Activity - Unmask Whoever

Debut album from New York four piece available from Western Vinyl on 27th March 

Formed a year ago in NYC, Activity, the four piece comprise of Travis Johnson (vocals), Steve Levine (drummer), Zoe Browne (bassist) and Jess Rees (guitarist)

Attention to this avant garde foursome came about with the release of lead single 'Calls Your Name' with a corresponding video that is both hypnotic and unsettling.

Yet this band have made music that while being harsh on the exterior and the sort of unrelenting indie rock powered by bass lines, there is an accessibility that comes to the surface once you listen to the album.

The hypnotic power of the lead single is matched by second track 'Earth Angel' - embracing the power of the individual and bringing that to the fore with lyrical themes of paranoia clashing with the current fragility of the person in this mad mad world.


'Nude Prince' the last single before the album release is one of those stay with you songs that is both pulsating and mesmeric, bringing a throbbing art rock beat to the party - the perfect marriage of aloof lyrics and synth beauty.

The band are this finally balanced four piece of two males and two females, an avant garde rallying call to arms from the conventions of indie rock to mark this new breed of current dystopia - paranoid lyrics and flawed humanity in musical form.

A band who are an amalgam of various forms have created an album inspired by literature, music and current events to make an album that is wholly unique and coherent. At times subtle and radiant, proud but buoyant this is a work that will be spoken of for end of years lists.

Unmask Whoever is released from Western Vinyl on all formats from March 27th.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Gold Cage 'Social Crutch'

LA trio Gold Cage release debut album SOCIAL CRUTCH on 27th March from Felte Records

Comprised of singer/bassist Mony Katz, singer/guitarist Cole Devine and drummer Sage Ross - the trio combine dreamy shoegaze melodies, with a lyrical tension of the present day environment and this is embedded in an aura of post-punk influence ranging from Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth to the present day peers of Ezra Furman and Activity.

While Activity - whose own debut is released the same day - are more avant-garde, Gold Cage have the backbone of the punk ethos through their collective DNA, rich evocative songs dripping with hooky basslines and in Katz and Devine's combined penchant for whispered delivery they have a knack of making songs that stick with you.

From lead single and album opener, 'Repeater Kember', this is the song that shows off their influences and this was followed up by second single 'Halcion' - a song that shows off the best of New Order and Smashing Pumpkins to the fore.

Yet the best single might be third track 'Introduce My Mind' a song that is the most catchy of the album and ripe for radio play with the mainstream appeal every band requires for crossover potential.

All in all, Gold Cage have made a stunning debut album that if given the right audience may well shoot them to greater things, the band allows the listener to hear the tightness of the band as a unit and is not as inclusive as other works say allowing the listener to enter their world and enjoy the view.

Social Crutch is released from Felte Records on 27th March.
Visit their homepage to purchase material

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

We Begin At The End - Chris Whitaker

 

New novel by Chris Whitaker released by Zaffre Books in April 2020

For some people, trouble just finds them.

Thirty years ago, Vincent King became a killer.

Now, he's been released from prison and is back in his hometown of Cape Haven, California. Not everyone is pleased to see him. Like Star Radley, his ex-girlfriend, and sister of the girl he killed.

Duchess Radley, Star's thirteen-year-old daughter, is part-carer, part-protector to her younger brother, Robin - and to her deeply troubled mother. But in trying to protect Star, Duchess inadvertently sets off a chain of events that will have tragic consequences not only for her family, but also the whole town.

Murder, revenge, retribution.

How far can we run from the past when the past seems doomed to repeat itself?

Review
Whitaker does a great job of writing a thriller that reaches for the heights of American novella, the dual narrative structure of each chapter which takes us into the point of view of wither Walk (Chief Walker), the local sheriff who seeks to find answers to another murder in Cape Haven and the other side of the coin is the story of Duchess being displaced in Montana following the murder of her mother, Star.

Walk is one of those great American idealists like Atticus Finch and others, someone who seeks to do the hard work but overshadowed by past errors and the ill health that is befalling him at this vital stage of his investigation.

Duchess is written as a tough cookie of a young girl, who will not take any rubbish from anyone to fight her corner and protect her brother Robin, like her Mum, Star, did for them.

You have this contrast of a coming of age novel, and for Walk a coming to the end which is a unique take on two different paths for two lead protagonists.

This book was a pleasant one to read, the swiftness and nimbleness of the plot pays off dividends once the action is ramped up. The utilisation of Montana and the grandfather, Hal, who portrays the stillness of that landscape in contrast to the mayhem of California.

Whitaker paints a world that is both of now and from a timeless period - the Montana scenes read like something from a Richard Ford novel while the murkiness of California reads like a Michael Connolly story.  All the more staggering considering that Whitaker was born in London, he writes of America as good as any author I can recall.

