Gigslutz Tracks Of The Week 04.10.13

With stupendous, pounding drums, heavy riffs and intensely raw vocals, Royal Blood’s second single ‘Out Of The Black’ is a colossal rock and roll anthem that excites and invigorates. With just Benjii Talent and Mike Kerr making up the band, this impressive power duo from Brighton deliver an impressive, fury-filled walloper of song, that makes it easy to realise why they have recently been receiving acclaim from the likes of Zane Lowe, and even heralded by Sheffield’s own heroes The Arctic Monkeys.

With hints of the thrashing side of QOTSA, the stripped back rock of Jack White and with traces of Matt Belamy-esque vocals, ‘Out Of The Black’ is a climatic, riff driven blast of energy filled with crashing drums and crunching guitars that creeps towards the borders of Metal with intense momentum. It’s honest, it’s addictive, it’s real. It’s just what the doctor ordered in this confusing world of sledge-hammer-licking and lamb-groping…

Following their debut track ‘Figure it Out’, Royal Blood release ‘Out Of The Black’ on 11th November.

https://soundcloud.com/royalbloodband/out-of-the-black

‘Cellar Darling’ is the first solo effort of Swiss singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anna Murphy. Single handedly, Murphy writes the lyrics and music to her songs, and the result is a captivating fusion of industrial rock, pop and electronica.

The title track of her new album, ‘Cellar Darling’ is an eeriely intense and dark ballad, reminiscent of the likes of Evanescence, Tori Amos or even Florence Walsh. With Murphy’s hypnotic, pitch-perfect vocals and deep lyrical content, she tells an epic tale that almost sounds as though as it could have come from an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, though without the vomit-inducing qualities that they generally seem to possess… To the contrary, ‘Cellar Darling’ is an utterly spellbinding slice of unique musical artistry that is hard to ignore.

The album ‘Cellar Darling’ is out 4th November on Booya Records and is co-produced by Murphy herself.

New, London-based independent record label Bandhouse Records are currently preparing for their first release – ‘Radio {In My} Head’ – a compilation of high-quality Radiohead arrangements, performed by up and coming artists from around the world. The album concept was initiated by Bandhouse Records founder, John O’Sullivan. While studying at the London Centre of Contemporary Music (LCCM), he was working on a Radiohead cover project with fellow students, and the thought quickly took off. With the talents of eleven different artists and thanks to the powers of the Internet, the project has become increasingly popular.

The first single is ‘Videotape (Radio Edit)’ by Ido Livni and Re’ut Szekely, a beautiful, original reinterpretation of Radiohead’s 2007 ‘In Rainbows’ album track. Based in Northern Israel, producer Ido Livni commented that they chose this particular track to cover to “talk about the good old days”…

Whilst any cover of Radiohead is obviously not going to be Radiohead, and lacks obvious components such as the spine-tingling vocals of Thom Yorke, Livni and Szekely have succeeded in creating a hauntingly exquisite version of ‘Videotape’; a powerfully emotive tribute to Yorke and co. that retains the chilling allure of the original combined with a twinkly, electronic buzz that makes for something truly lovely, and utterly unique.

‘Videotape’ is out now, with the full ‘Radio {In My} Head’ album to follow shortly on October 29th on Bandhouse Records.

Those of you familiar with ‘90s indie-popsters The Beautiful South may remember David Rotheray, who is now preparing to release his second solo album ‘Answer Ballads’. However, if – like me – the only thing you really remember about The Beautiful South is the nonsensical, yet surprisingly catchy ‘Don’t Marry Her, F*** me’ (radio edit: ‘have’), you’ll be pleased to hear that Rotheray’s new project bears no real resemblance to his former band’s material. Conversely, ‘Answer Ballads’ is an album with a unique concept in which Rotheray takes existing fictional musical characters, from The Police’s “Roxanne” to Elton John’s “Daniel”, and picks up their stories from their perspective, using complete artistic license. He has taken twelve classic pop songs, and creatively formulated an ‘Answer Ballad’ for each one. He explains: “having always wondered what Jolene, for instance, or Roxanne would have to say, given the chance, I hit upon the notion of a collection of ‘answer songs”.

Rotheray pays host to an impressive collection of collaborators on the album, including Kathryn Williams, Lisa Knapp and Eliza Carthy, though my favourite track,‘Sylvia’s Song’, features the perfectly pretty vocal talents of one of my folk heroines, Bella Hardy. Told from the point of view of the protagonist from Dr Hook’s 1972 hit ‘Sylvia’s Mother’, we hear of how Sylvia – who was feeling rather abandoned – sought solace in shopping, cats and a lawn mower… The story is beautifully belted out, in true folk spirit, with a mix of melancholy and humour. With Hardy’s silky smooth vocals juxtaposed with fiddles, guitars and pianos delivering traditionally delightful melodies, Rotheray has created a catchily charming folk ditty that I will certainly be adding to my collection.