Free Download: Charity Children – “Empty Vicious Nights”

After nearly breaking our hearts earlier in the year with their tribute to the unloved, serendipity’s favourite pair, Chloë Lewer and Elliott McKee, have returned with another remarkable track and once again, they are giving it away for free.

As you may recall, the Charity Children duo of Lewer and McKee upped sticks and moved to Berlin from New Zealand a couple of years ago where they have been making sweet (and raw) music together. As they prepare for the release of their debut album, The Autumn Came in July, they have released their second single from it, the stark and fairly brutal “Empty Vicious Night”. It may be rooted in folk, but Mumford and Sons this is most definitely not.

The song tells the tale of an adulterous pair meeting late at night in a motel to engage in their shenanigans, or more accurately it depicts the descent into maddened anguish of the unknowing but suspecting wife at home. We say suspecting because we don’t actually know that her suspicions are founded.

What we do know is that “Empty Vicious Night” is an incredibly disarming piece of songwriting. Lyrics are short and repetitive, maintaining a steady pace alongside the rhythm, which itself is relentless, metronomic even and it is maintained throughout. Like a stream train chuffing and puffing along, no doubt going in and out of tunnels as the tale is told (come on, you don’t need to be Freud to be thinking along the same lines).

Take it as a straight recounting of an illicit affair and you have a quite brutally stark look into a strictly carnal relationship. There is no love here, the subjects are not star-crossed or feted to find one another despite existing relationships; this is instead a depressing view of two people who just want to get laid and it doesn’t have to be anything fancy or meaningful. Take it as intended, that it is the paranoid (delusional?) view of a housewife who suspects something is going on, and we are left with a hypnotic but harrowing descent into despair and insanity.

With just two songs shared so far, Charity Children have shown that they are quite adept at seeing a side of the world not often appreciated by others, and turning it into damn fine music.

”Empty Vicious Nights” is available to download for free by clicking the player below. The debut Charity Children album, ‘The Autumn Came’ is due for release on 11 July and you can pre-order it here.

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Free Download: Breen – “Say What You Want”

We are not exactly what you might call connoisseurs of the hip-hop world but to our untrained eyes and ears, it would appear that the recent trend for big, brash and flashing the cash is largely done. Instead things are moving to a more subtle, downtempo and electronic vibe. While we obviously worry about what will become of all the ‘bitches n da club’ now that ghetto rap is taking its turn on the backburner, we are not lamenting its loss. Not when we have such a multitude and diversity of artists peddling a different and altogether more palatable sound.

Joining the likes of Joel Compass is Leeds/London based newcomer, writer/producer Matt Lamb, aka Breen. He recently posted his debut track online and it really gets under your skin.

“Say What You Want” blends indie, electronica and R’n’B elements into a sedate yet tumultuous sound. Like a special effect where the surface water is still and calm, yet beneath you can see smoke or fantastical elements swirling and rumbling together.

There is dark and thundery feeling within it. A feeling of unease, of imminent terror, of knowing that something is coming, but having no idea what it is. Like the feeling you are being watched. Lamb’s vocals veer towards falsetto at times, counterbalancing his otherwise low tones which flit from the smooth to spiky all of which adds to the sense of foreboding. Like some beautiful violence is a mere moment away.

Evidently there is an EP on the way in the near future, until then we’ll just keep listening to this and looking over our shoulder, just to be sure no one is actually watching us after all.

Click the player below to get your free download.

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Free Download: Air Marshal Landing – “Move With You”

Filed under ‘Radio Ready’ in the secret (and vast) underground bunker o’tunes that we bloggers frequent to find new music to share with you, come Canadian trio Air Marshal Landing. On discovering where the band was from our mind immediately began to wander, off to the magical world of Nicer America, where there is a donut shop on every corner, moosehead beer on tap at every bar and where every meal comes with a side of bacon and maple syrup.

Sadly these Canadian stereotypes are not true and their police don’t all ride horses either, nor do they say ‘eh?’ at the end of every sentence. Saddened that such a utopia does not exist and on the cusp of plunging into a deep depression, we clicked play on “Move With You”, th opening track of their forthcoming album, You Used To Be Me.

Thank goodness we did as well for the abyss that threatened to swallow us whole soon vanished and was replaced with a sense of optimism. There may not be a Tim Horton’s on every corner of Canada’s streets (every other corner though right?), but at least the country is still producing some quality music.

These three guys Matt Simmonds (bass, keys, vocals, guitars), Cory Adrian (guitars, vocals, bass) and Graham Drummond (drums, synth, percussion) seem to have a very happy go lucky approach to life, describing their music as infectious (like laughter, not disease) and making reference in their bio to various japes and jokes they like to share with fans. This light-heartedness comes through in “Move With You”, a summer-lovin’ hybrid indie-pop-rocker that whips along and works its way under your skin. The elongation of words within the verses in particular provoke a smile or seven and you’ll find yourself humming “teach me a rhythm and I’ll tryyyyyy to move, tryyyyyy to move” just to bob your head to match the undulation of tryyyyyy.

It stirs a familiar feeling within, not quite aural déjà vu, more that it triggers a pleasant sense of recognition. It’s a feeling that could well be quite common by the end of the summer as this deserves a fair bit of radio play once the sun comes out and the days brighten.

You can get a free download of “Move With You” here.

You Used To Be Me is released on 4 June and can be pre-ordered directly from the band.

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Free Download: The Disraeli Gears – “Mother, I”

Set phasers to ‘fuzzy’, Alphabet Band members The Disraeli Gears are back with another slice of deliciously hazy, prog-injected indie rock. Featuring the now trademark guitar jangles and blurred lines, “Mother, I” also comes with additional world-angst and greater urgency than we are used to from the London/Leeds/South African quartet.

Teia Fregona’s vocals float out once more but in a dark, confessional and eerie mood. The track flickers and dances like candlelit shadows on the wall but as it builds so does the tension. On “Back of my Eyes”, the band played with drama that rose and fell like the tide, here it climbs like a tower of blocks just waiting for a toddler to send it crashing to the floor below. Crash it does too; frustration, desperation, anger and the feeling of hitting rock bottom all come wailing out as the song builds to a great Jackson Pollock painting crescendo of sound and emotion.

Read More: ‘D’ is for The Disraeli Gears

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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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