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In Reverie: A Week with the Microdance

‘I’m in the best fucking band in London.’
Alex Keevill and I have known each other as physical beings for all of five minutes. We’re at King’s Cross Station where I’ve just come in on a train from Brussels for the last leg of my holiday. When my original plans for accommodation fell through, Alex offered me a roof, bed and kettle for my week in London.
He’s not being ironic when he makes the announcement. Alex genuinely believes that the Microdance are the best fucking band in London. Me, I refuse to give him the satisfaction of acknowledging anyone in this strange new town knows the Microdance at all.

We’ve ditched my stuff at the flat and found ourselves in a bar in Dalston on my first afternoon in the city. The girl behind the counter appears to be mildly hysterical and I can’t understand why. She bursts into giggles every time she looks at Alex.
It all started when she asked him: ‘Aren’t you…?’
‘Aren’t I what…?’ he asked back.
I didn’t hear her speak after that. All I saw were smiles and uncontrollable giggling.
‘What’s all that about?’ I ask him.
‘She knows me from the Microdance.’
‘So?’
‘So I’m Alex Keevill of the fucking Microdance!’
‘…so?’
‘So I bet she’ll give me a blowjob.’
‘I’ll go wait by the door.’

—-

TMD’s fifth EP – Yo Yo @ 26 – released this May to a daft amount of online publicity. It could be something to do with In At The Eye Records (their label – always useful to have one of those), or it could be something to do with how music blogs the world over seem to have the mad hots for them; this one wants to be them.

‘Yo Yo @ 26’ – the A-side – is a brazenly good track that, for its obvious brilliance, I very, very reluctantly love. Less song and more sonic tasting platter, it positively bursts with (a selection of…) disarming hooks. Good luck choosing a favourite moment.

My heart, however, is set on the B-side – ‘Devour’ is the warmest, fuzziest, breathiest, and possibly darkest, track they have. All introspection, acceptance, angst, and a little bit of sadness – I probably find myself in it.

—-

errybody look down

‘What you hear of us online is not wholly representative of the power of this band. Of course there’s enough there to get a feel for us but the recordings are all compromised for a variety of reasons. But I think time is the biggest one. We’re recording seven minute songs with dual guitars (and the rest!), synths and vocal harmonies in six hours! I’m by no means a natural singer; kind of like Deftones’ Chino isn’t. The difference being that he gets a month to do his vocals, I get an hour! That is also indicative of how the industry is changing. We’ll get there though’

—-

A couple of days later I’m sat on the floor surrounded by five pairs of legs at the Microdance’s rehearsal space on the north end of Brick Lane. Alex doesn’t allow me to melt into the wall, so I take a spot by Gavin’s feet, mesmerised by his pedal board. They do two run-throughs of the set they’ll be playing at the end of the week, cutting off ‘Devour’s feet so it can segue into ‘Goodbye Lily Laser’. The two blend flawlessly, but I’m not too happy about my pet being mistreated. Lily Laser then morphs into the noise fest that will close the set – a nameless monster affectionately called ‘Death Jam’.

I play them a video recording of their ‘performance’. Gavin says something about not realising they were that loud. It’s nonsense. Nothing’s loud to willing ears.

—-

‘I never played you my old bedroom recordings.’

We’re back home and Alex is mucking about with his laptop. He plays a track studded with the natural fuzz of isolation and echoes. It’s layered and textured and lonesome, with a burst of stark guitar. Before I can get a word out:

‘How great is that, eh? I wrote that when I was 22.’
‘It’s great.’ I parrot.
‘It’s that guitar, right? I mean just listen to it!’
He replays the solo. Then he tempers his statement.
‘I don’t play guitar as well as I used to, though. I haven’t played the guitar well for years now.’

Self-deprecation isn’t any more credible than self-aggrandisation. At the rehearsal I’d sat bewitched by song after seamless song punctuated by Alex calling himself and everyone else out on inaudible errors. Right now, he appears to be nothing but entirely honest and all I can do is wonder what ‘well’ sounds like.

