Album Review: Blood From a Stone - Hanne Hukkelberg

Hailing from Noway, Hanne Hukkelberg's latest album is a perfect soundtrack for the coming of spring, with the sounds of winter still in the background but a playing melodic side breaking through. It sounds like it was made in response to the later evenings we are seeing in the northern hemisphere, and in Blood From a Stone we have an album that begs to be consumed with a bottle of wine of a summer's eve.

Hukkelberg has declared Blood From a Stone her straight up rock album, and whilst many of the vocals were done in one take and there may be hints of death metal in the dread and foreboding of 'Salt of the Earth', to call this album "straight up" anything is to dramatically under-sell things. Inspiration may be taken from PJ Harvey, the Cocteau Twins and the Pixies but it is taken in the form of a desire to never repeat or be pigeon-holed as much as anything else.

Blood From a Stone takes musical inspiration less from other bands and more from nature itself. With the kind of kitchen-sink approach to instrumentation that sees many of Iceland's finest achieve such unique sounds (indeed Múm's in particular have become known for using whatever they can get their hands on), Hanne has utilised bicycle spokes, clogs, a Vaseline box, flag poles, train doors and seagulls amongst many other things to create a melodic sound all of her own.

The result is an album full of surprises - the title track, for example, has a beautiful catchy chorus and yet combines this with a wonderfully tactile and percussive backing - and every track does something a little different.  What makes Blood From a Stone wonderful is that all of these differing components slot together like something made to be together.

Blood From a Stone is released on Nettwerk on 20 April on MP3 and 12 May on CD.  Available to pre-order on Amazon (MP3  / CD).

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Album Review: Hard For Justice - Bronnt Industries Kapital

As Get Physical's latest artist album release, BlackPlastic was a little moist about hearing Bronnt Industries Kapital's third album, Hard For Justice. The sticker on the cover likened it to lots of post-punk bands we like from the first time round, in a room, at the same time.

But the sticker was kind of wrong, because Hard For Justice isn't much like Joy Division at all. Okay, it does have some moody bass work and stripped back, mechanical percussion and post-punk's penchant for experimentalism but this is hardly Just Another Maxïmo Park.

Over the course of its eight tracks, Hard For Justice packs in, erm, zero vocals. None. What it does have however is more ideas than you can shake a stick at. There are ambient moments, brief touches of chiptune, real instruments, synthesizers and a under-current of sleek, minimal kraut-rock that permeates the whole thing. Best of all, 'European Male' sounds like a death threat from someone who, like, really means it - just listen to the bubbling-underneath-seething-rage and the brass. Yes, brass. Brass that sounds not shit, but amazing, as if stolen from a David McCallum track.

The experimentation displayed over the handful of tracks here ensures Hard For Justice will keep giving over the coming months and proves that Get Physical are truly beginning to deliver artist albums proper, straying from just releasing discs from their known artists.

Available from Amazon.co.uk on CD , LP  and MP3 .

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MP3: River - Akron / Family

Akron / Family make psychedelic folk rock - like the sparkling imagination of the Flaming Lips applied to a sing song round a camp fire - and their next forthcoming album just might see them turn into a household name (in those cool households with lots of jazz records and an espresso machine at least).

The album, wonderfully entitled Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, is out on 11 May 2009 in Europe.  BlackPlastic is currently loving 'River' - it's a pondering, whimsical and beautiful song and it sounds like staring out at the starlit night sky with a loved one or a good friend.  It's one of those songs that just keeps changing - rather aptly, somewhat like a river it builds and twists.  The clarinet accompaniment that comes in about midway through the second minute is good, but the song really takes off mid-way through when it begins to shimmer and the marching band percussion comes in.

A swirling whirlpool of knowing vocals and careful melody - download here (right click, save as).

The album is available to pre-order at Crammed and anyone that pre-orders will get an MP3 download of the album straight away.  The band are also touring Europe from May 16, details here.

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EP Review: Coordinates - I Like Where I Live

As I Like Where I Live, Dave McAdams makes indie-electropop and has just released his first EP, Coordinates, through Slow Receiver Records. And it's free.

This is why you should check it out:

1. It's lovely, like a stroll on the beach or a cup of tea with someone you really like.
2. It sounds a bit like the Postal Service and Stars, amongst others, and we like them. They are super-swell.
3. All five tracks are kind of neat. There is a nice mix of sounds but it all comes together well like a jumper your grandma knitted you.
4. It's less humiliating to use in public than a jumper your grandma knitted you.
5. 'You Took Photographs' is especially great, with a fuzzy little distorted bassline, a lovely vocal and some soaring keyboards.
6. The artwork is good. BlackPlastic likes artwork.
7. It's free.
8. Dave seems like a nice chap.

So there you have it. As it doesn't cost anything it seems a no brainer. Listening to Coordinates is like gazing into a photo of someone you used to love, so why not download it here?  For more news on I Like Where I Live, check out the MySpace page.

Oh, and did we mention it's free?

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Album Review / MP3: More - Double Dagger

BlackPlastic doesn't really like 'metal' anymore. Maybe once, but not anymore.

Some records, however, get lumped into this genre and yet transcend them. Test Icicles violent punk metal may have taken inspiration from metal bands but it also took inspiration from grime and disco. Similarly, Death From Above 1979's only album often got classed as metal but it did much more.

The same is true of Double Dagger's latest album, More.  Double Dagger's third album, it was created in an abandoned office on the fifth floor of a building housing Baltimore's Current Gallery (an artist run gallery and studio space). With everything above the third floor in a state of disrepair the band had to run cables out of the windows and down to the lower floors to power their mics and instruments and they relied on ceiling tiles and cubicle dividers to create soundproofing whilst the band's drummer, Denny Bowen, set up the drums in a separate room but then knocked a hole through the wall so the band could still see each other.

Less than glamorous the conditions may have been but they did enable a longer recording time and, with the inclusion of a few cheap microphones, gave the recording a fantastically rough and distorted sound. Combining metal with the stripped back minimalist percussion and basslines of early post-punk, the experimentalism of the Pixies and vocals that sound like Hold Steady's Craig Finn on a rampage, Double Dagger are the hardcore metal band BlackPlastic can like.

And that's because beyond the initial abrasiveness there is an ear for melody that transforms these songs. Just check the chorus of 'No Allies' - the vocals may try and shout you down but the hooks are irrestibly catchy. There's a lovely clash of sounds on this album and it's like listening to a metal album made by someone who just can't help but make catchy tunes - again this is demonstrated perfectly by the spoken intro and punchy chorus of 'The Lie/The Truth'.

Don't be put off by the shouts and the labels. A single listen to More proves that Double Dagger have made an album that achieves much more than anything by any band concerned with genres could - it might be hardcore, it might be noisy pop... BlackPlastic doesn't care, it's just awesome.

We have a copy of 'The Lie/The Truth' available to download here (right click, save as) - if you like it check out the album. More is released on 3 May on Thrill Jockey. Pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD or LP .

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