Review: Misty Miller – Next To You EP

At just 19 years old, Misty Miller has already crammed more into her musical career than some artists manage in a lifetime. Her debut album of ukulele-based folkiness, released when she was just 16, had many a muso jumping up and down in delight and comparisons to the likes of Laura Marling soon came flooding in. Since then though a change has occured and Misty is now all about ripped jeans, a fun-filled ‘folk that’ attitude and high octane bluesy rock. It’s quite the musical turnaround but given the quality of her latest EP, Next To You, it is one that was well worth making.

Her voice overflows with depth, passion and maturity. It is a powerful weapon in an extensive armoury and one which belies her youth. Much like her songwriting, which at times echoes the simple emotional resonance of The Airborne Toxic Event’s Mikel Jollett and conveys both youthful exuberance and world worn wisdom. They are damn catchy too.

“Next To You”, complete with its pulsating and grinding surf-guitars, and “Anything For You” are both full on, in your face, jump up and down, break stuff, blues infused pop rock gems. Both too are full of sing a long moments, get under your skin riffs and complete and utter play it loud and again-ability.

It is the softer, more soulful and wistful “Wait” that threatens to steal the show though. It exudes hope and fear, bleak optimism, love and death all delivered in a breathy, heart-wrenching lament. A lament than none-the-less features some “ooo, woo-ooo” moments that will give you a Cheshire cat grin without you even realising. You’ll also find it seeping back into your consciousness a long time after you’ve stopped listening.

That said, the slow and powerful grind of “Tea In China” is pretty special as well.

Miller is quite the talent and Next To You is a brilliant showcase for her. It will make you dance, leap about, sway, smile and maybe even cry. This is her second recent EP and while she has changed musical direction since her debut album, we can only hope she continues to embrace this newer side, as it sure does rock our world.

The ‘Next To You’ EP is out on 2 June on Relentless Records and available to pre-order here.

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Review: MS MR – Secondhand Rapture

So here it is, almost a year to the day since New York duo MS MR burst onto the scene in a cloud of secrecy and dark introspection with their debut single, “Hurricane”, they have released their debut album, Secondhand Rapture. Since then the veil of mystery has been lifted, the fog has cleared and Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow have taken the music world by force. Buzz has been stacked upon buzz as the duo have grown into exceptional live performers and each new release and video has been met with greater acclaim. Could they possibly maintain this standard into a full length release or, like the lyrics of most their recent single, “Fantasy”, proclaims, would this be an instance ”When my reality/Could never live up, could never live up/To my fantasy”?

Thankfully no as live up it certainly does, pulling together 12 songs of glorious poppy darkness. There is no single theme, no thread running through the album as such but it doesn’t need one, providing as it does a combination of light and dark in a battle for and against love, life and self-awareness. Oh, and you can sing and dance along like a lunatic as well. What’s not to love?

The album opens with the five tracks that had previously been released as the Candy Bar Creep Show EP and their last single “Fantasy”. As a result, longer term fans may be tempted to skip straight to track six to start the new stuff with “Head Is Not My Home”, but to do so would be a mistake as the opening salvo sounds as vibrant and compelling as ever. “Bones” in particular has been given a new lease of dramatic life following its recent inclusion on a Game of Thrones trailer and the drumming of “Fantasy” is more thunderous and addictive than ever. Included here alongside seven new songs, incidentally all 12 were written and recorded over the same time period, these five take on new sensibilities and offer up new connotations for the listener to enjoy.

MS MR resides in a world of the macabre, a world of glitchy electronics, incessant rhythms, swirling strings and deliciously gloomy vocal harmonies. ”We really get off and thrive on a certain level of uneasiness and suspense” Lizzy told us, and that is apparent throughout Secondhand Rapture. Be it the upbeat, clap-happy fun of “Salty Sweet” or the slower melancholy of “Twenty Seven” and “This Isn’t Control”, there is always a sense of disquiet and drama within. It’s just how pop should be, full of big, majestic melodies and hooks big enough to catch a whale. The brilliantly brooding “BTSK” even contains a synth line that is oddly reminiscent of some unnecessarily successful 90s euro-dance, it sounds amazing.

