Class of 2007

It's that time of the year again where we unleash the music that rocked the Sophiamusic.net headquarters (46th floor, mirrored windows, shag carpet and a monkey at the reception desk) in the past year. As usual presented in alpabetical order.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
A much darker and introvert album than their first one, it somehow failed to win over the critics. But what do they know?
www.myspace.com/arcadefireofficial

Future Of The Left - Curses
Mark Foley was right.
There are no bad songs on this record.
'Curses' was without any doubt my favourite record of the past few months. It's hard and it's witty. And it made me rediscover my Mclusky cds again. Must have album!
www.myspace.com/futureoftheleft

Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
Now listen up: I have no idea why it took the record company this long time to release the album in Belgium. This album is so hot they should put a 'Fire hazard!' sticker on its cover.
www.myspace.com/gossipband

Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future
Rightful winners of the Mercury Music Prize as this was the most exciting album of all the nominees. Rock and dance have been mixed many times before (see UNKLE and LCD elsewhere in this blog post) but none have done it with the pure joy and enthousiasm of Klaxons.
www.myspace.com/klaxons

LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
Ok, it' not as good as their first album but it's still shit hot.
www.myspace.com/lcdsoundsystem


Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
I have to thank Robin for insisting on how good Malcolm's music is. 'A Brighter Beat' is so good I instantly bought all his previous albums too. And so should you!
www.myspace.com/malcolmmiddleton

Pinback - Autumn Of The Seraphs
Ugly artwork but beautiful music. What else do you want me to say?
www.myspace.com/pinback


Radiohead - In Rainbows
Best Radiohead album in years. Containing little masterpieces like 'Videotape' or 'Nude'. Only downpoint would be that the (early) live versions of several of these songs were far superior to what finally ended up on the album. A problem that has been around for quite a few Radiohead albums now. (Just compare the album (Amnesiac) version of 'Like Spinning Plates' with the live version on the 'I Might Be Wrong' EP to see what I mean.)
www.myspace.com/radiohead

The Rakes - Ten New Messages
Best Brit Pop album in years. This record was stuck in my car stereo for months.
www.myspace.com/therakes


UNKLE - War Stories
Mo'Wax boss James Lavelle's third album is an epic masterpiece about a breakup. (The album starts with the words "Please forgive me). As usual it features a host of guest musicians of which Gavin Clark's contributions are my personal favourites.
www.myspace.com/unkle

Hot tracks:
Bat For Lashes: What's A Girl To Do
Cold War Kids - Hang me Up to Dry
Hitsville Drunks: Heartbreak Volunteer
LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost
Millionaire: Deep Fish
Mintzkov: One Equals a Lot
QOTSA: Make It Wit Chu
Robyn: With Every Heartbeat & Who's That Girl
The Cribs feat. Lee Renaldo - Be Safe
The Shins - Phantom Limb
Tim Vanhamel: Until I Find You
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Sealings

In 3D:
Aereogramme (VK, Brussels)
Future Of The Left (Trix, Antwerp)
Hitsville Drunks (Singer, Rijkevorsel)
Malcolm Middleton (VK, Brussels)
Millionaire (De Nachten, Antwerp)
Nine Inch Nails (AB, Brussel & Pukkelpop, Kiewit)
UNKLE (Pukkelpop, Kiewit)
Radiohead (Pukkelpop, Kiewit)
Sophia (Pukkelpop & Effenaar)
The Hickey Underworld (Magic Places, Antwerp)

Robin records with Black Rust

Some news about what Robin's been up to in the past few months.
One week after the Sophia gig at Pukkelpop, Robin flew to Hamburg to record the debut album of a German band called Black Rust. The album was later mixed at the London Alchemy Studio by Kenny Jones (who also mixed all the Sophia albums). The album should be out early next year.
The band describe their music as 'acoustic rock'. You can hear some tracks on their MySpace page: myspace.com/somuchweakness

We hope to bring you some more news about what's up in the Sophia camp soonish...
Just keep checking sophiamusic.net

Swervedriver anno 2008

And some more exciting news from Sophia Collective axeman Adam Franklin:

"So it looks like Swervedriver will hit the road once more. It all happened quite quickly and we met up in a pub in London last month and figured out what we'd like to do, which at this point is just heading out and playing some shows again.

As far as new recordings are concerned, I already have two albums to record next year (a new 'solo' and The Setting Suns debut) and they take priority. Maybe the Swervies can rustle up a new tune or two but really, there's more than enough going on with that back catalogue already.

I gotta say that something that really sparked my interest in this was hearing the live version of Sandblasted that has been posted for some time at swervedriver.com and subsequently at the MySpace page. I'd just never heard it played like that before. I mean, I guess I was there and everything, but it's got this great kinda country style to it that sounds like it might have only happened one night, and it's stuff like that that keeps the whole thing alive to me... not only in the music but the fact that other folks cared enough to record and post these recordings.

In the meantime this 'Bolts of Melody' tour has been going really good and finally it's reached the point where nobody bitches after the shows about the lack of Swervedriver songs! I guess because they've been leaving completely satiated by the set that culminates with the twelve minute C chord that is Ramonesland. Things are nicely in place to build on with another album next year and there's already a great album taking shape I think.."