One of my favorite album of late is Come Down With Me, the sophomore record from Glasgow’s Errors. Since their early EPs, they’ve always had a distinctive sound; but never as fully focused as in these new songs.

The first half of CDWM is full of well-honed, well executed ideas – glitchy, cheerful guitar lines and synth driven pop melodies. When so many most instrumental bands seem obsessed with gloom and introspection, it’s relief to have the likes of Errors around.

The album does stifle a bit during slower moments; when the pace lessens and the layers are stripped away, there’s nothing going on that hasn’t been done better by others (our own Halfset spring to mind). Overall, Come Down With Me is a triumph, mixing lush, organic sounds with bouncy, mechanical kraut leanings.

Errors – Bridge or Cloud

Errors play in Dublin’s “Academy 2 bar” (to try and call it a venue would be too kind…) next Thursday 25th March – their first show over here since they supported label-mates/mentors Mogwai at the Button Factory in 2006.

It’s an endearing mix of folk and electronica, O’Brien’s almost-spoken vocals are full of melancholy, spread over stark programmed beats reminiscent of the likes of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (but with added ambiance). At times the meandering narratives and loops get a bit monotonous, but highlights like Separate Rooms and New Year’s Sky help to vary the of pace, full of melody and atmosphere.

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It’s an intimate collection of songs, full of honesty and charm – the electronic tones pointing the songs in an interesting direction far from the singer-songwriter cliches that once seemed dime-a-dozen among local solo acts.

From Which We Were Raised is out now on indie label Slow Loris. Road Records are including a bonus four track CD with the album (limited to the first 100 copies).

A second album (referred to as the Lost Album) later leaked online; a collection of near completion but shelved by the breakup of the band, never to see the light of day…

In the years since, the band members have carried on in different projects and solo releases, leaving behind a little cult following and some great songs – until recently.

I guess I knew that we should have at least followed up United By Fate. We were all pretty burnt out at the end of the touring cycle. I know I needed to do different things. We had decided to leave it open to regroup. In 2008 we figured we oughta get cracking if it was ever going to happen. – Walter Schreifels

In 2008, the band reunited and hit the road, deciding not to leave things hanging in the air any longer. After dates in Europe and the US, they fell off the radar again; but this time the hiatus has been a productive one – recording a new album set for a release in June 2010.

I’ll be spending the next few months attempting to contain my excitement, and trying not to make awful puns about them being United By Fate.

Er, sorry…

Rival Schools – So Down On

Click here to read the full interview with Rival Schools frontman Walter Schreifels.

There’s still plenty of similarities to BMSR’s synthy psychedelia, fuzzy melodies whizz and whir through odd (and frequently eerie) tracks with effect-laden vocals; but where BMSR often follow a fairly pedestrian pace, Fucked Up Friends is bursting at the seems with edgy hip hop beats and harsh electro pulses.

It’s an abrasive, exciting and sometimes confusing mix. Psychedelic hip hop? As weird a concept as that may look in writing, it actually works out really well.

That Tobacco manages to mix a whole range of diverse, in-your-face sounds into something cohesive is a bit of a feat (a talent repeated last year with an epic remix of HEALTH’s Die Slow).

Tobacco – Hairy Candy

Tobacco – Street Thrash

For any fans out there, mashup extraordinaires The Hood Internet have a great 7 track mix of Tobacco vs Aesop Rock that’s well worth hearing:

The first tracks from his debut offering Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz have surfaced online, and they don’t disappoint; strange and beautiful sounds mixing acoustic instruments with glitchy beats and lots of weird ambiance. Each track is almost entirely different to the one that precedes it; the albums 19 instrumental tracks taking in all sorts of bizarre sounds. There’s an awful lot going on, at times it’s a bit overwhelming; but there’s plenty of gems to be heard throughout.

Black Mold – Metal Spider Webs

Black Mold – Tetra Pack Heads

Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz is out on Flemish Eye records, and will come with another albums worth of music to download. You’d wonder if VanGaalen has slept at all in the last few years…

The physical versions of “Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz” will come with a coupon to download an entire bonus album of material by Black Mold. Composed of glitchy odds and ends, unfinished ideas, analogue improvisation and experimental manipulation, the 100+ minutes of material will be available to download from the Flemish Eye website.

