Laura Marling announces new album ‘A Creature I Don’t Know’

5 July 2011

The phenomenal Laura Marling has announced details of her forthcoming third album, which will be released on 12 September through Virgin Records. The album, titled ‘A Creature I Don’t Know’, has been produced by the amazing Ethan Johns (his credits include Kings Of Leon, Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne and Emmylou Harris, as well as Marling’s critically acclaimed second album ‘I Speak Because I Can’).

Having already won a BRIT Award and an NME Award this year, not to mention Mercury and BBC Folk Award nominations, the year looks set to be Ms. Marling’s biggest yet.

Prior to the album’s release, Laura plays Green Man, Cambridge Folk and End of the Road Festival (The Blue Walrus will be at all of these, so you can bet we won’t stop talking about Laura Marling this summer) amongst others this summer and will tour the Scottish Highlands at the end of July.

A beautiful preview of the new album is viewable below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvd_tvffGbc

The Thespians

By: emma.r.weston

4 July 2011

In: News & Leaks

0 comments

The Thespians

If you were to invite The Thespians (Facebook) into your humble abode for a lovely cup of PG and a Hobnob whilst musing over musical influences, it would be of no great surprise to find that the first two words to come out of this punky garage rock quartet’s collective mouth would be “The Strokes”. Their debut E.P, Twenty Three/Four/Eleven, has The Strokes written all over it but you shouldn’t believe this to be a bad thing.

The Thespians wouldn’t look out of place in a line up that housed The Libertines and The Strokes with edgy bass lines and scathing lyrics wrapped in bouncy rhythms. They do sound a lot like a regional indie band circa 2004 (think The Thrills/Pigeon Detectives) who would’ve otherwise paled into insignificance at that time but in 2011 they fit that Libertines/early Strokes shaped void that a lot of us twenty somethings still yearn for.

Some might say that I’m doing them a disservice by comparing them to such bands but this isn’t all The Thespians have got going for them. There’s something really endearing about their energy and driving ambition; something which is apparent throughout Twenty Three/Four/Eleven. I Don’t Care is a catchy, punky foot-stomper about a girl gone array, as well as Reason to Reason which carries pretty much the same formula. The formula works though so if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The lyrics are emotionally charged and self reflective, which in other words is a teenager’s musical wet dream. The Thespians are sure to be big in a matter of minutes, probably with a headlining tour and an album upon the horizon imminently.

[BUY] The Thespians – Twenty Three/Four/Eleven

Reason To Reason by TheThespians
The Crash by TheThespians
So So by TheThespians
I Don’t Care by TheThespians
Haven’t You Heard by TheThespians
First Impressions by TheThespians

Bands to watch: △ (Alt-J)

By: Tim

4 July 2011

In: News & Leaks

4 comments

△ (Alt-J) △ (SoundCloud) is the symbol you get from hitting alt+j on an Apple keyboard apparently and has resulted in a band that I would have referred to as Triangle instead taking on the name “Alt-J”. Yes it’s pretentious, and taking cues from some obscure “witchhouse” band names is not always a good idea, but thank God the music more than makes up for it. They used to be called Films, but weren’t allowed that so decided a symbol would be a solid two-fingers salute.

On the music front, however, they have me captivated. On Tesselate they throw reverb-wrapped blues/soul vocals over a variety of skittish percussion and discordant melodies, but then create a beautiful soft guitar and drum-brush ballad in Matilda. Handmade develops into mesmerising vocal harmonies that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Antony and the Johnsons record. Then just to keep us all getting they roll in with the bassline led Cameo (him of the red cod-piece) influenced Breezeblocks. Pigeon-hole these Leeds boys at your peril.

(Hat tip to the ever brilliant Ollie from My Band’s Better Than Your Band for discovering these guys)

Tessellate (demo) by alt-j
Matilda (demo) by alt-j
Hand-made (demo) by alt-j
Breezeblocks (demo) by alt-j