New Band of the Week - 2-9/13 - Forrests

So, we're back to school, work, lounging around. Not sure what your deal is, but I'm back to school/work literally today, so that means a morning commute. And that my friend means listening to a tonne of music. And what better place to start than Forrests, who, are an extremely worthy new band of the week.

Falling somewhere in between Fuck Buttons, Mogwai with the slightest hint of Skrillex, it is hard to pin point precisely where their influences lie as, the sound encompasses a broad and eclectic range. 'Billions' below hits like a wave with sound washing gently yet simultaneously aggressively into your ears, and then a small Super Furries-esque sample lifts the songs with occasional drops.

The fuzzed basslines hide their hard edge by providing melody underneath the sometimes Cathedral type reverbed samples, which usually float on top, again washing the listener in textures and subtle chord changes. Forrests switch brilliantly between the dance dynamic and quieter blissed out  moments, and that's what set them out from the crowd. Do give them a listen, they've certainly made my morning commute playlist.

Weekly new roundup - 12/08/13 ft. No Age, Hey!Rabbit, Drenge, M83, Best Friends, 65daysofstatic and more!

No Age's full upcoming record, 'An Object' to stream below. Need we add more?

We did indeed mention Drenge's newest song, 'Face Like a Skull' two weeks back. They've only gone and made a video for it!

Art is Hard, another one of our fave DIY labels are releasing the new double A side single from Best Friends, on 23 September, entitled 'Happy Anniversary/Nosebleeds. Listen to the first half below.


M83 have revealed a brand new video for 'Claudia Lewis' taken from their double album 'Hurry Up We're Dreaming'. Directed by Bruce Dallas-Howard, this is a sci-fi/high school themed blue haired slab off visual candy.

You may or not know, but 7th September will be the first-ever Cassette Store Day. The event has been described as “a celebration of a physical product that is accessible, fun, cheap and still going strong in the turbulent current musical climate”. The release list is looking stellar, with some fuzzy goodness from At The Drive-In, Flaming Lips, Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Efterklang, Xiu Xiu, Fear Of Men, Playlounge and loads more. Get your pencils ready! Full release list HERE

Lo-fi wrestling obsessed couple, Hey!Rabbit have a new recording and it sounds spliffing.

White Denim have revealed details of their upcoming album, Corsicana Lemonade. To be released on 28 October, you can listen to ‘Pretty Green’ – the first track to be previewed below.

65daysofstatic have let loose several teasers revealing details on their forthcoming new album and our sources can now confirm that the album will be titled ‘Wild Light’ and is going to be released on the 16th September 2013. Teaser trailer goodness -

No One Knows What is Happening from 65daysofstatic on Vimeo.

Weekly News Roundup w/ CocoRosie, Gum, Deerhunter, M83, Dirty Beaches, No Joy, The Besnard Lakes and more!

Pretty stoked to hear that CocoRosie are back and will be releasing their fifth studio album, Tales of a Grass Widow, on May 27.  Taken from their forthcoming release, eerie, off-kilter After the Afterlife, is a treat in weird, fairytale melancholia. Have a listen:

Deerhunter has dropped a video of the title track 'Monomania' from their upcoming album release. It's an upbeat, grungy, jangley number - so we clearly love it. 

One of our favourite new bands Gum who we interviewed over Xmas have released their first official video. Check it! They also play 333 Mother Bar on May 11th. 

M83 has released a movie soundtrack for the latest Tom Cruise film Oblivion - isn't life great sometimes?



Dirty Beaches has unveiled new track Landscapes in the Mist. They're releasing a double, yes double, LP pretty soon, entitled: Drifters/Love is the Devil. 



No Joy are back in the game and releasing Wait to Pleasure on 22 April. Booyakasha! In the meantime, check out track Hare Tarot Lies; your day will win:



Au.ra - our New Band of the Week a while back, has released a new video for Pyramid:

Aussie grunge-poppers, Scott and Charlene's Wedding has announced a brand new full length record, due out in July on Fire Records. They've got a bunch of European dates coming up, including one with Upset the Rhythm on 6 July. 



Probably the best band from Canada ever, The Besnard Lakes, have their new album, Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO, streaming in full over at Pitchfork. Click through on the below image of their album artwork to listen.

The Field have remixed At The Drive In's One Armed Scissor! Need we say more.

SNH Interviews...Team Ghost

We've made no secret of our love for Team Ghost. After the release of a few EPs since their first single in 2009, we, along with their ever growing fan base have been eagerly awaiting their first LP. Rituals, their full length debut finally came out last Monday to critical acclaim and widespread radio play. We caught up with frontman Nicolas Fromageau ahead of their UK tour which kicks off on April 8th at Birthdays in Dalston.

Thoughts on returning to the UK….

