Vienna Ditto – Circle

With every song and single released, UK duo Vienna Ditto has enhanced the seductive hex they have laid on certainly our ears since being infected by the band’s Ugly EP in 2013. Now the pairing of Hatty Taylor and Nigel Firth has set free their long awaited and highly anticipated debut album, and fair to say that their melodic voodoo has just got seriously enslaving. Bringing some old fan favourites together with re-workings of older releases and brand new slices of sonic devilment, Circle is a bewitching romance of sultry atmospheres, bordering on sinister melodic beauty, and psychedelic sunspots of harmonic alchemy.

Originally meeting when Firth taught Taylor the guitar when she was 11 years old, the duo began writing and creating together in 2009 after meeting by chance again in the street. Within a week of that moment, they recorded an electronic version of the Johnny Cash classic Ring of Fire and in a matter of another seven of so days created and unveiled their own first song Long Way Down. This quickly managed to find itself played on Huw Stephens’ Radio One show, leading to Vienna Ditto playing the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury. 2011 saw the band’s self-titled debut EP get a well-received release, its temptation the beginning to greater attention and responses earned by a couple of singles and more so the Liar Liar and Ugly EPs two years later. With further singles only enhancing and confirming the duo’s potent emergence and increasing evolution of sound, there has been a greedy appetite brewing amongst a great many for this first album. Now here it is easy to say that no-one will be disappointed and for newcomers, well simply welcome to a new musical lust.

The encounter opens with This Is Normal, a song instantly luring ears through a minimal but potent bassy riff and the siren-esque tones and expression of Taylor’s voice. As crispy beats and additional guitar enticing joins the mix so the song’s energy also elevates, though it is quickly back into the low key gait so things continue to be potently intriguing and unpredictable. As electronic invention springs its bait next, the track eventually slips into a magnetic stroll with Morningwood like revelry but yet again things only get twisted and turned around to relentlessly excite ears and imagination.

    The irresistible start is emulated and surpassed by the following Feeling Good. With garage rock hooks colluding with surf and sci-fi shimmers, the song is quickly teasing and flirting like a sixties Venusian temptress. Also though there is simultaneously a climatic and sultry air enveloping the senses whilst beneath it a smouldering Tarantino cultured landscape becomes the home for an irresistible dance of vocals and grooves. The song is pure musical and emotional drama, an infection getting under the skin and into the psyche whilst providing the first major pinnacle of the album.

A melodic calm caresses ears next through the mellow charm of Wintertime. Comparisons to Portishead have been a regular offering since Vienna Ditto began and easy to see why with the golden kiss of charm offered by the tantalising third song on the album. It has its own intimacy and individual, almost raw innocence and beauty though as it casts a lingering peace which eventually makes way for the off kilter cosmopolitan enticement of A Happy Car is a Stolen Car. With a ska shaped bassline and exotic melodic hues within a spatial atmosphere, the song is a fascinating waltz of warped imagination and enterprise. The effect hugged vocals of Taylor court the bedlamic shuffle of the song and again a sixties pop hued psyche rock twisted soundscape. It takes a couple of listens or so to fully explore and understand the wonderful turbulence of ideas and bold adventure at work but rewards patience with another major highlight within Circle.

The band takes ears back into the dusty climes of a Morricone like terrain next through Pale Horse Rider, voice and strained guitar strings a compelling lead into a continually evolving and absorbing immersion of sound and emotion. Beauty again is the keenest description to lie at its door before the first of the band’s two current singles step forward side by side. Oh Josephine which we are led to believe is a tribute to dancer and civil rights icon Josephine Baker, has a haunting and pulsating shine to its air, a glow which resonates across every aspect as rhythms and the simply catchiness of the song steal body swerves and lustful thoughts from the listener. The following Long Way Down is an epidemic of addictiveness and brilliance. Primarily garage punk and rock across its numerous strands of temptation, the song also weaves a funk and synth pop lure encased in psychedelic salaciousness. Think Chick Quest meets MGMT with a touch of Jingo for good measure and you have a closer clue to the brilliance of the song.

