, comprising only of frontwoman Trish Keenan and bassist James Cargill. As a duo, Keenan and Cargill translated their signature thorniness into something captivating.

I’ve been listening to this album a lot. It always seems to get referenced, It’s just a very easy album to like. I wouldn’t call it life changing, but I’d give it a solid rating on the “No one understands my haunted, fragmented beauty” playlist. Allow me to first say that I have a soft spot for girls who sing over lo-fi indie arrangements, and Broadcast up this ante by throwing in blips and fuzz, psyche and shoegazer . “Tender Buttons” is defined by simple arrangements, airy female vocals, and rudimentary song-writing. But it’s exactly that seemingly fumbling, faux-artless delivery that lingers. The closest group I can liken them to is either Department of Eagles or Young Marble Giants, but there’s also the pop sheen of the Zombies and the Let’s Stay In Bed Forever quality of My Bloody Valentine. Tracks like “I Found The F, Black Cat, Tender Buttons, America’s Boy” and “Goodbye Girls” may entice you, and I’m calling “Tears In The Typing Pool” as my favourite, but the album really stands on its cohesiveness, which requires a beginning-to-end listening. Just an understated gem.

  • official reissue of Broadcast’s third studio album
  • originally released in 2005

This is the music video for the title track of Broadcast’s 2005 album, “Tender Buttons”. It was originally a short film entitled “Horse Territory”.

 

 

THE WYTCHES – ” Three Mile Ditch “

Posted: July 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Wytches announce their third album “Three Mile Ditch”. The album features the recently released single “Cowboy” which marked their return after four years away and to celebrate the announcement they share new single “A Love You’ll Never Know”. The track is accompanied by a music video by Mark Breed and he explains,

“The music video format was a long process. Making the set was incredibly fun with Kristian crafting most of the miniatures. I then had to film the green screen band performance within the set before recording the edited version onto my VHS camera. Finally I shot the finished edit inside the view finder.” The album recorded with Luke Oldfield at Tile House Studios will be released on their own label Cable Code Records on Friday 2nd October.

“This is the first thing that I’ve ever been proud of for longer than a week,” says The Wytches frontman Kristian Bell of the band’s latest album Three Mile Ditch. This sense of vigour and enthusiasm coming from Bell about the band’s third album is matched by its contents. The album is an explosive collection of 10 tracks that weaves seamlessly between gut-wobbling monster riffs, swampy rock, slick surf, and finely tuned songcraft. It’s also the result of a band coming back from the brink of collapse.

The band’s early trajectory was a steep and speedy one as they quickly established themselves as one of the country’s most exciting and pulverising new bands. Major festival slots stacked up at places such as Glastonbury, SXSW, Reading and Leeds, and British Summertime with the Strokes. As did the tours across the US with METZ, traversing Europe with Fat White Family and Death Grips. They garnered support from BBC 6 Music, DIY, MOJO, NME and more. However, when the ascent to the stratosphere is moving at such a speed, there’s a risk of burning out and imploding, and the band came close to this.

They were on the rocks for a while, unsure of themselves and if the band should – or even could – go on. “I had it in my head that this kind of thing only really happens once and to try it again might be a big waste of time,” Bell reflects. However, despite the difficulties, the powerful pull of the band was too great to ignore.

“We had an album’s worth of songs that was some of our best material. The mission became to complete a Wytches album rather than get The Wytches back on the touring circuit. This album helped us make the decision to try it again.”

Whilst the album is bursting at the seams with hard rock screamers, with hooks and riffs so infectious they burrow deep into the brain, there’s also other more nuanced elements at play. Bell’s love of classic songwriting from Bob Dylan to Elliott Smith via Big Star’s Alex Chilton can be heard reverberating throughout the record; the result is a blend between his honed and subtle knack for songcraft and crunchy, eruptive bursts of noise.

A leaving member left them feeling they couldn’t face introducing a new drummer and teaching them all the new songs so they simply pounced on their momentum and took on that role themselves, sharing drumming duties. Joining the two, was a familiar face in Mark Breed. “It was the first time Mark was present for most of the recording sessions. Mark was our original bassist before we moved to Brighton. He decided to stay in Peterborough to focus on his own work and a few years later re-joined us on guitar and keyboard. He added a lot of depth to the song arrangements. Also, I think when he saw things were starting to fall apart, he stepped in to help bring back the band dynamic we were missing.”

