Chimpomatic

Akron/Family

Cargo, London

Due to limited means of transport and living south of the river, it took me an hour and half to reach Cargo in the east end, arriving just in time to catch Phosphorescent coming to the end of his support set. Phosphorescent - the one man band also known as Matthew Houck - came across as another addition to the pained country/folk singer songwriter. A deep and soothing voice was not enough to leave much of an impression but maybe that was due to my own agitation.

By coincidence this is the second consecutive gig where the band were minus one. Akron/Family have recently lost a member to Buddhism which would come as no surprise if you are familiar with any of their material.

Even before the band graced the stage, I was entertained by their choice of motivational tracks. No whale songs or tribal chants - just a blast of early Prince and the dogfather himself, Snoop Dog. This playful and lighthearted approach was incorporated into the Akron/Family’s set, which made for a very enjoyable Sunday evening.

The confidence and ease of each of the three remaining band members was evident in the banter and the pleasure they seemed to take from the performance. Their appealing lack of self-consciousness was emphasised by the inclusion of what they called their first 'children’s song', and I am still not sure if this was sincere or a joke. Not unlike on record, the songs were variable and inconsistent in pace. A gentle acoustic song was sandwiched between the more energetic numbers and my only criticism was that the uneven pattern of the set did take away some of the initial impact.

They did produced a emphatic finale, finishing with one of the highlights from this years Love Is Simple, Ed The Portal. For the first time I did not cringe at a band’s attempt at crowd participation which was to lead into the last song.

The biggest compliment I can give is that you will not fail walk away with the feeling you have been entertained.

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9th Dec 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Phosphorescent

Pride

Dead Oceans

There must be a moment in the sleep process and indeed the death process that is akin to the waking up, a moment where the two states cross over and if this moment were to freeze it would be near impossible to tell whether the body was regaining consciousness or receding. Phosphorescent's 2nd album is cleverly placed in this moment and though it is one of the loneliest and barren records I've heard since Bonny 'Prince' Billie's I See A Darkness it is clearly frozen in a state of waking up. This is not a conclusion I've arrived at easily. Any hint at the direction this record is taking is subtle to say the least, but that is where it's success lies.

Phosphorescent is the work of Matthew Houck and though this sound is comprised of many voices and musical accompaniments it is Houck who leads this choir. Like the afore mentioned Prince Billie, Houck's voice quivers and shakes like a fragile flame. His music is stark and minimal. The production is hollow and there is very little in the way of bass to provide you with any warmth. Periphery noise is often prominent with voices and shuffling creating a sense of emptiness behind Houck's intimate whispering. These are prayers set to music, some people would call that a hymn but these are more intimate and personal than that. 2005's Aw Come Aw Wry was a different affair from Pride, full of marching bands and evangelical fervor but here Houck takes the same sentiment but expresses it in a far more subtle and mystical way. The result is a more spiritual-sounding record.

The start of the album is very different from the end. A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise and Be Dark Night conjure up the most desolate of landscapes. As cold, dark nights loom we huddle round these saddest of Christmas carols for a glimpse of warmth. Wolves is a divine piece of work. With the help of a gently plucked ukulele Houck starts off, "Mama there's wolves in the house, mama they wont let me out." In this song we see the albums aim to ward off this approaching death. "They make for my heart as their home."

By the time you get down to My Dove, My Lamb the approach has shifted. This song and the next - Cocaine Lights - are twice the length of their predecessors and serve as a total immersion in this prayer. They stubbornly take their time in a Dylanesque repetition of verse and chorus and they are simply dazzling. Were it not for the closer Pride which is over six minutes of wailing these two songs would end the album in uncompromising beauty.

This record creates this bleak image of cold and dark and yet at its heart there is so much warmth. It shows you the world outside but subtly gathers around you and holds you close. Houck's final line on Cocaine Lights ends this truly special album perfectly and sees this vulnerable, flickering flame show encouraging signs of burning bright. "I will recover my sense of grace, and rediscover my rightful place, yes and cover my face with the morning."

Buy this album now.

