MMODE - Waiting In The Desert

This is an act that we have been waiting for new music from for a long time, although under a different name.

The Belfast band Southern are a duo that we have been writing on The Metaphorical Boat since day 1 (literally). We watched Thomas & Lucy Gaffney* increasingly build up a name for themselves, releasing great songs such as "Where The Wild Are" & "Where I Want To Be", and by 2014 we had a feeling they were going to be massive when we were unable to get in to see them at The Great Escape because there was a queue snaking around the building waiting to see them too.

Unfortunately, after that year we didn't hear anything from the band for some time, which we have now learned is due to an illness that befell Thomas. However, we were delighted to learn last month that the duo are now back making music together again, and have relaunched themselves under the name MMODE.

Their first single under their new name is "Waiting In The Desert", and is a hazy, tune that has shades of 90s indie-rock and Jagwar Ma-esque psychedelia. It's great to have Thomas & Lucy back doing what they do best - making ruddy fantastic pop tunes.

"Waiting In The Desert" is out now.


*whilst recording as Southern, Thomas & Lucy used the surname "Southern" in all their promotional material, so we assume that this was a pseudonym and "Gaffney" is in fact their real surname. 

Ten Fé - Twist Your Arm

We are barely a week into the brand new year, and already out of the starting blocks we have a song that stands a really great chance of being our favourite song of 2017. Although that's probably not too surprising, as it a song that comes from the artist responsible for our favourite song of 2015 (and our current ringtone), Ten Fé.

The song in question is one that we've been looking forward to for some time. Having seen them play the song live at The Great Escape, we had a feeling that when they finally released a studio version of "Twist Your Arm", it would become a real favourite, and gosh darn, those boyos went and made sure we kept that promise to ourselves.

We've said before that given their versatile sound and live presence, we imagine Ten Fé to be a modern day successor to Primal Scream, and "Twist Your Arm" is one of those songs that helps to cement that belief, as its dancey, droozy sound sounds like it owes a debt to songs from their "Screamadelica" album, "Come Together" in particular due to its use of a gospel choir. We're also getting some David Bowie "Memories of a Free Festival" vibes, and for some reason that we can't put our finger quite on, a little bit of Simple Minds as well.

"Twist Your Arm" has everything we wanted from the studio version of the song, and it has really whetted our appetite for the album when it lands next month. With such a long list of great songs that we've loved from them over the last 2 years, Ten Fé are going to have a real classic on their hands.

The debut album from Ten Fé, "Hit The Light", is out on February 3rd.

Blisss - Porcelain/Chalk Air

You've got to love it when an artist picks a name for himself that encapsulates the sound of their music so perfectly. So when it comes to the music produced by London based Tom Greenwood, the moniker he chose for the project, Blisss, couldn't be a better fit (the additional "s" in the name presumably there for improved Google-ability).

Blisss have released two singles to date. The first, "Chalk Air", was released at the end up August and has picked up quite a bit of love from the blogosphere for its psych-pop sound. It's the follow-up single however, "Porcelain", which has really impressed us. The song is a powerful, enrapturing song that reminds us strongly of Primal Scream at their most blissed out (for lack of a better term), or more contemporaneous influences like Jagwar Ma, plus you really can't say no to a towering guitar coda that would make "The Four Horsemen" proud.

Ten Fé - Elodie

The band responsible for The Metaphorical Boat's favourite song of 2015, London duo Ten Fé, have started of 2016 rather strongly. Their previous single, "In The Air" picked up a lot of support online, causing it to race up the Hype Machine charts.

Now to capitalize on the momentum, the band have unleashed a new single on us. "Elodie" follows the same style of driving rock a la Bruce Springsteen/War On Drugs that marked "In The Air", albeit one which has a much more tender heart than its immediate predecessor.

It's a great track, and one can see why it has been released now in order to ensnare those people who were already enraptured by "In The Air". I do hope though that the next release sees a great emphasis on the more psychedelic aspects of their music that we've seen both on "Make Me Better" and from their hypnotic live sets. But with their debut album out this year, I'm sure that we'll be hearing lots of different sides to Ten Fé in 2016.

"Elodie" is out now.

Straw Bear - All You Need Is An Electric Guitar

Now here's a welcome return for a band whom we have much affection for. London 5-piece Straw Bear first captured our attention back in 2012 with their lovely single "Kitty" and its accompanying album, "Black Bank", which at the time we described as a great example of 'postmodern English folk'. Although it didn't pick up as much love as we would have liked it to, it did earn the praise of Bob Harris and Tom Robinson among others.

Now fast forward a few years, and the band have just unleashed their first new material in quite a while. "All You Need Is An Electric Guitar"[citation needed]   is the band's ode to the power of music, a song which follows on nicely to the sound that the band produced on "Black Bank", with the addition of some lovely psychedelic guitar lines to the mix as well. Since it went live last month, the single has already picked up quite a bit of love online, so here's hoping that this song will give the very much under-appreciated Straw Bear the boost that they deserve.

