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On the first listening, one may give up very easily on Tucker’s debut album, filing it under the new folk scene or what have you and without paying too much attention. I myself wasn’t that far away from writing a few words of that kind, and luckily enough, my stubborn curiosity allowed me to discover this little piece of marvel on the fifth/sixth attempt to track its influential background. Conclusions: this is a highly demanding and rewarding album that makes a compelling listening, discovering a multifaceted ambiance achieved by putting a great deal of thought in to detail. Old Fog is a must for every John Fahey fan that isn’t afraid of some field recordings and a hint of English folk vocals; a brilliant audio version of hide and seek…Dubflower
Intense but occasionally playful-sounding semi-industrial swirl. ‘Speak Your Mind’ a squonk-pronk carnival in a Monsoon Bassoon/Cardiac style with a slight lean to gothic performance passion. This is a one man, one vision nation of a record, but makes the avant accessible, even if it always threatens to freak out in a long drawn out non-linear atonal manner. Yet it is just the suggestion of it, despite the growing anger of the climactic title track closer, that makes it all the more intriguing. This is a solo artistes genuine exploration of music and themselves. Skif
9 spiriting tracks in 20 minutes. Choppy, champing, chilly post-punk, angular with a touch of the Magic Band in their jagged rhythms, At The Drive In in their scampish yelp. Skif
16 legs, 16 arms, 8 heads filled with sweetly perverse ideas and a couple of thousand instruments exchanged as though passing a parcel. At least that’s how it works in the live setting, where they really excel. This LP is an excellent panorama of their talents, celebratory of all things kind and maybe a touch twee with it. Brass morphs gingerly upward, the shrill yelps countering the shakable strength of the male vox. We’re in Flaming Lips territory, but more paper thin and malleable and with the excitability of kindred spirits Bearsuit. They constantly offer us a hand of friendship, their gorgeous arrangements creating a common bond of contentment to be shared with their audience. This is storytime, in the round, at the zoo. It is an album that shows why music SHOULD be a thing you fall in love with. Skif
Starts in fits and pips, a primitive atonal electronica calmly creeping from its cocoon. The press release calls it strange and beautiful fruit. I can only agree. Electronica can be fairly perverted and, at best, ugly/beautiful in the most part. This however starts out oddly cute like a miniature robot shih-tzu leaping through hoops on repeated command. It is surprisingly calm despite the non-linear beat clatter. ‘The Ballad Of The Loch Ness Monster’s intrinsic melancholy is indicative of electronic music’s ability to be emotive, despite the theoretical coldness of it’s constituent parts. It does get a little rougher towards the end but it remains subtly beguiling. Skif
One would have thought that in this new compilation of rare unreleased tracks of Bardo Pond we could have found a documentation of the evolution and development of one of the most stable and exciting bands in the contemporary kraut-rock/space rock field, since its birth in 1989. Now, even though this is not the case, this collection still affirms the bands high position in so many critics lists, delivering a psychedelic pot full of brilliant and heavy repetitive drone-full free jams. Differing somewhat from their more successful kraut-rockish ‘Dilate’, Selections has a more open and improvised feeling to it, in the vein of the bands earlier material, thus may not appeal to everyone, but will match perfectly the fans of the band and the genre. Dubflower
Finally righteousness is restored and the lost debut LP ‘In Charge Of Meats’ is in our eager mitts, retitled ‘Team Ping Pong’ but with the original cover print. Within it, Bearsuit collect their first EPs (along with more recent singlette ‘Chargr’) and show exactly what got punters (like this one) into such a rabid fit back in the summer of 2002. Rushing headlong into the murderous tantrum that is ‘Drinkink’ (incidently, the finest single ever made. Ever. Fact.), there is precious let-up thereafter from Bearsuit’s rosy-cheeked Jekkyl continually pirouetting through red-eyed Hyde. They occupy the saloon door space between the blood and teeth flying amongst a brawl and the 2 ponies chewing straw outside. FYI, they started the brawl, and stole the ponies (but looked after them and fed them everyday). Spanning cardiganed-twee through elbow-flailing sweaty hardcore, they invent, they squeal, they grow pigtails, they pull pigtails, and come up with concrete cyclone genius like ‘Busy Needles’. Gawd bless. Skif
