#17: Melted Toys

New Narcotic of the Day #17:

Melted Toys

Music that is mired in the the indie muck, full of moping vocal stretches and lazy synths and guitar lines that dawdle and diddle in the most delicious manner, sometimes grasps the heart the hardest. That beautiful form of warped pop comes streaming from the hearts of Melted Toys, a three piece from San Francisco.

'Come On' is a soppy slice of distortion that treads the line between Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and an indietronic Grizzly Bear. This is the sort of music that has deviated and distorted it's way over the last twenty-odd years ever since The Smiths started singing exquisitely forlorn pop songs. 'Wild Waves' sounds like something the likes of The Drums have been aiming for, thanks to it's pure lo-fi heart singed and tinged with surf rock sentiment.

Melted Toys have an EP, 'Washed & Dried', out on February 22nd via Underwater Peoples Records. AND check out the beauteous video recorded by Into The Woods below. And now, they have to be added to the list of bands I need to beg/bribe to come to London.....

Melted Toys' Myspace

Bright Lights of Sound...

'Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.' ~Jean Paul Richter

A quick blast of new music before I escape this mortal realm this evening and sweep away on a magical mystery train to the musical mecca that is Brighton in order to revel and rebel in debauchery, alcohol, dancing, music, friends, floors, oceans, beaches and arcades....

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Damon Albarn is nothing short of a modern musical maestro, stretching his mind and vision across so many artists and creations and managing to maintain such a high standard. His cartoon crafts, known internationally as Gorillaz, are set to release 'Plastic Beach', their third album. And joining the madcap, animated foursome on the record are a range of ridiculously awesome guests, including Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, Gruff Rhys and Mick Jones.

The new single 'Stylo' is a simmering track featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack, that stumbles along a dark corridor and emerges into a Disco Ball lit room where Womack growls amongst waves of noise. Definitely a slow burner that sets very high hopes for the upcoming record.

Gorillaz 'Stylo'

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Rox is a beautiful singer songwriter from London town who has been featured on the BBC's Sound of 2010 but don't hold that against her. I was lucky enough to stumble across her myspace last year and played a track of hers on my radio show and want to continue the promotion of her voice, stylings and music as her new single, 'My Baby Left Me', is released

Ignore comparisons to Winehouse et all, she has elements of Lauryn Hill with a jazz background and the debut single bounces along atop lush production and an emotionally outright style. Check out her nu-soul before she explodes.

Rox's Myspace

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A new band just cropping up on the musical radar are based in London as well, known as Foxx Bandits. They have a hard hitting debut demo titled 'Vodka Lines' which breathes a modern folk exhale even though the vocals ooze emotionally crippling lyrics through a subtle lo-fi effect.

One to watch out for, especially with a cracking gig lined up at the legendary Camden Barfly on the 18th March.

Foxx Bandits' Myspace
Go Get Tickets to see them...NOW!

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Some Tuneful Tidbits...

• Serena Maneesh are back with a second album titled 'No 2. Abyss In B Minor' and the Norwegian's alt-rock act is as strong as forever in this cascading wall of sound and vocals that sidle up alongside you in a most seductive manner....Listen to a couple of tracks here
• Japandroids are pretty awesome if I haven't mentioned them before... LISTEN!
• I am going to see The Drums & Girls next week...you should too...

Albums out over the next week or so that you should buy include;

• 'The Golden Archipelago' by Shearwater [Simply pretty indie rumblings...]
• 'Dear God, I Hate Myself' by Xiu Xiu [Insanely amazing experimental fuzz]
• 'Magic Chairs' by Efterklang [Danish indie rockers post rock tinklings]

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Ok, that is all, I shall update you all on new music
next week if I somehow manage to survive
Brighton town after everything I ingest...
BUH BYE! XXX xx X

New Year = New Narcotics

'If music be the food of love; play on.' - William Shakespeare

Welcome to 2010; the FUTURE IS HERE!

I could try and predict the big bands of 2010 and then brag about how I predicted the musical outlook of the year when 1 out of my 10 bands become super/mega/sell-out famous, but bollocks to all that pomp and circumstance so LETS LISTEN TO SOME MUSIX! (yeahhhh but The Drums, Delphic and Darwin Deez SHOULD be big in 2010...)


MEN are an explosion of melody that manage to deal with sensitive and serious topics via the medium of electronica. Made up of two of Le Tigre and a third producer and DJ, the group use sexual politics and performance in their act to create a whole ideology that stimulates as well as pleases. 'Simultaneously' sounds like the xx with a dirtier mind whilst 'Credit Card Babies' provides a dancefloor ditty that discusses the complexity of gay fatherhood.

