So aye Happy New Year one and all, twenty-one days late not too bad I’d say. I thought I’d make my first (proper, non list-related) entry of 2011, a summary of what I’ve been getting excited about and listening to in the past couple of weeks since ten became eleven.
First up is a young lad going by the name of Zoo Kid, the emphasis very much on the ‘young’. Archy Marshall is the tender age of sixteen, and makes music far, far beyond his years. Current single Out Getting Ribs is a bleak yet utterly beautiful pop song detailing the trials and tribulations of teenage life. It’s a fairly sparse affair, just Marshall’s rough vocal over some echoey guitar, but he seems so sincere, passionate and genuine that nothing more is needed. In terms of comparisons Billy Bragg and Jamie T. both come to mind and even at this early stage it is abundantly obvious that this young man has enough raw talent to potentially go on to be just as great as those aforementioned artists.
I first heard The Next Untouchable by the now defunct Cajun Dance Party years ago, I can’t really remember exactly when, 2005 or 2006 maybe? Anyway the point was I was almost positive, from this one track alone that here was something rather special. These youngsters would surely go on to be absolutely massive; everything about the track was utterly perfect.
This obviously did not transpire, and although the one album they did release was actually rather good, they did not achieve the critical success that I was so sure was destined for them. Anyway back to 2011 and the reason I’ve been rabbiting on about Cajun Dance Party is that two of the members are now in a new band who I am currently quite excited about. Daniel and Max from CDP plus Japanese bassist Mariko Doi, New Jersey drummer Jonny Rogoff and Daniel’s younger sister Ilana make up Yuck. Their sound is pretty far removed from CDP, think grunge/shoegaze/American bands of the 80’s and 90’s. Sonic Youth, Pavement, Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine and Pixies all sound vaguely like influences but despite obviously having exquisite records collections, Yuck are not simply a band wanting to sound like they should have been around twenty years ago. Ok they’re indebted to bands of yesteryear but these days who isn’t? Their songs still manage to sound fresh and exciting; fuzzy guitars, addictive hooks, strong melodies and most importantly passion are all here in abundance so here’s hoping we have the pleasure of their company for slightly longer than Cajun Dance Party.
I’ve also become obsessed, and obsessed is certainly the right word about a man called Sylvain Chauveau. Since stumbling upon his 2007 record Nuage a couple of weeks ago, it has been played pretty much constantly. His music is mostly minimal, ambient instrumental and electronic compositions which in all honesty are not really genres I’m particularly familiar with, but I was instantly struck by how beautiful the record was. Thus far I have not had time to explore his back catalogue further (which includes an album released by the wonderful Fat Cat records), but Nuage is utterly astonishing. I’ve posted a track from it below, but individual songs really do not do justice to just how gorgeous the record is. It needs to be listened to from start to finish and I advise anyone with a working pair of ears to do so.
Still listening to MBDTF quite a lot goes without saying really. The Nicki Minaj album has grown on me quite a lot in the last few weeks and Esben And The Witch’s debut album is a really interesting listen which leads me to my final point. I have reviewed the Esben... album for a rather excellent wee blog called Sucking Lemons which I thoroughly recommend checking out.
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