BOOHOOHOO - DEBUTHOOHOO

BooHooHoo are the newest artist on the impeccable Last Night From Glasgow label and their debut e.p., the rather niftily titled DebutHooHoo has just been released. It's available in all the usual digital places and on a very limited USB wristband which is a quite wonderful thing. That's the key thing about Last Night From Glasgow releases - they're unique and joyous beasts, each one as inventive as the last. The bands whose music fill the formats are happily of the same ilk.

DebutHooHoo is three songs long, each a full on riot of synthpop meets disco meets 80's style power pop. Lead track Mould Me is the star with its synth washes sweeping majestically through layers of pure pop wrapped in synth bassline that could easily be an offcut from A Broken Frame era Depeche Mode. That, as you all should know by now, is no bad thing. Think Leave In Silence's one finger bassline, realise how perfect that is, and that'll give you a clue. As all good songs should do, Mould Me is carried along by its impossible to ignore chorus. It's one of those choruses that you feel immediately familiar with even though you're hearing it for the first time. An impressive feat and an superb track.

There's an 80's style feel throughout here, though that's not to say that this is an overtly retro feeling release. Dreams Tonight features an dangerously amount high of funk bass, but it survives, moving quickly into Hot Chip territory, echoing that band's ability to make the even inanimate objects dance. Closing track Now Is The Season turns all the influences I've mentioned above up by a factor of about 100, building up to a frenzied blizzard of sampled vocals and yet another stupendous chorus. You're almost of breath by the time it ends. I think I can speak for everyone in Nice N Sleazy's at the e.p. launch gig on 30 November when I say the live version left me feeling like that.

DebutHooHoo is yet another marvellous example of just how fertile Glasgow's electronic scene is. One of my favourite bands at the moment are The Insomniac Project, a band I've covered many times on this blog, and BooHooHoo are following in their footsteps with this release, with a pop lead take on disco infused synthpop. These are exciting times with bands like these showing everyone how to make this music work and DebutHooHoo is a captivating release. I'd recommend you get this.

DebutHooHoo by BooHooHoo is available now on Last Night From Glasgow.

BooHooHoo Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boohoohooband/?fref=ts

TONGUES - HEARTBEAT

Tongues return with Heartbeat, their first new release of 2016 and, as we've come to expect from Tongues, it's a track that you can't help but love. Balancing complex music which brings to mind the likes of Hot Chip and Radiohead in one of their better moods, with the band's trademark electropop and all topped off with a chorus that perfectly fits the currently summery feel of their hometown Glasgow, Heartbeat is a track you don't want to miss.

Grab the single at the following places and watch our for a new e.p. from Tongues very soon. You should also note that Heartbeat is the first release on Little Tiger, a brand new independent label run from the Riverside Music Complex in Busby. Keep an eye out for more from them too.

Hypem.com - hypem.com/track/2gmjs/Tongues.+-+Heartbeat
Spotify - play.spotify.com/album/2SIrnSrxFUrcHjZPONQ5hi
iTunes - itunes.apple.com/album/heartbeat-…8&ign-mpt=uo%3D1
Facebook - facebook.com/tonguesmusic

LIVE REVIEW: HOT CHIP, THE ART SCHOOL, GLASGOW 12 MAY 2015

Hot Chip are one of the best live bands I've seen. Their shows are always an event and never fail to get crowds jumping around in one sweaty mass which is a great thing to be a part of. Usually, that would mean the Barrowlands or the O2 Academy in Glasgow, but on Tuesday, the band played a warm up show at the Art School in front of what can only have been around 500 people at the most. To see the band play such an intimate show whilst playing a full set was really something very special indeed.

The show was a mix of old and brand new tracks with previews of material from Why Make Sense? which is out on 18 May. They opened with Hurrache Lights from the album and immediately got the venue jumping. The song was a beefed up version of the album track and set the tone for a superb set. One Life Stand followed before a superb Night & Day blew my sonic socks off. The new album, after my first couple of listens, is filled with beautiful melodic electronic pop and the tracks plated from that at the gig, such as Easy To Get, Started Right and the quite stunning Cry For You really stood out. 

Of the older tracks, Over And Over and Ready For The Floor were as crowd pleasing as ever, but I was most impressed by Flutes and Alley Cats, for the purely selfish reason that I love those tracks. After a seemingly non stop main set, the band came back for a brief encore ending with an electronic take on Bruce Springsteen's Dancing In The Dark which was marvellous.

It's such a joy to have Hot Chip back again and this gig was the perfect appetiser for the forthcoming album. I've already got my tickets fro 16 October at the Barrowlands and, based on the show on Tuesday, that will be another stupendous Hot Chip gig. If you haven't seen them live, change that as soon as you can as there are very few bands around who can put on a show as good as this.

NEW BANDS 2015 NO.5 - TONGUES

It seems that every time I look at Twitter or Facebook, I discover a new Glasgow based electronic band and for someone who tries to cover that sort of thing, that's excellent. Last night I came across Tongues and, by a rather marvellous coincidence, they've released new track Anymore today. Tongues are described on their website (http://www.tonguesmusic.com/) as "Bold Synths, Deep Subs and Vocoders" which pretty much nails it. With definite echoes of the likes of early Hot Chip, Tongues' debut track, Colours In The Dark, introduces the band perfectly. It's an instantly memorable track and one that has rightly been praised by anyone who's heard it

The follow up, Anymore, is a sparser, more minimal affair that combines electronics, beats and a superb chorus to quite wonderful effect. It's something that I'd recommend you go and hear straight away.


Tongues' debut gig is on 12 April at Broadcast in Glasgow and it's definitely one to get along to. For more information, check out their website above or the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/tonguesmusic?fref=ts)

HOT CHIP ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE AND ALBUM

Hooray! Hot Chip are back. This morning, they've announced a new single, Huarache Lights, and a new album Why Make Sense? which is released on Domino Records on May 18th. There is also a small UK tour prior to that with dates in Glasgow, Manchester and London. Here's the video for Huarache Lights which is, unsurprisingly brilliant

The album will be available on vinyl, deluxe double vinyl with bonus ep, cd, deluxe cd and download. If Huarache Lights is anything to go by, it's going to be huge. The tracklist is:

1. Huarache Lights

2. Love Is The Future

3. Cry For You

4. Started Right

5. White Wine And Fried Chicken

6. Dark Night

7. Easy To Get

8. Need You Now

9. So Much Further To Go

10. Why Make Sense?

11. Burning Up

12. Separate

13. Move With Me

14. Re-Harmonize

Keep an eye on http://dominorecordco.com/whymakesense/ for all information about the album.

Hot Chip Twitter https://twitter.com/Hot_Chip

Hot Chip Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hotchip?fref=ts

NEW BUILD - POUR IT ON

New Build's debut album, Yesterday Was Loved And Lost, was a joyous thing filled to the brim with supremely catchy tunes and featuring Do You Not Feel Loved? which remains and will remain one of the finest electronic songs ever recorded. After that release the band returned to their day jobs which, of course, include Felix and Al's in Hot Chip, but happily they've returned with their second release Pour It On, which not only matches their debut's electronic exuberance but sees it, raises it and betters it in quite brilliant style.

One noticeable difference this time round is that Pour It On is far more electronic than Yesterday Was Loved And Lost, and that is no bad thing at all. Opener The Sunlight is typical of the band's approach; it's a fairly lengthy track at just over 6 minutes, that builds up layer upon layer of electronics before settling into a groove that sweeps you away. The final track Pour It On works in a similar way and both bookend the album marvellously. Conversely, track two Look In Vain is an electropop cracker that updates Dare era Human League, mixes it with Vince Clarke esque synths and wraps it all in melodies that are impossible to forget. Throughout the album you can pick out influences such as those two, New Order and so on as well as the likes of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, neither of which are of course particularly surprising given the band's members.

Joy and Al in the studio

The album is full of delights from the songs I've mentioned above to the arpeggiated joy of Different Kind to to the slower, more melodic Witness and beyond. It's a great album from start to finish and is highly recommended to anyone with any interest in electronic pop music. You really should check it out.

New Build Facebook https://www.facebook.com/newbuildband?fref=ts

New Build Twitter https://twitter.com/newbuildband