Melting Ice Caps ‘between eros and agape’ (odd box). Causing the rare advent of fanfare plays in our gaff was a brief email from David Shah alerting us to the 6th free to download release from the Melting Ice Caps this time via those nice people over at odd box records. Of course regular observers of these pages will be all to familiar of our undeterred fondness for the Melting Ice Caps courtesy of their regular visitations to these humbled pages, since the disbanding of Luxembourg Mr Shah has retired to his solitary workbench to tinker and craft a pop dialect brushed affectionately with a disarming aura that’s drizzled with a shy eyed candy pop fixated glow that stirs forth with an informed sparsely calibrated DIY grasp of the deceptively catchy mechanics of such esteemed souls as Bacharach / Divine Comedy and Brigadier. ’between eros and agape’ re-affirms the point, a beautifully bitter sweet slice of baroque pop framed within a desirably tasty push pull dynamic that all at once lilts, stings and caresses and one we strongly suspect acting as a perfect consolatory arm around the shoulder for all those of you who’ve been heartbroken and forgotten by the unforgiving cruel hand of loves dark side. As is the case with us and just to be awkward we here are much smitten by the flip cut ‘nobody’s leaving’ - again more tear stained torn and tormented pop prettiness softly bathed amid a twinkling procession of harpsichords and swooning strings arrangements and revealing the delicately mellowed sugar rush as were of a seriously pared down Left Banke swapping notes with a numbed and crushed Walker Brothers albeit relocated to a Mancunian bedroom where sits the mirthless misery Morrissey pining out his penned heart hollowed kitchen sink dramas. Did we forget to mention the loosely traced ‘macArthur Park’ accents. Indeed that good. www.oddboxrecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/skyarchitects - by all accounts currently unsigned though that shouldn’t stay the case for very much longer, Denmark’s Sky Architects describe their sound puzzlingly as ‘David Hasselhoff with a banjo and bottle of wine’ which aside being a slightly off putting image in the first place not warranting you’d think any great hope or indeed attraction in surveying the sounds within, also has the unerring knack for somewhat deflecting away from and playing down the bands innate grasp of the epic and the grand. Two cuts featuring here reveal a collective mindset capable in the craft of the bruised and the beautiful, the serene and the seismic and the tender and the turbulent, in ’sand castles’ they have a forlornly off centred and head bowed gem in the making, primed and executed with a witheringly emotional scarring underlay that’s pitted with a heart heavy atmospheric ache that occasionally fractures and fragments to the will of the bleached and blistered emergence of sky piercing flotillas of rippling riff arpeggios which themselves appear to re-adjust and reposition themselves somewhere mid way through into some hope bound rebirth of sorts. ’steps’ on the other hand best described as a nifty slice of progressive post rock is awash with tightly intricate layers of noodling stop start slow fast math riddled riffage and lulling moments of brushed pastoral tingles, it makes for another of those bottom lip biting moments of tear stained numbness to which admirers of we were promised jetpacks may do well to check out.
