All Record Reviews
Good As Gold
Petter & The Pix
Gung-Ho! Recordings
2010-05-03
With his brother Pontus Winberg (of Miike Snow) proving the critics’ flavour of the month, Stockholm’s Petter (& The Pix) is set to unleash his second album Good As Gold on the British public. Bouncing between genres, Petter never attempts to align with his brother, but rather creates a distinct flavour of his own. Whilst his brother was helping Britney work on “Toxic”, Petter headed off to Iceland alongside school friends to create his own sound. Those friends just happened to have also worked with Mum and Gusgus, giving the sextet a credible music base to build on. The initial results proved positive, with scintillating debut album Easily Tricked gaining critical acclaim, though not commercial success. As a result, the sextet went away to work on the second release, blending their folk tinged sound with pop sensibility.
Threads
Temposhark
Paper and Glue
2010-04-25
Before the 80s craze really took hold in 2009, Temposhark’s debut The Invisible Line almost seemed fresh. Their annoyingly addictive hooks and determined beats were instantly unforgettable. Pairing their distinct pop songwriting alongside collaborations with Sophie Solomon and Imogen Heap assured that The Invisible Line was a credible affair. Fast forward two years and the 80s have been more than covered, thus a rethink was needed. Still drawing inspiration from the Pet Shop Boys for their second album Threads, Temposhark have chosen the 90s as their focal point. With the 90s not viewed as wilderness years for music have Temposhark made a foolish decision?
Simple Times
Joshua Radin
Mom & Pop Music
2010-04-12
Ohio born Joshua Radin may still be a relative unknown on the British Isles, but he is much celebrated Stateside. Having got his big break when his friend Cary Brothers played his song “Winter” to Scrubs star Zach Braff, who then used it in a series. Recognition was almost immediate, with Radin signing to Columbia in 2006. Soon enough Radin could be heard in the background on everything from Grey’s Anatomy to So You Think You Can Dance. Current American Idol host Ellen Degeneres even asked Radin to perform at her wedding, having been so impressed by his performance on her chat show. With celebrity pedigree backing him in every corner, it was inevitable that Radin would become a household name himself. However, the independently minded Radin fell out with Columbia when they asked him to record a radio-friendly single for second album Simple Times. He refused and released the record independently in its original form back in 2008. Two years later, having nevertheless attained success Stateside, it is with his non-radio friendly folk that Joshua Radin is attacking the British music scene.
You Can Make Sound
Delorentos
Delo
2010-03-15
Irish wonder kids Delorentos have had an eventful few years. Since forming in 2005, they have released two successful independent EPS, signed a record deal, released an award winning debut (In Love With Detail, lost a lead singer, split up and reformed. Claiming their brief split to be a result of losing their independent voice by signing a record deal, it appears the quartet are back on fine form for their second album You Can Make Sound, which has already been nominated for numerous awards in their home country.
Asseteria! Live from Uranus
Chriss Vargas
Nervous Records
2010-03-15
If you wondered exactly what significance the name “Asseteria!” has for this mix, well you probably haven’t been to the New York Sunday club night featuring seven-foot tall trannies and fashion models hiding from the paparazzi listening to DJs including curator Chriss Vargas, Phat Mike, Joey Slips, Kriss Mass and Rob Phab. Columbian prodigy Vargas steps forth for this mix to lay down tunes oozing sleaze appeal, sounding like a cross between an afterparty, a strip club and dodgy porn flick. In a word: filth of the highest variety to an underground beat of minimalist house and techno.
The Loss EP
Club Smith
All Sorted Records
2010-03-08
As a reviewer I get to hear so many albums and EPs that unless they stand out from the crowd, they quickly get categorised and forgotten. I am half ashamed to say that upon hearing Club Smith’s debut EP The Loss, I placed them as cheap Kaiser Chief wannabes and forgot all about them. It wasn’t until I put the CD back into my stereo to listen to it once again today that I realised there is more to Club Smith than I had first thought. Fair enough, The Loss can hardly be called an EP of original thought, however the Leeds quartet do enough in the EP’s four tracks to prove their long-term potential.
A Curious Thing
Amy Macdonald
Mercury
2010-03-08
“Oh everybody said she was the next big thing. The shining light on a the Saturday night. Dreaming of the day when she could run away. She didn’t believe the hype, was right.” Amy Macdonald was just turning 20 when she found herself catapulted from obscurity to international star. Her 2007 debut This Is The Life was not just successful, it was a phenomenon. The self-taught musician from Bishopbriggs, Scotland had been inspired to try writing a song after seeing fellow Scots Travis in concert, little did she know that her musings would go on to sell in excess of 3 million copies and make her one of the most lucrative UK female singer/songwriters to date. A three year hiatus was well deserved for the girl who never dreamt of stardom.
The Beat Is…
Alphabeat
Polydor
2010-03-01
London based Danes Alphabeat are hoping to work “The Spell” you. Having taking a couple of years out after their incessant 80s styled indie pop debut This Is Alphabeat, the group are back on the road in support of their 90s house flavoured second album The Beat Is… Having switched a Spice Girls support slot for that of a Lady Gaga one, the sextet are guaranteed maximum exposure for the record but can their record do enough to stand out in the new swathe of 90s influenced albums?
Peepers
Polar Bear
The Leaf Label
2010-03-01
Polar Bear are not easy to categorise. At the heart of their work is a clear love of free-form jazz, yet with a wide range of musical influences, Polar Bear continue to break down barriers of what is often seen as a staid genre. By allowing their recordings to never lose the vibrancy of a live set, Polar Bear ensure that each listening experience unveils hidden layers. Fourth album Peepers is no exception to the rule. With Sebastian Rochford at the helm once more, whilst undertaking percussion duties, the ensemble set out to create an album more raw than any of their previous. In order to do so, Rochford fed his bandmates with as little information as possible before their recording session, thus ensuring spontaneity on the record.
Home E.P.
The Boy Who Trapped The Sun
Chess Club
2010-03-01
Colin MacLeod has adopted a moniker, The Boy Who Trapped The Sun. Basing his new identity on Icarus, MacLeod has a similar aim — to get so close to the sun that he can eventually capture it. In the meantime though, he continues on his other quest towards musical stardom.
Boogybytes Vol.5
Seth Troxler
BPitch Control
2010-02-22
Seth Troxler joins the “Shaking Heads” cover star elite of the BPitch Control Boogybytes series with this sumptuous mix from the Berliner. Following albums from Elen Allien, Kiki, Modeselektor and Sashcha Funke, Troxler is the first non-BPitch Control label artist to be given a release. The vocal “it’s about score, about clubs and pubs, about personality and the things that define us” opens a collection which takes in Mike Shannon, Alexi Delano, Fever Ray, Heartthrob, Dinky, Spektrum and Roman Flugel. Troxler pays homage both to his Detroit roots and to the minimal house style of his new home, Berlin, and makes listeners feel very welcome with a finely-tuned techno trip.
Moon Landing
Sivert Hoyem
Hektor Grammofon
2010-02-22
Sivert Hoyem may not be a name you are immediately familiar with, however the 34-year-old is a household name in his native Norway. Having fronted rock band Madrugada since the mid 90s and released solo albums in his mother tongue, Hoyem has finally decided it is time to go global. Following the premature death of Madrugada’s guitarist Robert Buras in 2007, Hoyem struggled to find his voice. Alognside bassist Frode Jacobsen, he finished the album they were working on at the time and after it’s release called closing time on the group. Shortly afterwards he lost his father. Hoyem didn’t know whether to continue or not, but he couldn’t escape his real passion. Music called him back and he decided to seek a new type of acclaim. Entitling his new collection Moon Landing to symbolise his passion for success, with the sky being the limit, Hoyem is determined to use his music to overcome former sadness.
The Family Jewels
Marina & The Diamonds
679/Atlantic Records
2010-02-22
Abergavenny born Marina Lambrini Diamandis once auditioned for a boy band. She admits freely that she was driven by a passion for fame and fortune. If that is not reason enough to write her off straight away, then I don’t know what is. However, Marina, who performs as Marina & The Diamonds has been hailed as the new Florence & The Machine (sorry Florence, you are just so 2009!) and narrowly lost out to current flavour of the month Ellie Goulding in BBC’s Sound of 2010 poll. So, with everyone else giving the aspiring starlet a second chance, there must be something to talk about, right?
Nervous Nitelife
Tom Stephan
Nervous Records
2010-02-15
Tom Stephan, known to many as Superchumbo, is a dancefloor superhero born in New York and now based in London. The house DJ with a fondness for the tribal and twisted is the latest star to mix a Nervous Nitelife album, and he takes a collection of trendy tunes and bopping beats for a pounding audio ride.
Mavis
Mavis
!K7
2010-02-15
Mavis was conceived three years ago when Ashley Beedle and Darren Morris were sat in one evening listening to old Mavis Staples and The Staples Sisters recordings. For Beedle, Mavis Steeples had always been an icon, not only for her musical talents but for her involvement in the Civil Rights movement. Little had been done to celebrate her legacy, so together the pair decided to right a very large wrong. Thus some three years later, Mavis is born.
Eggs
Oh No Ono
The Leaf Label
2010-02-01
It would be easy to fall into mistakenly believing that Danish quintet Oh No Ono have simply jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon for their latest release Eggs, given that from the opening bars of “Eleanor Speaks” you are immediately transported into the realms Empire Of The Sun and MGMT. The album artwork could even be mistakenly sourced back to those who have worked with the aforementioned duos. However, though as yet unknown on British shores, they have been a force to be reckoned with on the Danish music scene since their 2005 EP Now You Know Oh No Ono. Having furthered their notoriety with debut album Yes, the group lost keyboardist Kristian Olsen in 2008, for him to be swiftly replaced by the equally talented Nicolai Koch. Keen not to lose their momentum, the new line-up spent nine months recording the reputedly difficult second album in a variety of churches and studios throughout Denmark. Ever keen to explore unusual instrumentations, the quintet also used forests, beaches, abandoned factories etc. to build their own effects using contact microphones. However, with the ambient psychedelic music scene already oversaturated, will Oh No Ono manage to find their footing?
Love Marvin
Marvin Gaye
Universal/Island
2010-02-01
It was once said to me that in a poll to find the song linked to most accidental conceptions was Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”, therefore it is little surprise that with Valentine’s Day fast approaching, the clever people at Universal/Island have realised that it is an appropriate time to release a double CD collection of Marvin Gaye’s greatest love songs. However, with a collection as strong and versatile as Gaye’s there is little to complain about. Of course, the King of Motown was also the King of Soul and Love Marvin is an irrepressible selection of his greatest hits.
Addicted
Mind Control
Nervous Records
2010-01-18
This collection of tech house and electro is picked by Mind Control, AKA New York based producers and DJs Peter Bailey and Richie Santana. Over two CDs, Addicted provides a mix of obscure tunes, unreleased originals and dance chart toppers though none can elevate this above a plodding offering of beats.
Carry Me Home
Elisa Caleb
Elisa Caleb
2010-01-04
Having firmly settled into her new nest, Caleb’s debut album Carry Me Home is a fitting tribute to the jazz musician’s who inspired her. Effortless renditions of classics including “Every Time We Say Goodbye” and “My Funny Valetine” sit easily amongst new compositions by both Caleb and her husband Jo. Lead single “The Wind” is a tear-inducingly elegant tribute from Jo to Elisa. Elegantly capturing the essence of his heartfelt outpouring, the pair make an unbreakable musical team. A breathy reworking of “Swing Low” could divide opinions, with many favouring the original.
Verbal Dance
IJO
Bit Phalanx
2010-01-01
Bit-Phalanx’s veteran acid-jazz and drill & bass Lithuanian has compiled six of his favourite unreleased tracks from 2005 - 2009 for Verbal Dance to demonstrate his harsher, mentalist tendencies. Clark, Squarepusher and Venetian Snares are underlying influcences on an enjoyable first artist release from the net label suggesting exciting times ahead as more names on its roster emerge over the year..
The Sinister Sound System
Dare & Haste
Advanced
2009-12-14
Super-tough UK techno is given a breath of fresh, pulsating air thanks to newcomer Dare & Haste, aka Martin J. Radcliffe. The Birmingham producer has taken in the sounds of the city’s esteemed techno history, home to legendary underground nights Atomic Jam and House of God, and taken four years to polish off these hard as nails tunes that will rip dancefloors apart.
Fast And Cheap Mixes
HK119 vs. Bit-Phalanx
Bit-Phalanx
2009-12-14
Finnish multi-media artist Heidi Kilpelainen, aka HK119, is an electro-pop bitch with issues, apparently not from this planet. Her crazy live shows have to be seen to be believed: once dressed in slinky black catsuits and booming-out brittle, DIY electro ditties about consumerism, radiation scares and censorship, she delivered her message in style with her tongue firmly in her cheek. As Bit-Phalanx re-launches itself as a new independent electronic net label for 2009, HK119 has teamed up with its artists to remix tracks from her more glossy offering Fast, Cheap And Out Of Control to show what they have to offer.
Attack Of The Pitching Machine
cats: for peru
Thee SPC
2009-12-07
The problem with a style of music becoming popular, is that the market gets saturated by hundreds of aspiring musicians fitting the mould. The indie/Britpop scene has since the 90s grown in popularity, to the point that British bands seem to be unable to do anything knew. Occasionally an act like the Arctic Monkeys will arrive on the scene to shake it all up a bit, but then everything returns to normal. Hailing from Dronfield (near Sheffield), cast: for peru are hoping that they fall into the same brackets as their city-mates. Offering a mix of prog, post-rock and independent pop on debut album Attack Of The Pitching Machine, they position themselves precariously in an already saturated market.
Beware of the Light
Jamie Lloyd
Future Classic
2009-12-07
Jamie Lloyd’s debut Trouble Within drew comparisons with electronic music innovators Matthew Herbert and Jamie Lidell. The critical acclaim lauded on the Australian helped him follow that up with a remix album aimed at the dancefloor which saw his versions of tunes by Quarion, Brennan Green and Zwicker find their way into the record bags of DJs such as Steve Bug, Laurent Garnier and Ame. Back with his second artist album, Lloyd combines the approaches of both for Beware of the Light, kicking off with tracks showcasing his singer/songwriter talents for easy listening and moving on to bass stompers more at home in clubs.
The Welcoming Committee
Various
Bit-Phalanx
2009-12-07
New label Bit-Phalanx invites us to get to know their artists with a 13 track compilation album featuring their roster of electronica acts. Each gives us a taste of their unique sounds with varied results. With 13 acts represented on one album, it seems only fair to cover them one-by-one.
Marie-France visite Bardot
Marie-France
JPB Production
2009-12-02
And God created Marie-France to be a muse for French artists. Indeed, Marie-France has inspired the Pantheon of the French scene, like the singer Serge Gainsbourg, director Andre Techine, photographers Jean-Baptiste Mondino or Pierre et Gilles, and even the French Minister of Culture Frederic Mitterrand. About her, famous writer and director Marguerite Duras said: “It is not possible not to be troubled by her. Everyone. Women and men alike.”
Where We Are
Westlife
Sony Music
2009-11-30
As boybands go, Westlife can’t complain. The shelf life of the pop factory four or five piece tends to peak at five years, so with eleven years already under their belt Westlife are doing well. Formed by Louis Walsh to follow-up Boyzone, the former five piece may have battled on without Brian McFadden since 2004, but they have finally decided it is time to leave behind the key changing stand up off the pedestal moments behind them. Now technically a man-band, Westlife have tried redefining themselves with the statemented album titling Where We Are.
The Yearling
Piney Gir
Hotel Records
2009-11-26
For those that are Piney Gir virigins like myself, you might be interested to know that Piney Gir (pronounced girl) is actually the stage alias of Kansas born, London based Angela Penhaligon. Having gained a music degree, Penhaligon debunked to the UK in 1998 to further her music studies at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design. Having been a member of the duo Vic 20, Penhaligon moved into solo territory with electronic album Peakahokahoo in 2004. The album was produced by A Scholar And A Physician and featured backing vocals from Erasure, alongside a duet with Simple Kid. Steering clear of original material, Penhaligon focussed on reworking classics. It was whilst touring the album that Penhaligion decided to play country versions of her material, which culminated in the release of 2006’s Hold Yer Horses.
Folk But Not Folk! 2
Various
Music for Dreams
2009-11-23
The premise of Music For Dreams collection Folk But Not Folk! 2 is to collate a selection of songs from different genres and binding them together under the as ever commercially unpopular heading ‘folk’. Referred to as the ‘f-word’, Music For Dreams appear determined to prove that there is more the folk music scene than possibly meets the eye. Folk But Not Folk! 2 is nothing if not diverse, boasting everything from 70s krautrock to Simon & Garfunkel inspired cover versions. Inevitably Mercury nominees Fionn Regan and Scott Matthews are present as well as singer-songwriter Josh Rouse, but also in the mix are avant-garde cellist Arthur Russell and the sunshine pop of Pajaro Sunrise. Having set-out to redefine a genre, have Music For Dreams been able to give the un-credible an edge? Can folk really be ‘cool’?
Vincero (collector’s edition 2 CD)
Amaury Vassili
Warner Music
2009-11-23
Amaury Vassili is above all a voice, the voice of a genuine 19-year-old tenor who, on his first album Vincero, unleashes great power and mastery as well as finesse. He’s a handsome guy who also cultivates a certain eclecticism: although he has appropriated the lyric repertoire with great natural class, he by no means snubs the large family of popular musical styles. On this CD there are indeed some new versions of great classical melodies (Edward Elgar’s famous March No. 1, Op. 39/1, Beethoven’s Pathetique sonata), but also some original, contemporary pieces composed by Davide Esposito and Stanislas Renoult.
Humasyouhitch/Sonofabitch
Cosmo Jarvis
Wall of Sound
2009-11-16
New Jersey born, Devon raised singer/songwriter Cosmo Jarvis never intended to be a musician. An all round artist, Jarvis started experimenting with filmmaking on VHS when he was barely 12 years old, often focusing on the ‘Jackass’ style dare film. From his early dabbling, his artistic flair has developed and he has grown into a storyteller, poet and songwriter. Having come to the attention of Wall of Sound’s MD Mark Jones at the tender age of 18, Jarvis has refocused his attention on defining his sound for his debut double album Humasyouhitch/Sonofabitch.
Sitting On The Shelf EP
Catriona Irving
Need No Water
2009-11-16
Catriona Irving is the softly sung DIY queen who is about to find herself breaking through into the mainstream. Having co-founded her own record label Need No Water with her friend a collaborate Philippa Latimer, Irvin is ready to embark on her first major project. Following the critical acclaim of Stitch EP and Running On Empathy, Irving is set to release Sitting On The Shelf EP as the first in a trilogy of EPS exploring her latest partnership.
Echo
Leona Lewis
Syco
2009-11-16
Lewis’ second album Echo sees the light of day two years after her debut. The pressure is now on, no longer just a reality TV competition winner, Lewis has to deliver to a global market. The question is, will she Echo her previous triumph or will her career follow the paths of all the other ex-talent show winners to the bargain bin?
Departures
John Garrison
Independent
2009-11-10
“Let’s tear down the walls on this hotel” declares a far too mellow John Garrison on “Let’s Run”, the relaxed opener to his second solo release Departures. The former lead singer of Budapest has recently relocated from London to New York, departing a secure existence for the unknown. Having built up a secure base in London, Garrison got itchy feet. His debut solo release Above The Cosmos was both a critical and commercial success, once again creating room for security. Leaving it all behind for a new challenge, does Garrison’s omnipresent desire for leaving the secure pay off?
Blueskywell
Filewile
Mouth Watering Records
2009-11-09
Swiss duo Filewile were once a laptop act, but for this second album they have expanded into a full, four-piece, dub-driven band. It’s paid off, as the addition of singer Joy Frempong and bassist Mago Flueck to the original producer pairing of Dustbowl (Andreas Ryser) and Dejot (Daniel Jakob) gives them a more versatile approach and the result is a diverse, fun-packed album which draws together the band’s various influences including jazz, psychedelia and rock.
Black America
Oddyssey
Recession Records
2009-11-09
Rosie Oddie is the latest in a long line of celebrity offspring to try their luck a the music industry. Lily Allen, Josh Weller and Ellie Jackson are just a few of the success stories. However, does anyone remember any of the songs by Ashley Hamilton or Jakob Dylan? So what bracket will Rosie Oddie, daughter of former Goodie and popular TV ornithologist Bill Oddie, fall into?
emptyset
emptyset
Caravan
2009-11-09
Experimenting and exploring techno music is the drive behind Bristol duo emptyset’s sound, inspired by their city’s bass lead production and detail sound design. Veering away from simple hooks or the obvious 4/4 beat that pleases dancefloors, their brand of techno borders on the electronica of esteem acts such as Autechre and Boards of Canada, and, at times, the dubstep of Flying Lotus and Burial. Such ambition can be heard on this eponymous debut, though it is rarely accessible and becomes a far too alienating experience to be appreciated in the way its creators might hope.
Solar Life Raft
DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek
The Agriculture
2009-11-09
Brooklyn beatmasters DJ/rupture and Matt Shadetek collaborate for their first extended project Solar Life Raft and have produced a streetwise mix encapsulating all that is good from dubtep, reggae and big beat. With an eclectic selection of tracks and the words of poets Caroline Bergvall and Elizabeth Alexander, who spoke at Obama’s inauguration, this is a fresh selection of American dance music on the cutting edge of bass-led sounds.
Soulbook
Rod Stewart
RCA
2009-11-09
If this album were to be released by a winner of one of television’s many television talent show winners, it would easily be written off and soon enough find itself a new home at the bottom of a bargain basement bin. Soulbook is not the bog standard, sub-standard talent show winner release, it is in fact the latest release from blue-eyed soul singer Rod Stewart. Having worn out the Great American Songbook, his latest collection of covers territory far closer to his heart. Having recently declared his passion for soul singers Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, it is little surprise that the man James Brown described as ‘the best white soul singer’ has had a go at remaking some of the classics.
Your Body Is A Machine
the good natured
the good natured
2009-11-02
18-year-old Sarah McIntosh first grabbed everyone’s attention with last year’s Warriors, her self-produced four track EP. Having discovered her Grandma’s 1980s Casio keyboard, she set about pouring her heart out for the magical electronic introduction. Her MySpace went crazy and she attracted the attention of everyone from Steve Lamacq to The Guardian with declarations of being the new Kate Bush with lyrical guidance from Morrissey. A year later, McIntosh has sat her A-Levels, split up with her boyfriend and recorded four more delicious slices for her second EP Your Body Is A Machine. With all the external stress caused by exams and a troublesome love life, has McIntosh managed to live up to the high expectations?
Unbalance
2562
Tectonic
2009-11-02
As the new genre on the street, dubstep has been picked up quickly by the trendsetting ravers and has found itself a common sound you can hear in clubs week in, week out around London. With it has come a danger that affects all music when it becomes too popular: tunes breed tunes that are engineered too close to sound too similar to each other and the freshness which once made dubstep stand out from the crowd threatens to push it back into the pack where innovation is sacrificed for sure-fire dancefloor success. Thankfully it’s people like 2562, aka Dave Huismans who named himself after his postcode in The Hague in Netherlands, and his brand of dark, cerebral dubstep, who are ensuring the future of dubstep is an exciting one.
Live At Reading (DVD)
Nirvana
Universal
2009-11-02
I was only nine-years-old when Kurt Cobain last graced a British stage. That appearance was on August 30th 1992 at the Reading Festival. Though aware of whom Nirvana were, my nine-year-old self had little knowledge of their musical importance, nor of the speculation about Cobain’s ill health and drug addiction in the lead up to their headline set. Having been ranked number one in Kerrang! Magazine’s “100 Gigs That Shook The World” and voted as “Nirvana’s Number One Greatest Moment” by fans in an NME poll, Live At Reading entered the DVD player with much anticipation and high expectations.
Man From Earth
Jori Hulkkonen
Turbo Recordings
2009-11-02
Finland’s super DJ and remixer Jori Hulkkonen rarely fails to impress. Now onto his 10th studio album Man From Earth, it is hard to believe that the electro King has not run low on batteries yet. In the past 14 years, Hulkkonen has established himself as an original, boundary breaking artist — a reputation that is hard to keep up with. By titling his album pessimistically Man From Earth, Hulkkonen appears to be setting himself up for a fall. Could electro’s Superman really be losing his powers?
Strange Communion
Thea Gilmore
Fullfull
2009-11-02
Thea Gilmore loves Christmas. She doesn’t care about the commercial edge, her icy heart melts like mulled wine the moment Christmas is mentioned. However, she isn’t a fan of the stereotypically insincere and cheesy Christmas song. She is aware that many artists cash in with their schmaltzy seasonal releases. Yet, the past few years have seen some heartfelt tributes to the festival, most notably from Low and the McGarrigle Sisters. Upon hearing their releases, Gilmore realised that the Christmas album genre was changing and perhaps she should do her best to nudge it all along. Thus, she releases Strange Communion, a ten track tribute featuring eight new compositions and two covers of her seasonal favourites.
The Circle
Bon Jovi
Mercury
2009-11-02
The second Jon Bon Jovi’s gravelly voice declares “We Weren’t Born To Follow” on the New Jersey stadium rockers’ eleventh studio album The Circle it is clear that you know what to expect. Having rarely changed the formula over their epic quarter of a century career, they have little reason to now. Fans of the super group know what they like and Bon Jovi know how to deliver. The Circle is therefore packed full of sing-along stadium rock chants that their adoring public will lap up. The distinct gravelly vocal of Jon Bon Jovi echoes earlier glories, with The Circle a distinct continuation of 2000’s massive Crush album. Bon Jovi are by no means chugging along, they are just aware that their fan base dictates a certain sound and unlike some of their contemporaries, they would rather play for the masses than battle for artistic integrity. And who can blame them?
Hobo
Charlie Winston
Real World Records
2009-10-26
The son of folk singers John and Julie Gleave and brother to musicians Tom Baxter and Vashti Anna, it is not surprise that Charlie Winston is set to release a record. Like his siblings, Charlie has dropped his surname in favour of his middle name for his recording surname. Signed to Real World Records, owned by Peter Gabriel, whom he supported on tour in 2007, Winston’s work is much celebrated in France. Brother Tom Baxter received much critical acclaim but limited commercial success with his releases, will Charlie Winston be able to supersede with his debut album Hobo?
Just Songs
Hayley Sanderson
IMWP
2009-10-26
Hayley Sanderson has taken the long and traditional road to fame. Having won a talent competition at the tender age of 12, she spent her prize money on a PA system and started gigging. At 19, she joined a girlband that never took off, then came Think Floyd (yes, you guessed it — a Pink Floyd tribute band). She considered drama school, but felt the debts didn’t justify the cause and instead phoned Ronnie Scotts and bagged herself a two week stint. The stint proved such a success that it lasted two years. Whilst working as a session singer for Marti Pellow, she got a call asking her to record “Something In The Air” for Talk Talk. This of course lead to 2007’s offer of Strictly Come Dancing, where her smooth vocal charmed the programme’s many viewers. Just Songs is the inevitable release of some of her more successful turns for the series.
Coming Home
The Soldiers
Rhino Records
2009-10-26
The build-up to Christmas is always notable is the album release schedule for it’s novelty albums and greatest hits compilations. 2009 is proving to be no exception. Former Pop Idol contestant is amongst the artists to release a retrospective collection, whilst former X Factor contestants Alexandra Burke, JLS, Leona Lewis and Laura White all have new albums pencilled in. So, it is only appropriate that one of this year’s novelty releases comes from 24-year-old 2007 X Factor contestant (he reached the Boot Camp stage) Ryan Idzi alongside two fellow soldiers currently serving in the British Army. Lance Corporal Idzi is joined by Gulf War Veteran Sergeant Major Gary Chilton and Sergeant Richie Maddocks to form classical man-group The Soldiers. Nick Patrick (Russell Watson, Katherine Jenkins) has produced a stereotypical easy listening pop cover album in aid of the Army Benevolent Fund, Help For Heroes and The Royal British Legion. The question is, then, apart from the good causes, does the album really have any merit?
Milow
Milow
Homerun Records
2009-10-26
Jonathan Vandenbroeck (a.k.a Milow) first came to public attention when he came fourth in Belgium’s prestigious Humo’s Rock Rally. Failing to make the top three saw attention wane, but not disheartened, so Milow set about producing his own album The Bigger Picture with Unbelievable Truth’s Nigel Powell. His perseverance paid off and the album spawned the hit “One Of It”. 2008 saw a relaxed cover of the 50 Cent, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland collaboration “Ayo Technology” saw Belgian’s finest launched to the worldwide market when everyone from Kanye West to Perez Hilton posted his raunchy video on their blogs. Given his new found status the name on everyone’s tongues, Milow has taken the decision to release self-titled Milow internationally as a demonstration of the gems from from his back catalogue. Will the material stand up to the test, or will Milow go down as the man who did a good cover?
Everybody
Ingrid Michaelson
Cabin 24 Records
2009-10-19
The quirky American singer-songwriter has held a place in the British hearts long before the bespectacled Lisa Loeb asked us to “Stay”. Now, following in the footsteps of Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton comes Ingrid Michaelson. Michaelson is good friends with Sara Bareilles, who had a big hit with “Love Song” last year and comes with a similarly styled package. As with Bareilles, Michaelson has been on the slow burner to success. Her debut independent release Slow The Rain saw the light of day in 2005, but it wasn’t until Grey’s Anatomy featured 2008’s “The Way I Am” that mainstream success was assured. Following in her friend’s footsteps, Michaelson is set to unleash her brand of indie-pop with debut UK release Everybody.
Overcome
Alexandra Burke
Syco Music
2009-10-19
X-Factor has had a hit and miss history of success stories. Alexandra Burke, winner of Series 5 might just be in luck — the only really successful winner to date has been fellow female soloist Leona Lewis. While Steve Brookstein and Leon Jackson saw themselves dropped after one record, to be shelved ‘has-been’ within a year of winning the competition, Alexandra Burke’s debut single “Bad Boys” has been praised as pop perfection by critics and fans alike. A promising start, given that Leon Jackson’s “Don’t Call This Love” didn’t even get radio playlisted. However, Burke faces a couple of strong challengers in her quest for super stardom. Not only does Leona Lewis have a new material out, but so do fellow Season 5 contestants JLS and Laura White. Can Alexandra Burke really Overcome her competitors?
Declaration of Dependence
Kings of Convenience
Source
2009-10-19
It has been five years since Norwegian easy-listeners Kings of Convenience decided to take a break from producing their subtle guitar based melodies for the geek chic crowd. Consisting of childhood friends Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe, the duo have been playing as Kings Of Convenience for a decade. They had previously worked together in the quartet Skog, thought they disbanded after just one EP (Tom Tids Tale). Signed to Columbia in 1999, their 2001 Ken Nelson produced debut album Silence Is The New Loud saw them establish themselves on the folk circuit, whilst the remix album Versus displayed Oye’s flair for dance music. Inevitably, after 2004’s Riot On An Empty Street, Oye and Boe decided to take a break. While Oye explored dance music both under his own name and the alias The Whitest Boy Alive, Boe reunited with his former Skog band mates in the shape of Kommode. Unable to live without one another, Kommode supported The Whitest Boy Alive on tour, allowing the duo to set to work at re-exploring their more relaxed selves. The resulting album is suitably titled Declaration of Dependence.
Let the Love Flow
Fuckpony
BPitch Control
2009-10-19
Composer and producer Jay Haze brings Fuckpony back to BPitch Control with a second album of slick house with leanings to pop. Haze has crafted these tunes without the oft-used samples of dance music so the horns, drums and piano all flow into each other thanks to his playing skills rather that of a computer. It is this personal connection with the music which helps Let the Love Flow win over your heart.
Another Noon
Jon and Roy
Pacific Music
2009-10-13
You are probably not fully unaware, but Canadian duo Jon and Roy’s sleeper hit “Another Noon” will by now have worked its way into your subconscious. Victoria BC’s Jon and Roy struck it lucky with their fireside hand-warmer when VW decided to use it in their latest adverts. Not a bad feat for the duo who started working together back in 2005 and are still releasing their music independently. When they first met, Jon was busy reading about the Politik and Roy was in a period of self reflection about the similarities between apes and humans. They released their debut album Sittin’ Back in 2005, before Jon went off to release his solo effort After A Trip. Roy didn’t let the time go to waste and spent it learning the drums. After the hiatus, they decided to contact Sittin’ Back’s producer Stephen Franke and set about pursuing their real dream. Brushed aside were the potential roles as beer brewers, teachers and chefs whilst they took a final joint attack on the murky music world. They also managed to talk bassist Ryan Tonelli into quitting his film-maker ambitions and become a formal member of Jon and Roy — making the duo named band a trio.
Home
David Walters
Ya Basta!
2009-10-13
David Walters first came to public attention with his 2006 debut Awa, which in West Indian Creole means both ‘No’ and ‘Hello’. Having received much critical acclaim for his debut, Walters decided not to rush a follow-up. However, far from struggling with material for his second album Home, Walters decided to reflect upon his new lifestyle. Success has meant hitting the road and Home now has many connotations — his Home being the stage, the hotels and his family next in the West Indies.
Together
Blake
Blake Records
2009-10-12
MySpace may have brought the world The Arctic Monkeys and Sandie Thom back in 2005, but it didn’t take Facebook long to catch up in the shape of Blake. Formed three years ago and signed within 48 hours, classical boyband Blake have a new line up and a third album Together about to hit the shelves. After switching allegiances from Facebook to Twitter, and replacing the departed Dominic Tighe with new recruit Humphrey Berney (Barney), the quartet have established their own independent record label, Blake Records.
Wrought Iron
Nancy Elizabeth
The Leaf Label
2009-10-05
The Leaf Label have been responsible for some of this year’s most delicately beautiful releases, from Essie Jain’s The Inbetween to A Hawk and A Hacksaw’s Delivrance. With such strong label mates, the expectancy is high for Lancashire lass Nancy Elizabeth’s second album Wrought Iron. Having come to public attention with 2007’s subtly elegant Battle and Victory, Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe continues on the theory that less is more.
The Graduate
Nerina Pallot
Echo
2009-10-05
2001 saw the release of Nerina Pallot’s critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful debut Dear Frustrated Superstar. At the time, London-born, Jersey raise Pallot was signed to Polydor. Launched quietly, Pallot’s debut failed set the world alight. After her Polydor deal was ended, Pallot entered the music business wilderness, briefly seeing the light of day again when she guested on Delerium’s Chimera. Frustrated but not distracted, Pallot set about establishing her own label, Idaho and tried to set the world alight with her follow-up Fires. Though the album sold 100,000 copies, Pallot’s singles; the political “Everybody’s Gone To War” and the sublime “Sophia” didn’t storm up the charts. 2009, Pallot is back. Having attempted co-writing her material with big names including Linda Perry, Rob Davis and Rick Nowels, Pallot decided to brave it alone. Her third release, the aptly titled The Graduate contains eight self-penned, self-produced songs (two collaborations with new husband Andy Chatterley — “I Don’t Want To Go Out” and “The Right Side” — passed the test).
