Music Reviews: August - September 2014

Live Like Legends
1st Blood
Album (1st Blood Empire Ltd)
Nottingham natives have something of a reputation for being legends: Robin Hood, Torvill and Dean, the Fish Man; and with their latest album, First Blood have confirmed their own legendary status as one of the city’s finest hip hop crews. Live Like Legends is an ambitious undertaking, with all twenty tracks, including percussion, synths, flutes, Rattomatic’s cuts and Bahinyon’s (aka Liam Bailey) vocals, created entirely in-house by musicians rather than being purely sample-based. This makes for classic-sounding hip hop breaks on which Pete 1st Blood and his band of regular collaborators Opticus Ryme, Jah Digga, Ty Healy, Louis Cypher et al can flex their rhyming muscles. From the opening monologue of Welcome to Britain through the legend-checking of Reminisce This, party tunes like Same Old Business and straight-up posse tracks like Call the Best, this is rollocking good rap from true local legends. Someone get a statue commissioned right away. Shariff Ibrahim
1st Blood website

Joel Baker
Every Vessel
EP (Self-released)
Often bigged-up as "Fearne Cotton's favourite Nottingham musician", Joel Baker has quite a reputation to uphold. Poised as a soulful singer-songwriter, Joel has gone and took a strong orchestral direction for this new EP. Out Of The Two kicks us off with a haunting violin intro that sets the tone for a tear-gushing story of heartbreak. The title track and current single adds to his repertoire of huge uplifting crowd singalongs; Thorns is a honest modern day letter to a lost lover ("I got work in the morning, but still I stare at your Twitter feed") and Love You More is Joel's goodbye to his younger days ("We used to spin, and travel the world, now it's mortgage payments and three baby girls"). Joel may be sending out a few mixed messages with this EP, but one thing that is consistent is the high quality. Sam Nahirny
Joel Baker website

Nadir
Nadir
Tape (Viral Age Records)
Describing themselves as ‘heavy psychedelic murk’, it’s hard to disagree. The band’s debut release is a five track, forty-minute monster with the shortest song clocking in at just over five minutes long. Like a fine wine, this album needs time to breathe, so sit back and just allow this swamp of noise to wash over you. Cathedrals of Greed features vocals that carry a hint of Mark E Smith… if, that is, you can imagine Mark E Smith barking distantly, death metal stylee over a sludge of fuzzed-out guitars for eight minutes. Needless to say, it’s a magnificent track, and the rest of the album is grimily splendid too. The production is muddy but, to be honest, that suits the band’s sound down to the ground, with words sinking angrily into the overall intense, muscular cacophony. It may be murky as hell, but Nadir’s intentions are magnificently clear. Tim Sorrell
Nadir website

Flaming Fields
Flaming Fields
EP (Self-released)
Like a fine wine or fancy cheese, Flaming Fields have matured nicely since they started out back in 2011, a development which is all too evident on their self-titled EP. Clearly a band of music lovers, a wealth of influences permeate every track, each one making it impossible to slot this group into just one genre. Big Squeeze kicks things off with intricate, distorted guitar lines and ground-shaking bass, building your alt-rock expectations only to be expertly dashed by the more melancholy History, a track which musically sits somewhere between The Shins and Band of Horses. Dorian Gray perks you up with unexpected, but totally welcome, funk-driven bass lines and brings the EP to an all too early close. Despite being made up of three remarkably different tracks, the guitar-welding trio have actually managed to create an EP that works as a cohesive whole. Bravo, Flaming Fields. Bravo. Madeline Hammond
Flaming Fields Soundcloud

Lone
Reality Testing
Album (R&S Records)
Lone’s music works best in the hazy heat of high summer, his sun-baked wooziness making an apt soundtrack for indolent, blissed-out afternoons. On his sixth album, there’s a shift away from the more rave-based textures of Galaxy Garden, and a reintroduction of some of the more chilled out, hip hop-derived elements of earlier releases. Down-tempo tracks such as the floaty, mellifluous Jaded wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Lemurian, his 2008 release for Dealmaker, while even the housier tracks, of which there are plenty – Aurora Northern Quarter, 2 Is 8 – tend to ebb away into softer codas. On the perkily insistent, pan-pipey Begin To Begin, a voice cuts in: “Am I dreaming, am I awake,” encapsulating the liminal mood. By the album’s end, you do sense a depletion of fresh ideas – but taken as an ambient piece, there’s still plenty to tickle the synapses and soothe the soul. Mike Atkinson
Lone website

The Idolins
Live at Paperstone
EP (Self-released)
This six-piece acoustic folk band has been busy getting some tracks down for us to enjoy their mix of gentle strings, vocals, and toe-tapping music with a pop edge. The creative mixing of six different musicians brings a variety of layers and sounds, helping to weave the stories that are present within each song. Among the wide range of instruments used are percussion, cello, guitars, mandolin, banjo and vocals, all working together to give the music a soft and relaxing feel, with each song flowing easily into the next. Added to this, it’s clear when listening to What Would You Change how tight the group are, with their chemistry shining through on these beautiful sounding musical sessions. The talent on show throughout this EP emphasises the band’s potential, and with a knack for a catchy melody, you’ll find yourself singing along before you realised you knew the words. Hannah Parker
The Idolins website

