Album review: Snapped Ankles – Stunning Luxury

Snapped Ankles - Stunning Luxury album cover

It’s really hard to describe Snapped Ankles. They’re part dance, part psych-rock, part crusty avent-garde, part post-punk and a whole heap of English eccentricity. This is a group that dress in ghillie suits on stage and look like shamanistic yetis (see my unofficial Mutations Festival 2019 awards article for more).

Stunning Luxury is the band’s second album, following the release of the fantastic Come Play The Trees in 2017 – one of my albums of that year.

It picks up where the last album left off, but if possible it’s even more out-there.

There is classic Snapped Ankles on show here, such as the incessant synth line on Tailpipe, that you just can’t help being sucked in by. Delivery Van is a cracking bass-guitar driven number that plays with some truly odd keyboard melodies and 60s pysychodelia and general nuttiness.

Drink and Glide is another slice of the band at their most unashamedly enjoyable, with guitar and synth working in perfect harmony to keep a smile on everyone’s faces.

Rechargeable is probably my favourite track, a proper toe-tapping, head nodder that builds speed and layers as it progresses from its minimalistic start.

There is greater experimentation is on show on Stunning Luxury, which sometimes works, but sometimes falls short.

Letter From Hampi Mountain is a little hard to get into and seems to revolve around something akin to a bagpipe that’s swallowed a 56K modem. By the end, though, you are on board with it all. Similarly, Skirmish in the Suburb‘s Blade Runner-style opening keeps you hanging on for the eventually satisfying drums and acid synth conclusion.

Elsewhere though we have Three Steps to a Development‘s electro funk, which takes some getting in to. Stylistically it feels all over the place. You’re waiting for all the threads to pull together at the end, which they kind of do, but perhaps the payoff isn’t as big as you would hope. With Dial the Rings on a Tree, you are also left wanting more.

All things considered, this probably isn’t as strong a work as their debut, but the sheer audacity of Stunning Luxury is most definitely worth checking out – even if you don’t think this is your style of music. I also have a feeling that this may be a grower. Don’t be surprised if my rating improves over time.

Release date: 01 March 2019

Rating: 8/10

Standout track: Rechargeable

For fans of:

Phobophobes
Goat
Flamingods

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Keith Flint – RIP

Saddened to hear the news that Prodigy firestarter Keith Flint has passed away. He was one of the most formidable front men in dance history and his stage presence was legendary.

Arguably his promotion from dancer to front man in the band transformed them from a run-of-the-mill rave act to the snarling techno-punk outfit that they became legendary for. He will be much missed.

EP review: Octo Octa – For Lovers

Brooklyn DJ and producer Maya (formerly Michael) Bouldry-Mason, better known as Octo Octa, has poured her years of experience into three highly competent house tracks that are a treat for both your mind and your feet.

For Lovers is a three- track, 22 minute EP that explores some more ethereal elements, as well as offering you some proper four-to-the-floor groove outs.

I Need You begins with some vocal harmonics and ambient synths that builds up over the course of a few minutes, until the break beats drop. The synth work throughout has me harking back to early Orb efforts and overall the track is more for digesting than dancing – but still highly enjoyable. It’s eight minute length passes in the blink of an eye.

Bodies Meld Together offers your more standard 4×4 house beat structure complete with hand claps, soul vocal samples and classic house-style percussion. This isn’t a blast from the past though as it still maintains some modern vitality to it. This one’s clearly more suited for the club – don’t expect it to develop massively as the song moves along.

Loops For Healing is another strong house number featuring piano scales and some sparse but clinical use of keyboard and organs. This is no ecstatic, hands in the air number, but will get your feet moving. I suspect this would play perfectly mid-morning at an Ibiza beach bar. I can almost see myself there now.

