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A couple of pleasantly surprising returns.

Hope of the States seemed like the most exciting new thing for a long time for a while in 2003 when "Black Dollar Bills" and "Enemies/Friends" hit, taking all the intensity and scale of post-rock and fitting it into something closer resembling immediate pop songs. Things then went wrong in all sorts of ways (although making the mangled bitter howl of "The Red, The White, The Black, The Blue" a top 20 hit was quite something) and debut The Lost Riots stands as a not-quite-there testament to what could have been.

I had just been thinking back and listening to it again in light of Broken Records releasing a excellent debut that captures more of the early Hope of the States appeal than anyone else since, although has a certain extra focus that both makes for a more cohesive album and means they never quite extent to such highs.

And then, coincidentally (?) The Northwestern came to my attention. They are Sam Herlihy and Simon Jones of HotS, along with others including Jonny Winter from fellow defunct widescreen guitar proponents The Open. And "Telephones", apart from being washed in more layers of guitar noise than HotS ever indulged in, is very much a return to the ambition that they did so well.


The second is even more exciting. See, there was this band called Buffseeds, who released my favourite album of 2003. A series of almost spooky collisions between their lyrics and things that happened to me during its preceding run of singles certainly helped burn it into my life, but it was amazing stuff regardless. JJ72 were the inevitable regular comparison, but they were like a JJ72 shorn of bluster and pomposity and able to cut precisely to heartbreak. In Kieran Scragg they had a singer with an astonishing androgynous voice and a way of making familiar sentiments totally believable and vital.

After Buffseeds split up, Kieran went on to form Iko. I seem to remember the name comes from the Japanese for orphan, presumably like another Ico. Fitting for their album I am Zero in 2005 which was a dark, sad record of largely acoustic despair that was almost uncomfortably intimate at times but rewarded perseverance a great deal.

After they struggled to even get that released fully and was followed by a four year gap I had to fear for the worst for any future music from them. Then I listened to Iko for the first time in a while and soon afterwards got a message on last.fm. From Kieran Scragg! An extra exciting moment because it said that they had a free EP to give away on their myspace, the Ctrl Alt Delete EP, and an album to follow.

At this point I would have been happy for any new music from him really, but the EP went way beyond my expectations and is the most fully formed and impressive Iko release to date. The last three tracks largely carry on where they left off before and are no less beautiful for it, but the preceding "This Room Needs a Priest" and "CtrlAltDel" are revelations. The former veers from choral harmony to rattling rock with more of a punch than even the Buffseeds days. The latter sees Kieran's voice cut up and distorted against a loud and chaotic backdrop, glimpses of the delicate song it might have started as just occasionally slipping through the haze, beautifully hopeless. Can't wait to see what else the album has to offer.
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