Involuntary & Rapid Actions

Debuts

It's only January and there's already been a burst of good albums coming out - especially debuts. Vampire Weekend and These New Puritans are just a couple.

Vampire Weekend

Who Gives A Fuck About An Oxford Comma? Something I've never really thought about until listening to the debut album from Vampire Weekend. But it's very true, no? These guys have been bubbling on the surface of recognition for a few months now, but should hopefully get noticed with their catchy, vintage style music. Hang on a minute, they sound a little like The Coral...ignore that I don't want to put you off.

The New Yorkers have so far gained recognition on the blog boom, and have made their mark with a musical style harbouring hints of Western and African influences, resulting in a Soweto-Punk fusion. There's definite notes of Paul Simon in 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa' and 'M79'. Key singles from the album to watch out for are 'Mansard Roof' and 'A Punk'.

Check out 'One (Blake's Got A New Face)'

Download 08_one_blakes_got_a_new_face.mp3

These New Puritans

These New Puritans are growing on me (but at a very slow pace). It could be because they're not yet a good live band, but on paper and on record they've got some good ideas. Mainly using vocals as part of the musical landscape rather than as it's own entity layered over the music (espcecially in 'En Papier'). At first the simplicity of the lyrics seemed quite amateur, but after a few listens it seems a deliberate technique to focus more on the music.

Their debut album 'Beat Pyramid' is a crashy, distorted, craze-fest filled with angst, especially in tracks like 'Swords of Truth' and 'C 16th'.

Take a listen to their lead single 'Numbers (AKA Numerlogy)'

Download 02_numerology_aka_numbers.mp3

Kissaway Trail

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European music has been a little overshadowed by Sweden and France of late, such as The Knife, Peter Bjorn and John, Robyn, Uffie, Justice- but let's look at Denmark for a sec.

The Kissaway Trail (Bella Union) released their self-titled debut in May. Most of the tracks also appeared on their EP Into The Ocean And Rise Again (Tracy and Smother + Evil = Hurt), but there's a few new tracks to lend your ears to: 61, La La Song and Soul Assassins.

To be fair their music needs to be appreciated live, but the record does hold it's own if you're after nothing more than a few upbeat tracks with slight hints of Explosions In The Sky and Sigur Ros.

Best seen live: Sometimes I'm Always Black and 61.

Download 107_61.mp3

Menomena

No, not the brilliant song off The Muppets, the band from Portland, Oregon.

This three-piece are great live, and refreshingly funny! From the comic art strip of them as characters in The Never Ending Story to their homegrown video for Wet And Rusting by Lance Bangs. They bring imagination to all aspects of their music to the very last detail.

Just check out their album sleeve created by Craig Thompson!

Their third album Friend And Foe is a little too experimental to be pop, but has some really accessible tunes like Rotten Hell,  Wet And Rusting and Muscle N Flo (which is what Blur would have sounded like with more drums and a Sax).

At times they cross into Pink Floyd territory with extended instrumentals and powerful harmonies over dark melodies - not to mention the frenetic drums!

They keep an element of surprise track after track but the best ones have to be Evil Bee, and their opening track when playing live, The Pelican.

For the time being here's the lovely Wet And Rusting which you can download from their MySpace page.

Download 03_wet_and_rusting.mp3

Don't be afraid to tell us what you think of them!

Sigur Ros Return

Icelandic electro-indies are back with a fantastic new album HVARF-HEIM. Not one - but two CDs people!

HVARP (meaning disappeared) has five tracks of beautiful electronic fueled goodness - where HEIM (meaning 'home') is a collection of six stripped down acoustic versions of their best tracks.

It's got three brand new never before performed tracks on the electric album including Hljomalind.

Download 01_hljomalind.mp3