#20: Swim Deep

New Narcotic of the Day #20:
Swim Deep

Wow. Well done everyone (me), we've (I've) made it to the big 20. Mazel tov all around guys! Wine and cheese night around my place! Let's cross our fingers and pray, wish and dream we make it to that big BIG 50....

ANYHOO; this is about music and here is some new narcotics to inhale, inject and ingest.

When you think of hazy, drifting surf rock, it's easy to float to images of Californian beaches, sunsets over oceanic horizons and Bethany Cosentino feeding you grapes in a hammock (just me?). How about Birmingham? And not even Alabama Birmingham. I am talking West Midlands, brummie Birmingham. As part of the West Midlands massive, Birmingham based trio Swim Deep make me immensely proud and ready to go back and surf a network of canals longer than Venices.....

Swim Deep spin a heady mix of dazed and confused gaze-rock that drips with a joyous disdain for pop melody, miring itself happily in the deeply serene drone that such use of distortion and steady, hovering sonics develops.

Even the track titles feel drenched in tropical sunrays, with the likes of 'Santa Maria', strutting along on a bed of electronic growling that is garnished with an 80s synth (that, magically, doesn't sound dated) and lead vocals that growl just as convincingly. The tuneful trip towards the finish line is poised and purposeful, heading down the highway into a sonorous sunset. 'Isla Vista' is a darker turn, albeit darkness sprinkled with handclaps, surf riffs and a meandering backing synth that sparkles rather than spits. The heavier tone provides the dark descent, sounding like an alternate world's version of Pixies where Black Francis decided to up and move to LA.

With only two tracks on the interwebz, we have a long road ahead of us before Swim Deep are spreading their sound to the world. Though they have two shows at the Victoria and the Rainbow in April and May. From these early adventures, it could very well be a glistening, sweltering and nebulous journey. Albeit, taking a trip around Spaghetti Junction to get there.

Swim Deep Soundcloud

Swim Deep Tumblr

#19: Domo Genesis

New Narcotic of the Day #19:

Domo Genesis

Hip-hop time? Yes, hip-hop time.

Das Racist are the most successful frontrunners of a movement that can be labeled, simply, as hipster-hop. This is rap music that avoids the traditional vibes and concepts associated with the genre, focusing on a range of matters that delve into introspection, nerd culture and sexual adventures (well, they had to keep a lil' something from the old school). The major component of this advancement is the musical style and beats, often derived from indie, alternative and psychadelic fields of music, with many acts having alternative artists guesting, sampling or playing around with their tracks.

Domo Genesis is one such proponent of this wondrous evolution of hip-hop, and a member of Odd Future (a hip-hop group who have been making tsunami waves on the West Coast of America), produced by the madcap maestro Tyler the Creator. Rather than try to sum him up with something witty and pithy, I will just throw this quote down from his own bio " I'm Better Than You At Life. Ill. This Isn't "Real Hip Hop" Or "Jerk" Or "Really Any Bull Shit You Heard Of". I'm Not Working With You Unless Your Almost As Good As I Am. Which Is One Notch Under Perfect. This Is Nino Brown In 89. This Is Rick James In His Prime. This Is Domo Genesis."

'Supermarket' is a fantastically realised thought-splatter on the inanities, machinations and oddities when it comes to shopping, via a word-slinging face-off set to a trumping tune courtesy of a 1940s musical, of course. 'Heart of Gold' utilises a trinkling bit of synth to underlie a rant on education and knowledge, dropping references to dinosaurs, puberty, morality and, of course, sex. This is a subtle sort of hip-hop that screams in your face.

Domo Genesis has a record out, titled 'Rolling Papers' and is another US artist that will probably not get to these shores. I am fed up of grime. We need some British hipster-hop.....

Domo Genesis' Myspace

#18: Escapists

New Narcotic of the Day #18:

Escapists

I have no idea where Escapists escaped from (blah-bad-punning-time) but wherever it is, I am damn sure they are missing the group of vivacious four young males who hail from London and craft a melodious mixture of indie rock and upbeat folk pop, stuck together with a confident sense and sensibility, barricading itself in the riffs and percussive elements of their tracks.

