The Antlers - Undersea

Expectation has an effect on a bands output. When The Antlers released small scale concept album Hospice, brilliant as it was, no-one really expected anything that was part of its charm and brilliance. Follow up album Burst Apart may not have been a soul destroying concept piece like Hospice but it still marked a heavy change for the band who found themselves at the top of many writers’ album lists of the year. Undersea, the fourth EP from The Antlers, and the first release since the increasingly popular Burst Apart has a lot to live up to then.

If you were expecting a return to the lo-fi indie sound of Hospice then be disappointed. Undersea and its four tracks; Drift Dive, Endless Ladder, Crest and Zelda are perhaps an extension of the departure from that sound already made with Burst Apart. Peter Silberman's breathy vocals are still the forefront of this bands prowess but guitars have taken a back seat often overshadowed by melancholy trumpet melodies and synthesizer sounds that seem to be the sole reason why the EP was called Underwater, as they literally make you wonder whether you've dropped your headphones in a sink full of water. Out of the four tracks Crest is probably the most accomplished with a sound that rekindles the almost jazz trip-hop ethos that Portishead achieved on debut album Dummy (and perhaps arguably never achieved again), it's the sort of melody that is just dying to be used on an advert and given the increasing popularity of the band, I'll be very surprised if it isn't.

I must admit, I'm a bit of a fan boy of The Antlers and found this release slightly disappointing. Apart from Crust and the Godfather-esque beginning notes to Zelda there doesn't seem a whole lot to force me back into re-listening to this EP. That said though, I felt the same about Burst Apart and then six months on it finally hit me and I couldn't stop listening. I only hope that the same happens again, and if it doesn't, I hope this doesn't mark itself as a pre-curser to the bands next full length.

3 / 5

http://www.antlersmusic.com

Chick Rides Artist, Flood of Red, Night Verses - White Rabbit, Plymouth 13.08.12

There’s a strange art to opening a show. Sadly, I turned up late so I wasn’t completely able to see whether Torbay’s recently reformed six piece Chick Rides Artist had this talent. In the four songs I did manage to see Chick Rides Artist conveyed a well-rehearsed emo-hardcore cross over sound that although perhaps not memorable, did its job of warming up the sadly small crowd for what was to come and showed the Devon boys as a band to watch out for in the future.

Flood of Red have been around a long, long time. Their experience on the circuit showed as the Scottish band breezed with ease through a set of songs from their 2009 debut, Leaving Everything Behind, as well as new material soon to be featured on a forthcoming EP. Mysteriously, many of the band members had their backs to the crowd for most of their set, whether this was due to stage and gear limitations or something else we will never know. Endearingly it showed the members singularing personalities, allowing for a hyperactive bass player who did everything from stumbling around to putting his bass guitar up into the ceiling, to take centre stage as the band tore through their guitar heavy, synth dip-dyed Saosin-esque emotional sound that is criminally underrated.

Nearing the end their set, Night Verses vocalist Douglas Robinson tells the crowd that tonight is only the bands twelve gig. Sure, those gigs include a big slot at this year’s Hevy Festival but that just shows how far the band have come in such a short space of time. Tonight’s set was perhaps the smallest of their shows so far but the band do not care with Robinson taking a break between songs to genuinely thank the crowd for coming. Performing songs from their free to download EP, as well as tracks not yet recorded, the band feverishly created a sound that both technically and sonically amounted to much more than just the sum of their four parts. Robinson himself span around until drenched in his own sweat, while drummer Aric Improta seemed to spend more time hyperactively jumping up off his stool than beating his drums leaving us all going The Sleeping who? I can only guess what happened next, I imagine the appreciative crowd did exactly what I did and went home to tell their friends that as of right now, for gig of the year, this is the one to beat.

www.facebook.com/chickrides

www.facebook.com/floodofred

www.facebook.com/NightVerses

Minus The Bear - Infinity Overhead

Amusing titles like "You Kill Bugs Good, Man" left in the past. Groove orientated, summery feel good songs gone. Even, the trippy guitar psych-prog sound of Planet of Ice have been replaced by the electronic tones of OMNI. So what is left for Minus The Bear to do? Well, go back to what we would expect it would seem...

