Lick Online - Demo Reviews

>> Etheria
>> Alicorn Records

Ah myspace *smiles at screen*. Isn't it wonderful. Miss McKendrick seems to agree with me anyway, building her friends list to over a thousand for when she attacks them with her fabulous debut album, Etheria. I don't mean that she physically run after them with a CD, actually a vinyl would probably do more damage - but you know what I mean.

Come with me on this strange journey the young singer/songwriter sings in the intro song, and quite a journey it is as she turns all of the shit that life has thrown at her into a lovely 13 track album. Candytuft and Colour instantly show the talent on display in this record, with some fine individual moments from the various instruments, but the songs fail to grab the listener as much as they should from an opening few tracks of a debut album. Its not until Dark Horse, track 4 on the album, that we begin to see the diversity, emotion and raw talent on offer.

Find Me is the standout, and definitely single material. Colette's personal rollercoaster that she has persuaded us all to take a ride on (no rude jokes please..) is now in full swing and with the clever lyrics, beautiful harmonies and cracking melody line she has us all enjoying the twists and turns of the journey - even the people who were not open minded enough to join in in the first place.

Followed up with tracks like Voyeurism and Peter Pan's Biggest Fan, the happy wee girl in her pictures section of her myspace page is sneaking through and she has toes tapping everywhere. But Colette seems to be at her best when she really spills everything in her soul onto a track, and on High Mountain she does exactly that. Stripped right down to just the piano and voice, she lets the emotion take over, and the high note at 1.30 is one of those spine-tingling moments.

Reading an article about WWE wrestling the other day (don't ask...), some pro-wrestler guy was saying that his rather troubling profession has something for everyone. Well, that's kind of how to sum-up Etheria, with the album definitely set for the rock/pop section there are some classical influences throughout and even some jazz funk on This Girl. Wither or not the rest of the general public will give her a HELL-YEAH! or slam her candy-ass into the canvas, only time will tell.

The production may not be perfect, and sometimes the power and expression of her voice may be lost slightly compared to the live show, but its a marvelous first attempt from the Lick's latest local hero. Keep one eye on this one, or she'll myspace the hell out of ya!

>> Joe Sach

www.colettemckendrick.co.uk
www.myspace.com/colettemckendrick

>> Demo

Household are so fresh that, this time six months ago, they didnt even exist as the grinding band that we know today or have just discovered today! Their wonderfully lo-fi demo, which was aptly recorded in their own homes reveals a sound that would not be out of place in the good old evenings of Steve Lamacqs boss tuneage or on a bill with The Pixies, This Girl or Placebo.

Layer upon layer of guitar (sometimes clean, sometimes wailing) are built up and topped off with some lovely loops and spacey keyboard action. Insistent vocals yell and ooh their way around the basslines and general chaotic sweetness. All that and a top-notch drummer gal!

>> Jill Carberry

www.inthehousehold.com

>> All Yr Secrets (Single)
>> One Records

YAS!! At last a lovely big slice of Scottish disco pop! As well as lead singer Graham 'Fucking' Pell insulting as many people as he can, the live experience of The Flying Matchstick Men will leave you with dancing blisters on your feet. But now, thanks to some fine knob-tweeking by mixer Mark Williams (of Test Icicles and Bloc Party fame) you can now get all of your campest friends round to bake cookies and have a dance to this 3 and a half minute pop gem. Great lyrics, clever guitar work, pounding drums and an infectious riff make this a tune that you won't be able to get out of your head.

As a UK tour starts this month, you should be slapped for not checking this band out live. I'm warning you!!

>> Joe Sach

www.flyingmatchstickmen.com

>> Mentality

The heavily fly-posted Capturie step up with the audacity to deliver a cd and a dvd!!! The band’s ‘Mentality’ EP has the decency to, at least, rock heavily but the Lick’s postbag seems bursting with bands I’d have been dead set on ten years ago!

‘Dying Inside’ is the kind of morbidly fascinating riff-monkey that the Cathouse crowd would probably get tattoos to commemorate. The bass boosted melodrama of title track ‘Mentality’ is equally up to the job. In terms of planting some melody in a metal jacket the boys deserve to reap the rewards. And the fact they can play the (expletive) out of a riff is testament to their right to a record deal… or at least a Kerrang cover mount. Raaawwwkk!!

>> Russell Moore

>> Paperclips and Sand
>> Lo-Five Records

Contained herein is an unreserved and steadfast apology for the flippant heresy of the last Jo Mango review I posted. The writing was ill advised and misdirected and Karma demands this be rectified. It’s the false sense of importance a laptop screen gives the diminutive writer in the early hours!

The album promo ‘Paperclips and Sand’ by Jo Mango, sent in by the fine fellows at everymatic, is far and away one of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time. There is no flab or filler here and neither should there be in a review of this work. Opener ‘My Lung’ is a heart-breaking lullaby, transmitted from a bygone era of folky wonder. It features instruments I have never heard before and is the closest, in aesthetic, to an acoustic Bjork as you’re likely ever to hear. Truly mesmerising.

The rest of the album follows suit in a similarly quirky and unpredictable manner: reminding you at every turn of the great album tracks in your collection but never once falling into the unkempt laziness of imitation.

This is indeed an album of untold beauty. The songs are those of delicate balance and hope-stained tears; the Damian Rice/Isobel Campbell comparisons Miss Mango has been receiving are just in their encompassing of an untainted talent.

It is now my main ambition to catch a show and become entranced once again.

Find this album (February 27th is a good time to look) and buy it – then tell everyone you know about it. Then keep it a secret.

>> Russell Moore

www.jomango.co.uk

>> Frequencies

The worst thing about writing reviews is that the spell checker is never on-board with the fancy wordplay of the band names. Man, it is annoying. Anyway, on to the trés ‘00s sound of Transaudio. Treading the deceptively marshy ground of ‘Big Beat Rock’ is a dangerous and often fatal game. Think about Republica! Yeah, thought not. But in an acceptably Primal Screamy, Charlatany, Kasabiany sort of way, Transaudio pull it off.

Make no mistake, dance rock is a genre I’d quite like to see the back of but if you’re going to do it, do it with conviction. ‘Frequencies’ is a song you can see a bunch of mates leaping about to in the Garage on a Thursday, and for that it’s no bad thing. I’ll be at the bar.

>> Russell Moore