MEN Myspace

Guillemots were a happy-go-lucky, bouncy indie pop act who shone for a very short time before vanishing but the leading man, Fyfe Dangerfield (a Bond villain name), is back with a bit of solo work. It is pretty much exactly what you would expect from the man who bought us the romantic splendor of 'Made Up Love Song', as his sickly sweet voice strums out tunes of love and loss alongside pretty pianos.

Fyfe Dangerfield's Myspace

Vampire Weekend's second album 'Contra' is out on Monday and you can listen to it on their Myspace. So far, so Vampire Weekend; all sunshine and bop with all manner of sniping lyrical bolts and incessantly catchy percussive grooves. Highlights include the auto-tuned 'California English' proving that the method of vocal distortion can still prove effective and the softly cinematic closer 'I Think Ur A Contra'. It is hard for the group to top their dazzling debut but this effort, at first listen, could be a match at least.

Vampire Weekend's Myspace


Albums out in the next week or two that maybe you could check out, maybe?!
'Heartland' by Final Fantasy
'End Times' by Eels
'Astro Coast' by Surfer Blood ['Swim (To Reach To The End)' by Surfer Blood]


That's all for now folks, check you in week or two or three! BUH BYE!
xxx
xx
x

Lisztomania [GET IT? GET IT!?]

"Modern music is as dangerous as narcotics" -Pietro Mascagni

WOW! Look at that perfect quote that sums the essence of my blog up, but if you substitute DANGEROUS for FUCKTASTIC!

And talking of summing up (awesome segue approaching), here are some BESTS OF from both the last year and the last decade! They aren't proper lists, in the sense that numbers aren't placed besides them. But I am against that listing and numbering bullshit man, music is free and freedom isn't free!

Anyho-ho-ho, onto an assortment of awesome albums that maybe you can buy as a Christmas present or a personal present (you selfish bastards you...)..

FIRSTLY! The top albums of the year (in purely my personal and honest and awesome opinion)-

• The Horrors 'Primary Colours' I was happily amongst the first to criticise and mock The Horrors when they rolled into NME looking like emo stick insects emanating rather shoddy post punk with all the energy of a pair of hair straighteners. Nonetheless, in the name of good science and impartiality, I duly listened to their second effort when a friend recommended it and BETCHA BY GOLLY WOW, I was impressed. The tracks bleed something otherworldly, as if hypnotising the listener into somehow enjoying something that can mumble from a bunch of 19th century male prostitutes.
  'Who Can Say' by The Horrors

• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart 'The Pains of Being Pure at Heart' - When I first heard 'A Teenager In Love', I honestly almost wet myself at the prospect of having time travelled back to the 1980s and listening to a brand spanking new Smiths/Cure collaboration...but I noticed the lack of a Delorean or phone booth and quickly went and bought the debut album from this group of New Yorkers. It's a blast of shoegaze and pop that showers emotions from summers and winters long gone and worthy of a few hundred or so listens (at least).

'Young Adult Fiction' by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
'A Teenager in Love' by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

• Passion Pit 'Manners' - One of my finds on this very blog (A YEAR AGO I MIGHT ADD), ever since my musings skyrocketed interest in this band, their certain brand of spiky synths and high-pitch warblings have progressively made their way into radio, tv, festivals and music blogs the world over. It all began with the lead singer creating an EP for his lady (awww) and the debut album built on the sound that had manifested out of passion (hey, they are called Passion Pit!). Extra points for Jack Kerouac's voice at the beginning of 'Sleepyhead'...

'Sleepyhead' by Passion Pit
Also check out this from their original EP 'Cuddle Fuddle'

• Girls 'Album' - A very hard to Google band and album name but worth the frantic searching after I heard a track through another blog. Obviously from San Francisco, their psycho shoe-gaze fused onto surf rock bounces and rolls along at different times, echoing the Beach Boys and Morrissey. The album really sets up an ethos of partying that makes it freaking ridiculously hard not to want to pack up and move to California, jam on the beach and drink all day long in the sun....

'Lust For Life' by Girls
'Laura' by Girls

• The Drums 'Summertime EP' - I know it is just an EP but continuing the West coast vibe, the seven tracks that introduce The Drums to the world are nothing but pure joy and Californian life. Handclaps and whistles galore set up a surprisingly summery feel to your life even in the midst of December. However, the group hail from New York and must have mind melds with the sunny, surfing coasts of America to have such blasts of giddy energy that send the head-a-bopping.

'Let's Go Surfing' by The Drums
'The Saddest Summer' by The Drums

• Bats For Lashes 'Two Suns' - Natasha Khan is a maestro of the dream, baroque pop she peddles, managing to cram classical and pop sense into her music. A patchwork of influences, 'Two Suns' reverberates with original emotion and it is hard to think of an artist doing anything similar. Electronic dabs and vocal dashes create such a vivid musical picture, it is difficult not to fall for the seductively dense and dark sound that Bats For Lashes emits.

