release - world's end girlfriend - seven idiots

type: album

released: 13th september 2010

label: virgin babylon

genre: glitch, electronic, idm, post-rock

Katsuhiko Maeda has never been one to go for simplicity in his compositions. His works are invariably sprawling, multi-faceted beasts that blend complex song structures, strange electronics and beautiful melodies. At 79 minutes and 43 seconds, here is another epic that carries on several of those traits, but ignores a central element of his previous albums – subtlety.

Described by Maeda himself as 'irregular pop', this is a brash and outrageous homage to jazz, glam rock and psychedelia, filtered through robotic guitars and unpredictable drum patterns. Written originally with vocal tracks which were then taken out, the directions of the songs are intentionally hard to follow, seemingly changing course every ten seconds.

The Divine Comedy Reverse begins with clean-sounding fret-tapping as tinkling keys bring in romantic strings, saturated in electronics and closing with a synthetic flourish. Screeches, drums and horns decorate the background. At just over a minute, this is quite a lot to take in, but it's a good indicator of what's coming.

Les Enfants du Paradis contains everything this album does well – prominent guitars used for lead and rhythm, uplifting and buoyant Mega Drive electronics and a sense of ordered chaos. It's immediate and impulsive, mutating through its hyperactive, metallic textures and finally finding its groove at around five minutes to reach critical mass. It has beautiful, reflective strings in parts but overall it's a song that's meant to be fun.

There are songs on this album that are far more hectic. TEEN AGE ZIGGY is nonsense in musical form, totally over the top. It's weightless and shallow, lacking the resonance of some of his earlier work, inspiring only momentary feelings in its aural hedonism. Helter Skelter Cha-Cha-Cha is messy too with its chugging bass and big drums. Its horns are abrasive and snarling, but not quite dissonant.

This wild and fractured side to the album ends after GALAXY KID 666, when we are introduced to the album's centrepiece, the three-part suite Bohemian Purgatory, which clocks in at 25 minutes. Part. 1 begins with slightly distorted ambient followed by ominous piano and a tinkling, minimalist melody that's as sparse as the first songs were dense. It builds logically and uniformly, in a way not yet seen on the album, before jumping back to more erratic sounds. Part. 2 is more easily comprehensible, spending time pressing at the edges of each idea it has, blending them all into something akin to swing played with the instruments of electronica. The trilogy closes with some gentle lullaby tinkling, continuously disturbed by white noise and fragmented vocal samples.

After this, the album does get a bit more minimal. Der Spiegel im Spiegel im Spiegel leaves a lot of space open, breaking into silence a few times and allowing haunting piano keys to chime alone. They return at the beginning of The Offering Inferno, the penultimate song and the scariest. Sounds of violence have been used before in Maeda's music, and they are tortured into the music here with car alarms, breaking glass, laughter and the monotonous piano that still chimes at regular intervals. There is a sense of building intensity and power electronics come in and out of the mix, until the halfway mark when it loses all structure to become a glitchy, noisy assault of which only the Japanese are truly capable.

Closer unfinished finale shed is more like Maeda's former style, hymnal and mournful. It meanders but never leaves its territory for complex drum patterns and guitar solos. It tells us that we've come a long way in the album's CD-squeezing running time, and gives balance to the often overwrought sounds of Seven Idiots. The fade out is probably the most beautiful thing on here, and its inclusion is a sign that Maeda hasn't completely abandoned his graceful, peaceful side.

World's End Girlfriend - Les Enfants Du Paradis

release - deerhunter - halcyon digest

type: album

released: 28th september 2010

label: 4ad

genre: dream pop, art rock, neo-psychedelia

Deerhunter are annoyingly consistent. It could be because they're so prolific – they've produced two solo efforts between them in the two-year gap between their last release and this, their fourth album, so there's obviously a lot of spare energy kicking about. The result is that every Deerhunter album is excellent, the focused efforts of several talented people. Of the three albums that preceded it, Halcyon Digest has most in common with Microcastle and its companion disc Weird Era Continued, leaving behind the garage punk of their debut and the krautish ambient of Cryptograms. Jerky riffs and abstract vocals still abound, but this is very accessible.