     Both the hypnotic almost oppressive psychedelic wash of A Wheel Within a Wheel and the bulging devilry of Hold On enthral and thrill; the first a song bordering on psychotic with its kaleidoscope of sonic colour and melodic seducing aligned to off the wall ingenuity. The second of the two is jazz/funk pop twisted out of shape and stretched on muscular rhythmic sinews, then infused with guitar jangles and electronic mania before being given to Taylor to bind in her ever alluring vocals. The result is one virulent dance of unbridled infection and enjoyment though it is soon overshadowed by the sensational Hammer and a Nail. Opening with a caress of southern guitar and the endearing tones of Taylor, the song soon spreads into again Morricone seeded scenery within a dusty hot ambience. It is a transfixing maelstrom of mystique kissed sounds and emotional drama which toys with ears and imagination. The more revealed the darker the track becomes, its rapacious throat and intensity an encroaching clouding over the open beauty and sultry resonance of voice and melodies. As a single this incitement was glorious but reshaped and re-coloured for the album it is simply majestic.

The gentle croon of Liar Liar Quietly is almost an anti-climax initially after the previous glory but soon has ears and thoughts firmly in its soft and persuasive melody soaked hands. It is a spellbinding kiss with a need to spill eighties post punk like invention from within its serenade, again the band reaping seeds from earlier decades to enrich their own scintillating invention.

The album closes with a smouldering slice of gospel bred psyche balladry; I Know His Blood Will Make Me Whole another cast in the dark country of psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll. As expected the track spins a mesh of perpetual unpredictability and off beat exploration which just gets darker, bolder, and more addictive with time and age.

There is also a bonus track on certainly the digital version of Circle called Squeaking Wheel and it too is a sensational romp, one built on a blues sound and craft wound in creative mischief and ingenuity. Whether this or I Know His Blood Will Make Me Whole completes the album, Circle is easily one of the most scintillating and invigorating thrills of the year so far. Full of surprises and originality, album and Vienna Ditto deserve all your attention with the only losers being those not taking a listen.

Circle is available now @ https://viennaditto.bandcamp.com/album/circle

http://www.viennaditto.com/ https://www.facebook.com/viennaditto

RingMaster 16/05/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net

 

Murder Shoes – Self-Titled EP

Photo -Aaron Fenster

 

A slice of dark seduction always goes down a treat especially when brought with an imaginative smile and psyche haunting radiance. A healthy dose of rhythmic drama and melodic revelry similarly has ears and imagination more often than not seriously enthused within that kind of sultry landscape. It is a delicious mix which leaves us generally hosting a keen appreciation for its source, and in the shape of the self-titled EP from US band Murder Shoes, an especially lustful one. The five track encounter from the Minneapolis quintet is an intoxicating temptation of surf, alternative, and indie rock ‘n’ roll, a sound basking in the smouldering essences of each whilst creating its own individual inescapable seducing.

The seeds of Murder Shoes begin with the meeting of guitarists Chris White and Derek Van Gieson, seemingly at a bar where one worked and the other frequented. Conversations about music led to the pair uniting as songwriters, with a torrent of songs emerging from their complimenting ideations. A new potent factor emerged when vocalist/keyboardist Tess Weinberg was brought into the mix, followed by another spark of dynamics when drummer Elliot Manthey and bassist Tim Heinlein completed the line-up. With everything in place Murder Shoes stepped into the light and released the low key three-track Cash On Fire EP last December. It was just an appetiser for major things, a more than decent toe tester in creative waters, but in hindsight now blown totally aside by the might of the band’s new offering on Land Ski Records.

cover Derek Van Gieson

The adventure begins with Charlotte Manning and an opening temptation of sultrily toned guitar strokes aligned to smaller nibbles of their strings on ears. Van Gieson and White swiftly grip the imagination before the siren-esque lure of Weinberg begins her vocal caresses to intensify its involvement. It is a magnetic entrance but soon finding new levels of persuasion with the darker spicing brought by the throaty bass and more fiery hues to the guitar enterprise. A surf rock seducing by this time is just as fruitfully lighting body and thoughts, it all driven by the respectful and increasingly anthemic endeavour of Manthey. Like that packet of your favourite candy where good intentions in having just one becomes two, then another and subsequently the whole thing, such is the power of the song, every minute left alone listen, leaving an insatiable want for more.

