EP Review: A Swedish Love Story - Owen Pallett

Owen Pallett's debut album under his real name, released earlier this year and entitled Heartland, was something of a revelation - the kind of dizzying, joyful album that keeps you coming back. You are most likely, however, to know Pallett's work through association - he contributed to Arcade Fire's first two albums (Funeral and Neon Bible) and prior to recording as himself he went under the moniker Final Fantasy.

In BlackPlastic's opinion Pallett is at his best where his love of the violin and the keyboard come together to make the kind of uplifting, introspective songs Sufjan Stevens would be proud of. And on that basis A Swedish Love Song, an EP of four new tracks, is an unapologetic success.

Opening with the energetic, uplifting and slightly thrilled 'A Man With No Ankles', Pallett instantly sounds like as though he has woken from a decade long slumber. "Somewhere between the window and my doorstep, I remembered what it was to play, to play, to play" he cries, as if suddenly struck by the insanity of modern living and the joy of being genuinely excited.

'Scandal At The Parkade' up the string-based flourishes and sounds even more influenced by classical music than Pallett already usually does. 'Honour The Dead Or Else' is more downbeat, building to a dark and ominous crescendo two-thirds in before arriving at a modest finale. Final track 'Don't Stop' is the strongest here, a beautiful epic - a stuttering rhythm beating at the heart of the song giving the whole thing an unstoppable vibe.

The biggest complaint BlackPlastic could level at Owen Pallett is that it often all feels a little too similar - Heartland was an album best consumed in pieces rather than as a whole. As such this four-track EP represents an ideal package to serve as an introduction.

BP x

A Swedish Love Story is released tomorrow on Domino, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on MP3.

EP Review: Undressed - Future Islands

Future Islands' debut album continues to be one of BlackPlastic's favourite releases of 2010. On the eve of their UK tour they release their Undressed EP - a selection of acoustic versions of songs (two of which come from the album In Evening Air) recorded for their hometown radio station WYPR.

Acoustic versions can be hit or miss - surprisingly Future Islands' material establishes a whole new level of maligned frustration stripped of the places to hide that its conventional production provides. The new versions of existing songs - 'An Apology' and 'Long Flight' - shine with a new found naked ugliness.

This is music doused in regret. 'Long Flight', already one of In Evening Air's highlights, shuffles back and forth whilst singer Sam Herring becomes increasingly meek and desperate, with the piano and string accompaniment encircling him like a pack of vultures.

The two non-album tracks are even better. Opener 'In The Fall' is heavy and downtrodden, with Herring's vocals more forceful and at home than they sound on the existing material. Closing track 'Little Dreamer' fittingly takes an opposite tack - the drums are as heavy as 'In The Fall' but the song itself feels as though it has been made of glass, a delicate and fragile piece that barely survives the attention it receives from the listener over the course of its three-minute duration.

On the back of the impressive In Evening Air, Undressed is proof enough that Future Islands boast bags of promise.

BP x

Undressed is released on Thrill Jockey on 20 September.

UK TOUR DATES:

Wed 29 Sep London, UK CAMP Basement

Thu 30 Sep Brighton, UK Freebutt

Fri 1 Oct Manchester, UK Islington Mill

Sat 2 Oct Glasgow, UK Cry Parrot

Sun 3 Oct Leeds, UK The Library

Wed 20 Oct Dublin, Ireland Workman's Club

EP Review: Vampires With Dreaming Kids / Color Your Life - Twin Sister

Twin Sister released their debut EP, Vampires With Dreaming Kids, earlier this year. Now re-released on additional formats (previously it was only available digitally) together with their second EP Color Your Life, Twin Sister should probably be your brand new favourite band.

Here's why...

Tackled one at a time:

Vampires With Dreaming Kids slides sideways into rooms like dead girls in horror films before singer Andrea Estella seductively purrs "If you're all alone / bring over your bones / and pay me / anyway you want to..."

As an opening track 'Dry Hump' is a wonderfully spellbinding introduction to a band that manage to keep you guessing. It melds into 'Ginger', a track which features the same raw female vocals but ups the Jesus and Mary Chain quota. The resulting soaring, fragile majesty sounds like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before they got confused about what that should mean.

'Nectarine' is more whimsical and folky with male vocals (presumably from guitarist Eric Cardona). Perhaps best of all, Vampires With Dreaming Kids closes on the soulful 'I Want A House'. It's refreshingly honest and a fittingly lo-fi end to a lo-fi EP.

