BELIEFS - LEAPER

Toronto's Beliefs release their second album Leaper on 13 November on the ever impressive Hand Drawn Dracula label. Leaper is an album of shoegaze influenced indiepop that pays homage to the likes of The Pixies, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and even The Wedding Present, who are a personal favourite of mine, so all the signs point to something very good. What you ultimately get is an album that is as fresh as a daisy, full of fuzzy guitars, great washes of noise and superb melodies, leading to an album that is surely bound to make Beliefs pop up on many people's radars.

Opener Tidal Wave is as good an example of what's to come as anything. An opening feedback squall leads to an MBV like drone of distorted guitar and your attention is grabbed from the off.  I don;t know if it was deliberate or not, but the Dinosaur Jr referencing lyrics ("You're living all over me") are a nice touch. It's a superb start, yet it's trumped by the simply outstanding 1992 which is one of the best things I've heard in ages. Part Pixies, part joyous guitar pop, 1992 is a track you HAVE to hear and you can so below - you can't fail to love it.  Colour Of Your Name comes next sounding like The Wedding Present circa Seamonsters but having fun. It's a summery feeling track albeit one masked in wonderfully fuzzy guitars. Drown and the title track take the pace down a notch, focussing more in atmosphere albeit with added feedback and aggression in the latter which compliments the mood nicely before the excellent pop like Ghosts arrives, wrapping you up in its loveliness.

The album is basically a succession of impressive tracks that doesn't relent at all. Morning Light is another noise encased pop gem and it's followed by Go Ahead And Sleep which reminds you of Ride at their most intense before they let Andy Bell have too much influence. The penultimate Leave With You perhaps suffers by comparison to the breathless opening nine tracks of the album but, that said, it still impresses. The record then ends on the brilliantly titled Swooner which starts off quieter than you might expect but builds to a booming, echo laden climax that ends the album perfectly.

As I said at the outset, Beliefs are band you are bound to hear a lot about soon given the quality of Leaper. There is no harm at all in making a record that pays homage to your influences, as long as there is enough of you in the record itself. Beliefs more than achieve that with Leaper and it is an album that you really have to get your hands on.

Leaper by Beliefs is released on 13 November on Hand Drawn Dracula. It's available on download an a limited edition of 300 translucent green vinyl. I've managed to get one.

Beliefs Facebook https://www.facebook.com/weareBeliefs/?fref=ts
Hand Drawn Dracula Beliefs Artist Page http://handdrawndracula.com/artists/beliefs/

BELIEFS - 1992

It can't all be Scottish music or Depeche Mode reviews around here. You might remember that I featured a band called Rolemodel earlier this year - their Claire e.p. is one of the finest things I've heard this year and one you really must check out (http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/rolemodel-claie.html).

Anyway, Rolemodel's e.p. was released on the Hand Drawn Dracula label which is based in Toronto and for the lat few months I've been checking out a lot of their stuff with all of it being really rather cool. I'm particularly in love with 1992 by Beliefs which I thought I'd share here. It's the first release from their forthcoming album Leaper and if 1992 is anything to go by, it's going to be an album you definitely want to hear. Imagine Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and The Pixies having a fight - the result is 1992.

Leaper can be pre-ordered from the Hand Drawn Dracula Bandcamp page here (https://handdrawndracula.bandcamp.com/album/leaper). I've already grabbed one of the 300 limited edition vinyls so be quick. While you're at it, check out Hand Drawn Dracula's whole catalogue as there is a lot there to love. The XIV compilation isn't a bad place to begin exploring - that's available directly from their site.

Hand Drawn Drcaula - http://handdrawndracula.com

Hand Drawn Dracula Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HandDrawnDracula?fref=ts

Beliefs - http://beliefsmusic.com

Beliefs Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/weareBeliefs?fref=ts

REVIEW - MACHINES IN HEAVEN 10 May 2014, Electropolis at The Art School, Glasgow

Electropolis is a night that is regularly put on at the Art School in Glasgow that promises to showcase  the finest up and coming Scottish electronica nights and so it was inevitably a good thing that the Electropolis night on 10 May was headlined by blog favourites Machines In Heaven.

After some great support from the bands above plus special guest Loki, Machines took to the stage and played a set heavy on debut album bordersbreakdown, but one which delighted and surprised both with the way the album tracks sounded and with the way the new track, Taxpayers' Compass, showed a definite progression from the tracks everyone should already be familiar with.

Machines In Heaven, live at The Art School Glasgow 10 May 2014

The whole set was great and I was taken with the way the bordersbreakdown tracks have developed their own life live. On the album their electronic influence comes across, whilst live they develop a power of their own, reminiscent in places of the Pixies or My Bloody Valentine. There are moments of spine tingling majesty in songs like The Eternal Now or Remembrance that set this band above others on the live scene at the moment. Like I have said many times before, you owe it to yourself to check Machines out. When Taxpayers' Compass was played, I could easily have been back in the big top at the Radiohead gigs on Glasgow Green in 2001 - it's of that standard. This is impressive music. Keep an eye out for any Machines In Heaven gigs in your area. You MUST see them.

Setlist: We Fall/The National Monument/Parliament Is Made Of Rice Paper/Mumbo Jingo/Remembrance/The Eternal/Taxpayers' Compass/bordersbreakdown

Stream debut album bordersbreakdown here https://soundcloud.com/machinesinheaven/sets/bordersbreakdown

Machines In Heaven Facebook https://www.facebook.com/machinesinheaven