CD Review: 1402 Valentines Massacre [Single] (Black Light Theatre)

‘1402 Valentines Massacre’ is the debut single by Sheffield-based indie band Black Light Theatre. On first listen, I wasn’t too impressed & was ready to write them off as the generic indie clones I referred to in the Editors gig review. However, I decided to give them a chance & keep listening. ‘1402 Valentines Massacre’ definitely grew on me, but it’s still a fairly mediocre song in my opinion & I’m not really a fan of the lyrics. The nice surprise to the single is actually the B-side, ‘Piece of Me’, which I quite like (the tune & chorus are stuck in my head as I type this). Black Light Theatre has potential but, like I said about The Cinematics in a previous gig review, they will have to work hard to be noticed in a time where similar sounding bands are fighting for the spotlight. Also, to truly get a feel for the band, I think I’d have to see them live.

Overall, the single isn’t bad, I just think the A-side & B-side should swap places!

The single has been out since October 1st & is available from most HMV stores around the country, some smaller record stores & also from iTunes & Napster. For a full list, visit their MySpace page.

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Official Site | MySpace

Gig Review: Editors

25th October at Nottingham Rock City.
Photographs by Michael.

I discovered Editors exactly two years ago when I came across the track ‘Blood’ on Victor Timofeev’s (an artist) MySpace page. I thought the song was great & I could really relate to it at the time. I had recently bought tickets to see Franz Ferdinand in November 2005 & was pleased to find out that Editors would be supporting them. It was an amazing gig & I was keen on the idea of seeing them as headliners.

Two years on, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy seeing them again. I haven’t really been listening to that kind of music lately & I was sceptical about it. The support bands weren’t a big help in giving me hope for the evening either. What is it with terrible support recently? The Rakes had awful support bands back in February as well.

Anyway, the first band, Ra Ra Riot, was just awful in my opinion. I felt a tiny pang of hope because of the two girls playing cello & violin, but their instruments were falling apart as they played & I think I only heard the instruments in the final song. I really wasn’t a fan of them. The second band, The Kissaway Trail, weren’t much better. I’m pretty sure most of their lyrics consisted of “la la la la” & “woohoo”. In fact, I think one of their songs is actually called ‘La La Song’. Er, yeah. There was nothing interesting about the music either, it was all very samey. By 9 o’clock (it was an early gig) I was very bored & had convinced myself it was going to be the worst gig I’d ever been to.

However, Editors completely turned the night around & didn’t bore me for one minute! They put on an amazing show & the songs sounded great. I even think that ‘Blood’ sounded better than when I saw them last! They have definitely got better live & it helps when you have a solid fan base who know all of your songs. They played all of the singles, as well as new single ‘The Racing Rats’, & some other great tracks such as, ‘When Anger Shows’ & ‘Lights’. When they came back for the encore, the band even had a water fight with the crowd which was highly amusing! It’s good to know they have a sense of humour. Some guys behind us were poking fun/shouting at the quiet guitarist, Chris, who I felt a little bad for, but at least he eventually humoured them while they were chanting “Chris, Chris, give us a wave”!

Editors are a great band & I feel a bit bad for recently lumping them in with all the generic indie bands cropping up at the moment. I guess it’s just the swarms of Editors clones that irritate me.

If you’re a fan of the band, you can stream the full set the band recently played for the BBC Electric Proms here.

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Official Site | MySpace | Tour Dates

Demo Review: Maquete (Heroína)

Heroína is a one woman experimental/noise project from Porto, Portugal & started making music this year. At present Heroína has one demo, called ‘Maquete’, which is available for streaming on the official site & download online. Although it is not music that everyone will enjoy or appreciate, I think it would suit fans of avant-garde and/or Mike Patton projects such as Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and, of course, his infamous solo works. The demo is mainly acoustic/instrumental pieces & it is certainly interesting. Personally, the two stand-out tracks are ‘Lixo Desperdiçado’ & ‘Latas’. Unfortunately the rest is a bit slow & grating for me, as are most projects like this. It is not really the type of music I enjoy, but I’m sure a select few will like it.

