REVIEW// Nots/ We Are Nots

Abrasive post-punk from unrelenting Memphis quartet 

A year after it's US release Nots' debut album finally arrives in UK shores on a wave of Riot Grrrl momentum. A coincidence considering that this distinctly Riot Grrrl band don't care for trends, band-wagons or whatever anyone else is doing. 

It's an attitude that's reflected in their album, and We Are Nots certainly isn't short of attitude, especially of the angsty-teenager kind. 

Following the fool-proof post-punk formula of a repeated one-word refrain over abrasive power chords (Insect Eyes, Reactor) Nots cling on to convention like a dog on the arm of a postman and don't let up, resulting in an unrelenting sonic noise that veers on the edge on violent.

Natalie Hoffmann's venomous bark is reminiscent of Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna, backed by a barrage of squalling guitars, plummeting drums and glitchy synths the likes of Black Mold and White Noise sound as though they were written in a fit of GCSE-fuelled rage.

It's a blueprint that could easily become tiresome, yet the Memphis quartet don't seem to tire of things that piss them off, the last track frothing with just as much frenzied frustration as the first. 

Nots might not care for what you're doing but you should certainly care about them. 

ALBUMS OF 2015

12 months, countless albums and endless deliberating, but only 10 of this year's releases can earn the title of Album Of The Year.
After much consideration and a few last minute entries it's finally here- our Albums Of 2015

Pinkshinyultrablast// Everything Else Matters

Despite being born out of a post-Ride/ post-MBV universe the Russian quintet seem surprisingly free from the shackles imposed by their shoegazing forefathers.

Building on layers of feedback-drenched guitars with shimmering synths and dreamy vocals they create a sound that's less gazing down at your shoes and more staring up at the stratosphere. 

Jessica Pratt// On Your Own Love Again

Recorded over 2 years at home in LA and San Francisco, there's a certain nostalgic charm to the 27 year old's ethereal folk that's reminiscent of Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell, tape hiss included.  

Steve Reich// Music For 18 Musicians: Ensemble Signal

Ensemble Signal is a minimalist masterpiece compromising of 14 similar-sounding tracks that seep seamlessly into one another.

Built around crescendos and decrescendos, often of single notes, the instruments rise and set like the sun, the sound of a city waking up.

Diat// Positive Energy

Despite their debut album being entitled Positive Energy Diat are not a happy bunch, yet the Berlin-based band manage to turn their depression into a raucous post-punk racket that's impossible to not compare to Joy Division. 

Ought// Sun Coming Down

On their 2014 debut Montreal punks Ought marked themselves out as ones to watch, and it's the anxiety to live up to this billing which fuels the angsty alt-rock of it's follow up, whilst still maintaining comparisons to their post-punk counterparts The Fall. 

V/A// Cease & Desist: DIY! (Classics From The Post Punk Era 1978-1982)

Compiling cult classics from 1978-82 Cease & Desist is a masterclass in doing it yourself.

From Break The Ice At Parties jazz-funk mash up, to the electro-pop of Private Plane, it's this year's most ingenious and entertaining release that will make assembling an IKEA flatpack look like fun.

Protmartyr// The Agent Intellect

2014's second album Under The Colour Of Official Right cropped up on many of last year's end of year polls, and the Detroit punks look set to do the same with this year's third effort.

Boasting angular post-punk, underpinning frontman Joe Casey's Mark E Smith-esque drawl it's as bleak and abrasive as we've come to expect.

Four Tet// Morning/ Evening

Kieran Hebden's eighth album is an album of journeys. From the literal journey of making chappatis with his grandma to making music in an East London club, to the metaphorical journey that transports the listener from the earth to it's celestial peak, told through the producer's brand of expansive and atmospheric synths.

Institute// Catharsis

 

If albums were named after how they made you feel then Austin punks Institute wouldn't be far wrong with Catharsis. It's frenzied guitars and tub-thumping drums providing the listener with pure punk release.

Jim O' Rourke// Simple Songs

Simple Songs is Jim O' Rourke's first pop album since 2001, yet it's clear he's not lost his knack for a melody whilst he's been away. A melting pot of classic pop elements and more hooks than a butchers kitchen, all backed by the Chicago producers trademark dark humour and wit. 

Many of the albums on this list are available from The Music Exchange, show your support for your local record store and buy independently 

REVIEW// Coates/ Vol 1 EP

On his debut EP Oliver Coates makes a bid for the Britpop big time

There's something of a Britpop revival happening at the moment, thanks in part to Blur's reunion and the endlessly turning Oasis rumour mill. But, it's not the genre's old dogs you should be concerned about, there's a new kid on the Britpop block demanding your attention- Coates.

Better known as Oliver Coates, the West London troubadour's debut EP, Vol 1 is a upbeat, bouncy slice of Britpop without the ladishness, lairiness and Liam Gallagher.

