Tanya Tagaq - Animism

Given that Tanya Tagaq has worked with the likes of Bjork, and is considered an inuit throat singer, it’s almost obvious that Polaris Music Prize winning album, Animism, her fourth to date, was going to be a little out there. Here then, is not an album in its traditional sense but a collaboration of repetitive vocal grunts, sighs, howls, rasps alongside organic and electronic instrumentation that pours in an out of the listeners ears before reaching its climax. Songs like Uja with its aggressive distorted electronica and the almost fragile Tulugak are the best examples of this with monstrous tribal growls interweaved with hauntingly soft high pitched howls and minimal scratches and taps of instrumentation creating spine clawing sensations. While latest single, a cover of Pixies ‘Caribou’, is Animism’s most accessible track; exquisite orchestral violin work offset by grumbling bass and ‘real’ lyrics before skull crushing screams rip the song into its end. Animism then feels like the anxiety forging twisted soundtrack to a fear wretching horror film with seemingly structureless songs of ghostly whispers whilst occassionally falling into a Joanna Newsom meets Battles ‘Mirrored’ era meets Tune Yards ideology with psychadelic folk melodies superseeded by repetitive rhythms both instrumentally and vocally being layered into a glorious battle of sound. This leaves Animism as a conflict of a record, utterly captivating and all the same, excessively self indulgent. Why should you listen to this album? Because it’s interesting. But equally with very little to grasp onto this is very much a when the mood takes me release. Tanya Tagaq’s Animism will be released via Six Shooter Records in the UK on January 26th.

Black Foxxes - Pines

A couple of days before getting the Black Foxxes EP 'Pines' to review, I was told by a friend that the biggest problem that music (and the music industry) faces is incest. He said that bands aren't just taking inspiration from their musical idols, and rebranding it as something altogether different, but infact just out and out copying it (but obviously at a poorer quality) and labels are snapping this up for a quick buck, leaving audiences with watered down music that doesn't take risks and tread new water.

And this is exactly how Exeter based band Black Foxxes sound.

It's not that 'Pines' is bad, by all means, it isn't at all, and lead single 'River' showcases the quality of a band able to pen a song that is emotive, fragile as well as gut wretchingly heavy in part. It's just that between that guitar tone, those almost cute little guitar slides that are littered everywhere on this EP, those moments of silence before the crushing gravelly shouts, and that almost American vocal tone, you can say that you've heard this done before, by Manchester Orchestra. And by the time the final track rings out, you're almost wondering if Andy Hull will persue suing the band for stealing his intellectual property.

If you want to listen to emotive rock that sounds like Manchester Orchestra, avoid this, just listen to Manchester Orchestra.

2 / 5

www.blackfoxxes.com

This Will Destroy You - Another Language

This Will Destroy You - Another Language

Ah, post rock. Crescendos, melodic and cinematic interweaving guitar play. Beautiful songs that were made for dramatic movie scenes. I would listen to you all day, every day. But that was ten plus years ago before a slew of bands came along with the imprint and did nothing with it beyond unashamedly copying. The bands to survive this; Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Godspeed You! Black Emperor. All bands who you could argue were never post rock in the first place.


       

So, how to avoid copying and maintain relevancy in a genre that's a corpse so dead that it's beyond rotting? 


       

This Will Destroy You luckily have always stuck their necks a little higher out of the sinking post rock ship than most. On earlier releases (Young Mountain and Self Titled) they still did the "oh my god is this record skipping or something" thing, but attacked melancholy guitar work with a slew of electronics and drum work which betrayed the post rock rule of 'only hit the hi-hat until the crescendo'. This actually led them to becoming one of my favourite bands until the release of their third album (which I either 'didn't get' due to me no longer liking the genre, or just simply knew that it wasn't a good album). The point being that, to maintain relevancy, an artist must be willing to make changes to the genre they are in. Challenge themselves, and their listeners.


       

On latest album, Another Language, have This Will Destroy You achieved this? Well on first glance it would appear so (nine tracks instead of the standard four/five tracks each lasting up to eight minutes). Look beyond this however and you have songs that feel like introductions that have lasted far too long (as on first track, New Topia, before it swells into the predictable crescendo), and songs like War Prayer, which initially sound fresh with fuzzy distorted bass, only to passively lull into a silence before yes, you've guessed it, the crescendo. When the band look at the rule book but only from a distance, they create tracks like The Puritan. A three minute ambient track that doesn't as much do anything special but grabs you by the ears and focuses your attention because it doesn't do anything except for being unashamedly beautiful. Leading into the almost jazz drum infused feel of Mother Opiate which is sparse and calmly alarming, not ever needing to be aggressive with guitars. As well as Invitation, an upbeat snare driven track with cutting guitar work that very much competes with even Mogwai's best work. 


       

So, Another Language, worth parting cash for? Yes. If you're into post rock or instrumental music then sure, this is as good as recent releases from Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. But if you're one of those who gets two minutes into a track and always says "where are the vocals", then steer clear. This isn't one of those albums that will bridge the gap into the mainstream. The rule book has definitely been printed and published meaning that, for most, post rock remains another language. 

       


3/5

Sam Brookes - Kairos

It's no wonder that Sam Brookes is being compared to the greats such as John Martyn with his new album 'Kairos' sitting somewhere between the legendary Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley.
    Standout, and opening song 'Numb' showcases Brookes at his best, with soothing vocals sitting comfortably upon intricate finger picked guitar playing. It is here, while Brookes vocals almost break under the fragility of his story telling, that layers of whistles and vocal harmonies just passively soak into your willing ears.
    'Crazy World and You' picks up the pace, with up-tempo strummed guitars, anthemic drumming and one of those pre-chorus build-ups that just begs to become the folky soundtrack for one of this summers festivals with Brookes almost spilling into crooning as he belts out the chorus lyrics, 'Out in the countryside where it feels like there's just a crazy world and you', but luckily saving himself with a glorious high note (of which there are many on the album).
       However, it isn't all positive. At times, 'Kairos' feels like it doesn't really fit anywhere. It's a little bit seventies folk, influenced by jazz, with tracks like 'On The Mend'  bordering, musically at least, on being cheesy and sounding dated. Whether this is a musical issue, or lyrical, or vocal, I'm not quite sure, but on a couple of tracks the album begins to feel almost like a guilty pleasure (as if you are secretly listening to one of dads old records that you said was awful previously). To some, including myself, this isn't a bad thing, but it could just be the difference between 'Kairos' being ignored, or getting the attention it deserves. This reviewer at least, hopes that music buyers can see this album for what it is, sonically heavenly, lyrically intelligent and an absolute pleasure to listen to.

