Rather than simply reproduce the band’s live sound, tracks like “First Wave Intact,” “Nowhere Again” and “Lights ON!” mix live drums with multi-hued layers of treated guitars and keyboards, while still retaining the elastic, adventurous spirit of a Secret Machines performance.
Having successfully avoided submersion into Tim DeLaughter’s Polyphonic Spree, New York-based psych-rockers Secret Machines are now touring with The Chemical Brothers and being widely cited as one of the hottest bands on the US underground.
Ten Silver Drops, Secret Machines' second album, is far from Big Apple parlour games. Rather, theirs is a widescreen vision that could’ve originated on the woolly mammoth plains of the mid-west, or further north of the border.
Criticising dance acts for not playing live is a bit like slagging dogs for their inability to fly, but this is the first time I’ve been at a gig where the headliners’ presence isn’t required.
Unless Tom and Ed are triggering the giant clouds of dry ice or pointing the lasers at the balcony, their contribution to tonight’s proceedings is somewhere between zero and fuck all.
...so says School of Seven Bells frontman Benjamin Curtis, as he recounts how he was given a sneak listen to the No Line On The Horizon by his mates Edge and Bono.
With bands like New Order, Nine Inch Nails, Bauhaus and Snow Parol announced for the bill, this year's Coachella looks set to blast the Californian desert
Manic Street Preachers have turned the guitars down, but not the bile. A slimline James Dean Bradfield tells a pleasantly plump Stuart Clark why John F. Kennedy, Billy Connolly and Jesus Christ Superstar are in league with Satan. Or words to that effect.
As Joy Division, and then New Order, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris have been responsible for some of the most spellbinding, groundbreaking and downright brilliant music of the past twenty-five years. With their new album Waiting For The Sirens' Call in the top 10, the legendary trio here sound-off about the legions of bands they’ve influenced, Madchester, Ian Curtis, 24 Hour Party People, Bez, Gwen Stefani, and why they intend to continue their quest for sonic innovation for some time yet.
With their fifth album Push The Button, the Chemical Brothers have replaced big beats and star names with subtlety and even the odd anti-war protest tune.
If you can get over the slightly worrying sensation of a city of nine million crowded around one increasingly frayed hymnsheet, Yes New York has much to recommend it.
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
