The Strange Death of Liberal England

Myspace: LINK

A band I have followed for a while now after seeing them support I LIKE TRAINS on tour many times... They have one album, Forward March (LINK) and are currently recording number two. You can download a new song for free by going here.

Below you can download their first self-released EP, a few tracks later would appear on Forward March in some version.

Review: (thanks go here) The band hail from Portsmouth and include Adam Woolway, Andrew Wright, Andrew Summerly, Kelly Jones & Will Charlton. Their unbelievably clamorous, vibrant and brilliant debut EP Forward March! comes out tomorrow (well it's been out two years now!) on Fantastic Plastic Records. Warning! This is not soft-rock.

The Strange Death Of Liberal England sound like almost nothing before them. Sure, you can spot some Arcade Fireisms, Poguesisms, Pixieisms, some Radioheadisms and Joy Divisionisms and some Joe Strummerism/Billy Braggisms in the mix, however vocalist Adam Woolway has such a damnly uniquely skewed voice. And their ambitious, howling, raging youthfulness makes way for some intense epic, singalong-anthem styled-guitar rave-ups and over the top performances. And when they really get going they sound like an art-goth My Bloody Valentine (huh?). The latest rage? I hope so. Somebody give me a towel.

Esben and the Witch

Another band who are giving away their material, you can find the 5 song EP named '33 here

Guardian Review:
The background: Esben and the Witch are a Brighton trio who take their name from a Danish fairytale involving cruelty to children, ritual slaughter and all manner of unpleasantness. Obviously there was something about the dread that pervades the tale which appealed to the members of EATW. Some of that atmosphere - well, a lot, to be fair - has been brought to bear on the group. Their music is ethereal, only more in the eerie than Enya sense of the word, an eeriness inspired as much by books as any record - they're as into Bacon and Bosch as they are Björk or (Kate) Bush.

It's music for big, dark, gloomy, intimidating but oddly inviting haunted houses; houses that are full of fearful silences, empty rooms, cobwebs and rocking chairs that move, even though no one has sat in them for years. Esben remind you of the malice in wonderland, the beauty in horror and the horror in beauty, that sort of stuff. They claim their influences are "glaciers,
caverns and waning moons", and insist they were encouraged to write the songs - romantically-dark tales of mystery and woe clearly indebted to Poe - on their debut five-track EP, 33, by "literature, nature and sorrow".

They seem to have some knowledge of life's less appealing aspects, a feeling enhanced by references to machetes, and the scything, the drilling noises, the pummelling low bass that underpins the circling guitar of the last track on their MySpace, Corridors. But really, this feeling is everywhere in Esben'stremulous but ultimately tumultuous siren songs.

"We have tried to combine personal experience and emotion with intriguing stories, concepts and imagery to create something unique," they say.

Sound-wise, Esben hover enigmatically between goth, electronica, trip-hop and post-rock. There are echoes in Davies's impeccably enunciated vocals of Siouxsie's unholy caterwaul. In Fisher and Copeman's by turns soft and stormy instrumental interference of Killing Joke's tribal thunder, there are echoes of Aphex's glitchy gall, of Portishead's serene menace and of the abstract invention of Radiohead circa Kid A. These are quietly disturbing sonic fables with gentle yet portentous intros, middle sections full of rumbling foreboding and crashing, climactic codas. "We're certainly not actively seeking darkness," they declare, interrupting a séance to put the dead into deadpan. "It just appears that some of the more interesting things aren't always particularly well lit …"

Blood Red Shoes

Blood Red Shoes first album, 2008's Box of Secrets was a pretty solid debut album that impressed me throughout but without blowing me away with a singular track that was stunning.

That's about to change because their new track "Colours Fade", the first snippet of their second album (which you can watch below and download for free by going here) is simply bind-blowingly amazing.

The Brighton duo are on tour early 2010 - I have high hopes for the new album...

Songs of the Decade...

Limited to one song per artist and in no particular order are my songs of the decade, will add some more probably, then maybe order them a little.


1. Pressures ~ Apartment

Rebellion (Lies) ~ Arcade Fire

Munich ~ Editors

Whirring ~ The Joy Formidable

Sometime Around Midnight ~ The Airborne Toxic Event

Mr Brightside ~ The Killers
Waving Flags ~ British Sea Power
Fascination ~ Alphabeat
Sea of Regrets ~ I LIKE TRAINS
La Ritournelle ~ Sébastien Tellier
Charlotte ~ Air Traffic
All My Friends ~ LCD Soundsystem
Bad Cover Version ~ Pulp
Going To A Town ~ Rufus Wainwright
The Past Is A Grotesque Animal ~ Of Montreal
Good Weekend ~ Art Brut
Apply Some Pressure ~ Maximo Park
Back When You Were Good ~ The Hours
Made Up Love Song #43 ~ Guillemots
We Almost Had A Baby ~ Emmy The Great
Christmas TV ~ Slow Club
Everybody's Changing ~ Keane
Fat Children ~ Jarvis Cocker
Fashion Parade ~ Misty's Big Adventure
Guitar ~ Prince
Dead Disco Dancer ~ O Children
Politik ~ Coldplay
No One Knows ~ Queens of the Stone Age
Over & Over ~ Hot Chip
Stockholm Syndrome ~ Muse
Golden Touch ~ Razorlight
Michael ~ Franz Ferdinand
I'm A Pilot ~ Fanfarlo
Evacuate ~ The Boxer Rebellion
Helicopter ~ Bloc Party
Smother + Evil = Hurt ~ The Kissaway Trial
Roscoe ~ Midlake
Forever Lost ~ The Magic Numbers
You! Me! Dancing! ~ Los Campesinos!
Dakota ~ Stereophonics
Hurt ~ Johnny Cash
Reptillia ~ The Strokes
Demons ~ Battle
My Advice Is On Loan ~ The Lodger
Embrace ~ Gravity
Murderer ~ Grammatics
Unspoken ~ Hurts
Science of Silence ~ Richard Ashcroft
Wating Game ~ The Cooper Temple Clause
A Certain Romance ~ Arctic Monkeys
Club Foot ~ Kasabian
A Day Another Day ~ The Strange Death Of Liberal England
The Great Escape ~ We Are Scientists
Young Love ~ Mystery Jets
Deux Ex Machine ~ Pure Reason Revolution
Crazy Beat ~ Blur
Pounding ~ Doves
I Predict A Riot ~ Kaiser Chiefs
Four To The Floor ~ Starsailor
Alsatian ~ White Rose Movement
Neon Jesus ~ Crocodiles
Sing ~ The Dresden Dolls
Runaround Getaround ~ Tim Ten Yen
Death ~ White Lies
Lovers ~ The Tears
Seven Nation Army ~ White Stripes
Run ~ Snow Patrol

Stricken City - New Music "Introducing"

Saw these guys for the first time supporting The Joy Formidable at the Barfly at the Sailor Jerry gig, I was pretty impressed, enough to buy their CD which was released by the fantastic Pure Groove (you can see it here), one to follow.

Watch:

Tim Ten Yen

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/timtenyen
http://www.myspace.com/filipinodreamgirls
Buy : Here

I'll find something for this epically talented man soon, but for now, enjoy this...



This was Tim Ten Yen's debut single: Girl Number One