The Rakes-Ten new messages

Creo que en el foro de Supernovapop decían que era un de los mejores discos del año. Últimamente lo he escuchado bastante y creo que lo voy a añadir a mi pequeña lista de lo mejor del 2007, que de momento sólo la componen The Meaning of 8 de Cloud Cult, Five Roses de Miracle Fortress (del cual aún tenemos pendiente un post), el disco de debut de The Mary Onettes, y probablemente también esté el disco de Great Nothern. Seguramente haya más, así que, abierta estoy a sugerencias. Con ganas de escuchar el nuevo de Pinback y el de New Buffalo.


Rock / Alternative / Indie
London, England

WEB

MySpace

Componentes:

Alan Donohoe - Vocals
Matthew Swinnerton - Guitar
Jamie Hornsmith - Bass
Lasse Petersen - Drums

Info recogida en su MySpace:

The Rakes are trying to get through. They’re rushing, bobbing, and weaving. They’re pushing ahead, avoiding the crowds. They’ve got a place to reach, a message to pass on. But there’s stuff in their way. Traffic. Strangers punting street hassle (Give us that pizza! What kind of mobile you got?). The network’s down. A disruption on the line (underground and telephone). The arteries at the heart of the city are clogged. But they’re up for it, no matter how much they’re ground down by the daily grind. They’ve got the drive. The Rakes will get through.

Ten New Messages is the brilliant second album from London’s most switched-on, keyed-up young band. It is, literally, ten new messages contained in ten new songs. Musically for The Rakes it was about broadening their palette – the short-sharp-shock of their first album, Capture/Release, has given way to more developed, melodically strong songs. ‘We’ve not gone avant-garde or experimental or anything,’ the band say. ‘We’ve just got better at our jobs.’

So it’s about communication and travel, about reaching out to people, leaping over barriers, dodging buses on your bike, getting home on the night bus, getting hold of your girlfriend when there’s no sodding signal on your phone or the battery’s done. About how we move through the modern world. It’s real life, as opposed to globalised existential angst and pretension.

Half of Ten New Messages was recorded in Lincolnshire with producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Kasabian), half in London with Brendan Lynch (Primal Scream, Paul Weller). It’s testament to the strength of the songwriting and the playing that it sounds like one scorching whole. This is a band who, in the same year, as well as collaborating with Statik, produced a cover of a Serge Gainsbourg standard, demonstrating a broad spectrum of influences that reaches further afield and into territory uncharted by your average trilby sporting/eyes-glazed-over indie band.

They’re a band who are economical with their writing: they work on the songs they need, that are good enough to pass muster. Focus on the job at hand. Be right. Be tight. Be concise. The Rakes will get through. Their songs – sharp, meaningful, glorious – will see to that.


Discografia:



Ten New Messages (2007)

1. World Was a Mess But His Hair Was Perfect
2. Little Superstitions
3. We Danced Together
4. Trouble
5. Suspicious Eyes
6. On a Mission
7. Down with Moonlight
8. When Tom Cruise Cries
9. Time to Stop Talking
10. Leave the City and Come Home

-Capture/Release (2006)



Track Listings
1. Strasbourg (Video YouTube)
2. Retreat (Video YouTube)
3. 22 Grand Job (Video YouTube) (Video LIVE YouTube)
4. Open Book (Video YouTube)
5. Guilt
6. Binary Love
7. We Are All Animals
8. Violent
9. T Bone
10. Terror!
11. Work, Work Work (Pub, Club, Sleep) (Video YouTube)

Amazon.com
Everyone in music is an amalgam of their influences. For the Rakes, this means they're a lot like a meeting where Wire and Gang of Four get together and play melodies that less are less astringent and angular and more, well, melodic. Luckily, they exceed the shadows of the past exuberantly. It's tight art-punk, tense and a little furious. Then, though, the backing vocals on "Open Book," bending "aws" and "ohs," are just fantastic, measured pop set against minimal guitar jangles that propel the song effortlessly and simply. Elsewhere, on "Binary Love" for example, there's an insistent, classic vocal choppines that's so 1977-78 – with choked guitar tones that fully jar the memory. "Violent" is a perfect past-and-present brew, with dub bass lines and old school guitar riffs that ultimately burst into a completely "now" throwdown, shaking off the obvious Entertainment-era Dave Allen nod. So these guys don't just genuflect to forbears: They know enough to mete out pop hooks and singable choruses and not just blast "12XU." Would that be such a bad thing, though? --Andrew Bartlett

Product Description
The Rakes debut album features 11 total tracks including 'Retreat', 'Violent', 'Terror!', 'Open Book', 'Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)' and more. V2. 2005.

Videos:

-The World Was A Mess but His Hair Was Perfect



-We Dance Together



-All to human (Video YouTube)