Jaz got a sneak peak of MGMT's forthcoming second release Congratulations, which - following their splendiferously technicoloured Oracular Spectacular - is one of the most anticipated albums of this year. If you were hoping for more of the same with album number two you're in for a bit of a shock.
Kicking off with what sounds like the backdrop for a Middle-Eastern market place, new track Flash Delirium is still psychedelic except with more of a Beach Boys surf rock air - think Help Me Rhonda on acid... at an ELO concert. With one song on the album titled Brian Eno, it's safe to say that the New York duo have set their sights on out-experimenting the electro-ambient rock superproducer in terms of innovation. On creating the album which hits the UK on 12th April, Andrew Vanwyngarden has said: "It's so great to be around such amazing and unusual musical minds". Among other catalysts, we're sure...
Transcend space and time and join MGMT on a psychedelic spiral odyssey... Alternatively download the track for free at www.whoismgmt.com
Or if you're running low on iPod space you could just stare at this for a few minutes for similar sensational vibrations...
Jaz doesn't believe in guilty pleasures: ELO, ABBA, the Bee Gees? We say, bring back Studio 54. But perhaps LA trio Music Go Music do feel slightly sheepish every time Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby is spotted on their iPod by an unforgiving hip acquaintance. Otherwise why would they exist under the pretense of alter egos with names such as Kamer Maza and Gala Bell? What's wrong with Dave and Meredith? It's quite simple: Dave and Meredith are neither funky, nor groovy. But Kamer Maza... now that's foxy.
If the name Music Go Music wasn't indication enough, this collective are digging disco, baby. And good pastel-coloured, psychedelic, one-stop-voyage-to-heaven disco at that. The debut album Expressions will be arriving in April. Previous single Warm In The Shadows comes over all Blondie Atomic meets ABBA Voulez-vous. Go on, have a listen. We won't tell ;)
Alas, it begins. I’ve already missed the opening band (The Cheek) due to my pinot grigio distraction (this challenge requires pace). Ready to see a new band I have been listening in on, genuinely enjoy and am set to wave my Scottish flag to – Frightened Rabbit – I spot a crowd of American Apparel’d, clean-shaven Brooklynites approach the stage… “Give it up for White Rabbits!”. Give me strength! You’d think lapine nomenclature would be scarce among new rockers. Confusion aside, they serve up an ample slice of percussion-led indie verging on Kid A-era Radiohead with a good dose of musical chairs-styled instrument-swapping to measure and a cocktail drummer with energy to rival an entire jungle of Um Bongo characters.
To the main event: Delphic, which literally means “relating to Apollo (the Greek God of light)” – a very significant aside. Shrouded in darkness the trio approach the stage by way of torchlight, a moment I soon regretted not savouring. Most musicians, like humans, breathe oxygen. Delphic breathe halogen, and at the rate of an asthmatic. A migraine sufferer from the age of eight, I can take or leave pulsating darts of retina-burning white. Such was the power of this light display, however, it awakens my inner epileptic; I feel like I’m living between the musical staves of Underworld’s Born Slippy. Lager, lager, lager, lager, lager…. That, or I imagine this is what ELO meant by Blinded By The Lights. ‘Will there be a side of music with the Blackpool Illuminations tonight?’ was one question on my mind. The other, ‘Is Boots open late?’. To answer the former, Delphic are trying really hard to be Bloc Party, and who wants to be Bloc Party? Kele Okereke evokes the spirit of a mute cemetery attendant. At their Mancunian best, they’re New Order without Hooky’s winning basslines. It’s the same song looping over different light colours/rates, each one getting more and more aggressive, like the tracks on a speed metal album (probably, I don’t listen to speed metal). As blue lights turn to green, I feel alienated. If this and 3D cinema is the future of entertainment I am incompatible... like an old Acorn computer. Squinting with my arm shading my brow and committing the cardinal sin of sporting sunglasses indoors (it was an emergency), I’m ready to jump on the energy efficiency bandwagon. CUT THE LIGHTS! One hour later, vision impaired, more precious short-term memory neurons slaughtered and a sickbag on the list of things to include in case of necessity for my purse tomorrow night, I wonder whether Delphic’s assault on my optics has scuppered my campaign. I withstand breaking into Pulp’s Help The Aged. But really, help us. One day you’ll be older too.
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