This past weekend brought the second festival of 2009 for Another Form of Relief. It was a local festival, but one that I never intended on going to given it’s ludicrous £125 ticket cost. Seemingly others thought the same, given ticket sales struggled to such a degree that they were giving £250 of tickets away with £10 items via a clothing store. So, one Kangaroo Poo beach towel later and I had guestlist access to two days of live music. Not too shabby.
This is the recent session The Joy Formidable recorded for Marc Riley's show on BBC 6 Music. According to their MySpace page, their forthcoming eight track album "A Balloon Called Moaning" which is scheduled for release... er...soon, has already sold out. Don't ask me how this is possible, I'm not a professor of mathematics suffice to say until I get my copy I'm gonna bitch like a spoilt child who has just being told his birthday has been cancelled because he's ugly. Anyway If you're not familiar with the sounds of The Joy Formidable, and therefore don't understand why a delay to the album causes such a kerfuffle, check out these tracks. You won't be disappointed (and if you are this site is probably not the place for you).
If you’ve followed this site for a while, you might know I have a severe weakness for female-fronted indie pop bands, so it’s no surprise that I was immediately taken by Welsh noise-pop trio, The Joy Formidable. They fit their name perfectly, their music is punchy, melodic, and uproariously joyful. The band’s blend of dream-pop and alt-fuzz and Ritzy Bryan’s gleeful, belted-out vocals, have garnered them comparisons to Asobi Seksu and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
“Cradle” is an in-your-face pop explosion. The layered hooks grab you immediately and don’t let up for the entire song. The track is pure enthusiastic, noisy pop with a stomping drum beat and anthemic vocals. It’s been stuck in my head for days, and I’m sure you’ll feel the same way. “Austere” is a bit more shoegazy with some great vocal interplay going on (the backing vocals feel like they’ve been snapped out of the disco era). Again it’s the infectious melody that really makes the song stick. The band is giving away for free a mini-LP, A Balloon Called Moaning, that includes these two tracks (which you can also download below) and six more. You can get it on the band’s website. Awesome!
Myspace // "Cradle" [Audio]
Hailing from North Wales, The Joy Formidable now reside in London and have been gaining quite a buzz lately, with The Guardian citing them as "one to watch" and NME describing their music as "Epic, melodic, hand-shandy pop from a band who understand the true joys of life."
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