All The King's Men

Dirty Pubs and Bouncing Rooms

The titles here give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from this Manchester foursome. With songs like 'The Union Smack' and 'Leaving You for Manchester' you were only ever going to get in-your-face British punk with an unapologetic hard on for Madchester and the Sex Pistols. Well, this does exactly what it says on the tin, coming out at different points sounding like Fratellis and Dirty Pretty Things. But whilst those bands have taken influences and come out with something both accessible and their own, this feels a bit dated and more suited to that pub your old man won't go in cus it's ruff as fuk. But then again, if you want to look like a tosser go dance to Usher. If you want a ruck, go bounce to these down the The King's Head.

David Patterson

Vex One

Good To Go

A slightly different artist here now... Hip Hop / R&B act Vex One is a very talented producer/rapper from Sheffield who has put together his own album titled Good To Go. Some of his tracks feature other artists who are on the same page as him, such as Nem and Integrity, which works well throughout. Interesting lyrics with his own style proves him to be different from the norm and is clearly passionate about the music he makes - always an advantage. Even though this isn't the type of music I'd usually listen to, I can see why others would love this album, and I can see the potential for him to become a huge record producer if he works hard and gigs a lot. The album is very long though, I listened to this in two parts and started to wonder if it was ever going to end, but the whole album has a good feel to it and a fascinating sound that I can hear a lot of time and effort has gone into it's production. I think 'Take The Pressure' and 'Girl In Summer' are the stand out tracks out of all of them, but I also enjoyed listening to the beats of 'Get Raving', 'Boys & Girls' and 'Fashionably Young'. He has gigged with the likes of Tinchy Stryder and Yezza getting himself promoted and noticed all over the UK, Vex One obviously knows how the business works and what he has to do to get out there and build a fan base. I quite admire what he's doing and what his goals are when it comes to music and I suggest to anyone to check Vex One out even if it's not really your music taste.

Amy Baker

Luxury Stranger

Desolation

Luxury Stranger are a 3 piece from Nottingham consisting of Simon York - vocals, guitars, Chris Ruscoe - bass, and Owen Walton - drums and percussion, they have recently released their debut album 'Desolation'. Luxury Stranger cite a range of influences through the realms of music and art from Joy Division to Baudrillard and as such they produce a dark, rock sound. Upon first listen Simon York's vocals reminded me of Tom Hingley from the Inspiral Carpets, perhaps this is what his solo album would have sounded like.

Opener 'Dirt' is a bass heavy track beginning with a distorted feedback intro before giving way to a pounding bass and enthralling lead with an under-stated rhythm guitar nicely backing up proceedings. Next 'Substance' continues the fast pace but unfortunately the lyrical content seems to suffer as such though the guitars are imposing and threaten to break into 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' with its compressed strumming.

'Marlene' would be an obvious single choice with its sing-along chorus and Interpol like guitars in which the obvious Joy Division influence becomes more contemporary. 'NMQP' continues this pace though it cries out for a hook in the chorus to compliment the impressive lead guitar.

The drumming of Owen Walton is easily shown at its best on 'Paradise Untouched' when you are reminded of Stephen Morris, it does though bode the question as to why he is in the background for much of the album as guitar and bass are most commanding.

Closer 'Don't Go' brings a slow finale with an acoustic guitar and clean lead, again the bass is prominent with a repetitive lead guitar becoming rather enchanting. Simon York vocals are a sleepy and somber delight with The Cure's influence quite evident.

Desolation is overall a striking debut, that anyone who likes Joy Division, The Cure or more recently Interpol should definitely check out.

Iain Ferry

Watch This Fire Spread

Dumb Days, Dark Nights

A superb album named Dumb Days, Dark Nights has found its way to my PC as if it was fate that wanted me to hear this, and boy am I glad I did. I've found something truly unique in a band called Watch This Fire Spread where I was blown away with how utterly impressive they are to listen to. Their genre is hard to place... maybe somewhere between alternative, arty rock and film music, but that's not what matters, their soulful and hypnotic sound is beautiful and each song tells it's own story in the lyrics. With seven members in this group it gives them the ability to use lots of instruments and techniques, and the trumpets and piano in 'Get Up' sound wonderful (and with trumpets and piano being my favourite instruments I always love artists that use them well in songs).

