Chimpomatic

Aidan John Moffat

I Can Hear Your Heart

Chemikal Underground

‘Fuck.. Cock.. Shag.. Willie’; it’s all there in ‘I can hear your heart’.  A fine distillation of the Scottish lexicon or, alternatively, the Scot’s default reaction to life; swearing.

After Moffat’s introductory voice over, explaining the concept behind the two-part album, ‘Poop’ and ‘Loop’ [Poop, a short story and Loop?????], it all starts ominously enough.  A growling voice intoning, ‘I can hear your heart’, which a first listen had me convinced was saying; ‘I can hear you fuck’.

My mishearing turned out to be a premonition of what was to come.  A kind colleague suggested playing the album over dinner with my girlfriend, an experience I will not be repeating.  I don’t know which level of hell Moffat will be consigned to after this album, but I guess he’ll be nursing a few exotic STDs amidst the flames; Think of Tom Waits crossed with Rab C Nesbitt and Michael Douglas.  Pre the treatment he received for his addiction to sex.

It’s not entirely accurate to call this an album, more a collection of poems, accompanied by music.  And it’s not entirely accurate to evoke the traditional idea of poems either when what we’re dealing with is a kind of urban ode to casual sex and squalid romance.  Moffat is the inebriated protagonist, guiding us across the streets of a Glasgow slicked in alcohol.  There’s (frequent) cheating on his girlfriends; borderline sex with a minor; bagpipes; music hall sing-alongs and collapsed nights in bus shelters.  There are threesomes; dirty panties: prank phone-calls and an expose of racist abuse.  Involving a lot of racist abuse.  It ain’t pretty.  In fact, like last night’s dirty ashtray, I don’t see myself returning to this collection enthusiastically. 

On the other hand it is occasionally very funny, structurally imaginative and the orchestral sampling is often mesemeric in a manner reminiscent of Moffat’s alter ego, Lucky Pierre.  These gentle musical themes make a poignant contrast to Moffat’s potty mouth as he mournfully lists last night’s soiled conquests and there are glimpses of real tenderness and loss gleaming amidst the horrors of his tale.

Overall it’s a nihilistic experience.  When Moffat finds himself doing a lugubrious cover of Springsteen’s ‘A Hungry Heart’, you are glad of the musical coherence.  But it didn’t leave me begging for more.

Three stars?  Again?  For swearing.  Three stars for swearing.

#Music
#LG

14th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Black Mountain

In The Future

Jagjaguwar

The first great record of 2008 has arrived. From the opening monster riff of Stormy High, prepare to be taken on a power ride that few bands can seem to muster these days. Second track, Angels, has the end of album flourishes that most bands would hold back for the final number, but here it only serves to get things started. This album will kick down the door and roar through your house like a hoard of vikings.

The cover artwork might suggest hocus-pocus and a fuzzy 70's psychedelia, but this is certainly not a nostalgic wander through riffs-gone-by. Where Wolfmother's tongues seem to remain firmly in cheek, Black Mountain have no air of pastiche and treat the music with the respect it deserves.

While 2005's Black Mountain showed hints of what this band were capable of, those hints were quickly matched by a wide variety of side projects - from the looser sound of Pink Mountaintops, through Matt Camarind's Blood Meridian and most recently with Amber Webber's Lightning Dust. Stephen McBean reconvened Black Mountain to record a follow up in 2006, but their various commitments led to an abortive start. Once the schedules cleared out however, the band knuckled down for a solid stint and laid down a burst of material in a matter of weeks. Surprising, as this is a record that seems so coherent and focussed you would assume a masterpiece level build-up was involved.

Their awesome live shows recently introduced the new tracks, showing this to be an album of raw power. A huge guitar sound, monster drums (most epic on the blistering finale of Tyrants) and only a keyboard to add a few extra flourishes to tracks like Wucan. Amber Webber's back up vocals add a further dimension, regularly jostling for prime position and taking centre stage on a couple of album highlights, such as the rumbling Queens Will Play.

The album scores so highly due to it's cohesiveness as a single piece of work, that you rarely feel like breaking up. In the days of the free mp3 that in itself is a rarity, but here it adds another dimension to all the songs, as you know you're never far away from a monster rock-out. There's tension here and the great range of highs and lows add light and dark, packing out this superb album. There's barely a bum note here, from the sweeping epic ups-and-downs of Tyrants to the acoustic subtlety of Stay Free. Even noodle-free 17 minute epic Bright Lights has it's five star moments.

The record has already taken a hammering over the last few weeks, but shows no sign of tiredness and I can see this one sitting in the favourites for the long haul.


Coming to an eardrum near you: January 21st 2008
There's a limited edition available while stocks last, with a second disc of 3 bonus non-album tracks. Do it.

