King Charles - Bam Bam (Video)

Last Sunday we posted the new single from beehived dandy King Charles - Bam Bam. It seems to have been rather well received, grabbing plenty of plays and just pushing the song into the bottom reaches of the Hype Machine chart from our one blog post alone. It made a nice change to get hits from the Hype Machine 'popular' chart from someone else other than Lana Del Rey.

So just in case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video for the song, where King Charles clowns around a bit on the back of a moving vehicle. Considering the guy has already survived one near death experience, you really think he would have given more consideration to health and safety and at the very least equipped himself with a safety harness before attempting to cavort around as he does. Mind you, he also performed the highest guitar solo at this years Positivus festival without such a harness (see the second video below), so we think it's safe to assume that King Charles likes to live dangerously. Rock n roll kids, rock n roll.....

King Charles - Bam Bam

Once you’ve had a near death experience the chances are you’re probably going to cram as much as you possibly can into your remaining time on the planet. With his new single Bam Bam the unique and debonair King Charles does just that. It’s as if the man with the big hair and streak for philosophy has sieved as many influences as he can and stored them all up in a bottle named life. Now he’s given the bottle a good old shake, popped off the cork and allowed Bam Bam to explode into your ears. A frantic skewed rockabilly racer underlain with Beach Boys backing vocals, jaunty hooks and speed-for-the-finish-line-vocals it’s hideously catchy in all the right ways.

“Bam Bam is the first of two songs about Mississippi Isabel to be released as singles ahead of my debut album,” the man himself says. We can only assume that the other is either Love Lust, which first featured on Breaking More Waves way back in 2009, featuring as it does with the line “I wrote you a song Mississippi Isabel. I even sent you flowers when you felt ill,” or another song that seems to take the title Mississippi Isabel and can be found on various live video clips on the net. So the question for all you investigative types is, exactly who is Mississippi Isabel? Answers on a postcard please.

This future album has been a long time coming, but it’s going to finally see the light of day in February 2012 through Island records. Expect anything and everything when that comes out.

King Charles is a powerfully irresistible live act and you can catch him out on his Tail Lights Disco tour in the UK, starting in Aldershot on the 29 October, running through till the middle of November. Full dates are listed here.

In the meantime, enjoy his regally idiosyncratic, bonkers, all over the place / palace pop.

Bam Bam by King Charles (Official)

Bestival 2010 - Review (Part 4)

The weary and the hungover were greeted with welcoming sun on the final day of Bestival. The mud began to dry up and once more the madness, mayhem and music began.

At Sailor Jerry’s Ink City - a bar, tattoo parlour and music venue all in one Laura J Martin enchanted with her crazy flute and mandolin looping, puppet on a string dancing and Kate Bush styled vocal mannerisms. A bizarre cover version of Chaka Demus & Pliers Tease Me and the beautifully odd Hangman Tree with additional melodica ensured that Martin captured a few new fans.

Mystery dance pop group Monarchy arrived on stage in the Rock and Roll tent still trying to keep their identities covered. With matching buttoned up white shirts, suits, cheekbones and calculated composure the obvious visual reference was Hurts, although Monarchy kept their faces partly obscured by masks. Their music - a mix of 80’s styled synth pop and French disco was incredibly well polished - so much so that it seems a shame they haven’t had chart success. Maybe if they’d played a few more shows to build a fan base and buzz than their largely online / secret identity campaign they may have achieved that success.

“What’s up Bestival,” yelled a geeky looking girl in a black jacket and a Fuck the Clock T-Shirt. “My names MNDR and today’s my birthday,” she informed everyone, leading to a spontaneous rendition of Happy Birthday from the crowd. You can’t get much more hipster than MNDR, and the number of soldiers of style and big plastic sunglasses in the audience suggested that the race to the finish line of cool will have her judging the winner. Pressing a few buttons and giving a goofy smile MNDR was ready to show than she’s more than just a load of hype overload only loved by style magazines and uber cool blogs. Unfortunately her twitchy minimalistic electro-pop came across as little more than karaoke for those in the know, fifty percent irresistibly hooky and fifty percent irritating scenester rubbish.

At the opposite end of the spectrum Mercury nominated Villagers played a short but well received set in the Rock N Roll tent. Conor O’Brien’s carefully crafted folk-rock had a poignant and sensitive side to it, but was also filled with enough gusto to not be considered lightweight. The clichéd phrase mature beyond his years immediately sprang to mind.

