Best Ex – Ice Cream Anti Social

photo by ana massard

Moving from their more bracing pop punk guise of Candy Hearts to a more electro/indie pop natured proposition, Best Ex has just released their first EP under the new moniker. Offering six slices of warm, bubble gum scented catchiness Ice Cream Anti Social is a swiftly engaging encounter which belies the darker lyrical contemplations within.

Consisting of Mariel Loveland, Matthew Ferraro, and John Clifford, Best Ex have taken the poppy aspect of their Candy Hearts exploits full-on with their fresh evolution though as suggested there is still an edge to things if more in word than sound. Talking about their new EP, singer songwriter Loveland said, “Ice Cream Anti Social is sort of an ode to those moments where you’re alone in your room and reflecting on your life. As a whole, it covers those sorts of thoughts you can’t kick when you’re lying in bed about to fall asleep, or its midnight and you’re in your underwear, eating ice cream out of the carton, wondering what the heck happened to you.”

It swiftly has ears and body on board with the single Girlfriend, the song a breeze of infectious warmth and electronic buzzing around the captivating voice of Loveland. Guitars bring a steelier fizz to proceedings, that slight edge courting the unbridled pop heart of the encounter. There is little to not eagerly embrace about the song even if, as its companions, it does not quite venture the realms of uniqueness as boldly as it might have. Nevertheless it is a temptation to greedily devour leading keener intrigue into the synth pop funk of Lonely Life. The eighties tinge of the opener is repeated within its successor, the track like a blend of Bananarama and The Ting Tings and again a captivating invitation on its own to take a lick of Ice Cream Anti Social.

February 4th is a mellow reflection with poetic strings and melancholic beauty a suggestive charm while the following Someday is another instinctive catchy kiss on the ear, its electronically lined indie pop almost anthemic in its simplicity and organic temptations. It has an increasingly beguiling trait which is emulated by next up See You Again in its rough edged stroll. With a fuzzy hand from the guitars and a Belly-esque lining to the song’s character, it too has feet shuffling and hips swaying with content before Jellyfish brings it all to an appealing close with is ukulele accompanied vocal serenade.

As suggested, Ice Cream Anti Social is not as distinct as it might be or as unpredictable as you may wish but there is no escaping that it is one very flavoursome and easily enjoyable romp to get the era of Best Ex under way.

Ice Cream Anti Social is out now through Alcopop! Records across most online stores and @ https://bestexnj.bandcamp.com/album/ice-cream-anti-social

https://www.bestexnj.com/ https://www.facebook.com/bestexnj/ https://twitter.com/CandyHeartsBand

Pete RingMaster 19/07/2017

Fight Like Apes – Self Titled

May18

Fight Like Apes Cover _Reputation Radio/RingMaster Review

It has been as good as five years since the release of their second album, though there was a rather satisfying EP in between, so it is fair to say that anticipation for Fight Like Apes’ new encounter across the board has been bursting with hungry excitement. It is a wait now relentlessly rewarded by each of the twelve songs making up the self-titled proposition, offerings taking ears and imagination on a unique and rebellious exploit of indie pop devilry. It really only takes one listen to establish the album as a favourite and barely a couple more to suggest it is going to cast as one of the major triumphs of 2015.

Hailing from Dublin and formed in 2006, Fight Like Apes and their synth pop/alternative rock sound has been luring in keen and potent attention ever since the release of the EPs How Am I Supposed to Kill You When You Have All the Guns? and David Carradine Is a Bounty Hunter Whose Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch in 2007. The following year saw them nominated for two awards at the 2008 Meteor Irish Music Awards, and it has only been a continuing torrent of support and acclaim since, though equally there have been moments to challenge as with any band. Debut album Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion that same year poked a keener, broader spotlight, attention emulated and pushed to new heights by second full-length The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner in 2010. Their sound and songwriting had already found uniqueness in presence and character which has consistently evolved from release to release, song to song at times, and it is again prevalent upon the new offering. The time between albums two and three saw the band dropped by their record label but they decided to go down the crowd funding route with quick success. This meant that it has been a length wait for their new epic of fun but as hinted at by the Whigfield Sextape EP last year; the band’s return has only brought new seductive and vivaciously eccentric pleasures.

Unleashed through Alcopop! Records, the album quickly has ears and imagination immersed in its pop alchemy through I Am Not a Merry Man. A quaint electronic coaxing jabbed by firm beats initially the song is soon sauntering along with a melodic swagger and lusty bassline, and lit up further by the ever bewitching vocals of Mary-Kate “MayKay” Geraghty. Moments of feistier endeavour also clad the constantly alluring stroll, the song an inescapable flirtation for ears and thoughts with the flowing keys and backing vocals of Jamie “Pockets” Fox just as magnetic as the pulsating rhythms and prime melodic roar of MayKay.