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6th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Citay

Little Kingdom

Dead Oceans

Like a beachside campfire jam on the Led Zeppelin caravan holiday, Citay conjure up nostalgic memories of long lost summers or mythical acid trips  ... only problem is, Robert Plant got stuck in traffic so his vocals are being filled in with little more than hushed 'ums' and 'ahs'. Perhaps strangely however, that problem's just not a problem at all and the resulting record is a timeless work that glides and shuffles along beautifully, more or less defining the mission statement for new label Dead Oceans.

Taking their cues from the unplugged side of 70's rock, Citay are a sprawling ensemble that would sit as easily on the same bill as The Byrds or CSNY as they would with more contemporary instrumentalists like Explosions In The Sky or Mogwai. The long, expansive tracks rise and fall, swirling around your headphones and soaring off in different directions. Over-the-top is not an option.

It's impossible to pick stand-out tracks form this album, which works much better as a un-interuupted single piece. Just crack open a few beers, stick it on and relax.

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6th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Jens Lekman

Night Falls Over Kortedala

The master of disguise is back with an even more cloaked album than 2005's fantastic Oh You're So Silent Jens. Night Falls Over Kortedala is 12 songs packed full of bone dry wit, ludicrously surreal observations and expert irony. But as usual they all come heavily masked in cheese and do their best to convince you they're nothing but throwaway tat. His skill is two pronged. He undercuts his grand notions of love by filling them with the common-place, but then he'll sing about the common-place using enormous, sweeping musical arrangements. No one but this guy could construct such wonderfully heartfelt love songs while mentioning avocados and asthma inhalers, or explain the tax repercussions of secretly running a beauty salon from your own apartment by way of the most perfect, floaty pop song.

Kortedala refers to a neighborhood in Jens' hometown of Gothenburg in all its depressing insularity. In his own words Jens explains, "My record basically never leaves the 30 square metres that I live on until the very last song when I take a short bus ride to the countryside in Friday Night At The Drive-in Bingo." The deep irony of these songs lies in Jens' ability to create some of the most uplifting and buoyantly joyful sounds while describing this suburban hell he lives in. He goes on, "Everyone goes to bed at nine, after that you can't see one single window lit up...But it's the atmosphere and the small incidents that scare me. The guys who yell faggot at me when I pass their balcony, the Nazis hanging out in a nearby garage...In Kortedala everyone minds their own business. And I'm slowly turning into one of them so as soon as I've finished this record I will get the hell out of here."

After the opening swell of the string section in And I Remember Every Kiss, Jens' glorious croon caries us through this modern-day kitchen sink drama with unfailing optimism. During tragic anecdotes like The Opposite Of Hallelujah's line "I picked up a seashell to illustrate my loneliness, but a crab crawled out making it useless," Jens maintains this rosy outlook. Tales of love are never cut and dry with Lekman, whether he's fallen in love with his barber in Shirin or pretending to be the boy friend of his lesbian friend during a difficult dinner with her father as in Postcard To Nina. The upshot to this fateful dinner is explained in Lekman's line "Your father's mailing me all the time, says he just wants to say hi, I send back out-of-office auto reply."

Each of these delightfully tragic stories is told in a myriad of high-kicking, tongue-in-cheek musical ways from cheap calypso to full on Strictly Ballroom drama. If you fail to recognise the irony in Lekman's work then it will be lost to you and the one criticism of this record is that this irony is more disguised than ever here. The cheery campness of the music can sometimes be too much to bear. But I guess it all depends on the mood you're in. This album presents Lekman as a truly unique talent. It has all the dry wit of a loved-up Morrissey but dresses it all up in the most hideous sunday best.

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6th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Bishop Allen

The Broken String

Dead Oceans

In 2006 this Brooklyn quartet released an EP every month and became self-made legends in blogs the world over. The Broken String is the bands sophomore album and is comprised of nine reworked songs from the EP's and 2 new cuts. The urgent time restrictions imposed on the EP songs shine forth here in simple, direct songwriting - but benefit greatly from the rich face-lift that The Broken String gives them.