'Longest Day ' begins by moving into Arcade Fire territory with it's steadily expanding instrumentation, touching the memory synapses in just the right way, before moving into something slightly harsher, in the vein of We Were Promised Jetpacks. 'New York' is an ode to my future home (if I have anything to do with it, god damn it!), spinning out a catchy tale of Big Apple romance, whilst 'Ghosts' is a Warpaint-esque drift through ethereal , low-key plucking and harmoniously haunting vocal strains that end by floating ever upwards to the heavens.

Escapists have a bunch of demos to absorb and a host of gigs upcoming in the capital, including a show at the World's End on February 17th.

Escapists' Soundcloud

Escapist's Myspace

Longest Day (DEMO) by Escapistsmusic

#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

#16: Colours

New Narcotic of the Day #16:

Colours

What is it with these wonderful little scuzzy rock bands and their ungooglebable names. The likes of Girls, Cymbals, Women and Suckers all bring up a million little web pages that deviate from anything musical or melodic. Now, we have Colours (the British spelling gosh darnit), a google search that brings up a dazzling array of imagery and spectrum based information but very little on the surf rock garage fuzz fusion that leaks from four London based musicians going under the same term.

Signed to Marshall Teller Records and with an EP on the horizon (according to the ever so informative medium of Twitter), it's time to get into the kaleidoscopic world of Colours and the variation of vivid hues that they pump forth. 'Head Germ' is a psychedelic glimpse of noise rock (accompanied by an equally disturbing/sci-fi-tastic video from Benjamin Yiend), with a repeated drone of the word 'over' closing out the track in a suitably catastrophic cauterwaul. 'Wise Woods' begins with a lo-fi drum staple alongside a lazily strummed slice of surf rock riff, reverberating with the atmosphere of the setting sun before the lamenting larynx of the lead vocalist puts a dawdling sheen across everything.

Colours are appearing at Old Blue Last on the 5th January FOR FREE and have an EP on the way which I shall class as a necessity for 2011.

Colours' Myspace

COLOURS - HEAD GERM from Benjamin Yiend on Vimeo.

#15: Francis Neve

New Narcotic of the Day #15:

Francis Neve

The realm of the singer-songwriter is a tricky field to navigate thanks to the glut of garbage that comes under such a banner, as various musicians roll through genre cliches without the flair or originality that allows them to break free of the musical weight of the past. Francis Neve, from Essex, manages to utilise an inventive mindset alongside a true heartfelt sentiment to craft his calm sense of indie gentility that nestles itself directly next to your pleasure points.

Francis has been writing songs since the age of 12, popped in and out of some indie bands and his debut record was released at the end of last year, garnering an understated collection of critical acclaim thanks to the understated style of storytelling that appears to innately inhabit his work. His debut album, 'The Second Time We First Met', has a slight concept in that it documents the life of a relationship, an idea close to my heart with the fiction I am attempting to complete in those moments when I am drunk and awake at 3am in the morning.

'Brian's Drying Up' is a melancholy trip that shows the songwriting prowess in the heart and head of Mr Neve, introducing ourself to the world of his records titular character. 'Come Near' utilises the general template of his work, a driving beat and a catchy riff accompanied by his alluringly, reassuring vocal tone that tells us a tale via an ear-pleasingly punch of a melody.

Francis Neve is appearing in London very soon so get along to The Strongrooms on 9th Feb, AAA on 19th Feb or Dublin Castle on 7th March.

Francis Neve's Myspace
Francis Neve's Website

#14: Ben Butler & Mousepad

New Narcotic of the Day #14:

Ben Butler & Mousepad

Joe Howe is one guy who manages to sound like a group of electronic whizzes, whirring away on a host of electronica that screeches and screams with an attention deficit disorder that breeds beats. Formerly, Joe has worked as part of Gay Against You and Germlin, now using the name Ben Butler & Mousepad to peddle his brand of static stutter, stapling a heartfelt host of grooves here and there to headbop the whole thing home.

"Infinite Capacity" retreats and restarts through glitch and glimmer, shedding a skin of electronica on its way to a 90s dance pop dazzle. 'Other Islands' careens along on a precipice of sci-fi sonics whilst "Electric Bamber-Boo" is a Nintendo-fuelled, madcap dash through laser blasts that fire themselves directly through your eadrum and into your nostalgic memories of platformers, power-up and Pokemon.

He has a free EP on his Tumblr for YOU RIGHT NOW, so don't hestitate and get your glitch on to beep and bloop away those blues....

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