4/5

www.sambrookes.com/‎

Spring Offensive - Young Animal Hearts

Eight years to release a debut album seems an awful long time. In the case of Spring Offensive it comes after a series of record label false starts leading the band to release 'Young Animal Hearts' independently, gaining the funds to do so through Pledgemusic. Luckily however, this long delay in releasing a full length has only seemed to increase the bands resolve and their willingness to think outside the box and the release of this album and its low budget theatrical music videos are testament to the bands work ethic.

Instrumentally 'Young Animal Hearts' is a well rounded and accomplished record. Indie at heart with the occasional subtle post-rock guitar moment, it's the creative rhythm section that mostly triumphs here, reminiscent of a 'Total Life Forever' era Foals, with snare rim shots, hand claps, tambourines and egg shakers ever present and a disperse bass rhythm that creates an often surprising groove that belies the emotive nature of the bands lyrics. And lyrically it is perhaps where the band are at their most impressive, recalling the prowess of Elbow's Guy Garvey and Counting Crows Adam Duritz before they both had too much success and ran out of things to write about. Songs like 'No Assets' are for the affected and financially struggling youth of today; "Our parents didn't wait for this long to have big ideas and our big homes". While in songs like 'Speak' the band tackle relationships with a masculinity theme with them announcing "I can't easily communicate how I feel to you, where I'm from, we tend not to speak until we're spoken to".

'Young Animal Hearts' is the soundtrack to those in the twenty to thirty age bracket, caught in dead-end jobs, or no jobs at all, all the while watching their relationships fail as their lives go nowhere. At times it is musically gorgeous and yet still, lyrically affecting and utterly, emotionally, destructive. If ever an independent record deserved to be listened to, it's this one.

4.5 / 5

http://springoffensive.co.uk

Falling Off Maps - A Seaside Town In Winter

Nottingham five piece, Falling Off Maps debut album, A Seaside Town In Winter, is a tale of two halves. On one side, songs like 'Honest', 'The Redeemer', 'I.D.S.T' and 'Through The Forest' have an emotive fragility which doesn't so much sucker punch you in the gut, but more so prods your heart to check it is still pumping. It is on the earlier stages of the album and the aforementioned tracks where this is most visible with singer Dave Wrights often childlike high vocals almost cracking under the weight of the burden of his words with a story telling lyric style of damaged relationships, as well as the difficulties of getting older at the forefront of subtle guitar work, trip-hop styled drumming, groove driven bass playing and intelligent, minimalist piano and electronic work that we've seen before in a less subtle way from the likes of Radiohead's In Rainbows.

Sadly though, somewhere along the way, A Seaside Town In Winter seems to lose itself and the pacing of the album goes awry. While the early subtle tracks sound like a mix of Radiohead, Portishead and folkier acts, tracks like 'Visiting Hours' sound from the offset more like a lackluster Coldplay or Keane (think epic piano build-up with repeated vocal melody and you have the whole seven minute track figured out). While 'Wolf River/The Smoking Room At Hotel Cafe' suffers from the being an eight minute track mid-way into an album, with more repeated (and this time chant) vocals which don't seem to be the bands forte.

At fourteen tracks long, A Seaside Town In Winter is the victim of being too long, and with the inclusion of a more anthemic turn, seems to lose sense of the narrative the band were clearly trying to tell with the album titles theme. That said, if this is anything to go by, Falling Off Maps have clearly got a bright future and are one to watch out for.

3.5 / 5
www.fallingoffmaps.co.uk

Radical Face - The Family Tree: The Branches

Following the mainstream success of song, Welcome Home, which was featured on the ever so popular Nikon advert, Ben Cooper, aka, Radical Face, has been, for better or worse, thrust into a place of popularity. This often goes two ways, either where Radical Face threatened to go with the albeit frankly underwhelming release of album Ghosts, or to a place where this new found popularity creates enough security for the artist to develop and take chances.

New album, The Family Tree: The Branches is part two (part one, The Roots, was released last year) of a three part conceptional series where Cooper tells the story of a 19^th century family whilst only creating using instruments from that era. Arrogant right? Yeah, I thought the same when I researched the album, but actually, the record works because of this with songs so stripped bare, often only featuring guitar and vocals, that they allow Cooper to let the song writing breathe for itself. Stand-out track Reminders is a strong example of this, with vocal harmonies interspersed between a half picked-half strummed guitar melody that is just utterly beautiful. It also contains possibly my favourite lyric of the year so far; 'I wish I had more nice things to say but I was raised not to lie, I'm either honest or I'm an optimist but never at the same time.'

No album is perfect though, and there is a part of me that just says, what's the point? It isn't like The Branches offers anything new to the folk genre, let alone to music. This isn't going to be one of those albums where you are going to look back in ten years time and say 'this album changed my life'. In part this may be due to the conceptual theme. There is no doubt that on an intellectual level the lyrics are great, but emotively there are only rare moments when you feel a sense of honesty and vulnerability (and it is often these songs that are the stand out moments). If Radical Face could move beyond that on this conceptual set and allow listeners to see their soul, then they could really be onto something because gripes aside, The Branches, at least sonically, is a warm, cuddly hug of an album that envelopes your ears as the world passes you by, and is more than worth of a space in your record collection.

4 / 5

Royal Canoe Interview

Firstly, for those who don't know of you, can you introduce the band?
We're called Royal Canoe. There are 6 of us. We all live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

'Today We're Believers' is your debut album. You've already received great reviews for previous EPs, so did you find the step up between EP's and a full album a daunting prospect?
We recorded the EP at the same time as the full-length, so we didn't have to endure that second-guessing  phase.. We're preparing to start work on the next full-length record (seems kind of weird because Today We're Believers is just coming out) in between our touring schedule, but more than anything I'm excited to get back to work on creating new material.  I guess there is a part of me that is curious about how successful the transition will be into whatever new place we end up taking our music considering how long we had to work on this last record and how different the schedule will be for the next one. But I'm more anxious than afraid.

Musically, you have been coined as experimental pop. Would you agree with this tag, and what bands or artists would you say influence Royal Canoe?
I don't mind experimental pop..  Although someone recently wrote that there was a "country-tinge" to our music, which I thought was interesting.  It goes to show that everyone hears things in their own way.  We listen to a lot of Hip hop in the van (Outkast, dr.dre, MF Doom), which really works its way into our rhythmic sensibilities.  As far as bands go, we draw from artists like Dirty Projectors, Tune Yards, The Knife.