Junkstar ‘bluebottles’ (smoky carrot). We must admit to either have been suffering the effects of a mighty bang on the head either that or we’ve been rooting about in the wrong record racks because unless our memory is failing we don’t appear to have had the pleasure of Junkstar’s grooves warming and walloping our tuned in turn table previously. Happily that oversight has now been corrected with the arrival in our gaff of the 5 track ‘bluebottles - remix’ set. Originally found on last years ‘magazine’ EP ‘bluebottles’ prized from that set and found here in its unadulterated form is a horny as hell humping and throbbing slab of hyper driven uber groove arriving from a distant electro grooved quadrant more appreciably occupied by White Rose Movement. A Korg / Juno wet dream that’s all at once flirtatious and frisky, this galactic glam mama purrs and prowls amid a swirling backdrop of buzz sawing hip shimmies, fizzing bass gridlocks and the kind of aurally amorphous adrenalin accelerating armoury that leaves you hooked, transfixed and literally panting in its hypnotic wake. Add in a primed and poised tightly honed dark pop appeal much reminiscent of the much admired Suzerain and some seductively pulse paces hybrid electro shocked daubs of death disco dialects and you have an effervescently molten mutant mix of tenaciously wired late 70’s disco / romo / glam freaked grind. As to the remixes - a quartet of specially selected re-drills that include DTD’s floor rumbling head thumping deep house ‘bassline remix’ which should by rights do some sizeable damage on the coolest cosmopolitan floors. Throw in a brace of mixes from Tong favourite Wayne C AKA Distek - the ‘4am glass jar mix’ proving a particular fave here mainly for the fact that the originals swirls and wispy add ons have been removed and in their place recoded by a seriously throbbing no frills executed ice cool and austere uber grind while the ‘Baltimora’ edit opts for a spot of sensualised minimalism which should keep pulses suitably hyper. Bringing up the rear Isle of Wight’s Chris Awesome - here by virtue of winning a bedroom remixer competition - opens his account with a slice of sleek and chicly sophisticated head expanding monochromatic anthem accoutrement and into the bargain perhaps edges the stakes as best mix of the set courtesy of his ‘SWAT’ recalibration. www.smokycarrot.com
And just in case your wondering what the blighters look like - here’s a rather tastily retro video to accompany the single…be warned features max factor wearing blokes
http://www.myspace.com/euroneverland - trio from Ireland - Mayo to be more precise featuring the talents of the Lyons brothers aligned up to one Anthony Waldron who to date from what we can gather have released two singles both of which we here are reckoning there’ll be no rest until we are safe in the knowledge that they’ve been happily secured and filed them away for safe keeping in our well kept record collection. Euroneverland appear to be dab hands at the serving up of crisply honey toned transistor turn ons, equally adept at prizing out appreciably tasty fizzing c-86 / twee grooved indie chime happy buzz pop beauties (as evidenced by ’a time to choose’, ’Hitler sister’ and the silky winsome like wide eyed ’don’t’ which at various points had us much recalling the Marbles and the High) as they are cooking up off set west coast MOR morsels as on the cutely coaxed wah wah 70’s retro fuzz of the dreamy ’yoko’ and the mellowing ‘leaves still fall from trees’ which both borrow delicately from the pre disco work of the Bee Gees albeit as though especially on the former threaded by the Summer Hymns and the Doleful Lions. And while ’the fords, the escort and me’ is deserving of a peak blessed as it is with a hymnal heart heavy casing it’s the distantly drizzled homely hollow and soured soul bliss of ‘darker black than colour (shame)’ that deserves top billing delicately picked as it is with the kind of introspective ache honed to unpick your defences and much freewheeling in the type of distant detachment that touched moments of Suede’s debut opus and the work of the Pale Saints though be minded to sprinkle that with the exquisite detailing of breezy Marr scored riff codas.
Update - a quick message from euroneverland asking us to note the following -
‘We actually released our single Don;t yesterday and are hoping (fingers crossed) to get a placing in the irish charts this week. Don;t is avalible to download at Download.ie text music 3654 to 57501 from ireland or text track 3654 to 83262 from the uk or buy direct from itunes‘
The lads have promised to send along their album and latest single for future appraisals….
http://www.myspace.com/batwaveradio - dedicated blog / video community for all things 80’s dark wave / goth (a loathsome but necessary term) and dream pop or dream poop as it nearly came out courtesy of our feverish typing, regular updates from a self described Numan obsessive and a mention for Beki Bondage she of Vice Squad fame a picture of whom - well I say picture - in fact it was a gigantic poster - so gigantic that I suspect it was actually taller than her - which has now reminded me - where is that poster and where are my Vice Squad records from years gone by so while I go off in search of a few of their early 80’s indie chart toppers in which to annoy the neighbours with - and while I’m there rooting out a few Chron Gen and Discharge ditties you lot can busy yourselves doing whatever young folk do these days whilst watching a few videos we ripped from the Batwave musical link type things…..I’m thinking that made no sense at all eh……..
