ALBUM: Kveikur – Sigur Rós

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Review by Matthew Osborne

I got quite excited about this album, when early press releases claimed it marked a return to form for Sigur Rós. Excited enough to order the big megatron jumbo copy from the band’s website – the version with an extra disc and T-Shirt.

So excited, in fact, I managed to overlook the image of a hooded character not dissimilar to a KuKlux Klan member in full regalia, which graced the album’s cover. An image that’s consequently been emblazoned upon my chest whenever I wear my special edition shirt out and about in public.

Some time after clicking the ‘buy’ button I realised my folly but managed to console myself with the fact that, if the album was Sigur Rós‘ return to the sort of form they showed on Agaetis Byrjun or ( ) that critics were saying it was, then I would have nothing to fear. The album would undoubtedly be a hit and the album cover would be recognised, for the right reasons, by millions.

But the day I got to listen to Kveikur for the first time proved to be a slightly edgy one for me, faced with my wardrobe related predicament.

As the record rumbled into life and the dark machinery that drives opening track, Brennisteinn, began its all consuming stomp across whichever barren wilderness that Sigur Rós create, I felt hopeful and started mentally picking out jackets that would show off my new T-Shirt most engagingly.

Hrafntinna followed, with percussive jangles that brought to mind an image of drummer Orri Páll Dýrason sitting amongst the stalagmites and stalactites that have claimed the surfaces of a long forgotten cave, summoning Thor with the Norse God’s own hammer. The chorus was a powerful and dramatic display of how affecting Sigur Rós‘ inimitable musical expulsions can be.

Orri Páll Dýraso’s contributions to this album are perhaps the most crucial. Having lost their keyboardist, Kjartan Sveinsson, last year,  Sigur Rós have had to re-evaluate their sound. Dýraso has clearly taken the helm and given the band’s new style something ferociously menacing in places. The title track, too, boasts a vertiginous bass line and drums far too explosive for a band who often find themselves lumped in with the chill out crowd.

However, I found myself checking that the jackets I was choosing had working zips on the front when I first got irritated by the number of cooed oo-ee-oo‘s Jónsi managed to fit into an average verse.

Critics have praised the return of Jónsi to the forefront, arguing that his voice was not put to good use as mere textural accompaniment on last year’s Valtari. But I disagree, having always found Jónsi’s vocals to be most moving when they sound like an instrument. It is usually easier for me to believe that he is another instrument because he is singing words I can’t understand. But it is obvious for many of the tracks that he is singing about something, and this is where my problem with Kveikur lies.

Many of the tracks on Kveikur are very obviously songs, as opposed to pieces of music. And Sigur Rós are one of those bands whose sound was so unusual to begin with that they became widely praised as groundbreakers. Their sound is unmistakeable and this is how they rose to fame. Then they discovered something that works and spent years trying to distill the essence of their music into radio manageable little chunks.

Sigur Rós were at their best when they lacked the conformity to ideas such as form or music, when they lacked that songwriting knowledge that you need in order to craft a radio smash or get your songs onto nature documentaries. When they were marooned in Iceland they created what came naturally to them, rather than what they knew people wanted.

It is unusual thing to criticise something for being too crafted, but with the imperfections and the inexperience come those little moments of magic that you put in there because it feels right to you at that moment.

Where Kveikur fails to hit the spot is in its refusal to do what it threatened to do during the build up to its release; to explore the dark and epic side of Sigur Rós that made the second half of an album like ( ) so thrilling and totally captivating. It teeters on that edge at times, and the title track ends with the same devastation that ends ( ), but there is too much radio friendly fluff to create a sustainable mood.

In fairness, Kveikur is a good collection of songs; most of them beautiful, some even overly so – at times I have to bat away images of rabbits and rainbows and lands of magic Elven make-believe. But ultimately Kveikur fails to live up to the menace promised by both its press and disturbing cover art.

I will still wear my T-Shirt, I decided, as when the Rós are good here they are very good. And when they are bad they are still enjoyable. And I’m running out of clean clothes.

Kveikur is out on XL Recordings, worldwide from June 18th.

For more on Sigur Ros, including music and merchandise, visit http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk

ALBUM: ‘Mosquito’ by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Words by Matthew Osborne

Ask any adult film director, and they will tell you that the golden rule of ‘artistic expression’ is never blow your load in the first three minutes.

This inspired wisdom should have filtered into the higher echelons of artistic mediums, but either the news hasn’t seeped up as far as pop music yet, or Yeah Yeah Yeahs have chosen to ignore the advice.

Sacrilege, the album’s opener, is a load blower; a giant track with a fluid beat, that thrusts confidently for three minutes before delivering the money shot – which in this case is a smashing gospel choir.

However, as according to adult film makers, once the load has been blown there is nowhere to go. And Subway, a romanticisation of exchanged glances during the tedium of a metro journey, succeeds only in recreating the tedium of a metro journey without exchanging eye contact with anybody.

The eponymous Mosquito is simply awful pop-rock by numbers, with an overly-extended blood sucking metaphor that makes its point by the second line and goes no further. And by the time Under the Earth gets into its laboured groove, my interest in Mosquito, the album, has waned.

