Some new additions to the playlist....
A-List:
Bon Iver - Towers
Elbow - Dear Friends
Bombay Bicycle Club - Leave It (Acoustic Version)
S.C.U.M. - Faith Unfolds
DJ Shadow - Scale It Back ft. Little Dragon
Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out
Arctic Monkeys - Black Treacle
]]>Dream-pop buzz band BRAIDS played for a packed house this week at XOYO. In 2008 BRAIDS released their first EP and started playing with bands including Deerhunter. But the band from Montreal has gotten lots of attention since the release of their debut full length album Native Speaker earlier this year. They’ve drawn comparisons to early Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire (though I like them better than both) and garnered much due praise from sites like Pitchfork and Stereogum. 
The fairly new outfit consists of a typical indie rock set-up with a guitarist, keys, drums, and bass with each member contributing vocals. But they also use loop machines and synths to craft their dreamlike melodies, which can sometimes spell disaster at a live gig. I’ll admit that after listening to the tracks from Native Speaker I was skeptical of their ability to recreate the impressive atmosphere that you get when listening to the record. Wrong I was. Their set was a non-stop ebb and flow of mesmerizing soundscapes: a perfect amalgam of wafting airy vocals, oozing synths and seriously tight drums.
BRAIDS were all about creating a mood with sound. Once they started playing, they didn’t stop.
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A List:
The Black Keys have new album on the way called El Camino. It's out on December 6th and we're loving the first single from it, 'Lonely Boy'
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Howard and Guy Lawrence are Disclosure, an electronic duo from South London pedalling an infectious 2-step sound that still sounds fresh and distinctive amongst the growing crowd of artists making not-dubstep. People have been taking note as well. The brothers' debut single release, 'Offline Dexterity/Street Light Chronicle', came out on Moshi Moshi last year and has now been followed by 'Carnival/I Love That You Know' on Transparent, with both receiving good reviews from Pitchfork, Loud & Quiet and NME. In fact, they recently played at Loud & Quiet's issue launch party last month at the Shacklewell Arms. This time though, it was Lyle & Scott's turn to play host with XOYO the venue of choice.]]>
With Pulse going live in a week or so I thought I'd better get my act together on the new playlist for the first few weeks of the year, and here it is! Well, not here. Over there on the right of the page. Anyway, a quick note about music policy this year. Put simply, this is student radio, so we're gonna have fun with it, not bother with wasting our time trying to emulate mainstream pop radio and take advantage of the opportunity to do something a bit different. As such, our official playlist is far from being a Radio1/KISS clone. The A and B Lists consist of the best in new music, with the B List tending to include some slightly more obscure artists that we'd love to get out there. The Classics List is just an eclectic and fairly random collection of past music that for whatever reason we've wanted to listen to again. Hopefully there's enough stuff in there to your liking and maybe you'll discover a few gems you'd never heard before.
If you've got any suggestions for songs you'd love to see on the playlist then we're always open to people pointing us in the direction of good music, new or old. Just drop me (Stephen) an email. Same applies to those looking to promote their own stuff: I'm all ears. Look forward to hearing from you and enjoy the music!
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Almost every blog post, review or comment relating to Ifan Dafydd's debut release seems to fixate on comparisons with James Blake. Rumours range from him being a straight rip-off to him having actually masterminded the sound that Blake then went on to make his name with. Some have even claimed they are related, or lived together as flatmates. Such claims, whilst understandable given the clear similarity in sound, are all rather irrelevant. Also, neither Ifan nor Blake would dream of claiming exclusivity for their musical style; the similarly anonymous Burial was chopping up R&B samples in much the same way back in the mid-2000s. Simply put, 'No Good', and the flip side of the single 'Miranda', are both brilliant pieces of music coming from a clearly very talented artist.
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Well well, here we are again. The start of another year. The time when fresh faced university arrivals are routinely taken for a ride in their moment of weakness by all manner of event promoters with candy coloured flourescent flyers. Don't worry, I feel your pain. I was in the exact same position when I first came to LSE. I too hoped to take advantage of the dizzying array of music that London has to offer but alas, like so many others found myself sucked in by the collective Freshers peer pressure to go to the 'big' parties at 'big' clubs. Even the novelty value of Crush didn't seem to quite cut it and the entire experience left me feeling rather jaded, wondering where it all went wrong.
Well fear not, Pulse is here to help offer you an alternative to the tired old Freshers formula.
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One evening I was incredibly bored and for some strange reason Kiss FM was on in the background. I'm not sure how or why such a travesty could've occurred. I genuinely can't think of any circumstance in which I would think to myself, “You know what Stephen, you should tune into Kiss FM. It may be the radio equivalent of self-harming, but you never know, you may enjoy it.” Yet there I was – listening away. And as I gradually began to pay attention, it suddenly dawned on me that the music that was oozing out of my speakers was unlike anything I'd ever listened to before. The song was Justin Martin's 'Sad Piano' and the amicable voice that told me this was the lovely man running the show; a man by the name of Ben Watt whose deep house jams would go on to have a hugely formative influence on my taste in music.]]>