For Bell, the band has never felt more vital or alive and that’s come with a degree of confidence and assuredness when looking to the future. “Early on a few negative comments would be enough for me to disassociate from my own work. But you grow up and you mature. I never felt like I could stand behind what I was doing all that much but with this album I really can.”

The Wytches. Out via Cable Code Records.

LALA LALA and BATHS – ” € € € €​^​^​%​%​!​!​!​!​!​heaven​!​!​!​!​!​! “

Posted: July 26, 2020 in MUSIC
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Hardly Art’s Lala Lala and Basement’s Baths have released “€ € € €^^%%!!!!!heaven!!!!!!”, a new single they co-wrote and produced.

In a joint statement, Lala Lala’s Lillie West and Baths’ Will Wiesenfeld say, “This song was born of a mutual fandom between both artists. Ideas and responsibilities were evenly split as the production came together.”

“Lillie’s music is great and working together was an instant yes! The process was the most fun I’ve ever had collaborating even though we worked remotely,” added Wiesenfeld. “Lillie’s music is great and working together was an instant yes!. Lillie writes, “I am obsessed with Will both professionally and personally. Collaborating was an extreme pleasure.”

100% of artists’ and labels’ share over the first month of sales will be donated between two organizations; Black Aids Institute, “the only premier uniquely and unapologetic-ally Black think and do tank in America powered by two decades of work to end the Black HIV epidemic and led by people who represent the issues we serve,” and Restore Justice Illinois,which “advocates for fairness, humanity, and compassion throughout the Illinois criminal justice system, with a primary focus on those affected by extreme sentences imposed on our youth.”

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Released July 24th, 2020

CRISTINA VANE – ” Old Played New “

Posted: July 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Cristina Vane is a songstress and slide guitarist based in Nashville and specializing in blues, country blues, folk, and rock. Her background in Europe allowed for a unique formation of flavours in her musical inspirations, and this eclectic nature carries through into her work. “Old Played New” is a tribute to the delta blues artists that have shaped my sound, including Son House, Skip James, Charley Patton and others. With 5 cover songs from various artists and one original on the track list, it is also my first solo guitar record. I am so happy with how Brook Sutton captured these live takes at The Studio here in Nashville, and so happy to share it with you.
I have gleaned so much as an artist and a person from the music that these talented folks made. Blues music is rooted in the African American experience and now more than ever, it is important to highlight once again how much black culture has contributed to our society, especially in the field of music. I hope to honor the memory of these artists and pay tribute to the cultural debt I owe them at large, coming in from a different background and partaking in this music.

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Slide guitarist and singer-songwriter Cristina Vane has known the lighter and darker sides of Venice. SoCal’s sunshine noir ripples through her music- a blend of folk and blues, angst and elation. [..] Since becoming enchanted by the blues, she’s developed an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the musical genre, expertly rattling off idols like Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, and Blind Willie Johnson.

SLUM OF LEGS – ” Slum of Legs “

Posted: July 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Slum of Legs are a feminist noise-pop DIY band. We write songs about ghosts, architecture, gender, loneliness, good hair and many other important topics. We are Alex, Emily, Kate, Maria, Michelle and Tamsin. Long-awaited eponymous ‘queer feminist noise pop’ debut album from the Brighton-based Slum of Legs, a self-described ‘giant pop-psych, punk monster with twelve legs’. In their own words, “a manifesto for compassion and defiance in a confusing, unrestful world.”, gender, loneliness, good hair and many other important topics. 

Slum of Legs are a queer, feminist noise-pop DIY band. We are Alex, Emily, Kate, Maria, Mich and Tamsin. We write songs about ghosts, architecture, gender, loneliness and hair envy. You can dance to all of them. Sometimes we sound like The Shaggs, Slant 6 and La Dusseldorf playing at an impromptu party in space.

One of our songs is a live séance. We’ve performed on a Norwegian mountain and in many, many basements. We like pylons and onstage pile-ons. We’re interested in modernist architecture, art & literature.

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We use collage & cut-up in our artwork and this also reflects the fractured nature of our songs and how the 6 of us, who all bring completely different influences to the band, have been stuck into a blender with the controls jammed. We are a giant pop-psych, punk monster with twelve legs. Our songs are melodic and dissonant, anthemic and experimental. The Fall meets The Raincoats in this noisy, bloody minded, defiant, lo-fi collage art-punk. Absolutely brilliant, up there as Album of the Year 2020 with Torres & Porridge Radio.

