Little Fish - 'Wonderful'

(7"/Download)

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for Little Fish during the past few years. After signing to hit-maker extraordinaire Linda Perry’s Custard Records, the band recorded an album in Los Angeles, toured with the likes of Alice in Chains, Spinerette, Blondie and Hole, and played at Reading Festival and on their own tours across the UK. Now, having parted ways with Custard Records, the band has returned to their Oxford roots to record their next album in Gaz Coombes’ basement.

Some may view this change of circumstances as something of a sophomore slump, but whatever the story behind the separation may be, ‘Wonderful’ shows no signs of a band struggling to carry on. In fact the band seems more comfortable than ever, perhaps bolstered by the addition of Ben Walker on Hammond organ, who gives the band an almost spiritual lift on this song. Musically, ‘Wonderful’ deviates from the garage rock furore of old, in favour of a more mainstream sound, a more relaxed mood and a more personal message.That’s not to say that the band are slouching – the chorus has enough victorious pomp about it to get crowds jumping and singing along, and those who are fans of the band via PJ Harvey will find plenty to like about ‘Wonderful’. Concerning a period in singer Juju’s life when she was told she would never be able to sing again, Juju almost overcompensates here, taking her Patti Smith-isms to new levels, although now she sounds more like the mature Smith on ‘E-Bow the Letter’ than the young one on ‘Gloria’.

So, an interesting new step in Little Fish’s career then, but by no means a revolutionary one. Juju’s voice has always invited comparisons to Patti Smith and PJ Harvey, so it would be nice to see her flourish into a more idiosyncratic singer on future releases, to give fans and critics something more unique to love about the band. But as far as Oxford bands go, Little Fish have the potential to go far indeed. Don’t be surprised if you hear ‘Wonderful’ a lot in the coming months.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 29/08/11]

http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/08/29/little-fish-wonderful-7download/

A Death Cinematic - Your Fate Twisting, Epic in its Crushing Moments

(self-released/Simple Box Constructions, 2011)

Your Fate Twisting, Epic in its Crushing Moments, the latest release from mysterious one-man-band A Death Cinematic comes in some of the most impressive packaging we've seen in some time. Completely hand-made by the man himself through his own Simple Box Construction company, the care that has gone into the packaging is charming and interesting – extras include some water slide decal skulls and a unique piece of Japanese kozo paper with a poem to accompany one of the tracks. Limited to 50 copies one can't fault the effort but it's a shame that not quite as much attention was given to the music on the CD.

Title track “Your Fate Twisting, Epic in its Crushing Moments” is twenty-two minutes of guitar improvisation based around the same progression of notes with very little in the way of variation. Unlike the title of the song there are no twists, except at the eight minute mark when I thought the song had changed gear completely with some strummed guitars. But false alarm! It was the music player on the Simple Box Construction website - another song had started playing automatically. Back to the song at hand, and not much has changed and although the crushing repetition does evoke a pleasant and familiar sense of melancholic inertia, it doesn't really need to drag on for quite so long.

“In the Tumbling Dawn Light, Their Eyes Fall Frozen Through the Mist and Rain” is brief, comparatively, at only nine and a half minutes long, and is altogether more measured than the title track and fares far better for it. There is still a loose feel to the whole affair but there seems to be less improvisation going on as layers of clean guitar wash atop one another before disappearing. One must assume that A Death Cinematic name their songs after the moods that they create because the song is evocative of mist and rain. The accompanying poem also lends the song poignancy as it contains the line “a man at the gallows/ a man at the gates of the abyss.” It’s refreshing to see a musician indulging in a spot of multimedia artwork but at times it seems like A Death Cinematic are more interested in producing a soundtrack for the packaging that they’ve created than they are in the music itself.