Recommended for those who require to be whisked away from this mad mad world.

We Begin At The End is published by Zaffre Books on 2nd April.
My thanks to Compulsive Readers for the opportunity to review on the blogtour.

NFL Free Agency Day 2 Takeaway - Thank You Tom

THANK YOU TOM

After the feeding frenzy of Day 1, the thought was there was not many more storylines to consider except the one person that everybody in the NFL universe wanted to hear from, and at 7.45am Boston time, Tom Brady the greatest Patriots player and the greatest Quarterback the game has ever seen in terms of victories and longevity posted the following statement on

And with that the rest of Day 2 was immaterial, instead it became a day of reflection and goodbyes to No.12 and perhaps after the initial shock and dumbfoundment of it all perhaps it is a time to respect a decision but also how the Patriots perhaps need to fall in line with the rest of the league.

Tom Brady is 42 when the season reconvenes in August pre-season, and as a player he has never had the payday his play naturally deserves and yet Brady ended up taking hometown discounts to stay with the franchise for the betterment of it by giving them the opportunity to purchase talent around him.

This process of 'do your job' and the blueprint has undoubtedly worked culminating in six Super Bowl triumphs, all led by the same QB and head coach with Brady going to the playoffs eighteen times in his career only missing it twice one when he was injured.  Now he is heading for one of three destinations - Tampa Bay to hook up with guru Bruce Arians and a plethora of offensive weapons at his disposal, Los Angeles Chargers which is near to home in California or even Las Vegas to join Jon Gruden and the Raiders. Brady finally has what he wanted, to be coveted to be adored and sought after by admirers something he has never experienced since being drafted in the sixth round by the Patriots in 2000.

Personally, this writer has no problem with Brady's departure while I will miss him and it will take a good few games to realise he is not the QB in Foxboro, there is a part that realises that every dog has its day and Brady who is now the other side of 40 and he has taken a step back in terms of production while you take that statement with a pinch of salt due to the lack of weapons he had following the retirement of Rob Gronkowski and the Antonio Brown furore.

Brady is the greatest player in the Patriots history, and it sticks a little in the stomach that the organisation did not try to entice him to stay offering an option significantly less than those offered by others.  The Patriots need to get in line quick with the rest of the NFL, they are good at finding nuggets through their scouting but they never have paid the stars with people leaving in their prime to get their pay day - this was evidenced the day before by Kyle Van Noy departing for the Miami Dolphins. Van Noy was paramount to the most recent Super Bowl victory over the LA Rams and following another great year he leaves like Richard Seymour did before him.

While this is a sad day for Patriots nation, the cynical nature of this football world means that no-one stays forever, cycles recycle and the world moves on - but never forget what Tom Brady did by defeating the Greatest Show on Turf, leading a dynasty (twice), having one of the greatest passing seasons in history, a few plays from a perfect season.

He was the guy who got up after a Pick 6 in the Super Bowl to lead the Patriots from a 28-3 deficit to the greatest comeback in recent memory. Brady did that and coupled with his performance v Seahawks, he defined himself as the greatest clutch quarterback - a determined competitor who never gave up

We still get to enjoy Tom Brady for perhaps two more seasons, albeit in another uniform, but thanks Tom. You are the greatest.

NFL Free Agency Day 1 Takeaways

The 2020 NFL Free Agency was highly anticipated due to the pervading cloud of the movement of Tom Brady will he or will he not leave the team he has won six Super Bowls with and head for pastures new in the ongoing twilight of his career.

Day One fell on the eve of St. Patrick's Day, 16th March, and judging by some of the movements you may have to test the GM's not for the Coronavirus but if they were just too merry on the Irish juice a day early turning it into a long weekend of frivolity.

The frivolity turned into a feeding frenzy as the barriers of hunting season were shorn down allowing unrestricted free agents to flirt openly with suitors who flashed a war chest in their direction.

Never was the frenzy more apparent than in Houston where Bill O'Brien the man who would be a better Bill if only he listened to that angel on his shoulder once in a while, decided to trade away his team's best offensive weapon to Arizona for next to nothing in terms of value and setting his team, a team that won a competitive division into a position of suspected mediocrity.

Talk is that O'Brien and DeAndre Hopkins did not get along and O'Brien was not willing to give Hopkins the money he felt he was due. Hopkins is at the peak of his powers, turning 28 in June and one of the top 3 receivers in the league and helped make Deshaun Watson one of the most highly coveted quarterbacks in his fledgling years of his career.

