EP Review: Afternoon & Afterhours - Flowers & Sea Creatures

Flowers & Sea Creatures have previously released on both Compost and Buzzin' Fly but Afternoon & Afterhours is their debut release on My Favorite Robot.

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Afternoon & Afterhours - Flowers & Sea Creatures

It is a release that boasts the kind of sophistication you would expect from alumni of such labels. The EP opens with The Very Next Day, which features Wrong Jeremy, and combines them with a throbbing, cinematic groove. The track packs plenty of menace - an alienated soundtrack that lets those vocals provide an additional lens of humanity, but it is the low rumble of the bass and percussion that provide much of the atmosphere. So Far The Star is similarly threatening, with cold and metallic music combined with a sparse vocal and some dark, distorted bass.

Alternate Endings is less busy and represents the start of the stronger half of this release - an ambient, beat-free piece that makes much of gently strummed guitars and vocals enveloped in echo. The EP's closing track, Citadel is a nine-and-a-half-minute long epic piece that takes the maudlin feel of much of that which it follows but expands into epic proportions. It is somewhere between the beat-led sound of the opening half of this EP and the minimal sound of Alternate Endings - shuffling rhythms provide a momentum that sees the introduction of rough synthetic melodies and ultimately some Latin guitar. It's an epic conclusion to a heartfelt EP.

Afternoon & Afterhours is out through My Favorite Robot on 24 February. Preview via Soundcloud below:

Flowers & Sea Creatures have been bubbling under for a couple of years now, but their debut EP on the ever excellent My Favorite Robot Records is likely to win them a huge new raft of fans. Compost and Buzzin' Fly have released the Montreal duo's work before now and it has always proved to be carefully crafted and hugely cultured stuff.

Video: Reach You On The Phone - Blank Realm

Loving the slacker rock of this new single from Brisbane band Blank Realm. The video is directed and produced by Joshua Watson of the band Sewers and it apparently features a range of guests stars from the Australian underground scene singing karaoke style... I have to admit I don't know the Aussie music scene enough to recognise any of them but the list of guests includes:

Marriah Geles (Runs Negative Guest List records), Matt Kennedy (of the band Kitchen's Floor, runs Eternal Soundcheck), Bobby Wonderfuls (of the band Wonderfuls), Harry Byrne (of the bands Per Purpose, Sewers) Makeda Zucco (runs All Day Breakfast records), Matt Ford (of the bands Thigh Master and Black Vacation, runs Tenth Court Records), Sarah Werkmeister, Natalie Hanna.

Reach You On The Phone is taken from the album Grassed Inn, out now on Fire Records.

Stream: SWIM - Fickle Friends

Serendipity brought Fickle Friends to my attention courtesy of Soundcloud and I had to share. Fickle Friends are a Brighton based five piece and SWIM has a sunny 80s new wave pop sheen that I'm enjoying. Check out both the original and the slightly bouncier Paperwhite Remix below:

Listen to BlackPlastic / Fickle Friends | Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio.

Video: Oasis - Alpines

This new video is directed by Tom Beard, who recently directed the trippy video for FKA Twigs Papi Pacify. The video for Oasis is also shot in black and white and inspired by French New Wave cinema, with particular reference to the movies of Jean-Luc Goddard.

The track itself is a funky indie-R&B number taken from the album of the same name. The single comes out on 3 March, followed by the album on 26 May, both on Untrue Records.

Album Review: Future Disco Vol. 7 - Various

The Future Disco series from Needwant has been running for so long now that it feels like it is reaching that difficult, slightly flabby middle age period on this, the seventh in the series. The label continue to put out decent material but the nu-disco scene feels a little less sprightly than it once did and it is difficult not to feel that coming through.

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Future Disco Vol. 7

Future Disco Vol. 7 is cast in tribute to those that make it through to the end, the obligitory strap line this time proudly claiming "’Til The lights Come Up". It's a mentality Future Disco resident Sean Brosnan appears to take to heart, because much of the best material is saved for the album's close making the opening half feel like a bit of a slog. Ejeca's starry-eyed rave anthem Together still feels just as youthful but it is sandwiched between so much by-the-numbers female vocal house (H.O.S.H.'s Disc Jockey) and trance influenced groove (Mirror Mirror's Kaleidoscope) it numbs the ears. Even Benoit & Sergio fail to turn things around, Shake Shake still not delivering anything like their previous highs.

It isn't until the more considered second half that Vol. 7 starts to get interesting. The DJ Koze mix of Mount Kimbie's Made To Stray is unexpected and ushers in a more constrained and slightly melancholic atmosphere. Both Naughty, by Names In Lights, and the Outboxx mix of Clouds by Crazy P feel understated - tracks for those that really want to dance. When James Fox shows up with Holding On (NYC Mix) it therefore feels like the album has earned a moment of self-encouraging reflection, and it gets it.

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Sean Brosnan

From there, as is often the case with Future Disco albums, things are seen to a close with a series of beautiful moments. Templehof's Drake is played as a soulful electronic bed to the looped vocals from Holding On, creating a wonderful momentary pause. Ada's cover version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Maps, here remixed by Michael Mayer and Tobias Thomas, is similarly restrained, even if it will never make you feel as much as Karen O's staggering original. Downtown Party Network's goosebump-inducing 'Space Me Out' features in its Mario Basanov remixed form and it feels like a real end-of-the-night moment. The actual finale is Tale Of Us & Clockwork's subtler but equally introspective Lost Keys.

So in the end, Future Disco Vol. 7 brings it back, but that first half feels like this is a label compilation that could do with being more prudent with its own catalogue, looking afield more often for inspiration.

Future Disco Vol. 7 is released on Monday through Needwant, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link]. Check out the album mini mix on Soundcloud:

Too early to go home, too late to stay still... The award winning Future Disco series sets the tone for 2014 with their seventh instalment 'Til The Lights COME Up'. After a successful third summer residency in conjunction with Carl Cox at Space in Ibiza, Future Disco's Sean Brosnan delivers a seventeen track compendium that pays tribute to those that keep pace until the end of the night.