But if Vampires With Dreaming Kids is pleasurably simple, Color Your Life is anything but. Opening on the seven-minute sprawl of 'The Other Side Of Your Face' it takes longer to get going, but the shimmering guitars that welcome in the 90th second prove this is considered evolution rather than revolution. There is an unmistakable 80s influence at work here.

As mentioned, whereas their first EP undeniably recalls the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Color Your Life feels more like Echo and the Bunnymen and Tears for Fears. As the opening track swells to its conclusion it really does take your breath away - this is the sound of a band who have stripped everything back to the essentials. Every note and sound feels undeniable vital.

'Lady Daydream' is similarly minimalistic, boasting a staggeringly simple yet catchy bassline. What separatesColor Your Life from the first EP is a warm and dreamlike quality to the music. It feels like drowning in honey.

In comparison to the first two tracks 'Milk And Honey' feels psychedelic and disorientating to the point where when the R&B influenced gentle strut of 'All Around And Away We Go' turns up it is a relief. Color Your Life's six tracks are rounded out by the atmospheric instrumental 'Galaxy Plateau' and the 80s groove of final track and ballad 'Phenomenons'. It's another gorgeous end to a thrilling set of song

Understated, beautiful and effortlessly cool, Twin Sister could have stuck these ten songs together and made one of 2010's best albums. That they didn't makes the prospect of their debut album all the more enticing.

BP x

Color Your Life was released today, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and Vinyl. Color Your Life and Vampires With Dreaming Kids are released as a double pack on 20 September, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on double CD. Both are released through Double Six [affiliate links].

Album Review: Black City - Matthew Dear

Sometimes Matthew Dear makes glitch. Sometimes he makes techno. Sometimes he just makes insanity. And increasingly he appears to be favouring the latter.

Sometimes Matthew Dear makes glitch. Sometimes he makes techno. Sometimes he just makes insanity. And increasingly he appears to be favouring the latter.

Following up on his first two albums, Leave Luck to Heaven and Backstroke, Asa Breed was a startling revelation. As much pop as dance, in places tender and wounded and in others aloof and lyrically impenetrable. And since BlackPlastic is ultimately often fond of music that requires a bit of thought, it was one of those albums that we kept coming back to.

Black City is as the title implies - a dark journey through a nighttime urban sprawl inside Dear's mind. It's a darker affair that culminates in the sordid workout of album centrepiece and highlight, the fantastically titled 'You Put A Smell On Me'. Dear's vocals are hardly robust but when he tweaks them in the right way, as he does here - "I'm gonna try you on, and exercise" - he nails his 'thing' somewhere south of sub-zero on the cool wall.

So if you hadn't already guessed, Black City is at times a touch sordid. Whilst nothing touches the mechanical sleazy genius of 'You Put A Smell On Me' in terms of pure filth there is a vibe of sex and alienation that runs throughout the album. 'I Can't Feel' sounds like serial copulation carried out in in a bid to feel something, anything, and as the album progresses the it feels increasingly like a commentary on the instant-gratification-based but veil-thin nature of modern society.

Album closer 'Gem' really nails it, revealing Dear's apparent confusion and isolation. Over a ballad, the vocals are a modest and understated cry for help and attention:

All of my sad songs can't make you change,

They'll just keep pushing you further away.

One of your great regrets will be staying in place,

I can't hold you back from your dreams.

When you figure out what's real I'll be standing here,

A little bit older but forgiving as the night of the day.

In today's modern world it's difficult not to feel a certain empathy with Dear's confusion. Black City not only builds on what Asa Breed achieved - it establishes Dear as a song writer up there with some of the best. This is music to make you dance, think and feel.

BP x

Black City is out now on Ghostly International, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

MP3: If a Train Was a Doctor Was a Song - The Whiskey Priest

A couple of weeks ago BlackPlastic reviewed the Whiskey Priest's new album Wave and Cloud, taking time to specifically highlight how bloody lovely the tune 'If a Train Was a Doctor Was a Song' is.

Well good news for you - the label Rainboot have offered the song up as a free download on Soundcloud.  You won't even need to part with any data.  BlackPlastic can't over-emphasise how good this is so take the opportunity to have a listen and then go and buy the album.

BP x