Update: The Wall of Ice things seems like a hoax by someone unaffilated with the band, and Jonny Greenwood has now posted These Are My Twisted Words on Dead Air Space as a free offical download. No sign of an EP, though he does mention further songs being worked on:

We’ve been recording for a while, and this was one of the first we finished.
We’re pretty proud of it.

There’s other stuff in various states of completion, but this is one we’ve been practicing, and which we’ll probably play at this summer’s concerts. Hope you like it.

It looks like Radiohead are about to spring another musical surprise on the world, with reports flying around the web about of a new EP titled Wall of Ice. Rumors began circulating a when an unknown track appeared online, titled These Are My Twisted Words.

Radiohead – These Are My Twisted Words

The evidence so far hints towards a new EP becoming available this coming Monday:

• If you check the website wallofice.com, you are directed to Radiohead’s online store, W.A.S.T.E.
• The leaked track above had the following file name: 01-radiohead-these _are_my_twisted_words-(advance)-2009-woi.mp3
• The Mp3 meta-tag for the track mentions 8/17 a bunch.

Check out more rabid fan detective work/nerdy sleuthing here. Roll on Monday…

It’s been 10 years since The Soft Bulletin saw The Flaming Lips evolve from the fearless freaks of the underground to become globally acclaimed pop-wierdo icons; and that journey has seen their songwriting take a background to lasers, balloons, confetti, UFOs and general playful gimmickry. Their 2006 release At War With The Mystics was fun, but ultimately a forgettable experience that offered little more than an excuse to take the celebratory circus of their live show around the world.

Pre-release feedback of Embryonic has been mixed, with long time fans declaring that other than Wayne Coyle’s distinctive voice; it sounds nothing like The Flaming Lips;which is good news considering the lacklustre stuff they’ve been doing since the amazing Yoshimi. There’s something a lot more dramatic and interesting unfolding in these new songs; a vintage B-movie psych feel, 60′s garage basslines and weird bleeps and hisses reminiscent of their early work…

As with any double album, there’s the danger doing a “Mellon Collie“; creating a bloated beast where the good material is smothered by filler. It’ll be interesting to see if The Flaming Lips follow through on these promising tracks and go about reinventing themselves; or succumb to double album syndrome – we’ll have to wait until September to find out.

The Flaming Lips – Silver Trembling Hands

The Flaming Lips – Convinced by the Hex

“No Line on the Horizon”
The b-side to Boots, this is the better song of the two and a decent album opener with Bono screaming against a droning wall of sound, and an undercurrent of 50′s sci-fiesque whistling guitar. A great marriage of sound and lyrics as the soundscape opens up with a crash of the symbols and simple piano cords. The momentum building verses on this opening track mirrors the approach on Kings Of Leon’s ‘Knocked Up’, even if this track’s drone’s a bit dirtier. So far, promising…

“Magnificent”
Which makes you think that U2 had been adhering to the High Fidelity rules of a mix tape, i.e. starting well then taking it up a notch. Magnificent really is the best song on the album by a mile. Opening with a churning deep bass and flourishes of electronica, The Edge comes from left field and opens it up with a wistful solo. Larry Mullen’s drumming machine-guns into every chorus. Old school euphoric U2 but none the worse for it.

“Moment of Surrender”
A gospel hymn with the boys joining Bono in a chorus that’s slightly reminiscent of Stuck in a Moment. The tune is waaaay too long at over seven minutes and despite efforts to relate to us plebs (ATM machines ftw) there’s little on offer here to sustain the interest.

“Unknown Caller”
The lowest point of NLOTH so far. An intro not unlike a few bars of the riff from ‘Walk On’ leads into contrived lyrics and a punctuated chorus that sounds like Bono telegraphed the chorus lyrics to the rest of the lads. Plenty of “Whoa-Oh-Oh-Oh” cheap hooks to hide the lack of anything going on here.

“I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”
Fairly safe middle of the road stuff, only notable for Bono’s breathless falsetto towards the end of some lines which sounds a bit laughable to be honest. Bog standard pause and key change before the big chorus. Forgettable.