The quiet windy commencement to this album by way of ‘The Canal (the horns play underneath the canal)’ and ‘Les Luminaries pt1’drifts you away slowly and serenely. However, if you were expecting a long soft and floating journey then you are given a sharp wake up call as early as the third track, whereby; ‘Les Luminaries pt2’ has a bolder, more vibrant and jive friendly feel. The album, by and large, keeps at a restful pace, but still manages to proffer instrumental variety that is epitomised in the throbbing horn fuelled instrumental kaleidoscope of ‘The Upwards March’ that has a The Silent Orchestra and Aphex Twin feel to it. There is not a vocal within earshot and neither is there or force or strangled beat to be located anywhere; it is almost as though this empirical Canadian 5 piece that includes The Arcade Fire bassist Richard Parr, has set music free into the wild. ‘Recording A Tunnel (the invisible bells)’ has a wistful oceanic feel to it and is a marathon of discovery and karma. Noises just float around and meet up in the bracing moments to give the five minute plus track direction and meaning. The Bell Orchestre has achieved a laudable feat in thrusting something refreshing and different into a bloated musical market, is modern music broad and diverse enough to embrace it? David Adair
Such is the menacingly bonkers nature of opener ‘VHF’, it is tempting to call this the Crazy World of Blackloud. Pop-psych centred around various applications of the bass guitar abound, which adds to the sinister under-current. The 3rd track is Low-paced Grim Reaper country and western post-rock, while it is followed by bubbly, glitchy funk, that by track seven has morphed up to Bootsy/Prince style self-obsessed soul. It is an album which shows off Blackloud’s virtuosity and invention and that the bass guitar can take centre stage and create some genuinely intriguing music. Skif. www.blackloud.com
Blips, bleeps, bloops and beats are mixed up with strings, synths and desperately forlorn piano. Layers of rythyms and melodies, hot ensembles and choice vocal samples. In a way, it’s the Beach Boys gone electronica. Every sound is the well chosen result of a musical ear; the arrangements are inventive; yet…while on one level there are leftfield elements at play, there is a commerical, ‘pop’ edge in tracks like ‘Chequered Research.’ Leon Michael Tricker
On the face of it, dulcimers, flute, mandolin and so forth, it would appear the Eighteenth Day Of May will be traditional folk. While the influence of the 60’s scene is there, after 6 minutes of the opening eponymous title track, and the knowledge that various members count of Saloon and Of Arrowe Hill as alma maters, it is clear that West Coast jangle and post-rock psychedelia are just as essential to their make up. Cyclical and shimmering, this LP swirls, allowing one to reach & pick the fruits from it’s waspish branches. Skif
Ever wondered what The Velvet Underground would sound like if they were ‘reinterpreted’ by The Young Gods? Possibly like album opener ‘Dans les Bois.’ During the course of this CD we get surf guitar, Air-style vocals, avant-garde Moog-experiments, Cardiacs inspired harmonies, Daft Punk bombast…all at once sometimes. It’s a bit overwhelming, in a psychedelic mindfunk kind of way. Couple all that with a Don Van-Vliet style hand drawn CD booklet pull-out lyric/notes sheet, and it might lead you to conclude that Parisian-exiled-in-Berlin Fred Bigot was off his trolley. Take “when you wear leopard skin you’re like a voodoo queen…falling down from heaven where nothing happens.” Whatever… it’s so liberating to hear someone really letting go. This ones a certainty for the end of year top 10’s. Leon Michael Tricker
The bro-sis duo always seeking to push the envelope have got themselves an unusual collaborator, their granny Olga Santos. This record sketches out then fleshes out aspects of her life and thoughts during her 83 years. A personal history, a loving portrait, narrated by the main protagonist with a full theatrical gusto that, oddly, brings to mind Captain Beefheart in poetry mode, while her granddaughter Eleanor provides her character’s singing voice. Each track represents a period of time, her young adulthood in the 40’s well covered, a parlour piano cuteness often in keeping with the era. The 4 surrounding decades get a song each, while 3 tunes cover more recent times, opener ‘The Garfield El’ taking place at the recording itself. A concept album, with typical ghostly ethereal invention from the Furnaces, but with the warmth of family relationships, and the obsessiveness of genealogical foray brought to the fore. Skif
