NEW SONG: Mount Fabric - "Salamander"

Mount Fabric is a post-rock band from Manchester, UK with soaring synths and falsetto vocals, a really pretty sound. The band consists of Alex Marczak - Vocals / Guitars / Keys / Violin / Clarinet, Joel Godfrey - Guitars / Keys / Backing Vocals, Duncan Robjohns - Bass and Ryan Cowburn - Drums / Percussion.

Here's their new single, "Salamander":

Mount Fabric - Salamander - Official Music Video from Mount Fabric on Vimeo.



Here's previous single "Heuristic Fits":



Maybe a little more New Order lean on that one... well, it's not that dark, but I think the vocals have a similar affect.

Mount Fabric will be launching the new single live at Manchester’s Ruby Lounge on June 5th, supporting Canadian-Korean-Singaporean three-piece (and WYMA favorite) Bored Spies. And they're offering a free download of the song at their website:

Mount Fabric Website

New video from Horsehands: "Righty" from Sirs

Horsehands are a prog-rock band from Boston, playing invigorating stuff that approaches metal in its ferocity. We've written about them before (WYMA post also contains a free download link). It's pretty fresh, creative stuff with good influences. Among other artists, they remind me fondly of Mcclusky... and even more so in this frenetic, aggressive song and video.

That said, check it out for yourself:

Horsehands - Righty from ManosDeCaballos on Vimeo.

Horsehands Website

REVIEW: Mogwai - Les Revenants Soundtrack

Mogwai are one of my favorite artists, and any Mogwai album is cause for celebration. This soundtrack cd, from a French television drama entitled Les Revenants ("The Ghosts") is no exception. In a sense, it's really a full album disguised as a soundtrack - if you are a fan of Mogwai and their "post rock" genre, you will find much to enjoy in these 14 tracks.

There is plenty of atmospheric, foreboding Mogwai music - a bit more muted, perhaps, than their usual, but no less majestic. The song "Special N" is particularly beautiful. Mogwai say the more subdued sound of this record is due to the fact that they are supplying only part of the art, whereas on their albums they supply it all. This makes sense and is borne out in the music - but one thing that is in common with previous Mogwai records is their uncanny ability to do "more with less" - to take a piano tone, bass drum or guitar tone, and build them into something that conveys a sense of unease or foreboding, but something that is at the same time breathtakingly beautiful.

There are also songs that would fit on almost any other Mogwai record. We featured one of them, "Wizard Motor" in a previous post. It's good enough to post again:



And there's a bit of a curveball - a spare, slow acoustic ballad. But in keeping with the rest of the record, it's a particularly pretty take on an old spiritual "What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?":



And finally, another twist to the project is that Mogwai were asked for the music in advance of the television series being filmed - though they did have a feature film to view in order to gauge the mood. So it's not your typical soundtrack, but unlike their previous soundtracks Zidane and The Fountain, it's fully a Mogwai album, and I'm perfectly happy to celebrate it as such.

Mogwai Les Revenants at Sub Pop

New Prog Discovery: Horsehands, "Tin Horn" from Sirs (due out Feb. 5)

 

Horsehands is a Boston rock band playing a very dense, but catchy variety of guitar rock (or maybe post rock) - this song, "Tin Horn", features staccato bursts of guitar and a heavy, prog-rock rhythm section. The vocals are hard to describe - perhaps Robert Schneider (Apples In Stereo) through a megaphone? It all works together really well and I'm intrigued to hear more.

For now, you can download "Tin Horn" by clicking here.

Wild Cub - Free download of remix of "Straight No Turns" from Youth

Nashville electro-rock duo Wild Cub has another song for you, a free download of a remix of "Straight No Turns" by Kisses:



We've featured these guys before, including a review of their debut album Youth here. It's full of warm electronic music with lead vocalist Keegan DeWitt's soulful vocals. If you like this cut, the album's well worth checking out. If you already have it, consider this a bonus!

REVIEW: Deathline - Nova

Nova is the exciting debut LP from Deathline, the London-based rock/electronic duo consisting of Jennie Werlemar (vocals and bass) and Kaoru Sato (guitar and programming).  Featuring thundering industrial beats, menacing guitars that bring to mind Suicide gleefully distorting the Stooges and Velvet Underground and Werlemar's distinctive low register vocals, this album could be your dark mood choice for the Winter.  Give it a try with "Ten of Clubs" --


DEATHLINE - Ten of Clubs from Deathline on Vimeo.

Nova's atmosphere is dense and foreboding, with synth lines and guitar riffs cutting through the fog.  In the wrong hands, these elements could be suffocating.  But the 13 tracks here are exhilarating, even liberating.  And it is all distinctly Deathline -- too dark and swaggering to be shoegaze, too noir and industrial to be psychedelic, too post-rock to truly be garage or blues rock.


