Label Profile: Good Fight Music

The track record of Paul Conroy and Carl Stevens is pretty staggering when you consider they were former partners of Ferret (who went on to combine forces with Sony’s RED Distribution and Siege Of Amida Records), Warner Music and ChannelZero. So, in January 2010, when they stepped back into the breach and founded Good Fight Entertainment, an international management company it made a few big ripples in the industry pond. They got RED back on board to help out, divided their company into a music and sports division, and added a new record label, Good Fight Music. It’s the quality material pouring forth from this particular record label that is causing this particular journalist to sit up and take notice.

Of their new endeavour, Carl Severson states, “We’ve built a company that is in a unique position to rise to the challenges of the evolving music industry. We’ve been on the front lines as digital has become the medium of choice for music marketing and commerce, and we’ve grown with it, embraced the opportunities it’s presented. Paul, myself, our staff; we have the resolve to thrive in this climate. Good Fight Entertainment is the culmination of our experiences as artists, band members, managers, musicians and executives. We have the opportunity to work with people who believe in us as much as we believe in them. This is a very exciting time for us.”

So far, the roster is already looking pretty impressive. Rosaline, I Am Abomination, Son Of Aurelius, Disembodied and Madball are a cherry-picked few who have all signed on the dotted line. Their first release was a class act too – Cancer Bats‘ latest album Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones. Having had a chance to review the latest material to emerge, (see below) it has certainly given enough food for thought.

Here’s a quick rundown of what you should be keeping an eye open for:

Band: The Chariot
Album: Long Live
Released: November 2010

Press Release Summary: “With a hard earned and accomplished sales history of over 100,000 units and years of vigorous global touring, The Chariot have entrenched themselves as a standout in the hard and aggressive music movement.”

TLOBF Review: Ultra-rapid, spasmodic changes of attack take you swinging through more obnoxious levels of ear-scouring than you can shake a stick at. From opener ‘Evan Perks’ plaintive repeated howl of “disappointed, I know you are”, through ‘David De La Hoz’ and its multi-faceted tomfoolery (and accompanying haphazard one-take video), to the lacerating smack in the chops that is ‘The King’, The Chariot tread the tightrope of bothersome lunacy and damnable genius. This is destructively cantakerous hardcore music like never before and will leave many in pieces whilst the remainder will be left staring down at their cowering forms with freeze-framed faces, caught in throes of rapture.

Listen here | Watch here

Band: The Contortionist
Album: Exoplanet
Released: October 2010

Press Release Summary: “While hardcore punk may be the sound that rules the day in The Contortionist hometown of Indianapolis, it is the band’s signature brand of forward thinking heavy metal that has made them stick out as hometown favorites”.

TLOBF Review: This is probably the most insanely complex album I think I’ve ever heard. The Contortionist manage to blend bruising post-hardcore and highly complex math-metal with utterly benign passages of rock music. The vocal anomalies (dirty grunts hitting sterile melodies and robotic vocoder narration) match the broken nature of the guitar styles and track structures. ‘Expire’ hangs off crushing deathcore whilst ‘Contact’ unfolds into part-epic rock anthem, part-deconstructed technical metal. And if you thought this was all about creating something insanely aggressive, dig down to the eloquently melodic ‘Axiom’ or part one of the title-track and you’ll be simply blown away by the tenderness on display. With attention spans shortening all the time, The Contortionist may just have created the music of the future.

Listen here | Watch here

Band: Conditions
Album: Fluorescent Youth
Released: September 2010

Press Release Summary: “The songs are steeped in hard rock with an infusion of heartfelt pop. Track after track finds towering hook-laden choruses fit to reign on radio’s airwaves”.

TLOBF Review: This comes across like a dose of Flood Of Red’s epic walls of sound yet rocks with the grim determination of You Me At Six. Finding a middle ground between those two can’t have been easy, yet Conditions find it by combining mewing pop-punk with rabble-rousing hard rock. There are plenty of big hooks but, sadly, little variety in delivery and they do appear to be on a collision course with a million other bands. Thankfully, the emotional damage that bursts forth from ‘Comfort Far Away’ combines with tracks like ‘Keeping Pace With Planes’ and ‘When It Won’t Save You’ to thunder in and prove they have plenty left in the tank to show us. This is no one-trick pony.

