Album Review: Perfect Storm - Vanbot

Perfect Storm follows up on Vanbot's 2011 self-titled debut album. Having shelved an entire album's worth of material back in 2013, Vanbot (real-name Ester Ideskog) went back to the drawing board. Faced with a creative meltdown she chose to re-focus on something with more 'bite'...

And as electro-pop goes, Perfect Storm does indeed bite. This is ice-like cool Scandinavian pop. The comparisons with Robyn are obvious, but borderline lazy... Whilst both stars make razor-sharp female synth-heavy pop, the quality of music offered here is no simple inferior imitation.

As an album Perfect Storm is densely packed with catchy, single-worthy tracks. The Way You Say It is Vanbot at her most direct - a giant heartfelt chorus packed with big synth hooks. The sound throughout the album is consistent, but tracks play with it in different ways. In contrast to the album's more forthright moments, Adam Olenius collaboration Watching You Sleep is a complex and densely layered track, complete with a string section and a gorgeously softly-sung duet. And songs like Maniac demonstrate the bite Ideskog was striving for, insistent vocals aggressively hurling accusations.

It is pretty astounding just how many big Scandavian pop songs are crammed into Perfect Storm. If it were much longer than the 49-minutes a complete listen requires it might feel disorientating. There is a sense of narrative here that hints at progression, yet if you were to level a criticism at Vanbot's new album it would have to be that when emotion is consistently amped up to 11 it starts to feel a little irrelevant, and whilst the production is consistently slick and impressive it is never adventurous nor challenging.

Perfect Storm's closing title track, part two of a two part track that bookends the release, feels like a suitably cinematic close for the album... It is the perfect way to leave the listener wanting more. Vanbot and her co-writers Jan Kask and the aforementioned Adam Olenius (who have also worked with Say Lou Lou, Tove Styrke and Shout Out Louds) clearly know their way around a tune. The result is a solid album... By taking a little more risk Vanbot has the potential to make a great one.

Perfect Storm is released on 15 May through Lisch Recordings & Sony Music Sweden. Order from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link], and check out The Way You Say It below.

Written by Ester Ideskog & Jan Kask. Produced and mixed by Johannes Berglund.

Album: Lurid Glow - Reptar

Lurid Glow is the follow-up album to Athens, Georgia band Reptar's Body Faucet and it is nothing short of a explosion of indie-dance-plastic-rock. Like the sound of Modest Mouse and Talking Heads stuck in a lift, Lurid Glow is full of nervous energy and infectious hooks.

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Lurid Glow - Reptar

Opener No One Will Ever Love You sets the tone, guitarist and vocalist Graham Ulicny’s yelping vocals pouring out like urgent catcalls whilst the remaining members conjure a stuttering crescendo of noise. It’s exactly what a band named after the dayglo dinosaur in Rugrats should sound like.

It is slightly later on that Lurid Glow really demonstrates what Reptar are capable of however. Cable is a jazz-funk hot-mess of a track. Ulicny’s vocals alternate between high-pitched squeals and the beast-like shouts that punctuate the end of each line of the verse in what must be the most terrifying vocal performance since Future Island’s Waiting On You. It’s the kind of track where every single second feels impossibly brilliant. The drilling brass kicks that start each off each bar, the staggered rhythms. And it has the best bridge you will ever hear - everything seemingly melting into a sunshine melody before the repeatedly shouted refrain, a plea of “I wanna be yours” that sounds genuinely desperate.

With a relatively short duration of 42-minutes, Reptar still manage to fit in some variation here. Just when you think you have them pinned down they throw in something like the soft, ballad like Amanda, a track that calls to mind the worldly maturity of Vampire Weekend. Every Chance I Get revolves around an REM-sized chorus, Ulicny doing his best to express emotion through a wall of lyrical obtusity. His urgent delivery culminating with the band almost physically hammering the point home.

Their debut met mixed reviews, but out of the albums I’ve heard so far this year, none has kept me as entertained or intrigued so much as Reptar’s Lurid Glow. It's a bit day-glo and you can rightly accuse them of taking inspiration from some of the past decade's best bands, but in Lurid Glow it feels like Reptar have hit their stride.

Lurid Glow is out now on Joyful Noise. Order from iTunes [affiliate link], stream on Spotify above and check out the video for Cable below.

Album Review: The Orange Collection - Eskimo Recordings

What comes after pink, blue and green? Well according to Eskimo Recordings it is orange... And so they follow up The Green Collection with this new offering, The Orange Collection - the fourth entry in their colour and emotion inspired series.

As my previous coverage of these releases highlights my feelings on these albums have been mixed. Yet I still find it hard to resist giving each new entry a listen, if only out of some desire to recapture some of the glittering brilliance of Eskimo's earlier compilations. The Orange Collection does its best to return your effort in listening to it. Unlike the other entries, which usually felt no real connection to the colour in question, entitling this The Orange Collection makes sense. It's warm, sitting on the edge of sunset... Though whether this is a deliberate refinement of focus or a happy coincidence is up for debate. Perhaps Eskimo simply got around to picking one of the most Balearic of colours 

Eskimo has retained its latter-day fondness for soft electronics and indie vocals but in contrast to previous entries this album feels as Mediterranean influenced as it does Scandinavian, conjuring the feeling of beaches and beachside swimming pools.

