New Single Release

Back Ted N-Ted - The Mirror

You might not be aware of Back Ted N-Ted. He does not even have a dedicated page on Wikipedia which is rare for modern bands and artists, especially when they are better than bad. Nor does he have a regularly maintained Myspace page. Either Mr Back Ted N-Ted (Ryan Breen) is a bit lazy, he is going for an underground fan base OR he is just enjoying making music and that is the sole reason that he does.

The Mirror, out now, is Ryan Breen’s first real commercial LP but shows few signs of inexperience. That will probably be down to Breen’s vast producing experience. Breen spent almost ten years producing music but without singing as he had a kind of fear of it. Why he ever feared using his accomplished, multi-faceted voice is beyond me. He sounds great on The Mirror. The track is not necessarily groundbreaking but you can really hear his producing experience coming through. It all sounds very good. Breen is not just a favourable producer though; he is also a talented lyricist which makes for an extremely catchy and accomplished first LP.
The Mirror gets a 10 out of 10 from me!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

 

I'm watching the film for the second time now. I don't think I saw all of it the first time, just bits but I remember it being a very very good film.

If you don't know the five-oscar-winning film, it stars Jack Nicholson with appearances from the likes of Danny DeVito (who is awesome) and Louise Fletcher (bitch?). 

The film is about a guy who is committed to a mental hospital because of a number of violent altercations which he (Randle Patrick McMurphy) explains were just fights. He also had sex with a 15 year old girl who had told him she was 18 (fair enough?). 

Anyway, Nicholson is a bit of a, let's say, 'rebel' *chortle* and he causes one hell of a ruckus. Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher will not allow the patients to do anything which varies from their daily routine that she has decided on. She plays classical music overly loudly so that the men cannot talk to one and other without shouting and she seems to want to prevent them from doing anything normal. For example, she stops them from watching a game of baseball, even though McMurphy (JN) manages to get 10 out of the 18 patients to vote 'yes' to watch the game.

Overall, it's a funny, touching and enlightening film about the way people are or were treated in this type of institution until the Mental Health Reform in 1983. Jack Nicholson is amazing as usual. I would enjoy any film he is in but One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of his best.

Just about to watch The Hills Have Eyes: 2, but I doubt it will live up to OFOTCN.

Tallest Trees - Ostrich or the Lark

Record Label: other-electricities

  Release Date: 17/8/2010 (original source: soundblab)

Tallest Trees are a duo, consisting of Thomas 'Trees' Samuel and Dabney 'Voice' Morris who reign from Nashville, Tennessee; the birthplace of rock and roll. Such luminaries as Elvis Presley and Hank Williams Sr. came from this musical hot-bed. However, if 'Jail House Rock' is what you are expecting, you would be closer if you imagine further west, to Roswell, the place where a UFO supposedly crash-landed in 1947, because it is quite alien. Their music does not come from any particular traditional music genre; you could say it is a malaise of guitar music and keyboard music of the eighties.

Lead singer, Dabney Morris, has such a listenable singing voice that it is a shame it is not heard more often on the album. A 50/50 mix of instrumental to voice would have been more welcome to me but I have always been attracted to bands with great singers. Those of you who are more interested in the instrumental sound of music will probably love Ostrich or the Lark. Nevertheless, it can be an enjoyable album for most.

I must say, 'Skinny Little Wrists' is my favourite track on the whole album. It really makes use of Dabney Morris' voice and its harmonies and enchanting lyrics tempt you to look towards the skies and ponder the delights of music. Maybe it is more of what I and most of us are used to so we cannot blame Tallest Trees from seemingly experimenting with a lot of their album. You could say that the majority of the Ostrich or the Lark record is a proposition to music lovers, asking, 'have you ever thought about the possibility of this?'

Considering Tallest Trees' experimental character, it might only be possible to fully appreciate their inventiveness by seeing them live. From seeing the video for their track, 'Learn', you see how they put on a visual display and obviously that will not come across the same when you are only listening. It does tell us though that Tallest Trees are trying to create wonderful, colourful images in our head when we listen to their music and if you open your heart and ears and give Ostrich or the Lark time, you will see those wonderful colours.

The Morning Benders - Big Echo

Record Label: Rough Trade Records

Release Date: 9/8/2010

(original source)

The Morning Benders album, ‘Big Echo’ could not have reached me along those electronic mail pathways at a more welcome time. ‘Tis a dainty, breeze-laden august evening as I listen to The Morning Benders’ guitars ejaculating wave after wave of sound.