Clipped late 70’s influenced new-wave pop songs with one arm leant gently on the twee-indie period that followed. Has me in mind of The Chills’ tinny but emotive sound. This is unsurprising considering For Against first got together in 1984, reforming in 2002. This LP was originally released in 1988 and has the hallmarks of the era, but more remarkably still sounds quite fresh. Skif
A duo that use the most basic, utilitarian, and maybe a little kitsch, tools to create an unhurried, haunted. The percussion trolley, common or garden synths and ‘sounds made from round the house’ add a tinny charm to the Low-like melancholic harmonies. George keep the pulse rate low, a single tear threatening to form, while ‘Week Of Wonders’ captures an elfin woodland innocence. Beautiful lo-fi ethereality. Skif
Brass-infused dapper pop music flicking it’s cow-licksand giving it an earnest soft sway. Contemporaries of Luxembourg, they match the slinkier moments of Talking Heads to a Roxy Glam. At no stage do they ever really take off but the arrangements are effective. They seem to come from a background of rock reaching out to grandiose sweeping pop and carving out a happy medium. The chiming guitars on ‘House!’ are particularly successful. Skif. band@hundredhanded.com
Of course, many are going to argue that the greatest of Ian Brown was produced in his previous group that is about to become his new group again, if the rumour mill is to be believed. However, much like the Stone Roses best of album that hit the stores a few Christmases ago, this offering is well put together and reminds you of the variety of Brown’s material and the fact that despite talk to the contrary; he can still sing! The choice of opener; 'My Star', if looked at laterally can be seen as Ian Brown’s progression of the fantasizing ‘Made Of Stone’. It implies that he still has Stone Roses Blood running through him with the prevalence of this offering. Obviously, the ‘Music Of The Spheres’ and ‘Golden Greats’ albums feature heavily. The mournfully reflective ‘Golden Gaze’ is immediately followed by the poignant and lively ‘F.E.A.R.’ to highlight Brown’s range. A crafted and soulful reworking of the oft overlooked; ‘Forever’ adds some freshness to the collection. The omission of ‘Set My Baby Free’, may perturb the hardcore fan base. The new number that is tagged on at the end; ‘Return Of The Fisherman’ is Ian Brown at his most soulful and moves from a bluesy instrumental backdrop to that of a meditative oriental style one towards the end. Say what you like about him (and people often do), the monkey man’s contribution to music will be remembered for a long time and this is a good way of celebrating it. David Adair
Long awaited (read: 5 bloody years!) return for ‘house’ revivalist Isolee. ‘Pictureloved’ has got ‘wonky’ bits (for want of a better term for those ruptures in the beat that almost go out of time); ‘Face B’ hauntingly evokes the city streets at night; and every track is punctuated by odd, sci-fi sound effects. It’s a 21st Century hybrid of house and disco that isn’t afraid to test the boundaries: witness the ingenious ‘Scrapnell’ and it’s use of a spaghetti-western guitar riff. Leon Michael Tricker
Itamar Ziegler – The Birds, The Sky, The Trees…All That Shit
2 LPs from a Brooklyn-based composer and producer who has soundtrack work for Israeli short films, BBC documentaries and even ‘Pimp My Ride’ on the CV. From the self-titled largely instrumental LP of 2002 it is easy to see how his works would fit into this context. Short pieces ploughing various furrows. ‘Jimi Stack Shakshooka Shak’, an antiquated mechanical toy whirring into life to start with, ‘Slum’ following with desertrockrinkydinknu-Bhangrese. Waitsian spasm occurs on ‘Filth’, watery Beefheartian brood on ‘Night Ride’ while ‘Arabic Surf Dance’ adequately advertises it’s thrilling, spiraling self. There’s a Sex Clark Five style skewed acuteness and cuteness throughout, with touches of the Magic Band’s dexterity. The more recent LP ‘The Birds…’ features more recognizable songs with more vox, and is more folkish, less hectic. The opening untitled track is the gem, an Asian sub-continental post-rock spoken word epic. Less fascinating but a good accompaniment to showcase the range of Ziegler’s talent. Skif. www.itamarziegler.com.
