Subject : Candy Claws

On first listen it would be easy to lump Candy Claws into the same kind of bracket as Bon Iver, Panda Bear or recent Heads Up star Uno Moller – all of them sharing a similar sense of world weary introspection and indeed all painting with a similar “acoustic” sensibility – however scratch away and repeated listens reveal something of a darker beast at hand.

See, rather than expose these songs to the elements by stripping away the melodies from their surroundings, Candy Claws have instead decided to wrap them up and so envelope their skeletal songs in swathes of feedback, glitches, static and ultra reverbed atmospherics to create dense, swirling soundscapes akin to the noisier moments of MBV’s back catalogue

The tipping point between the alt folk framework and the monochrome detailing of the ambience is where recent album “In the Dreams of the Sea Life” really shines – slowly drawing listeners into a tender world of soothing calms and nightmarish twists and turns.

A late addition to the canon of 2009 but one well worth checking out as soon as possible

www.myspace.com/candyclaws

Subject : Uno Moller

I was introduced to Uno Moller by way of one of my favourite bloggers out there right now Alice Tragedy and have been really enjoying sinking into Mollers deconstructed world of fractured melodies and tension filled moods.

At its heart recent EP "Christmas Coffination" is a dark folky beast - full of spidery acoustic guitars and Mollers hushed vocals but its the sense of tone and atmosphere that really defines these songs and lifts them above the scree of the modern singer songwriter pool.

Akin to Adems darker moments or perhaps a better adjusted Elliot Smith, theres some sense of injustice in labelling it as such as Mollers grasp of atmospherics and musical moods demands attention in its own right.

Well worth a listen



www.myspace.com/unomoller

Subject : Incoming Transmissions Vol. 1

So it's here at last! The first in a new series of MP3 samplers from The National Student magazine Heads Up blog....

Featuring a fair few acts already covered on these pages and a few bands we really want people to hear but haven't got round to writing about yet.

Mat Riviere – FYH
funFUN – The trouble with Harry
Nodzz – Is She There
Curly Hair – High Fives, Low Fives
Loz Koleszko – Quack, Quack You’re Dead
Ratface – The Juice an Zest of Lemon
Cougar – Digit Cleaver feat. Paul Smith of Maximo Park
Sharks Took The Rest – Isobel (demo)
Ace Bushy Striptease – Whirlwind Regulations (Bas mix)
Napoleon III – Zebra
Bear Driver – A Thousand Samurais
Smoke Fairies – Now The Green Blade Rises
Bobby Long – Dead and Done
Shoes and Socks Off – I’m a World Class Assassin
Swound – What’s Your Poison?
Kambodsja – Not All Evil Robots Are Murderers
Dials – Gloria Knudson
Keyboard Choir – Electrical Unity (edit)
Moggz – Dub’op
Crocodiles – I Wanna Kill
Spokes – We Like to Dance and Steal Thing
The Little Hands of Asphalt – Oslo
Solvor Vermeer – Hope
Kippi Kannius – The Comfort Of My Eyes
Dancer vs Politician – Ratcliffe Highway
Pagan Wanderer Lu – The Great British Public Becomes Self Aware
Blakfish – Economics

Get it here

Subject : Michael Kiwanuka

Heres the thing... with on average about 30 new bands coming through the door / inbox / twitter feeds every week, its hard sometimes to even listen to everything sufficiently let alone fall in love with it and hold it dear to your heart.

Every now and then though, something arrives in your life that puts everything else around it into a very unflattering light. Last night I had the privelige (and I mean genuine privelige) of seeing just such an act perform no more than ten feet in front of my unbelieving eyes.

Michael Kiwanuka is a mere slip of a 22 year old singer songwriter, just makign hsi way on the South London acoustic scene but behind the unassuming exterior, the man is blessed with a voice that would send Al Green scuttling for his tune a day book to get brushing up.

Seamlessly blending classic soul, blues and folk and updating it neatly for the Twitter generation, Kiwanuka enduced more goosebumps in the space of 20 minutes than most of the rest of my recent postbag combined. Indeed throughout a tender, uplifting set the pin drop silence descending on the room told its story without a single word needed from me...

Effortless, authentic, nerve tingling, humble, affecting, ultra-likeable... I genuinely cannot say enough good things about this guy right now and instead (rather than continue to gush hopelessly) would urge you to check the man out before you do anything else today.

Breathtaking.



www.myspace.com/michaelksongs

Subject : Public Radio

Since it arrived in my inbox a few weeks back Public Radio has been hanging around my stereo a hell of a lot.

A literate group of indie kids Public Radio have pulled off a neat trick by blending subtle (but mighty effective) beats of Gibbard-esque electronica into slabs of hugely melodic radio friendly emo rock it ends up coming on like a cross between Tokyo Police Club and the Postal Service which in my book is a bit of treat!

There are some truly monumental choruses across this ep – ones that some of the bands more mainstream peers would kill to write themselves – which should be more than enough to help propel the band to the level of recognition they richly deserve.

As if that wasn’t enough vocalist Mark Mathis also has an excellent solo ep out at the moment which is more folky in execution you can download it from here

Subject : Livan

Back with a new single “King Of The World” taken from his upcoming second album, London based rocker Livan has shed the FM friendly sheen that draped over some of his previous work and has revealed himself to be something of a dirty rocker after all.

Theres an increasing amount of l0ve in the blogosphere for these guys (especially in the States where their stock seems to be rising week on week) and on this evidence its clear to see why;

By turns euphoric, urgent, sleazy and with a sneeringly punky delivery to boot, KOTW is a sexy revamp for the band and one that points to good things for the bands new album - which should be with us come 2010) - from the snippets we’ve heard to date it should be a bit of a belter

Subject : Talons

As you may have noticed from browsing through the history of bands that we’ve blogged about here, Ive got something of a soft spot for the really left field branch of post rock and this week The latest very fine addition to this list of acts came along (courtesy of BSM) in the shape of Talons.

Displaying all manner of influences – Mogwai, Youthmovies, Secondsmile, Explosions in the Sky etc – Talons deal in intricately constructed webs of post rock. Instrumental stuff can be a tricky genre to nail properly without the cohesive binding of some lyrics along the way but sidestepping the clichés and focussing on the jawdropping (on occasion) musicality is more than enough to keep the focus well and truly on the task at hand

The guys will be releasing a series of split releases over the coming months so keep your eyes peeled for more very soon…