Album Review: Kandodo - Kandodo

Image source: The QuietusKandodo is the side project from Simon Price of Bristol band The Heads. A collection of nine ambient instrumentals inspired by Price's youth, spent growing up in Africa (Kandodo being the name of a Malawi supermarket he used to shop in).

The impact of Africa on this album is inescapable. These pieces of music are all fairly simply made with a combination of guitars, pedals, keyboards and some ambient field noise but the result is an album of claustrophobic heat and dusty plains. The sound calls to mind krautrock and drone with a dash of Eno. At times it is cinematic but even when it isn't this is perfect head music for losing yourself to and when it is good it is truly spectacular.

And nowhere is that more evident than on the gentle opener, the beautiful 'Dawn Harmonix'. As a warm hum gradually builds there is a delicate interplay between a guitar and base, each growing more and less distorted throughout. Things are somewhat darker elsewhere, the title track, for example, a messy melange of guitar feedback and reverb.

Overall this is a fairly noisy affair, disconcerting and slightly abrasive in places before yielding to moments of melody. Kandodo is consistently atmospheric though and the swirling textures recreate shifting sands and a thick sense of separation across long journeys. It's a wonderful trip.

Kandodo is released on Thrill Jockey on 11 June, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP [affiliate links].

EP Review: Holiday's Over EP - Tom Demac vs. Silverclub

Canada's My Favorite Robot seem to be having a bit of a run at the moment with a series of strong releases over recent months. This one just might be my favourite.

The hot humid summer sun seems to have finally descended on London as I write this and perversely the dubby electro of 'Holiday's Over' feels very appropriate. This release sees producer Tom Demac team up with Manchester band Silverclub to create something loose feeling electronic record.

And you can tell this is a band rather than just a producer, the two original tracks here sounding much more like songs than you get from the usual dance releases on twelves. 'Holiday's Over' has layers of bass and synth that create a heavy, tangible feel whilst Silverclub vocalist Duncan Edward Jones' vocal croons his way to a broken heart. 'Throat Trip' takes things up a notch, a melange of massive Prince-style drums and the vocals of a sexual-aggressor.

Both tracks have a slightly oppressive muggy feel to them that isn't entirely inappropriate given the weather. The synth heavy funk feel combines with the dark lyrical tone to great effect too - like early Nine Inch Nails but without the obviousness of the guitars and the screaming angst.

Two remixes are on offer alongside the originals. Buzzin Fly's Flowers & Sea take 'Holiday's Over' to an even more dubby place that retains the vocals but focuses more on the spooky ambient atmospherics and drums. The Tiger Stripes mix of 'Throat Trip' shuffles to a slightly tighter, more minimal groove that makes it the most dance floor friendly track here - it isn't quite as catchy as the original but it creates a nice tight twist on it all the same.

Holiday's Over is released on My Favourite Robot Records on 28 May on 12" and 4 June digitally.

Album Review: Human Woman - Human Woman

I'm a little bit in love with Iceland. The geography, the culture and definitely the music. For an island with a population of approximately 300,000 it really has far more interesting music than it ought to. Björk, Sigur Ros, Mum, Jóhann Jóhannson. The best thing about Icelandic music is nothing ever feels phoned-in. No-one is ever just riding the latest bandwagon. Every single Icelandic artist I ever heard did something they clearly cared about and usually it'll end up pretty unique.

One of the most under-exposed Icelandic bands in recent years was Trabant. Making a noisy hyper-sexualised racket that sounded like Prince singing a Freddy Mercury number backed up by the Clash, yet they somehow never really caught on, even when Norman Cook picked up their debut album for Southern Fried. And this despite playing for the Icelandic president, as seen in this bizarre sequence from the fantastic Icelandic music documentary Screaming Masterpiece.

Human Woman is the new project from Trabant's Gisli Galdur Thorgeirsson, together with producer Jón Atli Helgason, and whilst it isn't quite as downright messy as Trabant it is still pretty fabulous. There is a lot melodic bass work and tight percussion here that calls to mind the baggy trousers of Madchester and the Stone Roses via Fujiya & Miyagi. As an album Human Woman blends this with some heavy electronics to make something that has moments of dubby, detailed introspection next to choruses and lyrics from a pop song, as demonstrated by the twisted mid-section of 'White Night'. That kind of combination could feelawkward but there are no such problems here.

There are moments that veer a little more in either direction but the overall album is well balanced. 'Einn Eftir', complete with strings and a jumble of drums, may be less dance floor focused but the production is still fantastically layered to make a complex sounding whole. 'Lazer & Magic' is stretched out and disorientating whilst 'DDDI' throbs and bristles with steely guitar strums and waves of distorted melodies.

Human Woman closes with 'Sleepy', a swirling cacophony of melody, before a neo-classical ghost track. It is a conclusion that highlights both similarities with Thorgeirsson's earlier work (ambition and an 'anything goes' attitude) and yet also contrasts greatly. You cannot help but miss some of the flamboyance and the scuffed edges of Trabant even though this is perhaps the more completely realised album.