There are more demos – demos that have been lying in wait for years. Demos that were recorded yesterday. ‘I wrote a new song!’ he declares every other day, and he plays it on the electric with elation so palpable it makes the room a little bit warmer. It’s always exceptional and it’s always frustrating because he already knows.

—-

‘It changed my life,’ he’s explaining the story behind his side project. ‘my own ideas of self-worth. Before it happened, I thought I was god. After, it was endless days of anxiety, self-doubt and fear.
‘Affirmative meditation has really helped me out. It’s basically just me reminding myself what an awesome bastard I am.’
‘That’s better than having drugs do it for you,’ I concede, understanding the philosophy behind the mantra.
‘It’s the reason I created Captain Keevill and his Darkest Horses. The songs that came out of it were too dark for the Microdance.’

It’s true. While The Microdance aren’t quite the shimmery twee-pop the name might lead you to expect, their songs are extroverted, audacious and sticky – the life of any party. CK + HDH would falter in a crowd but radiate eloquence when left alone. They’re not too keen on being at the party.

—-

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London is really tough on a band like us. On our day we give people no chance but to succumb, we overwhelm them and thankfully that is more regular now! But if we’re 20% off our game or the sound in the venue is not up to it, trying to convey this art, which is perhaps a little more complex and profound than what people are used to, can be very difficult – it gets lost on a lot of people. It’s not easy being in a band whose music is about flourishes of spirit and unexpected turns when the appreciation of music these days is largely based on expectation.

—-

We’re at the King’s Head Theatre where Adam Spreadbury-Maher has put together a spectacular production of A Tale of Two Cities. ‘Yo Yo @ 26’ and ‘We Are Made of Evil Things’ fill the room at curtain call. Alex introduces me to Carla – his friend and cousin – who asks me how I’m finding London.

‘It’s like any other city…’ I begin, tactlessly.
She’s not having it. She tells me there’s no other place like it in the world. She explains its culture and personality. She tells me London is beautiful.

Cities are never beautiful, but I don’t say that out loud. Cities are, by their very nature, ugly – loaded with crime, deceit, addiction, xenophobia and violence. Some cities are just better at putting up a front than others. London, I have no doubt, is as ugly as any other city in the world.
But I remedy my mistake and truthfully say I’ve loved everyone I’ve met.

—-

It’s my last evening in London. Bridget‘s come over with her pup, Eugene. Bridget is ex-Microdance and currently the other half of Captain Keevill and his Darkest Horses. We turn the lights down and they start to play. Eugene has sprawled himself across my lap, his head buried between my legs. I like to believe he senses my melancholy, though it’s more likely he’s found a willing slave to scratch his head. Bridget blows him kisses mid-song. The moon is full, and the sky uncharacteristically cloudless.

I think about what Carla said the night before and I find myself believing it.

In this moment – in tremolo evenings and lamplight – London is beautiful.

I think about what Alex said on my very first day, and, incredibly, I can believe that too.

The Microdance are the best fucking band in London.

—-

Listen/Buy | SoundCloud/BandCamp

No really, BUY MORE MUSIC

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this is not a review: m b v

Three seconds in and I’m really angry with the new My Bloody Valentine record.

You don’t know why because I, surprisingly, did NOT immediately spit my angst out on twitter. I didn’t want to dampen everyone’s elevated spirits. The one tweet that did go out was:

‘Scott Walker‘ was the sole response, and immediately disqualified on the grounds of not actually being a band. The remaining angst (at all the hype) and disappointment (trending is the new selling out?) was sublimated into these two socially acceptable fellas:

The message that I was trying to politically correctedly squeeze out was that we’re all acting like MBV is the first raincloud we’ve seen after a 20 year drought, which seems grossly unfair to all those bands that have been working on keeping the sound and the scene alive in that time.

In any case, MBV is only the most severely replicated band we have. A newcomer to the scene could be forgiven for imagining the band is the embodiment of a generic shoegaze sound; that the style has no nuances or subtypes. MBV is shoegaze and is indistinguishable from Slowdive or The Telescopes. Why, anyone with a bit of fuzz on their guitar sounds like MBV, right?

