Thursday 27 March 2014

No Sinner "Boo Hoo Hoo"

If anyone knows me personally I'm a big fan of blues music and this band have certainly delivered a fantastic hard rocking blues album with grit, style and grace.

I have only been introduced to this band for about a month now thanks to my good friend who knows everything and anything about blues music (I'm not kidding either!). He told me to listen to just the first track and see what I thought. I was blown away.

This 4 piece Canadian band have come together to produce an album that is one heck of a roller coaster. Colleen Rennison (vocals) has one of the best female voices I have heard for a long time. She puts a lot of passion into her vocals and boy does it shine through! She pushes the boundaries of her vocal range and strength. The track "Boo Hoo Hoo" is a great example as this track demonstrates all of her experience. This is the best quote to sum her up nicely. "She is a force of nature, a post modern soul belter and queen of rock".




The album takes you on a journey to show the world what 'No Sinner' is made of. There are a couple tracks that really love to pack a punch from the off such as "Devil on my Back"and "Runnin'". One track that stands out as one of the masterpieces along with "Boo Hoo Hoo" is called "Rise Up". The emotions that run through that song are just gorgeous. The guitar tones at the beginning of the song breaks up the hard rocking songs in-between the album. This is one of the strongest performances from Colleen on the album too. The soul, rock and blues all come out of her in one song. The lyrics in the chorus are "Lay down your burdens...and rise up", this to me sounds like a calling to the band to put everything into this song.



This band seem to know what they're doing with the arrangements of the songs to keep them interesting throughout and keeping their genre knitted tight to the album. You always hear one or two songs that don't really fit on an album which can be disappointing, but not this one I am glad to tell you. The guitar riffs and licks are one of the reasons this album flows really well. Without the guitar it definitely wouldn't pack the same punch the album does already."Work Song" is definitely one that is a great example.

So No Sinner love to make some fat tunes and leave it with you wanting more! I'm looking forward to following this band in the coming months and years to see how successful they can become, I have high hopes for these guys! I'll leave you lot a link below of my favourite song on the album "Boo Hoo Hoo" and let me know what you thought of the song/album! If you're not keen on spending money then the band have very kindly put a free 3 track EP on Noisetrade which I'll link below. 

Thanks for reading and until next time!

Lewis 





Noisetrade Link: https://noisetrade.com/nosinner

Website: http://nosinner.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoSinner

Bandcamp: http://nosinner.bandcamp.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoSinnermusic

Sunday 16 March 2014

Harbors "Harbors"

Welcome! 

Just a quick message to say thank you to everyone who viewed my first blog. It means a lot and to get over 100 views is something I didn't expect! Thank you! Now onto today's review. 

The band I am reviewing today is Harbors with their self-titled album that was released a couple of years ago, I have been listening to this album for a few months now and I'm still finding little gems in this record. I have been searching for new music via a website called 'Noisetrade'. Where you can download albums for free that bands have uploaded purely for publicity so there's no illegal shenanigans going on. If you're looking for new music or supporting unsigned artists, its definitely the place to look. I came across this album purely by chance and I was thoroughly surprised by the music that was being made. 


David Shayne - Harbors frontman
The genre for the band is called 'attic noise'. I'd never heard of this sub-genre before, but it initially sounded like a decent indie album to me. Coming from Los Angeles, the front man David Shayne (Vocals/Guitar) is actually the only permanent member of the band and invites his friends to play the other instruments he desires. I thought this was a really creative way to produce an album. There are a number of instruments played in this album that aren't in your typical line up and the fact he could pick and choose who/what he wanted is quite the position to be in when making an album. 

David's voice is quite monotone throughout the album, once you've heard his voice, it doesn't change or get pushed to the limits.Then again this isn't a bad thing, sometimes pushing your voice can over-do what you were setting out to achieve and fits the genre of the record well. At times it can sound a bit safe, but his voice is professional enough to really give this album character,colour and its personal identity to it. The one thing I do really love about this album is the riff's and licks on the guitar, they're really creative and catchy. There are a number of songs on this album that achieve this such as 'Glass Heart' and 'Darkest Eyes'. One song that does this wonderfully is the first song on the album called 'Catalyst'. The vocals and guitar both have clever riffs making it an instant winner for me, its one of the strongest songs on the album for this reason.


'Harbors' album cover
Going back to the whole musician choice, he really stretches his limits being in an unsigned band. Usually bands with not much money or choice will just want to use their members and try push an album out. Instead David has brought in standard instrumentation you'd expect on an album such as drums and bass, but also includes instruments such as violin and organs to give the album an identification.

