Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul (October 6, 2008)

I am sure most of you spend lots of time digging out your soul trying to understand yourself and through understanding yourself try to grasp this unimaginably insane world surrounding us!

I am doing it in my own way, by listening to Oasis‘ Dig Out Your Soul!

For those who just start listening to OASIS wonderful feelings are waiting ahead! OASIS music is bringing such a feeling of freedom, self-confidence and belief in own abilities that it really resembles an oasis at a desert whispering that maybe it’s gonna be the one to save you… The songs are about YOU, each and every one, texts are not a masterpiece but they are so close to what you feel right now, right here, that you just can’t stop feeling yourself a hero of each of their song which have already become talismans of your life! This is OASIS! Once you love them you can’t stop anymore!..

Well, of course Liam, no matter how often he rejects this, is totally “living” John Lennon and OASIS too could never refuse being too much like The Beatles sometimes. But this is not awkward: writing songs which are like songs you love most is natural! Of course, you can’t avoid similarities and associations! They are also blamed for being too self-enamored! But they are OASIS! They have the right to love themselves if the whole world does! Though I would dispute over Noel’s being the best songwriter in the world which he likes to repeat so often…J))))))

We can discuss these crazy brothers behavior for centuries but they have a better topic to be offered: their latest album, Dig Out Your Soul. This album was soooooo longed for that there were probably too high expectations and when it was released at last it got a huge pile of criticism-full reviews! In this album not only Noel but the band all members had a role in songwriting. The best song in the album, warmly accepted by the critiques, and of course, created by the Noel The Great, Falling Down, has a rich sound and ironic words that get stuck deeply in your mind:

If you won’t save me please don’t waste my time…

Liam‘s wonderful melancholic ballad I’m Outta Time is quite philosophical and deep … These words are especially killing (though Liam took it from somewhere else, but still!)

If i’m to fall, would you be there to applaud, or would you hide behind the law…

In general this album lyrics are much more mature making us hope that the Gallagher brothers have at last grown up! (though maybe it is better not?)

The Shock of the Lightning, the first single, from the album is very energetic with a huge drive and is just like a crazy traffic running in front of your eyes!

Waiting For The Rapture has very solemn drums and is one of «non-Noel» songs. It’s quite different from OASIS music, very bluesy and you can hardly believe this is Oasis!

Bag It Up is the opening song which guitar riffs you make you feel you’re riding a motorcycle taking you on a speedy tour! It has absolutely unsolvable lyrics pronounced with such a confidence by Liam that you think it’s you that are probably out of your wits, not him! )))

The Turning is very rhythmic (all in all it seems OASIS worked hard and put a special accent on drums in this album!) with a “harder” vocal, a very good song that has drive and inner strength!

We live with the numbers,
Mining a dream for the same old song,
What hope for the turning,
If everything you know is wrong…

High Horse Lady deserves special attention due to its interesting vocal as if coming from a tube and wonderful claps making it so special! Ain’t Got Nothing is a very “I don’t care song” sooo characteristic for Liam (one of his songs in the album) and is actually based on a true story about Liam’s being caught and taken to prison though he hadn’t done anything.

The Nature Of Reality is another strong song with thoughts of dialectical nature that is coming from afar and attacking you with its repeating heavy guitar solos and rhythmic and somehow different form usual OASIS style besides that nice part with ay-I-ay-ay.

The most boring monotone song in the album that I personally hardly listen to is Soldier On. It has no melody even, very inert and nothing new.

I like especially To Be Where There’s Life lyrics which I wrote below!

Dig out your soul, cos here we go
We gotta move, it’s what we do
Let me come through
Let me take you away to be where there’s life
To be where there’s life…

So let OASIS take you to where there’ s life…

The Notwist – The Devil, You+Me (May 2, 2008)

German bands, especially in Indie, are not a common thing and The Notwist can be a real discovery for people like me who perceive Indie mainly in a British “package”! The first associations with Radiohead are misleading; despite the seeming similarity between the psychedelic art-electronic-rock combination the bands are very different in the songwriting technique and in the way the songs evolve, Markus‘ vocal is much more stable and calm than that of the Yorke’s. The Notwist songs are impossible to be predicted and you always fail in trying to repeat the melody in the beginning. But when you are getting familiar with their melody structure you already know that the Acher brothers will make the song rise until a certain top making you hold your breath and drop it down all of a sudden!
The song texts are generally minimalistic and concise without expressing a concrete meaning making you put any sense you feel like for any of the songs.

The Notwist latest album The Devil, you + me is a new experimental indie album birth expanding our musical horizons farther being so indie even among indie!
This album is a real chameleon suiting your mood perfectly: making you hope when you’re positive and put you in a deeper depression if you are sad.
Hands on us is one of the songs that will feed your depression with it’s monotone sighs and classical instruments playing on your inner nerves…

Boneless is a very light sounding, catchy song with it’s infecting chorus you want to repeat all the time: “Booooone-less!” It is perfect to express the feelings of people in mess who want to run away from everything that surround them that is so fake!

Gone, Gone, Gone is a kind and lovely ballad you always have warm feelings while listening to. Consisting purely from guitar in the beginning it then stays minimalistic as well and can serve as a wonderful lullaby… It’s the shortest and simplest but still a great song!

Good lies is one of the album best songs different from the rest if for no other reason than this deep philosophical note “let’s just imitate the real until we find a better one…” sometimes it’s better to live with good lies as it is a better reality that the one we have!..