In the lead-up to the release of Minus The Bear's forthcoming album, Infinity Overhead, guitarist/vocalist Jake Snider said that Minus The Bear were officially back. Infinity Overhead may not have the long movie inspired titles that Highly Refined Pirates possessed but it shares the same emphasis. A million miles from last release, the highly disappointing OMNI, Infinity Overhead is closer to home when put beside Menos El Oso. Guitar driven, songs like Listing are absolutely drenched to the bone in gloriously sweet melodies that sweep you off your feet while lead single Lonely Gun shows that Minus The Bear haven't lost their touch in writing something that is both progressive and poppy, proving that even on their fifth album they have the ability to create unpredictable music. The stand-out track though is a slow one, Heaven is a Ghost Town. It is neither progressive, nor poppy and yet is a standalone reason why five albums on, if someone mentions Minus The Bear, I am instantly paying attention. Truly showing the vast improvement in vocals Snider has made since the bands early days, simple guitar chords are enhanced by deliciously low key electronics bringing out Sniders almost anti-religious lyrics.

Here's the big spin right here. OMNI wasn't good. At the point of hearing it I was lost as a Minus The Bear fan. Infinity Overhead isn't just a great return to form; it's possibly one of the albums of the year and shows that if there's any justice in the music industry Minus The Bear will stick around for a bit longer.

4 / 5

Infinity Overhead is available from August 28th.

http://minusthebear.com/

Minus The Bear Interview

Progressing as a band is one of the toughest parts about being a band. On the one hand your fans always hold that nostalgic memory of a certain album close to their heart and don't ever want you to change your style, while on the other if you tried copying that album every two years eventually your fans would grow bored.

In Menos El Oso, Minus The Bear created an album that for myself, and many of my friends may I add, was perfect. Bypass Planet of Ice, a more prog Minus The Bear and you find yourself at OMNI. Here Minus The Bear firmly dipped their toes into electronic water, so firmly in fact that they did some form of shock dance in the middle of the ocean and sadly I must say, left myself and many other fans lost and stranded from what the band were trying to achieve.

September marks the release of Infinity Overhead, Minus The Bear's first album since the 'risky' OMNI and I caught up with bassist Cory Murchy to discuss the new album, how it pits up against previous work and whether OMNI was just one big mistake.

It feels like forever since you’ve released an album, welcome back!

Thanks, a lot has happened in the years since OMNI. We are excited!

It’s been said that Infinity Overhead is a return to the Minus The Bear we know. How do you feel about your previous full-length, OMNI, do you feel that for the fans it was a step too far?

We will always be proud of OMNI. As artists you always want to learn something with each new project and push yourselves in new ways. OMNI was really important in that regard. We gained a lot of new fans and probably lost a few in the process but we don't expect everyone to keep up.

What can fans actually expect from Infinity Overhead in terms of sound?

Expect AWESOMENESS!

It's a great sounding album. Matt Bayles did a great job capturing what and who we are. It helps that he was/is "one of us".

You’ve released Lonely Gun to the public. It sounds like it’s treading the border of the groove orientated feel of Menos el Oso whilst maintaining the progressive elements of Planet of Ice. Is Lonely Gun a precursor to how the rest of the album will sound, and why did you choose to release Lonely Gun before any of the other album tracks?

I think you just helped define a genre that actually fits Minus The Bear - "PROGROOVE"!

It's what we've always done, really. To me Lonely Gun fits perfectly in our catalogue. None of the other songs sound like it but it fits in just perfectly in the track listing. You'll see...

Infinity Overhead is your fifth album as a band. Did you approach the song writing and recording for the album any differently than you have on previous albums?

Basically it was the same as in the past. Dave and Erin will bang out a skeleton then the rest of us flesh it out.

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and by working together the five of us manage to put together something we are proud of. It’s worked pretty well for us so far.

It is being released on one of my favourite record labels, Big Scary Monsters. Why the record label change, and what do you think that Big Scary Monsters will offer you that labels in the past perhaps haven’t?

Big Scary Monsters seemed like a perfect fit. We look forward to working with them and it seems like folks have been very receptive to our pairing, which is a good sign so far!

Eleven years after forming did you expect to still be making music now, how does it feel to still be making records and playing live?

I'm not sure if any of us looked this far in the future, but it feels pretty satisfying to still be here doing what we love. We've watched a lot of "hype" bands fizzle out within a year or two while we keep our heads down and grind it out. Each tour we go out on is better than the last and it's a testament to the hard work and dedication the five of us have invested in Minus The Bear. Who knows what the next eleven years have in store, but I can guarantee we will be doing it on our own terms.

What are your plans around touring the new album, will you be playing in the UK at all in the near future?

TOUR! TOUR! TOUR!

We have these few shows in the UK in August and then hope to come back sometime in 2013.