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Official Site | MySpace | Download Demo

Halflight

Photograph by BenjImages.com

I learnt of Halflight back when I was working on my “Frock You” project in 2006. The project focused on women in music, particularly in the South Wales area. They were definitely one of the best bands I came across in the area & I’m kicking myself for not going to see them (or vocalist Sarah Howells’ solo shows) live when I had the chance.

I’d sort of forgotten about them until recently, but their song, ‘Pick Me’, came on my iPod shuffle about a week ago & I got the chills listening to it again. It really is a great song & you can get it for free on their Last.FM page. You can also stream a number of tracks from older EPs. ‘Treading Water’ is another track to definitely check out, such a haunting song.

As their biography says: Halflight began at the end of 2003 after Sarah Howells’ previous band Jylt, tragically came to an end. Bassist, singer & best friend, Nia George had been diagnosed with Leukaemia and eventually died of the illness at only 21. Despite the indescribable sense of loss and despair this brought, Sarah was compelled to continue writing and performing and out of this, Halflight was born.

The band has been described as “the new jewel in the crown of Welsh music” & although this sounds incredibly cheesy, it’s hard not to believe. Although still relatively unknown, in the last 12 months they have supported acts such as James Morrison, The Gossip, Sandi Thom, Johnathan Rice & Jonah Matranga.

There is a lot going on with the band at the moment. They have just released a 7 track mini album called ‘My Disguise’, which you can buy from their official site & some good record shops in the South Wales area. You can hear new songs & view the video for their new track of the same name on their MySpace page as well.

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Official Site | MySpace | Sarah Howells

Die So Fluid supporting My Ruin

Apologies for the lack of posts (again) but I’m extremely busy at the moment! I just had to post this because I got so excited when I read about it just now… The awesome Die So Fluid are set to support My Ruin on their UK tour in January! I cannot wait! They really are a great band & you should check them out if you haven’t heard anything by them.

They currently have a brand new Hallowe’en single out, called ‘Happy Halloween’, which you can buy on iTunes from October 29th & view right here:

If you are already a fan of the band, you can tune into KerrangRadio.co.uk this Thursday at 10pm to hear an interview with the band, two acoustic performances of new tracks from the forthcoming album ‘Not Everybody Gets A Happy Ending’ & an exclusive airing of the newly mastered ‘Existential Baby’.

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Official Site | MySpace

Illuminatus looking for new bassist

Just thought I’d post this to try & help out Nottingham band, Illuminatus:

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Official Site | MySpace

Gig Review: Orange Goblin

13th October at Junktion 7, Nottingham.
Photographs by me.

The night started later than expected, but it was well worth it! First up was a local band called Illuminatus. My boyfriend saw them last year & said they were impressive, so I had quite high expectations - I wasn’t disappointed! They were awesome, it was just too bad their set wasn’t longer. They are a progressive metal band & have just finished recording an album. You can hear some tracks from it on their MySpace Page. Their guitarist was amazing (as well as being a giant!) & they played a really good Pink Floyd cover to finish off their set.

Next up were Obiat… but we couldn’t actually stand there listening to them for more than one song. Unfortunately we just found them too slow/doomy & uninteresting, so we went downstairs for a drink & waited for Orange Goblin.

Around 11pm, they hit the stage & were bloody awesome from the second they started playing! They have a great stage presence & rock HARD! I haven’t been to a gig in ages where I’ve lost myself completely in the music for the whole set. I love gigs that put you on a natural high & it lasts for a few days after. We are both still buzzing from it! They played some great tunes: ‘Scorpionica’, ‘Hot Magic, Red Planet’, ‘Getting High on the Bad Times’ & ‘Some You Win, Some You Lose’ to name a few. Orange Goblin are so good at what they do & well worth seeing if you get the chance!

