Everytime that we meet I skip a heartbeat

I promise to write soon. In the meantime enjoy this great video from Three Trapped Tigers.

Until soon.
Toby

1st ever Explosions In The Sky video!

preach

Holy Roar records have put together an epic free sampler, their first for quite a while, of music that they’re putting out now and in the near future. We’re talking Gallows. Brontide. Rosa Valle. Rolo Tomassi (whose marathon Eternal Youth album is well worth a listen).

The link to it is here.

By way of a sampler of the sampler here is some Rosa Valle to listen to whilst your downloading. 

 Dust Wasp by Rosa Valle 

what from what

This self titled album comes out on 27 June, I wish it all the best and hopes it makes that whole break/cross into the mainstream as it is very good and SBTRKT, so I'm told, are from my neck of the woods.

Listening to: Brontide

Aside from slowed down dub the other thing that I have been listening to alot lately is Sans Souci, the debut full length from Brontide. There has been, understandably, alot of attention on the band as the three of them are clearly talented songwriters. Luckily Sans Souci doesn’t disappoint; you get well crafted songs, but there is less a desire to reach a crescendo and more a desire to mix up the slow and the fast.

The end result is post rock melody which almost falls into the category of easy listening. Almost. Anyway below is one of their tracks, enjoy.

 Matador by Brontide.

The palace of Sanssouci

PLANKTON WAT

Portland, OR does seem to produce an abundance of guitar-led experimental music (as I've mentioned earlier), and the music of Plankton Wat, with its instrumental guitar sound is a continuation of that fine tradition.

Known to friends as Dewey Mahood, Plankton Wat has some new material coming soon, via the Sweat Lodge label, in the form of a 37 minute EP called The Outer Lands. Thanks to the wonders of technology I’ve managed to have a bit of listen to some of it; think sparse and sparing arrangement, if you’re a fan of any sort of drone music then you’ll like this.

The song that I’ve listened to is below for you to check out. I managed to get to ask Dewey what we could expect from the impending release, here’s what he had to say:

On The Outer Lands I explored electronic sound more than any other Plankton Wat album. There aren't any acoustic instruments used except for some bells and my voice. Otherwise it's all electric guitar, synth, and drum machine. I try to leave a lot of space in the music, and focus on meditative moods.

Well it certainly like sounds worth a listen.

And the future for Plankton Wat looks bright as well, there’s an album due out in 2012 called Islands as well as a split LP with another band, Super Minerals which is in the works.

Here’s the song:

 Plankton Wat - The Outer Lands (upcoming cassette on Sweat Lodge Guru) by Solar Commune 

And here’s a YouTube vid of some of his other stuff:

who doesn't like trains

Melancholic post-rockers iLiKETRAiNS are back with a new video for their single Sirens.

It’s great to see a band put so much effort into their videos - there is a story to this one, the second part a nautically themed trilogy, which is interesting and also a little haunting. So you have been warned.

YELLOW OSTRICH

The think about keeping a blog is that it is surprisingly difficult to keep a track of; I thought I had shared Yellow Ostrich with the world, it turns out I haven’t so here goes.

Yellow Ostrich offers up some quirky, casiotone laced indie pop in the form of the LP, The Mistress. Alex Schaff, who is Yellow Ostrich, gets helps from some friends on this one to bring it together. The end result is rhythmic and catchy and does come with stand out moments, i.e. WHALE – a nice existential offering.

Like I say the album has been out for a while. It’s a pay what you like thing, so therefore available free, here.

Listening to: Jonquil

Because I’m the sort of person who is constantly thinking about this sort of thing, the other day  I was reflecting on what my favourite albums had been so far this year. So I got to thinking, trawling through the recesses, then thought Jonquil. Yeah, Jonquil they would be up there. If only for the slight twig that their One Hundred Suns EP came out in November.

So to make up for that fact I thought I would write about them here and now. Their One Hundred Suns EP is this mix of surf – rock and afrobeat. The rhythm is very catchy and the overall feel will take you drifting  to a beach. For both of these things you have to credit the succession of excellent guitar melodies.