With the exception of a small handful of tracks on the album, I would say that you aren't guitar focused. Many bands create first and foremost through a guitar melody. How did you approach song-writing on the album?
It might be because there were so many keyboards at our disposal or just where we were at musically when we recorded this album, but we were not that interested in letting guitar chords running the show. As you said, so often the guitar provides all of the harmonic context for a song, almost to the point for us where we have a hard time buying into a song if it's super "strummy." That being said, the guitar is an important aspect to our sound, but the challenge for us is to try to get something fresh out of it as opposed to just wanking or chording.  I've toyed around with the idea of going all-guitar on the next album just to fuck with people.  I think it would be pretty funny. 6 guitars, no drums, minimal vocals.  Hits all day.

Lyrically  the album is often bordering on the obscure. The lead single 'Bathtubs' alone has the lyric, 'the bathtubs in the hallway, are here to stay'. Firstly, what inspires you lyrically, and secondly, would you say you write to serve the purpose of the melody, or to create meaning?
At the very beginning of the song writing process the words are driven by the melody, but they often take over and can drive the song into strange places.  All of the words on the record have a very personal connection to us.  If the lyrical aspects of a song don't resonate for us on an emotional level it would make it very difficult to pinpoint its identity. The song,"Bathtubs," you mentioned is about our practice space where we wrote all of the songs and recorded large chunks of the album. At one point years ago each room in the building used to have a small bathroom with these beautiful claw-foot tubs. The gentleman who owns the building now, pulled the tubs out of the rooms and placed them in the narrow hallway when he was converting the building into studio spaces...that's where they stayed for years. I believe he had the intention of refurbishing them and trying to sell them, but it never happened. They just became these obstacles we always had to avoid every time we wanted to be creative.  It seemed like a good metaphor for our own struggle to try to make this whole being-in-a-band thing happen.

'Today We're Believers' seems to me to move between many genre's from indie and pop to funk, and as you mentioned before, rhythmically there is definitely a hip-hop influence. Do you feel that the bands environment and being from Winnipeg has had an influence on your sound?
I think being from Winnipeg has had a big influence on our lyrics and perhaps the giant spectrum of weather, the extreme hot and cold through out the year, might have an impact on the sorts of songs we write during those seasons. I don't think that we're necessarily a band that sounds like Winnipeg though, or at least historically the music that has come out of Winnipeg.

I am often hearing that modern music isn't as creative or challenging as previous eras. As a relatively new band, how do you view the quality of modern music, and how do you feel music listeners will discuss 'Today We're Believers' in say, ten years time?
I think its more that music is just more polarized than its ever been. Right now in modern music you have the just unforgivable shit on the mainstream radio, but then also an incredible thriving experimental scene that, with the help of the internet, has perhaps just as big an audience. There is just very little of worth in-between, which I guess is why a "cross-over" hit is so rare. So I think the quality of modern music is can be very high, but also lately has been increasingly short sighted in its scope. A lot of bands popping up that seek to have a niche following by doing something new, but mine such a small musical "territory" that they rise and fall with a niche genre's fleeting popularity. They sort of get downloaded for lunch and we all move on.  In response to the last question I really hope people are still discussing Today We're Believer's in 10 years time, that would be incredible. I hope it doesn't feel too dated. There is this song by Beck, "Get Real Paid", that perpetually sounds like it was written 20 years in the future… I'm not sure our record is quite there yet, but that's sort of our goal.

You will be touring the UK in November in support of the new album. Can you tell us when and where you will be playing?
Yeah just check the royalcanoe.com and its got all the dates there

Would you say there is a difference in playing in the UK in comparison with other places, and as a band, do you prefer playing live, or recording?
I wouldn't say this is specific to the UK but we've found that audiences across the pond tend to be more open to live music. There is perhaps less DJ culture and people are more into to checking out a live band in their evenings. I've always thought of myself more as a recording artist than a performer although we've heard from many people that our live show is what sold them on us, but I'd still say I prefer recording.

The album, alongside lead single 'Bathtubs', is out in the UK on the 23rd of September. Beyond releasing and touring the album, do you have any idea about future plans for the band?
I think we're all trying to make a career of this so we plan to just keep going, release and tour this album, record another, and do it again. It's something we really enjoy and at this point we don't really know what else we would do.


Royal Canoe's debut album, 'Today We're Believers' is out now. You can see the bands tour dates by visiting their website, www.royalcanoe.com

Royal Canoe - Today We're Believers

'Today We're Believers', the debut album from Winnipeg's Royal Canoe ticks all the modern indie boxes. Quirky, deceptively minimalist, summery dream pop indie with anthemic vocal melodies that despite their infectious nature, don't lyrically seem to mean a god damn thing. Songs such as previous single, 'Hold on to the Metal', as well as upcoming single 'Bathtubs' show why the band might be such a success in the UK as we move ever further away from summer. With tight sunny guitar licks and well thought out repeated choruses, you can see why the band have already been tagged as Temper Trap-like, and despite an often experimental and complex approach to song composition along with an almost hip-hop approach to percussion, Royal Canoe like Temper Trap have that knack of being deliciously pop.

It's on songs like 'Exodus of the Year' and 'Show Me Your Eyes' where the band show their strengths though. 'Exodus of the Year' is a no showboating beauty of a song that doesn't need to rely on being quirky to be brilliant, and for the first time shows a sensitive contemplative side which is inclusive of brass and string sections. If Sigur Ros were to write a mainstream song, 'Exodus of the Year' would be it, which as a massive Sigur Ros fan, is huge praise indeed. On the other hand, 'Show Me Your Eyes' is a fun, uptempo dance floor filler of a track that with its various entwining rhythms almost begs you to jig along to it. If this track doesn't get remixed and put in clubs I will be very surprised.

It isn't all good news for Royal Canoe though, and five or six fantastic songs aside, there are at least three tracks on the album that are quite simply put, very average. I often wonder why bands feel they have to have albums with thirteen plus songs when they only have ten good tracks. It is to the detriment of 'Today We're Believers' that the average songs seem to be wedged in between the great ones, but on the strength of seventy percent of the album I think this should be forgiven. After all, 'Today We're Believers' is a debut album, and it is a fantastic stab at a tired NME styled fanfare that already seems to be slowing down with bands like Temper Trap and Yeasayer releasing poor follow ups to fantastic albums (with Alt-J sure to be next on that list).

