Listen/Review: Happyness – A Whole New Shape

Holly Warren March 4, 2015

South London slacker-rock trio Happyness released a freaking gem of an album last year, ‘Weird Little Birthday’, and the deluxe version is due for release this month. It features a new track ‘A Whole New Shape’, a lazy lo-fi tune with bouncy guitars and slimy vocals.

Watch/Review: NRVS LVRS – City Lights

Matthew Doyle March 4, 2015

Like the city lights that NRVS LVRS’ Wendy Brents sings about, this song is pretty freaky. Not in a Frankenstein way, but in more of a cool super-freak kinda way. This is no Rick James funk, though, and is actually Frankenstein in its setup, laying everything out, then mashing it together to create a beautiful monster of a track. Eerie 80s-style organs back the track from start to finish, but rousing drumbeats, flooding finger snaps and handclaps carry the song away from the morose.

Watch/Review: Nubiyan Twist – Work House

Nick Mee March 2, 2015

Leeds/London ensemble Nubiyan Twist comprise a dozen members, and while that might be a nightmare when it comes to cramming into the Ford Orion to get to the gig, each player seems so attuned to the other on ‘Work House’ that there’s no treading on toes, at least in a musical sense, as individual indulgence is tempered for the good of the neo-soul whole.

Live review: Simian Ghost & Strong Asian Mothers – The Finsbury 23/2/15

Nick Mee February 27, 2015

There were more loops and backing tracks to follow from another four-piece, Sweden’s Simian Ghost but, along with more considered facial hair and added diffidence, the balance was weighted firmly in favour of the analogue, the tech touches an enhancement to twee indie-guitar pop, given clout by the strength of its melodic inspiration.

Listen/Review: MARINE – EP1

Charlie Hannah February 25, 2015

MARINE’s debut EP is a work that seamlessly juxtaposes intimate and epic soundscapes. This four-piece, comprising Ruby Jack, Cara Sebastian, Kaja Magsam and Beth Dariti, have been touring independently in Germany and England, packed into a small car with their CDs to sell. This determination and focus is felt in this release.

Watch/Review: Victor & The Rain Dog – Anchor & Hope

Charlie Hannah February 24, 2015

The mesmerising video for ‘Anchor & Hope’ is the latest triumph for Victor & The Rain Dog. Directed by Jamie Jones, it is a perfect collaboration between two creative forces. French-born singer Victor Marichal leads The Rain Dog on this minor-key, sea shanty/junkyard stomp, the style of which seems like a homage to Victor’s hero, Tom Waits, and sounds like a special nod to the pirate songs of his 1985 ‘Rain Dogs’ album – songs such as ‘Singapore’ and ‘Cemetery Polka’.

Watch/Review: Horse Party – Out Of Sight

Ali Waite February 23, 2015

If Jason Loewenstein from Sebadoh picked up PJ Harvey in his beaten-up Dodge van on a first date, you might expect the soundtrack to be something along the lines of the new Horse Party single ‘Out Of Sight’ – visceral, emphatic and stimulating just about every sense an alt-rock fan would desire.

Listen/Review: Jet Setter – Forget About It

Nick Mee February 17, 2015

Such is the melodic efficiency of the initial two minutes of Jet Setter’s ‘Forget About It’ that the band can afford to close the tune with an outro loose enough to turn Whiplash’s Terence Fletcher an unholy shade of borscht. Prior to this passage, the Dublin four-piece convey such a pleasing grasp of fretboard sweet-spots and warm overdrive settings, as well as a knack for effortlessly pretty vocal harmonies, that even Fletcher would be inclined cut the band some slack for their subsequent slack.

Listen/Review: C Duncan – Say

Matthew Doyle February 9, 2015

You know what? This song makes you feel like you're flying over a city and that’s nice. That’s the feel it seems C Duncan, full name Christopher, is going for, especially as his single is illustrated with an aerial shot of his hometown, Glasgow.

