Here is part two of our new music picks for June. You can catch up with Part 1 here. Do we actually know anything about new music? Or, are we just too old to understand what most of this is banging on about? Read on to find out.
[Note: We welcome a new addition to our review team, with Sam who is the new other half of the WCL Music Customer Specialist team].
Tubular bells : 50th anniversary edition / Oldfield, Mike
Sam says: When ‘Tubular Bells’ was released in 1973, it left a sizeable impact on the field of popular music. It was a tremendous artistic achievement, with the entirety of the writing process and majority of the vast instrumental performances undertaken by Oldfield himself, who was a mere teenager at the time! The compositions are colourful and endlessly inventive, driven by an epic, odyssey-like structure weaving through many varied musical movements. Over the decades since its release, it has played a significant role within numerous pieces of media (such as its iconic usage in the legendary horror film ‘The Exorcist’). It has also seen numerous reissues, and it has even garnered a number of musical sequels created by Mike Oldfield himself. Needless to say, 50 years later, the impact of this monumental piece of music is still clearly apparent.
Neil says: ‘Tubular bells’ was the first ever release on the Virgin label. It’s creator, the then, 19-year-old musician Mike Oldfield, incredibly plays every instrument on the album. Much of Virgin’s fate depended on the success or otherwise of the release, as no expense had been spared on the recording, and at the time Virgin enterprises was in its infancy. Initially the albums sales were sluggish, but the use of music from the album in William Friedkin’s visceral horror classic The Exorcist changed that and propelled it high into the charts. The rest, as they say, is history. It is a pastoral, progressive rock album with folk and classical elements, and one of the most iconic and popular albums of the 70’s. This 50th anniversary release features a new master of the original album “the gem in this rerelease” plus music recorded by Oldfield for the London Olympics and excerpts from an abandoned Tubular Bells 4 project. Arguably Oldfield would never quite reach the heights he reached in his first outing.
O monolith / Squid (Musical group)
Mark says: More post-punk, Krautrock, and post-rock aesthetics from this London based band, following on from 2021’s acclaimed Bright Green Field. Squid are definitely a band at the forefront of the ‘post genre’ style of music that is the template for many young bands now. Cool grooves and intense tracks, where it seems that anything could happen at any musical moment. Produced by Dan Carey (who also produced everyone from Black Midi to Fontaines D.C, Wet Leg and Goat Girl). There’s a maximalist/Minimalist juxtaposition at play, as tracks surge with a synthy, distorted noise before collapsing back into softer aesthetics. Radiohead seem a stronger influence than on their debut album, with more obtuse melodies and esoteric lyrics.
Neil says: Squid’s second album sees them building, and carefully expanding, on their critically acclaimed first album Bright Green Field. There is a new spectral, spacey opened ended sound to much of this latest release. Their core sound is still present, but they let the structure of the songs slowly evolve, rather than go for the previous ‘short-sharp-shock’ angular approach of Bright Green Field. The lyrics again are dense and multi-layered touching on many themes, and it is sure to win them even more fans and, one suspects, a lot of attention and nominations to feature on best of 2023 lists. I, for one, can’t wait to hear where they head to next.
Sam says: Hailing from Brighton, England, Squid burst onto the scene a couple of years back with Bright Green Field, which of itself was an impressive debut that, while not particularly original, displayed a highly developed level of musicianship for such a young act. With their sophomore effort ‘O Monolith’, they have stepped their game up notably. All the aspects that were so impressive on the previous album have been articulated in a stronger and more compelling way. The progressive elements that creeped through before are now much more fully-formed and confidently executed, whereas the more aggressive post-punk tendencies, whilst perhaps a little more sparse in their utilisation, are just as powerful as ever when they do come through. Most notably, the songs themselves feel more potent and memorable, making for a consistently engaging and rewarding listen. Similarly-minded new British groups such as Black Midi and Black Country, New Road really hit their stride with their respective follow-up albums over the past couple of years, with O Monolith it feels like Squid’s turn to show the world what they are really capable of.
Music for stowaways / British Electric Foundation
Mark says: Music for stowaways is the debut album by UK electronic band/label British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.), formed by ex-Human League musicians Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh. It was released concurrently with their other music project Heaven 17, a band they formed with lead singer Glenn Gregory. Released only on cassette in 1981, this series of early electronic instrumentals was inspired by the appearance of the first Sony Walkman. Its moody synth based, cinematic tracks, where pop stylings clashed with the avant-garde with a darkly, funky, noir vibe would go on to inspire a new generation of electronic artists in the UK (Moby apparently cited it as one of his favourite albums).