'Death Toll' is haunting and wonderful, and 'Time' is powerful and the vocals strong. Some might think that all the different vocals from different members could be too much, but I think it's perfect and I cannot get across just how good this album is until you've heard it for yourself. Their strong rhythm section adds depth to each track, and there certainly aren't any soft melodies here, it's all powerful and huge sounding, especially in the album titled song 'Dumb Days, Dark Nights', with a perfect choice of ending track 'Lost My Mind'. This surely is talent at its absolute finest!!

Amy Baker

E, F

Still

E, F are Steven Earnshaw and Simon Fawcett. They see their music as a sound sculpture; a description which on its own, will split the audience. Most people would not class this as music, as it does not fit the traditional, expected sense of the word. What E,F do is to use musical instruments to make sounds. Rather like Brian Eno's early ambient work, such as Music for Airports, the music creates an atmosphere (ie an ambience) and in the main, E,F do it exceedingly well here. Clarinet, sax, keyboards, bass guitar, loops of sound; they all surface here, generally improvised, but always in a sympathetic, not discordant way. You can, and should, choose carefully how to listen to it. Only pay scant attention whilst doing something else. Pay intense attention to every note. Play it in one room while you do things around the house. It works in many ways. Perhaps not the CD to play while you drive the kids to their granny's, but that's what God invented The Wombats for. For anyone with the desire to experience music in a tangential way, and not to have preconceived ideas about the result, this is for you. Lovers of verse-chorus-verse, avert your gaze.

Christine Brain

Goonies Never Say Die

In A Forest Without Trees

Opening with an atmospheric intro track, Blackpool's Goonies Never Say Die would seem well-qualified to delve within the realms of desolation, being from a town which, during the summer months may well bustle with summery life, but in the more wintery months seems to embody an unavoidable sense of bleakness. In addition to this, they must be one of few seaside based bands indebted to the post-rock aesthetic, particularly art-rock kingins such as Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky and 65daysofstatic. It's a blueprint whihc suits their suroundings well, and 'This One Took Forever' is a majestic soundscape in which evocactive synths and restrained, yet comforting basslines are merged together with cinematic chord seqences and pulstaing rhythms to form a wash of epic, tearful melancholia.

Elsewhere on the album, heart-tugging piano motifs lend weight to a poignant wall of sound which all in all wouldn't sound out-of place on Mogwai's 'Rock Action' label, whilst suggesting that vocals would add nothing to the palette which hasn't been expressed already by the rich layers of instrumentation on offer. As most tracks hit the 6-minute mark, they are given room to breathe to the point where every component is displayed and allowed the chance to shine, whilst the influence of barren, stark early Cure rears it's head on several occasions. On the downside, over 10 tracks, their general manifesto does become rather samey, and the loud-quiet dynamics of their sound are exploited to the point of impotence, which means there is never enough to let the band stand outside from a pretty generic post-rock standpoint, and ultimately contains nothing their heroes haven't surpassed. Without a unique selling point, Errors they are not.

David Lichfield

Papa La Bas

Eternal Return

Nottingham-based Papa La Bas are comprised of two members, vocalist Suzi Ruthless and Dwyzak The Elevator, a DJ and producer who often also tries his hand at rapping. After touring with Bassment Jaxx and the Brand New Heavies, the group are working on an album, and in the meantime have released their debut album, Eternal Return.

The music could be described as minimalist electro-soundscaping fronted by a simultaneously haunting and angelic female vocalist, but to ditch the vague musical terminology, it could more easily be described as the sort of music you'd imagine hearing in an underground club frequented by ravers twisted beyond all belief on hallucinogenic drugs. Not that there is any problem with that, of course.

