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Day: 16 April 2015

Live: Kwabs

Written by Dinesh Mattu on . Posted in Music.

20th March

O2 Apollo

5/10

Donning an all black turtleneck and trench coat, Kwabs steps out under moody blue lights. Subtle, cool and mysterious; his music and his image go hand in hand.

The London based singer was longlisted on Radio 1’s ‘Sound of 2015’ earlier this year and it’s not hard to see why. What he offers is a mix of soul-drenched baritone over atmospheric synths that culminate in a sound that is as unique as it reads.

Kwabs’s vocals aren’t particularly powerful per se; yet they can’t be described as vulnerable either. His voice has a warm kind of texture to it, and songs such as ‘Last Stand’ and ‘Pray for Love’ are prime examples of his raspy tones; tones which are somewhat reminiscent of Luther Vandross (minus the poorly-fitted suits, mind you).

His music doesn’t hit you in the way you’d expect; as well as the dark and dingy atmospheric electro, other parts of his material border the funk or soul category. Midway through the set, he showcases a single he wrote with the most in-demand British songwriter of the moment Jimmy Napes; the song is a soulful groove which compliments his ranges perfectly. However, his performance feels a little underappreciated by a crowd expecting commercial ballads akin to the main act Sam Smith.

It almost feels as if something is missing in parts; his stage presence is aloof and he comes across quite distant from his band. ‘Wrong or Right’ is an electro-heavy R&B number with a hook that gets a fraction of the crowd swaying; however on the whole, it’s still rather too mysterious for the impatient fans.

He redeems himself partially by covering Arctic Monkey’s ‘Do I Wanna Know,’ however without the arrogant pompousness of Alex Turner to bring the song to life, it falls quite flat.
He ends the gig with his biggest hit to date – ‘Walk’ – which did moderately well in the UK (appearing on the FIFA 15 soundtrack), but was a massive success on the continent (reaching number 1 in Germany), and then quite literally walks off stage to dry applause.

Given his mixed performance, it’ll be interesting to see the direction of his upcoming album Love + War. You get the feeling that the performance was wasted on the wrong kind of crowd; perhaps the Germans are a lot more subtle, cool and mysterious than us Brits.

Proper into business? Propercorn launches startup competition for students

Written by Gemma Sowerby on . Posted in News.

The reality of owning your own business is but a pipe dream for most students, particularly in this era of austerity and crippling university expenses. However, when graduates Cassandra Stavrou and Ryan Kohn founded Propercorn several years ago, they were able to get their idea off the ground with the invaluable help of business mentors; now, they’re offering the same to students.

Propercorn Platform is a brand new competition to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs to launch their big ideas into the stratosphere. Whether it’s a product, service, or beyond, Propercorn are inviting students and young people from all over the UK to submit their ideas to be in with the chance of winning their share of £7500, not to mention the mentorship they’ll need to get their idea up and running.

Figures show that more than half of people aged 16 – 25 want to set up their own business and become the next Steve Jobs or Arianna Huffington, so don’t be shy of juggling study, work, and play alongside sowing the seeds for a start up in your university years—around 25 per cent of students begin some kind of business venture during this time, which many young CEOs agree is the perfect opportunity to get those ideas flowing, and to utilise the vast network a university offers to spread the word.

With over 540000 startups launched in the UK in 2014, Propercorn hope to encourage even more students to make their ideas a reality, and create the next entrepreneurial generation. From the applications, 25 budding business owners will be handpicked to take part in a two-day workshop this summer, run by an incredible team of mentors, designers and marketing gurus. This will culminate with a pitch for each team to a panel of leading entrepreneurs from around the world, and three winners will be chosen to receive the grand prize, and be launched into the world of business.

Laura Fitzpatrick, a University of Manchester student and ambassador for the brand said: “When Cassandra and Ryan were starting up, they had crucial advice from Richard Reed of Innocent. In creating the Platform, Propercorn are using their industry experience as a successful start up to benefit young people with the right ideas, but a need for a push in the right direction.”

If you’ve got a business in mind, big or small, visit Propercorn.com to get started, and make your mark in the booming world of commerce. Follow @Propercorn on Twitter and use the hashtag #doneproperly to keep up with events and the latest news on the competition.

Album: Best Youth – Highway Moon

Written by Dan Whiteley on . Posted in Music.

Released 30th March

Self-released

7.5/10

Hailing from Oporto, Portugal, Best Youth is the duo of vocalist Catarina Salinas and instrumentalist Ed Rocha Gonçalves. Formerly of the short lived indie outfit Genius Loki, the pair began recording under the Best Youth moniker in 2011 and released their debut EP Winterlies online the same year, which received considerable praise upon release in their native Europe. Three years later, the band are back with their debut full length Highway Moon, an elegant, brooding and thoroughly modern pop record full of ruminations on love – be it past, present or imaginary – that sees them building on the sound of their earlier releases and, with any luck, should see them headed for the mainstream in the near future.

