PLEASURE BEACH - GO/DREAMER TO THE DAWN

I just subscribed to Flying Vinyl, a project that delivers 5 7 inch singles to your door every month (link below) and my first delivery today contained a number of gems including a single by Belfast five piece Pleasure Beach. 

The single features two tracks Go and Dreamer To The Dawn, both of which combine electronics, dreampop, an Arcade Fire feel and a huge sound and both tracks are fantastic. Dreamer To The Dawn especially sets the pulse racing with its marvellously and shamelessly massive chorus and Go is how Bruce Springsteen might have sounded if he'd come from Belfast and used synthesizers. As introductions go, this single is a cracker.

The band have just released a new e.p. featuring a remix of Go (video below), Dreamer To The Dawn (the title track) and Hayley and are supporting The Vaccines in December on their Belfast gig. Pleasure Beach are certainly a band to keep an eye on.

Flying Vinyl https://www.facebook.com/flyingvinylmusic/?fref=ts

Pleasure Beach Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plsrbeach/?fref=ts

Pleasure Beach Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/pleasurebeachband

MT. DOUBT - MY PAST IS A QUIET BEAST

Mt. Doubt is a solo project by Edinburgh based musician Leo Bargery and his debut album My Past Is A Quiet Beast is something rather special. Mixing introspective lyrics with large scale sounds, think a mix of Radiohead, Arcade Fire and The National, My Past Is A Quiet Beast is a really impressive and confident debut with much promise.

Opener Beast is a slow building, brooding affair, with the phrase "My past is a quiet beast"  repeated throughout, building to a power ending that certainly sounds cathartic for Bargery. The next track Feathers is the opposite of Beast,  all pop and melody and really quite brilliant. It's my stand out track from the album and one you'll certainly want to hear (listen below). Slump displays the darker side of Mt Doubt again, before Bend Sinister lets some light back in albeit in the dark yet optimistic way The National handle their lighter moments. It's been said many times already by those who've heard Mt. Doubt, but there is definitely something of the Matt Berninger in the way Bergary delivers his vocals and that's of course no bad thing at all.

Fans of this blog and the Almost Scottish Fiction releases will already be familiar with the excellent Bend which featured on the third e.p. (here) and the track works beautifully when heard in its album setting. Dancing Phantoms and  I Break Spirit follow Bend and both are atmospheric slices of dark indie pop and they lead to the swirling, gripping Telmessos which, like many tracks here sounds like it would be comfortably at home in some pretty big venues. The influence of The National is again felt on another of the album's stand outs Soft Wrists, before we end on Asunder, a rousing, joyous finale to what has been a hugely enjoyable album.

My Past Is A Quiet Beast really is an intriguing and rather wonderful debut and it deserves as much attention as it can possibly get. Highly recommended.

Mt. Doubt play live at The Hug & Pint, Glasgow on Tuesday 4 August headlining the Scottish Fiction Presents... gig. Tickets are £5 and are available from www.hugandpint.com

My Past Is A Quiet Beast is out now and is available on Mt. Doubt's Soundcloud page and on cd here http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ByLandCollective

KILL THE WAVES - THE ONE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN

Kill The Waves are a Glasgow based six piece who first appeared on many people's radars this year with the release of the tracks Vow and Better Days on Soundcloud, both of which are storming tracks. Better Days is simply sublime and, if you do nothing else after reading this, go and grab that song free from the band's Soundcloud page as it will simply make your life better. Hot on the heels of that free download, the band have released their debut album The One That Could Have Been and, pleasingly, the album is a real triumph.

The band combine a mix of electronics and stirring Radiohead or Arcade Fire like power to produce a collection of tracks that grow and develop with each listen. Opener Oak Tree sets the scene perfectly; a brooding tale of love backed with some superbly flickery electronic percussive sounds that ploughs the same furrow Radiohead's Talk Show Host does. Mine follows, slapping you in the face with some quite magnificent electropop before the title track slows the pace and darkens the mood with distinct echoes of The Cure in places. It's followed by Vow which you should already know (see previous praise from me) which then leads into the driving Friends and Deadwave which has a lead synth line Vince Clarke would be proud of. That the song then turns into a gothic, rated vocal joy only adds to the enjoyment. Plastic Face is another slice of excellent synthpop before the once again Cure influenced Shadow enters, with its sound and feel redolent of that band's Disintegration high point , specifically Homesick, which can never be a bad thing can it? Up next is the genuinely brilliant Better Days. It would have been easy to kick the album off with this track as it is a incredibly striking song but I'm glad that easy path wasn't followed as it sits really well at this stage in the album and Oak Tree is an excellent opener. We round off with  Sun Song  and the initially playfully electro sound but all of a sudden guitar explosions of Part 2 which finishes the album off perfectly. 

The One That Could Have Been is a superb debut album that is brim full of top tunes and Kill The Waves are clearly a band full of confidence in their sound and rightly so. A hugely enjoyable debut release.

The One That Could Have Been is released on Bloc+ Music and can be purchased on ITunes, 7Digital, Amazon mp3 and many more digital retailers.

Kill The Waves Facebook https://www.facebook.com/killthewavesofficial?fref=ts

Kill The Waves Twitter https://twitter.com/killthewaves

Bloc+ Music http://blocmusic.org

NEW BANDS 2015 NO 4 - KILL THE WAVES

Glasgow sextet Kill The Waves are another band rightly garnering much praise with their mix of electronics and guitars, producing a sound not unlike Radiohead and Arcade Fire clashing together and combining their more melodic moments. Their first offering on soundcloud was the immense Better Days which you can hear below. 

The band have signed to Glasgow's ace label Bloc+Music and their debut album The One That Could Have Been, which I can't wait to hear, will be released on that label on 20 April 2015. To tide you over until then, head to their soundcloud pages to download new track Vow (listen below) and go to The Skinny's site to see the video (HERE)

There is surely an exciting future ahead for Kill The Waves and I can't wait to hear their album. Keep an eye out for any gigs they have coming up too as if they can translate their recorded sound to the live arena, it will be something well worth hearing.


Kill The Waves Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/killthewavesofficial?fref=ts
Bloc+Music Facebook https://www.facebook.com/blocmusicglasgow?fref=ts