When I started this track I wondered if the player had malfunctioned; it reminded me of the olden days when you could play a 33rpm vinyl at 48rpm.  This manic sound made me think they were a comedy band. It seemed that they did have some instrumentalist who could actually play. The vocalist’s voice sounded as rough as a bears arse, as he screamed into the poor defenseless mike.  I can imagine a sweat filled stage with half naked performers playing and screaming into the microphone, while a room full of sweating bodies gyrates at a manic pace. I would clearly wish to be somewhere else. With luck I will not find this in my Christmas stocking.

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I Made This Mistake – Billboards

The name of this group is what I did when I started this number. I thought I might actually like it, alas this was not to be so. Nice opening instrumentals were spoiled by the nonsensical vocalist words that made me think the player had jumped a track.  I attempted to understand the lyrics, sadly I failed, the pace and mood of the number seemed mystifying as to what it was trying to be. Listening to this was a bit like banging your head against a brick wall; nice when you stop.

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Los Campesinos! – There are Listed Buildings

I quite liked the tune – I also felt I would like the number but as it progressed I felt no, it would not be going onto my Christmas list to Santa.  The vocalist spoke the words rather than singing them and it seemed to be a race with the backing as to who could drown the other first.  I would have liked it to have been the group then they could get some meaningful lyrics instead of the chant I listened to. The tune was OK not happy about the overall sound.

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The Album Leaf – Falling from the Sun

A nice gentle number make nice background music for the car. The singers are in harmony with the group – a good number to finish off, at the end of the evening so that sweaty bodies can glue themselves together with the promise of more fun later.  I did like this one better than any of the others, I would not buy it, but I would listen to someone else’s copy.

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Errors – Bridge Or Cloud

This instrumental number took almost 2 minutes to finish the intro. I kept waiting for it to start. At over 5 minutes this number is 5 minutes too long. It reminded me of a background to a very poor film, slightly one step up from lift music.  You can imagine when this one starts everyone rushes to the bar as they have 5 minutes to get the beers in.

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The Besnard Lakes – Albatross

Another pleasant number this. The singer seems to be able to really sing and not shout and scream into the mic.  The instrumentalists could actually play their instruments without drowning the singer, and in fact complementing her. The tune was a bit monotonous but I quite liked it.  I would not buy it, but I would listen to more of their music to see if they were a one trick pony.

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Links

Bomb The Music Industry released (or made available if you’d prefer!) their most recent album through Quote Unquote Records. All tracks are available to download for free from their label’s website.

I Made This Mistake’s most recent album ‘Bow and Quiver‘ is available from Bermuda Mohawk Productions. Great album cover alert btw.

Los Campesinos! released their 3rd album ‘Romance Is Boring‘ near the end of January and can be bought from the Wichita site here.

‘A Chorus of Storytellers‘ by The Album Leaf is available from Sub Pop now, plus several free Mp3s if you want to try before you buy.

Errors recently released their second album ‘Come Down With Me‘ through Rock Action.

The Besnard Lakes third album, ‘The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night‘ was released on the 10th March through Jagjaguwar and the track ‘Albatross‘ was a free download on iTunes a few weeks back.

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By Mad Mac

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Worrier seems a suitably apt name for this trio from Milwaukee (you were expecting me to say Dublin, right?), as the vocals have a degree of panic about them. This isn’t the kind of fright or anxiety you would associate with some weak-willed simpleton shuddering in the corner; this is the kind of intense, manic-staring panic of unhinged madness and scattered logic. The yelping cries and bird-like squawks of trepidation are juxtaposed with the flourishing, extravagant nature of Worrier’s eclectic sound.

There’s a kind of breathless exuberance in their music – not in the minute long feral power of say bands like Some Girls, because Worrier actually have tunes and melody. What I mean is, there’s this kind of intense and euphoric aggression present. Many of the tracks on ‘Source Errors Spells’ are staggering over each other in a glorious stumble of miscellaneous sounds. There’s so much earnest creativity on offer and the alarmingly different shifts in sound, speed, pattern and focus draw several deserving comparisons; such as the oddball eccentricity of Liars and that outrageous passion of Les Savy Fav.

