SINGLES CORNER! 11/03/2010

THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND – Flagships
tsdole.com

Magisterial, strangely timeless, this track from TSDOLE comes on like the national anthem of a small but very cool country that you’ve not come across before. As always Adam Woolway’s unique vocal is right up front, but there’s instrumentation aplenty, before the track breaks down into a slightly more mellow refrain before fading out. Overall, a strange little tune at first listen, but one that grows and grows… grab it while you can!

BUKOLA – Make Your Move
Slip Disc

Make Your Move has surprisingly subtle instrumentation for an R&B track, but it really works, letting Bukola’s voice lead, and the girl certainly has some good pipes! The only let down here are some really weak synthesised beats, but as they’re hidden pretty low in the mix you probably won’t pick up on them anyway!

NORTH ATLANTIC OSCILLATION – Drawing Maps From Memory
Kscope

This is a curious song, starting abruptly as if you’ve dipped in midway through the track, it throws you off a little. From there it’s difficult to get into the swing of things. This is a step up from their EP though, and definitely has a bit of momentum about it.

NEVER MIND THE STARS – Holiday
All Seeing Eye/Strfckr

Underground heroes in The Netherlands, Never Mind The Stars cite Hot Chip, Daft Punk and Ultravox as influences, and each is writ large on this tune. Nevertheless it’s a catchy track with a big fruity bass beat and a tune that’s all too easily sucked into your subconscious… I’ve been humming it for a week!

NOISIA – Machine Gun
Essential Music

More music from Holland, this time in the form of ace remixers Noisia who are now beginning to take the spotlight in their on right with some brutal drum & bass attack! This is an anthemia beast and almost feels like the missing soundtrack piece from an action movie set in Eastern Europe!

BERTIE BLACKMAN – Black Cats
Forum5

Described as The Australian Florence, Bertie Blackman reminds these ears more of Ladyhawke, which is no bad thing. A very eighties sound, coupled with Blackman’s sultry and sexy vocal has created a rather special track that we cannot urge you stongly enough to seek out!

ALBERTA CROSS – Old Man Chicago
Ark Recordings

This song has probably been around as long as any from this band (it was on the EP of theirs I bought a few years back when I caught them supporting Scott Matthews) and, to these ears, it’s their best. Unlike other parts of their album, this doesn’t feel like it’s apoing anyone else, instead the languid blues seems natural and organic.

SOUND OF GUNS – Alcatraz
Distiller Records
Pounding drums, riffing guitars… we sometimes forget there are still bands writing back to basics rock music. It tends to be Sound Of Guns who remind us, and Alcatraz is another example of why, even though this band aren’t doing anything new, they bear further investigations. The song is catchy as hell, with a chant along chorus that’s clearly been written with hopes of a future playing stadiums…. Follow the dream guys!

MCLEAN – My Name
Asylum records

The synth heavy production here is immediately off-putting, I can’t help but suspect this will be cookie cutter R&B and I’m gonna hate it. Thankfully though, McLean has a smooth and sophisticated vocal that helps this track rise above the crowd. Stripped down to basics, this would be a great tune… less is more folks!

NEWSFLASH: Strange Death Of Liberal England Announce Editors Support Slots + Download Single

The Strange Death Of Liberal England return after an 18 month hiatus punctuated by a sole theatre show in their native Portsmouth. Their debut mini album, ‘Forward March’ and live shows saw the band heralded by NME ‘for the chiming elegance of their kaleidoscopic post-rock’, whilst The Guardian praised ‘music that roars and sighs, swoops and swoons.’ During that time away from the public gaze, the band have been hard at work with producer Dave Allen (The Cure, Depeche Mode), orchestras and all manner of other experiments to create a quite astounding debut album proper, a new single from which, ‘Flagships’, will be a download only release via Republic Of Music on 8th March and is available here
The Strange Death Of Liberal England accompany Editors on their UK tour before playing their own London headline show. The band will be at the following venues in MARCH.

