1990s leftfield rock updated for the 21st century

It’s not so long ago that bands like Ten Kens were classified by the media as “math rock”, their complex rhythmic interplay, angular song structures and insistence that music fans still have brains apparently consigning them to the nerd’s corner of the musical playground. But while this Toronto four-piece employ many of the same tricks that the likes of Slint and Chavez  exploited in the early 90s, they’ve fortunately messed with the formulae, throwing in healthy doses of hardcore, post-punk and even goth. This ensures that, even though at times they’re in danger of sounding dated, they still remain excitingly challenging.

The Ting Tings - Hands (Low Sunday Remix) - download here

DIY-popcore outfit The Ting Tings have had a busy two years—touring endlessly, tearing up soundtracks, and stacking accolades for their multi-million-selling debut. For mere humans, this would warrant a break. For The Ting Tings, this means holing up in a fairy-lit Berlin studio until they found a new sound. “Hands” is the first taste of their record to come, and Low Sunday’s rinse is a sugary club-slayer—monstrously danceable, churning and swishing around the refrain, “Clap your hands if you’re working too hard!” No rest for the wicked here.

Broken Social Scene - All To All (Skeet Skeet Remix) - download here

For the past few weeks, revered Canadian indie army Broken Social Scene has been unloading free versions of their new single, “All To All,” and this airily voiced, sharp beated pass from LA DJ Skeet Skeet is the next in line. Grab the previous two—from Sebastien Graniger and djmomjeans aka Danny Masterson—and the still to come rest right here. BSS’s Forgiveness Rock Record is out now via Arts&Crafts.

Melds the approaches of Hercules and Love Affair and Fever Ray

The commercial success of Lady Gaga  hasn’t so much as put a dent in electronic pop’s 21st century cool quotient, as young wannabes continue to hanker for a rose-tinted 1980-82, when guitars were dismissed as “rockist”, every local disco wanted to be Studio 54 or The Blitz, and Bowie and Roxy Music fans in heavy make-up and glamour threads stood motionless behind keyboards, being vampy, campy and elegantly existential.

Tickets for the Autumn Arena tour from Faithless are released on Friday but you can buy them here now.

30th Nov 2010 Bournemouth BIC
1st Dec 2010 Cardiff CIA
3rd Dec 2010 Nottingham Arena
4th Dec 2010 Manchester MEN
6th Dec 2010 Newcastle Metroradio Arena
7th Dec 2010 Glasgow SECC
8th Dec 2010 Sheffield Motorpoint Arena
10th Dec 2010 Birmingham NIA
11th Dec 2010 London O2 Arena

A more playful, relaxed listen than its predecessor

On Eels’ ninth album, Mark ‘E’ Oliver Everett explores many of the themes that have long cropped up throughout his oeuvre, from loneliness through the idea of what it is to be happy – a loving relationship? Artistry? – to his lyrical staple of birds. Album highlight and first song proper here is entitled I’m a Hummingbird, and comes over like a loose cousin of his last record’s Little Bird, except that where Everett was formerly dejected and alone, here he casts himself the bird, “beautiful and free.” Over arcing strings he considers “all the seconds and the minutes… The years of my life,” declaring that “It was all worth it, to be here now”.

Manic Street Preachers - I’m Leaving You For Solitude - download here

Weariness can sound alluring if it's earned. Who knew? Manic Street Preachers continue to gear up for the arrival of their tenth studio album Postcards From A Young Man by leaking this brand new non-album track. “I’m Leaving You For Solitude” sounds the work of sweat-chasing stalwarts, James Dean Bradfield's voice imbued with a maturity matched only by the hard-working thwack of Sean Moore's drums.

Violens - Another Strike Restrained (Sadguitarius Remix) - download here

This remix by Sadguitarius aka Ben Goldwasser of MGMT appears on Violens’ Summer 2010 Mixtape, a compendium of goth/gaze classics and newer related jams the band released to drum up anticipation for their debut LP, Amoral. It slides in comfortably between MGMT’s now-overt acid weirdness and Violens’ mid-eighties England fascination—an updated, fashion-less take on rainy day drama-rock.

Regularly takes flight and carries your heart heavenwards

With Mr. Scruff, Flying Lotus and Theo Parrish all having enlisted her services recently, Andreya Triana is currently challenging Alice Russell  as the go-to girl for leftfield beats producers searching for a female vocal. The Russell comparison actually doesn’t bear much weight beyond the company they keep – Triana’s voice being a more languid instrument than Russell’s booming pipes – yet it’s enough to have presented her with a similar problem to her fellow Brighton-based soul sister. Namely, how to make the transition from valued guest to fully-fledged solo star.