And so it is with the following Maybe You Can, and the whole EP to admit the truth. It is another song rampantly persuasive and in control of the senses from its first singular guitar baiting of ears. That lone lure is soon bulging with a feisty march of beats and wrapped in fresh swarthy kisses of guitar as Weinberg produces more of her warm vocal enticing. There is a feel of The Capsules to the melodic and smouldering aspects of Murder Shoes songs whilst the unpredictable twists and invention within the encounter is like a blend of Chick Quest and Two Wounded Birds. The track continues to masterfully impose and enthral before making way for the fiery Under the Sea. You can almost feel the hot tingle of sand between toes as the surf pop persuasion dances with ears and emotions. Its sixties breath adds to the compelling character and sound of the song whilst mini crescendos even in their brief moments just breed a catchy drama to the glorious pop flirtation.

The following Sea a Little Louder brings another embrace of mellower energy but again without losing any of the gripping invention and melodic poetry of its predecessors. It is too bubbly to be classed as a piece of balladry but similarly with its alluring restraint far from being an incitement of intensive activity, a mesmeric croon the apt description for the song’s atmospheric and creative hug. It is easy to drift away with the breezy temptation, even its muscular rhythm saunter and the little bursts of climatic endeavour only empowering its immersive qualities.

Final track In Your Bed Or On a Train has limbs back in a frenzy and emotions fired up with its fusion of old school rock ‘n’ roll, sweltering surf ambience, and indie rock unpredictability. Think a modern day Wanda Jackson fronting a Morningwood type proposition and you sense why the EP’s closing offering is so irresistible. Rolling beats from Manthey again provide the resourceful and unrelenting wave of rhythmic enslavement which cores most songs whilst guitars and bass spin sticky darkly hued webs of adventure. Shrouded in the almost celestial tones of Weinberg, it is an exhilarating proposition, as the whole EP, and if the flavours we most mentioned, surf, indie etc. bring a lick of the lips, you are looking at potentially your favourite release of the year.

The Murder Shoes EP is available now digitally and on CD via Land Ski Records @ http://murdershoes.bandcamp.com/

http://www.murdershoesband.com/   https://www.facebook.com/pages/Murder-Shoes/331873790352913

RingMaster 05/05/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net

Chick Quest – Vs. Galore

Their sound is self-tagged as spaghetti western post-punk and their name, as that of their debut album, is pure B-movie manna for the imagination. Chick Quest is a band from Austria who in already a wealth of exceptional releases in 2015, may have just stolen the whole show to date with Vs. Galore. Every essence of it from song title to sultry blazes of brass provides cinematic adventures equipped with rhythms to command feet and sonic temptations to get lustful over. It is a puppeteer for body and soul, an unpredictable and slightly deranged dance of sound and invention providing one of the most intoxicating and exciting debut incitements heard in recent years.

Vienna hailing Chick Quest, began in 2014 with two friends who decided to form a band to play feistily danceable songs based on Spaghetti Western chord progressions and called Lee Van Cleef. With fresh songs under their belt the pair pulled in a bassist and trumpet player, renamed the whole adventure Chick Quest and set about recording their first album. And here we are with the outcome and quite simply it is one of, if not the, best things in indie rock and dark pop you are going to hear this year.

Consisting of vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Ryan White, drummer Iris Rauh, bassist Magdalena Kraev with the additional talent of trumpeter Christian Sonderegger, Chick Quest instantly get down to startling seduction with album opener Somebody Call a Doctor. A swipe of sultry guitar ignites ears and imagination right away, rubbing away with teasing effect before being joined by punchy beats and a swiftly following more caustic sonic wind. Vocals offer a punk nature to the constantly evolving song whilst the lure of the trumpet and understated melodies within the infectious stomp, have s smouldering western tang seeded in Ennio Morricone compositions. There is also a deranged element to the encounter which simply adds further bait for the appetite to hungrily devour, the whole thing playing like a Swell Maps meets Helldorado revelry.