Although throughout the entire affair, fragments of songs do occasionally float into my consciousness and entertain me, briefly; a raw guitar line during Slave springs to mind… but I’m hard pushed to recollect another one. And I’m listening to the record as I write this.

The memorable standout moments come when Yeah Yeah Yeahs are insufferably bad.

The brattish scuzz rock of Area 52, with its awful UFO based lyrics, is the standout moment of the album. But the appearance of Dr Octagon delivering a rap over the otherwise meandering electonica of Buried Alive is up there too. The good doctor even manages to get the song’s engine running enough to pull it out of the quagmire it was languishing in, but his appearance is too bizarrely out of place to save the song from failure.

Mosquito is the sound of a band who got lucky off the back of a late seventies nostalgia movement ten years ago, trying to prove their artistic relevance – but coming up short time and time again.

I admit, I have never been a big fan of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and always saw the band as a group of kids imitating their heroes.

And imitating them particularly well when a bunch of other people, some of whom owned record labels or worked for the music press, happened to feel the nostalgic pang of their youth and experienced a desire to recreate it. However now the nostalgia is for shoegaze, grunge and the nineties, with Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ generation once more outmoded.

The best of the bands who, at the turn of the century in New York, were echoing the sound of their city twenty years prior – Interpol, The Strokes – are also now making fairly redundant records, but Yeah Yeah Yeahs have perhaps made the most redundant of them all.

Albeit with the exception of the first track, Sacrilege. So I guess they’re still good for a quickie.

Mosquito was released on April 12th 2013, through Interscope Records.

For more on Yeah Yeah Yeahs, visit http://www.yeahyeahyeahs.com

ALBUM: ‘Council Pop’, FREE DOWNLOAD from Beta Birmingham

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Birmingham based imprint, Beta Birmingham, recently released ‘Council Pop’ – a 10 track album of ‘Brum town bootlegs and Midland’s mashups from Beta’s stalwart selectors’.

Featuring Revo, Feva, Buju Banton, Redi Knightz, DJ Switch and more, ‘Council Pop’ is available for free download from Beta Birmingham’s website. And who said Christmas was over?

Set up in 2011, Beta Birmingham was “born out of a compulsion for low down straight up party music”, according to its founder, Harley Davies.

Purveyors of Glitch Hop, and ‘experimental architecture and dancefloor delivery’, Beta Birmingham spanked the hell out of us with ‘Council Pop’ – a fearsome mash up of Roots, Hip Hop, Dub and Electronica. Impressed, we were that.

But don’t take our word for it, click here (or on the image below) to download a copy – and let us know what you make of it.

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Birmingham Review will be following Beta Birmingham, like a hungry cheetah, and letting you know more about this local label as they develop. And the word cobblestones is there’s some big plans in the offing.

First up though, Beta Birmingham will be hosting the Basstronics stage at the Drop Beats Not Bombs 10th anniversary, being held on Pickford Street in Digbeth – Sat May 4th; with showcases from ‘Council Pop’ and the label’s wider roster.

Beta Birmingham host the Basstronic stage at Drop Beats Not Bombs, on Sat May 4th. For more info on this event, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/453141008076523/

For more on Beta Birmingham, including a free download of Council Pop, visit http://www.betabirmingham.co.uk

& BEYOND: ‘Run’ by Driving Lolita – Bambooclart Remix / FREE DOWNLOAD

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Final free download from Driving Lolita – with the last in their series of ‘Run’ remixes coming from Bambooclart.

Described by Driving Lolita as a ‘sub low Trap remix’, this is beats and bass heavy with a serious rock edge. In short – pretty f&%kin’ raw. LISTEN LOUD

So that’s your lot – a month of remixes from Driving Lolita, THANKS GUYS. But don’t worry, don’t cry – you can also show your appreciation at The Queens Head in Islington, London, this Thursday – April 25th

Free entry – Driving Lolita will be on stage from 10pm

Now click on the below. WE COMMAND YOU:

Driving Lolita – ‘Run’ Bambooclart Remix

Driving Lolita - free download

Driving Lolita headline at The Old Queen’s Head in Islington, London – on April 25th

You can join the Facebook event page for this gig at https://www.facebook.com/events/337891936316894/

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For more on Driving Lolita, visit www.drivinglolita.com

& BEYOND: ‘Run’ by Driving Lolita – Silent Source Remix / FREE DOWNLOAD

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This week’s Driving Lolita download is a deep, down and dirty D&B remix of ‘Run’. Ouch, but we like it.

Final ‘Run’ remix coming next Tueday, with everything (so far) up for grabs on the following link – Driving Lolita

 And if you want to see them as God intended, watch out for Driving Lolita’s gig at The Queens Head in Islington, London, on Thurs April 25th

Click on the following picture/link below for a barrel of big beat goodness:

Driving Lolita – ‘Run’ Silent Source Remix

Driving Lolita - free download

Driving Lolita headline at The Old Queen’s Head in Islington, London – on April 25th

You can join the Facebook event page for this gig at https://www.facebook.com/events/337891936316894/

Driving Lolita logo

For more on Driving Lolita, visit www.drivinglolita.com