The terrible twosome of Lido and Cosmo’s Midnight spin a tinkling pianos-aided bit of 2014 electronic music around AlunaGeorge’s track for “Superstar”. The spread between Cosmo’s trop-style rhythms and Lido’s more counter-melodic instrumental technique creates for a very cool dynamic. Do listen.
Cosmo’s Midnight
(Label)
Lido 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.7
Over Sands are a new London-based (via Somerset) duo specializing in cinematic psychedelia-tinged songs with a found-sound/inventive-type percussion element. Aptly, the twosome take on the dramatic sweep of “Falling”, the theme from the David Lynch TV series Twin Peaks on this excellent new cover. The original having the appropriate swirl and space to give Over Sands the right latitude in shaping “Falling” to their taste, it makes for an excellent source material choice. Sample the B3 Premiere of Over Sands’ cover of the Twin Peaks theme “Falling” below.
Over Sands 
(Soundcloud)
Rating 8.4
Sample below “Never Work For Free”, the summery new indie pop single from Tennis. From the band’s forthcoming sophomore LP on the brilliant Communion Music Ritual in Repeat, “Never Work For Free” finds Tennis in a bit more finely honed and compact arrangement-wise as the single has an immediacy of pop sensibility that is a level up from LP #1. September 9th is the date to know for the release of Ritual in Repeat.
Tennis 
(Facebook)
Rating 8.3
The Great Escape continues to be an awesome event for new music enthusiasts wanting to get a leg-up on international bands poised to make moves. With the 2014 edition including 400+ bands playing over three days in 30+ venues, there’s no lack of good music to check out. The festival is growing quickly with 100 more bands compared to last year. While The Great Escape (a.k.a. TGE) does share the SXSW danger of becoming too big for its own good, this event (for now) still has far more intimacy than the aforementioned Austin festival. Like always, more bands also means more schedule conflicts, and also like SXSW, even top tier Delegate and Press credentials won’t penetrate lines (or in some cases no lines) at venues. For example, Future Islands sounded great… from outside, and the TGE showcase for Wild Beasts would have been great to review had we also remembered to buy a ticket for it (thought that’s what passes were for)? And so for festivals like this, it seems the best plan of attack is to focus on artists that, to date, either haven’t or rarely play live. Both Bruce and Mike from team B3SCI were on the grounds for TGE and here’s their report:
Some 2014 faves for Bruce included Courtney Barnett, who is not only blowing up in the US but in England as well. She plays a mean guitar as it turns out. The melodic electronic artist East India Youth has been an NME darling this year, and as TGE proved, is doing quite well in England. His one-man show has a clean sound and he’s quite animated on stage. The Isle of Wight brothers, Champs, serenaded us in a church at TGE with their sweet harmonies and were also major highlights. Two UK bands, growing in local buzz, who delivered nicely onstage were Childhood and Jaws. The Australian band Calling All Cars is a metal/electronic hybrid with great songs, and they blew the walls down. Interestingly, they will soon be relocating to Manchester. Fellow Australians Sheppard just had a #1 pop single in their homeland and have a commanding stage presence to back it up. The UK’s Echotape have forsaken their art-pysch direction for a more straight forward rock direction that shows strong potential. Amber Run was a fave (see below). Finally, Portland’s Rare Monk must get a shout out. I joined Mike from B3Sci for their 1:30am set on Saturday night. This Portland band is making major forward strides. Their mid-tempo bluesy rock is played with precise power and competence.
Some 2014 faves for Mike came from both the expected and unexpected. Amber Run won audiences with pitch perfect harmonies and pop songs primed for college campuses throughout the world. The young 3-piece of/from Blaenavon lived up to their radar worthy hype with a stellar rock show to boot – big promise here. Hozier was good, while “Take Me To Church” stole the show; the band dynamic felt a bit on the safe side. After being tipped from a friend, Brussels band BRNS were a favorite surprise of TGE, with an energetic and expressive live show that was, at times, reminiscent of heavy pop pioneers WU LYF and indie rock mainstays Local Natives. Rare Monk’s alluring melange of atmospheric indie rock proved a powerful UK debut. Annie Eve drenched listeners with her knack for clever song and a live band including an accordion no less. Peace performed a pleasant ‘surprise’ set at the NME showcase, which was definitely a highlight, and Khushi was another favorite with his live band set up, showcasing what really counts… his songs.
Have a listen to some of our favorite picks from the TGE Festival below:
The Great Escape 
(Official)
A brilliant interpolation of Ghost Town DJs “My Boo” highlights M-Phazes superb new mix for Kimbra’s new Warner Bros. single “90’s Music”. Listen. (KKS)
M-Phazes (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.3
Female is an AU-based producer dabbling in the vibe-y pitch-shifted trend current in indie house. Here, Female takes on Cosmic Quest’s already very good “Water Winds” and applies that lush chilled sound to excellent effect.
Female (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.3
Words and Photos by Russ Ramos
Not just another singer/songwriter/producer. From Los Angeles, Ms. Jillian Banks (better known to the industry as “Banks”) detaches herself from typical genre associations. Her sold out homecoming show at the iconic El Rey on Thursday night, May 29th, was something of a statement from this proclaimed “Goddess”. For an artist whose album hasn’t even been released yet, you already get the sense that this is the last time Banks will play a venue limited to 700 attendees. It’d be a safe bet that her next Los Angeles show would easily bring The Wiltern (1800 attendees) to capacity.
