MOSHIMOSHI — ANIME THEME

⌾ LISTEN TO ANIME THEME BY MOSHIMOSHI ⌾

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A dynamic pendulum keeps time in 'Anime Theme', swinging between math rock-laden slabs of stabbing, syncopated guitar, bass and drums, and the portions where distorted guitars send out a wave after wave of sweeping fuzz. Gently jagged, no harshness in the fast-paced but digestible acrobatics of the melodies here, the track races along very much like a high-octane anime theme.

Finnish band Moshimoshi summon the sensibilities of early-2000s post-hardcore and the emotivity of emo, complete with punk-flavoured drums and throaty, screaming vocals. Warped by their own force, these screams blend with the guitar, becoming a part of the overdriven medley, providing an extra albeit shattered melody to the proceedings. It bounces, pops with precision, fizzes with energy.

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• 🔔 'Anime Theme' is taken from Moshimoshi's upcoming album GREEN, scheduled for release on 28th April.

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FIVEIGHTHIRTEEN — SOME QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERS

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Pulsing to the velcro snap of hip-hop infused drums, yawning ambient synths roar at the base of fiveighthirteen’s ‘some questions are answers’. But being the chimeric track it is, there’s more to it than that. It’s a mix of sensitive drones and legible grooves, an urgent, infiltrative bassline, a shuffling math rock spirit, with an indefinable synth melody played in soft, mythic sweeps.

The bass becomes distorted, rampaging in a steady gallop in the track’s most propulsive parts, with officious vocal samples (reminiscent of Public Service Broadcasting) topping it off like a psychedelic trip through archival ruins centuries from now.

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• 🔔 'some questions are answers' is taken from fiveighthirteen's upcoming album a fever of rays due out on 13th August.

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🐣 THE ENTREPRENEURS — JOAQUIN

⌾ LISTEN TO JOAQUIN BY THE ENTREPRENEURS ⌾

The open road tumbling ahead, the scenery struggling to appear correctly because of just how quickly you're moving along it. This is the sense of wild freedom that explodes out of 'Joaquin' by Danish band The Entrepreneurs; thick bass and guitars with frazzled distortion play rumbling and loose with drums thumping out a frolicking heartbeat. It's a galloping horse, a rushing train, a dog with its head out the window as a car speeds on an open highway.

But you soon realise the song isn't a pure celebration of freedom—it's a yearning for it, tearing a space for yourself in the fabric of the world. The vocals suddenly yell out:

"Feels like / We should / Take a trip outside / See what’s all around / In this part of town / Where the lights are out / And the doors are unlocked at night / And time flies right on by..."

From that moment, 'Joaquin' is more than just a powering engine: it's a heartfelt casting off of a hometown, like shedding skin. It's painful, though it's something that feels necessary. It explodes poetically with the desire for moving onwards, with almost childlike imagery that evokes absurd visions: "Get away / I might just get away / This place is way too small / Standing 8 feet tall in an 18th century hall."

That childlike nature continues into the instrumental itself: the guitar and bass guitar turn playful, pedalling over each other in twists and turns of math rock style arpeggios as the song becomes quiet and introspective as singer Mathias Bertelsen asks, "What comes to the one who stays around?"

And as much as the dreary feeling of trapped in a small town courses through your veins, there's an unending nostalgia attached to it that chills your heart to think you ever wanted to leave in the first place. And this is the romantic soundscape The Entrepreneurs have created: the crushing joy of running free from the only thing you've ever known.

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• 🔔 You can stream and/or purchase the lovely 'Joaquin' by new indie rock trio The Entrepreneurs over on their their Bandcamp. It's taken from their upcoming album Noise & Romance scheduled for release on 1st February 2019. Pre-order also on Bandcamp if you like what you hear.

