I totally just saw Gary Numan! As a wee Goth in the year 2000, Gary Numan was King. Inspired by the tragedy of his wife’s miscarriage, he had come out with PURE; the biggest, baddest, bitterest and most beautiful industrial rock album I had ever heard; one that’s a million miles away from MACHINE & SOUL, METAL RHYTHM and even REPLICAS. I was having a great time being completely miserable.

And tonight, nine years on, Gary Numan is not the shy robot of a teenager that unloaded Are Friends Electric? and Cars, nor is he the questionable dance icon that annoyed most of his fans (I quite like it) from 1982 to 1994 – instead the Numan of the new century is a freakin’ rock star.

The moment he hits the stage (lit beautifully with dark red lines that recall the artwork for the classic TELEKON) the venue is smothered in crushing, grinding distortion and wailing, piercing synths. Awesome. Goths mope (in a good way), oldies dance, people cheer, corsets loosen, I rock, and Numan even cracks a smile. It was nice.

Drawing his material predominantly from his last two albums (JAGGED and PURE) and highlights from his two most celebrated and influential classics (REPLICAS and THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE) Numan offers a powerful and well balanced set of huge, pulsing anthems.

Ditching the three-note synth-pop of his past, the Numan of today creates an atmospheric and ambitious mix of creeping, cruel verses; dark tones; subtle melodic touches and impassioned, soaring choruses – if you’d thought Numan was capable of a set as emotive and uncompromising as this in 1992 you’d be Rasputin.

Numan stays relatively quiet throughout the night, just the occasional ‘thanks’, but he reminds us of exactly how relevant he is through a double header of Metal (from his first solo album) and Blind (from his fifteenth…), which demonstrate both his innovation and his mastery of electronic music. Numan is not an old man playing a young man’s game, he’s proving that he can bring as much of a bite to the style he helped create as any of his competition.

Surprisingly, global super-hit Cars is received as ‘just another song’, people cheer and people sing, but it doesn’t stand out, such is the quality of his recent material that his most famous single sits quite modestly alongside it all.

On a night full of hits, rare treats, live favourites and highlights like Down in the Park, Films, Rip and Are Friends Electric? – he closes with a gorgeous encore of Prayer for the Unborn (which was bleaker than Italian Neo-Realism). I’d been taught (by the office soul man) that only Marvin Gaye could write a song so personal – but I’d been taught wrong, this left me breathless. Yowzer.

Now I’ve long since realised that Goth music is generally a bit silly, and I learnt the hard way how bad I look in make up, but no one else working in the genre brings as much heart and grit to the industrial template as Gary Numan. He’s not a joke anymore, he’s not a pop star anymore – instead he’s a credible recording artist who’s managed to get more mileage out of that old car than anyone could ever have predicted.

I leave a very happy frowner.

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“CompareDownload.com is a search engine, price comparison and general information website for music and legal music downloads. Comparedownload.com has brought together all of the major and independent retailers of legal music downloads and put them all on one page for you to browse through and purchase from in a safe a legal environment.”

It’s free to use, though is currently running in beta. It has a search function which seemed to work perfectly OK when I was testing it out. There are various tabs which appear underneath the album you’ve selected to search on, thus allowing you to compare prices, play sound clips, watch videos, read reviews, search tickets etc. All this info is relevant to the artist who you’ve nominated, therefore you’re not receiving any erroneous information.

If you’re searching for an artist’s album pop the word ‘album’ after the artist’s name. This will bring up their albums first followed by their tracks. And if you are searching for a specific track then enter the artist’s name followed by the full track name.

Once you have found a track or album at a desirable price you simply select it from the preferred retailer. You are then whisked off to said retailer’s website to complete the transaction process.

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With lights flashing, feedback blaring, sound warping, instruments crumbling, fools fleeing, ears peeling, synth bleeping and an Argos toy guitar rattling – I realise that The Beatles really aren’t that big a deal.

Kieronononononon^ononononononononon [spelling is variable - Ed]are in the house. Whos’ house? Their house. Quite.

