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Four VERY different acts
with one thing in common
they are all brilliant independent artists!
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due to the fact that the NBT Flagship Podcast has left its old home and made a place for itself right here on WordPress a gentle archive movement has begun. Downloads only for the time being. Starting with the last show hosted by Libsyn and the 2010 Wonderful Ones Broadcast.
(right click and save as)
rare live recordings, cool covers, acoustic takes, specially recorded songs for the show
starring
Richard Kapp Bill Price Dark Lily, Sarathan/Two Loons for Tea, Danika Holmes Tokyo Rosenthal,
Richie Lawrence 88 Kilos Of Sunshine, Marco Mahler Frequency Theatre, Pollyanna Aaron English Small City Calling
Ripple Music Mach Fox Tori Sparks Ruth Minnikin Peter Doran Adventure Spirit
Rebecca Turner Bird Eats Baby Merry Ellen Kirk Carta Marina Elika
Legendary Ten Seconds iCON Orange One Count To Fire.
Read about the artists HERE
(right click and save as)
featuring:
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youcan SUBSCRIBE to the NBT Podcast audio HERE
Music manipulated
inspired and inspiring
the independent way
Read Reviews on these Artists on the NBT Blog
LadyTown and Jebediah Goodthrust
also featured on this show
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Electronic/experimental/darker
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Top Ten
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Dropping Down – Giulia Millanta (Ugly Cat Music)
It’s a brave thing indeed to start of a set with a song that has, as its main focus, Anger. It could set us up for angst perhaps or that
shouty kinda righteousness that some protest singers favour. But ‘Right Between The Eyes’ balances the singers (rage) disappointment with a restrained sort of energy, holding back when it needs to, letting a gentle folk even reggae mood drift though, but keeping the bite, the tension perfectly.
It’s because its personal. And that’s the album’s defining core, these songs come from the heart and the mind, what takes place is seen through the singers eyes, what is felt is what she feels, and oh she is curious, feisty, humorous, yet introspective. And she manages somehow to make that introspection blossom outwards so that we become emotionally attached to the words and music.
She sets the scene, and often that scene is surreal, yet with a few words you catch on to all the characters, and where they fit, if only for a few seconds before they slip slide away, melt, fade into each other as she tumbles us gently into another chapter.
On the cover we see the artist seconds after taking the great leap off, down, into..where exactly? and we wonder if she will be able to
illustrate through her songwriter this ambiguous fear or joy or that satisfying mix of both.
Wonder no more, this free-fall is seductive, delicious even strangely comforting.
Her arrangements too fit this slow dive, never fussy, the instruments shift around the voice like the wind against the body falling,
special mention must be made though about Lorenzo Forti’s bass which slinks and curls around the songs, sly and provocative.
Millanta takes us on a quirky sideshow reading of Paranoid, which displays a subtle theatrical pose, before ending the set with ‘Floating’ which is placed perfectly as it seems to be an answer of sorts to all the questions raised within the previous stories, an acceptance of love, of self and finally of life.
Find out more
Look At The Sound – Jebediah Goodthrust (Independent Release)
Holy Banjo Batman! The Country superhero brings us another slice of home cooked rock n roll, or maybe its moonshine, He sure does strut across the speakers like a good old young man all dressed up fine for a Saturday night adventure.
Mr Heise plays about 85% of what goes on here, but weirdly this is the most BAND sounding album of his long curved career.
This is the Breakthrough collection the one that could shove those that merely admire into something resembling pure love. And I for one will rejoice mightily when that happens.
It even boasts a bona fide classic rock single in ‘Go’ which is a gloopy mix of Sweet Jane Velvets and Paul Westerberg all applied with a big brush onto that unmistakable Heise Brothers structure.
But the fun doesn’t stop there!
There are ungainly waltzes (cowboys learning to love and dance, their minds half on that pretty face half on the hassles and weight of the world outside), and even that peculiar kinda post punk ballad type thing that only a certain type of deviant American really understands or gets right.. again though its the Heise twist that defines them, so its Pixies or Pavement (depending on the hour and the song) but with that smudge on the windscreen perspective.
Personal favourite for me, (let it be said that this collection is FULL of faves) is ‘So Tired’ a song that builds and falls , builds and falls and contains a delicate tension that bodes well for future releases and also gets that difficult creature that is Nelson’s voice just
right.
