Slipped Discs
Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd
Stricken City - Losing Colour
Stricken CityLosing Colour
Label: Kora Records
Announcing their demise before releasing their final effort, London-based indie-pop instigators Stricken City insure their underground cult status with nimble middle class narratives marrying sinister riffs and cavernous crescendos to winged deliveries tunneling through riveting rhythms. Posh pariahs stylishly sizing up fleeting scenes, “Losing,” fuses vexing questions and parochial prose to turbulent furnaces stoking fiery choirs and deft, reflective projections.
• Stricken City Website • Stricken City FacebookLonely Forest - Arrows
Lonely ForestArrows
Label: Trans Records
Grass-roots minutiae fuel monumental pop as soft-spoken notions build to pouncing indie-rock onslaughts, “Arrows,” targets existential displacement inside self-assured thoughts. Pensive engines drive soul-searching questions, uplifting torrents of shape-shifting sympathies assembling resplendent, compelling parades. Sailing and skating over breathless rhythms and runaway bass, TLF’s punchy electric strumming quivers in shiny, obliging slip ‘n slide wildness, barely containing contagious, ageless sincerity.
• The Lonely Forest Website • The Lonely Forest Facebook • The Lonely Forest WikiErland and the Carnival - Nightingale
Erland and the CarnivalNightingale
Label: Yep Roc
Electronic textures scatter among magical, galloping madrigals, swinging, London-based pop and moody, psyche-spooky folk as E&TC’s intricate Wickerman mix of jingling, jittery side-trips dance to arcane but catchy cadences redressed inside modern Sleepy Hollow closets. Bristling, underhanded homage captured in ghoulish studio rapture, “Nightingale,” grooms groovy roots into macabre insinuations, ominous promises lurking in sly, denied smirks and incestuous jests.
• Erland and the Carnival Website • Erland and the Carnival Facebook • Erland and the Carnival WikiRaveonettes - Raven in the Grave
RaveonettesRaven in the Grave
Label: Vice Records
Seductive juxtapositions churn bright, blinding riffs from velvety, fuzz-pop melt-downs. Skulking miasmas of scathing, blazing reverb, “Grave,” cultivates dangerous conveyance around heavenly self-possession. Pretty punk defiance abducting prom-dress pledges, pressing crepe-paper hearts between dream-pirate menace dipped in coy, corrosive curtseys and proudly shrouded pastels dressed in rain-gray attitude. The Raveonettes’ fierce, mascara-rimmed melancholy molds vertigo-riddled Valentines into steel-plated, corrugated cool.
• Raveonettes Website • Raveonettes Facebook • Raveonettes WikiManchester Orchestra - Simple Math
Manchester OrchestraSimple Math
Label: Famous Gentlemen
Weary indie-rock antiheroes compose symphonic underdog uprisings, energized by scorching discourse brimming in frank angst and suburban ennui. Vague prey hunted in restless, impetuous reconnaissance, “Math,” traps sacred aching in sinister hook-filled insurrections and breathless mosh-pit proclamations. Balancing searching grandeur against seething street-wise insecurity, MO’s epic introspection sweeps over tender defenses, bolstered by defiant alliance, minor-key reprieves and cathartic martyrdom.
• Manchester Orchestra Website • Manchester Orchestra Facebook • Manchester Orchestra WikiDavid Kilgour and the Heavy Eights - Left By Soft
David Kilgour and the Heavy EightsLeft By Soft
Label: Merge
Kiwi Merseybeat shaken, tamed and reborn, Kilgour and mates burst with deep-shag majesty, drizzling thunderous blues over braided electric-folk, adding vertigo-inducing transcendence over sturdy, understated song. Compact covenants swimming in shimmering chords, “Soft,” howls, prowls and harmonizes, campfire jangle-rock drifting in placid dappled patterns as level-headed lyrics brave vast swells of multi-layered guitars reaping rippling skiffle sizzling in psychedelic tranquility.