Hopkins was dealt to the Arizona Cardinals for David Johnson, a 2nd round pick this year and  a fourth round pick next year. Arizona get Hopkins and a fourth round pick this year. It is one thing to give away a stud receiver such as Number 10 but to not get a first round pick minimum in return is mind-boggling. O'Brien has seemingly put his pride and need to look like the big man on campus and forsaken the immediate future of his franchise, the franchise he is charged with protecting.

Bill O'Brien - relearning the first song he learnt at kindergarten

The Texans won the AFC South last year and for the most part it was a competitive division, and in the playoffs their rivals Tennessee put on the after-burners led by Derrick Henry to look like the more settled team.  The Titans gave Ryan Tannehill a big contract as a reward for shepherding the team to the AFC Championship and Henry will get the franchise tag.

Now the Texans are going to rely upon a receiving core of perennially injured Will Fuller and Kenny Stills, tight end Darren Fells and running backs Carlos Hyde (who refused an offer from the team last week) and now David Johnson who since his breakout season of 2016 where he rushed for 1239 yards, has rushed for 1308 total yards in three seasons. Johnson is a step back for this offense and yet the real need is the requirement to garner protection for your elite quarterback who is under constant duress. The inability to get draft capital for the OL in the upcoming draft and still not addressed it in free agency - Jack Conklin was available for Tennessee but he signed for 3 years/$42m with Cleveland. The answer was in your division but again O'Brien took his eye off the ball and failed to see the bigger picture.

Jack Conklin - now with Cleveland Browns

Speaking of Conklin's move to Cleveland, the Browns may well have found a big piece of the puzzle to help them over this hump and it starts with protecting Baker Mayfield who suffered from pressure all season. Conklin is rated as one of the best run blockers in the league, hence the gargantuan numbers Henry had in Nashville and you can expect more of the same for Nick Chubb. This idea fits well with the new scheme to be utilised by Kevin Stefanski akin to his time as offensive coordinator in Minnesota - run hard, open up for passing game, strong OL.

This will be helped as well by the Browns' purchase of Austin Hooper - 4yrs,$44m - big money for a safe pair of hands in a two tight end system with David Njoku, but Hooper will provide security for Mayfield with Jarvis Landry likely to miss the start of season due to hip surgery and he will keep the chains moving when they need to.  For Baker he has a safety blanket now.

Big day for Miami on both sides of ball

Miami Dolphins are big movers signing two big names on defence - Byron Jones - 5yrs/$82.5m - from Dallas gets his big payday following a stellar run in Texas, but Brian Flores is focusing on the secondary to make big strides this season albeit against an AFC East division with not many elite receivers and Shaw Lawson - 3 yrs/$30m - a good run blocker who has not reached the heights expected but the talent is there to source out. With Kyle Van Noy expected to go also, Miami is making strides to help out their woeful defence from last year.  This has been added with some stability for OL with Ereck Flowers - 3yrs/$30m - for a man who has been up and down in his career, can he maintain decent numbers but firstly protection for Fitzpatrick before the rise of Tua to the mainstream.

Another team to strengthen an already good defence is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who signed Jason Pierre-Paul to two years $27m, a man who despite his hand injury is still doing great numbers and will add experience to one of the best young units.

In a rare trade where it is win win for both sides, the Indianapolis Colts dealt their first round pick this year (No.13 overall) to the San Francisco 49ers for Defensive End DeForest Buckner, an elite defensive player who is a good purchase for a team that knows it has some offensive stars in their division and with the prospective signing of Philip Rivers to Indy, they need to make sure they give him the ball as much as possible. The 49ers have a pick to plug that gap with Buckner gone and have a young defence to still pick up pieces.

Big offensive move was Stefon Diggs leaving Minnesota to go to Buffalo and become the no.1 receiver on that team that needs a stand out presence and a downfield weapon for Josh Allen's big arm, while they did well with Cole Beasley and will be eager to overtake the Patriots as all windows are small but to win the AFC East is the target this year and with Diggs arriving you have a now happy wide receiver and a team ready to take its shot.

It is only Day One, more madness is sure to follow no doubt with TB12 still the standout free agent everyone is eager to see what he does next.

Follow me on Twitter @JamieGarwood or @NextToTheAisle

The Problem with...Toy Story 4

The Toys are back in town.

The gang return for a fourth installment of the most important animation franchise in motion picture history; it is quite hard now to fathom how much of a game changing production Toy Story was in 1995 and how much of an influence the work has had since that release.

When Pixar made the first full-length computer animation film about toys that came to life once the kids left the room was a stroke of genius in original storytelling coupled with ground breaking technological achievement.

Pixar followed up with a huge range of films from underwater to crawling ants, before returning to the play area with Toy Story 2 where Woody and Buzz left the bedroom and further into the wider world.