Look, they are never really gonna be mainstream, but this one flirts with the possibility, and is perhaps the brothers finest achievement thus far.
And if this ‘solo’ outing makes you , gentle listener want to explore the back roads that the Hit and Mrs and The Heise Brothers travelled, then that’s a damn good thing.
Http://thehitandmrs.bandcamp.com
Tracks from BOTH these fine recordings can be found on the NBTMusic Radio
http://nbtmusicradio.playtheradio.com/
and they
will also be featured on the NBT Flagship Podcast going out tomorrow
on this very set of pages 
Six Hurdles – History Of The Trade (Independent Release)
The opening song shoots towards us rocket like revealing a complex sequence, tunes within tunes, post punk verses, math rock dance moves. Starting out drill bit intense, bits of Wire you don’t dare draw a breath, then tempo change, stadium chants, pop goodness, care to jump around with me?
Going Nowhere, goes pretty fast in search of the cool hook, gets there, swings along the mirror ball shatters and doesn’t let up,as you fall for it, you decide you need this EP in your record collection, file it next to the Foals perhaps.
Dear Sir/Madam I would like , ‘Facts’ to be number one on the charts, the nation needs that shot of speed and sensibility. This is all sparkly, raw energetically beautiful.
Then epic in miniature, ‘Alkaline’ bursts shockwave from the gentle static, a summer anthem from a winter perspective. And I realise that this collection shall not stray too far from my player these coming nights and weeks.
Find out more
http://www.historyofthetrade.com/
Skyskratcher EP – Skyskratcher (Independent Release )
A different beast here, over a gently (twisting) slow burn, prog rock vocals slide (circa ,perhaps, early killer Queen ) the guitars ebb and flow, now intense, now just tense, always threatening to explode, there is allure in its admiral restraint.
Skyskratcher seem to have forecast the Arctic Monkeys new rock direction, but seem less cynical about it, its 70s met with Now, a young sound with old(er) influences,conducive to headbang hedonismyet slippingg into a welcome reassuringcontemporaryy vibe as well.
Often skipping the structure of quiet-loud- quiet and just doing the quiet building into frantic, the music insists you try see this band live, or for those of us,from that sad land ‘far away’ insists that you imagine the ToughTumble n Roll of the stage.
That is why, when the fragile is allowed, it is so satisfying, giving the songs those varying Moodcolours of orange into rust and beyond. Something innocent yet sweaty pure about it all
both bands will be featured on the NBT podcasts (both the flagship cast and the dark electric cast) in March. And will be playlisted on the NBTMusic 24 hr radio from this weekend
http://nbtmusicradio.playtheradio.com/
Tilt – Brett Ryan Stewart (Rainbows In Grayscale Music)
Sometimes the day to day struggle can seem like a never ending sleepwalk, to get through it you go through the motions, ignore the fear as comrades fall by the way, as they give up and fall deeper into that apathy, that all too reassuring slumber.
Or what happens is you gather your soul up into you, stand and decide to fight on, to overcome the dull, the ordinary to start living again.. to wake up.
And this is how Tilt begins.
This is an album that celebrates rejuvenation, the finding of inner strength , about not giving up and yes, allowing yourself to let a little sunshine drive you forward.
And if this sounds so far, so hippy , oh you would be wrong. This is powerful pop, with country dirt and indie edge, the production glimmers to be sure, but there is no sense of sugar coated emptiness, daytime radio varnish, but rather beautifully thought out song-play and craft.
This singer knows that the past can create inelegant disturbances and that relationships can tear at the human and create monsters, that life can be a torrid tough old thing to tear through, but instead of choosing grungy self-pity or old C and W whining Stewart makes music that kinda struts, giggles and strolls, slips into the car radio and brightens up the day. Not shouty pointed anthems, but something more subtle, more lasting.
When its needed he dips the tunes into something slightly seedy, covers them with a sprinkle of ambiguity, so nothing comes out soft, nothing gets too sweet. Stewart seems to know that the charcoal smudges in that colourful portrait add just the right essence of truth, that you had to first gently embrace despair to kick it fully away.
