Album Review: Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!

When duo Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel first unleashed 'Hold On' upon the world as Holy Ghost! I was a little bit awestruck. It is pretty much the perfect modern house record - a nod to label mates LCD Soundsystem in the rock song structure and snappy, live sounding percussion combined with a brilliantly restrained shuffling bassline and synth combo that managed to turn up just as Italo was tipping over. Even the lyrics somehow manage to transcend what are actually pretty conventional sentiments - some how the formulaic "Hold on, hold tight" chorus felt edgy when pressed up against that killer couplet: "I love this city but I hate my job".

For me nothing else the duo have done has quite lived up to that moment. The Static On The Wire EP had some moments - the catchy if slightly sterile track it takes it's name for starters, however it was second single 'I Will Come Back' (also on that EP) that really suggested there was more to come.

Here we are then, some four years on from 'Hold On'. Whilst that track appears here alongside 'Static On The Wire', 'I Will Come Back' is sadly only notable by its absence. It's a peculiar omission given that this album is just ten tracks long, clocking in at under fifty minutes. Regardless - what you have is a solid selection of vocal house tracks that more-or-less all hit the mark. 'Dot It Again' opens things on an even footing with a serviceable if risk-averse number - it is undoubtedly Holy Ghost! at their most commercial.

It is the album's middle that delivers though. The exposed sound of the vocals on 'Hold My Breath' when the melody all but completely drops away, the lyrics pushed out with a rapid insistence as though the singer is all to conscious they are running out of time. An ode to label mate and friend Jerry Fuchs, 'Jam For Jerry' is the perfect bittersweet electro-pop record. The vocals betray a certain guilty feeling at Fuchs' untimely death - "I've got the feeling I've done / something half wrong / it surrounds me, it drowns me in it". Paired with an undeniably sparkly melody it feels like the sound of the party going on whilst everyone there struggles to come to terms with what has happened and the result sounds like pure New Order: I'm unhappy but I'm still dancing

From there the album flows in to 'Hold On', and then on to 'Slow Motion', which stands out with it's drum-heavy breaks before closing on 'Static On The Wire' and 'Some Children'. The latter incorporating a chorus of children singing that feels like it aims to add a bit of soul but sadly just over complicates things - the duo are at their best when stripped back and left to their own devices.

As a debut this proves Holy Ghost! Are more than just a one hit wonder. Four years in the making means it suffers slightly from the burden of expectation though and I can't help but with there was just a bit more to discover here.

BP x

Holy Ghost! is out now on DFA, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Nine Types of Light - TV On The Radio

Back when I reviewed TV On The Radio's last album, Dear Science, I claimed it to be the band's career highlight to date. It's a statement I'd stand by, and yet I still can't help but feel that of their first three albums proper (I'm disregarding the self-released demo OK Calculator from 2002 as it's tricky to come by) it is still Return To Cookie Mountain that I always come back to. That record's bass-heavy, stuttering electronic production still sounds thrilling and fresh, and there are several tracks on that album ('I Was a Lover', 'Province', 'Wolf Like Me' and 'Dirtywhirl') that continue to mean far more to me than anything on its follow-up. As great as a record Dear Science is, it just didn't feel quite like the TV On The Radio that I loved.

Nine Types of Light was released a few weeks back now and I can safely safe it answers the concerns I had about the previous record whilst continuing to demonstrate the progression and growth of the band. From the opening bars of 'Second Song' it is patently clear TV On The Radio have still got it, and they haven't lost their ability to open their albums with absolute blinders. It feels like like the sound of a band emerging from the storm still tied to rigging and finding it irresistable to greet the world with anything but a beaming smile. This is a band that have been through some difficult times in recent years and sadly things haven't eased since Nine Types of Light was released, with the passing of the band's bassist, Gerard Smith, last week. Somehow though they still sound positive and in fact, on 'Second Song, complete with its 'ooh oooh' vocals, they sound more positive than ever. A brass backing only further adds to the effect, sounding like a band coming out punching, legs and arms flailing whilst they try and connect.

Perhaps the answer to this new found enthusiasm is the oldest of all, for more than anything else Nine Types of Light is a record about love, as evidenced on the lovelorn 'Keep Your Heart', with the vocalist belting out the words: "I'm gonna keep your heart / if the world falls apart / I'm gonna keep your heart". It's the sound of selfishly putting another first, and you can't help but hope it works out for him.

The theme is revisited several times throughout the album but probably nowhere better than on single 'Will Do', a paean to forbidden or unrequired love that bursts open with a shuddering bass line, to create the most electronic track the band have released since Return To Cookie Mountain. The lyrics betray a man unprepared to let life and love slip through his fingers, almost angry that the subject of his affections would dare waste the opportunity. If it sounds desperate, that's because it is, but you can't help but feel that the song is justified in its honesty all the same.