Galactic Caravan
DJ 3000
Underground Gallery/Motech
2009-10-01
DJ 3000’s third artist album Galactic Caravan is an ethnic journey through Detroit techno, reflecting his upbringing. Born and raised in the Detroit enclave of Hamtramck, the sights and sounds of a highly ethnic neighbourhood as well as the music of his parent’s native Albania have had a major influence on his music. Board this caravan to embark on a winding road on which the beat is always 4/4 and Eastern sounds can always be heard. It’s an album full of character and geared towards a cohesive listening experience which takes the ears on an inspiring trip.
I Love Techno
Crookers
Lektroluv
2009-09-28
Italian duo Crookers may have scored a number one with their remix of Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘n’ Night” and become darlings of the electro scene in the process, but they are out of their depth following on from Dave Clarke and Boys Noize in producing a mix for Belgium’s famous I Love Techno festival. They are famed for combining hip hop and house over bass heavy sounds with the intention of creating twisted, crooked mixes — hence the name. This mix is anything but as the sum of the parts fall woefully short of any inventive genre blends as the 18 tracks add up to a tiresome 20 minutes.
Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?
Paloma Faith
Sony Music
2009-09-28
Do You Want The Truth Or Something More Beautiful? is the interestingly titled debut album by equally interestingly named 25-year-old, big-voiced Hackney actress turned singer Paloma Faith. Having made her name with appearances in films including St. Trinian’s and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Faith realised that her distinct voice warranted exploration. Given her remarkable vocal, there have naturally been the inevitable Amy Winehouse, Adele and Shingai Shoniwa comparisons. However, with such strong competition, does Faith offer something intrinsically beautiful enough to fight a battle with her chart contenders?
We Ain’t Got No Money, Honey, But We Got Rain
Liam Frost
Emperor Records
2009-09-28
Liam Frost was a determined youngster, even purchasing a fake ID at 15 to allow him to perform in Manchester’s famous Akoustic Anarchy. His determination paid off and 2003 saw him move from being a shouty, punky youth to a serious folk vocalist. Unafraid to draw on his personal experiences, most importantly the deaths of his father and brother, Liam Frost soon established himself as a competent musician to be reckoned with. A deal with Lavolta Records in 2006 saw Frost and The Slowdown Family record and tour the critically acclaimed Show Me How The Spectres Dance. Record sales didn’t match the acclaim and Frost saw himself dropped from his first deal. However, Frost had not lost his fire and soon found himself a new home at Emperor Records. He in turn dropped his band to go solo, with We Ain’t Got No Money, Honey, But We Got Rain as the fruit of his toils.
It Hertz
Katsen
Sheffield Phonographic Corporation
2009-09-28
The story goes that Katsen formed after music lovers Chris Blackburn and Donna Grimaldi met at a craft market in Brighton. Grimaldi was there to sell her boldly colourful covered mixtapes and caught the eye of Blackburn. Blackburn couldn’t resist the covers and a partnership was formed. A little while later, the pair were sat round at Grimaldi’s listening to excerpts from her extensive record collection when they decided to dispense with the already recorded and make some musical magic of their own. Out came Blackburn’s synth and they would let their musical souls run wild for the night. The result It Hertz, 12 tracks of occasional electronic interest.
Flashmob
Vitalic
Different
2009-09-28
When Pascal Arbez-Nicolas, AKA Vitalic, released electro masterpiece OK Cowboy in 2005, he did so on the back of a wave of anticipation among those who had heard his first four tracks as Poney EP on DJ Hell’s International DeeJay Gigolo Records. “La Rock 01” was already a massive club hit dropped in sets of all genres and the album also featured both parts of “Poney”, two other sure-fire floor-fillers together with the driving “My Friend Dario” and more chilled out moments such as “The Past”. It’s taken four years to produce follow-up Flashmob via V Live, a pulsating live performance featuring tracks old and new recorded in 2007, but it was well worth the wait.
The Animal
Richard Walters
Kartel
2009-09-21
It only takes one person to change a trend, could Richard Walters be the man to do that? Female solo artists and 80s inspired synth fests are currently dominant in the music scene, Walters is neither of these. Going back to basics, he is a simple old-fashioned singer/songwriter. He writes his own music and plays the majority of the instruments that appear on debut album The Animal (including piano, guitar, bass and keyboards). For the exception, strings, he has called on the services of Izzi Dunn, who just happens to be Kanye West’s cellist. Add to all of this, the featuring of track “All At Sea” on the soundtrack of “CSI: Miami” and all indicators point to Walters being a star in the making.
You Forget So Easily
exLovers
Chess Club Records
2009-09-14
It was once said to me that at the end of a decade, everyone stops to reminisce and learn lessons before attacking the future with the dawn of the new decade. Therefore, it being 2009, we have a fresh start on the horizon, everyone is caught up with the past. The music industry is overflowing with 1980s tributes, so it is somewhat refreshing to put on a new record and hear something different. The different may not be new, but it still feels fresh. Meet exLovers, whose sounds could easily define the chilled out Britpop on the mid 90s. exLovers could easily be the illegitimate love child of Sleeper’s Louise Wener (now an acclaimed author) and Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch (now a hot shot producer, via a brief spell as a Church caretaker!), with their definitive airy male-female vocal set to a guitar heavy instrument romp.
Exploited
Shir Khan
Exploited
2009-09-14
Shir Khan made his name by putting out regular mixtapes which were heard and downloaded around the world via the Internet — now the Berliner is known for his eclectic taste which spans all forms of dance music to set dancefloors on fire. This second compilation showcases his label’s finest moments and much like the boss, it genre hops from Italo and disco to electro, minimal, techno, house, downtempo and glitchy badness. Presented in a two CD format for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mash up mix by Shir Khan himself as well as the tracks in their purest form, it’s got famous names such as Crookers, Modeselekto, Milanese and Zombie Disco Squad alongside fresher acts to make it hot property for danceheads.
The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre
Bernard Fevre
Lo Recordings
2009-09-14
Bernard Fevre’s 1975 album The Strange World of Bernard Fevre featured such electronic trickery that even now people struggle to believe it was really recorded more than 30 years ago. No midis or computers back then meant his was a unique sound which even predates his 1978 Black Devil Disco Club album, another collection of work which has been held up as a pioneering piece of electronica. The space-age sounds are revisited here with new mixes of the original tracks along with previously unheard compositions.
Thomas Dybdahl
Thomas Dybdahl
Last Suppa
2009-09-14
Norway is not really thought of as the hive of cutting edge music in Europe. Sure, in the 80s they gave us A-Ha and more recently Royksopp and Kings of Convenience via Aqua (lead singer Lene Nystrom hails from Norway) and Lene Marlin, but these contributions are often overlooked. All that appears to be changed in 2009. Having won the Eurovision Song Contest with Aleksander Rybak’s “Fairytale”, other successful Norwegians have decided to try their luck on the British shores. With his pal Sondre Lerche going down a treat on the live circuit, Sandnes’ Thomas Dybdhal has put together a self-titled collection of the best cuts from his four home country releases for his British debut.
Cosmic Balearic Beats Vol.2
Various Artists
Eskimo Recordings
2009-09-11
Put the house party in slo-mo with the second edition of Cosmic Baleric Beats. Featuring 16 exclusive and unreleased tracks of sun-kissed cosmic house, disco and funk, this is music to watch the stars go by.
Random Play
Various
Ersatz Press
2009-08-31
The Dorset region might not currently be considered the a hive of musical activity, but looking closer at the area, it is soon apparent that some of the biggest names in British music hail from the area. Guitar genius Robert Fripp, Garage star Craig David, sultry soul sensation Joss Stone and Gothic princess P.J Harvey are all products of the county. Madonna, Noel Gallagher and Billy Bragg are just a few of the stars who have setup second homes in the region. Perhaps it is for this reason that The Ersatz Press have decided it was about time that someone exposed the upcoming talent to the public. Random Play is a collection of 19 songs (singles, live recordings and b-sides) from 14 of the areas potential notables (Jayetal, Kumiss, The Confederate Dead, Andrew Foster and Please Will all apparently warrant two appearances).
Ellipse
Imogen Heap
Epic Records
2009-08-24
Though far from a household name, 31-year-old Londoner Imogen Heap has already produced two critically acclaimed solo albums (2005’s Speak For Yourself garnered two grammy nominations) as well as her side project Guy Sigsworth collaboration Frou Frou. Not one to rest on her laurels, in the time between 2005’s Speak For Yourself there has been no end to her side projects. Having recorded the now world famous “Chrismukkah” and an ethereal version of Cohen’s “Hallelujah” for teen drama The OC has brought Heap to the attention of a new generation of fans. More recent collaborations include artists as wide-spread as ex-Busted singer Matt Willis (his album track “Who You Gonna Run To”, British electro popstrels Temposhark (“Not That Big”) and the multi-award winning American easy listener Josh Groban (“Now Or Never”). If that is not enough, the likes of Tiesto and Jason DeRulo have sampled her hit “Hide and Seek”. Eleven years has now passed since her debut effort i-Megaphone and Heap is ready to unleash home recorded Ellipse for her ever-so hungry fans.
Run Silent, Run Deep
Dialog>
Lo-Tek
2009-08-24
Composed and sequenced to create the impression of being submerged underwater and then released to the surface, the second album from Dialog> is a dreamy affair bookended by a brisk opening and uplifting climax. Inspired by the metaphor of water being the unconscious mind at threat from the monsters of the deep wanting to drag us down into the dark depths of our psyche, it transports the listener into a darkly tranquil audio experience yet drifts on by too easily.
Dance Or Die
Family Force 5
Transparent Media Group
2009-08-17
Family Force 5 should be riding high. EMI North America snapped the group up and they got introduced to the mysterious world of the corporate music industry. However, the Georgian quintet decided that the old school route of independent music could suit them better. Resultantly, they founded the Transparent Media Group to work in coalition with EMI North America, thus ensuring greater control over their music, marketing and merchandise. After releasing their single “Dance Or Die” in the States, they came to the attention of the already successful 3OH!3, whom they subsequently supported on tour. That tour and their numerous festival appearances resulted in the hard working bands extensive touring helped the band’s independent release sell over 100,000 records and achieve nearly 2,000,000 views on YouTube (that is nearly as many as Susan Boyle!)
Over The Rooftops
Blame Jack
Blame Jack Records
2009-08-17
Blame Jack have changed line-up and finally released debut album Over The Rooftops. Having spent a few years as a London based gigging quartet formed of Jason Newton, Tom Palmer, Katie Meehan and Matilda Smith, they originally recorded a selection of tracks for a never released EP a couple of years ago. However, the girls left but Newton and Palmer decided to badger on recruiting Emma Wheelhouse as their new vocalist. Gone are the signature Meehan-Smith harmonies, but a lot of the material remains, with Newton as the group’s central songwriter joining Wheelhouse on vocals.
Temporary Pleasure
Simian Mobile Disco
Polydor Group
2009-08-17
Simian Mobile Disco can pull in the crowds for their electro DJ sets and have been darlings of the scene since the release of debut Attack Sustain Decay Release in 2007. Along with Digitalism and Justice, their tracks helped the emergence of electro into popular rave culture, especially the bristling “Hustler” and tongue-in-cheek “Tits & Acid”. Taken from a first album which showed promise for their future productions, it is with much anticipation that their follow-up was awaited. Sadly a glut of guest vocalists are on board, but their talents are wasted on a serious of one dimensional tunes going nowhere.
Sisters
Various
Sisterphunk
2009-08-10
Compilations by definition offer a mixed bag. Someone somewhere has sat down and chosen what they believe to be the best selection of songs for their demographic. The format is something that does not particularly appeal to my cynical self. I have nothing against mix CDs, in fact I absolutely love making them for friends to demonstrate what I think is ‘cool’ at that time. However, someone sat in an office has a very different reason to the individual and often I find compilations full of sub standard B-Sides that are better best forgotten. Sisters is the current selection being offered as an insight as to what the label Sisterphunk has to offer. With a retro cut-and-paste case of a sun-kissed bikini clad babe with a moustached man’s face covering hers, a clear-cut sign that Sisters is aimed at the ‘trendies’. On appearances alone I am expecting a record full of chilled out retro beat wonders. Upon listening, will Sisters manage to defy my already prejudiced judgement?
We Hear You
Luke Vibert
Planet Mu
2009-08-10
Luke Vibert is a virtuoso of the electronic music scene. He’s dabbled in what seems like every genre under various guises — himself, Kerrier District, Wagon Christ, Amen Andrews, Spak Hand Luke — they’re all evidence of his ability to take the sounds of a scene and put his own spin on them. We Hear You combines his forays into disco, trip hop, house and acid into one accomplished album.
Nesting
Guy Fantastico
La Compania Fantastica
2009-08-04
Guy Fantastico tried playing in bands for several years, finding that something never fully gelled. So instead of giving up on his musical dream, he headed down to Costa Rica with producer Bobby Birdman with Midi keyboards, their computers, speakers and whatever toys they could fit in their bags and set out recording Nesting.
Complete Me
Frankmusik
Island
2009-08-03
The music industry always has fads that come and go, as you may have noticed the current trend is for the 80’s influenced sound. Acts like Little Boots and La Roux manage to blend the two big selling points of ‘09 in one, purely by being female singers. However, there has been a growing hype surrounding Vincent Frank, the Essex synth based popstar otherwise known as Frankmusik. Having honed his skills by remixing for everyone from Mika to the Pet Shop Boys, he is finally unleashing his debut solo album Complete Me to his hungry fans.
Tango 6
rude_NHS
Sotones
2009-07-20
rude_NHS has been a fixture on the South’s electronic music scene for many years as a producer, guitarist and arranger. Famed for unique improv live sets strumming his guitar or bass over the wildest amen breaks and acid sounds, he is a pioneer of dead rock, guffstep and shoe rave. But he can also be compared to artists such as Squarepusher and Luke Vibert for innovative sounds. Tango6 brings together four of his tracks.
Fearless
Jazmine Sullivan
Sony
2009-07-14
Jazmine Sullivan claims to be Fearless. This may not be a surprise, given that Missy Elliott’s latest protege has been singing in public from a young age - most impressively in a duet with Stevie Wonder at his grandson’s birthday party. At the tender age of 16, she signed a deal with Jive only to be dropped before the album she’d recorded got released. However, the opportunity allowed Sullivan to hone her performance and songwriting skills. Fearless was eventually recorded in 2008 and saw the ilk of Missy Elliott, Stargate and Wyclef Jean offer their production skills. Now aged 22 and with her album about to be released, Sullivan will find out whether she was right to “Dream Big”.
Flight Paths
Pocketbooks
How Does It Feel To Be Loved?
2009-07-13
Releasing a debut album that is reminiscent of other artists is often beneficial, it allows people to draw comparisons and will tempt people to listen to what they might otherwise have passed over. However, simply copying past classics and adding little to them is a cheat. If I were to be nice, Pocketbooks debut album Flight Paths is reminiscent of the fun and frolicsome 90s indie pop of The Housemartins and The Divine Comedy.
A Mouthful
The Do
Get Down!
2009-07-13
It is rare thing, a debut pop album that is both stunningly simplistic and excitingly experimental at the same time. But Finnish-French duo The Do are promising just that with their debut album A Mouthful. Opening tracks “Playground Hustle” (demonstrating a fun and infantile view of life) and “At Last !” (a charmingly warm ballad) immediately epitomise what can be expected from the musically named The Do (coincidentally also the initials of their first names). Formed of singer Olivia Merilahti and musician Dan Levy, such an eclectic approach to music should be expected from the arty duo. Having met whilst both working on a soundtrack for the film “Empire Of The Wolves”, there was an instant bond. With a combined passion for free form jazz and melodic vocals a musical partnership was inevitable.
Horehound
The Dead Weather
Sony Music
2009-07-13
To his credit, Jack White is one of the music industries top achievers. Alongside ex-wife Meg, he formed the wonderous White Stripes in 1997. They eventually hit the big time with 2001’s White Blood Cells, which won them global acclaim for their stripped back garage rock. 2003 saw the White Stripes phenomenon strengthen with the more commercial Elephant which has spawned “Seven Nation Army”, the duo’s largest selling single to date. Since then, White has worked alongside notable musicians including Beck, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Alicia Keys and Bob Dylan. He even played a large role in resurrecting his musical icon Loretta Lynn’s career, by producing her Grammy award winning Van Lear Rose. 2005 saw his first side project, The Raconteurs (a collaboration with Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler) achieve a mixed reception and a modicum of success. Now, in 2009 he attempts to take another step on his route to rock superstardom with his second side project The Dead Weather.
6 Day Riot Have A Plan
6 Day Riot
Tantrum Records
2009-07-06
%ap%Aesthetically, the case and inlay to 6 Day Riot Have A Plan is one of the simplest but most novel I have seen in a long while. The cardboard case has cutout characters to allow the listener to play the inlay’s board game (a musical instrument themed Snakes and Ladders). Though perhaps it should not have such direct connotations, in my mind it automatically conjures up a record aimed at children, or at least one that reminisces about childhood.
Endless Forms
Butane
Crosstown Rebels
2009-07-06
Butane, AKA Andrew Rasse, claims to be the future of electronic music, exploring fresh directions and experiments in sounds while evoking a myriad of warped sensations. This, his first album for Crosstown Rebels, has a title that’s a homage to Darwin and takes inspiration from his concepts “that all the complexity that surrounds us has developed from ultimate simplicity”. Essentially it all boils down to lush, minimalist techno with an organic sound that is charming though unlikely to be thought of as particularly futuristic.
Love Revue
Love Revue
Vertical Village
2009-07-04
Londoner’s Love Revue were first formed around 6 years ago but until last year made little progress. Their situation echoes many of the world’s undiscovered talents and thankfully last year, Love Revue finally got the break they deserved.
Eon
Grafton Primary
MGM
2009-06-29
From the outset, Grafton Primary’s Human League-inspired debut Eon lacks true inspiration. Though a perfectly pleasant synth pop effort, it is far too generic to stand out against it’s contemporary contenders. The Australian trio formed of brothers Joshua (voice) and Benjamin (synths/keytar) Garden and Robbie Mudrazija (drummer) suffer one major setback — Joshua sounds far too similar to Human League’s Philip Oakey to allow the listener to move beyond the obvious comparisons.
A.M.
Magnetic Morning
FRIEND [or fAUX] Recordings
2009-06-29
Hot on the heels of his second solo album, Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin has teamed up with Interpol’s Sam Fogarino to work under the combined name Magnetic Morning. A collaboration created entirely outside the material world, composed via email to satisfy geographical differences due to touring with their respective bands. Magnetic Morning finally met up in Athens, GA to record their debut album A.M. Produced by Andy LeMaster (REM, Conor Oberst) and former Sugar bassist David Barbe (REM, Drive By Truckers) is a dark, brooding introduction.
Heads In The Clouds
Jet Project
Darkroom Dubs
2009-06-29
Jet Project are Belfast duo Timmy Stewart and John McIver, two music enthusiasts who have seen the city’s club scene move from its acid house beginnings to its post-troubles renaissance. The dozen tracks featured here are a showcase of their finest moments for Silicone Soul’s Darkroom Dubs label covering deep and dubby house, off-kilter electronics and the odd dancefloor bomb. Jet Project prove they may have their heads in the clouds, but they know why they’re there.
La Roux
La Roux
Polydor
2009-06-29
Of all the 80s influenced acts that currently dominate the airwaves, there has been one name that has consistently been heralded as being the tip of an ever growing iceberg — La Roux. Fronted by Elly Jackson (who I am sure you all already know is none other than Trude Goodwin’s (a.k.a Sgt. June Ackland in The Bill) distinctively styled ginger-haired daughter. Jackson provides the disturbingly soothing vocals and is backed by her publicity shy partner in crime, producer and co-writer Ben Langmaid (former writer for Kubb and one half of Huff and Puff). As a duet, their 80s driven synth pop has been growing in popularity since their initial 2008 single “Quicksand”, which though it charted at disappointing low of 133 was swiftly followed by the far more commercial “In For The Kill” (number two) and the subtly catchy “Bulletproof” (number one). Inevitably, having won over critics and fans with their attack at the singles chart, commercial success in the album charts beckons with their eponymous debut effort.
Christina Courtin
Christina Courtin
Nonesuch
2009-06-23
Christina Courtin went to Julliard to study the violin, but sat in her room singing to herself for a large proportion of the time. Therefore self-titled debut album Christina Courtin was surely a natural progression. Upon listening to the album, it is evident that Courtin who has worked with everyone from composer Osvaldo Golijov to hip-hop maestro Kanye West since her graduation, means business. Courtin chose to co-produce her freshman effort alongside session guitarist Ryan Scott and bassist Greg Cohen.
Glade Festival 2009 Digital Album
Various
trackitdown.net
2009-06-22
Glade celebrates it’s move to a new home with a mix to get revellers in the mood for three days of electronic dance music. The 20-track digital compilation highlights the range of music and artists playing the festival, though it is more geared towards a dance mix than choice cuts from the headliners depiste kicking off with “Glam Bucket” from Underworld who are making a UK festival exclusive appearance at Glade this year. Offering a gentle start, the album then takes in techno, psy trance, house, breaks and a dash of the crazy side of the event.
Montego Bay
Queen Ifrica
VP Records
2009-06-15
Jamaica’s Ventrice Morgan a.k.a Queen Ifrica has had a long road to the release of her debut album Montego Bay. Having first been spotted back in 1995 at a talent contest in her hometown of Montego Bay, she has been a consistent figure at Reggae Festivals ever since. 1998 saw a successful union with Tony Rebel’s Flames Crew. However it would appear Queen Ifrica was content with performing as opposed to recording. Renowned for heart wrenching lyrical honesty and energetic performances, it is no surprise she is already being touted as the new Queen of Reggae. With strong musical routes in the Rastafarian race, Queen Ifrica has finally decided to take the step of putting live favorites onto record, with the notable omission of classics like “Randy” and “Jus My Brethren”.
Battle For The Sun
Placebo
Dream Brother
2009-06-08
“This fortress in our heart feels much weaker.” After thirteen years and five albums, Placebo needed a break. We last heard from them back in 2007 when they unleashed their deep and dark Meds. Having had to tour the album for nearly two years, it was evident that Placebo were no longer a fully functioning unit. Founding members Brian Molko (vocals) and Stefan Olsdal (bass) decided to take action, resulting in the departure of drummer Steve Hewitt. “Meds” also marked a parting of ways with record label Virgin, a natural conclusion to what had been a successful partnership. Molko and Olsdal wanted to have greater control and so are releasing their sixth album Battle For The Sun independently. With former Evaline drummer Steve Forrest now on board, they are happy to declare on “Speak In Tongues” that they “can build a new tomorrow today.”
The Bachelor
Patrick Wolf
Bloody Chamber Music
2009-06-01
It was with both anticipation and trepidation in equal measure that I first listened to Patrick Wolf’s fourth album The Bachelor. Would he repeat the fatal mistake of 2007’s The Magic Position, which in my opinion abandoned artistic integrity in the hope of a commercial gain. Sadly the attempt was hollow, loyal fans of Lycanthropy and Wind In The Wires felt a sense of abandonment. The Bachelor is pitched in the middle ground and blindingly beautiful for it. Patrick Wolf has landed again and is bigger and better than ever.
Sleight Of Hand
Sparrow And The Workshop
Distiller Records
2009-06-01
Sparrow And The Workshop are not hard to define. Their sound is a fantastic fusion of folk and country rock. Simple structures telling a story with stunningly balanced male/female vocals. This multi-national trio’s debut EP Sleight Of Hand is just unmissable. Glasgow based Jill O’Sullivan (guitar/vocals), Gregor Donaldson (drums/vocals) and Nick Acker (bass) have been together since early 2008 and started off by simply exploring their mutual passion for music. The result is a distinct and delectable debut.
Spent Bullets
Adam Franklin
Hi-Speed Soul/Second Motion
2009-06-01
Though far from a household name, Adam Franklin has been consistently working in the music industry for nearly 20 years. Starting of as the singer/guitarist in Sonic Youth-alikes Swervedriver before moving into more experimental territory with Toshack Highway, he is now going solo. This is not a new development, though debut solo album Bolts Of Melody started life as a Toshack Highway project. He has now safely arrived at his second solo album Spent Bullets, breifly stopping to work on Magnetic Morning’s (in collaboration with Interpol’s Sam Fogarino) debut album.
Feeler Of Pure Joy
Ryan Driver
Fire
2009-06-01
Ryan Driver is a pedigree of the Toronto music scene. It would be hard to find someone there who he has not worked alongside, albeit as a singer or a guitarist. Having fronted the alt-country group The Silt, mainstream success should have been assured. Sadly though, it never arrived. Since then, he has collaborated with the likes of The Guayaveras, The Fake New Age Band and Castlemusic, whilst also featuring in the duo Double Suicide (with Sandro Perri) and fronting The Ryan Quartet (mutant jazz standards). Therefore the arrival of Driver’s debut solo album Feeler Of Pure Joy should come as little surprise.
Speech Therapy
Speech Debelle
Big DaDa
2009-06-01
‘2am in my hostel bed, I got butter but I ain’t got bread.’ 26-year-old Londoner Speech Debelle has had a far from easy life. Born in Crystal Palace, raised in Mitcham and kicked out onto the streets at 19, she has made her way from the hostel to the recording studio. Music is her release, an attempt to make rhyme and reason of a difficult existence. Debut album Speech Therapy is a softly spoken, brutally honest rap album, which due to its light pop flavour will have instant cross-over appeal. This is nothing new to the world of music, which is often used to confront demons and open up to the world around you. Does Speech Debelle offer a refreshing take on a tried and tested formula?
Polly Scattergood
Polly Scattergood
Mute Records
2009-05-19
Over the past few years, The Brit School has become synonymous with big voiced soul and r’n’b singers including Amy Winehouse and Adele. All that is about to change — all thanks to one girl. Polly Scattergood. With a haunting ethereal quality to her voice, Polly is the polar opposite of her peers. As a result, I would expect many people to wish for a Kate Bush or PJ Harvey comparison, but though there are elements of both in her voice and material, she has a unique sound that makes her stand out from the latest crop of female vocalists. She is certainly no Lady Gaga and her voice is more distinct than La Roux’s. Her material also is diverse and interesting.
Hard Islands
Nathan Fake
Border Community
2009-05-18
This album from Nathan Fake has been a long time coming. At the age of 19 the talented electronica producer wowed dancefloors with his simple but highly effective techno masterpiece “Outhouse”, and many expected his full length debut for James Holden’s Border Community label would bring more of the same. Yet Fake chose a different route: 2006’s Drowning in a Sea of Love would be a warm and downtempo classic. While this was not the album expected, Fake went on to continue to deliver live sets full of energy and it seems he has been tinkering away on his first truly dancable album for some time. It was worth the wait.
Délivrance
A Hawk And A Hacksaw
The Leaf Label
2009-05-18
Finding the words to describe Albuquerque duo A Hawk And A Hacksaw’s third album Délivrance is no easy feat. To say it has been influenced by Eastern European folk music would be an understatement. Similar to their past works, Délivrance is once again shaped by the sounds of classic Eastern Europe. Upon listening, I was immediately transported to some unknown place between Prague and Budapest. I am in no way over exaggerating, the whole album is beautifully uplifting. It is nigh on impossible to simply sit and listen to the album, in fact trying to do so would negate the full beauty of it’s music.
Journal for Plague Lovers
Manic Street Preachers
Columbia
2009-05-18
Their first record since Everything Must Go to feature lyrics from the now legally dead Richey Edwards, Journal for Plague Lovers marks a return from the Manic Street Preachers to their aesthetic and creative peak.
Tectonic Plates Vol 2
Various Artists
Tectonic Records
2009-05-11
Bristol-based dubstep imprint Tectonic prides itself on pushing the genre forward under the guidance of DJ Pinch, this selection of the as-yet unreleased four-part 12” vinyl Plates series is evidence of that pioneering spirit. Bringing together tracks from the genre’s top producers including Martyn, Skream, Benga, 2562 and Joker, there are essential tracks to be heard.
The Cage Was Unlocked All Along
Zoey Van Goey
Left In The Dark Records
2009-05-11
I can often be found in the bargain basement of my local CD shop in Greenwich, perusing the shelf of £1 CDs considering which to save. This is no word of a lie. I look for albums I like the cover of and rescue them from a fate worse than death. If I were to see Zoe Van Goey’s The Cage Was Unlocked All Along, I can guarantee you it would end up on my pile. A stunning sleeve designed by Peter Diamond sparks intrigue. Portraying a downtrodden couple with all their possessions in a flying bath, fleeing an island of social misfits it is impossible to know what to expect.
Entertainment
Fischerspooner
Lo Recordings
2009-05-05
Like it or not, Fischerspooner will always be famed for “Emerge”, an electro stormer which, as much as Casey Spooner may hate performing it live, is no bad trademark sound. Their third album Entertainment may push them more towards a more melodic and poppier lyric-led style but that tracks gritty synths remain to provide the hooks and keep some familiarity to 10 tracks full of surprises.
Castrovalva
Castrovalva
Brew Records
2009-05-04
Listening to albums by artists you have never heard of before can go in many different directions. There are those diamonds which are already perfectly formed. Others are still grubby, but you know once they have been polished slightly, they will gleam brighter than the rest. Then come the cut glass, which parades as a diamond but can’t hold the pretence for long. Finally comes the plastic, unable to fool anyone. Sadly for Castrovalva, their self-titled mini-album falls into the final category.
2
Various
NET 28
2009-05-04
New and exclusive music from the NET28 artists sees 16 tracks of house and techno aimed at unlocking the imagination of its artists and listeners - a journey into the mystical realms of electronic dance music. NET28 is a family network of labels and artists, founded in 2003 by Alex Under, Damian Schwartz, Jose Villalobos, Imek and Tadeo and spawning the Apnea, CMYKmusik, Cyclical Tracks and Mupa labels. A lofty reputation has resulted, and one which carries with it the deep atmospheric grooves compiled here.
Nu Made (Remixes)
Balkan Beat Box
JDub Records
2009-04-29
For those unfamiliar (like me) with Balkan Beat Box, they are a constantly evolving collective of musicians. They were initially formed in 2004 by Ori Kaplan (Gogol Bordello) and Tamir Muskat (Firewater and Big Lazy). Having already released two highly acclaimed albums, the decision was made to remix a collection of their album tracks and release them afresh. In effect, reworking what they had to keep it fresh and offer a newer vibe.
Together Through Life
Bob Dylan
Columbia
2009-04-28
After the apocalyptic Modern Times, irascible ‘spokesman of a generation’ Bob Dylan makes a surprise studio return with Together Through Life. Partly written as a soundtrack to the upcoming road-movie My Own Love Song, the album continues Dylan’s twilight renaissance without quite reaching the heights of his turn of the century masterpieces.
Teufelswerk
Hell
International Deejay Gigolo
2009-04-27
Hell, by all accounts, represents a stylish side of techno. The German has become a cultural figurehead with his encyclopaedic musical knowledge and a bold sense of fashion as a one-time GQ Man of the Year, a coupling ideally suited when it comes to making irresistible tunes lavishly playing on the smoothest tricks learnt from as far back as the early 1970s. How else would you get the likes of Bryan Ferry and P Diddy to guest vocal on your album and still pull off a teasingly original tune? Teufelswerk — the German for “Devil’s work” — is a double album of two themes, “Day” and “Night”, which get you under a wicked spell coming from two very different sides of Hell.
Miami Ice
Icy Demons
The Leaf Label
2009-04-27
If title track Miami Ice were the tone setter for Icy Demons latest release, it would be no bad thing. The track is amazingly fresh electro fun — the type of tune that goes around your head constantly and makes you smile. I’d say a dead cert for your iPod! It is already on mine, and that is no word of a lie.
Mmm…Gumbo?
Room Eleven
Universal Music Division ULM
2009-04-27
If someone were to ask you to name a Dutch band or singer, who would you think of? I am of the age where Vengaboys and 2 Unlimited shoot to the fore. Add to that DJ Tiesto or Ferry Corsten and you will form a very dance orientated image of Dutch music. Be that of the cheese or club variety, it is dance none the less. So, it may surprise you to hear Room Eleven, a talented jazz-influenced quintet who go against the grain of internationally-known Dutch music.
Bible Belt
Diane Birch
S-Curve
2009-04-26
The 27-year-old daughter of a 7th Day Adventist Preacher, Diane Birch spent her early years in Zimbabwe and Australia with little contact to popular culture until she returned to America as an early teen. Until that point, her life had revolved solely around the Church and Christian culture, bar the rare occasion she would hear the radio or see a television programme. Thus, when finally introduced to recorded mediums, Birch initially embraced all that is Gothic — from Sisters of Mercy to Joy Division, Christian Death. But soon enough she found external influences providing further musical education, with those surrounding her introducing her to anything from jazz to the Beatles.
Tinted Windows
Tinted Windows
S-Curve
2009-04-21
What do you get if you lock a motley crew of members from Hanson, Smashing Pumpkins, Fountains of Wayne and Cheap Trick in a studio? A bloody good set of Tinted Windows!
Love The Future
Chester French
Interscope
2009-04-21
Chester French may currently be known for Maxwell Drummey’s short-lived marriage to socialite celebrity Peaches Geldof, but the release of their debut album “Love The Future” is an attempt for the duo (Drummey is joined by singer Andrew ‘D.A’ Wallach) to be taken seriously. Many thought the marriage was for promotional purposes and their follow-up tour was deemed a failure. The duo returned home to rethink their motives and the hope is now for the music to do the talking. The question is, will the release allow the Harvard graduates to Love The Future or not?
Two
Miss Kittin & The Hacker
Nobody’s Bizzness
2009-04-20
Some nine years since Miss Kittin (Caroline Herve) and The Hacker (Michel Amato) teamed up for their debut 1st Album, they return with a European cyber-pop flavour combining techno and disco with The Hacker’s lush composition and Miss Kittin’s hypnotic vocals. Two is an irresistible intergalactic musical experience.
Western Sci-Fi
Loner
Just Music
2009-04-20
Due to a preference for working alone, with only keyboard and laptop for company, Loner (aka Geoff Smith) explains his moniker as ‘a joke name that just stuck’. It is from this reclusive state that he has produced his latest offering, Western Sci-Fi.
The Turn
Fredo Viola
Because Music
2009-04-20
Fredo Viola is a New York based London born visual artist. Now, possibly due to the phenomenal success of his interactive website or the YouTube hit he scored with “The Sad Song”, he has finally released a debut album The Turn on Because Music. It is clearly evident throughout the album that this new venture is an extension of his work. The Turn evokes so many visuals, that it would be perfect as the soundtrack to many an art house film.
Antique Soul
Smoove and Turrell
Jalapeno Records
2009-04-20
There is nothing better to build up to the summer than a good dose of classical soul. Smoove and Turrell have realised this and are here to deliver exactly what is required with their album. Antique Soul is a collaboration between Smoove, whose debut album A Man called Smoove was snapped up by Acid Jazz, has joined forces with Geordie vocalist John Turrell. Similarly to current label mates Radio Trip, Smoove and Turrell’s debut full length collaboration is perfect to sit back and relax to.