'Daniel' by Bats For Lashes
'Sleep Alone' by Bats For Lashes

• The xx 'xx' - Back to London, England for a dreamy pop with a production technique that recalls several genres from electronica to R&B, the underlying sultry attitude that impregnates their act is apparent throughout their album. Muses on sex and relationships slither alongside a drum machine and carefully paced guitar picking. An album to slowly digest and internalise, so much that the music will eventually ooze from the pores of your skin as you stroll around late at night.

'Basic Space' by The xx
'Crystalised' by The xx

• Dirty Projectors 'Bitte Orca' - 2009 has showcased a whole heap of New York musicians who have really crafted the musical sound and hits of the year, including Dirty Projectors, a lo-fi, experimental indie group who hit their groove (and a degree of widespread success and acclaim) with 'Bitte Orca'. Off kilter beats and breezy riffs permeate the album, managing to rack up an impressive sensibility that borders on experimentation whilst sticking to a perfectly enjoyably melodic tone and hum. Truly, an album that caresses harder and harder with each listen (weird, I know).

'Stillness Is The Move' by Dirty Projectors
'No Intention' by Dirty Projectors

• Grizzly Bear 'Veckatimest' - A long admired band whose output has remained rocksteady, Grizzly Bear are yet another group of indie types hailing from Brooklyn, in New Yawwk City (note to self, for life; move to New York...). As well as innovative and exciting videos, the band gel together so naturally that the songs feel like they are pouring out of one angelic musical mind that knows how to craft a sonically airtight album. A quietly gorgeous record and that is all that needs to be said.

'Two Weeks' by Grizzly Bear
'Ready, Able' by Grizzly Bear

• Animal Collective 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' - Animal Collective have made some challenging and exciting music over the past decade and, arguably, their best work has appeared in the form of their latest record, in the last year of the noughties. Exploring music so other bands don't have to (or because they simply can't), the album reads like an explosion of creativity, fuzz and imagination that has somehow been condensed into something that can be considered a helluva lot more poppy than previous attempts. A confident psychedelia cements the band as a force to be reckoned with, although sets a high precedent for whatever comes in the next decade.
  

'My Girls' by Animal Collective
'Summertime Clothes' by Animal Collective

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Atlas Sound 'Logos'; Fever Ray 'Fever Ray'; Yeah Yeah Yeah's 'It's Blitz'; Phoenix 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'; Julian Casablancas 'Phrazes For The Young'; Camera Obscura 'My Maudlin Career';

So, those are my favourite records of the year that was 2009! Let me know what are yours, what I still need to buy and I will be back with a best of the decade list after le weekend!

BUH BYE!
XxxxX

Sonic Suggestions

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. -Charlie Parker

Punk and Mariachi music are two genres with very, very, very little crossover possibility. Yet The Bronx have decided to blast that out of the water by renaming themselves as Mariachi El Bronx and releasing an album of Mexicano ditties. And it bloody works. The music is upbeat, catchy and holds a sway and kick that a punk background may have helped spur. Current single 'Cell Mates' claps and hops along aboard a heap of trumpets and joy, with a vocal performance quite distant from the usual screech of The Bronx frontman Matt Caughthran. The video is equally brilliant with flashing suits galore. (Cell Mates on Youtube)

The Bronx Myspace

The past few months of my life have been soundtracked by The Drums brand of Brian Wilson-infused beach indie pop. Although summer has long since evaporated into rain and wind, the likes of 'Let's Go Surfing' and 'I Felt Stupid' summon such imagery of sand, sea and surf, the sun comes out with each whistle, yelp and foot stomp. Perfectly danceable indie pop to stop the rain, if only in your head.

The Drums Myspace

Whilst I am here, I shall mention some current fantastic singles from established artists that are well worth a listen. Firstly, Lighspeed Champion (aka Dev Hynes) sidles alongside Basement Jaxx on 'My Turn', a top notch fusion of Lightspeed's lyrical delicacy and the dance band's bells and bounce style. Also check out the colourful video HERE! [Includes dancing bright bears!]

I have mentioned Passion Pit about a year ago and they are only JUST hitting the big time (another scoop just for you New Narcotics readers), with 'Little Secrets' all over BBC Radio now. Still perfectly synthed and sultry indietronica for the ears. Live for good ol' Myspazz

Christmas is creeping slowly upon us and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes has released a cover of an SNL christmas ditty alongside his brand new solo album 'Phrazes For The Young' which ain't half bad (even if it is just The Strokes goes solo). Anyway here is his festive attempt...

I shall be back very soon with Winter Warmers to keep your ears toasty as we enter the cold December month....

XxXxX