Cool hair, cool clothes, cool tunes. Is it no surprise, then, that Essex-lad Ben Esser and his electro-pop-ska beats have been tipped for big things?

This coming Monday sees uber-hip Esser back with yet another super-catchy single release following debut track, ‘Headlock’. It’s a shame about the weather, as ‘Satisfied’ is a track fit for a bright, summers day. I can’t help but imagine myself lying on a warm beach with a Solero while listening to this sunny tune. The tinkling repetitiveness of the charlston-like piano is truely addictive, while the steel drums bring out the tune’s groovy reggae undertones. A warning - the chorus is lethal - one listen and it’s stuck in your mind for days. “You know a man can never win, even if you buy her all the shoes”. Ok, the lyrics aren’t exactly Shakespeare, but does it really matter? This quirky little track will still be taking over the airwaves, so watch out.

“She’s never satisfied, no matter how hard I try”, Esser complains. Terribly predictable pun, I know, but Esser - I certainly am.

‘Satisfied’ is released on Monday via digital download, 7″ vinyl or CD, which you can pre-order here.

This post appeared originally on the brilliant Four Oh Five, and is one in our continuing series of guest blogs from their capable team of authors.

Its exam time, and I’ve been looking for any reason to procrastinate. Normally this involves a lot of unnecessary movie watching, video game playing, and cleaning and tidying. This semester it has also involved a lot of unnecessary listening to ‘Such Fun’ by Annuals.

It’s not that ‘Such Fun’ is a bad album; it’s just not a particularly interesting one. On first listen it sounds like the sort of album that requires a bit of attention to understand, however after many listens it’s clear that this isn’t the case. The songs are well-written and thought out, most often making use of multiple layers of melody, percussion and harmonies to build up to what should be an emotive crescendo. But despite this, most songs here feel hollow and calculated. While there may be instrumental depth, the music doesn’t convey any tangible sentiment significant enough to sink your teeth into. ‘Such Fun’ sounds like indie music by numbers.

The music isn’t done a disservice by the vocals, either. On tracks like ‘Down the Mountain’ and first single ‘Confessor’, singer Adam Baker eloquently espouses disenchantment and hopelessness that should contrast well with the upbeat musical backing. And while it’s true that the album doesn’t make any attempt to fit within genre boundaries, this isn’t its main fault either. ‘Such Fun’ just sounds polished to the point of meaninglessness. Listening to it, you constantly feel like it should be a good album, that you must be missing something. But despite its complex big-band sound and strong lyricism, ‘Such Fun’ left me feeling somewhat cold, and somewhat confused.

This week I’ve had a bit of a shoegazy week this week, having caught M83 and had them and My Bloody Valentine on pretty much repeat. So imagine my happiness at working my way through my EP pile this morning to find a four track EP by Mancunians Easter that has me staring at my shoes, dazed and relaxed.

Opening with the 8 and a half minute epic “Don’t Sink”, lead singer Tom Long sounds a tiny bit like Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, which is no bad thing, fitting the dream-seeking melodies perfectly. It’s just the perfect end-of night comedown, or Sunday morning wake up collection, helping you reflect on times gone by and the perfect anthem to that indie film that not many people will see, but all who do love.

Icy sharp guitars throughout, normally I’d be recoiling at the overuse of them but somehow they just about manage to pull off the My-Bloody Valentine lite sound of multi-layered effects.

Though relatively short, the 25 minute EP gives us a great taster of what’s to come for the lads - surely it’s just a matter of time before those A&R men descend in a feeding flurry.

Easter’s Hob Talk EP is now available from Manchester’s Piccadilly Records, Leeds’ Normal Records and Crash Records, London’s Sister Ray and Rough Trade, Bolton’s X Records, and Glasgow and Edinburgh’s Avalanche Records. Copies are also available from their Myspace.

Normally the words shoegaze, pop, 80s, rave and enjoyable shouldn’t be put next to each other, let alone used to describe the same 90 minutes. However, those are just the words I’m going to use to describe last night’s M83 gig at London’s Scala.