There are so many highlights within; it is almost like a greatest hit compilation. Picking the next single is more taxing than trying a Rubik’s cube while drunk but our money would be on “No Trace”. It’s a beautiful and brutally theatrical piece of noir-pop, full of attitude and sass as well as trademark MS MR rhythms and striking film score-esque strings that urgently harry and batter the listener into sublime submission.

MS MR have been hitting home runs since they came out swinging last year and after the success and acclaim of their previous singles, videos and EP, with Secondhand Rapture they may well have just hit a grand slam.

Secondhand Rapture is out now and available digitally from iTunes.

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Review: Valerie June – Pushin’ Against A Stone

An unexpected challenge presents itself when seeking to review Valerie June’s official debut album; actually managing to write anything. So mesmerising and enchanting is her sweet southern-belle voice and so captivating are the 11 tracks that time after time the end of the album was reached and not a word had been written, so lost were we in the mix of Memphis blues, folk, soul, roots, country and pop.

It has taken a while, but the world is finally starting to wake up to and embrace Valerie’s immense talent. After seven years plus of hard graft, three ‘bootleg’ albums, countless menial jobs and a feeling that any success would only ever come in her dotage, Pushin’ Against A Stone marks the beginning of a bright new chapter in her life. As she sings on the album closer, “Lord I’m on my way”.

What is a little surprising is the number of styles that are embraced across the record. Her ‘organic moonshine roots music’ has always had a little bit of everything present but here each track has its own unique identity. “Tennessee Time” is almost pure country while “Wanna be on your Mind” is a delightfully soft summer jam, blessed with Cults-like plinky plonks and subtle bwacka-wacka guitar licks that nudge the track along gently from within. Valerie’s doleful vocals call out, imploring that special someone to make her the most important thing in their life, “I wanna be on your mind/I wanna stay there all the time”. It is probably the most pop-based track on the album, with its beautifully layered harmonies and is one of those songs you fall for the very first time you hear it.

The title track is something else entirely though and utterly spellbinding. Dark moments and struggles seep out from the incessant step-step-step of the organ sounds as Valerie recounts the battle she has overcome, the drudgery of life she has worked through to reach her goal, all the while backed by some glorious 60’s, Stylistics love song style backing vocals. Meanwhile the guitar grinds and wails like a trapped soul, fighting desperately to break free from the shackles of everyday life, straining its every sinew to destroy its mundane prison and soar out across the world, sharing its gift with us all. It’s an absolutely stunning five minutes of emotional and compelling music.

Elsewhere gospel features prominently, on “Trials, Troubles, Tribulations”, as well as dirty, grinding blues, on “You Can’t Be Told”, and folk, on “Twinned & Twisted”. Co-writing and production credits include Dan Auberach, Booker T Jones and Kevin Augunas but it is on Valerie that the whole album hangs and ultimately succeeds.

She is an extremely confident artist with unflinching belief and faith in her talent and this shows across what is an exceptionally assured debut. Her vocals, so distinctive and unlike almost anything else you’ve ever heard, slip seamlessly from style to style. Warmth and frost, steel like determination and vulnerable insecurity, world weary wisdom and wide-eyed naivety; all feature and all feel entirely natural. She has paid her dues, taken her licks and learnt her lessons. This education, her talent and the fact that she probably bleeds music and Memphis has all come together in a glorious whole and the result is a fantastically varied and captivating album.

’Pushin’ Against A Stone’ is out today on Sunday Best Records and available to buy digitally here and on CD/Vinyl here.

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Review: Guards – In Guards We Trust

If it feels like the debut album from New York’s Guards has taken an age to get here, well it’s probably because it has. The band arrived to mucho buzz and excitement with their debut Guards EP in 2010 which they then followed with the brilliant single, “Do It Again”, in 2011 but, while there have been the occasional track or video online, we haven’t had a formal release since. The wait has probably been even more keenly felt in the UK where we have had to be patient for a couple of extra months than fans in America, who got In Guards We Trust back in February.

Perhaps they were just waiting for all that hideous weather we had to disappear and a little bit of sunshine to come peeping through before they were ready to share what is a summer lovin’, pop filled and indie anthem blasting album. The whole thing is coated liberally with sunny, hazy guitar sounds, reverb and distortion as far as the eye can see as the rhythms bounce and boogie along underneath. In fact it is surprisingly dancesome, with big infectious grooves making you want to get up and move in the sunshine, beer in one hand, BBQ’d burger in the other.

