We Are Freeways

We Are Freeways

We Are Freeways' album

We Are Freeways describe themselves as a '"living room", low fidelity, indie band', and if their meaning is lost on you, it's because you haven't heard the songs yet.

In short what being a '"living room", low fidelity, indie band' means, is that you produce the songs yourself, in your living room and they are beautifully composed laid back treats, each and every one.

Crystal Dennise Flores and Joshua Sanchez

The band, hailing from Denton, Texas, have mastered the art of easy listening, but manage to fill each track with their own distinctive sound. Falling somewhere between a band and an acapella group, the band use looping vocal rhythms in place of things like percussion and bass, giving them a great striped back sound, that goes a little bit like this…

 

'Let’s Grow Young' is a perfect example of the bands unique sound, the heavily layered, looping sounds of the duo's vocals build from a simple melody that wouldn’t turn a head to a simmering, bubbling, complex tune that it is impossible not to tap along too.

The quirky idea of lo-fi looping of vocals to build songs is enough to make a band stand out from the crowd, but We Are Freeways have much more to offer, as ‘TV Loves Reality’ shows, the band are also capable of pretty poignant and well written songs.

 

‘TV Loves Reality’ boasts some of the most intelligent and humorous lyrics I have heard in a long time…

‘Secrets tweeting/ Birds and doors/ Tweeting secrets at their paws / Hash-tag they hate you/ Quote never more’

With a unique and instantly identifiable sound, intelligent lyrics and endlessly re-listenable songs We Are Freeways are a band to watch out for.

You can download their album for free here, or check out their facebook here.

If you liked We Are Freeways be sure to check out The Lovely Eggs, and as always let us know what you think in the comment box below.

By Charlie Craven

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BRAND NEW UNLABELEDUK PODCAST.

Welcome to the first ever UnlabledUK podcast, bringing you the best in new, unsigned and under-the-radar music. 


For great tunes, some chit chat and games tune in to UnlabeledUK's show every fortnight

 

be sure to leave us a comment in the section below.

Bands featured in the show:

The Limes – Morning, Noon and Night

http://unlabeleduk.blogspot.com/2011/07/limes.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Limes/9745747503

Dub conductor – flying dub

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dub-Conductor/318564121098

Scroobius Pip – The struggle

http://www.facebook.com/scroobiuspip

Anna Leana and the Orchids - Child

http://www.myspace.com/annalenaandtheorchids

Daniel ‘Homeless’ Mustard

http://unlabeleduk.blogspot.com/2011/08/daniel-homeless-mustard.html

http://thehomelessmustard.com/

Yellow Herring – feet print

http://www.myspace.com/yellowherring

The Lovely Eggs – I like birds but I Like other animals too /

http://unlabeleduk.blogspot.com/2011/09/lovely-eggs.html

http://www.thelovelyeggs.co.uk/

TOP 5 Strokes Demos

http://unlabeleduk.blogspot.com/2011/08/strokes-demos-and-b-sides.html

Peggy Sue and the Pirates

http://unlabeleduk.blogspot.com/2011/10/peggy-sue-and-pirates-peggy-sue-at.html

http://peggywho.com/

 

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White Noise Box

White Noise Box

White Noise Box live

White Noise Box are quite distinctively from Manchester, their music, lyrics and melodies ooze that rich Manchester sound.



The four piece form a very tight knit indie-pop group with explosive and energetic sounds. The band rattle off gripping guitar riffs that drive their songs from something mediocre to something brilliant. It’s the deceptively simple guitar that makes this band great. Check out "Black Cider" to see what I mean.



Pushing and unrelenting guitar is a staple of Manchester music and it’s one of the things that separate the scene from the rest of the country. White Noise Box seem to have inherited this quite well.

One of the great things about the band is that they do not seem to want to stay in one genre, the band claims ‘Our music displays a wide range of different styles due to the bands varying musical tastes and influences. These range from funky chord bass rhythms, to a heavier punk style.’


The song "Mary Joanna" is a laid back and chilled out song that is a world apart from the rest of the bands songs. 

Perhaps my favourite song from the band is “Selective Hearing”, boasting dynamic guitar and bold vocals, the band throw out an expressive and vibrant sound. Most of the appeal in the song is in its dark, slightly sinister vibe that I can’t quite put my finger on.  

If the band contuniue to put out tracks like that it is no doubt that we will be hearing a lot more from this little Manchester band. 