Listen here | Watch here

This article also online @ TLOBF = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/11/label-profile-5-good-fight-music/

Album Review: Hammock – Chasing After Shadows… Living With The Ghosts

...At the end of the day, nothing seems suitably comparable with the immersive and incredibly uplifting experience that Hammock offer. The songs are more like watery images of moments in time. ‘You Lost The Starlight In Your Eyes’, for instance, is a gentile train journey with lush, green landscapes drifting past before it all rapidly changes to ravaged sands beaten by the sun and the wind, all ending in a mist-covered, bombed-out ghost town. Then, ‘How Can I Make You Remember Me?’ conjures up a mental picture of a crystal-clear, bluer-than blue dive site swimming with all manners of marine life. No matter which track, there is always a mental image to explore.

Be it the echoic chime of a keyboard, the rumbling of an insistent bassline, the soft-shuffle of drum brushes, or an imperceptible, curiously winding series of vocalisations, you’ll find yourself lost in a world of your own creation. There aren’t many bands that allow their listeners to have so much input into the end product. Had enough of suckling the poison from vapid dancefloor stompers or soul-less copycat pop songs? Let Hammock be your antidote.

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/07/hammock-chasing-after-shadows-living-with-ghosts/

Album Review: Loathe - Despondent By Design

...Whilst you'll tire of the incessantly skiddy 'This Respect' very quickly, 'Children Of A Lesser God' will absolutely rip your head off and spit down your throat; whilst the repetitious snare, see-sawing guitar hook and weak fade-out of 'This Overwhelming Grasp Of Solitude' will seem like a tipping point (it's quite possibly what the hopelessly weedy brother of Lamb Of God's 'The Faded Line' might sound like). 'The End Of All Things Good' will drag you back from the edge and hammer home just how seriously good this band can be when they peak...

Full review = http://www.metalteamuk.net/july10reviews/cdreviews-loathe.htm

Album Review: Black Breath - Heavy Breathing

My review - originally published on TLOBF:

For Heavy Breathing, Black Breath’s debut album, the Seattle quintet travelled to Godcity Studio in Massachusetts, workshop of the Converge kingpin Kurt Ballou, to try and inject some real menace into their hardcore. The result is a coming together of the most vitriolic punk and the blackest of metals; enough to send even the meanest looking two-stepper diving for cover. Coming from a band that’s toured with acts as diverse as The Accused, Nachmystium and Book Of Black Earth it’s no surprise that some of that pungent evil has rubbed off...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/05/black-breath-heavy-breathing/

Album Review: 65daysofstatic – We Were Exploding Anyway

My review - originally appeared on TLOBF:

We Were Exploding Anyway is a wonderfully amorphous fusion of instrumental, percussion-heavy electronica with incessantly progressive patterns which sees delicately-layered splinters of sound slotted firmly into place only to be achingly withdrawn without warning. What 65daysofstatic have created here is a beautiful piece of art with bold, colour-soaked flourishes and flowing rhythmic structures, yet still characterised by razor-sharp lines and perfect finishes. Before I get all Antiques Roadshow on you, let me explain where we are in the band’s life-cycle...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/04/65daysofstatic-we-were-exploding-anyway/

Album Review: Bison B.C. - Dark Ages

My review - originally appeared on TLOBF:

There’s no mistaking the fact that Vancouver’s Bison B.C. have their own ideas about how to make music. From their previous releases we learned that they worship the awesome power of the riff, that louder is inevitably always better, and that throwing in plenty of weird conceptual lyrics is a no-brainer – think Mastodon joining forces with Baroness to take on Lair Of The Minotaur and High On Fire. The monster combination has certainly stung enough ears to warrant this reviewer getting a little excited about this latest effort...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/04/bison-b-c-dark-ages/

Album Review: Bleeding Through - Bleeding Through

My review - originally posted on Alternative Vision:

“I want to know why the fuck you’re really here / Why are you here? / Empty, no I’ll never be / Ten years undying disease” is the potently introspective, opening salvo that marks a decade together for Bleeding Through. It forms part of their sixth studio album and is a clear indication of the band’s state of mind. It’s this frank self-assessment that defines the album and sees them suck up a plethora of metal and hardcore styles to deliver a more antagonistic, bile-soaked rollercoaster ride than ever before...