So if you want your summer continue despite rain pummeling your windows, or you want something that is easy on the ear but still challenging in its own right, then 'Today We're Believers' is definitely for you.

3.5/5

Night Verses - Lift Your Existence

You release a free to download debut EP which is rated the best thing since sliced bread by those who can't afford their own knives. You go on successful tours with fan favourite bands such as letlive. What's next? Split up? Disappear? Or release an underwhelming debut album?

On first listen to Night Verses debut album Lift Your Existence, I almost wished that they had split up or just disappeared. Although previously I was a big fan of the band, through its progressive experimental sound it almost came across as contrived and at fifteen tracks it felt as if it needed about three tracks shaved from it (I may be the only music fan ever who wants less songs on an album). However, after giving Lift Your Existence a bit of time, I am sheepishly going to admit that I was wrong.

Tracks like opener, 'Introducing...The Rot Under The Sun' and its follow up, 'Rage' sound like the band have squeezed all of the aggression from an anger management class and somehow molded it into The Incredible Hulk of anthemic music. My personal favourite from the album, 'Antidepressants', is what I imagine it would sound like if you set up a factory full of kittens and tested on them. Its abrasive screaming and ear curdling high pitched guitar noise is only comforted by Night Verses penchant to claw it all back into a melodic chorus (much like Deftones achieved on their recent Koi No Yokan album).

Lift Your Existence nods its cap to bands like Tool, Deftones, and even more so to the classic rock greats (like Led Zeppelin, etc) but this is perhaps what undermines the band most as I can't figure out what their sound actually is, or where they will go from here. Throughout the album I also found myself wishing the band would play down their abilities and play in the groove, particularly the drummer, who seems to want you to walk away from listening with wood chippings in your ears. It's obvious the band are all fantastic musicians, it seems strange that they feel the need to have to prove it but for those kids who like to film Youtube videos of themselves playing along to songs I'm sure this will be a great bonus.

These few gripes aside, Lift Your Existence is definitely worth your time and whether you are into emo, prog, post-rock, rock, or metal, it has something for you that you won't be disappointed with. It will be interesting to see now where the band go from here.

3.5/5

www.nightverses.com

Royal Canoe - Extended Play

It's officially summer, which means it's time for girls to wear extremely short shorts and for overly confident guys to walk around topless (not showing off, but because it's too hot right?). Sadly though, the vast depressingly black clouds I can see outside of my window imply that we are more likely to see a typically British summer than anything remotely resembling a Mediterranean heat wave but worry not, the solution is here, and it isn't an umbrella.

Royal Canoe's latest EP, Extended Play, arrives at just the right time then with the same ethos that made debut albums by Foster The People and Temper Trap so successful. The four tracks on offer here are unashamedly indie pop but with psychedelic tinges that wouldn't have sounded so out of place of Yeasayer's Odd Blood. Imagine a happy Arcade Fire making a love child with Alt-J and Vampire Weekend and you would be somewhere close to describing their sound.

Hold on to the Metal, a song that first caught my attention on 6 Music, is a playful little track which despite being multifaceted between streams of samples, percussion and vocal harmonies maintains a level of careless simplicity allowing a summery guitar hook that I'm sure the Beach Boys wished they had thought of shine through. While other standout track Bathtubs, a six minute affair that feels like it breezes by in seconds, has the type of sound that WILL be featured on an advert in the future (you just know it). It also features the EP's major festival sing-a-long moment; "The bathtubs in the hallway, are here to stay.", I know that sounds peculiar but I challenge anyone to listen to the song and not sing to that lyric.

Sure, Extended Play is an indie pop EP and granted it's going to be lapped up by those super cool kids at NME (I'm not jealous, honest). And yeah I don't really understand what most of the lyrics about either but in a dismal summer where the most talked about releases seem to be Mark Owen and god knows what else, surely pop music like this that takes chances and enthuses us to smile should applauded. And I for one, will be buying their full length album when it is released in September.

4 / 5
http://royalcanoe.bandcamp.com/

Little Kid Interview

Every new generation of music has brought a different approach. The current technological state is allowing artists to be able to record instrumentally vast albums of a high quality without the need to fork out for extortionate studio time and session musician costs. As well, the decline of the record label is seeing more and more musicians take their art into their own hands, independently recording, packaging, and promoting their work. Little Kid, the brainchild of Kenny Boothby sums up this ethos selling his work, which are often seemingly defunct platforms such as cassette, via online sites such as Bandcamp. I caught up with Kenny to discuss the release of his latest album, 'River of Blood', as well as exploring the importance of the internet to an independent artist such as himself.

Firstly, for those who don't know you, can you tell us about Little Kid?
I started recording songs as Little Kid in 2009 - all four-track stuff, recorded on tape and such. It was a lot of fun for a while, but I started playing with other musicians live over the last few years and enjoyed the band sound so much that Little Kid eventually expanded into a loose band. A few other people have contributed to the album, but for the live shows it's usually myself, Broderick Germain, and Jessiah Devine.

Your last album, Logic Songs, was quite lo-fi. In comparison, River of Blood sounds more polished. What was the difference between the recording process of both albums?
When I made Logic Songs, I didn't really know what I was doing. I had a few odd recordings I had been making over the years and I kept recording little songs on the 4-track and some other tape machines, and eventually an album sort of took shape from that. I pieced together the best ones in an order that made sense and re-did a couple of them with different arrangements, and Logic Songs was the result. I'm happy with how it turned out - I still love lo-fi recordings - but I wanted to go about this one a little differently.

For River of Blood, I demoed all of the songs in advance, using essentially the same equipment as I used for Logic Songs. Then in January, once I felt like I finally had enough songs for a new album, Brodie and I got together at my house and started recording them. I think he did a great job on the mixing end of things - overall, I'm really happy with how this album turned out.

Logic Songs came across as a solo record while in comparison, River of Blood sounds more direct, concentrated and mature. Was there more of a band ethos behind the new record?
With Logic Songs, a lot of the recordings that made it onto the album were done the day I wrote the song - some are even the first time I really played the song all the way through. It's a much different experience demoing each song, listening back, thinking about different arrangements, performing the songs live, tweaking lyrics, etc. There is a certain element that can be lost in that process - and I think that element is something that some people might have enjoyed about Logic Songs - but as an artist, I think you end up with something you feel a lot more satisfied with when you take the time to let the song develop over a longer period of time.