The following Crouching Bees from a single crisp rhythmic rap is soon engulfing ears in an elegant weave of melodies carrying a slight Altered Images air and once more badgered by thickly tempting rhythms. Vocally MayKay again is as potent in casting a mellow seduction or an impassioned raucousness, her heightened delivery a fiery incitement to the calmer waters of the keys, though they too at times provide an off kilter element of their own. The infection of sound and imagination of the album is already enslaving the psyche two songs in and only increases its bait through Pop Itch and The Schillaci Sequence. The first of the pair is a more ‘regular’ canter of indie pop design, though as it is Fight Like Apes there is plenty of sparkling vocal adventure and sonic twists whilst the second sways over the senses with melodic eloquence. It too initially seems a more reserved example of the band’s invention and creative exploration but with an agitated rhythmic shuffle and Devo-esque electro psychosis it soon puts expectations straight.

Fight Like Apes _Reputation Radio/RingMaster Review Both songs keep enjoyment keen and appetite greedy, though everything is soon eclipsed by the brilliant Didya. Easily our favourite proposition on the album, maybe from the band full stop, the song ambles in on a melodic hook which is Weezer like. That alone has lips licked but it is once Pockets takes the vocal lead with a punkish anxiety to his tone that things erupt into genius. The throaty bass and wilder tempered beats are belligerent whilst the voice of MayKay similarly has a challenging edge to it, the blend a spellbinding incitement though it is the vocal bedlam which follows that has these ears and passions are enslaved. It is like a warped mix of The Dancing Did and The Ting Tings, pure creative mania and manna, setting up the listener for a blaze of a finale.

Numbnuts calms things down a touch next, its persuasive croon persistently littered with stirring vocal snaps and musical twists on the way to creating an increasingly fiery climax whilst its successor Pretty Keen on Centrefolds has ears captivated with an eighties synth pop bubbling that nudges thoughts of Blancmange and Soft Cell. Of course things are never that simple, punchy and at times bedlamic beats adding a drama to match that of the vocals whilst keys whip up a contagious tempting for the dance-floor.

Like a mix of Morningwood and Yeah Yeah Yeahs but all Fight Like Apes, The Hunk and The Funplace sculpts another major pinnacle for the album. Rhythmically anthemic and imposing, melodically spicy and slightly nostalgic, the song easily has ears engrossed but it is the roaring chorus which takes a great song to the plateau of brilliance. It is pop at its most dynamic, provocative, and irresistible.

There is no let-up of the thrills and creative spills as firstly I Don’t Want to Have to Mate with You swirls around ears and leads expectations on a merry dance. It is a lively breeze of fascinating textures and rousing calm providing a spellbinding theatre of sound and voice, emulated in its own way by Baywatch Nights with its even slower smoulder, though again there is a snarl to vocal moments, spicy intrigue to keys, and dark shadows to surrounding scenery. Both tracks make riveting listening, a norm across the album to be fair and continued in the excellent Maevis Beacon: Annihilation, a song with more than a whisper of Young Marble Giants to it especially in its opening minute or so. All tracks make a quick and thick first impression but some reveal even more to their depths and beauty over time with this a prime example.

The mesmeric seducing of Carousel brings the release to an emotive and reflective close, and a dramatic one as epic rhythms and brooding melodies rise as the song progresses. Folkish theatre and heavy tribal rhythms break free too in the scintillating end to a sensational encounter. It may have been a while in the making and coming but Fight Like Apes has spent that time crafting their most vigorously inventive and exciting sound yet. This is a must have for all experimental and rousing pop enthusiasts, actually just every pop fan out there.

Fight Like Apes is available via Alcopop! Records from 18th May @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/fight-like-apes/id981566460

https://www.facebook.com/fightlikeapes

RingMaster 08/05/2015

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

Erotic Market – Blahblahrians

May2

©narcissenoyé

With a name like Erotic Market you automatically expect and definitely hope to get something spicy from their album Blahblahrians and we can joyfully say that you do. The album is a fruity adventure of sound and imagination, quite simply a refreshing kaleidoscope of electronic mischief, vocal intrigue, and sonic ingenuity. There are times where the band finds more success with their riveting conjurations then in other moments but from start to finish the album is an excitingly unpredictable and invigorating exploration to capture the passions.

