EP Review: Vera Lynch

Reviewed for http://www.subba-cultcha.com/

Vera Lynch

Evil Cowboy Surfer Songs

(Unsigned)

sublimely melodic in a skewed asymmetric way

A handful of tangled symphonies drifting in almost from nowhere like slow-waltzing ghosts dragging their musical interpretations along on chains of diverse and sonic identities. Genre shuffling iconoclastic trick merchants Vera Lynch build remarkably listenable songs that veer one way just to body-swerve on a sixpence and head off in another direction entirely. There is the tripped out coolness of retro alt-rock and the meandering atmospherics of cowboy Americana peppered with touches of dark surf/garage rock and a washing of cinematic textures which, when combined in this way, enhance the mood effects - from perpetually gloomy to rich, punchier attacks. Opening song Evil Cowboy Surfer Song has a rockabilly/movie soundtrack edge with its shimmering guitar chime and jaunty lead vocal style that dips and soars its way around the music bolstering the entire track with a self assured sturdiness. The second track Fire is huskier in sound, more restrained in pace and it shines with a darker side yet there’s a chirpy compulsion to remain reasonably light and it’s keen sense of melody remains gloriously flawless.

With its slow-paced intro of sparse guitar and gently stirring drums Your Favourite Dragon evokes a heartfelt melancholy with singer Guy Harries delivering a truly brilliant crooning vocal melodrama that sits somewhere between Nick Cave and Scott Walker as the music slowly swells to embrace the raggedy grandiose atmosphere until everything spills over into frantic drums and wailing guitar. Final track Skin has a B52’s bounce and Cramps theatrical rockabilly pace with barked vocals and a slender joyousness that doesn’t really develop into anything more than being the least compromising and most forgettable of the four songs. Vera Lynch are sublimely melodic, in a skewed asymmetric way, and its that abandonment of the more palatable sugary rock tune of today that shall be the very thing to attract you to them. If this is going to be good enough for the hipsters then it it’s going to be good enough for you.

https://www.facebook.com/vera.lynch.uk

EP Review: Billy Liar

Billy Liar

All I've Got

(Unsigned)

Music’s darkest glories can be found, conceptually, in the lacerated disorder of emotion. From the bones of misery comes uninhibited self deprecation acted out by assorted protagonists in cameo lyrical snapshot roles representing the author at their very lowest. Such affected heartache claws all of us in turn thanks to our effrontery for intimacy. Consistently unguarded when at our weakest brings its fair share of wounding which is perfect subject matter for our most bitter narratives. Billy Liar’s traumatic episodes are documented like emotional postcards in the ragged acoustic folk/punk poetics of his songs. Once again the complexities of ingrained human instinct are at the heart of the matter in the pessimistic love song All I’ve Got, written about wanting to be with someone who is already in a relationship with someone else. Although the personal intricacies of the situation may have been a minefield of harrowing sorrow - the music could never be. His despair is brilliantly tuneful and brimming with an effervescent  hop skip jump energy and it’s that, that pairing of adoration and pain, that brings a soaring childlike bewilderment and maybe that’s the beauty here, the true sense of definition. The song is easy to enjoy and feels infinitely warmer than anything else he’s released up to now. It comes with groovy ‘ahh ahh’ harmonies and a chorus so buoyantly countrified it deserves to have a line dance choreographed around it. There is even a great little video of the song where he gets to fall into the arms of all the girls! This is a song that deserves to be heard by everyone for no other reason than that they’d really like it if they did..cos he’s a dedicated follower of passion.

http://www.billyliarmusic.com

Boris & Ian Astbury: EP Review

Boris & Ian Astbury

BXI EP

(Southern Lord Records)

A credible joining of forces

Possibly not the unlikeliest collaboration since the David Bowie/ Bing Crosby sashay on 1977’s ‘Little Drummer Boy’ but certainly a collaboration you wouldn’t have guessed at. Ian Astbury, the large voiced front man of 80’s post punk champions The Cult teams up with Japan’s doom-laden sludge rockers Boris on this 4 track EP featuring 3 original compositions, sung by Astbury, and a cover of The Cult’s ‘Rain’ sung by Boris guitarist Wata. The results, you’ll find, are surprisingly decent.

Chunky, to the point rock and roll with some heavy stomping at its edges, this is far from ever being the cynical marketing ploy you may consider it, neither is it a bizarre karaoke-esque shindig for the sake of it. Opening track ‘Teeth And Claws’  is a solid bonding of genres with expansive chord structures and a melodic underpinning so unexpected it’s almost unnoticed. Astbury’s vocal, though less obvious than anticipated, holds the perfect emotional scale, almost soaring in fact, to secure everything together nicely. On ‘We Are Witches’ is where Boris reveal what they do best, a crunching, bone-grinder of a song with a sterling lead vocal that more than stands up to the challenge, a growl and a snarl and a shift up-gear by the former Cult man again brings it all in tightly. Intrigue will lead you to pore over the next song as naturally as intrigue does - ‘Rain’ sung not by its author this time , but Japanese guitarist Wata - her vocal much noticeably softer than Astbury’s original hollering floods the song with something close to sensuality, even through the gritty backdrop of guitar, her voice still the ghost that haunts things and takes the 80’s anthem to places you’d never assume it might go.  Last track ‘Magikal Child’ an atmospheric laden stomp and grind guitar waltz with chords dipping and changing back and forth, falling before rising further and stronger in the distance.  It may not be a record to suit the vagaries of everyone but that’s not the point anyway. Ian Astbury can still talk the talk and Boris are a strikingly clever band.

BORIS HOMEPAGE

THE CULT HOMEPAGE