The weirdo trio, made up of (self-proclaimed) front-man Orta (electronics/keys/decks/‘vocals’), Goatboy (guitar/‘vocals’) and (float*)(p->x) (‘Dums’/’Bass’/’Vocals’) stand as a bizarre unit, sods against the odds, offering the best and only ‘brutaltechnopunk’ show in the land.

This would be my fourth time seeing them, and probably my fiftieth time reviewing them, and it’s only recently occurred to me how much the reviews they receive annoy me; ‘OMG! IT’S LIKE ZAPPA SUPERIMPOSED INTO ‘DELIVERENCE’ FUNNELED THROUGH A HOOVER, BLASTED INTO SPACE, PLAYED BACKWARDS AND UPSIDE DOWN, WHILE RADIOHEAD WEEP AND FISH TURN TO WINE! OH MY GOD! THEY ALSO SOUND LIKE THEY’RE ON DRUGS! DrUgS!!!!!!!!’ they say, from their Ivory blog; ‘shut up’ I say, from my industry hot spot.

Kieronononon^ are really, really good. They’ve recorded four ridiculous and outstanding EPs, started a wholly messy and glorious record label (roxXOR2), made an equally outlandish ‘DVDVDVDVD^VD’ and managed to make an enemy of Ric Browde (producer of Poison’s debut album…). They’re truly unique; their volume is unfathomable; their choreography is awful; their harmonies are a nasty mix of The Beach Boys and ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and their energy is unworldly (they compress a ‘Curfew-Breaking Boss Time’ three hour set into 30 minutes) – but they’ve got a heap of good songs too. Tales of bad anecdotes, bumbling secret agents, faded Super Heroes, lewd acts, vampire vodka parties (“it’s murder! It’s awesome!”) and ‘feelings, man’ all litter their memorable set, which is really what makes it worthwhile.

Some people have a ‘so bad it’s good’ view on them (like all the films I think are really good), but I don’t agree, they’re a good band, they may even be a great band – if so, they’re definitely the worst great band on earth, but still, Greatness is great.

They’re funny and they’re messy and they don’t always appear to be strictly ‘talented’ – but when they’re together, my world is rocked. I’m seeing Gary Numan on Saturday and I’m not convinced he knows exactly what he’s got to top, in a car or not.

THIS IS FACT. If you don’t like Kierononononon^ – YOU ARE COWARD.

End Report.

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Daytrotter helps to make the world better, giving us vibrant sounding, beautiful sessions & creating visually stimulating, original artwork which will hold your gaze for a dangerously considerable amount of time!

“Daytrotter is a recording studio with a website. We invite musicians to our studio, record their songs, and give (give, as in “for free, no strings attached”) them to you, from our website. Simple. Please tell your friends. There are plenty of songs for everyone.”

There is a truly astounding amount of talent here, including the likes of Bonnie Prince Billy, Death Cab For Cutie & Andrew Bird.

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Once upon a time music magazines & radio were considered the main forum in which to explore music. Today though we’re luckily enough to have a wealth of great, diverse online avenues; it’s now music bloggers & sites like Daytrotter who are influencing what’s hot & what’s not.

We Are Hunted trawls through blogs, social networks, torrents, P2P networks, & Twitter. The end result is 99 songs that the social web has declared worthy of listening to.

“Visually driven, intuitive & simple, We Are Hunted seeks to be a daily destination for music lovers looking to discover their next favorite artist. Through We Are Hunted, music fans can discover new music & more importantly, join the conversation about it.”

The results bare little relation to the conventional top 40, sure you’ll chance upon the likes of Lily Allen however, they serve up plenty of unique artists & songs to keep you entertained. Looking over the site this morning I chanced upon the likes of the splendid Grizzly Bear & Yo La Tengo.

On top of listening to tracks, you can buy the songs you love, as well as filter the top 99 online music chart by today, week, month, or year. In addition you can also filter the top 99 songs by genre, remix & Twitter.