‘Red Diamond’, the album’s lead single and opener, sets the mood for the album’s eleven tracks, starting as a gentle piano ballad before giving way to an electronica-tinged chorus, awash with icy synths and lovelorn lyrics. With its “honey, I could be your red diamond” refrain – the rarest jewel on earth, apparently – and sultry vocals, the whole thing recalls Lana Del Rey at her poutiest. ‘Black Eyes’, perhaps the album’s highlight and definite should-be single, follows, interweaving twinkling synths and chiming guitars around a lazy, rumbling bassline as Salinas pleads wearily “stare into my black eyes, I’ll show you where I want you to be”.

Elsewhere, ‘Mirrorball’ is an infectious piece of dark disco that plays like a more sinister ‘Heart of Glass’, whilst ‘Infinite Stare’ has an ominous edge that recalls Ultra-era Depeche Mode. The dreamy, hazy end-of-summer lament ‘Fanatic’ and the infectious ‘Ride’ both glide along on svelte vocal hooks backed by glistening vintage keyboards straight out of the 80s new wave handbook, and are maybe the only upbeat sounding moments on an album that spends the majority of its time trying to find glamour in our everyday feelings of restlessness and longing.

Best Youth’s song-writing has a level of sleek sophistication that is rarely found in debut albums, and the production strikes an effective balance between layered intricacy and a distant sparseness that compliments the detached tone of the songs, as well as their sleek monochrome visual style. Highway Moon’s main (and, in fairness, probably only) real flaw is the lack of variation in pace; the album’s tendency towards the downtempo makes listening to the whole thing in one go a sometimes arduous task. Those who make it through without being overcome with despair and ennui, though, will find a lot to enjoy here, and as a whole Highway Moon is a promising and accomplished debut.

Album: Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts – Blaster

Written by Dan Whiteley on . Posted in Music.

Released 31st March

Softdrive Records

5/10

Since being ousted from Stone Temple Pilots in 2013 – and his eventual replacement by Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington of all people, to add insult to injury – Scott Weiland has kept an unusually low profile, mainly spending his time touring small venues across America with the help of his backing band. In an attempt to bring a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in-a-band-but-definitely-still-a-solo-artist dynamic to his music, Weiland has christened this newest band of merry men The Wildabouts, and is keen for his latest release to be something of a new beginning in his long and sometimes troubled career. Unfortunately, though, Blaster too often plays like a record of two halves; one sounding fresh and fun, the other clichéd and uninspired.

Opener ‘Modzilla’, a bluesy rock tune in Jack White/Queens of the Stone Age mold, starts off with a simple but effective guitar riff, the kind Weiland is an expert at snaking his vocal lines around. It’s a promising start, but then the underwhelming chorus comes and the song goes nowhere from there. And that’s the problem with the album as a whole: it’s inoffensive enough, but just doesn’t grab you the way history has taught us a collection of Scott Weiland-penned songs should. The choruses never take flight and the riffs tend to be fairly standard, entry-level affairs, leaving the majority of the songs – particularly the hard rockers like ‘Modzilla’, ‘Bleed Out’ and ‘Parachute’ – sounding like pale imitations of classic Stone Temple Pilots, without the bone-rattling power or inspired melodies.

Elsewhere he fares better, and sounds less dated, when the aggression is toned down; the album’s high points tend to come from the lighter indie rock flavoured tracks. ‘Beach Pop’ is, as the name suggests, a sunny little pop number complete with hand claps and harmonies, and ‘Blue Eyes’ continues in the vein of STP’s ‘Cinnamon’ with its heartfelt lyrics and bouncy, jangly guitars. ‘Amethyst’, meanwhile, is a mostly successful attempt at melding the two styles together, with a pummelling verses leading to the album’s sole arena-ready chorus. ‘Circles’, the country-tinged closer, is also lovely, and redeems the record after an unnecessary cover of T. Rex’s ‘20th Century Boy’ that is neither remarkably good or offensively bad; it just exists.

There’s nothing here to match the majesty of ‘Plush’ or the hard rock thrill of ‘Slither’, but because of the sheer variety in these twelve songs, his fans will surely find something to enjoy on Blaster. Taken as a debut by an entirely new act, the album shows promise and room for development – but as part of Weiland’s vast discography, it’s destined to be more of a footnote than a game-changing highlight.