Cold Beat

The day job has kind of curtailed blogging for the past few weeks, but with loads of great albums to share and with the quality of September releases promising to be quite a traumatic time for my credit card(!) there's no time like the present to get back into the groove-y (as Ciccone Youth once sang...)

And as it was Miss Frankie Rose herself who told me - although in the interests of veracity I should add she also informed everyone who hangs on her twitter feed - that "Over Me," the debut album by Cold Beat was more than worth a listen, I've been wanting to share my enjoyment of this album with you, dear reader...

Cold Beat are the side project of multi-talented SF artist Hannah Lew of whom it's fair to say I didn't know a great deal about until I bought this album, but have since discovered she's not only a singer / songwriter but also a filmmaker and visual artist. She also plays bass and sings in the bands Grass Widow and Generation Loss (Google truly is your friend when you're finding out about new artists...)

"Over Me" is totally infectious - a mélange of thirteen West Coast Lo-Fi meets post-punk meets C86 tunes complete with catchy hooks aplenty and  muddied, melancholy, at times bleak lyrics - that manages to tick all the right boxes (that'll be the jangly guitars throbbing bass and female vocals then...)

Indeed, one listen to the album's opener, "Rain" - with it's Joy Division-esque intro - staccato percussion and pulsating bass, all married to the most arresting of ethereal vocals - and I was hooked; the barbs digging still deeper with "Tinted glass," a song that is again driven by that bass and solid percussion (in-fact these two facets are pretty much constant throughout the album) that is absolutely lifted when Hannah lets rip with an utterly storming, soaring chorus.

Again "Over Me" is one of those albums without an obvious standout track (although I do like "Rain"...) - not, as some reviews would incorrectly suggest, the album is a bit samey (or "Meh" as we like to say) - rather that as I've been listening to this album for the past month or so (wow - work really has gotten in the way), I find myself being randomly drawn to different songs...

Take for instance "Mirror" - it very much feels at times like a Veronica Falls song - a very British Noughties indie tune - all bright and bubbly and a perfect counterfoil to everything that's gone before.

Now I make no secret that I'm a huge fan of Sandra Vu's SISU and so I'm immediately grabbed by the tracks "Abandon" and "Collapse." Both bands perfectly blur the undercurrent of throbbing bass with haunting keyboards and swirling synths. Here Hannah Lew crafts "Abandon" as a somber and at times edgy affair (especially the instrumental middle-eight); In contrast, "Collapse" intersperses guitar and synth with some sharp pop sensibilities. As an added bonus, there's also the most hypnotic, pumping of synths and drums to kick-off "Year 5772" before the song literally erupts into a cacophony of synths and crashing guitar and delicious harmonies... 


While I don't normally make a lot of reference to the press or other blogs' critiques, there's (IMHO) some really lazy reviews of this album out there - "fans of Vivian Girls, Frankie Rose, or Dum Dum Girls are likely to find something here to love..." - OK, so I'm guilty as charged (especially given this blog - which is a pretty accurate reflection of my musical bent), but in all seriousness is this suggestion purely based on gender definition? I'd argue the reality is that just like those aforementioned bands, Hannah Lew and Cold Beat have the ability to crank out sharp, incisive, at times very personal songs that may draw on some similar musical influences (although I don't think I can recall a Frankie or Dee Dee song that so reminds me of radical Swiss punk rocker LiLiPUT in the way that "UV" does) - but gender is frankly fucking irrelevant...

"Over Me" is a quite stunning album. The 13 tracks showcased here literally fly by in a tad under 40 minutes (so much so that I typically have the album on looped repeat) that are all crafted with a deliberately monochromatic, minimalist production that ensures that everything here sounds fresh and relevant - Seriously, what's not to like here?

Cold Beat are supporting Frankie Rose at the Bootleg Theatre here in LA in November ($12??? Bargain!!!) 

I for one know where I'm going to be...

Cold Beat "Over Me" (iTunes)

Cold Beat Website 

Hannah Lew  Website