The All Good Funk Alliance Strikes Again

Seemingly named after a brand of film, the photographically named AGFA or the All Good Funk Alliance bring the chilled out hip hop grooves and funk and let them develop into something that's classic sounding without being too retro. Their latest album Jack Of All Trades plays just like the name would imply as a mish mash of styles mixed into a bit of everything stylee. These guys are Jack of all trades as they fear no genre or template but rather let the music and their ideas take them where they want to go.

Jack Of All Trades is an incredibly diverse record that sounds like Dee Lite, early 90's hip hop, chill out, and pure funk all at the same time. It truly is very good as AGFA fire on all cylinders here and lay down such addictively groovy tunes that if you're feet don't move and your ears don't perk up then you might just be dead. This is a party barely contained within the thirteen songs that make Jack Of All Trades up. I love the fact that the band so easily shift focus and take the funk in all sorts of cool direction...it flows like Niagara Falls and it kills.

From bongos, record scratching, synths, hip hop vocals, funky bass lines, driving drums and everything in between AGFA have created a record in Jack Of All Trades that will satisfy everyone's desire to get down. It's all here and it's all too darn funky. This is a record that inspires movement and energy and that's because it's got both by the ton. If you were to look up perfectly chilled funk in the dictionary of musical genre's you would see the All Good Funk Alliance hosting a trophy high. This is simply an awesome record that you need in your life.

Attaque Knows When Light Falls

Holy heck folks, Attaque's new album When Light Falls is so mind numbingly good that I really don't even want to write this review but sit in a room and just listen to this record. Taking techno and ramping it up a few notches, Attaque have created an album of epic bangerness that rages harder than a group of steroided up MMA fighters. This is the sort of record that plans to have its way with you whether you want it to or not. It's a massive electronic battle weapon and it's poised to lay waste to dance floors worldwide.

Taking a minimal amount of synths, a mind numbing manipulation of beats and a general sense of disorder, Attaque plans its moves via huge build ups and simple but deadly hooks. All in all it's crazy, mayhemic, and really very good. Attaque builds his tunes with a degree of metallic, minimal precision that should be admired by everyone. His ability to take so little and make it sound like so much is a tribute to his ability to make his machines do things they probably shouldn't. When Light Falls as a result of all this tinkering, sparseness, and songwriting is a killer record.

Attaque has knocked it out of the ballpark here. When Light Falls is an amazing clangy masterwork of techno tomfoolery. The songs are buzzsaw-like, the hooks are huge, and the power of this record to send you back to the Stone Age is ridiculous. As some has stated previously..."prepare to be pummeled."

Proof I Exist and Suburban Sci-Fi

Proof I Exist answers the question if I'm a solo artist and I make record by myself do I exist? Well Suburban Sci-Fi would seem to answer that question with a resounding yes. Proof I Exist is Paul Kulis who single handedly and painstakingly pieced this record together in his basement using all live instrumentation and a bit of computer magic. The results are a fun record that taps into its inner indie pop fan and then tells a tale to the joys of DIY.

Sounding at times like Neutral Milk Hotel and at others like a bit of a twee pop band, Proof I Exist are a jangly, jolly, frivolous, and fun band that sounds much larger than the sum of its parts. Suburban Sci-Fi fully embraces its bedsit or basement pop and runs with it. This is a record that embraces the honesty and purity of every song here and the craft of making each of these tunes really helps this thing succeed. It's not flash, it's not huge, it's not overly produced it's just an honest to goodness power pop record that's filled with great choruses, quirky hooks and songs that will have you pogoing around.

Kulis has proven he exists and done a darn good job of it. Suburban Sci-Fi is a well rounded effort that shows Proof I Exist can do it all and do it well. Who needs a band when you've got a basement, time, and the ability to play everything? Not Proof I Exist, that’s for sure.

The Chains Of Love Are Tough To Break

The Chains of Love are a hard bond to break. Wrapped up in your arms and twisted in your thoughts, they're almost inescapable. Oh...and so is the band of the same name. This garage, retro tinged group write songs as if they were the Pipettes in a fight with Vivian Girls on a beach in California. Their latest EP Strange Grey Days is a surfy, jangly, twangy gorgeous record that's so poptastic you can almost feel the handclaps across your face. The songs on this short but sweet record are loaded with organ riffs, echoy guitars, soaring heartbroken vocals, and twisterella-like grooves. It's all heavenly pop that is broken hearted as any band with the name of Chains of Love should be.

