Morning Stardust

Morning Stardust have announced they are due to independently release a debut single/EP in April/May of this year, the tracks from which are now available for streaming on the bands myspace and bebo pages.

I had been quite lukewarm about Morning Stardust in the past - earlier material had sounded overtly Oasis influenced and quite dreary. Fortunately, Morning Stardust have taken a new direction, and in this new material have taken a massive leap forward. In 'Don't Be The One' we have a perfect indie-pop single with strong vocals, a vibrant sound, instantly appealing, and easy to identify with. Don't be too surprised if this track is being played across Irish radio as the summer kicks in.

The quality of the release runs deeper than that however. In track 'Transfiction' we are treated to a more psychedelic-rock lean where comparisons could be drawn withh some of Spiritualised's material, and easily my choice of the three, while 'Sad Boys Shout' rounds off the three as a quite pleasant Verve-esque indie-ballad.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/morningstardust

http://morningstardust.bebo.com

Mirakil Whip - PCP EP

With a blend of electronica structure, experimental folk, reverberating guitars, and emotional indie vocals, Mirakil whip released a very impressive and varied EP last year, simply titled ‘PCP’. It is a release which I had overlooked until recently.

Lead track 'hot', for the first 30 seconds or so, reminds of early New Order, with militaristic beats, a synth harmony, and vulnerable downbeat vocal and lyrics. Then the reverberating guitars kick in, with ample crunch and grit, and you could almost be listening to early Pavement. An excellent track, yet it still doesn't capture all of what Mirakil whip are about... This is followed by 'mushi mushi', an elegant piece of ambient electronica, before we are then treated to a Sebadoh style acoustic track in 'candle falls'. Fourth is another instrumental piece, this one sounding particularly alt-folk, dominated by the use of a mandolin and an accordion. Fifth, we are back to reverberating guitars in 'she added some gel', quite americana indie-rock in style and reminding me a lot of Yo La Tengo around the time of 'i can hear the heart beating as one', and an excellent track. Bringing the EP to a close is then 'pcp song', a dreamy indie track with slow minimalist instrumentation, and this time with a soft female vocal, it is again quite different from the others. All in all, this is a very varied EP, quite inventive, and I would have to say one of solid quality throughout. Highly recommended.

Mirakil Whip are a duo from Galway consisting of Aaron Coyne and AnneMarie Deacy. Their PCP EP was released on Rusted Rail last year as a 3-inch mini-CD.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/mirakilwhip

http://rustedrail.com

CRY YUMA

I received a demo from Cry Yuma recently, a 4-piece alt-rock band from Dublin. As far as I can tell, they formed about three years ago, with the material on the demo recorded last May. According to the details included with it, they've been compared before to bands such as Pavement, Television, Pinback and Radiohead. Regardless of influences though, they're not a band I'd be overly keen on.


Overall, their material is generally a touch on the soft side for what I look for in indie-rock. They do have their moments though, and in particular, third track 'lost and amused' is quite appealing, reminding me of some of Jeff Buckley's more amplified material. The second track 'by all means' is one not to be dismissed either, with some fine Pavement style guitar crunch in it, but lead track 'no moon no stars', as a style in general, I find quite a turn-off, sounding overly composed and stilted - although I'm sure it will have it's admirers.

Anyway, in short, for me, this is a band who are at their best when they loosen up a bit, and at their most unstructured, as in the afore-mentioned track 'lost and amused'. A debut EP is due to be released this coming summer. The tracks from the demo can be streamed from their myspace profile.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/cryyuma

http://www.cryyyuma.com

The Circus

"Bourne out of the slums of Dublin, these wandering souls found music as their only escape from a world of drugs, alcohol and poverty. Hoping to one day enter a world of drugs, alcohol and lots of money"

That was the biography which drew my attention to The Circus recently while browsing myspace, and I've been quite impressed by some of their material on offer. Here you will hear the sounds of the 70s - The script reads from Bowie to Iggy and The Stooges to T-Rex, and so on. It's not surprising to read The White Stripes as the only contemporary band listed amongst their main influences.

Finest track is surely This House of Rumours - emphatically T-Rex in influence. Creepin' Crawlin' is another not to be overlooked, this one with a bass line which threatens to break into Iggy's Lust For Life before settling into its own, and while not one of my favourites, for Bowie fans, listen out for echoes of 'All The Young Dudes' from verse to verse in The Time Box. So, very much steeped in the 70s.

As for details on the band, there's not much information on offer here. They're a four piece from Clondalkin, Dublin. It seems they formed a few years ago, and a debut EP is apparently being recorded at the moment. It could be a quite a strong one looking at the best of their material on offer.

Related Links:

http://thecircusbebo.bebo.com

http://www.myspace.com/theoriginalcircus

http://www.myspace.com/thecircustracks

El Descamisado

Amongst quite a large sea of singer-songwriters here in Ireland, many mediocre, it is refreshing to listen to one which stands apart. For me, Dave Caughey from Bangor in Northern Ireland is one such singer-songwriter.