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Official Site | MySpace | Tour Dates

CD Review: Tracy Starr (Tracy Starr)

Andy at Bent Penny Records kindly sent me the debut self-titled Tracy Starr album to listen to & review, & I must say I was blown away by the majority of it! They are a hard rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada and were formed by Steve LeBlanc and Daniel Dupuis (former members of An Acoustic Sin). Their biography describes them perfectly by saying they are “a revival of gutsy, hard hitting, tongue-in-cheek rock and roll” and the music makes you want to “crank up the car stereo”. I think that they sound like a mixture of Buckcherry’s sleaze & (a more interesting) Velvet Revolver, but that’s just me.

The album hits you instantly with ‘Yellow Rose’, which is the band’s new single & is followed by the amazing ‘Ride’ (the first single from the album). I think that ‘Ride’ is definitely the best song on the album, with the rockin’ ‘Step Right Up’ coming in at a close second. Both tracks have choruses that stay stuck in your head & music that you want to play at full volume, either to rock out or dance to. Other tracks to recommend from the album are ‘Sticks and Stones’, ‘Stand Up’ & ‘Chemical Sunshine’ (awesome sounding guitar).

The only downside to the album is that it loses momentum & gets a bit samey towards the end, which is a shame. I think that if the album had been shorter (maybe taking tracks such as acoustic/instrumental ‘401′ out), it would be a blinder of a debut album. Admittedly, it is a sound that has been heard before & it’s not anything new/original… but in my opinion, there can never be too many bands making the kind of music to just rock out & have a good time to. I like them a lot & think that they’re definitely a band to take note of!

You can hear full tracks from this album on their MySpace page & you can also buy the album from Amazon.com, Play.com & their record label.

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Official Site | MySpace | Bent Penny Records

My Ruin News!

Note: Forgive me for getting ridiculously excited during this post!

My Ruin have announced that their new album, ‘Throat Full of Heart’, will be released on 14th January 2008! This is later than expected - they said it would be out this autumn - but it is later for some very good reasons! You can read about all of the exciting things they have in store on their MySpace blog. The wait looks well worth it!

The band have also announced a UK tour. They will be playing the following dates:

19 Jan 2008
The Park, Peterborough

20 Jan 2008
The Charlotte, Leicester

21 Jan 2008
The Cathouse, Glasgow

22 Jan 2008
The Moshulu, Aberdeen

23 Jan 2008
Ironworks, Iverness

24 Jan 2008
Carling Academy, Liverpool

25 Jan 2008
The Corporation, Sheffield

26 Jan 2008
Rios, Leeds

27 Jan 2008
Carling Academy, Newcastle

28 Jan 2008
Academy 3, Manchester

29 Jan 2008
Carling Academy, Birmingham

30 Jan 2008
Concorde 2, Brighton

31 Jan 2008
Joiners, Southampton

1 Feb 2008
Carling Academy, Bristol

2 Feb 2008
Islington Academy, London

They will also be having a semi-private record release/birthday party at The Fly in London on the 18th January 2008, before the tour kicks off. How to get tickets is explained in the blog above!

Although I was quite upset that the band missed out Nottingham (I partly picked the Uni because I knew they always play Notts =P), they are playing very close to here, so I’ll be seeing them at long last! I just hope nothing gets in the way this time!

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Official Site | MySpace | The LVRS
Neanderthal | Rovena Recordings | BG Designs

The Return… [edit]

Hey everyone! As my boyfriend (rather cheekily!) pointed out in the comments of “Hiatus”, I have had the internet for the past week, but I’m just absolutely swamped with work & had no time to update. However, I will not be giving up on this site! I will be posting new reviews in the near future & will be starting on some new features. I might also try getting some help with the website if I am unable to do much myself.

I know I do not really have a chance, but the 2007 Weblog Awards are coming up & the nominations will open this evening (U.S. Eastern time). I would be very grateful if anyone who likes/loves this blog will nominate Soul Drift Music!

[edit] You can now “vote up” Soul Drift by clicking the ‘+’ next to the nomination in these categories: Best New Blog (10th down the list) & Best Music Blog (5th down the list). [/edit]

Thanks in advance, & I will hopefully be back updating soon!