Pop music, the sort that isn’t hugely commercial successful, is perhaps stronger than ever. Jonquil and their made for summer EP, One Hundred Suns, are proof of this.

You can get the EP here, or at least listen to it in full. If you're in LDN this weekend and have a ticket for Camden then, well, work it out.

 Jonquil - I Know I Don't Know by Jonquil 

fun fun fun

Music should be fun, right? I mean there aren’t any hard and fast rules about it, but if there were then having fun would surely be one of them. The Blue Onesies from NZ certainly sound like they are having fun – what with their lovely beach boys-esque sound and all, which doesn’t make me long for the beach, 1965 or a glass of Pinot Noir right about now.  

Here's some of their early demo-like stuff.

MATT CALVERT

Matt Calvert, one third of Three Trapped Tigers, has some music of his own out.

Under the name Evil Ex he has released a solo EP where some of the similarities are clear but so are the differences. To go along with the moments which are of all out drum and guitar aggression, there are some lovely moments of ambience. It's a nicely considered mix of the two ends of a spectrum and it should have you peering over to have a listen.

The EP, Bygones, is out now and available here.

Evil Ex - D'lin

 'D'Lin' - Evil Ex [Bygones EP] by mattcalvert 

The TTT album, is out in a couple of weeks. For those who love to do comparison between solo and group work here is one of the album tracks, Noise Trade. 

Three Trapped Tigers - Noise Trade

 Three Trapped Tigers - Noise Trade.mp3 by ZimbalamUK 

great

Tall Ships,  that great band which I have mentioned on here before, supported Three Trapped Tigers, another great band, the other day. Now they will be supporting We Are Scientist, yet another great band, on some UK tour dates in June.

Here are the tour dates:

1st June - Exeter, Lemon Grove (with We Are Scientists)
13th June - Middlesbrough, Empire (with WAS)
14th June - Leamington Spa, Assembly (with WAS)
15th June - London, Koko (with WAS)
16th June - Kingston, Banquet instore (6pm) and New Slang (11pm) 
17th June - Brighton, Concorde 2 (with WAS)

barn owl

So, so very glad that these boys are back with a new EP. Now there will be new music for me to fall asleep to.

Here is the title track of said EP, Shadowland. It comes out on 21 May.

Barn Owl - Shadowland
 Barn Owl - Shadowland (1) by TobyBakare

I wait tables too

If you're going to insist on a liking for electro pop with high pitched synths pushed to the max then it might as well  be good shit.

Garcon Garcon - Maybe Tonight

 Garcon Garcon: Maybe Tonight (Demo) by mobsessionblog

CARDINALS

I saw Cardinals play a few months ago now; they were the first on the bill and were a new band who I had never heard of. I didn’t hold out too much hope. But I was pleasantly surprised by a band who came across on stage as old hands at the game. I thought, even then, they would be ones to watch.

A few months later and they’ve released their first EP (which is self titled).

So then, to describe their sound. Well, this is what band member James had to say:

“I'd like to think our sound is a culmination of all our influences; ultimately elements of post-rock and modern indie. It's very guitar-driven, with heavy influence from 90's emo bands and other modern day ambient/crossover stuff like Brand New”.

James, I’d agree with you, but I think you're selling yourselves short a little here. Even after a few listens to the EP you can hear that there is a lot of experimentation. Case and point comes with The Salamander – a track which opens with acoustic guitar, again a pleasant surprise.

I must admit to feeling a bit of a rapport with this band (I suspect every one of a certain age and disposition will too), their experimenting with certain sounds, yet it still sounds very honest.

So then James, what does the future hold for Cardinals:

“We have started writing new material which will hopefully take shape of another EP at some point, we're really keen to carry on writing [and] this year we're going to have a lot more time for writing so it should come together pretty quickly."

Looking forward to it.

Cardinals – EP is out now and can be got from bandcamp. The band will tour in June.