It would be easy to label this release as post-rock because it does share many characteristics with the genre: sprawling, ambient instrumental music; use of digital effects and loops; melancholy moods; long, cumbersome track titles. But the music also strikes us as having a close affiliation with jazz, perhaps in the spirit of improvisation and impressionism that the songs clearly embrace. There are also hints of wilful, trying artists like Vincent Gallo, a link that is made by A Death Cinematic being as brilliant as they are frustrating. Unfortunately, on this release the impressive packaging overshadows the music that it holds. You would have to be in the right mood – or stoned – to listen to it for the entirety of its thirty-minute or so duration without getting bored or hoping for some diversion like the one I accidentally encountered during the title track. The music here is enigmatic like the artist that created it but like the artist that created it the music is also anonymous, and lacks personality. Still, bloody nice packaging…

[Originally published on The Sleeping Shaman, 25/08/11]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/a/a-death-cinematic-your-fate-twisting-epic-in-its-crushing-moments-cd-2011/

Cultura Tres - El Mal Del Bien

(Self-released, 2011)

First of all, Cultura Tres deserve to be huge. Although I have to admit that they weren’t really on my radar before a copy of ‘El Mal Del Bien’ landed in my hands, now they stand out as one of the most promising new bands in the sludge and doom genres. They’re not even that new; this is their second album (following their 2008 debut La Cura) and they have already toured around the world, been heralded as a “Global Metal Discovery” by Metal Hammer magazine and earned sponsorship from Tama and Ibanez. Not bad for a strictly D.I.Y. band; all artwork, songwriting, promotion, managing, production and touring is handled by the band members themselves. Now they have unleashed their most direct and coherent artistic statement yet – ‘El Mal Del Bien’.

Whereas La Cura had its foot more firmly in the nu- and progressive metal genres, ‘El Mal Del Bien’ is an altogether heavier, slower, sludgier affair. Case in point is opening song “Propiedad De Dios” which is one of the best sludge/doom songs we’ve heard in some time, thanks largely to the band’s ability to throw in enough twists and turns to keep us guessing how the riffs will attack us next. Add to that the twisted, eerie Alice in Chains-like vocal melodies and the album is off to a great start. Likewise “Purified” works around a huge chaotic riff, building it up and then breaking it down, demonstrating the band’s understanding of song dynamics, a knowledge that the band puts to good use throughout the album. “Purified” combines elements of various bands – the anger of Sepultura, the subtle, accessible song-writing of Soundgarden and the driving groove of Queens of the Stone Age – but Cultura Tres manage to create their own unique sound from this heady concoction.

Elsewhere they take heed of their diverse set of influences which often takes their music into unexpected places. “Los Muertos De Mi Color” is an atmospheric instrumental number full of aching, distant guitar squeals that sound like whales bellowing while Latin rhythms pulsate in the foreground; one can imagine it fitting neatly into a Mars Volta song-suite. “El Sur De La Fe” and “No Es Mi Verdad” are full of wily lead guitars and sickening, discordant harmonies that create woozy, hallucinatory soundscapes that alternately erupt into violent outbursts and crumble to a low rumble.

In fact, the songs are so full of ideas that they could sound messy in less skilled hands but Cultura Tres manage to weave their ideas together, allowing one section to work off the next, each finding their own groove and momentum thus creating a cohesion that would confound many other bands. They also avoid playing straight sludge or doom, preferring to mix things up from time to time. For example, “The Grace” is the song that most resembles the band’s first album – it’s thrashy, punky and full of unadulterated fury. Title track “El Mal Del Bien” and following song “Voices” bleed into one another and combine the band’s new and old sound, like the Deftones end of the nu-metal spectrum colliding with Pantera. Many of the songs also feature guitar solos that would do Carlos Santana and Jimmy Page proud. Like the Mars Volta, Cultura Tres are capable of manipulating your expectations – a huge momentous riff will suddenly vanish to a whisper, a slow section will erupt into a flurry of changing time signatures and off-kilter guitar leads, a song will suddenly switch gear and sound like a classic Led Zeppelin wig-out.

You may have also noticed that there have been few references to other sludge or doom bands in the review thus far. That’s because Cultura Tres make their own racket by honing in on certain elements of their favourite bands, none of whom happen to be sludge or doom bands. Instead they fit into the genre through the moods they create and the bleak, sometimes angry lyrical content that permeates their songs. Sure, there are moments that recall Pantera, Down, QOTSA, the Mars Volta and Sepultura but you couldn’t say that Cultura Tres are merely imitating those bands; it’s more like they build upon their foundations. One of the most striking and refreshing things about the band is their understanding of good song writing. They never allow the riff to become a song as some sludge and doom bands can be prone to do, but instead strategically use riffs to carry their songs and their message along. If there was a criticism to be lumped at ‘El Mal Del Bien’ it would probably be that to a certain extent some of the songs are similar and can blur into one another but that is to be expected from a concept album immersed in the themes of anger, evil, corruption and spiritual betrayal. The band has stated that they conceived of the album with a clear goal and it shows in how well the album flows.