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🐣 MATT SOKOL — THE ART FACTORY [初演 • PREMIERE]

There is a great deal of urgency in Matt Sokol's 'the art factory', a track brimming kinetic energy courtesy of collusion between breakneck drums and earthy handfuls of synth arranged in robust arpeggios. Melodies cry out in its first half like little robots communicating brightly with chirruping bleeps-n-bloops, evoking the scene assumed by its enigmatic title: an art factory, where art is made; the sound is industrious, cheerful, with dips of intrigue and doom effusing from a couple of key changes within the first minute. Who are these robots on the production line? For whom is this art being made? We wonder.

Talking to us about the track, Matt Sokol – a drummer himself as well as producer – explains the hyperactive beats: "My love for drums and youthful obsession with math rock drumming means I can't help it," he writes in an email to us, "so many of my beats are crazy fast, flying all over the place."

'the art factory' goes through not only key changes, but whole stylistic shifts. At 1:14 the arpeggio falls away leaving a naked footwork beat thumping beneath a new set of spooky, gleaming synths, chiptune-esque (the VGM sound is "ultimately a coincidence" however), signalling a darker twist behind this art factory, a growling crunch of distortion raging till its crescendo at 1:46 summons an overwhelming sinister tone; look at the artwork—is that blood trailing from what we assume is the factory? The track ends with calm and steady beat, gentle guitar riff, with chilled sweeps of the strings—things are back to normal. It is a multifaceted offering. These are more than superficial changes, however, and are reflective of a thought process.

"I think my mind moves faster than average, both in good and bad ways," Sokol tells us. "I can think fast but also sometimes I can think too fast and go down crazy intellectual pathways in my mind that are not useful."

"With music it seems like that aspect of my personality comes out in overdrive."

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• 🔔 'the art factory' will be released as a standalone single on 19th January.
• 🔔 Matt Sokol's debut EP bloomer was released in October last year and you can listen to and purchase it over on his Bandcamp.

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🐣 DOWNHAUL — HOW THINGS WORKED OUT

A story told in an intricate web of lyricism, weaving guitars, gymnastic bass and skilfully skittering drums, 'How Things Worked Out' arrives from Downhaul, a band from Greensboro, North Carolina. "So now we've got even less to show for all these years of whatever we haven't been"—the track speaks of something that was, now slightly faded in the light of present day, confessional, observational, rambling and revelling in minor but memorable details. From the very start, after a string of distorted chords and drumbeating, this is apparent: "I took your phonecall in my parents' unfinished basement."

When it's not effusing melodies math-rock-style fretboard-somersaulting, the guitar is warm, with just a little bit of grit from fuzzy distortion; in this latter way, in singular chord sweeps, it works with the slow jangle of the bass and calm smartly tuned drums to cushion sad lines like, "Well no one in my life now would even recognise your name," whilst at the same time the space afforded by these calm sections allows for the lyrics to hit bullseyes. At other times the lyrics are not necessarily sad but recognisably awkward and funny, as in "I drive an extra two-and-a-half miles east just to avoid the bank where your mom works, and I know it's total vanity to assume she had even the slightest clue as to who I am but that's all I got."

A tale of love gained, misplaced, and kindled as a set of memories and awkward constraints of movement and meeting, with all the embarrassment and half-obsession that the modern age affords, this is a post-post-breakup anthem in the form of a message never sent, strewn over the surface of this dynamic, rhythmic, melodic sea of sound.

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• 🔔 Did you like that as much as we did? If so, you'll be probably happy to learn that it comes from Downhaul's very recent four-track EP, About Leaving. Featuring three more songs, it's an extension of the sound of 'How Things Worked Out': calculated guitars, crackling distortion, jostling drums and all the everyday colloquial poetics you could ask for. You can listen and/or purchase for $1 or more at their Bandcamp.

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☟ Downhaul Internet Presence ☟
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BRETON ENVY [VIDEO]

Ooo well this arrived a lot sooner than I thought it would. Yes! It is a new video from Breton for their really really nice song 'Envy'. I wrote about this song almost a month ago... wow, has it really been that long? Well, time most certainly does fly – whether you're having fun or not.