• David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights Website • David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights Facebook • David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights WikiSecret Cities - Strange Hearts
Secret CitiesStrange Hearts
Label: Western Vinyl
Love children from Brill Building refugees, S C mastermind lo-fi, reverb-addled shin-digs; muffled scuffles baked inside grandly bandied jukebox soufflés whose gentle persuasions with twilight choirs shiver behind fading AM beach-party bingo. Swooning and canoodling through retroactive odysseys, “Strange,” hosts idyllic misfit idolizers worshipping vintage pop thoughts, ghostly baroque smokescreens soaked in rainy-day dreams, fab nostalgia and timeless adolescent appetites.
• Secret Cities Website • Secret Cities FacebookTom Vek - Leisure Seizure
Tom VekLeisure Seizure
Label: Cooperative Music USA
Hard-wired, pneumatic-addled New Wave statements invade unbraided electro-clash abrasions set to tarnished tempos, droll factory-fashioned funk and slinky syncopated synthesizers; Vek’s clattering malice and energetic menace coil around coarse torque constructing post-industrial petulance via sermons on the dance floor. Suspicious and ambitious, “Leisure,” tumbles wonderfully, trigger-happy slap-shots aimed at callously cool feigned disdain, fabulously retro-fitted fits equipped with post-modern imaginations.
• Tom Vek Website • Tom Vek Facebook • Tom Vek WikiElysian Fields - Last Night On Earth
Elysian FieldsLast Night On Earth
Label: Ojet
Wickedly blissful whisperings slide between sumptuous chamber-folk symphonies , bluesy goth-rock siroccos and coy, alt-pop ballets, “Earth,” works sensual memories beneath placid passions toppling headlong down mesmerizing torch songs, potent potions quenching thirsty bursts from dream-laden maidens. Stirring purrs and banshee sweetness catapult EF’s mythological waltzes into melodic exotica, an embroidered fairy-tale cabaret pried from childhood fears and sentimental tension.
• Elysian Fields Website • Elysian Fields Facebook • Elysian Fields WikiThe Wooden Birds - Two Matchsticks
The Wooden BirdsTwo Matchsticks
Label: Barsuk
American Analog Set’s Andrew Kenny’s new band retains AAS’s laidback outlook compiling crisp wisdom inside colorful cooing and modest acoustic musings. Cozy, folk-pop breeziness fortified by shimmering marimbas, soft strumming and horse-drawn rhythms, “Matchsticks,” glows in deceptively demure assurances churning patient complacence from twilight insights and lively shyness, inviting politeness channeling sly, bouncy foxtrots, cantering ballads dispensing love-sick riffs .
• The Wooden Birds Website • The Wooden Birds Facebook • The Wooden Birds WikiArt Brut - Brilliant! Tragic!
Art BrutBrilliant! Tragic!
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Clever condescension rocks around hell-bent expressions as, “Brilliant,” rips through half-rapped narratives combining insolent wit dipped in irony, sputtering bluster outsmarting intellect and bristling against convention. Revealing and rebellious, post-punk apostles Art Brut’s blunt frustrations corral rough and tumble rhetoric whose cheeky reasons begat tender second-guessing amid cut-throat couplets whose deafening deliberateness clamor for conclusions colliding with middle-class conceits .
• Art Brut Website • Art Brut Facebook • Art Brut WikiDawes - Nothing is Wrong
DawesNothing is Wrong
Label: ATO
Centered lessons season solemn solace; load-bearing laments serve thoughtful folk-rock fodder surrounded by cowboy hooks and slow-burning solos. Dawes’ perceptive interventions weave nature’s metaphors between common sense and candid humanity. Estranged and tamed, tangled in twang, “Nothing,” inserts humbled hopes washed in honesty, crafting affable parables swimming through level-headed measures, street-corner troubadours versed in stoic weariness wound around fleeting days
• Dawes Website • Dawes Facebook • Dawes WikiView More
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