As if the album itself wasn’t enough, we also get two bonus tracks. First up is “Holy Graveyard,” a cover of singer Alejandro’s former band Epitafio from the early 1990s whom the press pack suggests may have been among the earliest South American exponents of doom. The song features vocals from Epitafio’s singer Rodnie Perret-Gentil and is more trashy than anything else on ‘El Mal Del Bien’. Cultura Tres then decide to end the album on one hell of a ballsy note: by covering Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath.”

…

…And it’s not bad at all. Although it doesn’t deviate too far from the original it actually ends up sounding like it could have been one of Cultura Tres’ own songs which is high praise indeed for a cover version. It’s a poetic end to the album as it serves as a tribute to the undisputed masters of doom from a band who must surely be one of the genre’s new shining lights. At the start of the review I mentioned that Cultura Tres deserve to be huge – with this album under their belts it will only be a matter of time before Cultura Tres are huge.

[First published on The Sleeping Shaman, 20/08/11]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/c/cultura-tres-el-mal-del-bien-cdlp-2011/

Agness Pike - Mimum Vitae EP

(Rivet Gun Records, 2011)

Agness, oh Agness. In a wave of humourless, testosterone-fuelled punk and metal, Agness Pike blow a huge musical raspberry at the entire scene and simultaneously become one of the best bands in it. Anyone who has caught them live in the past year will have seen this band, who have more than their fair share of experience between them, grow in confidence and improve with every performance. They are without question the most entertaining band to watch in Oxford right now. Their performances are normally enhanced by the looks of confusion on the faces of mean-mugging metal fans in the audience when frontman Martin Spear takes to the stage.

Indeed, the pull of Martin Spear’s onstage persona is comparable to the affect that the crazy old man at the bus stop has on people – you want to avoid his gaze, but you can’t stop looking at him. With a Hula Hoops packet stapled to the lapel of his military jacket, and a handbag round his arm, he espouses etiquette tips from a book that may or may not actually have words written in it. It’s all an act of course, but he gives in so completely to this character that it’s spellbinding, not to mention hilariously funny.

His voice is also an unexpected shock to those expecting a high-pitched caterwaul or some kind of grunt. Instead, Spear goes for a campy vocal delivery that combines Jello Biafra, John Lydon and the ‘Monster Mash’. It’s brilliant. To top it all off, Spear is a wonderful lyricist, playing with double meaning in his deceptively simple lyrics (even referring to this in ‘Taking Control’). As a lyricist, Spear seems to be as obsessed with magic, voodoo and the cosmic as with more earthy problems like delusions of grandeur and distaste for disco music. ‘Ruthless’ is a haunting tale of sacrifice, and we wonder why more songs don’t have choruses like ‘Disco’ and ‘Spellbound’ because they’ve been stuck in our head for sixth months now. We can only speculate what ‘Rubber Love’ is about, but it certainly sounds rather kinky.

That’s not to say that Agness Pike don’t mean business musically. In fact, the humour and theatricality of the vocals is strikingly juxtaposed by the relentless, driving metal that carries it along. And it works beautifully on songs like ‘Rubber Love’ and ‘Now is the Time’ where Spear punctuates his words to the internal rhythm of the riffs. The band is ridiculously tight and handles changing rhythms, time signatures and dropping in and out of half time effortlessly in the highly capable hands of drummer Mike Brown. Pete Marler’s bass sound can only be described as gnarly (particularly when leading the way on ‘Taking Control’ and ‘Disco’) while Chris Brown’s guitar sound is crunchy and menacing throughout.

