Threatmantics are a three-piece rock band from Cardiff, consisting of guitar, drums, keyboard and viola. On their new single ‘Big Man’ they create a rampaging three-minute rock song out of their limited line-up (just guitar, drums, keyboard and vocals on this song).
‘Big Man’ opens with a simple stomping drum beat and limited keyboards, this probably being because they are played simultaneously by the same person. The Interpol-esque guitar line that follows is simple and complements frontman Heddwyn Davies’ distorted voice. This simplicity gives the whole recording a lo-fi Strokes feel to it, and the way the arrangement is so stripped-back and the notes occasionally out of tune makes it even more garage band.
The way Davies screeches the lyric “It takes a big man to break a young girl’s heart” in the rocking chorus is sinister and signals a return to those raw, primitive rock songs about love, betrayal and jealousy. This is a great taster for Threatmantics’ upcoming LP ‘Upbeat Love’, which actually improves on this single, featuring the mellowing addition of the viola.
‘Big Man’ by Threatmantics is released on Double Six records on 7” vinyl and as a digital download. Check them out at www.myspace.com/threatmantics for a taste of their other stuff.
As Australian electronic drum & bass / rock crossover band Pendulum continue to woo crowds on their current ‘Tour of the Americas’, here are two free MP3 downloads of Pendulum’s Propane Nightmares to enjoy.
British Sea Power – Live at The Regal, Oxford 15th October 2008
Walking into The Regal, a converted cinema which recently opened as a venue for bands, DJs, community events and dance, you are struck by the vastness of the hall. The Regal is tastefully redecorated, retaining the 1930s art-deco feel and done up with several bars and a huge stage.
British Sea Power tonight aim to fill this room, and they manage it by their skill in creating a spectacle. Blue lighting, foliage placed around the stage, video projections of flocks of seagulls, waves and other nautical-based things all give you a sense of stepping into a dream as you enter the room. The silence between songs, due largely to the vastness is eerie, but somehow this adds to the surreal atmosphere of a band used to giving oddball concerts in alternative venues (I heard British Sea Power once played in a cave in Cornwall).
British Sea Power walk on to “All In It”, a slow-beating interlude-style song from their latest album “Do You Like Rock Music?”, and it is at this very moment that you realise live performance is what the band is all about.
They break into “Fear of Drowning” and “Remember Me” from their debut album “The Decline of British Sea Power”, fast-paced songs which frontman Yan Scott delivers in his vulnerably flitting voice over wall-of sound guitars and crisp drums. Both of these songs should, though don’t really manage to, excite a crowd rather daunted by the large space, apparently there for the visual rather than the physical experience.
These people shouldn’t have left disappointed however, and when the encore of “No Lucifer” comes and the stage is invaded by a huge grizzly bear, it becomes evident that the middle-aged arty crowd doesn’t stop British Sea Power having fun on stage at all.
And it is exactly this that makes this band worth seeing. No matter how well you know their music, you will never fail to marvel at the visual experience and the completely surreal and weird spectacle they manage to create.
“Waving Flags” from the “Do You Like Rock Music?” album and “Carrion” were the evening’s highlights, an evening that was clearly a success for this up-and-coming, classy venue (the manager even comes on stage to thank everyone at the end, something you’d faint at seeing in a Carling Academy). An evening where the artiness of the venue is truly retained by a band that specialises in that field.
The disappointment of the night: I didn’t buy some of the merchandise (would it really have been worth paying £6 to have the pun “British Tea Power” on my mug?)
Film School supported the band on their tour, which goes to London for a final gig next week.
Dear Science is the third album to be released by TV on the Radio
Fuzzy guitars, bursts of pounding drums and hand-claps introduce a reverb-laden voice on TV on the Radio’s new album Dear Science. Whereas the innovative sound on their previous two albums has often alienated and disappointed some listeners (yours truly included), this album looks set to put their mix of electro-dance and progressive indie firmly in the ‘accessible’ category.
Think Bloc Party, if they had actually succeeded in representing the R&B influences they so often harked on about.
TV on the Radio have long been the critics’ favourite for their pioneering tunes, and the new album looks set to continue the trend, having already received a rare ‘9.0’on the influential pitchforkmedia.com.
Yet this is not just the critics’ love of the weird; this is a successful clash of diverse styles, creating a catchy yet original whole.
Second song Crying, for example, has a suspiciously funky guitar riff, followed then by the genre-smashing Dancing Choose whose torrent of half-spoken-half-sung lyrics gives way to a melodic, and somewhat sentimental, chorus: “In my mind I’m drowning butterflies/broken dreams and alibis/that’s fine.” The dark lyrics, when mixed with their own brand of electro-dance, are haunting, but when they are mixed with their brand of downbeat electronica, they are downright disturbing.
These are competent songwriters, and so the over-complication of some of the songs always gets resolved by the chorus’ or even by the following slower songs, which in my opinion show TV on the Radio at their best:
Family tree, Stork & Owl and Love Dog in particular stand out.
Rodney Smith aka Roots Manuva, the father of the UK rap scene returns with his fourth album on Big Dada records.
When Roots Manuva released his second album “Run Come Save Me” in 2001, featuring the cult hit single “Witness (1 Hope)”, which gained him a Mercury Music Prize nomination, he achieved a taste of the success so elusive to UK rappers.
UK hip-hop has always struggled next to the mainstream American market, but Roots Manuva’s fourth album proves that the lack of limelight has not harmed this British rapper’s health.
“Slime and Reason” stays away from the grime dominated UK rap scene (Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Sway), preferring instead to incorporate elements of reggae and dub with some spot-hitting bass and ironic wordplay and rhymes.
Best of all, the album is diverse, with songs like “It’s Me Oh Lord” featuring impassioned lyrics, preceded by the much more ironic “Again and Again” or the outright funny “Buff Nuff”.
It may not be exactly a progression from his previous album, but this is refreshing and mature rap for a thirsty and immature scene.