Oh yeah!! Playing in the UK is always a pleasure for us. Most of our favourite bands come from England, and it feels like you have a lot of respect for bands playing live. The public is great most of the time. And we love your tasty food (no, no, kidding…). 

Team Ghost's sound…

Well, it changed a lot since we are five of us now. Each member of the band participated in the composition. We spent a lot of time in Benoit's studio, as he has a lot of amazing synths, so we made the whole electronic stuff at his place. Then the five of us try and play as loud as possible!! So, I guess it's a mix between our electronic and noisy rock influences. 

Main influences behind Team Ghost…

We've been influenced a lot by bands like Slowdive, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Joy Division, but also Brian Eno, Tangerine Dram, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh… Cinema is also a big influence, we are mad about John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento… But a beautiful landscape could influence us too... 

Impact on touring and recording  after being half of M83…

Well, it was a great experience. We had some very good times, and I learned a lot of things. Maybe I feel a bit more self confident thanks to these past years. Maybe at that time, things were easier for many reasons, but I really feel like enjoying touring again, releasing good records. That's my job.

The actual music sounds very complex at times. Is the song writing process relatively easy and how do you put the songs together?

I wrote most of the demos, but they changed a lot at Benoit's studio, and in rehearsals. Nothing really easy but nothing really hard. We all wanted to make the best music we could: Christophe wrote a lot of lyrics, Benoit too, and the whole band did his best. It's team work actually.

A lot of the songs titles on the new record have rather sad names, is their a sadness underlying in the theme of the record, or is that just the way it worked out?

Well, it's not an easy question! Personally, I've always been attracted by melancholy in art. Not especially gothic stuff, but most of my favourite books-movies-records are kinda sad or dark. I have to confess I don't exactly know why...

The album has been a long time coming for your long time fans, how are Team Ghost feeling about it? Nervous? Excited? Jubilant?

Hum, depends on days!! We did our best anyway, so no matter the way this record will be welcomed, we're proud of it. In my opinion, it's great!!!

Long gone are the days of the UK solely having Daft Punk; French indie music is becoming more prevalent in the UK. Who from the current crop of upcoming French bands could you recommend to Scene Not Herd readers?

Actually, I'm not really into recent bands, Benoit and Christophe make me discover some of them from times to times, (however) my favourites are Yeti Lane, Zombie Zombie, Fortune, Chateau Marmont, Turzi, Press Gang Metropol. Check them out, they're amazing.

And how about any UK bands catching your attention?

There's a new band called, hum… My Bloody Valentine? Their new album is kinda great!!

Your one desert island disc?

Just one? Hard question! I'd say Evol by Sonic Youth. Just one, you sure? 

There you have it folks. Be sure to buy their record now, as it is superb. Can be bought HERE. They also tour the UK from April 8th, should be amazing, dates are:

April 8th – London, Birthdays

April 9th – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club – free show

April 10th – Glasgow, Broadcast

April 11th – Manchester, Soup Kitchen

April 12th – Brighton, The Blind Tiger Club

SNH EoY - Top Tracks of 2012

Music, and our love of it, is what brings us as a group together - at the moment, technically, only two of us live in London right now (sorry Fallon). This is our first collective series of posts that we've all contributed to; the internet is an awesome beast! Anyway - from all of us, here are our top five tracks of the year - and what a year it's been! 

Duncan: Chromatics – ‘Back From The Grave’ from the album ‘Kill for Love’

Chromatics perfectly toed the line between electro apocalypse and dreamy pop on ‘Kill for Love’ – without a doubt one of the best records of the year – and ‘Back From The Grave’ encapsulates all that was great about their music. I resist calling it a stand out track, because the whole kit and caboodle was mind-blowing. This songs drips with atmosphere and a finely tuned interplay between bleeps and twangs... oh, and when Jewel sings “and babies are born and monsters are born” you could be watching the opening credits of the best 80s time-travel horror film that was never made. Stunning.

James: Tame Impala - 'Elephant' from the album 'Lonerism'

There's something joyous about this track from Tame Impala's Lonerism, also a contender for album of the year. Like fellow pop-progressives Battles and Of Montreal, the refreshing thing about Kevin Parker's experiments is how fun they are. There's nothing po-faced about it, just an instantly catchy melody, head-nodding pulse and gleefully grandiose synthesiser that heists the track mid-way through and won't give it back.

Miranda: How To Dress Well - '& It Was U' from the album 'Total Loss' 

Here comes fun!! 

