Chimpomatic

Chad Vangaalen

Skelliconnection

After 2005's reissued Infiniheart Sub Pop put out the second full length from this Canadian folk/rock/synth/indie kid who also did all the album art work and - if you haven't guessed already, it's quite eclectic.

It's such a gift when you get to review a record that has obvious sources of influence, you just bang on about that and don't really have to form any of your own opinions. So when I first heard Slelliconnection I dreaded the review as I was probably going to have to do some thinking and I hate doing that. Sure it has some comparisons but none of them are obvious enough to base a review on. So I'll get them out of the way first then if there's time I will do some thinking.

Vangaalen's use of low-tech synthasisers and plinky-plonky keyboards instantly brings to mind the work of the late Grandaddy. In fact this comparison crops up a few times with Chad's voice sometimes taking on the soft, sensitive hush of Jason Lytle. It has the inventiveness of The Flaming Lips and the delicate banjo folk of Sufjan Stevens.

The main thing to remember about Skelliconnection is not to judge it until it is finished. It spans so many different genres from the heavy riffage of the opening track Flower Garden to the gentle folk of Wing Finger with some fantastic little instrumental ditties thrown in, the best one being Viking Rainbow. Rumour has it that a lot of the sounds we hear on this album come from home made instruments. This is very evident on Viking Rainbow with its primitive, clunking, synth beats and, heavy drumming and distorted melodies.

The inventiveness and shear scope of this record are definitely what make it good but they also become its undoing. After the opening three tracks the album drifts into no man's land and loses its way amid experimentation, genre hopping and lazy repetitive lyrics. It doesn't seem to specialise in anything and so is in danger of being slightly unmemorable. Thankfully it finds its direction again with the fantastic Graveyard. It's a slow building folk masterpiece that begs to go on for a lot longer than it does. It is then followed by Dead Ends, the records summit both in grandeur and intensity. Here Vangaalen really lets us have it, giving Roy Orbison a run for his money. It's almost as if THE Bruce Dickinson has instructed him to "really explore the space here". Thank god he doesn't have a cowbell.

So to sum up, this is a piece of work that is by no means perfect but demands respect. In a world where originality is hard to find artists like Chad Vangaalen are essential, and after the recent Sufjan Stevens offering its nice to hear a folk singer that's willing to grow some balls and mix things up a bit. It doesn't always work but at least he tried.

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1st Sep 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Cut Chemist

The Audience's Listening

Lucas Macfadden, aka Cut Chemist, is obviously a man who knows when he's standing on a sinking ship. If he didn't he'd be blind as its been clear ever since their first full length album that Jurassic 5 were never going to surpass the genius that was their first ep. So the backbone dj of that once glimmering light has quit and gone at it alone. On first hearing about this solo debut I thought it was going to be Cut Chemist following in the footsteps of good buddy DJ Shadow. But The Audience's Listening is nothing of the sort. Cut Chemist has obviously pin pointed where he excels and stuck to it. And that area would be straight up hip-hop beats and scratches. The album is basically 43 minutes of the instrumental interlude tracks that punctuated the Jurassic 5 LP's. and although I found these slightly tiresome they really seem to work here to form a complete unit.

(My First) Big Break starts proceedings off in classic Jurassic interlude form with beats heavy and samples and scratches a plenty. It's a good start but does hint to you that the album may never get much deeper than this and there's only so many scratches and samples one can handle and though this is quite true we are treated to a more varied array of these tried and tested formulas. As on the album's best offering The Garden, a jolly loop of guitar twangs builds up slowly and instead of taking the regular route of dropping the big beat after the first twelve bar set he keeps it simmering. So when the beat is eventually dropped it feels great and with the added female vocal and slightly orchestral under-layer we get a song with more depth and weight than the entire album put together.

Normal service is resumed until Storm, the best of the vocal tracks featuring Edan and Mr Lif. and with help as good as this you can't fail. Cut Chemists beat is more electronic and linear than normal and Edan's spits his opening vocals with venom flowing smoothly into Lif's intense delivery. All this along side a driving, banging beat that is occasionally interrupted by stabbing bleeps. The samples are minimal and the scratches done away with and the result is fantastic.

Cut Chemist proves that he has a completely different agenda with this record than Shadow. He is not trying to break into new hip hop territories, he's just making beats to get you moving and for the most part he succeeds.

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31st Aug 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Low Winter Sun

Two-part Thriller

Decent two-part thriller on C4, that follows bad cops Mark Strong and Brian McCardie as they off one of their colleagues and then head up the investigation into the crime themselves… Worth catching.

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31st Aug 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Devastations

Coal

This is the second full length from Melbourne trio Devastations and I think it might just see me through to the next National album - whenever that might come. Musically it certainly is comparable, largely due to front man Conrad Standish's low mumbling voice. Thematically it's a different story - these are love songs indeed but they are more like Nick Cave's Murder Ballads than label mates The National's strangely uplifting songs.