Sunday 7th – Preston, Guildhall
Monday 8th – Bradford, St. George’s Hall
Wednesday 10th – Glasgow, Academy
Thu 11th – Dundee, Fat Sams
Friday 12th – Inverness, Ironworks
Saturday 13th – Aberdeen, Music Hall
Monday 15th – Newcastle, Academy
Tuesday 16th – Manchester, Apollo
Wednesday 17th – Cambridge, Corn Exchange
Friday 19th – Bournemouth, Academy
Saturday 20th – Brighton, Dome
Sunday 21st – Cardiff, University
Tuesday 23rd – Folkestone, Leas Cliff Hall
Wednesday 24th – London, Brixton Academy
Thursday 25th – London, Lexington Arms (HEADLINE SHOW)
Sunday 28th – Portsmouth, Guildhall
Monday 29th – Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall
Tuesday 30th – Birmingham, Academy

www.tsdole.com

I LIKE TRAINS/TSDOLE Live @ The Wedgewood Rooms, 24/10/2009

I have to hit the ground running this evening as the moment the barmaid hands me my Jack Daniels & Coke than local post-rockers Aeroplane Attack take to the stage built on the rock solid foundation of Rusty Sheriff’s drums and K.O. Desai’s throbbing bass, their three guitarists overlap, supporting each other one moment and clashing the next to create captivating soundscapes. This is music to lose yourself in and the swelling crowds are lapping it up. Next are Nottingham boys Swimming, the material is solid but they don’t seem to capture the audience until their final number, when they finally break out the more interesting sound that runs throughout their recent album.
When The Strange Death Of Liberal England appear there is an immediate hush, it’s clear who this audience are here to see. As Andrew Wright dances around, one hand fastened to his keyboard and front man Adam Woolway’s unique vocals fill the room even those huddled in the bar are quiet and attentive (well, relatively). Having seen them last with an orchestra supporting them, it takes a couple of songs to get used to them just being a band again but by the time of ‘Like A Curtain Fallin’ my feet are joining everyone else’s in tapping along involuntarily. TSDOLE are sometimes labelled the best band to emerge from Portsmouth in recent years and on this evidence it’s a compelling argument!
By the time I Like Trains start their set the audience is buzzing and the doom and gloom of the Leeds quartet’s music seems to struggle to make an immediate impact. These guys are clearly very good, but I can’t help but wonder if others feel as I do, that after the joy of Strange Death’s set, I Like Trains are bringing me down a little. Nonetheless the songs are very well written and the band, ploughing the same furrows as the likes of Editors, write some impressively melancholy songs. Perhaps they’d have affected me more if they’d swapped places on the bill with the guys who had preceded them though?

NEWSFLASH: I Like Trains and Strange Death Of Liberal England Co-Headline Gig

I Like Trains are a band reborn, well known for their unique brand of forlorn and world weary music, this Leeds based collective have discovered a ray of light as evidenced by their new single ‘Sea Of Regrets’. It’s not exactly a happy track, but gone is the despair of the past, replaced with a glinting glimmer of hope! Inspired by the work of environmental scientists like George Monbiot and James Lovelock, the new single questions humanity’s place in nature’s cycle. It’s the first track from an album due early next year and one of many fresh new tracks the band will be debuting on their tour.
The Yorkshire pessimists will be joined onstage by a beaming ray of uplifting music care of The Strange Death Of Liberal England. The antithesis of I Like Trains’ gloom, TSDOLE’s music seems to come from another place entirely, with even their more downbeat tracks strangely heartening. To those who regularly attend local shows, these guys will need no introduction having played a sell out show at The New Theatre Royal this year and taking the prize for the first band of the day to have people queuing to try and catch them at Southsea Fest.
If that isn’t enough, there will be support from Nottingham’s own Swimming whose tunes recall Pixies, Animal Collective and all points in between. Portsmouth’s own Aeroplane Attack will be playing too, their epic, sprawling post rock instrumentals the perfect way to take an audience to another place and get them in the mood for a brilliantly diverse evening’s music.

