Found - Gilbert

Now we all know that nothing good has ever been called GILBERT! That bloke from Holyoaks who’s always singing Blue Moon and proudly wearing his City colours gave it a good go - until it was revealed he’s a real life admirer of Trafford Green And Yellow Scarves! Loveable Old Gil from The Simpsons can’t hold down a job for two minutes and that giant from The Inbetweeners, funny though he is, unashamedly wears a tweed jacket and v-neck sweater.... together!! Freaks the lot of them!

Someone however has emerged, who seems to want to buck this loser trend. December 2010 saw the release of ‘Wahoola!’, the 2nd album from Gilbert – a creative outlet for current Engineers drummer Matthew Linley. While on occasion the record veers off into ‘aaagh where the hell did that scary men’s choir appear from’ territory, when Linley gets it right, my does he get it right! Maude Wilde has been brought on board to lend seraphic vocals to Linely’s beguiling orchestrations and the resulting musical marriage has worked a treat. ‘Where are you’ twinkles while ‘Red Leaves Floating On The Water’ is as tranquil and pretty as the title would suggest. If you only intend to treat your ears once this year then let them have 5 uninterrupted minutes alone with the really beautiful ‘Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow’, it’s got layers of loveliness up its sleeve.

04 Red Leaves Floating On the Water by Foundofconfusion


Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow by Foundofconfusion


Where You Can Find Them:

Gilbert Myspace

Want to contact me? foundofconfusion@hotmail.co.uk or leave a comment below.

Team YADi - Sign Up Here

So that's it the cat is out of the bag! A week ago today we revealed here that the one and only YADi will be following in the footsteps of Delphic and standing up for the values of taste and decency by representing us Foundees in the great 'Confusion Wars'

As such it's only right that we take a little moment to salute our hero - and what better way to do that than by listening to some of the tunes that will make us nailed on victors when the battle reaches it's denouement

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The track that's received the most praise to date is Guillotine and it'd be hard to argue that any of those compliments are unmerited. Driven along by a motown backbeat this is The Supremes reconditioned for the 21st century, piano and powerful vocals all working in harmony - great stuff.

Willow's haunted intro gives way to the rhythmic bounce of electro hip-pop. An anthem dedicated to the frustrations of love gone wrong, it's got passion and style in equal portions.

In my humble opinion though Gold is the best of the bunch. Beginning like a sinister children's tale, the verse snakes it's way through the long grass. When it hits the chorus though everything is suddenly soaring majestically, with vocals layered to brilliant effect, before the beat lands and marches off into the distance

Hear Gold on soundcloud.

And if that's not enough I can promise you there's more out there to be excited about. Heartbroken is crying out to be a single, it's the type of chart/club hit that Madonna would have been proud to call her own when she was at at her youthful best. Nothing left has simplicity and mountains of soul, while Cannibals and Sahara Heart are fresh, feisty and funky.

Team Yadi/The Found Of Confusion, heading to a victory parade near you soon - come with us!


Here are the places across the web where you can find out what our champ is up too:

MySpace

Twitter
Facebook
Soundcloud

Found - Range Rover

Moving from those who frequent the air (Pilots – get it, clever yeah? No?) to those who prefer to stay on the tarmac, revving up next for your consideration are San Diego’s RANGE ROVER. Normally a band name like that would be an open goal for me to wheel out a clutch of car based puns, but I decided that in these blogs I should steer clear of that sort of thing as I’m aware it can drive people nuts. I don’t intend to brake that promise so I’ll resist the temptation, (having exhausted my material anyway) but if you spot any accidental ones feel free to boot me off your screen.

Despite these Californian teens still finding their feet artistically, their recent free download ‘There’s Nothing For Me Here’ has gained them much positive attention across blog land. The base track adopts the same brand of otherworldly electronica so successfully championed by the brilliant Memory Tapes and Millionyoung, while the vocals come over like a monastic chant, shrouded in echo and distortion. Further recordings ‘Soda’ and ‘Mind’ are available for no cost at their Bandcamp page and if Range Rover can piece together a long player even half as good as the aforementioned Mr M Tapes they’ll be a must for any ITunes library.

Mind by Range Rover


Find Them In These Places:

Range Rover Bandcamp
Range Rover Twitter

Want to contact me?: foundofconfusion@hotmail.co.uk or chat away in my nice comment box.