From the slow building majesty of opening track The Monitor to the bar-room sing-along of closer The News From Your Bed, this album is simply a joy to be in the company of. The songwriting is very much in the vein of contemporary American icon Ben Folds, with it's piano driven melodies but has the quirky dark side of Eels. The 12 songs span a refreshing array of musical moods. Click, Click, Click, Click is an up-beat lesson is in joyful pop while Flight 180's string section and soaring vocals hints at the latent power this band possesses. The glorious Like Castanets hints at a feel good factor last seen in Loney, Dear's Sologne - and Choose Again's sadness makes it clear that this band aren't just here to make us feel better.

Using simple programming, banjo, piano, guitars and the good old hand clap Bishop Allen prove that good song writing is really all you need to make an album of this quality. It's hard to think of a single negative thing to say about The Broken String and after such an ambitious year last year the mind boggles at what these guys can produce when they give themselves less Sufjan-like deadlines.

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6th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Bobb Trimble

Iron Curtain Innocence / Harvest Of Dreams

Secretly Canadian

Growing up in the Worcester, Massachusetts suburb of Northborough, Bobb Trimble was a teenager listening to the likes of Pink Floyd, Queen, Bowie and The Beatles. Trimble began recording music and became known amongst Worcester's 'Wormtown' scene of the late 70's/Early 80's and went on to self-release these two records in miniscule quantities.

The records quickly became obscure, but an unauthorised re-issue by British label Radioactive kept them alive. With the rise of the internet, Ebay trading was taking the albums up to the $1500 mark and the time appeared right for an official re-release by Secretly Canadian.

Bobb Trimble's songs are deceptively complex - layering stings, multiple guitars, bass and vocals with ahead-of-their time samples and effects. His vocal's are strangely most reminiscent of Naomi Yang and the highlights of the album hit the same tone and atmosphere as some of Damon & Naomi's best work - although Trimble's multi-layered production is a long way from their stripped down sound. Iron Curtain Innocence sees Bobb merely finding his stride. When The Raven Calls is the highlight - a 6 and a half minute song, that cuts in on a guitar solo, giving you an idea of it's scope.

The relative commercial failure of 1980's Iron Curtain Innocence did nothing to stop Bobb Trimble's music and by 1982 he was back with an even more complex and multi-layered album. Harvest Of Dreams finds him with even bigger, more ambitious ideas. Take Me Home Vienna is a haunting, ghostly masterpiece while Another Lonely Angel is like a piece of lost 60's history. Paralyzed is the most memorable track however, cooking up a mesmerising, unforgettable sound that seems near impossible to describe.

That rich, layered sound is let down by the poor treatment of time, which gives away the original release date of these albums - 1981 and 1982 respectively. While they have been remastered as well as can be expected, the fact is that these days anyone with a computer can release a studio quality album, but back in the analog days getting an album out at all was an achievement - and an achievement that Trimble financed on his own. Not so much lo-fi and certainly not low in ambition, just low budget. These arrangements deserved the big screen treatment to fully express how much details there is in these songs - as like an Arthur Lee for the 80's Trimble is a true lost treasures, rightfully resurrected.

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6th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Sunset Rubdown

Random Spirit Lover

Jagjaguwar

With their third album Sunset Rubdown present you with 2 options. (A) You could buy the album and listen to it a lot of times or (B) You could attach a balloon to a hose pipe, turn on the tap as far as it could go and put your face close to the ever expanding sack of tension. The result would be the same except for one difference. With option (B) you would get a more than refreshing blast in the face as the balloon bursts showering you with water. With option (A) the balloon would burst every 30 seconds and instead of a torrent of water pouring out, great birds of prey would launch forth from their captivity showering gold dust from their outstretched wings on any one lucky enough to witness this magical splendor.

Random Spirit Lover tests the elastic limits of both the album as a structure and your listening patience. It is crammed full of the most complex and intricate music heard since their last record and by building tension constantly it looks you square in the eyes and asks "how much are you willing to take?" Spencer Krug is the tour de force behind this project and it was his exquisite turn of phrase that dazzled in last years Shut Up I Am Dreaming. This time it's the grand musical arrangements that sweep you up in their daunting majesty and carry you away to lands never seen by the human eye. The songs give a fleeting glance to convention hinting at chorus and verse but bleed into one-another so completely that it would be impossible to separate this record into singles.