Unpretentious, delicate tunes from Radiohead’s sticksman

Guaranteed worldwide coverage because of his day job as Radiohead’s drummer and signed to Bella Union, a UK indie label currently at the top of its game, Phil Selway is in an enviable position. It’s hard not to wonder what his fate might be were he not part of one of the world’s most successful rock bands, however. Singer-songwriters serving up softly spoken whimsy aren’t exactly in short supply, after all, and Familial certainly breaks few boundaries. In fact, even the most fervent of Radiohead fans might lack the patience to get excited about this humble collection. But therein lies its charm.

9th album finds the trio playing to established strengths

The UK has never embraced the Goo Goo Dolls as readily as the US. The New York trio’s biggest hit, 1998’s Iris, topped the Billboard chart but only limped to number 50 here. It took Ronan Keating, of all people, to make it a hit – the Boyzone singer’s version peaked at 12 in 2006, but was also his first single to not break the top 10. Suffice to say the multi-million-selling pop-rockers aren’t regulars on too many Brits’ personal playlists.

Free Gigs W/C 23rd August

Rough Trade East In-store - details

NEIL HAMBURGER - Thursday 26th August, 3pm
TAME IMPALA - Monday 30th August, 7pm
NEON INDIAN - Tuesday 31st August, 7pm
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - Wednesday 1st September, 7pm

The ultimate headphones album

As the drummer for the alt-folk success story of the last few years, Bon Iver, Sean Carey (here abbreviated to an initial) has little in his performing career to suggest that he would be capable of making a record so rewarding as this. We perhaps shouldn’t be too surprised, though, looking at his past form. He wasn’t involved in the recording of Bon Iver’s massive For Emma Forever Ago, and was previously a percussionist with a jazz bent and academic musical training. It’s those influences that shine through the whole of All We Grow rather than any rootsy Americana and, far from rendering the whole thing a cold study, they simply inform and improve the hearty material he’s created.

Shows he can still bring the funnies

If you’ve attended one of his live shows, you will already be aware that Chilly Gonzales – the Canadian-born major label rocker turned lounge-pop Lothario, ‘pranksta’ rapper and skilled solo pianist – is one of the most flat-out entertaining performers presently walking the boards. What Gonzales has always struggled with, however, is turning the sweaty anarchy, garrulous wordplay and virtuosic classical piano of his concerts into something that works coherently on record. 2004’s Solo Piano worked beautifully, albeit by excising the clowning altogether. 2008’s 70s soft rock-inspired Soft Power, meanwhile, was conceptually brilliant, but apparently proved too oddball for a UK record company to take a punt on – and what is an entertainer without his audience?

Maximum Balloon - Groove Me (feat. Theophilus London) (Jneiro Jarel Remix) - download here

Goldfrapp - Believer (Little Loud Remix) - download here

Raekwon - Travel Places - download here

Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep (Instrumental) - download here

Egyptian Hip Hop - Middle Name Period - download here

Flowers And Sea Creatures - At Night - download here

Eternal Summers - Pogo - download here

Mighty Scottish instrumentalists recorded live in Brooklyn

It’s mildly surprising to realise that Special Moves is the first live album Mogwai have released in their 14-year lifespan, discounting radio session collection Government Commissions. Certainly, much of the reputation they garnered back in the late 90s, when they were a youthful squad of Glaswegian miscreants, was based on their live performances, and people’s hyperbolic reports thereafter. What they lacked in spectacle and overt charisma (they’re not a band given to a flamboyant stage show, and most of their songs are instrumental) was more than made up for by their tendency to be incredibly loud; there were tales of spectators literally bleeding from their ears. In more recent years, the musical dynamic that many associated with them – the quiet, delicate build-up usurped by a sudden explosion of metallic chaos – has often been set aside, perhaps due to a fear of becoming formulaic. Nevertheless, it’s very much a part of Special Moves, which was recorded over three dates in Brooklyn last year.

A wild yet charming soundtrack

Spoiler of sorts: when you go to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (and you really should – it’s one of the most riotously fun, singularly bizarre blockbusters of recent summers), be sure to pack earplugs. The Edgar Wright-directed adaptation of the graphic novel series is one of the loudest films I’ve seen/heard in years. The fight scenes aren’t short and sharp because the special effects budget couldn’t stretch to any more flaming techno dragons or telekinetic ridiculousness; they’re brief because if they went on any longer every inner ear in the audience would explode.