#Music
#CSF

9th Jan 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Foals

Antidotes

Transgressive Records/ Sub Pop

It's The Cure meets Battles! quite good, wonder what the Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio) version was like though...

#Music
#chimp71

7th Jan 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Harrisons

No Fighting In The War Room

Melodic

Clearly, the challenge to anyone reviewing (or listening to) The Harrisons' debut album will be to not think of the Arctic Monkeys. Thing is, it's spikey, indie guitar music with a bit of a dancefloor edge sung in a Sheffield accent and peppered with the Yorkshire flavoured lyrics. How's that NOT going to sound like the Arctic Monkeys?

Unfortunately this puts the Harrisons very much in the shadow of their more famous counterparts - however good the songs might be, they're just not as original or as tight as the AM's brand of New Yorkshire. Believe me, this is not merely lazy journalism - check it out for yourself and add your comments if you don't think it sounds like the Monkeys.

But where Alex Turner and co have brought a snappiness and progressive edge to their sound, the Harrisons fall on traditional indie songwriting and rhythms which end up being several stops short of original. I don't think this will hold them back too much - already established with the NME crowd and getting radio sessions, I'm sure they'll do okay, but if spikey indie pop is your thing you might be better off waiting for the next Young Knives album.

#Music
#HarrisPilton

7th Jan 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Torchwood

Season 2 Episode 1

Didn't really get into the first series of Torchwood - have to admit, Doctor Who's passed me by for the most part, so a spin-off didn't really excite that much. And the ones I watched felt like they were relying too much on the ooh! shock! factor with their swearing/snogging and not enough on either the sci-fi or characters to make it work.

Maybe my expectations were lowered, but the first ep of the second series (on BBC2 Jan 16) is a big improvement on what I've seen before. It's snappier, tighter, and feels like they've listened to the critics and tried to fix the problems. You've still got a Cardiff that's pretty much empty, and the odd shot of Cap'n Jack jumping up on a rooftop (a character trait they point out) and some of the trademark polysexual kissing. But on the other hand, they've drafted in James Marsters - Spike from the mighty Buffy.

Now, it may be that it all goes down the pan again further on in the series when he's not around to beat the crap out of Jack, but it's a pretty inspired cameo, even if he is basically playing the very Spike-like "rogue Time Agent Captain John Hart". He's got real presence, and has obviously got used to delivering lines about odd creatures and made-up fantasy blah with real intensity over the years. He also looks a bit like one of Adam's Ants, circa Kings Of The Wild Frontier.

They also cram in some Star Wars references, a nice "where are the blondes on your team?" Buffy gag, and even almost get you to forget all those annoying appearances from Barrowman on Strictly Come Dancing, Jonathan Ross and BBC Breakfast etc.

Am all in favour of the BBC working on new genre pieces like this, and do think the return of the Who enterprise has on the whole been a good thing - even if it's really more of a teatime kids treat than the multi-level fun that US shows like Buffy managed to create. Hope it continues to get better from here - Captain Spike is back for a few more eps, along w Alan "Jim from Neighbours" and Martha from the Tardis later on.

#TV
#chimp71

4th Jan 2008 - 7 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

City Of Vice

Pilot

Channel 4

Ian "The Emperor" McDiarmid and Iain Glen star in this new cop drama following the real-life efforts of magistrate brothers Henry and John Fielding to start a police force in 1753 London.

Henry was of course the author of Tom Jones, and so was pretty well known in the 18th Century by the time he set up the Bow Street Runners to try and stamp out the rampant vice in the city at the time. In the first episode, they're nipping all over London, as they investigate the brutal murder of a prostitute in the first episode, boozing it up on the job as much as McNulty (although it's wine rather than beer for these cops).

Does suffer a bit from a lack of budget for extras and extensive sets, but they get round it with some jumpy NYPD Blue camerawork and also the nifty use of map graphics to show the fledgling unit working the case across London. For once, you get to see the cops who actually did write the book on police procedure, although it wasn't quite up to CSI level at the time. Makes a change to see a costume drama that's about guvnors on manors rather than governors and manners for once.

Starts Monday 14 Jan, 9pm, Channel 4. 5 episodes.

#TV
#chimp71

2nd Jan 2008 - 5 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Reaper

Pilot

E4/ CW

"Sam didn't even go to college!"
"Yes he did Kyle and we're very proud of him for trying... It's just that college made him sleepy..."

Like this new Slacker meets Men In Black (he's the man in slack) where hell on earth turns out to be the local DMV (where you get your driving licence in the States) and Ray Wise (Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks) is a smooth soul-searching Devil.

Bret Harrison is the DIY store goof-off who finds out on his 21st birthday why his parents have been letting him cruise through life so far - they sold his soul before he was born (thinking they could get out of the deal on a technicality - not having kids).

