WE-ARE-Z – Easy

Yet again showing themselves the puppeteer of hips and funk in induced revelry, UK based indie poppers WE-ARE-Z release new single Easy this month, a song that pulls you to your feet to share moves probably best kept under wraps. The song is a virulently persuasive little number, something for ears to wear and inhibitions to depart for from a band making a habit of turning the world into an eager dance-floor.

Formed in 2012, the London based Anglo/French quintet merge individual experiences of playing with artists such as Beyonce, The Waterboys, Pharell Williams, and James Morrison with inspirations ranging from David Bowie, Serge Gainsborough, Talking Heads and Blur to The Clash, Devo, XTC, and Sparks. The band’s debut track Airbrush sparked potent interest in 2014 though fair to say Walkways the following year was the real attention grabber. With its success backed up by tracks like Knucklehead and a live presence which leaves everyone out of breath, you might say that WE-ARE-Z and their songs have become one of UK pop’s eagerly anticipated adventures.

The new single pulsates into view, its initial electronic tempting soon joined by rhythmic throbs and vocal bait. The ripe coaxing, speared by the purposeful swings of Guillaume Charreau, increasingly grows as sultry hues caress ears, their lures aligning with a just as potent melodic and harmonic drama. In no time body and imagination are lost in the flirtatious and riveting theatre of the song with the dark rhythms, led by a gorgeously throat bassline cast by Marc Arciero, alone just irresistible. The keys and guitars of Clément Leguidcoq and Drew Wynen sparkle and dance as they entangle with each other around the ever welcoming and tenacious vocals of Gabriel Cazes, he like the ringleader to a band of sonic mischief makers with a delivery which simply lures the listener deeper into the party playing with their ears.

As with previous songs from WE-ARE-Z, our thoughts bring the likes of Shriekback and Franz Ferdinand coming to mind but also there is a touch of Sparks and Talking Heads to a song which, at the end of the day, really only sounds like another highly enjoyable and rather naughty WE-ARE-Z soirée.

Easy is released April 8^th via Sputnik Records.

http://www.we-are-z.com/    https://www.facebook.com/WeAreZmusic   https://twitter.com/WeAreZmusic

Pete RingMaster 06/04/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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We-Are-Z – Walkaway

pic by@AndyWillsher

The song might be about “taking a journey into the recesses of consciousness, exploring perceptions and angles that don’t add up”, but musically Walkaway is just one inescapable funk ‘n’ roll devilment of indie pop come new wave virulence. The song is the new single from We-Are-Z, a UK band which on the evidence of their new release, springs a sound on the senses as agitated and warped as it is infectiously magnetic. It incites body and imagination with tribal like rhythms amidst paranoia kissed sound, each racked with St. Vitus dance like activity within theatrical melodies and mellow washed vocals. The track is pure temptation, like Shriekback meets Late Cambrian in a Two Door Cinema Club embrace, yet different again.

The London based Anglo/French quintet formed in 2012, with its line-up already seasoned musicians bringing experiences of playing with the likes of Beyonce, The Waterboys, and James Morrison into the mix. Debut track Airbrush swiftly drew strong attention and support from media and fans alike, whilst the band since then has lured in diverse comparisons from Vampire Weekend to Devo and Franz Ferdinand to XTC. Inspirations are equally varied within We-Are-Z, the likes of David Bowie, Serge Gainsborough, Talking Heads, Blur, The Clash, and Static cited but as their new single shows, the band ultimately emerges with something yes a little familiar but perfectly peculiar to them.

Walkaway from its first touch is a rampant shuffle of jabbing beats and a dark flirty bass lure from Guillaume Charreau and Marc Arciero respectively. The guitar of Drew Wynen adds a lively temptation to the attention grabbing start also, little but gripping hooks and slithers of melodic spices a flirtatious tempting adding to the instant magnetism. Seductive and quirky keys are colouring the song further next, Clement Leguidcoq bringing a smouldering coaxing seeping around and within all the other tenacious textures at play whilst vocalist Gabriel Cazes has a drama and flirty quality to his insatiably vibrant tones and harmonies. There is no escaping the enslaving effect of the song, the puppeteer like lure of rhythms on limbs and the addictive contagion of everything else on voice and emotions, a proper feel good treat.