A true musical recluse by his own admission, he actually hasn't played a gig in years. He has however, been busy recording material under the guise of his current project as 'El Descamisado', where one can hear the strong influence of artists such as Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Neil Young. Tracks from an album titled 'The Sweetheart Stone, And Other Tales Of Woe' can be streamed from his myspace, including recently uploaded 'If I Was Your Girl'. He writes an account to the inspiration for this song, summing it up with 'sometimes I wonder if they're still together, for her sake I hope not'. I think that comment frames the mood of the song. It's based on his thoughts after observing someone smug in relationship that has let all their charm dissipate into ambivalence. It fades, quite fittingly, to the sounds of a dog barking in the distance.

His best material on offer lies elsewhere however. There's something quite chilling about 'Smiling Faces' that I can't quite figure out. I think there's a frustration here at another's depression, although I'm not quite sure, and I’ll not try to dissect it here. We also get an appeal for politics of peace in 'Rosebud', a song which featured on Neil Young's website 'Songs Of The Times' late last year, showing the level of respect for this artist, but it is 'Oak Creek Angels' which perhaps stands out most, relased as a single last year, and for which he has donated all profits to Rafikis Children, an organization which runs non-profit orphanages in Kenya for HIV/Aids orphans (actually, a country I've been lucky enough to spend a short time in some years ago, got to know a few locals, and visited a local school there - it's quite humbling to witness at first hand how little they have, and how far what we'd consider small change here can go towards helping kids to get on in life out there). Anyway, in itself, Oak Creek Angels is quite a chilling song, instilling guilt on one giving all when giving it too late to matter, and a very fine piece of songwriting.

“You wish you'd helped me; you didn't even try. You were too self obsessed, my life was in a mess, and you knew it; are you feeling guilty? do you wish that you’d done more to take away the pain, absolve yourself from blame, now i'm gone?”
– Oak Creek Angels, El Descamisado.

Related Links:

www.myspace.com/losdescamisados

Magnetize - Biome

Instrumental electronica is not a regular part of my diet, so when Magnetize's Biome CD arrived on my doorstep recently, it was going to be quite a challenging listen - or perhaps a tiring listen, depending on one's perspective. Released back in 2004 on Rimbaud Records, it is a collection of unedited drones, loops and soundscapes recorded live @ dron3 between 2000 and 2004. It could be described as eerie sci-fi space music, although on the down-side it can sound overtly sterile at times. It has its moments however, most notably in the monolithic 'Maximal', a long droned out soundscape of distorted noise that is quite a mind blowing experience, and not lightyears from what The Telescopes are at these days.

In essence though, Biome could be considered as a soundtrack to an old sci-fi movie. It's slow to start, but pays dividends to those who wait through for the plot to unfold. 'Daria' is a rather conventional dawning, and the following track, 'Free Running' hardly breaks the mould either, so by the time we reach an interlude in 'Icke Carumba', where we hear the voice of a scientist lecturing on such matters as metaphysics, one wonders where the album is headed. It finally awakens in 'Elsewhere Is Rubber', where one starts to feel that eerie space sci-fi draw, a sense of no turning back, a slow and methodical opening of valves that cannot be restored to a safe equilibrium if matters get out of hand, as so happens in 'Maximal', which follows. This one is a relentless assault on the senses, which resonates to alarming levels, and one can't help but get an overpowering sense that its source is about to blow at any moment. Ejecting from this situation in 'Vega Instrument', we reach the second heightened panic in 'Go For The Light'; this one has an atypical clanking rhythm which seems dangerously purposeful. Three minutes in and a coarse synth melody adds to its eeriness. It is in chase, sounding distinctly out-of-step with any natural sense, one could feel it is devoid of acknowledging the plight of those in its path, and a force which cannot be reasoned with. It’s quite brilliant, and works perfectly well as a pre-climactic track on an album which suffers from sterility at times, as this is a track which takes that weakness and makes it its strength. The album closes with a short reprise in 'Re-Sensifier', the sounds perhaps of an AI systems mainframe with draining cells playing out its own funeral procession, and herein the credits roll; the movie per se is over.

So a few immense tracks on Biome, but given the sterility of the album as a whole, it is probably best summed up with a number. 6/10.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/magnetize

http://www.magnetize.biz

http://www.rimbaudrecords.com

Cascade - Hourglass

Cascade are a recently formed indie-rock-shoegaze band from Dublin. They write songs which fuse shoegaze dreaminess into accessible indie-rock. Although yet to hit the live circuit, they have put together a 3-track EP, titled 'Hourglass', recorded late last year. I've been giving it a listen recently.

There's a strong influence of Ian Brown to be heard here, but with some occasional swathes of light guitar fuzz over the background, comparisons with early Verve material are well fitting too. A few easy comparisons so, but there's more behind Cascade than just replicating what has gone before.

Cascade guitarist Mick Farren explains how some of the band's influences have shaped their sound, how the EP has come about, and how a quite positive response has now helped motivate them on -

"It's exactly what we're trying to do with Cascade. We want to take the dreamy ambience/noise of the whole shoegazing sound, particularly Loveless, an album I'll never tire of... and combine it with melodies that could be played on an acoustic guitar without sounding utterly shite. We also like electronic stuff such as Aphex Twin and Biosphere; we use samplers and field recorded stuff in our tunes too."