We definitely went for more of a band thing on this one. I still wrote all the songs, and I had some ideas about how the album should sound, but Brodie in particular definitely had a huge impact on the approach we took with the songs. He's a great drummer and he has a good ear for how to really get the most out of a song. My good friend Jessiah, who plays in Wooly Mammoth, also contributed to a lot of the songs - we were hoping to have him play all the bass on the record, but it didn't really work out, logistics-wise. On one of the few times we managed to get all three of us together, we tracked the guitar, bass, and drums of "Slow Train" live, with all of us playing in the same room. That was a lot of fun, and it wound up being one of my favourite recordings on the album.

Lyrically your new album has many religious references. It feels like within these songs, you feel like a religious failure. Would you say that was correct and lyrically, aside from religion, what are your influences?
I'd say that's somewhat correct. As far as the guidelines set forth in the Bible go, I'd definitely be considered a failure, and probably more so now than at any other point in my life. Nowadays, I'm at a point where I am fine with that, but I find it an interesting thing to ponder, and to document in songs. I also think that the songs have been shaped by a lot of other stuff going on in my life, personal stuff that is probably only really visible to me and my closest friends.

The title of the album, 'River of Blood', is mentioned a few times throughout the album. What is the meaning and importance of it to you?
When writing these songs, I was thinking a lot about Jesus' incarnation in human form and the biblical distinctions between God and man, the spirit and the flesh. I was thinking about how humans, even according to the Bible, are inherently and inevitably flawed, and how - to me at least - that would imply that not only Jesus, but the gospel and the Bible itself, are similarly flawed. I would think that even something perfect or divinely inspired, after being filtered through all that human imperfection, would end up getting at least a little fucked up. This also got me thinking about particular defects and problems in the human mind and body, things like lapses in memory, poor vision. I think that found its way into a lot of the songs.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what "river of blood" means to me - to be honest, it was something I just started singing one time - but it was an image I liked, and it's come to represent a lot of the ideas I've discussed above. I think I use the image a little differently in each song, but it all ties into this sort of "God and man" distinction somehow.

Musically River of Blood sounds like a folk album but with rock and almost church gospel undertones. How would you describe the sound of the record?
We've been jokingly calling it "mid-fi post-gospel stoner-folk". It's definitely folk-influenced, especially in some parts, but it borrows from a lot of different sounds. I can hear elements of almost all of my favourite bands and genres in there somewhere, which is something I like about the album. I think we managed to make it pretty cohesive while still exploring some pretty disparate sounds - at least I hope so, because that's something I really appreciate in a record.

How will you be planning to release the new album? Logic Songs was available to buy on download or cassette, will River of Blood be the same?
We started with a run of 40 cassettes (20 red / 20 gold) and 30 CDs. This tremendously talented artist who lives in my city, James Chia Han Lee (http://leeshit.tumblr.com/) created the artwork and design, and I printed and assembled all the packaging, dubbed the cassettes, etc. We have actually sold out of the CDs already - a few were preordered, but the rest sold the night of our release show. We still have some cassettes left, though. We're planning to do vinyl  but I don't know how long it will take to get that together.

I first became aware of Little Kid through Bandcamp. As an independent artist, how important is the internet to you in terms of promotion, do you view it as a help or a hindrance?
I'm sure that, overall, the internet has mostly been pretty harmful to musicians, but for me, at this point in my career, it's been very helpful. I'm not really interested in making a living from music right now, so I'm happy to be able to give it away to anyone who will listen - the internet makes that possible, and it's been awesome to hear from people from other parts of the world who have somehow found my music.

With the price of (international) shipping increasing, has that had an impact on you as an artist? How difficult is it now to break even on the time and money you must put into rehearsing and recording?
It's very difficult... I either broke even or lost money on the Logic Songs cassettes, and it's looking to turn out approximately the same way on this record. But that's not really a problem for me, because I make my living through my "real" job - music is a passion I pursue outside of that. We could probably charge more but I like being able to keep prices as low as possible - and it's hard enough to convince people to buy physical media as it is.

And finally, if you had five words to sell your new album to someone who hadn't heard it, what would they be?
"PLEASE CONSIDER LISTENING TO IT"

You can buy Little Kids new album, 'River of Blood' via their bandcamp - http://littlekid.bandcamp.com/

Little Kid - River of Blood

With iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and every increasing advancement in music posting and sharing we've perhaps forgotten the best way of sharing music; word of mouth. I first heard of Little Kid through a friend and I knew from his enthusiasm that it was definitely worth a listen. You just can't get that sort of recommendation from a website I'm afraid. His most recent album at that time, 'Logic Songs', was a collection of lo-fi, almost folk but almost not offerings that were complete with backing tracks of soundscapes of trains and only available to buy on cassette. To be honest, it was brilliant.

'River of Blood', the new ten song offering from Little Kid is a little different however. Firstly, the soundscapes have gone, the lo-fi sound of 'Logic Songs' has been replaced by a more professional recording. While 'Logic Songs' had that raw feel of a guy writing songs on a guitar and recording them in his bedroom, 'River of Blood' is a step up and sonically there is a tighter, more direct band feel to the record.
     This has created a musical and lyrical maturity like on tracks like 'Apostles' where a baroque style guitar is proceeded by beautiful touches of xylophone and a wonderfully delicate lead guitar melody that previously are little ideas that I don't think Little Kid would have explored. It also contains one of the many downbeat lines seemingly inspired by a loss of love and battle with religion that are dotted around the album; 'I swear I'll always see you leaving when I close my eyes'.
      'Damascus' has this deep organic piano sound with the sort of pitch and church reverb that pianists would all probably dream of. It also has a raw guitar line that matches the piano melody perfectly for the bridge, not overpowering it but more showing just how far production wise Little Kid has improved over the space of two albums.    
      'Slow Train' perhaps the heaviest song on the album, begins almost in a rock or grunge way with rip roaringly disgusting disorted guitar over a steady drumbeat and has the quiet verse-loud chorus composition that worked so brilliantly well for bands like Nirvana. It lends itself well to Little Kid too, allowing reflective religiously inspired lyrics; 'some days I pray to jesus, some days I don't pray for shit, no I fumble at the pieces, some days they almost seem to fit'.
     The final track, 'In Church' is a slow downbeat love story that perfectly ends one of my favourite albums of this year, and for a year that has seen releases from the likes of James Blake, Foals, Frightened Rabbit, Daughter and Keaton Henson (just to name a few), I think that is saying a lot. 'River of Blood' ends with the line; 'I'll only love you 'til it hurts.'. I think it's only fair to Little Kid that we buy this album and love it beyond that.

