Music Recommendation – The Ides of March
After a great January of great new albums, I was expecting a pretty quiet period up to Easter. How wrong could I be. As always, only a few of this month’s music recommendations come from anywhere near what you might call the mainstream. But hey that’s what this column is for, helping you discover some of those rare musical nuggets buried in a miasma of mediocrity.
ALBUMS OF THE MONTH:
Sian Alice Group – 59.99
White Rabbits - Fort Nightly
The Sian Alice Group have one of the worst band names ever. But their debut album 59.99 (the time it takes to listen to the record) is anything but dull and predictable. Their music mixes pop melodies with improvisation to create music of epic proportions, not dissimilar to the best of Spiritualized or My Bloody Valentine. While, the band claim inspiration from Jeff Mills’ Detroit techno, the soundtracks of Angelo Badalamenti, and the minimalism of Steve Reich. Although London-based, they are signed to a small US label, which may suggest why the British music press have been particularly slow on the uptake (although they did play an NME showcase gig at SXSW recently). You can listen to some of their music here.
If you want to put a bet on the next US indie to break through Arcade Fire-style, then the 10-1 favourites are White Rabbits. Their début album has just got its UK release via the label responsible for Coldplay and Keane’s earliest output. The album garnered rave reviews in the US on it’s release last year, and deservedly so. Opener ‘Kid On My Shoulder’ bounds alone on a two-note keyboard riff, then grabs you by shoulders and drags you along, as it gallops towards the finale. While ‘March Of The Camels’ sounds like some bastard-son offspring of the Specials ‘Ghost Town’.





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