MORE THAN THE MUSIC POST: New Music - Internet Forever

On the surface, Internet Forever appear to be just another cool alt-indie act, ideal for hipsters, but not necessarily on anybody else’s radar. The band have toured with Johnny Foreigner and Los Campesinos!, and have their impending album launch party set for The Old Blue Last in Hoxton. Their debut was produced by the likes of James Rutledge and Dreamtrak, a duo that have worked with some of the coolest bands from the past fives years, and the group’s lead track Break Bones had rave reviews on Pitchfork.

Internet Forever are not a band reserved for hipsters and scene kids, however. Their music has got plenty of indie credentials – lo-fi production, pretty female vocals and a DIY vibe is all evident – but there is also a strong pop vibe to the group’s work. The general demeanour of the band’s music is very light, joyful and bright, and in many ways quite simple. Indeed, there is almost a schoolyard feel to Internet Forever’s music - a youthful joie de vivre and simplicity within the melody progression and lyrical content is mixed with a hint of teenage melancholy.

Internet Forever have their eponymous debut due for release on 18^th February 2012 on Tape Alarm Records. This album is currently available through a fantastic pre-order package includes t-shirts, a photography zine and an extra CD with demo tracks and rarities.

See this post at MTTM at: http://www.morethanthemusic.co.uk/the-next-best-thing/new-music-internet-forever/

MORE THAN THE MUSIC POST (ALBUM REVIEW): First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

Listening to First Aid Kit is always a slightly bizarre experience. Music by the Soderberg sisters is so irrevocably of another era that it is very easy to forget this is music by two very young Swedish girls. Like the group’s previous releases, The Lion’s Roar is awash with country folk influences from Gram Parsons to Fleetwood Mac, and each track (and indeed the girl’s whole vibe, within artwork, videos etc.) is saturated with 70s references; of kaftans, analogue film, and Technicolor suns suffuse with golden light. Among contemporaries the girl’s work could be filed next to the likes of Best Coast and The Pierces.


This album is the girls’ first be recorded in America – the clear spiritual home for their music. Produced by Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, The Lion’s Roar features impeccably good production, incredibly evocative of the desired era. The sound of the album is far richer and stronger than First Aid Kit’s previous self-produced efforts, and sounds much more professional. The organisation of each instrument, and especially the way Mogis has mixed the vocals offers a more heightened sense of mystical, wistful melancholy that boosts the girls’ desire for bittersweet sentimentality within their music.


The girls’ voices are obviously the key focus for the album, with beautiful, haunting harmonies and an acute fragility. These vocals however do sound like cuts from the crypt, stylised exactly like a 1970s country folk track. They are slathered with reverb, peaking highs and a strange enunciation that is incredibly American and very, very far away from Stockholm. The instrumentation too offers a swamp of 1970s references, with positively prehistoric pedal steel guitars and vaguely honky-tonk pianos occurring frequently.


In many ways this is a very nice album, featuring some touching harmonies where vocals and instruments intertwine perfectly. When strings are involved especially, there is a souring, almost transcendental quality to the music, especially within tracks like "To a Poet", and there are some enjoyable little ditties too, like "King of the World".


Ultimately though this music is pure heritage. There is very little added to the great musical spectrum with The Lion’s Roar, other than pretty tracks. First Aid Kit are once again treading over ground that has been covered many times before. In purely visceral terms, this is a fine album, as is the girls’ work generally. But from a critical perspective the album is rather stale. There is nothing new here, indeed the main focus of the album is the over laboured 70s vibe, which The Lion’s Roar pushes almost to the point of exhaustion at times. As a new release, from girls so young it is all a bit surreal, and slightly disappointing.

MORE THAN THE MUSIC POST: Next Best Things - Predictions for 2012

Here is a selection of new artists that will be really hot in 2012.

Friends
Excellent, excellent band. Not exactly a new band (these guys have been knocking around for nearly a year now releasing free singles), Friends make very hip lo-fi indie. They may be very Brooklyn and very dream-pop, but they are in no way tiresome or aged. Instead, they are fresh, raw and immediate, with a curious light-heart urgency. Very much a new Tom Tom Club, with quirky hints of The Waitresses.
http://www.myspace.com/friends

Ursa Minor (Little Bear)
These guys make very interesting electronica with hints of dubstep, metal and emo. Deep, dark and complex, this is truly intelligent dance music, already hyped by the likes of Dazed and Confused.
http://www.facebook.com/ursaminorlittlebear?sk=app_2405167945

Professor Penguin 
Bad band name? Maybe. But my god, this group’s music is pretty top notch. Beautiful and melancholy with lovely hints of whimsy, this band creates work that is very enjoyable and musically progressive. The group’s sound effectively stands out as contemplative indie pop, with gentle brass licks and harmonious vocals, but there are also subtle references to glitch, post-dubstep and bosa nova, making their music a truly interesting sonic step forward.
http://www.professorpenguin.co.uk/

Jethro Fox
Liverpudian solo artist Jethro Fox’s music is polished, upbeat and quietly joyous. Very pleasant (and especially industrious for a solo artist), Fox treads the fine line between thoughtful production and traditional indie instrumentation perfectly. Think Passion Pit meets Fleet Foxes.
http://www.facebook.com/jethrofox?sk=info

The Ghosts 
Cool and collected, yet vaguely hopeful electro indie, The Ghosts have emerged out of the ashes of promising band Ou Est le Swimming Pool after their lead singer tragically committed suicide last year. The Ghosts, perhaps expectedly perform music tinged with melancholy, but electro is the key theme in each track, taking influences from OMD and the Pet Shop Boys to Empire of the Sun.
http://www.facebook.com/wearetheghosts

Zemmy Momoh
This sassy, soulful lady is creating something slightly out of the ordinary in today’s musical landscape. With a distinctly 80s vibe, this lady has a jazzy, cosmopolitan vibe with elements of electro and rock smattered throughout her sound. Vocals are very much Lauryn Hill meets Sade.
http://www.myspace.com/zemmym

2:54
Sibling duo 2:54 create a heavy, dark style of desert rock with cold hints of the deeper side of punk. Sounding like an amalgamation of Mazzy Star and The XX, these girls are sultry and feisty, with an eerie, close sound.
http://www.twofiftyfour.net/

See this at MTTM at: http://www.morethanthemusic.co.uk/the-next-best-thing/next-best-things-new-music-predictions-for-2012/