Asleep In The Bread Isle
Asher Roth
Island
2009-04-20
Hip Hop has been a chart mainstay for around 30 years. It is 10 years since the arrival of Eminem, arguably the most succesful white rapper and so the arrival of Asher Roth onto the scene has seen him written off by many. At least Eminem had a hard life before hitting the big time, Roth is as far from Eminem as possible. Roth is a middle class, ginger haired Jewish 21-year-old. So what business does he have in the Hip Hop market?
The French Machine
Minitel Rose
Futur
2009-04-13
Those quirky French, eh? Just when you think you have them pegged, they tend to come up with something far out and so crazy it works but you can’t work out how. Take Minitel Rose, an act blending the high pitched pop of Scissor Sisters with the 1980s humour of The Human League with more contemporary fellow French acts Justice and Daft Punk. If you know your dance music and like it with a sense of fun, this group have a gung-ho attitude which will captivate you from the first bar just as it did with thousands of others in 2008 when their first track received 100,000 plays in its first day of going live on on MySpace. The French Machine is all synthetic hooks, catchy vocals, youthful vibrancy and general pop pleasure.
Recession Vol.1
October
Caravan
2009-04-13
It’s not often you get a techno compilation mixed to coincide with political or economic climates, but here is exactly that. October, aka Bristol’s Julian Raymond Smith, expresses the collective desire from a body of international artists, working in partnership with his Caravan label, to create simply ‘music of this time’. The result is a deep and moody collection of October’s own tracks as well as entries from Etalon, TG, (emptyset) and Jilt Van Moorst. The dark and atmospheric blend is a sure-fire winner, though it’s unlikely to give much hope to any potential green shoots stemming anytime soon to deliver the world from it’s current crisis.
Lovetune For Vacuum
Soap&Skin
PIAS
2009-04-13
Lovetune For Vacuum is so insanely beautiful that in some weird way it makes it very hard to share. Crafted by 18-year-old Austrian Anja Plaschg, it is somewhat unfathomable that this gothic gem had little interest in music till her teenage years. Since then, she has perfected playing the piano and violin and attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
The Snake
Wildbirds & Peacedrums
The Leaf Label
2009-04-06
Swedish drums and vocals duo Wildbirds and Peacedrums, aka singer Mariam Wallentin and percussionist husband Andreas Werliin, introduced themselves with Hardcore in 2008, an album which attracted accolades from numerous critics as a favourite of the year. With The Snake, the winners of the Jazz in Sweden 2008 prize have expanded their use of instruments to include steel drum, piano, xylophone, marimba and Rhodes as they worked from instinct to produce a second album just as intoxicating as their first.
Hard For Justice
Bronnt Industries Kapital
Get Physical
2009-04-06
Bronnt Industries Kapital is the name under which Bristol resident Guy Bartell has for several years purveyed a brand of ethereal and almost spiritual electronica. The cathedralic feel aided by its stone-statue sleeve 2005’s impressive debut full-length Virtute et Industria delivered slow-moving synth-choral pieces where beats were generally subtle and moods calm and to the cold side of cool. The creeping and sometimes disconcerting atmospheres of the debut were felt similarly on Bronnt’s second release, the soundtrack to Benjamin Christensen’s fantastic 1922 witchcraft history Haxan (originally appearing on Tartan Video’s DVD re-issue but later released as a record in its own right) — no doubt due to the fact that, as the artist’s website states, the piece was first conceived around the time of its predecessor’s recording, with tracks from both coming from the same distinct place.
A Good Day
Priscilla Ahn
Blue Note
2009-04-06
“I had a dream that I could fly from the highest swing”. Priscilla Ahn is clearly a girl with humble ambitions: whereas others have sought to reach the stars, she is still happy to pursue her childish vision. “Dream” opens debut album A Good Day, its airy vocal and floaty setting is what to expect throughout the record. This is not necessarily a bad base, but you can’t help but wish that the record grew more from its humble beginnings.
HIT ME TV
HIT ME TV
Enme
2009-03-28
‘Who needs credibility?’ is a poignant question on Hit Me TV’s self-titled debut album. It is not something for which there is an answer. Credibility can easily be sought, but whether it is a necessity depends on the ambitions of the individual in question. Hit Me TV are an easily enjoyable Dutch pop/rock quartet who should they wish for it, would be easily deemed credible.
Bromst
Dan Deacon
Carpark
2009-03-24
Although Dan Deacon is a kind of celebrity in his (now) native Baltimore through his involvement in the Wham City collective and as a major organising part of the Whartscape festival, with his nerdy big, beardy, glasses look and the mis-match day-glo-colourful general aesthetic he is perhaps an unlikely magazine cover star in the UK. But with his second full length release Bromst, he is turning the waves made by his UK debut Spiderman of the Rings (2007) into a bit of an indie music storm, and deservedly so.
Klang!
The Rakes
V2
2009-03-23
Two years on from their second LP Ten New Messages, The Rakes have returned with their ‘Berlin album’ Klang! recorded in the German city’s Planet Roc studios, where the band relocated to. The Rakes’ Capture/Release debut was one of the better long players from the mid-noughties’ post-punk revival, and still stands up pretty well. Ten New Messages courted a fashionable crowd (Dior, Heidi Slimane, etc) and was well received but the band have lacked the one or two big hits needed to propel them to the heights of other angular chaps like Bloc Party or Franz Ferdinand. Whereas those two groups have added electro and disco elements to their indie-rock of late, the 10 songs on Klang! wizz by in a half hour and remain imbued with the wry content and musical urgency of the Rakes’ first and second efforts.
The Grape & The Grain
Leo Abrahams
Just Music
2009-03-23
While you may not have heard of Leo Abrahams by name, it is probable that you may have heard his sultry guitar tones before. His unquestionable talented playing can be heard on recordings by such stalwarts of the music industry as Brian Eno, David Holmes, Starsailor and throughout the Hollywood blockbuster Ocean’s Twelve. With this impressive resume backing him, Abrahams has once again entered the solo realm and produced his third album for Just Music.
Silver Poetry EP
Digitonal
Just Music
2009-03-16
Following on from his impressive Save Your Light For Darker Days, this EP sees Digitonal, AKA producer and instrumentalist Andy Dobson, put through the remix treatment together with one of the top tracks from his last LP to typically lush effect.
Gravity At Last
Ayo
Wrasse Records
2009-03-16
Though still relatively unheard of, Ayo, the Nigerian parented and German raised soul singer, has sold over a million records worldwide. This is no small feat for a girl who spent her childhood moving between foster carers and care homes, due to her parents divorce and her mother’s subsequent drug addiction. It was only at the age of 14 that she was deemed adult enough to return to her father. Though she doesn’t speak explicitly about these issues, from the very outset “I Am Not Afraid” gives her second album Gravity At Last a truly emotional connection. Ayo is not afraid to face her past and speak frankly about her relationships with her family and dealing with past strife.
Music Heads
Radio Trip
Jalapeno Records
2009-03-16
Need something new to just sit back and relax to? Wish The Avalanches were still around? Can’t wait till Lemon Jelly release some new material? Wait, I’ve got a great suggestion for a new band — why don’t you just mix the two together? Shame, you#re too late as that is exactly what Israeli duo Radio Trip has done. Though I guess you could say they have thrown a little bit of Zero 7 in just for good measure.
The House On The Causeway
Reigns
Monotreme Records
2009-03-09
The House on the Causeway is the third album from post-rockers Reigns, again using very individual surroundings to record tracks with characteristics of that space. Wessex-based Tim and Roo Farthing mused over a seemingly bottomless hole found on the Somerset Downs for 2002’s We Lowered a Microphone into the Ground and for their follow-up Styne Vallis they visited a submerged village that had been evacuated and strategically flooded in 1970 to make way for a reservoir. The House on the Causeway began development when the Fathing brothers stumbled upon a house while shrouded by fog on a causeway into the English Channel between Black Ven and Golden Cap. There they recorded the sounds which make up this eerie, conceptual album with a haunting feel and ghostly presence matching the character of their sudden find.
Pebble To A Pearl
Nikka Costa
Stax
2009-03-02
From the very first addictive chorus of ‘you got me stuck to you’, former child star Nikka Costa does not tread a foot out of place on her seventh album “Pebble To A Pearl”. A toe-tapping and bottom-shaking collection of funk, soul and blues, Costa shows Anastacia how it should really be done. While Anastacia may have reached the heady heights of fame, Costa has kept a low profile and artistic integrity in order to produce succesive noteworthy and credible albums.
Dunken Trees
First Aid Kit
Wichita
2009-02-23
With lilting picked guitar and piano, and spoken word vocals remembering a wonderful place visited as a child, “Little Moon” opens First Aid Kit’s Drunken Trees as sweetly and innocently as the song’s title suggests at, with the sung vocals keeping the mood just so.
Return To N.Y.
AK-Momo
Peacefrog
2009-02-23
Swedish duo Ak-Momo were formed when Anna Karin (‘AK’) von Malmborg and Mattias Olsson met through mutual friends and decided to write songs together over a period of six afternoons back in 2003. The music produced from these afternoon sessions has finally resulted in the release of album Return To N.Y. The tracks have a light and airy electro feel to them and are perfect to relax to on a sunny afternoon. It is clear to see they were written and recorded on a relaxed basis for the joint enjoyment of the two musicians.
Chunk of Change
Passion Pit
French Kiss/Columbia
2009-02-16
Passion Pit seems to be on every tipster’s list for 2009. So does debut EP “Chunk of Change” live up to the hype? Brought to us by French Kiss, they who introduced us to Les Savy Fav and the Hold Steady, it was originally made by Boston singer/songwriter Michael Angelakos as a belated Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend.
Alchemy/Words are Words
Dan Smith
MI7 Records
2009-02-02
As the dust settles on the beginnings of 2009 there are few clues as to who will be among the emerging talent for the year, but Dan Smith’s debut release should be one to remember when we come to reflect back on in 12 months times. His intial double A-side preludes an album and has all the makings of a unique musician who will be on everyone’s lips in no time.
When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence
Harmonic 313
Warp Records
2009-02-02
In 18 years of music making, Mark Pritchard has always used a moniker to label himself. Going under the names of Global Communication, Link, Jedi Knights, Troubleman and Harmonic 33 in the past, his latest project puts a twist on the latter as Harmonic 313. When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence is, it is claimed, Pritchard’s comment on the current UK bass scene and has a link to Detroit techno, producing some of the deepest, most spacious bass lines of the last 12 months. It’s also steeped in eletronica’s past as a homage to those who helped shape the scene in it’s early years.
Live at The Creamery
The Gris Gris
Birdman
2009-01-20
A hidden gem from Oakland, California, Greg Ashley’s Gris Gris bowed out with a final hurrah last April, now made available on Live at The Ceamery. The antithesis of the ten-a-penny art-rock college bands dominating the American indie scene, The Gris Gris fashioned a unique style inspired by Ashley’s Texas upbringing and the sounds that awaited him upon relocation to the west coast. Intense and ambitious, Live at The Creamery suffers from the usual live album pitfalls, but nonetheless captures the immense talent of one of America’s finest underground songwriters.
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
The Yellow Moon Band
Static Caravan
2009-01-19
Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan are as famous for starting the Green Man Festival and celebrating all things folk, free and freak as they are for their own intimate folk outfit It’s Jo and Danny. The duo have shifted their own musical direction now however, by putting a four-piece band together with Rudy Campbell and ex-Dodgy drummer Matthew Priest and, as Green Man audiences have already seen and heard, revelling in a decidedly celebratory psych groove.
The Versailles Sessions
Murcof
The Leaf Label
2008-12-01
Electronics take a back seat for Fernando Corona (AKA Murcof) for this EP of music composed for annual festival of sound, light and water, Grandes Eaux Nocturnes at Chateau de Versaille in France. The six compositions here derive entirely from the recordings of 17th century baroque instruments such as the harpsichord, viola da gamba, flute and violin as well as a mezzo soprano. It’s a departure from his usual minimalist musings which even touches on the operatic, yet his experimental side shines through on a fascinating release.
Royals
Ribbons
Osaka
2008-12-01
Ribbons is prolific multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Jherek Bischoff who as well as having been a part of The Dead Science, Xiu Xiu and Parenthetical Girls in the last few years has created music for orchestras and dance performances, produced records like Casiotone For The Painfully Alone’s Etiquette and Parenthetical Girls’ Safe as Houses and still found time to record Ribbons with his solo project.
Flage
Le Le
Magnetron Music
2008-11-24
Ah the French and their electronic music. Daft Punk, Justice, the Ed Banger label — all considered to be pushing the envelope of electro and dance music in general. Le Le spring forth a lot like the jesters of this movement, gleeful in their brand of none-too-serious tunes making a mockery of anyone who takes their music too seriously. Inspired by disco, nu wave, Italo, electro, house, techno, pop, cliched gangster rap, synthesizers and 60s glamour magazines, they offer fun vibes in very French way.
Andrew Weatherall Vs The Boardroom
Andrew Weatherall Vs The Boardroom
Rotters Golf Club Records
2008-11-17
A collective of musicians and producers, the memebers of The Boardroom have a long and respected history of making dance tracks. Centred around the engineering nucleus of Steve Boardman, those present on this eight-track album are Rad Rice (AKA Radical Majik), James Moss (AKA E.S.C.), Dave Congreve (AKA Conman), Sidney Le Sarge (AKA Le Sarge En Board) and Andrew Weatherall on remix duty.
The In Between
Essie Jain
The Leaf Label
2008-11-17
New York-based Londoner Essie Jain’s second album The Inbetween is a lush and whimsical trip accompanied by piano and guitars. Her tender sound is joined by the French horn, clarinet, Rhodes, cello, trumpet, bass and drums as the songstress moves from the internal space of her own apartment to a far wider palette of emotions and range of styles. This enchanting album reflects Jain’s talent for writing both sad and serious as well as much more playful, even mischievous songs, with an addictive, spellbinding quality.
You Can’t Hide From The Computers
The Computers
Fierce Panda
2008-11-17
Despite a name referencing the technology that powers the modern world The Computers’ punk rock is firmly rooted in the past with stylistic grounding split between 1950s rock’n’roll as much as 1980s hardcore, as their look — equal parts Nation of Ulysses and Rocket From The Crypt — as well as this, their first EP, shows off. Strangely, first track “Teenage Tourette’s Camp”s solo section even starts with Bob-Dylan-esque harmonica. And this all somehow works…
Live at Roadburn
Earthless
TeePee
2008-11-10
San Diego’s instrumental hard-rock/stoner trio Earthless boast an impressive back catalogue from their individual members having served time in Nebula, Hot Snakes, Clikitat Ikatowi, Rocket from the Crypt and Electric Nazarene among others. Already displayed on two studio albums preceding this, their music is straight up lead-heavy driving rock with psych-out jams, breaks and builds — essentially a wholly derivative brew but an incredibly taut and energetic one and with the guitar work in the instrumental set up skilled enough to make it stand out among other similar groups.
Kings of Albany
Tortuga
In At The Deep End
2008-11-10
Tortuga is the Spanish word for Tortoise, a band that Tortuga sound nothing like. The band aren’t Spanish either, nor from the Haitian island, neither from any place called Albany, but rather this is straight out of Norwich, not that an ounce of accent comes through the harsh all-throat vocals.Within a colourful, messily grandiose, magick-castle-scape sleeve Kings of Albany is a thick slab of doomy post-hardcore from a band made up mostly of ex-November Coming Fire members, plus a bit of ex-Bossk and more.
The Owl of Minerva
South Central
Egregore Records
2008-11-03
Dance rockers South Central have been heard on the radio, in clubs and on commercials for the last two years, but their ultra cool punk electro has yet to be captured on a single release until now. A two man DJ/production duo that becomes a five-piece band for live shows, they take the Soulwax approach to music by blurring the boundaries between DJing and live performance. Whether concocting their own full throttle tunes or bootlegging famous tracks for their own twisted means, South Central push out in all directions, hitting similar sweet spots as leading electro such acts Digitalism and Justice.
The Blood of Life
Jackie O Motherfucker
Fire
2008-11-03
Recorded in the studios of VPRO Radio in Amsterdam in 2007, “live album” The Blood of Life is the first Jackie O Motherfucker release on UK label Fire. Its five tracks contain re-workings of older material, “Hey! Mr Sky” and “The Grave”, a more recent track “Valley of Fire”, an interpretation of the traditional “The Lost Jimmy Walden” and a substantial new work, which gives the release its name. The release feels special, whether in its gatefold 12” edition, or as a six panel digipack CD, and is clearly not just seen as a filler release to start the band’s relationship with the label before a full album is prepared.
Caught In The Trees
Damien Jurado
Strictly Canadian
2008-10-27
Caught In The Trees is Damien Jurado’s fourth album for Secretly Canadian and is no huge departure from the folk-based balladry with which he has plied his trade on the label since moving over from Sub Pop — where his output was a little more varied. Aided by Jenna Conrad and Eric Fisher, Jurado offers material here which moves throughout the record from close, introspective moments to energetic country-tinged numbers.
Space Punk Starlet
The Frontier Brothers
Final Frontier Records
2008-10-23
By their own admission, The Frontier Brothers are not of this Earth, therefore their debut album Space Punk Starlet should be equally out of this world. On this front, The Frontier Brothers fail to deliver. While the album is easy to listen to, it doesn’t offer anything new. It is typical American indie rock. Having said that, the Texan trio are not offering an album that is full of fillers, it is a genuinely rounded and enjoyable album.
In Our Space Hero Suits
Those Dancing Days
Wichita
2008-10-13
Those Dancing Days infectious, modern and savvy take on classic girl groups and Northern soul has already offered some great pop tunes in the forms of singles like “Hitten” and “Run, Run”. The five females got together in 2005 in the Stockholm suburb Nacka and have since been on an upward path which has built strong momentum over the past year — a year in which the young band have also only just finished school.
Seeing Double
Duncan Lloyd
Warp
2008-10-06
Duncan Lloyd is best known as the guitarist in Newcastle’s Maximo Park but with Seeing Double he steps out of this usual setup as an artist in his own right. Not that there’s any pretensions or great high aims to be found in the sound of his debut release — its actually more the opposite of this; a fairly lo-fi recorded collection of often rocking but always fairly gentle indie songs.
We’re Alive and We’re Not Alone
Popular Workshop
This is Fake DIY
2008-10-06
Tour mates with the likes of Blood Red Shoes and Los Campesinos, Popular Workshop are making their way up into the respectable-indie fringe, delivering dirtied up melodic songs with art-rock/post-punk noise influence all set to sharp rhythmic spikes.
The Minotaur + A Brief Retrospective (EP)
The Drones
ATP Recordings
2008-10-06
The Drones’ EP “The Minotaur + A Brief Retrospective” collects together two tracks from their forthcoming album Havilah, due for release 2009, alongside two tracks from each of the band’s last two LPs — the Australian Mercury Music Prize-winning 2005 effort Wait Long By The River & The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By and its 2006 follow-up Gala Mill.
Tail Swallower and Dove
These Arms Are Snakes
Suicide Squeeze
2008-10-06
These Arms Are Snakes are long established by now and Tail Swallower and Dove, their third album, captures their characteristically confident sound perfectly. The production retains the energy the band exert live and the album pounds from track to track, punching with a full fist whether clawing out aggro metal riffs, moody post-hardcore or keyboard-heavy rock music.
Kerrang! The Album ‘08
Various
Rhino
2008-09-29
As the blurb has it, Kerrang! The Album ‘08 is “the ultimate snap-shot of rock in all its varying forms” and taken seriously, this is a terrifying thought. Its clear that this gleefully hyperbolic statement is both not going to convince anyone and not meant to either. The record is indeed varied, though still limited, but limited only to the view shared by the readers of the magazine in question — therefore there’s no point getting in to too much criticism of this record. Forgetting that, there’s a few points to roll around.
SugaRush Beat Company
SugaRush Beat Company
SonyBMG
2008-09-29
With three members hailing from three continents and spanning four countries, it’s no wonder the SugaRush Beat Company offer a diverse debut album of soul, funk and jazz with a pop tinge to ease it’s way into your head. Combining the talents of Rahsaan Patterson, a critically lauded soul singer based in LA, Ida Corr, a Danish electro/soul singer who teamed up with Fedde Le Grand on single “Let Me Think About It” and Australian-born, UK based Jaz Rogers brings a vast range of influences together, old and new. As the songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and mastermind behind SugaRush, Rogers keeps tracks snappy and inventive, more hit than miss on this debut release for his latest project.
Little Garcon EP / Remixes 12”
Born Ruffians
Warp
2008-09-29
Earlier examples of this shift in the Warp camp might be the release of records by those such as Vincent Gallo and Tortoise and latterly it is evidenced by relationships with artists such as Grizzly Bear and Maximo Park, and more recently Born Ruffians. The Canadian group made waves with their debut Red, Yellow and Blue back in May with their clever-sounding and catchy, danceable guitar-based indie music, in the form of single “Hummingbird”, finding its way onto an Orange advert and even into the TV show Skins, where the band actually appeared performing. Several months down the line though the overall mood is musically a little lighter, though no less quirkier, on the new Little Garcon EP.
Rollin’
Ava Leigh
Virgin
2008-09-29
Rollin’ is the debut album from 22-year-old Chester born Ava Leigh, with a collection of chilled out reggae tracks giving us that little piece of summer we never had.
Everything Is Borrowed
The Streets
679
2008-09-29
The Streets’ Mike Skinner is a reformed character. We weren’t necessarily being introduced to the most destructive, vicious personality when we first listened to Original Pirate Material, but the original Streets’ work came out of drugs and clubs and a lifestyle that Skinner now seems to have put at least the darker side of behind him — something which is forefronted lyrically on the positive moods of Everything Is Borrowed.
Snowflake Midnight
Mercury Rev
V2
2008-09-28
It is ten years since Mercury Rev released Deserter Songs, their most successful album to date. It marked a definite entry into a more ethereal sound and came from roots where recordings were simply a means for creating soundtracks to experimental films that they and their friends were creating. However, the recordings increasingly took centre stage and the band quickly gained cult status, although never widespread acclaim. The years before were typified by a chaotic inconsistency, marred by bickering, drugs and major label woes; and cumulating in the departure of vocalist of David Baker. Deserter Songs and its sweeping orchestrations marked an end to this and offered up a reinvented band ready for a bigger audience.
The Tears EP
Robots in Disguise
President Records
2008-09-22
Due to massive demand by their 85,000 MySpace fans, Robots in Disguise release “The Tears”, a synth-rock track about paranoid love. All about what happens when you don’t trust your lover, the midnight texts, the fights, the tears, it’s the madness that results from a sense something is wrong. Sounding a lot like The Pipettes on an electro trip, Dee Plume and Sue Denim are helped along by former Sneaker Pimps man Chris Corner for a catchy sing-a-long offering it’s easy to see why this was in such demand for an individual release and brings with it four remixes including a debut by The Charlatans’ frontman Tim Burgess.
Villainaire
The Dead Science
Constellation
2008-09-22
The Dead Science have got a load going for them musically, and the both gorgeous and cool sleeve and inserts of their new record Villainaire make it a great package. The record goes to prove though just how make-or-break the vocal component of a band can be, whether steering them from one genre or style to another or taking something standard and lifting it up to become something great, but here we have an example of the opposite of this where, subjective as taste may be, the vocals near ruin the otherwise great experience of the music.
One of the Boys
Katy Perry
Capitol
2008-09-22
Not since the Russian duo Tatu has there been such excitement over girls kissing girls. Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” has taken the UK by storm, topping the charts for 5 consecutive weeks. Teamed with a raunchy video and new best friend Mika, Perry appears to have struck gold with her brand of pop; essentially a happier Avril Lavigne.
Dead Young Club, Volume 1
Various Artists
Dead Young
2008-09-22
This limited edition, hand numbered, poster dressed 10” is the first in a series planning to introduce artists from the Dead Young roster to the world. A little-known northern English indie label Dead young hasn’t been releasing records long — Dead Young Club Volume 1 is actually only DYR003 — so this series of mini-compilations will also serve to disseminate the label name too.
Rosie & The Goldbug
Rosie & The Goldbug
Lover Records
2008-09-15
Hailing from the west county of Cornwall, electro-glam-stomp pop trio Rose & The Goldbug only formed last year when lead vocalist Rosie wanted to front a band who wrote three-chord pop tunes but also rebel against the mundane music learning she had received at university. Teaming up with bassist Pixie and drummer Plums (previously of Japanese drumming group Kagemusha Taiko), they have found a sound comparable to Gwen Stefani and Dragonette with a hint of Ben Folds’ piano as a playground for their songs about love and relationships. It’s sweet at times, booty shaking at others and always a treat for the ears.
Save Your Light for Darker Days
Digitonal
Just Music
2008-09-04
Producer and instrumentalist Andy Dobson has been writing and performing music as Digitonal since the late 1990s, but his music did not start to fulfil its full potential until a chance meeting with Egyptian session violinist Samy Bishai. Combining electronica with a classical sound proves a combination that will set your spirit soaring on waves of cinematic atmosphere.
A-Z Bestival 2008
Rob da Bank
Sunday Best Recordings
2008-09-01
The Rob da Bank curated boutique festival Bestival has earned a well-loved reputation in the UK. The annual music event on the Isle of Wight has a diverse range of artists from across the musical spectrum, and this third album gives those who have tickets — and even those who have — to listen to an A to Z of those performing at next month’s event. Seeing Aphex Twin, Roots Manuva, The Human League and Foals on the double CD tracklist is enough to bring a few raised eye brows at their juxtaposition — probably to the approval of Rob da Bank.
Paperwork
volcano!
The Leaf Label
2008-09-01
Chicago trio volcano! have been on a two-year hiatus since their debut album Beautiful Seizure received rave reviews in 2005. Exploring the parameters of rock, the band have tried to maintain a balance of melody and noise on Paperwork, often beginning with simple pop structures and then tearing them apart with reckless abandon to elicit a bodily reaction. They’ve also brought a political stance into their lyrics, coupled with a sense of humour, to deliver a challenging album often with its tongue firmly in its cheek.
Another English Summer EP
Future Loop Foundation
Pinncale
2008-09-01
Following up their album The Fading Room released earlier this year, Future Loop Foundation release an EP featuring “Another English Summer” taken from the LP and featuring two remixes courtesy of Hesso and Tunng. Coming from an album built from highly personal and organic ingredients using recordings of family interviews that have laid dormant in an attic somewhere in the north of England for almost a quarter of a century, it’s Englishness is unmistakable, and the electronic and acoustic samples give it a chilled, Lemon Jelly quality.
Volumes EP
The Mirimar Distaster
Undergroove
2008-09-01
Although the opening bite of first track “Alms For Strangers” is distinctly “Welcome To The Jungle”-like, Volumes, the new EP from Sheffield’s The Mirimar Disaster, quickly tears in to heavy instro-core, incredibly Mastodon-like with its pincing guitar line, throbbing bass and athletic percussion. The feel of Atlanta’s finest is felt further on the next couple of Volumes’ tracks too — both the annoyingly-named but impressive “Control. Alter. Delete.” and the similarly engaging title track — with forceful metal/hardcore blend, swirling and chugging riffery and aggro throat-work.
The Golden Mile
The Peth
Strangetown Records
2008-09-01
Not everyone knows that Rhys Ifans used to be the vocalist in Super Furry Animals — he left to concentrate on his acting career before both became famous — and now, after everyone knows both pretty well, it seems like its time for Ifans to return to the Furry’s fold. The Golden Mile is the first record from this reunification of sorts, The Peth, the new group fronted by Ifans and featuring Super Furry Animals’ drummer Dafydd Ieuan as well as Kris Jenkins, Mick Hilton, and other Furry cohort Dic Ben.
In Direct Communication
Unknown Component
n/a
2008-09-01
In Direct Communication is the seventh recording self-released by Iowa resident Keith Lynch. The album is home recorded, with Lynch writing, singing and fulfilling all of the band’s instrumental roles himself. Bedroom recordings have offered some awesome records over the last few years, ranging far and wide from the brooding minimal folk of Boduf Songs to the vicious black metal of Leviathan. These artists are not alone in their genres, and there are many more styles in between. The democratisation offered by the ease in which home studios are set up, songs recorded and then posted on MySpace and ilk has led to far more average artists than great being offered out to listeners though, and it is in this larger category in which Unknown Component unfortunately sit.
Courtcase 2000
Cats In Paris
Akoustik Anarkhy
2008-08-25
Cats in Paris have a little bit of buzz around them having received some major radio play with their debut single “Foxes” (a quirky take on indie-pop which offers rolling melodies, bobbing bass and big synths as well as a cinematic instrumental breakdown), as well as the band having recently played gigs with the likes of Chrome Hoof, Dan Deacon and Why? and at indie festivals Truck and Green Man. Following Foxes into this buzz comes the group’s debut LP Courtcase 2000 on Manchester’s Akoustic Anarkhy label.
Acid or Blood
Racebannon
Southern
2008-08-25
“Transluscent Lifeforce” kicks you in the gut with its wavering sludge-chord pound which the grating squeal entrance of Mike Anderson’s vocals only accentuates. This is majorly schizophrenic territory though so as well as this there’s math riff breakdowns and all out pummelling madness before the track ends. And then there you are, right in the middle of the aptly-titled mire of Acid or Blood, the new record from Racebannon.
White Fields and Open Devices
Vessels
Cuckundoo records
2008-08-18
Leeds five-piece Vessels started life in 2005 and developed their live set over more than 100 shows. Their adventurous nature absorbed the influences of metal, electronica, American indie and folk to become a post rock act that has drawn comparisons with Felt, Cocteau Twins the mighty Sigur Ros. In finally capturing their music onto a recording, they have faithfully recreated the emotion which greets audiences at their gigs.
Funeral Mixtape
The Pack AD
Mint Records
2008-08-12
The Pack AD are often described in complementary comparisons to established and well loved bands. Musicians such as the White Stripes and The Black Keys are banded about when attempting to describe Funeral Mixtape, a close follow up to their debut Mint Records release, Tintype. However with the release of Funeral Mixtape, it sure is only a matter of time until this trend is reversed and others are described based on their similarities to the unrestrained blues inspired sounds from this brooding Canadian female duo.
Fasciinatiion
The Faint
Blank.Wav
2008-08-11
Omaha quintet The Faint have been around a lot longer than the nu rave acts who have appeared in recent years: now onto their fifth album the dance-punk-rockers seem intent on showing newcomers such as Shit Disco and Hadouken! how to blend electro and indie to floor-filling effect. Kicking off at top gear, the Americans’ first release under their own label, Fasciinatiion, looks towards the future, musing on what is yet to come suggesting they will delve into fresh new territory for a niche genre quickly becoming unfashionable. They wind up a lot like the people they hope to educate.
Brotherhood
The Chemical Brothers
Virgin
2008-08-01
It hasn’t been long since the last “best of” album from The Chemical Brothers brought together all their singles between 1993 and 2003, so with only two albums to draw new material from it might be considered a little cheeky to release another. The fact it matches the dance duo’s only UK gig at the huge Kensington Olympia might also give the impression it’s a bit of a cash-in, and not for the avid fans eagerly awaiting their sixth studio album. The good news is while Brotherhood has the tracks you’d expect, there is also a bonus CD well be worth the outlay even if you do have every other one of major releases.
The Art of Acid
Justin Robertson
Harmless
2008-07-28
The 20th anniversary of acid house this year has brought special club night celebrations, acid-themed tents at festivals and many hazy memories of the Hacienda from those old enough to try to remember them. The baggy fashion may be a long way from returning to popular rave culture, but everyone seem to be keen to get back into the acid vibe in 2008. To mark the occasion, one of the few continuing purveyors of acid house, Justin Robertson, has stepped up the decks to provide a mix that delves into the past to pay homage to all those that influenced and inspired him in his formative years on the dance-floor of the Hacienda during the nascent days of the scene.
One Day As A Lion EP
One Day As A Lion
Anti
2008-07-22
Think you know what a duo comprised of Zack de la Rocha and Jon Theodore is going to sound like? Here’s what they say: “One Day As A Lion is both a warning delivered and a promise kept … The name taken from the infamous 1970 black and white, captured by legendary Chicano photographer George Rodriguez featuring a center framed tag on a white wall in an unspecified section of Boyle Heights. It reads: ‘It’s better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb.’ This record is a stripped down attempt to realize this sentiment in sound.” So what do we get? Well yes, it is pretty much what you thought it was going to be — engaging, punchy beats coupled with heavy, catchy riffs and tied up with some aggro topical rhymes beat and spat out over the top — but as full of feeling, energy and power as it is, this is exactly why it’s good.
Visiter
The Dodos
Wichita
2008-07-14
The Dodos’ UK debut, Visiter is ushered in with gentle acoustic guitar and banjo pluckings, typical of its folk-informed stylings, and the first track “Walking” continues onwards with warm singing (stronger male lead, female-guest-backed on the softer chorus) and upbeat, plodding rhythms and melodies. It’s by no means a simply straight forward record though and the short opening track segues straight into the still folk-based but more progressive single “Red and Purple”, where the beat and instrumental backing is urgent with frantic strummings and percussive hits and hints of discordance and darker harmonies at points — despite the foreground vocals offering the same melodic delivery displayed on the opener.
Life… The Best Game In Town
Harvey Milk
Hydra Head
2008-07-07
Back with a vengeance, rolling forth in thick, foaming waves comes chug after chug of the pure power sludge that is Harvey Milk and their latest offering Life… The Best Game In Town. Lulling the listener in with pretty chords and sweet chorals the opening of “Death Goes To The Winner” (i.e. of the Game of Life…) then bursts into everything that you’d ever want a new Harvey Milk album to do, and then some. It’s hard to work out whether that meaty, metallic instrumental chug beaten out by Creston Spiers, Stephen Tanner and (new boy to the Milk, old boy of the scene) Joe Preston is actually more meaty and metallic than Creston’s vocals — either way the point is the same. This first track shows off the skills of a perhaps more masterful and focused Harvey Milk than seen previously, as after its quiet/loud oppositions the songs chug is spun out building momentum for several powerful minutes, before ending with a referential (and suicidal) twist on The Beatles “A Day In The Life”.
Bozzwell
Bozzwell
Firm
2008-06-30
Firing out some electrifying dancefloor lasers from his launch pad in Sheffield, David Bozzwell releases this self-titled 12” on Cologne’s Firm recordings. “Marlenes Eyes” and “Fionas Song” send you slipping off into a private dancefloor daydream, sleek and finely tailored microhouse anglosaxonotron arrangements, with a remix of “Fionas Song” on the flip side from long time Kompakt affiliate Dirk Leyers.
In The Arms Of My Enemy
TV Smith
Boss Tuneage
2008-06-23
TV Smith rose to prominence in the first wave of British punk rock as singer and songwriter for the Adverts who gained cult success with the Stiff single “One Chord Wonders”. He is one of the few musicians of this period who has managed to sustain longevity in his career, let alone while still clinging to core values with which his career was launched.
