The return of Chvrches

About five years ago, I reviewed (Favourably) the debut EP from a band called Blue Sky Archives. It’s impressive to see just how far singer Lauren Mayberry has come. (And of course Iain Cook was in Aereogramme, the cruelly underrated Scots band of the 200s). Following on from a host of excellent singles and a great debut The Bones Of What You Believe, the band are due to release their justifiably anticipated album Every Open Eye on September 25.

The tracklisting for the album is as follows:

1.Never Ending Circles
2.Leave A Trace
3.Keep You On My Side
4.Make Them Gold
5.Clearest Blue
6.High Enough To Carry You Over
7.Empty Threat
8.Down Side Of Me
9.Playing Dead
10.Bury It
11.Afterglow

The lyric video for ‘Leave A Trace’ can be seen below:

The continuing adventures of SOAK and Chvrches

SOAK_online

I’ve long supported Chvrches on this blog and back in February wrote about the first signing to their Goodbye label, SOAK.

Ahead of a gig this Thursday (April 10) in London at St. Pancras Old Church, SOAK has unveiled this rather fine cover of the tune that first brought Chvrches to wider attention ‘The Mother We Share.’ Whilst that is an electronic wonder, this version strips it down so that the vulnerability in the song is laid bare for all to hear. And hear it you most definitely should.

To download it, go here – you just need to put in your email address.

And because it goes with this post, here is Chvrches’ remix of Blud.

Presenting…SOAK

SOAK_online

SOAK is the utterly astounding talent that is the barely 17 year old Bridie Monds-Watson. Having released a couple of EPS she is the first signing to Chvrches’ own label Goodbye Records. Her first single for them is the spellblinding ‘Blud.’

Chvrches have done a remix which is awesome (as Chvrches have shown themselves to be, repeatedly):

She hails from Derry and this is the video that she has made for the single (hauntingly lovely, I think you’ll find)

This is a live performance of an earlier track called ‘Sea Creatures.’

The Blud will be released on March 17 and these are the forthcoming live shows, where she will be supporting Chvrches and George Ezra, as well as a headline show in London.

2 March Birmingham, Hare & Hounds w/ George Ezra
3 March Bristol, Fleece w/ George Ezra
4 March London, Dingwalls w/ George Ezra
5 March Dublin, Academy w/ CHVRCHES
7 March Newcastle, Academy w/ CHVRCHES
8 March Glasgow, Barrowland w/ CHVRCHES
9 March Leeds, Metropolitan University w/ CHVRCHES
10 March Birmingham, Institute w/ CHVRCHES
12 March Cambridge, Junction w/ CHVRCHES
13 March Cardiff, University Great Hall w/ CHVRCHES
14 March London, Forum w/ CHVRCHES
15 March London, Forum w/ CHVRCHES
10 April London, St Pancras Old Churs **HEADLINE SHOW**

Album Review: Chvrches

Chvrches

Chvrches -‘The Bones Of What You Believe.’ (Virgin)

Although it was set in place long, long ago that the most anticipated album of 2013 would be Reflektor, the buzz around Scottish three-piece Chvrches most here and across the Atlantic has meant that there’s no little anticipation surrounding this release either.

Chvrches stand at that point where indie meets electronica, and musical forbears might be considered to be the likes of Depeche Mode, Dubstar and Saint Etienne, though they plow their own furrow enough that they are far from being derivative. They’ve spoken of their desire to make sure that their debut would not just be anthems like the singles (but when they’re tunes as strong as ‘Recover’ and ‘album opener ‘the Mother We Share’ that wouldn’t necessarily have been an awful record).

Tracks like ‘We Sink’ and ‘Science/Vision’ show the different sides to the band, that they can do anthemic and upbeat, but also dark and brooding. It hangs together well as an album and whilst they’ve been hugely popular with taste-makers over the last few months, I would like to think that they could make the leap to mainstream success, because, quite frankly, they deserve to do so.

****

The Bones Of What You Believe is released on September 23 by Virgin.

Stream the entire album over at NPR

The continued rise of Chvrches

Chvrches - Elliot Lee Hazel

Following on two excellent singles released in the last year ‘The Mother We Share’ and ‘Recover’, Chvrches have announced that they will release their third single ‘Gun’ on July 15, both as download bundles on heavyweight 12″ vinyl, pink no less! It’s an awesome tune, which you can stream below.

Whilst there’s no release date for an LP yet, the band – Iain Cook, Lauren Mayberry and Martin Doherty – have seen their profile continue to rise, and performances at T in the Park and Reading and Leeds, amongst others, should see a continuation of this upward trajectory. They deserve it.

The continued rise of Chvrches

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I can’t take any credit for discovering Chvrches, but I’m glad that since they were shortlisted for the BBC SOund of 2013 poll, they still seem to be making waves. I’ve written about them before, and if they continue to produce excellent music like they have been doing, I see no reason why I won’t continue to be blogging about them in the future.