There are hints of Black Album-era Metallica in the songs and a few brief moments even recall early System of a Down, so you couldn’t call Agness Pike a wholly original band, but the songs are well structured and full of interesting dynamics, elevating them far above the majority of their peers. Their songs play off of one another so the EP rolls along like one long, exhausting nightmare. A freaky, old-school metal/punk romp… if you’re into that kind of thing.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 18/08/11]

http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/08/18/agness-pike-mimum-vitae-ep-rivet-gun-records/

Efrim Manuel Menuck - Plays "High Gospel"

(Constellation Records, 2011)

In his nearly two-decade-long career, Efrim Menuck has distinguished himself as an innovative musician whose work with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion has, at times, led the post-rock movement and inspired countless imitators. In those bands Menuck always managed to maintain a certain degree of anonymity and mystery, allowing us as listeners to disregard any sense of musical ego or individual personality in favour of enjoying the group effort of Menuck and his band members. On the contrary, Plays “High Gospel”, his first solo album, is perhaps the first chance we’ve had to examine Menuck’s own personal sensibilities completely on his own terms.

And the subject matter on the album indicates that Menuck is welcoming us into his world with open arms as he celebrates his Montreal neighbourhood (“Our Lady of Parc Extension and Her Munificent Sorrows”), remembers his lost friends (“Kaddish for Chesnutt”, an ode to his sometime collaborator Vic Chesnutt) and experiences fatherhood for the first time (“I Am No Longer a Motherless Child”).

Opening song “Our Lady of Parc Extension and Her Munificent Sorrows” features a life-affirming multiple-part harmony floating atop a gorgeous sea of droaning guitar feedback. This constant drone bleeds into “A 12-Pt. Program for Keep on Keepin’ On” but here it takes on a more menacing tone, lying underneath the creeping bassline and the layers of overlapping vocals before ending on a manic note with feedback and frenetic drumbeats.

“August Four, Year-of-Our-Lord Blues” is a gorgeous, instrumental ditty that will be familiar to fans of Menuck’s other projects. Likewise, “Heaven’s Engine is a Dusty Ol’ Bellows” starts the second half of the album in atmospheric fashion with a high gain guitar drenched in tremolo and reverb over the recurring bed of droning guitar. “Chickadees’ Roar, Pt. 2” is a haunting collage of screeching strings and a distant, echoing melody. All songs sound like staples of Menuck’s previous work but in the context of this album the overall effect makes the songs feel more intimate, gives them a meaning that the song titles may never reveal to us listeners.

“Kaddish for Chesnutt” is, as the title suggests, a commemorative prayer for Vic Chesnutt, the partially paralyzed cult singer-songwriter whom Menuck had played with on two of his albums. Perhaps the most emotional song on the album, it’s also the song where Menuck’s uses his less as an instrument and more as an actual tool for delivering his personal message. The results are heartbreaking and beautiful and at times it sounds like Menuck’s voice is ready to break with emotion.

Album closer “I Am No Longer a Motherless Child” starts with a lengthy sole guitar part before tapes loop in and Menuck begins to sing the song’s mantra: “Look at my boy/ Look at his smile/ I am no longer a motherless child.” The layers build up, more harmonies are laid atop one another, an infectious drum beat kicks in, a guitar plays a lilting solo, strings swell and all is well in the world. It’s as beautiful an end to the album as you would have expected from the man.

Plays “Holy Gospel” might not be the kind of album that fans of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion were expecting from Menuck; perhaps they might not have expected him to produce an album that is quite so straight-forward and direct. But the album definitely fits into his body of work and it really is quite an accomplishment as it feels like Menuck is taking us on an emotional journey through a few eventful years in his life, something that many songwriters are unable to do. What’s more he does this without relying on telling the story with lyrics (indeed most of the lyrics on the album are obscured by noise) but instead creates moods and suggests emotions through the album’s soundscapes and musical collages. One can sense the joy in the opening and closing songs, the sadness in the ode to his lost friend and in between it all there are moments of mixed emotion. “Heavy Calls & Hospital Blues” is a sad piano ballad that features the ambiguous lyric “Your pretty daughter’s sleeping/There’s beauty in this world” for example. Likewise, the various sound collages are certain to suggest different things to each listener. This is by no means an easy listen but it will draw you in to a very personal story.