The music is densely layered, and although in parts slightly too repetitive, it provides a flattering yet unusual backdrop for the siren-like vocals, which have an endearing uncertain edge. This combination can make for enjoyable listening and the lyrics top it off with the occasional poetic gem.

The poetic gems, though, are hard to find, and while your looking for them, you have the chance of being accosted by their rapper-friend Duke 01, who shows up on 'You The Rain' and 'Jibba Jabba' (Insert Mr. T line here), sounding like an uninvited guest and drastically changing the tone of the songs, only to have them rescued by Suzi Ruthless just before the song dies a lonely death.

Overall, though, the album is certainly interesting, providing good atmospheric music with an artistic intent that I'm sure could be fully appreciated in a DMT-induced cosmic coma. They are very talented as musicians, and have a definite chemistry, in a strange sort of way.

Lee Johnson

City Of Glass

Tales From The City

City Of Glass are a 4 piece that hale from Hull consisting of Deeaay - lead vocals/guitar, Phil - keyboards/guitar/beats/vocals, Carl Platt - Bass and Dan - Keyboards/vocals. Their debut album 'Tales From The City' deals with issues all too common in northern industrial Britain, that of paranoia, unrest and unemployment. The band's brand of eighties inspired synth driven electronica could at its best take a seat at the vacant throne of Hot Chip.

Musically the influence of New Order can be heard throughout and Deeaay's vocals sound on more than a few occasions like David Byrne. The albums highlight 'Seen On The Scene' tackles with society's obsession in becoming famous at the expense of morality and fittingly samples Brad Pitt's speech in Fight Club when his character Tyler Durden proclaims, "We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off". 'My Life Without Me' could also be a single and deserves to be heard in clubs everywhere now; I would challenge anyone not to dance to its blend of nostalgic hysteria.

Deeaay's lyrics can challenge the listener to keep a straight face at times, particularly on 'Roll Call 1' when he gives Bono a good run for his money laughably name-checking wikipedia and on 'Rules' when lines such as 'Do not feed the animals' and 'You can't wear your own shoes in a bowling alley' would surely embarrass the most illiterate of teenagers. Both songs are however saved by the polished production and hook-laden synth riffs with groove induced percussion that flows throughout 'Tales From The City' making it a highlight of 2009 so far.

Iain Ferry

Curtis Whitefinger

Your Arse Is Mine

With a title that sounds like it could be delivered as a chat-up line by a tramp in the local Wetherspoons after 10 dirty pints of fosters, Curtis Whitefinger's 'Your Arse is Mine' is off to an already shaky start. First track, 'My Arms', starts off with the drunkenly strummed chords of a busker with only his can of Strongbow and flea bitten guitar for company. Turning into a primary school teacher, Curtis gives us the 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' of the various body parts his lady wants to break, and as Curtis wails on, you can't blame her.

'Your Arse Is Mine' dips out of genres like a fat kid at woolworth's pick n mix counter. Curtis does folk with 'Poor Me', Curtis dons his union jack pants and does a Britpop knees up with the addition of harmonica for 'She's A Thing', and then promptly rapes the Beatles with ' He's Happy'. The profound 'Let Them Eat Their Shit' has Curtis dissecting the delicate folds of social politics with the subtlety of Gordon Ramsay with a meat clever, as he compares cultural problems to the culinary cuisine of salads and organic produce. Billy Bragg fear not, your crown is safe. Curtis has the lyrical dryness of Pam Ayres with the rhyming gems of "Well, bell, nell" and 'Creeper, keeper' in 'She Breaks My Heart'. 'Getting Skeletal' and 'Gotta Have An Enemy' provide an oasis in the desert of Curtis' creativity as actual songs seep through.

Curtis is Chas without his Dave, the lyrical panache and East End charm. This should be confined to an acoustic guitar on the back streets of Notting, and well away from the muffled speakers of a dusty 8 track.

Marie Wood

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