What Halcyon Digest has over its immediate predecessor is balance. Microcastle had its best parts at the beginning and a forgettable middle section, whereas this is both cohesive and, while it doesn't always reach the highs of Microcastle, is engaging throughout.

Earthquake isn't actually earth-shatttering, though the band are more than capable, but actually breezy and glitchy, an atmospheric opener warmed up by Bradford Cox's laid back and undemanding vocals. It's testament to the band's ability to pretty much craft ambient songs out of their production techniques. What they don't do this time however is take that to its logical conclusion, leaving such experiments firmly in Cox's bedroom. Instead, a simple idea can sound big and lush, and this glossy sound is heard throughout.

When the sheen is removed things get interesting. On Sailing, a simple set of percussion and lonely guitar get behind Cox as he sings a plaintive, spaced out ballad, whose placing on the album is bold and succeeds where the equivalent tracks on previous efforts felt like they needed fleshing out. It only sounds like Atlas Sound in as much as it's written and sung by the same person, but the inclusion of a single song this intimate on a Deerhunter album is a very clever move. Poppy Helicopter is the antithesis. Uplifting and spartan, it runs at a perfect pace and Cox's vocals are sweet and immaculate without sounding robotic, building up but always staying gentle.

Everything else on the album is somewhere between these two, with a lot of distortion and attitude added along the way. Coronado is a standout for its catchy buildup that gets straight to the point, before culminating in a jazzy swell. Desire Lines starts off with swirling vocals and guitars lined up in orderly repetition, but has an instrumental send-off that allows the band to add in every last studio flourish they can without spoiling the broth. The broth is thick and consistent.

This is great album by Deerhunter that doesn't do a lot to challenge the sound we're used to hearing but does nothing to tarnish the reputation either. A welcome addition to the pile.

artist - fetch the witches

Still under a year into their career, four piece Fetch The Witches are one of the more promising emerging acts of the North West, hailing from Stoke-On-Trent and currently residing in Manchester.

They play a brand of moody, melancholic rock not unfamiliar to such

parts of England, but also convey a love for Oxford bands like Radiohead, Fell City Girl and early This Town Needs Guns. What is perhaps their calling card is a spacious use of atmospherics in their sound that allows them to break away from ordinary song structures without sounding contrived. Instead, the impressionistic pieces they create can last up to six minutes while sounding much shorter, sounding big without the help of too much studio interference.

So far they've released a digital EP available here, heavy with saddened choruses and tense, jagged riffs. The highlight is X, recalling the math-rock leanings of early Biffy Clyro and carrying an urgency that's shockingly convincing for a first release.

Upcoming single, also titled Fetch the Witches has a more instant feel to it, but never lets go of the band's tendency towards stranger song

structures. It starts with intimate vocals and a one-note guitar line and a skipping drum beat before lush, organic guitars are brought in. There are plenty of great melodies here, often more than one at once, and the chanting of the band's own name is bold and inspired. What's in line with everything else they've done here is the slightly darkened passion residing in the faintly tortured vocals and discordant twin guitars. The single's out September 24th, on a limited vinyl run of 300, available for purchase on the band's shop and featuring some rather exciting cover art. You can also catch them at Manchester's Night and Day Café on November 11th.

release - oceansize - self preserved while the bodies float up

released: 6th september 2010
type: album

label: superball music

genre: progressive rock, alternative rock, post-rock

Oceansize are one of those bands who seem to follow their instincts musically rather than any apparent external forces or trends. They've been constructing progressive and emotionally charged rock music since 1998, and still sound as fresh as they did then. This their fourth album, recorded in their own studio in Manchester is their shortest yet by some distance at 51 minutes. It's effectively their pop album, if Oceansize are capable of making one.

