In Review: Pond- Tasmania

The Australian band Pond have returned this year with their eighth studio album titled 'Tasmania'. It has been announced as the sister album to their previous release 'The Weather' from 2017. Both albums and like all the others, have been produced by Kevin Baker of Tame Impala fame with whom the band also shares band members and they also tour together.

For their eight studio long player the band is taking us to the Island of Inspiration, or so to say, it feels that the band managed to draw a great deal of inspiration from their native Australia and Tasmania. Like the previous album and most of their releases, this one is in the Psychedelia vein and it explores the new topics with the well kept music formula. It tackles some political and environmental issues, without getting too heavy and remaining on the pop ground. The album opens with "Daisy" and "Sixteen Days", both previously released as singles. "Daisy" is perfect for spring break and a start of new concept, the Geneve inspired "Sixteen days" follow and gets us some French lines and another highlight comes with "Tasmania" and the wonderful chorus "I might, I might go shack up in Tasmania, Before the ozone goes, And paradise burns in Australia" where the synth elements play very well with the proggy guitars. By reaching the middle of the album, the songs get more elaborated, thicker and less immediate, with "Goodnight P.C.C." and "Burned out Star" eventually closing with the apocalyptic "Doctor's In" track. Here and there are nice sound accessories which contribute to the layering of the sound including, retro vocoders, colourful guitars and glitchy forms on "Shame". Another interesting feature is the inviting album cover which seems to be Poloroid inspired and it implies that based on the single released so far that each colour will represents one song on the album.

Colourful as it comes, this psychedelic cocktail will give a nice intro to a Spring start, wherever it may hit, and might also be the preparation for the new Tame Impala album which will hopefully be ready for this summer.

Retrovision: Bel Canto - Birds of Passage

"Birds of Passage" was the third single release for the Norwegian multi instrumental dream pop trio Bel Canto and was taken from their second album of the same name. The single was released in Canada in 1989 and in some of the European countries in 1990.

 

February Singles Round Up

February Singles Round-up 

C'mon Tigre- Behold The Man

 Spellling- Under The Sun

 These New Puritans - Inside The Rose

 Ora The Molecule - Sugar

 Fat White Family - Feet

 Chromatics- Time Rider

 Vampire Weekend- Harmony Hall

Cold Cave- Promised Land

Negative Gemini- You Weren't There Anymore

WAW: Ora The Molecule - Sugar

Ora The Molecule - Sugar 
Video by: Nora Schjelderup + Sju Smatanova 

Red Box Announce New Album 'Chase The Setting Sun'

Red Box will return later this year with their fourth album release in four decades. The new album will be entitled 'Chase The Setting Sun' and was in the process of working since 2016 and it will be released through their official store. So far "This is What We Came for" has been revealed as first single and is available below.

https://www.redboxmusic.co.uk/redbox-music

Kate Bush to Release a Brand New Compilation Plus Single

Kate Bush will release a brand new compilation album titled 'The Other Sides' which will include 12" mixes, b-sides, rare tracks and cover versions and remasters of her biggest hits on 4 CDs (track listing below). Along with this, the video for the song "Rocket Man" has been revealed on Youtube and can be previewed below. Release date, March 8th.

b-Movie Return with New EP 'Repetition'

After last year's return with the 'Repetition' EP, b-Movie are back for another one, and this time, with the remix version of the same EP. Both the original and the remix EP include three tracks, the title tracks plus "Somewhere Cold" and "Stalingrad" which are in the tone of the b-Movie classic sound aesthetics. The original EP was released in November 12th 2018 by Loki Records, while the remix version was issued on February 10th.

Automelodi announce New Album in May

The Monteral based synth pop act Automelodi have announced the release of their third studio album titled 'Mirages au futur verre-brisé'. This is their first new release in six years following the 'Surlendemains acides' from 2013. Their synth wave is still at high level as confirmed by the lead single from the album  “La Poussière". The album is announced for release on May 3rd via Holodeck. 

https://automelodi.bandcamp.com/album/mirages-au-futur-verre-bris 

WAW: C'mon Tigre - Behold The Man

C'mon Tigre - Behold The Man 
Directed by C’mon Tigre and Sic Est CG
Produced by BDC

In Review: Ladytron - Ladytron

Ladytron have released their sixth studio album eponymously entitled ‘Ladytron’ after seven years of hiatus. The album was co-produced by Jim Abbiss, also a reference to the Ladytron’s third album ‘The Witching Hour’ which most people believe is band’s most successful album to date. The latest long player was released in partnership with Pledgemusic and it was promoted with series of singles throughout 2018.

 Originally founded in Liverpool, Ladytron have been in the music business for twenty years now. In the early 00’s they started off well with their very innovative and distinct analogue synth pop form and soon, with the rise of Electroclash, became this style’s ultimate trademark. Towards to the mid 00's the band began to experiment even more with the music, embracing new elements and musical arrangements, becoming more mature and complex in sound.

 The brand new album 'Ladytron' is out today, February 15th, and it has been announced  as being much heavier than their previous work on 'Gravity the Seducer'. And indeed, the album does not have this immediate effect on the listener like the first two promo singles "Animals" and "The Island", but still, it manages to get under the skin. Once again the band returns with dark and very atmospheric sound that spreads over the whole album and it sounds like a compilation of songs and styles from all their albums, in a brand new song collection. The majority of songs on the album are performed by Helen Marnie whereas Mira Aroyo take leads on two tracks, "Paper Highways" and "Horrorscope". The former is also one of the album highlights placed halfway through the record changing the dynamics of the album for better course towards the end. Along "Paper Highways", the singles, the haunting "Figurine", dreamy and hypnotic "The Mountain" and acid "Deadzone" are clearly the high spots on the record. There are tracks where the bouncy synth elements might be over exposed, yet this does not affect album's balance in whole a lot.

This album has not revealed anything ground breaking from Ladytron's end, but overall happy to see that band is back and that we have been able to listen to their first new sound in seven years. With this album they mange to make a very nice comeback and round up Ladytron's body of work that now includes two decades. 


78/100