[Originally published on the Sleeping Shaman, 08/08/11]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/e/efrim-manuel-menuck-plays-high-gospel-cdlp-2011/

[Later reposted on the Roadburn Festival website as their "Album of the Day", 08/08/11]
http://www.roadburn.com/2011/08/album-of-the-day-efrim-manuel-menuck-plays-high-gospel/

Pikacyu*Makoto - OM Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From Darkside

(Riot Season, 2011)

We're not sure where to begin with this one so let's start from the outside and work our way in to the contents of the CD. Firstly, this is a side project of Kawabata Makoto, the illusive leader of Japanese pysch-rock lunatics Acid Mothers Temple, and drummer Pikacyhu. Formerly of noise-rock duo Afrirampo, Pikacyu is now the current drummer for Acid Mothers Temple off-shoot Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno. And last but not least, the CD artwork features Makoto and Pikacyu cuddling up to an elephant... in Space. Hopefully that should begin to give you an idea of what you might be able to expect from the pyshedelic duo.

And yet OM Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From Darkside starts ominously with a chilling mantra being repeated over and over for two minutes, gradually warping and becoming more distorted before pyschedelic epic “Birth Star” kicks in in a way that will be familiar to fans of Makoto. It's actually Pikacyu who takes the lead vocal role however and she manages to make pleasant melodies, chanting and punky shouting coexist in strange chaotic harmony.

In fact this balancing act characterises the entire album – the tracklisting allows time for punk ditties (“Pop! Spece! Jump!”, “Oscar No Hope” and the Zappa-like “Pigamelan-Magamelan”) to play alongside space oddities like “Birth Star” and “Back to Your House Over the Rainbow”. In between there are moments of calm and contemplation where all that is needed to create a pyschedelic atmosphere is Makoto's beautifully reserved guitar playing and Pikacyu's lilting voice hovering over the top of it all. The duo are sensitive to the other's impulses and successfully alter their own playing style to fit the other's mould. Even better is when they combine to create a sort of hybrid of the two's styles. An example is “Wild Rise” which features some impressive drumming, combining the pyshedelic wig-outs usually more assosiated with Makoto and the aggressive, shouty punk of Pikacyu's former bands.

Elsewhere they attempt to evoke “the full of love from the Universe” (according to the presspack) and apparerently the love of the Universe is a fucking terrifying thing. “The Ginger Chai” starts beautifully but the repetitive guitar melody soon becomes disconcerting over time and it feels like we're either staring down a tunnel of madness or we're listening to the enchanting sound of a parralel universe eminating from a rip in the time-space continuum. As the song fades out a bellowing, deep sound rings out like the call of some space colossus which only adds to the sense of unease. “Oscar No Hope” is 25 seconds of schitzo punk that feels like the duo are excercising their demons onto tape. And remember the ominous chanting I mentioned at the start of the review? Well “OM Marijana FU pt. 2” is the second part and here the eponymous mantra is stretched out for five minutes. Over a manipulated sample of a bagpipe-like instrument. All very strange indeed but incredibly atmospheric, the highest praise for the creators of a bizarre space opera.

“AWA no UTA” is one of the understated highlights of the album – a calm lullaby – while “Back to Your House Over the Rainbow” kind of acts like a companion piece to the similarly long “Birth Star” and gives the album a pleasing symmetry. Finally the relaxed, unwinding “I'm In You” completes the cycle and this peculiar, charming, and at times frightening record comes to a close.

Fans of Makoto and Pikacyu's previous work won't be disappointed by OM Sweet Home but for all those of you who are on the fence make no mistake – this is an oddball release, albeit a strong one. Throughout the album Pikacyu proves to be the perfect companion to Makoto, punctuating his excellent guitar work throughout with some punchy drumming and providing the majority of the audible vocals (Makoto sometimes grumbles underneath all of the chaos). True to the apparent theme of the album, the band manages to blend light and dark, weaving a coherent whole out of the chaos across these thirteen tracks. A Japanese pysch-rock concept album about “the cosmic shaman Pikacyu vs the master of the darkness Makoto?” Yeah, why not?

