April

Randolph’s Leap

Deaf School

The Turning

Model Aeroplanes

Short break for food!

Weirds

Cast

Rae Morris

I’m going to put this out there right at the start, Peur are the first band I’ve been this excited about for ages. So this isn’t going to be just the average EP review, I’m going to be looking at some of their other tracks and making some recommendations as a way into Peur.

Let’s get the formalities out of the way. The band are from Manchester and formed in 2013, They are Joe Lomax (guitar/vocals), Ryan Greenhalgh (bass) and Sam Tempest (percussion). Peur is the French word for fear – in case you’re interested.

So the band say their influences are as wide ranging as Biffy Clyro, Muse, 30 Seconds to Mars and Placebo, the extremes of Industrial legends Nine Inch Nails, and include Post Rock bands such as 65daysofstatic and This Will Destroy You. Well yes, but let’s throw some other stuff into the mix – blues rock, Hawkwind, synth pop, possibly 80s’ rock bands like Y&T and… Prog.

Yes, I said Prog. When I first did that ‘do I want to review this?’ listen my first thought was this sounds a bit like the rockier end of The New Wave of British Prog – specifically 80s period IQ – and New Prog – including (now that they have ‘come out’ as a Prog band) Muse. I don’t want you to think this means that Peur’s music is self-indulgent, it isn’t. I want you to think of Peur as progressive music – in other words music that is new and inventive. They’ve taken a lot of ingredients and produced something that is uniquely their own sound.

The band are tighter than a tight thing and when they lock into a riff it’s awesome. Think Foofighters if you really need a touchstone. But when they are not riffing the music is incredibly dynamic, complex and, I can think of no other way of saying this, ‘crafted and arranged’. But I hear you say ‘this all sounds a bit cold and emotionless’, but let me assure you, it’s most definitely not. There’s an epic brooding darkness in Peur’s music.

So first the ‘Future Architects’ EP. The band describe it as a ‘collection of sounds’ and even provide a seamless stream of the five ‘sections’ (hmm sounds a little prog-ish don’t you think?).

The absolute stand-out track (or section if you’re listening to the full stream) is ‘Hollow Skies’. This is introduced by a menacing drone and then gives way to a chiming riff. And then there’s the frankly terrifying open lines –

‘Show me your scars
So I can see the blood
You’re not fooling anyone, my dear’

There’s an audible pain in Joe’s voice that just grabs you. There’s a darkness in this song, a brooding menace. This piece of music has more ideas than some bands have in a whole album – it has riffs, it has stand-out guitar and brilliant vocals. The intake of breath at the end just left me wanting more.

The other must-mention is ‘Explosions’. Riff heavy, with an absolutely brilliant vocal – it simply soars. Again there’s that darkness in the lyrics. I have to say that I have no idea what this song is about – there’s a woman who seems to be key, ‘she looks so innocent, so innocent, she shines with explosions’ and there’s a ‘broken man’ and ‘we’re praying for another outcome’ – but quite how these fit together I can’t work out. Does this matter? Not a bloody bit. Play loud and on repeat.

The other tracks are just as good, the only reason I’ve not going to cover them in detail is that I want you to discover them for yourself.

The EP can be purchased from Bandcamp and SoundCloud, as can their other music.

So now let’s take a trip to the band’s SoundCloud site (the link is below). Having spent quite some time here myself, and probably bored those close to me with ‘just listen to this…it’s wonderful’, can I recommend you go straight to ‘Grey Blood’ (from the band’s first EP ‘We Can Build Astronauts’). This is built round an intro that sounds quite a lot like a blues-rock thing and builds into a full on rock thing and then what the bloody hell, that’s a harmonica. And that’s a 70s’ guitar freak out. It shouldn’t work but it does, because it’s just… oh just listen to it yourself.

You may have noticed that’s there a live cover of ‘House of the Rising Sun’, and you’re probably thinking that’s quite a risk for a band that describe themselves as alternative rock. Well yes, but here is the most inventive cover of this song I’ve heard in years. Joe gives us a blues holler over something that is, well it’s difficult to describe really… There’s a basis in blues but at times it goes into something that’s frankly fuzz-laden noise.

‘Pursued by Bears’ uses that ‘tuning a radio intro’ before hitting us full and hard in the face. This is a guitar heavy and heavy track musically, but the vocals at times remind me of Depeche Mode. Not early Depeche Mode, but the later dark Depeche Mode. Again it’s the ‘this shouldn’t work but it does’ element at work here.

We’re in Hawkwind territory with a strange spoken section in ‘Empires’ – a song which appears to be about a relationship at the start but turns into something else completely. As far as I can work out the spoken section appears to have a green message so I’m guessing the song is about our relationship with the earth. But I may be way off. All that aside, this is the just the most glorious thing, even if it’s difficult to work out what’s it’s about.