Despite the name Strange Grey Days is the sound of summer. This record is the sound of summer love, days at the beach, car chases through the mountains, life in the 50's or 60's, going back to school and knowing that it's all going to come crashing to an end. It's awesome stuff and I'm thankful that we get seven songs of this brilliant twangy stuff to fall in love with because as I said, breaking the chains of love is tough but after listening to Strange Grey Days why would you ever want to?

Beast Make Bomb's Skinny Legs

Beast Make Bomb’s latest EP Skinny Legs is an energetic fizzy pop record with enough spiky guitars, jumpy rhythms and adorable vocals to last a lifetime or at least the five songs on this record. At times sounding like a brilliant combination of Letters to Cleo, Veruca Salt, Mazzy Star and PJ Harvey Beast Make Bomb have seemingly stolen the best of 90's female fronted guitar pop and made it all their own. Skinny Legs is excellent indie rock played the way it used to be played.

With huge guitar riffs, addictively catchy rhythms, and the delicate belting of Ceci Gomez' vocals the whole record feels like it's been dug up from a 1995 time capsule. If you can imagine someone like Tanya Donnelly with Doc's on stomping around the stage, I suspect you've got Beast Make Bomb pegged. These guys are awesome and it's the sweetness of Ceci mixed with the crunchiness of her band that makes this record work. Beast Make Bomb might have skinny legs but they still can kick your butt and that's what they do on this super cool record.

Lissy Trullie Is Unique

Aside from reminding me of Kristen Dunst, Lissy Trullie is a super cool singer who takes the mean edges of New York gives them a feminine touch and winds up sounding something like Karen O, and Siouxsie lost in Brooklyn. Her self-titled album is a spiky record filled with edgy melodies, intimate moments, open hearted lyrics, and a cool as beep attitude. This is the sound of the city, the sound of the night, the sound of a mass of people on the move with an attitude about them all. It's a bit rough, a bit dirty but always cool and it's impossible not to like.

That being said, Lissy Trullie is cool. You can tell that just from the pictures on the album. She's hip, she's chic, but she's so much more. Her voice is this sort of deep-ish dramatic thing that coats her songs with this heavy syrupy feel that's so easy to listen to and gives her songs this windswept and exotic feel to them. The songs sound huge and her voice is surrounded by a bevy of instrumentation that gives her voice and tunes this diverse bohemian feel to them that could only come from a place like New York.

Channeling her influences and manipulating them into something all her own I think helps Lissy stand out. While she's obviously come up with her own approach and her voice is truly special, one can still pick up on songs that sound like the Velvet Underground, the YYY's, Pretenders, the Banshees and the like. When all combined, it makes for one heck of a unique sound. This is a massively entertaining record. She may be a girl with a guitar but it's what she does with it that will leave you in awe. This is a very good debut record and the sort of thing that’s highly recommended.

Our Lives Are Out Of Place

The power of Coldplay is inescapable. They're rapidly becoming like Mickey Mouse and Coke. No matter where you go in the world people know who they are. They're that popular...so it's really no surprise that their sound and influence has trickled down to every corner of the globe including Bjork's home turf of Iceland.

Reykjavik based Our Lives is the latest band to tap into that over emotive and emotionally draining but absolutely massive pop sound. Their latest EP, Out Of Place is the definition of epic pop music with songs so stadium sized that the Rose Bowl could barely contain them. The songs on this thing are absolutely gargantuan and so ridiculously emotional that you'll need a box of tissues at arm’s length while listening to them. Needless to say Our Lives are fantastic at what they do. They're songs soar towards the heavens and get there. It's all ethereal, unearthly, and gripping stuff that will have girls swooning with open arms. Out Of Place is good stuff and after five songs I'm drained from listening to it all...this is one band where I can say, I don't know if I'm ready to handle an LP from them; my psyche might not be able to take it. Anyway, if you're not heartbroken or depressed pick this up and weep openly with pride. If you are heartbroken, or seeing a psychiatrist...stay the heck away otherwise you'll need therapy (or more of it).