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Reality Serum

Discography [2004] Free Your Mind [2005] Supple Selections Vol III [2007] Here We Go [2007] Hop In Band Members ♥ Camanche - mic & words ♥ Twizle - instruments & backing vox Sounds Like Sigur Ros, Matmus, Mogwai, Tricky, Mos Def, Common, Saul Williams, Dead Can Dance, Gorillaz, Kanye West, Portishead

 

Reality Serum - Here We Go

Reality Serum

If you think about it, ambient navel-gazer music and incisive rap are probably the strangest musical bedfellows possible- but that's what Reality Serum is producing, under the new genre 'Trans-Urban', and it's pretty damn exciting, to say the least.

Camanche and Twizle- the former brings the hip-hop, the latter the ambient guitar- are two Long Island accidental bandmates. Twizle's cred as a Beatles Sgt-Pepper era guitarist is such that he actually appeared in the recent film Across the Universe, but that's beside the point. They're genuinely doing something so new and interesting that I'm stumbling over myself to share it.

Think Sigur Ros or the much-mourned Dead Can Dance (Eastern chords, adagio tempo, lush and complex sounds, barely any beat beyond sparse bass), overlaid seamlessly with spoken-word, rather like Saul Williams, and you're getting close. It's Tricky if he and Mos Def took a wrong turn into Mogwai territory at night- vaguely haunting, and can be slightly jarring if you've always taken your hip-hop plain with crunchy beats and little more.

Putting rap vocals in a very large and sprawling musical landscape, which is what ambient music is, is a risk, and it's tough to balance the hard with the soft. Sometimes I came away wishing that the vocals took more of a prominent role- they can get swallowed by all the washes of sound- or that there was more of a sense of urgency to match them.

It is important, though, to recognise good music when it comes your way, and trust me, this is very good music. It makes you listen, it intrigues you and pulls you in. One of the things which often isolates people from the mellow navel-gazing genre is that it doesn't grab listeners- it's background noise but doesn't engage- and sometimes hip-hop is criticised for sounding too harsh and simplistic. Maybe Trans-Urban is a way to fix both criticisms.

I know, I know, I'm making some grand claims here- but Reality Serum are making alchemy out of their crossover, and you should give them a listen. It's that simple.

They appear not to have any touring dates coming up because they're heading back into the studio, which is a shame. However, you can get their CD, 'Hop In', via iTunes, CDBaby or PayPlay.

 12/13/2007 19:27:27  jennifer my♥posts myspace.com supplerecords

This Morning Call #2

Tour 12/12/07 ALL FM NightMoves Show - Live Set Manchester 12/21/07 Enchanted Brave, Britons Protection - Special Xmas Show Manchester Sounds Like Goldfrapp, Moby, David Bowie, A-ha, Boards of Canada, Doctor Who music, Matmos, Bjork, Blue Sky Research, The Whip, Snowfight in the City Centre, Moloko, Maximo Park, Minorplanet, Radiohead, Blue Cell, Aphex Twin, Strength of the Bear, Blur, Klaxons, Field Music, Olly Farshi, Sancho, Guillimots, Kylie Minogue, Posthuman, DJ Shadow, Idle Hands Links This Morning Call http://weheartmus... Influences "Think Sigur Ros stealing Keanes vocals underpinned by glitched up Groove Armada style...

 

Clockworks

This Morning Call

I wasn't really going to follow up on Ryan's summation of This Morning Call, because it was pretty thorough, but I thought the world really needed to know how a friend of mine described 'Clockwork': 'Portishead on decent anti-depressants'.

(Yes, that is a positive endorsement.)

Since Ryan's gone into the wider contextual stuff, I'll stick mostly to the technical aspects. If you're a fan of sweeping electronic landscapes, ambient pop-edged melodies and the occasional dark crunchy beat, start paying attention. This Morning Call take the atmospheric aspects of Coldplay which stop them being purely guilty easy listening, channel them through the bleeps and angular squawks of the New Order/Daft Punk school, and produce an experimental, light, sweet electronica.

I'll admit that, as a devoted electronica fan of the VNV Nation kind, it was their subtle, layered use of distortion, metallic echoes and computer-generated loops which won me over, but it touches base with pop often enough that it doesn't alienate (which is a big risk in electronic music). Sometimes, actually, This Morning Call goes the other way entirely, and trades so much on classic pop structures that it seems almost unambitious. Delicate balance, but they're getting there.