Of course not. That’s a filler statement in a music review. It only holds true for a handful of bands. Secret Shine, the most blatant, Fleeting Joys, the most dedicated, and Ringo Deathstarr, the most successful.

It’s been twenty years, and I know I have moved on to more evolved forms of shoegaze. I get excited about a new Alcest album because I don’t know anyone else who can blend raging black metal guitars, with serene vocals, to create a landscape so vivid you can see it. I (would) get excited about a new [The] Slowest Runner [In All The World] album, because I’ve never known a sound like neo-classical warehouse post-rock. I get excited about The Radio Dept and Me You Us Them and A Place To Bury Strangers and even the Telescopes because I don’t have anyone else to turn to for a fix.

For 20 years, MBV has been all around me in the form of homages, rip-offs, and influencees.

Three seconds in, I was really angry with the new MBV record. I understood the excitement – maybe I felt it too? I understood there was only one MBV, and the sounds was irreproducible. I understood that the bands working in the interim were too many, too tiny to be able to compete. I understood I may be the only one who’d moved on to embrace Butterfly Explosion, Tears Run Rings, A Place To Bury Strangers, Airiel, Echodrone, Hammock, Amusement Parks on Fire, Highspire, God Is An Astronaut and countless more.

And in the midst of all this understanding, I realised the new MBV album means nothing to any of us if you think about what it would have meant to Danny.

Danny Lackey isn’t here for the release of m b v, but more than any of us he deserves to have heard it. Rather, it deserves to have been heard by him. So while you’re listening to m b v, take a moment, or 46 minutes and 29 seconds, and listen to it for Danny. Then go a step further and prove your dedication to the music, its makers, and the scene.

http://fundfordannylackey.bandcamp.com/

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St. Marie Records Rampage: Drowner

The last of the Rampages! The Grand Finahlay as a non-francophone might call it.

However, I’ll have you know Anna Bouchard of Drowner IS a francophone. Something I discovered quite unexpectedly on twitter while I was subjecting my poor, unsuspecting followers to a barrage of pidgin French transmissions in the interest of ‘practice’. Sometimes I wonder how many twitterers are dejectedly shaking their heads at me and my simplistic French phrases. I don’t think Anna is one of them. In fact, she helped me settle on ‘tous les jours’ instead of ‘toujours’ for ‘everyday’ and then even understood the questions I asked her immediately after.

I interviewed Darren and Anna almost exactly a year ago. At the time I was introduced to the band as a two-piece consisting of Darren and Anna. When I spoke to Anna about this feature she spilled the beans (were they not meant to be spilled?) and revealed that six people constituted Drowner. I visit their tumblr and the number there stands at three. The Twitter bio says four. Since the only number between two and six that hasn’t shown up is  five, I’m going to assume that is how big Drowner really is.

At the time of the interview I also made the observation that Drowner sound a lot bigger than you expect them to considering they’re just two people. If there ARE, in fact, five (or six), then I’d like to amend that statement to say they actually sound a lot lighter than the cacophony that I’d re-conditioned myself to expect. I don’t know why I thought that more people would mean more noise. And sure, there is noise, but it’s understated and Anna’s voice usually winds up on top – it’s like a blade it just cuts through the sounds beneath it. It’s not the cloudy voice – the kind so suited for sparkly music. And it’s (obviously) not a baritone, the likes of which would blend with the bassline on a rigid post-punk inspired track. It’s confident and sits solidly, visible on the sonic cushion beneath it.

The EP they released last year is now a full-length with the same name, the same art, but two fewer letter (E and P). You can listen to it on Bandcamp.

And with that, I’m going to wrap up the SMR Rampage. You know, if I was a normal person I would have wrapped this up in a week (7 posts, innit?), instead of two months.

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St. Marie Records Rampage: The Patience

I hadn’t listened to The Patience before I spoke to Wyatt aka St. Marie Records about the bands I should include in this feature. Now I have and I’m wondering why no one apart from SMR had pushed me in their direction sooner.