Full review = http://www.alternativevision.co.uk/cdreview1149.html

Album Review: Armored Saint - La Raza

My review - originally posted on TLOBF:

Every time a band decides to dust off their kit after a long absence and release something new they always bring a hulking great elephant into the room with them. 10 years since their last album, Revelation, it’s a warm welcome back to Armored Saint – but my question, glancing across at the pachyderm, can they still make music that is relevant today?...



Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/04/armored-saint-la-raza/

Album/DVD Review: Welcome To The Twisted Cabaret Vol. 1

My review - originally posted on TLOBF:

Formed with the aim of uniting “some of the most important modern artists who are using, altering or diverting the codes and rules of Weimar Cabaret” this release attempts to capture those memorable nights we’ve dined out on as young, vibrant, beautiful people. Personally, I’m a twisted middle-aged hack and the idea of going to a burlesque club or going to see an off-the-wall circus act fills me with nothing but horror. Consequently, I knew little of what to expect and so found myself pleasantly surprised and enjoying the controversial Brechtian and Gypsy cabaret of The Tiger Lillies, the fuzzed blues and screwball poetics of The Maxi Monster Music Show and the talented Japanese duo Kokusoyu Sumire and their fairytale re-imaginings...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/03/welcome-to-the-twisted-cabaret-vol-1/

Album Review: Airbourne - No Guts, No Glory

My review - originally posted on Alternative Vision

Ever since their award-winning debut album, ’Runnin’ Wild’, Airbourne have been at the forefront of a much reinvigorated rock n’ roll scene. Their incredible live performances, powered as much by the band’s colossal volume levels as for frontman Joel O’Keefe’s daredevil antics, have been a large part of their appeal. Suddenly, we find metal/rock festival organisers, like Download did last year, considering the prospect of devoting a whole day to putting on old-school rock bands, and the rise and rise of Airbourne has been a large factor in that...

Full review = http://www.alternativevision.co.uk/cdreview1118.html

Album Review: Lower Than Atlantis - Far Q

My review - originally posted on TLOBF:

Having drawn inspiration from 90’s grunge, rock and punk-pop bands, it follows that Lower Than Atlantis have developed a bit of a penchant for creating dirty, aggressive music loaded with spiked barbs of indignation. Having undergone their fair share of sticky patches where they nearly gave up after several members bade them farewell (it’s not clear whether their band name is a reaction to the situation), they have experienced what they term a “metamorphosis”. This debut album sees them re-energised and delving into the gritty subjects of recession, unemployment and a disenchanted youth...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/03/lower-than-atlantis-far-q/

Gig Review + Interview: Editors @ Corn Exchange, Cambridge 17/3/2010

My review - originally published on TLOBF:

Seeing Editors perform their synth-infested, infinitely bleaker third album, intercut with older material, is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. One minute we’re thrilled and empowered by thumping tracks like ‘The Racing Rats’ and ‘Munich’ and next we’re being impaled upon the heart-wrenching slog of gloom-dwelling laments like ‘You Don’t Know Love’ or ‘The Big Exit’. Certainly the former style is far easier to swallow than the latter – the faithful pogo and batter out metronomic handclaps with the echoic tempos...

Photo © Rich E

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/03/editors-cold-cave-the-strange-death-of-liberal-england-corn-exchange-cambridge-1732010/

My interview - originally published on TLOBF:

Me: Do you still get a buzz when you see your record in the music shops?
Russell (bassist): Yeah! I mean, I check for it. It’s nice when it’s wrapped up. If I’m in a cool town, I try and go record shopping and see what they recommend, see if I can get some vinyl. It’s always nice to see your album artwork in there along with all the other records. I went into Piccadilly Records in Manchester and they had all three on vinyl and it was quite nice.