Erotic Market is the French duo of Marine Pellegrini and Lucas Garnier, the two forming the band in 2012. The pair has been making music for over a decade playing in contemporary jazz bands and has already worked on a project together called N’Relax, which across three years released two studio albums and undertook numerous tours. Describing Erotic Market’s sound is difficult at the best of times but undoubtedly flavours such as hip hop, psyche and noise rock, quirky electronic pop, and at times garage rock colour the cryptic canvas the band casts over the senses. Blahblahrians is as seductive as it is disorientating, as instinctively magnetic as it is bewildering, and ultimately an irresistible experiment to embrace and devour with greed.

The album immediately flirts with the imagination through opener Retro retardo, a mix of Morningwood and The Ting Tings meets em cover The Knife. Resonating beats hit the senses first, awakening attention for the sharp appealing vocals of Pellegrini amidst percussive and sonic spatterings. It is an instant temptation sparking a hungry appetite in the emotions, a greed fed and inflamed by the expanding smog of electronic toxicity and exotic hues of electro teasing offered. There is a punk essence to the vocals and a j-rock whisper to the sounds at times which only increases the flavoursome presence of the animatingly mesmeric encounter.

The following I want to be some booty continues the potent emergence of the album, its smouldering and subtly sultry climate the surface for a minimalistic breeze of empowering seduction. Like its predecessor the song weaves and sways around the listener even if it is with restraint to its energy though it counters by sharing an irresistible potency to match the first.

Two songs in and diversity is an open roar and hopes that its continues are soon satisfied by Bitchy muses and Blah blah, the first fusing a pleasingly shallow breeze of hip hop bred vocals with climactic keys and tribal rhythms, both aspects skirting rather than imposing on ears and the delivery of Pellegrini. Again it is an appealing uncluttered premise precisely spotted with aural colours which voices launch their suasion over, a delicious siren of sound bringing danger through the increasingly heavier involvement of primal beats. Its successor is an enchanting slice of electro pop, though as already expected it comes through ever twisting manipulations of sounds and ideation. The track ebbs and flows with its melodic breast; breathing captivation and fascination with every rise and swell of its contagious narrative. There are times where you feel the legacy of bands like The Slits and Rip, Rig and Panic in the song and album to be honest, all adding refreshing spice to the ingenious recipe.

Pellegrini croons and smothers the ears in vocal elegance and glory to bring Blue blue into view next and such her charm and quality it would be easy and very satisfying to listen to her swarming over the senses alone for the remainder of the track. Instead evocative and heated keys bring their dramatic caresses and incisive inventive flames to enlarge and intensify her declaration. It is a gloriously smooching fire with Pellegrini quite scintillating and is replaced by the just as tantalising if wholly different psyche spawned DDDDrunk. It opens with smokey vocals and an ascending spotting of sonics which can only be described as Devo-esque. That alone steals a rabid rapture and when added to a barren but compelling and rigorously intriguing landscape of imagination and enterprise, the proposal is as bamboozling as it is invigorating, especially with its fiery scuzz infused climax.

She –ass provides twenty seconds of tempting sound but leaves before it can make any real impression and imprint on thoughts, and truthfully is soon forgotten when Snakes writhes and winds its engrossing techno lent electro maelstrom of adventure around the body. It is a sensational psychotic dance of prowling beats, electronic innovation, and carnal seduction; an exhilarating brew which simply increases its power and toxins across its vivaciously thrilling body, the vocals similarly catching fire towards a rigorously fertile finale. Easily the best track on the album, which shows how immense it is with the pack of triumphs around; it alone reveals the might and potential of the duo. In many ways the album struggles from here on to compete with its highest pinnacle though the vigorously resourceful Are U cool? and the bewitching It’s a breaking both entrance ears and imagination whilst Clitacasm brings one minute of racy and sensual tempting which is brief but sonically amorous.

The slow groove infested Societoy provides a last temptress for heart and mind, its predatory gait clad in a stirring and innovative design of melodic and rhythmic incitement honed into a warm embrace of electro adventure. The song feels like the real end to the album though it is followed by Weird arabic stuff which we have to be honest we could not get or find any peace with and a remix of It’s a breaking by Everyday. It is decent enough but from a promising start evolves into the expected direction and sound so many re-mixes bring to songs no matter the original’s uniqueness. Nevertheless neither can defuse the brilliance of Blahblahrians. Erotic Market is band which was unknown to us before this release but now is a permanent feature of thoughts and acclaim, something we suspect will be emulated torrentially as the album envelops the world.

Blahblahrians is available via Jarring Effects now!

https://www.facebook.com/EroticMarket

9.5/10

RingMaster 02/05/2014