Yeasayer New Material

The wondrous Brooklynites Yeasayer have returned to give us a taster of what album two, 'Odd Blood' is going to sound like. And it's brilliant!


Building around the "Stick up for yourself son, never mind what anyone else has done" refrain, it's pretty much what Passion Pit would sound like if they covered Prince. An amazingly dynamic psychedelic pop extravaganza. The new album can't come soon enough, quite frankly.

YEASAYER - AMBLING ALP

'Odd Blood' will drop in February 2010. In the meantime check out the ltd ed deals (including t-shirts and 12" vinyls) that Yeasayer are doing for the 'Ambling Alp' release here.

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4 Or 5 Magicians

Is it any coincidence that on the same day that the free London Lite newspaper called 4 Or 5 Magicians an "emo band" they're also closing down?*


I guess they can be a bit whiny but musically, it's more like a Best Of for early 90s American indie rock. And if anything Dan Ormsby is a lyrical hero. "I wasted my youth playing cricket, pinned all my hopes on a lottery ticket" opines Mr Ormsby on 'Forever On The Edge', one of the gems from the debut album out this week.

The self-deprecating album title of 'Empty Derivative Pop Songs' is another reason why 4 Or 5 Magicians are better than your band. Maybe not cleverer (potentially minor commercial suicide) but better. Impressive use of alphabet spaghetti on the album artwork though. The band gave away album track 'Nice Little Earner' recently and I've upped the mp3 below.

4 OR 5 MAGICIANS - NICE LITTLE EARNER

Buy 'Empty Derivative Pop Songs' from Smalltown America.

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* sorry, if you lost yr job. The Evening Standard is actually worse.

Field Music return

While we sadly waved goodbye to The Rakes, a new dawn approaches. The return of Field Music. While the North East may be more famous for producing Maximo Park and The Futureheads in recent years, some say it's actually Field Music that should be attracting the plaudits.


Admittedly, that's a relatively small group for the time being and may even be smaller than in years gone by following a brief sabbatical by the band from 2007 or so onward. Since then, different members have been part of different projects, most notably School Of Language and The Week That Was. But now they're back and ready to follow up their last album, 'Tones Of Town', which Drowned In Sound gave 10/10. TEN OUT OF TEN! It's not a ten for me but an enjoyable romp nonetheless.

To whet prospective appetites, the band are giving away a couple of new songs before their new DOUBLE album (that's right, a gazillion tracks) drops in February. Maybe forgetting the quality not quantity rule but obviously eager to get the songs out there.

FIELD MUSIC - EACH TIME IS A NEW TIME

Download the other track, 'Measure' on the Field Music website, where their November tour dates are also listed.

Website // MySpace

Tubelord

Following up recent single 'Propeller', Kingstonians Tubelord dropped their debut album 'Our First American Friends' this week. And taking a leaf out of Roald Dahl's book, they're running a "golden ticket" comp.

If you're one of ten lucky people to find a "golden ticket" in your CD, then you can go to five Tubelord headline gigs of your own choosing. And they're pretty ace live too, if their recent Offset Festival performance was anything to go by. The album is similarly ace, a math-pop-post-hardcore-screamy-dreamy odyssey.


'Our First American Friends' can be had with any of the following thrown in - a ticket to their upcoming London gig/a t-shirt/an acoustic album. But all those deals are ending very soon so get on this at the speed of surround sound.

Check out a session version of 'Feed Me A Box Of Words' below (sadly left off the album) and have a bonus slice of that acoustic album I mentioned above, which actually sounds pretty amazing.

TUBELORD - FEED ME A BOX OF WORDS (BBC RADIO 1 SESSION)
TUBELORD - NIGHT OF THE PENCILS (ACOUSTIC)

Tubelord are currently touring the UK. 'Our First American Friends' is free to listen at we7.com and can be purchased for a bargaintastic price at Banquet Records.

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The Drums EP

Summer 2009 saw everyone in the blogging world get carried away with American duo (/quartet/possibly sextet, if you count the backing singers) The Drums. Even Boy George thinks they're great. And understandably so, The Drums have somehow made the quest for pop perfection a credible, exciting proposition.


The hype generating 'Let's Go Surfing' was a bodacious statement of intent and this week's 'Summertime' EP (out on the forever brilliant Moshi Moshi label) follows through, with its wonderful mix of new wave, post punk and Shangri La-esque stylings. Finally, a buzz band that delivers. Sexy time.

THE DRUMS - LET'S GO SURFING (XFM XPOSURE SESSION)
THE DRUMS - MAKE YOU MINE (XFM XPOSURE SESSION)

Buy the 'Summertime' EP by The Drums from Moshi Moshi. They're also playing a handful of tourdates around the UK this month.

