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Um vorherzusagen, dass die Zusammenarbeit von John Grant mit dem Philharmonischen Orchester der BBC von vornherein eine sich gegenseitig perfekt ergänzende Performance hervorbringen würde, dafür musste man kein Hellseher sein: die ehrwürdigen Songs des ehemaligen The Czars-Vorstande sind einfach für einen derartig edlen Rahmen geschaffen.
After the impressing EP marathon of the past years and a spontaneus detour into the business of brewing, Gnarwolves – probably the most outstanding hit machine on the gateway from pop to skate punk – let themselves be talked around to releasing their first full lenght. In our interview during their visit to Vienna, the Brighton three piece recommended us some records for the Heavy Pop advent calendar.
Toby Driver already has an idea where the next album will bring his band. Listening to their last album 'Coffins on Io', the most headstrong pop album of 2014, which Kayo Dot used to invent themselves anew, to expand their horizon over to spacestations floating trapped in an 80s timeloop, one hast o think: anything is possible. Until then Mr. Driver tells us which records accompanied him through the year 2014 – and we hope to see him and his band in Europe in 2015.
Back from the dancefloor they played four years ago, Die Sterne dip their pop-toes into psychedelic and souly waters on 'Flucht in die Flucht', but specifically tighten their rock-strings – and succeed in securing their spot as one of the most dependable bands of the german speaking area. On the 15th day oft he Heavy Pop advent calendar, vocalist Frank Spilker tells us, which songs impressed him the most in 2014.
Okay, what kind of reckless style amalgam ist he opening title track? The mercilessly slaying 'Schnaiserkitt'? How epic in scope is the wave breaking 'Valhalla'? Fjort actually need no more than these three songs to leave the listener speechless, but they do it another seven times. Close to nine months after the release of 'D’accord' we still marvel at This Charming Man for their 6th signing sense; at the enormous explosion in performance, that wasn’t to be expected in this magnitude after the very promising introductory-round of 'Demontage', or that this record has indeed been mangled out of their instruments by a three-piece wrecking ball.
'This World' works as interface between the acoustic landscapes of Grails and Slint, the two closely related bands that qualify Watter as – excuse the marketing-speak – supergroup. First and foremost though, Zak Riles, Tyler Trotter and Britt Walford made their debut a beautiful and mystically surreal voyage through the bluring borderlands of post- and krautrock. To ease the waiting time for their Euro tour at the start of 2015 (with dates in Linz on Feb 12th and Vienna on Feb 14th), Mr. Riles tell us about his favourite records of the year for the Heavy Pop advent calendar.
At the end of this thriumphal past year in doom, a two-piece from California stands out from the heap of excellent releases in the genre – with their debut of all things. And the 46 minues served don’t only work as a first demonstration of talent for Keeper, even in this early state the band succeeds in articulating their hate and disgust for the world between perfectly formed crust and noise-innuendos. Jacob Lee and Penny Keats play this nihilistic mixture from close to scratch, and instantly positioned themselves as one of the most unapologetic current genre bands.
First you may think: writing about Black Map of course means to write about Dredg, Far and The Trophy Fire, if only because „…And We Explode“ bears trademarks of the three other bands Mark Engles, Chris Robyn und Ben Flanagan are involved with. But it comes as a bit of a surprise, how effortless the three-headed powerhouse succeeds in combining the straight walk in direction of atmospheric alternative rock, the constant flirt with grounded stadium-sound and the steadfast traction of meaty hits. And yeah, in the end actually it works perfectly without even mentioning their other prominent playgrounds.
First and foremost, The Tidal Sleep made their homework in contemporary US-hardcore; though 'Vorstellungskraft' foreshadowed some of the things 'Keep You' succeeded in months later, but without the same radical break with their own past. On their second album, the Mannheim/Karlsruhe/Leipzig/
"Im Vergleich zum bisherigen Werk von Amen Dunes findet man hier durchaus strukturierte Stücke, ihre Magie des Flüchtigen haben sie trotzdem nicht verloren." sagt Messer Sänger Hendrik Otremba und trifft den Nagel damit durchaus auf den Punkt. Tatsächlich ist Damon McMahon mithilfe von seinen Bandkollegen Jordi Wheeler, Parker Kindred und zahlreichen Gastmusikern wie Efrim Menuck, Colin Stetson und Elias Bender Rønnenfelt mit 'Love' nicht nur sein bisher bestes Album gelungen, sondern ein unwirklich-schönes, psychedelisch verschwommenes Meisterstück von zeitloser Klasse.
