The Invisible Orchestra
Champagne Taste Lemonade Money
Album (Self-released)
If there’s any important piece of advice I can give anyone picking up this album, it’s to forget any preconceived notion you might have about what an orchestra is. From the word go, The Invisible Orchestra’s debut album takes you on a whirlwind journey through the various sounds created by the 24-strong ensemble of musicians, making an album that swings between explosive fast-paced tunes and slow soulful numbers. Trying to put a label on the type of music they make is doing a disservice to the impressive variety the band are able to conjure up; this is an album influenced by a plethora of global sounds, but it’s still Nottingham at its core. Tracks like Light Up My World combine the classic, soulful sounds of fifties and sixties America with the vocal prowess of Nottingham’s favourite soul sister, Harleighblu. This, along with closing track War, featuring Percy Dread, provide the highlights and showcase The Invisible Orchestra at their dazzling best – powerful music matched by equally striking vocalists. The World Needs More Love also delivers a standout moment, switching effortlessly between slow and upbeat Latin grooves. If you’ve already heard their work prior to this album, then you’ll know what sweet music they’re capable of. Ifm like me, you’re a first time listener, prepare to have any assumptions torn down and reconstructed in the most brilliant way possible. From start to finish this album is an absolute joy. George Ellis
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8mm Orchestra
8mm Orchestra
EP (I Own You Records)
Post-rock often gets a bad rap. And rightly so. During its heyday, the late nineties/early noughties, there was a deluge of effects pedal-obsessed noodlers making a terrible dirge that was neither as moving, emotional or as listenable as the creators thought. The best post-rock – Sigur Ros or Mogwai, for example – can take a simple musical idea and then take it and the listener on an unexpected journey. So how do 8mm Orchestra stack up? Well, better than you’d think, especially if, like me, you suffer from post post-rock lethargy. 8mm have thoughtfully crammed this EP with more variety than a breakfast buffet. There’s the cinematic guitar riff and squelchy bass of Flying Birds; Take Me With You restlessly twists and turns; Hum features a soundscape of saxophone and inaudible voices that flitter around a simple organ refrain; while the glassy epic Dolph Lundgren gives a shoulder popping ending. Paul Klotschkow
Autumn Diet Plans
Red / Yellow
EP (Self-released)
From the moment we hear the sub-aquatic bass of opening track Freezer, the grunge influences of Autumn Diet Plans are laid bare. Well, if you’re going to be inspired by someone, you could do an awful lot worse than Nevermind-era Nirvana, right? The echoes of Come As You Are in track one are followed by a distinctly In Bloom feel to Spoons, but there’s more to Autumn Diet Plans than a desire to sound like one of the all-time greats – not that there’s anything wrong with that. For starters, the vocals don’t so much sound like Kurt Cobain as – bear with me here – like Danny McNamara from Embrace channelling Layne Staley, late of Alice in Chains, while borrowing Eddie Vedder’s yarl. There’s even a ballad here, with Red/Yellow offering a total change of pace and a welcome return to the wonderful underwater bass sound that opened the EP. Tim Sorrell
Fonzse
Conscious Decisions
Album (Timeline Provision)
We start. Winding, plucked hip hop beats with attic-room gramophone vocals ride the waves, and Fonzse is UK-storytelling smooth. Memories float up to be twisted into lessons of consciousness, building determination through tales of concrete jungles, running in the streets, looking for the right way. Panpipe headnod. Sad summer days flow through Build for Tomorrow with optimistic words over the tingle-smooth of faceless vocals, pure and warped. Time to dance, draw a sword for Way of the Samurai – brain exercises and education maintenance roll into faint oriental strings. Final track, Reflection, is open, warm and chopped into a glass of wine. This seven-track album is an addition to Fonze’s growing collection of striving tales and is an assurance stamp on his likeable flow and journey craft. Production from Adim is special; he creates a glow, and the textured lyrics press in, with some really beautiful samples draped over everything. Bridie Squires
Georgina Wood
Boy
EP (Self-released)
