(This review first appeared in issue #88 of Shindig! magazine.)
There's a strain of cinematic French music that feeds head and heart, and is fixed on the central tenets of style and sophistication. You can join the dots from Jean Claude Vannier to Air through to its latest progenitors - Le SuperHomard, an Avignon-based quintet led by Christophe Vaillant.
MeadowLanePark is the group's first full-length LP following 2015's mini-album The Maple Key and recent release The Pomegranate EP. Recorded during closed hours in the music shop where Vaillant works, the results are a joy, ebbing through sunshine pop, breezy electro, and gently playful psychedelia. The group make good use of the instruments to hand with vintage synths, harpsichords and strings making up the sonic palette. The band's key influences (Stereolab, Saint Etienne, Broadcast) can be heard but their sense of self wins out. Whether it's the evocative instrumental 'In The Park' or the electronic textures of 'SDVB', MeadowLanePark is one of this years early gems.
Lounge
friendly mix of lite-jazz, light entertainment and euro-pop. (Out now
on Elefant Records.)
Madrid indie label
Elefant Records are on a roll at the moment. Hot on the heels of The
Magic Theatre's second album comes another winning release. Cosmos
is the second long player from Italian septet Fitness Forever. With a
name like that you might think their music would be the perfect
soundtrack for a strenuous gym workout but it's anything but. Instead
it's a sophisticated, lounge-friendly mix of lite jazz, light
entertainment and euro-pop. More smartly tailored mohair suit and
patent leather shoes than lycra and headbands.
Sweeping in from the
Mediterranean (Naples to be exact) is a warm front of sunny,
orchestral pop which gently shifts from chintzy euro-pop, through
jazz-infused swings and orchestral sweeps, into beach-friendly
Tropicalia. With a cappucino at your side it's the perfect soundtrack
for flicking through vintage copies of Vogue or Nova magazine. Add to
this the album's all Italian vocals and true-to-period nod to bygone
light entertainment and you get an idea of the record's charm.
Much like David
Axelrod's early '70s output, the album is immensely sample-worthy,
though with a less serious and weighty feel. Alongside Axelrod, the
album's other musical touchstone is another musical great, the no
less talented, sadly deceased Ronnie Hazelhurst. This thread of retro
light entertainment runs right through the album. Despite the all
Italian vocals, many of the tracks could be the theme tune to some
short-lived and long-lost, vaguely melancholic US sitcom from the mid
'70s economic lull. You know that two girls struggling in the big
apple kind of vibe.
Cosmos has a
unique appeal that just about steers clear of kitsch and manages to
be both retro and modernist, nobody else is making music quite like
Fitness Forever.
Quietly
ambitious second album from the Liverpool duo packed with lyrically
and musically rich baroque indie-pop. (Out Now on Elefant Records.)
It's easy in the modern
world to feel jaded and world weary. Despite the technological
advances we've experienced in the last few years, advances that our
ancestors would never have believed possible, we still bemoan slow
wi-fi, the intrusiveness of social media, and having to wait over 24
hours for the delivery of our online shopping. Which is why this
album by Liverpool's The Magic Theatre is so refreshing and does much
to re-install a much needed sense of wonder in the modern maze.
Take the album's
opening track 'The Sampler', not as you might think a homage to a
piece of kit by Korg, but a song sung from the perspective of a young
Victorian girl, 200 years ago, busy embroidering her needlework in
time for her birthday. A timely reminder that once people put their
heart and soul into a craft rather than constantly updating their
Facebook status.
The pleasant surprises
don't end there. 'It Was Glorious' looks back at the initial rush of
new young love in the height of summer. Passionate and alive, and
full of warm sentiments. Glorious indeed! 'Festival Of Fire' throws
in some Bollywood touches, which along with the samba percussion on
'I Got The Answer' indicates a tasteful musicality not often found in
the indie pop world.
The album's centrepiece
'Cathedrals Of The Mind' takes a wry look at human achievement in
science, art, music and architecture. As is said in the song - ”with
bi-polar grandiosity....what high achieving deadly apes are we”,
it's both a celebration and an acknowledgement of our status as a
dying species. On top of that it may just be the greatest list song
since The Beloved's 'Hello'. Yes that good!
The album's sole cover
is a delightful version of 'Love Is Blue', Luxembourg's entry in the
1967 Eurovision Song Contest. Underpinned by harpsichord and lush
orchestration. It's an indication of The Magic Theatre's
inspirations, baroque '60s pop, sensual and sophisticated ballads,
and lushly sympathetic orchestration.
Song after song there's
a compounding sense wholesomeness and heartfelt goodness that would
come across as twee in lesser hands, but here is as refreshing as a
mountain spring. An album unlike any other you'll hear this year. And
one which might just make you see the world afresh.
Elefant Records of Madrid have long been purveyors of fine indie-pop, one of a sadly dying breed of labels that still holds dear to its heart the notion of independence, bespoke vinyl releases and a love of music over commerce. As well as releasing great albums by the likes of Helen Love, Juniper Moon, The School, and the recently reformed Primitives, the label are also responsible for putting out desirable slices of 7" vinyl. Maybe not so good for the environment we're told, but when they're lovely coloured vinyl they sure as hell look nice rotating on your Dansette!
With that in mind let's cast our eyes and ears over the label's latest three 7" EPs. Click over the jump to read about singles by YouDoMeToo, Wild Balbina and El Palacio De Linares. There's also videos from all three bands so go on, hit the jump!
Coventry's indie
popsters return with a feast of obscure '60s covers.
Wait around long enough
and it seems every band eventually reforms. The allure of the stage
and public adoration is just too much to resist. Whether it's The
Stone Roses or The Beach Boys, Cast, The Verve, Pulp, Blur or Dodgy,
it seems they just can't help get back back together for one more
bite of the cherry. I'm not knocking this at all, in fact I'm quite
looking forward to seeing The Stone Roses at Heaton Park. What does
gall me though is their tendency and desperation with any new
material to attempt to prove what geniuses they were all the time,
and to hint at our foolishness in not noticing it. Refreshing then
that indie guitar band The Primitives have instead chosen to release
an album of obscure '60s pop tunes. There's a dignity and sense of
realism in this that I like. The resulting album is something of a
triumph made all the more so as taste gets the better of ego. Much
like The Detroit Cobras who only ever release versions of old soul
and R&B tracks, The Primitives have delved into the world of
lesser celebrated '60s beat groups and singers in search of the
material that makes up their comeback LP Echoes And Rhymes.
Click over the jump for more on The Primitives' Echoes And Rhymes.