From the word go The Mending Of The Gown comes out of the blocks at an alarming pace. and the pounding piano and screeching guitar do their best to keep up with Krug's impatient vocals that tumble out like a rapid stream of consciousness. The songs are crammed with more instruments than are healthy and with multi layered vocals an all-encompassing wall of sound is created. This is where the listener can easily become overwhelmed but the album is cleverly paced with just enough pauses in this sound barrage to keep you onboard, like the opening drum/vocals on The Courtesan Has Sung. This slight glimpse of space makes the monstrous guitar that welcomes back the wall of sound seem even more thrilling.

Krug's work is always high drama and this album more than most has an unquestionable theatricality to it. His lyrics are steeped in antique narrative and invoke wild, fairy-tale imagery of magicians and courtesans or riding around on leopards throwing dead birds in the air. But with the addition of the music Random Spirit Lover is more akin to an opera both in its scale and ambition and in the fact that quite often you don't have clue what is going on and frequently think about leaving. And this time will come for us all believe me. The first prong of this attack is with the arrival of Colt Stands Up, Grows Horns. It is obviously the stories dream sequence where all rules are forgotten and the song descends into an unbearable spiral of synthesizers that never let up. And they continue through the next track like a nightmarish approach of madness. Thankfully the albums crowning glory rises triumphantly from this hell like a winged savior. The Taming Of The Hands That Came Back To Life is is the song to bring this record back to life. It;s a galloping, sword wielding knight riding into adversity. But sadly its bravery is soon overcome by Trumpet, Trumpet, Toot! Toot! Having been kept at bay for so long the fierce wall of sound returns bigger and fiercer than ever. It's wrath quashes our brave Knight into dust as the sound swells to terrifying levels and the entire structure of this record is threatened more than ever.

As you can see this music brings out the drama in us all and that is why it is such a special thing. It's like a girlfriend you just can't stay with but have to make yourself leave. It's a high maintenance ball buster that sometimes you just want to strangle but its ability to thrill at a moments notice and to transport you to far off places makes it virtually impossible to dismiss. It wont be the one you'll settle down with but it will claim a place in your heart forever.

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6th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Richard Youngs

Autumn Response

Jagjaguwar

Sparse and simple, Richard Youngs is from the Elliot Smith school of minimal production, relying on lyrics and vocal power to win you over. Unfortunately his one studio trick of double-tracking his vocals on several songs make for difficult listening, and as a result Autumn Response album never really gets going.

Sticking to his Man + Guitar format, Youngs plays question and answer with himself, with very little change in pace or tempo.

17 minute epic Something Like Air brings the album to a close, but even here there's not much to recommend beyond the impressive length. It isn't Freebird though, just a very long variation on his other 8 songs...

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6th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Black Mountain

Cargo, London

December 5th 2007

Gigs don't get much better than this. 2005 favourites Black Mountain have put the side-projects to one side and got back in the ring with a new album In The Future - due January 2008. Having been enlisted to play this weekend's ATP Festival, the band lined up a few warm-up dates around the UK - with the London gig happily a mere two minutes from our office. Just when this gig couldn't get any better, one of this year's favourites - Miracle Fortress - get lined up to support and for the first time in a long time, not missing the support act became a priority. You can read a quick review of their performance here.

Singer Amber Webber introduced the band through the haunting Night Walks, before Stormy High got things really moving. This classic heavy number may be new, but there was no reluctance to get into it from the crowd. Songs like Lighting Up The Sky and Evil Ways find the guitar and bass onslaught building a wave of noise that is impossible not to get swept up in.  Old favourite Satisfaction was requested from the crowd but given short shrift as the set-list was strictly warm-up, consisting of all but two of the new album tracks, plus Thirteen Walls from a tour 12" on sale at the show and only a couple of older numbers.

Where the debut album showed great potential, the new material really finds the band hitting their stride and the power behind these songs is immense. Blood Meridian front man Matt Camirand is a supporting player here, providing a solid bassline from the back, along with the powerhouse John Bonham-esque drumming and moody moog electronics. While Stephen McBean is clearly the leader of the band, they all have a strong input into the stage presence - all mic'ed up for backing vocals and all happy to chip in with the stage banter. McBean has a great voice however and the change in pace for the accoustic Stay Free provided a chance for him to reclaim centre stage.