According to reliable sources, with an energetic and irrepressible live presence to match the adventure of their new single alone, it is easy to suggest we will all be hearing and devouring a lot more of We-Are-Z from hereon in.

Walkaway is available via Sputnik Records from May 18^th

http://we-are-z.com/   https://www.facebook.com/WeAreZmusic

RingMaster 17/05/2015

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Matinée – These Days

Taken from their acclaimed debut album, Matinée confirm themselves as one of the UK’s best emerging melodically magnetic propositions with new single These Days. The title track of their strongly impressing full-length, the track is a warm and vibrant romp eager to involve the nation’s ears and passions in its tantalising dance. It is a catchy adventure of melodic enterprise and indie rock tenacity, a capture of ears and imagination reminding fans of and nudging newcomers towards their colourful sound and striking album.

With a name inspired by the Franz Ferdinand song of the same name, the Italy hailing, London based Matinée is no stranger to potent attention through not only their singles and album but a live presence which has seen them sharing stages with the likes of indeed Franz Ferdinand as well as Razorlight, Mystery Jets, Futureheads, The Wombats, Pete and the Pirates, British Sea Power amongst many. Not only at home but into Europe and especially Italy, their stature has increasingly grown and been matched by media attention over time too, most potently through the Tony Doogan (Mogwai, Carl Barat, Glasvegas) produced These Days album which pushed the quartet of Luigi Tiberio (vocals, synth, guitar), Alfredo Ioannone (vocals, bass), Giuseppe Cantoli (guitars), and Alessio Palizzi (drums) into the broadest recognition yet.

Now it is the turn of their single to bring another wave of keen interest their way and from its opening moments These Days shows a potency to do just that. The opening tangle of guitar and synth bred melodies is an immediate inescapable invitation, especially once the warm tones of Tibeiro join the enchanting start. The song is soon showing bigger muscles though as a dark bassline colludes with punchy beats, their union an imposing yet respectful frame around the emerging weave of melodic revelry and harmonic temptation. It is a lively and invigorating mix, not explosive but a captivating festivity of voice and sound gripping feet and thoughts as easily as ears and emotions.

The song is pure rock pop for a summer day but similarly a warming romp for colder and darker moments. The perfect doorway into the arms of their album, though not the greatest moment on said release, which with the single’s impressive proposition will only excite newcomers, These Days is a heartily and thoroughly recommended encounter, album or single.

These Days is released March 16^th

http://www.matineeband.com/   https://www.facebook.com/thematineeband

RingMaster 16/03/2015

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Cross Wires – Your History Defaced EP

If you were caught in the ridiculously captivating web that UK band Cross Wires spun with their Assembly EP earlier this year, or indeed the releases before it, be prepared for a new rapture with the band’s recently released Your History Defaced EP. For all those new to the invigorating brew of post punk, new wave, and garage rock which the quartet potently brew, the release is quite simply a devilish treat just waiting to infest your senses. Consisting of five eclectically and creatively warped slices of sound which is simultaneously nostalgic and refreshingly new, the EP reinforces and pushes on the riveting emergence of this severely tantalising band.

Hailing from the creative depths of Bethnal Green and Romford, Cross Wires who take their name from a track on the XTC debut album White Noise, took little time from forming in breeding an impressive reputation locally through their live performances and sound. It was a presence soon spreading with their first pair of releases in the tasty shape of the Forward/Repeat and Animal Heat EPs in 2011 helping spark that growing awareness which the Dark Water EP a year later, soon drove to even wider recognition and attention. Assembly saw the band take another step in sound, songwriting, and success which Your History Defaced looks like not only emulating but surpassing as it seduces fans old and new, as well as the underground media alike.