It's not a pop album. 2008's Frames didn't contain any songs under 6 minutes, and while only two reach that length here it's not because they've toned down the progressive side of their music. If anything, the extremes are more extreme. While SuperImposer is gentle and intricately melodic, with opener Part Cardiac they give us their take on doom metal, Mike Vennart slipping into the role with frightening ease.

The differences between these first two songs on the album do give a good idea of the variation to come though. There are furious, fast-paced ones like It's My Tail and I'll Chase It If I Want To with its long heavy intro and backing screams from Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro. There are also slower, mellow songs which make use of Oceansize's ability to craft complex two or even three-part melodies from trebly guitars, like A Penny's Weight, with its muffled drums and occasional scratchy, delayed guitar.

The two focal points of the album are the two longest songs, which unlike the majority Frames don't rely on repetition or long instrumental passages. Instead they blend different styles to create an impressionistic effect much like Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs from their debut, Effloresce. Oscar Acceptance Speech recalls Mew's latest effort with higher vocals backed by more bassy ones as they come in for a second time halfway through the song. This leads into an extended, understated string outro, offering a brief moment of sparsity on the record. The other longer track on the album, Silent / Transparent, opens with jangly guitars and a warm vocal melody that for the attentive listener signals something brasher to come. A long-held note at around the fourth minute brings some delicately distorted riffing that then slows the pace of the song completely for a build of uplifting guitars and tapping drums that, unlike the outro of Oscar Acceptance Speech, only increases in size.

Pine is a slow-burner, taking from post-rock with its siren-like strings and Mogwai-esque murmuring and developing into an utterly mournful, bruising finish of complex drums, romantic violin and distortion. It's a beautiful song, and segues unexpectedly but not jarringly into closer SuperImposter, which starts with a jazzy rhythm and low-key vocals, taking care never to fully unleash itself. It keeps a certain level of restraint throughout, using the guitars to offer a different rhythm from the drums. It takes a while to settle in, but proves the band are using everything at their disposal here.

While it's an album that could clearly be cherry-picked for great singles, it's uncompromising, working well as a complete piece much like their other, much longer records. They're simultaneously fearless in writing catchy pop songs and in taking their sound further with every record, which is quite rare, and very much welcome. Having said that, it's definitely an album that rewards repeated, careful listens.

event - phosphorescent at the night and day café, manchester

6th september

Composed of ex-members from two very different bands (Piano Magic and The Fucking Champs), Citay manage to do quite a lot of things at once with their seven-strong stage presence. The combination of

psychedelic rock, folk and americana gives away a love for bands of the 60s, and the frequent references to their hometown of San Francisco also place them firmly in that category with influences of Bay Area bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service showing through. A highlight was the fantastically titled Careful With That Hat, which managed to combine these influences with accessible, poppy singing. Nevertheless, they manage to sound fresh and inspired, and make a huge sound, taking breaks to talk about their trip down from Edinburgh and the joys of touring Europe.

Next up are Timber Timbre, whose name Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent was later chastised for mispronouncing, but probably shouldn't have been as at least half a dozen variations were heard being tried out by audience members

during the evening. The first song crept up slowly, with soaring violin taking around five minutes to reach its agonising crescendo. The sparsity of the sound was the polar opposite of Citay's all-at-once aural assault, but if anything it had more of an impact, core member Taylor Kirk's voice sounding powerful in the relatively small venue. It reminds of Win Butler's at times, but the songs are more freeform and abstract, building in a less linear way, instead taking in several changes in momentum and rhythm, created largely by Mika Posen's harrowing violin. A very rewarding set from a band that needs more recognition.

