Bronco Bullfrog - Time Waits For Norman (Ltd. edition 7")

Soft suburban psych-pop! The Broncos celebrate a day in the life of an average everyday misfit.

Following on from last summer's super single, Clarifoil, the Broncos are back with a three track EP which further showcases their mastery of mid '60s mod-meets-art-school guitar pop. With a sound that channels The Kinks, The Move, The Iveys and early-Jam, the lead track Time Waits For Norman catalogues a day in the life of suburban oddball Norman as he negotiates life's petty frustrations.

In the tradition of sweetly observational English psychedlia, it celebrates the oddness in the ordinary. In much the same way as The Small Faces' Lazy Sunday Afternoon references Mrs. Jones and her Bert's lumbago, here we get fizzy pop, corner shops and small talk with the neighbours. It may also be the only pop song to ever mention chicken paste. As with all the Bronco Bullfrog releases there's a keen ear for period detail, right down to the studio phasing and Beatle George-ish guitar break.

Rocking Horse Mender, the EP's other original track, has a more melancholic bent and pays homage to a lost age of innocence and the joys of a simple wooden toy while Listen To The Sky is a spirited cover of a Sands B-side. Sands being a short-lived psych-pop band who only ever released the one single. No doubt an original copy of said disc would fetch a small fortune on Ebay. For those of us with diminished purchase power this lovely three track EP will more than suffice.

Released by Fruits De Mer Records on limited edition coloured vinyl.

Click here for more on Fruits De Mer Records.

Fitness Forever - Cosmos (OUT NOW!)

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.

Click here for more on Fitness Forever.

The Beatpack - I'm Walkin'/Hey Senorita 7"

 

Hot-blooded R&B from reformed hairy garage legends. Part five in State Records' Soundgate Sound Acetate series.

It's been 23 years since The Beatpack disbanded. But thankfully the lure of making music again was too strong to resist. The reformed Beatpack features three original members with new blood on drums and rhythm guitar. Their first recordings since 1991 have found what seems like a natural home on State Records, Folkestone's bespoke recording facility and record label.

A-side “I'm Walkin'” ably demonstrates the band have not lost their touch when it comes to making breakneck R&B. Blues harmonica wails defiantly over the barely restrained rhythm section, who seem as if they're chomping at the bit to make up for lost time. It's a sound that calls to mind Van Morrisson's Them, tearing it up during their wild residency at Belfast's Maritime Hotel.

As a contrast to the A-side's leaving song, B-side “Hey Senorita” celebrates the prospect of new love with a slightly more beat-pop feel. All in all a nice re-introduction. Welcome back chaps!

Limited to 500 copies on 70g 7” vinyl in a hand-stamped sleeve.

Click here for the State Records website.

PYPY - Pagan Day

Distortion, speed, chaos! Art-punk from Montreal.

PYPY is something of garage punk supergroup, made up of members of Montreal's CPC Gangbangs, Red Mass, and Duchess Says. With a sound that's a mix of the Slits and Cale-era Velvets drone, injected with the amphetamine rush of garage rock. The overall effect is like Link Wray's been to art college.

Opening with the album's title track, a slashed speaker, graffiti splattered wall of noise complete with freakout guitars, fuzzed-up bass, and football terrace, glam-stomp beats. The mantra being - If three chords is good, then two chords is better, and it's a tactic that suits the band well. Like the title suggests, it's time to put away any beliefs, get primitive and back to basics and well, see what happens!

Molly is the closest the album gets to pop, with traditional verse/chorus/verse structure and girl/boy vocals. Any notion of safe territory thankfully scuppered by a Tom Verlaine-esque guitar solo. Daffodils has echoes of art-infused post-punk. Think PIL or Siouxsie, it's punk but with an eye on the disco floor. Hypnotic and slightly sinister.

Too Much Cocaine is a nightmare journey about having taken too much cocaine (who woulda thought?!?) Its a manic diary of paranoia over a jerky dance-spasm rhythm. Lesson indeed to just say no, eh kids! She's Gone takes the glitter beat and gives it a space-punk makeover, with wah-wah guitar breaks reminiscent of Loop or Spacemen 3.

Ya Ya Ya is a short, sharp blistering ode to dumb-assery, which gives way the album's closing instrumental track Psychedelic Overlords which edges towards stoner rock territory. It's these two final tracks that perhaps best sum up the dual nature of PYPY; a garage rock band that's not afraid to venture out of the genre's narrow confines, towards something more adventurous and experimental. Good on 'em I say! If you're looking for something to take you out of your comfort zone this could be just the thing.

 

Click here for PYPY online.

Pagan Day is out now on Black Gladiator/Slovenly Records.

