Filed under: EP, album, review | Tags: 2009, claire robinson, kittie, listen with sarah, lucy brouwer, mark goldby, music, the kiara elles
In part three of this month’s roundup, we take a look at the new EP from Leeds band The Kiara Elles, the latest album from longrunning metal group Kittie and immerse ourselves in the brilliantly twisted world of Listen With Sarah.
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The Kiara Elles
Odio EP •••
Vandal
This spiky five-piece band from Leeds takes its unusual handle from a corruption of the name of lead singer Chiara Lucchini. Produced by Choque Hosein (formerly of Black Star Liner, now boss of Leeds label Vandal), the Odio EP delivers a straight up new-wave sound buoyed by Lucchini’s distinctive Yorkshire-accented vocals and a Slits-punk attitude. These qualities are best personified on the title track, its insistent beat and “shouting at the stereo” refrain making it a non-ska little sister of The Selecter’s ‘On My Radio’.
Filed under: EP, album, review | Tags: 2009, alan pedder, bebel gilberto, charlotte richardson andrews, julie doiron, lucy brouwer, music, shona foster
A little later than usual this month, here’s a little roundup of some of the releases we didn’t get time to review in full over the last 6 weeks. In this first of four parts, we take a look at Julie Doiron’s latest side venture, a folk trio called Daniel, Fred & Julie, plus new releases from Shona Foster and Bebel Gilberto.
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Daniel, Fred & Julie
Daniel, Fred & Julie •••½
You’ve Changed
Arriving without fanfare of any kind, this latest venture from Canadian indie icon Julie Doiron is a sweet and entirely unpretentious album of traditional and trad-leaning folk. With Attack In Black’s Dan Romano and her regular musical cohort Fred Squire playing the Peter and Paul to Doiron’s Mary Travers, this 10-track album was recorded off the cuff in Doiron’s garage in August and has been available at recent live shows as a covetable 10” vinyl. Vocal duties are split equitably between the three musicians, and given the unrehearsed, spontaneous nature of these acoustic recordings, are just as beautifully arranged on instinct as they could have been with more planning.
Filed under: EP, review | Tags: 2009, alela diane, alina hardin, charlotte richardson andrews, music
Alela Diane featuring Alina Hardin
Alela & Alina EP ••••
Family
Having been consistently praised both by Wears The Trousers and by seemingly all other reputable sources, Alela Diane really needs no introduction. This year’s To Be Still has seen the folk star recording and touring with a full band – very much a family affair with her boyfriend on bass and father on guitar – giving the stripped back, haunting folk of 2007’s re-released The Pirate’s Gospel a fuller sound, easing more comfortably into the Americana aspects of her work. While her recent (and overdue) performance on ‘Later…with Jools Holland’ last month covered material from this third opus, attention surrounding the Alela & Alina EP has been eager to say the least, owing in part to its collaborative nature with newcomer Alina Hardin, who has been accompanying Diane on tours for some time now.
Their pairing has its roots in their hometown of Nevada City, where Alela attended school with Hardin’s older sister. Years on, as Diane recently divulged in an interview with us, a very demure Hardin approached her with some songs she’d penned, efforts which won the artist over immediately. She began her work with Alela as a touring backup singer, but Hardin’s voice complimented the headliner’s so well that each show found her stepping closer to stage centre, a timid walk that eventually culminated in this six-song EP, a blend of covers, collaborations and solo-scored numbers by both women. The result is an absolute pleasure, tailoring the skills of both the established star and her fledgling counterpart into a seamless, complementary blend of fresh folk magic.
Filed under: EP, review | Tags: 2009, matt barton, music, whispertown 2000
The Whispertown 2000
Done With Love EP ••½
Acony
Buoyed by the critical praise for their second album Swim, their debut UK release, The Whispertown 2000 follow it up with a six-song vinyl-only EP (available as a four-song download) that ultimately works better viewed as a bonus for existing fans rather than as an introduction to the band. Perhaps best known as a support act for such indie luminaries as Bright Eyes and Jenny Lewis, the quartet comprising Morgan Nagler (vocals, guitar), Vanessa Corbala (drums, vocals), Tod Adrian Wisenbaker (guitar, drums), and Casey Holden Wisenbaker (bass, guitar, drums) have slowly been building a devoted fanbase for their quirky acoustic-based musings, but the Done With Love EP is unlikely to stir up much excitement in a first-time listener.
Filed under: EP, album, review | Tags: 2009, boh runga, katherine stanton, madison violet, madviolet, music, noveller, rhian jones, sarah lipstate, tiffany daniels
Part four of the August roundup looks at the third album from Canadian duo Madison Violet, the debut album from Brooklyn-based experimental artist Noveller and New Zealand star Boh Runga’s solo debut.
