Yr Friends Have Been Lying To You

Johnny Foreigner have always had a talent for soft, delicate ballads of heartbreak and this EP from lead singer Alexei Berrow feels almost like a collection of their finest, quiet tracks. It wraps you up in gentle guitar melodies and Berrows’ trademark; quotable, repeated choruses will swirl around your head long after you stop listening.

His talent for narrating a story in an engaging but deeply personal way is concentrated on this short release, thanks in part to the beautifully sparse arrangement. Over a sea-shanty like rocking guitar he murmurs, “I think he’d be good for you, I think you’d be good for each other “. One of the best things about Johnny Foreigner is their ability to be widely relatable to - without becoming clichéd and while I’m being careful to try and view this out of the context of Johnny Foreigner, this still comes across
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There’s something addictive and affecting in the simple guitar melodies and Berrows’ despondent tone, perhaps why this EP feels like it’s for escaping in to on a lonely journey on a misty evening. Maybe even thinking about how (as the first song is titled) ‘the walk home was not as dramatic as you’d hoped for’. Again, their brilliant descriptions of tiny scences of teenage love, heartbreak and day-to-day life are partly what make Johnny Foreigner such a great band and this EP just shows what a talented song-writer Berrow is. Well worth £3.

Dear Reader - 'Idealistic Animals'

If you take a look at the title of Dear Reader’s second album Idealistic Animals and at the tracklisting you’d quite easily come to the conclusion that this album is heavily themed. Each song is named after an animal, with a sub-title in brackets. For example the first song is called FOX (Take Your Chances). This caught my attention immediately and had me anticipating my first listen a little more than I’d expected. I was a little concerned that it may become a metaphor heavy, difficult and unrewarding listen, however these clear themes aren’t at any point overpowering; it’d be fairer to say that it just gives you two ways to look at each song, which is a very interesting idea.


That opening track creates a powerful scene; Cheri MacNeil’s gentle voice describes being awoken by loneliness, which leads to her looking out a window at the night sky and the falling snow. She goes on to sing “this is the coming of the Lord,” but this is no praising hymn, she’s thinking about how “He’s not got to us yet”. It’s worth noting that ‘Idealistic Animals’ was written following MacNeil’s loss of faith after around twenty years of devotion to religion, saying she “chose to believe that I was an important part of a saga with a happy ending. Now I am aware that there are no tidy conclusions”. Once you’re aware of this, you begin to notice that the clear structure of the track listing and the balanced nature of the songs are still permeated by a sense of isolation and uncertainty – and, at times, fear. The soothing plucked guitar that opens ‘MOLE (Mole)’ soon drops back to the rise of the drums and the image of a lost mole making friends by colliding in dim tunnels, chosen by God, is a dark one....

Read the rest on GoldFlakePaint

One Of The Finest Albums of 2011 (That I Missed Completely).

As the New Year dawned, it did not cross my mind that I'd missed anything major off my 'Best Of...' list. Sure, it was a struggle to cut down, let alone order. But, I thought, there aren't any glaring omissions....of course, I was completely wrong about that.

In April 2011 Elena Tonra released the first of two EPs, 'His Young Heart', then, in November accompanied by Remi Aguilella on drums she released a second four-track EP, 'The Wild Youth'. Both EPs are hauntingly beautiful, Elena's voice softly murmurs out detailed stories. On 'Landfill' she begs to be left on the train tracks, in the rain, thrown in a landfill, covered by snow or left at the altar. The simplicity of her writing is part of its charm, these descriptions of abandonment surround the crucial line of the song, widely applicable but feeling like a revelation of her darkest secret as she whispers "this is dangerous 'cause I want you so much but I hate your guts".

Both EPs are prime examples of how successful that format can be. Four songs long, each song a fairly average length with mostly one-word titles - if you chose to, you could listen to them together (as I normally do which is why I said album in the title), but there's no need to. Elena Tonra's gentle guitar plucking and husky voice are likely to become a key part of the music I'll listen to in 2012.

Listen to the EPs on Soundcloud or purchase from Bandcamp.

