The Heights - Live At The Purple Turtle, Camden 21.5.07

Tonight North Wales via North London’s The Heights play at Camden’s Purple Turtle – North London’s own ‘classic’ rock venue – for a Classic Rock Magazine night. After the political, Rage Against The Machine tinged hardcore of Montreal’s Grimskunk and the intermittent hard rock soundtrack that forms the rest of the night, those new to The Heights would be forgiven for being slightly anxious as to the nature of the headlining four piece.

Thankfully, I have done my homework on The Heights or I may well have been persuaded to leave before they finally make it on stage at around 11.15. There is, though, for the first time in the evening, a genuine air of excitement when they do take the stage and launch into an explosive opening to their set. Hard rock they are not, but neither are they in any way a lightweight band, mixing forceful riffs with an indie sensibility that extends from the guitarist’s skinny jeans to the infectious choruses. The first three tracks are filled with power and energy, culminating with the excellent ‘Night Relay’ – during which all of a sudden the long wait seems worthwhile.

After such an incendiary introduction, The Heights do lose their way a bit in the middle, and unfortunately Owain Ginsberg’s usually impressive rasping vocals are a little drowned out on previous single ‘Blackberry Nights’, but the band more than makes up for it with the cracking ‘For Real’. With its driving guitar and chorus it is a definite set highlight and is in more ways than one a ‘classic’ rock song. It’s also The Heights’ new single, and you get the impression that with a track like this things might really snowball for them. On the evidence of this show they certainly seem to have enough tunes. After the triumph of ‘For Real’, they tear through the rest of the set, leaving the invigorated crowd wanting more after their all too brief set.

As a band and a live act The Heights stick to several pretty important principles. In performance they bounce around like they are really enjoying themselves and give the show everything they’ve got, transferring the on-stage energy and enthusiasm to the crowd. They don’t say much between songs, save for introducing the odd one, keeping an air of cool distance between them and the audience and putting all their energy into the show – a show that is tight enough to impress but just loose enough to look like fun. And most importantly, they have some really good songs.

Sadly, despite the lateness of the hour, The Heights play to a less than half full Purple Turtle tonight. It can often be difficult to judge what kind of an impact a band will have on the desired heaving, sweaty throng when they are playing to a half-filled dingy room, but from the way they get the few assembled punters moving and the energy on stage hints that in more auspicious circumstances they would revel in a packed venue.

The Heights are not leading the vanguard of progression in British music, but why the hell should they? They know what they’re good at and I’m certainly not arguing with them.


First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.

The Loungs - We Are The Champ

“Remember the voices you hear are only there to remind you of the time you forgot your medication” sing The Loungs on brass-filled track ‘Dig That Do’ from this, their debut album ‘We Are The Champ’. On listening to the record it seems quite likely that it is in fact the Loungs that haven’t been taking their schizophrenia medication as it is veritable melange of styles, influences and personalities.

The album begins with a wave of fizzy, joyful pop music. Opening track ‘Clancy’s Stomp’ is actually just that: a good old-fashioned stomp-a-long that could easily be lifted from a Super Furry Animals album. However, while also both fizzy and joyful, ‘Electric Lights’ highlights just how schizophrenic this band is. Kicking off like a proper rocker, it develops into a harmony and Hammond drenched slice of West Coast pop. Not content with just two personalities it turns once more, this time into a low key lament, before heading back skywards, declaring that it’s going to be a “magic night”. This case of multiple personalities is a theme that recurs throughout a remarkably restless album.

Elsewhere, ‘Get Along’ appears to be a ballad for the most part, making use of the dulcet tones of a trumpet to create mood, but as soon as you think you’ve got it pegged, the very same trumpet joins in on a Madness-style knees up that has you itching to stretch out your braces. The slightly irritatingly titled ‘Googly Moogly’ sounds like a Housemartins song (when’s the last time you heard a band you could say that about?) with its a capella intro, and is another that plays around with song structure, flitting between abrasive, growling vocals and more luscious harmonies.

Single ‘Armageddon Outta Here’, despite its equally irritating title, completes the upbeat opening to the album and is an excellent, if rather a contrary piece of bubblegum pop. The lead couplet states: “Let the planes fall from the sky, For I won’t miss you when you die”, something entirely at odds with the infectious, sugary harmonies. ‘Smile Reptile’ and ‘Throughout It All’, along with the later ‘Beatles-at-the-fairground’ of ‘All Your Love’ prove that The Loungs have a darker soul, though this is generally well-hidden behind moments such as the minute and a half of Beach Boys inspired pop that is ‘Seen My Baby Dancing’.

In fact it is only here in the final stages of the album that The Loungs actually manage to stick to one formula for a whole song – not least the gentle, ethereal closer ‘In Winter Coats’ – something that actually comes as a bit of a relief.

You can’t help feeling that ‘We Are The Champ’ is just like a kid with a short attention span. Despite the fact that only one of the 12 songs stretches past the 4 minute mark, many dart, minute to minute, from one quirk to the next. The music is, though, brimming with enthusiasm and throughout the album retains a coherent premise: fun. Perhaps understandably, since St Helens lies geographically between the two, The Loungs seem to have a mix of both the chipper eccentricities of Scouse bands like the Coral and the Zutons, and the self-assured humour of a long line of Manchester bands, a combination that certainly makes for an entertaining listen.