Mandolin-infused Neil Young-style countrified hazy rock. They capture a kind of frustration that leads not to breaking, but to strengthening (particularly on ‘A View From A Window’). Affirmative music that still envelopes heartache, but uses its power to its own advantage. More delicate numbers and a moment of Sonic Youth distorted stubbornness also occur, but they excel at the mid-tempo affairs. Skif
Ten year old Melbourne based band continue their prolific output with another album of warm indie-pop tunes. Always reliable, always excellent quality – tunes that fly between Belle & Seb and Gene’s more emotive material, utilizing mandola, pedal steel, cello and accordion amongst the many instruments which are used sparingly and strategically. ‘The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco’ is the best example here of their songwriting prowess. Skif
Kienzl breaks away from his work with electronic dubsters Sofa Surfers to release his first solo album. For the most part this is an ambient ‘soundtrack’ atmosphere with the odd dub-rock, soul and ragga influence thrown in. It’s a state-of-mind record with a consistent understated overtone: you have to be in the right head-space to digest this in one sitting. As such the proto-industrial ‘Chemical Reasons’ and jazz-percussion-workout that is ‘Found’ are essential in altering the mood at the right time. Leon Michael Tricker
The Franco-Finnish duo hooked up in Brooklyn and apparently now live in an isolated small cabin. The delicate, breakable, elfin nature of their sound sneaks us a look through a slitty gap, a crack in their world window. In the most part the record combines a Low-like dynamic with the warm melancholic strength that Nina Nastasia often breathes. Mi and L’au’s is a soft sound, but innocently dramatic. It is a music box that allows for mournfulness to run its course, to exorcise hurt from the body in the fullest way, as the path through to regained contentment. They envelop the record with the two quirkier numbers, ‘They Marry’ a dream-cycle gypsy carnival, and ‘Study’ a beguiling watery bubbling drone. Skif
Think of Italy, and thinks perhaps of a kind of nouveau-riche post-yuppie sharp suit suaveness. Midwest are from Varese and it is probably this town’s proximity to the Swiss border that counts for a lot in this LP being so far removed from the Italian cosmopolitan. Instead they capture a Sparklehorse-like alt.country flecked with James Yorkston-style folk. Tunes like ‘Odd Fair’ supplement the steel, banjo and mandolin and a vaudevillian New Orleans brass. The LP disguises their European-ness with a most authentic Americana depth that would easily sit alongside more native practitioners like Blanche without raising suspicion. Skif
Martin Saz’s 3 year old outfit now on their third LP. ‘Bullets In The Penguin’ eases in with ‘The Large Glass (les grands ciscaux)’ a lo-fi low slung desert-scape, before taking things up the tempo scale with ‘In Her Purse’ a maraca-shaking stoic rocker. All through the guitar work is unpretentious and peaceful, on tunes like ‘El Shoeless Messiah’, countrified and melancholic. In many ways it is Burrito’s like but often flecked with both eeriness and weariness. Skif
Two years since the elegant ‘Friday Street’, this follow up similarly offers up calm and assured synth-pop with a Blue Nile sophistication that touches on the work of Scott Walker, Marc Almond’s update and the less ethereal end of the 90’s trip-hop scene. On ‘Wonderland’ there is even a hint of Chumbawamba. While lyrically they aim high with Guantanamo Bay and the African AIDS crisis amidst the subject matters, this LP is a slightly weaker work than it’s predecessor, which generated a touch more pizzazz. Skif
This lot have put out a DVD of Floyd covers and it’s no surprise as the influence on this set of original material is huge. More latter day Floyd though, ‘Learning To Fly’, the Gilmour heavy stuff. However they add to this a semi-gothic pace and brasher synths. The pop mentality shimmers through the darker twists with decidedly upbeat piano and quasi-operatic vocals aiming fore the higher plateaus of musical culture. There are Zeppelin-esque flute ballads, which affirms the seriousness with which they approach songwriting. To finish with style, there is a triumphant swirling instrumental. Candlelit prog, with a burst of flame when necessary. Skif