Anyway. New word from the band is that they had a well-received, sold-out first gig run by Sony/BMG in London on December the 1 st- so hurry up and check them out before they explode onto the wider scene, because that's looking increasingly likely.

 12/04/2007 17:51:31  jennifer my♥posts www.thismorningcall.co.uk

Boneless Children Foundation

Band Members ♥ David Sophia (vocals, guitar) ♥ Jonathan Kepke (bass, back-up vocals) ♥ J. Logan Barrier (drums, back-up vocals) Influences Talking Heads, the Kinks, the Dead Milkmen, They Might Be Giants, the Magnetic Fields, Andrew Bird, the Minutemen, the Fiery Furnaces, Terence McKenna, the Who, the Eurythmics, Michael Musika, Sean Hayes, T. Rex, Paul Simon, Weird Al Yancovic, Modest Mouse, [more details on myspace]

 

Boneless Children Foundation - Stars For Anyone

If indie bands were rated on their names, San Francisco's three-piece Boneless Children Foundation would be an instantaneous hit. You know you thought the same thing. It's got the look-twice factor.

Beyond the name, though, they're purveyors of that thoroughly upbeat, happily sarcastic punk-pop noise defined as a genre by They Might Be Giants; think the soundtrack of a higher-caliber teen movie produced in the 90's and you might be getting close. Their press sheet compares them to The Talking Heads, The Who and The Unicorns, which is right in a roundabout sort of way- it's distinctly punk drumming, some enjoyable straight-out rock guitar riffs and witty/ironic lyrics thrown on top (one of their songs is called Carl Sagan, make of that what you will). David Sophia Siegel, the frontman, has a very east-coast whine, all languid and sneering, which really defines their sound.

Admission: when I come across new bands I tend to categorise their sound not as 'who they sound like' but as 'the exact scenario in which one would listen to them'. You'd listen to Boneless Children Foundation on big old headphones at an American laundromat in a cool inner-city neighbourhood, while wearing sneakers and op-shop clothes, dancing stupidly around the driers. It's that sort of ironic indie post-punk extravaganza, so it's fitting that they've been garnering buzz via college radio stations.

Whether this makes sense to anybody beside myself is, of course, another question. If you want a more specific pinpoint, think the Dead Milkmen with a bit of glam rock thrown in to make things interesting.

Boneless Children Foundation have no shows planned at the moment, but head over to their Myspace for their album, and check out the very silly webcomic on their official website if you're into that.

 12/03/2007 08:51:15  jennifer my♥posts bonelesschildren myspace

Clare Bowditch & the Feeding Set

Tour 11/25/07 Queenscliff Music Fest - Queenscliff 11/27/07 Live At The Chapel Prahran, Victoria 12/03/07 Knitting Factory - Hollywood, CA 12/14/07 Fest of The Sun - Port Macquarie 12/18/07 Corner Hotel - Richmond, Victoria 12/30/07 Falls Fest - Lorne, Victoria 12/31/07 Falls Fest - Marion Bay, Tasmania Album Discography   [1999] Sweetly Sedated Album (by Red Raku) [2000] Rodaleisis May Album (by Red Raku) [2004] Autumn Bone Album [2005] What was Left [2007] The Moon Looked On Band Members ♥ Clare Bowditch ♥ Marty Brown ♥ Libby Chow ♥ Warren Bloomer ♥ Tim Harvey Sounds Like Cat Power, Beth Orton, Feist, Antony & The Johnsons, Bat For Lashes, Joanna Newsom, Mirah

 

Clare Bowditch - Monday Comes

Clare Bowditch

Patriotism isn't supposed to cloud your musical judgement, so I promise I'd love Clare Bowditch and her band The Feeding Set just as much if they were Scandinavian rather than Australian. No, really.

Clare won the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Award) for Best Female Artist 2006, and most people went 'who?' A Melburnian, she produces sweet, vaguely punky folk-rock with elements of indie and country, and has just released her third album, The Moon Looked On. She's been the supporting act for Cat Power and Elvis Costello, but her sound is pretty diverse- sweet vocals on a lush soundscape, like a quieter and less outrageous Feist. Australia has a crop of this sort of artist at the moment- Jen Cloher and Holly Throsby are others- but Clare is becoming the most popularly known.