Our debut album ‘Slum of Legs’ is a manifesto for compassion and defiance in a confusing, unrestful world. As Slum of Legs are currently scattered across continents, we couldn’t film a video all together, so synth player EK put together this little homemade vid out of photos and gifs, featuring ‘Benetint & Malevolence’ from our forthcoming self-titled LP.

Released March 13th, 2020

The Band are:
Tamsin – vocals, backing vocals, drums, shouts
Mich – drums, vocals, backing vocals, guitar, shouts
Maria – violin, vocals, backing vocals, guitar, percussion, glockenspiel, field recordings, shouts
Kate – guitar, backing vocals, drums, shouts
Emily – synths, samples, monotron, piano, glockenspiel, noise, shouts
Alex – bass guitar, shouts

Lyrics by Tamsin Chapman except: 5 – lyrics by Tamsin Chapman and Michelle Steele; 8 – lyrics by Michelle Steele; 10 – lyrics by Maria Marzaioli
All songs by Slum of Legs

CUB SPORT – ” Like Nirvana “

Posted: July 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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One of Australia’s best band’s Cub Sport have released their fourth album. Sitting at 13-tracks long, “Like Nirvana” is a beautiful and deeply honest trip through the mind of singer-songwriter-producer Tim Nelson. Navigating topics like gender, personal discovery and ultimately evolution, the alt-pop group from Brisbane the record which is a collection of soft, dreamy pop songs. Originally slated for a May release, Like Nirvana was pushed back due to the COVID pandemic, but the wait was worth it.

Tim Nelson tals about the group’s new LP, “Like Nirvana”, is an uplifting release that doesn’t shy away from the shadows, “it embraces both the light and dark with warmth.”

In Confessions there’s a line ‘the truth is I’m looking for myself and I can’t see it in anybody’. And I couldn’t, but now I can. It sounds a little cliché but this album has helped me find and love myself more deeply. I listen to this album and I can see, hear, feel ‘me.’ It’s the gentle and powerful energy of the introvert empath who, for some reason, is drawn to the light, even though they’re scared of it sometimes and feel more at home in the shadows. It’s the acknowledgement of lingering trauma, an embracing of the journey, rather than a need to see and understand the destination.

The track Nirvana is kind of the title track. It embodies some of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the last year. ‘Free myself from ego’s chains, free my body from my mind, leave the painful parts behind.’ It’s about learning my own worth outside of other peoples’ perception of me. In western society, we’re largely taught that our value is tied to the material things we have, how we appear to others, our career progress, what the world tells us about ourselves. I wanted to strip all of that away and form my own self not built by others. It’s by no means easy to do, but being aware of when your actions are motivated by ego/fear rather than love can be a strong guiding force.

In the second verse of 18 there’s a line ‘sorry, didn’t wanna make this sad, guess I wrote this all to try and heal from that, to let me feel all that’. I always wanted this album to be uplifting. I think in my mind I had this idea that to be uplifting it had to sound ‘happy’ but I couldn’t write any happy-sounding songs that I was excited about, but rather these cinematic, all-encompassing laments. I had to write this album as part of my healing process, I had to let myself feel everything and experience and live all of the emotions that were weighing on me. And I feel like that’s what has made Like Nirvana such an uplifting record in its completion; it doesn’t shy away from the shadows, it embraces both the light and dark with warmth and I hope it sets other people free in ways that it’s done for me.

The closing song on the album is Grand Canyon. I wrote this song for someone very dear to me. I wanted them to see them the way that I see them. ‘You’re a mountain, baby, Grand Canyon, you hold all the power if you believe it then you can, yeah. Too much of an angel to be held down, your battles, too much of an angel to be held down.’ It’s anthemic and soaring, pure power and warmth. It ended up becoming a reminder to me of my own power when I needed encouragement. I feel like this song was brought to me for the purpose of inspiring and empowering people who need it. And that goes beyond this song alone, I feel like that’s largely why Like Nirvana the album came to me.

