Norse Horse Gallop Across Grids

Norse Horse's latest EP Grids is a psychedelic sun drenched pop record that's about as far from being Norse as Norway is from California. Sprightly, jangly, and melodically brilliant Grids is an indie pop treat of tiny proportions. Clocking in at just four songs this is a small grid, so to speak, in which Norse Horse has to work...but after a listen or two you come to realize something is most definitely better than nothing.

This is a vibrant record that whose riffs glistens like sunshine and charm with 80's jangle as the songs wash over you like a warm summer wave. At times sounding like The Wake at others The Strokes, Norse Horse create a dizzying array of styles within each song that keeps things entertaining. And entertain it does as Grids is a great single that shines the whole way through and leaves you breathless wanting more. Springs arrived early and it's Norse in origin.

A Classic Education Release A Classic

The first thing you come to realize about A Classic Education is that they're NOT British. No, A Classic Education is actually Italian but you'd never, ever know that based on their songs. While one member is actually Canadian, the band hails from Bologna but sounds as if it were lost in NME's C86 cassette all those years ago. Their album Call It Blazing is a fantastic indie pop album that's indeed classic; so classic in fact, that had it been released in 1986 it would have entrenched itself at the top of the Indie charts.

Call It Blazing sounds like the best record that Sarah Records never released. Imagine The Field Mice, The Sugargliders, The Go Betweens and say someone like Biff Bang Pow and you kind of have an idea of the sound that A Classic Education are after. It’s a sound they pretty much capture and make their own throughout this album and that’s a good thing. Jangly guitars, reverbed guitars, echoy ghostlike vocals, airy songs, and wistful lyrics give Call It Blazing a classic indie feel that sounds so British it makes it difficult to remember that these guys are Italian (uh and Canadian).

A Classic Education are amazing at what they do. They've so successfully tapped into that classic mid-80's British pop sound that it will leave you in awe. Call It Blazing is the sound of 1986 and it's songs are so achingly awesome, brilliantly twee and yearning to be British that it's impossible not to like them. This is a great record from a great band and regardless of where they might be from their hearts and songs will always belong to old Blighty.

Water Liars Have A Phantom Limb

St. Louis via Mississippi's Water Liars are a fascinating study in contrasts. This two piece band takes Americana and roughs it up a bit with some old fashioned rock and roll and then records it on a five dollar tape recorder. Their songs are intimate and rough, raw and quiet, dark and light and it's those opposites that makes this record and this band fascinating. The results of this constant tussle for control and sound can be heard on their debut album Phantom Limb.

Originally, unplanned the album was recorded on a whim in three days with exactly one microphone. As you might expect, this record isn't polished or even produced very well; what it is though is just two guys having one heck of time making music. It's that honesty and that purity that makes listening to Phantom Limb tolerable because as you know I can’t stand folk. It of course helps, as well, that there are the odd moments of rock and roll respite which will remind you of old Black Keys or My Morning Jacket records.

Overall though, Water Liars have created a quiet, melancholic, and haunting Americana record that sounds just like it seems; a lo-fi jam between friends. Phantom Limb was a unique moment in time that's been captured on tape for everyone to enjoy. This is a record that illustrates the power of song and if you like dusty heartbroken acoustic tunes this is one record you need to own.

Hit The Lights Are A Hit

Hit The Lights latest album Invicta is a soaring epic emotastic record that's so massive that stadiums would have a difficult time holding the songs contained herein. Say what you will about the genre but once bands tap into the Endless Meloditron 3000 it's almost impossible to look back. With vocals that are so harmonically perfect and songs that will quite literally melt young girls hearts Hit The Lights shine brighter than a 1000 suns.

Invicta is awesome for what it is...a clear example of how melody and harmony shape music and how with just one little hook you can reel in anyone. This album is filled with tons of such examples as the whole album is essentially one giant melody. Invicta is packed with the kinds of songs that will bring tears to the eyes of the broken hearted, depress those than can't handle love gone wrong, and have you wishing for a hug. Elevating all these harmonies and all this emotion are chunky guitar riffs, pounding drums, and driven basslines; it's all very crunchy, distorted stuff that contrasts with the vocals perfectly.

Hit the Lights ability to balance the heavy with the emotional is exceptional and Invicta’s songs reflect this ten times over. This record is packed with strong songs and mature musicianship and shows Hit The Lights developing into a monster of a band. This is a group that clearly knows how to play, write gargantuan songs, and melt the hearts of their female audience when needed. With its huge choruses, those soaring melodies, and incredibly large hooks there's so little wrong with Invicta it's not even worth mentioning. Invicta is easily one of the best emo records you'll hear all year.