For a band that only formed at the beginning of 2013 what Peur are doing now is something that is just so impressive that it leaves you wondering where they can go in the future. I, for one, will be looking forward to that.

Peur on Bandcamp: https://peurofficial.bandcamp.com/music
Peur’s website: http://www.peurofficial.com/#futurearchitects
Peur on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeurOfficial

Friday

The first performance I caught was the tail end of Apollo Junction’s set. This band, from Leeds, play what I can only describe as melodic electro indie. This was a great start, easing us in to the day. For me Apollo Junction’s most effective tracks were their slower material, and, judging by the crowd’s reaction, they agreed.

I’d heard of The Turning but never heard anything by them. I was impressed by their R’n’B influenced indie with a raw edge that was really exciting. The standout tracks for me were a spirited cover of ‘Ever Fallen in Love?’ and their new single ‘Groundhog Day’ – which was slightly more melodic than their other material. But overall I enjoyed them.

My notes for Model Aeroplanes are somewhat garbled because I enjoyed their lively set – and got completely caught up in it. They played indie rock but were happy to throw an almost funk guitar into one of their tracks, and added a math-rock riff into another. I had a word with a couple of audience members and they, like me, had noted the singer’s vocals were “quite strange in places” but we agreed that this really worked. They also really liked that the band didn’t just play “indie rock cliche”.

Weirds, from Leeds, were outstanding. The is ultra heavy fuzz laden psych rock. At times they came across like a fusion between Hawkwind and The Prodigy – certainly not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. This was a full-on and committed performance – you gotta love a band whose singer and guitarist join the crowd whilst singing and playing. Weirds were the first big discovery of the festival for me and I’ll be trying to catch them live in the future.

One of the reasons I’d agreed to cover Bingley was the Friday Discovery Stage headliner Rae Morris (I’m a fan so don’t expect any objective opinions!). Rae was playing against the Main Stage headliner James so it was surprising that it was so packed out for her set.

Not having seen her live before I didn’t really know what to expect. Rae spends most of the time standing behind a keyboard, rather than ‘putting on a performance’ so the music better be good. No worries, what we got was perfect soaring ethereal vocals, and a really tight band. As this was a festival set she stuck mainly to the better known material. The stand-out track – at least for me – was ‘Don’t Go’ (her single released to raise awareness of breast cancer). But to be honest, the whole set was fantastic. Rae held us spellbound.

Saturday

Opening act on the main stage, Nervous ‘Orse (from Bradford), played to a small but dedicated audience, who seemed to know all the songs. Their fans included one guy dressed as a horse (who unfortunately didn’t want to photographed). Those of you who missed this band missed an uplifting set of country, rock ‘n’ roll and folk influenced songs that were just perfect for a sunny day.

The first act I caught on the Discovery Stage were Clubs. Their music is basically chiming melodic alternative rock you can dance to. A couple of the audience I spoke to, found the vocals ”a bit shouty” in the early part of their set. The second half of their set came together and I found myself liking their stuff. My standout track was ‘Porcelain’, but I was getting hungry at that point so can’t remember why.

Next up on the Discovery Stage were April who have a bit of that psychy Primal Scream/Charlatans vibe to them. I liked their set but at times I found myself wanting a bit more of the melody to shine through. One of my standout tracks was ‘Ten Miles High’ which had some pretty complex interlocking guitar parts, although you could, if you were being picky describe it as little ‘psych by numbers’. I also really liked a track called ‘We Could Be’ (or something like that) which gave me that melodic thing I’d been craving from them. Overall I found myself partial to April – their sound is joyous. I’ve also got to mention that later in the day the band passed me while I was sitting on the hillside above the main stage, and their guitarist took time out to say that he’d seen me watching their set, and asked me what I thought of it. A nice touch that.

I loved Randolph’s Leap, the next band up on the Discovery Stage. This was truly good-times music – wonderful tunes and bubbly vibes. My immediate thought was ‘this is like crossing Aztec Camera and The Divine Comedy’ – they have that same witty song thing going on. And they’re a band who know how to have fun on stage.

This is a big band – you have to go a long way away from stage to get them all into a photo – that features a trumpet, trombone and violin in addition to guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. Their whole set was outstanding but if I had to pick out two songs it would be ‘Cherry Blossom’ (“You are a cherry blossom, a microcosm” – yes really) which was truly exhilarating, and ‘I Can’t Dance to This Music’, a witty take on a relationship that isn’t working. They’re from Glasgow but should they play down this way again I’d recommend you catch them.

