On Friday I showed London band Darkstar's filmclip for 'Amplified Ease'. It's good, don't get me wrong - that's why I included it. But if you want to be honest - I think that it's all in who you know. Because there is another London-based band that have really killed a record that are in a similar vein, and I haven't heard much about them - despite Dustin Wong (Ponytail) having some involvement in their record (playing guitar on single 'Quessa').
The record - Sun. The band - Flamingods, a five-piece made up of Kamal Rasool, Charles Prest, Sam Rowe, Craig Doporto, and Karthik Poduval. They have an amazing genesis story too - 4 of the 5 members (Kamal, Sam, Craig, and Charles) met in Bahrain before moving to London and becoming friends with Kartik. As early gigs go, Flamingods’ couldn’t have gone much better. Having all bought tickets to the Animal Collective-curated ATP festival, they decided to take along a selection of their huge instrument collection and embarked on an 8 hour set in a chalet on-site – with up to 60 people crammed in to try and grab a view of their constantly changing line-up and enchanting tribal rhythms, and those who couldn’t squeeze in danced outside or tried clambering through windows.
Sun is a hypnotic melange of African inflection, tribal rhythms and quirk, all centred around discovering a loop or beat that serves as an electric bolt down the spine. Animal Collective, Boredoms, and Sun City Girls are cited as influences, with the former’s irreverence and innate sense of fun most evident in these tracks. This is dance music for those who don’t like dance music, and don’t hate Vampire Weekend enough to turn their backs on the brilliance Afro rhythms. Rave on, you crazy hipsters.
Sun is out now on the ever-excellent Art Is Hard Records - head here to get it in sexy green vinyl.
First Video Vacuum of the year, so some of these may not be “new” as such. Nevertheless I've chosen three tracks because their film clips are awesome (so are the tracks) – and one because I like the band/song (although the vid is deliciously lo-fi and nerdy…)
I'm kicking it all off with a loooong one. Those crazy bastards Foot Village have a new record coming out next month called Making Memories (on Northern Spy), so they have released this music video for ‘The End Of The World’. Luckily for us the Mayans were wrong and we are still kicking on – but if I was doing a death march into fiery oblivion, these manic tub-thumpers would be my little drummer demons. Foot Village must feel the same – it is far more sedate than anything they have thus far done, which is not a detractor – it is beautifully constructed. It reminds me a little of Deerhoof’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, whilst the video is all anarchist slow grind. And the last minute and a half? Well, as far as streaming the new album goes, it’s pretty ingenious – if you live in America that is.
James Boyd is one busy cat. He is a part of garage centipede Velociraptor, garage commies The Majors – but he is tapping into something really special as a pop troubadour. James X Boyd and the Boydoids (great band name) are promising something truly special with their debut 12” through Long Gone Records later this year, this “video” for single ‘Elissa Says’ is all about kids fooling around in Brisbane sharehouses – a simple, innocent time where dreams are had and intermittently reached for. They haven’t played heaps of shows, but I'm hoping that 2013 puts Boyd and his ‘oids up at the top of the Brisbane pops.
Those twisted Liars certainly aren’t strangers in this neck of the woods. Sisterworld was one of my favourite albums of 2010, whilst WIXIW, although it’s shift had many people shuffling their feet, is a dark, sinuous grower, with ‘No 1 Against The Rush’ being my pick as song of 2012 (with an ace video). The title track from that album has become the trio’s third single, with a slick video to boot. A longhaired stoner type continually trying to dunk a ball but failing? Lots of people standing around, either bemused or confused? And that pagan god? Doesn’t really make sense – although the band love basketball apparently. Fair dues. Its still pretty intoxicating.
Finally we have UK band Darkstar. Now I haven’t had the chance to hear their album News From Nowhere yet – its getting some favourable reviews – I have listened to and watched the clip to single ‘Amplified Ease’ a multitude of times. It’s got that mantra-esque lyrics and warped rhythms that Animal Collective have claimed as their own (although you can name a huge number of other acts that now incorporated such elements), but with the film clip of the boys jamming their faces up against a tank (at Pinewood Studios, no less!), it heightens the experience. The song itself has an undulating presence that buries into your brain – a hypnotic pan flute of a track, leading you children away from the village, never to be heard from again.