Twilight Bird EP
Brendan Campbell
Everybody Records
2008-06-16
Twilight Bird is the first EP from Glasgow native Brendan Campbell who, along with his guitar, follows in the tracks of a rich tradition of British male folk singer-songwriters notably including Bert Jansch and Davy Graham.
Los Angeles
Flying Lotus
Warp Records
2008-06-09
Flying Lotus is among a new generation of artists emerging from California. A movement has captured worldwide attention, fueled by hip hop and bleeing edge dance music which has brought Flying Lotus almost instant widespread acclaim. This debut release on Warp Records takes inspiration from Los Angeles to form a deep, soulful and intricate album even the mighty Autechre would be proud of producing today.
Blood Looms and Blooms
Leila
Warp
2008-06-09
From releasing records on Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label, to djing with Bjork, to working with Terry Hall, Leila Arab probably hasn’t had to look far for inspiration for her music. Blood Looms and Blooms is her third LP, this time on Warp Records, following Like Weather and Courtesy of Choice and comes well stocked with collaborators and fluid, shape-shifting electronica.
Third Hand Prophecy
A. Human
Wall of Sound
2008-06-02
A. Human are a quirky band. The London six piece puts singer Dave Human’s psycho-monologues to analogue basslines and razorsharp guitars for an electro-androgyny rock sound. Coming across like a Gary Numan backed by the usual synths plus a tinge of modern indie, A. Human have a similar skill at bringing slightly deranged storytelling, including women with knives for hands and men with deer hands, together with waves of catchy electronics. It’s still a winning formula, and this throwback to early electro will be appreciated even more by anyone with a fondness for the rawness that came with it.
Exiting Arm
Subtle
Lex
2008-06-02
Subtle’s last record For Hero: For Fool was the sound of six accomplished producers/musicians coming together and crafting something altogether very impressive — a catchy and complex collage of progressive hip-hop-tinged pop music that really projected the group forward. Eighteen months on though and the arrival of the follow-up Exiting Arm is a semi-disappointing affair.
Pogo EP
Digitalism
Virgin Records
2008-05-26
Hamburg electronic duo Digitalism have found their popularity continues well after the release of their album Idealism last year with more festival bookings and the release of this five-track EP featuring four remixes of crowd-favourite “Pogo”. As with most EPs like this, listening to the whole thing in one go is “Pogo” overload, however in isolation there are three solid remixes and a welcome bonus track.
Replica Sun Machine
The Shortwave Set
Wall of Sound
2008-05-12
The Shortwave Set’s first LP of “Victorian funk”, The Debt Collection, was a slow burning critical success, but not enough commercial goodwill was garnered for the Depford three-piece to remain on their first label, Independiente. However, this kudos managed to gain them a deal with Wall Of Sound, a move to Hollywood to record the follow-up, Replica Sun Machine, and the patronage of three surprising individuals. The album is produced by knob-twiddler du jour Danger Mouse and has contributions from The Velvet Underground’s John Cale and Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks, but this embarrassment of riches are not just window dressing for the profile.
Sunday At Devil Dirt
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
V2
2008-05-12
Following 2006’ acclaimed and Mercury nominated Ballad Of The Broken Seas comes another collaboration between Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan. Sunday At Devil Dirt sees the ex-Belle and Sebastian femme continuing the journey started with that previous work and its stand out tracks like “The Circus Is Leaving Town”, and penning more country edged-folk ballads here, ripe for the swarthy tones of whisky-barrel-throated former Screaming Trees/Queens Of The Stone Age vocalist Lanegan.
Smile
Boris
Southern Lord
2008-05-05
Forty years ago Brian Wilson’s only too engulfing Smile project could easily have been his masterpiece, and some say that when it finally arrived it actually was. For Boris however, Smile is just business as usual — veering more towards The Beach Boys standard repetition work after their creative period came to an end in the 1970s. This is not purely a criticism of Boris and just as these Beach Boys records still offered some great tracks Smile is a solid record with some great moments, but despite its beaming title it probably wont be shining out of their discography.
7 Dunham Place
Loco Dice
Desolat
2008-04-28
Loco Dice is already famous as a minimal techno pioneer in the DJ booth and on his productions for major labels such as M_nus, Cadenza, Ovum, Four Twenty and Cocoon. But it has taken six years of singles and remixes before the man from Dusseldorf produce a set of tracks to be released as a debut album and, like most minimal tracks, the essence is in the care and attention which has gone into it. Together with producer Martin Buttrich, he spent a year in New York City to work on this LP, where they took photographs in an effort to capture the soul of a city in music through careful observations of urban tribes that crisscross and sometimes clash, of minute details and sensory impressions. As admirable mission statement, however 7 Dunham Place doesn’t quite fulfil these ambitions.
The Fading Room - Memories & Remixes
Future Loop Foundation
Just Music
2008-04-28
Future Loop Foundation a.k.a Mark Barrott has been creating music of diverse influences for some time - releasing music since 1996, taking inspiration over the years from early Detroit techno and drum and bass in his earlier releases, before progressing on to producing downbeat and chill out after moving to Berlin some years later. I’ll admit to not being familiar with his work before this (possibly an age thing), but listening to this latest release it’s clear that this immanently personal and emotional collection of tracks comes from an artist consolidating his various musical and life influences and creating an album imbued with nostalgia and dreamy childhood memories.
The Barbarians Move In
Duels
DIY
2008-04-28
Duels’ first record, The Bright Lights and What I Should Have Learned was released in the spring of 2006, but despite great reviews they parted company with then record company Nude and the LP rather sank without a trace. That the two Foulger brothers (Jon and Jim), Jon Maher and James Kirkbright have come back with another excellent record is testament to their determination and also shows that they are one of the UK’s more underrated bands (for how much longer?).
Dig That Treasure
Cryptasize
Asthmatic Kitty
2008-04-21
Cryptasize is the new project by two-thirds of The Curtains, Nedelle Torrisi and Chris Cohen. They hunted down drummer Michael Carreira to join after seeing a video of him playing cowbell. They formed in a near-derelict house with sloping floors which could have given rise to the unusual arrangements, and that house’s position next to a sugar factory (and a constant, dizzying smell of burning sugar) may have contributed to the sweet, strange songs. Then again, maybe these had nothing to do with it. Regardless, it’s nice to have a back story and this peculiar inception has produced a lovely debut.
Box of Secrets
Blood Red Shoes
V2
2008-04-14
Blood Red Shoes are Laura-Mary Carter (vocals, guitar) and Steve Ansell (vocals, drums), who formed a few years ago in the wake of both’s previous groups splitting up, after having previously met in a donut shop and become friends by nature of liking the same things. Their shared sensibilities and interests come easily across in the focused drive of their angsty rock songs and the pair offer a refreshing music simultaneously louder than most who are this numerically-limited (personnel-wise), and catchier than most this loud.
Hostile Takeover EP
Spring Tides
Blank Tapes
2008-04-07
The ‘Unreal World Music’ found on the mysterious collective Spring Tides’ debut EP and is as good a description as any for the unconventional and genre crossing tracks found on it. Released as a 12” white label on Blank Tapes last year, the EP is now getting more of a proper release dishing out some very welcome exotic flavas to the lo-fi indie sound.
Don’t Wanna Die
My Federation
Pinnacle
2008-04-07
My Federation are built around the particular talents of frontman Lee ‘Muddy’ Baker, sometime forger and car thief, who has had fingers in other more musical pies prior to this record having worked with Clearlake, Tim Booth and Beardyman variously as songwriter or producer.
Debt Dept
Excepter
Paw Tracks
2008-04-07
Excepter’s latest, Debt Dept, is a rumbling sprawl of rough vocal prods, moans and shouts over repeating musical motifs and foggy electronics. A leftfield protest ethic permeates the album, which the press release is keen to impart is the group’s fourth and which sees the light courtesy of the lo-fi-loving Paw Tracks imprint. That the group’s releases have previously gone out through labels like Load and 5 Rue Christine gives nod to new arrivals to the group of both the generally noisy and experimental aspects that characterise their sound, however it is the muddiness of the melange, or perhaps the melee, which makes Paw Tracks such an appropriate place for the group to now call home.
FIGHT: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked For Asking AUDIO BOOK
Eugene S Robinson
Hydra Head
2008-03-31
Eugene Robinson has been writing journalistic pieces on fighting for a while, though he is best known for fronting San Franciscan noise rock group Oxbow. The band’s music has often put across a large amount of negative energy, whether in paranoid, edgy atmospheres or in balls out aggression. These primal musical urges are part of Robinson’s make-up and come out in his physical activities, as his Grappling and Vice magazine pieces attest to, and this life of fighting that he has led, culminated in the book FIGHT: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking.
Hespurus
5ive
Tortuga
2008-03-31
5ive’s previous releases have admittedly been patchy but previous full-length Telestic Disfracture (2001) highlighted that the band could offer some inventive and healthily oppressive doom. The Boston two-piece group has been near silent for years though until now with the release of Hesperus, produced by Andrew Schneider (Cave-In, Daughters).
Attack & Release
The Black Keys
V2/Cooperative
2008-03-31
The Black Keys’ originally surfed into view (in Britain, at least) with their second LP, Thickfreakness, on a wave of goodwill proceeded by the White Stripes’ two person nu-blues invasion in 2002. Jack and Meg White have since moved into, and maintained, indie-superstardom with some intriguing and strange variations on a theme (including traditional Scottish folk and bullfighter references in their most recent Icky Thump), whereas The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have followed a more traditional and raw channel of blues-rock with their third and fourth LPs Rubber Factory and The Big Come Up.
Paralyzed
Witch
Tee Pee
2008-03-31
Witch don’t rehearse and rarely play live and consequently Paralyzed is a spontaneous document of the chemistry between J Mascis (playing drums — his first instrument), Dave Sweetapple (bass) and Kyle Thomas, formally of avant-folk group Feathers (guitar and vocals). Paralyzed follows Mascis et al’s eponymous debut, also released on NYC’s home of the loud and the psychedelic, Tee Pee Records.
Pass Fail
Leander
Kennington Recordings
2008-03-31
Recording as Leander, the Berlin-based Kranholdt brothers (Lars and Daniel) have absorbed some of the recent electronic musical heritage of their adopted home, but have eschewed the harsher electro influences of the likes of International DJ Gigolo records or the minimal techno released on Kompakt for a more Gallic turn. For starters the cover of their debut, Pass Fail, bears comparison to the hand drawn faces on Kitsune Records’ sleeves. Beyond the visual Leander have much in common with Air or Blue States, as they combine the electronic with the acoustic and dreamy vocals and guitars play alongside inventive electronics.
X Marks Destination
The Whip
Southern Fried
2008-03-24
Having toured relentlessly, The Whip have amassed a following who will know their songs inside out from the live performances ranging from indie dance nights to electro-rave parties. Their raw, energetic tempo and inventive but subtle differences to the tunes found on the album means the recorded counterparts don’t have the same spark and tend to be get you bopping away but go on for too long — with some at six or seven minutes long, their ideas are stretched very thinly.
Film
Nemeth
Thrill Jockey
2008-03-10
Stefan Nemeth is a member of both Radian and Lokai and the co-founder of Mosz Records and Film is his first solo record. As its title makes references though it is not a straight ‘solo album’ but contains tracks culled and cut-up from, and embellishing, the variety of work that the Austrian musician has composed for different experimental film and video pieces over the last four or five years.
Quaristice
Autechre
Warp Records
2008-03-03
Impenetrable to most, Autechre’s electronic music is a harsh experience if you don’t venture off the well-beaten tracks of genre-defined composition. Reports that the duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown are offered early version of computer equipment to put through their paces, to record on, to test and to abuse give some idea of their abilities to forge machine-based sounds and push them to the limit. For this, their ninth album, they give us 20 tracks ranging from just over a minute to not much longer than five rather than their usual eight minute epics for more accessible yet equally ponderous audio attacks.
The Secret Life Of The Wife Of The Captain Of The Ship In A Bottle On The Mantle Piece
Caz Mechanic
Big Potato
2008-03-03
Caz Mechanic is Caroline Banks of Seafood and Sleeping States fame and The Secret Life Of The Wife Of The Captain Of The Ship In A Bottle On The Mantle Piece is her debut long-player. Caz’s vocals and work across guitar and piano, melodica and even kazoo forms the basis of the music here but she generally receives accompaniment from an assortment of musicians and vocalists — though she also often joins herself on multi-tracked vocal lines.
Forts
The Boggs
Tangled Up
2008-02-25
We Are the Boggs We Are and Stitches came closely after one another in 2002 and 2003 respectively, however The Boggs’ third album Forts has been a while longer in the making. Unlike its predecessors it is essentially a modern, indie-rock record, though the group’s style is different and varied, though keeping the mix of folk and acoustic elements along side post-punk and noise. True to form too, songwriter and one constant member Jason Friedman is here joined by a large array of collaborators, including names familiar both from previous Boggs work and for alternative day jobs including percussionists Brad Conroy and Julian Gross (the latter of Liars) and vocalists Heather D’Angelo (Au Revoir Simone) and Karen Sharky.
Overcome
Realistic Crew
Kitty-Yo
2008-02-25
Soothing electronic music is on the menu from Realistic Crew, an act which has opened for respected artists in their field such as Amon Tobin and has just increased in size. Founded in 2001 by Chabz and Krizo, who both began their musical careers in alternative rock bands before making the transition to electronica at around the same time, they have worked with the cream of Hungary’s underground musicians and vocalists. Now signed to Kitty Yo, their first release for the label, Overcome, is bolstered by five new band members. Dodi Karpati (trumpet), Albert Markos (cello), David Hegyi (piano), Dalma Berger (vocals) and Zeek (MC) have produced a testament to hip hop which is perfect for a lounge environment but a little too chilled for its own good.
UnonoU
Danava
Kemado
2008-02-18
Danava’s UnonoU is not just a mouthful but an often engrossing showboat of glam-tinged early 1970s hard-edged prog laced with theatricality and cloaked in period production. Right from the off in the title track, the band offer riffs straight out of the Deep Purple or Black Sabbath songbook, but with heavy development perhaps more akin to Wishbone Ash, a comparison felt also in the vocals, which similarly feel a little Eno-esque, fitting nicely with the ballroom quirk felt in several tracks.
Monstre Cosmic
Monade
Too Pure / Duophonic
2008-02-18
If Laetitia Sadier was a Taboo answer then at the top of the list or words you couldn’t use to describe her would be “chanteuse”. She’s a singer, she’s a she, and hey, she’s French too — parfait! Best known for her singing work with experimental-indie outfit Stereolab, Sadier’s soft, affecting voice and ability to create some classically cool-sounding songs have also been put to work on a couple of Monade records by now, with new entry Monstre Cosmic being the third.
Discography
The Huguenots
Hydra Head
2008-02-18
You’ve probably not heard of The Huguenots and why would you? A New England hardcore band in the mid/late 90s they had only a few small releases, culminating in a split 10” with the similarly probably unknown to most SevenPercentSolution. But now Hydra Head, the label that put out that split, have pulled together all of the band’s work onto one Discography CD.
Human Bell
Human Bell
Thrill Jockey
2008-01-28
Human Bell is a cleverly worked moniker drawn from the names of the principle players on this eponymous record, Dave Heumann and Nathan Bell. Both might be known for their work elsewhere — Bell took position as bassist in Lungfish in the latter nineties and early noughts and Heumann is the leader of Arbouretum — but their list of previous partners and collaborations includes PW Long, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Mighty Flashlight, Cass McCombs and Papa M among others. This work brings together some of the work that these other projects have offered or suggested at, but entertaining a concept specific to the new endeavour: that of ‘Ephphatha’ an Aramaic expression meaning to be open, as a portal — an idea suggesting at a pure communication, which the records’ music embraces.
Another Sound Is Dying
Dub Trio
Ipecac
2008-01-28
Another Sound is Dying is another genre-bending Ipecac treat, despite Dub Trio’s seemingly stylistically and descriptively-specific name. In the main the assembled trio of Brooklyn residents Stu Brookes, DP Holmes and Joe Tomino, bash out riff after riff of metallic frenzy right up in the heavy realms of the spectrum, however this is often undercut or peppered with the Jamaican style found in the band’s title. Dub is an experimental and jammed-out genre working with bassy grooves, punchy percussion and one which is generally instrumental, and though it could be done so incredibly badly, Dub Trio marry up riddims with raw instrumental post-metal very well. Perhaps heavier than any of their previous offerings and perhaps more focused, Another Sound… is an energetic and engaging record.
Glorytellers
Glorytellers
Southern
2008-01-28
As a key member of cultish US indie bands Karate and The Secret Stars, Geoff Farina has carved out a respected, if not terribly well known, path through the leftfield rock landscape with those acts’ jazzy post-rock and lo-fi pop. His latest project is a sea change in tone as one third of Boston’s Glorytellers, focussing his stories of contemporary America in and around low key instrumentation with musicianly chops.
No Fighting In The War Room
Harrisons
Melodic
2008-01-28
Sheffield four-piece Harrisons, named after a local street in Hillsborough, have released their No Fighting In The War Room debut after two years together and five weeks in the studio with Hugh Jones, producer of past luminaries like Echo And The Bunnymen and The Stranglers. Links to bands past and present is a theme that starts there, but doesn’t stop with this LP.
Into Abaddon
Saviours
Kemado
2008-01-21
Opening with a half minute of rollicking metallic riffage and then settling down into some hard-edged classic-styled rock, Saviours throw down their sonic gauntlet — and it sounds distinctly like Mastodon covering Thin Lizzy. Which is no bad thing. The music offered on Into Kabbadon, the second record from the Oakland, California band, wears its influences proudly, but underneath these perhaps obvious outer-garments is a solid body of work, combining technical ability with the all important skills of metallic songwriting — including a particular mastery of the riff. Running and hammering around it, rocking out the meaty verse sections between it with accompanying shouty belted vocals Saviours lead the listener right through the hammering tracks up to rich harmony and solo sections — coming in around the fifth minute of this opening number, “Raging Embers”.
A Cork Tale Wake
Chris Bathgate
Tangled Up
2008-01-21
Having self-released two LPs from within the Ann Arbour and Ypsilanti folk scenes in rural Michigan, A Cork Tale Wake is the first release in the UK and wider US by an artist named ‘Best Solo Artist in Michigan’ by Real Detroit Weekly (OK, it’s not exactly the Grammys but it’s a start). Chris Bathgate has drawn comparisons with stalwarts of US folk n roll like Jeff Tweedy, Will Oldham and Bill Callaghan. Granted, those names are alt-folk heavyweights in the US and here and this LP should be judged on its individual merits (I’ll get to that…), but A Cork Tale Wake only features a clutch of decent material surrounding by some underwhelming moments.
Inlandish
Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Tim Story
Gronland
2008-01-14
Hans-Joachim Roedelius is one third of electronic pioneers Harmonia and the recently-reformed Cluster, one half of this collaborative project with neo-classical composer Tim Story and one all-round krautrock/kosmich legend. This latest work, following 2003’s Lunz, is without the propulsive groove of Cluster’s proto-electronica but retains the spare structure and downbeat air. Inlandish’s foundations were laid as Roedelius played piano and keyboards over 10 days in Storey’s studio in Toledo, the latter electonicist then spent 5 months adding his contribution.
Spiderman of the Rings
Dan Deacon
Carpark
2008-01-07
Not only is Spiderman of the Rings a tremendous title, it is also about as accurate a four word summation of the material — albeit in a rather abstract sense as it would be possible to make. As elegant, complete and wonderfully concise as it would be to restrict my review to repeating the record’s title, I am required to be a little more verbose.
Going Places
Montag
Carpark
2007-12-17
Going Places is Montag’s follow-up to 2005’s Alone, Not Alone and is ostensibly a solo vehicle for Montreal’s Antoine Bedard, though this LP features appearances from various French and Canadian luminaries, including M83’s Anthony Gonzales, Owen Pallet (Arcade Fire/Final Fantasy), Stars and Ghislain Poirier. In fact the title track features contributions from some 70 individuals from around the world, recruited via an internet campaign, though you’d be hard pressed to pick any in particular out from what is a surprisingly light affair.
Zamyatin Tapes Vol. 1 and 2
Bass Clef
Blank Tapes
2007-12-03
Bass Clef follows up his this year’s A Smile Is A Curve That Straightens Most Things album and “Hackney Centralist” EP with a two-part EP aimed at devestating dancefloors. The electronica artist has forged some hard-hitting dub and 2-step to get the bass shaking.
White Devil’s Day Is Almost Over
Neil Burrell
Akoustik Anarkhy
2007-12-03
This debut LP from Manchester-based Neil Burrell is a collection of playful avant-folk recorded over three years in various non-studio locations. Though he does sometimes perform with a band when playing live White Devil’s Day Is Almost Over is solely his own. The twelve tracks presented feature just vocals and acoustic guitar, with a few sounds and effects thrown in and its to his credit that none of the tracks sound either too similar or too out of place.
Honk Honk Bonk
Soiled Mattress and The Springs
Upset The Rhythm
2007-12-03
There’s an easy assumption from merely taking in both the album title, Honk Honk Bonk, and the name of the group, Soiled Mattress and The Springs, that what’s being offered here may not be the most serious and straight-laced of musical projects — a fact reinforced by the music contained within. It is the work of three individuals, with the instrumentation generally saxophone, keyboard and drums. There is a definite jazz edge but this isn’t really a jazz trio, it seems more like a leftfield instrumental pop group, or maybe just a little experiment. It seems sometimes whimsical, often fun, sometimes different, sometimes obvious, and sometimes amateurish.
Heavy Deavy Skull Lover
The Warlocks
Tee Pee
2007-11-19
The Warlocks are back on an indie label, Tee Pee — a label famed for its pleasant lack of creative interference, perfect for a band regrouping after an attempt at bigger things on a larger label proved an unsuccessful personal journey. The results of this new link up are Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, a further twist in the band’s stylistic and musical development offering a collection of fragile, elongated noise-scapes.
Bravo
Friska Viljor
Crying Bob
2007-11-12
Two men, good friends, who’ve played music in a band together for years find themselves simultaneously at the end of their respective relationships and so decide to do as many men, good friends, would do: drink. Drinking lots together repeatedly they end up playing music and find that in their drunken state they have stumbled upon something which they don’t just like the direction of but which convince them never to write music sober again.
The Peppermint Conspiracy
Samantha Marais
Butterfly Recordings
2007-11-12
Samantha Marais started playing the guitar aged 8, heavily influenced by her brother’s love of the instrument and her father’s love for Bob Dylan. Though she had been writing, playing and singing songs ever since it was only after the South African left her homeland and moved to the UK that she began to get better noticed for her art. After a short while playing with a group, Contraband, she returned to the solo acoustic and folksier sound she had grown up with. Capturing the attention of ex-Killing Joke man Youth she was introduced by him to The Verve’s Simon Tong who together signed her to their new Butterfly Recordings venture which releases this, her debut album.
In The Vines
Castanets
Asthmatic Kitty
2007-11-05
After a hushed take introduction an acoustic guitar strums a minor chord and a piercingly dark mood is secured with the imminent arrival of the heavily reverberating voice of Ray Raposa, the one constant part and sometimes the whole of Castanets (he is often joined by many, although still calls the band a “we” when performing solo.) “So rain will come/so rain will come/and wind will blow” sings Raposa in his ominous tones setting the generally haunted mood that remains throughout most of the record.
VietNam
VietNam
Kemado
2007-11-05
This eponymous LP follows Brooklyn-based VietNam’s The Concrete’s Always Grayer On The Other Side of the Street debut EP and a couple of limited vinyl 7”s on The Social Registry, though this is the first official release in the UK. It was recorded in a 100% analogue studio in LA, and the four members look and sound like they might be oblivious to the fact it’s not 1970; all two foot hair, full face beards and faded flares. Whatever they are doing, it obviously encourages collaboration as Vietnam features such diverse guests as Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis, Paz Lenchantin, and Jesse Carmichael (Maroon 5!).
The White and Black Album
Imani Coppola
Ipecac
2007-11-05
The eighth album from Imani Coppola finds her turning away from melancholic, sample-heavy soundscapes her fans have become accustomed to in favour a very different musical formula. Namely, anarchic, visceral rock that is sure to cause a few of them to turn off, but should also bring her to the attention of those looking for a strong, outspoken female songstress.
No World for Tomorrow
Coheed & Cambria
Sony
2007-11-05
No World For Tomorrow, or to give the LP it’s full name Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, is the follow up to Coheed & Cambria’s million selling volume one, From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness. These two albums are two halves of one concept based on multi-talented singer-guitarist Claudio Sanchez’s Armory Wars comic book.
The Absentee 12”
Half Cousin
Gronland
2007-10-29
The first remix, by Ingrid Eto (the instrumental Zero 7 sister project) takes the form of a rolling electro plod repeating the vocal hooks, and also marrying them with doctored versions, overall making something perfect for angular shape pulling and hair checking. At approaching the half way mark of its lengthy timespan, the strains of the original are lost for the majority of the remainder to technoinstrumental play which works nice and quirky over the flat but punchy 4/4 kick.
Cthonic Rites
Moss
Aurora Borealis
2007-10-22
Moss’ Cthonic Rites is a dank doomy mess of harsh slow noise — a Khanate-esque drudgery pooling distorted subsonics in ultra-slow movement and lashing out vile piercing vocals. Now Southampton is not the most positively inspiring of places, however, it is not so bad as to have sprung this beast purely on it’s own — it is more a love of both similarly torurous doom and the fantastical fiction of HP Lovecraft (hence the title — born from the Cthulu Mythos) from which this epic is inspired.
Mixtapes & Cellmates
Mixtapes & Cellmates
Tangled Up
2007-10-22
Mixtapes And Cellmates are a Swedish fourpiece (three boys, one girl) whose eponymous debut LP and accompanying single (“Quiet”) are their first official releases in the UK after a couple of EP releases in Europe. This sweet collection of 10 tracks of the album proper and their second of those EPs, If There Is Silence Fill It With Longing, which adds some perspective to an early development in their sound; in this case the drum machine and keyboard swells moving into the forefront at the expense of droning guitars.
Live 1974
Harmonia
Gronland
2007-10-22
Harmonia are an often unsung yet important feature of the main Krautrock scene of the early 1970s, largely ignored at the time and so generally unknown to modern fans of the ‘movement’ and its big names. A supergroup of sorts the ensemble was made up of three major players from these more well-known bands: Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius of Cluster alongside Michael Rother, formerly of Krautrock’s 1971 line-up and then part of Neu!, having recorded their first two records before getting involved with the Cluster pair for this shared project. The experimental aim wasn’t necessarily too different to those held by the musicians within their other groups however it offered the situation to try it in a slightly different context and with different people.
The Sentinel
Aerial
Tangled Up!
2007-10-17
The Sentinel is the UK debut from Aerial, who hail from Sandviken, northen Sweden. The album was previously released at the beginning of the year in the band’s home country on the native Nomethod imprint, which also released their first record Black Rain From The Bombing last year. Whereas that previous release offered four lengthy compositions averaging out at about nine minutes each The Sentinel offers ten, some as short as a minute and a half and overall averaging out at half the individual track length of its predecessor. The shorter track length doesn’t neccesarily offer more definition or power to the songs though, with the band’s post rock structures and moods blending from one track to the next across the whole of the album.
Widow City
The Fiery Furnaces
Thrill Jockey
2007-10-15
Widow City bookends a five year period from their Gallowsbird Bark debut that has seen Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger (multi-instrumentation and vocals respectively) confound and delight in equal measure. The last Fiery Furnaces releases were the strange concept LP Rehearsing My Choir (narrated by the siblings’ Gran) and the better-received Bitter Tea. This time around there is no concept, instead WC was supposedly inspired by an imaginary Ouija Board and 1970’s women’s magazines and features their usual obtuse and surreal wordplay, this time featuring stories of random house furnishings (“Wicker Whatnots”) and confused amnesiacs (“My Egyptian Grammer”).
Two Gallants
Two Gallants
Saddle Creek
2007-10-08
This self-titled third LP from childhood friends Adam Stephens (guitar, vocals) and Tyson Vogel (drums) follows a hard touring work ethic, 50 or so shows a year, and two well-received albums on Bright Eyes’ Saddle Creek label; 2004’s The Throes and last year’s What The Toll Tells. This latest release carries on the Gallants’ sparse, loud re-reading of country and blues but avoids sounding like a retread of past glories.
The Wind May Howl
The Monks Kitchen
1965 Records
2007-10-08
Apparently The Monk’s Kitchen have been bumbling about for about seven years, recording lo-fi demos and playing mainly within an introspective domestic environment, until former Alfie man Lee Gorton heard them and set them on the path that leads to their first major release The Wind May Howl, on James Endeacott’s 1965 label.
Internal Riot
Subhumans
Bluurg
2007-09-24
Unsurprisingly it’s full of dirt-tinged anarcho punk rock, clever enough to offer a little more in song development than three chord repetition still without straying too far from the latter-wave punk template. Apparent in various places are the darker edge that crept into the post-punk songs of Wire, Joy Division and the like, with the bouncier parts of Gang of Four etc and the dub hints found in the same era’s PiL and The Slits.
Most People Are Nicer Than Us
Hard Ons
Boss Tunage
2007-09-24
There is something about the essential simplicity of punk rock, which allows it to endure — in the same way that watching a dog dragging it’s behind along the floor will probably always be universally hilarious. It is hard to imagine groups from any other music style continuing to make what is essentially the same record over and over again and maintain a fan base. Yet this is pretty much what Antipodean punk legends Hard Ons have been doing (a couple of break-ups and changes in membership aside) since their inception almost twenty five years ago.
Input The Output
1000 Hertz
In At The Deep End
2007-09-24
Input The Output is the debut album from a group starting to make waves in the UK hardcore punk scene having been picked up for a compilation on influential Hassle records and following props on Radio 1 genre shows (The Lockup, The Radio 1 Rock Show). The four bored, angry provincial town-dwelling members of 1000 Hertz are at something of a Brit Rock vanguard along with likes of The Zico Chain, but how far can they spread their messages?
Three
Saturation Point
Very Friendly
2007-09-24
On first impressions this record sounds like the bedroom project of a couple of guitar shop employees who have taken full advantage of there staff discount to max out on effects units and felt compelled by the weight of their investment to form a band, “but hey! none of us can sing! … no worries dude, we’ll be an instrumental band!!” so these hypothetical guitar shop workers may have mused.
Beat Romantic
Talkdemonic
Tangled Up
2007-09-17
Talkdemonic’s Beat Romantic offers soft and subtle myriads of sounds and ideas with light melodies developing over soothing deeper effected drones while splintered rhythms flit from glitchy electonics to brushed frantic acoustics. Although only a two-piece, Portland, Oregon’s Kevin O’Connor and Lisa Molinaro, Talkdemoni deliver a rich and varied texture and array of instrumentation throughout this, their second, record. While Molinaro switches between synths and emotive viola, O’Connor keeps his hands full by taking up duties on guitar, banjo, bass, synths, pianos, wurlitzers, rhodes, accordion and programming as well as beating out the dynamic live drumwork.
Athlantis
Eyvind Kang
Ipecac
2007-09-16
Citing renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno as his main inspiration, Eyvind Kang is not out to ingratiate himself into the hit parade. Samuel Beckett draws influence from the very same man in one of his early literary essays with the specific intent of alienating the average reader and unsurprisingly, Athlantis is best suited to the connoisseur of the avant garde. Kang muses that while composing he felt like he was “sharing a kind of joke, or riddle, with Bruno, that we were almost laughing together.” If the intellectualising becomes too much for your feeble brain then don’t try and get in on the joke, it’s probably not funny and chances are you don’t know Latin anyway. Yes, the whole thing’s in Latin.
OH:IO
Bearsuit
Fantastic Plastic
2007-09-10
Norwich six piece Bearsuit have had a modicum of cult success up to now, having been featured several times in John Peel’s ‘Festive Fifty’ end of year poll. Were the great man still with us the likelyhood is a couple of cuts from this, their third album, would do so too.
Love’s Miracle
Qui
Ipecac
2007-09-10
For Qui’s second outing (first on Mike Patten’s Ipecac) the original Drums/Guitar two piece are joined by ex-Scratch Acid, ex-Jesus Lizard frontman David Yow. Given Yow’s profile, one of the most suprising things about the record is that he does not contribute until the second track. The opener “Apartment” employs the vocals of drummer Paul Christensen. The comparison between this and the second, where Yow’s vocals dominate shows plainly his contribution to the group.
Friend And Foe
menomena
City Slang
2007-09-03
Friend and Foe is the third record from Portland, Or. born Menomena and the first UK release, their previous output receiving a fairly limited release on one-man Portland independent FILMguerrero.
Wicked Man’s Rest
Passenger
Chalkmark
2007-09-03
This is the first long player by Passenger, who came together in London when singer-songwriter Mike Rosenburg met a soundtrack composer called Andrew Phillips at a Free Burma benefit gig. They spent a year or two writing their debut and in that time recruited additional members to cover keyboards, drums and bass.
Good Arrows
Tunng
Full Time Hobby
2007-08-27
Good Arrows is the third album from Tunng, the pastoral pop band behind the acclaimed Mother’s Daughter and Other Songs (Static Caravan, 2005) and Comments Of The Inner Chorus (Full Time Hobby, 2006). Their playful and simplistic tones are overlaid with quirky, nursery-rhyme lyrics to form an experimental sound which draws on Icelandic prog rock, choral music and film soundtracks for influence. For Good Arrows, the full six-piece band was assembled in the studio to provide new depth and engagement.
Can I Keep This Pen?
Northern State
Ipecac
2007-08-27
The polished production of Chuck Brody and Beastie Boy Ad Rock sees Northern State’s third album, their first since leaving major label Columbia, slickly delivering personal, political and clearly referential riot girl rhymes. Can I Keep This Pen? is consequently high scoring on the cool factor, although at times the vibe is at times so NY-alicious, Fun Lovin’ Criminals come to mind. With bass lines riding the wave between spaghetti western and 1970s gangster fresh, “The Three Amigas” with its guns, cards and booty is a perfect example of irony descending into cliche.
Street Gospels
Bedouin Soundclash
Sideonedummy
2007-08-20
After the immense success of “When the Night Hears My Song” brought Bedouin Soundclash into the limelight here in the UK last year, it has been a long wait for a new album since 2005’s Sounding a Mosaic. The Canadian trio have been working away on their blend of reggae, rock, punk and soul along with Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer for a album that is sure to build on their growing popularity.
More Soul Than Wigan Casino
Bearsuit
Fantastic Plastic
2007-08-20
Bearsuit sound like another of the absurdly young indie-pop bands that currently abound, like Cajun Dance Party or Bombay Bicycle Club, but have in fact been around for a while and and had three top 5 singles in the late, great John Peel’s festive 50 poll.
In Camera
Arthur & Yu
Memphis Industries
2007-08-20
With a musical moniker taken from their childhood nicknames, it is unsurprising that the music on In Camera from Seattle’s Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott’s Arthur & Yu offers blissful, wistful melodies, although the tunes are tempered away from a twee sweetness by often clattering accompaniments and rawer, free recording techniques.
