From the shambling miscreant who pled “Oh lawd, please doan let me be misunderstood” and unleashed the careening proto-punk primal screams of “It’s My Life” comes a collection – no, clinical research study – of blues, gospel and rock standards. Drummer/producer Tony Braunagel herds all ears on deck with a perfectly concocted aura of one-take […]
The Fall : Fall Heads Roll
Ben Granger Fall Heads Roll – The Fall See all music by The Fall at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com It’s time again for the Seer of Salford to blast forth his enchanted bombast. With more albums now than anyone can count, and with its title surely a sly reference to the number of foot-soldiers fallen from […]
Boards Of Canada : The Campfire Headphase
Nick Mitchell The Campfire Headphase – Boards Of Canada See all albums by Boards Of Canada at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com There is something oddly addictive about the music of Boards of Canada. Not only are they one of the rare ‘electronica’ outfits with definite crossover appeal, but one listen to their music (usually via the […]
Half Man Half Biscuit : Achtung Bono
Ben Granger I may as well declare my stance at the outset. Half Man Half Biscuit are Britain’s most under-rated band, and their singer/writer Nigel Blackwell is not only one of the land’s finest humourists and satirists, but also a chronicler of the tawdriness of modern British life whose vision is shot through with true […]
Magnus : Sleepwalker
Chris Mitchell These days I’m reduced to randomly choosing new music at the bootleg CD stalls on Bangkok’s streets. I don’t bother with the music press anymore so I have no idea who’s up and coming, who to find out about, who to watch – these days I just pick albums on whether I like […]
The White Stripes : Get Behind Me Satan
Ben Granger They may have been going for years beforehand but it was in 2001 that weirdo-duo The White Stripes became known to the world, arriving in fine feral style with their supercharged brand of primeval punk blues. They were hyped to the max with their red and white uniforms and carefully contrived sister/brother/lover cartoon […]
Measles Mumps Rubella: “Fantastic Success”
Dreamy Cure meets Eno meets no-wave drives handshake track “Algorithm of Desire” in this indie-dance thesis, a somewhat generic effort at times but a welcome respite from (or throwback to) marginally more interesting times and sounds. “Hollow Bodies” fixates on a groove scrounged up by disco-izing Wire’s “Drill,” David Essex gets his in the echoing […]
Rob Reynolds: “Sightseeing”
Bar band jazz-pop smooth as a pina colada most of the time, depending on how much Reynolds is compelled to stick with Seal’s vocal sound. When he flexes his glottis he gets a Joe Cocker thing going on (the feisty, Chicago-esque horn section of “Sherry Man” is one instance in which he’s driven to that […]
Josh Rouse: “Subtitulo”
Low-voltage folkie-pop ranging from Paul Simon street corner shuffle (“Quiet Town”) to WB network angst-opera backgrounding (“It Looks Like Love”) to lone-wolf Starbucks atmospherica (“Jersey Clowns”). The sheer number of Jack Johnsons fighting for space would normally preclude any recommendation of this as the second coming of knife-divided raised-yeast products, but hookwise it’s a strong […]
Ensoph: “Project X-Katon”
Off-Broadway goth-metal punctuated with terrified screams, nano-beat samples, Gollum-spat epithets and mezzo soprano Tourettes played out in a Type O environment by a bunch of incorrigible German hams dressed like little Hellraisers. It’s one of those Berlin scenarios where the returns are predicated on the assumption that gothies will blindly snap at anything based around […]
She Wants Revenge: “She Wants Revenge”
So far, Justin Warfield has exhibited all the cowardice necessary to cop the honor of Billy Zane-like Genre-Jumper of the Year for his CYA abandonment of McRap and subsequent clambering into this schlock-a-block 80s lifeboat. His Joy Division hand-me-downs pander to the sort of mall-S&Mer who – he hopes – still eats this stuff up […]
Dresden Dolls: “Yes Virginia”
Eric Saeger Back for more seductive flashing of her Raggedy Ann-stockinged knees from behind the safety of her keyboards is Amanda Palmer, proffering another compendium of hyper-angst co-gloomed by her male Meg, Brian Viglione. Less theatrical than their eponymous rookie effort, Yes Virginia will also be (aside from the post-post-whatever “Necessary Evil”) a disappointing experience […]
David Sylvian : The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter
Ismo Santala An album of remixes, the nine tracks of The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter were made by musicians handpicked by David Sylvian to shake up the subdued sonic architecture of Blemish (2003). Because most of the names of the remixers are not familiar to me, I can only go by what I […]
Atomic Swindlers : Coming Out Electric
Chris Mitchell Music is the best mood-alterer we have. Put on a record and you can find yourself grinning involuntarily a few moments later; conversely, stand in an elevator for more than a few seconds involuntarily listening to crackly saxophone-driven muzak that manages to hit that precise treble frequency which is the sonic equivalent of […]
David Thomas: Pere Ubu : I Never Volunteer Information
Craig Johnson talks to Pere Ubu’s David Thomas Think of alternative rock in the 1970s and we immediately think of The Ramones, Talking Heads, Television as the major musical forces in those heady times. An under-rated band of that much pillaged and productive scene were underground rockers Pere Ubu – subterranean innovators of the new-wave/post-punk […]
David Sylvian: The Last Romantic: Adventures Of The Spirit
David Sylvian’s Religion: An Interview and Interpretation Darren J.N. Middleton discusses the spiritual road and its arduous rewards (1, numbers in brackets refer to the references below) I can offer nothing / This nothing’s everlasting / I could be Shiva lying / Beneath ferocious darkness / My heart’s devoured / Cover me with flowers. David […]
Loretta Lynn : Van Lear Rose
Edmund Hardy I’m never quite sure what I’m going to order until I find myself saying “a sloe gin fizz please” or “white beer” or whatever – and – if the bar is somewhere like Wapping – the sloe gin arrives and I wonder why I suddenly thought of it. “Well sloe gin fizz works […]
Morrissey : You Are The Quarry
Ben Granger And so to the comeback of the year. Seven years without a contract, self-exiled to LA, the avatar of the awkward fled his homeland after a bitter divorce with the UK music press, a separation all the more sour because the ardour was once so strong. The eternal chronicler of the downtrodden seemed […]
Franz Ferdinand : Franz Ferdinand
Ben Granger Just because every music critic in the land suddenly simultaneously drools like a sick puppy over some hot new things, it doesn’t mean said things are actually that good. The slavish adulation these uber-foppish young Glaswegians are getting across the board is off-putting because it has so many bad precedents. Music mags, broadsheets, […]
8mm : Opener EP
Chris Mitchell The efforts of unsigned bands are something I usually prefer to pass over in silence. There’s a simple reason why many bands remain unsigned: because they’re bloody awful. Or, perhaps more accurately, so hopelessly mediocre as to provoke nothing but indifference. I subscribe to the theory of sonic Darwinism – those who are […]
The Fall: Mick Middles – Hip Priest: The Story of Mark E. Smith and The Fall: Simon Ford
Ben Granger weighs up two attempts to explain the wonderful and frightening world of The Fall These two new books are a timely reminder of a group whose shocking individuality has been obscured by virtue of their sheer longevity. A reminder this band is not that nauseatingly cosy term "an institution", but a force distending […]
The Raveonettes : Chain Gang Of Love
Jerome Deg “This is Whiplash Rock’n’roll from the Raveonettes” announces the cover of Chain Gang of Love, striking the right note of self-mocking bombast and Girl on a Motorcycle raw cool. The Raveonettes come off like a combination of Brigitte Bardot and the Jesus and Mary Chain: Psychocandy in furs. Combining neat, clean songs with […]
Basement Jaxx : Kish Kash
Jerome Deg Basement Jaxx are back, bigger and badder and rougher and tougher…their new album, Kish Kash, features trademark party tunes, punky attitude and a selection of new, innovative, funky tracks designed to burn up your living-room, club night or cellar afterhours party. Just listening to this album makes me want to dance – but […]
Susana Baca : Espiritu Vivo
John Edwards Gunn The diva of black Peru comes with her response to 9/11 – ‘to sing is to overcome pain and death’ – an album recorded in New York with a band including reknowned avant/world/fusion guitarist Marc Ribot, and featuring songs by Cateano Veloso, Mongo Santamaria and Bjork, along with traditional Peruvian songs. With […]
Various Artists : Red Hot + Riot
John Edwards Gunn I’ve always hated these ‘tribute’ albums where you get various artists covering old songs by one classic act. At first it was shitty indie bands trying to draw attention to themselves. Somehow the idea caught on and nowadays those paying tribute are often more successful and famous than the tributees ever were. […]
