New Music - The Shoes and Review of Stay the Same

The Shoes are a minimalist french dance act, who have in between producing songs for Shakira and being on the BBC sound 2011 list, found the time to record album 'Crack My Bones'.

As well as clearly being influenced by other French bands like Phoenix and Daft Punk they have a big likeness  to Calvin Harris. In fact  it is eerie how alike the not quite sung, not quite spoken vocals seen on 'Stay the Same' are to Calvin Harris'. These relaxed vocals along with the hazy background synth and the quietly hypnotising drums, create a beautifully chilled sound that will warm the coldest of February evenings.

'People Moving' is another great song offering a slightly different sound. It has a brilliant drum backing and its use of trumpets and unless my ears mistake me, flutes creates a brilliantly funky sound, almost reminisce of Andre 3000's The Love Below.

The Shoes album 'Crack my Bones' is released on March 7th and is available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crack-My-Bones-Shoes/dp/B004LAVH8Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297641929&sr=1-1

New music - The Babies

The Babies are a project between Woods bassist Kevin Morby and Vivian Girls songwriter Cassie Ramone. They produce the kind of fantastic hook laden lo fi garage rock that is so abundant in New York at the moment, and they do it very well. The chorus on 'Meet Me in the City' is especially strong and the way its been recorded with the guitar sounding so distant and flitting in and out of the song sounds amazing. The juxtaposition of the male and females vocals sounds good and gives the songs a kind of cool call and answer sound.

Ultimately its nothing new but well worth a listen if your into that kinda thing.

New Band - That Ghost

More minimalist low fi here with California's one man band That Ghost. The one thing that strikes you is that this sounds effortless, he genuinely sounds (in good way) like he doesn't have a care in the world.

The drums and riff of 'Calls' chime and clash in an almost mesmeric way whilst the lack of polish adds to the character of the song. It sounds so relaxed.

His song 'To Like You' has the sound of a man reflecting, with his crooning of 'I can try to like you' sounding almost Morrisey esque.

That Ghost's (apparently 5th release!) 'Songs Out Here' is released on Two Sylabble Records and is available to pre order now at http://twosyllablerecords.bigcartel.com/product/that-ghost-songs-out-here-pre-order

Cats Eyes - Not a Friend Review

Cats Eyes are a project featuring Farris Badwan and classically trained musician Rachael Zaffina. 'Not a Friend' could not be more different from either of The Horrors' albums, it instead features Zaffina purring beautifully about a breakup over a slow 50's style doowop background. Rachael Zaffina's classical training is very obvious throughout as Last Shadow Puppets style violins take over from the more traditional guitar noise seen on Primary Colours. A good song, although don't expect it to give any hints to what the new Horrors album will be like.

Introducing Patterns and review of their first EP 'New Noise'.

Patterns are another great new Manchester based band, who have so far released one EP through influential Manchester fanzine and record label 'Pull Yourself Together'. The EP, aptly named 'New Noise' features four great songs full of spacey Animal Collective-esque loops, dreamlike drones and atmospheric drums.

The first two songs are probably the best. 'Broken Trains' opens with a similar loop to that of Animal Collective's 'My Girls', however the percussion really sets the song apart as it elevates it to a much more epic sound. The second song 'Wrong Two Words' again features similar psychedelic loops whilst also managing to really shows off the lead singers fantastic vocals, and the chorus is actually surprisingly catchy for the type of song.

On third song 'Loop Track' you essentially get what you see, with the same electronic loop being played repeatedly. It's a slow builder, however at around the 2:30 mark when the drums start to get louder the energy created is unbelievable, making it a much better song than it should really have any right to be.

Final song 'Fly To New York' borrows some of The Smiths' classic Manchester melanchony, the wowwow chorus combines beautifully with the backgound drones to create a genuine feeling of sadness.

Its hard to believe that this EP was almost entirely created at the bands home and it makes the songs all the more impressive because of it. 'New Noise' is an impressive EP and shows a band with bags of potential and ideas.

The Strokes - Under The Cover of Darkness Review.

Obviously everyone is going to be reviewing this song right now, so I'm going to keep it short and simple.

• 'Under the Cover of Darkness' is amazing.
• I would have said ''Under the Cover of Darkness' is amazing' whatever they came up with.
• Despite this it is actually amazing.
• It sounds very dramatic!
• The chorus is classic Strokes genius. 

Also you can download 'Under the Cover of Darkness for free at The Strokes' website.

www.thestrokes.com/download

Introducing - Mazes and Review of 'Most Days'

Mazes are a band from Manchester and were appropriately signed during Manchester's In The City festival. Anyone who has been will know that due to the sheer amount of bands that play this festival, this definitely suggests a lot of potential.

They release very lo-fi garage songs and have put out a number of singles on cassette and vinyl, the best of which is a song called 'Most Days'. Its low fi fuzz serves only to highlight the catchy nature of the hooks and rawness of the vocals. It is very reminiscent of early 90's American lo-fi bands, and anyone who has recently listened to bands like Harlem will know what to expect.

They are starting a tour of the UK in April and you can buy their Vinyl (the ones that haven't already sold out) and listen to their tunes at http://mazesmazesmazes.com/.