This isn't just a record of love songs, though. 'No Future Shock' revisits the band's fondness for celebrating the bleakness of our apparent future, encouraging us all to dance to the sound of the end of the world. 'Repetition' similarly celebrates misfortune, seemingly mocking the singer's own paranoia and inability to break the cycle. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

If you really want evidence of TV On The Radio's new found optimism though then go no further than 'Caffeinated Consciousness'. The excellent Fluxblog recently posted this song and likened it to the sound of someone trying to turn Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' into punk rock and I wholeheartedly agree - it sounds like raw energy turning the listener's hands into megaton weights and feet into jet engines... to resist is futile, as the singer says: "I'm optimistic, on overload". It's a fitting close to a great album.

Nine Times of Light is the best of both worlds - an album that continues to reveal more with repeated listens yet still has the hooks to have you addicted from the first listen. This is a brilliant record, eclipsing the band's best work.

BP x

Nine Types of Light is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, Deluxe CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Mind Games - Noah Wall

Noah Wall makes something akin to electronic ambient folk from his Brooklyn base, where he writes and records pretty much everything you hear here. Wall is currently working on an album entitled Hèloïse, but this cover version of John Lennon's 'Mind Games' caught my ear.

There's definitely more than a bit of bedroom experimentation in this but the the layers do a really good job of making things interesting. Noah said that this is 'sort of in the style of John Carpenter' and I can totally see what he is getting at... Simultaneously dark and uplifting.

Check it out and you can download it for free or head here to name your price... Be generous as anything paid for this will go to the disaster relief fund for Japan.

If you want more check Noah's site, where he has more up for grabs.

BP x

Download: Watching - Parralax

We've seen a sunny start to April in England and as such the soundtrack has changed a bit - whilst I had been knee-deep in minimal as a result of the love for Nicolas Jaar's debut things have lightened up. As a result I've been busting out some soul and house and when I checked back through the inbox and unearthed this jem from Parralax I couldn't not share:

Watching Free Download by Parralax

Parralax labels this as dubstep, but to be honest this has more going on than most stuff I'd care to tag that label on. The hit-of-sunshine vibe is pure liquid drum 'n' bass and the sample work smacks of the quality normally confined to hip-hop.

Click the down arrow to download and check Parralax's Facebook page to stay up to date.

If you are looking for more summer fun (and are UK based) you may want to check out my latest Spotify playlist, inspired by an attempt to make something that took in soul and house.

BP x

Video: What Is It That You Want - Blackroom

Blackroom - What Is It That You Want from BLACKROOM on Vimeo.

Blackroom, formerly known as Lorraine (we can see why they ditched that idea) hail from Norway and it would appear they got tired of waiting for New Order to get back together and just decided to do it themselves. So yes, 'What Is It That You Want' really sounds like it could be a New Order track - albeit one given a little bit of a prog-trance remix with those thick keyboard stabs - but it's catchy enough that I forgive it.

 

The video here is directed by Jørgen Håland and despite its minimalism it manages to convey the dance floor alienation of the record.

 

'What Is It That You Want' is out now on Souldrop, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link]. More on Blackroom on their official site (which currently points at MySpace).

 

BP x

Mix: Hi-Hat Club Minimix by DJ Illiaz

I've touched on the Hi-Hat Club before, about a year ago when DJ Dexter released volume three, and so was excited to take hear that the label behind the series, Melting Pot, are to release a box set containing all five albums released to date.

If you are unfamiliar with the Hi-Hat Club it is basically a series of hip-hop producer albums - a bit like BBE's well known Beat Generation series (in which J Dilla's entry predictably owns) but with a slightly more cosmopolitan feel.

Hi-Hat Club Box Set Minimix (DJ Illiaz) by MPMCGN

Anyway - it's a pretty nice spring day here in England today and this Minimix of the series put together by DJ Illiaz is just the ticket: laid back and jazzy. It certainly makes me want to check out the rest of the Hi-Hat series.

Tracklisting below:

Twit One - Windyridge 
Hulk Hodn - Rawissue 
Suff Daddy - Chinatown Chill 
Dexter - One For Yusef 
Brenk - Cannibal Love 
Fid Mella - Hahaha 
FS Green - 1 Up 
Full Crate - Never Never 
djAdlib - Tatsusan

The Hi-Hat Club Box Set is out now on MPM, although it doesn't look to have had an UK release yet so keep them peeled. It includes five LPs, two CDs and a 52-page booklet.

BP x