Freedom Hawk - European Tour Dates

One of the best heavy rock albums of the last couple of years was without doubt Holding On by Virginian rock quartet Freedom Hawk. Good news then that the band are due to play some rare European dates this April. Unfortunately good ol' Blighty is not on the itinerary but hey, the mainland just a short hop these days.

April 5 - Siegen, Germany, VORTEX
April 6 - Antwerp, Belgium, AMC
April 7 - Paris, France, Le Glazart
April 8 - Dusseldorf, Germany, The Pitcher
April 9 - Berlin, Germany,  Jagerklause
April 10 - Tilburg, Netherlands, Roadburn Festival
April 11 - Wurzburg, Germany,  Immerhin
April 12 - Munster, Germany,  RARE Guitar

www.freedonhawk.net

 

Smoke Fairies - Tour Dates Plus New LP

Good news for fans of ethereal bluesy folk duo Smoke Fairies. A string of live dates have been announced for May and June, along with the promise of a new eponymous album due for release on April 14th on Full Time Hobby.

The album will be available on CD, heavyweight vinyl, download as well as a special deluxe edition. There's also going to be a limited Record Store Day only vinyl version. The deluxe edition box will be available for pre-order from 4pm GMT this Friday via www.smokefairies.com

Luder - Adelphophagia (OUT NOW!)

A winning mix of shoegaze and Sabbath-inspired riffage from female-fronted Detroit four piece.

If a band was to pick a Davie Bowie song to cover, most would opt for for something from his '70s or early '80s output. There are not many bands that would choose Bowie's 1997 single “I'm Afraid Of Americans”. But there again Luder (for it is they) are no ordinary band. On Adelphophagia, the band's 2^nd long-player and follow up to 2009's Sonoluminescence, the band's version of the lesser-spotted-Bowie-single adds a rock guitar slant to Bowie and Eno's squelchy electro-funk. It's a choice that tells you much about Luder. They've one foot in the four-square grunge rock classicist camp, while slyly casting admiring eyes and taking note of the more avant-garde, artful and experimental. The Lady Gagas of rock if you can picture that for a second. Well maybe not, but if anyone remembers electronic rock duo Curve, that may give you an idea of what we're dealing with.

It's this mix of leftfield rock and big choruses that gives the album it's strength. It's moody, but big on groove. The album's release on Small Stone Records marks something of a stylistic departure for a label that's usually associated with a more macho stoner rock sound. This branching out into more cerebral meditative territory can do no harm though. The riffs when they do come will still satisfy die-hard rock fans, they're hard hitting and perhaps all the more effective for the band's otherwise restrained use of dynamics. While difficult to pigeon-hole into one stylistic genre, as there are various strands in Luder's musical DNA, it's this effortless blending that ultimately stands in the band's favour, and anyone willing to listen will no doubt be won over. Oh and the album title? It's what happens when an embryo consumes another in utero. So now you know!

Click here for Luder's website.

Click here for Small Stone Records.

 

Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou + Benjamin Folke Thomas Cafe Tour

Next month sees two our our favourite acts, Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, and Benjamin Folke Thomas, take to the road for a small tour of cafes and coffee shops (see dates above). So as well as having your mind and soul replenished by some inspired folk-based songwriting and musicianship, the body can also benefit from a cup and a slice. Nice!

For a chance to grab a couple of free tickets along with Trevor and Hannah's three LP releases to date, head over to their website - www.trevormossandhannahlou.com

Nightmare Boyzzz - Bad Patterns

Booze-sodden new punk anthems for fans of The Ramones, The Boys, The Briefs Buzzcocks, The Exploding Hearts and all that '77 style punk.

Fans of '77 style punk-pop will be frothing at the mouth over the latest release on the legendary Slovenly label. Bad Patterns sees the Nightmare Boyzzz from Huntsville, Alabama unleash 11 tracks of self-loathing, booze-sodden anthems for dispossessed romantics everywhere.

With nifty I, IV, V chord permutations (and some relative minors for the middle eights), more hooks than a chain of haberdashers, and lead guitar lines worthy of The Damned's Captain Sensible. (Or should that be Jimmy Page on cheap speed and snakebite?)

There's some shades and nuances to keep any non-purists happy; You're A Star tips a hat to punk's glam roots, while My Body Breaks Down may just be the best new powerpop tune you're likely to hear all year. Puke My Life Up reworks the Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane Riff into the ultimate slacker-punk manifesto.

Available now on CD or LP, the album comes complete with gloriously gonzoid cover art by none other than Pork Magazine's Sean Äaberg. Check out selected tracks on the the band's widget type thingy below.

The Magic Theatre - The Long Way Home

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.

Click here for more on The Magic Theatre.