Check out I Like Trains: http://www.myspace.com/iliketrains
Check out TSDOLE: http://www.myspace.com/tsdole
Check out Swimming: http://www.myspace.com/swimmingband 
Check out Aeroplane Attack: http://www.myspace.com/aeroplaneattack

SOUTHSEA FEST: The Editor’s View

The Deads

Here is the first of our reports from Southsea Fest, but keep checking back for other people’s views of the day and some brilliant photos of the goings on

 

 

Many people mark down Bestival as the end of the summer festival calendar, but for those of us who dwell on the South Coast (and, indeed for many others too), there’s a one day event that really caps the summer off. Southsea Fest has been running for a few years now and, much like this writers waistline, it grows ever bigger. This was my first experience of it though, but after a day of being roasted alive, crushed, being told there was no more beer and missing more bands than I laid eyes on, I wouldn’t miss it again for the world!
By the time I arrived, collected my wristband and headed back out to the street the party was in full swing, bumping into one of Call Upon The Author’s favourite artists, Loz Bridge, I discovered he had been added at the last minute to the Gang Bang stage. Looking in we saw that The Deads were about to take to the stage, these Portsmouth garage rockers disappeared a few years ago, but are now back in force and played a blistering set that was as compelling as it was fun. Never more so than when the band poised themselves to launch into a new number only to realise that they couldn’t remember how it went!

Kill Kasper

Popping out for a few minutes we made our way to The Loft, but despite the joys of Villiers Terrace we left very quickly due to the baking heat in the venue, heading instead to The Wedgewood Rooms to catch another of our favourite, the almighty Kill Kasper. The Kolonel had been laid low with a particularly vicious strain of swine/man flu, but summoned all his strength to hit the stage and blast out some good honest old-fashioned rock! With the closing chords of Scenesters still ringing in our ears we dashed back to Little Johnny Russells to catch Loz Bridge, only to find him tidying his keyboard away, thankfully it wasn’t in vain as Hold Fast were next to the stage, playing possibly their most ferocious set to date, the band threw out their music so hard and fast that they shaved ten minutes off of their set time. Jumping down into the audience, Roberta didn’t miss a beat while the band rocked out and decimated the crammed in audience with old favourites like Lie and newer tracks such as Jaws.
It was across the road to see The Strange Death of Liberal England next and we were thwarted once again, though this time not by poor timing (by this stage, at about 4.30pm, most stages were running late to a varying degree) but by a queue, the venue was full to bursting, but from the street the band sounded great, as did The B Of The Bang who were playing on the stage we had just left.
Off it was then to The Fat Fox, for a quiet sit down, we caught just a snippet of Nat Jenkins, whose songs didn’t do enough to capture the attention. Back on the street we decided to go walkabout and see where we ended up, which was the Magic Bean Café, hosting a poetry/acoustic stage, this was a lovely little find and the only venue selling cake! Abi Lanigan was performing and rapidly became our favourite find of the day with some great song writing, (more of that later). As we stood outside and shared a beer with Abi’s bass player Ryan, we caught up with Alex from festival headliners Official Secrets Act who appeared to be having so much fun that he’d lost his socks. Meanwhile, back in the café Le Plat Du Jour played a strong set of laid back, fuzzy post rock musings.