The simplistic, acoustic style of singer-songwriters is often perceived to be dominated by men, but here’s a lady who’s fighting that stereotype. Woods’ beautifully easy-to-listen-to voice fits perfectly with the delicate sounds she creates in a perfectly stitched together EP. All three tracks on this debut release stand up and stand out in their own right and act as the perfect showcase for her versatile songwriting. There is a unique quality to her writing and performance style that will make her instantly recognisable. Her vocals are so smooth and personal that if you close your eyes while listening, it’s as if you’re listening to her live. Not only does Boy pull you in and have you hooked before you’ve even finished the first track, it makes you want to see her live – which is exactly what these introductory EPs should be about. Hannah Parker
Jake Bugg
On My One
Album (Virgin EMI Records)
If 2013’s Shangri La felt like a rush release to capitalise on Bugg’s burgeoning popularity in the US following his 2012 debut, he’s taken his time with On My One, his third album proper. Pre-album hype focused on his new found love of hip hop and though the album does refresh Bugg’s retro-fitted sound, it’s not without its missteps: Gimme The Love sounds suspiciously like Red Hot Chilli Peppers; The Love We’re Hoping For is more America’s Horse With No Name than the Crosby, Stills and Nash vibe he was hoping for; and his attempt at rapping on Ain’t No Rhyme is just plain painful. Elsewhere it’s business as usual; swooning ballads (Love, Hope and Misery), Dylan-esque folk (Put Out The Fire), mellow-blues (On My One), and indie stompers (Bitter Salt). Fans of Bugg are going to lap this up, but there’s nothing here that’s game-changing enough to turn on any of the doubters. Paul Klotschkow
Keto
What We Do
EP (Self-released)
Keto, led by Leah Sanderson, have a fluid line-up, sometimes appearing in full-band mode with drums, guitar and keyboards, other times with just Sanderson going solo. Whatever configuration the band takes, the one thing that you can be sure of is that the music will have a way of leaving you spellbound. The drums have been put to one side on this EP and Rob Rosa has been drafted in, his masterful violin playing making a significant contribution to What We Do. Thematically, the songs are heavy limbed, world-weary, yet resilient and resolute with whatever they are tackling. Waiting on Dreams is full of lamented regrets; the band conjure up a sense of being suspended in a twilight limbo on Nowhere; the title track glides along on a brittle droning guitar figure; while the violin leads Jackie’s sense of being cast adrift to an emotional climax. A fitting end for this hauntingly hopeful EP. Paul Klotschkow
Kumarachi
Hold It Down EP
EP (Audio Addict Records)
One for the bass lovers. This six-track EP is heavy drum n bass that gets your heart racing and body shaking. The styles don’t vary hugely between the tracks, but what we see here is an artist who knows what kind of music they like to make and how to do it well; darker than the deep sea and faster than a jumbo jet – you can almost smell the sweaty early morning raves it was intended for. My personal favourite, Love Box Return, kicks off in euphoric style but wastes little time before a suckerpunch of a bassline is unleashed – it may be dutteh but the production is clearly polished. Cleverly chopped and distorted vocal samples throughout the EP give you a little extra something to chew on. A few of the tracks had me screwing up my face til I began to resemble that old toad Donald Trump. Worth it, though. Ruby Butcher
Sam White
Wavy Days
EP (Self-released)
Think Jake Bugg but without the Fred Perry uniform and staple Midlands mard-on, Sam White’s album has got that self-consciously rebellious feeling you last felt sneaking under the school fence to bun a zoot with your mates on the park. I Forgot is the boppy soundtrack to a downhill bike rides in an awkwardly charming indie flick, in which you’re the romantic lead. Where I Wander is, as the name suggests, explorative – the tender guitar melody slowly finding its footing before being overlapped by breathy vocals. I Am Afraid of the Sea is tender, confessional in tone and honest in delivery. Mr White is a relatively new face, and sits in a genre with some stalwarts of the local music scene. Wavy Days announces his arrival with aplomb. Well done, lad. Lucy Manning
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