Emma Payn - Uncontrollable Thoughts of Demons

The female singer/songwriter is no new phenomenon, in fact there seems to be a bit of a resurgence going on, as is the way of the cyclical nature of music trends. But whereas the last revival of this broad genre threw up the likes of Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman, today's crop seem, by and large, to be a dumbed down, disposable, version for the Hollyoaks generation. For every Nerina Pallot we seem to have ten Lily Allens dispensing a chavesque brand of low brow pop. For each Nelly Furtardo we have been left with an army of Kate Nash clones singing dreary formulaic dross in the hope of being cool or controversial or what ever it is she is trying to do. It is because of his situation that listening to Emma Payns three track taster of her forth coming e.p. "Uncontrollable Thoughts Of Demons" I realise it's not time to jump ship just yet. In fact it's a cause for celebration.

Built of simple and fairly minimal musical components but nevertheless highly effective Fly For Me, is one of those songs that carries you subtly along before bursting open with confidence and infectious enthusiasm revealing a cracking voice and a realisation that you have stumbled upon something good. And if that doesn't do the trick, I defy you to not be bowled over by Burning, a song that could easily bother the charts, if they weren't dominated by X factor winners that dont even deserve 15 minutes of anonymity, let alone anything more. The rockiest of the three tracks to be found here and the most immediate, it's this direction that I think the future lies for Emma. That said, Trouble shows that she is equally impressive when working with the impassioned ballad and again the clean lines of the song showcase an impressive voice.

This all bodes well for the forth coming e.p. and at least shows that people are willing to fight back against the lowest common denominator that we are being force fed. I like this music. I like it a lot.

The Divebomb Revolution - The Divebomb Revolution

The problem with working with genres is that they often become too restrictive or too inflexible to be at all helpful in trying to describe such a fluid and individual thing as music. In this instance, for example, where does rock end and metal start? At what point does progressive rock become neo-progressive rock, when is gothic music cheery enough to be given a brighter, more optimistic name, and when does a “wide range of influences” get replaced by the term “experimental”? Was Billy Joel right all along when he said “it’s still rock and roll to me“? Thankfully, in the case of music, bands come with a handy label already built in and this one goes by the name of The Divebomb Revolution.

Their eponymous debut album has been a long time coming and despite this, or likely because of it, it is well worth the wait. The Divebomb Revolution seem to often transcend the act of merely creating songs, and the phrase that springs to mind is that they “make musical statements”, a term coined by a band from the golden age of musical excesses, Rush, another three-piece that seem to share a lot of creative common ground. They have the ability to create something that cocoons the listener in its complexities but never lose the sight of the fundamentals such as melody and groove.

It’s not the sort of album that requires too much analysis of the individual songs, it should be enjoyed in its entirety. This isn’t some indie band whose album is merely a tool for getting a couple of disposable sub-pop tunes on to Radio One. You could say that this is the Shakespeare to their Mills and Boon. Think of it more as a sonic odyssey. When the Stream Becomes a River, however, is one of those songs that neatly encompasses a lot of what The Divebomb Revolution is all about. It starts in a sort of middle-eastern version of new- …sorry, nu-metal, with hypnotic, spiralling guitars, and Tom’s often chant-like vocals creating an arabesque feel, before heading into an almost Vangelisian soundtrack, complete with a brooding saxophone that suggests the smoky, dim apartment of Blade Runner. There is still time to whip all of this up into a frenzy and race off before the song comes to its natural conclusion back in the futuristic moody theme. That alone would seem good value for money, but that is only one track of ten on this stunning album. Play-out song Epidemic also deserves a mention. At over seventeen minutes, this is the band indulging themselves, and rightly so. It is a real tour de force that gets right to the heart of what they are all about and, again, combines futuristic soundscapes, minimal haunting passages, and a majestic second half that sees each member of the band pushing his playing ability to the limits.

