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The Drums, 'Portamento' album review.

(released 12th September – Moshi Moshi/ Island Records)

Perhaps it’s because the days are getting shorter; the kids have gone back to school; my tan is already fading, and that sunny week in Zante is slowly becoming a distant memory… But on first listen, The Drums’ new record just doesn’t do it for me.  Let’s Go Surfing was undoubtedly one of the feel-good anthems of last summer, and following the huge success of their self-titled debut LP, the band have had a busy year of relentless touring across the globe.
So it’s impressive that the Brooklyn boys have been able to release sophomore record Portamento just fourteen months after its predecessor, and in fairness it’s not a bad album. Opening track The Book of Revelations gets off to a strong start, and early songs such as Days and first single Money are simple and catchy. The bass and synth combination on Hard To Love might sound like the background music from Lemmings, but the song works well with the addition of Jonny Peirce’s gloomy vocals, as he croons over some kind of heartbreak: seemingly the dominant theme of Portamento.
After electronic intermission Searching For Heaven, the latter half of the album takes a much darker turn. I Need a Doctor borders on the psychopathic (see “you know I love you, but I want to kill you”) and In The Cold is certainly more tormented than nonchalant. How It Ended provides an ominous conclusion to an album that is complex, honest, and perhaps more mature than the band’s debut. The Drums’ distinctive beach-pop sound remains firmly intact, but sadly Portamento fails to transport me back to a blissful summer feeling as I had hoped. Disappointing, but worth a listen.

Jo Southerd

LAURA MARLING- 'A Creature I don't know'- Album Review

This month has seen the release of many hotly anticipated albums. Therefore sadly we haven't been able to feature them all in the up and coming issues of Quench, but fear not that is where the blog comes in.
So if you happen to have something your itching to review let us know and we might be able to help you out on here!

An album that I have certainly been waiting for is that of Laura Marling. Her third album A Creature I don't know came out this Monday.

I would like to start this review without mentioning two other male artists she has been romantically linked to as I feel she deserves to not be defined by her love life. Anyway moving on. After the success of her previous albums (both were nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize) Laura has had the tough task of bettering herself, which at the young age of 21, is no mean feet.

I found A Creature I don't know difficult to listen to at first, perhaps this was because I love both Alas I cannot Swim and I Speak because I Can so much so that I still listen to them frequently. However I had to remind myself that I was the same when her last album was released. So after many more a listen I feel less hesitation towards the new path she has taken.

Once again Miss Marling appears to have progressed. The new album feels darker than her previous releases, demonstrating her maturing as an artist. She appears to have moved out of the 'nu-folk' bracket she helped establish and into the realm of the experimental or sometimes country as seen in Sophia. Her voice is lower and steeped in emotion throughout many tracks such as Night after Night and The Beast making her appear well beyond her years. The album perfectly displays Laura's talent as a songwriter, her songs are lyrically flawless and emulate a sense of ambiguosity that she exudes so well. Although we may never know entirely what she is singing about it is part of her charm.

This album is not as easy to listen to yet it is interesting. Songs such as Rest in my Bed and Don't ask me are my favorites for now, yet I'm sure this will change on further listens as has happened with her music before.

Various reviews I have read have linked Laura's talent to that of Bob Dylan and from listening to A Creature I don't know I am certain that Marling is heading towards being known as one of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time.

9/10


Emma Wilford

(Ex)citing Times

There is nothing exciting about citing. Not a thing.

Using other peoples ideas is ok providing you correctly cite where and when those ideas originated from. It's a contradiction inherent with higher education. Its systematic rigidity soon beats out any creativity in writing style that may have found its way into an academic essay.

But for those who are already knee deep in the deluge of the spring semester, there are a multitude of wondrous upcoming events to keep the academic induced blues at bay.

The Swn promotion team, never ones to rest on their laurels, have quite an exciting week coming up;

Monday 7th will see The Globe play host to Australia's finest (and possibly only) proponent of 'Jungle Blues', the quite magnificent CW Stoneking. upon listening you'd be forgiven for thinking Mr Stoneking to be some ancient, grizzled monolith from the Mississippi delta, tobacco charred vocal chords singing of inequality and injustice. He is in fact a skinny white boy from a Melbourne suburb. Where his bourbon soaked swagger originated from is probably a question best left unanswered, but if you like your music with an undeniably sepia tint to it, CW Stoneking will not leave you disappointed.

CW Stoneking- Jungle Blues

Fans of Euros Childs and Teenage Fanclub will be treated to something really special on Tuesday as they bring their JONNY project to Womanby Street. Following the release of their self-titled debut, JONNY will surely delight fans of both the 'Fanclub and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci respectively.

JONNY- Do the Cave Dance

Sadly, for those who have not already got tickets for JONNY, it is already sold out. However, four EP tracks can be downloaded, for free, (yeh, that's right; free! Fuck you, austerity!) from the following site;
http://www.turnstilemusic.net/euros-childs-and-norman-blake-aka-jonny-announce-debut-album-details/
Hopefully this musical partnership will last sometime yet.

Former SFA frontman, Gruff Rhys will continue to confirm his musical pedigree (as if it were necessary) over the next two weeks with a dyad of releases. 'Sensations in the Dark' and 'Hotel Shampoo' will be released on the 7th and the 14th respectively. The physical manifestation of the latter can be seen below.

