Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

FRIENDLY FIRES
Friendly Fires

Yet more new indie/dance music from the UK. It’s a toss of a coin nowadays as to whether it’s going to be good or awful. Thankfully, Friendly Fires eponymous debut falls into the former category, as the trio from St. Albans offer up vibrant dance with pop melodies. Opening track Jump In The Pool bursts from the speakers with its samba beats and Klaxons-style vocal harmonies. It’s an ambitious and impressive start, which continues with the optimistic Paris, as romantic lyrics sit atop hectic percussion. Later, Strobe comes in, sounding like Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem frolicking together on the beach.

Ed McFarlane’s vocals are generally nicely restrained in a shoegazey way, although when he actually opens up his lungs fully on Lovesick he sounds like every anonymously generic dance vocalist you’ve ever heard. This track is one of very few weaker offerings here, and the album is strong enough to carry such fillers.

Friendly Fires recorded this album themselves in vocalist Ed McFarlane’s parents’ garage, on a laptop, laying down one instrument after the next and then recording the vocals using a crappy microphone gaffer taped to a mic stand. So it’s all the more impressive that the result sounds so well-produced.

Comparisons will undoubtedly be made to Late Of The Pier and Klaxons and, while Friendly Fires’ output is far more straightforward, the dance-floor fillers on offer here are equally appealing in their own way. Sophisticated and fun, Friendly Fires is a fine example dance music with a brain in its head.

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Does It Offend You, Yeah? at Oxford Art Factory

DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?
GRAFTON PRIMARY
THE E.L.F.
Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst
01/10/08

Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see the appeal of watching a scruffy bloke standing behind a laptop and singing over grating dance music. However, despite having the charisma of a bad wedding DJ, Gerling’s Darren Cross, aka The E.L.F. sure got the kids in the Van She T-shirts dancing. Still, if you’re a Van She fan, you’ll dance to pretty much anything.

Local weirdos Grafton Primary (below) were far more pleasing on the eye and ear. Singer Joshua Garden danced like a spasming robot in a pork pie hat, neckerchief, sleeveless shirt and eyeliner, while his brother Benjamin played some serious keytar and bravely opted for the T-shirt and tie combination. Their deliciously 80s electro was Depeche Mode meets The Human League meets Mighty Boosh’s Future Sailors. And it’s not hard to be entertained by that.

English indie/dance act Does It Offend You, Yeah? (above) soon whipped the crowd into a frenzy even though bassist/vocalist James Rushent was forced to play the gig sitting down. “I broke my leg on stage in L.A.” he told us. “Still, if you’re going to do it anywhere, you might as well do it there.” This prompted chirpy guitarist/vocalist Morgan Quaintance to tell the audience, “And if you’re going to dance, you might as well fucking do it here.” A packed room duly obliged.
Highlights included the surf-punk craziness of Attack Of The 50-Ft Lesbian Octopus and the more subtle indie of Dawn Of The Dead, while the lyrically-banal Let’s Make Out proved to be the singalong anthem of the night. A barnstorming set which surreally included a crowd-surfing appearance from Har Mar Superstar came to a crescendo with We Are Rock Stars and, when the [slightly tiresome] vocodor vocals made way for a banging instrumental chorus, the whole room went nuts.

But the night ended anti-climactically. Despite loud requests from the crowd, the Brits chose not to end with the appropriately-named Epic Last Song, and instead encored with a cover of Devo’s Whip It. While they were perhaps adhering to the notion of leaving the people wanting more, when you only have one album’s worth of material to offer it’s surely a foolhardy decision not to play what is unquestionably your best song, especially when the crowd is literally crying out for it. Did its omission disappoint us? Yeah.

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Kaiser Chiefs interview

I interviewed Kasier Chiefs for the third time lately. As always, it was a pleasure: UPON THE RELEASE OF THEIR THIRD ALBUM, KAISER CHIEFS’ BASSIST SIMON RIX TALKS TO ROB TOWNSEND ABOUT COLLABORATING WITH MARK RONSON, LILY ALLEN, NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB AND, STRANGELY, A COOK

How time flies. It doesn’t seem long ago that Kaiser Chiefs released their sophomore album, yet already they’re back with third offering, Off With Their Heads. “Well, 11 songs in 18 months doesn’t sound very much like hard work, does it?” corkscrew-haired bassist Simon Rix laughs. “I suppose though, in terms of the big albums like Oasis or U2, they take two-and-a-half or three years, so in a way it is quick.”

However, rather than deliberately hurrying back to ensure they remain firmly in the consciousness of the record-buying public in this age of short attention-spans, the quintet created Off With Their Heads almost by accident. “Our plan was to have an EP out for the [British] summer. We didn’t want to go to festivals and play the same songs that we played the years before, but we didn’t really want to do an album because it’s quite a lot of work. So we went to record a single with [producers] Mark [Ronson] and Eliot [James] and we enjoyed it so much that we thought let’s just get on with it and do an album.”Working with super-producer and big-selling recording artist Ronson and the lesser-known [“But just as good”] James created a pleasing dynamic for the Leeds band, who admit to normally being control freaks in the studio. “Usually we have to be in charge and know everything that’s going on. Sometimes people who come from the outside find it difficult to get in because, well, I’ve known two of the band for over 20 years now. We’d never met Mark and Eliot before but they immediately became part of the band for that time and we all had similar ideas about what we wanted.”

The album was created in a very short space of time and, unlike their previous record – which was meticulously thought out and “a bit too musical,” according to Rix – the band began recording with only a handful of songs written. The rest came from bouncing ideas around in the studio. “It was pretty instinctive. We didn’t have time to go back and start changing things. It sounds very corny but…” he pauses. “It captures a moment.”

Experimentation was the name of the game on Off With Their Heads, with the five band-members trying to get back to “messing about” musically, as they did when demoing their debut album. “We try to be quite quirky while remaining poppy. We don’t want to make records that are unlistenable but we do want to do weird stuff.” I ask him what he means by “weird stuff,” because, to me, Kaiser Chief’s wonderfully effervescent brand of anthemic indie-pop had until now seemed fairly straightforward. “Well, a good example is that on Oh My God [from their debut, Employment] Nick reads [legendary British radio DJ] John Peel’s obituary. You can’t really hear it but it adds another layer of sound and I think that makes it more interesting. On the second album we didn’t really do much experimenting, so we really wanted to test ourselves again.”The result of Kaiser Chiefs’ desire to push themselves creatively is their most eclectic and varied album to date. The band departs ever so slightly from its trademark singalong indie and spreads its wings, bringing in a number of collaborators in the process. Rix exudes equal amounts of pride and enthusiasm when talking about the record. “Throughout the album there are different sounds. It keeps you interested. There are strings, and Sway does some rapping on it too.” As well as the unlikely inclusion of the UK rapper, there are also some high-profile guest appearances, and some bizarre ones. “Mark knew Lou [Hayter from New Young Pony Club] and Lily Allen ended up being on there a quite a lot. Then there’s Good Days Bad Days, which is one of my favourites because it has a different vibe to it. It’s got a guest on it… kind of. He’s our cook. He cooks for us while we are in the studio. He turned out to be a percussionist so he brought in a djembe. It’s like a bongo.”

With Off With Their Heads hitting Australian stores, I ask if Kaiser Chiefs plan on squeezing a Sydney date into their hectic upcoming touring schedule. Rix admits that there is nothing concrete planned, but that he is keen to revisit us. “This is going to sound like I’m sucking up to Australia but it’s one of my favourite places in the world. I definitely want to come over. We’ll be back I’m sure,” he promises. “It’s just a shame it’s such a long way from my house.”

The Rascals - Rascalize

THE RASCALS
Rascalize
You may know The Rascals’ frontman Miles Kane better for recently teaming up with Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner to form The Last Shadow Puppets. Following the acclaim their musical outing has received, it is to much interest that Kane and two other ex-members of now-defunct The Little Flames release The Rascals’ debut album.

Kane certainly has an interesting, textured vocal and a fine way with words. This is best illustrated by Fear Invicted Into The Perfect Stranger, but, despite the obvious talent on display here, the most notable aspect of Rascalize is just how familiar it all sounds. Like The Coral, there is an intriguing mixture of pop melodies and dark weirdness here and, fittingly, swaggering social yarns like Does Your Husband Know That You’re On The Run? are similar to Arctic Monkeys. On top of these reference points, I’d Be Lying To You perhaps trespasses into The Zutons’ territory.

There is certainly an impressive energy about this album, and it gives a good sense of the band’s Northern English roots, but, even with its atmospheric, dark edges and interesting structures, it never reaches the heights that one senses it ought to. At no stage does anything about Rascalize really stand out, and it certainly doesn’t come close to matching Arctic Monkeys, who surely set the benchmark for bands like this. Therefore, we are left feeling slightly disappointed, making it hard to see The Rascals causing as much excitement in the music world as The Last Shadow Puppets. And when your frontman’s side-project is superior to his full-time band, you know you’re in trouble.

Clue To Kalo interview

I shared lunch with Clue To Kalo recently:MARK MITCHELL, THE MAN BEHIND CLUE TO KALO, TELLS ROB TOWNSEND HE WON’T BE MOVING OUT OF ADELAIDE ANY TIME SOON

When discussing their aspirations in terms of commercial success, many musicians will explain how they make music for their own pleasure and it’s simply a bonus if anyone else likes it. While this is a nice sentiment, one suspects that, in honesty, many of them would probably sell their own grandmother for a shot at the big-time. However, when Clue To Kalo’s mild-mannered singer/songwriter Mark Mitchell says he is all about the music, the earnestness with which he speaks suggests that he absolutely means it. “If success happens that would be fantastic, and there are times when I wish there were more people at the show or that more people knew about the record, but it would never change the way that I’d approach a record or what step I would want to take next with my music,” he shrugs while tucking into a vegetarian lasagne in a Surry Hills café. “If you’re totally confident that the music is the reason you’re doing it, then you can always fall back on that; you can still retain some happiness in what you are doing,” he continues. “If you put all your stock into achieving success and you don’t get it, it doesn’t really leave you with anything. You don’t have any foundations from which you can continue. This way, I hope I can continue making records until I’m an old man – even if everyone stops listening by the time I’m 35.”