Thank you for your time, good luck with the release!

Thanks!

We'll see you at the show and probably run into you in the nearest pub!

Minus The Bear’s ‘Infinity Overhead’ is available for pre-order through Big Scary Monsters now.

You can catch the band live in the UK at Heaven in London on the 17^th of August - http://www.gigsandtours.com/Event/MINUS-THE-BEAR/Heaven/645032

The Locust - Molecular Genetics From the Gold Standard Labs

For a band who dress like locusts onstage, whose average song length is under a minute and have song titles such as 'Priest With the Sexual Transmit', it's hard to understand who may have brought forward the idea of an almost b-side album; the band, or their record label, or whether it might even be a bit of an 'in' joke.

Regardless of music ethics though, ‘Molecular Genetics From the Gold Standard Labs’ and its forty four tracks tread through what The Locust fans will have come to expect with classics such as my personal favourite, 'The Half-Eaten Sausage Would Like To See You In His Office'. For those uninitiated listeners, I can only issue a warning for anything The Locust do. Listening to The Locust is like watching a sex scene with your parents, or walking into your parents room when they are having sex, or being the best man in a wedding where the bride doesn't turn up. It's an uncomfortable and abrasive attack on what your ears assume music should be. Awkward time and tempo changes, nonsensical yelps, frantic drumming, and for the most part, completely bizarre electronic use make The Locust a strange listen, even for a person like me who has already heard them a million times. But that's where I actually think The Locust are brilliant, get beyond the quirky costumes, the satirical and often sexual song titles and what you find is an intelligent band, who may not be to everyone's taste but are doing something that no other band is willing to risk right now.

If you aren't a The Locust fan already, buy at your peril.

4 / 5

www.facebook.com/thelocustofficial

The Cinematic Orchestra - In Motion #1

We live in a fantastic era of music. An era where the electronic and the organic can be molded so beautifully and crisply together. The Cinematic Orchestra are fronting this era, lifting inspiration from the heart melting melodies of classical music and orchestral playing mashing them together with jazz drumming and electronica in a way that shouldn't work but yet does, like putting jam and peanut butter together.

The Cinematic Orchestra's last release Ma Fleur was a breath of fresh air, spearheaded by the increasingly popular To Build a Home it was beautiful and dramatic but even that, towards the end of the record, felt samey, drowning in the downbeat sludge of The Cinematic Orchestra's musical style. In Motion #1 seems to be a remedy of that, more upbeat, more dramatic, more haunting, more powerful, more destructive and yet possibly the most sensitive we've seen The Cinematic Orchestra to date, it is clear that collaborating with others has paid dividends when it comes to this album.

In Motion #1 is The Cinematic Orchestra's response to visuals that have inspired them, and the album does just that for the listener, softly lifting them away from their record player and their bedrooms and placing them in a summers field. Personally, I can't think of anything better on a day like today that encapsulates a British summer.

4 / 5

www.facebook.com/cinematicorchestra

Behind every brilliant musician there is a faultless hardworking PR agent, or a superb producer, or a pitch perfect session musician. None of these get the attention they deserve, and most wouldn't want to. But what about those even further behind the scenes, who in an ever growing need for innovative sound and lighting gear have to knuckle down and keep constantly ahead of the curve despite their lack of creative fame?

When I was asked to speak to Vince De Franco I didn't know what to expect, in all honesty, I didn't know who he even was and it has only dawned on me now that perhaps, in his own right, I was talking to a musical genius...

So first of all for those who don’t know, including myself, can you tell us who you are and what you do?

[Vince:] My name is Vince De Franco and I founded a company called Synesthesia Corporation. We create technologies and products based on my experience as a musician and my background in Physics and Electrical Engineering.

You first invented the Dimension Beam. Can you tell us a little about it?

[Vince:] The Dimension Beam is a patented active sensing zone of infrared light that triggers and controls sound. The one-sided system detects exactly how much IR is being reflected back toward its transmitter and measures the movement of your hand or an object down to the millimeter. You can do things like hit a chord on your electric guitar and as you drop the neck the pitch drops, or your distortion gets heavier. Or, move your hand a few inches through space to play through a couple octaves of a scale on your synth, every mm of space being another note.

A basic licensed version, called the D-Beam, exists now in most Roland keyboard and synth gear.

The D-Beam went on to be used by artists such as U2 and Stevie Wonder as well as many others. Did you ever think that it would become so widespread, popularly used by such huge artists?

