Polly and the Billets Doux, Hold Fast, Self Release
Following on from the group’s debut album Fiction, Half-Truths and Downright Lies,
this new limited edition release sees the band once again fuse jazz,
blues, English and American folk, with a fairly relaxed, mellifluous and
chilled vibe.
The lead track, also entitled ‘Hold Fast’, focuses on the group’s
Americana influences and has a pleasant and mellow yet upbeat vibe ideal
for summer. Polly Perry demonstrates deliciously
sultry, raspy and soulful vocals here and, indeed, throughout this whole
EP. On the more mellow ‘Hymn Song’ and ‘Fortune of War’, she
additionally generates some fabulous vocal harmonies, with low-key
instrumentation to really show off her voice.
This EP twists through influences nicely, from Lisa Hannigan to The Byrds, with an equal balance of country and folk, upbeat and mellow.
The group are touring the EP throughout May and June, and have scheduled their sophomore album for release in 2013.
See this at TGA at: http://www.thegirlsare.com/2012/05/26/review-polly-and-the-billets-doux/
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Friday, 25 May 2012
THE GIRLS ARE POST: Transformations in Pop
Transformations in both image and style are a common occurrence in
the realm of the woman pop star. While male musicians may change musical
direction, or morph styles in the course of their career, the concept
of an “image change” in this industry is almost solely the preserve of
women.
The reasons for this in essence are fairly obvious – women musicians and singers are still primarily noted for the way the present themselves, with musical style or ability often coming second. While most male musicians, at least in contemporary music culture, dress in everyday clothing (from t-shirts and jeans right through to matching tailored suits), the woman musician, especially in pop is still about image, looks, and if applicable sex appeal first and content second.
Women’s transformations in pop music can therefore often be complex and even negative when there is a demand for women to conform to fit a certain ideal. The need to lose weight, show more boob, have plastic surgery or just generally be more sexual is very problematic, but sadly it would seem, fairly typical. Examples such as Kylie Minogue, who went from wholesome girl next door to gold hot pants and a bum cleavage, or Katy Perry – cheeky pop star to a woman literally squeezing cream from her tits complex the issue further. Where is the power here? Are these women, and by proxy their impressionable fans, being exploited, or are they being empowered through overt displays of sexuality?
Without knowing where the creative force behind these transformations is placed, it is difficult to judge. For true empowerment through transformation, it would seem to be necessary to remove this questionable power struggle (typically in pop between male producers and women stars) and place creative control in the hands of the artists. This top 5 transformations in pop therefore features women artists who are clearly in charge of their image changes, and have boosted their career significantly through their own wry and savvy metamorphosis. They have altered and parodied concepts of conformity and pop’s obsession with the female form, enhancing it, mocking it, parodying it, and using it for their own ends.
5. Amy Winehouse
When Amy Winehouse released her excellent first LP Frank in 2003, she was a curvy, bonny lass, seemingly chirpy and devoid of much make-up. Beautiful though she was, the initial focus for Winehouse’s career was based mainly on her competent, soulful tunes. Zip forward to 2006, and with a new album out burst a reinvented Amy Winehouse punctuated by “heroin chic”. Displaying a monstrous beehive, sailor tattoos and those trademark cat eyeliner flicks, Winehouse fostered a memorable, eye-catching look, with bare bones, bruised, scabs and all, that mirrored the harsher turn both her music and her life had taken.
Ultimately this change was too authentic and too close to a tragic reality. But her transformation was undoubtedly successful, and marked the major turning point in her career, turning her into a commercially successful, worldwide star.
4. Lana Del Rey
The transformation from coy and toned down Lizzie Grant to Lana Del Rey, the so-called “gangster Nancy Sinatra” that we know today has been highly contentious and well documented. Whether or not the floundered musical career of Grant was fabricated as a deliberate precursor to Lana Del Rey is inconsequential – the fact is the transformation worked. The severe reworking from Grant as a fairly drab and ordinary artist into Del Rey – the intoxicating dirty hipster has caught our collective imaginations and boosted the artist, 2.0, to fame of dizzying heights in a very short space of time. Is it authentic? Perhaps not. But Lana Del Rey certainly seems to have been a significant creative driving force for this transformation, which has benefitted her career greatly.
3. Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj’s transformation in pop is more convoluted than a simple image change, with the singer instead adopting a variety of outlandish alter egos to apply at will. These transformations are what make Minaj such as dynamic and noteworthy pop star. Certainly, she is a quality MC with a quirky, idiosyncratic vocal style. But with a more toned down, atypical R&B image, it unlikely that Minaj would have reached the same height as she has with her multi-coloured hair in ludicrous styles, her bizarre facial expressions, her giant boobs and tiny waist, enrobed in outfits which have in the past included doctor’s masks, pink wellies and stitched on cuddly toys. Minaj as herself, “Roman Zolanski”, “Rrrrosa” or “Harajuku Barbie” work to highlight and compliment this artist’s genuine talent and intriguing style of rap, which may have gone unnoticed alongside a more toned down visual style.
2. Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s early career image change has to be the most dramatic of all the artists listed here. Many will have seen the YouTube clips of Gaga performing as Stefani Germanotta, who by comparison is a fairly plain, dark haired lady producing subdued tracks accompanied only by her own piano playing. Although Germanotta clearly had excellent vocal abilities, along with being intelligent and a competent songwriter, the singer had relatively little success, struggling for years to gain professional recognition.
Until of course, Germanotta reinvented herself as Lady Gaga. Once the Gaga character was born, success followed. From ‘Just Dance’ onward, Lady Gaga’s personal style and artistic direction have become ever-increasingly outlandish, and as her looks got more bizarre, so her success grew. Undoubtedly her music is very catchy – but ultimately it is her unique and supremely eye-catching style that have set her apart and boosted her to huge fame. And best of all – she is the driving force behind her transformation – and through her own eccentric imagination and creativity, pop music has far more colour and curiosity once again.
1. Madonna
Ah Madonna, the queen of reinvention. It can be of little doubt that Madonna’s enduring popularity, spanning nearly 30 years is in no small part down to her seemingly natural ability to transform herself and her music. From virgin to whore, goth to cowboy, disco queen to 50s’ pin-up, Madonna has done it all, and continues to reinvent herself into areas we have yet even thought of. Cleverly, Madonna matches her music to her look, making the transformations seem effortless and natural. As well as mastering physical transformations, she has mastered sounds from IDM with William Orbit to playing a Les Paul completely competently at live earth.
Madge embodies transformations in pop. Not every revamp has been wholly successful (at least from a critical perspective), but she is always the driving force behind each reversioning on herself. She is in control of each image with all the power and success completely of her own making.
See this at TGA at: http://www.thegirlsare.com/2012/05/25/top-5-transformations-in-pop/
The reasons for this in essence are fairly obvious – women musicians and singers are still primarily noted for the way the present themselves, with musical style or ability often coming second. While most male musicians, at least in contemporary music culture, dress in everyday clothing (from t-shirts and jeans right through to matching tailored suits), the woman musician, especially in pop is still about image, looks, and if applicable sex appeal first and content second.
Women’s transformations in pop music can therefore often be complex and even negative when there is a demand for women to conform to fit a certain ideal. The need to lose weight, show more boob, have plastic surgery or just generally be more sexual is very problematic, but sadly it would seem, fairly typical. Examples such as Kylie Minogue, who went from wholesome girl next door to gold hot pants and a bum cleavage, or Katy Perry – cheeky pop star to a woman literally squeezing cream from her tits complex the issue further. Where is the power here? Are these women, and by proxy their impressionable fans, being exploited, or are they being empowered through overt displays of sexuality?
Without knowing where the creative force behind these transformations is placed, it is difficult to judge. For true empowerment through transformation, it would seem to be necessary to remove this questionable power struggle (typically in pop between male producers and women stars) and place creative control in the hands of the artists. This top 5 transformations in pop therefore features women artists who are clearly in charge of their image changes, and have boosted their career significantly through their own wry and savvy metamorphosis. They have altered and parodied concepts of conformity and pop’s obsession with the female form, enhancing it, mocking it, parodying it, and using it for their own ends.
