The Maccabees are an indie rock band from Brighton, England. Debuting in 2004 with the You Make Noise, I Make Sandwiches EP, they scored a minor indie hit in 2006 with the post-punk influenced single Latchmere before inking a deal with the Polydor imprint (and former home of The Cure) Fiction Records.
The band released their debut album Colour It In in 2007, which spawned a number of catchy, cheerful singles filled with art-pop hooks and jangly guitars. Two years later they are a back with sophomore Wall of Arms, a record that shows a dramatic shift in tone. Leaving behind their upbeat early cuts, the quintet roped in producer Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Bjork, Coldplay) to add some of his brooding quality to the table. This resulted in a distinctly darker long player that will please fans of Arcade Fire, Editors or White Lies.
Wall of Arms is set for a May 4, 2009 release, preceded by the single Love You Better (out this week). Visit The Maccabees on MySpace for more details and tour dates.
tenek is the latest project from Geoff Pinckney (The Nine/Mesh) (vocals, programming, synths & bass) and Pete Steer (vocals, guitar, bass, synths & programming). Already being cited as one of this year's most vibrant and infectious electronic acts, the duo makes classic electronica fused with a contemporary twist.
tenek released their eponymous debut EP CD in September 2007 before returning to the studio to work on their first long player. Stateless was finally released through the Toffeetones label on the 20th March 2009 under critical acclaim. This is a record filled with great melody and hooks, the perfect marriage of pop and despair wrapped up in an industrial strength electro jacket that is destined to bring mayhem to dancefloors all around the globe.
If you're into synthpop pioneers such as The Human League and Depeche Mode or dig Cicada, The Crystal Method, Infusion and Mesh, you've just discovered your record of the month. So forget for a moment all the hype that surrounds acts like La Roux or Little Boots and give these newcomers a chance. They may lack in terms of PR but they surely have the tunes. Highly recommended!
Visit tenek on MySpace for upcoming show details and buy their album from Toffeetones here.
I've just finished a new mash-up for your listening pleasure. Instead of going down the electro or drum & bass path as I did in the past, this time I decided to make something rather dreamy and mellow. I used the vocals from David Guetta's club hit The World Is Mine along with the ones from UNKLE's Heaven (and the opening sample from Eye For An Eye). As for the instrumental, it's Sombre Friday by newcomers Tenek (more about them in a future post). So give Heaven In My Sombre World a listen and tell me what you think.
PS. A big shout out to Rob Dust who added some of his magic in the mastering. Live long and prosper Rob!
Some specialists in music said that 2007 was the year of France, 2008 was the year of Sweden and (as they claim) 2009 is going to be the year of Spain.
Cof Cof are from Valencia, ES. Visit their myspace profile (click to the link above) for listening to their music and learn more about them.
Ana & Alex are very good friends. Their friendship started because of this band. They started adding beer and good wine to their meetings, and that's how their friendship started.
No other writer has had as much influence on pop music as J.G. Ballard who died last Sunday (19 April 2009) after a three-year struggle with prostate cancer. Best known for novels including Crash (in which characters become aroused by car crashes) and The Drowned World, and for his wartime memoir Empire Of The Sun, Ballard wrote about dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments.
Ballard's visionary imagination grew in the realms of dreamlike, subjective science fiction and gradually came to embrace an aseptic hyperrealism. His precise, disenchanted intuitions of a future life governed by the concepts of anti-utopia and disaster inspired numerous artists. Examples include albums such as Metamatic by John Foxx, various songs by Joy Division (most famously The Atrocity Exhibition from Closer), the songs Down in the Park and Cars by Gary Numan and Warm Leatherette by The Normal.
This influence goes beyond the British post-punk groups, though. The 2007 album by the British "new rave" act the Klaxons takes its name from Ballard's collection of short stories Myths of the Near Future, while an earlier recording of him speaking in an interview is sampled in the Manic Street Preachers' song Mausoleum from the 1994 album The Holy Bible. In the sample, Ballard, probably referring to his novel, Crash, states : "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit, I wanted to force it to look in the mirror...".