Over on the main stage I caught Funeral for a Friend. I’ve never been a fan before but I was won over unexpectedly. After all any band that encourages circle pits and then tells people ‘to pick anyone up who falls over’ has to be cool, right? The music is heavy alternative rock that, to be honest, borders on heavy rock at times. But live it’s powerful, and the band are fully committed to playing it well. They really work at winning the audience over, as well as pleasing their fans. Which was definitely working, because there were a lot a people moving down towards the stage during their set to get a better look. FfaF went down a storm.

The crowds started moving early into the main stage area for Carl Barat & The Jackals. With 15 minutes to go it was crammed. I’ve got to be honest that they’re really not my sort of thing (I never particularly liked the Libertines) so I can only judge on the audience’s reaction – smiles all around – so I’m guessing that they were pretty happy with the set.

Back at the Discovery Stage, Meadowlark fulfilled my need for a little chill-out time. I really liked their brand of smooth piano heavy electro-pop with a sort of pastoral vibe. I really need to highlight the vocals here which were wonderful. It was all just so relaxing and laid back, even a song they announced as their ‘dance track’. Towards the end of the set it got a bit louder but it was still in that relaxed vibe. Their all too short set was just what we all needed. Another BML discovery for me.

I’m finding it hard to sum up Pixel Fix’s sound, so here’s some responses I wrote at the time – ‘electro-pop with an indie edge’, ‘that’s a bit Radiohead in epic mode’ and ‘that’s a lot of sound effects layers’. For me I found the sound they produced impressive technically, but it was missing a ‘certain something’. There were hints of something special but I felt they needed a bit more time to develop. What was interesting was, that when the singer put his guitar down, the songs got a whole lot more driving and powerful. Perhaps something they could build on there?

I got chatting to someone about Pixel Fix’s set and he felt that “they were probably one of those bands you’re not impressed with at first listen, but after a few more listens you could get really into them”. He may be right, but I’m going to mark them as one to reassess in the future.

The Discovery Stage Saturday headliners Deaf School were the other reason I’d agreed to cover Bingley. This is band I listened to ‘way back when’ but never managed to get to see. My anticipation level was high, but I had that concern that after all this time they’d be shadows of their former selves.

I think it’s appropriate to include something about the band here because when I told people I was getting excited about seeing them before the festival, the usual response was ‘never heard of them’. So here goes – Deaf School are an art rock/new wave band, formed in Liverpool in 1973. Between 1976 and 1978 they recorded three albums for the Warner Brothers label, in an art rock style that had its roots in cabaret. The band split in 1978 but have since been recognised as an important influence on many British musicians. Nearly all its members went on to enjoy successful careers afterwards, notably guitarist Clive Langer, who produced Madness and Dexys Midnight Runners. He also co-wrote (with Elvis Costello) the song ‘Shipbuilding’. However the band have regularly continued to get together for live shows, and released a new album this year. Lesson over.

So was I disappointed? Absolutely not! This was no lacklustre going-through-the-motions performance – this was a full-on show. They play songs that are rooted in doo-wop, rock ‘n’ roll, new wave and cabaret, but there’s a performance for each song, a story acted out. On the songs where there’s no story there’s that ‘we know this is a performance, and we know that you know it’s a performance’ thing going on. And musically the band are tight, they rock. The vocals of Bette Bright and Enrico Cadillac Jnr (not their real names obviously) are very strong, and you can’t fault the playing. Frankly there are younger bands who could learn a thing or two about performance from Deaf School.

The packed crowd, of all ages, loved them. A fine end to the day, I left happy and smiling.

This eponymous debut album by False Advertising, Manchester’s contemporary answer to late-era Pixies and Seattle style early ’90s grunging, is loudly inviting, packs a sonic punch, and features some crafted and well-honed song writing.

Strong lyrical delivery is provided by Jen Hingley with her powerful voice, and sometimes Chris Warr also takes lead, with Jen acting as his backing. The third member of the trio, Josh Sellers, lays down a nice line of fluid, meandering but synchronous bass lines, providing the foundation over which fuzzed-up hammering chords are thrown at – and over – you.

Drumming duties are shared between Jen and Chris, and they both provide crisp, nicely sparse rhythm that doesn’t drown out the fuzz, but counterpoints it beautifully. All the tracks are well structured, coherent and very tight, perhaps surprisingly so for a band that only made their live debut in April of this year. The songs have been longer in the making though, and you can tell that this is a band that have definitely rehearsed their noise and song writing muscles before they started twiddling with knobs in the studio.

It’s a self-produced album. Chris Warr has previous form in this area, manning the desk for The Orielles – and this shows. ‘False Advertising’ is well produced, with all elements loud yet sharp, and blended well so the craft of the songs and musicianship shines through. First listening left me wanting to go back, and this album grew on me every subsequent time I got my ears round the tracks. This is because, as well as nodding to the grungemeisters of my youth it flirts at times with more contemporary threads, which is refreshing. And means that it’s not about rehashing of ancient gods in new guises.