Found - Pilots

Lazy TV executives, who are too spineless or incompetent to make a decision, like to air pilot episodes of shows to gauge whether or not the public will approve of the concept. Well if this PILOTS debut production is anything to go by, put down your doughnut and get this commissioned now fatty! ‘White Knuckle Tight Grip’ was released back in February and sounds fantastic with its funky guitars and harmonies that pop up at random intervals, all polished up nicely via some glossy production. With the 80’s love in showing little sign of letting up, these north east lads appear to have drawn inspiration from their regions most prominent musical export – and they should be applauded for cherry picking the best bits The Police had to offer, while sidelining any trace of the oddball singer who based his whole persona on a garish stripy jumper. Sharing the same schizophrenic approach to song structure as flourishing contemporises like Vampire Weekend and Everything Everything (but on this evidence doing it better), the prospects of future success for this quartet look more than healthy – well as long as one of the band doesn’t suddenly change his name to ‘Wasp’

PILOTS 'Not Solo' by PilotsMusic

Find Them In These Places

Pilots Myspace
Pilots Facebook
Official Website

Want To Contact Me? foundofconfusion@hotmail.co.uk

Found - Dimbleby And Capper

Welcome back Foundees!

For the month of April 'The Found Of Confusion' is reverting back to it's originally intended format, with one band/act to be revealed every Thursday. For those of you that prefer to read just one article in it's entirety, fear not, the selections will still be appearing on The Sound Of Confusion blog as a single post at the start of May.

Shall we begin?

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I don’t know if Kev has scrapped his stupid band name of the week feature, but if it’s still running we have a likely contender in the shape of the duotastic (I made that up) sounding DIMBLEBY AND CAPPER. Despite the cumbersome - Question Time host dressed in market knock off Italian sportswear – name, Dee and Cee (as seems to be the preferred abbreviation) is predominantly the fruits of just one ladies fertile imagination, 23 year old London resident Laura Bettinson.

Although she’s almost certainly aspiring to chart success, March’s ‘Let You Go’ single and its excellent flip side* ‘Raise It Right’ are not your standard sugar coated pop compositions; they may have started out fluffy and nice, but these songs have had their heads turned by what’s on offer in the shady parts of tune town. A brooding off kilter vibe, akin to that favoured by M.I.A, is prominent in both tracks and could have been oppressive if it wasn’t for the sneaky upbeat choruses she slips in. A recent live performance complete with theatrical stage antics and eccentric costumes begs the question is she aiming to be Britain’s version of Lady Gaga? Frankly as long as she continues crafting great singles who cares!

*can you flip an MP3?

Raise It Right by Dimbleby & Capper


Find Her In These Places:

Facebook
Soundcloud
YouTube


contact me: foundofconfusion@hotmail.co.uk

Take Another Bite

Following on from last weeks Bite Size Update here's Washington Irving's 'Abbey Gallop' and fellow E.P track 'French Leave'. The EP is released on April the 25th.

Abbey Gallop by Washington Irving


French Leave by Washington Irving

 In addition Polarsets have added further dates to their tour and will now be calling at:


14th May BRIGHTON, ‘A North East Invasion’ at the Great Escape, Queens Hotel - 1pm
19th May LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY, Mojo - tbc
27th May NEWCASTLE, Evolution Emerging @ The Cluny - 7pm Free


Contact me: foundofconfusion@hotmail.co.uk

Sneak Preview!

Coming up in April's Found Of Confusion


Too much too soon, mild but unjustified insulting of minor celebs and absolutely no puns! - plus the following bands:

TV Brother Turns Up With Toy Gun (8,3,6)

Some Frequent Flyers (6)

Dog Slaving At The Stove (5,5)

Sesame Street Star Breathes Like a Fish (7)

Answers on a postcard please.


Contact me: foundofconfusion@hotmail.co.uk

FOUND: MARCH

*mutters* Stupid 5 week months, totally ridiculous. It’s bad enough that p**** expects me to find 4 bands, never mind five! Does he not know March is chocked full of birthdays, a man’s needs time to party, not that he’d know how to do that, bloody veggie do gooder!! Thank god I was able to pilfer all these tunes fro...

Oh hello, didn’t see you there reader, hope you’re well! Welcome to the third Found Of Confusion, the ONLY place in the WORLD you’ll see these great new bands getting a well deserved mention – they certainly wouldn’t, for example, be found on a weekly 6 music podcast freely available to all via ITunes, and anyone who says otherwise is a liar, A NO GOOD FILTHY ROTTEN LIAR!!! So let’s enjoy the fruits of my labour and get to it!

*mumbled* What do you mean my microphone was on....no don’t put it up on YouTube.....yes I know who Andy Gray is why?...

