SB6: new album alert..
Posted by jamie on Aug 31, 2011
More gossip from the new Sonic Boom Six album. This little snippet from James’s facebook is fairly self explanatory.
Obviously almost ready, then.
[spunge] : new single crashes the charts
Posted by jamie on Aug 31, 2011
[spunge] launched their latest assault on the top 40 on Monday. A double-A-side featuring new songs Nothing at All and Higher Ground is nowavailable for download.
Get it here
Gecko: Safest Bet
Posted by jamie on Aug 31, 2011
Loveable acoustic/samba/hip-hop ragamuffins Gecko release new single Safest Bet on 19th September. We’ve got it already, and will be reviewing for you soon.
The video drops next week. Apparently, little Chips Sanchez has found his way into it. See if you can see him when that comes out.
In the mean time, have a little peek at the single artwork..
Ian Britt: Box (reviewed)
Posted by jamie on Aug 4, 2011
Ian Britt
Box – Self Released, 2011
2nd August 2011
Jamie
Ian Britt has come up with something of a surprise here. In fauirness it was though to know what to expect, given the contrast between the bubbly enthusiasm evident in his constant stream of cheeky-chappy updates on his facebook and twitter pages. He’s witty, entertaining and you sort of sense that he’s eager to be liked. Then again, on stage, he’s very Yorkshire, all no-nonsense and nonchalantly off hand, deadpan and the atmosphere lo-fi, intimate, and surprisingly serious.
Box is strikingly intelligent, and, wonderfully put together. Ian’s clearly bursting with talent, and this is an excellent collection of songs performed brilliantly. Happily, it’s all put together in such a way that the contrasting moods in some of the songs complement, rather than detract from, each other. Opener Back Home for example, though hardly a happy song in terms of its subject matter, is so beautifully catchy and so packed with melodies that’s impossible not to be cheered by it. I mean, it’s got a xylophone. What’s not to love? With its lovely little melody, and the perfect harmonies between lead and backing vocals, it’s an excellent pop song, and a must for the hot weather.
The same could be said of few of the other tunes on Box. Most recent single Boom Boom, for example, fairly shimmers with harmonies and that xylophone again. Click that little link and treat yourself to the video, it’s joyous: along with those harmonies, and that xylophone, Ian’s picked out the melody with some top notes in his lead vocal and added a key change for good measure. Then, Run Lola Run, he’s gone and got all of the Sonic Boom Six to appear as well. It was done a while ago, so you even get Ben Childs on there too.
It’s a winning formula, and could surely have made Ian one of the ultimate sunshine feel-good albums if he’d wanted it. There’s more to Box than that, though, and songs like Me and My Friend Cupid, In the Middle and Heathen Boy are totally different. Although the xylophone reappears briefly on Heathen Boy it’s not as prominent as before, and instead the melody is carried mainly by a sole acoustic guitar. Ian’s lyrics and the tone of the songs is just as plaintive and emotionally candid, but the mood is more reflective, while not quite sombre, and the tempo’s slower. It’s a little more singer-songwriter than the acoustic-reggae-pop than the earlier songs. By the very end, Beau Paris and Sweetness have slowed the tempo to a soft, soothing stroll.
Throughout, though, he’s got the vocal range to pull all of this off, and the songs are of such excellent quality that they could hardly disappoint. From the off, there was never any danger of that. Box is impressively diverse both musically and in its range of emotions and atmospheres. More than that, though, it’s deeply empathic and, still more than that, it’s brilliantly good fun.
Stand-out tracks:
Back Home
Run Lola Run
Boom Boom
Walk Alone
Beau Paris
