‘Gratitude’, the debut from a North California four piece of the same name, is supposed to be sustaining quite a growing presence in North America for the band. The band is an incarnation from the debris of previous emo outfits, and straightaway it is obvious that Gratitude are based around a dominant singer/song writer type called Jonah Matranga.

Straight to the point then; the album itself, apart from all its loud emotive guitars and trashing cymbals, is strangely blank, as if by design. So you, the listener, are able to project whatever emotional hubris you have into the ringing hollow of this album. It has been spawned by what feels like a eugenic emo/rock group and a powerbroker producer.

Sonically, I blame Butch Vig for the ‘Nevermind’ debacle. That album’s success helped spawn a whole generation of homogenized guitar distorted bands and recipients. On ‘Gratitude’ the guitars are inoffensive, digitally realised and neutered, as is everything else. Essentially, it is because vocal melody is the dominant force in all the songs, and drives each sonic/digital element on ‘Gratitude’ to be homogenized to its vanity, and ultimately demands the same thing from its listener/consumer. The songs are strong in their evil craft, and are pleasant and well constructed, but never gripping. This album’s draw is in its sing along potential and anthem-lite pretensions.

‘Gratitude’ may well be everywhere this summer if Atlantic Records have their way. Then, if marketing departments had their way, ultimately, we would end up only being able to converse using phrases from their product’s descriptions and call each other by their brand names.

A deft exercise in marketing, from inception to release, ‘Gratitude’ is filtered, it seems, through public demographics and possibly the singers desire to be a star-fucker, but with a bleeding heart. Marketing people have propagated this band as the missing link between U2 and Green Day, and I am sure other companies are searching for that elusive link as you read this.

Even trying to play the CD on my computer was some sort of futuristic nightmare. Put the CD into the drive and close the door and the Marketing Machine takes over. The Windows Media Player, complicit of course in this, goes straight to the album’s promo site- no album playing as of yet. You close this down, and by the way you have to watch the closing adverts/credits for this window, as if you close it down, the advert freezes until you open the window and bear witness to the entire thing.

Once this is gone, you are brought immediately to the Windows Music Media site on the player, and still no album. You must then select the album again to get to the music, while avoiding a myriad of other products. It is getting ridiculous, and while I am sure this is a common part of all major releases now, it feels exactly like the kind of mainstream environment Gratitude desperately want to be part of.

Review by Alun McKeever
www.gratitudemusic.com
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One thing that's pretty much accepted in the fickle world of alternative music taste is that it's bad for western musicians to dabble with 'world music'. It's the reason why Damon Albarn's Mali project is largely forgotten, the reason why Paul Simon's Graceland never gets revisited by younger generations, and the sole reason why anyone with half a brain hates Sting. So when I found out that Sono Oto's members had been raised on Cuban and Afro-Haitian influences, and that the drummer had recently spent six months studying with Havana's drumming masters, I was ever so slightly cautious.

I shouldn't have been though, as anything these guys learnt from their unique musical lineage seems to have been filtered into creating a multi-layered, beatific album of psychedelic Americana. The opening track 'Listen' sets out Sono Oto's stall perfectly- it's an elegantly poised, wistful paean to meaningless chit-chat ("people talk but they never say anything at all") buoyed by a subtle wash of pedal steel and random spacey effects. Meanwhile 'Butterflies Need Mending' opens with some twinkling lo-fi electronics but mutates into a bouncy multi-tiered Flaming Lips style jaunt made extra charming by lead singer Mark Philips' effortless laid-back voice. 'Vanna Off-White' is a hopelessly love-struck tribute to a girl who "listened to Built to Spill before they were cool", backed by touching vocal harmonies that would make a young Brian Wilson cry. It's not all smiles and hugs though, as the strangely titled 'Now We're Bobos' is the albums bitter centrepiece, featuring some truly strange lyrical ripostes like "you look like a lobster but you don't know the secrets of the sea". Still, its angry guitar attacks aren't enough to upset the generally warm enveloping feel of the rest of the album, which reaches its peak in the title track, an otherworldly sixties pop ditty laced with space-jazz weirdness and some more truly heart melting harmonies. It's the point where the band's gentle experimentation melds perfectly with their languid melodies and spaced-out lyrics.

So, where's the influence of their worldly musical knowledge? The drumming sure is accomplished but the effect is subtle and natural rather than intruding, and while Sono Oto may have a tendency to use non-rock instruments (like the sitar on Snow Angel) and to go off on the odd jazz tangent, this again never upsets the album's unifying feel of reflective folk- Americana- if anything it puts them in the same orbit as their similarly ambitious musical peers the Flaming Lips and Grandaddy. In fact, this album is so perfect it makes you wonder what could happen if some of the worlds less inspiring indie outfits were shipped out to Cuba for six months of rigorous drum training. On hearing this album, I reckon it's got to be worth a try.