[Originally published on the Sleeping Shaman, 05/08/11]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/p/pikacyumakoto-om-sweet-home-we-are-shining-stars-from-darkside-cd-2011/

[Latest reposted as the Roadburn Festival's Album of the Day, 12/08/11]

http://www.roadburn.com/2011/08/album-of-the-day-pikacyumakoto-om-sweet-home-we-are-shining-stars-from-darkside/

The Dreaming Spires - "Everything All the Time"/"In Our Lifetimes"

(Clubhouse Records, 2011)

It’s now been nine years since Oxford’s Goldrush released their Americana-tinged debut album Don’t Bring Me Down. This eager young record-buyer had hoped that the album’s title, like the music within, was some kind of portmanteau of Neil Young’s ‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down’ and The Beatles’ ‘Don’t Let Me Down’. Regardless, it was inspiring at that point in time to see a local band that wasn’t Radiohead or Supergrass reaching a national audience. In the years since, core members Joe and Robin Bennett have become prominent movers in the local and national music scene, organizing the ever-expanding Truck Festival which has just celebrated its fourteenth anniversary. The Dreaming Spires is the Bennett brothers’ latest musical project, and they are joined here by Loz Colbert of Ride on drums – which is presumably where their self-proclaimed ‘shoegaze country’ tag comes from. However, those of you expecting My Morning Jacket or Lift to Experience should be prepared for a distinctly clean-cut, West Coast sound on ‘Everything All the Time.’

Like Goldrush before them, The Dreaming Spires wear their influences on their sleeve, and it’s not simply lazy journalism to say that they sound like Big Star and Teenage Fanclub. They really do. To their credit, the band and producer Sam Williams have managed to nail that Grand Prix sound perfectly. Like Charly Coombes & the New Breed, The Dreaming Spires ooze a kind of accomplished professionalism, and theirs is a familiar, radio-friendly sound. Unfortunately, this slickness seems to prevent them from displaying much of a personality of their own.

The opening chords and verses of ‘Everything All the Time’ absolutely smack of Teenage Fanclub, before Robin’s Tim Wheeler-eqsue voice lends itself perfectly to an infectious chorus akin to Ash’s ‘Shining Light’. It’s a solid summer tune and has just as much hit potential as you can hope to expect from a guitar-based band.

B-side ‘In Our Lifetimes’ fares less well, however. In fact, it sounds like one of the weaker Flight of the Conchords songs with its nostalgic ‘Tiny Dancer’ feel, good-time guitar licks and overly earnest and simultaneously simple lyrics that verge – presumably unintentionally – on being satirical. Throughout the song, Robin sounds shaky, singing “Will our children’s children understand/How we gave them such a losing hand?” – and while the environmental message is a worthy one, the overall execution is a bit, well, naff. (And we hate nothing more than having to resort to using the word “naff”). On the plus side, the swelling strings and life-affirming brass section in the outro positively recalls latter-day Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.

Before anyone begins to suggest that we’re hating on the Dreaming Spires because of their pedigree, let us assure you that the opinions stated here have nothing to do with that. ‘Everything All the Time’ is, as we’ve stated, a well-crafted and executed pop song that will likely do well. It’s already been spun by BBC Radio luminaries like Steve Lamacq. However, the quality of songwriting and originality on display here is lacking compared to at least a handful (maybe two handfuls) of other local bands; perhaps it’s unfair to expect so much from a fledgling band.

Having said that, the accompanying press pack asserts that when The Dreaming Spires played their songs at Wood Festival earlier in May they were cajoled into doing three encores – but that’s a less impressive feat when you’re the organizer of the whole shindig…

Poet Matthew Arnold is attributed with giving Oxford it’s affectionate nickname, describing her as “that sweet city with her dreaming spires”, referring to the beautiful, iconic architecture. This proves to be a fitting moniker for the band; the songs here show that The Dreaming Spires can attempt to construct a gorgeous pop song in the same vein as pop masters Big Star, but as long as they continue to do so they continue to do themselves a disservice, as we can just listen to #1 Record, Bandwagonesque or Radio City. The Dreaming Spires show promise as writers of anthemic pop songs; let’s just hope that they can become masters in their own right rather than masterful imitators.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 01/08/2011]
http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/08/01/the-dreaming-spires-everything-all-the-time-clubhouse-records/