Watch/Review: The Unthanks – Flutter

Nick Mee February 4, 2015

OK, so we’re hardly laying claim to an exclusive here, you’ll have heard the soothing strains of The Unthanks’ ‘Flutter’ if you’ve been locked on 6Music these past few weeks, but given that the band’s new album ‘Mount The Air’ is out next week, and by virtue of the tune being the most beautiful thing to have landed on Lost In The Manor’s virtual doormat of late, we see no reason to refrain from sharing it further.

Live review: Decoy Jet at Proud, Camden, 23/1/15

Holly Warren February 1, 2015

If you’re a frequent weekend warrior at London’s music venues and indie club nights, you’ll most probably run into Decoy Jet. The four-piece from Enfield seem to be playing hipster hangouts across the capital every weekend, and as a result look more at home treading (and shredding) the stage than they do off it.

Watch/Review: The Garden – Surprise

Nick Mee January 28, 2015

It would be opportune to dismiss teenage Cali-twins The Garden as mere chic-cheeked fashion fodder – they’ve already paced the catwalk for YSL – if they weren’t coming up with such intensely diverting tunes. The bass’n’drums duo’s latest piece of skeletal garage-rock, ‘Surprise’, is all done and dusted in less time than it takes the relatively orally hygienic to brush their teeth of a morning.

Listen/Review: The Grubby Mitts – Worm of Eternal Return

Holly Warren January 22, 2015

Andy Holden, Roger Illingworth, Johnny Parry, John Blamey and James MacDowell have been playing together in various line-ups since they were 12 years old. Seven solo albums, one book and numerous art exhibitions later, they became The Grubby Mitts.

Listen/Review: Diagrams – Gentle Morning Song

Holly Warren January 18, 2015

Diagrams’ Sam Genders, former member of Tunng, returns with ‘Gentle Morning Song’, taken from Diagrams' new album ‘Chromatics’, out in the UK now. The song’s charming, honeyed electronica lends itself to comparisons to The Shins and is probably closer to what you expected from Belle and Sebastian’s new single than the song Belle and Sebastian actually released. In the verses, Sam Genders’ distinctly accented voice sounds as if it’s running across a landscape inhabited solely by Stuart Murdoch, and, as with every offering from Diagrams, the chorus is an endless jug of joy.

Watch: Generationals – Reviver

Nick Mee January 15, 2015

Follow the example of the jovial spectators in Generationals’ speedway-centric new video and you'll find plenty to cheer in the band’s typically upbeat new release, taken from their latest album, ‘Alix’.

Listen/Review: Shark Dentist – Cut Myself Shaving

Nick Mee January 9, 2015

Any band defining themselves by the sub-genre ‘sandwich metal’ warrant attention, and one glance at Shark Dentist’s Facebook page is enough to know theirs isn’t the vibe to accompany earnest soul-searching.

Watch/Review: The Acid – Ghost

Nick Mee January 6, 2015

At a time of year when heavy grey skies seem only to be an apparition of daylight, the spectral sonics and hazy visuals of The Acid’s latest release, taken from last year’s ‘Liminal’ LP, is fittingly austere. The video to ‘Ghost’, shot among sand-dunes, is a shimmering template of surreal focal points and balletic choreography, reflecting a sensory unease that chimes with

Watch/Download: Allusondrugs – Am I Weird?

Nick Mee December 10, 2014

It’s a question that’s vexed all but the least self-aware of us at some point, its intensity frequently amplified in direct correlation to recreational substance use. Which may explain why Yorkshire quintet Allusondrugs appear to be having such a tremendous grin during their self-made promo for ‘Am I Weird?’, in which their studio forms the low-budget backdrop for absorbing hyperactivity, and there are cameos from an emu and a cat

Listen/Review: Shiners – Just Got Paid

Holly Warren December 10, 2014

We don’t have much to tell you about Shiners as they are about as enigmatic as they come; we suspect they are a four-piece (but don't hold us to that!) and they describe themselves as ‘Britwave', which only keeps us guessing.

Watch: Pinkshinyultrablast – Umi

Nick Mee December 8, 2014

'Repurposing shoegaze from the Baltic's eastern banks,' Pinkshinyultrablast are a St Petersburg band whose debut album, 'Everything Else Matters', is out on 12 January.