4.5 / 5

https://www.facebook.com/littlekidmusic

Daughter - If You Leave

It only takes five minutes with Daughter, a three piece folk band from London, to wonder what man could really have destroyed guitarist and vocalist Elena Tonra's heart. For those who are already initiated with the low ebb lyrical blues of the band, debut album If You Leave won't be a massive surprise, however for those newcomers, well, prepare to have your heart broken over and over.

If You Leave isn't exactly a massive departure from what Daughter have offered music listeners before. We still have the same sparse arrangements based around the most vulnerable of guitar melodies while hints of conflicting electric guitar and uplifting percussion work are used to taunt the listener. This allows Tonra's warm although often low key vocals to affect the listener with poetic lyrics based around seemingly wishing she was never born and the always so obvious and yet ever more popular subject of lost love.

For those who like their music happy and uplifting, stay away. This really isn't for you. But when this works, it really works, especially on old favourite Youth, which despite being overplayed on television advertisements has somehow stayed fresh with Tonra claiming 'if you're in love, then you are the lucky one, 'cause most of us are bitter over someone' over a dreamy, indie summer explosion of musical beauty. Latest single, Human, another stand out track, offers an upbeat almost tribal sound to the proceedings and lyrically is more positive with Tonra singing 'despite everything I'm still human', adding yet another song from the album to the getting over someone playlist.

If You Leave isn't a spectacular album. It isn't going to blow your ears off in one listen. But what it will do is make you sit in a quiet room with massive headphones on as you slowly allow it to consume you. Atmospheric and emotionally life confirming, it has to be the most honest album released for a long time, and for that alone, Daughter deserve to be listened to.

4 / 5

www.ohdaughter.com/

My First Tooth

A five out of five review from Big Cheese Magazine, Artrocker describing their musics beauty, mentions by popular Radio DJs like Zoe Ball. These all followed My First Tooth after the release of their debut album Territories but that was two years ago, and two years in music is a long time. I caught up with bass player Jo Collis to discuss ‘that difficult second album’, what it feels like to be on a label like Alcopop Records and most importantly whether given the drastic change in the economy, whether it might be easier to hang up the guitar strings all together…

So how does it feel to be releasing a second album?
Jo: It feels tremendously exciting and a bit nerve wracking! It's been a long time coming but it's great that finally people will be able to hear it.

A lot of bands aren't afforded the opportunity to get to make more than one record these days. How do you feel that as a band you've managed to achieve that where others haven't?
Jo: Very, very lucky. We have great support from our label Alcopop records and our manager, and we were really lucky to work with some excellent producers on the album.

We started writing 'Love Makes Monsters' about 2 years ago (I think!) and the whole process has taken a lot of work, not least from us managing to write the record, but from everyone who has helped us out along the way.

There's a term, second album syndrome, where a band struggles to convincingly follow up their debut album. At any point during the recording of Love Makes Monsters did you feel this, or worry about this?
Jo: From the minute we released the first one I think!! Luckily for us, we never felt any pressure from anyone other than ourselves to make a record we were happy with, and the time and effort involved in making it is testament to that. Saying that, I can't pinpoint a moment where I didn't feel confident we would be happy with the record. It's quite different to Territories in many ways, but I'm equally as proud of both of them.

How do you feel that it's different to Territories? Did the writing and recording process differ between the two albums?
Jo: When we started work on Territories, many of those songs already existed before Gareth (our drummer) and I joined the band, so whilst we were writing our own parts, some of the songs themselves existed pretty much as they ended up,on the record.

With Love Makes Monsters, we had established our line up and we had much more of a 'blank canvas' to work from. The writing process was similar in that Ross brings ideas into the practice room and we take it from there really, but i think it's fair to say we were all involved from an earlier point than previously.

Do you feel that has made it a more rounded, eclectic effort than Territories? How do you feel the new album compares with your debut in terms of sound?
Jo: We like to think it's more of a rock record. I'm still so proud of Territories, but Love Makes Monsters is a more raucous affair I'd say. Thematically, I suppose you could say it's more rounded.

Working with James Kenosha was a great experience, and I think he definitely brought out some of the rockier elements. But by the same token, there are some incredibly delicate moments on there too. I'd hesitate to say it's more eclectic than Territories, but I think dynamically it's more diverse.

Would you say that the record wouldn't have been the same, had you not recorded with James? What did he add to the recording experience?
Jo: Absolutely it wouldn't have been the same. But we also worked with Paul Pilot and Peter Abbot, who all contributed to the overall sound of the record. The majority was recorded with James, and it felt really easy - it all happened pretty quickly once we got going and James was a pleasure to spend time in a studio with! It was generally a very relaxing and enjoyable experience. Most importantly though, we enjoyed making this record with all 3 producers from start to finish, and I really hope that comes across.

Musically, the band seem to have a big folk influence, but while modern folk seems to be becoming more minimal, Love Makes Monsters seems to be a very textured album with string and brass sections. Was this a conscious decision?
Jo: Even in the early stages of writing, we get quite excited thinking about the other parts we can add! One of the nicest things about recording in a studio for a length of time and having access to other musicians is being able to try out other instrumentations and parts. Joel Harries, who played trumpet on the record, also wrote some beautiful guitar parts for some songs and its so lovely to be able to add those into the mix. Whilst we do have a folk influence to a certain extent, we also have a pretty diverse range of influences and I think that also comes across on Love Makes Monsters.

When it comes to playing this album live, are there any worries with such a full album, that you won't be able to do it justice live?
Jo: Well, it's funny you should say that... we have just recently welcomed a fifth member who will be joining us for live shows where physically possible! It's a real treat for us to be able to make everything sound bigger and add some of the parts we simply don't have enough arms to play. Going back to dynamics, it gives us a bit more to play with live.

Fantastic, look at that, breaking news! Aside from the fifth member, are there any other plans for the tour in support of Love Makes Monsters?
Jo: Just to play everywhere that will have us! I love touring and playing live and I'm really really excited for the future at the moment, we have some great gigs lined up, and will hopefully be adding to that throughout the rest of the year, and I can't wait to get out there and play the songs for everyone!