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – The Arches 20/12/11

It’s been quite a year for messrs Wells and Moffat with a critically acclaimed debut, followed by a jaunt around the UK and Europe. Tonight is the star on the top of the metaphorical tree, their Christmas revue.
I arrive fashionably late to catch the last 15 minutes of the first support act, RM Hubbert. He sits alone on a chair in the middle of the stage with just his acoustic guitar and has the crowd captivated. Songs blend so seamlessly into each other you’d be forgiven for thinking that he was just performing one marathon track. The small part of the set I did catch only left me disappointed that I wasn’t there to witness it all.
Next up were The National Jazz Trio Of Scotland. They say trio. I counted 5 - 6 if you included Bill Wells on piano. With it being a Christmas show, their set consisted of Christmas classics reworked in a slower, more solemn fashion. One by one a singer would approach the mic to perform a song, the pick of which was a hauntingly beautiful version of ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’ which even succeeded in making a Grinch like myself forget that it was a sodden Tuesday night in Glasgow.

With various pianos, mic stands and amps draped in fairy lights Aidan, Bill and co walk on stage with minimal fuss, cases of beer in hand. They begin with instrumental album opener ‘Tasogare’ before continuing straight into ‘Let’s Stop Here’ with Aidan playing away with a set of symbols and drums he has set up around his mic stand. As you would expect, Moffat is chatty throughout – “Good evening everybody. Are we all looking forward to the big event? …by that I mean Hogmanay, of course.”

Tonight’s set consists mainly of tracks from Everything’s Getting Older, one of the exceptions being a cover of Bananarama’s Cruel Summer. “Does anybody remember Bananarama?” Moffat asks… “Of course you do, nobody can really forget something like that, can you?” The result wouldn’t be out of place amongst some quieter Arab Strap tracks and fits in very well with the set as a whole. ‘Dinner Time’ is the only uncertain point of the set and seems a little out of place with its strictly spoken word vocals and very immediate piano backing. ‘A Short Song To The Moon’ (“okay, it’s time for the happy song. I mean it… THE happy song.”), ‘The Copper Top’ and ‘The Sadness in Your Life Will Slowly Fade’ all sound fantastic, the latter being the highlight of the set.

After playing the majority of Everything’s Getting Older the band leaves the stage to a rapturous level of applause and cheers from the local faithful within the caverns of the Arches, before returning for the encore. Moffat dips into his recent Christmas EP ‘Oh! What A Not So Silent Night Before Christmas’ to play ‘(Oh What) A Night Before Christmas’ which has the crowd cackling in laughter throughout and is a perfect reminder as to why Moffat is such a brilliant song writer. Not many people can work S&M, NEDs and an alcoholic, near death Santa into a cracking Christmas song. ‘And So We Must Rest’ is the last song of the night and with a final “Good night, good night, oh my children goodnight.” everyone is sent back into the wet Glasgow evening. Everything may be getting older but most things are better with age, right?
Words by Luke Phillips

The ‘Best Of…’ lists always rear their ugly heads at this time of year, many people loathe them, some people like them and others don’t really care. Here at LoBandWidth we aren’t going to pretend we’re above all of the end of year list making - in fact, we’re going to join in, because there’s nothing we like more than trying to please people. Honest. It’s also partly because I (Mel), had to do a top ten for Drunkenwerewolf, and it was a heartwrenching process cutting down this list to ten. So here we are, in a very vague order, my top 21 albums of the last year:

  1) Johnny Foreigner - Vs Everything

Choosing number one for this list was a bit strange, because there isn’t really a clear winner for me from this year. In the end I went for what I would consider the most ‘deserving’ album. Vs everything feels like the culmination of a hell of a lot of hard work and love, Johnny Foreigner are one of those bands who seem to enjoy making their music as much as we do listening to it and it gets away beautifully with being really rather long. I can tell I’ll be returning to and enjoying it for many

years to come.

Standout track: ‘New Street You Can Take It’

2) Copy Haho - Copy Haho 

An album I’ve been waiting for since SWN Festival in 2009, this is a cohesive debut with pleasantly surprising lyrical depth and one of the best opening tracks I’ve heard in a long time. (Full review on Goldflakepaint.co. uk)  

Standout tracks: ‘Factory Floor’ and ‘When It Gets Dark’ 

3) Slow Club - Paradise

Turning away from their slightly too sweet debut album, this is darker and more mature. With their gorgeous voices entwining over poignant and sassy lyrics, backed by a thumping drumbeat, it’s an immediate, brilliant work. (Full review 

here).