Find out for yourself
The album has been featured on several NBT podcasts and is playlisted on the NBTmusic 24 hr radio station
http://nbtmusicradio.playtheradio.com/
Alive (Book and CD/ Deluxe Edition) – Tallulah Rendall (Transducer)
The music is only the start of things..The Songs are only the beginning of this creative journey, Plays, artworks, videos, performance and the documenting of these collaborations form the basis of the book that accompanies the set of tunes.
And yet as a diligent reviewer, one who hopes to try to get at least a little into the soul of the work, one must for the moment put aside the book and approach just the music, then come back to the book and then the music together.
If this all sounds like hard work, let me assure you it is not, it is an adventure, a game, an experience that I found I did not want to end, and indeed it did not have to end, because each collaboration added another dimension to an already dense and sparkling universe.
So it is highly recommended that when you get this album, make very sure you get the book too.
But now I must be brave, and plunge just into the music, give my own thoughts on what I think takes place. Because everything starts with the music and the music shines differently into each listener’s soul.. and a reviewer can only report, this is what I heard, felt, saw, and in that way (when positive) inspire others to start their own journey (or in the rare negative case) give warning that the trip may not be worth it.
I am of course double cursed/blessed as I have already reviewed Alive the EP, so now I must shed the shackles of the Previous and dive in as if all is new, listen with innocent ears as it were.
The title track, is a tumble-drift of awakening, a bare sketch morphing into a colourful living swirlThing, it is the shot of adrenalin needed to, ‘go bathe in the light’, all PJ Harvey guitar rumble, galloping into the intensifying maelstrom, along with Anna Calvi, Rendall seems to be heading this lovely trend of darkly yet empowering pop music coming our way in 2011.
then a switch in mood, its magical ballroom dance, romantic harmonies, falling in love music,the instruments create a pleasant pressure, the equivalent of being lost in a fog and fascinated by it.
Playful even, the way the intro to ‘Nothing Is Over’ evokes an old time Western ballad which stretches wilful into something sultry and sly.
Then back to the throb, stand out (should be) single, ‘Colourblind’ the kind of thing, that you sway to immediately, as you fill up on that top of the roller-coaster vibe.
The Joy of this collection is its balance. You never feel the song suffers from the application of studio craft, it is destined for radio waves and cyberspace but that knowledge is second hand, not cynically manipulated for maximum effect. The ambition never gets in the way of the personal.
And then again I listen, this time with book in hand. I learn of wondrous art being made. Of tasks taken up, challenges accepted and met, with gleeful daring and …
hope.
This whole ‘product’ is a testament to the belief that art is a shape shifting goddess with boundless gifts.
I urge you to go and get this
http://www.tallulahrendall.com/category/music/
Tallulah has several songs on the new nbtMusic 24 hr radio station
http://nbtmusicradio.playtheradio.com/
and is one of the featured artists on this weeks NBT Podcast
http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com
The Shakespeares EP – The Shakespeares (independent release)
Tonight the bridge is built from the solo Merry Ellen Kirk, a bridge built upon her trademark twinkling piano and vocal sighs leading into the darker territory that this Duo inhabits. Still dreams, yes, but these dreams are more cryptic, the shadows corporeal (look they reach for our hands, to spin us in) she is the colour shifting balloon, he is the tumbling ghost holding hard against the pull of the string, the beauty here in the pressure, the interplay tween loose and tight.
What Aaron Krause adds is something that divinely distorts the shimmer evermore, a touch of acoustic blues and a sliver of grunge, adding loops of thoughtful insecurity to the serene, toughening up the songs, making them scary and bold.
The balance however is perfect, the two artists compliment and strengthen each other and no song here sounds remotely like a solo effort grafted into a new project.
The fine art of the female/male interplay within a pop song structure is something that has gained momentum in recent years and the Shakespeares can happily join the ranks of acts like She and Him and Jenny and Johnny, but bring something somewhat more ethereal to the stage.
There isn’t a wasted second in this EP and it makes the listener crave more, more from the Artists both together as the Shakespeares and from their other musical adventures, solo or otherwise
tracks from this EP are being played on the NBT podcasts and the NBT 24hr streaming radio
http://www.facebook.com/NBTMusicRadio
Actors and Liars – Twin Brother (independent release)
This slow build takes on different disguises, turn here and we find the slight wounded Gothic, blue spotlight on dark stage. Turn there and discover the jangle exuberance of the indie star confidant. Not so much statements of intent rather maps to pour over, invitations to join the exploration.
