CAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

Lots of good music in the new Snipe...

Grum

Written for The Line Of Best Fit

Anyone who grew up with 1980s chart music is going to find something familiar in the feelgood pop sound of much-hyped Scottish producer Grum. His brilliant debut album "Heartbeats" is a devoutly retro twelve song collection of 1980s revivalist should-be hits, with traces of 90s big-beat influence and squiggles of 00s Ed Banger synth bringing it up to date.

Known to his mum as Graeme Shepherd, the 24-year-old Scotsman's nom de guerre apparently comes from his grumpiness during his university years. But there's a simple joy in these razor-sharp productions that suggests his downbeat demeanor might have come from too many hours spent in front of Fruityloops. Shepherd is on the record saying that he's more music geek than club kid, and as a result his record is melody-based in a way that many dance producers neglect, packed with super-catchy motifs and perfect key changes. Title track "Heartbeats" is an exhilarating 3-minute rollercoaster of beepy saccharine dance. Hyper-retro pop song "Turn It Up" could be lifted directly from the opening credits from a John Hughes teen movie, seemingly taking pleasure in the absolute lyrical clichés it employs.

Grum is less self-consciously mainstream than Frankmusik, less of a work-in-progress than the mercurial frYars, and less arch than Chromeo - it feels like he has genuine love for the canon he's drawing on. Every song on this album is fully formed enough to be released as an anthemic chart-storming single in it's own right.

"Heartbeats" is an intoxicating sugar-rush of dance-pop mini-anthems. I'm not sure if this kind of pop music actually manages to communicate that first-love feeling more clearly than any other genre, or if it's just my teenaged former self perking up his ears, but this record brings to mind first-date butterflies, pounding hearts and summer-night excitement more clearly than anything else I can think of. This is 'going out music' that's way better than anything they'll be playing at the club.

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JBX

Out Today: Pagan Wanderer Lu - European Monsoon

THE NEW ALBUM!

MP3: iTunes / Amazon / play.com / 7digital

CD: BRNLV shop / Amazon / play.com / Norman Records

Out Today: Stairs To Korea - Paul, Is This How You Wanted It?

The New Single - Out Now On iTunes

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On Snipe: Daily MPfrees selected by meyourhost

The ol' blog has been slightly quiet of late, you may have noticed if you're a regular reader. Well, it's because I've started a feature called Daily MPfree over at Snipe and it's taking up what little time is available for writing...

But the upshot is, you can get a free song a day from now on, with a playlist for songs that go live during each issue of the paper. Bookmark it...

Snipe MPfrees - Issue #1 by snipelondon

Snipe MPfrees - Issue #2 by snipelondon

Daniel Bjarnason - Processions

Written forThe Line Of Best Fit

Okay, I'm gonna come clean: I volunteered to review this record because I love the Bedroom Community label, and I'm interested in all things Icelandic. Little did I realise I'd be signing up to spend hours staring at a blank screen as I slowly realised the depth of my ignorance on the subject of contemporary classical composition. Sure, I know a little about some of the big hitters - Xenakis, Reich, Messiaen. I listen to bands that flirt with classical style if not structures; Final Fantasy, Sufjan Stevens, Simon Bookish. But the lack of words forthcoming after listening to Daníel Bjarnason's unarguably accomplished "Processions" felt... a little like vertigo, to be honest.

Which is probably quite fitting, as Processions is a thoroughly uneasy affair. The composer, who shares the Bedroom Community label with the mercurial Nico Muhly, has a knack for twisting arrangements into counter-intuitive, teetering structures that never afford the listener time to get comfortable. The sounds seem to jar against each other, creating a nervy tension that permeates the album. The first two tracks of the first movement (entitled 'Bow To String') could soundtrack Jack Nicholson creeping around that huge abandoned hotel in The Shining slowly losing his shit.

The second movement, Processions, starts with a grand flourish but still maintains an awkward tension, reeling and spinning, punctuated by dizzying smashes of percussion. I can only imagine the imagery going on in Mr Bjarnason's head at this point, despite the inherently cinematic feel of his music. Moments of calm creep up but don't last long, creating a constant sense of disorientation; danger, even. When a motif does recur it's in fractured, twisted shapes and shadows that continue to restlessly explore - there are ever more possibilities within this utterly impressive work.

The final piece, Skelja, is based around plucked string harmonics, groaning undertones and feedback; it sounds almost like Hitchcock exercising his gift for building tension, via the harp instead of the screen. Feeling both entranced and endlessly disturbed, I don't know whether I'd rather throw this nervy album into a lake or buy it on super heavy vinyl. Maybe you'll have more luck deciding yourself.

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