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While down the years ‘anybody’s for a fiver’ Liverpool has fluttered her false eye lashes at Detroit and suggestively unzipped her shell suit for New York, a genuine transatlantic love affair developed between the cities of Manchester and Chicago. This relationship certainly seems to have rubbed off on North West of England based producer STAR SLINGER whose refreshing hip-hop beats owe more than a debt of gratitude to the sped up soul sample style innovated by Illinois’ favourite son Kanye West, (along with the late J.Dilla and 9th Wonder). That time spent digging in crates for old 45’s (or musty MP3’s!) has definitely paid off as Star Slinger fuses soul, funk, gospel - and anything else he can get his fingers on - into a harmonious blast of genre hopping fun . With beats such as ‘Extra Time’ and ‘Gimme’ crying out to be blessed by the top wordsmiths in hip-hop, surely collaborations and more remixes will be in the offing sooner rather than later.

Now we’ve all been in this situation haven’t we - he sits there docile, propped up against a tree munching some bamboo leaves and wondering why he’s not extinct yet, while we look on ‘awwwwing’ and knowing that the overwhelming urge to cuddle his black and white fur could result in us having our limbs ripped off – it’s the happy way us Pandas and People co-exist! Fortunately the lads of the same name still have enough arms left intact to allow them to whip up a batch of great tunes for our enjoyment! Hailing from Redditch (nope I’ve never been either) this trio specialise in melodic indie rock which doffs its cap to the likes of Foals and The Electric Soft Parade. Having initially embraced Soundcloud as a means of sharing their demos with the public, the band are now enjoying the delights of a studio in Merseyside as they put the finishing touches on their debut long player. If tracks such as ‘Licking My Feet’ and ‘Hijamumpa’ make the transition to the final product, this will be an album worth raiding your piggy bank for. Stock up on the Bamboo folks, they could be around for some time!

Moving on from the animal kingdom - hands up please, anyone planning on falling head over heels in love this summer? If you are then THE YOU AND ME ENSEMBLE have more than got your needs covered. In ‘See You’ they have magiced together the perfect soundtrack for your heart fluttering romantic dalliances in the sunshine. Surely destined to be coming to an advert near you any day now, this gorgeously simplistic melody skips along with an innocence and breezy air that warms the soul and swishes summer dresses, while trumpets add just the right amount of joyous exuberance to set off Kirsty London’s impassioned vocal. The project of multi instrumentalist Chris Read, this track is taken from last Octobers ‘Through The Forest And Into The Trees’ album, a record that has drawn favourable comparisons with Feist. There’s not much more to say about this one except sit back and enjoy it, but let’s leave the final word to the song itself ‘I can’t explain it, you’re just so amazing’ - I couldn’t have put it better myself

If your burgeoning relationship takes off, in the future you could find you and your beau creating music as special as that of New York duo WONDER BEAR. What makes this boyfriend/girlfriend combo’s work staggering however is that they’re both still only 16, THAT’S 16, years old! Their imaginative reinterpretation of the aforementioned Kanye West’s ‘Runaway’ single, along with 2009’s 4 track ‘Azul EP’, displays enough creativity and craft to suggest a big future beckons for these teens. ‘Ghost’ encapsulates their sound perfectly, a slice of shimmering, shoegaze tinged electronica, washes beneath angelic vocals not dissimilar to those of School Of Seven Bells’ Alejandra Deheza. The handful of songs they’ve offered up thus far simmer and tantalise, always hinting that something exhilarating is about to kick in, but slipping off before they outstay their welcome. With ample time on their side to hone their song writing skills the potential for Wonder Bear is vast - watch this space.

Wolves by Wonder Bear

If Wonder Bear plan to charm their way to world domination the name MOSCOW YOUTH CULT implies wholly different plans. This Stakhanovite bred Soviet elite squad will mobilise their T-34 tanks and march on our cities till the masses cower before them in fear saying ‘please, you can take over our charts and radios but won’t you at least spare Simon Cowell’ ..... although actually they’re just some lads from Nottingham who sound a bit like Klaxons! They’ve got a new ‘MYC EP’ in the (efficiently constructed) pipe line and you never know this could trigger the re-birth of the not very memorable (and totally fictional) Nu-Rave movement – mind you I wouldn’t bet my Roubles on it.

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Found Of Confusion Summary/Recommended Tracks:

03/03/2011 - Star Slinger: 'Mornin'

10/03/2011 - Pandas and People: 'Licking My Feet'

17/03/2011 - The You And Me Ensemble: 'See You'

24/03/2011 - Wonder Bear: 'Wolves'

31/03/2011 - Moscow Youth Cult: 'Girls Of Boredom'

This article also appears here with a selection of different tracks.

Enjoyed any of the songs? Please leave your thoughts below.