Release date: 01 March 2019

Rating: 7/10

Standout track: I Need You

For fans of:

Todd Terry
Paul Oakenfold
Derrick Carter

Listen on Spotify

New Music Friday 01 March – What to listen to

This week could turn out to be an absolute stonker with two bands who produced some of our favourite music from 2017 back with new material. Expect Snapped Ankles and Fews to feature very prominently in the best from this week. There’s also releases from Weezer and the fabulously-named Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard that we’ll be casting our ears over, along with a whole host of other potential goodies as March kicks of in characteristically busy fashion.

Snapped Ankles – Stunning Luxury

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FEWS – Into Red

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Tom Walker – What a Time to Be Alive

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Weezer – (Black Album)

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Mansionair – Shadowboxer

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Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard – Yn Ol I Annwn

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Little Simz – GREY Area

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Octo Octa – For Lovers (EP)

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While She Sleeps – SO WHAT?

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The Japanese House – Good at Falling

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Test Dept – Disturbance

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Sebastian Plano – Verve

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Lonesome Shack – Desert Dreams

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Pond – Tasmania

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Sundara Karma – Ulfilas’ Alphabet

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Here’s a playlist of all of the above should you wish to take a deep dive into this week’s new releases.

The best albums of February 2019

1: Teeth Of The Sea – Wraith

Rating: 8/10 – Read full review

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2: SPC EPO – Fifteen

Rating: 8/10 – Read full review

Listen on Bandcamp

3: The Specials – Encore

Rating: 7.5/10 – Read full review

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4: Yak – Pursuit of Momentary Happiness

Rating: 7.5/10 – Read full review

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5: Modeselektor – Who Else

Rating: 7.5/10 – Read full review

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6: Ladytron– Ladytron

Rating: 7.5/10 – Read full review

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8: Boy Harsher – Careful

Rating: 7/10 – Read full review

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9: Health – Vol4 :: Slaves Of Fear

Rating: 7/10 – Read full review

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10: Finlay Shakespeare – Domestic Economy

Rating: 7/10 – Read full review

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7: The Young Gods – Data Mirage Tangram

Rating: 7/10

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22 February releases – Reviewed and rated

Electronic music takes centre stage this week with some fantastic work from Teeth Of The Sea, banging techno from Modeselektor, acid influenced psych rock from The Young Gods and a majestic EP from Snow Palms.

https://open.spotify.com/user/11125385644/playlist/0ilS4tq6kWZtoZ1KKBVvX6?si=Jxvh_TxYR1ay3hNXvrdb7g

Teeth Of The Sea – Wraith

Rating: 8/10 – Read full review

Listen on Spotify

Snow Palms – Everything Ascending (EP)

An epic blend of dance, electronica and neo-classical that works together seamlessly

Rating: 8/10 – Read full review

Listen on Spotify

Modeselektor – Who Else

Rating: 7.5/10 – Read full review

Listen on Spotify

The Young Gods – Data Mirage Tangram

Nice mix of industro-psych rock with some serious acid effects going on at times. Highly intriguing.

Rating: 7/10

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Drenge – Strange Creatures

Buzzsaw bass, squelchy synths, and post-punk guitars make for an at-times absorbing, but ultimately patchy album.

Rating: 7/10

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Du Blonde – Lung Bread For Daddy

A darker, grungy indie work that begs for your attention.

Rating: 7/10

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Pom Poko – Birthday

Bouncy pop punk and indie rock with a strong Japanese influence in its styling. Certainly worth a couple of listens.

Rating: 7/10

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Feels – Post Earth

Enjoyable enough indie-pop-rock but not going to set the world on fire.

Rating: 6/10

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Desperate Journalist – In Search Of The Miraculous

Indie-rock with a tinge of post-punk/Cure to it.Friendly on the ears but a bit standard and probably taking itself too seriously.

Rating: 5.5/10

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Sleaford Mods– Eton Alive

Likeable, but very samey. Bar the caustic lyrics, the songs fail to take you anywhere musically.

Rating: 5.5/10

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Gary Clark Jr. – This Land

Blues-rock with the odd bit of synth thrown in. Acceptable but nothing more.