If you want to be featured on UnlabeledUK, send an email to unlabeleduk@gmail.co.

Let me know what you think of the band in the comment box below.

By Charlie Craven

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Peggy Sue

Peggy Sue (and the Pirates)

Peggy Sue at the beach

Peggy Sue, formally Peggy Sue and the Pirates, and for this one E.P Peggy Sue and the Pictures, is back with a brand new album. And it kicks ass.


Peggy Sue didn’t have the easiest start in her musical career, forming in 2006, being signed in 2008 but not having an album released until 2010. In that time she was constantly touring, supporting well know acts (including Kate Nash, Mumford & Sons and The Maccabees) and playing many, many sessions for BBC 6 music and Channel 4.


I can’t help but think that the industry has been a little bit hard on ol’ Peggy Sue, songs like New Song and Rockabilly pre-date the Soul-Pop epidemic that followed bands like Florence and the Machine and Amy Winehouse, but in many ways they laid the ground work for that type of music. I really feel that the band deserve more recognition for being at the forefront of a new musical style.


Check out New Song, written in 2007, and see if you agree with me.

Peggy Sue’s latest album, Acrobats, is another brilliant effort from the band. The songs still retain powerful vocals and beautiful melodies, but seem to have evolved into something more mature sounding. 

One of the best things about the band is the tandem vocals between the two lead singers, Rosa Rex and Katy Klaw. Song and Dance, the latest single, is a fantastic example of this.

The overlaid vocals sound fantastic and unique, it gives the song wonderful texture. I suppose it only really works because Rosa Rex’s vocals are far more powerful than Katy Klaw’s, meaning that she can really push the song while Katy adds some flavour that complements it really well.

The best song on the album in my opinion is Cut My Teeth, it has a wonderful a dark and atmospheric verse, and then it lets all out in the chorus. This is a lesson in tension and release.

Altogether the band sounds like a darker and more mature Florence and The Machine. The vocals might not be as powerful but the themes are darker and the songs are constructed in a better way. If you kind of like Florence and The Machine but aren’t sure about the gimmicky, pop crap like A Kiss With a Fist then Peggy Sue is the band for you.

Let me know what you think in the comment box below. 

By Charlie Craven

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A Foreign Sky

A Foreign Sky

Hailing from California, A Foreign Sky create melodic and ambient Post-Hardcore. The four-piece mix traditional Pop-Rock vocal and guitars with unearthly sounds, haunting keyboard and soothing melodies.

The band was originally composed of two high school friends, who grew up on a steady diet of early 2000’s Post-Hardcore bands like Glassjaw and Circa Survive, and later grew in size to four members when the duo went to college.

A Foreign Sky live

One of the more remarkable things about the band is that they do all the recording themselves: ‘Mark and I worked pretty closely mixing and recording them ourselves because between us we have a pretty clear vision for what we want them to sound like’ claims lead guitarist Adam Blalock. Although it’s pretty normal for independent bands to record their own songs, it is somewhat less normal for them to come out so well mixed, beautifully layered and very professional sounding.

Their first 5 track E.P is available for download for the tidy sum of 5 American dollars, but first let’s check out what those dollars could buy you.

Bluring The Line


The crackling sound laid over the classic and melodic sounding piano is a great way to start a song, it straight away sums up the character of the song you are about to hear. 


The song pivots from poetic and ambient to loud and powerful enough times to ensure repeat listens and still have it be interesting to hear.


Unfortunately the song does hold on to a slightly cheesy american rock vibe that is a bit too rich for my delicate English sensibilities, but that doesn't mean that it's not a great song that works on every level.


Hills and Valleys  


Hills and Valleys is by far my favourite song from the E.P. The slow, melodic, almost moody feeling works really well with the lead singer's vocals. Some parts of the track kind of remind me of early Smashing Pumpkins.


June 21st


Proving that A Foreign Sky are no one trick pony, June 21st is a completely instrumental song.


Choosing to do an instrumental song is a daring move for any band as you risk boring your audience because they cannot really connect to the music, this however is not the case with June 21st. 


The song ricochets between up and down like a yo-yo, always keeping you guessing. The instruments are complex enough to keep you engaged and is in fact one of the best songs on the E.P.


You can pick up any one of A Foreign Sky's songs for just a dollar at http://aforeignsky.bandcamp.com or pick up the whole album for 5$.


