Dudebox "Track Of The Spring"

I guess this could be the last Dudebox Track Of The Season review in this format – as this year has gone on it’s become more and more apparent that MySpace is well Over. Always a slightly clunky format, it looks like it’s been finally killed off by the twin attack of YouTube and Facebook. I’m finding more and more that new bands haven’t bothered with it, and old bands aren’t updating theirs. So until Facebook allows you to listen to bands’ music without Liking them – or until I decide I’m happy to Like every single band I come across, we might be approaching a Reviewing Impasse!

Still – that doesn’t mean we haven’t got some more great local music for you to listen to right here! Get it while you can!

((As always, I am duty-bound to announce the Disclaimer that none of these bands have asked us to review their music – in fact I’d be surprised if any of them ever realise we’ve done it! – but the point of the matter is to try and shine some lights onto all the corners of this always-surprisingly-large-and-vibrant-and-various local music scene. Break out the cutlery and let’s have some dinner. A dinner of Rock!))

MMT.


“All Burned Out”: KASTAPHOR

Forget MySpace or Facebook - Kastaphor are professional enough to have their own website with music on anyway – they play gigs in London, all over the adjoining counties, and at The Stables! They’ve got that kind of ‘polished’ ‘adult’ vibe, without being dull. Singer Emma has an incredibly soulful voice, there some excellent guitar soloing, and although it’s not really my sort of music it’s unarguably an accomplished song which you can imagine going down perfectly in a smoky rock club.


“Mexican Doom”: VOMIT WHORES

We reviewed Vomit Whores way back in our first ever Dudebox Track Of The Season review a couple of years back, and at the time I wasn’t sure if they might even be a joke band – but this is much better! The kind of queasy funk-edged metal you’d expect from Mike Patton fans, muscular and relentless. A punchy treat that doesn’t take itself too seriously.


“Gangsters”: IDOLTRIBE

We discovered this on DJ Michael’s Basement Music compilation, and for me their session version of this track was the standout track on that CD. It bounces along in an incredibly jaunty semi-acoustic manner, and then when the backing vocals kick in in the chorus you think “blimey, this is something special”. There’s even a bass solo! It’s the sort of song I feel compelled to learn the words to so I can sing / chant drunkenly along to – and I can’t give much higher praise than that!


“Hold Your Own”: KEEPER OF THE RIFLE

This season’s MK Metal Korner! As hairy and intense as you’d imagine, but reassuringly still has a strong sense of melody in amongst the shouting and growling. And as we’ve noted before in these reviews, the local metal bands seem to have no problem whatsoever in producing studio-quality recordings, this could easily be a long-established national band by the sound of this track. Love the solos too. (flicks devil horns)


“Farewell Goodbye”: ROSES AND PIRATES

Another lovely song by the R&P ladeez, our Track Of The Season winners last Summer with “The Rose”. This is altogether more reflective, a gentle lullaby for the end of a long and testing night. You can almost hear the bar staff trying to clear out the audience, who won’t leave till they’ve heard the final beautiful note fade.


“Flaming Sun”: WITHOUT REASON

Surfing the quiet-loud dynamic as well as any local band I’ve heard recently, this mixes beautiful vocal harmonies, a persistent groove from the bass, a casual yet cool solo and occasional full on hard-rock choruses. Another new name to me, but I’m hoping to catch them live very soon. We don’t have enough bands who sound like this.


“Is It Real Yet?”: FALL SHORT FOR GLORY

Some beautifully intricate lead guitar ushers us right into this sugary slice of punk-pop – it feels like a sunny day in FSFG’s world and I’m happy to be in it with them! That spiralling solo effect is almost mesmerising, but the rest of the song is impressive too – melodic, upbeat, well produced and an intriguing first experience of this band for me. I’m keen to hear more.


“Don’t Believe Her Smile”: ISABELLE

One of the most prolific of local bands – I can’t believe they’ve also got time to fit in running the excellent Sno!Bar Open Mic as well as their Leighton Buzzard gigs and social lives! – are back with another new album... and they’re so prolific that thing song isn’t even on it!! I love the keyboard on this – or it could even be an actual organ! Summery, soulful, sumptuous. They can’t miss at this kind of stuff.


