Fresh from supporting previous “Band to watch” the Kissaway Trail and Editors at various points in the past few months, London’s Red Light Company are currently pounding the touring circuit around the UK, and hopefully will start making pretty massive waves in the UK music scene soon.

The five-piece sounds like the bastard lovechild of early Placebo and Suede bought up to date for the 00’s emo kids. Androgynous, powerful, driven and still full of emotion, Richard Frenneaux’s voice has at times the nasal whine of Brian Molko, at others the fragile-and-close-to-breaking shout of Win Butler.

Backed up by a deafening wall of guitars that you’ll either love or hate, their initial tracks up on their myspace are pretty strong for a debut, and are almost certainly the reason they were signed a couple of months ago to Lavolta Records.

Definately ones to be watching in the coming weeks and months, as they mature their sound and work on (hopefully) an album. Hopefully (from my perspective) they’ll grow to fill the void left by Placebo at the moment in the music industry.

After the jump: their halloween video, and tour dates for later this month and early May.

Read the full story

I’ve always been a fan of the quieter, more chilled bands that come and go, gaining themselves cult status whilst not many hard-core fans. One of my most recent finds is the rather marvellous Kyte, a quintet from Leicestershire who specialise in a unique brand of shoe-gaze, dreamy and haunting and beautiful all at once.

Perfect for just about any time of day or night, I found they sound amazing when listened to on the double decker back from London to Oxford late at night, a soundtrack to the lights and hubbub of the capital. Already the obvious comparisons have been made to Sigur Ros and the Radio Dept, they remind me of a British Tresspassers William, perfect for that winter evening in with a loved one, or a moment of introspection.

Unlike Sigur Ros however you don’t get the armageddon-is-nigh feeling that they do so well, instead a feeling of “mission completed”, a happiness that the world is a bit better, or at least a new day is dawning. Their tracks vary between instrumentals and quietly-hushed vocals, all of which mould together perfectly.

They’re currently touring heavily ahead of their debut mini album’s release next Monday, February 18^th (available from Amazon and co, but also from We Are Down With the Kids at £6). I’ve ordered two already, and expect a review next week once it’s popped through my front door. They’re touring throughout April with the rather marvellous iLiKETRAiNS (at any of these dates), so be sure to catch them then.

Can you tell I love these guys?

It seems that Scandanavians currently have one of the best music scenes around at the moment, managing to have some of the most diverse, and interesting, acts around at the moment. Denmark’s Alphabeat are set to take over the airwaves in 2008 with their unique brand of camp, over-the-top pop which makes the Scissor Sisters look tame.

Perfectly danceable, lyrically strong, and quintessentially Danish in sound, they have some of the best tunes since the Scissor Sisters with a much more European feel, and a hint of flashbacks from the 90’s too. Their self-titled debut came out last summer in Denmark, and is out this May in the UK, but is one of the most varied collections of music I’ve heard in a while - a really great album.

Fans include the Sun, the NME, and a fair few blogs and online news sites, and they have the same management as Mika - and we all know how big Mika has become, love it or hate it.

They’re currently on tour with Palladium around the UK, and I’ll be going to see them on Monday night in Oxford - expect a full review on Tuesday.

Hundreds of new singer/songwriters emerge every year, and only a few will ever get any whiff of success, usually because they’re too bland and just like the others to get people properly excited. However, Yoav seems to be different. Very different.

Born in Israel, raised in South Africa, lived in New York, currently living in London, Yoav has a distinctly unique style – out of the window are the emo love songs typically associated with singer-songwriters, and in are beats, blips and down-tempo post-club comedown tunes. The American market didn’t like his blend of Damien Rice and downtempo Depeche Mode, so he came to London, where, understandably, everyone loves him.

Following in Newton Faulkner’s footsteps of multi-genre bending, Yoav has his first single, “Beautiful Mind” out in the week before Christmas on 18th December. It’s the sort of thing you can imagine Justin Timberlake doing, but just as much Beck, or In Rainbows era Radiohead. It can make you dance or make you chill out. It’s that great. It’s quickly going to ingrain itself in your mind, so wander over to his MySpace and take a listen. You

The album “Charmed & Strange” will be released digitally on the same day, though I don’t know when the old-school CD release will be. Apparently it was recorded real close to where I live in the UK, in Oxford and also in current musical-it city, Montreal. Every note of it is played, teased, tapped and pounded out of his guitar, which is hard to believe going by the few tracks on his myspace.

