Review of EP released by Belfast band Yes Cadets

Cluas Snapshot: Fused pop, rock n roll, art house synthesisers & jumpy vocals make YES CADETS potential darlings of the UK music scene this year. The songs are snappy, catchy and the melodies delicious. YES CADETS are going to be big. Fast.

Cluas Verdict? 9/10

Full Review: YES CADETS formed in Belfast in 2008. Only a year in and they have on their hands a belter of an EP to flaunt their wares with. First things first, YES CADETS are not about ground breaking new styles of music. Make no mistake, there are elements of everyone from Franz Ferdinand to Gary Numan in here. The key thing for this reviewer is that the songs are quality. The EP has five tracks, and any of them could make the radio as a single.

Opener “Rufio” is bouncing, and infectious. Sweeping synth, constant drumming and a pop vocal that drags the listener in, it’s excellent. Lead single “Canada” continues in the same vein. Nice choppy guitar and synth intro swamped with sweet jumping vocals. It’s a constant beat, and addictive. “Burial/Tongues” is a little more early eighties but with the same synthesised pop intent. “Fashionista Art Party” has all the clever bouncing vocals and melodies that would make Franz Ferdinand jealous. It’s catchy, tight and brilliant. “H.O.T” finishes off the EP in style.

The true depth and mettle of YES CADETS will be tested with a long player release. However on these 4 tracks, they have achieved more than some acts manage in twenty. It’s vibrant, exciting altogether pleasurable stuff indeed.

Kevin Coleman

More ...

[Read more...]

Way to Blue - The Songs of Nick Drake (live in the Barbican Theatre, London) Review Snapshot: Curated by Joe Boyd, various musicians gather to pay tribute to Drakes unique songwriting. ...

[Read more...]

MIDEM, the annual global convention for the music industry, takes place this Sunday to Wednesday (24-27 January) in Cannes on the French Riviera. The major players in the business will gather for conferences and workshops on subjects such as digital media, artist management and various aspects of law - you can download the conference programme (pdf, 2 Mo) and list of speakers (pdf, 9 Mo) for more information.

The MIDEM 2010 site also currently features a 2-part video interview with Ed O'Brien of Radiohead which is worth checking out. (Unfortunately, the page title at the very top of the screen calls him 'Dan O'Brien'.)

Music From Ireland, the body that promotes Irish music at such international events, will be in Cannes for MIDEM - they'll be sharing a stand with IMRO and distributing an excellent 20-track CD of Irish music featuring Villagers, Dark Room Notes, Adebisi Shank, Super Extra Bonus Party, O Emperor and more. You can listen to the compilation online at the Music From Ireland website.

If they have time in between conferences and networking, the attendees will also be listening to live music - MIDEM features its own exclusive programme of concerts (pdf, 0.9 Mo).

Were we being sensationalist, we could suppose that these are the anointed acts from which the execs and whizz-kids will cook up the ad soundtracks and corporate tie-ins and carefully-crafted buzzes of 2010. In any case, MIDEM is an ideal showcase for any act with ambitions of world domination, however fleeting. So, who's playing at MIDEM 2010?

Only one Irish artist is on the bill. Lisa Hannigan appears with her band in a showcase at the Carlton Hotel on Monday night. (She doesn't feature on the Music From Ireland compilation CD, though.)

There are several reasons for thinking that she'll be a hit at MIDEM. First, she's very good. Second, the programme notes mention her collaboration with Damien Rice - a ready-made media angle and sales pitch for the execs. ("If you liked Damo, you'll love..." and so forth.) Third and finally, in her photo in the programme (right) she looks stunning. Let's hope MIDEM is the start of a successful 2010 for the Meath lady.

The host country has a few familiar names. All-girl punk-poppers Plastiscines will be hoping to build on their US exposure to date, despite their awful second album. The Gallic retro-pop of Diving With Andy will charm anyone not scared off by the band's appalling name. (Your correspondent may yet run an English For Pop Music workshop at MIDEM 2011.) And we featured Toulouse's PacoVolume a long time ago - one good song ('Cookiemachine', like an acoustic Super Furry Animals track) and little else.

Anyone else you might know? Dreadlocked English singer-songer Newton Faulkner. Swiss chanteuse Sophie Hunger. And that's it for us - unless you follow featured countries Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

There's a MIDEM fringe - local Irish bar Morrison's is hosting a Canadian night on Tuesday 26 January. Fans of the maple-leaf music scene may be familiar with Jason Bajada, Matthew Barber, Danny Fernandes, Jully Black and Plants And Animals. Given the high quality of Canadian music in recent times, the plastic Irish pub looks like the place to be in Cannes this MIDEM-time.

But we're cheering on Lisa Hannigan here: g'wan Oirland! Here she is with a song named after a city at the opposite end of France from Cannes - 'Lille':

More ...

[Read more...]

