The January Review

Here is a selection of album tracks that are fairly new and worth listening to – accompanied by a small review. This is a new idea that the end of each month we’ll include a link to some tracks either released or discovered by us and review it.

Firstly is Sebastian Piano’s ‘Emotions’. Sebastian recently released an album ‘Impetus’ and this track is from that release.

Whilst the title of the song is a bit; dare I say; rudimentary, the song itself is a wonderful blend of slow crescendoing strings, electronic percussive clicks and rhythms. It isn’t the most spine tingling affair but it is well conceived, precise and would work very well as a backdrop to an ominous sunset.

In light of Daft Punk’s recent success at the Grammy’s, I thought it would be interesting to post this ‘New Orleans’ style cover of Get Lucky by The Madd Wikkid. After being backed on Kickstarter and doing a series Daft Punk songs pre the latest album they did this cover in July 2013. Whilst it is an interesting experiment, the arrangement is lacking something very fundamental and groovy. The drummer is also over playing it a little, but generally the mix isn’t as ‘hot’ as it really needs to be for such a dance orientated song. I’d be interested to see a New Orleans style of something far less groovy and more melodic and evolving, however it would need to have a little more soul and punch. The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are kings of getting this mixture spot on, but their music is more hip hop orientated than straight New Orleans style brass.

And in the realm of covers, CHVRCHES have been making waves with their strange blend of Synth Pop and ‘ominous’ female vocals. This cover of Bela Lugosis is a completely parabolic shift in terms of style and at times you almost forget Bauhaus had ever done the original. It isn’t as drastic as some have suggested by turning it into a ‘typical pop song’ , however it isn’t far off. It is closer to an 80s America anthem and not a The Knife styled pop cover. It is for the Vampire Academy soundtrack so it makes sense for a modern teenage aimed film to have an updated version of a song about classic Count Dracula actor Bela Lugosi.