You know how every now and again you come across an artist who you just think “yes, you’re amazing…. it’s nothing that’s particularly new or innovative, but you’re amazing nonetheless”? Well, prepare for Jose Vanders to do exactly that. At only 17 she has the voice of an angel, and is probably one of the best unsigned MySpace singer-songwriters of the past year.

Insightful, simple lyrics that everyone can relate to, she’s able to tell stories many who are 10 years older than her still struggle to do succinctly in songs:

There’s a woman with a baby trying to make it stop crying so she’s bribing with a lemon lollipop.
There’s a girl with a boyfriend she’s in way too far ’cause I saw him looking at another woman’s heart.
I saw him looking at another woman’s heart.

And people say that I’m being lazy;
I’ve got the dreams but don’t know where to go.
You think if I could choose to live here at the station, I would?

She’s a genius piano player, and isn’t bad to watch on youtube either. So make sure you go check her out - she’s probably not likely to have ahit album anytime soon, as music is just a hobby for her, but she could be one to watch in a couple of years time. Definately one to watch.

Listening to the lyrics just makes you lay back and ponder the greatness of the stories she’s constructing - they’re really quite amazing, and have a brilliant viewpoint that I wish I could have out on life.

Just amazing.

“Big doesn’t always mean better” my mum told me many moons ago, and indeed an ex-girlfriend also commented on much the same. However, in the case of Swedish exports I’m From Barcelona, big does mean better. The 29 piece jangly pop symphony offer a lesson in writing simple, slightly crazy tunes that sound, well, amazing.

Sounding like The Polyphonic Spree if they were Swedish, this collective manage to combine all the excitement and pure jubilation that the ‘spree have in their records with some quality indie-pop tunes that cross over between cult and pop by being extremely accessible.

Debut album “Let Me Introduce My Friends” opens with four would-be singles and received rave reviews from The Music Slut and Pitchfork, but possibly their greatest song is the marvellous off-album track and live favourite “Britney”. Featuring the (simply genius) lyric of: ‘Why do we care if good ol’ Britney wants to shave her hair?/They don’t know a thing about you/Girl I wanna look like you’, it looks set to be one song to transport them onto bigger things.

The album is full of energetic, memorable hooks that’ll have you humming along all day, and whilst the ‘Spree’s tracks can go on for up to 10 minutes on CD (let alone their live shows); most of Barcelona’s tracks are 3 minute pop wonders.

Led by the energetic (and Gogol-Bordello reject looks) Emanuel Lundgren, the 29-piece struggles to fit on most of the smaller stages that they’ve been touring recently, however hopefully in time they’ll come to play larger venues as they become bigger.

After the jump: video of I’m From Barcelona’s ‘We’re From Barcelona’ (confusing, eh?). Photo is from Martin Deutsch’s flickr stream under the Creative commons license.
Read the full story

Few bands sound as polished on their debut demos as Talk in Code. Sounding like an amped up Keane after a night on the lash with the Chili Peppers (could Tom Chaplin manage that without a rehab trip? We’ll leave that to your imagination…), their demo CD may be only three tracks long, but they manage to fit in all of their strengths (and a few weaknesses as well for good measure).

Opener “Dry Emotion” starts off fast paced, and keeps it going throughout, though the last minute could probably have been done away with, as they loop around again… but that could just be me…

“First Mistake” would have passed for an early U2 demo… professional and polished, stadium bound, yet missing that magical something you can’t quite put your finger on. Lyrically they’re one step up from emo teenagers in their room, but still one step down from the abstract story-telling of U2… lyrics such as “Don’t say it all again / I came back from way back when / I’ve made the first mistake” display real yearning, yet still seem relatively weak.