Still not convinced? Suede's sound might have been a retro-leaning Bowie/Smiths homage, but their lyrics depicting high rises, asphalt underpasses and dysfunctional lovers adrift in the city are unashamedly Ballardian; Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke posted extracts from Ballard's anti-consumerist novel Kingdom Come on the band's blog, in the months leading up to the release of their 2007 album, In Rainbows; Andrew Eldritch, frontman of The Sisters of Mercy has posted his favourite works of Ballard on his site; the much hyped Empire Of The Sun took their name from Ballard's novel; Nine Inch Nails' concept album Year Zero describes a world where the governments put sedatives in the water to keep the masses blinkered, dirty bombs go off in Los Angeles, climate change wreaks havoc and war is a constant reality. Sounds familiar? Even the opening song title of Madonna's Ray of Light album, Drowned World/Substitute for Love (and the Drowned World tour title) is said to be inspired by the apocalyptic 1962 novel The Drowned World.
So put something to drink, turn down the lights and immerse yourself in the world of a Ballardian band, while reading The Atrocity Exhibition. R.I.P. J.G. Ballard. You will be missed.
(((S))) is a mysterious one-man-project from Copenhagen. There are no pictures of either himself or his studio band. Their music nevertheless creates whole worlds. The sinister serenades of the debut Ghost switches on your head and set your imagination running wild with its gentle sounds and dreamy sad dancefloor fillers.
Set somewhere in the dynamic field between The Cure,The Jesus & Mary Chain and Tiamat, the Scandinavian singer's songs touch and move you. Mezmerized and Fall With Me are catchy wave-jewels while Naked and Dying are full of dark atmosphere. The fabulous Beatles cover Help gives the impression the original was by Pink Floyd.
Floating above it all is the ghostly voice of (((S))), like Johan Edlund from a far and more "comfortably numb" than David Gilmour. Ghost is the ideal soundtrack to an evening with wine and candlelight but also an earthquake on the dancefloor.
The album will be released on the 20th of April on afmusic. You can also download an EP with five songs for free on www.af-music.de.
The Horrors have their origin in the early 2000s where they became interested in obscure vinyl and DJing. During trips to London and on the Southend circuit, Rhys Webb met Faris Badwan and Tom Cowan, who had attended Rugby School together, through their shared interests in 60s garage rock, and, in 2005 the three formed a band with Joshua Hayward and Joseph Spurgeon.
The band received great support from the British music press (NME in particular) and as a result their hyped to death debut Strange House (2007) entered the UK album charts at #37. A gorgeous and strange blend of punk, surf and gothic organs, this particular brand of retro goth garage is obviously built on an extremely derivative foundation of 60s garage, the Cramps, the Damned, the Birthday Party and Ministry.
Two years later, and where most bands would be happy to rest on their laurels, the black clad quintet returns with sophomore LP Primary Colours (out in May 5th on XL Recordings). Instead of trying to perfect the garage punk stylings of yore, they brought in Geoff Barrow to produce a record that sounds as if it comes from an entirelly different band. Mr. Portishead gave the boot to most of Strange House's influences in order to make way for My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Canand Joy Division. The result is in parts dark and claustrophobic like The Cure's Faith and Bauhaus and in others it has the groove of Neu! and the pop of the Psychedelic Furs. So, it is this reinvention of The Horrors that proves wrong anyone who believes they are at their best in front of a camera rather than behind instruments.
Preorder Primary Colours from Rough Trade here to get an exclusive bonus mix CD by Tom Furse and Rhys Webb, and visit The Horrors on MySpace for more info and tour dates.
The Maccabees are an indie rock band from Brighton, England. Debuting in 2004 with the You Make Noise, I Make Sandwiches EP, they scored a minor indie hit in 2006 with the post-punk influenced single Latchmere before inking a deal with the Polydor imprint (and former home of The Cure) Fiction Records.