A Foreign Sky found their way on to UnlabeledUK by sending one of their songs to unlabeleduk@gmail.com, why don't you do the same.


Be sure to let me know what you think of the band using the comment box below.

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The Young Knives

The Young Knives

The Young Knives serving you milk.

The Young Knives own brand of whimsical Indie-Rock has been delighting listeners since early 2006 with their first single The Decision, and continued to make awesome tracks until late 2008 when the band took a break.

Well now they are back, and better than ever.

Their latest single Vision In Rags is fantastic and brings us back to that strange Young Knives sound that we all love.

The song flourishes both in structure and lyrically. The youngest member of The Young Knives, Thomas “House of Lords” Dartnall is 34, meaning the whole band are pretty old for such a young man's game, but in many ways this plays into their hands. Although the song is quirky and a bit weird, it doesn’t fall into the trap of becoming childish or stupid sounding.


Vision in Rags is a great song and it was apparently made in the lead singer, Henry Dartnall's, garage on a laptop. If that is the case then that sets my expectation for the album very high indeed.

For those of you who don’t know The Young Knives, cast back your mind to 2006 when their first single, The Decision, dominated the airwaves. The song bounded back and forth on the internet thanks to its quirky wickerman-esque video and bizarre lyrics “I am the Prince of Whales, I am the Prince of Whales, and if all else fails, I am the Prince of Whales’

Let's take a look at some of the best Young Knives' tracks.

Here Comes The Rumour Mill

Here Comes The Rumour Mill was the second single from the band and followed much in the same tradition as The Decision, keeping the odd-ball lyrics, the adult Indie-Rock vibe and wonderfully strange music video. 

Here Comes The Rumour Mill didn't receive quite as much attention as The Decision, but I can never work out why. In my opinion Here Comes The Rumour Mill is a far superior song to The Decision in almost every way. The music is stronger and more engaging, the video is better and the song deals with an emotion in a way The Decision does not. The song is the story of being an adult and having something to do, but feeling intimidated like an awkward child, and I think that is something we can all relate to.

Terra Firma

Terra Firma was the first single from the band's second album, Superabundance, and became one the bands biggest hits.

The song is massively catchy with its chant chorus and non-sensical lyrics. Although it was commercially a big hit for the band, I don't think the song is nearly as good as any of the tracks from the first album, but it is still a great track.

By the second album the band had really upped there Indie-Rock sound, but they lost some of their charm. Some of the weird references and lyrics begin to sound a bit forced at this stage, but it is still a great song.

The new album comes out later this year, let me know what you think in the comment section below.

If you liked The Young Knives be sure to check out The Lovely Eggs

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Forgotten Voice

Forgotten Voice

Forgotten Voice live

Spanish Rock band “Forgotten Voice” promise high energy and emotionally charged songs, and it's a promise that the band deliver on.


One of the nicest things about the band is that they are overwhelmingly positive, describing themselves as "a hard working and musically confident four-piece band that shots through with optimism everyday. Their songs capture the abandoned purpose and pure feelings of this crazy society."

The band

Most of the bands songs deal with subjects like making the world a better place, hope and happiness. It’s refreshing to see a band being so positive and trying to improve the world though music.


Taking a look at the songs, you can see what I mean.


Believe


"It is possible to believe in something better, to create a better world, it is possible to believe in miracles" 


'Believe' is a very strong melodic song with some pretty interesting sounds, particularly the news audio in the intro. The band has obviously worked very hard to give the song texture, it’s filled with small interludes, changes in temp and melody, making the song very interesting to listen to.

XYY
 
The band claims that this song is about a “shot of optimism for those who live the oppression in their day by day lives, those who cannot be their own just because they're too shy, those who made a wrong turn and cannot escape their past. This song's for those who need the strength to get a new chance and believe they're absolutely perfect.”


XYY is a song about picking up the pieces and moving on. While it isn’t as melodically strong as the other songs, it still works really well. The song also boasts an interesting guitar solo around the 2.15 mark, before going in to an ‘Evanescence’ style break. 


A very nice tune indeed.



Paralyzed
 
Although Paralyzed has an intro like 80’s glam rock, the rest of the song a pretty great track. The song is about building and getting better, or as the band puts it “This one pretends to be a song of hope and encouragement, we're not paralyzed, we can change what it's wrong around us, we can be better every day, this world if full of opportunities.”