During a weird birthday, he gets to grips with his powers, gets tooled up by the Devil, and sent out on his new mission, to return any escaped dead people to hell. You can see how this is going to pan out, with a bit of working out who the hell dude of the week was when they were alive, while still dealing with the rest of the schmucks at work and his folks etc, but it's played for fun, doesn't take itself too seriously, and skips through the nonsense fast enough to make it watchable.

Also has one of the best bits of product placement on TV for a while - he gets to use a Dirt Devil mini-vac to suck the wandering souls back to hell.

#TV
#chimp71

30th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Pilot

Fox/Virgin 1

"Half an hour. One bag, plus the guns. I'll make pancakes."

Entertaining attempt to string out the Terminator franchise into a Littlest Hobo/Hulk style TV show - they're on the run, they've got to solve some mystery, help some local fools down a well, move on again at the end of the episode etc etc.

Summer Glau- who played the kooky mystic River in Serenity and Firefly gets the T:2.5 upgrade here delivering the "come with me if you want to live" line as the good Terminator, which is no doubt going to be a bit confusing for young John Connor (Thomas Dekker- the geek who hung out with the cheerleader in Heroes until he had his mind wiped). She's the same "age" (well, built to look like she is), his uptight mum keeps making him swap schools - surely she's the only candidate he's going to be allowed to hang out with?

Lena Heady - who was tough Queen Gorgo in 300 does a good job of taking over from Linda Hamilton as the tooled-up Sarah Connor, keeping family life running at a fairly paranoid pace, no doubt checking in with some of her survivalist pals as the series goes on. No Arnie or even Robert Patrick obviously, but the other bad Terminator (Skynet has obviously got its future factories busy churning out some new models) is OK, chasing after them, pulling guns out of his legs etc; and there's also a human cop chasing them (just like the Hulk) who's figured out that something weird might be going on with these pesky Connors who keep getting into explosive trouble.

It's set sometime after T:2, and ignores T:3 (wise move), with the Connors and "Cameron" (the friendly Terminator) trying to track down Skynet and figure out how to take control of the future. Again.

Would have liked them to keep it as a period piece in the 1980s (where we start out) - not to spoil things too much, but there is some (budget-friendly) time-travelling to get things into the noughties (where sets are easier to build I guess). Much better than the Bionic Woman reboot, the other new cyborg-babe show vying for your attention in 2008.

#TV
#chimp71

30th Dec 2007 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

The Shadow In The North

BBC1

The BBC continues their adaptation of Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart series with this follow-up to last year's The Ruby In The Smoke.

It's another enjoyable Victorian mystery, with Billie Piper's Lockhart on the trail of a dastardly Scandinavian villain (Jared Harris) and his steam-powered weapon of mass destruction, the Hopkinson Self-Regulator.

Like Ruby, this plays out like a modern version of classic BBC kids' viewing like The Phoenix And The Carpet - taking itself just seriously enough to convince, but still having an edge of campy pantomime twinkle-in-the-eye humour: pretty decent family viewing all-round really.

No-one to match Julie Walter's turn last time, but there's a enjoyable cast including JJ Feild, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Matt Smith, John Standing and Hayley Atwell.

Apparently it was shot at the same time as the last one, so it'll be interesting to see if they're able to get Billie P back for more now that she's signed up for another series of Secret Diary Of A Call Girl and will be back in next year's Doctor Who at some stage.

#TV
#chimp71

30th Dec 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Extras

Christmas Special

Feature-length outing to finish off Ricky Gervais's second sitcom. Andy Millman's now a big enough star to be able to skip ahead of Hale & Pace at the Ivy, while Maggie's had enough of arsing about in showbiz and is working as a cleaner. Millman gets seduced by the idea of getting an agent who isn't hanging out with Barry from EastEnders all day, and then finds out fame isn't all it's cracked up to be?

In some ways, this works much better than the series, which seemed pretty myopic in its scope - effectively Gervais writing about getting The Office off the ground. Here, he steps back from the process to show that making it isn't that great either. Not really much of a revelation, perhaps, but there's just enough in the final rant against our worship of micro celebs to make it interesting. Along the way, they cram in more self-deprecating cameos from George Michael, Gordon Ramsey, Dean Gaffney, Lionel Blair, Clive Owen etc etc - which makes it feel like they hate themselves for not being able to resist getting all these people in the show.

Be interesting to see what he comes up with next, and it is admirable that he's been able to pull the plug on another pretty big show. Just hope it's not another TV show about TV; think we've had enough of those now thanks - even ITV's getting in on the mediacirclejerking next year with their sitcom (Moving Wallpaper) about the making of a soap (Echo Beach) that you then get to watch.

#TV
#chimp71

27th Dec 2007 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet