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Merz, aka Conrad Lambert is back. It’s not the first time he’s been back – after walking away from huge hype and a major label deal in 1999, disappearing completely, he returned in 2005 with the critically lauded album, Loveheart. His third album, Moi et Mon Camion, is set to produce the same kind of fawning from all corners with its mixture of beautiful balladeering, heartfelt tunes, intricate production and a display of Merz’s multi-instrumental talents.
Since Loveheart was released, Merz has been touring Europe with The Earlies, playing all over the world at festivals as diverse as Green Man, Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland and SXSW. More acclaim followed in the US, where the track ‘Dangerous Heady Love Scheme’ was iTunes Single of the Week, and ‘Postcard From A Darkstar’ was also Single of the Week with influential LA radio station KCRW.
Conrad was joined by a few notable musicians for this record. Charlie Jones, some time bass player with Robert Plant & Jimmy Page and Goldfrapp helped out, as did Clive Deamer, drummer for Portishead and Roni Size and coincidentally, now drumming with Robert Plant. The Earlies also join Conrad for a guest spot, singing backing vocals on ‘Call Me’, dropping in on their way back from Glastonbury.
Where Loveheart was a more solitary and lonely affair, Moi et Mon Camion puts its arms around Loveheart and says everything’s alright. “That’s the spirit of the record; it contains themes of displacement with detached resignation, humanity and commonality”.
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“Harrisons’ dashing debut proves there’s more to them than a postcode shared with the Arctic Monkeys” UNCUT
“Combines spikiness with a raw dancefloor pulse.” Q MAGAZINE
No Fighting In The War Room is the debut album from hotly tipped Sheffield four-piece Harrisons. Fans of earthy lyrics, northern accents, hard guitars and good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll read on, but don’t be too quick to pigeonhole – Harrisons may hail from the same fertile scene that spawned the ubiquitous Arctic Monkeys, but this debut album is in a class of its own.
“We feel we have made an album of diversity,” say the band. “It sounds like everything we wanted and more. It has the slower numbers, it has the faster numbers, the upbeat and downbeat numbers. The production is perfect to our initial vision and we couldn’t be happier.”
Recorded in five weeks at Lincolnshire’s Chapel Studios with producer Hugh Jones, the album is a tour de force of British guitar music, recalling the slice-of-life lyrics of The Jam, the intensity of The Clash and the attitude of The Verve. Clearly, producer Jones, whose prior credits include Echo And The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes and The Stranglers, was the perfect man for the job.
“The endless list of high quality bands that he produced left his ability in no question and working with him bore fruits almost instantly,” say the band. “We all learned a great deal from just observing him work and he has the most fascinating rock and roll stories any young music geek could wish for.”
The outcome is an album of contrasts, ringing with northern charm, blue-collar social commentary and a wealth of musical styles. Former single Monday’s Arms is vitriolic disco, Take It To The Mattress has a dangerously infectious riff and Blue Note is a terrace anthem in the making. Elsewhere, Man Of The Hour is a taut exercise in post-punk, Listen is the album’s lighters-aloft moment and Come For Me brings things to a dramatic, fist-clenching close.
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"This timeless third collaboration between Teutonic ambient legend Roedelius and Ohio-based neo-classical composer Tim Story exceeds even their fine 'Lunz' album from 03, to which this a sequel, as Roedelius hypnotic arpeggiated piano is evveloped by Story's electronic studio trickery, mournful strings and oboe to suitably haunting effect. It makes for elegant yet gripping listening, from the quite impressive opener 'As It Were' to the dark synth washes of the title track and the sombre, tripped-out atmospherics of 'Riddled.' And with a beborn Cluster and Harmonia reignited for the first time in 30 years, the 73 year-old Roedelius' twilight purple patch shows no signs of abating...."for fans of Boards of Canada" - Rocksound: 8/10
"Witness the graceful interweaving of strings and piano from the first album in four years to feature ambient electronica pioneer Roedelius who has been on hand to remix the likes of Ulrich Schnauss, Elbow and Lloyd Cole in recent years" - The List
"......sounds like a cross between Phil Evans and Philip Glass or Debussy" - MOJO ****
"Inlandish is their third collaboration, and the best, being full of of heart-melting melodies and subtle backdrops they describe as "emotionally ambiguous soundscares".........Faultless" - The Independent *****
"This is a record to set alongside 1977's Cluster & Eno, but also Air and Aphex Twin: beautifully eerie, a world unto itself" - The Guardian ****
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Half Cousin is a collective revolving around main songwriter/singer Kevin Cormack. The ethos behind the music of Half Cousin is “short, melodic songs made from junk!”. It’s perfect pop, but rather the pop of Tom Waits or Arab Strap. Not trying too hard. Music made with accordions, clarinet and wooden blocks all tripping over each other. But like all great music it just doesn’t need to try, it just is.
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In their short time together (1973-76), the trio released two albums: 1974’s strung-out ‘Musik Von Harmonia’ and the friendlier electro-pop of ‘De Luxe’. Now, with renewed interest in them and the Krautrock ‘genre’ in general, comes new material. Well, not new exactly, but unreleased, in the shape of ‘Harmonia live 1974’, a dusted-down recording of hypnotic machine music from a gig on March 23rd 1974. It was recorded at the Penny Station Club (a former railway station in Griessem) ‘in front of about fifty people,’ according to Neu! mainman Rother, who played the same venue in 1971 when he was still a member of Kraftwerk.