"All You Need Is An Electric Guitar"[citation needed]  will be released on 18th December.

SKATERS - Mental Case

New York based band SKATERS made an impact a few years back with their album "Manhattan", which was choc-a-bloc with fast-paced indie-rock tunes like "Miss Teen Massachusetts" and the irristably infectious "I Wanna Dance (But I Don't Know How)", gaining major airplay on Radio 1 and touring up and down the country.

Fast forward two years, and the band have departed from Warner Bros. Records to release music on their own steam, and their first offering might come as a surprise to anyone who was expecting more of the same from the group. "Mental Case" sees the band slow the pace down quite a bit, with a more psychedelic vibes going on, which calls to mind a little bit of John Lennon, some Blur album tracks, and possibly a wee bit of Mercury Rev as well. It's an interesting development from the group, which might point at the direction the band may be headed in now that they're no longer part of the major label system.

"Mental Case" is available to download now.

exmagician - Kiss That Wealth Goodbye

The 2011 album "To The Death of Fun" by Cashier No.9 is a record that we were incredibly fond of, one which is simultaneously one of the best albums of the last five years, as well as being serious contenders for our favourite all-time album to come from Northern Ireland ("Eyes Open" and "Rocky" would be two of the other serious contenders). The album rode the wave of psychedelic-sounding rock years before it went semi-mainstream again, and choosing a favourite track it proved difficult, seeing as it changed every day (although two of the standouts were "Oh Pity", which gained quite a bit of traction on 6music, and "The Lighthouse Will Lead You Out", which I used as my ringtone for a good year, and even now ranks on our list of greatest outro to a song ever).

Unfortunately "To The Death Of Fun" would prove to be the band's only studio album, as the band eventually went their separate ways, officially disbanding earlier this year. However, for devastated fans of the Niners, there are three bits of good news that you can take solace from. The first piece of news is that two of the creative forces behind that band, Daniel Todd and James Smith, are now recording under the name exmagician.

The second piece of good news is that like Cashier No.9 before them, exmagician have been signed to the Bella Union record label. Bella Union is perhaps most famous for being the label of Fleet Foxes, although in recent years they have also notched up success with albums from Beach House, John Grant & Father John Misty, so having the support of such a well regarded label will no doubt give the duo the needed push to get their new project off the ground.

And the third, final, and best piece of news? The band have just unveiled their debut single, "Kiss That Wealth Goodbye". It's not a major departure from the sound of their former band, with the song following the same psychedelic blueprint that made us fall in love with them in the first place. It's a more electronic than what they've done before, and there's more plinky-plonk pianos sounds than you might expect, but it still remains a great spiritual successor to their forebearing band.

It will be interesting to see whether "Kiss That Wealth Goodbye" is going to be a gateway between the sound that fans of Cashier No.9 might expect and a new, unfamiliar territory that the duo will explore in future releases, or whether it will set the template for what to expect on the rest of the E.P. Either way, we are very excited to have exmagicians in our lives, and hope that the rest of their material can live up to our first taste of them.

"Kiss That Wealth Goodbye" is the lead track from exmagician's debut E.P, which will be released on November 20th.

Peixefante - Por Baixo da Blusa

It's time to break new ground here on The Metaphorical Boat, as for the first time since we started, we're writing about a band that hails from Brazil. Specifically, we're talking about Peixefante (whose name is a combination of the Portuguese for "fish" and "elephant", apparently), a five-piece hailing from the city of Goiânia.

Having formed at the start of the year, they released their debut E.P recently, of which the song "Por Baixo da Blusa" (which I believe translates into English as "Under Her Blouse"). But if you're expecting a typical Brazilian sound on this sound, then you're going to be disappointed. However, that disappointment will subside once the song takes you under its spell. It's a chilled-out, psychedelic rock song that calls to mind Mercury Rev very strongly - if it was in English, you could fit it right in the middle of "Deserters Songs" and no-one would batter an eyelid.

"Por Baixo da Blusa" is taken from the E.P "Lorde Pascal", which is out now.

Kassassin Street - Centre Straight Atom

We first became aware of Portsmouth based 5-piece Kassassin Street back in June through their mystical, psychedelic single "The Royal Handkerchief Ballet". Having spent the summer honing their craft whilst playing at Isle of Wight Festival, Bestival, and other non-island related gigs, the band have announced the release of a brand new single, and it's a real corker indeed.

"Centre Straight Atom" tones down the more overt psychedelic sounds of their last single, and replaces it with a more electronic and, dare I say it, radio-friendly, core. It mixes electronic verses with powerful, heavy yet poppy rock guitars on its chorus to create something rather delicious indeed. Plus, it reminds us a little of local electro-rockers Not Squares, which is definitely no bad thing. Kassassin Street set the bar quite high with "The Royal Handkerchief Ballet", so it's great that the band have managed to well and truly smash that benchmark.

