Robyn Writes

Notes from the Keybed – This Month in Synths [May(be slightly late) 2015]

A slightly delayed ‘Notes From The Keybed’ this month as I’ve been moving house and been without internet for several weeks! Connected normality has now returned and I’ve had lots of great new synthy music to catch up on, starting with the return of everyone’s favourite Irish anarcho-synth-brats Fight Like Apes, whose new self-titled third album has barely left my speak-ers (and head – damn catchy earworms!) since its release at the end of May. Their most accessible work yet, the album sounds made for pop chart domination, but still retains their distinctly cynical lyrics, McCluskey-esque indie gloom wrapped in ear candy, and tasty twin-synth attack. Single ‘Pretty Keen On Centrefolds’ is the sort of song that will remain in your head for days, with a sing-along chorus and quirky synth hooks dancing around a typically deadpan vocal that rejoices in its own self-loathing. Elsewhere the album takes in chiptune influences on ‘I Am Not A Merry Man’ as well as possibly my favourite pop song of the year so far with ‘Pop Itch’. Fight Like Apes was the result of a successful Fund It campaign launched in 2013 that raised €20,000 within a matter of days following the band splitting from previous label Model Citizen before finding a new home on consistently excellent UK indie lovelies Alcopop! Records. Despite scaling new commercial heights by achieving #1 in the Irish indie charts, the band haven’t lost their punk roots with song titles including ‘I Don’t Want To Have To Mate With You’ as well as closer ‘Carousel’ concluding with a nursery rhyme ‘Satan Satan Satan’ chant-a-long. Delightful stuff as ever from MayKay, Pockets and chums.

Sticking with Alcopop!, the label are releasing a new EP from indie disco tykes Waylayers during June. ‘Re:Verse’ combines the carnival vibes of ‘Sleepwalking’ with new wave house jams on ‘N2U’ and will no doubt be a perfect sunshine soundtrack throughout the months ahead. The London three-piece are recommended for fans of the futuristic pop sounds of Delphic and latter-day Klaxons and will be hitting the festival circuit this summer.

Back in 2012 I stumbled across a video online of one of those cool-looking hipster parties that only ever really happened in films. You know the sort, a bunch of attractive people dancing (and not being at all self-aware like in real life) in a darkened room – oh look there’s one with a camera (as you do), another with a silly hairstyle, etc… However in the middle of this hot mess was a duo playing the most ridiculously nasty trap jams with deliciously 80’s bell sounds sprinkled on top. Accompanied by a smorgasbord of musical gear from samplers and drum pads to all manner of effects units, it piqued by interest beyond my expectations of the usual ‘frat boy’ shenanigans. Turns out this was a live session of ‘Bells’ by Plant Plants and I was hooked. The London duo have now evolved into a three-piece live act called M.Y. MACHINES, with a sneak preview EP streaming over on Soundcloud. Included in the Stay Pift EP is a rerecorded version of ‘Bells’, now called ‘8E!!S’, and it is still just as devastatingly catchy as it was three years ago. Stick it on in the car and try not to nod your head like the hip-hop mogul you really are. The other tracks on the EP are just as great, with the the Battles-esque staccato guitar trails of ‘Machine House’ sitting nicely alongside the trendy vocal house of ‘X’. It’s seriously well-produced stuff that will appeal to people well outside the demographic of that original video. Check it out – you might be surprised!

Nerdcore synth-pop-rock is one genre that never fails to make me go ‘YES PLEASE!’ and that is exactly what was promised in my inbox when this fine zine’s editor sent me a link to The Robot Knights. Fronted by Maddy Myers, a games journalist who also plays a mean keytar, the Boston trio write songs about robots and dragons and zombies and cool stuff like that! On songs like ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ and ‘Werewolf On The Dancefloor’ their indie disco shines, with hooky keyboard lines meeting garage punk guitars and dancey drum beats. I just wish there was more like the synthy arpeggios of ‘Clone Machine’ and less of the standard pub rock of ‘Amazon’, which is a fairly uninspiring slice of bluesy guitar rock. When they crack out the synths though it is brilliant – more of this please! Their entire catalogue is available for free download from Bandcamp so is def-initely worth a look and a click. For being a badass lady standing her own in the still regrettably male-driven worlds of video-games and music – and for being damn handy on the Roland shoulder synth – this month’s Keytar Hero award goes to Myers! Keep slaying those dragons and riffs, synth fans, and we’ll see you next month…

TBO Update – 18 May 2015

Hey hey!

So I’m currently in the middle of moving house and internet is extremely intermittent. I’ve got a few articles and reviews coming up which will go live as and when I can get them up! But normal service will resume from 1 June.

xoxo – Robyn

We are totally not dead, I promise!

Yo! There’s been a bit of a delay in posts recently. I promise, we’re all still here beavering away, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks. It was my birthday yesterday, work has been mad and real life has gotten in the way, as it is likely to do. However, new pieces will be up this weekend. Thanks for bearing with us, we have some cool stuff to talk about!

xoxo – Robyn

Notes from the Keybed – This Month in Synths [September]

It’s Ken Jeong playing a keytar. Do we need to explain it any further?