Not unlike getting mugged in slow motion, the non-stop onslaught is a strangely rewarding experience. Without being cheesy or predictable, the songs hit the highs and lows in all the right places - just where you expect them. As songs like Tyrants wind down, you find yourself hoping for one last barrage of guitar thunder, but you still aren't prepared for the ferocity with which it is delivered.

The earlier call for Satisfaction was addressed as the band came back on for a riotous rendition of that debut album favourite plus another oldie No Hits. Hopefully they're now feeling suitably warmed, as I'm certainly ready for more.

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6th Dec 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Miracle Fortress

Cargo, London

December 5th 2007

Following the release of their superb debut album, Miracle Fortress were over in Europe for a brief mini-tour, with this support slot for Black Mountain being one of two London shows. It's not often a support band becomes unmissable and Miracle Fortress did not disappoint.

A brief delay in sound checking was worth the wait, as the bombastic sound of Five Roses was energetically recaptured in their live show. Although the album is essentially the work of one man, the live band is a fully fledged unit with plenty of power. Whirrs, Maybe Lately, Little Trees, Fortune - all sounding like organic, melodic, hypnotic cacophonies. The only problem with much of this whirling wall of sound approach is that it's often not that entertaining to watch on stage, as without a strong stage formation and with the disadvantage lot of instrument changing there tends to be a lack of focus.

Once underway however, they seemed unstoppable - taking in a John Cale cover and a new track in addition to a good chunk of material from Five Roses. A great album, from another great Canadian band.

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6th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

(dir. Andrew Dominik)

Warner Bros

With much of the gang captured and brother Frank heading into retirement, the outlaw Jesse James leads a rag-tag bunch of thieves through Missouri. Robert Ford has big hopes for his position in the gang, but the lack of respect he is paid leads him to turn on the leader in a search for his own fame.

The traditional aspects of the Western take a back seat in this movie, which instead deals with the end of the gunslinging era and the beginning of the media age. Celebrity and fame come into consideration, as Robert Ford clamours for a taste of Jesse James' celebrity - before his own fame leads to his downfall. That's not to say there aren't any shoot-outs however, or an atmospheric train-robbery which makes the most of Roger Deakins' photography.

Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell put in excellent performances as the two Ford brothers and Brad Pitt is chilling as the quiet, bullying, megalomaniac gang leader who steps into his brother's shoes and spreads utter paranoia through the entire gang. This paranoia makes for the films strength - building massive tension in the lead up to the final act.

Chopper Director Andrew Dominick took some five years getting this film together and it is clearly a project that a lot attention has been paid to. While the mood and tone is suitably slow however, something is missing from this film which holds it back from hitting either the elegiac magnificence of Terrence Malick or the high-tension drama of Sergio Leone that it so clearly aspires too.

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3rd Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

John From Cincinnati (Season One)

(creator. David Milch)

HBO

The arrival of a mysterious, verbally challenged stranger in Southern California's Imperial Beach has a profound effect on a multi-generational surfing family and the residents around a motel where they are based. Mitch Yost is out of the game and his self-indulgent behavior finds himself arguing with his overbearing wife and floating off the ground, while former champion Butchie Yost battles his junkie addictions and tries to prevent prodigy surfer son Shaun Yost signing himself away to the corporate devil of Luke Perry's "Stinkweed" surf brand.

Following David Milch's winding up of Deadwood, expectation was high for this series and it got off to a good start. The production values of the show are fantastic, with the cinematography and setting perfectly capturing the so-cal beach culture in a way that is so easy to get wrong. The acting has also been universally good, with Ed O'Neill, Luiz Guzman, Luke Perry and young surfer Greyson Fletcher putting well cast and Brian Van Holt in particular putting in a great cold-turkey laden performance trough the entire series. Rebecca De Mornay came across as obnoxious and overbearing, which hasn't won me over to her but certainly worked for the troublesome Cissy Yost.

The near Shakespearean delivery made for interesting viewing, but while the show was in some way swell written the basic momentum of the story lets things down in the end. The mood and atmosphere were almost enough to keep things going but the feeling of hoping it would all be leading to some climactic event was never realised and while the finale almost met my hopes of reaching the legendary finale of Big Wednesday, the show was been left with nowhere to go and has not been renewed for a second season.