Standout tracks: ‘Where I’m Waking’ and ‘You, Earth Or Ash’.

4) Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness

I gave this my first ever 10/10 (full review on Goldflakepaint.co.uk), and whilst I think that was perhaps a little generous, as it is by no means perfect, it’s still a great listen and of the high standard we’ve all come to expect from LC!.

 Standout tracks: ‘Every Defeat A Divorce’ and ‘To Tundra’.

5) Danananaykroyd - There Is A Way

It was a sad year for fight-pop as Dananananaykroyd went on their final tour ever, leaving us all in a state of shock as  we realised there’d be no more from them. It’s perhaps not as consistent as ‘Hey Everyone’ but at several points you’ll find yourself wondering how exactly they manage to sound that happy, angry and addictive all in one go.  

Standout track: ‘Apostrophe’

6) Beyonce - 4 (standout track: ’ I Was Here’.)  

7) Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells - Everything’s Getting Older (standout track: ‘Let’s Stop Here’)

8) Summer Camp - Welcome To Condale (Standout track: ‘Losing My Mind’ 

9) Zola Jesus - Conatus (standout track: ‘Shivers’)  

10) Benjamin Shaw - There’s Always Hope, There’s Always Cabernet (standout track: ‘HULK’)  

 11) Destroyer - Kaputt (standout track: ‘Poor In Love’)

12) Felt Drawings - Body (download here for free)

 

13) EMA - Past Life Martyred saints (standout track: ‘Milkman’)

14) We Were Promised Jetpacks - In The Pit Of The Stomach (standout track: ‘Pear Tree’) 

 15) Dear Reader - Idealistic Animals (standout track: ‘Mole’)

16) Katie Malco - Katie Malce and the Slow Parade (standout track: ‘Sad Eyes’)

 17)  Drake - Take Care (standout tracks: ‘Over My Dead Body’ and ‘Take Care’)

18) The Beautiful South - Live At The BBC (it’s actually physically impossible for me to choose a ‘standout track’. Sorry)

19) Fight Like Apes - The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner (standout track: ‘Thank God You Weren’t Thirsty (Lightbulb). Read about why this one’s on the list here)

20) Tellison - The Wages Of Fear (standout tracks: ‘Get On’, ‘Freud Links the Teeth and the Heart’ and ‘My Wife’s Grave Is In Paris’.) 

21) Nicola Roberts - Cinderella’s Eyes (if you don’t love this album, here’s why you should).

Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness

Wichita Recordings, Mon 14th Nov ‘11

It’s been said before that one of the reasons they command such a following is that many of their listeners have grown up listening to their music. I first heard Los Campesinos! in July 2007 in a field in Cornwall. Thanks to a friend and the best, free music podcast I’ve ever heard (indiefeed), I then spent the next few days of my holiday enjoying You! Me! Dancing! and We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives. The friend then took me to see LC! in 2008, since then I’ve seen them live many times and watched their music grow and change.
Lyrically, they’ve matured; Gareth’s metaphors have become even more vivid, visceral and dramatic. To Tundra elegantly creates a soft, romantic atmosphere with ease, different to the wordy lyrics of their first few releases. Although, in true morbid LC! fashion, it isn’t long before he’s slipping “down into pebbles and silt…and found the seabed the comfiest quilt”. The romantic summer’s day is left behind as he is almost howling, begging “take her body to tundra, just take me with you as well”. The eloquent extended, visual metaphors are one of the great things about Hello Sadness…..

Read the rest on GoldFlakePaint.co.uk

It's Over, For Good.

Dananananaykroyd - It’s a stupid name, no one can pronounce let alone spell it without practice. It belonged however, to the finest live band I’ve ever seen, and by all accounts they kept up the standard last night, at their final gig ever. I’ve been lucky enough to see them live twice, first time at SWN Festival ‘09, and the last in Cardiff a week ago. They will be missed, no band makes music in quite the same way, are as audience involving or, as lovely as Dananananaykroyd. Some of the individual members of the group have their own musical projects, but really, it’s goodbye forever to the creators of the wall of cuddles, and fight-pop.