These friends or ours, they soon pretend

Liars - No1. Against the Rush

The music Liars make isn’t the easiest to get into. The bands use of textures and rhythm has an obsessive-compulsive quality that makes them sound regularly irregular. As if to accentuate their peculiarity, with each new album Liars choose to completely reinvent their sound. This approach allows them to embark on new creative challenges and find new ways of expressing artistic themes, making their discography a genre hopping tour de force. On the evidence of No.1 Against The Rush, the first single from their new record WIXIW, the band show no sign of settling just yet.

In a recent interview the bands chief songwriters, Andrew Angus and Aaron Hemphill, admitted that WIXIW was emotionally fueled by the beginning and end of the two’s respective relationships. It’s a clever theme, as there is an undeniable duality between the two states of union. A duality in which uncertainty holds sway, where you’re kept awake a night wondering about what to do next. Where to go on the second date? What can I do to keep them from slipping away? It’s this sickly unease that No.1 Against The Rush deftly replicates.

By recording the new album using primarily modern electronic methods and eschewing the familiarity of the analogue instruments, Liars have engineered the perfect sonic palette to express this anxiety. For fans, this change is disarming, but in a good way, as it’s made Liars more accessible than ever. Initially, it may seem that this accessibility has come at the cost of the creativity for which they’re famed, but after multiple listens No.1 Against The Rush reveals it’s secrets. Taking little time for its meticulous arrangement of throbbing bass, sweeping synths and rotating blips to hit home with waves of unease that reverberate in the psyche. Proving that despite taking steps towards a more accessible sound, Liars remain one of the most challenging and exciting bands around.

The excellently creepy music video is below:

Blogs to Follow #1 - The Prescription

This is the start of a new feature here on the [edit] radio music blog where we promote OTHER BLOGS! Now lets get one thing straight, we're not advocating that you desert [edit] radio, just merely pointing you in the direction of some other music based blogs that we think you'll enjoy.

Our first blog is one that all independent musicians should read. It's called , "The Prescription" and is a must-have guide for artists who are embarking on a career in music, or established acts who want to stay abreast of the latest developments in the industry.

The guys over at Prescription PR have kindly agreed for me to repost Chris Singleton's excellent blog post about the pitfalls of Spotify for independent artists here on [edit] radio. - Kevin Lawson

Should you put your music on Spotify ? by Chris Singleton

I don’t buy CDs any more. And the reason why is simple: Spotify. Since deciding to part with £10 every month for the extraordinary privilege to be able to listen to vast chunks of rock history, or indeed new releases that tickle my fancy, the idea of hauling myself off the sofa to go down to a record store and spend moolah on a rotund lump of plastic just doesn’t really cut it for me anymore. It’s kind of sad, because I was the sort of kid who’d save up several weeks of pocket money just to buy one LP which I had ordered specifically, ten years in advance, from the local (and now-gone-bust) record shop. And besides which, I’m a musician – I’m meant to love limited-edition vinyl gatefold double albums made of gold bought from a hipster with a beard, man. In fact, I'm meant to be a hipster with a beard.

How many times you say I'm through with this and you mull it over

Animal Collective - Honeycomb

Wake up, check phone, check Facebook, check emails, check Twitter, wait 10 minutes then check again. That’s the cyclic pattern of the omnipresent connectivity that we’ve allowed to take over our lives. An addiction to the instant gratification of having all our friends with us, all the time. It’s this structure of life played out in the virtual beehive that Animal Collective’s latest track Honeycomb embodies.

Like most Animal Collective tracks, it defies simple genre definition. Its warped yet geometric rhythms, melting bass lines and mixture of samples with other techniques too numerous to mention, only reveals its delights with multiple listens. Floating above this order masquerading as chaos are Avey Tare’s vocals, which find that sweet yet modern Beach Boy sound that has become the hallmark of Animal Collectives recordings. His simple repetition of “How many times you say” with it’s variant endings give the listener a framework in which to process the tracks complexities, a thread that they can confidently identify, helping them to process a recording which can at times overwhelm. It’s a skill Animal Collective have mastered and one which puts them amongst a select group of musicians. Those who make music thats equally stimulating and entertaining.

In full flow the track is an addictive delight that's suffused with a claustrophobia inducing quality; and it’s this duality that brings to mind the modern hyper connected life. A synthetic world which we willingly submit to for its ease, entertainment and comforting qualities. Knowing that every new friend request, follow and message erodes our privacy. Maybe it’s this reason that we all take liberties with the truth on the net? We’re busy painting over the grey truths of a mundane life in technicolour. Resulting in a hive of memories and friendships of how we’d like to be seen, rather than who we really are.

Music Festivals of 2012 #2 - Dot To Dot Festival

Over the last few years there has been an explosion of the early summer “pop up” festivals dotted around the urban centres of the country; but few manage to capture the imagination in the same way as Dot to Dot. The festival, which started in Nottingham in 2005, was one of the first crop of these modern urban festivals and is still showing the competition how it’s done. The festival takes place in Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester across this years Jubilee bank holiday weekend.

It’s line up is a music lovers dream, with artists being selected based on talent rather than fame, meaning that it’s 5 stages are not filled with 'has beens' and 'also rans.' Instead festival organiser, Anton Lockwood, gives festival goers the chance to see the futures headlining stars: “Dot To Dot 2012 sees us welcome some of the most hotly tipped new acts in the world, including some stars of SXSW. This is what Dot To Dot is all about!”

For once, there is more than hyperbole to his claim as over the course of the weekend you’ll get the chance to see [edit] radio favourites like Pulled Apart By Horses, The Drums, Wavves, Willis Earl Beal and Neon Indian (Manchester only). The best part is that you can see all of these bands for the recession busting price of £20! which is insane value for money.

[edit] radio will be heading along to Manchester to check out the festival and all it has to offer, we suggest that you do too. It’ll be the best thing you do all Bank Holiday.

Buy your own ticket from Alt-Tickets or for more information about the festivals venues head over to the Dot to Dot Website