Dan Black - Yours (Single)

★★★

Starting out as lead singer of the mostly unknown indie band The Servant, and enjoying a brief moment as a London DJ, Dan Black decided he wanted to branch out into writing his own music, solo. However, he “found it hard to get these conflicting desires to blend well outside of [his] head” and so rather than leaving his remixing and mashup habits behind him, Black employed these techniques to previous single, and first official release HYPNTZ. Featuring the drum and string riff of Rihanna's exhausted Umbrella crossed with Black's own interpretation of The Notorious B.I.G.'s lyrics to Hypnotize he creates a surprisingly enjoyable (considering the starting material) chill-out track that has been praised by many including BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe. Potential future album track, These Things Take Time, takes a similar route, with Black performing his own lyrics supported by the drum track to Nelly Furtado's Maneater which, again, reveals his resourcefulness .

However it's not all sampling and mashups that are set to appear on the album, due to be released in 2009. Current single, Yours, sees Black create an altogether more original song (as far as I can tell; I don't recognise any samples). Starting out with a basic, two-bar acoustic guitar riff that repeats throughout the entire song, yet fails to annoy, the song establishes itself a solid drum beat followed by Black's vocals and dubbed harmonies. The uneasy feeling hits that this simple, amateur approach to layering the sparse instrumentation of the track hints that this could have easily been produced by any student playing around with basic music software in their bedroom. Its only when a playful call and response from the main vocal and harmonies is accomplished and the infectious lyrics of the chorus, “I don't wanna be yours no more”, are sung that we realise Black has learnt from his DJ-ing how to create a truly appealing blend of pop, electro and dance. Again represented by his basic use of regimented rusty phaser sweeps throughout the chorus, which do add depth, though in a very elementary fashion, its the end of the chorus that Black adds a touch of flair by having the last sweep spasm out of control, breaking the song down, leaving the the guitar riff to pick up the pieces. The interesting and haunting blend of a harpsichord and claps later in the song is also a truly captivating element as I've never felt so tempted to dance by a 16^th Century instrument since hearing Bach Party.

Its easy to see why Dan Black is getting more frequently labelled as 'the new Calvin Harris' what with him being a fairly attracted, stylish male creating radio friendly electro-pop. Despite this, I do feel Black has his own minimalist style and curious details to his otherwise almost too-clean music. Slight variations with harmonies and his lyrics with more depth contrast greatly with Harris' more-or-less static, though agreeably catchy, music and almost monotonous lyrics of “I get all the girls” and “It was acceptable in the 80's, It was acceptable at the time”.

I think Dan Black has a promising future, and I look forward to hearing the album and its reception.

http://www.myspace.com/danblacksound

Dartz - The Sad History Of The Village Of Alnerique

★★

After listening to Dartz' debut album, This Is My Ship, I was excited to hear new material which I expected to be full of their captivating rhythms and danceable beats. By taking a 'interesting' concept and deciding that rather than 'working on the music first and then, once that was sorted, work on the lyrics', instead 'try and write some music which suited the lyrics' the Teeside boys have produced a rather disappointed follow-up.

Opening with a melancholic guitar intro we are suddenly hit with the harsh, galling voice of, lead singer, Philip Maughan belting out the incredibly annoying line “we're marching” several times too many. Though well suited to earlier material, Philip Maughan's nerdy, blunt vocals oppose the melancholic atmosphere of The Sad History..., as he struggles to adapt his voice to the bands new sound and instead becomes weak, dreary and, during high notes, unstable.

After welcoming us to Alnerique with The Arrival, Building Alnerique and its genuinely interesting, jirky drum beat, the band provide Oskar and Ofelia with its Southern American twang to the guitar and bass and relaxed drums, proving that despite the struggle with vocal adaptation, they successfully adjust to varying music styles; also shown on calm acoustic instrumental What Happens to Places Where Spaces Should Be.

However the band seem to fail producing more creativity than their previous work, as the intro to third track, A New Venture from Mordecai & Sons vocal melody sounds almost identical to that of track four, The Clandestine Chair. A New Venture... also begins with what seems to be a hollowed out Foals guitar harmony followed by a blatant copy of Los Campesinos!'s You! Me! Dancing! main riff for the verse. The Lay of the Land follows suit with an intro echoing that of Razor by Foo Fighters, though does in fact flourish into one of the albums best songs, partly due to the fact that its style is more akin to that of the first. Embers, is similarly reputable, due to it providing an interesting array of sounds including a ukulele and saxophone. This makes it another relaxing, admirable instrumental.

The End, Moving On concludes this hit and miss record, with further acoustic splendour and charming guitar harmonious, tainted again by strained, uncomfortable vocals.

To summarise, Dartz have produced a pretty disappointing second album, which shows that although artists such Smashing Pumpkins and Bloc Party can change styles with relative skill and ease, it can be very unprofitable to try it half-heartedly and while seemingly lacking confidence.

http://www.myspace.com/darts
http://www.dartzisgood.co.uk/

Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel

★★★★

For some, this will be their first experience of LOTP; the twisted electro thrash band from Castle Donington. For others, they will be well acquainted with the boys and will probably be well aware of the bands surprisingly substantial demo album released for free on their website in 2007. In short Fantasy Black Channel is a superior, rerecorded, less fuzzy, enhanced re-release of the bedroom produced demo... only with lasers!

The album opens with an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world fanfare, Hot Tent Blues, that wouldn't sound out of place in the original Terminator. A growling bass, thud of drums and playful riff later, LOTP get the album in full flow with Broken, setting the album up for a dark, fierce, electronic journey to the dancefloor.

Full of excitingly addictive, dance inducing tracks the album's highlights include The Bears Are Coming, which sounds as if it was recorded down Dad's shed while he was banging some timber together and tapping his 'funkiest Dad in the world' mug with a teaspoon, and Heartbeat with its catchy chorus and bizarre lyrics “pineapple pieces in brine, fucking around with your mind”.

Best track, however, goes to Focker; a convulsive attack of buzzing bass, screaming synths, laser stabs and, singer, Eastgate's pleading with us to be his friend. Just when you think the seizure is over the detached outro which could (and probably should) be a song all of its own hits hard with solid drums and a traumatic electro riff.

The boys even tease us with their inventive creativity and recycling skills by hacking the albums cut-out material into a 40 second mix at the end of Broken and a 17 second mix following Whitesnake.

Just before the eerie hidden track that steals its atmosphere straight from a 50's sci-fi, the album officially ends with an aptly named Bathroom Gurgle. Featuring a bassline that sounds as if its spewing out of the plug hole and an ecstatic break in which it appears the deleted lyrics of Rocky Horror's Timewarp are being put to good use, LOTP instruct us to “put your hands on your waistline, move your body to the bassline, get your hands on some cheap wine and move it 'til you feel fine”. I did; great album.

http://myspace.com/lateofthepier
http://www.lateofthepier.com/