EP Review: The Harbour Wall - Rough Fields

I don't know why you haven't already heard of James Birchall or his alter ego Rough Fields. Hell, I'm not sure why I hadn't heard of them before the usual press release game of hide and seek. Because if The Harbour Wall is anything to go by he makes beautiful music poised to swallow you up.

The opening title track of this EP feels wonderfully brooding. It is simultaneously full of down beat confidence and defiance, the layered vocals may be soft and delicate but the harmonies and melody and bass and piano propel this song with a verve and self-assurance. Elsewhere, on 'Behave', there is whimsy and helplessness - Birchall's vocal asserting his uselessness at exhibiting self-restraint in the absence of his loved one.

This is a release of atmosphere - background noises and shuffles appear throughout but are most evident on the running water, wind and rain of the haunting instrumental 'Waller's Cut'. Birchall spent some time experimenting with techno and it shows in this EP's ticks and spasms. As a result it feels like we were there in the head of Rough Fields - there in the moments of loneliness from where some of these songs obviously sprang.

Rough Fields - The Harbour Wall by bombshop

Rough Fields has blended folk and post-rock to make an EP of both texture and melody. And at 22 minutes The Harbour Wall is over far too soon.

BP x

Head over to the Rough Fields website for more information and to buy The Harbour Wall, or use the Soundcloud player above.

EP Review: Darkside - Darkside

Nicolas Jaar still confuses the hell out of me. An artist influenced by Minimal IDM sounds like a snore rest on paper, but Jaar's hero Ricardo Villalobos is perhaps the only minimal producer who I can really see the artistry in. His music doesn't feel like it was only made for taking drugs to.

Space is Only Noise has moments of brilliance and I love it. But earlier this year seeing Jaar play live at Fabric was an unnerving experience on a couple of levels. Jaar benefits from a passionate following, the likes of which I haven't seen for a while: Fabric was packed out on a mid-week night (I think it was Wednesday?) and no-one was in any doubt that this was a star we were witnessing. There was no mild curiosity from inquisitive bloggers here, instead the room filled with wall-to-wall fever. Where did this excitement come from? And my bigger question was why - on record Jaar sounded great, atmospheric, emotional, experimental. In the flesh, sadly, it most sounded like this was just music made for taking drugs to.

Open air at Glastonbury was a different experience. There was more space, less dancing and the sky was lined with menacing storm clouds hanging threateningly overhead. It turned out to be much more fitting.

DARKSIDE - A1 by Clown & Sunset

Darkside is a side project from Jaar, collaborating with Dave Harrington. Together they focus on what Jaar does best - this is paranoid, dark pop music that blends live instrumentation with techno rhythms. Slow builds and breakdowns take the listener on a journey and, as a head piece, it's marvellous. Guitar work picks its way around nervous vocals and clattering synths. This feels part weirded out road trip with David Lynch, part cowboy blues, part Sunday morning maudlin come-down.

And so the conclusion to my confusion is this: I don't want to dance to Nicolas Jaar, I want to think to him. I want to experience the world filtered through his music coming out my headphones.

BP x

Darkside is out now on Nicolas Jaar's own Clown and Sunset label, you can order it on MP3 here.

EP Review: The Come Back EP - Pillow Talk

On first listen PillowTalk's EP, out on Life and Death, blew through my mind like ocean air. It is a refreshing set of tracks that melds soul and jazz to tech-house. Think a more immediate Nicolas Jaar with proper lyrics and choruses and you wouldn't be far off.

Opener 'The Come Back' swings and sways with samba rhythms through the first two-minutes before showering the listener in soulful male vocals. It is remarkably simple but the funky baselines and old fashioned vocals blend into a strangely new sounding creation. Add in the synthesiser and vocal harmonies and you get a winning formula. Minimal tech soul anyone?

Even better is 'Soft', a skittering blues soul track with stark rim shots and reverb that bounces around the inside of your lonely head. It's sensual and seductive but ultimately comes off sinister, feeling like you are being talked into something. "No more wasting time, you're being soft again I know", the vocal croons, ”come out tonight, dry off your eyes, don't let it show." Melancholic, sure, but it's also got class and a rhythm and pace you can't help but move to.

Instrumental 'Long Lost Friends' is jazzier, packed with loose rhythms and taught bass it is perhaps even cooler and more sophisticated than the other two tracks. The EP also packs a couple of Life and Death remixes. The remix of 'Soft' is a drawn out version that keeps most things in tact, giving most parts of the instrumentation more room to breath and giving the enough length to fit the track into a set. ’The Come Back' gets a more significant going over, the original being further from dance floor material in the first place - expect extra reverb and some vintage house kicks.

