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ALBUMs

A delightful five song taster of a lot more to come hopefully from Diagrams and Sam Gendes, an ex stalwart of hip folk collective Tunng.

The songs are very varied on the ep from the opening of ‘Night All Night’  with an acoustic  base and honey rich vocals, a lovely song , to the second song  which adds brass and strings and just about a much fun  as you can have with a song, that’s the free flowing  ‘Antelope’ .

Hill brings in some electronics and yet another change of pace.  ‘Woking’ again a nice song this time, with a big ‘Elbow’ feel. Final song Icebreakers is just plain beautiful in a folk groove, with added thunder.

So in conclusion a superb ep that certainly leaves us eager for more.

Diagrams play the End of The Road Festival this weekend and the physical EP still seems to be on Amazon, so get it while you still can.

Pete

9/11

From the opening cords and blast of horns we are comfortable, warm, cosy and happy in familiar territory. ‘A Candle's Fire’ the opening song is pure and simply, sublime. 

‘The Rip Tide’ is (as usual with Beirut) short at 33 minutes but, I guess as the saying goes, "always leave them wanting more"
 
Santa Fe is equally impressive as the opener, pure joy. ‘East Harlem’ is a change of pace to Zach Condon’s delicate side. ‘Goshen’ has beautiful piano set against Zak's vocals and that ever present brass chimes in.
 
On ‘Paynes Bay’ the horns (is there a clarinet there?) are heart wrenching at the start before the song catches pace and the title song, The Rip Tide' is an epic.
 
Like the early autumn chill that has been affecting the UK in recent days, you may well have been grabbing that jumper out of the cupboard for extra warmth; that's exactly what The Rip Tide offers.
 
I'll leave the rest of the album for you to discover because, every home should own this album and yes after the final song 'Port of Call' we are left wanting more!
 
10/11
Pete
 
1. A Candle's Fire 
2. Santa Fe 
3. East Harlem 
4. Goshen 
5. Payne's Bay 
6. The Rip Tide 
7. Vagabond 
8. The Peacock 
9. Port Of Call 
 

Website

It’s a pleasure to discover a band just by chance and with a great record. Satisfaction even, when you can say to your mates, great record by the Ladybug Transistor and they say “who?, never heard of them” and that would have been me less than 24 hours ago. Now I am even a bit smug, if sixteen years too late. 

Thanks to the record store listening post (Rough Trade Records East) I was able to spend some time being captivated by this lovely record during my lunch break. It came as a bit of shock to learn that this band have been around for sixteen years and ‘Clutching Stems’ is their seventh album! 

Formed in 1995 in (where else?) Brooklyn, the band seems to have had a stable (Gary Olson) yet at times, shifting personnel, they also suffered the tragic death of a band member. The band is recorded as being part of the Elephant Six Collective, who can count the likes of Jeff Mangum, Apples In Stereo and The Essex Green amongst their ranks. In 2006 the band contributed to the recording of Kevin Ayers' album ‘The Unfairground’ which Gary Olson also produced.  

I’ve been trying to write a review of this album for a while, but it’s such a freaked-out behemoth it’s hard to know where to start. It’s also a record that’s going to polarize opinion and is likely to lead to much discussion at Rock Club Towers, like the Swans album did last year. For a start, it’s difficult to categorize into a single genre – if there was such a thing as space-garage-pyscho-prog-rebel-rock then this would fit perfectly into its pigeonhole. 

‘The Condition of Nothing’ starts the album with a full on blast of noise – a great rocking sound, brilliant guitar solo, some squelchy keyboard effects and some great dual vocals. Pretty much all you could need from a 6 minute opening track. The track ends abruptly when ‘Movement Starts’, which is a 2 and a half minute interlude of choppy, clanking guitar sounds, ending with a keyboard noise that is clearly achieved when you press the button marked ‘throbbing’. 

Next up is ‘No Other Way’ – at 10 minutes 39 seconds long, this is still only the third longest track on the album. It’s a medium paced instrumental track that starts off with a bass riff and gradually builds and builds. Guitars are layered on, followed by keyboards to create a woozy atmosphere that slowly hypnotizes you before fading away. 

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