Mixing up hip-Hop, funk, reggae and breakbeats, ‘When the Smoke Clears’ has enough depth to keep chin-strokers entertained. But the hooks on show are sure-fire dance-floor fillers. Live instrumentation on the likes of the opener ‘Love Trip’ provides a counterpoint to Nasty’s eclectic sampling style. There is an inventive use of sounds throughout, such as the wailing strings and ‘found sounds’ of ‘Lights Off.’ Strings are again put to good use in my personal highlight ‘L.I.F.E.’ Interestingly the main string sample isn’t looped perfectly which lends the track an oddly fabricated authenticity. NP is one to watch, for sure. Leon Michael Tricker
Need New Body are on their third LP, but there are enough ideas on here to suggest they’re trying to get a long career’s worth out as quickly as they can, for whatever reason. Perhaps they don’t see themselves growing old together. ‘Brite tha’ Day’s contemporary spin on 70’s pop-funk through to ‘Eskimo’s vivid twee-sugar-buzzin’-Suicide post-funk patter bookend the record with any manner of genre points visited inbetween. Banhart-like freak-folk on ‘Poppa B’; deformed free-jazz hymns courtesy ‘Outerspace’; the flustered, but excitable, electro-strop of ‘Abstract Dancers/Pearl Crusher’ and ‘Mouthbreakers’’ fleet-fingered arthouse Aphex hillbilly banjotronica. It’s breathtaking, no more than so than within the feedback-poked percussive build of ‘Badoosh + Seagull War = Die’ or the pained child-like vocals of ‘Magic Kingdom’ which open the door to a Narnia cupboard doused in petrol. Skif
More fuzzy lumpkins from our Nottingham friends. With tunes like ‘I’m A Giant Moth In A Dirty Factory’ there seems an increase in the glam goldfish swimming around their lo-fi heel. A thrilling, screaming vocal reeling around within. To follow, a sensitive ballad, with psych back-shuffle and synthesized flute. Certainly they are ones to keep the listener guessing. The scuzzy popsicle of ‘Certainly Siberia’ is one of their finest moments to date while ‘The Great Sea Serpent Song’ is there to finish it allwith an ether-psych meeting of Flaming Lips and Project Adorno. Skif. www.nutronstars.co.uk
Yann from “O” insists “O” is not music in itself but that the listeners make it music. So the listener is the only artists and must work towards building new music. Therefore, it is down to us to make sense of this collection of semi-industrial, semi-glitch noise. Might seem a pretentious cop-out, but within all the clatter, some attention grabbing cameos do occur such as beneath the broken strum of ‘De la Mancha!’ and the elastic band twang of ‘Easted Desert’. Skif
Often it only takes one song for to adore an LP. In fact, I don’t think there’s been an LP yet that knocks me sideways from first to last. I prefer the thrill of the instant hit, the tune that grabs me and makes me have to hear it over and over right THEN. A plethora of plays that usually reduces, sometimes kills, the impact, such is the essentialness and ephemerality of music. Oceansize had that one song thing with me before, their EP ‘Relapse’, lovingly produced by Tim Smith. Come the debut LP proper and the song had been re-recorded and robbed of it’s ethereality. As a result there was no place in my heart for it. Thankfully with ‘Everyone Into Position’ they have grabbed me once more, with album closer ‘Ornament 1: The Last Wrongs’. You wouldn’t think the terms “instant hit” and “grab” would apply to a nine minute epic, particularly one which only vocally kicks in after 300 seconds. What precious seconds they are though with it’s climb to false climax, then building further to the perpetual Vesuvius torch of the uncontained lyrical line, the voice burnt raw in the drawing out of breathtaking passion. The rest of the record is pretty good too, but that is really all the persuasion you should need. Skif
Delicate acoustic melodies, inventive half-harmonies (’Iris’), this is a record that appears quite satisfied with it’s lot. It has an ethereality, a light melancholy (‘Lucy’) but in the most, a distinct attachement to the workings of the non-physical heart. Piano brings gravitas, while the influences occur somewhere between the West Coast and a pair of shoes being gazed at. Calm, water-lapping at feel calm, rocking chair calm. Late night calm. ‘Silk As Her Era’ upping the tempo but retaining the well-sprung bed of the vocals. Skif