Gabby Young

Back to The Wedgewood Rooms and Dan Smith was sat alone on stage with his keyboard, pouring out some intriguing tunes and leading us to make a mental note to check out more. For the second time in the day we poked our head into the Awesome Noise stage next door too, only to find that once again there was nobody playing. Were they hiding from us? We popped into another stage at The Wine Vaults, bumping into Greg from Melodramas who excitedly shared the bands new ventures with us (again, more on that ata a later date).
Back at The Loft, which had thankfully cooled down somewhat, we just missed Logan (Son of Robert) Plant’s band Sons Of Albion but we were just in time for Gabby Young & Other Animals. Built around Gabby’s powerful voice this set was a little treat from the Hong Kong Gardeners Club who were running the stage (if you haven’t checked these two ladies and their brilliant nights out, then you really should make the effort). For some reason Young & her animals even brought a puppy with them, which seemed to perk up the slightly flagging staff at the stage.
Across the road, and back to where our day had started, we caught the festivals only internationals, the brilliantly scuzzy LoveLikeFire, who were so great that we decided, on the spot to end our evening on that high, disappearing into the night in pursuit of Chinese food, while the rest of the festival goers delighted in the likes of The Joy Formidable and James Yuill.

many thanks to Emma van Kooperen for the photographs.

SOUTHSEA FEST PREVIEW: Hong Kong Gardeners Club Stage

SINGLES CORNER! 04/05/2009

One of TSDOLE’s best newer tracks, this manages to take a simple melody, couple it to Adam Woolway’s larynx stretching vocals and some very sweet and innocent backing vocals and forge a song that nestles away at the back of your brain only to pounce when you least expect it! This single, released especially to commemorate their theatre show (check out our review…) is strictly limited edition and only available through the bands myspace! 

A nice relaxing tune this, the violin especially – or so you think, before the band blindside you.. Chris Turpin’s vocals are, frankly, bizarre, but somehow these guys make it work. This reminds me a lot of Moriarty, in a very good way. Melodramatic, folk with a distinct vocal that will mark these guys out instantly to the listener – with an album on the way these guys look all set to follow in the folkie footsteps of Mumford & Sons and CUTA favourites Lupen Crook and the Murderbirds. 

Another act harking back to the darker fringes of eighties music, The Joy Formidable set up their stall between Ladyhawke and White Lies and, with this tune at least, have crafted a song that takes the best elements of both bands and hones them to a penetrating point. If these guys don’t end up massive then there is something seriously wrong with the world! 

If Hot Chip went out on the lash with the Pet Shop Boys and Calvin Harris, this might be the drunken result. One of the barmiest slices of electro pop I’ve heard in a while, I can’t help thinking I shouldn’t like this with it’s casio keyboard beats and Neil Tennant-esque vocals. But as I listen I’m beaming away and my feet are tapping enough to make me consider dancing around the living room a good idea! 

Much more out and out dance than the other tracks here, there’s something about this track, featuring Ashley Slater, that reminds me of Faithless (they don’t sound to similar though, so I can’t quite put my finger on it. Adding a relaxed hip-hop vibe makes this really stand out, it’s already on my summer play list and it might well end up on yours too!

A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE – Live @ The New Theatre Royal, 16/04/09

The New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth is not known as a live music venue, not unless you count occasional opera performances and musical theatre anyway, but after tonight’s gig, part of the theatre’s ‘Sprout’ season, that may be about to change. With a headline slot from The Strange Death of Liberal England (ably assisted by the Richard P Horn Wind Orchestra) the support act had to be something a bit special, so step up to the plate Mr Joe Black. Melding an approach to song that can only be described as Tom Waits and Danny Elfman performing lost songs from the Kurt Weill catalogue, Black is a mesmeric performer, and assisted by Burlesque performer Dolly Divine he put on a true show here, theatrical, funny and never afraid to cross the boundaries of good taste his set was full of pace and energy and loosened up the crowd perfectly. TSDOLE, who had been seen lurking stage-side throughout the first set took to the stage after a short interval and played a blistering set of artful rock that sent shivers down the spine, especially when their backing orchestra hit their mark. It was a brave decision to mount such a performance, but it paid off as the band were lifted by the arrangements and soared through their set delivering multiple spine tingling moments, none more so than when front man Adam Woolway stepped away from his microphone to deliver sections of the beautiful ‘September Swallows’ straight to the audience! For everyone who was in the packed out theatre tonight, this was a very special gig that will stick in the mind for years to come!