It could be because they don’t have a steady sound. I’m working here on the basis of the two EPs they put out within six months of each other – separately but together – The Sun Is Always Pt. I and The Sun Is Always Pt. II. I wish I had had the chance to ask why they didn’t just wait a bit and put out the one especially since there’s no sign of a physical release to make it a collectible. It could be that they’re realists who are aware of how easily distracted internet listeners are. It’s wiser to put out a few small releases a year (less commitment on the part of the listener + less chance of falling out of an audience’s collective memory) than one or two biggies (longer download/stream time, more commitment required from the listener + greater odds that a lot of them will go ‘who?’).

‘Space Farewell’ – the first song on the first EP couldn’t have a more apt name. It’s about five different styles of song in one and fiercely reminiscent of the Nineties.  Just what part of the Nineties it is reminiscent of, I can’t place, but I can tell you that it’s not the shoegaze bits. The song isn’t exactly what you’d call simple in structure – its pop base is interrupted by sounds from outer-space whose alienness is only heightened by the patient voice with HALlike  intonation talking down to you.

‘I’m Going’, the track that follows, is barely anything like its predecessor. This is your standard Slowdive-tinted shoegaze – but the later one – the one that uses pauses, false percussion, loops and echoes. It’s Pygmalion all over the place – some sounds from ‘Rutti’, some from ‘Crazy for Love’ and some from ‘Miranda’. The rest of the album might be in there as well. The title track that closes the EP, nicks a guitar line from The Who (or it could be I’ve been watching too much CSI), a mild vocal hook from A Storm in Heaven and glues it all together with percussion that throbs so violently it makes the track feel like a remix.

The opener on Part II is another runner. Can’t tell if that percussion is real or engineered but if ‘Moving Through The Echoes’ had feet, the drums are the sneakers pounding. ‘In Vain’ is a bonkers track compared to the others, with the possible exception of ‘Space Farewell’. If ‘Space Farewell’ is Dissociative Identity Disorder, ‘In Vain’ is Mania. Not bipolar disorder but all out mania. It’s energetic, overactive, and can’t stop talking at (AT!) you about itself until it tires itself out. Finalement, you’ve got ‘Solar Fields’ – the song to sleep to. Soft, drawn out vocals, endless pauses between beats, small little beepyboops, and your standard shimmery. sparkly, ethereal, <insert shoegazeadjective> waves of sound to cushion it all.

If all this sounds convincing, you know where you have to go to try and buy. Both albums are available on SMR’s Bandcamp for less that $3 apiece.

Voici: The Sun Is Always Part I.

Voilà: The Sun Is Always Part II.

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St Marie Records Rampage: The Sunshine Factory

Seriously now, what do you expect when you hear that name? The Sunshine Factory. Me, I expect bright, sunny – and given the album art – acid-laced exhilaration (I was going to say ‘ecstasy’ but that could be confusing).

They are joyful, you know. But they are not nauseatingly happy in the Katrina and the Waves sense. Sorry, I don’t exactly hate That Song, but there’s only that much positivity us normal folk can stand to have shoved in our faces. What makes ‘Walking on Sunshine’ (and its ilk) so excruciating is that it doesn’t share the happiness – it just flaunts itself without inviting the listener to bask in the same joy.

Of course we haven’t brought Katrina and the Waves into the picture for a musical comparison, but more to bring home the point as to how positivity is meant to be brought out in music. You have to really involve the listener – make him or her feel how you (the musician) are feeling. Instead of making a song for a listener to ‘use’ only in appropriate and/or unique circumstances where it can be most effectively ‘applied’ (that too to the individual alone), it is far more endearing to make a song that, more honestly, reflects your own experiences. That way, when we listen and nod in agreement, you can be assured we honestly sympathise with how you feel.