Yes, I still live in the dark ages, emerging from my cave to run to the nearest music shop to buy the latest indie CD as opposed to downloading mp3’s. I just have to get the CD, with the booklet and plastic casing. I probably won’t ever get used to this modern music technology (temporarily ignore the fact I actually write for a music website) because mp3s just don’t seem real to me.

An issue I have with CDs is how deceptive they can be. You wander in to your nearest music shop, and you see the CD in the shop looking so endearing. You sample 1 or 2 songs - it’s amazing! But then you bring it home and all hell breaks loose when you realise it’s not what you thought it was, much like a drunken night in Bangkok, I’d imagine.

This is something I’m sure has happened to everyone at some stage (the decpetive albums, not Bangkok), not that it makes it any less irritating. Here are some prime examples:

Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
‘21 Guns’ was just about bearable before radio stations began playing it for every second of every day.  Admittedly I thought for the most part ‘American Idiot’ was pretty good, having loved their music from the release of ‘Nimrod’. So I somewhat reluctantly bought 21st Century Breakdown to find quite possibly the most boring and predictable CD of 2009 encased within its plastic shell. I actually can’t listen to this album anymore.

The Killers - Sam’s Town
Still a bit baffled as to why I bought this album in the first place, I’ve never really been a fan of The Killers. Well, I liked ‘When You Were Young’ and ‘Read My Mind’, but found that they were pretty much the only tolerable tracks on the whole album. I got caught up in the hype, only to realise this album is of about as much importance to me as a sock I lost when I was a toddler.

Jack Penate - Matinee
I bought this on the merits of ‘Second, Minute or Hour’ and ‘Torn On The Platform’.  Not the worst debut album I’ve ever heard, not the best either. I got my hopes up about this one expecting it to be packed full of catchy quirky indie music but instead it consisted of maybe 4 good songs and the rest seemed to be added filler just to make the collection of songs an actual album. Not all is lost though, I loved his latest album ‘Everything Is New’.

This is just a dip in the ocean, I could write about this for days. No really, I could. I don’t expect albums full of singles or amazing hooks, filler just irritates me in a way that can never be adequately expressed. Now, go and look at your CD collection or, for the really modern readers, iTunes library, and recall your disdain at purchasing that 30 Seconds to Mars album a few years ago. There’s a tenner you won’t see again!

More ...

[Read more...]

Pete Doherty (live in The Academy, Dublin) Review Snapshot: I didn’t expect him to show up. Nor indeed did I expect him to show up with two ballerinas in tow. But show up he did. He was...

[Read more...]

Cluas Snapshot: Warpsichord is the debut from electro, experimental London based musician Alan MX. It’s different, complicated, and really very good. Electronic, dance, and occasionally pop, it’s a fine record and one to surely pick up pace this year.

Cluas Verdict? 7.5/10

Full Review: “Warpsichord” is littered with catchy loops mixed with delicate melodies and what sounds like millions of layered samples of vocals, synths, guitars, lasers, effects and whatever else he could find. If it sounds all over the place, it’s probably because it is. However each track sounds like 4 minutes of chaos that somehow pulls together. What results more often than not is altogether a pleasure to listen to.

“Warpsichord”, “Cuckoos”, “The Captain America Video” and “Green Tea” are unforgettable. “Cuckoos” is fast paced with an orchestral overture that would not seem out of place in a James Bond themed movie tune. “Captain America Video” doesn’t disappoint either. It’s acoustic guitar driven melody is backed by a thumping percussion, it’s a winner. “Flesh Emergency” with its synthesised melody continues the impressive start to the record. “Green Tea” in this reviewer’s opinion is the best track on the album. It’s an acoustic guitar tune riddled with a relentless drum beat. It’s a piece of perfect modern pop music, the meandering vocals bounce along to the acoustic/percussion driven backdrop.

The record doesn’t take a dive from here but the true quality lies firmly in the first half. “Frank’s Monster” is forgettable, “Strange Bird”, a life lament with a nice orchestral feel is just, well nice. “Chinese Whispers” and “God Song” complete the collection.

So what’s the verdict? Well “Warpsichord”, “Cuckoos”, “The Captain America Video” and “Green Tea” are unforgettable. It’s hard to decide what kind of record this is with regard to genre. It seems to borrow from everything, pop to electronica, rock n roll to dance.

Overall it’s an impressive debut and conveys Alan MX as a potentially serious player. He is extremely talented. He certainly has an open mind, anything and everything can be heard at one point or another on the album. The first half is nothing short of brilliant. Unlike the real thing, the energy levels seem to decline on the album after “Green Tea”.

Kevin Coleman

• Listen for yourself at http://www.myspace.com/alanmx

 

More ...

[Read more...]

You might remember us telling you about Two Door Cinema Club when they toured around France last autumn. By now you know them well: plenty of daytime radio airplay and rave reviews have seen to that.