Prior to the show, I’d heard a bit of skepticism from people her previous performances. People saying things like, “She’s boring, she doesn’t move, she hides behind the mic”. After hearing all of that (whilst being a fan myself), I had to check her out. To my delight, they were as wrong as I’d hoped. Banks’ seductive moves, and exponential passion tore down away any doubt. The capacity filled venue sung along, track after track. It’s incredible evidence that Banks’ exotic music, her writing, and her voice are clearly a more engaging representation of the “singer-songwriter” genre. I saw more hands in the air then I did on iPhones. That, in Los Angeles, IS A BIG DEAL.
Banks is currently on a small US tour, and will also be touring Europe for the first half of the summer. Her debut album Goddess is expected to release September 9th, and we can only hope that she’ll grace us with another tour to promote the new album.
Banks 
(Facebook)
For Damon Albarn, making music has always been a behind the scenes venture. He has, despite his low profile, been very successful exploring his art in new and unique ways. Albarn started his musical career in 1988 while at Goldsmiths College in London, where he and some of his classmates formed a band they would eventually call Blur. After being signed to Food Records in 1990, the band became something of the British counterpoint to the grunge movement happening in the United States at that time. They achieved critical and commercial success in England before breaking up in 2003, then reunited again in 2008.
Of course, most Americans are familiar with Albarn through his other successful venture, Gorillaz, the cartoon alternative rock band he created in 2001. The band has sold tens of millions of albums worldwide, been named the Most Successful Virtual Band by the Guinness Book of World Records, won a Grammy, won two MTV VMA’s, and changed the perception of what popular music could be.
Now, Albarn is preparing to step out on his own with his first solo album Everyday Robots, which was released on April 25th. Although, you might not want to call it a solo record to him, as he told NME “I suppose you could call it a solo record, but I don’t like that word. It sounds very lonely – solo. I don’t really want to be solo in my life. But yeah, I’m making another record.” Keeping with that spirit of collaboration he enlisted the help of producer Richard Russell as well as singers Brian Eno and Natasha Khan, both of whom he recorded duets with for the album.
The resulting album is something of a dark day dream, recalling the hours spent in elementary school staring at rain hitting the window of your classroom. That’s not to say it’s exclusively melancholy in tone; “Mr Tembo” is a particularly uplifting track about baby elephant that Albarn met in a zoo in Tanzania. Along with Paul Simonon, he enlisted the help of a gospel choir from his hometown for the song, which was released as the fourth single from this album. Despite the brief uptick from “Mr Tembo,” Everyday Robots doesn’t shy away from heavy hitting tracks, like the autobiographical “You & Me” which references his past experiences with heroin use: “Tin foil and a lighter, the ship across, five days on, two days off.” He explained the reference to The Guardian, saying “I suppose it’s just me saying, ‘Let’s just get this out of the way. I took heroin for a while and I found it interesting and, yes, it was remarkably helpful in the creative process for a short time. I didn’t go down in the gutter, in fact I was incredibly disciplined about it. Blah blah blah. So what?'”
In an effort to promote his album, Albarn performed for at the SXSW Festival in Austin back in March, which was recorded as a part of DirecTV’s Guitar Center Sessions. Albarn’s hepisode will air on May 11th, and features an interview with Albarn about his experience making his first solo album. While there isn’t an official tour planned, Albarn plans to make a series of appearances at festivals in Europe, the US, and Japan during this summer.
Reviewed by Spencer Blohm
Damon Albarn (Facebook)
UK house producer Fort Romeau headlines a new mix for Jacques Greene’s upcoming remix set for his Phantom Vibrate EP release. The remix EP also features tracks from Yung Gud, Kit Grill and Area Forty One and is out tomorrow (May 30th) on Lucky Me.
Fort Romeau (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.4
Swedish band Movienite merge 90’s disto-rock with modern melodic & rhythm structures and do so well on new one “Yippie!” while not coming off hokey/nostalgic by maintaining the rudder of strong and focused pop writing. A++.
Movienite 
(Soundcloud)
Rating 8.4
Amber Run’s Spark EP is a delicate discourse on thisNottingham bands’ aching pop and rock sensibilities. Having seemed to learned a few tricks from bands like Arcade Fire, Amber Run also manage to pull in a few edgy lyrics from the relevancy popular culture. The band tread ‘familiar’ sonic territory on lead track “Sparks”, while still managing an uplifting piece of emotive currency. The following track “Heaven” rides a more diversified groove with a heavy hand on the hi-hat. The mid-section “Chamber” is a lovely tune that rises above a dusty guitar arpeggio into a cacophony of synths.
Things seem to mellow out as the epic closer “Hide & Seek” takes hold for almost five minutes. It’s here that Amber Run seem to find a striking and authentic stride, particularly it’s the airy auto-tuned vocals that bloom as the instrumentation drops in and out. If their dream was to achieve a radio ready single, the boys are golden with “Sparks”, but it’s the artistic possibilities that bubble up later in the EP which are particularly noteworthy. There is something here… hinting that this five piece could become much more than another Britpop powerhouse singing falsetto “ooohs” over massive drums.
Spark was released on the 20th of April on RCA. Purchase here: smarturl.it/AR_Spark_iTunes Reviewed by Mike Olinger
Amber Run (Facebook)
Rating: 8.4