September is traditionally a month of fresh starts and new beginnings. After a Chinese Democracy-esque 10 year gap, the second album from Canadian dance thrashers Death From Above 1979 has finally arrived and is on constant rotation here at Synth News HQ! The Physical World features plenty for synth fans with twinkling arpeggios, keyboard hooks and spacey pad textures nestled between the distorted bass riffs and cowbell-littered disco beats! Lead single ‘Trainwreck 1979’ had the most glorious piano melody but it’s the title track that is the real winner for electro enthusiasts with broken computer tones and vocoder backing vocals giving way into a 70’s prog riff and majestic organ outro! Now we just need a MSTRKRFT remix and it’ll be perfect…

There must be something in the Canadian water as, fresher than Avril and Chad’s breakup, comes a new album from Toronto trio The Rural Alberta Advantage. Their hipster-friendly folk pop combines beautiful piano and guitar textures with rousing boy-girl vocals and lo-fi keyboard drones, as heard in preview track ‘On The Rocks’. Carving out a similar sonic territory as fellow indie folksters Freelance Whales with classic songwriting along the themes of hometowns and heartache. The group come to the UK towards the end of the year in support of the new record Mended With Gold, which was released on the 30th September via Saddle Creek.

Some random Bandcamp trawling led me to an inspired discovery this month! By simply searching for synth punk (and skipping straight past the bizarre kraut-rock and experimental drone merchants hijacking this tag) I was led to the fantastically absurd Computer Class. Official information is sparse but according to their social media there’s five members, who inexplicably all do guitar and vocals, and they used to be called Death Ray but changed their name to be alphabetically superior… of course. Anyway, they’re from California and mix the best bits of 90’s pop punk with some seriously tasty synth lines and a good dose of geeky college humour in the vein of Atom and His Package. Characteristically vague, their new album Nah, Dude is out sometime around now but in the meantime you can pick up their last full-length featuring songs such as ‘Early Green Day’, ‘Dude, You Used To Be Cool’ and ‘Med Study Girl’ for the princely sum of a single US dollar from their Bandcamp.

The ‘lost’ final record from Get Cape Wear Cape Fly has found a release on the fabulous Alcopop! record label. London Royal will be the last outing for laptop and guitar pioneer Sam Duckworth before he sheds his pseudonym of ten years to go it alone under his birth name. It’s been a tough few years for Duckworth, having descended from the top of the charts to illness, doubt and political backlash since 2012’s disjointed Maps. I’ve been a big fan since the beginning (Chronicles… is on my all-time favourites list) but the last time I saw him perform live it was clear that the cracks were beginning to show, although the singalongs were as loud as ever he seemed unsure of himself and uncomfortable on stage. Themes of insecurity and facing the realities of growing up are evident in lead single ‘Remember’ with it’s refrain of ‘I’m scared of the kids in the corner shop / I’m scared of the day when I have to stop’. It’s a beautifully honest song, with a fragile yet defiant vocal over an uplifting backing track that concludes with a triumphant drum and bass outro. The rest of the record continues in a similar way with textbook Get Cape acoustic guitar picking, clipped beats and retro synth melodies. Closing track ‘After Hours’ is a positive conclusion to a record born out of turmoil. Although we now say Get Cape Wear Cape Bye to this project it’s certainly not the end for Sam, whose debut solo album proper is due for release in 2015.

Finally this month’s prestigious and hotly-contested Keytar Hero award goes to Dan Werb of electro-pop duo Woodhands. Drummer Paul Banwatt might be busy these days performing with The Rural Alberta Advantage (you see it’s all linked, I do my research!) but there was a time when he slayed indie clubs across the land with the righteous disco stomp of tracks such as ‘I Wasn’t Made For Fighting’ and ‘CP24’! In videos and performances Dan stood out from his rack of keyboards and tech to stride across the stage, Roland keytar proudly in hand! For keeping synths live and up-front, Dan, we salute you.

Review: Heavyweights – Keep Your Friends Close [EP]

Baltimore’s Heavyweights have got a pretty solid record on their hands with Keep Your Friends Close. It wasn’t long ago that Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low loudly declared that pop-punk will live forever. I sincerely hope that All Time Low’s brand of derivative drivel will die out, but Heavyweights’ new EP harks back to pop-punk’s golden age and gives it a fresh, enthusiastic shot to the heart.

Did you like Fenix TX or Allister back in 2002? Did you ever listen to Tsunami Bomb, or even Good Charlotte’s first album? Be prepared for a wave of nostalgia to hit you in the face hard as soon as the first bars of ‘It’s Not Pretty, But It’s Us’ start to play out. The Heavyweights EP could have come straight out of that scene and you wouldn’t know any different. Is this a bad thing? Hell no. Are you going to remember Heavyweights in ten years like those bands? Maybe not with this EP, but they’re definitely on to something. After an echoey riff, ‘It’s Not Pretty, But It’s Us’ launches a full pop assault – expect fast guitars, bouncing basslines and ridiculously infectious hooks. ‘Dior 999’ and ‘Bonfire’ are much of the same, absolutely chock-full of melody and malice with some really catchy choruses. Of course, it wouldn’t be a homage to 00’s pop-punk without a cheeky cameo, and Mike Hayden of Count To Four fame steps up to the plate in ‘Bunkbeds’. And then it ends on a banger of a ballad with ‘Anna Marie’, which starts out deceptively slow with a fantastic half-time breakdown before speeding up for a total thrill-ride. It’s an incredibly tight record, and Heavyweights have truly got their sound down just right.

Yet, as much as Heavyweights embrace pop-punk’s conventions and all its glories, Keep Your Friends Close has also inherited a few of its clichés. The EP’s still all about girls and how much they suck because they’re all heartbreakers, but I guess you write what you know. Most of that at least rhymes, which I’m down with, but it almost feels like Dave Heilker is singing the same song after a while with a different melody. There’s also very little variance in style between the tracks – possibly due to the fact that it’s an EP – and although each track is fantastic in isolation , it all starts to get a bit wearing after five fast-and-loud numbers.

All in all, it’d be great to see what Heavyweights can do with a full-length record, as they seem to be another one of those bands who perpetually come out with EPs. Keep Your Friends Close is plenty of fun, and although they’re not quite there yet, Heavyweights are onto a winner.

3.5 out of 5 high fives!