In Toy Story 3, the trilogy was completed with an ending of the page as the toys faced death in the face and survived to tell the story. These characters were survivors and we were with them all the way, the circle (to borrow from another Disney classic) of life had been lived. TS3 ended with the group being moved to a new child's bedroom and altering from a young boy owner to a new young girl and her active imagination.

So we come to 2019's Toy Story 4, when we re-meet the group Josie has usurped Woody as the Sheriff of the group being somewhat banished to the back of the closet while others are played with. Woody's fear is that he is gathering dust in his old age, so he hops into Bonnie's backpack on her first day of kindergarden where he witnesses Bonnie's imagination first hand culminating in her creating Forky (Tony Hale) from a spork, curtain wire and lollipop sticks.

Travelling back home, Forky comes to life which is perhaps my first issue of note with the film. Forky is a creation of a child, the rest of the toys are built as toys for the purposes of entertaining children by higher powers (adults), so is Forky a statement on children's power of imagination that anything can become animated if it is created such as a disposable utensil from the trash. Forky also provides the first scare of the film, the first and certainly not the last of which there are many.

The scares are numerous especially in Second Chance Antiques, a store Woody encounters on Bonnie's roadtrip in Main Street USA, a store where antiques are awaiting a second chance at life as do unwanted toys - especially Gabby Gabby a toy with a faulty voice box and Victor - a ventriloquist doll of which there is 4 of him.  Victor is from a by gone era and his scary nature as an ominous threat of torment is used to frightening effect but overdone to the point of providing too many jump scares for what is aimed at a child friendly audience.

Yet perhaps they get away with it because the audience of this film has grown up since the original Toy Story over 20 years ago, so the jump scare is while telegraphed not that scary to that media savvy group, yet for a new child audience this would be far too scary with the dark corridors in a dingy second-hand store.

By the end, the jailbreak to rescue Forky from the hands of Gabby is saved by the great addition of Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves) an Evil Kenevel rip-off but his characterisation is brilliantly rendered, but there is a moment when Bonnie's backpack is left at the store. This is left there somehow as we do not see Bonnie leave it there and it is a matter of narrative convenience to help the gang escape the store.

Credit for the film is the use of female voice actors who come front and centre and outshine the stalwarts of Hanks and Allen, Annie Potts in particular as Bo Beep is exceptional getting her point across and bringing new life to a character that was one-dimensional in the first two films years ago.

In contrast to the tandem of Duck and Bunny (Peele and Kay), the use of a comedy duo helps the natural back and forth of their rapport yet too quickly it becomes familiar and long in the tooth in contrast to the quirkiness of Caboom.

All in all, the finale of the film was shooting for a grand goodbye to the group, instead it was handled somewhat slapdash and unfortunately does not make sense ultimately in the grandest scheme of things, this is a group who should be together no matter and the ending left this viewer a little cold.

There is even a suggestion perhaps of a further installment, personally that is not required, the toys are great but perhaps that idea would be best left on the shelf.

The Others Gold - Elizabeth Ames

This is the sort of book on paper that should be the next great American novel, following on from contemporary Elif Batuman's The Idiot a work set in the coming of age environment of the college campus.

When we first meet the four ladies - Margaret, Lainey, Alice and Ji-Sun - four different women racially, socially, economically; you anticipate a work of great substance and reach.

It is unfortunate to report that this is a novel where all the women get what they want, face no repercussions for their actions (usually drawn out from imbibing alcohol and sexual desire) and you are left by an emptiness when digesting this book.  The writing does have it's witty moments, but for a debut novel to have four different voices it struggles to get the tone right throughout culminating in one of them becoming a mother and when she struggles with this new event, we do not seem to get her point of view but more of the determination by her husband who we met only halfway through the book.  Yes what that new mother does is unforgivable but we never get her point of view of events, it is merely reported to us by the group as a whole.

The cultural and social flashpoints through the early 20th century fixating on Lainey's role in the Occupy Wall Street movement which ultimately becomes a launching pad to career enhancement, therefore, foregoing the message of Occupy and becoming part of the season.

The first half and college set part of the book is told greatly with a great pace with the different voices all being heard as they have to combat sexual politics and fear of sexual aggression in the campus, yet once they graduate the best years of their lives are behind them, and we are left with four women who are all unfortunately innately jealous of each other's lives, wanting more from their own existence and struggling to find a footing in the world and to meet expectations.

Following in the footsteps of other literary prentiousness, this by the end is hard work to digest and to find anything remotely appealing about in the conclusion.

A shame but there are moments of levity and observation by Ames that bodes well for the future if she were to focus on one protagonist rather than over-exerting with four intelligent vibrant women at once.

The Other's Gold is published by Pushkin Press on 2nd April.
My thanks to them for the review opportunity