Poppy lo-fi LP from Whitstable’s finest. Chock full of ideas, a thick Boosh-like psychedelia with a 80’s Matchbox gothabilly slant on ‘ES-40’, a wobbly ‘Cocoon’ croon, a ghostly post-rock saloon-door western flap on ‘Dracula’s Guest’. In addition, it contains the beatshoegazepop of the wonderfully titled ‘A Beautiful Hypothesis Destroyed By An Ugly Fact’ and the garage satire of ‘Medway Crab Fisherman’. It ends with ‘Bass VI’ an 11 minute freakout that ends with the words ‘I thought it was Christmas’. Several come at once courtesy of the Psychotic Reaction’s very individualistic gift. Skif
18 tracks in just under half an hour. Just how we likes it. High octane rockabilly given an electronic beast of an underbelly. Squelchy pulses drag along the art-school riffs and greased back 50’s drums. It’s B-52’s, it’s Devo and with a crazed smile everpresent, they proceed to transcend all forms of punk art with their shortsharpshock. Skif
In their 21st year, RLD deliver their 5th album of new material. ‘Everything Matters’ is their first since 1997’s Lethal and the first long-playing fruits of the ever-present Ade and Daryn’s union with Steve and Chris, ex- of Thirst. 2003 single ‘Nettle’ boded well, so it is surprising to see it re-recorded for this LP, in ‘if it ain’t broke’ terms, but it remains a strong tune and there are several on here. One of the main benefits of recruiting the younger players was new, more contemporary influences being brought to the Day mix and the first recording session for this LP captured a startling new energy. The second set of tunes have not been as successful, and appear a little deflated in comparison. However, the opening triumvirate of ‘Ego’, ‘4t8’ and ‘Butterfly’ are triumphant, while ‘Sell Myself’ is a perfect embodiment of the Day spirit. Album closer ‘Beautiful Quiet Things’ is one I’ve been in two minds about. I’ve been following The Day for years now and prefer their incessant grab for the jugular than attempts at sensitive balladry. Not that they have gone this far down-tempo before. This is a smokey, emotive anthem for proud dad’s everywhere and knowing the inspiration for it helps tilt me in favour. I guess that makes the difference, a closeness to the situation being the line between the sweet and the mawkish. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with band’s subverting expectations, even mine! A ballad and an electronica-tinged (and inspiring) remix on a Day LP? Well, punk rock isn’t supposed to follow any rules. Skif
I’ve said it before, but Ricky certainly do wear their 60’s West Coast influences on the sleeves, their Britpop fascination worn in 2.5” badge form on the collective lapel. I doubt they’d have a problem with that as their own love for music ventilates this follow up to last year’s self-released debut ‘The Summer Sun Still Echoes’. It is not same old same old from Ricky here though, they’ve certainly beefed up with age and as such the vibrant stomp of ‘Easy On You’ is the ideal opener, showcasing a brasher more confident Ricky. Perhaps things like Top 40 singles are enough to pump a steroid into their previously (comparatively) quite ashen and limp jangle. Their sound used to chase the sun. It has now most definitely caught up. Tunes like ‘Speculation’ the grandiose quintessence of their musical maturity. Skif
The Rogers appreciate their off-rhythms cycled round from awkward to perfection, particularly so on the playful ‘Fantasies Are Nice’ that weaves the three vocals in the mix to exciting effect. ‘Onject’ applys some grit to a desert-post-punk swagger, while ‘Freight Elevator’ throws together a White Stripes guitar swipe, Devo twitch and a garage swish. Strings jump aboard ‘The Secrets Of Civilisation’s similarly epileptic ride. It is perhaps no surprise then that they should turn their hand at something like Beefheart’s ‘Zig Zag Wanderer’ on this refreshingly dramatic collection. Skif
Late in their career, Low have made every effort to release themselves from the slow-core quiet minimalist formulae they’ve created earlier on, namely in the last couple of albums, with the introduction of many distortions, amongst other unfocused attempts. This Scout Niblett album could also serve as a great what if scenario, showing how easily this is done, how can you stay faithful to the slow-core minimalism while developing it, adding a quirky sense of groove, some noise and a great “drive”. Obviously, Niblett has very little to do with Low, or not as much as these words may suggest, and as the album unfolds, it develops its own unique touch and language, but I won’t go into that. However, I’m most certain it won’t take much for you to fall under her spell. Dubflower