Rating: 5/10

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Album of the week: Teeth Of The Sea – Wraith

Teeth Of The Sea have produced an absorbing album that mixes electronica, ambient, dance and jazz with a splash of psych rock and even a touch of avent-garde, while managing to maintain its sense of direction throughout.

On Wraith, the band is not shy on using brass to create that jazzy noir feeling but ensure it doesn’t dominate proceedings, and just when you feel that things are in danger of running aground they surprise you with a change up that pulls you back in once again.

I’d Rather, Jack as an opening piece, lays the groundwork for the rest of the album, fusing a simple heavy drum line with synths, trumpet, some electronic soundscapes and electric guitars. At times it feels like a film noir set in a sweaty nightclub.

That trend continues with the brooding Hiraeth, which flirts with becoming too jazzy before deep bass and grungy guitars fully redeems it.

Fortean Steed explores a more atmospheric, swirling electronic motif, incorporating echoing plucked electric guitars with some folky female choral voices and effect-laden glockenspiel.

There’s some masterful work going on in the track Our Love Can Destroy This Whole Fucking World, where not a whole lot seems to be happening but yet you are hooked from the first note to the last bar. Very reminiscent of the last year’s fantastic album by Nils Frahm.

Where the album really takes off is when the beats speed up and the loops take you on a hypnotic journey, such as in the excellent VISITOR and the brilliantly-titled Gladiators Ready – which transforms into a proper mid-tempo banger worthy of any acid rave.

There was enough variety and depth to this album to make it my album of the week, despite some very strong competition. Get your ears round it now.

Release date: 22 February 2019

Rating: 8/10

Standout track: VISITOR

For fans of:

GoGo Penguin
Nils Frahm
These New Puritans

Listen on Spotify

Album review: Modeselektor – Who Else

I’ve been waiting some time now to review a decent techno record where I can fully regress to my rave days. Modeselektor happily provided the opportunity and I’m most appreciative.

Who Else isn’t quite a full out techno album, there are other elements of electronic influence in there, from house, to some crazy jungle beats, and even a bit of grime thanks to some excellent collaboration pieces.

This also falls occassionally into the ‘experimental’ side of things. Fentanyl, for instance, uses a fractured and disjointed bassline that makes it a tricky one to dance to but also difficult to digest if you’re sitting at home.

But the album does hark back to the heydays of rave. There’s some classic arpeggiator action on opener One United Power and some very familiar ‘rave’ synths kicking off on I Am Your God.

WMF Love Song is another tune that draws heavily on the echoes of hard house and is built for the dancefloor, while Wake Me Up When It’s Over has overtones of Orbital in the synths before the jungle madness begins in earnest.

It’s probably the collaborations that work best on this album. Wealth, with Flohio, injects a touch of grime into proceedings, backed by some Leftfield-style synth work. Top track is probably Who, featuring Tommy Cash, that borrows from more recent EDM but is firmly rooted through its acidy organs in early techno and dance culture.

Not my album of the week, due to a few tracks that fell short of the mark, but very close.

Release date: 22 February 2019

Rating: 7.5/10

Standout track: Who

For fans of:

Leftfield
Four Tet
The Field

Listen on Spotify

EP review: Snow Palms – Everything Ascending

More of a single than an EP, but with its two tracks spanning over 16 mins it’s still worth shouting out this effort from Snow Palms.

Title track Everything Ascending is a 10-minute epic that blends dance and electronica with orchestral and choral elements through a series of intertwined ‘movements’ that blend together seamlessly. You’re carried along on a musical journey, with even the tempo sometimes reflecting the regular rattle of a high-speed train.

It’s the kind of piece that deserves repeat listening just to take it all in, you’ll have a different experience with it every time.

The b-side is an orchestral reworking of Circling, a track from an older album. Its minimalist use of strings is highly emotive and highly impressive, reminiscent of Philip Glass’s Koyaanisqatsi at times. Expect to hear it on a trailer for something soon.