Premiered on Nylon just a while ago, video features what all bands should be pretty good at: playing live (which is, apparently, a first for any Breton video). Although it's not a live recording of the actual song, it's cool to see that Breton seem to be playing their hearts out. Yep, it's a high-energy performance that perfectly reflects the passion that clearly goes into all of their tracks, especially this one – the yelped vocals, the battering of the drums, the joyfully in-sync melodies.

But it's not just a live performance. Being versed in filmmaking themselves, Breton have included a little character study by personifying the often destructive nature of the very feeling of envy itself. Frontman Mr Roman Rappak had this to say about it: "Envy of other people and the desire to have a life you have been promised is sometimes the most destructive thing in the world." I hear that!

PS. Breton have a pre-album EP, Force of Habit, out on 16th December.

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FOALS LIVE @ WEST END CENTRE ALDERSHOT

I never thought I'd be writing a post that even mentioned Aldershot, let alone one that actually featured this fair town's name in its title - yet, here we are. And there we were, in Aldershot, in a spookily empty pub at an acceptable drinking hour waiting to see Foals live at the West End Centre. Measuring the minutes with alcohol (what else?) the time quickly whizzed by and, before we knew it, we were en route to the gig itself; 'exciting' didn't cover it.

This rather intimate gig - the venue is officially 175 capacity, although Wikipedia cites it as something more like like 200 (what's 25 more people, eh?) - is just one in a series of rather intimate gigs, that started in Sheffield and will end in Tunbridge Wells in two days' time, stopping off at Derby, Stoke, Southampton, Bournemouth and Brighton on the way. It's a kind of teaser tour, according to the band themselves:

Thanks to everyone who bought tickets for our mini tour this winter. like we said elsewhere it is only a tease, and for us to get back "into it", so don't stress if you missed out, or if we weren't coming near to your home... because there will be many, many more shows coming up.

So there you have it. A mini-tour. Getting back "into it". Of course. That's what it was.

But it really didn't sound anything like that. It sounded like a polished gig. An actual gig. After the danceable grooves of support Trophy Wife, the main event came down on the crowd like a veritable ton of bricks. With Yannis Philippakis, Foals' frontman, typically animated and fully imbued with the feeling of the very music he's playing, a kind of perpetual motion machine in which he is driven by the music in order to drive the music and so on - a cyclical relationship where energy swaps hands between the band, usually culminating in Yannis getting very excited and jumping from whatever pinnacle the stage happens to offer into a sea of outstretched hands and, seemingly refreshed by crowdsurfing in pure adoration, onto the stage again - the gig was suitably frenzied.

They hopped between big tunes from their back and current catalogue, fever-pitch anthems and let's-have-a-breather tunes that nevertheless had everyone screaming. Starting with muscle-beach-evocative 'Miami' they moved onto 'Blue Blood' and new tune 'My Number', whose unquenchable funk had the whole crowd displaying whatever fancy footwork they could muster. Other songs included the now old-school, sweaty indie disco anthem that is 'Balloons' and the epic builder-upper 'Spanish Sahara', which cooled, calmed, and subsequently set ablaze the room with the band's sheer mastery of dynamics.

After a premature departure from the stage, the band returned to the wild shouts of the crowd to launch into the heaviest-ever-Foals-song 'Inhaler', blowing everybody away, bursting many an eardrum, and getting the whole crowd bouncing around and headbanging - not something you expect from Foals, but something that gives a teaser to their own diverse tastes in music (for instance, I noticed that the drummer, Jack Bevan, was wearing a HEALTH vest - +1 point). Then came the ending: 'Two Steps Twice'. This is Foals' usual gig-closer and, with its addictive beat and that chanting-in-the-stands breakdown and Yannis's brave walk from the stage into the crowd itself, bringing everyone together in shouting out this wordless anthem - a beautiful moment.