Phosphorescent take the stage at about half past ten and despite complaints of tiredness seem very happy and relaxed. A beautiful rendition of Wolves early in the set gets the pace going and is the first of many highlights from 2007's Pride, including Cocaine Lights, which has much more impact in the live setting, and the last song of the encore At Death, A Proclamation, which is dragged out into

a crashing tide of instruments played to their extremes. They answer requests, such as Reasons to Quit, a cut from last year's Willie Nelson covers album, and the conversation between songs is, just like the support bands, really friendly – you get the impression they want to be here. But what's really surprising just how much better live Houck's voice sounds, given the overt highlights of their appearances are the charged instrumental passages that don't appear on record. The Mermaid Parade, a highlight from recent album Here's To Taking It Easy sounds gorgeous tonight, the vocals pure and deeply resonant. It seems they're having so much fun that they don't want to leave, but they finally come off stage after a sizeable encore, a little bit before midnight.

release - kyle bobby dunn - a young person's guide to...

type: album

released: 18th january 2010

label: low point

genre: ambient, drone, minimalism

Butel, the seventeen-and-a-half minute opener to this double album cuts a sinuous figure. The wavy ambient of the rising action seems to find its footing in the slowly plucked notes of a guitar, only for its lower end to be gradually taken out, reduced to a fundamental hiss. Though this climax happens at around the seventh minute, the carefully shaped changes in intensity are repeated several times throughout, gentle white noise in the background taking the place of rhythm. The fading moments bring in disfigured classical instrumentation, which gives an exit point that the music can fade towards.

It also gives some context for the listener. While it might seem daring to put the longest song at the front of an album that spans nearly two hours, the title tells us that this is a journey into the sounds of Kyle Bobby Dunn, an assortment of tracks from various works of his released so far. Though his work chiefly falls into the territory of ambient, he most certainly wants it known that his classical background is just as relevant.

So the first track feels like an introduction mostly by way of its breadth. That is, it showcases a wide range of what's on offer over the course of the record, but it doesn't go nearly as deep as the following song The Tributary (For Voices Lost), which in ten minutes creates a spacious and deep atmosphere that is both stripped back and rich in harmony, shorter in length than Butel but still carrying the sense of running through several movements.

Songs here drift between dreamy pulsing ambience and droning strings, Promenade showcasing the latter with bass tones entering the mix at choice moments to amplify the sense of tension. The Second Ponderosa manages to straddle both, breaking into blissful drone every so often as it trundles through its loosely assembled beauty.

The opener of the second album Grab (And Its Lost Legacies) is perhaps the true ambient song on here, only signalling tonal dissonance indirectly and never shifting too much at any one moment. Another gentle piece that doesn't disturb is Bonaventure's Finest Hour, which is warm and hymnal, and never says too much.

Sets of Four (Its Meaning Is Deeper Than Its Title Implies) allows a little bit of a break from the general formula for sombre, haunting piano that stays true to Dunn's minimalist tendencies, and blends well with closer The Nightjar, a piece which is sliced down the middle by slightly off-balance strings without ever being too harsh or abrasive. Neither is the spoken word ending, which brings us from the depths of Dunn's aural landscapes and offers an insight into the themes explored over the course of these two discs. This collection of songs is accomplished technically, and layered with romantic and impressionistic stylings that never have to sacrifice subtlety for emotional reach.

event - women + zola jesus at the deaf institute, manchester

2nd september

Were it not for the talented crop of independent events promoters currently running the Manchester live music scene, the listening public would've been forced to make a choice between the operatic and the noisy this past Thursday. Whether or not there's much of a crossover in terms of fans isn't too important, because between them Pineapple Folk and Now Wave have created a lively atmosphere at Manchester's Deaf Institute for Women and Zola Jesus' one-off co-headline concert.

Women's support act for the duration of their European tour is Idiot Glee from Lexington, KY, and he plays before Zola Jesus tonight. With just a keyboard and a handful of effects pedals scattered on a small table and on the floor around him, he relies on soaking his voice in

reverb and layering it over and over to create a sort of blissful a capella. His songs are good but not striking, the vocals maybe being buried under too much tampering to really stand out, but a cover of Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine gets a great reception, and for one man barely a season into his career it's great to see him fill the room with sweet ambling melodies. It is a missed opportunity in some ways, because with a voice as strong as his he should look to undress it and turn a pleasantly surprising opening slot into a brilliant one.

Beginning the set in what appears to be a hooded cloak and cross legged Nika Roza, who goes by Zola Jesus, gradually emerges from the back of the stage through the dark electro pop of her two keyboard players, ready to show off further eccentricities. And unlike the experience of listening to her on record, especially her earlier work, all the attention is on Nika's voice, its force and clarity holding the audience in position for the duration of her set. She doesn't waste her freedom of movement though,

pacing from side to side before stacking plastic boxes at the front as a sort of podium, before sitting on it in a twisted lotus position. These strange antics don't distract from the fact that she's playing material taken mostly from her recently released album Stridulum II. It's perfectly understandable, but for her first time in Manchester it's a shame to see her so completely abandon the lo-fi aesthetic of her past that probably earned her half the fans here. The closing run of Night and Manifest Destiny is powerful, and her Moses-style parting of the crowd to pace up and down the middle of the room is novel, but at the end of the day it's a highly polished performance that leaves many wanting something more.

Maybe it's because it's really their headline tour, but Calgary's Women seem totally comfortable on stage tonight, and not losing any of their energy for it. They apologise profusely for being slightly late on stage and go straight into a storming set that takes in lo-fi, garage rock, punk and surf pop. They do wear their influences almost literally on their sleeves (guitarist Patrick Flegel sports a Deerhunter t-shirt worn inside out), but they have an intensity and a tightness as a group that is all their own. Like Zola Jesus before them, they're not

impartial to the odd on-stage quirk, Christopher Reimer seemingly intent on using a Nintendo DS as a MIDI outlet and drummer Matthew Wallacehaving a nap on the floor during one of the more spaced-out feedback passages. But for all of this they really deliver, not least on first album almost-hit Black Rice where they invite James Friley of Idiot Glee on stage to help out, or on next song Venice Lockjaw where the chiming, brittle riffs are set against each other and sound completely bittersweet. What they really get right that sets them apart from Zola Jesus however, is they use the live setting to showcase the full range of what they can do as a band, and they look like they're having fun doing it.

release - boduf songs - this alone above all else in spite of everything

type: album

released: 6th september 2010

label: kranky

genre: folk, slowcore, singer/songwriter

Though Mat Sweet has broadened his sound dramatically for this cryptically titled fourth album, his minimal instincts are as present as ever. The drums, bass and electric guitar never overpower the bleak lyrics, exposed in full on the album cover. Instead, they accentuate the despair in his rich voice, the set up of a single microphone allowing the two elements of the sound to coalesce.

There are heavier moments to be found, but nothing is as hard-hitting as the opening lines of Bought Myself a Cat O'Nine, lit up by gentle and melancholy piano. Sung in a beautifully hushed way the line "my hammer feels the urge, to nail you to the ground" sounds all the more imposing, giving power to the slight increase in pressure on the piano keys that follows. This lyrical theme is continued throughout the album, right until "the hammer cracks my skull for the last time". This dark and surreal relationship is played out over the album's length, with the changes in melody kept to a claustrophobic minimum.

One moment of surprising force is Decapitation Blues, where words gradually become whispers, hanging over a foreboding vibraharp and pulsing electronics that fade in an out as bass guitar begins to take hold. Seemingly out of nowhere the dynamic changes and a drum roll welcomes in crunchy distortion that dares to do musically what he's been doing lyrically for years, and the vocals rise again as if nothing has changed. There is no jarring effect – the shift feels totally natural, and Sweet is completely at home in this bluesy psychedelia.

Several of the songs here achieve more or less the same thing stylistically and emotionally. They are menacing pieces of brooding songwriting, with enough variation to keep them from sounding too similar – a sometimes valid criticism of his earlier albums. There is the jazzy atmosphere of Absolutely Null and Utterly Void, the crisp post-rock guitar towards the end of They Get On Slowly and the sparse harmonics of slow-burner The Giant Umbilical Cord That Connects Your Brain to the Centre.