I really rate the violins in this album. Especially in the songs 'Stranger' and 'Guns', they just make the songs more emotional and breath new life into them. The one thing that didn't work was the use of effects on the drums/a drum machine on the song 'Stay Here'. I felt this song was too different and didn't flow with the rest of the tracks. The arrangements of the songs are pretty standard, but its the musicality of them is what makes them clever and gets my ears listening.

In conclusion, this album is a brilliant piece of music and one that I have been happily listening to for a while. This is one of the reasons why I decided to review this album because its a bit different to anything I have heard before in the sense of a personal identity to a record. It has its own niche sections that make this album a Harbors album and not to sound like anybody else's. The strongest songs I recommend listening to first is 'Catalyst', 'Stranger' and 'Darkest Eyes'

Thank you for reading and I'll post a new blog very soon!

Lewis :)


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harborsmusic

Website: http://harborsmusic.com/

Bandcamp: http://harborsmusic.bandcamp.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/harborsss

Wednesday 12 March 2014

fiN "Life Is Wasted On The Living"

Welcome to my first blog!! :)

Introduction:
I will review an album which is dear to my heart by an unsigned band that I cannot stress enough about called fiN. These 4 lads from London are certainly talent to look out for. Luke (vocals), Jonny (guitar), Kerry (bass) and Simon (drums) are all incredibly talented and it shows in their studio and live productions.They are a DIY band with their own label 'Artisan Records', they have done everything for this album from producing, marketing, sales. I give this guys a massive credit for the amount of work they put into this band.
So fiN, this indie/rock band have created a debut album that is definitely one to look out for.


Review:
Their album 'Life Is Wasted On the Living' is a collection of all the singles into one album with 5 new tracks and 2 acoustic versions of their best known songs. One of the newer songs called "The Truth Lies in Honesty" is one of their best, its catchy, simple, yet one that you could hum along to for hours. As soon as those drums come in, its an instant head bopper. Its also a song I believe could easily be in the top 40 if these guys were more well known. 


Another new track 'Where Are You Now' is a beautiful track that puts all the mayhem and rock to the side and gets everyone to sit down and listen to how talented these guys really are. Its the same with '5am', although this track has a darker meaning to it than the other songs. Luke's rough edge to his voice gives the song a real unpolished grit to it which makes it so powerful!


The one criticism I have about the album is that all the singles they've released previously are in this album. Personally I bought all the singles on vinyl and I was a little disappointed that there weren't as many new songs as I would've hoped for. None the less the new songs are brilliant.

Top Three Tracks:

3. "The Artisan", first off, its a fully instrumental track. No lyrics, just pure unadulterated brilliance. The song slowly builds up during the course of it adding parts in one by one. Starting off with the side sticking from Simon on the drums, to piano, bass, guitar, backing vocals, percussion, you name it! They even did an acoustic version for the album which I was very happy about and its just as good as the original. One of the best instrumental tracks I've heard from a 4 piece band.

2. "Life Is Wasted On the Living", one of the best openings to a song. Enough said. 8 seconds of build up and BOOM there's your song. Having it cranked up sounds like an explosion coming in. Its exactly what everyone wants is to be hit with. The lyrics are very clever and true to many life stories. "Life is wasted on the living, life is wasted on the fools that walk away", I'm sure everyone reading this has a story from those lyrics. After the first listen I thought 'let me listen to that again', it therefore earns my 2nd spot.

1. "Twenty Three" The top dog song at number 1. I was introduced to fiN with this song and boy was I sold from the moment it started. Its a good ol' indie/rock song with everything you want to have a good head bang, dance, whatever floats your boat! Cracking guitar licks again with the band trying to say "Hey! You! We're fiN, come rock out with us". That's exactly what it does with an ending that leaves you squinting your eyes with the torture of the guitar tone. Wanting more. Epic.

Conclusion:
I have been gifted to see these guys live a few times and they have to be one of the best live acts I've seen because you can tell they put 110% into every gig they do. I had a blast at a gig last year in Camden to support their new album, they performed the album live from top to bottom and it couldn't of been a better show.

I have put some photos on this blog from the gig in Camden as a perspective of the emotion and performance they put into there gigs! Including one with Luke standing on the PA system which was a cracking shot.


Please go check out their album 'Life Is Wasted On the Living' on Spotify, Itunes and Youtube. Let me know what you thought of them. Until next time, thank you for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it!

Lewis :)

Website:
http://lifeiswastedontheliving.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/fiNuk
Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBNbi8lzANN651dfzMUQMbQ?sub_confirmation=1
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/finUK

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated since this is my first blog and I want to try make this the best it can be. Thanks!