Foals are certainly a band that needs to be seen live - not only does their energy onstage lend itself to a better quality of sound (because they really do play for all their worth when onstage), but it leads to an exciting show: they are animated and totally gripped by the energy of their own music, lost in a trance like a whirling Dirvish, none more than Yannis, who steals the show with his daredevil jumps from the speakers and his fearless forays into the crowd itself. Phew. Get tickets to the tour proper next year if you know what's good for you.

The night ended with a maniac running out of his car with a golf club and all the pent up aggression of a 17-year-old with a frigid girlfriend. Not typical Aldershot behaviour, I'm sure.

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FOALS INHALER VIDEO

Well, they've gone and done it themselves. Forget Konbini, watch the new video for Foals' latest single from their eagerly, highly, excitedly anticipated new album Holy Fire right above. We're just about dying from the full frontal force of this new song to even contemplate the contents of the video, remembering only graffiti, skateboarders, a tape player, a girl with lungs tattooed on her chest, and a wonderfully colourful bit of attire sported by Foals frontman, Yannis Philippakis.

As you'd expect, the song is good. It's so good that my words are running away from my brain before I've even had a chance to think about what I've just typed. Sorry about that. But the song is amazing.

It's an unexpected turn that Yannis himself has described as the "heaviest" song on the new album, but my goodness, do they do it well. Despite having that hard rock force, a killer riff that could rival any riff-maker of the last decade, and a wide, all-encompassing stadium sound that could uproot a whole forest, Foals penchant for all things dance is evident in the songs inescapable, nearly effervescent groove. Yeah, that's right. Even in the midst of heavy, distorted riffs, a danceable groove comes into place with a genius sense of dynamic, moving from that shredding, 900-storey-high guitar riff into a gentle, quieter part that plinks and plonks with palm-muted, heavily reverbed guitar arpeggios. You headbang, you tango. That's just how Foals works.

If this is anything to go by, which specifically (being an anomaly because of its latent heaviness) it isn't but generally it is, then we have a lovely surprise for us in store in the form of Holy Fire, due for release in the UK 11th February, 2013. For a band that has gone from sweaty but brilliant twiddly math rock indie floorfillers to the grace and beauty of anthemic ambience, the next venture holds in store for us something that we won't expect, but something that promises to tread new paths. Excited is an understatement.

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Konbini.fr
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FOALS INHALER KONBINI EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

The wonderful Foals, two years after their stunning album Total Life Forever will be releasing a sure-to-be exciting third studio album: Holy Fire. This will be released in the UK 11th February, 2013.

For now, we have left with teasers and tidbits, including a pre-album tour later this year - one of which I'll be popping along to. Of those teasers, their official website, www.foals.co.uk is the biggest - newly designed and newly launched, it looks set to house all the nerve-shredding developments on the new album.

In other news, or should I say, mainly, Foals will be giving a sneak peak of a video for what we can only assume will be a single from the album, entitled 'Inhaler'. Where? Where will it be? On the French entertainment, music, lifestyle, etc. site, Konbini.fr. We're absolutely brimming with anticipation to see this.

It will be, as the poster says, à 22h ce soir, which in English means 9pm, tonight. Hold on to your hats, lock your doors, dim the lights, and click onto Konbini just before 9pm tonight to get your new dose of Foals - hopefully the first new dose of many... new doses! Below is the artwork for the new album, cleverly picked apart by one Facebook user: ""フォールズ(=FOALS)" "深呼吸 (=Inhaler)" In Japanese...." Thanks. That explains it all.

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TANGLED HAIR I'M CALMER THAN YOU ARE

Guitar music is in a bit of a slump at the moment - or so it seems. Everyone is loving electronic things, myself included, but whatever happened to the good old fashioned three piece? Three piece, you know? Not a three piece suit, nor a three piece suite, but a three piece band. A person on bass, another on guitar, and another on drums - one or more of them sing. It's a romantic image, nostalgic even, like the memory of listening to Blink 182 and noticing for the first time that Mark and Tom were taking it in turns to sing. Or like... well, who cares. Tangled Hair is a good three piece.

