I’ve written and rewritten this opening sentence and still, I can’t find an interesting or appropriate way to introduce you to the central thesis of this post; Boats Of Berlin have released something excellent. Their debut EP is as easy to get lost in as Jude Law’s eyes.
It wouldn’t take a debater of any real skill to demonstrate that there are similarities between Grizzly Bear and Boats, but then you’re not in the presence of such an orator so you’ll not hear that claim made. There’re certainly moments where the band’s attention to dynamic bid me cast my mind back to the first Fleet Foxes record too but these animal based comparisons do Boats of Berlin an injustice. They’re not derivative and they’re not going to be Unearth’s flavour of the month despite meriting the truest recognition. Nonetheless, across the EP’s five songs I hear nods to so many American bands that I’ve plenty of time for.
Boats Of Berlin – The Towers
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Dissonant chords are the benchtop upon which the vocals do their work. The understated snare and cymbal dare not pull attention away from the frontline but sit reasonable and calm beneath earlier mentioned chords, those same turning into languid runs as the motion builds. I should probably investigate the name of the vocalist because I get the sense that it’s going to become one of those Robin Pecknold/Jim James/Ben Bridwell/Ben Gibbard type situations where the vocalist makes a name for himself on the strength of his pipes before releasing the inevitable solo album. Full disclosure, I don’t know if that’s happened in the case of all those vocalists but they all come with the same singular strength of personality.
Boats Of Berlin – Lavender Farm
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Hard to know if it’s my favourite B.o.B release with bangers like this to contend with but it’s definitely up there. Cleverly priced by someone with an obvious history in sales, the EP is a mere $5.95. Veto your next wheatgrass infused boost juice and achieve true value for money.
I’ve come at this one from the rear (shhhhhhhhhh) ignoring what’s probably been a lucrative past year or so for Naysayer & Gilsun (6k fb likes has to mean something right?) and focusing on the collborative side of this affair. You see, this track features the vocals of boy wonder Simon Lam. Remember him? You should, he was in this post about I’lls’. Oh and this one about Nearly Oratorio too… and he worked on Mansion, Alaska post-production, so the dude knows his way around a good tune, that’s fairly clear. This fourth connection makes it four from four with Lam’s vocals tightening the cinch on a cruisy Naysayer & Gilsun joint.
Remember Jeremy Neale? He made music history earlier this year when he became the first Australian to use a saxophone as a sonic aphrodisiac. If you didn’t follow the above hyperlink then you might not already know that he’s a Brisbanite but more than that, you may be unaware that he’s previously been referred to as “Brisbane’s answer to all overseas bands”. The earlier mentioned saxophone was a function in of the year’s best singles. It was (and probably still is) called Darlin’ and by jove it was a mid-year diamond. Even on the back of Darlin’ however, I almost didn’t write about the next single as I have a most severe papercut on my index finger but also because Jeremy Neale is a Queenslander and they’re the natural foe of the NSWelshman. This is because they always beat us in the world state of rugby championships or something, and that’s real bad. Cut it out Jeremy/other Northmen. I don’t know if you realise this but rugby league football is of particular import to me and when the blue waratahs lose I get crazy down on myself, in much the same way I do when I’ve a painful papercut. And thus, we’ve come full circle and things return from whence they came – back to the single making credentials of Mister Neale. The new single is called ‘A Love Affair To Keep You There’ and look, it’s no Darlin’ but it’s still a tour de melody. I want to make mention of “sixties guitars” but I can’t think of another sentence that would sound so broad and uninformed so I’ll leave that right out. The guy can sing which is a significant one-up on most other garage-rock outfits. He can properly sing. I saw him at BIGSOUND a few months ago and despite a sound guy who obviously had the high and lofty goal of permanently rupturing my eardrums, it was still fairly obvious that the dude could wail. Lend your ears to this.
Also, heard the new Wiz Khalifa record today (I know, right?) and it featured the lyric “I’m the shit, literally”. Either I didn’t hear what I thought I heard or excrement is finally beginning to become a hip-hop feature.
Sweet heavens, Brothers Hand Mirror have thrown me a curve ball. The pair had the nerve to release a new EP the very night that I’m off to see their show. HOW AM I GOING TO MOUTH THE WORDS STAGE RIGHT WHEN I DON’T KNOW THE SONGS!? How indeed. Hopefully it’s loud enough so as I can just move my mouth about a bit and the rest of the club will assume that I know something they don’t via bootlegs/youtube. “Yeah, this is set is mostly just underground joints for the oldschool fans”. I won’t actually say underground though, I’ll just say “UG”. Up on it.
Posturing aside, it’s a good EP. A much, much more cohesive collection of tracks that hold together more than those of their last EP, while maintaining that eccentric aural collage that gets your underarms moist. The first song you’ll stream below is called ‘Friend of Mine’ and it sees Oscar Key Sung providing a more accessible beat than most we’ve heard from him (Assuming that this is one of his. HTMLFlowers has been dabbling in his own beatsmanship lately). The second is the last of the five, the title track ‘Muddy Now’ and it’s most pleasurable indeed. It’s no more than a single note electrified and repeated with some birdsongs buffering it from the ever more impressive verse of HTMLFlowers. I have to shuffle off pretty soon so let’s call that it for the moment and barring accident I’ll pad this out later down the track. I’ll let you know how the live versions are played out. If you’re in Sydney then you should probably just meet me there. k-c-u-soon.
Brothers Hand Mirror – Friend Of Mine
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Brothers Hand Mirror – Muddy Now
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Download the whole EP over here on a pay-what-you-want basis.
Two new cuts from the forthcoming Silver & Gold Christmas records that I may or may not have spent near $200 on last month (SPOILER: I did). The new tracks are inspiring me to think that it may have been a great decision after a slight scare with Mr Frosty Man. The video was excellent but the song was, you know, alright or whatever. Good King Wenceslas is straight out of the Age of Adz songbook while Alphabet St is a cover of the Prince original. Both are crazy cosmic. Sort of bizarre that at the end of Good King Wenceslas he takes up an ‘Alphabet Street’ chant although by this stage you’d think there was little that old man Stevens could do to surprise me. Play the two in quick succession as there’s a really lovely transition. You can download the both of them via soundcloud (for free) or you can wait another nine days and get the full 58 tracks for a mere $15.
Sufjan Stevens – Good King Wenceslas
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Sufjan Stevens – Alphabet St
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