Whilst the value of the remixes is slightly questionable it's mostly because the original material standouts so well they aren't needed. The Come Back is inventive and the three original tracks here justify your attention alone.

BP x

The Come Back EP is out on Life and Death on 20 October.

EP Review: Clase de 1984 - Niño

Niño's new EP, Clase du 1984, doesn't quite sound like anything I've heard in a while. Sat somewhere between dubstep, house and minimal the songs that make up this collection ultimately sound machine driven but there are organic elements to them. The resulting EP would feel as at home on Get Physical as Donky Pitch and reminds me of Layo & Bushwacka at their peak on Night Works.

Clase de 1984 consists of five original songs and three remixes based on a selection of these tracks. 'Innsmouth' and 'Buio Omega' are the most memorable tunes here. The former is built from stutters and starts, vocal samples slammed against beats whilst clicks and bleeps converge to make the whole thing sound like a robotic machine waking from a deep sleep. The Kelpe remix beefs up the bass and strips the production back a bit, the result being a track that does two things at once rather than six.

'Buio Omega' succeeds in creating an even more ominous vibe than 'Innsmouth', and with its heavy drum loop, rolling bass and pitched vocals it's the closest things get to dubstep on this release. But frankly this is more exciting than most things I'd label dubstep. The Offshore mix is bouncier and a bit more rowdy but, as with all the mixes here, the move towards simplification seems to miss the point. With Niño less is less.

Title track 'Clase de 1984' feels sunny compared to the rest of the EP, big fat keys painting an additional warmth and light-heartedness across the track that isn't shown elsewhere. 'The Man and The Earth' is little more than a laid back interlude whilst 'Bright Lights Big City' provides a fitting close with a sound that feels like it was made for playing against sunsets.

For electronic music the tracks here are all short - even the longest is just four-and-a-half-minutes, and that includes the remixes. It's therefore impressive that Niño manages to fit so much in to such a short body of work. It does however raise questions about how he could fill a full length release whilst sustaining interest - Clase de 1984 works in a short burst, a one inch punch of a record. Indeed, none of the remixes here add much to the originals and the EP would be more focused without them.

You can check out 'Buio Omega' at XLR8R.

BP x

Clase de 1984 is out now on Donky Pitch, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link].

EP Review: Science Remixes Part 1 - Cinnamon Chasers

Purveyors of slinky synth-house, Cinnamon Chasers still seem to be relatively unknown but, on the run up to their debut album, their latest EP is a good introduction to their material. Science Remixes may be packaged as a remix collection but actually consisting of a number of originals too.

We're in the realm of warm house music here - not overly banging nor is it particularly likely to appeal to the more crusty of house fans, Cinnamon Chasers are fairly straight up. At their best they recall GusGus' less techno, more house influenced efforts. This is particularly true of opener 'Tattoo' and its accompanying 'Retro 909 Version', which (surprisingly) adds some 909s and a bit of an acid edge to things. 'Tattoo' is minimal and laid back - too laid back for a peak time set but just perfect for some beach time or sunset chilling and frankly that's just fine with me. The noodling melody of the synth line is lush and combines particularly well with the 909 version's drum roll.

'Smooth Station' is a little, dare I say it, cheesier. The original version is a little Royksopp, which is all well and good but the vocal (already pushed to the back of the mix) really adds little. The 'Deep Electric Version' moves things in a bit more of a trance direction and throws in some BT-esque stutter-edits but it's all a bit insipid to leave any lasting mark.

Whilst 'One Million Balloons' treads a similar path its accompanying remix is definitely an improvement, stripping the vocal back and pushing the dubby electronics to the foreground. Final track 'Magic Lover' is a bizarre one - a slightly ska feeling number which again benefits from a remix in the form of the 'Deep Electric Version'.

Science Remixes Part 1 has its moments but ultimately falls short of hitting the mark. 'Tattoo' shows that Cinnamon Chasers, or Russ Davies to use his real name, can make great tracks but the rest of the selection here seems to see him  falling between the gap between pop-crossover material and a more serious electronic sound. The quoted sources of inspiration (Moroder, Vangelis, Jean Michael-Jarre) may be admirable but in the wrong hands they have a tendency to whiff a bit. If they are going to succeed Cinnamon Chasers just might need to choose which way they want to jump: does Davies want a commercial or a critical hit?

BP x

Science Remixes Part 1 is out now on Modus Records, available on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].