That’s the kind of sound The Sunshine Factory have –  they make introspective, but engaging neo-gaze, tinged with the sound of the classics, but still unmistakeably recent. Their album, Sugar, is very open, very honest and consequently, very  inviting. You’re not forced to echo the songs’ emotions, you’re not compelled to wait for a certain mood or ambience to set in before you listen. They make Anytime Music so it’s no wonder they’re such favourites within the Shoegaze Set. And it’s even less of a wonder St. Marie Records picked them up. Listen to Sugar on Bandcamp and try to tell me I’m wrong.

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St. Marie Records Rampage: The Spiracles

You know, I keep wondering if this should be called St. Marie Record Rampage, but that title throws me off, because the Proper Noun is plural, but with ‘rampage’ you should use the singular, so I am a bit befuddled and you are all just going to have to put up with the slightly shaky on the ears plural form.

Today I’m listening to the Spiracles. Do you remember Resplandor from a few years ago? Peruvian shoegazers caused quite a ruckus in their time with Pleamar which is now a classic in Gaze 2.0 circles. Any aglet-eater worth his or her salt had Resplandor on their Dream Lineup (together with the likes of Malory, Ariel, Highspire et al).

I’m not sure why I’m referring to Resplandor in the past tense. It may be because Luis Rodriguez, guitarist and songwriter for the band, is one of the two Spiracles I’m talking about. Don’t expect the breathy vox off Pleamar, because we’ve got Aracelli Fernandez doing the singing here. ‘Fireflies’ is the song to watch out for. They may have experience, yes, but for all practical purposes, The Spiracles are a new band, yet ‘Fireflies’ is overwhelmingly well-produced. I daresay, it’s so professionally presented its virtually pop music. There is nothing rough or jagged about it. It’s crisp, sleek and even has an expert video to match. The Spiracles have also gone and done the world a favour by reminding them ofThe Field Mice via their, admittedly a bit safe, version of ‘The End of the Affair.’

The EP  you’re meant to pick up has the tongue twisting title How Things Went Well When I Met You. Listen to these two tracks, a third called ‘Mercy’, and two mixes of ‘Fireflies’ (told you it was popular). If you are so intrigued or inclined, the St. Marie Records bandcamp page is the place to be.

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St. Marie Records Rampage: Elika

Elika are so quiet.

Outside of music that is.

I barely hear a peep from them.

Yet somehow they’ve turned out half a dozen records at the regular rate of one a year.

Yet somehow, even in shoegaze circles, they skulk quietly in corners. Not ignored as much as aloof. Appreciated by the similarly silent and elusive.

Even the music isn’t particularly obtrusive. It just sort of clears its throat and starts to speak. It’s got a voice like ‘Ray of Light’ era Madonna’s – a fact that most publicity for the band tries to avoid. Even their set-up isn’t particularly protuberant. What’s there? A laptop? a keybpard? Maybe a guitar? Two people? There aren’t any drums that’s already reduced the physical space they’d take up as a musical entity by 75%.

If only there was some way to be whispering this post. Whatever I say about Elika feels like interference in a private project. I fear they might come across this post and narrow their eyes at the interruption (soz!). I’m going to wrap up and slink out, but I think you need to hear the zen for yourself. Listen to Always The Light. It came out in March this year. It’s determined, but not bullheaded. Concentrated, but not heavy. Come to think of it, the lightness and simplicity of it all makes me wonder if, rather than being cross at me for so impertinently judging them, Elika would just ignore me altogether.

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St. Marie Records Rampage: bloody knives

Oh, St. Marie Records, your timing is impeccable. For those of you who were following XD Records while they were around, you probably know bloody knives from their time on the label. XD Records were as discerning as St. Marie Records are, so it’s no surprise that when the former folded, the latter came along and whipped up bloody knives before they could even hit the floor.

I know this sort of thing goes without saying, but bear with me. I am totes a bloody knifer. They make My Kind Of Music (M-KOM) – or one of My Kind of Musics. I don’t have many M-KOMs, but I love each one passionately enough to be convinced that there is no other M-KOM. Until one of the other M-KOMs shows up and again I pledge my undying allegiance etc. etc. But in all fairness there are only, like, three (3) that I cycle through.

