I don’t actually like a lot of this album, funnily enough, but I’m reviewing it anyway. Why, exactly? Well a lot of it is very hip-hoppy and disco friendly (yes, all at once) so it really is not my kind of music at all. And yet I like a surprising amount of it.

It’s a really varied record actually. The single Shout Out is pure electro-pop fun, there’s some Cypress Hill-style stoner hip hop in there, some very dancey stuff and some songs which border on ambient electronica.  It reminds me just a little of Gorillaz in that respect.

So why is it exactly that I find myself enjoying large parts of an album which is for the most part in a style I normally wouldn’t touch with a barge-pole?  I think that diversity has a lot to do with it, actually.  Instead of ‘hearing a genre’ and writing it off on the basis of overall sound it made me actually look for the merits of each individual song.  To be fair, there are still songs like APC which I don’t like, nor am I ever going to, but within the context of the album they still work quite well, even for a recalcitrant indie kid like myself.

It helps, I think, that I really like Shout Out, so I was approaching the album hoping to like it, rather than sitting back and waiting for it to impress me.  So this may sound like a really mean review, but it isn’t supposed to be.  Honestly, I shouldn’t like any of this, but I’m enjoying it far more than I would expect to, which given how outside my usual territory it is is a really pleasant surprise.

Honey Claws – Shout Out
Honey Claws – Giant Town

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The Fightcast?  Yes, the fucking Fightcast.  Why?  Well because mp3 bloggers have been taking it in the arse with some force over the last week.  Posts are being deleted left right and centre, so presumably the major labels have decided to declare all-out war on blogs.  This is because they are scabby old unwashed cheesy penises.  This is not slander, I can prove it with charts and graphs.

Ultimately this is about corporate control of culture.  I don’t want to sound like a ranting conspiracy theorist, but put simply, this is how it works:  people pay for things they feel passionate about.  People feel passionate about art, the creation thereof and the participation therein.  Consequently any company vaguely engaged in cultural endeavours desperately wants to own the loyalty and devotion of as many people as possible, and anyone participating in this arena is a threat.  Grassroots art has more emotional resonance with people, people are more loyal to and more devoted to it and it is more personal.  Due to social networks of all sorts – blogs, networking sites, even something as simple as email -  it is an ever bigger and less controllable threat.

They want blogs to exist inasmuch as we provide free market research and free A&R, but if we think we have any influence, any rights, or indeed any genuine loyalty, they wish us dead.  Fuck them, fuck their little games and fuck the horse they rode in on.  If they don’t want to play with normal people then let them withdraw.  Let them take REM and U2 and fuck off.  I would rather form a massive great list of small independent record labels that do want to play nicely and only ever cover them and unsigned bands, and let the big boys compete with the X-Factor, if they think they can.  Fuck them, let them drown in their own greed.

Toadcast #43 – The Fightcast

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01. The Love Language – Lalita (02.20)
02. Honey Claws – Shout Out (07.14)
03. Findo Gask – One Eight Zero (10.56)
04. The Avett Brothers – Murder in the City (23.25)
05. Yusuf Azak – Ursa Major (28.02)
06. Miracle Fortress – Have You Seen in Your Dreams (30.53)
07. How To Swim – From Here to Dundee/Eternity (33.55)
08. Jib Kidder – Flip Flap (45.09)
09. Situationists – Onwards & Upwards (46.17)
10. Yusuf Azak – 19.19 (53.45)
11. The Avett Brothers – The Greatest Sum (Acoustic) (62.02)