Full interview = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/03/tlobf-interview-editors-2/

News: Sonic Dice R.I.P. 2007-2009

For the last couple of years, together with my good friend, we've been running a dot.com alternative music review website called Sonic Dice. As it turns out, it was a hugely successful project but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. We quickly managed to build up a great amount of input direct from the music industry, enabling us to run the website for free, gather a large team of reviewers around us and, hence, update the content on a regular basis.

I particularly was blown away by our achievements, highlighted by the influx of great bands wanting us to review their albums and shows and granting us the opportunity to interview them. I'll never forget interviewing Killswitch Engage, Soulfly, Unearth, As I Lay Dying, Gojira, Turisas, Suicide Silence, Darkest Hour, The Answer, Bison B.C. and Full Blown Chaos all in the name of Sonic Dice. As a fan of metal, that meant a great deal to me personally.

We'd like to thank everyone involved for their input and kind words when we finally were forced to shut up shop. We'll continue to work with them, no doubt, even if the relationships have to be tweaked somewhat. Today is certainly a day to be proud, not sad.

Album Review: Hamfatter - What Part Of Hamfatter Do You Not Understand?

“As Seen On TV” shouts the graphic on the front of Hamfatter’s debut album - and indeed, the ex-Cambridge University music graduates are fresh from extracting £75,000 from one of the moneybags on Dragon’s Den. The initial furore over the event appears to have died down but Hamfatter are keen to wring all the extra exposure they can out of it… and why the Hell not?

‘The Girl I Love’, the lead single from their new album ‘What Part Of Hamfatter Do You Not Understand?”, serves as a gentle introduction to their reflective indie pop. Eoin O’Mahony softly sings of resisting sexual temptation to a backdrop of chugging guitars and digitised backing harmonies. It offers very little in the way of effective hooks or variety, seemingly happy to simmer along without ever threatening to boil over.

‘Karma’, by contrast, is a multi-faceted rock out with it’s unaccompanied half-sang, half-spoken introduction leading into fizzing guitars and hammered piano. O’Mahony’s vocal explores a range that flits from simple two-note sneering to glorious lilting highs. With a mighty mid-song dropout, a catchy repeated riff and funky, pummelled bass all contained within the complex song structure there is an endless backdrop of intertwining threads to fascinate.

There is certainly an element of frustration at their inability to lock-down a style that they are both comfortable with and which isn’t formulaic. There’s ’21st Century Sex’ sounding, as it does, like Badly Drawn Boy covering one of Divine Comedy’s scattier songs - the problem here is O’Mahony’s vocal just doesn’t stand up to such comparisons. Then there‘s ‘How Sweet It Is’, seemingly a play on the Marvin Gaye classic. It’s replete with strings and piano (nicely arranged as it happens) but with the vocal disintegrating into a Morrissey-styled whine the whole thing becomes too much and begins to parody itself.

As it stands, Hamfatter appear to need one hefty dose of Ritalin. The unsettled nature of this album improves with repeated plays with a few of the songs sticking out above the rest (’Karma’, ’I Want To Be You’ and, to some extent, ‘Down Tonight‘) but there is far too much that merely mimics for their instant hit of fame to allow them to reap the full benefits. A hamfatter is, apparently, a third-rate minstrel - enough said.

www.myspace.com/hamfatter

Also online @ Music-Zine = http://www.music-zine.com/reviews/?id=544

Album Review: Pope Joan - Hot Water, Lines & Rickety Machines

With this debut album, Brighton’s Pope Joan have confidently thrown down the gauntlet to the listener to keep up with their deliberately obnoxious in-your-face avant-pop and not feel overwhelmed. Like a particularly vicious alcoholic shot, it’s short, invariably sugary-sweet but it kicks like a mule.

Opener ‘No TV’ trades in feedback and crunched guitar. The dense, stabbing vocals are breathlessly delivered, becoming almost constrictive. It’s followed by the double-time drums and curiously juvenile 8-bit synth of ‘49 Years Time‘ which descends into a childlike tantrum of bum notes. With the processed, strained and scratched guitar of ‘A Length Of String’ leaving the low-end fully open for the bass to step in, it is the climax of the assault that the band had been threatening.