Andorra
Caribou
City Slang
2007-08-20
Dan Snaith released two LPs as Manitoba in 2002 and 2003 before a rather silly lawsuit threat from ‘Handsome Dick’ Manitoba, singer with proto punks the Dictators, forced him to re-moniker as Caribou. His first release bearing that name was the excellent The Milk Of Human Kindness (2007). Andorra sees a similarly densely-layered sound (some of the vocals were multi-tracked 40 times, for example), but where that prior release featured a more krautrockin’ element to the sonic experiments this latest album has a more English bent.
Bring Me The Workhorse
My Brightest Diamond
Asthmatic Kitty
2007-08-13
My Brightest Diamond is the pseudonym that the extraordinary Shara Worden has chosen to deliver her compositions to the world. Bring Me The Workhorse is released on Sufjan Steven’s own label, Asthmatic Kitty, after Worden toured as part of the ‘Illinoisemakers’ backing band for his Come On Feel The Illinoise LP. She is similarly prodigiously talented to Mr Stevens too: this record is written, played and produced by Worden and fairly unusually (helped presumably by her classically-trained background) she also scored all the string arrangements.
Trainwreck/Raincheck
Simon Bookish
Use Your Teeth
2007-08-13
Leo Chadburn, AKA Simon Bookish, is a classically-trained composer who straddles a fine line between performance art and pop music on his myriad projects. He has remixed the likes of The Organ and Grizzly Bear, performed with Leafcutter John, Saint Etienne and Patrick Wolf and presented dozens of exhibitions and performances in the last few years.
Bring On The Waves EP
6 Day Riot
Tantrum
2007-08-11
With Bring On The Waves 6 Day Riot have followed debut album Folie a Deux with a charming EP continuing the filtration of their multiple ethnic folk influences through an easily accessible pop filter. This is demonstrated perfectly by the opening track “Go! Canada” swift move from its opening oom pah pah banjo strums through to the light and engaging melodies that hook in the shuffling chorus.
Semeion
RETINA.IT
Hefty
2007-08-06
Italians Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono had a long history of combining heavy rhythms to minimal electronica, with RETINA.IT their most successful project. It has brought their efforts to fine-tune their sound with soft vibrations, warm production and a keen sense of classic melodies, hooks, structures and samples. Semeion is a collection of the rare original works and unreleased tracks designed to introduce them to new ears or polish off fans’ collections.
Head Home
o’death
City Slang
2007-08-06
o’death’s Head Home is a fantastically eclectic collection of intimate country-folk, tin-pot bluegrass, right royal hootenanny and gypsy punk stomp leaving no room for either expectation or relaxation. Reference points can be drawn from a pool including Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Gogol Bordello, The Meat Puppets, Flogging Molly, Black Ox Arkestra and even Godspeed at various moments.
Remixes Compiled
Telefon Tel Aviv
Hefty
2007-07-30
When the levee broke and their hometown of New Orleans was virtually washed away by Hurricane Katrina, Telefon Tel Aviv was forced to take inventory of their lives and careers. Hence, this compiling of their remix work following Joshua Eustis and Charlie Cooper through their production work. Their blissful reworkings underpinned by their skillful composition that blends digital trickery with live instruments makes for an interesting blend of re-imagingings.
The Unbeliever
Shaped By Fate
In At The Deep End
2007-07-16
The album is formed of ten tracks, which apart from the slow bombastic intro — the suitably-titled “Launch The Immortal Fleet” — and equally epic instro-metal centrepiece “My Sun Sets To Rise Again”, are all brutal metallic hardcore energy-wipers. After the initial kick in from the opening rolling drums of the title track the thrashy riffs, bassy chugging and intense blasts don’t let up, well only to ring out or give you a very short math-counted breather before blasting back in to take it away again.
Fables
Immaculate Machine
Mint Records
2007-07-14
Immaculate Machine hail from Vancouver, British Colombia and share more than a passing resemblance to fellow proponents of Canadian indie pop The New Pornographers, which is to some degree to be expected as IM’s Kathryn Calder featured on the NP record Twin Cinema. The simplest summation of the sound of this record is a slightly brighter reincarnation of the NPs with cleaner, more pop production.
Black Lives At The Golden Coast
The Icarus Line
Dim Mak
2007-07-10
Three years after the release of their second full-length, Penance Soiree, Los Angeles’ reincarnation of The Stooges, The Icarus Line, are back with their latest offering of down and dirty, liquored fuelled rock n roll. Black Lives At The Golden Coast continues where Penance Soiree left off, serving up 11 tracks of sharp, abrasive rock. The band’s sound radically changed after their first full-length, Mono, when the band adapted its now fuzz-the-fuck-out resonance.
Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot
Daniel AIU Higgs
Thrill Jockey
2007-07-09
The Yggdrasil is the gigantic and powerful ash tree from Norse mythology which links the different cosmological worlds together. The grouping of the Yggdrasil alongside the Tarot therefore builds an impression of something mysterious, spiritual and cosmic, with the suggestion of power added through the “Atomic” prefix. It comes as no surprise then that both the music offered within the CD and the images and word-play found within the pages of the book have a mysterious, spiritual and cosmic edge. At times the music is a real sonic assault, though at times it is melodic and engaging, similarly there is a range within the poetic acronyms sited on the opposite pages of each colour artwork from the playfully comic to the obtuse, random or the controversial. Also the artworks vary between ultra simplistic monochromes to more detailed images and between dark moods and arrays of bright poster vibrancy.
Underfelt
Mewgatz
OIB Records
2007-07-09
Underfelt is the opening salvo from the malfunctioning toy lazer gun that is Mewgatz - AKA the g-g-glitching, twisted mind of Ed McGregor, who spent his formative years in a Midlands attic surrounded by old keyboards and electronics.
Oxengate
Candidate
Snowstorm
2007-07-02
Oxengate is the fifth album by London-based Candidate. In 2002 they released Nuada, an album inspired by creepy, seventies Brit-horror The Wicker Man. Unlike that dark subject matter, this latest release comes in a sweetly drawn sleeve depicting a country scene and was recorded in a cottage in the Suffolk countryside. A bucolic if slightly dull air weaves throughout the LP.
We Are the Night
The Chemical Brothers
Virgin
2007-07-02
Chart success and popularity have done nothing to water down The Chemical Brothers’ distinctive psychedelic big beat sound. Its evolution has kept it fresh while other big dance artists such as Faithless and Basement Jaxx have succumbed to the pitfall of sound-the-same albums recently. With their sixth album, Ed Simons and Tom Rowland bounce back from the disjointed effort of Push the Button (Virgin, 2005) which lacked the cohesion of their initial releases to unleash a stomping rave up followed by soothingly mellow moments held together by their trademark acid house influences.
Hello Love
The Broken Family Band
Track and Field
2007-07-02
The Broken Family Band started out life as a full on alt-country outfit with banjos, accordions and fake American accents. This template has been left further behind with each release on their way to this, their forth full length, which contains none of the instruments which often define the genre but does retain a distinctly country feel both rhythmically and in terms of lyrical themes.
OIB 4-Way Split Series: Volume One
Various
OIB
2007-06-30
This is the first in a series of 4-way split 7”s from new, Brighton based label OIB (One Inch Badge) Records. The series is designed with the commendable aim of documenting local creativity and a providing a platform for relative unknowns. Volume One features The Tumbledown Estate, Munch Munch, Gay Against You and Lonely Ghosts.
Rinoceros
Coley Park
Big Potato Records
2007-06-25
Despite starting out as Sonic Youth-inspired banjo and clarinet outfit, Coley Park are more part of a typically English lineage of low key psychedelic indie-pop. Now on their second album, they have worked with The Go! Team’s Ian Parton previously, and Neil Halstead from Mojave 3 on this LP. Halstead’s band is the better representation of what Rhinoceros has to offer.
It’s A Bit Complicated
Art Brut
Labels/Mute
2007-06-25
Eddie Argos, lead singer of Art Brut, is a star. Well, not in the UK. In the USA the band have appeared on nationwide chat shows, have played with Ghostface Killer and were given single of the year by Rolling Stone. In Germany they have supported Oasis and Argos has had his lyrics discussed in a Berlin University lecture. Over here he can barely get arrested (well, he probably could if he did something bad like knocking a policeman’s hat off).
Lose All Time
You Say Party! We Say Die!
Fierce Panda
2007-06-25
Lose All Time follows Canadian’s You Say Party! We Say Die!’s debut, Hit The Floor, which was released on Sound Document last year. This latest release is on the Fierce Panda label, an imprint that seems to be broadening their horizons from varieties of indie-rock to encompass dancefloor abuse — Lose All Time’s relentless disco-punk follows hot on the heels of the well-received debut LP by Shitdisco.
Greatest Hits
Social Distortion
Epitaph/Time Bomb
2007-06-25
This is the first career-spanning greatest hits collection from punk-rock legends Social Distortion. The band originally formed amongst the LA hardcore scene back in 1978 and despite the obvious end of that era, numerous personnel shifts and the tragedy of losing long-time member Dennis Danell back in 2000, the band are still rocking on — confirmed by the fact that this compilation includes a new track, exclusive to this release.
Music From Regions Beyond
Tiger Army
Hellcat
2007-06-25
So-Cal trio Nick 13, Jeff Rofredo and James Meza aka Tiger Army are back with another record of trademark upbeat psychobilly/punk in the form of Music From Regions Beyond released through the Hellcat label and produced by legendary punk desk helmer ‘Huckle’ Jerry Finn.
Still Alive
DJ Mayonnaise
Anticon
2007-06-18
DJ Mayonnaise, along with Alias and Moodswing9 (in which he also played) was one of the first artists to be released on what is the now influential San Francisco Based Imprint Anticon. DJ Mayonnaise’s work as with much of the Anticon roster is characterised by the integration of sampled and live instrumentation.
Killed ‘Em Deader ‘N A Six Card Poker Hand
Epsilons
Retard Disco
2007-06-18
This is the second full length from terribly young Californians Epsilons who with luck should have finished high school by the time this record is out. Killed ‘Em… is a straight up garage rock record: three or four chord punk songs with Stranglers type organ, Chuck Berry inspired guitar solos and uncomplicated structures.
Weirdo Rippers
No Age
FatCat
2007-06-18
No Age are two improbably-named LA hipsters (Dean Spunt and Randy Randall) who used to be together in the influential but obscure hardcore trio Wives, who split in 2005. Weirdo Rippers is NA’s first CD and first long player, and is a best-of compilation culled from 5 limited vinyl EPs released in a few months on 5 different DIY labels (including Upset The Rhythm in the UK and Deleted Art from Sweden).
Quiet Lanes EP
Coley Park
Big Potato
2007-06-18
Contained within the retro book style of the record’s artwork the Quiet Lane EP is a collection of sunny pop songs from the apparently almost hermitic (through spending time writing at home writing these tunes) Coley Park. The EP’s title track is lifted from the album Rhinoceros, to be released next week and it is a delightfully upbeat, bouncing tune, if perhaps a little similar to comparable material.
Anonymous
Tomahawk
Ipecac
2007-06-18
On the first two albums Tomahawk have pretty much done exactly what it says on the tin and produced the records that you could easily expect — coming from the sum of its parts: mix up Faith No More (Mike Patton), Helmet (John Stainer), Melvins (Kevin Rutmanis) and Jesus Lizard (Duane Denison) and you get a skewed punk-rock, with perhaps the largest presence coming from vocalist Patton (who is rarely involved in a project that doesn’t come out sounding incredibly like his own) and guitarist Denison (whose guitars take the musical fore) — the two original founding members. 2003’s Mit Gas was in some ways a little disappointing for this, though offering some great noisy and atmospheric rock it sometimes lacked the edge and power of the original self-titled blast (2001), when it was a new prospect. Here on Anonymous, however, the band shake things up and really go for something different. Now a three piece (after Rutmanis departure during sessions) the group have made a concept record delving into the musical part of the American heritage which their name conjures image of.
Keren Ann
Keren Ann
EMI
2007-06-04
This is the fourth album by the Israeli-born Keren Ann, who has quietly built favourable comparisons to Nico and Francoise Hardy (along with general critical acclaim) with 2002’s La Disparition, Not Going Anywhere from 2004 and her last album Nolita. These last three have been self-produced but she has taken the interesting step of bringing in former Tool and QOTSA affiliate Joe Barresi to mix this latest eponymous project, though fortunately he’s kept the metallic elements for another time - that would be a jarring step too far.
Dear Companion
Meg Baird
Wichita
2007-06-04
Dear Companion is the debut solo effort from Espers vocalist/guitarist Meg Baird, recorded within spare moments of the recording sessions for the Philadelphian psych-folk group’s II. The music has a much more traditional feel than its progressive partner though, often remaining just vocals and guitars, though offering some gorgeous multi-tracked harmonies, and working half from traditional source material.
The Inmost Light
Current 93
Durtro Jnana
2007-06-04
Originally released more than ten years ago Durtro Jnana have re-released Current 93’s “Hallucinatory Patripassianist” (as termed by mainman David Tibet) trilogy The Inmost Light, made up from three separate records released within 1995 and 1996. Here Tibet is joined by long time collaborator and influence Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound, as well as other like-minded souls including Michael Cashmore (Nature and Organisation), Ben Chasney (Six Organs of Admittance), Joolie Wood, John Contreras, William Basinski, William Breeze and Amy Phillips — and the records also feature guest vocals from Nick Cave, Coil’s Jhonn Balance, Andria Degens of Pantaleimon, Shirley Collins and more.
DJ Kicks
Hot Chip
!K7
2007-05-28
Quirky, madcap and inventive are not normally traits associated with popular British bands, but Hot Chip have found their way into the public eye by resisting easy categorisation. Their fondness for mixing pop, electro, folk and techno resulted in a Mercury-nominated second album in the form of The Warning (2006) backed by the massive hit Over and Over played in clubs everywhere. Now they’ve been given the chance to air their influences on !K7’s much-lauded DJ Kicks series in a trip through electro-pop, techno, Balearica, off-kilter house, hip hop, drum’n’bass, R’n’B, blues, jazz and a lot more besides. It proves to be a lot of fun.
Impromptu
MGR vs. SirDSS
Neurot
2007-05-28
Following his solo debut Nova Lux last year, MGR, aka Mustard Gas and Roses aka Mike Gallagher, axe-man from post-metal stormtroopers Isis, is back with a new collaborative work with SirDSS, the initials DSS surprisingly not standing as a TLA (three letter acronym) for Department of Social Services but actually for David Scott Stone, former guitarist of Slug and Get Hustle and collaborator with many including Big Business — dishing out the guitar work on the recent awesome Here Come The Waterworks — as well as Fantomas, Melvins, The Locust, Merzbow and more.
The Rise and Fall of Scarlet City
The Death of a Party
Double Negative
2007-05-22
Having spent the last few years touring The Death of a Party are ready to be unleashed to a wider audience with their debut album The Rise and Fall of Scarlet City. Earning their stripes in the Oakland underground, the dancey post-punk foursome went from warehouse parties to touring with Metric and opening for bands such as Bloc Party, Deerhoof and Autolux. Their live show has been compared to a full-on gangfight, and while their album brings with it the headbanging beats and shouty lyrics you would expect of an act born in counterculture, this is perhaps the tip of the iceberg of this band’s talents.
Tio Bitar
Dungen
Subliminal Sounds
2007-05-21
The summer is here, and it sounds distinctly like it’s the summer of love (in a good way), at least for Gustav Esjstes, Dungen’s mainman who pretty much wrote, recorded and produced the whole of Tio Bitar himself. The album, whose title translates as “Ten Pieces” is, as with its predecessors, sung entirely in Esjstes native Swedish and offers a fascinating modern interpretation of the grooves and styles of the experimental eras of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Psych, folk, prog, kraut, Canterbury, pop, The Beatles, Donovan, Caravan, Hendrix, Love, Can, Faust, The Who etc etc — all and more make some kind of appearance in the mesh of influence
We Are The Champ
The Loungs
Akoustik Anarkhy
2007-05-21
The debut LP from St Helens’ The Loungs flies in the face of fashion (thankfully), sounding like they’ve never heard of the word zeitgeist. We Are The Champ has thirteen songs averaging two and a half minutes each, but is packed with another couple of album’s worth of ideas. Most of the tracks here jump between stations, which can be difficult to pull off, but this self produced effort generally manages to get away with it.
Does It Scare You?
12 Stone Toddler
Amazon
2007-05-21
12 Stone Toddler are a band out in a field left of the normal pop world, the modern one at least, although they are far from being a retro band. Their focus on hook-laden songwriting at the centre of a complex of influences gives them something recognisable but quite unique from their peers. Perhaps the best stylistic comparison comes through looking into the last album from Californian mentalists Mr Bungle, where the mentalism is toned down to rest on a more focused pop-tinged exotica.
Poly.Sci.187
Mansbestfriend
Anticon
2007-05-21
It’s been two years since Tom Holland released anything on the cult hip-hop et al label that he founded, Anticon, and that was as his alter ego, Sole (on Live From Rome). Following five-or-so years of lo-fi mixtapes, EPs and compilations Holland has bought his instrumental Mansbestfriend project back to it’s spiritual home for the first ‘official’ MBF release.
Dejection/Unclean
Asbestosdeath
Southern Lord
2007-05-21
This four-track EP is a compilation bringing together the two self-recorded 7” releases by the doom metal quartet predating the work that the majority of the band are now famous for in Sleep, and more recently Om and High On Fire. Although the slightly messy production is now a little dated (after nearly twenty years…) the music is in many ways fitting with trends which are more popular now and is generally ultra impressive — vicious vocals, huge riffs, punishingly slow tempos — this is some awesome doom.
Licker’s Last Leg
Goon Moon
Ipecac
2007-05-21
Brought together recording on Josh Homme’s Desert Sessions Volume 9 and 10 Jeordie White (better known as Twiggy Ramirez, of Marilyn Manson fame, and now playing bass with A Perfect Circle as well as Nine Inch Nails) and Chris Goss (frontman of desert doomsters Masters of Reality and producer of stoner legends Kyuss and Homme’s pop band Queens of the Stone Age) struck a chord and penned a few tracks together afterwards. After bringing in Hella’s Zach Hill they recorded a load of stuff, some of which made it on to a ten-track EP I Got a Brand New Egg Layin Machine in 2005. Bringing together material from the last five years or so the duo, plus Hill, plus an assortment of other alternative music cronies including the aforementioned Homme, Josh Freese (Vandals, Devo, A Perfect Circle, NIN), Dave Catchling (Eagles of Death Metal, Mondo Generator), Whitey Kirst (Iggy Pop) and Peter Perdichizzi (The Flys), have put together a weird and eclectic album of punk rock, twisted sixties pop and, not unsurprisingly, desert-loose ramblings. Weird? Eclectic? On Ipecac? I know…
The Episodes
Chris Connelly
Durtro Jnana
2007-05-21
The Episodes, released on Durtro Jnana, is the eighth solo album from experimental troubadour Chris Connelly, formerly vocailst of the metallic/industrial persuasion having served time in outfits like Ministry, Revolting Cocks and Pigface and collaborated with members of Cabaret Voltaire and Killing Joke and latterly of the avant-folk type in the vein of an earthy Bowie or reclusive Scott Walker type, with a healthy mixture of lounge and post-modern/post-rock styles.
Howl To The Hills
Dead Meadow
Xemu
2007-05-14
Howl To The Hills is the second in Xemu’s series of Dead Meadow reissues following last year’s release of their 1999 debut Dead Meadow. The album continues the trend of its predecessor with a blend of 60s psych and 70s hard rock influences coming out in a music that resembles a baggy take on stoner. Although offering pretty similar material this second album is unable to capture the ideas in quite the same way as the first and ends up a little more hit and miss — when it’s up its engaging and interesting although sometimes it falls a bit flatter, and into territory which is decidedly wetter.
Everybody
The Sea and Cake
Thrill Jockey
2007-05-07
The Sea and Cake specialise in shimmering, well crafted pop; soundtracks to dozing in hammocks, flying kites or cycling through the countryside. Everybody is their seventh record since the 1993 self titled debut and retains the summery optimism and ephemeral jazz flavour of previous outings.
Hearts and Minds EP
Dextro
Gronland Recordings
2007-04-30
Taken from the debut album Consequence Music, “Hearts and Minds” is the first EP from a man billed as Scotland’s answer to Philip Glass: Dextro, aka Ewan MacKenzie. His ambient grandeur has also been likened to Sigur Rios and Mogwai which is high praise indeed. Here the title track is presented along with three remixes adding different touches to the dreamy original.
Stay Close
Death Vessel
ATP Recordings
2007-04-30
Stay Close is the debut album by Death Vessel, which is the vehicle used to present Joel Thibodeau’s work to the world — and it’s a vehicle with a very special passenger (like the popemobile). His vocal delivery is stunning; a high-pitched, poignant soprano that manages to transcend the polarising effect of the likes of Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. The studio and live versions of the band feature a revolving band of players and contributors, including regulars Pete Donnelly, Erik Carlson and his brother Alec.
No Shouts, No Calls
Electrelane
Too Pure
2007-04-30
Since the arrival of “Film Music” and then Rock It To The Moon at the turn of the century, Electrelane have turned out several acclaimed albums incorporating a love of krautrock and keyboards with some post-punk experimentalism and an indie sensibility. No Shouts, No Calls is the fourth record from the all-female group from Brighton and appears, once again, slightly different from it’s predecessors yet holding together all the essential components.
Parallel Universe Of The Dead
Steakknife
Boss Tunage
2007-04-23
Steakknife band members Lee Hollis (Vocals), Hell G (Bass), Marc Mondial (Guitar), L. Demon (Guitar) and Lorenzo Stiletti (Drums) have played in the likes of Spermbirds, 2Bad and Challenger Crew, and if these are not exactly household names their pedigree can be more easily judged by the quality of Steakknife’s touring partners over the years - The Descendants, The Cramps and Nomeansno. Parallel Universe Of The Dead mines the same vein of anarchic punk rock of the latter of those three, though it tones down the unhinged madness quotient somewhat, either to its credit or detriment (depending on your viewpoint - I’m still a little undecided).
The Mirror and the Destroyer
Attack! Vipers!
Rat Patrol
2007-04-23
The Mirror and the Destroyer is the debut from Attack! Vipers!, a metallic punk band whose various member’s backgrounds include groups such as Jets Vs Sharks, Seven Arrows in Your Bastard Heart, Last Kiss and Thirst.
Iodine
Half Cousin
Gronland
2007-04-23
Half Cousin are comprised of two School friends from the Scottish island of Orkney decamped to London. The pair’s creative output is acceptably described as a kind of offbeat folksy pop. Their use of trashy-junk percussion and classic folk instruments such as the accordion and fiddle means that at times they sound like a slowed down version of gypsy revivalists Gogol Bordello with some choice pieces of toy electronics and soft vocals pushing things in the direction of The Postal Service.
In Your Time
Priestbird
Kemado
2007-04-16
Crazed art-rockers Tarantula AD are no more but now the same people Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans and Gregory Rogove), are working under a different name (Priestbird), with the same idea (genre twisting experiments blending rock, folk, and epic atmospheres) but with a slightly different approach (more focused and developing moods as opposed to their former scizophrenic shiftings).
Solace In Sore Hands
Amandine
FatCat
2007-04-09
Amandine formed in the small Northern Swedish town of Sandviken as a side project to its founding members Olof Giglöf and John Anderssön’s main projects. The addition of additional musicians and an eventual move to the relative metropolis of Malmö lead to a deal with FatCat and a debut album This Is Where Our Hearts Collide. Solace In Sore Hands is their second effort.
Oneida Road
The Kamikaze Hearts
Tangled Up
2007-04-09
Onieda Road is The Kamikaze Hearts’ fifth lp, though this is the first to be released in the UK following their signing to One Little Indian subsidiary Tangled Up! Recordings. The band originates in the mountains and farmland around Albany, upstate New York. Their self-proclaimed “upstate porch rock” is certainly on the rootsy side of alt-country, and its easy to imagine the band sitting in wicker rocking chairs, strummin’ away their mainly acoustic songs of smalltown America.
Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn
CocoRosie
Touch & Go
2007-04-09
The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn is the eagerly-awaited third album from Sierra and Bianca Casady, aka CocoRosie, coming after their much-lauded previous efforts La Maison de Mon Reve and Noah’s Ark. The stylistic mash-up of artistic operatics, sweetness, darkness and streetwise beats and rhythms displayed a desire to tunnel a new route and push themselves into new places, a desire which was fulfilled, especially on the second record, though could this continue or have they now reached a plateau?
Vessels
Wolf & Cub
4AD
2007-04-02
Wolf & Cub are another in an ever growing list of lupine-monikered acts who don’t quite run the gamut of popular music, but certainly pop up at numerous odd points of the spectrum. The non-definitive list includes the retro punk of Japan’s Guitar Wolf, Canadian noise terrorists AIDS Wolf, Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney vehicle Superwolf and Swedish electro-oddballs Fox & Wolf. WAC have got the dark, narcotic retro rock ‘n roll angle sewn-up, though.
Project:Death
Hey Colossus
Jonson Family/Rimbaud/Shifty/Underhill
2007-04-02
Project:Death creeps in with a deep droning wash of distortion before beefing into a healthy slab of Melvins-style sludge doom. This is a pervasive sludge and the opening track, titled “Do They Ever Return”, sets a mood which the album continues throughout, speeding up and slowing down here and there, but generally wallowing in the dark swampy corners of the musical landscape.
Salt
Forget Cassettes
Tangled Up Recordings
2007-04-02
Salt is the second full length from Nashville born Forget Cassettes who are currently sallying around Europe with …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.
Rules & Regulations
Roll Deep
Roll Deep
2007-03-23
The Roll Deep crew could be considered the first Grime supergroup, London’s answer to the Wu Tang Clan. Out of their ranks have stepped Dizzie Rascal and Wiley (the latter having ‘retired’ from the mic to concentrate on producing), and their current ranks include underground heroes like Skepta and JME. Their major-label debut, In At The Deep End, bought them relative success with the likes of the Maisonettes-sampling “The Avenue” and “Shake A Leg”. Though they were dropped by Relentless they’ve come back with the first fruits of their own Roll Deep recordings imprint.
Seek Out Your Foes And Make Them Sorry
Phinius Gage
Small Town
2007-03-19
Phinius Gage position themselves somewhere between contemporary, commercial emo and early 90s skate punk as peddled by Pennywise and their ilk. All chuggy mute/release chord sequences and strummed octaves with the addition of a double bass drum pedal. The vocals are pop–emo through and through with lots of held last syllables accented or often unpinned by “wooow!” backing and the occasional adoption of the call/response format.
Long Live The Ripps
The Ripps
Catskills
2007-03-19
It might not have all it’s high-spirited charm or full throttle imagination, but Long Live The Ripps is imbued with the spirit of Supergrass’ debut, I Should Coco, and a clutch of corking punk-pop songs. In fact the rattlingly good “Vandals”, with it’s tale youthful indiscretion, could be The Ripps’ own “Caught By The Fuzz”.
Das Oath
Das Oath
Three One G
2007-03-19
Fans of punk/grind/blast bands like The Locust, Daughters, Some Girls, Blood Brothers etc plus old-school hardcore acts like Agnostic Front will love this. Das Oath’s third eponymous record (of four total) is an awesome burst of raw ferocity — sawing guitars, pounding/blasting drum work and screaming rage.
Here Come The Waterworks
Big Business
Hydra Head
2007-03-19
Big Business are back, and they mean it. Their second album, Here Come The Waterworks, is a roaring hero epic full of huge riffs and equally large vocals. The Los Angeles power duo also obviously now make their name by being in The Melvins as well as their own band — and they still just tour all the time and obviously generally love it.
Astronomy for Dogs
The Aliens
Pet Rock Records/EMI Records
2007-03-19
In 2004, after a brief but influential career The Beta Band broke up, went bankrupt and went off to get jobs in Waterstone’s or something, I don’t know, went off the radar at least. But here they are right back on it! Like the bit at the end of Top Gun where Maverick re-engages to save Val Kilmer and millions of teenagers across the world gave each other massive high fives. YES!!
Friend Opportunity
Deerhoof
ATP Recordings
2007-03-12
Deerhoof are back, without Chris Cohen, but better than ever. Friend Opportunity is their eighth album and very possibly their best yet. Whereas the decreased line-up (without guitarist Cohen who left to further pursue his frankly ok Curtains project) might suggest a smaller sound, perhaps building from some of the relaxed moods of last effort The Runners Four the album kicks in with an energetic blast and delivers a concise album which goes off everywhere, trying a little bit of everything, but remaining easily listenable and engulfingly catchy throughout.
Sound of Silver
LCD Soundsystem
DFA
2007-03-12
When James Murphy turned his hand to heading up a band in the form of LCD Soundsystem, the celebrated producer/remixer/head of DFA could easily have taken on one too many roles. But after a celebrated first album and successful global tour he proved up to the task and is back with Sound of Silver, billed as a rebirth as a pop band yet retaining all the rocking elements that made LCD such a powerful and fun act.
Rocket EP
Working For A Nuclear Free City
Melodic
2007-03-12
The Rocket EP follows hot on the heels of Working For A Nuclear Free City’s debut and features four new tracks, none of which appeared on that eponymous long player. Despite the short time between first and second releases, the new material, whilst fitting into the groove left by WFANFC, does not feel like off-cuts from an album session and suggests a band unwilling to rest on their creative laurels and wait for people to look their way.
Sessions
Mark Knight
MOS
2007-03-12
The Ministry of Sound Sessions compilations aim to bring the “World’s Finest House Music Mixed by the World’s Finest DJs” which, on the evidence offered by superstar house DJ Mark Knight here, means if you love your house music, you probably should stop reading and get on your way to the shops now.
A Tale Of Two Cities (sampler)
Mr Hudson And The Library
Deal Real/Mercury
2007-03-05
The project is a vehicle for 22 year old Oxford Graduate Ben Hudson, who recruited his Library after being drawn to, and finding surprising success with, London’s hip hop scene. This success has included work with Dizzee Rascal and Sway and a whole year as undefeated Jump Off champion (a kind of live producer battle based around making beats from scratch). Sensibly, rather than trying to be a home counties Eminem (“Hi/My name is Rupert”) Mr Hudson has been true to his background, celebrating his literary pretensions and singer-songwriter background to create an interesting, diversive sound.
Grinderman
Grinderman
Mute
2007-03-05
Grinderman is the alter-ego of four Bad Seeds, or Nick Cave and three Bad Seeds (Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos and Martyn Casey), a new side-project which found its birth when Cave was writing material for the double album Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus a couple of years ago. Having grown to include Cave’s common collaborators and form a fully fledged outfit in it’s own right Grinderman is an exiting outlet for all the crazier demons that the four members bring to the Bad Seeds but which generally remain lurking in the background of their softer, poetic music.
Room To Expand
Hauschka
130701/Fat Cat
2007-02-26
Hauschka is a name assumed by Dusseldorf native composer Volker Bertelman, who after Substantial and The Prepared Piano (2005) on the German Karaoke Kalk label, releases his third album Room To Expand on the Fat Cat imprint 130701, which has previously given us records by Set Fire To Flames, Sylvain Chauveau and Max Richter — the latter offering comparable reference points to Hauschka’s moods and styles.
Odori
Radicalfashion
Hefty
2007-02-26
Odori is the first full length from Radicalfashion, the pseudonym of Kobe based Japanese experimental composer and pianist Hirohito Ihara. The record combines electronically manipulated found sounds and field recordings with more conventional piano work. Ihara cites French impressionist Maurice Ravel as a defining influence. This is certainly evident in the way mood and atmosphere are valued over melody. However more contemporary forces are also at play as evinced by the use of short repeating phrases, pioneered by Steve Reich in his early ‘Process music’ phasing works. The result of this marriage of old and new is rich, atmospheric and remarkably visually evocative, sounding somewhat like a soundtrack to one of Michel Gondry’s animated dream sequences.
To Go Home EP
M Ward
4AD
2007-02-19
M Ward is a constantly growing figure in the America folk-rock movment, with his blend of old style folk picking up blues and country elements into heartfelt ballads and rolling rockers. His fifth studio album, Post War (2006) continued his run onwards and upwards and it is from this record that the title track is lifted.
The Hussy’s EP
The Hussy’s
Music First
2007-02-19
The Hussy’s are the part creation of James McColl, the songwriter for 90’s Britpop also rans The Supernaturals (purveyors of 1000lbs-of-good-nature-per-square-inch-indie like “Smile”). Sensibly, rather than fronting their new project with blokey ordinaryness they’ve recruited a young girl called Fili from obscurity (to slightly less obscurity at the moment) in order to add some much needed glamour out front.
The Great Awakening EP
The Early Years
Beggars Banquet
2007-02-19
The Early Years are a three man band based in London working on the timeless British format of David-Roger-Phil, err sorry that’s guitar-guitar-drums. This four track EP The Great Awakening is a subtly stimulating excursion into the experimental slant of indie rock today. Their self-titled debut album of 2006 was well received, and this EP is released off the back of a current UK tour.
One More Won’t Kill Us
The Hedrons
Measured Records/Pinnacle
2007-02-05
This “40 minute barrage of indie punk” which forms The Hedrons’ debut album One More Won’t Kill Us has been affably lauded by the likes of the Daily Telegraph and the Times, as well as NME and Kerrang!, using rampant accolade such as “addictive” and “tantalising” and even, “a real hit”. Actually there is an admirable earnestness about this four-piece Glaswegian all-girl rock band, but you can’t help but almost feel them being pumped up with some helium-hype gas cos everyone needs to keep their genitals buzzing on some new band, just like they need to overuse words such as “original” and “authentic”.
Circus Live
John Cale
EMI
2007-02-05
Circus Live has its inception in 2005’s blackAcetate album and the coming together of Cale with musicians Dustin Boyer (guitar), Joseph Karnes (bass) and Michael Jerome (drums), a group which seemed to also, importantly, meld perfectly in the live environment. Cale obviously felt he had found a new group with whom he could tackle a quasi-Gratest Hits slice of the large body of work he had been a part of, resulting in the Circus tour and this well-produced double-CD document.
Sommeil Remixes
Outputmessage
Melodic
2007-02-05
When Outputmessage, AKA New York-born Bernard Emmanuel Farley, released his 2006 album Nebulae (Melodic), stand-out track “Sommeil” almost did not make it onto the LP. But now the Kraftwork-inspired original has been given the special treatment of being remixed five times for this release. They take Outputmessage’s melodic electronica into some interesting places, if lacking in any a great deal of variation.
Sessions
Fedde Le Grand
Ministry of Sound
2007-01-29
Fedde Le Grand was a bit of a nobody until last summer when his electro house hit “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit” stormed into clubs around the world and got to number one in the UK. Predictably enough, Ministry of Sound have jumped on his success, and the electro house bandwagon that has seen the genre’s dramatic rise in popularity in 2006, to invite Le Grand to mix its latest compilation.