It’s the guitars that really work for this song. They seem to be driving the song with a constant thrashing.   




Forgotten Voice found there way on the UnlabeledUK by sending an email to unlabeleduk@gmail.com, feel free to do the same.


Let me know what you think of the band using the comment section below.

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The Lovely Eggs

The Lovely Eggs

The Lovely Eggs enjoying watermelon.

The Lovely Eggs are a conundrum. By all rights I shouldn’t like The Lovely Eggs, the songs are strange and esoteric, the vocals are far from traditional and they all over have a punky garage band feel to them, but there in lies the mystery, because I fucking love The Lovely Eggs. If you don’t like the lovely eggs, then I hate to tell you, your inner child is dead.


The Lovely Eggs started making their captivatingly strange music in 2006, and released their first album “If You Were Fruit” in 2009 along with 4 singles that received lots of air time and great reviews from revered radio DJs Huw Stephens, Steve Lamacq, Rob Da Bank and John Kennedy.

One of the reasons that The Lovely Eggs became so popular so quickly is that they seem to have engineered their own, very, very distinctive sound. And it’s a wonderfully strange, deeply charismatic sound. 

The big appeal of the band is that they manage to sound child-like without sounding childish. The songs don’t come off with a pretensions look-at-us-we-are-so-quirky, they just sound fun and genuinely interesting. If the songs weren’t so well written, catchy and fun, then it would be easy to write The Lovely Eggs off as a joke band, but when you find yourself really enjoying their songs that becomes much harder to do.


Let's take a look at the songs from the first album...


I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too


"I Like Birds" is the most traditional of The Lovely Eggs songs, it's structured like a regular song and it has a satisfying grunge tinge to it. Behind the glaze of perfectly ordinary song writing, however, just under the skin is a something very charming and curious.


It's not that The Lovely Eggs are weird, it just shows how unoriginal and banal most bands are today.

Have You Ever Heard A Digital Accordion



Have You Ever Heard An Digital Accordion is what bands sound like when they are having fun. The fun that the band must have been having while writing this song is almost palpable.


It’s the lyrics that make this song so good, and although that seems quite simple to say, it's not obvious why. The reason the lyrics are so good is because they are silly and odd but they are not stupid. They seem random, but they have obviously been designed to fit both rhythmically and in character. 


It’s a surprisingly well written song, listen to it enough and you will find yourself humming it and asking strangers if they “have ever fought a deadly scorpion”.



Fuck It

Fuck It is proof that The Lovely Eggs are no one trick pony. Although the bizarre lyrics remain, the band have shed the grunge sound.


Fuck It is one of the few Lovely Eggs songs with real pathos. There is a sadness which rivals most ballads, because most of the lines are unconnected it holds on to a feeling of “I don’t really know what to do with myself”, people can relate to in a way they can't with traditional "sad" songs. 

If you liked The Lovely Eggs be sure to check out Pomplamoose.
Let me know what you think of the band using the comment section below.

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The Galleons

The Galleons

The Galleons looking cold.

Although only forming in 2010, Brighton band The Galleons have been enjoying much success with their laid-back, traditional, British folk, getting plenty of radio play and being booked at many festivals.

The Galleons hail from all over the place: Bedford, London, Lincoln, The Isle of Wight and Latvia, giving them plenty of influences that permeate into their music. 

The way the band describe their own music “traditional British folk music, sounds of the 60’s folk revival, modern merchants of gloom such as Low and Radiohead and the occasional Latvian farming song” gives but a taste of the vivid flavours that come through in the songs.

If we take a look at The Galleons’ single “What Is Fear” it is easy to see what they are talking about...

The song boasts the structure and style of a more traditional folk song but manages to introduce some interesting features such as the use of an omnichord and weird choices of rhythm towards the end.


This style of music might not suit everybody’s tastes, but it is very clean and precise and what the Galleons do they do very, very well. 

live at The Rose Hill

The Galleons don’t have a huge scope, possibly because they fit all they can into each song, but they do have some wiggle room. Their latest song “The Moon & The Gate” isn’t so similar to their “What Is Fear” that you wouldn’t realised the track had ticked over, but remains fairly close.

Versatility isn't a strong point for The Galleons, but versatility isn’t the best tactic for every band. What The Galleons do have is a very clear, concise musical direction. Because they are so good at what they do they don’t need to deviate too far from the formula they know works, meaning they can create a very clear image and sound for themselves. 

