Huge, gritty basslines, new wave and electro guitars and songwriting join up with buzzing guitar hooks in a grungey Nirvana style to back up a weird, caterwauling vocal. An album both spiky and approachable, this has got more depth to it than is at first obvious, especially in terms of production. Look forward to a second album, hopefully before too long. I bet whoever played guitar and keyboard is a wonderful person, and is an asset to his company, wherever he works, and deserves a raise.
This is pretty glorious, melodic pop. A nice heavy piano and loads of vocal harmonies back up a soaring lead vocal, tickled at by cheeky little basslines that pull the songs along, just pausing every now and then for a little Stevie Wonder minor change before bounding off again to let the guitarist romp through a few flowerbeds and chase some other guitarists round the park. There are echoes of Ryan Jones (from one of RouteNote’s other bands, The Hitchcock Rules) in the front man’s voice, or Ben Folds, to make a more widely comprehensible comparison. Buy it if you like Ben Folds Five, the Beautiful South, Phoenix, or puppies. Great production for an indie band, too.
Memotone is somewhere between Lemon Jelly and the Cinematic Orchestra, which for a one man act, recording on an 8 track and a laptop is a pretty incredible achievement. William Yates has put together a bewilderingly large array of instruments into a really crystal clear, deep and textured soundscape, blending live instruments, samples, glitchy computer noises and sound effects like air raid sirens, lairy kids arguing in corridors and canned laughter. There are odd moments of humour and unease, drifting clouds of sound, sharp beats that bring you back to your senses and then drop away again to let warm, live double bass lines pour into your ears and build into complex little sonic poems that wrap back to the beats. I really like it. If I wasn’t already listening to it, I would buy a copy. In fact, petition him to get vinyl pressed, so I can buy a copy.
Loose, bluesy, indie rock in a style mixing influences from both modern and (to me) 1970’s Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart sounds. The singer’s voice in particular reminds me of ‘The Rod’ at times. As a whole the album is more modern and grungey/garagey than this might suggest. Pick the Diamond out of it…
This album is like a chocolate cake. Heavy, dark, rich and possibly too sweet for it’s own good: undertones from viola and double bass provide a landscape over which finger-picked guitar rambles and eddies. These are all secondary considerations, because Hollie’s voice, when it breaks into the drifting feel of tracks like ‘The Swallow’ is clear, pure toned, powerful, and the major feature of this album. Her songwriting shows a remarkable depth of emotion and expressiveness for a 19 year old’s debut, and the sophomoric rack of lust, angst and betrayal is treated with punishingly frank introspection. Despite the subjectivity of the songs and the familiarity of the themes, there is a lyricism and a power of allusion that distinguishes these songs from the run of the mill. Recommended to fans of Laura Marling or Damien Rice.
RouteNote has been profiled on Profy. Profy is a technology news weblog that profiles tech news, reviews and opinions. Leslie Poston writes a very interesting review with is definitely worth the read.
Route Note is providing a gateway to more than just distribution services like iTunes or eMusic. Route Note is also giving artists a way to license their music for use in film, television, radio and downloading.
<– Buy it on iTunes
<–buy it on iTunes
<– Buy it on iTunes
