Album Review: Je Ne Sais Quoi - PillowTalk

PillowTalk seem to have been making interesting, eclectic and experimental records for an age, so it is interesting to hear how their sound has matured and is sustained across this, their debut album.

Ever difficult to pigeon-hole PillowTalk are San Francisco three-piece Sammy D, Ryan Williams and Mikey Tello. They all bring an important element to the mix, with Sammy providing distinctive, soulful vocals, Williams guitars and keys, and Tello all that spacey synth work. The result is distinctive and yet incredibly versatile - at times cosmic and beautiful, at others gritty and soulful.

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Je Ne Said Quoi - PillowTalk

Je Ne Sais Quoi wears its heart on its sleeve and there are a slew of influences, whether subtle, painstakingly obvious or, as on The Night I Met Luther, deliberately called out. What is surprising is how well these various sounds work - an early high point is Devil's Run, a pure-Springsteen moment that is clearly influenced by the trio's final recording session in Portland, Oregon. Similarly, Slim's Night Out is a grimey take on vintage-Prince.

Yet there are also more original and innovative moments, like 4 Walls, a collaboration with DOP and Navid Izadi that focused on trying to create a track at 144 beats per minute that retains a soulful feel... And they effortlessly achieve it within a single 90-minute recording session.

With their focus on live instrumentation and experimentation in combination with soul PillowTalk operate in a fairly under-populated genre. At times Je Ne Sais Quoi feels like it takes a little too much time to reveal its charms - this is an album that is perhaps too varied, making the first few listens feel disjointed and confused... And yet most of the tracks here come into their own with a little space and time, whether they are the dreamy balladry of the extended Lullaby or the moody 80s electro-pop of Home Sick.

The sunny California closer The Outcast feels like an appropriate call to action - vocals asserting "You can't stop us now" just as the band are playing furthest from their home territory... And we wouldn't dream of proving them wrong.

Je Ne Sais Quoi is released through Wolf + Lamb on 17 March, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD or MP3 [affiliate links]. Check out Lullaby and Home Sick below:

Video: Flame - Ronya

This one is a little steamy, but I'm digging the early 90s sound and soft, warm production of this new single from Finland's Ronya, out now on Coca Music. Good synth work, a pounding beat and those sultry vocals.

Stream: Forever - Chris Malinchak

Weekend sounds for your ears and heart courtesy of Chris Malinchak... Sit back, relax and enjoy :)

Album Review: Present Tense - Wild Beasts

"Don't confuse me for someone who gives a fuck” asserts vocalist Hayden Thorpe on Wanderlust, the opener of album number four. It is a moment that defines just how much Wild Beasts have become their own animal.

Present Tense is an album not simply recorded but meticulously planned and crafted. Rather than simply going into the studio to record songs as they apparently did on their previous albums, here the band started by planning out the songs and the album like a strategy. Pieces were assembled on computers first and they abandoned concerns about pre-defined roles within the band in terms of the instruments they played - anyone could contribute whatever they wanted. It sounds like a dangerous game that cold lead to a cold and clinical album, but the result is anything but.

As the first single from Present Tense much has been made of the baiting of an unnamed British band's attempts to Americanise their sound (it's not label mates the Arctic Monkeys apparently) but to focus on the target of the barbs perhaps misses the point... Wanderlust also has Thorpe delivering the line "It's a feeling that I've come to trust". The point is that this is a band confident in their own path, and the two lines highlighted here attest to that. Self-acceptance is key.

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Present Tense - Wild Beasts

This album is a much more heavily produced one than any of their previous, with co-producers Lexx and Brian Eno protégé Leo Abrahams helping to grant the band more focus and confidence. It is overtly more electronic than anything else they have released and yet it comes without any cost when it comes to the effectiveness of the band themselves. They remain tight, in-sync and limber.

The songs are all just as athletic, lyrically tackling that growing confidence that often comes with masculine maturity, and Thorpe's vocals for the first time not over-playing their hand. In amongst the warmer electronics and restrained playing he feels more at home, less flamboyant. A baritone vocal delivery on Nature Boy add an element of malice whilst that trademark Thorpe falsetto provides a emotional femininity on tracks like the confessional album closer Palace.

And it can't really be overstated - the production work just glitters. An elastic bouncing rhythm on A Dog's Life punctuating the words "So throw the ball up into space...", a line otherwise delivered in near silence. It is a moment delivered seconds prior to a crescendo of synthesizers. The final quarter of Sweet Spot (posted recently here) still makes the hairs on your arms stand up, a series of clean harmonic synth chords stab through the song clinically and beautifully... The kind of moment you wish would never end.

Present Tense is a considerable achievement - it easily represents the best work the band have released and it does so with confidence. This is a band that have figured out what they are doing and appear to know they are good at it.

Present Tense is out now on Domino, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links]. Listen to Wanderlust on Spotify:

Stream: Flashed (prod. by Erlend Øye) - D E N A

Perfect for your end of the week lazy vibes, this new single is taken from DENA's debut album Flash, due through Normal Surround / !K7 on 11 March. In German youth culture 'flashed' apparently means you're into something, and that is what gives the track it's upbeat and playful style.

The production work comes from Erlend Øye, of Whitest Boy Alive / Kings of Convenience fame and they is an unmistakable hint of Scandinavian cool present here. Consider me flashed.

DENA - Flashed (prod. by Erlend Øye) Written by Denitza Todorova Produced by Erlend Øye and Jonas Verwijnen at Kaiku Studios Berlin Guitar by Erlend Øye From the debut album "FLASH" / out on March 10th 2014 via Normal Surround / !K7 Pre-Order "FLASH" here: iTunes: georiot.co/4Dou Amazon: georiot.co/2U7c