Clue To Kalo’s third and latest long-player, Lily Perdida, is a charming folk offering and, with all songs based around an eponymous main character, could be described as a concept album. Mitchell explains: “I wanted to make a folk record which was about one particular person based on what everyone else was saying about them. I read a lot of old traditional song lyrics and absorbed the language that was used. A lot of key words came up in these songs, so I wanted to have echoes of that language, but take it out of its context and use it in a modern story.”

I ask Mitchell how the idea for the album came about. “I mean, I love records that are just ten great songs recorded separately and put on a CD, but I also like the idea of one piece of art which has separate components to it.” He goes on to explain where the influence came from to tell the story of one person through the eyes of others. “Randy Newman always said he thought you could tell so much about him from his stories about other people.” As well as dealing with the subject-matter slightly differently to how he has in the past, Mitchell also approached the writing process in another way. “I wanted to write for one particular instrument – in this case the piano - and orchestrate around that rather than what I have done in the past which is grab a whole bunch of sounds and throw them in to see how it works. I have a tendency to overload things and then pull back and chip away at it until it makes sense. But this was good because it took some of the decisions out of my hands.”

Clue To Kalo’s initial breakthrough came through overseas interest, but, with the release of this record, Mitchell says that he is more than happy to concentrate on touring Australia, and reckons Adelaide is the perfect place for a musician to live. “There are no limitations for us at the moment in Australia. First and foremost, I want to create records that I’m really happy with. I could move to New York and struggle to make ends meet and not have enough time to do certain things or I could live in Adelaide where I’m far away from where people would think everything’s happening, but be comfortable and happy with a lot of room to make the best records I can make.”

As Mitchell goes on to chat excitedly about future albums, about what new vocalist Ellen Carey brings to the band and about what he is currently listening to, it is once again obvious that he is not the kind of person that will be stressing too much about where Lily Perdida charts upon its release. He clearly just wants to get back in the studio and create some more music. “That act of making the records is the most important thing to me. As far as people being interested in my music - that’s out of my control. I can’t really imagine doing anything else. My ambition is to constantly get new ideas and to integrate them into new projects.” After another mouthful of lasagne, he says with a smile: “I just want to keep making records, and hope that they don’t turn shit.”

Au - Verbs

AU
Verbs
Au (it’s pronounced ‘ay you’) is the brainchild of Portland based multi-instrumentalist Luke Wyland. Second long-player, Verbs, sees a heightened ambition for him and his band, following their charmingly understated debut.

If anything illustrates how this is not your everyday psych-folk record, and that it is a grander effort than their previous long-player, it is the 30 person choir that appears over rumbling piano and hectic percussion on opening track, All My Friends. Sounding like an even more shambolic Polyphonic Spree, they turn up again on the very next track, Are Animals. And it’s not only vocals that are in abundance here, as organs, guitars, clarinets, bells, trombones, flutes, trumpets, banjos, accordions and even saws are utilised to aurally attack the listener. Indeed, vocals are used mainly as an extra musical instrument too; there is plenty of harmonised wailing and oohing-and-arring and not much in the way of straightforward lyric-delivery. Standout tracks include the slow-burning rr vs d, which builds to a cacophony of drums, handclaps and horns, while Summerheat begins with the aforementioned saws before bursting into life.

This album certainly suggests that Wyland has listened to Animal Collective a few times in his life, and occasionally Verbs scales similar heights with its vast sound. But, while you can’t fault its ambition and execution, it often feels a little too obscure and slightly smug at its own cleverness to really engage on an emotional level. Ultimately, it’s easy to be impressed by Verbs, but much harder to love it.

Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel

LATE OF THE PIER
Fantasy Black Channel

I know, I know. You’ve had your fill of English indie/dance bands. Admittedly, there has been an influx of them desperately trying to ride on Klaxons’ coattails over the past couple of years, and many of them have been pretty poor (Hadouken! anybody?), but your faith is about to be restored by four guys from Nottinghamshire.

Helped in no small part by (seemingly omnipresent) dance producer Erol Alkan sprinkling his magic over it, Late Of The Pier’s debut album is equally slick and ramshackle, yet always exciting. Along with its chunky synths and catchy riffs, standout track Space and The Woods gives a big wink to Gary Numan, while space-opera Focker sounds like Klaxons having a fight with Muse on the Death Star. Elsewhere, things go even crazier, with the woozy guitar of Broken making way for a techno madness outro. Similarly, Random Firl feels like it could fall apart at any moment until the vocal reigns it back in.

The only time things take a downturn is with The Enemy Of The Future, which, despite a fun karaoke Bowie vocal, slows the pace and feels slightly lumbering in contrast to the rest of the songs. However, things instantly pick up with the last two tracks, especially the sweary, Sparks-esque insanity of album-closer Bathroom Gurgle.

It is testament to Fantasy Black Channel’s production, construction and inventiveness that, while it is fast, loud and often completely barmy, it’s never inaccessible or self-indulgent. What we have here is a perfectly-judged, well-executed, fearless and, most importantly, utterly thrilling record.