Frazer Lowrie
Things Have Changed (Part Two)
EP (Self-released)
Anyone that has seen Frazer Lowrie live will know that he’s a brave and honest performer. This EP is no different – in fact, much of it feels like having a sly read of your mate’s diary. Conquer The World is a defiant opener, while You Were My Only Friend sees Frazer bitterly calling someone out (“Because no-one likes a dickhead, and you are the biggest one I’ve ever met”). Moser has shades of early Ed Sheeran, edgy acoustic pop with an urban twist. There’s more emotional turmoil during Words of a Coward (Part Two) featuring Notts emcee Bru-C guesting with a thoughtful rhyme against Frazer’s sparse but charged backing, before Saviour sees Frazer returning to the sensitive troubadour mode of the opening songs. A couple of bonus tracks are thrown in, including an overwrought reading of Pure Imagination from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but it’s the main event that showcases Frazer’s true talents. Paul Klotschkow
Frazer Lowrie website

Mannequin
Mannequin
Album (Self-released)
Despite being gnarly as hell and dangerously loud, this isn’t just another rip-your-face-off-heavy band. Mannequin create art at its darkest and finest – a fiery cauldron frothing with the angst of adolescence. The Nottingham trio weld together devastating riffage with vocals that are drenched in pain and suffering, producing a darker-than-night patchwork of hardcore punk math rock. Doom-laden track Catagen is possibly the peak of the album, the initial frantic drumbeat and complex fretwork builds to a blistering scream that reverberates around the mind like a thousand tortured souls. Faceless is a tsunami of despair and distortion that will leave you looking over your shoulder for the black dog while Victims is gripped by grief and regret: “Too late to repent/Baptised by the Trent/The dens we made as children/Burned in the fire that’s time.” These songs aren’t about the sunshine. Tom Hadfield
Mannequin Bandcamp

Three Girl Rhumba
Three Girl Rhumba EP
EP (Self-released)
It’s difficult to get the mix of music you can chill out to and music you can jump around to right, but these boys have nailed it. With catchy drum beats and playful guitar riffs, it’s easy to get jigging and dancing around when tracks such as Lemon Crush start playing. However, with their music not having too much of a heavy feel, it’s relaxed enough to listen to through headphones on a busy bus after a stressful day. The lead singer, Tom, has a strong tone to his voice with a big range that instantly makes you feel like singing along with him. The happy and fun energy surrounding the EP is perfect for the hot summer weather; pop it on during your BBQs, beach parties, or when sunbathing in your back garden. With the sun getting his hat on recently, there’s no better time to have a listen. Hannah Parker
Three Girl Rhumba Soundcloud

Gallery 47
All Will Be Well
Album (I’m Not From London)
Three years since the release of his terrific debut album Fate Is The Law, Gallery 47 is back with this much anticipated follow-up. After a couple of stunning EP releases over the last year, expectations for this record were sky high and, in places, it certainly meets them. Eschewing the pop sensibilities of his debut, he’s in a more reflective mood with at least half of the songs written about the anger, loss, hope and acceptance associated with relationship troubles. There’s plenty to enjoy: Some Things is a catchy Simon and Garfunkel tinged affair, while Feel So Young provides a welcome change of pace from the more melancholic and personal Come To New York and When The World Gets You Down. There’s no better singer songwriter working in the city right now. And, with another Gallery 47 album already in progress, All Will Be Well has certainly whetted the appetite for more. Nick Parkhouse
Gallery 47 website

The Most Ugly Child
A Wicked Wind Blows
EP (Wire & Wool Records)
Over six tracks, The Most Ugly Child transform Nottingham in to the deep American South. British bands doing this type of Americana can easily fall in to parody – in their heads they might think they are carrying the torch for The Band, but generally they’re less Band of Horses and more The Dave Mathews Band, and no one wants to listen to them. Even though this EP ticks all of the boxes that a build-your-own Americana EP requires – plucked banjos, twanging acoustic guitars, lyrics about going down to the river – A Wicked Wind Blows doesn’t feel contrived. This is good, honest, southern fried music, and is done in the most respectful of ways. Weirdly, Lover O’ Mine has the same vocal melody as REM’s Final Straw, but you sense they’re both paying homage to the same older source material. We’re in Dixieland, not Dixy Chicken land. Paul Klotschkow
The Most Ugly Child website

Youthoracle
Flash Floods Volume 2
EP (Outlaw Label)
As Youthoracle’s star continues to rise in the world of battle rap – he co-organised Don’t Flop’s Nottingham showcase in April, battling the league’s reigning champion – this four-track EP serves as a timely reminder of his skills as a recording artist. It’s an outspoken, socially conscious affair, pitting the emcee’s fierce and furious flow against tough grime, dubstep and hip hop beats. Hellectricity is an uncompromising opener, building from a wide-eyed ode to the wonders of nature (“the birds, the bees, the butterflies”) to an ever-accelerating blast of cold fury, so densely packed that only multiple plays will unlock its message. Just Be offers a statement of personal liberation, as Youthoracle asserts his right to be his own man, before laying into the superficialities of celebrity culture on Fake Sells. Finally, and most memorably of all, there’s the jaw-dropping, heart-stopping StoryTeller, a life story laid bare in unsparing, brutal detail. Mike Atkinson
YouthOracle Bandcamp

Find local releases in The Music Exchange. You can also hear a tune from each review on our Sound of the Lion podcast.