These three songs introduce the Pope Joan blueprint perfectly well enough. Repetitious stop-start structures, ham-fisted, detuned instrumentation and shouted, stereotyped tales on love and modern life; think Wombats but with a touch of Maximo Park vigour. Then, just when you think you’ve got them pinned down the band throw in two songs that change everything. Quirky complexity becomes composed simplicity as ‘It’s The Same As When You Asked Me The Last Time’ finally grabs hold of an idea and runs with it, allowing a dark motif to dominate. Insistent strings and a raw emotive vocal pound out a hook which is infinitely easier to immerse yourself in. ‘An Alternate Route To The End’ is similar in that it lets one instrument dominate giving room for the vocal to breathe and explore, allowing it’s natural strength to shine.

A mixed bag this one. There’s plenty of bands out there who’ll provide more in the way of inventive wit and instantly gratifying hooks, but not as many who can offer quite the range of tempos that Pope Joan have displayed here. Yes, they’re oddball. Yes, they’re colourful. But when they forget all that and inject a bit of heart into their music they really can shine.

www.myspace.com/popejoan

Also online @ Music-Zine = http://www.music-zine.com/reviews/?id=561

Album Review: Milosh - iii

Toronto-based Michael Milosh is a classically-trained cellist, jazz aficionado and devotee of left-field electronica. His first two albums, ‘You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Meme’ earned warm reviews that likened his music to artists such as Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Brian Eno and even R&B crooner D’Angelo. This album, again, curiously brings elements of many different genres to the table. With it’s interesting combination of soft, sweeping vocal over steady beats and samples it has an almost elemental quality. It was largely written and recorded during a year-long stay amid the sunshine and birdsong of the tropical island of Koh Samui - something that clearly affected Milosh judging from the themes and titles of the tracks.

Opener ‘Awful Game’ is a mere two-chord simplicity of gently rising and falling keyboard over synthetic beats, pops and claps that cast a series of sonic ripples behind them. The reverberating sweep of vocal that surfs above it all is what defines Milosh’s sound. Haunting and effective. ‘Another Day’ is like listening to a lonely serenade of harp and violin whilst all around insects chirrup and click out the rhythm.

‘Gentle Samui’ proves that this delicate approach to making music can be undone very quickly if the mix isn‘t perfect. The beat here is reduced to the sound of a dripping tap on taut clingfilm and quickly becomes Chinese water torture. It’s way too loud in comparison to the twinkling piano and whispered soliloquy. Unfortunately, this pattern continues throughout with the subtlety of the softer tracks getting smothered by the crunch, crack or slap of a dirty great spot of electronica standing out like a square peg in a round hole.

There are still moments where things click pleasantly into place. ‘Warm Waters’ becomes the perfect muscle soak for the mind, with a dreamy voice listing his musings on island life in what feels like an attempt to hypnotise the listener into some kind of Zen state. Occasionally a big chunk of 80s beats appear to bring a glowing vibe to proceedings - the Thompson Twins funk of ‘Hold My Breath’ or the Depeche Mode backline of ‘Leaving Samui’ stand proudly out as memorable for the right reasons.

In places this feels less like electro-folk, as his press release suggests, and more like epic, deconstructed, modern R'n'B. Milosh’s sumptuous, soulful vocals do end up jarring with his awkward take on the metronome in places and it’s a shame because when the blend is right the ethereal music that results is pleasantly mesmeric.

Also online @ Music-Zine = http://www.music-zine.com/reviews/?id=549

Album Review: Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

Friendly Fires have had their 15 minutes of fame, appearing as the first unsigned band on Channel 4’s Transmission, and they seem to have gotten a taste for it. With the release of this, their eponymous debut album, they have put together a dual attack of sun-drenched pop and mind-expanding atmospherics, which promises to have you shaking your tailfeather and shoegazing in equal measures.

Opener ‘Jump in The Pool’ is awash with sweeping vocals dropping out to leave a fiesta of staggered drums, chintzy guitars and deadened bass twang. Ed Macfarlane’s vocal on the chorus rises to a falsetto to nail the hook with a nod to the breathless class of The Jesus And Mary Chain. With ’In The Hospital’ we get a big streak of 80s pop and a funky groove, complete with “doo-doo” backing, handclaps, cowbells and maracas. This is party music for those with the hardiest of constitutions.