From the base of calm, hypnotic post-rock hushed riffs, tired and emotive vocals rise and reveal the heart in a genre that can oft appear cold. ‘I Couldn’t Tell You’ also captures the power of the slow-build before cascading back down to a brief, effective coda. At once the instrumental nous of Mogwai, with a touch of Kyuss in there, even some delicate pop coming their aural space. With ‘One And The Same Thing’ they strike a little harder. The title track a brilliant building climax to the record. Skif
Swedish 5-piece that marry the cracked emotion of Bright Eyes with the quirky scuzz of Grandaddy, a lo-fi fizz given to Beach Boys-like melodic ethics. They’ve come a long way thus far, from a Stockholm rehearsal room in 2002 to playing on Letterman in 2005, the year they could well start getting admiring glances from UK audiences. They may yet be strangers to us but there is a warmth and cosiness in their sound and they’ll no doubt be drawn to many a bosom. Skif
Despite this being the first full band effort, rather than just product of one man’s hands, there remains precious little in the way of Steve. All above board on the trade descriptions therefore, it be merely Dan Newman and cronies sans a Stephen. What they have in place is a set of largely short numbers full of visceral thrills. ‘Bored’ pins Devant n’ Wife keys within the bar-room rumble of Dirtbombs and focus on the same vanishing point as Mark E. Smith’s stubborn vision. ‘Waiting’ leaps like a goth mountain goat into a particularly vigorous, hairy mosh. Elbows fly maniacally then, without at any stage being heavy. Nonetheless ‘Popular Music In Theory’ will run through walls for you. ‘10 Years’ rarely relents in it’s scattergun pace, an epitomic lo-fi blues punk whirlwind. Hidden away at the end, a genius scarred hardcore spin on ‘Frankie & Johnny’, a song recorded by Elvis and Sam Cooke but this effort springs from the spirit of Lonnie Donegan’s approximation, which warms this writer’s skiffle heart. Skif
10 new studio recordings fashioned from live improvisations 2002-2004 opening with the dark intense pulsing industrial ambience of ‘The Hypnotic Pulse Of The Motor Driven’, while ‘Link #1’ explores eerie depths of space, fighting for oxygen. ‘On A Dead Man’s Bones By The Light Of The Moon Skeletons Dance A Demon Dance Of The Doomed’ taps into a childhood clown fear with it’s nursery rhyme plink lost beneath a swash of initially playful menace. ‘All The Leaves’ is a broken clock ticking down to the long sleep while ‘The Yearning’ shimmers in a the musk of a Turkish opium den. Austere, stark, startling. Skif
This Franco-Spanish duo bring a calm strength to Air and Portishead-like ambience. It’s glacial chanteuse vocals capturing a distinct, confident power. It’s medative and melancholic but with an optimist’s tilt. The caustic Moog synths on ‘Angel Of Night’ particularly enforcing their vigor. Skif
A mini-compilation and the first in a planned singles series: four tracks, two artists…so two tracks apiece. Magic Daddy is up first with an impressive brand of glitch-house. The superbly monikered ‘Microgoth’ is most impressive with a surprising melody carrying the track. Truffle Club is more experimental. ‘Autoconform’ uses very short snippets of samples to compose in a ‘mosaic’ style, while ‘Cool It!’ samples an entire track and shoves it through an industrial blender. Both tracks stay on the right side of intriguing and keep you coming back to find out “how did he do THAT?!”. Leon Michael Tricker
Aural highlights from the 20 release strong record label arm of Akoustik Anarkhy, otherwise known as a long-standing Manchester club night, with the onus on sweaty up-close live music. The highlights from the 11 artists amongst, are Autokat’s building psychmantra ‘The Driver’; Soft Priest’s ‘Patchwork Guilt’, a cheeky electro clatter; Sam & Me’s fresh faced folk pop; the swirling harmonic rock of Nine Black Alps ‘Over The Ocean’; and The Longcuts crashing caustic demon ‘Transition’ captured live for best effect. Skif