Closer “Suddenly Overcome” slows things down for a phones-in-the-air moment that would make some more experienced bands beg for. A consistent collection, the songs are all excellent, however lack one song that make you think “yes, that’s a single” (like Scouting For Girls recently did with “It’s Not About You”, blowing all their other tracks out of the water). They sound like an earlier U2 mixed with Doves and Morning Runner, so be sure to check them out if you like your music with feeling, yet epic and stadium fillingly-good.

Perhaps one of the biggest downsides to this polished debut is that it’s a bit too polished – from their myspace band description that mentions early “brainstorming sessions” (how corporate) to the tracks, you can’t help but feel that they already have some industry clout behind them that we haven’t been told about.

Check them out and put them in your favourites to go and see this autumn, or come back next year when they’ve developed a bit more.

In these times of “nu-rave” and mass-marketed hype machines (yes, Kate Nash I’m looking at you), its nice to see a band such as The Sunshine Underground who are doing things on their own terms. Mixing styles between Klaxons, Switches and umpteen other indie/dance bands of the last five years, this band will instantly sound at home whilst distinctly fresh.

Hailing from Leeds, the band specialise in trippy tracks that are the perfect wake up to any cold winter morning - you’ll be up and out of bed quicker than you would know with them on in the background.

Their debut self titled album is one of the few albums of this year that is consistently good throughout - whilst there are stand out tracks, the whole collection is very rewarding to listen in one go.

Heralded by some bloggers as “the sound of 2007″, they’ve sold out dates in their hometown of Leeds and London, and toured with Pigeon Detectives, Happy Mondays and Idlewild.

The Sunshine Underground could be a new outlet for boisterous pop, filling the void left by the likes of 90’s stars Pulp and Blur.

Photo comes from entro_py’s flickr stream.

A few weeks ago a friend mentioned to me that “you just have to check out the Kissaway Trail”. Having already endured half a dozen crappy myspace one hit wonders from this person I did my usual nod-and-smile, and forget about it. However, when I started reading a few blogs raving about them I thought that I’d give them five minutes. How glad I was that I had.

Sounding like Arcade Fire with a hint of Polyphonic Spree, this Danish five piece have the makings of joining the “big boys league” of innovative, epic, “take me to another place” rock that has had a fine, fine year with great albums from Muse, Arcade Fire and Polyphonic Spree.

Down to earth, the guys are very softly spoken for the music they make. Their debut single (which is in the video below) “Smother+Evil=Hurt” is reminiscent of the Polyphonic Spree at their accessible, storytelling best. They’re unafraid of mixing emotions – from the triumphant “la la las” of “Forever Turned Out To Be Too Long” through to the darkness of Sometimes I’m Always In Black – “When winter comes, don’t wash away my tears”.

Personally I feel that the album starts off at its best and then declines a bit as it goes on, however that is purely because it isn’t as accessible, immediate pop-songs of the initial two. However, the album is best heard when you can devote your entire attention to it in one go, when you continue to find more and more layers to it each and every time.

Dreamy at times and fully alert and pounding at others, The Kissaway Trail offer the mixed bag that is sure to garner much attention, and could become one of the slow burners of the year.

After the jump find their UK tour dates and the video for “Smother+Evil=Hurt”.

Photo is taken from eakena’s flickr stream.
Read the full story

Recently garnering a lot of attention in the British press, Kate Nash is being touted as one of our brightest stars of the future. Current single “Foundations” has been a staple of the UK charts for the last couple of weeks and her forthcoming album “Made of Bricks by Kate Nash” has been rush released to come out next Monday, 6th August.

The 20 year old has been described by many as a “Lily Allen wannabe”. However, after listening carefully you realise that lyrically she is much more than just another Lily Allen. Her dry humour, mixed with her accent adds together to make something that is a tiny bit more special than just another cookie cutter Avril Lavigne or James Blunt.

“Foundations” has cemented her in the British public’s mind, with witty lyrics (who can forget the infamous ‘You said I must eat so many lemons ’cause i am so bitter. I said “I’d rather be with your friends mate ’cause they are much fitter.”‘) and her instantly reconisable style (the missing Pipette anyone?)

Either way that you look at it, Kate Nash is here to stay. She’s going to be the solo female voice of the summer, and is sure to be casting infection tunes around the UK for years to come.

Photo of Kate Nash taken from Drama Queen Raj’s flickr stream.