Glenn Meling is an independent songwriter from Oslo whose deep, somewhat niche interest in the journeys of countrymen travelling the U.S.A has translated into an album of Americana, new wave and rock inspired tunes. Where his previous album Melingrad, released in 2007, was made in a Norwegian boathouse in one of the fjords near Bergen, his latest album Minnesota takes a sizeable step away from his home country to paint his experience of the States. 

The album opens with ‘Alive’, a fuzz-laden soundscape that eases into an Edge-inspired guitar riff before finally making the decision to settle as a soft-rock tune. In fact, the U2 influence runs deep across this album; from Meling’s uncannily Bono-resembling vocals to the soaring atmospheres occupied by many of the album’s choruses (‘Secret Flower’ and ‘Free’ being two of the more memorable examples). However, this is not to say that Meling is without his own identity; ‘Far Away From Home’ feels as raw as it does honest, and succeeds as the album’s decidedly stripped-back moment:

“I’m falling like snowflakes/I’m falling from grace. I’m wailing in sorrow/I’m so lost and far away from home”.

Atop its delicately played piano, the track is lined with ethereal backing vocals and swelling strings which create a rich and emotional atmosphere unrivalled by few other songs on the album.

Track five ‘America’ takes Minnesota back to its rock roots, riding off a heavy, guitar-driven groove before slipping into a high-rising, melodic chorus, while ‘The Good I See In You’ is a sparse slow-burning three minutes, featuring a solitary trumpet that accompanies Meling’s vocal lines. It is an unexpected song to say the least, but with its clever arrangement ‘The Good I See In You’ manages to be one of the most interesting tracks on the record, proving that Meling is an artist who should not be pinned down to any one sound. Minnesota is an engaging album that offers a range of tastes.

Minnesota is available via Amazon and iTunes. 

London-based Spoilers release their debut album this week. Featuring Craig Sharp on vocals and guitar, Eddie Whelan on guitar, Christopher Smith on bass and drummer Mario Daddabbo, they recorded the album in three sessions, including one on a boat. Spoilers have been described as “psychedelic garage punk” and “space grunge” but the swirling guitars, prominent bass lines and half buried vocals indicate that Spoilers have stumbled onto shoegaze. Anti Vibe sounds like The Strokes jamming with Ride.

‘Try Try Try’ is missing a lead instrument. There is nothing to hook the listener in. Every instrument is in the background and the vocals are even further back. There's a good song hidden somewhere in the mix but it's difficult to discern. Smith’s bass takes the lead for ‘Unfun’ and Sharp’s vocals are at their most audible during the verses. There's a lot of energy in the tune but it feels stifled.

Daddabbo in particular is sold short by the production, with his contribution often reduced to a soft clicking in the background. The excellent melodic lead of Smith's bass guitar is all warm mids. It gives Anti Vibe a firm foundation and drives the songs, but for much of the record the drums are conspicuously absent; their frequencies sacrificed to Smith and the multi effects of Sharp and Whelan.

Recent single ‘Imminent Future’ has an excellent introduction. The feeling of propulsion and approaching threat is superbly portrayed. The drawling vocal really robs the song of its impetus and the direction becomes confused. The first three songs must be from a single session because fourth track ‘It's A Lie I Told Myself’ sounds like it’s from another era altogether. Its super grungy guitars, distorted vocals and powerhouse rhythm section elevate the tune above everything that preceded it. It's like a missing Nirvana B-side. The mix is clear and every instrument has the space to be heard. The difference between the two sessions is like night and day.

‘Ripping’ is another kind of tune entirely but maintains the engaging dynamics of the previous song. There's an Asylums vibe off it, particularly with the guitar effects. The vocals are once again submerged but the instruments inject enough life into the track to carry it.

With only seven songs on Anti Vibe it's a mini album or a long EP rather than a full album. It is very much an record of two halves. The overall impression is of a band playing with different genres using the same set up. As a first effort, documenting the early stages of a band, Anti Vibe succeeds but hopefully the next release will be more coherent. Spoilers have yet to discover their sound. The extreme changes in the production and mixing from one song to the next suggests uncertainty. It's jarring to listen to and could be taken for multiple sessions compiled over a number of years and remastered as one record.

Anti Vibe is available from bandcamp.

“A.D. 2016 and England is in flux. This bastard island is divided, shot through with doubt and self-loathing, ruled by the feverish egos of passing power hungry-dilettantes, two-bit aristocrats and smiling psychopaths. Swathes of the country have been sold off, paved over, neon-lit. England is at war with itself and this time the enemy is in the mirror.”