The production and attention to detail on this album are spectacular. There is depth, atmosphere and wonderful separation between the instruments, and the drums in particular stand out. Instead of having to suffer the normal rock attitude of just using the drums to keep the beat and power things along, you get to hear them being played like a front-of-house instrument. It is the tight, well defined, tuned kit, not to mention the playing prowess of Ollie himself, that make the drums transcend the mortal realm that most bands are content to operate in. But then the same accolades can easily be poured on the other two. Rich seems to be operating as a bass master class throughout. Intricate almost lead riffs evolve into warped, industrial, funk basslines, and solid low-ended metal flavours vie for attention with simple, yet effective root notes that anchor the more delicate parts of the music in place. This solid and flexible foundation is the ideal platform for front-man Tom to lay down guitar parts that range from jagged, white noise at one extreme, to delicate gossamer tones at the other whilst delivering everything from a whisper to a scream over the top. Incidentally, the vocals have been the one aspect of the band that have often suffered in the live shows, but here everything is put right in that aspect.

This is an album that has been eagerly awaited by many people and I doubt if any of them will be disappointed. Why this band aren’t making a living from their music and out touring in support of the big names is a mystery, but with this album as their chief weapon, and the ability to recreate it live, then surely it is only a matter of time?

Burning Down Vegas - I Should Have Done This Sooner

Coming from the wilds of West Berkshire and describing themselves as Neo-Death Punk, Burning Down Vegas were a band that unsurprisingly were unknown to me. I’m not even sure what Neo-Death Punk was, but I was about to get a lesson in how hard and in your face music should be played. Not normally my area of expertise, but I do like a challenge. These rock warriors create their music from core elements of fast and unrelenting razor wire guitars, drums that charge headlong into the fray, solid back beats and frantic vocalisation. But even if those musical building blocks seem to be par for the course these day, its how you put them together that really makes a difference and Burning Down Vegas manage to come up with not only their own sound but fire off a couple of real gems along the way. “Give My Regards” stands out from the crowd even on first hearing, its distinctive twin vocals and spiralling musical lines make for a memorable experience.

What is also surprising is that just when you think that you have these guys pegged as being solidly generic, they manage to throw out a real curveball. “Séance with a King” is a simple piano lead dark reflective ballad of sorts, from when ballad was not a dirty word, before the likes of Boyzone had milked all of the passion and class from such a style. And then the band drag the song kicking and screaming back into their familiar territory and it rocks out like a beast, still having the imagination to end with an acoustic guitar play out.


“It’s Life” has all the hallmarks of classic rock, classic rock that had been put through a blender, given an injection of adrenaline and then been given a reason to get really pissed off about something. This song for me is the band at their best. Might be something to do with my age and taste, or just that it’s a bloody good tune and a great musical thrash out.



All in all, “I Should Have Done This Sooner” is a great piece of work, one that mixes punk, rock, metal and attitude into a slick and sleazy bitch of an album. The fact that the band have recently decided to call it a day is a real shame but if this standard of consummate musicianship is present a such an early stage in the guys career, who knows what some of them will achieve next.

Followme & theidontgiveadamns - We've All Got Armour Underneath Our Skin

Followme & theIdontgiveadamns is a pretty unique name for a band, you have to admit. When I first heard it my train of thought immediately threw up a similarly strange named US band, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, though the two bands could hardly be further apart. Having dispelled all thoughts of the latter’s humorous hardcore shenanigans, I settled in to see what this CD had to offer. Keeping in line with the unnecessarily long band name, this four track EP goes by the moniker of We’ve All Got Armour Underneath Our Skin, and is mainly the work of one man, called Ben, armed with an acoustic guitar and a piano.