It is therefore fitting then that opening track Odds Are Good by Anoraak feels exactly like a dip in a pool out in the sun. Renegades, by Majestique feat. Lakshmi, is similarly sunny... Warm pads and synth stabs creating an infectious and wistful sense, almost like missing the holiday before it has even ended. Like most things here it is almost shockingly polished, but that adds to the perfect summer holiday feeling.

Hold It Like You Own It by Horixon and Maya is a glittering moment of electronic pop - a powerful vocal hook riding a deep sine wave baseline. The album also features two tracks I've featured recently - Du Tonc's Animals and This Soft Machine's On & On - and both feel right at home here in this set.

Amongst all the shimmering pop are some more wonky moments. Moscoman's Fernandez is a hit of Italo-influenced dub that sounds like it soundtracks your weirdest cowboy dreams... Drums clatter as a stark lone guitar riff picks its way amidst a world of synth-kitsch. Elsewhere Marvin and Guy's Unfailling Fall is a deep psychedelic trip, a stark contrast to the lighter moments that make up most of this album.

Closing with the Mees Dierdorp remix of Hydrogen Sea's Wear Out, The Orange Collection comes grinding to a dramatic stop. Synthetic strings swirl and vocals cry out as the album draws to a emotional yet somewhat muted finish. It is by far the best entry in this series yet, and the best album from Eskimo in some time. It is hard not to think this may just be good luck - a number of artists here have featured on previous entries after all - but perhaps they just managed to do a much better job curating the collection this time. Either way, take this with you to the pool this summer and you are guaranteed just a little warmth, no matter the weather.

The Orange Collection is released through Eskimo Recordings on 4 May. Pre-order on iTunes here [affiliate link].

EP Review: Synesthesiac - Jack Garratt

Jack Garratt is rapidly sizing up to be one of this year's most exciting artists, with lots of blog love and radio hype. As such it is with some excitement that I greeted his latest EP, his sophomore release Synesthesiac.

The release opens with the experimental-ambient-post-garage of Synesthesia Pt. 1, a track that sounds unlike almost anything I've heard before. A lounge piano loop rubs up against elephant-sized slobbering bass before dissolving into thin air, eventual re-materialising as the haunting intro to The Love You're Given, and the scene is set.

That lead single The Love You're Given remains Garratt's greatest track is no backhanded compliment - it is such an incredible piece of music and here it stands tall within it's carefully crafted surroundings. That it is so careful intertwined within Synesthesiac is almost cause for disappointment - it suggests that the song is unlikely to make a reappearance on Garratt's debut, when we inevitably get one, and boy does it deserve wider repeated listening. At turns delicately weeping and then gut-churningly heavy, this song feels like three different artist's best records all at once - shimmering falsetto soul, Earth-shattering bass and cut-up folk tangled up into one five-minute long masterpiece.

Chemical is similar in exhibiting Garratt's willingness to cut 'n' shut disparate genres, ferocious beats lending his vocals a sinister and determined edge. It never quite achieves the same sheer intensity of emotion but it remains an incredible track.  Finally Lonesome Valley delivers slowly looping blues, full of fuzzy kick drums and distorted bass, and gradually builds towards the EP's epic release.

Synesthesiac is an EP that reaches beyond the four songs it contains to create something far more significant than the format can normally deliver. If you want to hear the sound of the future, Garratt is a safe bet.

Synesthesiac is out now on Duly Noted Records. Listen to All The Love You're Given and Chemical below, or purchase the EP on iTunes [affiliate link].

EP Review: On & On / This Place Was Meant For Me - This Soft Machine

http://soundcloud.com/thissoftmachine makes his debut on Eskimo Recordings with a double-sided release including instrumentation from Dave Harrington of DARKSIDE contributing electric guitar, alluring vocals by Lorraine Nicholson for ‘On & On’ and Dan Whitford of Cut Copy fame, who helped record the synths. ‘On & On’ will also appear on ‘The Orange Collection’, the latest installment in a new compilation series on Eskimo based around colours. “This Soft Machine is a band at heart. Recorded live at Linear Studios in Sydney in January 2015, everything you hear on the record was recorded by human hands, played by some of my oldest, dearest friends and some hired musicians.” Tim Sullivan AKA This Soft Machine www.eskimorecordings.com www.facebook.com/eskimorecordings www.twitter.com/eskimorecords www.youtube.com/eskimorecordings https://play.spotify.com/user/eskimorecordings www.thissoftmachine.com www.facebook.com/thissoftmachine www.twitter.com/thissoftmachine

This Soft Machine cites both Yellow Magic Orchestra and the Ramones as influences, and they made their debut via a two hour mix for Nicholas Jaar's Other People label. On this double a-side debut release for Eskimo we have Nicholas Jaar's Darkside band mate Dave Harrington handling guitar work and Cut Copy's Dan Whitford providing synths.

With those influences and collaborations it would be difficult to know what to expect, but the resulting record is actually a relatively straight forward combination of the atmospherics and experimentation of an Other People release, the big pads of a Cut Copy track and a little bit of LCD Soundsystem style percussion. Throw in some deadpan Nancy Wang like vocals from Lorraine Nicholson for opening track On & On and it feels like you could be listening to a super group formed from some of the best bands of the past ten years.

Whether it borrows from contemporaries or just draws from the same inspiration is up for debate... What isn't is that the two tracks here provide a solid introduction to this Australian-born producer, now based in Berlin via Japan.

Check out On & On above, the full release will be available from Monday on Eskimo Recordings.