5. Amy Winehouse
When Amy Winehouse released her excellent first LP Frank in 2003, she was a curvy, bonny lass, seemingly chirpy and devoid of much make-up. Beautiful though she was, the initial focus for Winehouse’s career was based mainly on her competent, soulful tunes. Zip forward to 2006, and with a new album out burst a reinvented Amy Winehouse punctuated by “heroin chic”. Displaying a monstrous beehive, sailor tattoos and those trademark cat eyeliner flicks, Winehouse fostered a memorable, eye-catching look, with bare bones, bruised, scabs and all, that mirrored the harsher turn both her music and her life had taken.
Ultimately this change was too authentic and too close to a tragic reality. But her transformation was undoubtedly successful, and marked the major turning point in her career, turning her into a commercially successful, worldwide star.
4. Lana Del Rey
The transformation from coy and toned down Lizzie Grant to Lana Del Rey, the so-called “gangster Nancy Sinatra” that we know today has been highly contentious and well documented. Whether or not the floundered musical career of Grant was fabricated as a deliberate precursor to Lana Del Rey is inconsequential – the fact is the transformation worked. The severe reworking from Grant as a fairly drab and ordinary artist into Del Rey – the intoxicating dirty hipster has caught our collective imaginations and boosted the artist, 2.0, to fame of dizzying heights in a very short space of time. Is it authentic? Perhaps not. But Lana Del Rey certainly seems to have been a significant creative driving force for this transformation, which has benefitted her career greatly.
3. Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj’s transformation in pop is more convoluted than a simple image change, with the singer instead adopting a variety of outlandish alter egos to apply at will. These transformations are what make Minaj such as dynamic and noteworthy pop star. Certainly, she is a quality MC with a quirky, idiosyncratic vocal style. But with a more toned down, atypical R&B image, it unlikely that Minaj would have reached the same height as she has with her multi-coloured hair in ludicrous styles, her bizarre facial expressions, her giant boobs and tiny waist, enrobed in outfits which have in the past included doctor’s masks, pink wellies and stitched on cuddly toys. Minaj as herself, “Roman Zolanski”, “Rrrrosa” or “Harajuku Barbie” work to highlight and compliment this artist’s genuine talent and intriguing style of rap, which may have gone unnoticed alongside a more toned down visual style.
2. Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s early career image change has to be the most dramatic of all the artists listed here. Many will have seen the YouTube clips of Gaga performing as Stefani Germanotta, who by comparison is a fairly plain, dark haired lady producing subdued tracks accompanied only by her own piano playing. Although Germanotta clearly had excellent vocal abilities, along with being intelligent and a competent songwriter, the singer had relatively little success, struggling for years to gain professional recognition.
Until of course, Germanotta reinvented herself as Lady Gaga. Once the Gaga character was born, success followed. From ‘Just Dance’ onward, Lady Gaga’s personal style and artistic direction have become ever-increasingly outlandish, and as her looks got more bizarre, so her success grew. Undoubtedly her music is very catchy – but ultimately it is her unique and supremely eye-catching style that have set her apart and boosted her to huge fame. And best of all – she is the driving force behind her transformation – and through her own eccentric imagination and creativity, pop music has far more colour and curiosity once again.
1. Madonna
Ah Madonna, the queen of reinvention. It can be of little doubt that Madonna’s enduring popularity, spanning nearly 30 years is in no small part down to her seemingly natural ability to transform herself and her music. From virgin to whore, goth to cowboy, disco queen to 50s’ pin-up, Madonna has done it all, and continues to reinvent herself into areas we have yet even thought of. Cleverly, Madonna matches her music to her look, making the transformations seem effortless and natural. As well as mastering physical transformations, she has mastered sounds from IDM with William Orbit to playing a Les Paul completely competently at live earth.
Madge embodies transformations in pop. Not every revamp has been wholly successful (at least from a critical perspective), but she is always the driving force behind each reversioning on herself. She is in control of each image with all the power and success completely of her own making.
See this at TGA at: http://www.thegirlsare.com/2012/05/25/top-5-transformations-in-pop/
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
MORE THAN THE MUSIC POST: Fixers - We'll Be the Moon
The debut offering from Fixers focuses on laptop-based musical
creation in the realms of psychedelic pop, post-pop and electronic
dance. Full of lively, upbeat tunes, We’ll Be the Moon offers vibrant
pop ideal for summer, without much cloying, saccharine aftertaste. Most
tracks on the album have a spaced out, hazy and mellow vibe not
dissimilar to Darwin Deez – indeed, one could easily see key tracks from
We’ll Be the Moon providing musical backing to adverts for New Look et
al., with images of sun-drenched, tanned beauties, melting ice lollies,
sprinklers and swimming pools providing a perfect visual accompaniment
to Fixers’ music.
Fixers’ sound is fairly close to Oxford contemporaries such as a Foals and Blessing Force, but the group also have clear similarly with the likes of Animal Collective and MGMT. Instrumentation therefore is as you might expect, typically over saturated with samples and synthesizers alongside the traditional guitar-bass-drums set-up. Like their contemporaries, the Fixers’ sound is also well produced, with good musicianship, alongside an array of panning and effects techniques.
This is a diverse album instrumentally, but synth does effectively rule Fixers’ sound. Unfortunately, at times many of these synth timbres are very laboured, and far too retrogressive. The tracks Alexandra and Swimmhaus Johannesberg are particularly guilty of this, at times sounding weirdly like Hurts (doing Pet Shop Boys doing Tears For Fears). There are better tracks available for the listener, however. Iron Deer Dream, the album’s lead single has a degree of conviction and presence with more noteworthy instrumentation and very catchy vocal harmonies. Unfortunately however, this track is probably the only item on We’ll Be the Moon that shows genuine brilliance and commercial viability.
I expected to like this album a great deal – the group’s collective influences and contemporaries should equal an interesting album full of vibrant and exciting music. Regrettably however, We’ll Be the Moon left me a bit cold. Perhaps this reaction amounts to a degree of jadedness on my part – I have after all enjoyed previous artist’s forays into the enchanting realm that is psyche inspired post-pop. It must be said though that the curiosity of the genre – the intelligence, capability and creativity that radiated from music past is perhaps now becoming so typical that it no longer seems dazzling or impressive. In this context my negative reaction to We’ll Be the Moon makes perfect sense – what was interesting and dynamic in 2009 will not necessarily remain so three years later.
There in lies the only major problem with this album, and indeed it is a critic’s problem: We’ll Be the Moon is of a genre that was once very compelling, but is now becoming stagnant. This album is certainly pleasant to listen to, but it makes no attempts to move the direction of the genre forward, or add anything of further merit. It is ultimately an alt/indie/pop album that is going through the motions, albeit in a way that is outwardly fairly enjoyable.
See this post at MTTM at: http://www.morethanthemusic.co.uk/reviews/album-reviews/fixers-well-be-the-moon/
Fixers’ sound is fairly close to Oxford contemporaries such as a Foals and Blessing Force, but the group also have clear similarly with the likes of Animal Collective and MGMT. Instrumentation therefore is as you might expect, typically over saturated with samples and synthesizers alongside the traditional guitar-bass-drums set-up. Like their contemporaries, the Fixers’ sound is also well produced, with good musicianship, alongside an array of panning and effects techniques.
This is a diverse album instrumentally, but synth does effectively rule Fixers’ sound. Unfortunately, at times many of these synth timbres are very laboured, and far too retrogressive. The tracks Alexandra and Swimmhaus Johannesberg are particularly guilty of this, at times sounding weirdly like Hurts (doing Pet Shop Boys doing Tears For Fears). There are better tracks available for the listener, however. Iron Deer Dream, the album’s lead single has a degree of conviction and presence with more noteworthy instrumentation and very catchy vocal harmonies. Unfortunately however, this track is probably the only item on We’ll Be the Moon that shows genuine brilliance and commercial viability.
