For all they sound like a band, Miracle Fortress are apparently largely the work of one man: Graham Van Pelt. He recorded the entire thing himself, assembling an album with texture and purpose and sunny choruses just slightly distorted. If Fleet Foxes reintroduced us to the folkier directions in which West Coast pop could be diverted, this brings just a little bit of fuzz and confusion to a similar foundation.

It’s not all great, and there are times when it seems to be more a repetition of a particular style than a reinvention. Often, though, it’s really good, the gravelly electronics of the intro to songs like Maybe Lately bringing enough of a deviation from an otherwise familiar model to be intriguing and delicious. There are a few moments like this on the album, which is why I’m enjoying it, with Have You Seen in Your Dreams being a particular favourite.

In general the record has a good feel to it as well. It’s difficult to entirely quantify this, apart from saying that even if I’m not entirely paying attention to it all, then I’m still tapping my feet and bobbing my head. Maybe that’s the beat, maybe the roll of the rhythm, but whatever it is, even thought I don’t love every song on it, this is an album I am really enjoying lisetning to.

Miracle Fortress – Have You Seen in Your Dreams
Miracle Fortress – Maybe Lately

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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)