RUNNER UP DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE SPRING

“Red, Green, Black”: SOUTH SEA COMPANY

We may have reviewed them last time round as well, but this track especially shows a definite step on since we first heard them. It’s confident, mature (in a good way!) – the bass drives along a slowly building indie-pop gem. This is a really impressive song, indicating not just a good present but a very good future if they’re already at this standard!


DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE SPRING

“Shyrite”: HOUSE OF JOHN PLAYER

Whatever else, it’s the different stuff that I really get excited by! Loops, synths, shuffly beats and vocals drifting between emotionless droning and an emotional falsetto. This is an excellent track – a standout among a bunch of almost-equally as impressive tracks. This dude played at the Sno!Bar a month or two back and I missed it – will be looking out for him in action again though. Hypnotic, a midsummer day’s dream.

Dudebox "Track Of The Autumn"

Happy Christmas, Dudebox readers, and a Merry Nu-Year too! As 2010 draws to a blissed out snowy climax, what better way to end the year than with one final Dudebox Review Of Some Local Bands’ MySpaces? This time on the 'turntables' it's MMT & Phil, musing on another great few months on the MK Music Scene!

(regular disclaimer: these bands haven’t asked us to review their MySpaces, we’re doing it because we dig local music and are always trying to bring you something new. Something you might not have come across before – it’s a big town. So jump in - and don’t forget to place your bets now as to what point in the reviewing Phil is going to first mention Sonic Youth!)


“Ideas For A Weekend”: SOUTH SEA COMPANY
[[Only formed this year, but SSC have already played some notable gigs, and their sound is an intriguingly refreshing indie rock one]]

MMT: Sounds like a slightly post-Britpop, melodic… very well produced. It’s not far off the edge of some shoegazing bands actually, got a sort of… reverby vibe to it.
Phil: It’d be good driving music, actually. The sort of thing I might put on in the morning and listen to while I’m driving along.
MMT: This is the song I like best on their MySpace.


“Let Me Go”: CANVAS
[[A boy-girl acoustic duo, though I can’t tell if they’re still gigging. If they ARE, we’re interested!]]

Phil: I’m enjoying this straight away. It sounds modern. Indieish, but slightly bluesy indieish. I like it.
MMT: Reading on their MySpace it looks like they may have evolved into a full band more recently, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen them advertised anywhere. It’s a funny world, MySpace. I still don’t like the new layout.
Phil: I’d like to see them at an open mic or a gig.


“We are here, we are waiting Pt. II”: WEAREWOLF
[[If it seems like we review an inordinate amount of intensely proggy and / or metally bands from MK, it’s only an indication of how many there are proportionately on the local scene at any one time! Here’s another, who played some high profile gigs at The Craufurd Arms in the last few months…]]

MMT: Interesting that the recordings by all the metally bands in Milton Keynes is, on average, of a much higher production standard than any other genre.
Phil: I’m liking it so far… I love all this melodic stuff at the beginning. I like the chilled out bits and pieces. There are a lot of bands doing this well right now.
MMT: Where do you stand on the Screamy Vocal / Singy Vocal dynamic generally?
Phil: I would prefer just a Singy Vocal, though I don’t mind a little bit of Screamy.


“Lemonade Pockets”: DUKE OF MARMALADE
[[A hard-edged indie rock act who we were lucky enough to see play live recently when they stepped in at the last minute to help us out in our ‘dress rehearsal’ for the new “Monkey Kettle Presents…” music promotion!]]

MMT: One of my favourite things about them when we saw them live was the little… footwork the lead singer was doing while he was playing – what he was playing was quite complex as well. Clearly very tight musicians, performance-wise. They made it look deceptively easy.
Phil: I liked the diversity of their set too. I liked the deliberate feedback – too many bands try and go for a polished sound all the time. I enjoy this track.


“No Tomorrow”: SAHARA C
[[Zimbabwean-born but living in MK, Sahara is an RnB singer who’s done very well in national songwriting contests over the last few years.]]

