October 2010
19 posts
5 tags
Grinderman - Grinderman 2 →
Ever feel like you’ve been repeatedly punched in the face by a group of Australian quinquagenarians? Listen to this record a couple of times and you will do. It’s an assault on the ears and the mind as Cave’s lecherous and vulgar persona swaggers and screams with a visceral, dirty-blues rock edge. But behind the noise is a degree of creative control that Nick and the boys have...
1 tag
October Playlist
Looking back over this month’s posts, there doesn’t seem to be an over-riding theme. Perhaps one of nostalgia is the most apt with several albums from veteran performers and others that are harking back to golden sounds from different periods. Particularly recommended this month are blog-trendy acts such as Deerhunter and Frankie Rose & The Outs, psych-math rock Maps &...
5 tags
The Walkmen - Lisbon →
A lot of good things have been said about The Walkmen’s sixth studio album, Lisbon, and rightly so. Just listen to the fifth track Stranded and hear the blast of mariachi horns straight from a New Orleans funereal march that thrust you into a typically world-weary song. It’s rock music in a raw, authentic way you don’t hear much these days and yet the composition and structure...
5 tags
A Classic Education - Hey There Stranger →
A Classic Education is an accomplished six-piece band from Italy and, in various parts, Canada… but let’s give Italy the credit here since it’s not a country known for its indie-buzzworthy output. You can hear on Hey There Stranger that listening to the Shins and Band of Horses records have clearly given A Classic Education a classic education. Sweet and sumptuously composed pop...
5 tags
Avey Tare - Down There →
Another stirring sculpture of sound from an Animal Collective spinoff (Avey Tare is said to be a lead songwriter for the collective). Inspired by a crocodile, Down There feels like the home swamp and the moving picture of a life of splashing and gliding, disrupted with the gnashing of teeth. There are familiar and well-liked pieces from ‘the collective, but new and varied deep, layered electronic...
4 tags
Kings Of Leon - Come Around Sundown →
The sad thing about this Kings of Leon album is it sounds exactly like Only By Night, their exceedingly disappointing last record. Already. And I’m only on track two. And whilst that one was a scaled-back version of the inimitable style that broke them, aimed squarely at the record buying public, Come Around Sundown takes that as a cue and then puts the whole thing through the MOR filter....
5 tags
Belle & Sebastian - Write About Love →
I’ve had more false starts trying to write the review for this album than probably any other for HotSpotMusic. The thing is: there just aren’t that many things you can say about Write About Love. If you’re a Belle & Sebastian detractor you probably aren’t going to give this a shot (despite the fact that this is arguably their least twee record) but for those who do,...
6 tags
Wild Nothing - Golden Haze →
Golden Haze is the knowingly-titled new EP from Jack Tatum & co, swift on the heels of the glorious Gemini which was only released back in June. That record (as I mentioned at the time) featured a shimmering blend of 80s inspiration that has been pushed even further with this 6 track collection and is particularly evident on the New Order homage, Take Me In. And at last the wonderful Vultures...
4 tags
White Mystery - White Mystery →
A brother-and-sister garage rock duo are always going to get compared to the White Stripes - especially when their surname is White too. But looking past the obvious, White Mystery bear more of a resemblance to a fantasy superband of PJ Harvey fronting MC5. Brother Francis rattles away on the drums whilst sister Alex plays the guitar and, as a fellow-Illinoisan Mr Campbell might say, really...
6 tags
Maps & Atlases - Perch Patchwork →
Hailing from Chicago, Maps & Atlases play a particularly enchanting brand of psychadelic rock driven by the incessant and pounding rhythms of drummer Chris Hainey but even more importantly by the voice of Dave Davison. Indeed he manages to hold up some otherwise wild songs with his warbling yet mumbling style, Unconventional could be a fitting description for Perch Patchwork as a whole but...
4 tags
Shit Robot - From The Cradle To The Rave →
Finally a name that you’ll remember from the sea of animal-inspired band names. The cover art drives home the point - stacks of unconnected electronics surely would make a shit robot. Now to the music - with guest vocals from Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Nancy Whang, and the Juan MacLean, among others, hopes were high. Songs like I Got A Feeling...
5 tags
Sharon Van Etten - Epic →
Some songs seem infinitely more crafted than others, which makes this album somewhat harder to get excited about - or perhaps it’s just that it opens with A Crime, a somewhat run-of-the-mill singer-songwriter track. The extended otherworldy backgrounds and sweet harmonies in Love More, Dsharpg and Don’t Do It, make the album worth its salt, though an entire album of the same style...
5 tags
Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone →
No matter what kind of indie-electro-twee-elbow-gaze music you normally listen to, you can’t help but feel part of your body relax when you listen to Mavis. Beautifully crafted deep sounds from Wilco and Staples band members glide behind her incredibly rich voice. Produced by none other than Jeff Tweedy, who also wrote the title track and a few others (no wonder I like that one so much),...
6 tags
Frankie Rose and the Outs - Frankie Rose and the... →
From the same school of rock as Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls and Crystal Stilts, Frankie Rose and the Outs album shines with fuzzy, lo-fi melodies. Actually, of course, she’s from the same bands, not just ideology, as those three bands having played in each of them at various points. Breaking out on her own she moves from drums to guitar and lead vocals, nicely backed by an all-girl 5-piece...
5 tags
Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner →
A gold panda would be amazing. But it wouldn’t really be a panda I suppose without the black and white. Gold Panda on the other hand is amazing and revels in the zone between black and white. Tracks on his first full release are hard to pin down, flitting between the blissfully ambient and the gliterringly crooked. It’s manufactured, looping beats take you down sonic streets and...
5 tags
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest →
Something tells me you’ll find this near the top of a lot of end of year lists - something @seaninsound is already calling listopocalypse. But Deerhunter’s fourth full LP will get up there not because it is an astounding album in its own right but because it marks the continued progression of a great band getting greater. The sonic textures that you’ll hear on Halcyon Digest...
5 tags
Juni Järvi - The Gospel →
Swedish minstrel Juni Järvi brings us the Gospel according to, erm, him and by god is it lovely. Comparisons to Jens Lekman are not an inaccurate disservice to the baritoned melodist and he seems on slightly happier form this time around, evidenced by the instantly memorable Looking At You Is Like Looking At The Sun or the upbeat duet with Hello Saferide’s Annika Norlin on (I love it when...
1 tag
September Playlist
September started slowly but then BAM! it hit us with the 14th - a day chock full of enough album releases to fill a summer - which, to be honest, hotspotmusic is still recovering (and catching up) from.
Included this time around are fantastic debut records by Glasser and Philip Selway, slightly disappointing efforts from Interpol and Of Montreal, another Weezer classic disguised as a joke...
5 tags
Neil Young - Le Noise →
An album of Neil Young solely accompanied by his guitar once meant a folkin’ experience. But in his old age he’s turning the amps up to eleven and rocking out, no band required. The sound is quite unique but also uniquely belongs to Neil Young and certainly makes for a powerful, crunching listen. Say what you will about this record, Le Noise certainly lives up to its name. (Also...