Underground Lovers keep the dream alive

SERvin’ Up – w/c May 1, 2017

Mac De Marco – This Old Dog
Underground Lovers – Staring At You Staring At Me
Yumi Zouma – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
Woods – Love Is Love
BNQT – Volume 1
Mew – Visuals
Spoek Mathambo – Mzanzi Beat Code
Screamfeeder – Pop Guilt
Tim Rogers – An Actor Repairs
Jazzanova – The Remixes 2000 – 2016
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Hello,

The reformed and rejuvenated Underground Lovers now return with album number nine, Staring At You Staring At Me, once again occupying a rare space in the now seriously crowded realm of dream pop. There’s something about the measure of their songs – equal parts punch and atmosphere – that’s impeccably precise in the way they hang perfectly, and leave you hanging each time. What I think makes Staring At You Staring At Me particularly pleasing is the presence of Philippa Nihill’s swirling keyboards and voice, her songs adding a great dimension overall to proceedings and sorely missed during her absence from the band. The newcomers trying this stuff on these days could really take a trick or two from their book – getting the band back together doesn’t always get back to the glory days but here’s one example where it totally works.

BNQT is a very obscure sounding moniker but it ain’t no acronym: it’s pronounced ‘Banquet’. Clarifications aside, their debut Volume 1 is indeed a sumptuous feast of pop vision, and that’s because it’s the work of one hell of an indie supergroup. Get a load of this for a line-up: Eric Pulido from Midlake, Ben Bridwell from Band of Horses, Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand, Jason Lytle from Grandaddy and perhaps inexplicably, Fran Healy from Travis. The lush results from these guys comes in the form of old school symphonic soft-rock and pop in the expansive, epic 70s style and it’s marvelously done with no one overplaying their hand. After a few listens, you’ll be happy to realise that when you name something ‘Volume 1’ that it usually means there will be a ‘Volume 2.’

Spoek Mathambo has become a key player in South Africa’s new music scene, the singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist opening up his albums to upcoming artists for collaboration in showcasing their talents. His latest, Mzanzi Beat Code, is typically freewheeling stuff, busting out robust and modern dance music with the elastic freneticism of African rhythms coupled with unique updates on dub, house, rap and much more. Pretty wild, pretty cool.