The Mind Benders are a four-piece consisting of, Christopher Chu on vocals and guitar, Jonathan Chu on guitar, Julian Harmon on drums and Tim Or on bass. It fails to surprise, after hearing the first few seconds of their album, that they reign from California. However this does not mean that they follow any long-since-dead west coast American trend.

The album’s name, Big Echo, is based on a Zen proverb: ‘Shouting in to a valley. Big shout: big echo. Small shout: small echo’. So it seems that The Morning Benders see their second album as a big shout to music fans out there or maybe they are shouting out in pain or joy. ‘The title Big Echo sums up what we’re doing sonically and textually,’ says singer, lyricist and songwriter, Christopher Chu. ‘The idea was to take sounds from all different eras and all different kinds of music, throw them together, and see how they sound bouncing off each other. Throw it all into an echo chamber. Thematically, there’s a lot of pondering about time, the span of your life and how your perspective fits into everyone else’s. It explores the idea of your memories as echoes that are always inside you, creating these frequencies that become your soul.’

Moreover, singer, Christopher Chu, has the sonic attributes of Brian Wilson, previously of The Beach Boys, but he does not have the same anguish in his voice. Nevertheless, The Morning Benders are good enough to escape any accusations that they might lack originality. Any similarity they have to other west coast bands stems from inspiration and that alone.

On this occasion, you can really see how living in a beautiful, warm and sun-bathed environment can breed an equally beautiful blend of music. You can see the light glinting off the gentle waves in their wind chimes. In contrast, the regularly cloudy skies of England have rarely inspired such engaging imagery since Morrissey sang, ‘the rain falls hard on a humdrum town, this town has dragged you down’, in The Smith’s, ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’, in 1984.

The opening track of the album, ‘Excuses’, begins in a magical way with high pitched guitars (courtesy of Jonathan Chu) reminiscent of Willy Wonka’s ‘Oompa’ whistle from the film, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. But then, wistful violins are introduced and romantic harmonies ensue. It is a gentle introduction to the album and only after several listens do you realise how ‘old fashioned’ some of its features are. The lyrics in between the ‘dum dum dum’ harmonies are difficult to decipher but it is a wonderfully disorientating wall of sound that you are presented with.

‘Wet Cement’ is an instant hit with me as it reminds me of Bart Simpson’s love of skating over wet cement in the cult US sit-com, ‘The Simpsons’. Christopher Chu’s voice would comfort any broken heart. Wet Cement is about meeting someone and seemingly setting your memories together in stone and the associations that you forge together over time. Christopher Chu sounds a lot like Conor Deasy of The Thrills in this one. Whether The Thrills were one of The Morning Benders’ influences or the similarity is simply because they were both inspired by California is not clear.

As soon as, ‘Cold War’ kicked in, I thought my iTunes library had skipped to, ‘That’s Entertainment’, by The Jam. However, it is just a promise that The Morning Benders are no one trick ponies. Not all of Big Echo is gleefully harmonic; Cold War shows that this four-piece can write decent foot-tapping tunes as well.

Big Echo is a delightful album to listen to. Its sun-kissed, natural tones will warm your heart and ears like the warm Pacific Ocean. You can almost imagine that this collection of harmonies might have been lost at sea in the 1960’s and washed up on a shore somewhere far away. It is impressive that Big Echo is only The Morning Benders’ second album. It seems that they are a band who value quality and strive to put all of their best creative and musical talent in to each piece of music that they create. Either that or they have just struck musical gold.

YOU! To Disappear

YOU! are a Parisien duo consisting of Romuald Boivin composing and the voice of José Reis Fontao who are signed to Kuskus/ Discograph. They release their debut album this summer, also named, YOU! You could say it is all about YOU! And after listening to their single, ‘To Disappear’, it does seem that it might be all about these French fancies.

The song commences with a guitar riff worthy of Kings of Leon but something less obvious. There is also a beat that creeps in like an unexpected dumping but less painfully. Before you know it you hear a mixture of harking guitars and modern drum beats, which bring two genres of music together to create something like, ‘Indie-electro’. It is somewhat derogatory, however, to attempt to constrain this song to a genre, especially as it is not immediately easy to do so.

‘...the real star of To Disappear is José Fontao’s emotive voice...’

Despite the guitars and beats, the real star of To Disappear is José Fontao’s emotive voice that reminds me of Damon Albarn’s voice in several of his songs with ‘Gorillaz’. Fontao has the same simple, heart-breaking quality in his voice. His words seem slicked with a beautiful hurt.

To Disappear breeds much excitement for things to come from this Parisien duo and I have no doubt that YOU!’s debut album will live up to that. Catch them while you can!