If I’m not terribly wrong, their full-length blood is their first release on SMR. It’s not unlike their previous releases at all which is great because if it was it wouldn’t be M-KOM anymore. They call this kind of sound ‘industrial’ and they also call it ‘pop’ in the same breath. In addition, you’ll find tracks dappled with 8-bitty beepyboopies. Me, I love it because it’s NOISE! I love the lazy CBF vocals, I love how the synth tramples all over them – easily, because they’re obviously not going to put up a fight, and I love the how the percussion acts as the gruff sidekick to the hulking bully synths, poking its out from behind them just to make its presence felt. Far be it for me to support aggressive schoolyard behaviour but you know what they say about your first taste of blood (bad puns R us).

blood comes out today and you can pick it up from the SMR store. If you’d like to taste it before you buy it, you can do that over on SMR’s bandcamp. Also, do appreciate how consistently I maintain the desired lowercase letters across band name, album titles, and tracks. Makes it a bit difficult to pick out the proper nouns in a pile of text such as this, but maybe it’ll teach you to read more carefully.

Clench your jaw, grind your teeth, narrow your eyes and turn on bloody knives. This is what’s known as a best practice.

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St. Marie Records Rampage: Panda Riot

St. Marie Records have been lapping at the Fountain of Eternal Shoegaze for some time now and in the process managed to pick up some of the most – at the risk of sounding Hipster Runoff-y – relevant – bands around. One of those bands is Panda Riot.

It’s presumptuous of me, but since I’ve admired Panda Riot from afar, I was apologetically surprised to learn that they had signed on to SMR. I wanted to know how this had happened, so I did what any Normal Person would do when they want something – I asked. I got a response immediately and it turns out Wyatt, too, is a Normal Person. He wanted to sign Panda Riot on to his label, so he asked them.

You know – this is a life lesson I wish they’d taught me when I was still in school.

I believe the Serious Radical Girls EP is their first release on SMR. I’m having a ball listening to it. There’s only that much to say about it since it’s two and a half songs, so I have to play it on repeat but it’s a small price to pay.

I like how Panda Riot appeal to a conventionalist like me. I like how refreshing their sound is. Not refreshing like ‘oh here are some people doing this new unique thing no one has ever done before!’ I mean refreshing as in invigorating. At the same time the EP is also impossibly calming. Not Slowdive/Fauns/Tears Run Rings style calming – the noise-fragility balance is tilted too much in favour of noise to qualify. Calming, as in you don’t need to concentrate to listen to it. The complexities in the compositions are all intricacies you cannot and are not expected to pay attention to. I hear a bit of Ringo Deathstarr in the title track – contrary to popular belief this does not necessarily imply I hear My Bloody Valentine. In any case, the Imagine Hearts Ringo Deathstarr is nothing like the Sparkler Ringo Deathstarr and it’s the Imagine Hearts RD I hear. It’s the same delicate-but-firm female vox set against a backdrop of noise, but here the noise is less scrapey.

I wonder how many people reading this would imagine  ‘scrapey’ are negative adjectives to use when talking about curtains of sound in shoegaze…

It’s a funny, mathematical kind of EP. The title track you have to bounce about to a bit – it’s undeniably a mover. The next – and if you don’t have the SPC ECO bonus mix, last – track is inexplicably called ‘Golden Age Precursor’. I am all like ‘wtf is this precursing if it’s the last track, this band doesn’t make any sense…’ and then I find myself flat on my back on the Persian carpet and I’m wondering how I got there and why are all these stars around me.

The SPC ECO mix of ‘Serious Radical Girls’ is the sum of the first two. Do you want to dance to it? You can! Do you want to lie on your back and look at the stars in the sky or in your head? You can! Choices, choices, everywhere, and the entire EP only has three tracks on it!

The more I listen to Serious Radical Girls the more I feel like I must tell you to AT LEAST listen to it. I understand why, in these difficult economic times, you might be reluctant to buy it (but look! vinyl!), so if, based on what I say, you decide to give it 15 minutes of your time, I can say I have succeeded, and so have they.