“Get on Your Boots”
Great riff – awful lyrics. This sounds like U2 playing QOTSA whilst Bono sings Homer Simpson’s attempt at updating Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues. Sound wise this one packs the punch sorely missing from some of the other tunes in the album but the lyrics really are cringe-worthy. Despite my hatred for chorus’ straight from the Kaiser Chief’s School Of Music* “You don’t know how beautiful you are” is stuck in my head and will be one for the crowd during the tour. The drum solo ‘let me in the sound’ bridge is pretty poor.

“Stand Up Comedy”
Listening to this one make you wonder if this originated in the sessions with Rick Rubin because this sounds like a soft(er) rock approach to Chili Peppers-lite funk. Plenty of struggling for love tokenisms. There’s an interesting echo effect that isn’t explored enough and lyrically it’s refreshing to hear Bono take the piss out of him self with the Napoleon comparison. By and large it’s another dud.

“Fez – Being Born”
AKA the ‘We’ve been abroad with Brian Eno can’t you tell by our sound?’ song. Faint echo of the ‘let me in the sound’ line from “Boots”. Darker and a lot more experimental that what went before it with a fragmented intro that lasts a minute before breaking into a scatter shot drumming and almost sonar-sounding guitar that chimes. About a minute and a half in a more orthodox guitar rhythm comes in. The style of singing sounds detached and the whole thing is very dreamy. But while there is a host of ideas here it never quite comes off as you’d hope, it feels like it is building to something that never comes. It’s still good to see the band at least trying to detach from a typical U2 sound.

“White as Snow”
A haunting piano and organ sounds that pave way for a slow paced repetitive riff that evokes ‘For The First Time’. Horns kick in half way through, heralding a trembling guitar bridge before returning to the original riff but nothing about this resonates. Another average song, the realisation comes that with only 2 tracks to go this is more filler than killer stuff.

“Breathe”
Rolling, rollicking drums, crashing symbols and rust sounding strings lead in this one before guitar and piano take over. The singing is rushingtogetothenextword paced before a typically big U2 chorus punctuates the whole thing. The strings and drums return to introduce The Edge’s solo. At this stage, especially after a few listens, I just want to go back to the first two tunes.

“Cedars of Lebanon”
A spoken word dull effort that sums up everything that’s wrong with NLOTH while petering the album out towards its withering end. The chimes in the intro is overwhelmed by the drum and guitar combo. Falsetto vocals in the chorus and by the time the album comes to a close you’ve forgotten this track, along with a few others, already.

Overall
The whole thing is too long and not adventurous enough. As I said on Jim Carroll’s blog, at times I can’t shake the feeling that a younger / more audacious band would have fleshed out some of the ideas that are pushed to the background in favour of a typical U2 sound. Even after several listens, ‘No Line On The Horizon’ and the stand out track ‘Magnificent’ are the only two really enjoyable tunes on the whole LP, though “Boots” and “Crazy Tonight” are the type of songs to ignite a crowd regardless of their obvious flaws. At 55 minutes or so 11 tracks have to be good to sustain the interest and there just not enough ideas here to do that, U2 resort to too many cheap hooks. The ‘whoa’ count on this one is something else and there’s nothing much that packs a punch or makes any kind of lasting impression. Overall it is a disappointment and will soon be forgotten once the rabid hype dies down. The title of this album suggests that this band will continue ad infinitum, but lets hope that their journey from this point will travel the less-traveled path.

*Lesson 1 from the Kaiser Chiefs School Of Music: An easy and economical way to write a catchy chorus is to just repeat the same line over and over again. Why waste time thinking of new lyrics?
See: – RubyrubryrubyrubyRUBY
- Oh My God I Can’t Believe It,
- I predict a riot, I predict a riot.
Alumni of note include Scouting For Girls of ‘You’re so lovely/Elvis isn’t dead’ fame.

According to Jim the prize, won last year by Super Extra Bonus Party, will be awarded on March 4 at a live show in Vicar St. The shortlist of 10 albums will be announced on Wednesday January 14.

Poll after the jump.

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Your thoughts? No doubt we’ve forgotten someone!