[Vince:] The instant the idea for the Dimension Beam popped into my head I knew it was something I really wanted to use in my own setup. I felt that the product would become widespread, but not as quickly as it did. We barely had time to build a few units for an upcoming NAMM show and a couple days after the show I got a call from the U2 office saying The Edge wanted to record with a Dimension Beam.

Things just kept going from there.

You then created the Mandala with Tool drummer Danny Carey. Can you tell us first what the Mandala is, and tell us how you became involved with Tool?

[Vince:] The Mandala is an electric drum with a patented membrane technology for its surface which detects the position of a strike every millimeter from its center to its edge. Other electric drums have about two zones from center to edge, but the Mandala has 128. Instead of acting as a big on/off switch like other pads, the Mandala's entire surface can be used to the player's advantage.

I first met the Tool guys at Timothy Leary's house in the 90's. Soon after that my band opened for them and then I played synth with them and contributed to their albums for some years before Danny challenged me to make the Mandala Drum system. He has since permanently integrated seven Mandala Drums into his live and studio acoustic drum setup and they're now a big part of many Tool songs.

How do you feel the work that you do helps musicians?

[Vince:] Imagine if a painter in their studio only had brushes that were 6 inches wide and 3 inches thick. A lot of the nuance of their strokes would be lost or wasted because of the low resolution of that tool which is the bridge to their canvas. Instruments such as the Mandala Drum and the Dimension Beam offer a higher resolution that helps the artist realize their creation or performance to a finer degree based on what they're feeling. Techniques and nuances previously not able to be captured now become an element of the art.

In terms of helping musicians, The Mandala can allow people to play pitch perfect. Do you think it is important in an electronic sense, to open up music for anyone regardless of skill or talent, or is that potentially quite economically dangerous for the music market?

[Vince:] I think it's essential in an overall sense to open up music for everyone, and certain operational modes of the Mandala Drum help do that. If you play only the white keys on a keyboard you'll stay completely in key with no effort, and it's been that way since before electricity was harnessed as a tool for humanity. Realities like that are the little bonuses which offer beginners a doorway into the world of musical creation and once you're hooked there's an infinity of uncharted tonal and rhythmic territory to explore for the rest of your life.

I feel it would be a confident bet to say that the excitement of being able to play a no-mistakes Casiotone solo over a preprogrammed track lured many a child into a lifetime of music, and the music market has benefitted greatly because of it.

Many musicians are more interested in the more organic creation of music and may not be able to get their head around your creations. Do you often come across musicians like this, and how have you encouraged them to try something like the Mandala out?

[Vince:] I've never recruited musicians to play any of my creations over the years. Curiosity leads them to these devices, but it's not necessary for anyone to get their heads around my creations because they're more heart related than mind related.

Drummers have spent countless hours of their lives beating on a piece of stretched mylar with wooden sticks. If I redirect their sticks to a Mandala Drum an added dimension becomes apparent in their playing which was always present, just not able to be harnessed, but now it can. Musicians are feeling that enhancement and tapping into new places with abilities they already have.

Working behind the scenes in the music business like you do, how do you view current music, as a hot bed of talent, or a dross pool of untalented but well marketed nobodies, and what do you feel of your work in relation to this?

[Vince:] There are hotbeds of musical talent in the world and it would be nice if the mainstream music business helped spread awareness of their offerings a bit more.

Our work with the Mandala is to get more people drumming, keep them drumming, and offer them the most versatile and sensitive drums in the world. One aspect of that versatility is the ability to fine tune the steepness of the learning curve associated with drumming. Drumming is one of the earliest forms of human communication, and music can be a great cultural unifier.

Hopefully the Mandala Drum ignites a spark in a little kid somewhere out there who will become a 21st century Mozart.

Obviously your work is hugely inspired by the more electronic side of music. Is that how you envisage music in the future, and how do you think that will affect the output of music?

[Vince:] I envisage the underpinnings of music in the future to be much like today. In a hit song today you may very well hear instruments which have existed for centuries playing along with electronic instruments which were just invented. Synthesizers and acoustic guitars and pianos and Mandala Drums all coexisting as colors in the palette of the creator. The more the merrier if used in ways which are appealing to the hearts and minds of the beholders.

What will be interesting is the ways these instruments are learned and the techniques used to control them. More people will be playing instruments in more ways and creating more music and the potential for great music creation will be higher.

So finally, the big question. What are you working on next?

[Vince:]That's a secret!...but the goal is to make instruments as flexible and easy to expand as possible.

You can see and buy Vince's products via http://synesthesiacorp.com/