Opener Modern Art is an instant irresistible offering, slithers of acidic guitar crossing a bulging bassline and feisty beats for an irrepressible coaxing of ears and imagination. Instantly thoughts of bands like Fire Engines and Wire come to mind but just as swiftly the song shows a more rounded and fuller sound from the band than ever before but one still draped in open originality. Right away the vocals of Jonathan Chapman romp with the same mischievous potency as that spicing the sonic intrigue of Peter Muller’s guitar and the rhythmic bait cast by drummer Ian Clarke and bassist Pete Letch. It is arguably the most pop friendly song from Cross Wires to date but one swinging with a rhythmic swagger and melodic flirtation which is virulently infectious and unpredictable. Think Franz Ferdinand meets The Freshies and you get a good hint of the impressive romp.

   Shades Of Light And Dark comes next and soon has a jangle of angular guitar temptation teasing ears as vocals dance with resourceful frivolity over the feverish agitation of beats. There is also a chunkiness to the riffs which ignites the passions as easily as the sonic persistence and repetitious ingenuity flourishing within the thrilling weave of enterprise. The song continues the EPs strong start but is soon surpassed by the thumping and imposing devilry of Tab Clear, everything about the song heavier and more intensive yet equipped with the same contagious weight of hooks and spicy grooves as those before it. The bass of Letch is especially a throaty treat whilst the vocals straddle the whole encounter with a lustful energy and expressive magnetism which seemingly inflames the scintillating tempest of sonic and discord washed endeavour around them.

The thumping rhythmic entrance of Last Stand is all that is needed to ignite the passions, an immediate ardour which is enhanced by the layers of scything riffs and pulsating bass persuasion which underpins the again impressive vocal adventure of Chapman and band. There is a Buzzcocks like flavour to the imagination binding grooves and hooks whilst the song’s overall unconventional catchiness reminds of fellow emerging UK band Houdini. The result is another addiction sparking encounter which in turn is surpassed by the closing punk spawned storm of Vultures, a deliciously raw and rapacious stomp of Swell Maps like causticity and dour infectiousness courtesy of bands like The Lurkers. It is a pungent and thrilling end to an outstanding release from a band hard not to take a lustful shine to.

If new wave and postpunk with a modern mischief excites the ears than Cross Wires and the Your History Defaced EP is a must.

Your History Defaced is available now @ http://crosswires.bandcamp.com/album/your-history-defaced

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RingMaster 02/10/2014

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We Are The Physics: Your Friend The Atom

Back in 2008 Scottish live wires We Are The Physics ensured a lasting adoration here with debut album We Are The Physics Are OK At Music, a release of excruciatingly addictive sonic blistering and unparalleled melodic wickedness. The past couple of years have seen the band lying below the radar on the whole leaving bands like Baddies to fly the flag of discord and synapse twisting creativity. Now with the demise of that band, the timing of the highly anticipated second album from We Are The Physics could not have been better planned and more welcome, and what a sensational return Your Friend The Atom is. Bigger, better, sharper, and soaked in a deeper well of mischief, the album is a glorious sonic sandstorm of eager energies, whiplash causing rhythms, and hungry ingenious hooks to set the senses ablaze, simply it is sensational.

Formed in 2005, the Glasgow band have returned as they left off in their debut, stretching sonic manipulation beyond sanity and fusing melodic flames and incendiary hooks into a seduction on par with the lure of women. Their sound has evolved into something which is quite rabid for your lust and attention, the band finding even greater explosive invention and devilish intent. They have become a musical WMD, a weapon of mass delirium. Continuing to sound like the mutant son of the insatiable union of Cardiacs, Devo, Polysics, and Spizzenergi, the quartet has tortured things to their limits and beyond to create something devastatingly unique and irresistible. Yes there are moments where you think Baddies, Franz Ferdinand, and Futureheads, but it is easy to argue that neither of those found the key to unleash the satanic attraction to be found on Your Friend The Atom.

From the fizzing circuitry opening up Go Go Nucleo For Science there is immediate notice that senses, emotions, and sanity is in danger. Within seconds the rhythms are thumping the ear for attention and the sonic mists twisting like electricity deeply within. Into its feisty stride the track is soon disrupting thoughts with its agitated rampage and sci-fi sourced weaves. It is brief, acute, and so delicious, the perfect start to the album and to mark the full return of the contagion which is We Are The Physics.