If we take a look at their first single “I Know” (which is available for free download on the music player) you can see that they have remained quite similar though out their musical career…
 
…but that’s alright because each of the songs are quality, they are all re-listenable and many of them get better with repeat hearings.


The Galleons found their way on to UnlabledUK when they sent an email to  unlabeleduk@gmail.com. If you liked the Galleons be sure to check out The Limes, and as always let me know what you think in the comment box below.
By Charlie Craven

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ContaineR

ContaineR

ContainR

I'm not very good at knowing what to say about electronic music or remixes, but what I do know is that I have taken quite a liking to Italian musicians ContainR.

ContaineR officially started in 2007, but the journey taken for the two members, Alessio Magneta and Luca Sammartin, started seven years earlier in 2000. The pair started producing tunes separately, burning the tracks to CDs and giving them to each other for birthday gifts. 

It wasn’t until many years later that the two of them finally worked together and produced the track "Nargo Sprout Goes Nuked". The 7 years that the two of them put in practicing before they got together paid off big time, because their first song sounded a little bit like this….

This is a brilliant example of tension and release. The great phaser noise at the beginning builds and adds an atmospheric tension before break around the one minute mark where we are pushed in to a much darker industrial sounding track.

ContaineR live

One of the things I like about ContaineR is they manage to push a degree of humour into their songs that you would not normally expect. They whimsically described their latest work as ‘a sound that is wobbly banghead and massively dreamy at the same time, and [will] push this attitude in and out of Italy ’.

Although I’m not sure what wobbly banghead and massively dreamy is supposed to sound like, it's probably referring to ContaineR’s latest tracks “A_r”...

And the hilariously titled "Turning Pineapples in to Ape Nipples".

What I like about ContaineR is that they manage to keep rooted to the codes and conventions of traditional electronica, with out being so esoteric that they would alienate people who aren't so much in to the genre. It's laid back and generally unoffensive to all musical tastes. 


They are all good tracks and well produced but on the other hand can come across quite remedial and repetitive, which I think will lead to people not fully appreciating how complex the songs really are.


You can find all of ContainR's tracks at http://soundcloud.com/container# and look out for an album coming out later this year.


Let me know what you think of the band in the comment section below.


by Charlie Craven

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Iwan Rheon

Iwan Rheon

This is probably how you picture him.

Iwan Rheon, better known as the shy, invisible one from Channel 4’s Misfits, has released an E.P., and if you are thinking that he is just another actor trying to sing, then you are dead wrong.

Although the E.P., called Tongue Tied,  is only 4 tracks long it shows incredible talent and versatility, with each song holding on to a slightly different feeling. Some songs have a funky, fun edge while others take on a darkly romantic slant. Tongue Tied shows more originality in 4 tracks than most bands can muster up on an album.

Iwan being much more handsome.

Tongue Tied really displays Iwan’s vocal talent, brimming with power and range. All the tracks are neatly put together, as they should be because apparently the E.P. was produced by Oasis's Paul Arthurs.

It is only an E.P so that means we have space to talk about all the songs.

Tongue Tied

Tongue Tied is the title track and is a really great song. It is the fastest and most rock and roll of the four songs. It’s one of the best examples of Folk/Pop that has come out in a long while. 

It falls a little bit flat at some points and isn’t quite rocky enough to be perfect, but it is a fantastic first single.

Simple Song

I know that Simple Song is supposed to be a romantic song, but for some reason it makes me feel quite sad. Something in Iwan’s voice feels so melancholic.

It’s a great song for demonstrating Iwan’s versatility when played after a rockier song like Tongue Tied.

Follow Me

Follow Me is my favourite of the four tracks. I can’t help but think that if Iwan didn't have such a nice voice this would be an incredibly boring song, but because of his textured vocals the song works really well.

It’s impossible not to draw a comparison to Mumford and Sons when writing about a song like this, and although it does sound like a Mumford and Sons song, it’s a lot better. Mumford and Sons wish they wrote this song.

Happy Again

The real draw for me in this song is the guitar, it just seems playful and fun, if a bit simple. There’s not a lot to say about Happy again, its still a good song, but not quite as good as the other songs from the E.P

There has been no word as to an album, but Iwan apparently will begin touring shortly, so that's a good sign. 

Let me know what you think about the E.P. in the box below.

By Charlie Craven

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