Brave is The Bluefoot Project’s debut album having gone through a lengthy conception that began some seven years ago. The group are described succinctly on their website as having ‘a cool live soul with deep grooves over lush sample based technologies’. That about sums them up, but there is more to than that.

Soft on the ear, The Bluefoot Project, are rooted in well worn hip hop percussion, a soul vocal aesthetic, sprite guitar and roving bass and characterised with ‘socially conscious lyrics’, and this album does what it says on the packet.

Hailing from Leeds, and having come through various incarnations, this is the setting out of The Bluefoot Project’s proverbial stall. Again, the album does just that, defining them to the point that it locks them in a single sound. Yes, they go through a large amount of Hippty Hop and D n ’Bass, all part of that cacophony of the ‘Urban’ experience I suppose, but it is all perfectly pitched to point of reproduction.

It has to be said that Brave is obliviously the product of a lot of hard work, blood sweat and tears, patience and a large concerted effort. It is mature, well composed, and shows a lot of potential talent. At the same time it is a shame that this is all lost in the anesthetized production and delivery.

I am sure in someway this is how they want it. The percussion is excellent, accomplished, and seems to be the spine of everything that is done. In the end though, like the rest of the band, or maybe because of the band, it is without risks or essential innovation.

It becomes clear from the beginning of Brave that the album is composed of a careful and well managed build up of certain ‘Urban’ signifiers to reconstruct some ideal sound. All the boxes are ticked on this album, like even the background scratching noises that arise on some tracks. Really they are just complimentary, seemingly inserted in a vain project to be contemporary or Urban. On this point, the band has a close resemblance to chart Nu-Metal bands that included this sort of motif for the same results.

In the end put the tag ‘Urban’ on it and watch it go, but it never makes anything truly engaging. With Brave, The Bluefoot Project seemed locked in their own ‘Urban’ world, disengaged and all too hip.

There is talent here for sure, and all the tracks are strong and show a maturity of sense of composition, but they never arrest you. They are detached and set a distance from the listener through instituting a cool premeditated aesthetic between they, the band, and you, the listener.

The Bluefoot Project could and can be successful, while finding a broader following along the way and they will deserve it. Building on albums such as this, and with the right compositions, they could impact upon the public at large, but I just don’t buy it.

At the start of the track 'Does He Love U?', a sample implores us to ‘Check it out’. No.

Review by Alun McKeever
www.bluefootproject.com
www.chocolatefireguard.co.uk
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I leave her with a notepad and put the album on, I return 45 minutes later to find her rapidly writing her final thoughts down before I call time and collect in her paper. I will now type up what she wrote, andhere's what she said to me:

"1. Last Man Alive - A bit harder than I remember. I remember there being more violins.

2. Make You Happy - Jamie huffs and storms off. He doesn't like theLevellers. But with a little further listening this song has a nice sentiment. "I would love to make you happy". Just the sort of thing a young girl like me wants to hear. And if that isn't enough the violins kick in. Yes that is what I was expecting from the Levellers. Lovey dovey soft violin rock. Jamie comes in and says "Eurghh this is pointless, shouldn't they be protesting against something anyway, not making albums".

3. Confess - Bit of a story song. Not really sure what it's about but it sounds very noble. Violins used subtly throughout.

4. For Us All - This sounds jolly. But perhaps it is a sad song. "If you're smiling you'd better smile for us all". Then it carries on in a similar tone. "I just wanted to find out why?" Then at the end it's made clear "We all need you and hope you need us too". Starting to get a bit lame.

5. Knot Around the World - I'm beginning to get fidgetity. Might skip through soon as I'm desperately hoping for a Levellers anthem that forces me up to my feet to dance vigorously in a wild folk style. Just not delivering.

6. Steel Knife - It has lost me now.

7. Wheels - They are starting to blur into one another. This one is dragging me down. The use of the lyrics "dragging" are poignant.

Songs 8, 9, 10 and 11 - Listened too (sic) them but wasn't overly stunned to comment.

Summary

I put most of my negative comments down to the fact that I am not used to writing reviews and am tiring of my task. I think a few more listens might provoke a more positive reaction. However, it isn't the classic bounce around the campfire on a late summers night album I was hoping for. Sorry Levellers"

Sorry Levellers and thank you Liz.