     The following Girl on Fire is even quicker in stealing attention and the passions, the gnarly grouchiness of the bass which brings the song in, alone enslaving ears and emotions. It also has a swagger to its Gang Of Four like lure which aligns with a seductive caress of guitar which appears not long into the magnetic song. The crisp beats of Rauh take their fair share of the brewing lust too, whilst the trumpet…well that just oozes sonic seduction. Once the vocals come in, the whole blend has a feel of The Clash to it, White’s voice alone having a Strummer-esque quality. Basically tangy rock ‘n’ roll with that cinematic quality mentioned in word and musical enterprise, the track is the first pinnacle of the album, but not the last.

Vengeance is Fun bounces in next, an agitated slab of post punk pop with a feel of Baddies and Futureheads to its energetic psychosis of sound. Addictiveness was made for songs like this, its raw rock ‘n’ roll merging with virulently warped pop punk for yet another stonecast favourite and triumph. The flames of brass only adds another twist in the character and psyche of the encounter, an unpredictability which is as potent as the sounds it toys with and again potent fuel for the wonderful exploits of Sounds Like Bruce! which follows. A warmer but no less compelling bass welcome starts the song off with surf bred melodies entwining their dark lure around it with equally virulent temptation. The instrumental sends the imagination into overload, scenes of hot sandy shores with sex and sinister danger across their expanses brewing in thoughts, the song the sizzling soundtrack to untold mischief and espionage.

As exceptional as it is, the track is soon a passing memory as I’m Tired of Pretty Girls prowls into view with attitude and creative devilment in tow. Rauh pounds out an almost predatory shuffle of beats, luring in the listener with tribal incitement before Kraev’s bass unveils its own climatic and dramatic enticement alongside similarly throaty and colourful strokes of guitar. There is a psychotic edge to the song and that is before White opens up the agitated narrative with an equally twisted and unsettling delivery. Fuzzy, dirty, and irresistible, the song virtually stalks the senses with its discord kissed rant for yet another important moment in the health of the album and modern music.

Through the mellower sway of Schatzi and the militant stomp of Explain Yourself to a Bat, band and album has body leaping and pleasure elevated all over again. The first, sung in German, is a more even tempered spot of rock pop with an air of Yello meets Violent Femmes to it under an intensely simmering sun of trumpet enterprise whilst its successor strides purposefully through ears on a single minded stamp of thumping beats. Around this thick spine a dark bass shuffle ebbs and flows with tantalising menace whilst the guitars unveil a vivacious jangle. Both leave the listener short of breath and hungry for more, as does the humid tempting of Fashion Fascist. The heat of the trumpet is an early hot kiss on the senses but it is the again a snarling bass tone which especially sets things off in the passions, its raucous contagion courted by resonating beats for an inescapable persuasion. Whether the rest of the song lives up to the tremendous start is debatable but with that rhythmic baiting never relinquishing its hold as vocals and guitars create a tempestuous weave of arousing incitement, it all occasionally coloured by the sizzling trumpet, the song is raucous punk ‘n’ roll to put the world on hold for.

Surf rock resourcefulness and sixties garage rock collide with modern psych pop for a fiery adventure in Monkey No Dance For No One next, another instrumental stretching limbs and thoughts with its unrelenting rhythmic nagging and exotic melodies. Far too short and pure musical alchemy, the track is one you have to play twice before moving on and falling into the scuzzy arms of the also tremendous You Have a Future in Television. With old school punk breeding and unhinged energy, let alone nature, the song manages to be nostalgic and new whilst providing yet another shade to the presence and invention of the album.

Vs. Galore is brought to an end by Go Back to ze Dezert, an instrumental escapade through drifting ambiences and steamy surroundings with romance and adventure in its voice and melodic theatre in its brass and guitar crafted embrace. It is a thrilling end to a sensational release, an introduction to Chick Quest which has instantly installed a deep rooted affair with emotions. Of course individual tastes in each of us will decide if Vs. Galore goes down as the album of the year come December but it will be there in the handful of most enjoyable treats given the chance.

Vs. Galore is available now via most online stores and at https://chickquest.bandcamp.com/album/vs-galore

http://www.chickquest.com/     https://www.facebook.com/chickquest

RingMaster 22/04/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net