Ghost Is Not Real
Husky Rescue
Catskills
2007-01-29
The recent wave of Scandinavian indie-pop invading these shores continues with Ghost Is Not Real the second LP from Finnish band Husky Rescue. Husky Rescue let it be known that they like to deal in a netherworld where nature harbours secrets and dreams are a potent form of transportation and knowledge. Like fellow Scandinavians The Knife, a lot of inspirational elements come from film and they aim to imbue their tracks with a cinematic tapestry that places cinematic virtues such as mood and mise-en-scene in a musical context.
Remains
Alkaline Trio
Vagrant
2007-01-29
Alkaline Trio have been going about 10 years or so and have been pretty prolific in that time, notching up 6 full album releases. Remains is a compilation rounding up some harder to find material from their decade-long existence and features ephemera from various split singles/LPs and label compilations, along with some new live tracks and a couple of covers.
People EP
Animal Collective
Fat Cat
2007-01-22
Opener and title track “People” is a slow-burner, with a Steve Reich-esque motif of shiny guitar and twinkling piano being gradually joined by a reverb-heavy rythym section. As it builds the track offers vocals in the form of yelps and “yeah”s rising to choruses of distorted and joyful screaming, the rattling roll of the drums driving on the upbeat, rising amble behind it. These off-kilter vocals offer an enjoyably jarring and rousing counterpoint to the niceyness of the simple riffs playing out in the background with the increasingly bombastic percussion adding further to the texture. But although its a good track and builds to perhaps a greater racket than they generally do, you could be left feeling like Animal Collective have offered this kind of thing before.
Sharp Teeth
David Karsten Daniels
Fat Cat
2007-01-22
Following a few projects twisting folk music in a more experimental minimalist/modern classical/noise vein released on his Bu_Hanan label (owned in a collective with David Hart and Alex Lazara) David Karsten Daniels has set his trajectory on a perhaps more accessible course with his debut for Fat Cat, Sharp Teeth. It’s a fascinating record full of ideas and hooks, consistently delivering whilst hitting from different directions as the lo-fi basis of the first track spreads out to traverse a wide American songbook.
Break The Silence
McQueen
Demolition
2007-01-22
McQueen are a young, all-female four piece from Brighton who no doubt would like to break up the boyband-hegemony (Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy, et al) within punk rock circles. This debut is unlikely to do that, but nevertheless has its moments.
Part One
Star Chamber
n/a
2007-01-22
It’s been a year since we last featured anything about Star Chamber, and what a year it has been. We predicted that 2006 would bring them closer to their ultimate goal of getting a recording contract and recognition for their powerful, guitar-led sound and it proved accurate. They finished as one of three runners-up to New Rhodes for the Kerrang! Live Unsigned Act, and are looking to build on that success with a new two-part EP, the first of which is the aptly named Part One, and a fitting testament to their ever-joyful sound.
Dip
L Pierre
Melodic
2007-01-15
After last year’s awesome I Hate T-Shirts That Say 1977 EP comes the third album from the ever-more interesting Aidan Moffat’s L Pierre. Following the announcement of the Arab Strap split at the end of last year, it is refreshing to hear that Moffat is striding forward strongly with his other project, and now with a fresh new direction it has grown in instrumental scope with Moffat not forgetting but working less on dance beat and effect orientated synths and moving to live drums and percussion, keyboards and harmoniums, also adding cello work from Alan Barr, double bass from Stevie Jones and trumpet work by Allan Wylie, making the project grow in size as well.
Eyes Set Against the Sun
Mira Calix
Warp
2007-01-15
The third album from Mira Calix has been three years coming due to her commitments to a range of commissions and engagements for European arts bodies and institutions. Her music demands you listen with care, you need to give it your full attention. But do so and you will understand its artistry so much more, and why Calix has been in so much demand.
Consequence Music
Dextro
Gronland
2007-01-08
Dextro is the chosen handle of Ewan MacKenzie, a 27-year old Glasweigan musician who has moved on from the purest medium of dance music with 12” releases on Jumblefunk and James Holden’s inventive Border Community label, onto his first full length release, Consequence Music.
Long Distance Swimmer
Adrian Crowley
Tin Angel
2007-01-04
Adrian Crowley recorded this LP in only a week in a home-made studio (his sister’s Dublin flat, emptied, with mattresses soundproofing the rooms). Despite the brevity of it’s construction there is a full, familiar sound to the record that lines it up against his contemporaries. The tracks move from Crowley solo (vocals and guitar) embellished with guests playing concertina, harp and strings, amongst other things, and Crowley with band where guests become collaborators and the album goes electric.
Puncture
Plus Device
Hefty
2007-01-01
Some mystery lies behind just who exactly is pushing the buttons and twiddling the knobs on this first full length release by Plus Device. Is it a name producer or a knowledgeable new face? Is it a PR ploy or shyness? It doesn’t really matter, of course, if it’s decent.
Zettasaur EP
Zettasaur
self-released
2007-01-01
Zettasaur are four men from Pembrokeshire, Wales, who formed in the latter half of 2005 with the aim, in their own words, “to use momentum, volume and abnormal structure to create something which is (hopefully) suprising and therefore invigorating.” This EP is the fruits of their endeavours, put to tape via the recording abilities of Steve Ansell (Blood Red Shoes/Projections) back in Summer 2006.
13
Brian Setzer
Surfdog
2006-12-27
This is the 13th album by the ‘legendary’ (or so the press release says) Brian Setzer, and features 13 tracks (oooh! High concept!) which he claims are what “modern rockabilly should sound like”. A quote that portents doom. Just like the title of track 10 - When Hepcats Get The Blues.
Birthing The Giant
Cancer Bats
Hassle
2006-12-04
Just itching and waiting to explode out of your stereo since the band’s inception and demos in 2004, Cancer Bats’ rock and roll frenzy finally hits the shelves in the form of Birthing The Giant. The music sounds as forceful and energetic as the nether-muscles of the woman giving birth to a huge ship (The Giant?) as depicted in the inside sleeve centrefold — but although it’s a noisy assault of punk riffage, metal mutage and aggro baggage, it’s not too painful a delivery but still sounds like the band are having fun in producing it.
The Peel Session
Mum
Fatcat Records
2006-12-04
This Peel session dates back to 2002 at a point where Mum still radiated warmth in most critics’ eyes and had just completed their second album Finally We Are No One. Since then Mum have gone on to traverse a line of sound closer to rounded indie pop rather than the stuttering lo-fi electronica of their debut Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is Ok.
Kitsune Maison Compilation 3
Various Artists
Kitsune
2006-11-27
Here is a compilation which should put a hint of cheer and a smile into the festive season, with any luck soundtracking some sort of drunken affair — it could easily rouse you into a night out, provide an eclectic party background or make that club night last that little bit longer. The Kitsune people make their living from music, clothes, events and generally being a bit trendy and fun, which comes across nicely here. The compilation’s mix of exclusive tracks is filled with quirky electro, disco and indie and it provides som real gems and a few duffers but overall ringing out pleasantly.
History Is Bunk
Various Artists
Hefty Records
2006-11-20
History is Bunk is a collection of hip-hop, electronica and ambient music celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Chicago based record label Hefty Records. If Hefty Records means nothing to you then maybe a few of the artists it has farmed over the last decade such as Telefon Tel Aviv, Savath + Savalas (Guillermo Scott Herren) and Eliot Lipp, might.
Twisted Stems EP
Guapo
Aurora Borealis
2006-11-20
Guapo have been making awesome music for over a decade now on avant garde labels such as Cuneiform and Ipecac and now release Twisted Stems on the twisted home of acts like Moss, Wolfmangler and new Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg project, KTL, Aurora Borealis. The offering is a two-track EP clocking in at just a little over 15 minutes, split near equally between the two, and offering a slightly different side to the band. Where more recent efforts like Five Suns and Black Oni have been Fender Rhodes-led, Zeuhl-inspired progressive pieces (building from the meditative, experimental and noise work on records like Death Seed, Hirohito and Great Sage, Equal of Heaven) the two tracks of Twisted Stems are crisp, dark, slow tracks with piano, brushed drums and walking bass offering a distinctly jazzy mood.
Sirs
Welcome
Fatcat Records
2006-11-20
Welcome are an intriguing mix of Revolver-era Beatles, west coast melodies and discordant art-rock structures. Take this blend, ensconce it in a slacker vibe that leaves a lot of the songs sounding unfinished and unfettered by any need to justify any real meaning and you have Welcome’s latest album Sirs.
First Blood
colonopenbracket
Must Destroy
2006-11-17
Following a very limited joint 7” with fellow Scots dataPanik (now split and reformed as Peel-favoured, post-Britpop oddballs Bis), First Blood is the first ‘proper’ release by :( (or colonopenbracket), and consists of five short blasts of emo-flavoured, pop-punk with a difference - in that the guitars have been replaced with ironic synth lines that recall early arcade games and Nintendo/Sega classics.
Prayer of Death
Entrance
Tee Pee Records
2006-11-13
Prayer of Death is the fourth album by Entrance, and their first of fully original material. It’s ostensibly a solo project by self taught LA Denizen, Guy Blakeslee, but on this LP he has been supported by several co-producers and musicians, including Paz Lechantin (from Zwan and a Perfect Circle) and Devendra Banhart and Vetiver producer Thom Monahon. So, what would you expect from a man who is inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Timothy Leary and the Tibetan Book of the Dead? A concept album about death awareness in a war-torn world, of course.
Lips
Trencher
Southern
2006-11-13
Lips is the second full length from London based (self proclaimed) ‘Casio-core’ Hardcore/Grind three-piece Trencher. The record fairly closely follows the format set out in their 2004 debut: When Dracula Thinks “Look At Me” (put out through Victory Garden/Jonson Family/Super-fi/A Tree In A Field/Action Index/La Vida No Es Un Mus) and other releases — this being brutal and intense drum, bass and keyboard attacks with screamed vocals occasionally from all three band members. However where as the first record crammed fourteen tracks into just thirteen minutes Lips is almost epic by comparison with the track length roughly doubled, suggesting a more patient approach.
Forever — The Singles
The Charlatans
Island
2006-11-06
It would be tempting to track the demographic course of this singles collection and its relation to British Culture, but you’d start with Manchester’s baggy era and then kind of find that The Charlatans bore more resemblance to whatever Tim Burgess was listening to at the time rather than any particular trend or movement. Forever is a singles collection that marks the 10-year anniversary of the death of their original keyboard player Rob Collins and coincides with a small tour and DVD release. For most of us particularly in the UK, the collection needs little explanation, hey The Charlatans have already released a Best Of and a Live album, and many of the same tracks pop up here again.
Zidane — A 21st Century Portrait
Mogwai
Pias Recordings
2006-11-06
Everyone knows Mogwai are football fans, and the Scottish co-director Douglas Gordon was keen to have Mogwai’s infamous post-rock nuggets as the perfect gravitational contrast to the sweaty man action of Zidane in his game.
Go: The Very Best of Moby
Moby
Mute
2006-11-06
If you like Moby, you’ll invariably already own his seminal album Play (Mute, 1999) which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. If you don’t like him, you will probably still be able to recognise the majority of his Playtracks due the tendency for them to feature on television adverts, in movies and as part of other licensing deals. This collection of greatest hits attempts to thread the links between his work as a techno DJ, film soundtrack composer and producer of more commercially friendly dance tracks and tender moments.
Aluminuim
Aluminuim
XL Recordings
2006-11-06
Aluminium is the brainchild of XL Recordings owner Richard Russell who thought it might be interesting to hear label mate Jack White’s music re-interpreted by a classical orchestra.
Gulag Orkestar (and Lon Gisland E.P.)
Beirut
4AD
2006-11-06
A collective wrinkling of noses occurs when a whiff of genius is detected in the air. Exactly the kind of reception you can expect to twenty-year old Zach Condon’s debut album Gulag Orkestar.
Take A Good Look
Deadline
People Like You
2006-11-06
Released on the charmingly titled “I USED TO FUCK PEOPLE LIKE YOU IN PRISON” Records, Deadline’s fourth album Take a Good Look involves raising both eyebrows and placing the cd dubiously into the cd-tray at arm’s length to begin reviewing it.
Saosin
Saosin
Capitol Records
2006-11-06
Most of the songs on this album sound the same. Most of these songs sound like Coheed, Taking Back Sunday, Lost Prophets, bands that generally sound the same. So we got a lot of same here.
Cast Out Devils
Detholz!
Self-Released
2006-10-31
Cast Out Devils is almost straight disco; not in a Kasey and the Sunshine Band sort of way, but in a synth filled, dance-friendly way. Still markedly set apart from the post-punk dance revival (a la Franz Ferdinand and less worthy carriers of the torch (I’m talking to you, Brendan Flowers), what distinguishes Detholz! from there counterparts is their lyrics.
In The Absence Of Truth
Isis
Ipecac
2006-10-31
It’s been a big few months for metal fans with Boris/Sunn O, The Melvins, Mastadon and now Isis all returning with new material. In The Absence Of Truth is Isis’ fourth LP, and continues momentum created by Panopticon away from the core elements that most would define metal into a larger multifaceted prism of song. The beast that was omnipresent on Isis’ post-hardcore debut Celestial has been gradually suppressed with each further release. Oceanic followed and is still Isis’ modus operandi because it installed beauty to counterbalance the beast in equal measure, so whilst we were having our face cracked by huge compact riffs and bottomless vocals it still managed to glisten with a crystalline grandeur. Panopticon took things a step on, stealing the shimmer of Oceanic and expanding upon it adding more recognisable vocals, and melting down the heavy choruses to install more space and room for melodic inertia.
Born Ruffians
Born Ruffians
XL
2006-10-30
Born Ruffians are an oddball three piece from the backwater town of Midland, Ontario who follow in the noteprints of stumbling, North American indieflolk like Pavement and Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah! with this eponymous debut EP. They formed in 2002 so its taken a few years to reach this point and release an opening salvo, and though it’s not quite a devastating statement of intent, it is a very promising 6 tracks of treble-y jerk-pop embellished/ruined (depending on your opinion of the man) by the strangled vocals of Luke LaLonde, variously sounding like David Byrne, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and a cat with ADHD (I’m definitely in the ‘embellished’ camp, fortunately).
Fuzz
Alice Donut
Howler Records
2006-10-23
Like Wrong Music’s Nomeansno, who released a new LP recently, Alice Donut have been peddling an uncompromising, anarchic take on punk rock for 20-odd years, regardless of fashion, acclaim or technology (or lack of any of these). Fuzz is their 11th album, with 12 tracks clocking in at just under an hour, and follows a 8 year break up from 96-04 - making them pretty prolific, really.
Altar
Sunn O))) and Boris
Southern Lord
2006-10-23
Altar is exactly what you’d expect and more. It’s both a meeting of both bands and their sounds, the collaboration serving to forge together the drone, doom, psych and ambient sides that the two groups inhabit on their separate releases, but there is clearly some new ground explored both within this space and also outside of it as the collective stretches itself to reach into new areas and make new moods. Overall it’s a dark masterpiece, brooding and oozing out a menacing ominous mood but there is suitable time devoted to the more expansive, progressive realms of both ambient experimentalism and bittersweet balladry.
The Blackout The Blackout The Blackout
The Blackout
Fierce Panda
2006-10-23
Signed to Fierce Panda The Blackout have recently garnered attention through a “Best Newcomer Nomination” at the Kerrang Awards and a support slot for The Lost Prophets. A six piece from Wales, The Blackout are along the same lines as Funeral For A Friend and indeed The Lost Prophets. Debut mini-album The Black Out The Black Out The Black Out, is a tidy and concise screamo affair that nestles safely within the mainstream realms of screamo/emo punk, with enough frills to satisfy the ‘edgy’ kids and enough cheesey harmonies to satisfy their girlfriends.
Still Searching
Senses Fail
Vagrant
2006-10-23
At its best, Still Searching is a pretty exhilarating, if familiar experience. Short opening track “The Rapture” bristles with intent, “All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues” is storming manifestation of anger and angst, and all the guitars are thrashed and drums pounded satisfyingly throughout. Like Alexisonfire they mix up the abrasive screams of hardcore with the more palatable-for-the-masses, soaring ‘big’ choruses of emo (which makes screamo, naturally), although they make use more of the later than the former.
No Heroes
Converge
Epitah
2006-10-23
On first inspection, No Heroes is 75% hardcore burns, with the remaining 25% made up of deep, sludgy bruising thought to have been created by a large metallic object. On No Heroes Converge continue their mix of hardcore and metal but mainly hardcore.
Hello Everything
Squarepusher
Warp Records
2006-10-16
Whilst everyone and their Dad is celebrating the re-birth of rave, Squarepusher seems to have distanced himself even further from the heavily processed jungle that made his name a hallowed word amongst many of us in the mid nineties.
Working For A Nuclear Free City
Working For A Nuclear Free City
Melodic
2006-10-16
Working For A Nuclear Free City have made a refreshing attempt to move away from the becoming-tiresome ‘definite article’ prefixed, Gang Of Four-aping trends on their eponymous debut. Though, having said that, while their name suggests they may wish to be considered dystopian futurists they are also mostly looking backwards (albeit to a different musical heritage than most of their peers) to Bowie’s Eno period and early-mid nineties dance rock.
Noise Floor: A B-Sides And Rarites Collection
Bright Eyes
Saddle Creek
2006-10-16
Noise Floor: A B-Sides And Rarities Compilation serves as a reminder to us all that whilst Bright Eyes have not released an album this year they are still around. Odd that we would forget considering the double album release of I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, not to mention the bands simultaneous occupation of the #1 and #2 spots in Billboards Hot 100 Singles chart in 2004 — a feat not achieved by anyone for seven years previously. Alzeihmer’s aside, Noise Floor’s selection pre-dates the success of Bright Eye’s last two albums culling from a period between 1999-2004.
Detrola
His Name Is Alive
Silver Mountain
2006-10-16
Detrola is an ethereal collection of smart and textured dreams from Michigan-based band His Name Is Alive, who have returned after a period of semi-retirement. In case you wondered, their name stems from the history class notes of the bands driving force Warren (Warn) Defever, referring to Abraham Lincoln. In keeping with their midwestern forefather, Detrola is a mid-western sounding melting pot of charming and tragic melodic moments.
Born In The UK
Badly Drawn Boy
EMI
2006-10-16
In those early, shambolic live gigs, filled with countless A&R men drawn in by the acclaim from his early EPs, Badly Drawn Boy was something of a perverse performer, messing about with structures and often not even playing songs to speak of. His debut album (2000’s The Hour Of Bewilderbeast) carried on this ethos and was a sprawling, brilliant mess of ideas over structure. His subsequent albums, the About A Boy soundtrack, Have You Fed The Fish? and One Plus One is One have seen a more measured take on singer songwriting.
Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit
Micah P. Hinson
Jade Tree
2006-10-10
On his second full-length album, Micah P. Hinson And The Opera Circuit , Hinson is — in a style similar to that of Iowa folk boy William Elliot Whitmore — introducing roots rock in a way that can be digested by a punk crowd. Hinson has one of those wonderfully gruff voices that sounds as thought it’s been cultivated by smoking a pack a day, but looks somehow out of place in his very young body. However, one has to appreciate the maturity of such a writer. The old soul that Hinson is has allowed for him to write lyrics that aren’t what would be found scratched in the back of a bored calculus student’s notebook.
(A) Senile Animal
The Melvins
Ipecac
2006-10-10
King Buzzo and Dale Crover have returned with the first Melvins studio recording in four years, after having spent the duration collaborating with artists such as Jello Biafra and Lustmord. The Melvins, for the most part, have existed as a three piece band, with a tenuous bassist position that has been occupied by greats like Joe Preston (Earth, Thrones) and Lori Black (Clown Alley). Now the Melvins have transmogrified into a four piece super-band, with Coady Willis and Jared Warren joining from Big Business — providing work with bass, drums and vocals. Yes, that means The Melvins now have two drummers, and fourvocalists.
Passover
The Black Angels
Light In The Attic
2006-10-09
Although this is Austin, Texas, 2006, there is a distinct mood of drug-fuelled nights at the Fillmore, or more likely the desert, sometime 1967-69. Passover, the debut outing from The Black Angels, takes a murky drawl through a psych songbook, adding a huge hunk of dark, sludge to the already steady-droning trances of late-sixties acid-rock. This is skag-rock.
Hallways of Always
Jenny Hoyston and William Whitmore
Southern
2006-10-09
The first two tracks are slow-paced country ballads whose strings, organs and vocals ooze a classic soul sound, the steadfast beat plodding them forward comfortably. “Feast of a Thousand Beasts” opens the record with Whitmore’s banjo plucked slow and steady as a beat comes in over a synth hum. Both that first track and the following “You’ve Already Gone” display the complimentary fashion in which the throaty, deep male voice and softer, higher female vocals work, offering another classic duo to the long country music line.
Zombie Terrorist
Partyline
Retard Disco
2006-10-09
Car windows DOWN, fists UP! The first full-length debut album from Partyline, the newest band from original riot-grrl Allison Wolfe (formerly of Bratmobile) is here to lift up your errr trousers and make you blush.
Sangue Puro
Les Georges Leningrad
Tomlab
2006-10-03
Les Georges Leningrad are a surviving member of the post-punk engine; thriving on the trashy sub-culture of Montreal. This French-Canadian city being the quintessential cosmopolitan strata with which a post-punk band needs to survive. Ever heard of post-punk bands in Louisiana? I think not, unless you could argue that Lords have a peculiar taste for Dada and masked gigs. However, with Sangue Puro, Les Georges Leningrad have succumbed more to the no ways of no wave.
For Hero: For Fool
Subtle
Lex/EMI
2006-10-02
For Hero: For Fool is the second part of a trilogy of records started with the impressive New White (2004) from the ambitious collective Subtle. The group were formed back in 2001, mainly brought together by Dax Pierson but the figurehead of the project is probably Adam Drucker, known to most as Doseone, of Anticon/cLOUDEAD/Themselves fame. Drucker works vocals, along with Pierson (and harmonica) and there’s a whole heap of sounds coming from the other four members, each a producer and each integral to the Subtle sound. First there’s Jordan Dalrymple, who also drums, plays guitar and keyboards, as well as taking on vocals too; then Alexander Kort, who offers bass and cello; and Marty Kalani Dowers provides some added woodwind. Last, but not least, is Doseone’s Themselves partner and Anticon big-boy Jel, Jeffery Logan.
Dead Meadow
Dead Meadow
Xemu
2006-10-02
It is very possible that the current resurgence for psych-rock would not have been were it not for DC’s Dead Meadow, whose reign started with the eponymous debut here reissued. This newly remixed version (from the original tapes — dont get any stupid ideas) is the first of a series of the band’s catalogue soon to be re-released, being followed by 2001’s Howls From The Hills later this year and a Rarities album in early 2007.
The DFA Remixes - Chapter Two
The DFA
DFA
2006-10-02
Mastermind producers James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy, aka Death From Above, are back with a second set of remixes which brings us up to date with their work so far. Renowned for fusing punk and disco together to form a unique blend of driving drums and bleeps targeting the ever-growing popularity of the electro-fused band sound, these remixes are a decent selection but lack the energy and originality of their acts such as the mighty LCD Soundsystem and quirky Juan MacLean.
Four On The Floor
Juliette And The Licks
Hassle Records
2006-10-02
Bravely treading that generally ill-fated path of movie-stars-who-want-to-be something else, Juliette Lewis with her band “the Licks” enters a foray, yes that’s right, into the world of Rock. And quite right, it’s okay to have reservations about it. Four on the Floor is the second Juliette and the Licks album, and after intensive touring including the Vans Warped Tour 2004, they have “captured their onstage energy” for this record.
The Magnificent Defeat
Jay Bennett
Rykodisc
2006-09-25
As part of alt-country standard bearers Wilco, Jay Bennett was involved in 7 or so years of well-regarded output. Whilst with that band and since leaving he has been involved in production and session muso work with big, bland names like Sheryl Crow, and his second solo effort takes a sense of the experimentation from one part of this brief history but also troubled slightly by the MOR spectre of the other. Mostly he’s got it the right way round, and in the right ratios.
There to Here
Joe Lally
Dischord
2006-09-25
Joe Lally is of course the bass player from Fugazi, and has been since their birth back in 1987. Or rather he was, in that the band have been on a hiatus since 2003 which doesn’t look to be ending anytime soon. So what has Lally been up to? Well a variety of things with other people as well as working on the material that forms this, There to Here, his first solo album. It’s not purely solo bass and vocals but it very nearly is (in fact it is sometimes just vocals), and it generally feels like it is, but in fact the record includes a variety of accompanying performances from many that you might expect, as well as some guitar solos from leftfield.
Ingleside Terrace
French Toast
Dischord
2006-09-25
French Toast is not only a eggy bread breakfast creation popular in North America but is also actually Jerry Busher and James (Jimmy) Canty, descendents of a series of hardcore and punk bands from D.C. based Dischord. And if sausages, eggs and bacon of a greasy British fry-up were raw and raging youthful rantings in the hardcore and punk scene in early nineties D.C., a listen to French Toast’s second album ‘Ingleside Terrace’ might seem like a pale eggy side dish in comparison.
Harps Old Master
Phelan Sheppard
Leaf
2006-09-25
Kieron Phelan and David Sheppard have been making music together for over a decade performing in a variety of projects since they were teenagers. Under the moniker Phelan Sheppard this is just their second LP though, following 2002’s O, Little Stars.Harp’s Old Master offers light but emotional cinematic orchescapes offering a range of styles, all, however, meandering through pastoral areas decidedly pleasant to the ear.
Ampgrave
Lullabye Arkestra
Constellation
2006-09-25
The fact it is a drums/bass combo might give the impression of a power-duo and at times yeah they are in the sense of distortion, loudness, noise, er, power, but there’s so much here. The call to arms of “Unite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” fools in with a quiet organ rotating, as Godspeed brass drones before a typically post-rock shock explosion but it’s not template stuff, it soon buts out to a group shouting chant with the power bassline then kicking in and the song pumping out shouty, orchestrated noise for a further few minutes, the brass giving it a decidedly Spaghetti Western rouse.
Movie Monster
Sound Team
Capitol
2006-09-25
Now there’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, but someone has definitely been throwing some elaborate claims around about this sextet from Austin, Texas. Spotted as bright young things after a series of self-produced EPs, then signed to Capitol with Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead) on board for the production of their debut album Movie Monster, Sound Team’s sound can only be described as fresh faced indie rock. It straddles a few different styles, but maybe thats just the sweet sound of directionless youth.
Orchestra Of Wolves
Gallows
In At The Deep End
2006-09-25
Touted as the best kept secret of the underground hardcore and punk scene on this small island of Great Britain, four guys based in Watford, UK known as Gallows have assembled their wolfish wills and orchestrated howling dischordance in their debut album Orchestra Of Wolves. It forms 36 minutes of freshly squeezed terror with a distinct and highly commendable Britishness about it. And I must say, it’s not disappointing.
Big Chill Classics
Mr Scruff
Big Chill Recordings
2006-09-18
Since 1994 the Big Chill Festival has avoided the hyperactive buzz of Reading or Leeds, the vast chaos of Glastonbury and the noise of soulless dance music festivals to be a place of escapism that lets you truly unwind for a weekend. A stable diet of good vibes is the spirit, so who better so select his festival favourites than the man who has been on the line-up lists since its inception? Mr Scruff: step forward (and bring a cup of tea with you).
The Bonesaw Romance
The Bonesaw Romance
Boss Tuneage / Ratchet
2006-09-18
The sonic image conjured by a name like The Bonesaw Romance can really only be one of capital R Rock and the group’s eponymous debut is clearly trying to live up to this, the press sheet describing the group as “a four-piece monstrous rock n’ roll extravaganza”.
The Awakening
Send More Paramedics
In At The Deep End
2006-09-18
“It is 2025. The global environmetal crisis continues to worsen… International politics is in a dire strait… In the midst of the maelstrom the first signs of the true crisis go unnoticed. Reports are confused as to the origin of the viral pandemic whic sweeps the world…” Yes… it’s a zombie-themed metal concept album — well what else can you expect from a band who give their names as B’Hellmouth, Medico, X Undead and El Diablo?
Towers And Clouds
The Immediate
Fantastic Plastic
2006-09-18
The Immediate have signed to Fantastic Plastic records to release their debut album, joining other new and interesting propositions like Guillemots and The Victorian English Gentlemans Club, and despite coming from Dublin have managed to avoid the Irish genetic predisposition for drab and ernest folk-rock by recording 11 sixties-versed indie-nuggets.
The Pleasure
The Pleasure
Cargo Records (Germany)
2006-09-18
The Pleasure are a middle-aged German 3 piece who are enthralled to ‘timeless brit-pop’ and more specifically The Beatles. All well and good, but this veers close to pastiche. For starters the packaging and format mimics the Fab Four’s ‘White’ album: it’s eponymous, it’s a double CD (even though the combined length is only 60 minutes), it’s mostly white and it’s full of black and white shots of the band and various sixties ephemera. Then there’s the lyrical references to apples, onions and, er, Birmingham. The songs themselves are mostly tepid Beatles tributes, all vague psychedelic touches treated vocals and ‘honest’ musicianship. There is nothing essentially wrong with a retro starting point — Oasis, The Coral and The Zutons have all been relatively successful at updating the merseybeat sound in recent years — but The Pleasure starts with a blinkered view and adds little to it.
Mother Nature’s Slave
Monstrous
Howler Records
2006-09-18
Mother Nature’s Slaves is Rhode Island trio Monstrous’ first label release and inhabits the lighter side of Nirvana, The Lemonheads and The Vines with a mixture of acoustic ditties with cooing harmonies, the occasional all out grunge but generally all things alt pop-rock. As a band of three brothers who have honed their sound over the course of long self-promoted tours, the band sound comfortable and balanced.
Dull Lights
Eric Chenaux
Constellation
2006-09-11
Eric Chenaux has been a fixture of the Toronto underground for 15 years. He’s played in and recorded with jazz, folk, punk and hardcore bands and recorded his first solo LP 10 years ago. His skills on the guitar are the one constant in this career arc, it seems. He connected with another region of the broader Canadian musical scene when Constellation invited him to go to Montreal to record this solo recording with Godspeed’s Efrim at Hotel2Tango.
On Leaving
Nina Nastasia
FatCat
2006-09-11
Nina Nastasia’s first offering since the move from Chicago’s Touch and Go to Brighton’s ever more interesting FatCat label is a beautiful and more accessible album. Not to say that the New York singer/songwriter’s previous work has ever been too much but the rawness and starkness has perhaps been toned down into often sweet balladry for On Leaving, or as the artist puts it, it’s just “more sad than mad”.
Rorhat
Volt
Exile On Mainstream
2006-09-11
Under their previous moniker Roerhedds, Volt released an outstanding 3” three-track CDR which I think was called Tortur (it’s all in their native German so i’m not sure what says what), the awesome album Breed (bluNoise — so generally only known to be in existence by Germans), and then at the end of last year they hit us with their first official Volt release, the Romeo K.O EP, which was equally good if not better. Here, on Exile On Mainstream as with their last release, we finally get the debut Volt album, and it’s, well, average and disappointing.
Plays Polmo Polpo
Sandro Perri
Constellation
2006-09-11
Whereas the Polmo Polpo that Constellation has released before (Like Hearts Swelling) offered electronic and synthetic manipulation in its rising and rousing washes, Sandro Perri has been reinterpreting these songs in a more pure and organic instrumental form, both on his own, with friend Eric Cheneaux (who’s Dull Lights album is released on the same day as a kind of partner record) as a duo, or with more folks as a band of up to six people. This recording documents these live experiments which showcase the essential elements of the Polmo Polpo sound i.e. Sandro Perri, his guitar, and song development but with that song development being quite different due to the addition of several new elements into the arrangement.
Varcharz
Mouse On Mars
Ipecac
2006-09-11
The big news for most Mouse On Mars fans is that their latest album Varcharz sees them ditch former label Thrill Jockey, for whom they recorded five albums, to work with Monsieur Patton’s Ipecac Recordings. The smoke on the water for Varcharz is that Mouse On Mars have reinvented themselves with this full length serving only as a experimental proto-type for what is more to come — so nothing new there then.
Mezzotint
Chris Herbert
Kranky
2006-09-11
Chris Herbert plays an avid part in Birmingham’s digital arts scene, creating sound installations and performing at Modulate A/V Collective nights. Mezzotint is his first recorded release though, and offers an interesting tapestry, dense with a digital collage of threads of sounds, noises and melodies thickly woven in amongst each other.
Coward
Made Out Of Babies
Neurot
2006-09-11
Signed to thinking mans metal label Neurot, Made Out Of Babies are offered a healthy critical guise. Roping in old man Albini to produce their sophomore release Coward intensifies this guise and also ends up defining their sound. Made out of Babies’s calling card is lead vocalist Julie Christmas and a lot of people’s opinion of Coward will be based upon how they rate Christmas’ impassioned vocals.
5:55
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Because Music
2006-09-04
Charlotte Gainsbourg is of course the daughter of everyone’s favourite French pimp-daddy Serge Gainsbourg and his one time partner the English actress Jane Birkin who sang on a number of Serge’s tracks noticeably “Je T’aime” and “Ballade De Melody Nelson”. An actress in her own right, 5:55 is Charlotte Gainsbourg’s first solo full length and to steady the ship she inscribes the help of Nigel Godrich and Air to provide music and production as well as Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon who take on song writing duties.
Crazy Itchy Radio
Basement Jaxx
XL
2006-09-04
Basement Jaxx have seen their popularity skyrocket in the last year or so. Having been elevated to headliner status at Glastonbury last year, they seem to be riding a wave of publicity and built up a reputation of being one of the UK’s premier popular dance acts, rivaling The Chemical Brothers and Faithless. The Jaxx’s brand of garage-tinged house has steadily been refined since debut Remedy (XL, 1995) but Crazy Itchy Radio features fewer all-out dance numbers than their other three albums. Taking a radio-themed approach that includes some jingle-style interludes and comments at the ends of the tracks, their innovation could be seen to be threatening the energy that made them so original in the first place.
Waiting For The Next End of The World
Channels
Dischord
2006-08-29
The production on Waiting For The Next End of The World is very pop with the vocals kept nice, clean and clear and high in the mix, the male/female-ness giving that extra sweetness to what could otherwise turn out a bit nastier and dirtier. The guitars aren’t too clean but their noise is polished and curbed so that whether riffing or chugging away they never stray out of their station. In many cases the choruses take the songs right back into the pop arena but some tracks like “Mayday” could easily become a lot noisier in another band’s or producer’s hands.
Secrets to Superflipping
Yikes
Upset The Rhythm
2006-08-28
Yikes are a San Francisco noise-punk trio composing of John Bryer (The Coachwhips, OCS, Pink and Brown) on guitar and vocals, Eric Vark (Curse of the Birthmark) on second guitar and Mike Donovan (NAM, Big Techno Werewolves) on drums. Secrets to Superflipping plays like a cross between My Bloody Valentine with broken strings and crude oil poured over it and The Stooges with a dismembered rhythm section. Closer to the point would be to suggest that this is the sound of a ‘super group’ indulging themselves and unclipping their wings.