Maturity is probably not something that Charli XCX has yet to be accused of. With legs akimbo over the monitors on the Spider stage there were moments when XCX’s flirty rock / porn star poses almost became a bit too much, but having announced that she would convert the small audience, she proved herself correct. Because once you get over the idea that Charli XCX is just a young girl pretending to be a pop star, you realise that she could actually be a very good pop star indeed. Full of attitude - beckoning saucily to the stage security and embarrassing them, dropping to her knees to belt out the songs and with enough hyperactivity to fuel an army of battery operated toys, she threw herself passionately into a bunch of tunes that as XCX described herself are “killer.” There was something of merit here. End of the World with its skittering secondary drum patterns and apocalyptic electro synth sound was a very grown up pop song - and Do It Well was moody and sultry enough to seduce.

With billowing dry ice, classical music blasting out and the biggest hair at the festival, King Charles certainly made an impressive entrance. Big is the word to use here. Big hair. Big sound. Big songs. With Hendrix riffs, rattling folk pop moments and revelatory tunes such as the urgent Love Lust and a re-working of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire that name checked Tracey Emin, David Beckham and Tom Cruise before referencing the days headliners The Prodigy with the words “are you fire starters ?” King Charles was a riotous heap of fun.

Musical eclecticism continued with Caribou who used techno, house, disco, slow-rave and electronica to draw the audience in with an adventurous and accessible blend of experimental sonic textures, before the festivals closing firework display and bonfire - where a specially built castle on a raised platform was burnt to the ground.

Finally it was back to the Big Top for Fever Ray - the side project of The Knife’s lead singer Karin Andersson - who presented their eerie, shadowy electronic sound of spookiness. With the stage lit only by pulsing intermittent lampshades and limited overhead lighting it was difficult from the back to make out anything more than shadowy figures through the fog of dry ice. Like Kraftwerk making a horror film soundtrack the music of Fever Ray was as unsettling as it was glorious. Andersson’s vocals were deep and monstrously distorted - pitch-shifted and almost inhuman - the music claustrophobic and icy. Sinister and imaginative it was a dark but impressive finish to Bestival 2010, which musically was our favourite festival of the summer.

Great Escape 2010 @ Brighton - Review ( Day 1 )

The three day music convention / shin-dig that is the Great Escape in Brighton is the biggest event of its kind in the UK. With a host of conferences, parties, gigs and fringe events, it has become an important date for both the music industry and fans of new music. This year the event saw beautiful sunny weather hit the coastal town, an expanded line up of daytime gigs, more quality fringe events and a significant number of highlights.

The Music Nova Scotia showcase in the Queens Hotel brings the first music of the day. Ghost Bees are twins - Romi and Sari Lightman - who play meandering harmony led songs covering unusual subject matter such as witches and shared wombs, with their medieval vocal interplay binding well. Their kooky ambling banter about desecrating a statue of Anubis is amusingly charming but the flashing lights either side of the stage seem rather incongruous to their sparse acoustic playing, which is quiet and at best rather basic. Flashing lights suit Rich Aucoin (pictured) much better as he brings colourful high energy electronic jams to a motionless audience that he is determined to get dancing. Syncing his music with childhood films Aucoin is a celebratory white-clad high-fiving high-energy entertainer, who encourages those watching to get down on one knee and then jump skywards in a manner reminiscent to the Spike Jonze directed video for Praise You by Fatboy Slim. With skew-whiff Daft Punk referencing grooves and numerous excursions into the crowd Aucoin achieves his mission of making it as sunny inside the building as it is outside and feet moving.

“It may be Thursday afternoon and this may be a clothes shop, but now is the time that everyone should clap their hands,” announces The Agitator from a mezzanine balcony overlooking vintage boutique Beyond Retro. With a raw king of the jungle authority, The Agitator’s shoulder twitching, hip thrusting, hollering Elvis styled delivery hoo-ha’s its way to the soul with just the stripped back elements of drums and vocals. “Enjoy your shopping,” he announces as he finishes. Several shoppers look slightly confused.