"The songs on the Hourglass EP were recorded in late 2006 in my project studio, at the time there were only 2 of us - Dave Greene did the singing, I did everything else. We put them online as a sort of litmus test, to our surprise, we got mostly positive response, which was great. So we've recruited a couple more musicians to fill out the sound, and we've a lot more stuff on the way. We aim to play live in a few months when we've got a good selection of songs to pick from."

I'm interested in hearing what happens next with Cascade. I’d like to see them deliver more on their intent of fusing in a shoegaze sound into what they are doing, to distance themselves from direct comparisons with their indie-rock influences. As the band have filled out their sound considerably since the recording of that EP, perhaps we will see this happen, with a live set and subsequent material a little less light weight than the material on Hourglass, and I'm anticipating something more unique will then emerge in Cascade.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/cascadesounds

(retards) - sex is a weapon

Dublin experimental hardcore band (retards) released their debut album 'sex is a weapon' back in 2004. I've been giving it a revisit this past week after it arrived on my doorstep. I must say, I've found it a challenging listen.

A disturbing intro monologue leads off with 'dear diary...'. It's taken from an 80's horror b-movie, and aptly sets the tone. The first track proper 'no! no! dear friend' continues the journey inward. To sparse beats which gradually grow somewhere towards propulsion before fade-out, we're treated to a voice over reflecting thoughts of disgust at how fucked up the world is and how fucked up one is being part of it. This is followed by a more typically crass 'under sixteen whores', and a few more aimless tracks before picking up again with two definitively deranged tracks in 'michael caine' and 'chinese girl in my trunk', both of which remind me quite a bit of early Therapy (ala teethgrinder era), especially the latter. We then reach the gem of the album in 'he put something in my drink' - this one is rather different from anything else on the album. It's delicate electroncia, fey and melodic. It also boasts a superb video which comes as a bonus on the album. The video can be found now on the Frequency-Ireland myspace. Watch it. It's quite brilliant.

Following on, 'the immaculate anus' has rhythms which remind me a lot of Aisha, the Death In Vegas track, but with feint pitched vocals sifting around in its shadows instead of Iggy's dominating dark vocals. Skipping over a crass and uninspired 'stuck in my head', we come to 'syndrome', with helium vocals which sound decidedly evil, and something perhaps a bit Aphex Twin about it. Next up, 'dead balloons' has a superb train-like rhythm through it which drives it on, combined with haunting wails, electronica feedback and an atypical voice-over, but the penultimate track, a lyrical turn on The Crystals song 'and then he kissed me' is the more excellent, which quite brilliantly changes the mood of that song into one of fear. After this, the album dips again to tail off rather poorly, but overall, this is a very worthwhile album, albeit an inconsistent one. There's more than enough moments of ingenuity here to ride out the more mundane crassness.

More recently Rimbaud Records released (retards) latest 7" EP 'kicking against the micks' in December of last year, which to the best of my knowledge is (retards) fifth release now. Of this EP, opening track 'will drum for food', which can be streamed from their myspace, is decidedly hardcore-punk, an angry and disturbed track built around rhythm rather than melody. I find 'x equals one', currently streamable from the Rimbaud Records space more interesting - its a derangely unfocused noise meandering, but give it a few listens and it has a real messed-about appeal. The EP also includes a reworking of 'michael caine' from the 'sex is a weapon' debut and another uncompromising track in ‘string theory will collapse’. I'd probably stop short of recommending buying up the (retards) back catalogue, if one could get their hands on them, that is - all releases have been rather limited edition releases - but a release capturing the best of their material to date could be quite a mouth watering prospect if it ever transpired.

Related Links:

http://www.retards.plasticdonkey.com

http://www.myspace.com/xretardsx

http://www.rimbaudrecords.com

http://www.myspace.com/rimbaudrecords

The Hot Sprockets

The Hot Sprockets describe their sound as 'country dirt' and play an acoustic blues garage rock with quite a strong influences from The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, et al. Actually, with the tracks streaming on their myspace listed as taken from 'The Best of... 1976-2006' and some photos captioned to suggest that the band have been through it all already, one could be forgiven for thinking The Hot Sprockets were a band around quite a long time. A quick clarification from the band confirm however that they are actually very new... apparently formed just seven months ago, the tracks on their myspace were all recorded in a single session last year, played out live in the confines of a shed - or 'ghetto recordings' as they liken them to.

With nine songs written at the moment, they prefer to work on their material in the live environment, where the bands vibe is best captured - and to date, this strategy is working out quite well for them. As for the tracks which are currently streaming on their myspace site, it is easy to get that sense of live energy - with Cherry Popper my choice of the four, although all are quite impressive. Incidentally, The Hot Sprockets share some band members with another quite different band from the Dublin underground scene, Sopers Dirt, a band previously featured here on Frequency-Ireland. Anyway, happy new year all! The Hot Sprockets are surely a band on the Dublin underground to catch live this year.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/thehotsprockets