The tracks on this album aren’t all noise and fury. Most bracket calmer, quieter interludes nicely spread as breaks, around chorus and verses alike. There’s no identikit composing here! The stand out tracks for me are ‘All Of The Above’, ‘No Good’, ‘Only Way’ and ‘Something Better’. I also liked the frenetic driving narrative of ‘Dozer’. There aren’t really any weak tracks though, and my selection of the above is just personal taste and previous influence shining through. To me it’s at heart a proper album of 11 jagged and throat-grabbing songs that sound great, go somewhere and do something. Let’s hope that bands like this can do something to resuscitate the flagging heart of album craft.

I would recommend you go and see them if you like loud, meaningful guitar, a grunged up approach, and still worship at the altars of Santiago, Frank Black and Cobain. They’ve got a trio of forthcoming gigs in Manchester – and they deserve to be well supported, on the back of this excellent first release.

The album can be purchased from BandCamp, iTunes and Google Play.

http://www.rdio.com/artist/False_Advertising/album/False_Advertising/

False Advertising on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/falseadv
False Advertising on the web: http://www.falseadvertising.co/

Upcoming gigs

• 19th September – Academy 3, Manchester
• 21st November – Deaf Institute, Manchester

Jekyll are four young lads from Blackpool that form a tight-knit and highly competent alternative rock outfit. They play with their hearts and guts akimbo, and a fire rising in eyes and bellies, all topped with honed technique in their fingertips.

They made great use of their penultimate half-hour slot in this local showcase night, filling it with aplomb, shooting six searing bolts of song into the lacuna. They also chucked in a few skilful reprises of their tunes in between songs that kept the crowd involved, this old git engaged and everyone’s eardrums got a good old thumping.

The first thing to say of them is that if you dig Muse (which I do, a bit), then you’ll certainly dig these guys. However, they offer a bit more than that, otherwise I’d have got bored and that certainly didn’t happen. They opened their set with a balanced, thumping, heavy, driving, feedback infused sophistry entitled ‘Tantrum’. It delivered the energy and feisty verve of its title.

Their next track, ‘Cramp’, played with arcs of repeating, jagged chords and lead overlays, remained Muse-esque, but I detected hints of The Fall in there and little scraps of early Radiohead. It was skilfully rendered, tight and together. This unit are obviously incredibly well rehearsed, intuitively playing together and bouncing off each other’s technique and styles to create a synchronous mash of noise with all its individual elements easy to hear, discern and enjoy.

Their third track ‘Othello’ continued the thumping theme but also had pleasant, delicate, jangly interludes straight out of the indie shoegazers songbook. Next came ‘The Wounds We’ve Ignored’, a track I’d heard before I went to see them, from their live BBC Radio Lancashire sessions (check them out on SoundCloud – well worth a listen). It started as a slow and delicate bud, flowering eventually as a rousing, hard-faced crescendo of finely crafted racket cut out of chopped staccato chords. There’s as much Metallica as Muse in them at times (especially when they play their reprise interludes between songs).

One such interlude took us into their penultimate track, ‘Eager To Please’, which featured a surprisingly sweet, mellifluous Garage-Pop style chorus, shoehorned well in amongst the more frenetic parts of the tune. They packed in more technically masterful, shimmering shouting noise with their last offering, ‘You Bled Me Dry’. This featured a beautifully intricate bassline and driving percussion submerged in a squealing soup of intricately delivered guitar noise. A nice touch was the use of a child’s death-ray space gun raked over the guitar strings by Johnny Chatterton, with a flashing lit barrel, generating a weird but fascinating noise amongst the feedback and rhythm section’s work. It was a nice visual, jokey, spacey rock and roll moment.

Vocalist and guitarist Joel Foster has a great rock voice, imagine Mark Almond fused with Thom Yorke if you can, and when he screams, boy can he holler and raise the energy and power of their tunes. Liam Singleton is an accomplished and tight, stylish drummer who obviously enjoys a close synchrony with bassist Lewis Armistead. They give a foundation stone to build on that many more famous and feted bands would envy.

I hope these guys continue playing together, develop their songcraft and continue to attract attention. I’ve seen many worse bands who’ve been signed to labels, and wish them luck in their budding musical career. If I had any advice for them it would be to concentrate on their stagecraft a bit, and play out to an audience rather than to each other, which only stems from the fact that they are so well rehearsed. If they can develop their songs to move away a tad from Muse-themed homage and towards more classical influences such as say, The Velvet Underground or The Stooges, then there will be no stopping them. As they stand now they are a good rock and roll outfit that entertain, fill a room with keen percussive noise and are well worth seeing and listening to. Keep up the good work fellas.