I expected to like this album a great deal – the group’s collective influences and contemporaries should equal an interesting album full of vibrant and exciting music. Regrettably however, We’ll Be the Moon left me a bit cold. Perhaps this reaction amounts to a degree of jadedness on my part – I have after all enjoyed previous artist’s forays into the enchanting realm that is psyche inspired post-pop. It must be said though that the curiosity of the genre – the intelligence, capability and creativity that radiated from music past is perhaps now becoming so typical that it no longer seems dazzling or impressive. In this context my negative reaction to We’ll Be the Moon makes perfect sense – what was interesting and dynamic in 2009 will not necessarily remain so three years later.
There in lies the only major problem with this album, and indeed it is a critic’s problem: We’ll Be the Moon is of a genre that was once very compelling, but is now becoming stagnant. This album is certainly pleasant to listen to, but it makes no attempts to move the direction of the genre forward, or add anything of further merit. It is ultimately an alt/indie/pop album that is going through the motions, albeit in a way that is outwardly fairly enjoyable.
See this post at MTTM at: http://www.morethanthemusic.co.uk/reviews/album-reviews/fixers-well-be-the-moon/
Friday, 11 May 2012
MORE THAN THE MUSIC POST: Introducing Zulu
Zulu are an emerging London based underground act with a intense and
authentic old school punk vibe. Fusing a galvanising mix of garage rock,
English punk, ska and hardcore, this group create short, ballsy tracks
that sound simultaneous nostalgic and fresh in equal measure. The
group’s sound, which they themselves describe as “tribal punk”, is
definitely surly and antagonistic – not precisely aggressive or
nihilistic, but very intense, persistent and genuine. Each track is
rough around the edges, with whisky soaked vocals and choppy, distorted
guitars. Zulu create music that is visceral, fun, urgent and physical.
With plenty of dirty Instagram style promo pics and a significant number of pork pie hats, this group look like they have emerged fresh out 1980’s Camden or Coventry. Visually Zulu have taken clear influence from the likes of The Specials, but in reality the group have more of an aural influence from hardcore American acts such as Cerebral Ballzy, Dead Kennedys and The Misfits. The punk vibe follows through to the group’s marketing too, with the production of their first EP limited exclusively to tape format. This DiY approach is purposely grassroots and niche, and is applied whole-heartedly to each way the group market themselves, from promo posters to t-shirts. This could be arguably considered to be slightly pretentious – but limited production lines and secret launch parties are a sure fire way to create intrigue, exclusivity and buzz.
This exciting new punk act may have only been active on the music scene for a few months, but they have already been labelled by NME Radar’s band of the day – a sign perhaps of exciting things to come. Their self-released debut EP Way of the Zulu was released in March on a limited 500 copy tape run, but it is also currently available to stream on the group’s website.
See this at MTTM at: http://www.morethanthemusic.co.uk/the-next-best-thing/introducing-zulu/
With plenty of dirty Instagram style promo pics and a significant number of pork pie hats, this group look like they have emerged fresh out 1980’s Camden or Coventry. Visually Zulu have taken clear influence from the likes of The Specials, but in reality the group have more of an aural influence from hardcore American acts such as Cerebral Ballzy, Dead Kennedys and The Misfits. The punk vibe follows through to the group’s marketing too, with the production of their first EP limited exclusively to tape format. This DiY approach is purposely grassroots and niche, and is applied whole-heartedly to each way the group market themselves, from promo posters to t-shirts. This could be arguably considered to be slightly pretentious – but limited production lines and secret launch parties are a sure fire way to create intrigue, exclusivity and buzz.
This exciting new punk act may have only been active on the music scene for a few months, but they have already been labelled by NME Radar’s band of the day – a sign perhaps of exciting things to come. Their self-released debut EP Way of the Zulu was released in March on a limited 500 copy tape run, but it is also currently available to stream on the group’s website.
See this at MTTM at: http://www.morethanthemusic.co.uk/the-next-best-thing/introducing-zulu/
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)