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3rd Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Futurama - Bender's Big Score

(dir. Dwayne Carey-Hill)

Comedy Central

In the words of Hubert Farnsworth, Planet Express Delivery's resident  mad scientist, "Good news everyone..." Futurama is back. The much overlooked second project from The Simpson's Matt Groening and David X Cohen has been reactivated after those dummies at the fox network cancelled it in 2003 after just four seasons. Comedy Central (with Fox's blessing) is backing 4 feature length DVD release films which it intends to air broken into episodes with added material. For those of you with a region 1 DVD player, the first feature is available to buy now - together with bonus featurette "Everyone loves Hypnotoad". And the news is, indeed, good. Original voice cast, same look to the animation, same writers - and just like Planet Express, it really delivers.

Without giving too much away, the first feature serves up a generous helping of what the fanboys want. All the familiar faces are present - in addition to Fry and Leela, Prof Farnsworth, Zoidberg, Hermes, Amy, and the ubiquitous Bender "bending unit" Rodriguez, the much loved supporting cast are all present and correct, from Nibbler through to Morbo (and even pre-Simpsons Groening creation, Binky the one-eared Rabbit).

The gags come thick and fast - and the plot, well, that gets a little confusing. The 80 minute story arc may be hard to swallow for the uninitiated since it concerns time paradoxes and multiple copies of central characters. It might actually work better in the episodic format that Comedy Central intend to show it. Fans, however, will lap up the whole thing in one juicy helping.

So, perhaps this is where Matt Groening's creative talent has been concentrated. It's so much more snappy and adult than the Simpsons which (let's face it) is limping in the manner of an exhausted battle hero. Maybe time to give the yellow guys a few seasons off, eh? It hasn't hurt Futurama.

#Film
#HarrisPilton

1st Dec 2007 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

The Violets

The Lost Pages

Angular

New Cross four-piece The Violets have been described as having a talent for ‘Hunky Dory-esque Classic song writing’. When will they learn that racking up a new band’s tentative efforts with some of the greatest achievements of musical genius is a big height to fall from? I am happy to report that Lost Pages is 35 minutes of tightly knit and tautly paced, good music.  However, the fact that the last track is entitled Nature of Obsession will come as no surprise once you’ve had a listen. I’m not so sure about 'Hunky Dory,’ but Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cult, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Sisters of Mercy are all present in a shameless display of fusion-pastiche. Try listening to In the Temple of Love by the Sisters of Mercy after the Violet’s Foreo and you’ll see what I’m getting at.

I like this album; I liked the spiky persistence, the overlaid vocals and synthesizer aggression.  A lot of work has clearly gone into giving the sound a convincing breadth and ensuring that each track hurries you along enthusiastically in a Goth-dyed angst of ‘Seeping rituals’, torch-lit ‘Circle[s] of red’ and Siouxsie wails .  The one thing I couldn’t run away from is that the reason it sounded good, was that it had all sounded even better the first time round.

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30th Nov 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Libertines

Time For Heroes - The Best Of The Libertines

Rough Trade

I confess. The Libertines passed me by. I'm not sure if I was just not reading NME at the time, but they literally passed me by to the point where I couldn't tell you a single one of their songs. Their influence can (apparently) be seen in the more recent crop of British bands who seem to have taken the band's style and applied it to good music. I'm talking about the Arctic Monkeys and The View amongst others, who of course both have obvious roots and influences, but bring a bucketload of originality with it.

A quick iTunes search tells me that as far as new music goes, 2002-2004 was defined for me by Arcade Fire, Beastie Boys, Flaming Lips, Foo Fighters, Grandaddy, Interpol, John Frusciante, Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket, Red Hot Chili Chili Peppers, Steven Malkmus and Weezer. In alphabetical order. Come to think of it, 2004 is barely a whisper away - but looking back at my list it is certainly dominated by American bands and The Libertines must have presented a tangible alternative to that.

