Another Form of Relief

Every now and again I’ll run across something that I instantly love. Coming up with new content for here on a daily basis means that I post a lot of stuff that I like, but don’t have that immediate connection with. The ones that do tend to be the bands that end up being part of our Great British Hopes series. Assuming that they are British of course.

The Sailplanes are currently based in Berlin, but luckily for me they formed in London. They make a kind of noisy, messy pop that is difficult to categorise. My first thought was to label them as “Life Without Buildings on ritalin”, but that sounded more insulting than it should. The song structures certainly resemble LWB though, stop/starting and jumping all over the place. Then some of their songs started sounding like “the best thing Nosferatu D2 never recorded”, which is fitting as they seem to have both come from the same scene.

Reading back I can see that I haven’t managed to articulate my excitement for this band at all. They really are the best thing I have encountered in a long time though. Choosing just one song to post was a hard enough battle in itself. Just download Tilted and listen for yourself. Then go to their site and download all the rest.

Great British Hopes collects the very best in unsigned acts from the UK.

Another band influenced by the mighty Life Without Buildings? They seem to be popping up everywhere these days, and if it were another band, I might be getting a little weary of it. LWB never had time to fulfill their potential, so any band attempting to pick up where they left off is welcome.

Which is a little unfair to Stricken City, who have a lot more going for them than one influence. A clean beat drives everything forwards, guitars float in and out and the vocals have just a vague sense of disconnect from everything else. Which for once, is absolutely fine. This isn’t music that’s about the specifics. It’s all about the atmosphere.

You can download the entire Tak o Tak EP for free from Stricken City’s website.

It occurred to me recently that most US bands that I listen to come from somewhere on the eastern side of the country. This is by no means set in stone, but it seems that the further west one goes, the less bands I tend to enjoy. There may be a good reason for this, but I’m sure it’s largely coincidence. However, in an attempt to balance things somewhat, I present The Pity Party for your listening enjoyment. They come from LA, a city that seems to have too few good bands given it’s size. Says the guy observing from thousands of miles away.

The first thing that struck me about H.O.T.S. is how much the vocals resemble Life Without Buildings. The female vocals on the track are all over the place, occasionally bordering on the unhinged, which while not to everyone’s liking, is welcomed by myself. Behind all this is a not insubstantial beat that drives the entire song forward at a good pace. It’s all rather dark and reflective, but it’s a nice change of tact from all of the indie pop that I usually end up posting.

Well, the closest thing to new material that you’re going to get from a band that broke up five years ago. Like many people, I was very late to the Life Without Buildings party. In fact, it was pretty much a year ago to the day that I first heard them. They seem to be everywhere of late though, which is quite an achievement given how short their musical career was.

Forming in Glasgow in 1999 and breaking up in 2002 left them with little more than a single album to their name. The fact that album, entitled Any Other City, is so damn good helps to explain their appeal even now. Coming across as something akin to a non-sensical Art Brut, lead singer Sue Tompkins storms through talk-shout lyrics that often come at a rate that she is difficult to keep up with.

The new release is a full live recording from The Annandale Hotel in Australia from 2002, shortly before the band broke up. Surprisingly, it’s titled Live at the Annandale Hotel. I’m not a big fan of live material compared to it’s studio counterparts, but it’s something that serves Life Without Buildings well. Hearing the songs in a live setting gives them even more a wreckless feel than they already had. It’s not the perfect coda to a underappreciated band, but it’s certainly better than nothing.

MP3 Life Without Buildings – Juno (live) (expired)

Live at the Annandale Hotel was released last month in the UK on Gargleblast Records and will be released in the US next month via Absolutely Kosher.

Life Without Buildings: Website || Myspace

Once again, we have another band that I have come far too late to the party on. Life Without Buildings have now apparently disbanded, but that doesn’t stop me writing about them, as they are really very good. The only problem here is that I can’t find out a great deal of information about them. Apparently they formed in Glasgow in 1999 and broke up in 2002, and that’s about all I can find. So let’s just focus on the songs.

At first, I actually found these songs rather jarring and didn’t really like them, but after a couple of plays I got used to the style and it really clicked with me. On the most part, this is conventional enough indie rock music. The guitars saunter along in the background, the bass serves its purpose and the drumming keeps everyone in the line. Who it doesn’t keep in line though, and where Life Without Buildings are unique, is in the singing of Sue Tompkins. She brings an almost manic energy to the proceedings, particularly on stand-out track ‘The Leaover’. Here, she rambles, at times almost incoherently, for the best part of six minutes, without any break. On other songs, like ‘Sorrow’ (which echoes Mazzy Star a little), you can here how well refined her voice actually is, but the insanity of the earlier song almost masks it entirely. Their songs are all rather long too, with these all clocking in between five and seven minutes. Yet at no time do they become grating though, mostly because Tompkins keeps things interesting by doing something unexpected just when they would be pushing their limits.

MP3 Life Without Buildings – The Leanover (expired)
MP3 Life Without Buildings – New Town (expired)
MP3 Life Without Buildings – Sorrow (expired)

Life Without Buildings: Website || Myspace