The Victorian English Gentlemens Club
The Victorian English Gentlemens Club
Fantastic Plastic
2006-08-28
Misnomers are common in rock music. Just as The Monks weren’t ministers of the cloth and there were only 3 members of Ben Folds Five, The Victorian English Gentlemens Club are neither English, Victorian or gents (well, one is). The Cardiff-based three-piece are heavily indebted to Gang Of Four and the jerky, bass-propelled sound of the mid-to-late 80s, but TVEGC are mostly distinctive in their own right and this eponymous debut is a good one.
Symptomatic Of A Greater Ill
Darc Mind
Anticon
2006-08-28
It is perhaps both a credit to Hip-Hop’s speed of innovation and a subsequence of Hip-Hop’s relatively short life that an album shelved and lost in ‘97 can be considered a buried treasure on first release only nine years later. Darc Mind’s Symptomatic Of A Greater Ill is exactly that jewel, indefatigably Hip-hop rhinestone but almost impossible to date and contextualise. Tempting as it maybe to relate Symptomatic Of A Greater Ill in terms of its original position in fabric of Hip-Hop history and to the here and now of the current scene, the album does its best to eschew any material fads or references to celebrity fags that could inextricably tie it to a particular movement in time.
Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
Viva Voce
Full Time Hobby
2006-08-28
The “sense of urgency, of music that couldn’t be held at bay anymore” which Anita discusses comes on with the dirging stomp of opener “Believer”, okay this isn’t pedal to the metal but theres a dirty groove behing a lot of this record which invokes at least a subtle movement. “When Planets Collide” takes that groove in a lazy, alt indie direction, before it’s ‘oohs’ and big licks are stripped away as the song takes the left fork a minute and a half in to reveal a more chilling core, which is rocked out again, ending a completely different song than it had been both at the start and half way in.
Split 12”
Kayo Dot/Bloody Panda
Holy Roar
2006-08-21
In “Don’t Touch Dead Animals” Boston’s Kayo Dot have offered just a single track to this split release, but one which expands and progresses through eleven minutes and is an intense, epic and wholly interesting treat. After the opening of part one, as described in the previous paragraph, the band — in all its orchestrated glory — holds much suspense as it sets a quivering mood such of early King Crimson, playing out the songs most sustained, yet very moody section with noises and instruments snorting, wavering, swelling and chuckling, perhaps demonstrating the wildlife of some strange sonic jungle or farmyard — or maybe comparable to the tuning of the orchestra playing in the pit of the theatre behind Henry’s radiator in Eraserhead.
A Lazarus Taxon (Box Set)
Tortoise
Thrill Jockey
2006-08-21
There is too much to talk about here — this is a wholly awe-inspiring collection capturing hundreds of reasons why Tortoise are so revered, some reasons take succinct nugget form, others are stretched and make their point expansively over time whilst others cant make their mind up just which point they are trying to make — making many in the process — all somehow within the same little cardboard box. Dimensionally transcendental like a sonic Tardis the box holds a wealth of material spanning four discs — three CDs and a DVD: CDs one and two pull together an extensive mix of rare singles, compilation tracks, tour records, split release songs, remixes and more. The name, A Lazarus Taxon, references the paleontological term for a series of organisms which disappear from the fossil record but then reappear later — the Lazarus taken from the biblical tale of reanimation — and CD3 is the long-since out of print 1995 remix album Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters (although now also available again individually in a coinciding reissue). The audio-visual fourth disc brings together most of the band’s music videos as well as footage of twelve live cuts from five different performances.
Raise The Bullshit Flag
Phoenix Bodies
Holy Roar
2006-08-21
Raise The Bullshit Flag’s title track, the album’s first, comes on with a hardcore call to arms, the dual vocals screaming out how they want it to be hoisted above a burning horizon before mayhem ensues as the songs kicks in. The band play a chaotic mess of metallic hardcore, with ample space for intense blasts and big riffs, resonating discordance and impassioned aggressive vocals. The Jane Doe-esque dirty production helps the almost The Locust-like yelps and blasts to pummell away at the inner ear, making loud headphone listening a treat.
All Roads Lead To Ausfahrt
Nomeansno
Wrong
2006-08-21
Nomeansno have been churning out their anarchic take on punk since 1982. This is their 10th full length album and their first for 6 years but thankfully fashions have passed them by. They fall on the right side of tongue-in-cheek, using it as a vehicle for delivery of puerile, twisted, punk rock songs. It works in a similar way to Frank Zappa or Butthole Surfers do — there is a sense of unhinged lunacy about proceedings (coupled with an uncompromising musical vision), rather than forced weirdness. Is this a comedy record? Well, not really. The wacky quotient on “Mansion In The Sky” and the untitled closing track are slightly too close for comfort, but “Mondo Nihilissimo 2000“‘s none-more-black world view is pretty funny and generally though it shouldn’t be dismissed as lightweight or a novelty.
Crisis
Alexisonfire
Hassle
2006-08-21
Crisis is a confident record, well produced and played (with particularly fine drumming). For the most part it is a cut above many of their ‘post-hardcore’ brethren, mainly for the reason that they are happy to include a tune amongst the polished buzzsaw guitars and power-screams. The contrast between Dallas Green’s sky scraping vocals and George Pettit’s gutteral roar works well on the Deftones-apeing “This Could Be Anywhere In The World”, the excellent “Mailbox Arson” (which has a slightly 80’s hair band element to it at one point — a good thing) and the rabble rousing “We Are The Sound” and “We Are The End”. These latter two extort their choruses in multi-voiced, macho yell which gives them a fist-punching, aggressive but euphoric air.
This is Hazelville
Captain
EMI
2006-08-14
This is the new big indie-pop thing, right here. “Hazelville”, opening track on Captain’s debut album This is Hazelville, comes on like a Coldplay/Keane soundalike until it bursts into something neither of those bands can do, or at least seem to be able to do anymore, something driving, catchy and upbeat and, importantly, incredibly warm and uplifting. Though they may take the place in the recent pop lineage of the two aforementioned groups (and perhaps Travis before them), Captain have something more, and more worthwhile than them, which is why they will succeed.
Pointing Excitedly To The Sky
Cocosuma
Setanta Songs
2006-08-14
The album is half-way between the soothing indie strains of groups like The Cardigans or The Concretes and the relaxed electronica and lounge of Morcheeba, Air and Zero 7. It’s an extremely agreeable album, perfect for summer days and nights, its cheerier upbeat tracks containing a distinctly sunny sparkle and the more fragile numbers remaining still soothing and beautifully calm.
Awesomer
Blood On The Wall
FatCat
2006-08-14
FatCat records, usually the preserve of wonkytronica like Mum and Mice Parade or the avant-folk of Animal Collective has picked up the second album by this New York-based trio for release in the UK, and their genre jump is justified. Awesomer (so called as it’s better than their first record) is a frenetic and fun blast through 10 years or so of distorted rock n roll, from proto-grunge to, erm, post-grunge, taking in The Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine on the way.
…And the Battle Begun
Rx Bandits
MDB
2006-08-08
With …And the Battle Begun, their fifth album, and first release outside of the Drive-Thru Records banner, the Rx Bandits have made their first record that isn’t really too much of a leap from the previous one — which is not a bad thing. Rather than ambitiously scouring new territory, the band seems to be growing more familiar with the sound they’ve been hinting at for the past five years. The production is raw, much more stripped down than anything they’ve done before, however it’s all still there: the subtle keyboard licks dripping off the melody, a horn section that sparks off the beat like an out of control circuit, soaring vocals with ridiculous range, and guitar and drum lines that seem to shift every measure.
Kick Up The Dust
Blood Meridian
V2
2006-08-07
Kick Up The Dust is the debut from the Vancouver band Blood Meridian, named after the Cormac McCarthy novel. The band are part of a local musical family tree which includes Black Mountain, Pink Mountatintops and The Black Halos, and focused around singer/songwriter/guitarist Matt Camirand (who’s been in them all). Formerly a bassist in The Black Halos, Camirand apparently formed Blood Meridian during one of his previous band’s tours, and recruited fellow Black Mountain/Pink Mountaintops player Joshua Wells as well as other rock-scene compatriots Kevin Grant, Jeff Lee and Shira Blustein to complete the line-up.
Saints of Excess
GU Medicine
Undergroove
2006-08-07
The pounding riffage and tempo are similar to Nick Olivieri’s contributions to the first three QOTSA albums and much of Songs For The Deaf in particular. However, though it is a well-produced racket it frequently lacks that band’s melodic edge and either Olivieri’s mania or Josh Homme’s laconic drawl. That said, when it is good, it is pretty good. Opener “A Meeting With Foul Play” begins like a punch from a passing motorbike — hard and surprising — with a cathartic hyperspeed chorus. “You’ll Never Make It Stick” is what all those weedy emo kids wished their bands sounded like and “The Conclusion Of A Death Ride” is amphetamine-fuelled speed metal. Songs of sex and drugs to make Lemmy proud.
We Are Who We Eat
The Other
Fiendforce
2006-08-03
Remember Finnish band Lordi that won the Eurovision Song Contest. They were funny rite? Horror-punk outfit The Other are funny and in the same way. Trouble is funny works in Panto as it does for the Eurovision Song contest but on record, funny never really grants more that that primary novelty listen between crapulent mates. The Other sound generally like the soundtrack to a spoof Teen-Horror flick, an 80’s one at that, mixing soft metal and punk with stadium rock until you’ve shit the bed.
II
Espers
Wichita
2006-07-31
Espers eponymous first album was released in 2004 and greatly acclaimed, but with new offering, II, they have delivered something even more interesting and impressive. The band hail from Philadelphia, although this is not apparent, in fact if asked upon listening to them where you would imagine they come from you’d probably suggest England. The vocals aren’t always free of American accents — not that they are trying to be — but often fit in sound with the traditional English feel of the music. They are certainly part of the folk revival (however conscious or not that is) alongside artists such as Faun Fables or Born Heller, but they definitely appear to steer more towards the anglo than the North American tradition — not that it’s ever too straightfoward to draw a distinction between such schools.
Africa Plays On
Africa Plays On
Nile-On
2006-07-31
Originally released at the backend of July, Africa Plays On capitalises on the goodwill and multi-cultural flavour of the summer World Cup to give us all a taste of African music and its diaspora-like influences on jazz, hip hop and funk. The central theme of the album putting Africa up in neon lights is the celebration of Africa’s many languages and its football culture both of which are also reflected by the choice of tracks and artists. Addressed in the inner sleeve of the composition are the dangers of ‘orientalising’ African culture and providing “chin-rubbing ethno-musicological appreciation” and yet the premises of Africa Plays On still remain fairly airy.
Perfumed Lands
The Isles
Melodic
2006-07-24
It is tempting sometimes to think that the British indie-pop market has become a ‘no-brainer’ for our US counterparts. They make it melody based with a steady rhythm section, they mention the weather and pine about distant girls (all Brits are prudish), they make sure it references an easy box of canonical rock nostalgia (Beatles, Smiths, Oasis etc) and they bring their own clothes over from New York (cos the British still don’t know anything about fashion). Oh, and they make sure that the NME know who the hell they are. I’m looking at you The Killers, Maroon 5, Panic at the Disco et al. Well, at least we Brits have still got sarcasm, hey Jeeves?!
Song of the Blackbird
William Elliot Whitmore
Southern
2006-07-24
William Elliot Whitmore’s latest offering is another perfect collection of Southern-bred ballads and bluesy/country/bluegrassy folk tunes. The metalcore fan’s light reliefster has increased the line-up for parts of Song of the Blackbird, realising a more powerful dynamic yet the minimal ‘man and guitar’/’man and banjo’ quality remains present on the majority of the work and just as effective as ever, and probably more as it should be.
The Loon
Tapes ‘n Tapes
XL Recordings
2006-07-24
Good press from the Wal Mart of indie-rock SxSW and a support slot for Franz Ferdinand suggests Tapes ‘n Tapes have been wearing the right cords. It’s been a couple of years since they released their first EP, a DIY affair that was good enough to get them signed to XL Recordings which brings us to now and The Loon, their debut album. First listen to The Loon and for many it might play like a guess who of canonical indie, with certain vocal ticks, lyrical imagery, and guitar tones all bowing to the likes of Pavement, The Pixies, and The Beach Boys among others. Name-checking can be a fun game for the critics in us — but we’re all different as I’m sure Francis Black would agree and so it equates that after a couple listens Tapes ‘n Tapes are adjudged on their own merits because with a little water The Loon grows into something actually pretty good.
Personality
The Sleepy Jackson
V2
2006-07-24
Personality: One Was A Spider One Was A Bird is the follow-up to The Sleepy Jackson’s well-received Lovers (2003). TSJ have always been a band in form and in the live arena but in reality they are the genesis of one slightly bonkers Aussie, Luke Steele. Lovers was Steele’s attempt to “make a perfect pop album”, and though it fell short of this but still included some off-centre pop gems (most notably “Good Dancers”). This second LP took three years to write and became more of auteur’s project as Steele sacked numerous band members (retaining only long term-drummer Malcolm Clark) and maintained his singular vision, this time to combine Beach Boys vocals, Prince’s rhythms and jazz structures.
Toxic
Various Artists
Toxic
2006-07-24
Toxic is not a compilation of Britney Spears out-takes but a collection of tracks compiled from the famous Toxic nights between 2002 and 2005 held at The Boule Noire, Boulevard Rochouart, Paris, baby. Still likely to remain unknown even to the greatest Francophiles amongst us an easier way of describing Toxic would be to say it was Paris’ equivalent to Fabric Live. Curated by in house DJ’s Dj Solo and Uncle O the album takes Hip Hop as its bedrock, lays an electro-punk duvet on top of it and supplies a funk pillow- inviting us all to get nostalgic in bed to those halcyon Toxic nights. Rah.
Don’t Bite Your Sister
Scream Club
Retard Disco
2006-07-17
“Two gaysemetrical superheroes who have come to spread the message of fun to queerions, hip hoppers, and rockers all over the world”, sounded like a bit of a muff-full to me. I mean, David Bowie and Cyndi Lauper, the island of lesbos and black man’s music going by the name of hip hop. What is the world of Retard Disco coming to? Turns out Scream Club aren’t David Bowie and Cyndi Lauper despite the more than a passing resemblance and are in fact two white girl rappers going by the names of Cindy Wonderful and Sarah Adorable.
Alter
Knut
HydraHead
2006-07-15
The third in a series of Hydra Head remix albums, Alter contains fourteen de- and re-constructions of tracks from the blinding Knut back catalogue — the Swiss metal powerhouse group have ground out four records for the label over the last ten years, including last years Terrorformer and 2001’s awesome Bastardiser. Actually compiled and completed back in 2004 the compilation brings together a range of reworkers: Genevan compatriots such as Seth Svollensen, Ad’s, and Lad and Andres; electronic noise pioneers like KK Null and Mick Harris, other innovators like Dalek and Oren Ambarchi and surprisingly enough, yes, on a remix album, Justin Broadrick.
Epsilons
Epsilons
Retard Disco
2006-07-13
Epsilons are a four-piece band from Orange-County, they read Aldous Huxley, they play a rangey garage rock and one of them is still in school. Get used to this sort of promo blurb because these young whippersnappers have the kind of ingredients that leave A’n’R men seeing digits and dollars. Exotic names (e.g. Charlie Moonheart) and age (youngest is still only 16 years old) aside, they’ve already been gigging for two years- that’s already a lot more than The Strokes had been — and they’re checking bands (Devo, The Mummies, The Sonics etc) that are rarely in the same cosmos as kids that age.
Dusk And Summer
Dashboard Confessional
Vagrant
2006-07-10
It’s not hard to see who the focal point of Dashboard Confessional is. Front man Chris Carrabba is on virtually every page of the glossy sleeve, either moodily gazing out to sea or intensely staring at the camera. His band is only in one picture, but then he does write all the songs. Previous album A Mission, A Mark, A Brand, A Scar was produced by Gil Norton who has worked with the Pixies (amongst others). It was a multi-million seller but retained some of the edge of Carrabba’s previous band Further Seems Forever and earlier DC albums. The follow-up features an appearance from Adam Duritz from acoustic rock anathema Counting Crows and is produced by Don Gilmore of U2 fame, and that should give you an idea of the territory travelled here. It’s all about the numbers, people.
Impeach My Bush
Peaches
XL Recordings
2006-07-10
Since her arrival on the scene, Peaches has traded on magnifying sexual taboos and inverting gender relations in an apparent attempt to collapse pre-existing power structures and of course promoting her own fervent sexuality. Prior to the ‘sexual revolution’ of the 60/70s you might say at least in a canonical way that such shock tactics might have carried some weight, it might have been easy to picture Peaches sitting at a table with Valerie Solanas eating Linda Mcartney’s corn burgers.
The Avalanche
Sufjan Stevens
Rough Trade
2006-07-10
The Avalanche is subtitled “Outtakes and extras from the Illinoise album”. Stevens has taken the fragments and ideas leftover from those sessions, worked them over in a studio with help from some of the same musicians to fill in the gaps and has managed to make (another) minor-key classic that stands up on its own or as a companion piece to this previous record.
American V: A Hundred Highways
Johnny Cash
Def American
2006-07-06
“Go on tell that long-tongue liar, midnight rider, the rambler, the gambler and the backbiter — tell them god is gonna cut them down”. Over the course of his life Johnny Cash was all of these — he would be the first to admit, but it is as the “man in black”,the legend, that is the profile now most synonymous with Johnny Cash’s popular perception. Concurrently, the immediate presumption of American V, the penultimate album of the American series overseen by Rick Rubin, would be an album packed full of heart rendering anthems and painstaking bedside dirges. It would certainly appeal to the masses. Instead, American V contains a handful of covers, the last song Cash ever wrote, and in general a set of songs that go out to diffuse the myth and humbly re-affirm Cash’s worship of the twin god’s in his life, death and his wife June Carter.
Rum ‘n Brass
Stig
Rebel Music
2006-07-03
I like ska music. I like punk. But I fucking hate ska punk. The upbeat, aren’t-we-wacky, long shorts and dreadlocks shit completely passes me by. I mention this as there’s mixed messages on this debut by noisy Liverpool 5-piece, Stig. One the plus side there’s tours and associations with gameboy-mentalist Scotch Egg and Shitmat from the Wrong Music label, and a PR description incorporating theremins and “dirty hawaiian slide” amongst myriad other instruments. Unfortunately this everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach also includes “ska flavoured brass and dirty guitars”. Hmmmm.
Everything Wrong Is Imaginary
Lilys
Rocket Girl
2006-07-03
Though it’s a (grammatically incorrect) plural, Lilys is really only one man. Sure, there’s been a revolving cast of supporting musicians throughout the 7 albums attributed to this name, more than 70 of them in fact (from bands as diverse as The Icarus Line and Beachwood Sparks), but Kurt Heasley is the ever-present beating heart and soul. Listening to Everything Wrong Is Imaginary it’s hard to think of Heasley as a Mark E Smith-style despot scaring off and sacking band members with every album, more like a maverick musician that everyone wants to work with.
Return To Cookie Mountain
TV On The Radio
4AD
2006-07-03
If a measure of a debut album is the quality of the guest stars on its follow up then TVOTR’s first long player, Desparate Youth And Bloodthirsty Babes, was a cracker. Their follow-up features the vocal talents of labelmates Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead) and Katrina Ford (Celebration) and a certain David Bowie. The New York group have also expanded to a five piece, founding members David Sitek and Tunde Adebimpe being joined Kyp Malone, Jaleel Bunton and lastly Gerrard Smith.
Hav You Seen Lucky?
John Kastner
Boss Tunage
2006-06-26
Have You Seen Lucky? is described by the artist as “a cross between everything I’ve done over the past twenty years” and sure enough comes across as a familiar pop/punk/indie/rock hybrid, comparable to Dando’s The Lemonheads and bands like the Foo Fighters. It’s an album which is very easy to listen to, not challenging too much but with a strong focus on a melodic songwriting underpinned by a rock feel. The album is quite middle-of-the-road, perhaps testament to Kastner’s older years, but he’s not really that old and the album picks up speed and rocks a little harder intermittently, stopping the album from easily paling away into college rock obscurity.
Nebulae
Outputmessage
Melodic
2006-06-26
Outputmessage is not one of the most captivating pseudonyms thrown at me in the last few months but is nevertheless the misnomer that 22 year old Virginian, Bernard Emmanuel Farley (I probably wouldn’t use his real name either) rolls with when delivering his mix of house, techno and general electronica. Nebulae is Farley’s debut album and seeks, in his own words, to focus upon melody whilst blending film-sound track inflected scores. Not great news for those of loose mouthed variety of techno stompers, but for myself with techno and house being neither really my cup of tea nor my kettle of fish I wondered whether this record would indeed see me drinking the proverbial herbal whilst smoking the mackerel.
Final Relaxation
The Golding Institute
Ipecac
2006-06-26
Final Relaxation is certainly an interesting record — “Your ticket to death through hypnotic suggestion” states the back sleeve, also advertising it as “The most unusual album ever sold!” Indeed it is unusual and most intriguing, however, does it live up to it’s promise? Is it as interesting as it sounds? Does it lead to the death of the listener? Well, I listened to it, and i’m still alive, and I have to say, i’m slightly disappointed.
22 Seconds EP
Roebeck
Genepool
2006-06-26
Cigarettes last longer than this mini EP. So this is how it goes. We all stood outside the fire exit to the music factory chuffing on tabs. Looking at the puddles that had collected from the morning’s rain, I could see little prisms of light. Everyone was pretty much the same this week. I wondered if this little scene shot through some grainy black and white camera might bring some chic to the toe. A bit of Beverly Knight and a little Barry White. This EP evokes lounge jazz and this was all just a passing thought.
Greedy Baby CD/DVD
Plaid & Bob Jaroc
Warp
2006-06-26
Greedy Baby is the exiting new collaborative package between longtime techno duo Ed Handley and Andy Turner, formerly of The Black Dog but more recently and commonly known as Plaid, and video artist/director Bob Jaroc. The audiovisuals have already played live and to impressive reception — being asked back after their performance at Ether Festival, and also being chosen to open the proceedings at the first ever Optronica festival of music and film at London’s IMAX.
For Crying Out Loud
Varsity Drag
Boss Tuneage
2006-06-26
Varsity Drag is the latest musical project from original Lemonheads founder Ben Deily and three other vets from a band called Unbalanced. Deily left The Lemonheads in ‘89 after three albums — dude, you missed that pay cheque — just prior to when their mix of power-pop-grunge ‘exploded’ in the early 90s. Deily left to carry out a career in advertising.
Enemies Like This
Radio 4
EMI
2006-06-19
This is a return to form for the Brooklyn-based Radio 4 after a well received debut (Gotham, 2002) but then a lacklustre second Stealing Of A Nation two years later. Like those previous efforts they invest a political angle to many of the songs (the US Government’s abject failure to deal with the aftermath of hurricaine Katrina is considered on a couple) and maintain an urgent and dynamic groove throughout, but this is the first release on a major label - so the pressure’s on.
Puzzles Like You
Mojave 3
4AD
2006-06-19
They have is a general affinity with US indie bands like Rilo Kiley and particularly Death Cab for Cutie — more satchels and hailclips than skateboards and baggy shorts. The vocals are mostly sung by both Halstead and Goswell and they recall the dreamy sense that Joy Zipper infuse their songs with, but they perhaps lack that duo’s subtle knife edge in a lot of the delivery — veering towards the sweet rather than the sardonic (Though a few bitter lines prevail, like “everyone I ever loved was fucked up” on “Big Star Baby”). There is also a very British edge to Puzzles Like You, not least with their accents of course, and also in the sixties organ swells of “Kill The Lights” or the similarities to later Teenage Fanclub that abound.
Define The Great Line
Underoath
Virgin
2006-06-19
Define The Great Line is Underoath’s fourth album and follows 2004’s highly successful They’re Only Chasing Safety. Returning to the more explosive and brutal post-hardcore/metalcore of the band’s earlier work before the slightly lighter and more accessible previous album, Define The Great Line looks to be another successs for the Vans Warped Tour favourites.
Alive
Grief
Southern Lord
2006-06-13
Although containing just seven tracks, Alive delivers fourty punishing minutes plus of huge doom, ground out by Boston legends Grief. This live album was recorded at a gig in their hometown after their reformation following a split in 2001 and is testament to ecerything the band were famous for in the latter half of the 1990s — slow, brutal doom-core with the harshest vocals and riffs that can only be described in words that end with moth, like behemoth, and mammoth, and thats probably it actually.
Under The Sun/Attack EP
Thousand Natural Shocks
Play It Again 7
2006-06-12
Thousand Natural Shocks describe their music as “essentially new wave with a bit of art-rock going on, played with the energy of punk. But there’s also a big emphasis on making it dance, big beat and fast funk.” Steady on lads! Leave some genres for your seventh album change of direction!
Dust Ghosts
The Wireless Stores
In At Deep End Records
2006-05-29
You know when people have bad news and good news in equal measures to tell you, and they ask you which you want to hear first? Well, in the honourable tradition of rehashing cliches, that’s precisely what’s going to happen here. So if you’re a masochistic sort who likes to leave with a faintly bitter taste in your mouth, read paragraph 2 followed by paragraph 1. But if you’re a ‘spoonful of sugar with your medicine’, happy-go-lucky type then read it in the normal order and you should come away feeling none the worse. In any case, enjoy…
Triple Burner
Triple Burner
Madrona
2006-05-29
This is the debut release by Triple Burner, aka Harris Newman and Bruce Cawdron, but is by no means the first fruits of their combined efforts as Cawdron has already appeared on Newman’s Non-Sequiturs (2003) and Accidents with Nature and Each Other (2005). The journey to full collaboration has taken a few years of live performance and like those previous releases Triple Burner has a very live-sounding feel.
Cavalcade Of Glee And Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Pom
Venetian Snares
Planet Mu
2006-05-29
Prolific producer Venetian Snares, AKA Aaron Funk, unleashes his first bought of breakcore for 2006 and brings with him more delightful melodies to accompany his harsh beats. For a man accustommed to releasing numerous albums in a year, for Cavalcade he has drawn on the classical influences present for Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett (Planet Mu, 2005) to give a lush sound to the electronic layers that the strings offered on Csillag.
Entheogen
Sika Redem
Undergroove
2006-05-29
Entheogen marks the band’s uneasy pigeonholeing, as they carve out a route through atmospheric wastelands and thrashing hardcore terrain with a passion for crazed math and a disregard for generic classification. It’s not simply a template quiet/loud doomy post-metal sound a la Isis, Pelican or Neurosis, although there is a definite debt owed to these bands and their own experiments in both the thoughtful and extreme regions of heavy music.
Dollar and Deed
Hawnay Troof
Southern Records/Retard Disco
2006-05-22
“Hawnay Troof” implies in Southern (American) terms implies what it suggests, “you’re horny ain’t dat da truth”. Similarly, Retard Disco is a good indicator for the sound Vice Cooler a.k.a. Hawnay Troof puts out. Maybe throw in the fact that this music sounds as though its made by someone wired by some serious A.D.T. and hatred for the ignorant values/virtues that occupy Southern America and society in general and your beginning to get an impression of this Hawnay Troof.
Plume
Loscil
Kranky
2006-05-22
Plume carries on from the live context of the previous album, whereby a loose electronic seed, that tends to be a quietly torn synth or lightly pummelled drip, is initially bled into the song only for other samples to flicker in and out — all while ebow guitar, rhodes and vibro/xylophone players take it in turns to improvise micro-melodies or riffs over the processed foreground. Primarily, the objective here is to inject human qualities into what essentially tends to be an android culture — we all prefer a dusty book to an electronic pacemaker. The live instrumentation also serves as method of breaking up the usual formula for ambient electronica and the consistent structures to each track create a recognisable flow to the album.
Evangelista
Carla Bozulich
Constellation
2006-05-15
Evangelista was recorded at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal, spawning point of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mount Zion, et al and is co-produced and played on by Efrim Manuck from the former band. The dischordant orchestrations, strings and found sounds of these groups run throughout this recording, but the apocolyptic, biblical tones have been replaced by a more insular, personal and suffocating experience.
Brookland/Oaklyn
Alias & Tarsier
Anticon
2006-05-15
Alias and Tarsier apparently got working together through a fluke email and like the above suggests recorded their respective roles for Brookland/Oaklyn without meeting or even knowing the other. A little faceless, a little soulless you might suggest, or was this the seed for a global, boundary breaking, genre defineless, meeting of two fractured musical selfs?
Houdini Live 2005: A Live History of Gluttony and Lust
Melvins
Ipecac
2006-05-15
Some of us were lucky enought to get to the Koko last Autumn to see the awesome line-up of The Melvins, Deerhoof and Part Chimp performing in the first season of ATPs Dont Look Back gigs. With the second run steadily approaching it is fitting how we are offered example of how the whole DLB concept is a pure joy, not just bringing some near perfect moments in itself but it in sowing the seeds for things such as this — the matter in hand — the new live recording of (possibly) the best album by (possibly) the most influential band of the last two decades. But bearing in mind the fact that live albums are often none too exiting I shall build on those (uncertain) hyperbolic statements and try to point out what might make Houdini Live 2005: A Live History of Gluttony and Lust a worthwhile addition to a record collection.
Now You Are One Of Us
The Paper Chase
Southern
2006-05-15
The Paper Chase deal along the blurred lines of eccentric tragic-comedy and Now You Are One Of Us is a concept record of sorts based around the classic zombie films of George A. Romero. What proceeds is a kooky rock opera that combines tongue bleeding out of cheek Nihilism and an obvious love of trash to form a record that is at times entertaining and quirky, but ultimately ends up sounding laboured and kitsch.
Broken Boy Soldiers
The Raconteurs
Third Man/XL
2006-05-15
So, Jack White’s flirtation with evil behemoth Coca Cola. What do you think? Is the stalwart purist of retro rock a corporate shill or is he right to use the advert as a platform to spread his message of love? If he is aiming for a more commercial side to his music then he could find one with this debut album by his new band, although ironically he still may not end up playing the same stadium venues with the Raconteurs as the White Stripes have in their weird rise to popularity.
The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of The Beast
Matmos
Matador
2006-05-09
Matmos are no strangers to concept albums. Its what they do. Since their self-titled 1998 debut, they’ve become domestic housewifes in creating a whole album, Quasi Objects (1998), out of domestic appliances, squatted hospitals to record an album of sounds obtained from medical procedures, A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure (2001) and most recently for Civil War (2003) scoured the archives to administer an album documenting that very title, specifically the 17th Century British Civil War and the North and South American Civil Wars. It puts Matmos, made up of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt in the ‘sound artist’ bracket and their latest offering The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast sees them move even closer to that sound artist context with an album made up if ten biographical portraits of different heroes within the Matmos spectrum.
The Drift
Scott Walker
4AD
2006-05-08
The Drift is a masterful album, having the feel of being pieced together over a number of years. Scott Walker’s last album, apart from the film soundtrack to Pola X, was Tilt back in 1995 and it is quite conceiveable that The Drift has been taking painstaking form since then. Holding nothing back, it’s an oppressive, beautiful, stark album, sometimes dense, sometimes desolate, with the power to shock in its changes between the two and remaining forever impacting. The emotive pieces are often incredibly cathartic, sounding so both for the artist and for the listener.
A City By The Light Divided
Thursday
Hassle
2006-05-08
Thursday spearheaded that end of the emo/screamo/post-hardcore thing which was generally very accessible, and by now, in the way that the band have gone, is essentially just indieish-punk rock. The band have still got that emotive quality with the slightly dark twist to their progressions, but remain on the lighter side of the fence, never pouring over to the heavy heavy, helped by the mainly clean and polished production worked by the hand of Dave Friddman (Flaming Lips, Mogwai).
Night Ripper
Girl Talk
Illegal Art
2006-05-08
Night Ripper presents equal touches of the ass-shaking, psychedelic, avant-garde, schizophrenic, and radio-friendly at a rapid fire speed. It is not a hackneyed attempt at a mash-up, it is a complete disassembly of popular music, stripping it down to its parts, and using them to construct a giant musical robot of the most funky and powerful nature.
Kezia
Protest The Hero
Vagrant / Hassle
2006-05-06
The band draw their music from various pools. Obvious is the bands technical ability coming through in the complicated and fast riffs, guitar work and rythms in a distinctly mathy thrash way — calling to mind the hammerings of Turkish death lords Necrophagist. Between the Buried and Me’s metalcore has been cited as an influence by the band but other than the straight heaviness, brutal chugging and math-ness of this band which is identifiable in Protest The Hero, is the distinctly emo element — notably present in the vocals. The vocals also recall prog-metal as well at points, the bands journeys and complex patterns and structures also fitting the same reading.
Pink
Boris
Southern Lord
2006-05-01
Pink is Boris’s much talked about latest import offering album and is purportedly their most accessible yet. The talk suggests that Boris’s previous noise excursions into drone metal, doom and hardcore have been reined in; this is no longer the North Pole but from listening to Pink it’s only just a little closer to the South of France.
Mish Maoul
Natacha Atlas
Beggars Banquet
2006-04-25
Natacha Atlas seems to defy all musical boundaries and genres to make a totally unique sound. Clearly recognisable is the influence of her Middle Eastern and Moroccan roots, as well as blues, hip-hop and dance. Its perhaps an acquired taste, but Atlas has created something well worth appreciating. Most Westerners wouldn’t normally be listening to it, and may not ‘get it’, but maybe Atlas is what they need, to show them how narrow their music listening is, and get them into some experimentation, like the artist is obviously doing.
Did Your Own Grave
Test Icicles
Domino
2006-04-24
The party is over — this cheap cheap CD and its accompanying DVD is the parting stab of the now deceased Test Icicles. It’s a collection of different material — unreleased edits, mixes, remixes, demos etc and it’s a worthwhile little package, both for those who had already jumped on their wagon, and for those who as yet haven’t had the chance.
St. Elsewhere
Gnarls Barkley
Wea
2006-04-24
This debut album from Gnarls Barkley could very likely be about to explode onto the music scene in the same way The Love Below/Speakerboxx proved to be a landmark release in 2003 and the propulsion to superstardom for Outkast. Then it was the danceable vibes of Andre 3000’s half of the double album that ignited the fuse to set off an explosion of interest for the duo. This time the pair behind Gnarls Barkley will both be getting every respect for their combined effort, but perhaps the brains behind this operation is respected producer Danger Mouse.
The Tango Saloon
The Tango Saloon
Ipecac
2006-04-17
Joining the Gotan project (who also have a new release this month) in modern reworkings of the traditional model, The Tango Saloon are an up-to-fifteen-strong troupe of Tango enthusiasts from Sydney, Australia and this Ipecac-released self-titled album is their first major statement to the World. Not only does it look typically Ipecac with its graphic title front cover courtesy of designer Martin Kvamme, who has also designed the sleeves for Tomahawk, General Patton Vs The Executioners, Fantomas and more, but it is just pure Ipecac in sound and idea with its genre busting, obscure, experimental nature and its strong jazz and Ennio Morricone influence.