Human Woman is out now on HFN, you can order it on Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP (out of stock at time of writing) [affiliate link].

Album Review: Mathias Stubø - Mathias Stubø

Image source: Adressa.noHailing from Norway and at just 18 years old Mathias Stubø's new self-titled album is a lovely collage of electro, tight punchy drums, whirling melodies and loose moments of free-falling jazz. Both of Stubø's parents are jazz musicians and his early years listening to jazz and fusion records provide the muse for much that is offered here.

It feels like some time since we heard a left field record quite like this - a record that is so packed full of joy, with kitchen-sink eclecticism and a happy-melodies-a-plenty. Think Röyksopp and Mr Scruff rummaging through a set of old Blue Note records whilst DJ Shadow focuses on making a few beats in the back room. And beats there are, for while this isn't a dark record it can still rock hard, as on psychedelic, bass-heavy 'Fly With Me'.

This is an album arranged into two halves. Part one is entitled High Frequency Feelings and is a bit grittier with hard beats and heavier bass. Part two, Soul Touch, is where more of the soul and jazz influences break out, as on the snappy freeform drums, stuttering piano and vocal snatches of 'Oss To'.

Whilst this is clearly an album of moments and ideas rather than songs there are still some stand out moments. The big spaces and fuller vocal of 'Soon a Brighter Day' have already seen it confirmed as a single and it obvious why. The penultimate 'Knock On My Door' also leaves a lasting impact, a hopeful prayer of a song with glimmering melodies.

Mathias comes across most comfortable when the jazz flows forward though, as on 'Don't Look Down'. The bass may be large and loud but it is the trumpet work that steals the show, creating a timeless beauty within this record.

Mathias Stubø is released soon on BBE, you can pre-order it on CD from Amazon.co.uk now [affiliate link].

Listen to 'Soon a Brighter Day' on Spotify:

Album Review: Kill For Love - Chromatics

Image source: The Mahogany BlogUnlike seemingly everyone else I have not have seen the Ryan Gosling movie Drive yet. Time and a lack-of-opportunity have seemingly kept it at bay. I have spent quite a bit of time the thinking about the eighties influenced soundtrack though, even contributing a few tracks to a mammoth Drive-inspired Spotify playlist made by a friend.

Trying to replicate the soundtrack for a movie you haven't seen seems like a bizarre concept, but I was seduced by the soft, melancholic electronic new wave and post-punk the movie (apparently) contains.

Two tracks featuring the production work Chromatic's Johnny Jewel featured on Drive - one with fellow Chromatic Nat Walker as their side project Desire and one Chromatics track, 'Tick of the Clock'. There were rumours that another side-project from Jewel and Walker, the appropriately named Symmetry - Themes for an Imaginary Film, was originally to be the main soundtrack for the movie. Whilst the rumours have been denied one thing is clear - the dark, eighties post-punk influenced Italo sound of Jewel is what people take away from that movie and the idea of driving at night crops up frequently in their music, titles and artwork as much as it features there.

The Chromatics have cultivated something of a micro-scene since their rebirth from punk band to soft electronic dream-makers and Kill For Love is the ultimate product of their effort. It is long at 92-minutes across 17 songs and much like Symmetry and fellow eighties influenced electronic producer M83's latest double-album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, this feels like a soundtrack for a movie that doesn't quite exist.

But the length is justified - this is an album that shifts through ballads, mood pieces and the dark frisson of guitar heavy melancholy. The result is such that the music swings from beautiful to dark to heartbreaking and back, but the combinations and phases of this album feel as much like a cohesive story as many movies manage.

Starting with the inky black piano ballad of 'Into the Black', a cover of Neil Young's 'Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)' is a master stroke. Singer Ruth Radelet's vocals form a tribute to musical heroes set against a repeated bass line that sounds like pure Joy Division, the result sounding like Fleetwood Mac covering Neil Young with Hooky on bass.

The heavily auto-tuned vocals of 'These Streets Will Never Look the Same' almost distract from the tense strut of the guitar work but they totally justify their place later on 'Running from the Sun', another piano lead track slowly collapses under it's own emotional gravity, effortlessly showing up The Weeknd in the process.

Things get better they goes on. 'Birds of Paradise', positioned two-thirds of the way through the album (the yet-to-be-mentioned long closer aside for the moment), is a strikingly fragile piece that jumps from smokey vocals and vinyl clicks and pops to a cold, haunting melody. The vocal ends with "You are the black sky, always running for the sun... You're always running from the sun" before a long instrumental close and it is seemingly directed at the protagonist on 'Running from the Sun' (positioned with just one instrumental between it and 'Birds of Paradise').

It is exactly this kind of structure and pacing that means Kill For Love never outstays its welcome, benefiting from the director's cut treatment. Closing with a fourteen-minute instrumental in 'No Escape' feels totally natural... The entire album feels like a movie soundtrack with more to say than most actual movies. It is a conclusion that feels like the fade-to-black end credits to a weird, strung-out road trip.

Kill For Love is released on 21 May, pre-order on CD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

Listen to the aforementioned Drive inspired playlist: