Calm Hands - 2012 - Somewhere June

Indie Pop/ Electronica

[FOR FREE]

http://calmhands.bandcamp.com/

• 6 songs to download
• You name the price (min 0,-)
• You get the link if you register your email address
• Listening recommendations: Ghosts, A Simple Melody

Impressions

I feel rather confident in stating that this set of songs will end up on the top spot of my 2012 retrospective list, if not even claiming the top spot of my favourite record this year. Generally, I'd describe it as an Indie Pop record with some strong Electronica influences. If you still remember and have fond memories of last years Magic Man review, I highly recommend taking a look at Calm Hands, too. The songs on this EP have a more serene feeling to them, but the overall quality is still outstanding. Ghosts, being the album opener, is an great choice for a first impression to the sound of Calm Hands through its catchy chorus and the memorable tunes, followed by equally endearing songs after it. It is quite remarkable how much warmth and emotion the musician managed to convey in these songs. One of the greatest highlights of Somewhere June is the last song A Simple Melod, which has one of the most amazing build ups I've heard in recent times. A hymn that should be noted and fondly remembered by more than just the few that actually noticed Calm Hands this year. If you are looking for a record to complement the soundtrack of your summer 2012, this is definitely a worthy choice. Some artists manage to create a sound that reaches to our inner desire for freedom, the thought that anything still might be possible, just like Calm Hands. Somewhere June is a dreamy and thought-provoking EP, liberating any creativity locked away by unearthing the imagination that is buried by everyday routine.

Tubby Love - 2012 - The Real Thing

Reggae/soul

   [FOR FREE]

http://tubbylove.bandcamp.com/

• 5 songs to download
• You name the price (min 0,-)
• You get the link if you register your email address
• Listening recommendations: Miracle, Simple City

English

Something about The Real Thing just melts me a little. I think it has to do with bits like the chorus on the opener “Miracle”, where Tubby Love is joined by a choir of voices that cry “How will we ever know?” The words are so small, but the voices crying out in unison build it to something enormous and powerful: strength by means of unified weakness. There’s a sincere thread of community running through The Real Thing, reflected through Tubby Love’s thoughts on love (and yes, sex), the economy, and his home. Title-track “The Real Thing” impresses with its nimble rhythms, as Love spits out his feelings to the target of his affections. The unabashed sincerity approaches poetry at times, but it also leads to a few awkward moments (such as when he declares he’d like to “peel you like a banana and eat you”—that will put you off both sex and fruit for a while); ultimately, though, it’s as sweet as it is dorky. Elsewhere, he declares war on an economic system and society that he views as heartless on the surprisingly catchy “Simple Life”. “And when I go to the grocery store / It’s hard for me to find what I’m looking for / They don’t care about me anymore,” he laments over a background of dark guitar licks and the unwavering stomp of a bass and snare, a moment that has implications that are just as universal as they are personal. Not that I need to say any of this: on its own, The Real Thing is a very likeable listen. It’s easygoing, spontaneous, and loaded with catchy melodies, all of which Love’s voice carries well. What strikes me as most impressive, though, is the fact that after listening, I would genuinely like to get the chance to meet with Love and have coffee with him someday. He may be a small fish in the music world, but his work belies ideas that are much bigger.

Truck D - 2012 - It's Alive

Jam Band/Psychedelic Rock

[FOR FREE]

http://truckd.bandcamp.com/

• 4 songs to download
• You name the price (min 0,-)
• You get the link if you register your email address
• Listening recommendations: Rox Juanita, Unravel Your Mind

Impressions

An EP of live covers and original songs is usually a red flag for me, a sign to stay the hell away – terrible sound quality and versions of songs I'd rather not hear ruined with others not good enough to warrant attention on their own. Truck D's “It's Alive” is neither of these things, one an actual accomplishment. Yes, recording quality of the tracks on “It's Alive” is outstanding, nothing drops too low or gets drowned out in the mix, it's easy to distinguish between the various instruments at work, and there are quite a few let me tell you. Of course live jam sessions are all about going with the flow and solos and what not, and the two original have got you covered there with occasional noodling on the guitar, keyboards, and horn section. For me though, just barely being able to hear the crowd sing along to Rox Juanita (aka “Roxanne” by the Police) was what turned this from a good listen to a great one. The energy from the band and the crowd here and on the medley of “Snake in the Grass/Talk to Me, Dance with Me” is simply infectious, you can't help but get into it. If you can, check your pulse. And that's the other really big reason I'm digging this EP so much, the covers are exceptionally done, bringing something completely new to each and the original songs are just as good (dig that helicopter opening and closing the groovy freakout “Unravel Your Mind”) showcasing the kind of song writing chops Truck D really have. Adding a full fledged band (especially the brass) really expands the songs into something bigger, wilder than they would have been otherwise (Sting take note). Get this record and listen to Truck D kick out the jams! If you'll excuse me I have to dance around to “Rox Juanita” again.