Maybe it’s because I’m too miserable for the cheerful pop, maybe it’s the cockiness of the thing, maybe it’s the fact the lyrics grate on me too often, maybe it’s that I still have no idea how to pronounce the band’s name, or, more likely, maybe it’s that I wish they’d just settle on one or two sounds per song instead of the average four or five, but there’s definitely something about ‘We Are The Champ’ that doesn’t quite fit for me. Nonetheless, it is an eclectic, melodic and enjoyable album of pop music that will take a good while to get bored of.

***

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.

Maps - It Will Find You

Maps is actually a man called James Chapman who makes music from his bedroom in Northamptonshire and following three well-received singles, ‘It Will Find You’ is the first taster of imminent album ‘We Can Create’, a particularly apt title when you consider the way he makes music.

Chapman is clearly no stranger to hard work. Somewhat perversely, his brand of ‘electronica’ is actually made entirely without the use of computers, instead consisting of a series of sounds married together and layered on top of one another on an old 16 track. A true songsmith, then.

‘It Will Find You’ is an absorbing piece of music. An atmospheric mix of sounds, beats, loops and vocals that hit one after the other, entirely captivating the listener. Above the ocean of twisted noises, dreamlike vocals rise above to form an epic, soothing chorus that puts one in mind of Moon Safari-era Air. At once dark and blissful, eerie and calming, ‘It Will Find You’ manages to tread a fine line between complex arrangement and easy listening. It harks back to the fuzzy moodiness of My Bloody Valentine while retaining the electronic wash of The Postal Service and takes on a variety of other influences along the way.

The b-sides included prove Maps’ ability to create electronic influenced pop music that leaves a lasting impression. Both ‘I Was Born Twice’ and ‘We’re Not In Kansas anymore follow the formula that ‘It Will Find You’ sets out and all three really deliver, indicating good things for the forthcoming album.

As far as electronica goes, boundaries are not being pushed back with this release, but it is nonetheless an enchanting song. All that remains is for me to provide a bad pun about ‘finding things’ with ‘maps’. But I’m not going to do that.

****

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.

Islands Lost At Sea vs Softpriest - The Way We Played It Yesterday / Study Bunk Breakout

Manchester label Akoustik Anarkhy is very quickly making a bit of a name for itself. Sired from the stable that brought you The Longcut and Nine Black Alps, recent releases from bands like Autokat and The Loungs have indicated a knack for finding interesting music originating from the North West. With this more leftfield split 7” release, they do nothing to diminish their reputation.

‘The Way We Played It Yesterday’, Islands Lost At Sea’s debut offering, kicks off with an infectious bass line that immediately gets inside you. This hook and the 4/4 beat propel the song, while a variety of instruments and samples that sound like everything from the kazoo to modem noises to backing vocals by the Chipmunks launch an intricate assault on the ears. Things break down for something of an eye to the storm with mysterious vocals that sound a lot like local boy Guy Garvey, and then you’re off again on a magical carpet ride through Islands Lost At Sea’s strange world. Like a cartoon pop song might sound to the deranged, it begs repeated listens.

Softpriest (AKA Charlie Bayley) seems to inhabit an even stranger sister world to Islands Lost At Sea. A kind of future gypsy folk instrumental, ‘Study Bunk Breakout’ is another song that sounds like it has been filtered through the mind of the insane. For the most part it appears to be a succession of TV theme tunes played backwards (there’s definitely some Rainbow in there) and has moments of brilliant discordance. Arrhythmic and very odd, ‘Study Bunk Breakout’ can at times be a little disorientating and is about as far from ‘chill-out’ as electronica can be, but it is utterly innovative and is absorbing and entertaining throughout.

All in all then, another very promising AA side from the aA label.

****

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.

Parka - If You Wanna

It’s 2am. You’re on a sticky dance floor. One hand scatters beer everywhere from your half-crumpled plastic pint glass while the other punches the air. Like every other rock’n’roll star in the club you chant and slur along to the “Whoa-oh-oh oh oh” of the chorus while stepping on the foot of the girl behind you for the seventh time. Parka have you right where they want you.

For there can be only one purpose for ‘If You Wanna’ – to get inside your head and right down to your dancing shoes. It’s all there: the simple but effective guitar riff, the universal feel-good lyrics that urge you to “Dance if you wanna, dance if you’re gonna…Just use the music, lose all your words tonight”, the aforementioned sing-along “Whoa-oh-oh oh oh”s, and, crucially, like their compatriots The Fratellis and The View, Glasgow-based Parka seem to have mastered the art of the catchy indie chorus.

A floor-filling chorus does not a good song make however, and, despite the opening feedback and yelp, ‘If You Wanna’ lacks the true swagger of its most recent sounding-boards ‘Chelsea Dagger’ and ‘Wasted Little DJs’. Ultimately it is purely and simply decent, danceable indie music with a catchy chorus. That said, I am yet to hear it where it was designed to be played… The single comes backed by a not so sly dig at London trendies, ‘Hoxton Hair’ and the acoustic shanty ‘Closing Time’. The former is a lyrically heavy handed assault on a group of people who are already very easy to make fun of and awkwardly name checks the Old Blue Last pub and Number 25 bus. It has a similarly big chorus that this time makes use of “Ba-ba-ba-ba” noises and at time does sound a little like Feeder. The latter, though, is a stupidly infectious late night sing-along number preaching the virtues of whiskey and music. Well no arguments there, Parka. Here’s to drinking, dancing and having a damn good time.


***

First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.