Mean Creek Are Not Hemophiliacs

Mean Creek is a Bostonian band who take folk rock and post-grunge, smash those sounds together and come up with a fantastic collision of quiet/loud dynamics and huge songs. Their latest EP Hemophiliac is loaded with chunky riffs, boy/girl vocals, and songs which feel like aural rollercoasters. A bit like Bob Mould at times, Mean Creek write emotionally drenched songs that seem to rise and fall on waves of distorted, crunchy, and hazy guitar work. It's all pretty driving stuff that powers its way through each of the four songs that are here.

With the strong interplay between vocalists and those power chords churning away in the background Hemophiliac is powerful stuff that sounds like the best album I never got to play on college radio in 1993. There's an air of classicism about Mean Creek that I like. They've taken an angle and an approach and are slowly but surely manipulating it to make it their own. This is a band who I've heard over the course of two records master the quiet / loud dynamic and Hemophiliac is their latest playground in which to display their talents. And after listening to this about five times in a row, here's hoping the stumble into a bigger playground soon.

Big Pink's Future This Week

Wow. If ever I wondered if the music I listened to in the 90's would leave a lasting legacy my doubts have been answered singularly by The Big Pink. This band so readily and so happily embrace the British pop scene from the years 1990-1992 you'd almost swear that they were from that time period. If you can imagine Curve with a male vocalist instead of Toni Halliday than you kind of have an idea of where The Big Pink are coming from. Their album Future This is a record so lost in miasma and baggy beats that it only makes sense that legendary mixer Alan Moulder worked on the record and gave it an authentic early 90's sheen to it.

Instantly accessible and incredibly good Future This will hold your attention for the duration of it's 45 minutes. With shimmery guitars, electronic beats, ethereal vocals and songs that seem to whisper by Future This is a sweeping, vaporous album that's simply mesmerizing. With riffs rattling around empty spaces in your head and invisible hooks holding your ears firmly in place once The Big Pink get started they simply will not let go of your attention span. That's fine as far as I'm concerned because this is such an amazing post-shoegazing album that it deserves my constant attention.

Future This is just about perfect. The Big Pink's admiration of the early 90's, the use of Alan Moulder and Paul Epworth, the hazy songs, the reverberating and semi-gothy overtones all propel this album to starry heights. Future This proves time and time again that despite being lambasted in the music press Shoegazing was one of the most important movements in British pop over the last thirty years. The Big Pink have tapped into that and made it their own with Future This. It might only be January, but this is easily going to be one of my Top 25 albums of 2012.

Music From the Motion Picture Chronicle Is Super

Chronicle the movie seems to be like a lost episode of Heroes. Three boys stumble upon something mysterious that gives them superpowers. And like Spiderman they learn that with great power comes great responsibility...but being young and dumb it takes them a while to learn this. The album that corresponds with this movie Music From the Motion Picture Chronicle is also filled with great power...but it's power that has no responsibility just one heck of a punch.

Half the fun of listening to this album is to actually find where in the movie (if at all) the songs are used as it's always interesting to see how the producers were thinking when they chose the artists they chose for certain scenes. I’m not sure where the songs are yet, but the producers must have had their heads in the clouds as Chronicle features a host of artists that like the characters in the film have superpowers. From The Longcut to Deastro to Simian Mobile Disco, Congorock to Class Actress to M83 and a whole bunch in between this is an album that is packed with heavy hitters.

While I'm not sure how good the actual movie is/was I do know that the music from it is fantastic on its own right. It's so good, in fact, that Music From the Motion Picture Chronicle would stand on it's own two legs even if it were not attached to a blockbuster movie. And while these sorts of records usually contain a smattering of tracks that are any good Music From the Motion Picture Chronicle simply doesn't have one duff track. This is truly all killer and no filler. From the bedroom to the disco and back again, this is one album that takes you on a whirlwind trip of the current indie in electro scenes faster than a speeding bullet.

A fantastic compilation of cutting edge music that’s seemingly ahead of the curve Music From the Motion Picture Chronicle is the sort of thing you should buy regardless of what it’s designed to promote. It may not grant you super powers upon listening to it, it will give your ears a work out. For a soundtrack record…that’s pretty amazing.