Phil: I have to say, RnB isn’t really my genre –
MMT: (astonished) It’s not?
Phil: - but I’m liking her voice, and the little flourishes of the production. It breezes along. You can imagine hearing it in a bar somewhere.
MMT: It sounds like mainstream RnB. I mean it sounds ‘national’, not ‘local’. It’s summery.
Phil: It’s professionally put together.
MMT: Have you ever liked any RnB?
Phil: (long pause) … I kinda liked the first Rage Against The Machine album.


“Ghosts”: PROJECTNOISE
[[A diverse-sounding bunch: indie, dub, post-rock, instrumental, punk, hip-hop, folk – s’all on their MySpace!]]

MMT: It’s an eclectic mix of styles… It’s good that you can’t pigeonhole them into one thing.
Phil: Yeah, I enjoy the random sound. I really like them.
MMT: I like this bit that’s gone down into just bass. And I really like their band manifesto on MySpace [which includes ‘…if you can’t understand us, f**k off and listen to the radio”].
Phil: I think that’s right. That’s why it reminds me of Sonic Youth, really. When you get things that are really ‘different’, it’s hard to say if they’re good or bad. It’s preference.
MMT: I really like how this has turned out, the kind of chuggy reggae-beat bounce…
Phil: What I liked when I saw them live [at the “Shocktower” Halloween festival] was how their songs would blend into each other as well. It’s music without rules. It’s definitely something I like. They’re a box of tricks – you don’t really know what you’re going to get.


“Alejandro”: INVOCATION
[[A bit of fun, maybe – but definitely worth a listen! Last we could tell, Invocation was the side project of one of the guitarists in the brilliant Machinist – this is a genius prog metal remix of a pop fave!]]

Phil: It makes her sound like Evanescence!
MMT: It’s actually one of my least favourite Lady Gaga singles, but he’s made it better…
Phil: I think it sounds great!
MMT: I just love the fact it even exists!
Phil: People should do more of that, playing around and messing around with music.


“Ophelia”: GLASS TEARS
[[An experienced folky jazzy trio such as you might see on the Stony Stratford circuit or at a chilled out festival in a field]]

Phil: I quite like this straight away, it’s very Joni Mitchell, very 60s / 70s kinda vibe. It’s very folky. Folky pop music. Thoughtful, lyrical stuff.
MMT: The recording is very clear, you can hear the nice calm bass. It’s gonna sound very muso-ey, but I like the sound of the guitar. And I love the way – though this isn’t necessarily ‘my kind of music’ – that it’s built into a more emotional…
Phil: I like the building. You get sucked into it. She’s got a great voice. It’s done with heart.


RUNNER-UP DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE AUTUMN

“Thalassophobia”: SCARED OF THE OCEAN
[[Yes, it’s another Milton Keynes metally outfit – but definitely at the ‘upper end’ of the genre]]

MMT: Thalassophobia means ‘fear of the sea’, hence ‘Scared Of The Ocean’, that’s very clever!
Phil: It’s good – I’m liking the bass just now.
MMT: It’s ‘broken down’. I love that echoey vocal in the middle – and there we are back into the metal! I mean, fair enough, it’s metal – but it’s got angles to it. Layers. I dig it.
Phil: Really like them. Definitely my favourite of the more metally bands this time round.


DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE AUTUMN

“Never Returned”: FAULTLINES
[[We saw this off-kilter progressive indie trio play at one of the Sunset Acoustic Lounge’s spin-off music nights at the Red Dot Bar, stadium:MK this Autumn, and absolutely loved them! And their MySpace recordings are just as impressive!]]

MMT: I love that guitar sound. I dunno what effect that is? Is it distortion?
Phil: Distortion, definitely. Though it might be flanger and / or a phaser. They were the most exciting band on that night.
MMT: Some of it is reasonably straight-forward hard rock, but just some of the… sounds being created by the guitarist, and the unpredictability about where each song was gonna go… ‘where are they going to go next? Oh, they’ve gone that way, that’s brilliant!’
Phil: To me, this sounds timeless.
MMT: Lovely solo as well, one of those ‘space solos’ I really like. Beamed back by satellite. And then back in with the riff. Cool.