Gloomy Planets is so cosmic with its space sounds singing of the cars on New York streets and the gloomy planets staying always, anyway no matter how locked up we are…
Aggressive drums and a suddenly huge electric guitar solo chokes you and after a while the percussion comes and all this in one song! Alphabet!…it’s really a crazy song…!!!

Gravity begins very mysteriously taking you away from gravity to fly to the moon and stars while The Notwist prays for love and disbelief up on the roof!…

Another song which could be a good lullaby also because of its name is Sleep, a very “atheistic” song… Oriental mood comes with listening to On planet off which is a mad song with unbelievable ups and downs and electronically full of different effects. The texts again seem to be senseless repetition of the authors mad thoughts like in a nightmare…

The least remarkable song in the album is probably Where In This World that is nothing new and is hard to listen to.

The Devil, you+me is a really magic song; so pure, magnificent and high! Songs like this make bands irreplaceable in people’s minds. The perfect melody and background beats get stuck in your mind bringing you such an idyll…

Everybody still speaks of Neon Golden, the most popular album of The Notwist but this album is definitely fascinating and is worth filling another important part of the unique music diggers memory. All in all very kind due to the magnanimous and hypnotizing vocal of Markus Acher and such a beautiful way of feeling the music…

1 Good Lies 5:24
2 Where In This World 4:41
3 Gloomy Planets 4:50
4 Alphabet 3:03
5 The Devil, You + Me 3:39
6 Gravity 3:56
7 Sleep 3:46
8 On Planet Off 5:07
9 Boneless 2:57
10 Hands On Us 4:29
11 Gone Gone Gone 2:09

Late Of The Pier – Fantasy Black Channel (July 30, 2008)

Probably you have heard this band for the first time at the disco. The DJ surely did the right choice becuase the music of this band won’t let your body stand firm but will rock every single cell of it!

But before you get the wrong impression, let me introduce Late Of The Pier to you!

These guys started the band when they were only teenagers. Labled as dance-punk they would seem the most funny figures in indie rock you have probably seen on YouTube recently.. Well, at least judging from Hearbeat and Focker videos.

But they are not only for entertaining on the dancefloor. Fantasy Black Channel will amaze you with its deep but not complicated (aka Arctic Monkeys) lyrics talking about not easy life. Exactly! I mean, literally!

Easy life is it an easy life?

No It’s HARD

The Enemy Are The Future

Suicide is in my blood

It always was

but it doesn’t evaporate in the light any more

And this world is no place

For a mind or a thought

No its not

Space And The Woods

Also the band likes to repeat the lines, like in Heartbeat. This line will stuck in your mind for a long-long time!

It’s just a line

It’s just a line

It’s just a line

………………..

Heartbeat

The most part of the album has been recorded.. guess where? In Sam Eastgate’s (vocalist) bedroom. Probably this influenced on the mood of the album. It’s more sincere and unpredictable. Leaving alone the fact that they used distorted guitars, dirty bass, synths, Sam also did quite a lot of experiments with his voice, sometimes using hip-hop style, sometimes getting much like the vocal of Matthew Bellamy from Muse. Quite often you have the feeling that Mr. Eastgate’s voice is what makes you fall in love with this music. But it’s not only mechanical waves in the air but also the electrical impulses. Songs sometimes get weird. Take The Bears Are Coming as an example. The song itself is an electronic work, but sometimes it becomes blues, punk then whatever. But it doesn’t make you step back in surprise but feels so natural! Remember the bedroom stuff?

All the songs in the album are a subject of long talks and attention. And depending on your mood/location/ocupation you can choose the appropriate ones!

1. If you are a DJ, pick Space and The Woods, The Bears Are Coming, Heartbeat, Whitesnake, Focker.
2. If you like much of instrumental stuff, then go ahead! Hot Tent Blues, VW!
3. For thinking – Broken, Mad Dogs And Englishmen.
4. For evening listening – Random Firl, The Enemy Are The Future, Bathroom Gurgle.

But no matter what you choose the innovative sound of Late Of The Pier, easy-to-remember tunes, repeating lines and the crazy true-English accented vocal of the frontman will help you discover another cool and perspective British band!

Yours truly, Gaya

We Smoke Fags – Eastenders EP (June 16, 2008)

If you are deep into New Rave, probably you will always face the problem of having not enough music. It’s a newly born music style and many bands are just starting. And while we wait for the second album of Klaxons, you can listen to newly created bands. And imagine, they are just starting and you can follow them now, from their very first record! What a luck!

We love you, UK! We Smoke Fags – this is the name of another british band that surely could appear in the headlines of all New Rave content. In 2008 they released their first EP – Eastenders.
Consisting of only 2 songs, it promises a great debut album. The single Eastenders is what dance-punk lovers need. With unexpected lyrics, it’s a song that you can easily sing along and no doubt can be the hit in the clubs.
Too much money
Not enough intellect..

I sympathize I sympathize
with you
I made my mind, i made my mind
on you
With the lyrics they will surely never win Arctic Monkeys, but you can not call them stupid or senseless. And the band shoot a really rocking video on the song. Bravi!

There is one more song in the EP called Canape Of Love. It’s not too impressive, although easy to remember. Comparing to Eastenders, you will probably ignore this song in your playlist of favourites.
Unfortunatelly, the band doesn’t have an official web page and there is no content on Wiki, so I guess the band is not active now. But you can find their profile on MySpace.
So, if you are new to New Rave, Eastenders will probably be added to your favourites after you hear it! Waiting for the debut album..
Yours truly, Gaya