Chimpomatic

As a big fan of this cult Australian movie, I've been looking out for a copy of the Dogs in Space soundtrack since the early 90's - and only now, thanks to the magic of file-sharing I finally get my hands on it. And it's fan-expanded edition at that. The film and therefore the soundtrack are set in Melbourne's 'Little Band' scene of the late 70's, ....read more

Last week's Black Mountain gig sent me into a completist spin of Black-Mountain-Army-MP3-domination and as a result I dug up this previously overlooked, very early Jerk With A Bomb album. Before Pink Mountaintops and before Black Mountain it was just One Easy Skag and the Silo - AKA Stephen McBean and Joshua Wells. While later JWAB efforts - 2001' ....read more

With a new album on the way and a slew of festival dates lined up, Canada's 2007/8 chimprock staple Black Mountain were back in town for an intimate gig at the perfectly-sized Lexington in preparation for this weekend's Latitude festival. Pastiche-heavy new song Radiant Hearts opened the show, before new album highlight Wilderness Heart move ....read more

Emerging bleary eyed from the Christmas/New Year haze I was confronted with nothing but talk of immanent financial hardship and the merits of a New York band called The Drums. I laughed off both as mere hype but lo and behold they've both come true and after hearing this debut album the latter certainly certainly makes the former rumor more easy to ....read more

As the dying beauty of opener I'm In Your Church At Night fades gently into the background you'll ask yourself where on earth this sound came from and how dare it pop up and steal your heart this damn easy and with such little warning. Well it's the momentous achievement of Pat Grossi who's soaring falsetto vocals are the instant attention grabber. ....read more

Arranged and composed by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy this soundtrack to Noah Baumbach's film is a fantastic mix of genres, tempos and moods. Kicking off with The Steve Miller Band's Jet Airliner this features many heavyhitters, the highlights being Galaxie 500 and Duran Duran surprisingly. But the real delights, unsurprisingly, come from Murphy ....read more

Male Bonding are trio from London and after an early spell of pretty abrasive noise-pop they've evolved into a more well rounded band and have been scooped up by Sub Pop the lucky little beggars. Their early noise excursions still remain in the mix here but have been filled out with a delicious serving of mangy punk-rock packed full of hooks, fierc ....read more

This is the third album from the beautifully named Holy Fuck and it's an altogether tighter affair than its predecessors and dwarfs them all in terms of size. As the the ambient 4 minutes of 1MD opens the album it looms into view like an advancing apocalyptic, 7 storey doomsday machine. As its debris clears Red Lights booms with colossal rhythm and ....read more

It's been a long time coming but finally the follow up to 2007's Human The Death Dance drops and it sees Mr. Francis all grown up. I remember seeing Sage Francis at Plastic People many many years ago as he stood in the middle of the crowd spitting venomously into his mic and backed by a CD of recorded beats that he himself had to operate. Well Li(f ....read more

Moon Duo are a San Francisco duo consisting of Sanae Yamada and Eric Johnson who in case you didn't know is the guitarist behind the swirling psychedelia of Wooden Shjips. Escape, their debut full length is very much a continuation of the head-fuck hypnotics that Wooden Shjips ooze out. It spans only 4 tracks and clocks in at just under half a ....read more

I guess there's two ways to approach a critical analysis of this record. Firstly on its own merit and as a piece of work independent of its predecessors and then secondly in direct comparison to said predecessors. Taking the first route, Here's To Taking It Easy is blissful. Matthew Houck's fragile vocals are complemented and bolstered by a fu ....read more

My initial reaction to 'Dag för Dag', was to obsess inappropriately over the umlaut at the centre of the band's name. I can now confirm that 'Dag för Dag' translates literally as 'Day by Day' (not some marketing executive's idea of a promotional tool) and that not only in name but in music too, these guys are the real thing. American-Sw ....read more

"The boys are back, the boys of summer, and this time Ace Rock is the drummer." Thus states Murs on the opening track to his and Slug's collaborative project Felt's third installment. As is customary, this record is too named after a B-List celebrity that happens to be taking their fancy at the moment and while Christina Ricci and Lisa Bo ....read more

Another fun entry in modern Who cannon as the current Doctor heads towards his final episodes. We're off to Mars here, as the Tardis lands on the red planet in 2059, just in time to find the crew manning Bowie Base One in trouble with some H20. The Doctor's initially pleased to meet the crew, lead by Lindsay Duncan and Peter O'Brien (Neighbou ....read more

Since No Age's exceptional second record Nouns the DIY punk scene has gone mental with a new band emerging every week and if these four songs are any kind of prediction as to Dean and Randy's musical gravitation it looks like their letting everyone else get on with what they started and embracing a more subtle sound with guitar loops and buried voc ....read more

Seven months ago the FREEhoudini tape heralded the return of this now legendary partnership between two of Anticon's biggest players. Now after all this time Dose One and Jel return with their third proper album under Themselves. Much water has passed under the bridge since the last record. We've had bands like cLOUDDEAD further the abstract tenden ....read more