Well, the Co. Down trio (right) will be back in France this springtime: not once, not twice, but three times in two months! They're signed to achingly hip Paris label Kitsuné, so the bosses' backyard gets their special attention.

Joking aside, French radio has been playing them too - most notably C'est Lenoir, the excellent and much-loved indie music show on France Inter. (Presenter Bernard Lenoir always takes care to mention that Two Door Cinema Club are 'irlandais'. G'wan Oirland!) Added to that, their shows last year were as part of a tour organised by French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles, who naturally gave them great exposure. So, these three appearances should prove popular with French alt-music fans.

First up for Two Door Cinema Club in France this spring: a show on 24 February at the Nouveau Casino in Paris, a lovely little venue in the trendy Oberkampf district. We reckon it'll sell out or go close enough to doing so.

Then in March the lads fall in for the France/Benelux leg of the European tour by Phoenix. These two bands have a similar sound, so fans of the Versailles foursome may very well come away as fans of Two Door Cinema Club too. Those French dates for this tasty double-bill: 21 March in Dijon, 22 March at the Olympia in Paris, 23 March in Grenoble and 24 March in Nancy.

Finally, after a spin around Germany and Scandinavia, Two Door Cinema Club will return to France on 17 April for a slot at the Printemps de Bourges festival. (Where is Bourges? Almost in the dead centre of France, directly south of Paris.) They share that night's bill with another French group who have an indie-disco vibe, Pony Pony Run Run, plus top DJ Vitalic and one-hit-wonder DJ Mr Oizo (him of the 'Flat Eric' yellow puppet/jeans ad). Also appearing in Bourges are Iggy And The Stooges, Emilie Simon, Archive and Rodrigo y Gabriela.

So, Two Door Cinema Club look set for a successful 2010 in France. You should know this tune of theirs by now - 'Something Good Can Work':

More ...

[Read more...]

Okay, so I’m not exactly a fan of rap music. I like Eminem and Jay-Z. That’s about as far as my knowledge of rap music expands. Surprise, surprise - I’m more partial to rock and indie music. However, when searching through linking MySpace profiles in a daze a few months ago I stumbled across London rapper Plan B’s profile.

The first track I heard was ‘End Credits’ which features the electro duo Chase & Status. It’s the theme track to the recently released film ‘Harry Brown’ and is so, so catchy. Not to the stage of irritancy, more appreciation of it’s brilliance.  Here’s a taste of how great the lyrics are: “When the blood dries in my veins/and my heart feels no more pain/I know I’ll be on my way to heaven’s gate.” And that’s only a snapshot, ‘End Credits’ is without a doubt one of  my favourite songs of 2009.

The video is also an intriguing affair. As expected, it features footage from the film Harry Brown (which, judging by the footage in the music video, is probably pretty good), with Plan B appearing in various different situations, one being in a police interview room and another in a pub surrounded by people who’ve been killed. At one stage he even levitates (yes, I know). If you look closely, Cook from Skins also makes an appearance!

As for his most recent single ‘Stay Too Long’, well, the jury’s still out on that one. Not really sure what to make of it. In the mean time feast your eyes and reward your ears by watching the video for ‘End Credits’.

More ...

[Read more...]

For reasons we don't need to dwell on, Franco-Irish relations took a bit of a dive at the end of last year. Croissant boycotts, au pair punishment beatings, burning effigies of Gérard Depardieu - just some of the violent Dublin street scenes broadcast around the world.

Thankfully, this is all behind us now - French people can feel safe to visit Ireland again. Here's the first Gallic band to play in Ireland this decade.

The Feeling Of Love (right) are a trio from the eastern French region of Alsace. (Yes, that means they are Alsatians.) As you might have guessed, the name is ironic - they make squally, shouty Stooges/VU-style alt-rock with a hint of electro. What you lose in whistleable tunes, you gain in having your brains rocked out. Sounds like a fair deal.

To date, The Feeling Of Love have released one album, 'Petite Tu Es Un Hit', and a plethora of singles and EPs, with a second album due out in February. Of their songs, we like 'Handclap Girl' and the intriguingly-named 'Dad = Eat/Mum = Die' and 'Fat Bottom Against Fat Bottom'.

You can see them in Dublin on 13 February at Twisted Pepper as part of the Bodytonic series of shows. According to this plug on the CLUAS discussion board, tickets are only €5, which is excellent value for what seems like a great live band. (Hopefully there isn't an obligatory €10 pint inside.)

Check out some of their tunes at The Feeling Of Love's MySpace page. For a taste of their live show, here they are onstage in Freiburg playing 'Night Cold Dance':

More ...

[Read more...]

A review of the album 'Teen Dream' by Beach House Review Snapshot: Beach House's third album is a full of gentle melodies, rich in Autumn tones, and heavy on&n...

[Read more...]