The signs either side of the stage stating “Hearing protection must be worn,” at The Basement are a worrying omen for the audience of Let’s Buy Happiness. Let’s Buy Happiness have already produced one of Breaking More Waves songs of the year in Better On Paper, so their early evening slot has a lot to live up to and hearing protection is not on the agenda. They don’t quite meet the expectation, although there is undoubtedly still significant potential. Shimmering guitars compliment lead singer Sarah’s vocal which bears a close resemblance to Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays, but the beauty of the bands sound is crushed a little by the loudness of the drums and Sarah’s nonchalant appearance, chewing gum whilst she sings.

Back at the Queens Hotel flame haired chanteuse Gabby Young sings jazzy, acoustic based songs that hint at French music hall and the vaudeville. Explaining that normally her band is an eight piece hence the name Gabby Young and Other Animals, today she just has one such animal. Her voice is undoubtedly superb - full and captivating, yet her measured songs sometimes seem nothing more than something to be admired from afar. Likewise Dan Smith a keyboard based singer songwriter who uses vocal looping and classical cascading waterfall pianos instrumentation on his best song Alchemy to good effect without ever stunning.

Having won the International Song Writing competition in 2009 for Love Lust there is already justification that the flamboyant King Charles is a stunning tunesmith. “I’m a sensitive soul” he mumbles with a glint in his eye before proceeding to whip the small partisan crowd into a frenzy with his blustering psychedelic Hendrix meets Kravitz riffs. With his big lapelled suit, shirt open to the midriff and beehive hairdo King Charles looks the debonair dandy and with songs infused with royal majesty such as Time For Eternity he can do no wrong. The adventurous folk-pomp of the aforementioned Love Lust promotes a wildly energetic stomp, his reworked version of We Didn't Start The Fire a romp, and chaotic scenes emerge as he climbs the drum riser and shoves his head through the ceiling of the venue. Performance of the day.

As Brighton seafront begins to take the strain of wired up indie kids the late night / early morning show at Digital features the much hyped Egyptian Hip Hop and Fenech-Soler. The spotty low fringed Egyptian Hip Hop have a mash of indie grooves, riffs and ideas but like a man with a map in the fog have not yet any clear definition of where they are going. Fenech-Soler are exactly the opposite. Like the thinking mans credible Calvin Harris Fenech Soler are the ultimate synthesis of rave pop in glittery shirts. Perfectly constructed, clearly defined and hedonistically danceable they provide the perfect arms aloft climax to the end of the first day of the Great Escape 2010. Even when the stage lighting fails and it’s left to the dance floor strobes above the audience to sustain the spirit, party-vibes are omnipresent till the very end when the band roll out Stop and Stare and leave victorious. Guaranteed to tear up the summer festivals this year, Fenech-Soler were vigorously fun.

King Charles - We Didn't Start The Fire

So with the UK election voting finished, here’s a brand new roughed up little gem mined by King Charles, who we featured a number of times on the blog last year, and finally caught live earlier this year. We Didn't Start The Fire was originally a top ten hit in the UK for Billy Joel back in 1989, but King Charles has updated the tune, keeping the melody and revamping the lyrics. So now instead of name checking Richard Nixon, children of thalidomide, Malcolm X and Dylan we get Obama, climate change, David Beckham and Laura Marling in a much more British take on the song. Ironically in the Billy Joel version of the song he sings “England’s got a new queen,” and in the King Charles video we see her again, just not quite as new looking as she once was.

“Labour government you’ve embarrassed us all,” King Charles sings, and a nation finishes voting. If you’re in the UK we hope you exercised your democratic right, if you didn't get locked out in a queue.

King Charles is playing a variety of gigs and festivals over the summer, where this reworked cover could get a pretty great reaction.

The Great Escape 2010 - Preview

Following on from our recent coverage of the 2010 Camden Crawl our attention now turns to the UK’s south coast and the Great Escape, another multi-venue, multi-gig, urban festival held in Brighton. The Great Escape is currently Breaking More Waves favourite event of this nature in the UK, for a number of reasons:

• The event is three days long, rather than one or two like other similar festivals, enabling you to catch an even greater number of artists, many of whom perform twice at different venues and times.

• There is a significant emphasis on new music. Even many of the headline acts are still in their relative infancy.

• It is excellent value for money, particularly if you buy an early-bird ticket several months in advance, which this year was a snip at thirty-five pounds plus the obligatory booking fee for three days of musical frolics.