What a tune! This song has been at the top of my morning wake up playlist since it's release in September. Despite largely shying away from the resurgence of R&B this year* (which those trend ethnographers could smell a mile off), I couldn't help but get drawn into the extraordinary intimacy of this new singer - the guy's had a pretty tumultuous life which he as unabashedly expresses through his blog and in interviews; he gives his songs vulnerability through a raw simplicity that strikes me as a lot more real then say, The XX. Plus, he used to practice his singing/pitch to Michael Jackson song in his car, so for an old MJ obsessive, mega street cred there. once the stomp kicks in, I DARE you not to dance. 

Totally striped down, totally jammin'.... it's a great outlook for the day, neigh, year ahead! 

*Ok, ok I may have tickets to see Jessie Ware in 2013..

Alwin: M83 - 'Midnight City' - from the album 'Hurry Up We're Dreaming' (even though it came out in 2011!)

Easily, and most definitely Midnight City by M83 (yes, even though it came out in 2011!). Crossover hit of the year and my soundtrack to all the fun moments in 2012. It has awesome harmonies in the verse, a screaming monkey for an intro, an acceptable sax solo and its pure fun. 

Sophie: Cloud Nothings - 'Stay Useless' from the album 'Attack on Memory'

Cloud Nothings' epic anthem ‘Stay Useless’ has totally summed up my manic year in its entirety.  I’ve just been far too busy to just stand still, do nothing and just well, stay useless. The propellant dynamic of the song as pretty much caused an opposite effect – listening to this track is like taking twenty hits of espresso in one go and there is no way anyone would chill out after that.  It’s always guaranteed to put a smile on my dial, and for that, it’s a winner. 

Primavera 2012 - Review #2

About 20 of us went to Primavera Sound this year and whilst the line up was not as top notch as that of 2011, I have to say I’ve had one of the greatest times of my life with some of the best people on the planet.

Not often do you come across a festival so scattered with such explosions of brilliance. It’s not only about the music, the whole vibe of Primavera is different. The sun makes everything seem alive and transient, but the crowd is different too; the people are respectful, less try-hard and generally pretty mellow in comparison to a lot of British festival goers. I guess everything looks a bit better when it’s not caked in mud and people are more inclined to chill out when they are not involved in a battle for the horrendous toilets. (I didn’t have to queue once for the toilets at PS – amazing!)

So here are my top three highlights from the festival:

M83

Having seen them back in the winter in Heaven, they were just as good, perhaps even better than I remember. The whole vibe of their set was just pure happiness and the moment of the festival was when they played ‘Midnight City’.


Beach House:

Having never seen Beach House I wasn’t disappointed when the killed it during their set; great show.

Beach House - On The Sea from Mark Lager on Vimeo.

The Walkmen

I caught these guys at last year’s Prima and I loved them so much I’ve spent an entire year listening to their back catalogue to the point where they’re now one of my favourite bands. We had a great spot for their set; it was right at the front, elevated above the rest of the audience so we could see every single thing. I’m super happy Bjork cancelled, because it meant they were added to the bill. I love the Walkmen! 

Other top moments: the hotdogs! Having a massive boogie to Justice; the Black Lips playing ‘Bad Kids’; out dancing all of the people off their faces at the Field; Chromatics cover of ‘I’m on Fire’; Laura Marling in the Auditorium; finally catching Thee Oh Sees; massive Gin-filled glasses for 7 euros; this amazing Spanish energy drink we discovered on the last day; our awesome apartment balcony; the garden for lost cats; THE BEACH. (SA)

Thee Oh Sees

Laura Marling

The Cure

M83

New Band of the Week - 12/12/11 - WALLS

Not so much our newest band we've featured, but I feel compelled to give these guys our Band of the Week after they blew me away as the support band for The Field last Thursday.

WALLS are an incredible blissed out cut of shoegazed laden sonically challenging electronica, with some mean beats to get your groove on to. Veering towards a dancier sound, this duo pull influences from everywhere apparently, from everything to Mogwai to Daft Punk. Hints of early M83 lie scattered amongst the shards of echoey guitars and industrial landscapes.

 Again like all my favourite artists, they find a way to pull a plethora of sounds together to create real substance and real melody within the walls of sound they create (mind the pun). This is demonstrated rather well on their track Heat Gaze.

The future looks bright for WALLS. Rave reviews follow their every release, and their live show, as referred to earlier, is nothing less than ear bleedingly brilliant.


  Walls - Coracle (Kompakt) by walls_band

Photos - M83 - Heaven - 01/12/11

Three of us went to Heaven last week to catch M83. Here are some photos:

 Midnight City by M83 

The third podcast....FINALLY!!!!

The music we play on this August/September edition makes this worth the long wait. Enjoy :)

SNH Podcast #3 August September by scenenotherd
Featured tracks -
Ponytail - Easy Peasy
Bilge Pump - Thank You Very Much
Yellow Ostrich - Blue
Warm Digits - Weapons Destruction
True Widow - Jackyl
Collarbones - Don Juan