Usually such contrived press releases are irritating but in the case of Ruins the effect is engrossing. The blurb is grounded in reality and steers the attention towards a fearsome future. One possible future is explored by Wolf People songwriter Jack Sharp; a future in which humans have disappeared from the planet and nature is in the process of reclamation.

But high falutin’ concepts are secondary to the fact that Wolf People rock.  They rock hard and they rock in an idiosyncratic manner. It's difficult to make a direct comparison with another band because the conceptual lyrics, Sharp’s English folk vocal style, the enormous drum sound and the megalithic guitars haven't been arranged in this combination before, making Wolf People a unique proposition.

The centrepiece of Ruins is the seven-minute ‘Kingfisher’. The song is reprised twice over the course of the twelve tracks of the album, emphasising its significance to the collection. The first reprise has a Reni-style beat accompanying the immediately identifiable ‘Kingfisher’ riff evoking The Stone Roses‘ ‘Don’t Stop’ while the flute and dobro melody of the second has an oriental feel.

‘Crumbling Dais’ has a Fifth Dimension/Summer Of Love vibe via Kula Shaker while ‘Night Witch’ has a Ritchie Blackmore feel to it and is the only song with a conventional chorus; ‘I am night witch/Night witch/Night witch/Night witch’ and ‘Not Me Sir’ also has repetitions of the title. Forays into the vernacular of that type are rare on Ruins and yet there is nothing truly alien across the twelve tracks. They are familiar is structure and tone, Wolf People tap into well-worn tropes without becoming clichéd or predictable.

Wolf Alice. Wolf Parade. Guitar Wolf. Yelawolf. The most unoriginal aspect of Wolf People is their name but you can forgive them that when the music is as entrancing as it is on Ruins. They sound like a very British Wolfmother. The drum sound is heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, with the emphasis on the crashing cymbals.

Where Robert Plant fixated on Tolkien, Sharp’s lyrical preoccupations are more historically accurate. Whatever folk influence Wolf People hold on to is barely audible beneath the thunderous barrage of rock guitars. Wolf People gained comparisons with Jethro Tull but aside from Sharp’s vocal style, there is more common ground with Deep Purple and Blue Oyster Cult. One can imagine Wolf People’s audience clad mostly in heavily patched denim.

The storytelling may be folkloric and parochial but the presentation is 100% classic rock, even down to the duelling guitar solos. Their idea of English tales is akin to Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England with an ear for the macabre and unsavoury. Classic rock revivalists are multiplying like bacteria right now but Wolf People stand out from their nostalgic peers. There is an authenticity to the music and personality in the songs that mark them as different. This band aren't exploiting an existing audience; they are creating a new one.

Ruins is available from amazon & iTunes.

Given that the promo shot accompanying this release is of three men in boiler suits with wet crotches it's initially hard to say whether the band's name is a piss take of severe alcoholism or they fancy that they've amusingly updated the RHCP's socks-on-cocks image. They also hashtag themselves as a triple K, thus striking a blow against pillowcase wearing racists. Juvenilia aside what does the music sound like?

Well, for one thing, track two, 'Suicide Limp', seems to employ auto-tune on the vocals so that's a black mark right off. 

For another thing there’s lots of noodling around to little effect and the final track, ‘Very Friendly Fire’, is 18 minutes long – except it’s not as ten minutes or so of it’s silence before a ‘crazy’ little end part. It looks better viewed on soundcloud than actually being listened to. Yawn.

Positive elements do though exist on PVITLOMP. ‘Hearts Too Hard’ has a pretty effective vocal and piano part with muted guitar thrashing in the background and elsewhere there are virtuosic, proggy guitar parts married up to the kind of angst-ridden vocals you’d not ordinarily think of them working well with. ‘Pussy Scars’ is a pretty good example of the fuzzed up, rockier material the band are capable of although you have to wonder at that title.

Overall this is an album of peaks and troughs of emotional maturity, played by musicians whose talents seem to have outpaced their social development. It’s pretty boring at times too. Frontman Pieter-Paul Devos is quoted as saying  “There are no genres in music, there is only good, sincere music and there is bad music”. Apart from that being bollocks we’re clearly on either side of his definition when it comes to Physical Violence Is The Least Of My Priorities.

Physical Violence Is The Least Of My Priorities is available from amazon & iTunes.