Lyod - 2011 - Abstractions

Orchestral/Cinematic

   [FOR FREE]

http://lyod.bandcamp.com/

• 7 songs to download
• For free
• Direct Download
• Listening recommendations: Mouvement Pour Cordes, Passage Vide

English

There’s music that fits a mood: celebration, anger, happiness, the list goes on—and then there’s music that creates moods. Chalk French musician Lyod in the second category: in only 15 short minutes, Abstractions takes us through an emotional wringer; it’s filled with moments that fit every color on our spectrum. The first track, “Comme un parfum dans l’air”, creates a haunting vibe that’s as immersive as any ghost house could ever be, before “Les cloches sonnent” swells up into an orchestral climax that fills the air with joy. “Movement pour cordes” is rather aptly named, featuring the entrance of beats into the acoustic stabs that characterize Lyod’s work, and the percussion creates a nice head of steam that bursts into urgency in the final moments of the track. “Passage a vide” forays into the darker territory explored earlier in the opener, and “L’echappee belle” pumps it full of air and explodes it with its bombastic, beatific framework. “Tintemarre”, one of the most frantically paced tracks on this album, picks up the remains and runs with them, finally laying them at the feet of the soothing “Devenir”, which brings Abstractions to a close. The whole thing lasts for only a few minutes, but it spans hundreds of miles, and Lyod’s work here is as memorable as it is fleeting.

Noise Exposure - 2012 - Noise Exposure

Post Punk

[FOR FREE]

http://noiseexposure.bandcamp.com/

• 4 songs to download
• For free
• Direct Download
• Listening recommendations: One Last Hit

Impressions

Just keep your head down and nod to the music, this is not going to be sunshine and lollipops. Noise Exposure have jumped headlong into the murkiest depths of Manchester with this self-titled EP. One will immediately hear similarities to Joy Division in the slow, measured guitar riffs that hang uncomfortably in the air, ringing out like leading a funeral dirge and drumming that seems to emanate from deep within the bowels of the Earth itself, the bass vibrating to the surface just enough to make one on edge. I know I throw around genre labels a lot, but 'Noise Exposure' is very much darkwave post-punk in late 1970's, early 1980's sense: gloomy introspection and a sense of sorrow, though the lyrics are at times a little indecipherable here. Craig Dyer's voice is devoid of almost any emotional delivery, detached from the stories he's singing about, and yet still manages to have an air of cynicism to it, as if disapproving and still not giving a damn about your opinion. Delivering lines like “my hands are bound/and I can't breathe”, Dyer makes it sound as if it was an everyday occurrence, one in which the idea of suffocation is not a huge problem for him. It's not particularly deep or challenging content (I doubt Noise Exposure care if you've forgotten Rudolph Hess for instance), but Dyer puts enough in his delivery to keep things from getting outright silly. He comes close to a delighted snarl on third track “Your Boat is Sinking”, which along with “Lush & Slow” have the most straightforward, um, I guess it would be “appeal”. “One Last Hit” ups the psychedelia (which makes sense given the title) and the guitar drone for an almost lighter sound. You most certainly won't be bouncing around in your underwear to it, but “Noise Exposure” is cathartic, a release from the world outside your headphones and worth hearing for that.

PS: No I don't know if that cover art will work with old school 3D glasses, give it a shot if you have a pair.

Cloud - 2012 - A Rush of Sun

Ambient electronic

   [FOR FREE]

http://cloudclod.bandcamp.com/

• 4 songs to download
• You name the price (min 0,-)
• You get the link if you register your email address
• Listening recommendations: Childhood, Lucy Sleeps