• Besides the main gigs there’s a full programme of parties, conferences and fringe events, although some of these do require you to purchase the significantly more expensive delegates pass. (eighty pounds early bird or one hundred and fifty pounds now excluding booking fees)

• The timetable is all published on line well in advance, giving punters the opportunity plenty of time to plan in advance, although remember that many venues are small and so capacity may be reached early, so make sure that if there is someone you particularly want to see you get there early, particularly if they are a more well known or 'buzz' act playing a smaller venue.

• The event operates a text message service which gives updates on which venues are full plus updates on secret gigs that take place. In past years we've seen Ida Maria sing on the outside balcony of the Theatre Royal, Peggy Sue playing in a toy and model museum and We Are Scientists perform a blistering set on a flat roof outside Audio Bar with traffic racing by behind them, all by using the text alert service.

• There are a variety of ticket options including day tickets and Friday / Saturday 2 day tickets. Our experience is that traditionally Thursday is a little quieter than the other two days in terms of numbers of punters.

• It’s in Brighton, which means that besides the event itself you can spend time lazing on the beach (weather permitting); many of the venues being located on the seafront. There are also two great record shops (Resident and Rounder) that are worth a visit, a number of quirky specialist shops in the North Laines, and of course the pier for funfair fun combined with the Horatios venue which this year will see the likes of Cold Cave, Warpaint and Darwin Deez performing there. And if it's warm enough, and you’re drunk enough, after everything has finished for the night you can go skinnydipping to cool off ! Just make sure you can actually swim first though.

So once you’ve grabbed your wristband, which bands to see? With such a fantastic line up of new music it’s simply not going to be possible to catch everything. Below we recommend ten acts for your viewing and listening pleasure. We hope to catch at least some of these ourselves.

Click on the artists name to go to their Myspace page.

Kid Adrift

“If you took a big raft of overblown pompous rock and set it off through a computer, mashed in some dubstep beats, a layer of distortion and gave the whole thing a post-apocalyptic shove of electronica you would probably be lurking off the same shores as Kid Adrift,” we wrote back last August. Since then this Glaswegian boy wonder and his band have signed to Island records, recorded a Radio 1 session with Vic Galloway and had their song Red Green and Blue named as “Record of the Year 2009” by Record of the Day. A new EP is to follow this summer and Kid Adrift is currently recording an album. A must see.

Let’s Buy Happiness

A five piece from the North East of England, Let’s Buy Happiness have already created one of our favourite songs of the last twelve months with Works Better On Paper and have been signed up to play the John Peel Stage at this years Glastonbury Festival after they got through to the final round of the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition. Fronted by the ethereal sounding Sarah Hall the band create beautiful dreamy indie guitar soundscapes that remind us of The Sundays and The Cocteau Twins. In February we suggested that “Let’s Buy Happiness are about to make you fall in love.” Go to the Great Escape, experience Let’s Buy Happiness and that statement may come true.

Ghost Bees

Twins Romi and Sari Lightman are two Canadian Twins who are Ghost Bees. Like an alt.folk version of Joanna Newsom, their unsettling ghostly songs are formed out of glockenspiel, viola, acoustic guitars and antique mandolins. With girlish creepily beautiful voices their songs cover tales of past great empires and Greek mythology.

Egyptian Hip Hop

So loud is the buzz surrounding Egyptian Hip Hop that we are sure that a wasps nest is just around the corner. It all started when the Manchester four piece released their debut single Rad Pitt last year and it hasn’t really stopped since. There seems to be so much talk about Egyptian Hip Hop and yet very few people are pinning their colours to the mast to fully define the bands sound. Much of this is because it is too early to do so, with only a handful of demos and songs available and the four members of the band only being in their mid to late teens. So for the record we say that the bands style is loose, occasionally groovy indie. But the only real way to find out if Egyptian Hip Hop can live up to the hype is to go see them yourself and form your own opinion.

EGYPTIAN HIP HOP // Wild Human Child from theartof agency on Vimeo.

King Charles

With his knotted bee-hive, near death experiences and psychedelic folk riffs King Charles really is like nothing else. Expect pagan chanting, romping guitars and songs about Polar Bears and Crocodiles. King Charles has also stated that he’s going to get married by the end of the year, although he has yet to find the right girl, so if any ladies fancy becoming a queen, here’s your chance. His song Love Lust is soppy, philosophical and stupidly brilliant.