The four songs contained here are made up of very simple, clean, musical brush strokes. There is an uncluttered and spacious feel to it all, probably due to the lack of bass and drums. Offering a very much less-is-more approach, the acoustic rhythm guitar seems to create a solid framework to hang the ideas on, and the piano does all of the clever bits, with the hint of strings occasionally creeping through but probably a bit too distant in the mix. Anymore is a wistful look at rejection that has a lovely descending bass line threaded through it, and Wait and Talk has a similar subdued quality to it, but it is Would You Go that is the stand out track for me. With a gaggle of guest female vocalists, and built around piano and keyboard washes, it manages to create a wonderfully haunting soundscape. Play out song, Your Eyes Have It, puts me in mind of a laid back Maccabees, not the young Brighton tykes of recent years but the agit-folk band of yesteryear, mainly in the way the lyrics are delivered, but also in the overall sentiment and style.

I think the EP reminds me of a bunch of songs that are very much a work in progress. I don’t mean that unkindly, but in that they sound like jobbing demos that are yet to be built into bigger pieces and have more evocative musical building blocks added. Imagine listening to a band playing a live session at a radio station, slightly stripped down for ease, but in your mind you can hear the other elements that you know will be part of the live show when you see the band perform in the flesh. I assume that money, as ever, is the driving factor behind this rather than there being any other overriding artistic consideration. There is, as I have said, the hint of a string section, but in my opinion a solo violin or cello playing a more prominent role would really add another dimension to the songs.

That said, the tunes are great as they stand, working in familiar territory yet sounding unique despite this. It’s a good start from a musician who seems relatively new to the solo career, a path that can be as overwhelming as it is creatively unbridled. I do look forward to seeing how Ben’s music develops for, despite the flippancy of the chosen working name, he really does give a damn.

Seven Years On - Starting Fires

There are many things in life that seems to take forever to come to fruition. A correctly poured pint of Guinness, buses, the return of Halley’s Comet and Seven Years On releases. It was, therefore, rather gratifying to find myself walking home the other night with a copy of Starting Fires clutched firmly in my hands. For those few that aren’t aware of the band, and shame on you, Seven Years On are a band that manage to walk a perfect line between pop and a hard place. Their music is never devoid of sumptuous melodies and wonderful lyrical hooks that get stuck in your head but neither does it lack the power and drive of its more hard rock orientated peers. Two of the songs, I was already familiar with, very glad to see them included, but it was the remaining three that I was really anticipating.

The twin guitar counter play of I’ll Take My Chances pulls you into the fray and from there on in a weaving path of undulating dynamic keeps moving you forward. The one thing that becomes immediately apparent, even at this early juncture, is how well the band manage to layer their instruments, never getting in each others space but able to merge the various sounds together to keep things fresh and offer up variations on the theme. If ever there was an immediate single then Impossible has got to be it. This is the song that they used to collectively blow away the audience, not to mention the rest of the bill, at the 2007 Swindon Shuffle and on record it sounds better than ever. A restrained opening, building with layers of atmosphere and possibility, until it explodes into the most infectious of songs that challenges you to remain unmoved by it. It’s like a musical fruit pastel that you just have to chew…well, in this case go crazy too…but I think that you know what I am getting at.

And if Impossible shows you what the band can achieve when they have got the beast running flat out, In Limbo shows that they can be equally creative when they are holding something back. Picked, rather than thrashed, guitars carry the tune, but to no less effect and to be fair this is sounds like the follow up single in the campaign, the one where you have already caught peoples attention and you can afford to offer up something more subtle. Just a thought. There is a quirky bounce to You Never Look My Way, that immediately puts me in mind of one of my old favourite bands, Power of Dreams, but no one remembers them any more so I will move on. Again, its another infectious song that manages to go in one ear and straight down your leg to set you foot tapping. The CD plays out with the title track, the most subtle song in the pack. The first half of the song has plenty of space and has an almost lazy gait to it, which all makes for a nice contrast as it builds and charges off to its logical conclusion, a busy crescendo to sign out with.

If I have one criticism, it is that Gareth’s vocals often get a bit lost in the mix, a shame as there are some punchy and highly contagious choruses to be found throughout. But, to be fair, that probably is my only gripe, musically, it never lets you down and as a representation of what they do live, its pretty much spot on. At one extreme, nice understated, long note, lead guitar breaks contrast nicely with intricately picked rhythms and at others the band seem happy to just thrash it out and all the time a foundation of busy, but not unnecessarily so, drums and solid bass hold everything in place. It has light and shade, power and subtlety, and when you get down to basics, is one of the best collections of songs to come my way for a long time.