You've been able to play some great festivals so far. Will you be playing any this year?
Jo: We have a few confirmed - I am particularly excited about Y Not Festival, as we haven't been there before! We'll also be back at The Great Escape this year. Obviously we'll be keeping everyone updated as and when we can confirm any other festivals...

How important do you think gigs are to an independent band like My First Tooth?
Jo: Very.

Getting out there and being able to connect with an audience is vital for us. It's also very handy to play shows with your peers - for example, we had a brilliant gig with The Social Club in Watford last week.

Given the stage of the economy, rising petrol prices, low show turnouts, is there ever a thought of doing something else?
Jo: We seem to be managing ok for ourselves!

 From my point of view, My First Tooth will continue to exist for as long as people still want to come and see/hear us.

I imagine being on a label like Alcopop Records helps that? They seem to be the type of label where people will buy a record without hearing it, just because it's on that label. How have Alcopop Records helped you, and would there ever be the temptation if offered to move to a major label?
Jo: Alcopop has helped us hugely. I honestly can't imagine where we would be without the label. It's a joy to work with someone like Jack, who has made the label feel like a family. Obviously there would be a temptation if someone offered us a major label deal  but I think if that happened for any band on the label it would only be positive for the perception of the label. It's rare to find a label that cultivates, supports and promotes its band in such a way as Alcopop does, and if a major were to sign anyone from the roster, I think it would be a testament to that.

Final question. Beyond the new album and touring in support of it, what are the bands plans?
Jo: Well, as many festivals as will have us in the summer, and more tour dates throughout the year. We'd really like to try and get over to Europe at some point as well. Who knows, we might even start writing a new record...

You can buy the latest My First Tooth album, Love Makes Monsters, via their record label, Alcopop Records!

Or you can listen to the band via their Facebook page.

Tall Ships - Everything Touching

Two EP releases and countless tours have seen Tall Ships reach the point where they almost HAD to record a full length album. EP’s are one thing, impressing people with fifteen minutes of music, but a full length, keeping people’s attention for forty minutes and beyond is a big task for any band regardless of their previous output. The fruit of their labour, Everything Touching, is out on October 8^th but having been less than impressed with the singles it’s spawned so far, will it reach the height of success that Tall Ships have achieved from their EP releases or will the band be destined to disappear beyond the first big hurdle?

The singles that I was so hard on, T=0 and especially latest track Gallop fit perfectly on this record. That isn’t to say that the rest of the album is as poor as I initially thought the singles were, but more that when put in a single context, they sounded like a huge departure from the bands previous math-pop-indie sound. Here their almost rock anthem sensibilities work as highs alongside what you would expect from Tall Ships given their career so far. The rousing Gallop, a single that is already having heavy radio play is a clear attempt at a festival favourite. It’s upbeat, drum heavy and loud but in true Tall Ships fashion if you pull beneath the surface you’ll find that it is perhaps one of the more contemplative tracks lyrically on the album about the process of coping with getting old. It is this depth to the band that makes them, to me at least, one of the most interesting acts to pop up in the UK recently. Tracks like Idolatry, Books and Ode To Ancestors each have their own take on what we consider to be the quintessential Tall Ships sound; soft sections, often orchestrated and with breathy vocals leaping into bright effect heavy guitar noise. Books itself, despite being an old track, sounds renewed, grandiosely backed with a big overblown orchestra that anywhere else on this album would sound over the top, yet here it makes Books one of the songs to listen out for. Then there are tracks like Oscar with its jaunty bass guitar packed indie melody which will no doubt help the band establish themselves with the NME faithful.

Fifteen minutes of listening to a Tall Ships EP and I was hooked, the concern here was always whether they could drag that out over a forty minute album and the answer is yes. There isn’t one point during Everything Touching that I’m thinking “when will this end?” nor are there any fillers that deserve to be skipped. Don’t let this mislead you though, this album isn’t perfect, this isn’t going to be that debut that is so impossible to surpass that it breaks a band. There are sections of this album where you can truly say that the band have hit something brilliant but these are often dispersed with these typical indie NME moments that the band have picked up as they’ve obviously tried to become more immediate. However with songs as crowd friendly as Gallop entwined with the songs us old fans know and love, you know that Tall Ships are only going to get that little bit more popular and hopefully with that they are will only get better. For now Everything Touching is a fantastic listen, and a great place to start on what will hopefully be a glittering career.

4 / 5

Tall Ships

Foals MK II, math-indie, art-indie, I’ve heard the band called a lot of things from friends and press alike but ultimately, on the back of two very competent EP’s, Tall Ships have been heralded an early success. What started as a hectic rush to play a friend’s house party has become an increasingly flourishing career but Tall Ships as of yet don’t seem to have forgotten the early days of playing through crap gear. I caught up with them as they had just been confirmed for Reading festival and had released the track listing for debut album Everything Touching to discuss their music careers so far. What I found was a band who despite their growing popularity were not only professional but also incredibly humble, often a rarity when talking with those in the music business. Over the course of the interview we discussed the new direction of the band, talking about their debut album in-depth and I feel in doing so, I was given an honest account of how the band feel about their musical journey thus far and I admire them more so for it.

 Hello, hope you are doing well.

Ric: Hey. Very well thanks!

October sees the release of your debut album, Everything Touching. With such success on the basis of your Ep's was there any pressure in writing the full length and did you approach the writing and recording of the album differently to how you have recorded your EP's in the past?

Ric: I think pressure is probably the wrong word really. It made it easier knowing that we were going in to the studio and recording something that people were actually excited for and wanting to hear. It was a good place to start at when writing a record. I feel it gave us a sense of confidence and purpose in what we were making and the resulting album reflects this.

In terms of the recording process, it definitely differed from our first 2 EPs. To start with it was the first time we had ever worked in a proper recording studio and this had a huge impact on the way the record sounds. We had a lot more time to play with so we were able to really explore the songs and allow them to arrive at their finalised states freely rather than rushing them, so from a technical point of view the songs sound much richer and fuller.

With regards to the writing process we really wanted to try and write more immediate and consistent songs. With the first two EPs we always felt they were a little all over the place. Within songs we would have three different parts, which loosely fitted together, and then those songs themselves would each differ hugely from the other songs on the EPs they sat next to. With Everything Touching we knew what kind of album we wanted to make and the record as a whole is much more cohesive as a result.

Having heard the pre-release stream, it sounds like an evolution from the dreamy indie of previous EP's and into rockier territory. What influenced the album and how would you describe it yourselves? 