Above is their video promoting their Japan Tour 2012, featuring a song from their EP Apples, 'I'm Calmer Than You Are'. It's great. Great song. Complicated rhythms abound thanks to some intricate, and frankly very impressive drumming, but this is the feature piece for guitar work that is sometimes as simple as whacking one chord for a few bars. Even the guitar is filled with contrast, moving from that simplicity to splash around with some fabulous guitar tapping (always impresses me) and deliciously delicate noodling. The bass moves up and down in waves, sometimes following the guitar, sometimes bringing up the rear with an earthy groove that sounds oh so very marvelous in your eardrums.

That's them playing another song, 'Forty Winks', live at Banquet Records in Kingston (my ends). The technical wizardry involved in creating a song like this is nothing short of very cool - the groove in this song is too head-boppable for words.

I listened to the rest of Apples. It's well, well worth a listen. I sincerely recommend it - check their Bandcamp page (below) to do so. Or search on Spotify if you have it.

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Tangled Hair on Facebook
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PONYTAIL HONEY TOUCHES VIDEO

This is another video directed by MENZ - the same duo who did the magic for Pictureplane last week. Featuring a fruit-fighting martial artist, the new video for kooky art rock fourpiece Ponytail captures the colour, power and technical ability of the band in this latest song 'Honey Touches'.



Coming from their April 2011 album, Do Whatever You Want All The Time, the song mixes experimental math rock guitars, frenetic ska-like drums, and vocals from Molly Siegel that are uniquely free - seemingly unconstrained by conventional rhythm or even style. This comes all together into a melting pot that comes out strangely sounding like shizoid pop - this being the original direction of the band, and the resultant sound: the BBC described their sound as "wonderful, crazy, whipped-up."

Having toured internationally with the likes of Battles and Don Caballero, and been chosen by Matt Groening to perform at 2010's All Tomorrow's Parties, this American fourtet are definitely ones to watch if you're not already watching them. Listening to them, even.

• Have a listen to Ponytail on Myspace
• Check their strange blog
• And follow them on Twitter if you like

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SCSCS SOCCER LIVE

These guys are experimental math rock band scscs from Japan. As much as these are good at what they do, with their precise and quirky melodies, it would be interesting to hear a better quality, more polished recording than those found on their Myspace. Though filled with humble charm, their intricate sound I think may sound better with more attention paid to production.

I don't know much about them, so production aside, I love their sound. Funk math? I don't know what to call it, but from the tight drumming to the twanging start-stop guitars, it's unique stuff, more of which could be hiding out there somewhere, or waiting in the future. They might not be well-known, but they are certainly worth a look. Trawl the web to find out more about them.

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BATTLES GLOSS DROP REVIEW

Battles' second album effort resounds with all the elements that made the first, 'Mirrored', so good. But it comes with a slightly different tone, one that seems less experimental in character and more structured in terms of classic songwriting.

This may be something to do with the departure of Tyondai Braxton: frontman, singer, guitarist and all-
round experimenter. Whether he was the driving force behind the insane rhythms and progressions of their first full-length album - characterised by my personal favourite from the album, 'Tonto' - is something up for debate; this change may have occurred without Braxton's amicable farewell.

But what is clear is that their instrumental jams are just as intense, interesting and listenable as ever. The aural pleasure you get from this band is something else, something like eating food you'd never think about making yourself: a medley of flavours and new tastes that shake up your insides - in a good way.

Saying that, the first single from the album, 'Ice Cream', is nothing like the rest of the album. Matias Aguayo provides vocals that could've been Braxton's next step with the band, but it falls short of being its star attraction. The sugary sounds and summery vibe whizz around without making a full impact. It's a glancing blow; if it's impact you want, you get it elsewhere with the girthy industrial madness of 'My Machines' (possibly due to Gary Numan's input), or the crazy cascading math sounds of the high-speed 'Wall Street'.