Applied Robotics scampers and teases over the emotions next with crazed vocals and harmonies thrust through entangled and surreal melodic expulsions. Like the first track once into the full adrenaline driven core of its presence, the song burns like sonic lime and ignites orgasmic ardour, band and track devious sirens for which there is no defence.

The crunchy (e.g. Apollo 11), with its menacing leering basslines and abrasive guitar tooled sonics is brilliance at its most greedy, the song a flaying and bruising wanton intrusion leading into the equally sexy yet less destructive Napoleon Loves Josephine. The new single from the album, it is a crescendo of surf and indie punk sounds fired through an unparallel yet connected discord driven elegance. With vocals as unrestrained as the sounds, which actually applies to every song, note and syllable on the release, the track is a mesmeric and addiction sparking glory.

Without boring by going through every song and leaving plenty for your discovery, just take it as read that the album never meanders from sheer musical lawlessness and irrepressible magnificence. The likes of And So Now We’re Wrestling With The Body Politic, the downlifting heart igniting There Is No Cure For The Common Cold So Don’t Expect A Cure For Cancer, and the sonically ravenous Dildonics, not to forget Goran Ivanisevic, a track which is a corruptive celebration of either determination or craziness, just send the passions into uncontrollable overload.

Further favs in what is an album of nothing but wonderful invention include All My Friends Are JPEGs, a slap in the face for us all, and the masterful Junkie Buns which just presses the button to unadulterated desire with its scarring energies, intimidating rhythms, and barbed hooks. Fourteen songs long, Your Friend The Atom simply goes viral once it slips through the ear to bring one of the most enjoyable and rewarding releases to the senses and heart for quite a while. We Are The Physics have elevated our passions to greater heights and are sure to enflame all others who step into their scientific, cultural, and social disassembled world.

http://www.wearethephysics.com/

RingMaster 19/10/2012

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Funeral Suits : Lily Of The Valley

Sometimes an album comes along to elevate anticipation and expectations nurtured through previous releases far beyond what was imagined. Such is the case with Lily Of The Valley from Irish indie band Funeral Suits. Based on a trio of singles there was a keen belief that an album would match and please as much but there was no real indication of the unsettling mesmeric aural swarm that was coming. Individually the songs contained within the album are not strikingly better or worse than the already unveiled songs which also find a place on Lily Of The Valley, but as a whole there is a much deeper and absorbing experience going on than from songs taken alone.

    Funeral Suits has created an album with on the surface an underwhelming diversity but with a deeply expressive breath, each track playing like a limb or organ within a vibrant emotive body. They have an intelligent and warming similarity across them but taken one away and there is a hole the others cannot fill, and given the fullest of focus one does find a beautifully crafted and imagined individuality to the songs.

From North Country Dublin the quartet of Brian James, Mik McKeogh, Greg McCarthy and Dar Grant has spent two years creating the album and that attention and time spent pours from each carefully and thoughtfully placed note, word, and passion. Released June 4^th through Model Citizen Records and produced by Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur), the album is a stunning enveloping heart borne piece of composing. It does not arguably ignite the fiercest of fires at any point but rather wraps itself around and within mind and senses for a further reaching and fuller impact. From their 2011 debut single Colour Fade the band has gained an ever growing mass of devotees and acclaim. The further singles as well as shared stages with the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Passion Pit, The Maccabees, and Local Natives plus appearances at SXSW, Great Escape and Reading/Leeds Festival the same year have only reinforced their increasing stature, something the album will surely explode in dramatic style.

The album opens with Mary’s Revenge and takes no time in capturing the ear with vocals harmonies and electronic waves of sound. The deep Tubeway Army like electronic melody is an instant beckoning as guitars scramble the air with their discord and impressive voice. The track is an exceptional electro pop song but with a bite and intent which brings deeper intrigue and an unsettling energy to its pulsating mass. By its end the track has overwhelmed the ear with a heavy whisper to elevate it wonderfully from just mere pop.