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Madison Violet
No Fool For Trying •••
True North
After two albums as abbreviated outfit Madviolet, Canadian duo Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac have opted to go by this new name for their latest effort, No Fool For Trying. A soothing, country soundtrack designed to alternately wallow in and alleviate heartbreak, it’s a small swerve away from the more alt-country stylings of 2006’s Caravan, just enough to edge them off the gravel road and onto an altogether smoother surface.
Filed under: EP, album, review | Tags: 2009, alan pedder, catherine ireton, god help the girl, gwyneth herbert, katherine stanton, lynhurst, music, tiffany daniels
Part 3 of the August roundup looks at the latest product of Stuart Murdoch’s God Help The Girl project, Gwyneth Herbert’s stunning fourth album, and a disappointing debut from US sibling trio Lynhurst.
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God Help The Girl
Stills EP •••
Rough Trade
God Help The Girl is a musical project masterminded by Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, who has sought the help of some notable female musicians to embody a story set to music. The songs featured on the Stills EP and June’s self-titled album were originally recorded for a cinematic short, due for release in 2010, but have since adopted a character of their own. This five-track collection starts as you might expect a New York cabaret show to begin, with the feathered flourishes, bombastic brass and crooning vocals of ‘I’m In Love With The City’ deftly introducing the project’s star attraction, lead vocalist Catherine Ireton. (No stranger to Murdoch’s work, she popped up on the artwork for Belle & Sebastian single ‘The White Collar Boy’.)
Filed under: EP, album, review | Tags: 2009, all the fires, amiina, anja mccloskey, annie and the beekeepers, charlotte richardson andrews, claire robinson, music
In this first part of our monthly roundup of releases we didn’t get time to review in full over the last four weeks, we take a look at some great releases from All The Fires, Amiina and Annie & The Beekeepers.
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All The Fires
‘The Map’ EP ••••
Hobo
Orchestral folk-pop may not be one of music’s most recognisably innovative forms, but don’t equate that with an inability to stir and provoke. Mirroring the famous Korzybski philosophy from which this EP derives its name – “the map is not the territory” – this six-piece band from Falmouth in Cornwall arrive with this debut release to prove once again that genre abstractions can be sorely misleading. All The Fires are a talented bunch who construct often mysterious tales rich in layered three-part harmonies from singers Rosalie James, Kathryn Williams (not the one from Newcastle) and Matthew Dixon, scattering vibrant natural imagery and literary references among them. The Cornish air has clearly got into their heads and blown away any cobwebs as these five tracks all display an impressive clarity and uncommon grace.
Filed under: EP, review | Tags: 2009, alan pedder, julie baenziger, music, sea of bees
Sea Of Bees
Bee Eee Pee •••½
Digisquad
This debut release from Sacramento, California resident Julie Baenziger was never meant to reach our ears – at least, we’re told, not in its current form. Having been given just 15 minutes’ instruction in the dark arts of ProTools by producer John Baccigaluppi, Baenziger was left to her own devices for 48 hours to lay down some demos for her debut album, only to dazzle her teacher with the results when he returned: five roadworthy songs that conspired to form an EP in pretty much the order in which they were recorded, with only slight remixing by Baccigaluppi.
Filed under: EP, review, video | Tags: 2009, emmy the great, music, richard steele
Emmy The Great
Edward EP (First Songs) ••••
Close Harbour
Coming so soon after her long awaited, but for some disappointing, debut album earlier this year, you’d be forgiven for thinking this EP of early material could be the result of Emma-Lee Moss scraping the barrel. However, the Edward EP (First Songs) is more of a thank you to the diehard fans who requested these previously unreleased songs on her recent UK tour. This is very much a fan-friendly release, with just 500 12” EPs being pressed, a handful even coming with a 16-page fictional tour diary penned by Miss The Great herself. Perhaps trying to justify what might be seen as a step backwards to those less acquainted with her back catalogue, Moss has leaned on a legend’s words of wisdom, saying “Siouxsie Sioux once said that when she sings her old songs she recognises that they were naïve, but she stands by them, and I feel the same way.” The songs on the Edward EP are certainly naïve and whimsical, but they have an immediacy lacking on much of First Love. Themes of loss and death run throughout its four tracks and help underpin her trademark humour nicely.
Filed under: EP, album, review | Tags: 2009, alisha mann, anna claxton, charlotte richardson andrews, claire robinson, kissing cousins, liechtenstein, music
Kissing Cousins
Pillar Of Salt •••½
Velvet Blue Music
Tantalizingly self-described as “all female sepulchral counter-pop”, the Kissing Cousins quintet took their name as a sarcastic nod to preconceived notions about the Deep South, with lead singer Heather Heywood’s very unusual childhood informing their music. Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama with her charismatic Pentecostal preacher father leading a largely poor, black congregation meant an education in “soulful and woeful music”, not to mention the trauma of regular exorcisms, these unusual experiences left Heywood with a “wounded spirituality” and a certain amount of disillusionment that she funnels passionately into Kissing Cousins.