The comeback of the English guitar band is certainly indisputible, with dance music being the most obvious loser, but coming at The Libertines now with hindsight but a distinct lack of sentimentality it's still hard for me to see what all the fuss is about. At least Oasis were huge, loutish, hotel-trashing superstars who would literally walk out of a US stadium tour waving their fingers. Can't Stand Me Now does come across as a melacholic anthem but the songs just seem to be mostly repetitive chorus, which could at least make for a singalong live. In this day and age, there's little excuse for poor production. But The Libertines just seem to make dull, derivative music with very little genuine impact. The band are clearly derivative of many British bands, but strangely the band they remind me of most is So-Cal punkers Seven Seconds. Go figure.

It's not saying much when a band has to cull a 'Best Of' from only two original albums and a few singles and it's saying even less when half those tracks still put themselves forward as skippable. Sorry, I honestly tried.

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29th Nov 2007 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Wilco

Sky Blue Sky 'Tour Edition' EP

Nonesuch

Following the format they have used for a couple of recent albums, Wilco are re-releasing their Sky Blue Sky album (read the original review here) as a 'tour edition', featuring a 5 track bonus disc. Rather than pulling a fast one over the early adopters however, those who have already purchased the album should be able to pop the disc in the computer and access the tracks for download from Wilco World.  (Coming soon for UK readers apparently).

Let's Not Get Carried away was already available as a bonus track for iTunes customers and like pub rocker The Thanks I Get, it's less detailed arrangement and performence don't quite fit the same tone as the finished Sky Blue Sky album.

One True Vine was previously issued with the Either Way single and is a more downbeat affair, taking it's cues from 60's Motown and the positive thinking mentality of Wilco hero Bill Fay. It's short and sweet, but makes for the EP's highlight.

The live version of Impossible Germany is a polarised rendition of the album track, with the more downbeat opening section serving to enhance the vitality of the live guitar work, while Hate It Here works well as a question and response jam that could easily have come from a 70's Band album. With the overly serious sound of the album version absent, the instruments play back and forth off each other nicely and again Nels Cline's great guitar work steals the show.

As with the tour edition of A Ghost Is Born, these songs definitely fall into the category of bonus tracks and as such should not be considered in the same context as the album proper - which may have received some relatively luke-warm reviews but certainly works as a cohesive, focused work. Having said that, you won't really be listening to this as a self sufficient work either. It's major success is to serve as a reminder that Wilco are a great live band and Sky Blue Sky is a great album, perhaps unfairly overshadowed by it's elder relatives.

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29th Nov 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Holy Fuck

LP

Young Turks

Aptly named after what your eardrums will shout after the first play of this infectious debut, Toronto based mega-band Holy Fuck may have just sneaked in at the last minute to claim their place in my top albums of this year. LP is the sound of a techno band practice in a dirty, disused toy shop after a power cut. From start to finish these 9 songs will kidnap your wife and kids and demand you accompany them on their fucked up, full-throttle joy ride if you ever want to see them alive again.

Hailing from a more punk rock background Holy Fuck construct pounding beats topped by crazy, swirling melodies that could be described as dance music if they weren't treated like full on rock songs. Using a whole heap of instruments and objects from battery powered, broken down keyboards to scratched 35 mm film, LP was totally written and recorded live and this method is at the heart of it's appeal. Each song seems to start with no direction only to fuck you up. As you think an end is near you can almost imagine one member signaling to another to go around again and the song takes off in another direction and you're left tied to the bumper of this unsupervised free-for-all.

It seems wrong to pick out individual tracks as this album has been constructed as a whole. As one song fades out another is waiting, impatiently to come on and as the beats are beautifully overlaid over each other the result is a tag-team assault that won't give up. Its pace is the infectious part. I like to think of music as a soundtrack to life but if you had this in your ears it would infect every thing you did. If you jogged to this you'd be at the top of Rocky's steps in no time, even if you set out from Clapham. With this on your headphones your evening walk to the tube would turn into a routine, Bourne style hit (before the amnesia). And if you had it in your car, well God help you and any one on the road. This is the musical equivalent of the opening scene in Beverly Hills Cop. It's an out-of-control juggernaut packed with contraband goods pelting down a suburban high street and your at the back swinging in the wind.

Check it.

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27th Nov 2007 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet