Crystal Castles – Not In Love (feat Robert Smith) – By Kevin Lawson

Some relationships are solely based on the physical; the unrelenting desire to fuck each others brains out, with little regard for anything else. There are no common interests or aspirations. There are no idiosyncrasies which the other partner refers to as ‘cute’. You’re just going at it like rabbits and hoping that’s enough. When such primal relationships breakdown and end, there are no foundations of friendship on which to rebuild, nothing remains and it’s the breakdown of this type of relationship that ‘Not In Love’ chronicles.

Originally written by 80’s Canadian new wave rockers Platinum Blonde, the song was first covered by Crystal Castles on their excellent sophomore record (Crystal Castles II) released in April this year. Their first run at the track saw them submerge the track in a fog of bitterly cold synths and emotionally stunted vocals. It was rank with the hollow indifference that left with when such physical attraction dies. It was effective, but one dimensioned and didn’t make for the most memorable of covers.

Six months later they’ve had a second run at the track and the results are startling. The bitter synths have been retained and still throb with indifference. The emotionally stunted vocals have been ousted and replaced by the vocals provided by The Cure front man Robert Smith. His expert delivery gives the tracks verses new layers and depth by plunging you headfirst into what I call “break-up sickness”. A feeling composed of regrets, rejection, depression and bitterness that manifest as endless dull ache in your stomach. On this version each emotion is almost tangible, even painful.

However the collaborators weren’t content with adding just this, they wanted to go a step further. They wanted the cure (pun intended) for this ache to be included in the track. As Smith approaches the end of each verse, you can hear the resolve building in his voice. Until finally he proclaims “I’m not in love” and the track is awash with cathartic release and the warmth of a thick layer of house synths.

It hits home like the moment you let go of your final feelings of lust for your lover, when the sickness passes and your left with the question “What did I ever see in them?” The track has been transformed from easily forgettable to one of the best covers of the year, leaving me to wonder what would happen if more Crystal Castles songs were collaborations?

Not In Love (feat Robert Smith).mp3

Fluxblog 2010 Survey Mix

Matthew Perpetua is a great music journalist. His website http://www.fluxblog.org/ is well written, personal and an amazing source of new music.

This week he released an eight-disc, 157 song mix of some of the best and most notable music from 2010.

In Matts own words:

"It’s fairly comprehensive, covering indie, pop, rock, punk, folk, rap, R&B, soul, dance, country, modern classical, ambient and electronic music, and in many cases, hard-to-classify genre hybrids. I inevitably had to leave out some things, but I think you’ll find that this serves as both a helpful guide to some of the year’s most exciting music and a surprisingly listenable series of mixes. Discover new stuff! Rediscover familiar artists in a new context! Jam out to ten and a half hours of world-class tunes! If you enjoy this, please do pass it on."

Here's the link so you can do the same.

http://www.fluxblog.org/2010/12/fluxblog-2010-survey-mix

Club Velocity press release - By Sid Siddle

Club Velocity shows at Rising Sun Arts Centre 30 Silver Street Reading Berkshire RG1 2ST are proud to annouce sponsorship.
From December 1st our two shows a month at RSAC will be sponsored by [edit] radio http://www.editradio.org/

[edit] radio was founded by Kevin Lawson in the Spring of 2009. Each week you'll find a brand new 40 minute podcast that will play the best in New and Alternative music.
It has very much been a word of mouth concern to date.

Club Velocity started promoting at Silver Street March 2003.Since then, the likes of Bloc Party, Holly Golighty, Pete And The Pirates, Six Nation State, Prinzhorn Dance School, Beggars, Tripwires,
Ben Marwood, Midimidis,Tom Williams And The Boat, Peers and dozen others have treaded the boards.

With the help of sponsoring Club Velocity (RSCA), [edit] radio, should see their listenship increase month on month.

[edit] radio and Club Velocity are very much on the same wave length. They both have beating hearts, real soul and burning passion to champion  new bands and music
that they both believe in. Both based in Reading, Berkshire and both proud to be based in the town.

Kevin Lawson
founder of [edit] radio says

“The opportunities that Club Velocity at Silver Street gives talented musicians to perform to their audience was a direct inspiration for me to create the podcast. Our sponsorship is about repaying that inspiration; because without Club Velocity there’d never have been [edit] radio"

Sid Siddle
founder of Club Velocity says

"It took me  about a second, to say yes to get involved with Kevin and his website. He has been coming to Club Velocity for many a year. The website is a breath of fresh air.Its run by real music fans, who are doing it for all the right reasons.All the djs/writers are very passionate and knowledgeable about their music.I can not recomend it enough.I think this will be very good for both parties.Especially in 2011, it really does look like the Reading music scene, should finally really get the national recognition it deserves"

Any further infomation  sidsiddle@hotmail.com

www.velocityrecordings.com
www.myspace.com/velocityrecordings

Balam Acab – Regret Making Mistakes by Kevin Lawson

Alec Koone is the 19 year old Ithaca based music student behind Balam Acab. He’s part of this ‘witch house’ music genre, a genre which I think is imaginary and only exists in the mind of music bloggers and the writers of Pitchfork. But if such a thing does actually exist then I’m sure his song ‘Regret Making Mistakes’ would be the poster child for the sound.

The track opens gently, placing Balam in the comfort of a swing chair where the sounds of a nearby stream and the murmur of voices hum dimly in the background. But there is something else around too, something that stalks the inviting eastern strings that drift through the first few bars like a daydream. Casting a shadow across his thoughts and making them teem with regret.

Balam’s awareness of the outside world fades away and he descends deeper into himself, wandering into a foggy tomb of memories. Then as the rich reverb of the bass line starts, the horrors of where his thoughts have wondered start to become clear. He’s surrounded, surrounded by all the sorrows that haunt him. He embodies them with a stunningly haunting voice, one that’s soft on the ears but knife shaped to the soul.

The bass quietens, as the sound of a synthesizer sparkles you can almost see the tears begin to swell in his eyes. He’s recalling the wrong doing of his life, the lies, betrayals, deaths or worse. There release is built up over the remainder of the song brought about with a final cathartic hit of the bass and vocals but this time accompanied by the piano; you can almost see his tears falling as each note is played.

This swell of emotion falls away as quickly as it began, with Balam returning to the world at large. Re-sealing this regret to the tomb from which it was exhumed.

It’s a stunningly powerful song and one that I feel privileged to share with you today.

Regret Making Mistakes.mp3

Elliott Smith by Tom Crook

I remember reading a thing by Noel Gallagher about him saying how guys in Manchester who had guitars didn't really know what to do with them until the Stone Roses came along; the Roses focussed these lads, gave them direction, "that's what we should be doing!" they realised. That's how i felt when i first heard Elliott Smith. It was like being shown a sense of purpose. I immediately i knew this stuff. It felt familiar - well he wasn't reinventing the wheel or anything, you could hear his influences. Never specific bands or artists, more the influence of certain musical eras, of production techniques, of writing styles. And i remembered being struck by his fragile voice and his lack of confidence with it, so lacking that he would use that old pop-recording technique of double-tracking the vocal to try and bolster it a bit. With Elliott though, it always sounded like he was trying to hide his voice behind his own voice. But it gave me confidence to sing, and showed me that singing isn't about being good or bad or right or wrong, it's actually about being yourself and being honest and if you do something heartfelt, it will resonate somewhere with someone.

Apart from his voice, his playing was extraordinary. As each album developed he would play more and more instruments, showing himself to be a hugely talented pianist, drummer and bass player. His guitar skills were obvious from the start, always using complicated chord progressions rather than the tried and tested 12 bar of rock and roll. Any guitarist wanting to improve their technique should sit down and study 'Son Of Sam' or 'Everything Reminds Me Of Her', the progressions are so accomplished and never obvious, always avoiding the cliche. His arrangements got more and more ambitious with each album, from delicate acoustic recordings on Roman Candle to using big string sections and horn players on XO. He was obviously a fan of the Beatles, recording eventually at Abbey Road, and i think his writing owed a lot to George Harrison rather than Lennon & McCartney. But it was never pastiche; to my ears, Elliott Smith got a lot closer to the spirit of what the Beatles were about.

I only saw Elliott play live once, in London June 2000 at the Royal Festival Hall. Me and my brother went and i remember how we both thought he was great but how he was so obviously uncomfortable performing. I seem to remember that his backing band were basically Quasi and they were mostly playing material from XO and Figure 8. And although he was clearly not in his comfort zone on the stage, he didn't seem like the tortured artist people seem intent on making him out to be. I always assumed i'd see him play live again one day. He didn't seem like he was about to embark on a journey of self-destruction. I know a songwriter who spent time with Elliott in LA, due to them having the same publisher or something, and he said that the drug scene Elliott hung around in was a quite scuzzy, dirty little world that you just wouldn't want to glamourise.

I'm not sure how Elliott Smith died but the suicide thing doesn't really ring true for me. When people kill themselves with knives, usually it involves slicing a vein. To actually force a knife into your own heart is quite an achievement, no matter what state of mind you're in. Obviously i wish he hadn't died. Mainly because i think he probably had a load more great songs to write. But also because i hate all that rock 'n' roll martyr bullshit that comes with his death.

I'm not going to list my favourite songs or albums, that's all a bit puerile really. The whole catalogue is faultless; music written for all the right reasons; music as art, not product. Some songs i'll return to forever; some songs i'm only just discovering, only making sense as i get older. I've heard Domino are soon to release 'An Introduction To Elliott Smith', a compilation for the uninitiated. This is a good thing. More people need Elliott Smith's music in their lives.

Ben Folds/Nick Hornby – From Above

At my desk the other day I was listening to the fabulous BBC 6 Music when this song hurtled down the wires of my earphones sending pulses of pleasure throughout my being. I hadn’t been paying much attention before so I was suffering some form of brain atrophy and any song that can break through the indifference barrier is worthy of further investigation.

Once I’d got my bearings on the stream, I found it was a collaborative effort between Ben Folds (the music) and Nick Hornby (the lyrics). Which on paper, is like the wet dream of a hipster kid from 1995. A year that saw Ben Folds Five release their amazing debut album and Hornby had the musically themed High Fidelity published.

Taken from the forthcoming album Lonely Avenue the song opens with a quick roll of the drums and bounces along blissfully into the best pop song I’ve heard since Darwin Deez Radar Detector. Driven by Folds on the piano and teeming with synth embellishments in all the right places, it becomes very difficult not have it whirring around your head for the rest of the day.

Lyrically the song is a distinctly Hornby monologue. A daydream of two people who don’t realise they are soul mates. Comfortable in their current relationship and have no desire to search for a fairytale ending. Folds delivers Hornby’s words with gusto and is ably supported by female vocalist Kate Miller Heidke, who provides the soft edges to the track.

The sum of these parts creates a truly memorable pop song that is reminiscent of Jens Lekmans work and leaves me hoping that the rest of the album can match up to this high standard.

You can buy the Single “From Above” on iTunes and the album Lonely Avenue is out on September 28^th

From Above.mp3

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Lost Saint

In 2009 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart released a self titled album that I literally became addicted to. Listening to it is like basking in a hot and hazy summer day of shoegaze pop. Each song, crafted with meticulous care, was riddled with deeply intelligent and melancholy lyrics about young love and growing into adulthood. Such are the depths to be found in their music, anyone who dared brand the band could a mere copycat of the late 80's early 90's sound that they love, can only be described as a nincompoop.

And so when I was scouring Hype M and found two news songs from this Brooklyn band I was excited. Taken from the "Say No to Love" single (which is also excellent) Lost Saint details a youngster in love from within a Catholic education upbringing. Being branded sinful for confessing your feelings of forbidden love,  sympathising with the famed lover Heloise and her plight, knowing that she'd understand how you feel.

Its this sort intelligent output which make the band nothing short of astounding. I just hope the second album can live up to what has gone before.

Lost Saint.mp3
If you like what you hear please support the band by buying there first album here