Sam says: After leaving The Human League in 1980, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh went on to form both ‘Heaven 17’ and ‘British Electric Foundation’. Whilst the former went on to become the more well-known of these two entities (with a somewhat more radio-friendly sound) the influence of British Electric Foundation on electronic music over the years is noteworthy. Released in 1981, this debut album was inspired by the recently released Sony Walkman, initially known as the Sony Stowaway, a revolutionary device which allowed listeners to experience music in a personal and portable manner. As such, Music for Stowaways could be considered a pioneering example of ‘headphone music’. The album features a colourful array of instrumental electronic music pieces, showcasing a wide variety of timbres and moods over the space of little more than half an hour. The playful and percussively frenetic ‘Optimum Chant’ descends into the considerably darker and moodier ‘Uptown Apocalypse’, before launching right into the up-tempo, major-key driven ‘Wipe the Board Clean’. Whilst these individual pieces vary significantly in tone, they ultimately feel part of a cohesive whole. The second half of the album leans a bit more into ambient musical tendencies, with pieces such as ‘The Old at Rest’ providing a blissful respite from the quirky, rhythmically driven pieces scattered over the rest of the album. Despite the fact of this being an electronic album released over forty years ago, it has aged remarkably well and still sounds fresh today.
Everything harmony / Lemon Twigs
Mark says: The Lemon Twigs are a US band fronted by vocalists, songwriters, multi-instrumentalists and brothers Brian & Michael D’Addario. ‘Everything harmony’ is their 4th album, and has been hailed as a career highpoint, with its mix of 60’s & 70’s pop classicism and sumptuous harmonies. Their previous albums apparently delivered their retro-sound with plenty of camp and glamour, but this time they eschew the more outre/pastiche elements for more nuanced songwriting and a sincere, sparse, stripped down sound. It’s a lovely album full of Beach Boys-Bee-Gees baroque chamber-pop, tender 70s soft rock moments and lovelorn harmonies. You can only really pull off this kind of thing, and rise above being more than a series of influences, if you’re writing songs that equal the best of genres that you are recreating. And these guys are doing just that. Proof that you can still create something new, fresh and timeless from sounds of the past.
Sam says: ‘Everything Harmony’ is the fourth full-length album by The Lemon Twigs, an eclectic indie-rock outfit from Long Island, USA fronted by brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario. Produced, engineered and mixed by the D’Addario brothers themselves, the group have created an album that is bristling with melancholy, accompanied by a warm sense of melodrama. It doesn’t shy away from wearing its early-mid ‘70s pop influence on its sleeves, with sweet-yet-rich vocal performances, intricate harmonies, sublime arrangements and very ‘classic’ sounding production sensibilities – which brings to mind the music of Supertramp and Pet Sounds era Beach Boys. Despite this, there is a real sense of youthful sincerity in the music and as such, it manages to sound convincingly modern in its execution.
Horns for a halo / Elegant Weapons
Mark says: Elegant Weapons are a metal band created by Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest, with Pantera’s bassist Rex Brown, vocalist Ronnie Romero (Rainbow and the Michael Schenker Group), fellow Judas Priest member Scott Travis on drums, and a touring band lineup of Uriah Heep’s Dave Rimmer playing bass, and Accept drummer Chris Williams. So in other words, you have a metal supergroup distilling their UK 70s & 80s influences into a pounding tribute to the classic sounds of Sabbath, Dio et al. Given the fact that Faulkner suffered a serious aneurysm during a Judas Priest show in 2021, this is a great way to celebrate his full recovery, and you can hear the enthusiasm and love they all bring to this charismatic old-school metal revival.
Sam says: ‘Horns for a Halo’ is the debut album by recently formed supergroup Elegant Weapons. The lineup features members of such legendary hard rock/heavy metal acts as Judas Priest, Rainbow, Accept and Uriah Heep. As this star-studded cast might suggest, the music of Elegant Weapons very much harkens back to classic eras of heavy metal, with particularly noteworthy references to the NWOBHM movement of the early 1980s. Impassioned vocal lines soar over a musical landscape featuring shred-laden guitars and a thunderous rhythm section. With 10 tracks over 53 minutes, Horns for a Halo is a dynamically varied affair, with faster, more aggressive pieces interspersed with a few heartfelt power ballads that could ably stand against the classics. This album will strongly appeal to those who yearn for heavy metal and hard rock of years gone by.
Pacific breeze. [1], Japanese city pop, AOR and boogie 1976-1986
Mark says: We really enjoyed the 3rd iteration in this series that we reviewed when it came out earlier this year, so we managed to track down the first and second volumes form 2019 and 2020, and had to go back to revisit this fun music. ‘City Pop’, was an overarching term coined to describe the soft rock/AOR/synth-funk music that was hugely popular in Japan during the tech boom of the early 80’s, the breezy slick sounds reflecting the rise of an affluent young subculture. The first volume offers up some of the key artists and cult favourites, offering a broad introduction to the ‘City Pop’ umbrella. A fascinating look at how foreign countries can take Western styles and subsume and reflect them back as something fresh and intriguing.
Neil says: Pacific breeze is Japan’s take on AOR, with also a heavy component of disco boogie in there too. These tracks spawned their very own musical genre called ‘City Pop’, and you can clearly hear the sound of Japan’s late 70s/early 80s technological heyday in the DNA of many of the tracks. This Japanese twist adds spice to the tracks, many could be described as easy listening disco at core. And whilst some teeter on kitsch, this oddness also makes them hugely enjoyable in a super cool, smooth, funky and slightly cheesy way.