Worrier open proceedings with ‘Let Down Your Hair’; a track that begins with the moody hum of a church organ, backed by a soft fuzz. The drums kick in along a wavering pattern – rolling and bouncing alongside the heavily synthesised layer of sound. The dual vocal attack folds into itself, mixing a chanting lead in with the soaring backing cries and shouts like a cluster of rowdy drunken teenagers. But there’s a delicate craft in this – whilst it predominantly sounds like a raucous sing-along reserved for the kind of places where you’re likely to get half a bottle embedded in the back of your head; the melodic pop-hooks balance out the chattering hustle.  ‘I Am The River’ follows, driven predominantly by the militant electro-drum beat, that is devoid of cymbal crashes and instead centres on an almost tribal thump of relentless energy. The guitars and keys are a lot more subtle this time, giving way to breathless vocals and purring atmospheric hum.

The vocals are going to be the marmite on this particularly fine cake of musical notes however. They range from this gasping, almost husky drawl; especially ‘I Am The River’ but also a odd rising vocal shriek that isn’t too dissimilar to Jaguar Love’s Johnny Whitney. You know; the kind of singing voice that makes you think the person’s testicles have started to retract back up inside them. However, it’s these vocal swings that make Worrier an appealing prospect, something that is best emphasised on ‘Reverse the Hearse’ which captures the squawking shrillness and the wheezing calm so well.

‘Sea Section’ takes the sturdy drumming of ‘I Am The River’ and collides it with eerie bleeps and screeching synthesisers in a similar way to Liars, if they started writing songs about boating trips whilst mashing the keys of a Yamaha. The vocals are notably different again, taking on a more rough-shod punk sneer of indifference and lyrically seem quite headstrong and ring with defiance. It also references the need to escape, with the emphasis of being free from various shackles. The words “…and we’ll sail away in a casket made of clay….to melt down right before your eyes…” supports this with a nod towards regeneration. ‘Lost Ships’ keeps with the aquatic theme, blending heavy, spiraling electronic influences with a distinct dance-rock frame and the crashing wave of glitching squeaks and roars. ‘I’m Not The Ocean’ is a brash retort to ‘I Am The River’; the cry of “these are blackened ships!” and the trippy, dilapidated quiver of the guitar and drums, coupled with the intensity of the severe vocals is what Worrier pull off extremely well.

‘Black Death Princess’ sounds like Neon Blonde and Rutger ‘About’ Hoedemaekers jamming in a studio after too much caffeine. Talk about menacing – the Neanderthal drumming, creepy, yet swirling keys, dark pulsating loops and the hauntingly hoarse backing vocal screams and a rich warm lead voice that wails with an eerie sinister lust make this an obvious album highlight. ‘Wind in the Sails’ is a big smug grin of tooth-rotting indie pop that many will find not to sing along to by the second listen. Infectiously warm and soothing, with strong prominence on anthemic gang vocals and buzzsaw keyboard lines through the jaunty, summery buzz of twinkling noise. ‘Axeidents’ sounds eerily similar to the massively hyped Test Icicles with Tim Harrington-aping vocal barking about fist fights over the top of bouncing dance punk that sparkles like it’s been waxed clean by Superman.

‘Source Error Spells’ by Worrier is a splendid piece of eccentric, indie-dance-rock; it’s schizophrenic nature, both musically and vocally is somewhat jarring at first, but one that open-minded listeners, particularly those who follow Why? Liars and Jaguar Love will find rewarding and full of vibrant energy.

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Those looking for a copy of ‘Source Errors Spells’ can download a copy for a mere 5 euros (just under 5 quid) from their bandcamp site.