The Jamie T-esque storytelling of opener Gin And Tonic tells of the cider-fuelled nights on the tiles with a girl that "Leaves every night in tow with a fat lad with lots of dough". Recalling Treay's own charming tales of late-night debauchery. 

It's evident that lyrics are Coates' strong point, whether he's channelling Frank Turner's honesty, backed by rollicking guitars and trumpets on Throw Me Down or Billy Bragg's politically charged songwriting on Talk Of The Town, which tackles vacuous celebrity culture. He might be influenced by Oasis but Vol 1 is no Digsey's Dinner. 

Instead it offers a refreshingly modern take on the genre that's sure to put Coates at the forefront of the Britpop revival. 

REVIEW// U.S Girls/ Half Free

Meg Remy's fourth album is a liberating listen, that's still impossible to pin down

Half Free, the title of Meg Remy's fourth album, could easily be nonsensical,  but one listen to it's politically-charged lyrics and it takes on a whole new meaning.

On opener Sororal Feelings Remy attacks a husband who has slept with her sisters through off-kilter pop hooks and lyrics that Morrissey would happily give his floral shirts for: "Now I'm going to hang myself/ hang myself from my family tree." 

Damn That Valley's dancefloor-filling beats could easily take on the charts, but Remy's war widow wails ensure that she doesn't stray too far from the left-field.

If Window Shade's shimmering synths and sugar-sweet vocals had you pigeon-hole Remy, Sed Knife sees her break out of those shackles, ditching dub for rollicking rock riffs.

Remy's ability to evolve and transform with each song may be contradicting the album's oppression hinting title, but that's what makes it all the more liberating.
She might only be half free to the world,  but musically Remy has no barriers. 

REVIEW// Frozy/ Lesser Pop

On their fourth album the Seaford trio prove that simple can be effective

Finding money you didn't know you had, sleeping in and the smell of freshly cut grass... The simple things in life are the best, and Frozy is no exception.

Their fourth album Lesser Pop compromises of 13 no-frills, no-egos lo-fi pop songs.

Opener Ferris Wheel embraces simplicity. Based around the child-like observation of "A ferris wheel takes you up in the air/ and now you're back down." It illustrates not only the innocence of it's subject matter, but the band too. 

Angela's chorus is a one word cry to it's protagonist, a girl who, like Frozy themselves, doesn't need make up to be effortless, recalling the equally-as-modest Mouldy Peaches.

Cardinals is bizarre yet bitter sweet. Gentle guitars float over singer Nicol's dreamy vocals, like one of it's title's feathers. 

Despite the simplicity, there's a distinct whiff of melancholy from what seem like sunny, sugar sweet pop songs on the surface.
"Think of March again/ it's the month you made a big mistake"  sings Nicol on March Again, or Where Are You's deadpan of "When you see me walking down the street/ you turn around and start running away." Suggesting that the only thing Frozy can't simplify is their emotion.

Like all simple things, Lesser Pop is short and sweet, over in 30 minutes. It makes for a fleeting listen, that's as fun as it is heartfelt and introvert. Not so simple after all.

Lesser Pop is out on October 16th via Oddbox Records, preorder here

REVIEW// Julia Holter/ Have You In My Wilderness

Julia Holter's 4th album is a world to get lost in, just don't wander to far...

On Have You In My Wilderness Julia Holter invites us to share her private universe, in which she explores themes of love, trust, power and relationships using her own brand of avant-garde pop and almost poetic lyricism. It is perhaps no coincidence then, that on the album's cover Holter mirrors an early image of punk-poet Patti Smith.

The opening harpsichord twangs of Feel You give way to Holter's haunting voice as she recalls "the memory of your piano"  over a bouncy bassline that adds melody to the melancholy. 

Holter's voice is the album's focal point, "Do you know the proper way to ask for a cigarette?" she questions on the cinematic How Long, over a sprawling string section. Yet even the orchestral bombast fails to dominate her charming tales.

Betsy On The Roof is the highlight though, Holter's voice is captivating as she coos "Oh oh she said", underpinned by a stirring piano line that accentuates the fragility of her voice, as we realise that Holter's world is an intimate one.

At times Holter gets lost in her own wilderness. Songs like Night Song and Vasquez wander without ever finding a way, too immersive against the left-field pop of Sea Calls Me Home.

It might be an album of two halves, but Have You In My Wilderness is wholly immersive, something to get lost in, and there isn't anywhere in the universe where we'd rather be.

REVIEW// Sexwitch/ S/T

Bat For Lashes embraces her dark side on demonic new album

Demonic, hypnotising, enchanting and ultimately weird. These are just some of the words that come to mind when listening to Sexwitch, the brain child of Bat For Lashes' Natasha Khan and Toy. 