There’s now even a Spotify linked version of We Are Hunted http://spotify.wearehunted.com/ which allows you to click through & listen to any of the tracks on Spotify.

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Artist: Akron / Family

Album: Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

Label: Crammed Discs

It’s nice when this happens. Having risen fast to the absolute top of my profession, it can be easy to become jaded and tired; my worn, greying eyes seeing nothing but bottom lines and tax deductions – but sometimes this happens, sometimes something truly inspiring and exciting falls onto our desks and rocks our worlds*. In this instance it happened with a Crammed Discs release (coming through our friends in Proper Note) by the name of SET ‘EM WILD, SET ‘EM FREE. The offending artist? AKRON/FAMILY.

Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

Now it seems everyone on the internet has long since discovered and loved Akron/Family but never bothered to tell me (and what exactly am I paying all these taxes for?) – so as irritatingly late and excitable as that guy who always hears ‘hilarious’ novelty songs a bit too late and still wants to sing them to you (they all congregate in Croydon), I discover the latest release from this wonder band.

BANG! Kicking off with some pulsating Afro-Beat rhythms that the Kuti clan could be smug about before injecting some Sabbath sized chords that Tony Iommi could be equally chuffed about comes Everyone is Guilty as good an opener as modern music will allow. Despite the tinkles of folkish string plucking and the occasional power-chord sneak through the mix there’s no real reason suspect that the album could turn out to be such a genre-hopping, life affirming, convention defying, neighbour bothering classic – but that’s what it is (or will turn out to be when we’re all living in orange bubbles on the moon). The album is bloated with creativity; a gasp of folk; a rumble of afro-beat; a wheeze of gloss-pop and a nasty belch of thrashing industrial metal (on the office shattering MBF).

Is it a rock record? Is it a pop record? Is a folk record? No. Is it an experimental record? Not really. Is it a record? Yes. The awkward tag of ‘alternative’ for once makes a lot of sense, Akron/Family offer an alternative to genre without ever appearing strained – can it even be considered experimental if it sounds so organic and comes so naturally? I don’t pretend to know, I also don’t pretend that Akron/Family are really, really good – because they factually are awesome.

If you like melody, if you like harmony; and if you like to rock, dance, weep (chicks only) and love, then this is an album that could see you into your twilight years. It’s as original and inventive as any album I’ve come across in my stellar career within ‘the industry’.

Although the album is slightly reminiscent of pleasing pop/rock rebels Modest Mouse, ‘pre-grunge’ survivalists The Pixies, African superstar Seun Kuti and Brit-folk revivalists The Fleet Foxes and Great Lake Swimmers – I recommend this album to most people. Fans of pleasure? Fans of life? Fans of stuff. This is the album for you.

*Full disclosure. I have loved, cherished and celebrated every record to ever surface under the banner of Proper Music Distribution and am financially and artistically satisfied in my lowly position of Product Assistant. I was merely being hilariously funny.

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This Friday you can witness live the sleek, electro-pop maneuvers of Ladytron at London’s Matter. For those of you who haven’t dipped your toes into Ladytron’s distinctive synth-pop pulses then I highly recommend checking out their splendid catalogue. Their most recent album, Velocifero which literally means ‘bringer of speed’ mixes enigmatic hooks, jagged guitar & melodic distinctive vocals.

The album’s recording took place at The Studio de la Grande Armée in Paris where Duran Duran recorded their career-making Rio! Other noteworthy artists to have used the studio include Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Françoise Hardy & INXS.

Ladytron - Velocifero

Ladytron-Runaway

You can also read an interview with Ladytron on thecmuwebsite.com.

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Real World Round Up:

Charlie Winston – Hobo album launch.

The Pigalle, Piccadilly. July 1^st 2009.

Charlie Winston (by Jon Roffey)

Having convinced the French that he’s the single best thing Euros can buy (racking up a platinum album and a no.1 single), Suffolk songster Charlie Winston made his much anticipated return to London for the UK launch of his debut album proper Hobo. Mon Dieu!