Release date: 22 February 2019

Rating: 8/10

Standout track: Everything Ascending

For fans of:

Brian Eno
Jon Hopkins
Philip Glass

Listen on Spotify

The (unofficial) Mutations 2019 festival awards

On 23rd February in a conference centre on an industrial estate just off a very sunny Portslade High Street, we witnessed the coming together of some of the most promising alternative music acts around.

The Mutations 2019 festival provided a feast for the ears and sometimes the eyes. Despite some issues with being able to provide enough beer to the thirsty masses, it largely went off without a hitch and provided a huge amount of pleasure to those in attendance.

With that in mind, I present my completely unofficial Mutations 2019 festival awards.

The consummate professional award

Winner: White Denim

Headliners White Denim showed why they deserved to be topping the bill, with a incredibly tight performance and a huge sound that could fill any size of venue. They had to deal with a backdrop that had been glitchy all day but finally gave up the ghost completely at the start of their performance. However, such was the immensity of their stage presence that you hardly noticed.

The audience immersion award

Winner: Snapped Ankles

Snapped Ankles, or possibly a shamanic yeti

As soon as Snapped Ankles emerged onto the stage in their modified ghillie suits, looking somewhat like shamanisitc yetis, you knew you were in for an unusual performance.

From the opening bars of ‘I Want My Minutes Back’ you were glued to what was happening on stage. So much so that you hardly noticed the gradual invasion of other ghillie suited performers into the audience. One set up shop right next to me banging on a snare drum in perfect synchronicity to the goings-on up front, while others bounded through the audience flailing their arms as if held in a maddening trance by the sounds emanating from the stage.

The Snapped Ankles set was actually quite short, which may have left the audience wanting more but was probably a huge relief for those in the stifling costumes, given the amount of energy they were expending throughout.

Longest sound check award

Winner: Goat Girl

It’s not often you see a band standing around on stage sound checking for longer than the actual performance, but that’s exactly what it felt like when Goat Girl took to the stage as second top billing act.

They were clearly having some issues with feedback but spent far too long trying it sort it out and eventually the audience got a little impatient.

As a result – whether it was nerves from having stood on stage so long waiting to start, the sound adjustments made, that this new act are still a finding their feet, or a combination of all these things – but the performance was flat. As was the reaction from the audience. A massive shame, as I had really enjoyed their eponymous debut album and had been looking forward to their set for some time.

The ‘Audience in the palm of our hands’ award

Winner: Flamingods

Flamingods have been playing their unique brand of exotic psych rock since 2010, and that experience showed as the audience lapped up their performance.

Their full-on set, coupled with some perfectly complementary visuals, made for an, at times transcendental experience that the crowd couldn’t get enough of.

My first experience of this band, hopefully not the last.

The international discovery award

Winner: Ohmme (USA)

This Chicago group managed to meld complex harmonic vocal arrangements with some seriously noisy guitars to create a unique sound that was entrancing and explosive. They could perhaps do with a bass player to pack even more punch, but it’s well worth catching up with their (currently) small back catalogue. They told us after the gig they were straight off to Wales to record their next album. I’ll be reviewing their older tracks in anticipation of that release.

Notable mention: Joesfin Öhrn & The Liberation (Sweden)

And now for the big one…

Best set

Winner: TVAM

Truth be told, this was the band I was most looking forward to seeing after the triumphant release of debut album Psychic Data last year (which made the top 20 of my Top 50 albums of 2018 list).

Fortunately they did not disappoint. It was a sparse setup for a group billing second on the second stage. Just a guitar and small keyboard between the two performers and an old CRT television displaying images and lyrics to the group’s songs. But the overall impression conveyed was incredible. The sounds they achieved with such minimal machinery completely drew you in and left your head swirling.

Hopefully they will be returning soon so that we can experience a full-on full set.

Hopefully Mutations will also be returning soon, though next time they might need to stock up on more beer.