19 of the best new bands in the South it says here, and it certainly is a pleasing eclectic snapshot of what is happening down at the bottom of this ere England. From the brisk rollin’ and tumblin’ of The Sways ‘Way I Say’ to Plastic Toys dark glam metal to subgiant’s glitchy, ambient electronica with a hint of grime beneath the sheen, this does not bar entry in terms of genre, Toupé’s Primus-like freak funk another example of the twists it is willing to take. My favourites are the thermin-infused, thrillingly unhinged ‘Spies’ by Object and the blistering, rhythmically inventive hardcore of Hunting Lodge’s ‘My Friend Paul’s Mother’s Miscarriage’ (despite reservations about the title). Skif. www.southscene.net
Stressed have put together a second volume of contemporary Derby music and it is startling just how much appears to be going on in the East Midlands just now. 23 bands on here and, as you might expect, there’s a lot of different styles represented, although it should be said that the hardcore and metal genres seem particularly strong with fine efforts by Skull Tanker, Hanzo Steel, Ikaruga and The Swarm, although the pick of this bunch is In Flight Program’s ‘Say No To The World’ which swings through several moods within itself, yet remaining abrasive. Elsewhere My Psychoanalyst’s ‘Cindarella’ skids and slides in an exciting post-rock pop manner, Dragonflies Draw Flame provide vivid alt.rock veering on the emo and Biba’s instrumental ‘Doll House’ is atmospheric but passionate. Also excellent are Plans & Apologies, whose psych-folk has a dapper Animals That Swim countenance; The Atoms with their Ramones/Helen Love style buzz and Patchwork Grace with their swampish grunge harmonics. All for £3 from www.stressedrecords.co.uk. Skif
VP on VP, although our interest extends beyond the initial similarities. The pseudonym of Alan Wilkes, Vinny Peculiar has been recording an releasing since 1989 and this record rounds up the best bits from the first 14 years, Despite popping out of the end of the 80’s, the possibly belongs in the middle of that decade as much as the middle of the following decade. Behind and ahead of the times. Naïve synths, ambitious melodies and lyrics and a darkened croon, it feels like Orange Juice aligned with the cheek of Pulp’s late-blooming and the Divine Comedy’s Carry On camp. Blue Nile, Tindersticks, Nick Cave, Stephen Jones: all the gloom enwrapped troubadours that take Scott Walker’s baton and run with it. Vinny Peculiar has been waiting to take the next leg of the race. With an impressive live line-up, it could be his time to sprint ahead. An album of new material if due soon so while this LP highlights the years of training, that record could well be his sprint finish. Skif
Odds and sods collection from the most feverish genre-hoppers around that largely stabs at various examples of 70’s rock excesses. ‘Tastes Good On The Bun’ occupies a Zappa-like humour and rhythm to paint out an unsettling buttfuck diner, a territory revisited on the boggy ‘Big Fat Fuck’ that bends the drunken guitars and base lyric around the squelchy electronic bounce. More mainstream hair and cocaine 70’s rock is visited on ‘Gabrielle’, ‘How High Can You Fly’ mimics Peter Frampton and bloatedness of prog. ‘Transitions’ has a Latino-modishness but doen with jazz-virtuoso smugness and over-produced sheen that once again nails their target. The sax on ‘Israel’ captures a similarly arrogant OCD cleanliness, while ‘Monique The Freak’ picks up Bootsy Collins’ disco strides. Skif
Juddering, stocky Janes Addiction vocals, Geordie Walker guitars, a call and response chorus and a decreasingly circular coda. So be the action on this LP’s opener, ‘Go4’ . ‘Era’ gradually increases the seriousness of their tone, ‘Torpedo Lounge’ plays up the distorted beat pop, while elsewhere light-industrial and post-pun facets disappear and appear within an otherwise fairly sanguine LP of alt.rock that covers a fair number of bases. Skif. www.wonderfulallstars.com. .
The Swiss masters of the ambient industrial this year celebrate their 20th anniversary of their formation. What better time then to package together some of the highlights from their groundbreaking repertoire which has influenced, amongst others, Nine Inch Nails. Using samplers in place of guitars, there is a powerful music definitely in the rock genre but toying with it’s conventions to create an ethereal, psychedelic, pounding sound that swirls, their ambience a proactive one. Tunes like ‘Gasoline Man’ show traditional rock n’ roll is far from eschewed but in the most part they are about pushing the envelope of rock, covering Kurt Weill and such, proving that music is about the sound and not the manner in which they were created. Skif