Ric: We’ve always felt like our EPs didn’t really represent us properly as a band. Live, the songs were always much heavier and intense than the recorded versions. With the album, we wanted to try and capture more of our live sound, as this is closer to what we’re about as a band. We’re actually quite surprised with how much heavier it turned out to be. I do feel it’s much more melodic and accessible compared to the previous EPs as well though.

Gallop is one of the lead singles from the album. Why did you choose this song to showcase the album?

Ric: When we initially recorded and finished Everything Touching it was 9 tracks long and Gallop wasn’t on there. After a few discussions with our managers they felt that we should record one more song, which we could release as a 3^rd single. So we basically set about writing a ‘single’, which was something, we’d never even really thought about before when writing songs. We really thought about what makes a good single and as result aimed to create an upbeat, catchy song.

Ironically though, I feel lyrically it’s the most downbeat and depressing track on the album, which makes it a slightly funny choice for a single. I think it represents the album well though and when taken out of the context of the album, it works as a stand-alone track.

Everything Touching contains two older tracks, Ode To Ancestors and Books. Why did you include these songs rather than others to put on the release?

Ric: They were two songs that we felt we could develop and change into the songs they were meant to be. With our other songs we felt like that we couldn’t really re-record them, they’d be exactly the same but slightly more polished in production. It would have been boring for us to do that and as well they didn’t fit within the conceptual content of the album.

How did you approach rewriting those two particular tracks?

Ric: Ode was pretty straightforward, we just wanted to change the slightly shit keyboard pre-set we used to layer the vocals over. The struggle was to come with something interesting to replace it. After experimenting with a xylophone with Jamie Field we came up with the multi layered Reich-esc arpeggio which is infinitely more interesting and soulful than the shitty pre-set we’d used previously.

We wrote Book such a long time ago, and now we’re a completely different band. We’ve always wanted to experiment with a slight orchestral sound and this song lent itself perfectly to it. It’s pretty grand and over the top now, but we feel that is the perfect backdrop for the lyrics and the book that inspired it. It’s a song we cannot wait to perform live, and hopefully one day with an orchestra.

Everything Touching is available for pre-order in many different formats and bundles. Can you tell us why you are releasing the album in so many ways, and what a fan will get for their money?

Ric: Artwork has always been a huge part of every release we’ve done as a band. We work very closely with our good friend Harriet Bridgwater who has made everything we’ve ever done. In many ways she’s a kind of fourth member and her artwork definitely influences the songs and our band as a whole. Music lends itself to visual accompaniment so well that it’s such a shame when you see bad artwork that just doesn’t work with the music.

Within this digital age where people can just download or stream your songs for free, I think it is more important to create a physical package that people want to physically own. So we hope by putting this effort into our merchandise that it will stimulate people to want to buy it.

Simply put, without people buying our records we physically couldn’t afford to exist as a band. We don’t have a major label pumping money into us, so all our profits that we make by selling merchandise enable us to function as a band. Hopefully it can be seen as a symbiotic relationship between our fans and us. We create things worth having, and they give us the much needed money that helps us keep on playing.

You've spent a summer in the midst of the festival season. It's such a huge change in terms of volume from a small club gig, how do you prepare playing a large stage to vast amounts of people?

Ric: We don’t really change our approach at all. We always aim to go out and play the best show we can. We really enjoy (if it all goes well…) the pressure of playing to loads of people. As a band we aspire to play main stages and become a big band so naturally we like playing the larger slots.

That being said though, a really tiny sweaty club show can be just as immense.

Since your first gig, playing a house party in Falmouth, how do you think you've improved performance wise? Has the ethos to your performances changed at all as the band have become more successful?

Ric: When we first started playing we were an instrumental band playing really scrappy fast songs through shit gear, now our gear is slightly less shit so it sounds better. Live we use lots of loops which can make things pretty complicated, so we’ve had loads of issues with timing and trying to stay in time. It used to be 50/50 whether we’d hold it all together which was pretty funny but definitely not a good ratio if you want to be a good live band. We had a bit of an epiphany though, thanks to our tech wizard sound guy Matt Grimble, who helped us create a new set up using Ableton. So now we’ve been able to tighten up and start really doing exciting things with looping vocals, synths etc as well as allowing us to tighten up to the point where we don’t fuck up that much anymore.

We take performing a lot more seriously now. We used to drink loads and just fuck about because we felt uncomfortable being on stage, but now we don’t drink beforehand as a rule. So yeah it’s more professional, we’re more confident and we’re also, maybe, just maybe, a tad more competent as musicians though that’s definitely open to debate.

You have a fifteen date UK tour to promote the album. If someone hasn't seen you live before, what can they expect from your live shows? 

A good old-fashioned rock show, and an amazing tour support in the shape of Dad Rocks! His album ‘Mount Modern’ was easily one of the best last year and aside from making incredible music he is just the best guy ever.

Thank you for your time, and good luck with the album!

Tall Ships ‘Everything Touching’ is available to pre-order now - www.wearetallships.co.uk

Cory Tauber - Ok. Today

It only takes a few seconds in a music store to see how over saturated an art it is. Every man and his dog is picking up an instrument and singer songwriters are ten-a-penny so what, if anything, sets apart Cory Tauber and his EP, Ok. Today from the rest?

I can say without any hint of a lie that standout track The Messengers with its doo-doo-doo-woah-woah-woah vocal melody has stayed in my head for days, constantly flicking my ears and forcing me to listen again. Imagine Jack Johnson, perhaps the epitome of summer music a few years ago, mold that with Ben Howard and multiply infectiousness by a million and you might get close to what this track is about. Other tracks such as You’re My Eyes showcase Tauber as a sensitive, almost downbeat lyricist and I’m sure that deep down, there might be a poet hiding in there somewhere. Where Ok. Today excels though is in Taubers intelligence of knowing how to enhance a melody. Vocal overdubs, pianos, organs and my personal favourite, the harmonica, are all used but delicately so, enhancing each track without ever falling into the trap of over doing it.

So what’s the catch? If something sounds too good to be true it usually is, so here it is...Ok. Today is perhaps too nice. No kid will be buying this album like I did with Wu Tang Clan to piss their mum off. In fact, your mum will probably like to listen along to this with you, maybe your grandma will too. I can’t condemn anyone for being universal unless they are genuinely writing poor music and with Ok. Today that isn’t the case and if you need any proof of this, here’s some for you: Ok. Today has been on constant repeat for a week now, and I’m still not tired of it.

4 / 5

www.corytauber.com