Update - we got a message from Adam Batwave asking us to mention the following -
‘we have a very interesting and true backstory also if you want to mention. My friend Sid had referred me to his uncle who is the San Fernando Valley Archivist to do some design work. Due to him being commissioned to archive the Hunter S Thompson collection by Johnny Depp, he passed on this project to his nephew and myself. It's Pretty much the entire vinyl archive from KXLU los angeles from '79-'93 including lots of one-off pressings from bands big and trying to become big via the demolisten segment. For the last year or so I've been hermit crabbin' it restoring and ripping them via a tube pre-amp to share with the world’……
A here’s a little rarely heard nugget from the hugely undervalued UK Decay……
And more lost gems from the late 70’s / early 80’s - bloody hell the tears welling in my eyes are not from the pinching of the pvc jeans which we can still fit in believe it or not though arguably we need the help of a shoe horn, some lard and belt to hold them up - shame about the white suede winks though….nah its all these records and sounds from a forgotten yooth
Albino ‘I love everyone’ (charborough music). Believe it or not we kept peeking out of the window to make sure it wasn’t snowing when this was playing, the first featured Christmas related release to feature in these pages (though not necessarily the first Xmas release received here - that honour goes to a compilation put out by BiFrost Arts entitled ‘salvation is created’ which embarrassingly we are still yet to hear - oh yea and that Dylan chestnut which has garnered an unbelievable amount of hostile press notices). Albino in case you don’t already know are a London based six piece with a membership culled from the four windswept corners of the world - so that’ll be Australia (Whyalla) and er - Widnes. ’I love everyone’ is your one over the eight hops spun seasonally merry drinking song, a kind of tavern tilting sing-a-long by a Dubliners on Drambuie if you will sharing bar tabs with Johnny Cash and Louden Wainright III all distilled and seasoned in Celtic promise and passed off amid a pie eyed affectionate array of roving cynicisms, shanty like sereneness, homely open fire crackling harmonies and back dropped by a frost bound winter warming Sally Army. Flip the disc for Charlie Murray’s counter reset mix whose break beating unsteady on its feat stutter dance floor hue alas it has to be said kinda loses something of the original mix in translation. Bloody hell feeling a bit festive now. www.albinomusic.com
A video….
Black Bikini Alpha ‘nightmare’ (RWS). Ripped from their ‘grand madness’ full length ‘nightmare’ as you’d imagine from its title alone is a taught n’ fraught cutie, this version featuring the becoming talents of a certain John Brough who should be familiar to fans of the Stones and U2 alike at the mixing desk. Sharply honed and tripped with a panic stricken post punk indie floor thud and fleshed out with the subtle swagger of 80’s sourced accents its sinew straining tension and anxiety is palpably affecting bleached as it is with a locked grooved stare you down mooching pensiveness which should appeal to anthem drilled air guitarists among you. Flip the disc for the same cut re-coded by Station X, admittedly our preferred side of the proceedings mainly due to its encompassing of Ibiza implants and the applying of a meaty and hulking psychotropic house laden club land anthem makeover. www.myspace.com/blackbikinialpha
Andrew Morgan ‘as long as we are together’ (broken horse). A simply exquisite eight track EP featuring the first single to be culled from Mr Morgan’s critically heralded ‘please remember kid’. an unsettlingly gorgeous collection of demurring melodic myriads sautéed in what can only be described as an affectionate bouquet of wildly rambling honeycombed pretties metered out with a sumptuously crafted Bacharach braiding and the kind of delicately demurred wide eyed west coast wispiness that made Ashley Park’s debut full length all those years ago such a memorable moment of primed pop perfection. Never has twenty three minutes zipped by in such a flash - its quite unnerving I can tell you. A quick spy on his my space site has Mr Morgan describing his craftsmanship under the ’sounds like’ section as ’your favourite jumper’ - and do you know we fully understand what he means and where he‘s coming from - because this dinky collection is possessed of a familiarity and a kind of comforting cosiness that kind of smothers you tenderly and tucks you safely up protected from the hustle and bustle outside your door. Festooned with all manner of harpsichords, harps, harmoniums and whatever toy shop trinkets he can lay his hands on Morgan’s attention and indeed grasping of the rudimentary elements of tingle some pop is breathless, delicately detailed and sweetly glazed with a desiring frailty the set is as rewarding as it is enchanting, these snow tipped beautified baubles usher in with an apparition like flightiness. From the sugar rushing effervescence of the sets title track with its snowy toned homeliness imagining a youthful Animal Collective swapping notes across a roaring bonfire with an equally youthful Go Team to the utterly transfixing baroque bitter sweetness of the dreamily cast ‘always in dreams’ with its waltzing time signatures much I suspect the envy of Paddy McAloon reveal a craft that’s timeless yet out of step with current fads and fashion. Much like the mercurial elegance of Oddfellows Casino and the Heartstrings (especially on the ‘as mine‘), Morgan’s artistry is sepia steeped in the forgotten loft bound memories of eras past, the mellowing intimacy of ‘a matter of months‘ with its succulently succumbing push pull lilt reveals a more than informed affection for a certain Mr Wilson’s sound sculpturing while the shyly retiring chamber pop of ‘minji lee‘ dipped and decorated gorgeously in a caressing and arresting framing dips amorously between the harmonic hush and the lovelorn teasing of the much admired Brigadier while those those fancying a slice of primed and purring candy pop much in the style of Epicycle should seek out without delay ‘who ever knew’. Quite perfect if you ask me. www.brokenhorse.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/zoomonkband - Finnish duo who’ve been around by all accounts since 2004 and appear to have marked their territory with just one solitary release in the guise of ‘weekend cocktail’ via - we think - Nihilistic Pig. Anyhow they appear well versed in all things electro shocked minimalism - blending a curious hybrid of post punk death disco-fied grooves tweaked with a mutant psychotropic industrial grind all despatched amid swirls of mind frying repetitive loops and decaying isolationist reverbs, ‘hands around my throat’ sounding not so dissimilar at times as a ‘movement’ era New Order shrouded in all manner of sparsely wiring minimalism while ‘milk drops’ is coiled in a menacing ice chilled grip whose edgily monochromatic framing indicates the duo being informed by a fraught and freaked dark side variant of Add N to X. moving swiftly apace there’s the scuzzy and fuzzy warping drills of ’black song’ which to these ears really does come across like a seriously shit faced Primal Scream doing some wonkily freakish re-drilling of T-Rex’s key note glam work, maybe you fancy a spot of wasted shade adorned psyche psychosis as found on ‘in your veins‘ though by our reckoning its on both ‘shine‘ and ‘cannibal’ wherein the band truly step up to the plate, a brace of killer ditties in the making that you suspect given some tweaking by like minded freak beat acid heads will literally crucify all on comers - the former a blissed out beauty replete with what sounds for all the world as though its just awoken from a near fatal acid trip, all lysergic and swampy 60’s hazes and hip hugging riff scowls sumptuously galvanised into a floor board rupturing cosmic glam mother with the latter scorched by a viciously unravelling feedback frenzy. Does it for us.
Thanks as ever to everybody no names no clues - more of this stuff shortly - bet you can’t wait eh - stop groaning at the back - as always records, sounds, offers of marriage and unwanted milk bottle tops (the gold and green ones) to 105 shaldon drive, morden, surrey, sm4 4bq, uk - email mark@losingtoday.com wherein we’ll email you back on a totally different em address just to confuse you - benbecula records take note - and updates on the super duper all colour, sound and moving things www.myspace.com/thesundayexperience
