Album Review: Wild Nothing Life Of Pause

From what started out as a solo bedroom recording project just five years ago in a dorm at Virginia Tech, Jack Tatum has given birth to his third full length album, released February 19th on New York label Captured Tracks. Life Of Pause is an evolution in the sound of a modern day Bowie. This album blends hypnotic orchestral arrangements with R&B sounds and introspective vocals.

What’s so great about this album and all of Wild Nothing’s other releases is that it doesn’t fit into any genre, and there is pretty much no situation where listening to a Wild Nothing album is inappropriate. The title track, Life Of Pause, is a nostalgic reflection on what music from the 80’s should have sounded like. This leads in to one of the best song introductions I have heard in a while on Alien. The track of the album for me is To Know You, the song resonates for some reason I can’t quite figure out. Probably the awesome synthesisers.

Wild Nothing’s third album lived up to all the hype I had for it. Although I still prefer his first release, Gemini, my personal favourite album, I feel the depth and craftsmanship that went into this new record will stand the test of time. This is the sort of album that will take the stress out of any given day no matter how big your student loan or how fucked up your flatting situation is getting.

Album Review: The Agent Intellect by Protomartyr

Protomartyr are a five piece post punk group from Chicago, signed to the label Hardly Art records. The baritone vocals of Joe Casey have been compared to the likes of Ian Curtis (Joy Division) and Nick Cave. Their newest release, The Agent Intellect, features a unique blend of almost psychedelic spoken word vocals, warm guitar tones in combination with tight, rattling bass lines that make for a unique blend of poetic noisepunk inspired pop music.

The song ‘The Hermit’ was a standout from one of my favourite albums of 2015. The high energy start to the song goes balls deep, the guitar tones sound like a machine gun, the background sampling sounds give a modern twist to the postpunk sound that has been around since before the 1970s.

In my opinion ‘guitar bands’ are a dying breed among the iPad generation where every derp who doesn’t listen exclusively listen to ZM and The Edge has access to a myriad of talented underground artists across every genre. Electronic artists seem to be constantly re-inventing themselves and producing some of the most innovative music of all time. Bands like Protomartyr are proof that the expression, innovation and passion that can be poured into a couple of planks of wood with wire attached to them can still compete with the most talented Macbook Pro musicians of today.

This album gets a 4.0/5.0 from me. If you are a walking Hamilton stereotype who listens exclusively to Tool you will probably still like this band.  You can stream this album for free on Spotify.

TV Review: Master Of None

Parks and Recreation alumni  and stand up comic Aziz Ansari debuts in a lead role with his new project Master Of None. With a title based on the common cliche, and Beach House song, the show follows a 30 year old single guy in New York City. This is not the first, nor last sitcom about living in New York, however this show differs a lot from other depictions and isn't your run of the mill sitcom.

The show feels like classic Aziz. The humour is dry and very awkward, Aziz and his group of friends are anything but your stereotypical New York demographic, if you have seen Parks and Recreation you will notice similarities between the character Tommy and Aziz's portrayal of himself, "Dev".

I liked the script for this show, however some of the dialogue just seems too unbelievable and awkward. Some of the minor characters are pretty terrible, and the acting for Dev's parents is so hilariously bad that it's almost good. Although the show addresses some pretty relevant issues, mostly race and gender, it can seem a little preachy at times, particularly as the series starts to progress.

This show is similar in style to Louie C.K. and Curb Your Enthusiasm, both in my opinion in another league, however as this is only in Season One I feel there is potential for this to be a great show. Would recommend for Netflix and chill, the perfect balance between a soap opera and a sitcom.

Podcast Review: Hicks From The Sticks

Hicks from the sticks is a podcast made by New Zealand band The Eversons, as they pack up all their things and head overseas to pursue the dream of becoming semi professional musicians. From the hipster dive bars of Wellington and Auckland to the hipster dive bars of London and Osaka, the members tell it like it is. If you are easily offended, this probably isn't the podcast for you.

Their second episode covers their tour of Japan in great detail, from smoking cigarettes inside to the Japanese "love hotels", places of "great shame". As well as top banter, this podcast provides some great insights as to what it's really like to be an underground musician from New Zealand, the music industry here in general, and travel essentials such as what to do the first time you are mugged, what Japanese people call shot gunning beers and organising an entire tour in an unfamiliar foreign country from a single email along the lines of "come to Japan have fun time."

It's interesting to hear insights into streaming services, record labels, touring and suchlike from up and coming music artists. There hasn't really been a podcast made by a band in this style before and in my opinion it is a must listen for anyone interested in travel, music or laughs. If you haven't listened to the band their first album "Summer Feeling" is well worth checking out, their sophomore album is due to be released later this year on Lil Cheif records. 

Album Review: Hymns by Bloc Party

The latest release from the band most well known for their critically acclaimed 2005 release Silent Alarm returns from their indefinite hiatus with a brand new lineup, building on their unique sound.

This album is the band's first full length release in Four years, 2012's 'Four' marked the end of an era for the band after the departure of drummer Matt Tong and bassist Gordon Moakes at the end of 2015. This album will get a lot of hate for not being a Silent Alarm 2.0, one of the reasons I like this band so much is because they are constantly re-inventing themselves despite requests not to by many critics and I respect them for that.

 This album combines the electronic dance sounds from A Weekend In The City with the slow burners from their last EP The Nextwave Sessions. Their lead guitarist Russell Lissack has said that no synthesisers were used during production and that he relied heavily on his pedalboard, the song Living Lux, with it's overpowering reverbs and delay effects are evidence of this. By far the most harsh and non 'poppy' song on the album and my personal favourite track from the record. If you liked this song you will like Deerhunter's Cryptograms album, if you like this song you probably found the rest of the album pretty boring.

I wouldn't call Hymns a bad album, but it seems a little uninspired compared with Bloc Party's other releases, as a fan of A Weekend In The City, and even Four, this is an okay release but I feel like that is mostly due to the nostalgia of one of my teenage favourites releasing a new album.