What you really notice with this album, generally, is its speed. Songs with an almost drum and bass tempo, like 'White Electric', 'Wall Street' and 'Rolls Bayce' - the last especially with its thundering sub bassline and ballsy beginning - stick out as being Battles as they were: machine gun drumming, distortion, and staccato, music-box noise. There's not a track I don't like on 'Gloss Drop', and I actually think my favourite, the opener 'Africastle', eases you into the new sans-Braxton Battles with beautiful sweeping chords that reverberate underneath pizzicato chatter, until choppy guitars bring you up to an explosive mathletic breakdown.

It's Battles as before, but with more freedom. And with that freedom they have chosen, for the most part (minus the slow hypnosis of 'Sundome', and the weird filler that is 'Toddler'), to play with the idea of being a more guitar-based band, the huge jam that is 'Futura' being crucial evidence of this. More traditional funk basslines have eschewed the more sporadic playing on their first album. The drums have been taken up a notch, as would naturally happen in a jam band, and some of the fills you will hear interlaced into the irregular math rock rhythms of this fantastic band are genius.

Released today, this album comes featuring other artists for vocals and more. It's an interesting way to go, and something that could form some amazing collaborations - 'Sweetie & Shag' with Kazu Makino (of Blonde Redhead) has that potential, dragging Battles halfway to the dancefloor, stopping short to rock out on the way.

'Gloss Drop' does not run as smooth as 'Mirrored', and seems to be taking the band down an avenue that is lined with similar treasures to that which took them through their debut - treasures which are slightly lacking their once-alien lustre.

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BATTLES NEW SINGLE

This is Battles new single 'Ice Cream' from their forthcoming album, Gloss Drop. Released yesterday, the track has already been performed live by the band, in addition to the video already receiving nearly 300,000 views on YouTube.

As you could expect from Battles, this is not your run-of-the-mill rock. It's not your standard formula get in get out with your balls out and whatever rock. Any Battles fan can tell you that, you don't need me to tell you. Beginning with a dreamy little riff that gradually speeds up and up, accompanied by grunts (ugh...ugh...ugh..ugh-ugh-ugh; something sex-related, I'm sure), into a fast frenzy, the song then starts in full. There's definitely a summer feel around this song, helped by the strange distorted staccato organ riff that runs throughout.

High-pitched guitars squeal throughout, backed up with tight drumming from John Stanier, topped with crazy vocals: yells, yelps, and a catchy, if slightly incomprehensible, chorus - if a chorus it is. Nothing wrong with that though. In fact, often when the music is as good as this, the lyrics play second fiddle to the awesome and pretty crazy Paganini-type first fiddle.

Coming from their upcoming album, Gloss Drop (out 6th June), it's an exciting piece featuring Chilean experimental musical artist, Matias Aguayo. There's certainly a Latin feel to this song - whether it's down to Aguayo's input, or the collaboration of the band as a whole for a slightly skewed direction as compared to their debut album, will have to wait until we hear their new effort in full.

For now, I think we're all pretty safe in the knowledge that Battles haven't changed too much. If anything, it's a lighter sound, more structured, less mathsy in its composition, than previous songs. It is completely different to something like Tonto, for example.

You can get the wonderful new single in vinyl form, as you can see on the left here, with some pretty nice pastel colours decorating the covers and records themselves. The pictures are of ice cream, believe it or not.

If you fancy one of these limited edition 12" (if you have a record player), head on over to Amazon or Norman Records. But it's good to download, if you prefer living in your era.

The album Gloss Drop is out 6th June. Have a little gander at the video below. It's a strange one, featuring everything from a naked girl eating ice cream in a bath (?), some beachside calisthenics, and a lot of colours. If you don't like seeing nakedness, don't watch for the first... 30 seconds or so. 

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