Dragons – another new artist worthy of some attention.  Their debut album Here are the Roses is a marvelous blend of pre-stadium rock Simple Minds, early Depeche Mode and Joy Division/New Order.  The heart of these similarities come from the way they use synths and guitars, they intertwined often providing both rhythm and melody; the keyboard sounds are very synthetic like those used by the Minds and others during the earlier 80s – looking at the kit in the videos on their website it also looks very 80s.

The lyrics are pretty dark in content and delivery, something that David Gahan would be proud of, and enough for Ian Curtis to take note if he was still with us today. Unlike both, the vocal delivery is slightly smoother and sweeter on the ear.

Finally, the drumming, it doesn’t saturate the rest of the performance, they’re even edging towards sparse. But they really down pound – as the producer Hugh Padgham would say – if you stand next a drummer giving it some welly – its bloody loud, and correspondingly that should be the case on record. The drumming certainly isn’t muted – driving the music along brilliantly without dominating.

If you like some rocking, synth based music then go give them a try – or at least have a listen to what they’ve posted on their MySpace site or the clips on their own site.

Websites:

home page : http://www.dragons.cc/

MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/dragons1

Rather than reviewing an obvious release like Ryan Adam’s latest release, I’m continuing with the less known stuff. 

Bitter Bitter Weeks latest release Peace Is Burning Like a River have diverged from their more somber sounds in a big way. This is full of bright shiny 60s style guitar work, imagine The Delays swapping their synths for guitars. Brian McTear’s vocals match the mood beautifully with a light and sweet vocal.  Even the lyrical content feels more cheerful.

I’ve been listening to this album, both in the car and on my MP3 Player – I have to say it does sound far better when given a chance to breath in an open space than with earphones – even these cracking Sennheisers.

My recommendation is atleast have a listen to the tracks on Bitter Bitter Weeks’  MySpace site.  If you’re a Delays fan then don’t waste time – order the album NOW!

Lots of thumbs up from the Monster.

We got to see another fine performance by Tom McRae at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire as he tours supporting his latest album King Of Cards.  I managed to capture some pictures with the mobile phone – more can be seen here.

Tom, has over a number of albums proven himself to a fine singer songwriter. But, for me the songs taken on something special when you hear him perform them live.  Even last night, whilst suffering ‘man flu’ sounded good, and delivered the songs with passion and emotion that lyrics carry.

Not only does he perform well, everytime we’ve seen him, he engages with the audience joking and telling stories, something that really makes it feel that he is there for you.

This time around Tom’s support was Steve Reynolds, who played a great little set, and went down a treat with the audience (no mean feat for a support artists). All that and playing his guitar while struggling with a broken collar bone. Steve’s performance was engaging enough that we’ve ordered the album (another import).

The final gem, of the evening is picking up a EP of Tom’s that I’d not heard of – The Strongroom Sessions (autographed as well).  Having not heard about it, I thought I’d search around for it today on the web and can’t find any reference to it – is his record company letting him down?

A Little slow reviewing this – having been out for a month or two. But I  have found that Tori’s later albums take a lot longer to digest as her lyrics tend towards the obscure. Although the  subject of the opening song on latest album American Girl Posse leaves little space for misunderstanding as criticism of George Bush.

The album’s song fluctuate from style to style as it delivers songs from different members of the ‘posse’ which it does with a fair degree of success. It seems that its each of the songs intros provide the clearest indication of which character is performing. 

Unlike earlier albums the presence of the drums and guitar are a lot more noticeable giving album a more driven feel overall where as earlier albums the other instrumentation tended to be lower in the mix giving space the vocals and piano.

Overall not a bad album, but not Tori Amos at her best. But still distinctive and a cut above other the other ‘kookie’ female singer/songwriters.

I’ve come across a little gem of an album – Different Places by Plastic Operator (homepage, myspace).  If you can imagine early period Air (Premier Symptomes, Moon safari) combined with a slightly stronger beat and a little 80s synth in places then you’re getting the right direction.  You can hear a couple of the tracks on their myspace.

This is the debut album by Plastic Operator – yet has been well reviewed by Uncut and album of the week for Rough Trade when it was released (14th May 2007 in Europe).  If you’re really quick then you may get one of the signed copies if you purchase the album via their website (like Monster has).

“Not since The Postal Service have we heard an album that joins together electro and pop so perfectly.”
-Rough Trade Shop

You can find Plastic Operator’s bio here.