Taking to a stage coveredwith enough cables to give even the most seasoned of electricians a heart attack, Anthony Gonzalez (who’s much smaller and more elflike in real life than I had realised…) made it clear it was his night, and with the help of a few supporting artists ploughed through an impressive selection of his work from the past 7 years.

Naturally, the focus of the evening was on new album Saturdays=Youth, with tracks like Couleurs, Graveyard Girl and Kim & Jessie getting some of the biggest cheers of the night. However, whilst his new pop direction was the reason Scala was so packed, he didn’t forget the diehard fans from his early days (and there were a few…), throwing in some harder dancier numbers which culminated in the encore with an almost full-on rave. Well, for about 5 minutes.

Shoegaze was the theme of the evening really though, with many songs blurring into one, and for the casual fan (like myself) it was easy to lose yourself in the music for 10 minutes, totally entranced by the teamwork and the skills of everyone.

M83 is out on the road again in December, supporting the Kings of Leon, which should be interesting - be sure to get there early if you’ve got tickets.

After the jump: photos, photos and photos.

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Enjoy Destroy have been getting a hell of a lot of press recently, having won over Offset, Guilfest and been one of the few to have played Zoo Thousand and Eight.

So, what’s so great about them?

Well, not only are they young and up for it, but they also make amazing tunes… I’m not normally a fan of stuff like Biffy Clyro and Foo Fighters (no, it’s not the hair… I’m just more of a gentler kind of person), but Enjoy Destroy are similar whilst being slightly different.

Opener “Rifles” (video below) is loud, catchy, rocky and certainly a good “get up and get out of bed” tune - yes, it’s pop punk, but a bit more Biffy than Blink 182. Thankfully.

Call and response choruses are the order of the day it seems for most tunes, which will work pefectly come festival season next year and a legion of fans to get the crowd going.

The only downside to this EP? Arguably, their best song is the first one so you feel a bit let down (though not that much) after such an ace start.

Want to listen to more? Catch the video for “Rifles” below.

Enjoy Destroy’s self titled EP came out on Monday 6th October on Fire One Records.

“We’re better than Oasis” boasted Kaiser Chiefs‘ Ricky Wilson earlier this year, words he may have to eat. As critics warm to “Dig Out Your Soul,” some have already shown disappointment with “Off With Their Heads.”

With a solid two albums behind them, and new production from Mark Ronson, it would be fair to assume that we would hear something different and better from the Leeds rockers. Instead, to the listeners disdain, it’s much of the same, and worse still at a much lower standard.

Lyrics were never the bands strong point, but the rambling on lead single “Never Miss A Beat” hits an all time low as front man Wilson sings; “Why don’t you run away?/Are you kidding?/What is the golden rule?/I don’t know.”

Being green is great, but this recycling of already sub-par guitars and dreary vocals is going a bit too far…The band can be excused for their lack of innovation on “Yours Truly, Angry Mob,” but a third album of the same is unforgivable. The musical progression from “Employment” is still at zero, and tracks like the appalling “Addicted to Drugs” do little to help their cause.

Despite this, the album, like its predecessors, will no doubt go down a treat at Elland Road and festivals next summer. That however is the only plus point on this frankly dismal effort, if Ricky Wilson wants to come close to the Gallaghers, Albarn or any other Britpop legends, he needs to pull off something miles better than this.

4.5/10

Usually, instore gigs are quite fun, but a bit tame - the crowd are divided by stock and shelves, crammed in, and slightly peeved off by an incredibly short set. However, last night’s Bloc Party set at Regent Street’s Apple store was anything but tame. As part of the iTunes’ “Live from London”, Bloc Party played a full hour long set, blasting through 13 tracks and sharing banter with a crowd of competition winners and Apple employees.

“So, is everyone enjoying your black Friday?” smirked Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke after opener One Month Off, “We certainly are!” It was all the more relevant when you considered that one of Iceland’s largest banks have their offices just above Apple’s flagship store.

Amazingly small and cozy, somehow Apple managed to fit 600 people into the back of their store, which whilst tight was amazingly special to see a band who has sold out Olympia twice play to such a small crowd, and we knew it. Drummer Matt Tong joked about the “different” surroundings by commenting in perfect in-store tannoy voice: “And next week you can catch Bloc Party in your local BHS!” to much amusement.

Mostly playing their new material from third album ‘Intimacy’ (”We do have a new album to promote!” joked Kele), many songs hadn’t been played live before, as shown by their nervousness before tracks like ‘Ares’ and ‘Ion Square’, but made it all the more raw.

As “Mercury”’s chant swept around the gathered hordes, Kele took to the crowd, climbing over the theatre chairs, signing things as he went. Messy and sweaty, he joked “wow… sorry if I inappropriately exposed myself to anyone!”

Closing with old favourite “Helicopter”, I suddenly realised that the floor actually bounces - slightly scary, but at the same time worthwhile - any inhibitions were thrown out the window as everyone (even some security) started bouncing.

Enjoy a setlist and photos after the jump.

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Have a thing for 70’s rock songsmithery and laid back 90’s Britpop? Yeah, so do we.

So imagine how excited we were when Hoodoo Scoundrels‘ new EP (”The Witch Song EP”) dropped into our postbox yesterday and delivered a glorious 12 minutes of pure power pop goodness. Each of the four tracks is only 3 minutes long, but hasn’t gone down the Scouting For Girls / Hoosiers route of paint by numbers. Oh, no. They’ve still got their balls intact.

Originally, Hoodoo Scoundrels were called simply “The Scoundrels”, but were persuaded by the legendary Brian Eno to change their name after he caught them live and their footloose fans caused him to rename them.

Opener “The Witch Song” is a funk-laced colossus that could draw comparisons both with elements of the Kooks today and Thin Lizzy back in the day when they had Phil Lynott at the front. “A Touch Far” sees the Scoundrels blast out some proper “Saturday night down the pub” vibes, and sees them at their strongest - catchy, anthemic sing alongs with funky guitars.

Closer “Shame on You” is an ace closer - short and sweet at just 3 minutes but reminiscent of Arctic Monkeys’ “Fake Tales of San Francisco” (well, to me anyhow!).

Hoodoo Scoundrels are on tour at the moment. Catch them at the below tour dates for a great night out:

Tuesday 14th October - London Macbeth
Friday 17th October - Chatham Tap N Tin
Saturday 25th October - Southampton Joiners
Friday 31st October - London The Troubadour (Hoodoo Hop)

Hoodoo Scoundrels’ “EP 2″ is released on Monday 20th October on Hot Sauce Records.

You don’t need to be a genius to know that I love Bloc Party with a passion. They’re releasing brand new single Talons in about two weeks time, and frankly, it’s amazing. If you haven’t heard it yet, catch the video below.

I particularly love the moment at about 2:55… the video matches the song perfectly, and makes this one of the best songs Bloc Party have done - right up there with Positive Tension and Sunday for me - all different, all amazing in their own right.

Bloc Party’s Talons is the second single from their forthcoming new album, Intimacy, and is out on 20th October on Wichita Recordings ahead of Intimacy on 27th October.

I’ve seen Friendly Fires before, at Hydro Connect just over a month ago, where I fell in love with them… since then I bought the album and last night finally got to see them again, this time headlining Oxford’s Zodiac Carling Academy, one of my favourite venues to see bands.

After the Justice-lite warmup from Dublin’s Jape, Friendly Fires bounce out onto stage, lead singer Ed Macfarlane sporting a bodywarmer which was quickly removed about 10 seconds into the first song, and by the 30 second mark he’d already started his rather exberant thrusting which would put most sex addicts to shame.

Blasting their way through their debut album, the songs feel as fresh as the day they were written - it may be the case that they’ve played them just about every day for the past year, but we certainly couldn’t tell.

Ending out the set with Paris before a two song encore, Ed went into the crowd, providing security with a small headache, mobbed by a mixture of teenage girls and sweaty old school ravers a bit past their best. This may have been the case, but he really didn’t care, blasting through chorus and verse as normal…

It may have been a Sunday night, but nobody had told the rather full Zodiac - come the end of their 45 minute set it felt as good as 4am on Saturday morning. This is how live music should be - it leaves you sweaty, stinking, covered in beer, and a smile on your face that you just can’t wipe off easily.

After the jump: Pictures, pictures and more pictures….
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