English

Sometimes, if you wake up at just the right time, you can steal a glimpse of the sunrise. The transition is so gradual that you could look away from the indigo horizon for one moment, only to turn back and be blinded by a newborn white sky. A white day, untouched and full of promise. The sight of a fresh sun is a luxury to people like me, who set our alarms 30 minutes earlier than we have to just so we don’t oversleep, but for other people, it must be second nature to wake up and greet the dawn. Like ambient electronic artist Cloud—at least that’s the vibe I get listening to A Rush of Sun. It’s a fittingly short release, four tracks clocking in at just under seventeen minutes. It’s gentle and lush, baby blue synths and shimmering keyboards rising and falling with the clicks of beautifully organic percussion work. It’s not slow, but it doesn’t compensate with loudness, either; it’s gracefully nimble without ever having to raise its voice, as the layers of instruments it juggles at once speak for themselves. More than anything, though, it’s pure: in its solemn toybox melodies, in its contemplative, fuzzy production, in the sun-kissed snatches of rhythms stolen out of a fourth-grade music class, worming their way out. But enough of this; sometimes, music simply can’t be synthesized or analyzed. All you have to judge off of then is where it takes you. And where this release takes me is to 6AM on my porch, the dawn of a promising new day as I am once again humbled and blinded by a rush of sun.

Leadership By Assault - 2012 - A Little Less Than Honest

Alternative Rock

[FOR FREE]

http://leadershipbyassault.bandcamp.com/

• 6 songs to download
• You name the price (min 0,-)
• You get the link if you register your email address
• Listening recommendations: What You Are

Impressions

'A Little Less Than Honest' is angry, ever so angry rock music, of a mostly hard variety. Vocalist Marissa Banghart is getting therapeutic and a wee bit confessional with the lyrics, giving songs like “Zach Thomas” a sincerity to the viciousness most bands would only toy with. Seriously Zach, you're dog meat pal. While definitely filled with anger, Banghart's vocals do seem to bring the same emotional resonance to every track, giving them all a similar sound, except “What You Are”, where her vocal range gets to explore the space a bit more on the high and low end to great effect. The music backing her up isn't instantly remarkable, coming off a bit too similar at times to other modern alt rock bands (thankfully in this case, none of them being Hole), but upon repeated listens the goods reveal themselves. It was the little touches the keyboards added to certain songs; “Sober Up” for instance, that became more apparent upon subsequent listens. A little psychedelia is just what the doctor ordered, let the drunken haze roll on! “8's and 12's” shows just how much rumbling force having three bassists will bring to your music, the keyboards also bring a small amount of 80's prog rock to the table with their icy stings on the chorus. “Megan's Song” being partially acoustic and a straight forward ballad is a nice change of pace, tonally. The lone electric guitar wailing in the background gives things a melancholic touch whereas every other track brings the pain. It would have made a better end to the EP than where it is now, but that's only even a minor issue if you listen to tracks in order. 'A Little Less Than Honest' sticks to its hard rock guns and succeeds for the most part, and as the first release with their current line up, I feel things will only get better over time. A few rough spots, but worth checking out.

No Surprises - 2012 - Technologique?

Electronica/IDM

[FOR FREE]

http://nosurprises.bandcamp.com/

• 4 songs to download
• You name the price (min 0,-)
• You get the link if you register your email address
• Listening recommendations: 48Th St

Impressions

Naming your act 'No Surprises' really doesn't leave a lot of room for error does it? Having your album description end with what amounts to a dare only furthers this idea, do you want me to scour over these songs for flaws? Thankfully, No Surprises EP 'Technologique?' doesn't fall into this trap (jokes on me I guess). I'm not usually big into the jittery, high on caffeine headspace that idm (intelligent dance music) occupies, let alone house music, but here I was enthralled for the duration. Admittedly it's only four tracks, but that worked in the music's favour as far as I'm concerned. The tempo is fast and the beats varied, an adrenaline rush that you come down from just in time for the next track to pick up and it all ends leaving you fulfilled. “Smack Your Face” takes a repetitive hand clap effect and layers it over an even more repetitive drum and bass beat that somehow still manages to work as a song (probably the main synth melody these two are backing up). “Sex Fiend” is the musical equivalent to an intoxicated night on the town you won't remember in the morning, where “Bell and Whistles Speak” is rather subdued in comparison to the previous two tracks until things get a little mean and hazy towards the end. It's hypnotic actually, especially as the longer, drawn out beats take control. Not for sleep walkers. The standout track here, and the one that pulls me back for repeated listens is “48th St”. There's something about the way the drum loop and main synth melody meld together that just works. It's tempo is ridiculously fast and taught with an unresolved tension - the moaning a third of the way through adds to the appeal. It's cyberpunk fantasy put to music.. Part of my mind says it sounds like something I've heard before, but I cannot place it. Either way, I've had “48th St” on repeat all week, and if you walk away only listening to one song it'll be this one. You may not dance to 'Technologique?', but it will get inside your head and stick around.