Taking traditional 20th century folk songs originating from Iran, Morocco and Thailand and frying them in acid, Sexwitch is a far cry away from the accessible synth-pop of 2012's The Haunted Man. 

Opener Ha Howa Ha Howa's otherworldly crys of 'He addicted me and I addicted him' is a demonic call-to-arms, almost as if Khan is enticing Lucifer himself to this Satanic party.

Heleyos' twitching bass and abrasive guitars is a psychedelic, acid-rock  wig out reminiscent of Savages corrosive post-punk.

On the epic, 8 minute bombast of Kassidat El Hakka Khan chants "When I die I'm going back to what I was- nothing" as though she's some kind of ritual-inciting voodoo witch doctor as tribal drums clatter beneath an eerie guitar riff. 

Sexwitch is no Laura. Fans of Khan's piano-led ballads will find no solace in the album's psych-folk, as her in ethereal croon is replaced by a haunting howl it makes for a unsettling, almost primal listen that is, ultimately weird.  

REVIEW// Battles/ La Di Da Di

Battles return with a batshit album of sonic experimentalism 

Thought there was no such thing as the nutty professors or mad scientists that childhood cartoons lead you to believe? Well, you thought wrong. They do exist, but not as lab coat doting geeks, instead they play guitars in a band called Battles.

Their third experiment La Di Da Di is a caustic concoction of math-rock, electronica and pop that's entirely instrumental.

Opener The Yabba is the calm before the storm, luring you in all swirling synths punctuated by staccato beats before breaking into some serious guitar riffs and drum kicks, as though Royal Blood just gatecrashed Aphex Twin's party.

FF Bada recalls Foals at their most sonic, or 65 Days Of Static on acid.

Whilst Dot Com sounds as though the nerds have been left in charge of the music at a 90's rave.

La Di Da Di is a mad mix of influences that could easily be a product of a reaction gone wrong in Walter White's meth lab, combusting and exploding  in equal measures at every charged drum beat, it is as bonkers as the nutty professors at it's helm.

REVIEW// The Haze/ Fight To Pay EP

The Oxford quartet prove Gene Simmons wrong on their second EP 

Rock 'n' roll is dead. The debate is as old as the rock stars that spout it. The riff is dying out, record sales are plummeting, it's time we buried the genre for good. Or so they say.

Not if The Haze have anything to do with it. With a bio that simply states they want to 'bring guitar music back to the charts' the Oxford quartet sound as though they might just be the saviours of rock 'n' roll, and their second EP, Fight To Pay the Holy Grail. Maybe not, but either way their going to have a bloody good time whilst they're at it. 

The title track doesn't hold back, kicking off with an AC/DC indebt riff turned up to 11, before frontman Josh Rawle's cock rock-esque snarl of 'Alright', it's evident that they've taken more than a few cues from from rock 'n' roll's greats.

What's Your Name suggests that said cues arn't just music-related, with Rawle's whiskey-denched vocals sounding as though he's had one too many Jack Daniels.  

Look Alive proves there's more life left in the riff just yet, recalling The Rolling Stones and The Black Keys with it's rollicking blues licks.

Ride is the highlight though, it's arena-baiting chorus of 'Ride on my lover/Ride on by' tailor made to be screamed back in their faces by thousands of crazed fans at a Knebworth like peak. 

Fight To Pay isn't game changing, but that's not what the band set out to do. Instead it reaffirms rock 'n' roll's status as one of music's most important genres, with a history of selling out stadiums, breaking records and having a good time, and a future that's set to do the same.  

REVIEW// Four Tet/ Morning/Evening

On the follow up to 2013's Beautiful Rewind Kieren Hebden looks to his roots for inspiration but finds his sound in the stratosphere 

Not many artists are capable of sounding so celestial whilst remaining so grounded, yet this is something that Kieren Hebden- better known as Four Tet- has managed on this, his eighth album. Created on his laptop using Ableton Live, VST synthesizers and found audio recordings, the producer crafts 2 tracks spanning 20 minutes each that transport the listener into a blissed-out stratosphere, that will cost you significantly less than any Virgin Galactic flight. 

The former, Morning is an hypnotic expanse of breezy synths that underpin Indian soundtrack singer Lata Mangeshkar's dreamy vocals, punctuated by electronic clicks that pierce the atmosphere like sunlight through the blinds. 

If Morning is Hebden exploring his Indian heritage then Evening is surely the sound of a continuous journey towards his techno future. Perhaps the closest the record gets to a club rave, it begins with trickling synths that warp into fuzzy, distortion-drenched bass reminiscent of early Kraftwerk. Culminating in a swirling crescendo that brings you back down to earth on a wave of extraterrestrial euphoria. 

Morning/Evening is ultimately an album of journeys. Not just the literal journey of making chappatis with his grandma to making music in an East London club, but a metaphorical journey too-from the earth to the celestial peak.