   Colour Fade and Health, two of the previous singles come next, the first an immersive enchantment of simple heart and mesmeric beauty from vocals and music. The crystalline melodies sparkle against the thumping rhythms and niggling guitars for an undemanding but attention seeking piece of music. Health is very different, from its awakening atmosphere and flexing electro muscles the song stamps its authority across the senses with punchy rhythms and lingering acidic guitars. Both songs are the perfect entry point to the band alone but within the album gain an even fuller resonance and height.

Tracks like the newest single All Those Friendly People with its shadowed anthemic undertow, the emotive enchantment that is We Only Attack Ourselves with its wonderful dark stringed vein, and Stars and Spaceships are further highlights, though there is not a weakness or lull in the sweltering invention and consuming ingenuity anywhere. The third of these three is a mesmeric and equally disarming track which encapsulates the band and its impressive creativity alone.

Ending on the haunting and sinister I Still Love The High, a song of emotive grandeur seemingly disentangled from the sounds around it, the album is truly impressive and impossible to leave without at least one more swim within its warm beauty and darkened depths. Funeral Suits unveiled their promise with the singles, Lily of the Valley realises it and more for the most gratifying experience you could wish for.

Ringmaster 31/05/2012

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Baddies – Bronto

We all have certain bands and artists that offer that extra excitement when news of a new release from them breaks. So it is here at The RingMaster Review whenever anything escapes from the creative ingenuity that comes in the guise of Baddies. Since the release of their debut single ‘Battleships’ in 2008 there has been a lust and passion for their hi-octane, fiercely melodic, hook littered indie punk pop here that could be classed as stalkerish. So when news of a new single broke out juices dribbled and anticipation rocketed.

From Southend in the UK, Baddies made up of identical twins Michael and Jim Webster (vocals/guitar and drums/vocals respectively), Simon Bellamy (guitar/vocals), and Danny Rowton (bass/vocals), blew a musical storm with their debut album, Do The Job in 2009 and impressive performances at the likes of the Reading Festival and Glastonbury. Their infectious and energised high intensity pop taking the band to the hearts of a multitude of passionate fans who previously thought the likes of Kaisers Chiefs, The Fratellis, and Franz Ferdinand were the real deal. Tracks like ‘Colin’, ‘Open One Eye’, and ‘Beat Our Chests’  on their debut album easily set the band apart as the most essential  and outstanding pop punk band in the UK if not the world. So news of a new single, as it was when ‘Tiger Face’ was released last year, raises the temperature and pulse rate and makes time whilst waiting aggravatingly slow.

Previously single ‘Tiger Face’, impressive as it was also raised questions, for it was in many ways a more experimental track than seen before. Well crafted and as always giving an abundance of dazzling melodies it was less hook loaded than expected and was a track that demanded a more focused attention, though the reward for that was as satisfying as ever with Baddies. ‘Bronto’ finds the band fusing the same intricate craft heard in its predecessor to the incessant attention seeking glory they instinctively blaze upon, and sees Baddies back to their rip roaring insatiable best. The quartet has evolved and dare one say musically matured too but without losing or neglecting the urgent fun and irresistible lures they are loved for.

‘Bronto’ released via Medical Records and the first single from their forthcoming album Build out in March, announces itself upon a prying synth sound, its flow permeating the ear before exploding into incisive and exhilarating thumping basslines, sparkling melodies and expressive enthused vocals. Group chants, addictive hooks, siren spawn choruses and cascading key bursts pulsate throughout the track to mesmerise and draw one into its wonderfully consuming kaleidoscope of sound. The single also has a firmer bite to it, the band adding a punk fuelled intensity that nips at the ear as the sounds swoop and flutter their seductive melodic eyes lashes within.

The song is stunning and Baddies have shown they are still the most exciting pop band around by far. If addictive melodies and perfectly formed songs were illegal Baddies would not see blue skies again. The only problem with ‘Bronto’ is now we have to wait for a few more long painful weeks for Build, the swines.

Ringmaster 31/01/2012

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