Tim Gilvin - Out of the City

Arc are a band from space. I know that because I read it on myspace and far be it from me to cast aspersions on the accuracy of internet information. If this is true then Tim Gilvin is their pilot and it is his solo album, that is under discussion today. “Out of the City” is a collection of delicate and laid back piano based songs that tend to reflect the album title in their themes of escapism and leaving the rat race behind. The majority of the songs seem to have the feel of a more distant time and place, possibly an Oxford cocktail bar in the 1930 and Tim’s voice with its clean delivery and wonderful diction complete the illusion. But just when you have this image of the man bedecked in tuxedo and monocle he manages to throw in a curveball in the form of songs like Lines, with its more modern beats or the slightly funky soul vibes of A Deep Breath.

It is a surprising album for such a young musician. Whilst, lyrically, it does have the wide eyed innocence and romantic notions of a youthful composer, it also has the space and restraint of a much wiser musician and an individuality that shows the up-most maturity and total disregard for the fickle whims of fashion. Refreshing, to say the least, in a world that often seems to comprise entirely of Green Day clones or copycats of what ever the latest hair gel fixated band happen to be today’s Radio One darlings.

For me the highlight of the album is Standing by the Sea, a gentle ballad of optimism and wistful reflection with the sultry tones of To Live in Debt also requiring a mention. As an album it’s not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, but is an ideal choice when you just need a break from the norm and fancy something gentle, something light and soothing…something that will just wash over you with the minimal of fuss.

William Elmore - Time To Reflect

William Elmore seems to be one of those rarest of beasts, a musician who makes music for all of the right reasons. Many bands and artists may pretend to have an overdeveloped sense of humble integrity, but more often than not all they really want to do is be famous and to do so are willing to write whatever the current fashion dictates to get noticed. It makes a refreshing change, therefore, to come across someone who is genuinely inspired to write about the physical world that surrounds him, seems to work pretty much on his own, doesn’t play gigs (that I am aware of), and is happy to give his music away on request.

Although William had said that he would send me a CD of his recent work, I was pleasantly surprised when four discs dropped through my letter box. These four recordings do all fall into the category of “recent” as they are the product of only the last two years, a quick look at his back catalogue does show an impressive work rate. I thought it prudent just to concentrate on one of the CDs rather than spread the review too thin. I would say however that if this one is to your taste any of the other works will probably be to your taste too. William works in a sort of new age, experimental, folk vein, largely instrumental and leaning heavily into the more ambient and chilled-out realms.

The album really starts to come alive on the second track, A Drop In The Ocean, where a clean-cut acoustic guitar is joined by warped-out echoes, mandolin and piano, to spiral up in a chaotic fashion to become a hazy, ethereal orchestra, this very much sets the pace for what’s to follow. There is, however, a lot of variation within this trippy, green-earth music he creates. The title track, for example, is heavy on the dance beats, but tempered by some phased flutes and electronic swells that ebb and flow on the edge of earshot. And so it goes, When Angels Fall, is an ambient chill out zone, Mother Earth is an almost votive, hypnotic, tribal prayer and Karma Kingdom is pure electronica.

The titles give away everything about the inspiration behind the works, unashamedly green, if not overtly pagan, reflective, otherworldly and of the spirit rather than of the physical. Production is low-fi, but as I said earlier, that’s not the point of the music anyway, and also accounts for the ability to release so much music in quick succession. It’s nice to meet someone who is truly inspired by a world we have lost, someone who in a small way brings it alive again through his music. Forget all those middle class weekend druids and those teenage witches who gained all of their understanding from boxed sets of Buffy and Angel. If you want to get in touch with the ancients and more in tune with the natural world, the William may just be some sort of mystical travel agent and Time To Reflect is the passport to a more mystical place.