Esben and the Witch

Along with the many national and international bands on the bill of the Great Escape there are also a significant number of local acts playing, and Brighton’s own Esben and the Witch are without doubt one of the best. Fresh off a tour with The Big Pink the group will be bringing their spectral transcendentally disturbed tunes and dark yet beautiful tales to the Great Escape. A three piece formed out of Rachel Davies (vocals), Daniel Copeman (electronics, guitars) and Thomas Fisher (guitars, keyboards) the band are known to decorate their stage with porcelain owls, Victorian lamposts, skulls and minimal lighting. Reminiscent of the edgier experimental side of Portishead, or Bat For Lashes they share a kindred spirit with bands such as The XX in terms of the darkness of their sound.

Unicorn Kid

One of our Ones To Watch for 2010. The bleepy, 8 bit madness of Unicorn Kid has been a sound that Breaking More Waves has been celebrating since summer of 2009. For those who think his sound deserves arrest by the music police, well sorry but those very same music police are actually raving behind the bike sheds to the likes of Dream Catcher and Animal City; manic, frantic, bassy, games console dance tunes. He's also knocked out big remixes for Gorillaz and The Pet Shop Boys. Quite possibly the music of the future.

Stornoway

Another band we listed as one of our Ones To Watch for 2010, Stornoway are due to release their debut album Beachcomber's Windowsill at the end of this month. Our recent review called it “Quite simply an album of near perfect songs,” and in terms of live performance their humble intelligence charms and delights every time. Catch I Saw You Blink, Zorbing, The End Of The Movie and The Coldharbour Road as the bands status continues to grow.

Active Child

“It’s as if Bon Iver left his acoustic guitar in his log cabin and created a new wave electronic suite of chamber-like beauty that lays somewhere between the sonic architecture of Ultravox’s Vienna and OMD’s Jean of Arc (Maid of Orleans),” is how we described the music of Active Child last year. We wouldn’t go back on that statement at all. Beautifully cool electronic pop symphonies with new-wave synth-drums and pads, heavenly vocals and bags of class are coming to Brighton this May courtesy of one Pat Grossi who is Active Child.

Marina and the Diamonds

Marina and the Diamonds may be a rather obvious choice, but the reason is that this is probably your last chance to see Marina in a relatively small venue before she steps up the game later this year, returning to Brighton on November the 15th to play the Corn Exchange. By now you’ll probably be familiar with Hollywood, I Am Not A Robot and other tracks from her debut album. What you may not be familiar with if you haven’t seen her live yet is her theatrical stage presence combined with an underlying vulnerability that endears.

If you haven't got your ticket yet and want to come you can buy them by clicking here. We'll be bringing a day by day review of the event the week after it finishes, and if you sign up to our Twitter you'll also find us tweeting our way around the event.

Xfm Xposure All Dayer @ Camden Barfly (Part 1)

The XFM Xposure All Dayer at Camden Barfly in London is now in its fifth year and provides opportunity to see a diverse range of up and coming talent for a bargain price in a relatively small (200 capacity) venue. The 2010 stellar line up included a number of Breaking More Waves favourites and ones to watch including Holly Miranda, Stornoway, King Charles, Tinashe and The Cordelier Club. Those who managed to get out of bed early enough witnessed some of the highlights of the whole day, the line up being as strong on the bottom of the bill as it was the top.

This strength started at the very foot of the ladder. We’re informed that King Charles recently underwent some sort of near death experience, but his tribal blend of celtic psych folk is life affirming. With glorious pagan chanting, noodling angry guitar riffing, doomed drumming and braveheart sampled strings, the man with possibly the biggest hair in pop music knows how to ram power packed brilliance tightly into the cracks, with songs such as the jigalistic Love Lust and the upright Time for Eternity. Surely any man that can play a song entitled Hot Blood of a Polar Bear and the Cool Head of a Crocodile and make it sound phenomenally good deserves to go places.

With so many bands peddling the early 80’s sound back into fashion, it would come as no surprise if The Cordelier Club did the same. Yet the four piece reference 1986-1988 rather than 1981-1984. It’s a time when pop music discovered shoulder pads, big hair and pretended to be adult. Fronted by a brother sister duo, lead singer Alice encourages the audience to shout “I f*ckin’ love synths,” and bounds and bounces in an unashamed not-quite-sure-how-to-dance-but-I’m-going-to-anyway school disco manner to their extremely likeable middle of the road pop. Later day Eurythmics, The Pretenders, even Elkie Brooks come to mind and we suspect Alice could be one for the dads. Someone put them in the studio and watch their songs finding big local and BBC Radio 2 support. Possibly. Hopefully.