Kingdom of Fear
Shitdisco
Fierce Panda
2006-04-16
Glasgow dance-punk band Shitdisco prove themselves to be the life of the party with a debut that embraces the new rave fad. While it does not make an album that will have an lastability, producer and ex-Clor man Luke Smith ensures that Kindgom of Fear is a breakneck rollercoaster of a ride through tongue-in-cheek references to funk, old school disco and a dash of house.
The Invisible Deck
The Rogers Sisters
Too Pure
2006-04-13
The Rogers Sisters are made up by Jennifer and Laura Rogers, which yes with a name like The Rogers Sisters is what you would expect. But they also have honorary member Miyuki Furtado who seems to do the bulk of the music making on this album… So the name seems a little misleading don’t you think?
The Abominable Iron Sloth
The Abominable Iron Sloth
Undergroove
2006-04-11
The Abominable Iron Sloth is a great mythical beast, frozen in the ice age and thawed out many years later in the time of man, where it was revered as a deity and then in it’s new man-made armour, wreaked havoc with a massive campaign of slaughter. Holding this tale close to their hearts, The Abominable Iron Sloth is also a true doom band — huge, with slaying riffs and vicious vocals.
Elan Vital
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Matador Records
2006-04-11
So any band named after a Smiths song has a lot to live up to. Pretty Girls Make Graves first hit our airwaves/iPods/computers back in 2002 with their s/t EP and Good Health album. When you think of Seattle it’s often still dirty teens in grunge shirts under bridges listening to Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains in your head. But obviously Pretty Girls Make Graves are different. They have style.
The Red Tree
Moneen
Vagrant Records
2006-04-11
Canadian Emo band Moneen are back with their latest offering The Red Tree. It has been widely documented that the recording process for album was no easy process, reflected chiefly through rock-umentary The Start To This May Be The End which had cameras tailing the band throughout the first weeks in the studio but this over-intensity and anguish prevalent in the film seem to have been refreshingly diluted and filtered for this third full length. As a band Moneen’s sound fits most of the requisite elements of everyone’s idea of Emo though in terms of melodrama and bombastic guitars they’re a little more restrained. The Red Tree exudes a highly polished and big studio sound but the band manages to expand on this using tape loops and general studio wizardry to move slightly outside the Emo boundaries and into at times, a more interesting mix of songs.
My Dark Places
The Television Personalities
Domino Records
2006-04-10
Dean Treacy’s an interesting sort of chap. For nearly thirty years he’s haunted the margins of British music, inspiring others who’ve gone on to bigger things — TVP were Kurt Cobain’s favourite band — but never quite breaking through for himself, despite an abundance of talent. Part of the reason for that lies in his talent for self-destruction, and part of it seems to be from his sheer innocence. He’s been called the original Pete Doherty (which is an interesting concept in itself but this isn’t the time or place for metaphysics) but it’s a poor comparison. For a start he has talent.
Lunatico
Gotan Project
XL Recordings
2006-04-10
Named after the great tango hero Carlos Gardel’s racehorse of the 1930’s, Lunatico is the follow up from Gotan Project’s successful 2001 debut La Revancha Del Tango and again sees them returning to the formula of a little tango and a little electronica to make the tropical sound topical.
Chosen Lords
AFX
Rephlex
2006-04-10
Last year Aphex Twin released a series of 12”s under the title Analord, based around analogue sounds and styles. Making use of Richard D James’s legendary and possibly unequalled collection of analogue synths, drum machines, keys and other assorted kit, this release is a 10-track ‘best of’ that offers a diverse selection of music that probably could not have been crafted by anyone else.
The Zico Chain
The Zico Chain
Hassle
2006-04-10
This is the debut mini-album from Brighton three piece The Zico Chain. The six tracks fly by in a blink-and-you’ll miss it 15 minutes, each one a feral, snarling slab of Brit Rock. The singer makes Kurt Cobain sound like Bing Crosby choking on honey. The riffs hit you like a medicine ball rolled in broken glass. The drummer has one speed. Fast.
Lisbon
Keith Fullerton Whitman
Kranky
2006-04-06
This is a one-track, 41 minute live EP recorded at Galeria Ze Dos Bois in (unsurprisingly) Lisbon on 4th October 2005. It sees something of a change in delivery frow KFW’s usual OCD — the normal 3-year cycle of incessant editing and remastering of his last few releases has been eschewed for a straight-to-hard disk, as-is encapsulation of the KFW live experience.
Lightning Ghost
Bird Show
Kranky
2006-04-03
With the home recording in mind, the frequent sampling of opiate chanting and the various use of twinkling bells and tambourines, the mood is distinctively organic, the smell distinctively of joss sticks and used yoga mats. These intrinsic qualities both work for and against the album.
Misinformation Overload
TV Smith
Boss Tunage
2006-04-03
Like the japanese soldier found in 1995 who believes that WWII is still going on, TV Smith hasn’t really moved too far from the punk rock modus operandi of his previous band, The Adverts, except perhaps the crisper, more crunchy (probably) pro-tooled production and the use of a few synths. This is no particular bad thing and will find enthusiasts in fans from his youth and perhaps some ‘smash the system’ anarchists. Oh, and some of Germany, where he’s quite popular.
Nisht Azoy
Black Ox Orkestar
Constellation
2006-04-03
Black Ox Orkestar are a fabulous entity fundamenatlly existing as a Jewish folk group and bringing back the powerful and often haunting moods and scales of old traditional forms, but reinterpreting or updating them to include other, perhaps more modern, influences. The group formed in 2000, and Nisht Azoy is their second album, following 2004’s Ver Tanzt, and continuing the same themes.
Comes To Your House
Todd
Southern
2006-04-03
After 2002’s untitled EP and then Purity Pledge two years later, London’s Todd have produced a new offspring, and this one launches itself right at your face, with broken shards piercing your ears. Their previous releases rocked but this is heavy as hell — but not metal, just quite a lot to deal with.
I’m Slow But I’m Sloppy EP
Danielson
Anticon
2006-04-03
This 7” is a precursor to the forthcoming full-length Ships, offering the first chance to hear the new form of the former Danielson Famile. This new form, with it’s shortened name, is still based around lead singer Daniel Smith, but now includes all of the Danielson Famile and more. On this release the main “more” addition is from Why? — who produce the A-side track “I’m Slow But I’m Sloppy”, and whose guitarist Matt Meldon lends instrumental work on his 12-string. This is but a taste though of the highly-collaborative Ships, which also features other friends of the Famile like Sufjan Stevens, Deefhoof and Edith Frost.
Dr C./5 Year Eve EP
Alias &Tarsier
Anticon
2006-04-03
After an effective collaboration with his brother Ehren on Lillian, Alias releases this 12” taster of work from the soon-to-be-released album of his newest collaborative work — this time with vocalist Tarsier (of Heelamonster and Tarsier fame). Concurrently with his native Anticon label, Alias moves further away from hip-hop on this release, the result being a relaxed slice of electronica/lo-fi dance recalling Lamb or Bjork, or his work with the Notwist’s Markus Archer.
Care In The Community
Babar Luck
Rebel Music
2006-04-03
Babar Luck’s music exemplifies the ethnic diversity of East London and London itself with its sound that is rooted in British rock pop, the Beatles, Clash (without the punk) etc that invites snippets of reggae, eastern sounds and occasionally his Pakistani mother tongue. Central to the mix is Babar Luck’s voice, sounding sometimes like a less lush version of Finley Quaye but fairly sweet nonetheless, many of the songs here are word heavy and fuelled by religion and politics.
Grab That Gun
The Organ
Too Pure
2006-04-03
I’m not going to bring puerile innuendo into this. This will be a sober and even handed critique. The Organ’s members (sorry) are from British Columbia and follow the likes of Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene in coming to these shores from our Commonwealth cousins clutching good albums and sheaves of critical acclaim in their sweaty palms. The Organ also come with the same indie ethos and despite different musical templates they could breakthrough into similar territories of critical and commercial acclaim.
Apollo
Nebula
Sweet Nothing
2006-03-27
There is a no nonsense, unpretentious spirit throughout this record. It sounds like it’s recorded ‘as live’ in the main as most songs segue from one into another — but not in a smooth way — as new songs crash in on a drum roll or guitar solo. The album starts with four in-your-face bursts of Hawkwind-style R&R, culminating in the relentless and superb “Lightbringer”.
Witch
Witch
Tee Pee
2006-03-27
You could always gain a quiet pleasure whilst listening to Dinosaur Jr. knowing that before they became the big college indie rock band of the late ’80s they were a speed Hardcore band. It’s a little like having a mate who’s generally the nicest guy in the world but to those who know him know that should provoked, he could be the evilest bastard imaginable. J Mascis, the longhaired lead guitarist of Dinosaur Jr. has just gone barroom himself with his latest project, Witch, which sees him return to his original weapon of choice - the drums - and a little closer to the hardcore sound that pre-empted Dinosaur Jr.
Thology
Dan
Boss Tunage
2006-03-21
You might say they had a 5 year plan and you might be wrong because this two-discs worth of material containing three albums, an EP, John Peel Sessions and a live album, shows that they were all over the place. Whatever the theory, what characterises this whopping 64 tracks worth of material is a distinctive freshness to the feel of this album. Unlike a lot of bands today, Dan were a group of mates from Darlington who throughout the majority of their career, sound and appear to be in absolute disregard to any formal aesthetics or pretension of style to the extent that their not even one of those bands who you could tag as “not giving a fuck”.
Both Sides Of The Gun
Ben Harper
Virgin
2006-03-21
The album is split into two discs, the first of which is an acoustic blues/folk affair sometimes backed up by some mournful strings and low-key percussion. At times it’s reminiscent of Cat Stevens (no bad thing, incidentally) in Harper’s voice and the instrumentation, particularly on the wistful “Crying Won’t Help You Now” and “Happy Everafter In Your Eyes”.
Output Negative Space
Enablers
Neurot
2006-03-20
This is the second album by San Franciscan post-rockers, Enablers, following 2004’s End Note. Their skeletal frame is provided by a guitar/bass/drums of Joe Goldring/Kevin Thompson/Yuma Joe Byrnes, who echo the scratchy avant rock of Slint, and this is augmented by the spoken work allusions of Pete Simonelli — a beat poet and darkside narrator.
Songs
John Maus
Upset! The Rhythm
2006-03-20
This release is the debut solo album of John Maus, affiliator of Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, and key member of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. The Upset! the Rhythm label that this is released through have championed the likes of Lightening Bolt and Deerhoof so its leftfield lineage is impressive. As a record this is solo in the (almost) purest sense — composed and recorded over 5 years entirely by Maus with two tracks performed with Ariel Pink. Maus’ biog describes this as his life’s work, which is a shame as frankly its awful.
Drowning in a Sea of Love
Nathan Fake
Border Community
2006-03-20
Nathan Fake caught the spotlight when he released Outhouse in 2003 which pummelled dancefloors with a pumping techno beat over a more progressive sound. The result was instant recognition and he has gone on to produce equally excellent tracks that many a DJ would welcome into their set with open arms.
In A Space Outta Sound
Nightmares on Wax
Warp
2006-03-20
George Evelyn’s latest record under the moniker of Nightmares on Wax continues much in the same way as his previous work. Balearic melodies, relaxed dub and reggae vibes abound for another warm and sunny slice of music that seems destined to become a soulful soundtrack for chilling out while soaking up some rays come summer.
Dirty Days
Jaed
Instant Karma
2006-03-13
The ‘my life is shit’ philosophy of the blues runs like a broken vein throgh the history of popular music, and particularly following the success of Kurt n Courtney’s primal screams, the industry has found profit in packaging/emphasising troubled individuals and their dark backgrounds. Unlike the faux-angst of Avril or Alanis, Jaed’s debut album documents a truly troubled adolescence of abuse, drug addiction and homelessness.
be your own PET!
be your own PET!
XL Recordings
2006-03-13
I can safely say that indie is not quite ready for world domination. There are some new kids in town — Nathan, Jamie, Jonas and Pearl. They take the form of be your own PET and are quickly taking the UK by storm with their quirky style, and untamed youth. These kids are barely 18 and are already teaching all those thritysomething bands how its done. It’s all about blood, puke and guts with this band. They are punk and they are raw… This is be your own PET and they bite.
Glissandro 70
Glissandro 70
Constellation
2006-03-06
This album is the result of collaboration over the last three years or so between Sandro Perri of Polmo Polpo and Craig Dunsmuir of Guitarkestra. Glissandro 70 were originally concieved only for a one-off weblog piece but then grew into a more substantial project with intermittent sessions and additions to make a corpus of full-length proportion.
Mr Beast
Mogwai
PIAS
2006-03-06
Mogwai are back, and with some effect. Although their fifth studio album doesn’t prove to be quite the extremely-heavy effort that early suggestions had it seeming to be, Mr Beast is a very accomplished record full of emotion and intensity — and one which at points does indeed return to the noisy territory which although the live show still always offered, the recordings had generally developed away from.
Nova Lux
MGR
Neurot
2006-03-06
This is the first album from MGR, or Mustard Gas and Roses, side-project of Mike Gallagher, guitarist for doom/post-metal luminaries Isis. The album contains five tracks of instrumental desolation spread over an expansive fifty-two minutes.
Fab Four Suture
Stereolab
Too Pure
2006-03-06
Mixing Kraut-rock and Canterbury Prog, Sixties beat and Gallic pop, alongside other styles like lounge, drone, jazz and soul, Stereolab have been creating their unique blend of luscious balladry and upbeat, arty-indie experiments for the last fifteen years or so. And to my knowledge they’ve never actually made a record which isn’t both incredible easy to listen to and also just a joy to. Unsurprisingly, Fab Four Suture is no different.
Nightmare Of You
Nightmare Of You
East West Records
2006-02-27
When The Movielife broke up, Vinnie Caruana formed I Am The Avalanche and guitarist Brandon Reilly formed Nightmare Of You. While I Am The Avalanche began where The Movielife left off, Nightmare Of You follows in the vein of Straylight Run; a mellow indie band that features more accomplished and mature songwriting than before.
Celebration
Celebration
4AD
2006-02-27
This band are called Celebration for a reason — Celebration is a freak-out cabaret record, but with that underlying hint of cold and darkness which typifies most of record label 4AD’s output. The band is made up of vocalist/percussionist Katrina Ford, drummer David Bergander and multi-instumentalist Sean Antanaitis. Ford and Antanaitis have been playing in bands together since their schooldays — some may have heard of their previous groups Jaks or Lovelife — but they feel that this is the band they’ve been waiting and looking for.
Soft Money
Jel
Anticon
2006-02-20
Soft Money is Jel’s first full length studio album, and sees the full time producer cutting his hours to have a dip at rapping aided and abetted by guest emcees Oddnosdam and Wise Intelligent, to create a curious mixture of finely tuned hip hop, noir trip hop and leftfield big beat electronica.
Rubber Traits EP
Why?
Anticon
2006-02-20
This new Why? release contains “Rubber Traits” off the Elephant Eyelash album released at the end of last year, using the chance to collect together some other unreleased material recorded, over the last year or so — as was the case with the group’s previous Sanddollars and Early Whitney releases.
The Druids EP
Chase and Status
Bingo Beats
2006-02-20
Manchester based newcomers Chase and Status display their stylistic versatility with a release seemingly tailor made for DJ Zinc’s Bingo Beats label. The title track “Druids”, is a FM inflected, Hazard influenced party piece, unpretentious in its melodic simplicity but brimming with dance floor appeal. Side B features “Believe”, an uplifting and soulful number, sitting comfortably on the heavy side of a liquid tip, but retaining an element of Chase and Status’ more rugged sound in the bass.
The Immortal/ Living Daylights remix
DJ Fresh
Breakbeat Kaos
2006-02-13
Once again, DJ Fresh (D.Stein) proves his unsurpassed production skills and ability to weave mammoth dancefloor monsters. Most certainly on a euphoric, parody tip, “The Immortal” blends electro funk samples, a throbbing, punchy bass, tongue-in-cheek vocals and gritty, distorted drums.
Final:3
Final
Neurot
2006-02-06
Final:3, Final’s third album, is still rooted in the original ‘Final sound’ that finds it source in industrial manipulation of electronic and sonic wizardry, welded to a metal aesthetics. Recorded between 2000 and 2005, Final:3 is closest in sound to Jesu, exhibiting a hugely precise ear for distorted bleeps and ringtones, retorted guitars and subterranean bass frequencies but with an overall sound that far more delicate and well… ambient.
The Life Pursuit
Belle and Sebastian
Matador
2006-02-06
Every religion began as a cult. In their early years, Belle and Sebastian possessed near-totemic powers for their small but impassioned band of disciples, as fervent as the followers of similarly wistful, self-deprecating, and sometimes sexually conflicted artists like The Smiths, Felt, and Orange Juice a decade prior.
Lashing The Rye
Harvestman
Neurot
2006-01-30
This is the first record from Neurosis-lord Steve Von Till’s new project/moniker Harvestman. Where we have seen the folk leanings of the man in both Neurosis, specifically through the love of the Bagpipes (also present here), and on his two solo albums, Harvestman takes this further, and in a different direction.
Meridian
Tribes of Neurot
Neurot
2006-01-30
The album offers the experimental ambience with manipulated sound waves and extended notes over throbbing drones that we have come to expect from the band, playing around with ideas of texture and space, and sucking the intentful listener in and away. Its a reflective work, not offering a specific counterpoint to another record as offered with 1999’s Grace (to Neurosis’ Times Of Grace), but standing more as couterpoint to the general noise and speed of life.
At the Drive In / Decade
Baron
Breakbeat Kaos
2006-01-30
With this new release, Breakbeat Kaos stalwart Baron gets a chance to show his more soulful side.
We Are Not The Infadels
The Infadels
Wall Of Sound
2006-01-30
It may be a forgone conclusion that the imminent push of the group has been financially inspired by the success of other electro indie outfits such as The Killers and The Bravery, but never fear; there is nary an overpriced coiff (or indeed, in vocalist Bnaan’s case, hair to style) in sight. The production sandpaper has happily left a few rough edges, much to the album’s benefit, and the influences are candidly displayed with as much congruity as a Picasso painting’s facial arrangement.
Stain Anxiety/Sinister Alignment
Collapse
Chaos Vs Cosmos
2006-01-25
Collapse are an abrasive punk band in the vein of Arab On Radar or the Chinese Stars, the latter even more so due to the more dancey/disco beats accompanying some of the music.
The Grey CD
Lack Of Knowledge
Southern
2006-01-23
The closest reference point to clumsily place this alongside is Unknown Pleasures-era Joy Division, particularly in its sparse but menacing rhythm section and bleak lyrical focus.
Popular Music For Unpopular People
East West Blast Test
Ipecac
2006-01-23
If I was to draw out sonic comparisons for East West Blast Test i’d need to discuss the avant-metal of Fantomas, the jazz and experimental tendencies of Frank Zappa and the grind of Discordance Axis as just a starting point. Popular Music For Unpopular People is not just coming from two places as the name suggests but from everywhere. Or at least the musical journey between New Jersey and California, back again and so forth stops off to rest at almost as many styles and genres as there are tracks on this album (23 - in 32 minutes) before the route finally leads to our stereos.
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
Arctic Monkeys
Domino
2006-01-23
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’s release date was moved forward a week by popular demand and record shops were taking advance orders, but how does the album fair compared to this impressive hype? Luckily enough for the Sheffield boys, it’s only going to do as well as it deserves to: Domino’s newest chart hopefuls have mounted a mighty challenge to label-mates Franz Ferdinand’s throne of success, by making what could easily be the pop-soundtrack to 2006.
Solidarity
Tone
Neurot
2006-01-23
What’s in a name? As names go, Tone is not the most original ever. Yes, it’s better than Oasis. But worse than Crispy Ambulance (from whom, members of this band are drawn from, incidentally). It certainly alludes to something in within the wider spectrum of ‘Rock’ but more like plodding heavy metal than the quiet/loud dichotomies of post-rock. Tone formed in Washington D.C. in 1991 and though they have released their three previous albums on Ian McKaye’s Dischord label they are relatively removed from their city’s hardcore punk lineage.
Elf-Titled
The Advantage
5 Rue Christine
2006-01-17
When I first heard The Advantage it put me in one of the greatest moods ever and I couldn’t help but listen to it non-stop for a couple of weeks with the biggest grin on — their self-titled debut album is one hell of a good-time soundtrack — but the fun does not stop there — they’re back with a new record and this time its got a better name! The Advantage have set it their mission to record every Nintendo game theme and on their first record they offered 26 pieces — with various levels/stages and start/end music from 20 different games. This time around the album is shorter, only 16 tracks, but it’s just as good, if not better.
Hex or Printing in the Infernal Method
Earth
Southern Lord
2006-01-16
Through their style they’ve always retained a sort of DIY ‘fuck you’ quality to their sound, initially sounding very much unlike anything else and then later on down the line paying very little attention to anyone else’s sentiments as they delved and scraped at the bottom of detuned, low frequency cesspits. So it comes as a little bit of a surprise when I read the blurb on their fifth official studio album and come across the labels country/western and epic rock.
Boys And Girls In America
The Hold Steady
Vagrant
2006-01-15
It’s taken a while for The Hold Steady to make it to these shores. After two well received LPs on NYC indie label Frenchkiss (2004’s Almost Killed Me and 2005’s Separation Sunday) it took a move to Vagrant for an proper debut in the UK to appear. It makes a nice change for a band to surface from the underground with some weight behind them rather than a hyped debut followed by general apathy.
The Heaven and Hell EP
Unknown Error
Moving Shadow
2006-01-13
A great example of just how exiting the doom laden, dystopic dnb style can be.
Warhead RMX / Maintain
DJ Krust / TC
V Recordings
2006-01-12
Bambata style conga loops, a heavy Valve sound to the bass and well implemented atmos and vocals. Not earth shakingly innovative DnB, but if you like the originals, you can’t go wrong.
Incline / Mist (Klute Remix)
Tactile / Klute
Timeless Recordings
2006-01-02
Easily one of the strongest Drum and Bass tracks recently released, “Incline” is a spitty, sci-fi roller. Choppy, energetic drums complement a pulsing distorted rave sound, punching through the mix in a style somewhat akin to Total Science’s “Defcom 69”.
The Carrot and The Stick
Juan Prophet Organization
none
2006-01-01
Think Circus Vargas meets Sleepy time Gorilla Museum and the Tosca Tango Orchestra. This album is truly a rift in the daily atmosphere of copycat, non-daring redundancies. Full of odd time signatures, precisely orchestrated instrumentation and wild outbursts of spontaneity and chaos, this album is like an eerie trip through time and space. Melodies from the clarinet, trumpet, accordion and violin interweave and swirl until the listener is left with an abrupt halt or change. The packaging even features various pictures of the band members sporting porky pig masks.
Energy Czar
Hunting Lodge
Farm Girl / Super-Fi / Blood Red Sounds
2005-12-12
After the impressive self-titled and Scott Joplin’s Piano Rags EPs and last year’s split 7” with Liverpool’s Mugstar, Energy Czar arrives as Hunting Lodge’s first full-length. It’s often a hard transition from gig to record with bands like this, where the appeal is in the noise and chaos which seems bound up in its performance in the intense live situation. The EPs had done alright but the band seem now to be both noisier and crazier than ever, so how’d they do? Short answer: they did well, it’s an album as messed up as necessary. Long answer: read on.
The Bomb
The Bomb
Thick Records
2005-11-29
In a turn of events that can only be described as Jurassic Park-esque, The Bomb have discovered prehistoric pop-punk’s DNA and set it out on show. The crashing powerchords of opening track “Up From The Floor” elicit a Pavlovian desire to dress all in black and mosh furiously with a can of cider (mine was a sheltered upbringing), and this sets the tone for the whole album.
Bootprints EP
King Creosote
Names/679
2005-11-28
The lead track on this EP, “Bootprints” is a gorgeous hammond pop swoon. The parping horns and catchy chorus of Blur or Badly Drawn Boy coupled with the King’s almost Ian Dury vocals.
I Hate T-Shirts That Say 1977 EP
L Pierre (& Notes)
Melodic
2005-11-28
The dance sound identifiable behind much of his work here explodes into an uplifting, cinematic house party — instead of a pulse underpinning depressed post-rock bardsmanship though this is a beach anthem, and much more uplifting than the title suggests.
The Cold Nose
Department of Eagles
Melodic
2005-11-28
“Sailing By Night”s folky melodics develop into a darker keys, synth strings take over and enveloping drum repetitions build and finish the song along with keyboard dramatics
Crime and Dissonance
Ennio Morricone
Ipecac
2005-11-18
Although some of the pieces on Crime and Dissonance have been previously available, this new double-CD compilation offers a choice, powerful and very wide selection (made by Alan Bishop, but no doubt with at least a guiding hand from Ipecac label boss and huge Morricone fan Mike Patton) from more obscure films made in the later 1960s and early 1970s, scores almost always ignored by the collections most easily available.
Crazy Price
Messer Chups
Ipecac
2005-11-18
The feel and themes of both the music and also the promo videos included on this ‘enhanced’ CD is that of a Crampsy type sex, voodoo, horror camp and the album does have a great weirdo party mood. Songs like opener “Fantomasofobia” and “Satan Jeans” are testament to this. The schlocky film samples which permeate the record lend to this atmosphere, and the song titles are just great, check out “Anton La Vey 66.6FM” and “Sex Euro and Evils Pop”!
Vampire Circus
Earthride
Southern Lord
2005-11-15
Imagine a whiskey-stained, Lemmy-esque throat growling out lyrics over classic doom grooves and you’re right there in the middle of the Earthride sound. The band are classic doom, without a doubt; Vampire Circus fits right in alongside the dark rhythm and blues rock of Black Sabbath, Pentagram or Saint Vitus and will also entertain fans of doom’s younger brother stoner.
Beyond Reinforced Jewelcase
BARR
Upset! the Rhythm
2005-11-14
In some ways the musical arrangement, and the intimate honesty of the lyrics could be compared to Arab Strap. But instead of Scottish earthiness, and talk of sex and booze, Barr has an metropolitan emotional eloquence, associated with his Californian roots.
Safer Here
Dawn Smithson
Kranky
2005-11-10
The majority of songs follow a similar pattern of recourse to a distant third person, a longing anguish that flirts between desperate attempts of reconciliation to purgative expressions of newfound peace “I may not be happy now but at least I’m safer here”. The whole album bestows this transitory feel from the track titles themselves “Somewhere far”, “Nowhere Near”, “Ticking Away” etc, to the pace of the album with each song driven along by a strumming style, pared down and without any drums, which is gentle but deliberately stuttering allowing for greater focus on Smithson’s plaintive vocals.
Summer in the Southeast
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Sea Note/Drag City
2005-11-07
Songs from all his collaborations and different handles are included and, interestingly, the different markers set throughout his career seem to sit well together on one long player.
Long Before I Reach The Phone
The Riverclub
Bravestar Recordings
2005-11-07
This debut mini is produced by A’s Jason Perry who manages to forgo his band’s pop-metal bludgeon and bring The Riverclub’s melodic sensibilities to the fore. Opener “We’re on Empty Again” rattles along with the requisite buzzsaw guitars and shouty chorus and “Call If You Want To” does exactly the same - but even better.
The Dream House
Windy & Carl
Kranky
2005-11-07
The album itself consists of just two songs, the first nearing the thirty minute mark and the second closer to twenty. The duo have deliberately set out to work in longer forms than past works have seen suggesting the objective would be to give each song more scope to develop or to withdraw, to layer or to slowly shred, allowing possible melodies and rhythms more room to entice the listener.
Life Starts Here
Driving On The Right
Bravestar
2005-11-07
Uxbridge four-piece Driving on The Right formed in August 2003. Having grown up listening to bands such as Girls Against Boys and Senseless Things, the band combines these influences with melodic vocal hooks to produce a ‘unique sound’. Within months of forming, the band had recorded and released their self-financed single “Casualties”.
Romeo K.O. EP
VOLT
Exile On Mainstream
2005-11-03
The sticker on the front of the CD states “Pure Fuckin’ Noise rampage! Plowing the fields sown by bands like Melvins or Jesus Lizard” which is pretty much spot on. This limited release EP, only 750 copies exist for the worldwide market, is indeed a fine example of the dirtiest, messiest, loudest punk noise and deserves a listen from anyone who can get a copy.
Before The Blackout
Allister
Drive-Thru
2005-10-31
Musically, it’s classic Allister. “Blackout” is a dark and hard-hitting track that is full of sharp guitar parts, tribal drumming, and a chorus that’ll have you shouting along to in the car. “2 A.M.”, the slowest song on the album, displays longing vocals and bouncy guitar hooks.
Feels
Animal Collective
FatCat
2005-10-18
The quartet is not afraid of shying away from the blippity pop blop and is proving so with many of the tracks on Feels, a very delightfully odd transition from their previous album Sung Tongs.
In The Library Of Horrific Events
Johnny Truant
Undergroove
2005-10-17
Meatier, heavier, harsher and an all-round better offering than its predecessor (2002’s Repercussions of a Badly-Planned Suicide), In the library… shows off a bigger stylistic and technical range and draws on different traditions to create a diverse and compelling album.
Broken Valley
Life Of Agony
Hassle
2005-10-17
Theirs is a music for the winter months, for grey skies and wrapping up warm in black clothes definately not sunny beach adventures! Lucky they released it now then…
Live it Out
Metric
Last Gang Records
2005-10-04
If this record were a car, it would be sitting on a snowy embankment, trying to get its engine to turn over. The same way that one lays their head on the steering wheel and pleads with the pistons to begin their cyclical journeys, Live It Out, contains a promise, which is hinted at but isn’t ever fully delivered upon.
You Could Have It So Much Better With…
Franz Ferdinand
Domino
2005-10-03
I mentioned earlier the developing template; whilst their first record stuck to one theme they knew worked (i.e high tempo guitar pop) “You Could Have It…” adds more.
Periphery
Christopher Bissonnette
Kranky
2005-10-03
Although something of a cliche to use the word, Periphery does have some “glacial” moments; the slow, other-worldly grace of “Comfortable Expectations” being a case in point. But more frequently amongst the album’s duration is a sense of the organic.
The Superimposers
The Superimposers
Little League
2005-09-05
This album is more than just a retro pastiche of a previous era’s styles. The subtle use of pastoral samples drifts through the songs giving depth to the orchestral swells and chiming guitars.
Lillian
Alias & Ehren
Anticon
2005-08-30
Lilian combines Alias’ beats and loops with his brother’s array of old jazz and orchestral instruments and has an almost bucolic nature to it. Heaven forfend we describe this as ‘chill out music’.
Capture and Release EP
Khanate
Hydrahead
2005-08-23
In the dark underworld of doom metal, Khanate are seated on the throne of extremity, setting an incredibly high standard for experimental music
Day Late, Dollar Short
Thrones
Southern Lord
2005-07-25
The hammering drum barrage of “Reddleman” is typical of the noise feel of much of the album and comparing it to the quirky elements of “A Quick One” brings out again the varying range of styles which Preston’s song writing and this compilation embraces.
Wait and See
Tiefschwarz
Fine
2005-07-04
German brothers, Tiefschwarz, are rather old hands at this ‘Electro’ business. Genius remixers, they have worked on Kelis and The Rapture and their rework of Kinda New by Spektrum could be considered one of the best. Ever.
The First Drop
Fireapple Red
Visible Noise
2005-06-27
Of the three studio recorded tracks, “Another Season” is the pick of the bunch; it hits you like a sledge hammer to the head.
X&Y
Coldplay
Capitol
2005-06-07
He rhymes wrong with wrong. This is a man who is getting paid millions of dollars to write these lyrics, the least he can do is not repeat his trite words into even more forced rhymes.
A Perfect Life with a View of the Swamp
Miocene
Corporate Risk
2005-05-30
Seamless production sees consecutive tracks merge from Tool-esque math-riffing, to ugly, hardcore jungle, (sometimes with a readily discernible time signature, sometimes not) using crashing, squelching drum samples overlaid with Alec Empire white noise and electro-screeching.
Kidnapped by Neptune
Scout Niblett
Too Pure
2005-05-23
Although remaining true to her simplistic, stripped-down sound, the record shows greater subtlety in arrangement. Behind the raucous guitar there is often a slick bass line underpinning everything.
Alienoid Starmonica EP
The Aliens
EMI
2005-05-08
After producing yet another brilliantly eclectic, innovative and downright great album in Heroes to Zeros in 2004 the Beta Band decided to call it a day. Following the demise of the Betas, John and Robin hooked up with one of their old comrades — the song writing genius that is Gordon Anderson (aka Lone Pigeon) — and formed The Aliens.
Take It How You Want It
Self Against City
Drive-Thru Records
2005-05-04
The way that they write such perfectly crafted highbrow pop songs seems almost calculated, appealing to such a massive number of people all at once
Songs for Silverman
Ben Folds
Sony
2005-04-26
The tone of this record is a decidedly more subdued one that his last release. If Rockin’ the Suburbs was the disc you played at the party Saturday night, then Songs for Silverman is the CD you pop in on the way to breakfast the next morning.
Futurists Against the Ocean
Asva
Web Of Mimicry
2005-04-19
First track “Kill the Dog, Tie Them Up, Then Take the Money” is an archetypical doom track, with epic downtuned, downtempo progressions in the tradition of Black Sabbath or the aforementioned Burning Witch.
Suspended Animation
Fantomas
Ipecac
2005-04-05
If the dance hall in Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962) contained Daffy Duck and friends and groups of children chuckling to themselves, then Fantomas would be seen on the stage.
Golden Ocean
50 Foot Wave
4AD
2005-03-07
There are certain records that take you back to beautiful, hazy days of never-ending summer sunshine and joy, records that evoke that the best of times, carefree and footloose, the aural equivalent of a week on a beach with a bottle of gin and a beautiful woman.
Midwest Funk
Various Artists
Jazzman Records
2005-02-02
It’s albums like this that reveal Funk music’s a transcendent production of the human spirit. I literally haven’t stop dancing to this ‘ish’ since the LP dropped.
Split EP
Made In Mexico/Athletic Automation
New Addition
2004-07-01
This CD came in a double sided carboard sleeve, with one a colorful distorted picture of a two man band, clad in what seemed to be basketball shorts, and the other with a big number “13” and the words “Made in Mexico” repeated a number of times across the image. I had no idea what I was gonna get going into it, and to be honest, I’m not quite sure what I got coming out of it.
Yancey Boys
Illa J
Pinnacle
0209-12-08
The release of Illa J’s “Sounds Like Love” this week brings his album back into the spotlight. The younger brother of the late producer/hip hop artist James Yancey, AKA Jay Dee and J Dilla, took his siblings unused recordings to forge the album James never got the chance to create. The smooth, soulful hip hop is soft on the ears, just lacking in an edge to make it stand out from the crowd in the same way as Yancey senior achieved.
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