Like Nirvana becomes a landmark moment in Australian pop, contextualising Nelson’s life and art on a universal scale. “Forget the limits that we learned / The light is coming, it’s our turn / You’re a mountain baby, Grand Canyon / You hold all the power,” Nelson sings on Grand Canyon, joined by bandmates united as a choir.

“It really feels heavenly,” Nelson says. “That’s kind of what making this album has felt like for me: finding a more peaceful place; getting to know myself better; acknowledging my whole self, even the parts that are hard to acknowledge sometimes.”

Nelson’s emotional purge continues on ‘My Dear (Can I Tell You My Greatest Fear)’, where his voice and soul are laid bare over spectral guitar fuzz and feather-light instrumentation. ‘I Feel Like I Am Changin’’picks up where ‘Sometimes’ left off on ‘Cub Sport’, with Nelson, back in Brisbane after a period of relentless touring, experiencing a newfound appreciation for home. ‘Be Your Man’ is an ’80s power ballad complete with dramatic Phil Collins-style drums while ‘Be Your Angel’ pays homage to Savage Garden’s ‘Truly Madly Deeply’. “Like Nirvana” is an emotional voyage of self-discovery that celebrates the joys of life. This album captures some of Tim Nelson’s most vulnerable moments. Elegantly understated and, for the most part, supremely chill, Cub Sport have stripped back the synth-pop hooks to create mellow clouds of sound intended to provide a little comfort and succour.

Four albums in. It’s evident in their staggering creative, aesthetic, and personal evolution, particularly over the past couple of years. Described by Nelson as more of a holistic release from Cub Sport in contrast to their largely linearearly records, This is a glistening, tightly-woven exploration of religious reckoning, oppressive structures of masculinity, and feelings of inadequacy. Dovetailing with a shift in Nelson’s gender expression they now identify as ‘free’, and use both neutral and male pronouns the record is impressionistic and abstract, pushing aside the brightly coloured realism of 2019’s self-titled record in favour of gauzy lucid dreams. Nelson’s embrace of raw emotion has pushed them and their bandmates, to create a record more fiercely emotive than ever.
Band Members
Tim Nelson, Zoe Davis , Sam Netterfield and Dan Puusaari

Cub Sport’s fourth album Like Nirvana, out July 24th

LIZA ANNE – ” Bad Vacation “

Posted: July 25, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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With her bold and bracing new album, “Bad Vacation”, Liza Anne hasn’t just shaped her liberation, she’s completely reinvented it. The record is defiant and thoughtful, showcasing a remarkable confidence as it tackles destructive habits and finds Liza at her most self aware yet. “I was writing what I needed to hear,” Liza explains. “I was writing what I needed to feel. I was quite literally writing a stronger, more empowered version of myself into existence.”

The songs here represent an audacious sonic leap forward for Liza and her band, mixing accomplished full-throttled art rock anthems with playful new wave jams and power pop earworms. Produced by Micah Tawlks Kyle Ryan and co-produced by Liza and Justin Meldal-Johnsen, arrangements are poised and fierce to match, fuelled by muscular guitar hooks, retro synthesizers, and wry, incisive and insightful lyrics.

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Bad Vacation marks a remarkable development in her sound and vocal performance – a collection that calls to mind everything from St. Vincent and Sleater-Kinney to Kate Bush and Talking Heads.

Released July 24th, 2020

DUNEBUG – ” Impossible With You “

Posted: July 25, 2020 in MUSIC
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Born in Manchester and now based out of London, it’s not quite clear to us how Dunebug manages to write such wonderfully sun-kissed music! The brainchild of Chi Limpiroj, Dunebug started last year and marked a return to recording for Chi after a, “five year fall out with music”. The debut Dunebug EP emerged last year, and with plans for a new album underfoot, this week Chiara has shared her latest single, Impossible With You.

Citing influences from Beach House to Jay Som, Dunebug’s sound is delightfully dreamy, resplendent with warm guitar tones, lush layered backing vocals, and the magic lead vocal line that seems to hide its sadness in a wash of airy beauty. Nodding to the likes of Living Hour or Martha Ffion, this feels like a classic-pop song given a modern, jangling re-interpretation, as Chi sings of a relationship coming to an end, wistfully noting, “I’m close to giving up, you never gave a fuck, I never thought I’d walk away from love”. Let Dunebug sashay their way into your life, because this instantly feels like it could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Impossible with You · Dunebug

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