Perhaps the most intimate song is the closer I Am Going Away and Never Coming Back, which for all its title suggests actually sounds the most hopeful and optimistic on the album. It's morbid but comforting, with promises of "I will be here for you" sitting alongside more talk of cracked skulls. This balance of ugliness and beauty finds its footing in a perfect summation of the album as the acoustic guitar is fading away: "I'll stay with you until the blood has drained from you completely". I feel he's going to be waiting a long time.

Boduf Songs - Decapitation Blues

release - salem - king night

type: album

released: 28th september 2010

label: iamsound

genre: electronic, dubstep, witch house

King Night gets straight to the point. What sounds like a guitar solo played through AM radio is followed by an eerie, almost soulful voice half-singing "I love you". Next a bit of meandering electronics is backed by gentle snare tapping before gaudy, blaring synths come in at full force over rumbling bass. It's the title track to Salem's debut album and it sounds like a hymn from the dark side, otherwordly, terrifying and deeply sensual.

This is the face of so-called witch house, also known as drag, ghost drone and a variety of even more spurious names. It's a highly stylised genre, drawing on a wide range of sounds past and present including dark ambient, dubstep, ethereal post-punk and a general love for the occult. Salem, who had been releasing EPs for over a year before the trend began to take off have fortunately managed to escape the fetishising of obscure unicode characters singular to witch house bands – †‡†, oOoOO and ▲ haven't been quite so lucky.

King Night doesn't quite live up to the promise of its opening title track or indeed the intrigue surrounding the genre, but there are a lot of interesting experiments put forward and some of it is very enjoyable. Asia follows on from the first track as a sort of refrain, the stuttering bass and fractured vocals doing all they can to refute that less is more. It's nowhere near as effective but it's recognisable as coming from the same thought process.

This seems like an album that's unaware of what it really wants to be. It may be a dark and sometimes bleak listen, but it's too wilfully oblique to be truly scary. Songs like Trapdoor and Tair show an attempt to try different things, but in reality are not particularly interesting experiments and border on ridiculous. The twin rapping on Sick works however, recalling Sleigh Bells' efforts earlier in the year to combine hip-hop vocals with unexpected instruments. This album is also wise to revert occasionally to the noirish disco of acts like Fever Ray, with the glacial dream pop of Frost and Redlights standing out, the latter being a massive improvement on the EP version.

For the most part the more daring parts seem to be the more successful. It takes a good deal to get away with a lack of songwriting, but there is plenty to enjoy in the chaotic, glitchy textures of the vigorously titled Hound and Release Da Boar. Killer, the last track is a strange mix of sad vocals and power electronics, but it offers some much-needed space and perspective, making it an ideal choice to frame the album alongside its polar opposite opener.

At its best this is a heavy and engaging take on dubstep, a welcome change from other acts mixing traditional rock structures with electronics, and all in all a well balanced album. At its worst it's affected edginess that almost reaches self-parody. What can be said though, is that Salem is a band crafting their sound independently of a need to be assigned to a genre that might not be around this time next year.

Salem - King Night

track - wild nothing - golden haze

In his breakout year, Virginia-born Jack Tatum has gone from strength to strength, releasing his critically acclaimed album Gemini and adding three musicians – Jeff Haley, Nathan Goodman and Michael Skattum – to the live setting, even though it's still just him in the studio.

His affectionate and often sad dream pop brought some truly beautiful songs, and this addition, set for inclusion on the upcoming EP of the same name, is no exception.

Here the lazy, humid guitar riffs add to the feeling of nostalgia in Tatum's voice instead of just offering a beach-tinged backdrop, as he sings "I wanna know where you are". It's a song for the end of summers never truly lived, and a fine one at that. The EP is set for release on 13th September, and will have several formats, each containing a different tracklist.

Wild Nothing - Golden Haze