Volume 54

 

Riviera Rock - CHRISTOPHER OWENS - from the album Lysandre

 

After deciding to split his group Girls in 2012, Christopher Owens released his first solo record, Lysandre, in early 2013. Girls' short career arc went from scrappy, reverb-drowned eccentrics to majestic psych-prog-tinged rock, but his first effort finds Owens stripping back on both reverb and majesty in favor of a more organic, intimate sound.

 

 

Split between confessional, Baroque folk ballads and bubbly rockers, the brief album traces the splintering of a love affair with all the melodic strength and clunky lyrical style associated with Owens' previous work. He sounds more comfortable laying back in the ballads this time out, surrounding his ultra-plaintive vocals with a comforting array of acoustic guitars, vibraphones, electric pianos, and female backing vocals.

 

 

 

 

 Massiv - LOTUS - from the album Build (released 13 Feb 2013)

 

I have heard this album through a friend and have to say it has completely blown me away. If someone had told me that a band could make an excellent album by fusing progressive rock, house, latin jazz and a little hip-hop, wrapped in warm, fuzzy and very danceable tunes,I'd have probably laughed in their face.  Lotus prove me very wrong indeed

 

 

 

 

Blind Owl Speaks - NATURAL CHILD - from the album Hard In Heaven

 

 

Very ocasionally, you hear an album that knocks you right off your feet and has you scrabbling for information about the band. In this case, I needed to check that the album was a new one, and not one released about 1970. To be fair, the production values give away its contemporary origins, but the solid, gritty, blues-rock is so authentic you wonder if its an old classic remastered. It isn't; its just gritty, garage-y, blues rock and it is absolutely brilliant