Hitting the stage one by one, his band, The Oxymorons, arrive with an every-man-for-himself urgency – fighting one another to open the set. It was very novel. When the trio finally found themselves united, they worked seamlessly, creating a grand enough backing to lure the night’s star onto the stage. Dancing his way into the opening lines of excellent new single In Your Hands and thrashing at his keyboard like a dandy (and digital) Jerry Lee Lewis – Charlie Winston had officially arrived in London Town.

Having been treated to more than a few advance peaks at his Hobo album, I was actually expecting something a little more modest from the bright young songwriter. Winston’s songs are impassioned stories about poverty, disease, death, love, loss and erm, being a duck – and with his combination of rock n roll, world, Brit-pop, funk and gritty acoustic led social conscience there’s no doubt that Mr Winston is an engaging and talented songwriter – but what stood before me on this night, decked out in a devil red suit, tilted fedora and black waist coat was a freakin’ pop star. Forget ‘singer-songwriter’ – this guy is a true showman.

On this pinch-punch day of the month, Winston has the look of Prince; the tunes of a ‘Face Value’ Phil Collins blurred with a tail-feather shakin’ Ray Charles, and the angst and message of a young, relevant, Rage Against the Machine (a strange comparison, but one he apparently agrees with).

Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records has released a number of wonderful and accessible records, but it seems Charlie Winston could be the first on their roster break through into the (less real) world of pop. Does he deserve it? Definitely. Can he manage it? The hordes of gyrating, skinny pretty-pretties (male and female) that fill the room certainly seem to think so. I do too (and I’m neither skinny nor pretty, so it’s evident that Charlie Winston has something for everyone).

In summary, the album is launched, the single is nigh, the Winston is home – things are about to get really interesting. I enjoyed myself.

Wish you’d been there? Wish I’d done a better job of describing it? Non problem.

Just come along to Rough Trade East on July 27^th for a special in-store performance – and get the In Your Hands single before everyone else on gloriously vinyl-like vinyl with their exclusive advance release date of July 27th (or you’ll have to wait until August 10th like fools).

Next stop on my Real World world Tour:

TONIGHT (July 8^th):

Dub Colossus,

Dingwalls, Camden Town, 7.30pm

www.dingwalls.com

www.myspace.com/dubcolossusmusic

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Take Away Shows

The unstructured nature of the music videos filmed for The (glorious) Take-Away Shows sees indie bands take to the streets of Paris, with stimulating & innovative results.

The Take-Away Shows are the video arm of superior French music site; La Blogothèque and it’s clearly evident that intimacy & spontaneity are very much at its heart. Photographer & promo director Vincent Moon has led almost 100 artists including Arcade Fire, The Shins, Grizzy Bear, Vampire Weekend & Sufjan Stevens on a merry dance around the streets, bars & rooftops of Paris.

To explore all the show’s please check out the following link …http://www.blogotheque.net/spip.php?page=cae_all&lang=en

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Baddies, yesterday.

Baddies are here… and they’re on a mission to make you listen.

Breaking out at last year’s music expo ‘In The City’, Baddies quickly got swept up by the curse of the so-called “hype machine”. Careful not to get too carried away, they took a step back and decided to set up their own label, Medical, which meant that they would have total control of their music.

Despite their name, Baddies are actually really very good. Having been described by those in the know as, “Like hearing Franz Ferdinand coming out of prison and losing faith in humanity,” or possessing, “The heft of Queens Of The Stone Age with the pop sensibilities of Talking Heads.” Baddies put it a bit more bluntly, describing themselves as, “people that would kick the sh*t out of Bill Oddie.” So I suppose it could hinge on how much you like Bill Oddie.

Baddies are currently up for an award for being the most active touring band in Europe and are playing pretty much everywhere at some point this year. If you miss them, it’s not their fault.

Their debut album Do The Job is out on 21st September and is a frantic, sinister and sideways look at everyday life. With this release, Baddies hope to prove that you don’t need a bucket load of money to be the best band in the business… just energy, attitude and a cleanly pressed shirt.

www.listentobaddies.co.uk

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