News Tracks: The Field, Pure X, JAWS And More

Good day and a merry Friday to you all!

You might’ve noticed it’s brass monkeys outside, and by brass monkeys we really mean FREEZING. It’s April, for lords sake, yet we’d perish after about five minutes outside wearing only our favourite band t-shirts. We’re all stuck inside wearing ten wooly jumpers instead. It’s a pathetic carry-on as it is, and if you didn’t have anything decent to feast your lovely ears on, it would be even worse!

Fret no longer dear readers. DIY’s smashing gang of writers have gathered round with cocoa and hot toddies, and had a good old squabble about which tracks are warming our cockles this week. We hope you’ll agree we’ve come up with some crackers.

Darren Hayman And The Long Parliament – Old Man Don’t Waste Your Time

Given that his last two batches of recorded output have been an instrumental concept record about open air swimming pools and a quasi-folk record about the Essex witch trials, it’s safe to say Darren Hayman would be the last person you’d expect to give you a metaphorical slap in the chops with a prime, punchy slice of pop-rock. But lo he has, with his latest effort taking in elements of Prince, Canvey Island badasses Dr Feelgood and his much-loved former artistic vehicle Hefner to create something instant, stupidly fun, infuriatingly catchy and downright brilliant. Then there’s the equally great video, filmed in a working men’s club in Sidcup. Atmospheric detail shots? Check. Beer? Check. Natty jumper/jacket combo? Check. Train design guitar pedal? Check. Fantastic guitar solo performed whilst leant nonchalantly against a stage? Check. Not bad going considering the single (including b-side) was recorded and the video filmed on the same day, in the same session, over the course of seven hours, eh? (Gareth Ware)

Old Man, Don’t Waste Your Time - Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament from Darren Hayman on Vimeo.

Brontide - Tonitro

If you are new to Brontide - do not be fooled by the gentle harmonics in the early moments of ‘Tonitro’. For this is merely a clever trap used to snare new victims into an intricately spun web of intense guitar parts that are so stunningly inviting at the time. However once the drums and distortion hits, you’ve past the point of no return and turning back is no longer a viable option. Everything is timed perfectly – slowly gaining altitude before releasing us into a downward spiral of ever increasing velocity, finally being brought to an immediate stop, ultimately leaving everyone asking for more. Fresh from their incredibly well named, “BRON in the USA” American tour last year, Brontide have been busy writing for the follow up album to their debut, ‘Sans Souci’ back in 2011. They recently announced that ‘Tonitro’ will be the opener to the sophomore release, set to be recorded in May this year. (Joe Dickinson - @DickinsonSound)

JAWS - BreeZe

Birmingham is more or less the furthest inland you can get on our humble isle, and with that in mind, it’s not the most logical place to spawn a band of the beach-bum persuasion. JAWS, with Hawaiian shirted press shots and tweaked Santa Cruz logos, released ‘BreeZe’ this week, and it’s LA transplanted into the midlands all right. Shimmering, spangling, jangling and yelping, it tears you away from dingy rooms cluttered with musty piles of flannel shirts and sellotaped grunge cassettes, and heads down the beach. It might be a bit nippy for the buckets and spades right now, but hopefully when JAWS’ ‘Milkshake’ EP comes out later this month it’ll bring the sun with it. (El Hunt)

At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor (The Field Remix)

At The Drive-In are perhaps the band that you would least expect to have their music reworked by an experimental electronic producer. The Texan band’s chaotic guitar rock seemingly has little in column with abstract electronica but Swedish producer The Field’s reworking of ‘One Armed Scissor’ succeeds in subverting guitar noise into a foreboding piece of dark, dimly lit electronic atmospherics that shares more in spirit than in sound. If the band wanted something completely different then The Field has certainly succeeded. The original’s wild abandon is completely enervated in favour of a minimal techno march built on 9 minutes of a looped martial drum section. The expected explosion of noise never comes. The layers upon layers of synth noises and swirls ramp up the disorienting feel of displacement. This is just as intense in its own subversive way. (Martyn Young)

Shhh…Apes! - Painkiller

It has been said by many a wise soul that reaching the destination is not the most important factor; it is in fact the journey taken that is far more valuable. Occasionally a piece of music comes along that takes the listener on a ramble into the unknown, not adhering to strict rules enabling it to become its own entity – allowing the audience to hitch a ride wherever it may take them. ‘Painkiller’ belongs on that list. It has such an incredibly natural progression from the picked guitar in the first few seconds to the brilliant harmonies and borderline break-beat drums, that pigeonholing really isn’t a task worth starting. The band, Shhh…Apes!, is built around a group of musician and producer friends based at Musicbox Studios in Cardiff and are at the beginning of their own journey, with this being the first track they have revealed. They will certainly be ones to keep an eye out for! (Joe Dickinson - @DickinsonSound)

Pure X - Someone Else

No matter how we plead otherwise, we’ve all got a secret longing for the cracking, straining voice of teenaged angst. Pure X’s latest reminds me of when my friend performed ‘I Will Survive’ gone all Bright Eyes-esque, to a half-capacity Student Union. The whole room was slightly impressed, although it has to be said the predominant emotion was fear. On ‘Someone Else’ Nate Grace slurs and screams, clutching at the mic-stand like a lifeline, shouting into the faces of bar punters with whiskey lacing his breath. “Come on and give me all your love” growls Grace, before launching into falsetto that seems about to shatter and fall. This is reverb riddled heartbreak at its very best. (El Hunt)