There are elements of soul and old fashioned rhythm and blues buried deep within, as well as bright 60’s pop, but these are faint echoes when contrasted with the vastness of sing song indie that threatens to overwhelm. That it doesn’t, says a lot for Guards ability to balance the scales just so, but it is a close run thing. The album does start to struggle for variety a little towards the end and you do start to feel that a couple of different ideas would be nice to hear. That shouldn’t detract from the listener’s enjoyment though and there is definitely much to enjoy. The jump-up-and-downness of opening track, “Nightmare”; the hand in the air sing-a-long fun of “Ready To Go” and the Gabriel Bruce-esque sounds of “I Know It’s You”, all are fantastic and stand up to many, many plays.

As a whole, In Guards We Trust feels like it is perhaps a little bit overlong but the bright, reverb dripped sounds will keep you smiling and dancing this summer, provided it doesn’t hammer down with rain for weeks on end of course.

’In Guards We Trust’ is out now and available from iTunes.

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Review: Public Service Broadcasting, Inform – Educate – Entertain

After wowing fans up and down the country with their live transmissions, repeatedly destroying the competition on 6Music’s ‘Rebel Playlist’ and creating a compelling and heartwrenching EP, the time has finally come for the men of Public Service Broadcasting to step forth with their debut long player. And what an album Inform – Educate – Entertain is, full of familiar as well as reworked favourites from their live shows as well as a smattering of new tracks for our enjoyment.

Should you be new to the world of messrs J. Willgoose, Esq and Wrigglesworth then you are in for a treat. Their modus operandi is simple, “Teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future”, and their method is to use the medium of old public information films and archive footage layered over driving rhythms and pulsating atmospheric electronics. The samples are provided largely by the BFI, as well as Canal+ and other assorted sources, but to focus simply on them is like having only the starter of a multi-course, Michelin starred chef prepared gourmet meal. It tastes delicious but there is so much more to enjoy and delight in.

Their real skill is in how they use the music and the melody to complement and enhance the narrative of the samples. This was particularly evident in last year’s exemplary The War Room EP, which wove a single narrative thread across its entirety, perfectly encapsulating the whole gamut of emotions that war brings, as well as the personal devastation it leaves behind.

There is no single thread here, but each track has been spun and entwined with its own individual soundtrack. “Signal 30” brilliantly evokes the sense of speed and drama, hurtling along at a breakneck pace with the guitars revving and growling engine like, an undercurrent of barely contained aggression bubbling away. “Everest” is ebullient, uplifting and triumphant. The swell of brass at the tracks culmination brings the feeling of achievement and success to life and instils a sense of warmth and euphoria in the listener while “The Now Generation” is much more playful and light-hearted. Like you wish The Clothes Show theme tune had actually been.

This ability to convey such a range of emotion allows PSB to avoid entirely any accusation of not offering variety and relying too heavily on a gimmick. There is variety here in spades, so much so that the samples actually augment the music, not the other way round. Naval Officer Thomas Woodrooffe’s infamous drunken account of the Spithead Review of 1937 could easily be played for laughs and dismissed but instead, on “Lit Up”, it forms a delicate and evocative accompaniment to a moment of wondrous and beautiful calm. ”It’s fairyland, the whole fleet is in fairyland”, he rambles as we are treated to floating electronics and church bells, very much the aural equivalent of the fairy lamps he can see all around him.

On an album as strong as Inform – Educate – Entertain it is hard to pick standout tracks, but you will have to go far to find a better album opener than the title track, a medley of the forthcoming delights that will have fans grinning from ear to ear, while the W.H. Auden featuring “Night Mail” is just sublime.

Longstanding fans could possibly grumble that there is not enough new material here but that would be the most minor of quibbles. Instead the focus should be on the undeniable quality of the music presented, the emotions that it is able to stir within and the simple fact that you will be listening to this for a long time to come. It’s a fantastic accomplishment and one that does everything it says it will, and then some.

’Inform – Educate – Entertain’ is out on Monday 6 May and can be bought digitally here or on CD/Vinyl here.

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