This is the sound of future stars finding their voice, it is personal, often messy and always involving, it is music you want to stay with and music that gives up it’s bitter sweet secrets slowly, willfully, sly and shy all bundled up in atmosphere and delectable drama.
One secret to its power is the holding back, the less is more template, chaos and theatre and grand gestures are hinted at, sketched, forshadowed, though dont get me wrong the songs are NOT afraid to rock out in that love of Pop way that Interpol or even Franz Ferdinand have. You know, the kind of song that when you hear it you just want to see it performed live, so you can jump around to it with a thousand other beguiled fans.
The band is comfortable with the slight eccentricity of their songs, there are touches of the gleefully bound Julian Cope (ready to explode) and the sheer delight in the structure of the song, that Edwyn Collins has. In fact, as Twin Brother work at their craft they have potential to replace glow of (rather) less than satisfying bands like Glasvegas, in the indie Nations heart and minds.
Hear Tracks from this Album on the NBT Podcast
http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com
and also on the NBTMusicRadio (Facebook page here)
The Foxpockets EP (independent release)
there are some kinds of music that make the curious listener very excited, no matter the mood that surrounds him at the start, the music never fails to invigorate and intrigue. This music usually has folk as a starting point, is played and created with sheer joy by the musicians and is often layered, verbally and musically. Bands like Tilly and the Wall, Los Campesinos,Tunng and now Foxpockets are often labelled twee by a jaded press who seem to like a strong spoonful of angst with their cuppa alternative, (you know the type, the ones who write in little books and are afraid to dance when the band goes mad on stage.) and oh how wrong could that label be.
This is simply music that makes one feel awfully lucky to have found it.
The Nautical Song slow builds, adding instruments and vocal harmonising at a subtle pace, wonderfully restrained for a three minute tune. What is gentle becomes almost a jig before the song is done, the producer leaving the explosions for another time.
Voytek is a finely sketched tale of war, Katharine Simner’s serene vocals counterpoint dark lyrics, all leading up to a most heavenly and moving instrumental break.
And Wintersleep should really be play listed all over the damn place. Timeshifting, swaying, elastic it slips across three or four moods from thoughtful funeral to shy invitation to dance and ends way too soon.
As a prologue to a full album, this is a delightful introduction to band that we will be hearing a great deal more of.
http://www.myspace.com/foxpockets
Hear tracks from this release on the NBT podcast
http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com/
and in the next few days Foxpockets will be added to the 24 hour stream of NBTMusic Radio
http://www.radionomy.com/nbtmusicradio
The Man With Two Brains – Dirk Speksnijder ( Independent Release)
There is always a place in this indie world for the English Eccentric, from Syd Barrett to Julian Cope, from Ray Davies to Robyn Hitchcock, there thankfully is a music that transcends the ageing process, and can provoke and excite the modern listener while seemingly twisting away in a time warp made up from fabric poached from the Incredible String Band and McCartney’s more fanciful daydreams.
This is PoP but not as we know it, Jim, this is Folk but from those strange Folk, those travellers and Pranksters, and this is joyful, funny and yet with a tinge of the melancholic twinkling darkly underneath the shiny shiny reflected surface, as the opening track’s lyrics go, ‘this is war, and we don’t know what we are fighting for’ all echo and multi tracked harmony.
The songs are linked quirky/mock sombre with orchestra and spoken word adding to the overall ‘otherness’ of the record, but also giving the concept a sly unity: within the mostly sparse arrangments there are a lot of giddy touches that make each track a new discovery every play, from the opening riff of ‘Hot Air Balloon’ which wouldnt be out of place on Alice Cooper’s Killer album to ‘Going Out’ which could be made in an alternate universe where Blur was a late sixties band.
Dont think for a moment that is is just mere novelty, take a listen to stand out track ‘Two O Eight’ which lifts itself off from Space Oddity via Paul Weller and becomes its very own entity. Listening to this album makes me really want to hear Dirk’s Alter Ego, Phil Knight’s next offering, whatever and whenever that maybe..
For now though, this gentle love letter to a certain type of wonderfully warped songwriting shall have a cherished place in the cd player and radio rotation for the many months to come
hear more
http://www.myspace.com/dirkspeksnijder
you can hear tracks from this album on the NBT Podcast going out on the 30th Jan 2011
http://nextbigthing.libsyn.com