Website // MySpace

Kids Love Lies

1, 2, 3, 4 summers ago....wait, that's wrong. Last summer at the brilliant Offset Festival, I had the pleasure of catching south London post punk power poppers Kids Love Lies. They've been busy since then.

This week sees the release of their second single proper, 'Under The Bed', following up the riotous 'Count In My Head', complete with ace video. At its heart, 'Under The Bed' is a tender ballad. But slapped all over it is their usual feverish brand of spiky pop, taking on the frenzied nature of Fight Like Apes and the early anthemic infection of The Maccabees.



With any luck, Kids Love Lies will be part of the new wave of edgy pop to dominate the British music scene. A band seeping with passion and a suitably enigmatic frontwoman to match. And suitably foxy. An NME cover surely awaits. First, the NME. Then the world.

KIDS LOVE LIES - UNDER THE BED (BBC INTRODUCING SESSION)
KIDS LOVE LIES - CHIMERA (BBC INTRODUCING SESSION)
KIDS LOVE LIES - HEX (BBC INTRODUCING SESSION)
KIDS LOVE LIES - COUNT IN MY HEAD (BBC INTRODUCING SESSION)

Buy 'Under The Bed' from Cherryade Records here or iTunes.

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Mumford And Sons Album

Earlier this year I mentioned Mumford & Sons as one of my tips for 2009, uploading a BBC Radio 1 session to boot (which has seemingly been recycled by a gazillion other blogs). This past week saw the release of their debut album, 'Sigh No More' which has just charted at #11 on the UK album chart. Not bad for Laura Marling's old backing band.

"Their epic country sound can be both mellow and intense, a majestic cacophony emboldened by Marcus Mumford's rich vocals"

The album continues along a similarly triumphant theme, a powerful collection of emotional taut songs. A band that truly fulfilled their early promise without compromise. Listen for free at we7.com and have a free download of the recently re-recorded 'Sister', courtesy of Music Glue.

MUMFORD & SONS - SISTER (NEW VERSION)

Buy 'Sigh No More' at Amazon in ltd ed digipack or on iTunes etc.

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Fanfarlo Debut Album

The past week saw indie/folk/twee/all of the above Londoners Fanfarlo finally release their debut album, 'Reservoir' on physical formats. It had been available to download since around July, leading some commentators to suggest that it should be nominated for the 2009 Mercury Music Prize.

Aside from the fact that I'm fairly sure it wouldn't qualify for the Mercury due to not having been physically released, I have to concede that I was a little disappointed with 'Reservoir'. Sure, it hit all the expected notes - combining moments of melancholy with times of vibrant euphoria and generally, the overwhelming sense of musical accomplishment. But it had something missing. Perhaps that something is the brilliant 'Sand And Ice', left off the album for unknown reasons. The more I think about it though, the album feels a bit too long rather than having something overtly lacking. And there was me thinking "too much Fanfarlo" wasn't possible.

Do I regret having such high expectations for what remains a fantastic band? Not at all. Maybe I'll tweak the tracklisting and chop a couple of songs off and make it into the irresistable album I had hoped for. Judge for yourselves with the album streamed above (courtesy of clashmusic.com) and from the BBC 6Music radio session below.

FANFARLO - COMETS (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)
FANFARLO - DROWNING MEN (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)
FANFARLO - FIRE ESCAPE (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)
FANFARLO - HAROLD T WILKINS (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)

'Reservoir' is available in various packages at fanfarlo.com, where you can also find details of their current UK tour.

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Blue Roses Session

Once upon a time Blue Roses was Laura Groves. Not that Blue Roses isn't Laura Groves anymore. Laura Groves was simply Laura Groves back then. Back when Blue Roses was just Laura Groves, I put the wonderfully magical 'Does Anyone Love Me Now?' on one of my podcasts (remember them?!).


Since then, she signed to XL, put out an eponymous debut album and one of her music videos was quite remarkably featured on Kanye West's blog a few days ago. Sadly, no-one has used the "IM'MA LET YOU FINISH BUT BEYONCE HAD ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME" line in the comments. Missed opportunity.

With Blue Roses, Alessi's Ark and Theoretical Girl each producing solid debut albums and pushing forward the UK folk "scene" in 2009 with their differing avant garde ways, it will be interesting to see which direction each artist will turn to next. With Laura recently stepping into the studio with the superb Grammatics, her next move seems promising.

BLUE ROSES - DOUBTFUL COMFORTS (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)
BLUE ROSES - I AM LEAVING (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)
BLUE ROSES - GREATEST THOUGHTS

Blue Roses is touring with Wild Beasts across the UK at the moment and her debut album is £8.49 at Piccadillyrecords.com or on iTunes etc.

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