Alongside guitar and piano, The Moon Looked On incorporates a few Indian and Thai elements into the mix, along with the entire Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, a French horn, a male choir, 17 gongs and god knows what else. It stays clear of self-indulgence through the mercy of clear, distinct song-writing. The first single, 'When the Lights Went Down' (you can hear it on Myspace), shows off her sound- rollicking, rich folk-indie. 'Monday Comes', from her 2005 EP Autumn Bone, is slower and sweeter. I'd highly recommend The Moon Looked On if you can get your hands on it. Interestingly, it comes with a second CD called 'Campfire', which is Clare solo with a guitar, stripped of all the French horns and audio layering.

 11/26/2007 22:42:05  jennifer my♥posts myspace.com clarebowditch

Whitley

Tour 11/17/07 Cambridge Newcastle, NS Wales[1] 11/18/07 Brass Monkey Cronulla, NS Wales[1] 12/11/07 The Zoo Brisbane 12/12/08 Spectrum Sydney 12/18/08 The Corner Hotel Melbourne[2] 12/29/08 FEELGOOD FESTIVAL Sydney 12/30/08 FALLS FEST Marion Bay, Tasmania 12/31/08 FALLS FESTIVAL Lorne, Victoria Discography [Oct 2006] Limited Edition Tour EP [Nov 2006] Lost In Time EP [Sep 2007] The Submarine Band Members ♥ Whitley ♥ Andy Reed ♥ Alex Hunter ♥ John Sweeney ♥ Luke Bolton ♥ Chris Bolton Influence/Sounds Like Ben Kwellers, Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens, Bjork, The Grates, Zach Braff Footnotes [1] with The Panics [2] With Clare Bowditch

 

Whitley - I Remember

Whitley

Whitley is an emerging Australian independent artist on the same label (Dew Process) as hyperpop darlings The Grates. He released his debut album, 'The Submarine', earlier this year, and is playing in many of the folkier festivals of the upcoming Australian summer.

If Zach Braff ever comes across his music, he'll be on the soundtrack of a Gen-Y film about disconnection, off-beat humour and whimsical loneliness before you can say 'indie folk'. He has the slow hushed melodies and the acoustic sadness of the Ben Kwellers and Elliott Smiths of the music world. The buzz around him has been building slowly (he turned up, slightly inexplicably, in Australian Vogue, looking brooding with an owl on his shoulder), and 2008 may be his hallmark year, so discover him quickly so you can claim you were onto a big thing before everybody else.

His confidence is exemplified by his steady, sweetly muted remake of Bjork's intensely complex 'Hyperballad' for a compilation called 'No Man's Woman', which involved Australian male singers and bands covering songs which originally had female vocalists (Powderfinger, for instance, did Portishead's 'Glory Box'). You can find it on his Myspace page.

'I Remember' is my favourite track of his- like a pared-down Sufjan Stevens song, to be played when driving alone at night, or while staring pensively out the window at age twenty-five, wondering about the vagaries of life.

 11/16/2007 23:45:19  jennifer my♥posts myspace.com whitleymusic.com

LittleHorse

LittleHorse - I Want Your Love (Radio Edit) LittleHorse - Flight of the Bumblebee

Discography [2000] Perils and Thrills [2002] The Mission Before Us [Oct 2007] Strangers in the Valley Band Members ♥ Joachim "Yo" Horsley ♥ E Horsle

LittleHorse bill themselves as 'America's only double-piano rock band', but I like Boston Globe's assessment better: 'Manhattan Transfer duelling with Queen in the Latin Quarter'. Comprised of two New York brothers, E and Jo 'Yo' Horsley, LittleHorse combines truly impressive piano playing (their duelling version of Flight Of The Bumblebees, deserves your time, if for the passive-aggressive janitor alone) with a really eclectic, boogie-woogie sensibility. And yes, there is a lot of piano involved. Think something you'd find in a cool honky-tonky dive bar- the occasional trumpets, a Latin/cabaret flavour and shades of Ben Folds or Billy Joel on the ivories, with elements of Yes and Jellyfish to taste. Plus they take song inspiration from places like Sherlock Holmes, Bonnie & Clyde and Star Wars- 'I Want Your Love' is based loosely on the Odyssey. It's bouncy melodic rock which doesn't take itself seriously.

They've just released a new album, Strangers In The Valley, available through iTunes and CDBaby, but beyond the release concert for that in October, concert dates appear to be thin on the ground, which is a pity. Sometimes you just get the feeling that a band would be good live, and this is one of those times- despite the problems that would probably come from touring with two pianos.

Official site: www.LittleHorse.net
Myspace: myspace.com/littlehorseband
Buy their album on iTunes

 11/09/2007 19:34:53  jennifer my♥posts