This is their new song, entitled ‘Recover.’ I have no idea when this is out – but it has been doing the rounds since yesterday, and logging up a lot of listens. Hopefully this will turn into a lot of sales very soon.

You can buy ‘the Mother We Share’ single online at iTunes, eMusic etc..

The Blog Sound of 2013

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A few months back, I was asked to nominate my tips for bands and artists to make it big in 2013.

Along with 48 other bloggers, the results were collated and the end results are:

1st Haim

2nd Chvrches

3rd= Savages

3rd= Pins

5th The Neighbourhood

It’s taken until this point in the evening for me to blog about this (can’t access the blog from my desk at work), so you may have seen this everywhere else over the blog. But this is what you need to know:

‘The Blog Sound poll was run by Robin Seamer from Breaking More Waves and Andy Von Pip from The Von Pip Express asking 49 UK music bloggers what emerging acts they were particularly excited about. The poll wasn’t intended to criticise the BBC’s Sound of list, but to simply represent the tastes of the voting bloggers.

The 2013 Blog Sound long list contained 7 acts that were also then revealed to be on the BBC Sound of List (AlunaGeorge, Chvrches, Haim, Laura Mvula, Palma Violets, Savages and Tom Odell) and 8 that weren’t (Curxes, Daughter, Mo, Pins, Randolph’s Leap, Rhye, Seasfire and The Neighbourhood).

In total just over 170 acts received at least 1 vote in the poll, but Haim and Chvrches were way ahead of the chasing pack when it came to the final count. Pins and Savages, tied for third place with The Neighbourhood, the second US act on the list after Haim in fifth.

Of the five most voted for acts all of them are bands and four of them have lead female vocalists. Two of the bands (Haim and The Neighbourhood) are from the US.

The winners Haim have been one of the most talked about bands of the last few months and were the second most blogged act by UK Hype Machine listed bloggers in 2012. Haim consist of three sisters from California and were originally in a band with their parents called Rockinhaim. They signed a record deal earlier in 2012 and will release their debut album in 2013. Their sound fuses elements of classic rock, r ‘n’ b and pop and they have been compared with the likes of Fleetwood Mac, TLC and Wilson Phillips.’

Of the five acts, Chvrches are the one I am most familiar with. I quite like Haim – I’ve always been upfront about my love of Fleetwood Mac, and the two tracks I have heard are pretty good. Savages produced a great single last year in ‘Husbands’ which reminds me of The Au Pairs, The Raincoats and The Slits (perhaps slightly less on the last one). Pins and the Neighbourhood I wasn’t aware of, so I can’t comment too much on them, as I would be doing so on the basis of one track apiece! They sound fine to me.

It was great to be asked to take part again, and the best of luck to the acts concerned.

The other blogs involved were:

A New Band A Day, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Both Bars On, Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Details Of My Life So Far, Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters, Electronic Rumors, Faded Glamour, Folly Of Youth, Flying With Anna, God Is In The TV, Harder Blogger Faster, Howl, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon, Kowalskiy, Love Music : Love Life, Mudkiss, Music Broke My Bones, Music Fans Mic, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Bands Better Than Your Band, Not Many Experts, Peenko, Real Horrorshow, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory, Song By Toad, Sounds Good To Me Too, Storm’s Brewing, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Electricity Club, The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Music Hoarder, The Recommender, This Must Be Pop, and Von Pip Musical Express.

Happy New Year!

happy-new-year-2013

Happy New Year to you all, hope you had a great Christmas/New Year or whatever you like to celebrate.

Lots of new stuff coming this way in 2013, there’s been new albums dropping onto the doormat at 17 Seconds Towers and into my inbox for several weeks now, but I was busy trying to finish off working through all the stuff for 2012.

If you haven’t read them already, you can see my best tracks and best albums when you click on them thare links (say in a Pirate voice, it’s not meant to be a spelling mistake). I have also had an article published today on God Is In The TV about new albums expected in 2013.

Interestingly, having blogged about Glasgow’s Chvrches three months ago, they have now made the BBC’s Sound of 2013 poll. Check this out if you haven’t already…

Presenting…Chvrches

churches-art-school-glasgow-lauren-mayberry-368x500

If the name Chvrches (and yes, it is pronounced ‘Churches’) is new to these pages, then I have featured the band members in different guises before.

The band were put together by Martin Doherty from the Twilight Sad, and Iain Cook, once of Aereogramme and now of the Unwinding Hours. The vocals come courtesy of Blue Sky Archives’ Lauren Mayberry.

On the basis of one tune -‘Lies’ -they set the blogosphere alight, leading to an excellent feature over at The Pop Cop, sadly too many were quick to sneer at the next big thing.

But this tune stands on its’ own terms:

Download it here (follow the link!)

This is another awesome tune ‘The Mother We Share’

They featured on Vic Galloway’s Radio Scotland show this evening, follow this link to listen to the session when it goes up, very very soon.