The combination of this twisted in-your-face pop is so far from the sudden heady, flights of fancy the band takes with their lapping waves of backfill that it seems impossible that the two could ever meet in the middle. At times, they pull things off with such subtlety and panache that it feels so normal, like they’ve perfected the art already (‘Strobe’ or ‘Ex Lover’); then there are other times when the dreaded clash occurs and the track disassembles itself into confetti (‘Paris’ or ’White Diamonds’). Deciding what’s good or bad isn’t as clear-cut as this though. Yes, the music occasionally clashes but that’s not to say that what there is inside is completely devoid of merit - maybe the band have shown a little naivety in construction. That’s all.

One place they appear to need no help is in production. The remarkable thing here is that the promo flyer reveals that the band find it difficult working with established producers and prefer to do things themselves - the recording sessions took place in Macfarlane’s parent’s house using DIY techniques. The only background they seem to have here is with the post-hardcore music that they used to play around with at school. “I think we took things too seriously back then”, says Macfarlane. “Obviously things have changed a lot since then. Writing a pop song wasn’t very high on our agenda, but now we definitely want to write songs with a pop edge.”

The words “pop” and “edge” are very much suitable descriptors of what this debut album is all about. It’s a stunning opening salvo full of razor-sharp wit and inventiveness. This is one fire that refuses to be extinguished.

www.myspace.com/friendlyfires

Also online @ Music-Zine = http://www.music-zine.com/reviews/?id=553

EP Review: The Leaves - The Sunshine

The Leaves, based in London and the South East, play gentle blues-tinged melodic rock music. Lead singer, Dannieuelle, has an assured vocal that sweeps effortlessly through the songs. Guitarist Aidan’s subtle acoustic melodies and drummer Dan’s understated, steady rhythms provide the backing to four tracks that show off their songwriting abilities.

The star of the show is clearly Danniuelle’s vocal which combines Dusty Springfield’s soft delivery with the lilting, more dramatic style of Chrissie Hynde’s. ‘First And Last’ is probably the best track here with a rhythm guitar setting the pace which the vocal lifts before pitching elegantly into the chorus hook. With songs that are so simply structured there aren’t any surprises or pitfalls - its music without gimmicks. Yes, I suppose it is rather formulaic, but then it’s perfect music for a lazy sunny afternoon and there’s always room for more of that, right?

www.myspace.com/theleaves4u

Also online @ Music-Zine = http://www.music-zine.com/reviews/?id=494

Gig Review: Asobi Seksu @ The Portland, Cambridge

Green Mind Promotions’ final show is back where it all began, here at The Portland, and it’s a full house. Sounding like a cheap rail company, Econoline kick proceedings off energetically with their geeky brand of upbeat pop-rock. They revel in the packed crowd and set the tone for the excellent Scanners who delight with their angelic harmonising and thudding rhythms. They play us their debut UK single “Raw” and plug their album which is finally due in January, having already been released stateside many months ago. From the sound of it, we’ll be hearing a lot more of their sweet indie pop in the near future.

Asobi Seksu roughly translates as “playful sex”. Tonight they’re a four-piece from Brooklyn, N.Y., and are all leather and jumpers; tall and tiny. They peddle a strange brand of trance-inducing shoegaze indie. The diminutive Yuki has a fascinating vocal which is indecipherable live but remains beautifully clean and resonant. It’s a fearsome fifth instrument over frenetic guitar and drums, high-fretted Cure-like bass and ebbing keyboards, and features a hefty dose of echoing sustain. Perhaps to emphasise the dreamlike nature of the music, the stage lighting is kept low with the occasional strobe effect. New single, “Stay Awake” is the star of their set and is a sprawling deeply-layered number which gets the crowd nodding along; most finding themselves lost within the sound. Despite this peak, most of their set tonight lacks variation and isn’t quite as inspiring or memorable. It’s a shame because they obviously have much to offer and shouldn’t be simply dismissed.

www.asobiseksu.com

Also online @ Music-Zine = http://www.music-zine.com/reviews/?id=365