Tuesday 6 December 2011

Otherpeople - Memory Gag

Otherpeople – Memory Gag


Ok so one of my favourite bands who have emerged in Glasgow in the past few years since first hearing their song Whooplash is Otherpeople, and as it happened they recently...ok quite recently released their debut EP Memory Gag, let me tell you about it.

The EP kicks of with the dark opener “OP” which feels a bit like a sweaty handshake, friendly yet unnerving which glitches itself out of time which acts as a lead in to the track which made me like the band in the first place “Whooplash”. I cant help whooping along to this every time I hear it, the track has a great infectious energy about it, and a great amount of personality as well provided by the vocals.

“Newman” has an almost 90's energetic manics feel about it, with a selection of tasty riffs and hook after hook and groove switches which keeps things fresh throughout the song along with some really tasty harmonies. This is followed by the latest single “I Am So Bored Of Acoustic Guitars” which is nothing short of fantastic, once again personality shining through the vocals and some cracking lyrics which may suggest they're not big Amy Macdonald fans. Once again this song highlights all the subtle sub sections of the songs which really gives the tracks a real hit when they want to get noisy and throw out some cracking anti guitar sections.

“Halloween” is up next which showcases the story telling ability of the band, and again has all the great guitar parts and harmonies which has made the EP a joy to listen to. “Goodweek Badweek” shows their use of grooves with another big chorus but with big hip hop sections verses, which I like but definitely came as a surprise, but still really works.

Overall this is a great EP as I've mentioned before the subtle use of dynamics and groove changes keep the music interesting while the personality shines through the vocals backed up with big choruses. More than worth the £3.49 it is on their bandcamp.

Wull

I'm back/Algiers

Hello and welcome back to the laziest blog in the UK,

Gonna kick things off again with a series of reviews and features from bands across the UK or wherever.

I've heard a bunch of great new bands over the year and found my love of discovering new and old music.

So first off lets go for Manchester duo Algiers,

They released their EP “Four Priests” a few months back on the awesome Big Scary Monsters. And be honest its a damn good record. This record is basically hook after hook. Being a duo it could be expected that the recording could be really empty and quite sparse and I don't think that could be further from the truth, the tracks have a clear, honest, direct nature with well controlled dynamics and great use of 2 part harmonies which gives the EP a great full sound. I really love the interplay of grooves between solid drums and riff laden guitars mixing between bashed out chords for big driving choruses. Each listen to this EP makes me want to listen to it again, you should probably check it out at their bandcamp.

Wull