2010 August Archive - The Recommender

THE RECOMMENDER – BRAVESTATION

There’s plenty of excellent alternative music burgeoning all over the world, but Canada continues to star, holding the heart of intelligent indie in its hands and Bravestation, a four-piece from Toronto, have stolen our attention for the immediate future. They blend soaring, melodic indie pop into a warm, lush soundscape, with a broad, mature and consistently excellent collection of songs. They released their debut EP back in 2009 and follow it up with a new batch of songs on their second EP, entitled 2010. It shows us a band that are both industrious and ambitious, but comfortably reaching their own lofty aims. There’s a broad myriad of sounds that are woven throughout each song, creating several intricate tracks in ways that show off a rare skill – of making expertise seem easy. The song Clocks & Spears presents the type of soaring, tribal indie which has embedded inside it a sense of free-spirited bohemia; of the kind that Yeasayer have successfully produced in recent years. It’s music that’s easily described as art, but it’s also utterly accessible and jammed with hooks and harmonies. The tune, Their Calling, brings to mind the kind of layered, soaring choruses more familiar with The Killers or Editors, but without that misguided and rather desperate attempt to write a song whose main purpose is to sound good on the main stage at Glastonbury. However, the strongest song on the new EP has to be White Wolves, which has some wonderful, raindropped guitaring, more familiar with the clever intricacy of Foals. It’s a song with rumbling drums and echoing, layered voices, that peaks with a call and response between the backing and main vocals, which in turn creates a feel of two songs being played at once. Like all the best bands, there’s no one outstanding star of the show on stage here, with each instrument propelling the song as much as any other. A group that appears to be without weakness, creating EPs this consistently decent, makes our appetite for the debut LP akin to that of a desert orchid watching a rain cloud on the horizon. You can download their latest EP in its entirety – for free – on their Bandcamp page here. Um, that’s for FREE! Like. Now. You still here!? (MB)

Find them here: Myspace

Hear them here: BRAVESTATION – WHITE WOLVES

Hear them here: BRAVESTATION – COLOUR US WITH YOUTH

Hear them here: BRAVESTATION – THEIR CALLING

3 Comments

Published: August 24th, 2010
Author: The Recommender
Category: The Recommender
Tags: Bravestation, Colour Us With Youth, Editors, The Killers, They're Calling For Me, White Wolves, Yeasayer

THE RECOMMENDER – KATY B

2 Comments

We have something that runs in the background here on the blog, called ‘The Recommender Queue‘. Put simply, it’s an internal list that we add all the new artists to once we’ve located them. Once spotted they are chronologically entered into the system, ready for a good plucking once we come to write a new post. The queue matters to us, as it’s the last filter we apply before writing them up – we’re a picky bunch you see. By this point they’ve basically got through our tight selection process and it’s simply a matter of patience as we slowly get around to them. One side effect of this queue is that we miss the chance to blog artists immediately after finding them and are therefore rarely first to break them. Fortunately though we don’t give a flying fuck about being first, never have, as we only conspire to be good. Since Katy B got in line a few weeks ago we’ve seen her blogged by New York’s latest radio star Sheena Beaston, followed by the blog collective, of which both us and Sheena are Charter Members – Strangers In Stereo. NME helped confirm she is something special when she debuted inside the legendary music magazine with her own full page, which was only usurped by reaching number 20 on their ‘Best New Bands Of 2010‘ article. The phrase ‘commercial appeal’ may as well have been created just for her, as, like it or not, she ticks so many of the current teenage boxes that she’s virtually guaranteed to be a massive hit. She winds crunchy dubstep and garage basslines under sweet, charting vocals, in an irresistible pop concoction. As a Goldsmiths and Brit School graduate she can really sing too, which, when paired with her high street good looks and understated MC confidence, sees her just as ready to front underground clubs, as she could Topman fashion campaigns. Every 18 year old will want to be her, male or female, as she dances through that perfect mix of dark and light. The star will most likely turn supernova with the Benga-backed tune On A Mission, which is due out on the radio staion-turned-label Rince FM in the next few days. Make what you like of her lyrics that swing from the teasing, “so I sip his drink as I hold his gaze“, to the plain and obvious, “When we all rocked into the room and hear the sub go boom“. Lyrics aside, it’s the package that the dubstep genre requires if it’s to properly make it approachable to the mainstream, but on the flip side we can’t help but fear it’s a scene that’s best suited to an underground position. However, in reality it’s her impact on the pop scene that will prove to be the biggest game changer. Even though she’s just stepped out from ours, we can’t help but imagine that queues are set to be something she’s going to have to get used to from now on, as they feed around the block from now on. (MB)