Gruff Rhys- Hotel Shampoo, currently awaiting an appearance on The Hotel Inspector

Finally, Cardiff based film maker Matt Callanan won international recognition this week for a video he produced for Royksopp. The video follows the urban adventures of Royksopp's 'Forsaken Cowboy'. The video came in ahead of international competition and will be the official promo for the forthcoming track. The cowboy in the video has been seen throughout Cardiff looking somewhat delirious and generally dishevelled. rumour has it that he will undertake all manner of sexual sordidness for the right price. He will do things that would make Jon Voight's Midnight Cowboy blush. Approach with caution.

                    
                                   Roksopp- Forsaken Cowboy

New year! New you? Na, probably not

Amid discussion around new year I was overwhelmed by an astonishing degree of disappointment. It was my assumption that 2011 would be the start of the second decade of the millennium; no longer the nougthies, but a brand new decade full of optimism and possibility. I was mistaken.

All the optimism and general good feeling I had towards this particular new year came tumbling down like an ivory tower when I realised 2010 itself was actually the start of this decade. It's a completely transparent fact now I think about it, but one that had been previously completely overlooked. So, with sore heads, bloated stomachs and a deflated sense of self worth we lurch collectively into this year, full of inflated hubris that this year will be something extraordinary, something to justify the expanded expectations that we bestow upon it around New Year's eve. But for the majority of us, it won't be. But that doesn't mean we can't be can't just be excited to be alive, does it? So, to wipe away the January cobwebs, let's take a look at some releases that are looming just over the horizon.

The latter weeks of January have a number of state-side exports arriving on these shores. The Decemberists with be releasing The King is Dead which promises to be a furthering of the musical ground covered by 2009's The Hazards of Love. Expect contributions of REM's Peter Buck and Alt. Country royalty Gillian Welch amongst others.

Keeping with the tradition of tender countrification, Iron & Wine be releasing Kiss Each Other Clean, their first since 2007's The Shepherd's Dog. Speaking recently to SPIN Magazine, Mr Beam indicated a distancing from the bittersweet melancholy for which he is famed in favour of 70's style pop music.

Iron & Wine; despite a change in style, the beard is still very much in tact

For those whose interests lay away from the acoustic end of the spectrum, The Go! Team's forthcoming full length, Rolling Blackouts, promises to be a funk infused dance-a-thon. They will also be gracing our fair streets in support of this release on February 27th. The likelihood this will be a sell-out, so try and get those tickets in fast.

February will be a month of departure, or should I say continued departure along a musical trajectory. PJ Harvey will be putting out an album without the help of John Parish, Gruff Rhys will be continuing his psycadelic experimentation, both with the Super Furries or Tony De Gattora (the latter was to be expected) and J. Macsis will be ambling on without the Junior Dinosaurs. Keep eyes peeled and ears supple as there will be a lot floating around in 2011, of which this has been a cursory, embryonic preview.

The Festival weekend that turned into a week

So a week has passed since Swn, enough time to rid the body of the toxins that accumulated that particular weekend, allowing a report on the events free from fatigue and general fogginess.

Swn was a rather wonderful event this year indeed. The week long festivities began with a somewhat downbeat party pre-emptiving the weekend in Cardiff Arts Institute featuring the pseudo-Disco of Toro Y Moi, a suitably danceable segue, ushering in the festival mood.

   Toro Y Moi; suitably psycadelic

The following day, for those who were able to make it, was Yeasayer. One of the bigger names to grace Cardiff this year thanks to the promoting pull of the Swn conglomerate, Yeasayer were a powerhouse to contend with. Check out the next issue of quench for an interview with Yeasayer themselves.

Swn, as you can well imagine was a wondrous thing to behold. Sauntering around Cardiff in various states of disrepair taking in an array of music that goes beyond mere eclecticism will always be an edifying proposition. And for the most part, the rain stayed at bay. As far as I can remember anyway. The full line-up for the weekend is as follows; actually, a change of heart. It would be somewhat inconvenient to publish the entirity of the line-up so trust that there were limitless possibilities and combinations of bands that could have been watched.

    Egyptian Hip Hop; suitably sullen

 

With even the best will in the world, it is an impossibility to see every band that sounds tempting. A full breakdown of the highlights, and lowlights (that’s you Egyptian Hip Hop) of the weekend will be in the 101^st issue of Quench. Wow, we’re starting to get old!

As if that wasn’t enough, last Sunday I was lucky enough to see British Sea Power at The Globe. Keeping in fine style with The Globes recent near fatality (well done to all those who rallied to save it from going the way of the dinosaur), British Sea Power were a smorgasbord of English eccentricity and Indie energy. Working their way through a selection of their bigger hits and material from their forthcoming Valhalla Dancehall, BSP continue to prove that they are a band of extreme importance on the British music scene, articulating an earnestness that could only come from the heart of England (or Brighton).

Goodbye Summer, Hello Rain

Judging by the turn out for FunFactory last night, I think it's safe to say Cardiff's student population is well and truly revitalised.
This Blog will be maintained by the Quench Music editorial team as a means to expand our editorial content beyond the constraints of the printed medium.
We are often inundated with ideas for content, but sometimes, sadly, we are unable to fit everything into the bi-monthly publication, so this is a means to getting every idea published.
I must admit I am looking forward to the up-coming media fair. Let us pool the collective talent that is most definately out there and start something really special.
Jon
http://8tracks.com/quenchmusic