The Radio Dept. - Heaven’s on fire (song)
The Radio Dept. with each release… not stay the same… not get better… But - stay very likable, and among the all-time favorites. With their warmth, plush and a bit of raggedness. These Swedes complete the line of simple joys: staring out of the window, holding a cup of hot tea. Heaven’s On Fire is an airy song, holding onto the thin piano threads, with shoegaze-shabby sound, not so easy to understand lyrics.
It seems like everyone you know is on your side – constantly moving against the tide
And the beginning sounds quite socially active: “People see rock’n'roll as youth culture. When youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do? Do you have any idea? I think we should destroy the bogus copious process that is destroying youth culture.”
This is the music that pretends to be written by a friend of yours, when you listen to it for the first time, it seems that you’ve known it for a long long while.
Waiting for the album, Clinging To A Scheme, due out in April 2010.
Eric Berglund and Henning Fürs have been silent for a long while, and here comes a little, but intense release, Prison Break EP. Six remixes - all of them highly addictive, in the Tough Alliance manner, with enhanced danceability. One of the tracks is a mashup of an old TTA “First Class Riot” with a newer (but not really new) “A Touch of Jules & Jim” by jj. The rest are a number of disruptive remixes of “Neo Violence” (who would have thought?) - by Laidback Luke, Shazam and Woolfy, “First Class Riot” remixed by El Guincho and “A New Chance” by Juan Maclean.
Volker Berterlmann (a.k.a. Hauschka), a pianist and composer from Dusseldorf, is the most talented composers of today. His every work, be that LP or EP, makes my universe a bit more balanced and good. This 5-track, 3” will refine your life for fifteen minutes of its length. Released on a small Italian label Secret Furry Hole Recordings, the mini-masterpiece Small Pieces is a practically non-prepared piano sketches. The number of copies is limited to 300. Very much like photos or postcards sent from a journey - without any general sightseeing wonders, but instead with a deep insight into small episodes of local life.
Fuck Buttons are definite followers of the new noisy stream in music started most prominently by Animal Collective. (At the same time, they’re pretty close to Mogwai.) Noisy, wild, the rhythm is the king. It’s drawing you inside, it’s pressing heavily on you, aggressively and animalistically. The sophomore album of these Londoners is more convincing than their debut. There’s this feeling of stretched rubber all through the album. Wilder Surf Solar, metallic Rough Steez, epic Olympians. Rough Steez clanks with steel like a pretty big factory, The Lisbon Maru jingles with coins in a gypsy-like manner, then building up with the military drumroll the pathos before Olympians - the warrior theme there goes all the way. Fantom Limb creates a total spin of spare parts, engines and metal things.
New album by Canadian indie-rockers Islands is a definite joy. Easy but not airy, cheerful but not too noisy. On their third LP we’ll notice the return of the drummer J’aime Tambeur (who wasn’t there on the second album). By the way, compared to their sophomore Arm’s Way (2008), Vapours sound more joyful (and, hence, less gloomy). In general, the sound can hardly be called indie anymore - when a whole cohort of bands and artists follow the route of guitar-and-electronic sounds. Still, Nick Thorburn and co maybe can’t be called unique, but they’re surely not stealing anything. Disarming the Car Bomb, On Foreigner, Switched On - these tracks and more make you listen in. Attractive rhythms, energetically saturated guitars and decent lyrics - all this is not far-fetched, but genuine and organic. Not boring at all.