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Links

Worrier Myspace
Richter Collective

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By Ross Macdonald

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The Continuous Battle Of Order win the award for having a name that makes me think it should be the tagline to a Command & Conquer or Call Of Duty game. Heck, it would work attached to a Viva Piñata title. Comprised of just two guys; a drummer who goes by the name Craig and a guitarist by the name of Hornby, The Continuous Battle Of Order formed out of the ashes of math rock-types, We Are Knives. In some respects, they share similarities with Rhode Island’s Lightning Bolt – the minimalist set up, songs mostly devoid of vocals and instead utilising a barrage of sound as the mouthpiece. Yet, they sound nothing like the bass-noise duo, as their sound is more in common with the buzzsaw drone and exuberant flourish of Shield Your Eyes and in small doses, label mates Adebisi Shank.

The opening track on ‘Pttrn Skrs’  is filled with the following: a Morse code-type distress call, glitched bleeping, the rushing of waves that bleed into lumbering drum beats and jarring, swirling out-of-tune guitar crashes that don’t seem to follow any pattern, rhyme or reason. It’s captivating in a strange way; as with The Continuous Battle Of Order, it’s unclear of their goal or even what the next few seconds are going to bring. It’s a bit like staring into the mind of a manical schizophrenic. These are his thoughts – fluxing between hoarse vocal cries, tribal percussion; the de-tuned haze of a sea-fisherman’s radio relaying co-ordinates, trippy passages of drugged guitar chords and mangled rhythms. It then bleeds into some impossibly fast tappy/math rock guitar scrawl that the drums battle valiantly for domination. It’s like listening to OXES played at a faster/wrong speed whilst the shipping forecast is being recited in the background. ‘Pttrn Skrs’ feels incredibly raw; fresh studio jams that lack polish but instead feature that guttural nuance of scrappy discord.

The guitars and irregular drum patterns stumble over each other like two ADD-sufferers trying to complete a three-legged race; particularly on ‘002’, which dips into Don Caballero territory for pretentious sustainable notes and ramshackle percussion. It’s held together with this grunge-edge that grooves and shifts with arrogant assurance and a rumbling bounce. ‘003-1’ starts with a persistent guitar twang, with a woman’s voice reading various numbers like someone feedbacking the lottery result from the 1930s through a cheap transistor. ‘003-2’ is predominantly a stop-gap percussion piece, focusing on tribal drumming, clattering and banging with the only thing missing being a sweet glockenspiel passage.

The soothing wash of the rich guitar plucking on ‘004’ is a stark contrast to the somewhat unpredictable rush of sound that the previous tracks have offered; yet its mesmeric tone is captivating. The subtle fade-in and out offered by this track, not to mention the quiet strings help create a luscious piece of absorbing sound. ‘005’ stutters and staggers with very little control as the duo that make up TCBOO fire out quick bursts of rattled tappy-instrumental melodic rock. They pause periodically to regroup; refocus and twist the track in another direction – by either following the same repetitious chord pattern or completely changing progression all together, diving down another pathway of busy clamour.

The last track begins with a shrill wail from a Theremin, coupled with the fuzzed vocal sample chanting the line ‘WE ARE ALL JUST PATTERN SEEKERS.’ ‘006’ is clearly the heaviest and progressively noisiest track by TCBOO; the rasping burst of the grunge-rock guitar scrawl and irregular drum strikes eventually slips nicely into some spiky, math-rock waves, whilst the unremitting drum roll is furious and encompassing. It ends abruptly with the tapping Morse code as heard at the start of the album.
Some might say that this whole experience cements the feeling that ‘Pttrn Skrs’ is not an album, but merely half-an-hour of varied sounds made by a radio transmitter and an erratic disc jockey. Others, would state it’s the work of two individuals who have gone beyond the realms of structure and focused on making music that excites, confuses and inspires.

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The ‘Pttrn Skrs‘ album launch takes place on the following dates:

16th April – The Quad, Cork, 8pm
17th April – Twisted Pepper, Dublin, 8pm
13th May – Black Box, Belfast, 7pm

The band are also playing Brixton Windmill on the 23rd May with Tweak Bird.

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Links

The Continuous Battle Of Order
The Richter Collective

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By Ross Macdonald