And on a final note, in our review of their last single, we had suggested that the band had named themselves after a village in Egypt. Many thanks to Robin at Breaking More Waves (who has also written about the band) for pointing out that Kassassin Street is the name of a road in the Eastney district of Portsmouth. We guess that makes a bit more sense.

"Centre Straight Atom" will be released as a single on November 10th.

Kassassin Street - The Royal Handkerchief Ballet

Fun fact - Kassassin is the name of a village in Egypt, 22 miles west of the Suez Canal. Whether or not this is the origin of the name for Portsmouth band Kassassin Street I have no idea, but for the sake of argument, let's assume it is.

Their debut single, "The Royal Handkerchief Ballet", has already received mighty praise, both from the NME and fellow Portsmouthian Breaking More Waves, and listening to the song it's easy to hear why it comes much beloved. The song is built around an Arabian-sounding guitar riff,with its foundations being firmly rooted in the sounds of 90s indie-rock. It sounds like it meets somewhere in the middle between Kula Shaker and Kasabian, and unlike many bands that have adopted the generic tag recently, it really does have a real psychedelic feel to it - listen to it in the right (or wrong) mindset, and you might find yourself hypnotised.

"The Royal Handkerchief Ballet" is out now.

Teleman - Lady Low

London-based Teleman are one of a long list of groups that this blog has meant to write something about, but has never really got around to doing so. Because let's face it, they do tick many of our metaphorical boxes - their upcoming debut album has been produced by Bernard Butler, a man whom I am incapable of finding fault in. They have supported Suede, the best band of all-time, and over the next few months they are also going to be supporting Franz Ferdinand, one of the best bands of the last 10 years, and Maximo Park, who also make music. They released some great tracks last year, including the wonderfully ethereal "Steam Train Girl", and looked certain to go on to brilliant things this year.

The latest track the band have released is "Lady Low", which the band are making available to download now in exchange for an email address. For a band who have been touring extensively with guitar-heavy groups, it's a surprisingly subdued track, almost like something you might expect to hear on Jazz FM, although that might just be the saxophone solo that dominates the latter half of the song, as if 2011 never ended. Not since Air's heyday as music this lounge-y sounded so effortlessly cool. Roll on their debut album.

"Breakfast" will be released on May 26th.


Photo is (c) Claudia Burlotti.

Painted Palms - Forever

If The Beatles were starting out in 2013 rather than 1963, would they have sounded like "Forever", the new single by Polyvinyl signed American duo Painted Palms? The answer to that question is, in fact, no. They would have sounded like The 1975. But there's no denying that there's a little bit of the Fab Four in "Forever", albeit a version that has been weaved around an electronic, borderline psychedelic web. It's a great wee song, and with a decent push next year, Painted Palms could be the indie fraternity's new 'hip to namedrop' band.

"Forever" is taken from their debut album of the same name, which is released on 14th January 2014.

Fryars - The Power

London based Benjamin Garrett, better known to the music world as Fryars, has been picking up quite a few admirers within the music world, with both Depeche Mode and Kanye West allegedly being among his fans, and counting London Grammar and Summer Camp among the groups that he has supported. This is all in spite of him being involved with writing the soundtrack for Danny Dyer's worse-than-terrible film Deviation, proof that there is no sin on earth than cannot be atoned for.

His most recent single is "The Power", a song that has been picking up more than its fair share of airplay on Radio 1's nighttime shows. The song is a dreamy, quasi-psychedelic track that calls to mind "Deserter's Songs" era Mercury Rev, such is its mix of dreamy atmospherics and lovely pop hooks.

"The Power" is taken from his E.P "Radio PWR", which is is out now.

Deep Sea Arcade - Girls

On their upcoming single "Girls", Australian five-piece Deep Sea Arcade channel the spirits of classic British indie-rock, channeling the spirit of The Stone Roses and Kasabian's first album, in a mix that is both psychedelic and dance worthy.

"Girls" will be released on October 31st on New Music Club.

The Electric Moccasins - The Life You Forgot to Live

The Electric Moccasins are a band that have been on my radar for some time. I first came across them in 2010 when they went under their metal guise as Circadian. Since then, the Crossgar trio have dropped the metal in favour of more psychadelic influenced tunes.

Their latest single, "The Life You Forgot to Live," sees the Moccasins mix shoegaze inspired vocals Kula Shaker-esque guitars (without the Indian mysticism). I do miss some of their heavier tunes, but this exciting new direction should work wonders for the group.

The track is available to download for free from their Bandcamp page.

Pinkunoizu - Time is Like a Melody

Full Time Hobby has been one of my favourite indie record labels of recent times, with fantastic releases from School of Seven Bells, The Leisure Society and The Hold Steady coming out in the past year.

One of their most recent signings is the rather awkward to pronounce Pinkunoizu, a group that mix psychedelica, shoegaze and lo-fi influences into one mellow, easy to digest package, as evidenced on their song "Time Is Like a Melody," with its seemingly meaningless mantra taking on almost spiritual properties during the song's 3:43 duration. Let's hope that the Danish 4 piece continue to florish.

The song is available to download for free on the band's website.