If you like what you've heard, check out the Bandcamp link, where you can stream and buy the entire album.

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Bandcamp for Nova

Wild Cub - new video for "Drive"

Wild Cub is a Nashville-based electro-rock band featuring the soulful vocals of Keegan Dewitt and Jeremy Bullock's terrific soundscapes. In August, we reviewed their new album Youth. They've got a new video for the album cut "Drive":

 
Wild Cub "Drive" (Official Video) from Wild Cub on Vimeo.

This one was directed by Fort Ripper. 

They'll play some dates w/Sondre Lerche later this month, then perform at the Soundland music fest and CMJ Music Marathon.  Tour dates at their website.

New video from Nervous Curtains - "It's The End Of Eternity" from Fake Infinity

Here's a new video from Dallas band Nervous Curtains, the guitarless doom-rockers we featured previously on WYMA:

Nervous Curtains "It's The End Of Eternity" from Justin Wilson on Vimeo.

This one actually gives a pretty good visual representation of their atmospheric sound - as pointed out previously, and elsewhere, it's evocative and they do a nice job of layering in various keyboards and piano sounds over the drumbeat... and the sometimes toneless, seemingly emotionless vocals complete the picture.

The album is Fake Infinity, and it's available now. You can also download "Wired To Make Waves" - click here.

New Irish Math Rock Discovery: Cast of Cheers - "Animal"

The Cast of Cheers is an Irish math-rock band playing a frenetic, skittering brand of music. They've got an album, Family, coming out in June, having already released a few songs. Here's a lead track, "Animals":





And here's an earlier song, "Family" - released back in January as a 7" single:

New Discovery: Sad Face, Gosh Darn

Sad Face is a Seattle band with a bracing sound, reminiscent in places of Mclusky (opener "Death Boy" has that slashing lead guitar-with-punk backbeat) and in others of older-school punk... but they're not content to play in the punk quadrant exclusively. There is a lot of diversity to their sound and, one imagines, their influences and for me, this record holds up really well.

The second song, "To Use Another", is driving guitar rock that's easy to like, as it chugs along at a measured pace, breaking out into a couple of guitar freakouts:



There's plenty of sonic variety and obvious talent, and I expect this record to make my year end Top 20 (there's a hint for you to stay tuned - my list won't be as long as Rocksteady's but hopefully it will help you find some stuff). Here's the album closer, "Sapphire Noise", which has a kind of Eleventh Dream Day vibe going on:



Listen or buy at their Bandcamp site:

REVIEW: I Build Collapsible Mountains - The Spectator & The Act

Sometimes I wonder whether a soft, mostly acoustic album can hold my interest. Then an album like The Spectator & The Act by I Build Collapsible Mountains comes along, and I wonder how I could have wondered. Over the past few weeks this has been the album to which I turn late at night, with the headphones on, connecting with emotions and personal space after a day of playing lawyer, dealing with other duties or straining to be "on" in engagements where I really don't feel like it. That isn't because the album is peaceful or soothing (although musically it is both of those), it is because it is an album to get lost in, to really pay attention to the words, phrasing, and underlying emotions.

Shall we begin with the album's opening track? Here is "Face of Thunder Grin" --

I Build Collapsible Mountains - 'face of thunder grin' from luke joyce on Vimeo.

IBCM is Scottish singer-songwriter Luke Joyce, who creates almost painfully introspective and insightful music of great beauty. Particularly notable is Luke's lyrical ability. He can evoke and clear image of a relationship and his emotions about it in a deft phrase or two. One of my favorite tracks, "Burn", includes the line "your eyes are graced with cross-hairs, and I am your kill". Here is a live version:


And here is the title track, "The Spectator & The Act", in which Luke sings

So hold me down by the wrist and by the crown
....
Don't give up on me
'Cause I hang by hooks and string
You left my bones dangling
'Cause I hang from hooks and string
And you can break me any way you want to
Squeeze my heart 'cause it doesn't feel at all
And you can break me any way you want to
Just tell me its love before my head hits the floor.

Joyce also is the front man for indie rockers The Gothenburg Address. I don't think he's abandoned that project, but IBCM is his platform to showcase his singer-songwriter side. More than that, the album seems to be an explosion of emotions, including longing and rejection. I hope it was cathartic for Joyce, because for the listener the result is a work of art and a musical treat.

The album was released in October on Seattle's Burning Building Recordings. It seems to be flying under the radar, which really is a shame. I urge to to turn down the lights and let this one wash over you.


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Burning Building Recordings