From FM friendly pop to something more ghostly, hazy and unsettling. The slender framed Holly Miranda (pictured) has none of the obvious hooks or choruses that the previous two acts have had. On first listen some of her tunes can seem almost impenetrable, formed out of odd rhythms, strong ethereal vocals and ambitious layered guitar complexities. This however is the beauty of what Miranda does. Hardly making any eye contact with the audience, Miranda immerses herself in her world and produces something with true depth. “Imagine you can hear bells,” says Holly when the instruments at her feet cannot be heard. There’s certainly something about her music that rings true.

The check shirted Tinashe seems to be everywhere that we are right now, having recently caught him at a Marina and the Diamonds gig (here) Like a distant cousin of Jack Penate bringing afropop influenced snappy acoustica he once again wins new friends, something he seems consummately skilled to do.

To keep the musical variety going Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs push out a seamless mix of laptop and knob twiddling dancefloor breaks that seriously doesn’t take itself too seriously. We seriously mean that. From creature like headwear to whipping out a keytar for a jittering piece of d-i-y techno, T.E.E.D rolls up sleeves and nimbly demolishes any respect for chin rubbing intellectuals. “A weird little afternoon rave” is how T.E.E.D describe the performance. But weird in this case is good. “Do you want it louder,” the chief dinosaur asks. Hell yes. Make it Brontosaurus.

It’s half time, the dancefloor is starting to become rather beer sodden, and the air has become rather stale so a trip outside the venue calls. Part 2 to be continued.....later today.

King Charles - Love Lust

In June we introduced the strangely charming King Charles, a man of plentiful hair and pedigree tunes. You can read what we said then here. It now appears that the second single from King Charles will be the learned and sage Love Lust, released through Mi7 records at some point later this year, most likely we suspect around the time when he steps out on the road with Mumford and Sons for their September tour dates.

Starting with its multi layered and sentimental folkish a cappella chorus of “Never let a woman go, even when you know, she can always be replaced, she can always be replaced,” it’s one of those tracks that leaps out you from the very first moment, with its nippy twang, skittering percussion and celebration of true love over beauty. Then before you can say “The divine right of kings,” it warps into a headlong cavalry charge of psychedelic guitars and hyperactive keyboard riffs before concluding passionately that “Love will set your soul on fire.” Bow down before him and join his rallying call - long live the king !

At the moment there's no official video for the song, but enjoy this performance from Glastonbury 2009.

King Charles - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

King Charles is something else. Looking like a regal Russell Brand with a beard and the most monumental mop of hair you have ever seen, he brings philosophy, psychedelic guitar riffage, a middle violin breakdown and punch the air backing woops to Time Of Eternity, his debut single.

With claims that he once rescued a baby giraffe from the jaws of a jackal and was soaked in the venom of a spitting cobra, King Charles now talks of a rebellion. This is no rebellion that involves violence and anger though, but instead a more purist rebellion of behaviour and thought. “Let us not be known throughout the world for drunkenness, loneliness, broken marriages, teenage pregnancies, greed, drug habits, gang culture, and everything else that makes us look like people who are lost. But let us be renowned and respected for our wisdom, our restraint, our passion, our honour, our joy, our fulfilment, our trustworthiness and most importantly let us be known as a nation who loves each other.” With sentiments like that we can’t imagine that King Charles has been hanging out with Peter Doherty or the Pigeon Detectives. We’d go as far to say that King Charles is something of a romantic. On Love Lust he sings “Beauty comes and goes, but love stays until the end,” and on the earthy rootsy Beating Hearts “I am with you through eternity until my blood stops pumping.” Bless him, that’s the way to win girls hearts.

It’s taken some time for King Charles to finally release a single, having been kicking around the block for some time now with the likes of Noah And The Whale and Laura Marling. Yes he’s part of the scene that used to be known as new folk, and although some of the chanted vocals and wonky violin share a similar spirit, Time Of Eternity distances itself with a much more ferocious guitar looping sound and a hint of Jamie T. Also watch out for the King Charles updating of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire with new lyrics that reference to Kate Moss, 50 Cent, David Beckham, New Rave, President Obama, X Factor, Facebook, and the aforementioned Miss Marling. The king of pop may now be dead, but here’s a new king for the streets.