Sex And Mayhem starts things off with typical meandering vocals accompanied by an ever-increasing layer of instruments. But if you thought things were going to be as cheery as this, then The Night I Couldn't Stop Crying makes you think again with it's ominous, jangling guitars and Standish's particularly dark mumblings barely audible over the screeching guitar feedback. Things take a slightly different turn with the introduction of Tom Carlyon on vocals on Terrified. This is not a turn for the worst by any means, the lyrics are still dark but sung with an almost Bryan Ferry croon. If things are all getting too mumbly and simmering for you at this point Take You Home soon changes that. It's the most up-tempo song on the album and builds nicely to a crescendo of guitar noise and feedback.

Though I prefer Standish's vocals the album is brought to a glorious close with Dance With Me. It tiptoes in quietly with Carlyon's lonely vocals but is steadily joined by piano, accordion and a string section to produce a truly heart breaking finale.

This album is aptly named, as if ever there was a musical equivalent of coal then this would be it. Dark, impenetrable and slow burning. Great stuff.

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30th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

At The Drive-In

In/Casino/Out

I've back-tracked my way to At The Drive In and am thoroughly enjoying all three of their albums. Like Minor Threat covering Fugazi... if that were only possible.

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30th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Miami Vice

(dir. Michael Mann)

Following the ratting-out of some FBI agents, Miami Detectives Crockett and Tubbs head deep (deep) undercover to trap the drug traffickers who are responsible. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx assume the mantle handed down from the classic 80's TV show but, as you've no doubt read elsewhere, this movie bears very little resemblence to that. The focus here was supposed to be realism and action - both of which are delivered in fits and spurts.

The setting and photography of the movie is often superb, such as a night-time shot across the bows of two speedboats heading up a river, or the afterburners lighting up on Crockett's Ferrari as it speeds down a night lit highway. However, the contrast between the intensely grainy night scenes (often shot with mostly 'available' light) and the crystal clear daylight scenes is often jarring.

All of these things could go unnoticed in the movie if at least the script or the acting held things together - but here they are the two weakest areas. There is not a single great performance in the movie to match even Tom Cruise's over-the-top outing in Collateral. Foxx and Farrell (surely they should start an ice cream company?) are both just playing their own movie-star persona - and add little depth or emotion to what could easily have been classic roles.

The script is so thin that I found myself looking for twists, turns and red herrings where there simply were none. There's no subtext here - just straight-up 'text'. The multiple 'love' scenes, (generally with Audioslave accompaniment) were enough to make anyone puke and, while the action scenes are handled well, there's not much that we haven't seen before - most notably in Michael Mann's own films (the shootout in Heat, the nightclub killing in Collateral).

This movie had all (or most) of the necessary ingredients, but just couldn't get the mix right to bake up something special. So disappointing.

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29th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Rifles

No Love Lost

These Jam wannabees hailing from Walthamstow have put together a pretty catchy short album. Certainly good enough to win me over from initial scepticism. Check out She's Got Standards, Hometown Blues and When I'm Alone. Nothing new but still entertaining.

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29th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Dears

Gang Of Losers

Bella Union

The Canadian indie rockers go some way to drop the Blur sound-alike sound, which can only be a good thing. Gritty subject matter is treated with epic grandeur to produce a quality third album.

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29th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Young Knives

Voices Of Animals & Men

This is the debut full length from Leicestershire art/punk-pop trio and it's a mixed bag, which ultimately falls short of the high praise given by many critics. They have been heralded as the new Pulp with their oh-so-English wit but they don't come close to Jarvis Cocker's originality. Their sound is basic and lead singer Henry Dartnall seems far too aware of himself. Current single Weekends & Bleak Days starts off with the classic lyric "Hot summer, what a bummer," and rarely goes much deeper than that. Whatever originality they possess seems to have been manufactured to suit a gap in the market.

But I said it was a mixed bag and with the bad stuff out of the way the second half of the album really picks up. Once they drop the bravado as on Another Hollow Line the quality starts to shine through. The vocals are toned down and sound more real while She's Attracted To tells the story of that situation we can all relate to when you punch out the father of your girlfriend and uses much chunkier instrumentation and almost Parklife spoken vocals that genuinely make you laugh. In Loughborough Suicide, the best and most resolved track on the album, we see exactly what they are capable of. All the English pathetic wit works perfectly here and brings to mind previous masters of this art form such as Morrissey. The line, "I'll never go down fighting" is repeated proudly as the song dips and rises to different tempos, it just makes me wish it wasn't the second to last track.

Although Voices Of Animals & Men is a good listen I can't give it a particularly high rating as it seems like the product of an extensive market research session with NME readers to find out just what kind of sound they want at the moment. This feeling effects every aspect of The Young Knives from their accents to their anti-indie image. Instead of the oh-am-I-having-a-photo-shoot-I-didn't-realise casual bullshit of bands like Razorlight, they adopt the slightly podgy, comfortable-living, conservative party, suit and tie look that's equally affected. But once you get past all of that they show great promise that I hope they can mature into.

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29th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

She Wants Revenge

She Wants Revenge

If Interpol model themselves on Joy Division, then these guys are more like Human League. It's not bad, but the parody wears thin quite quickly - leaving a pretty empty listen behind.

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29th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Six Degrees

Pilot Episode

New drama from JJ "Lost/Alias" Abrams, following six strangers whose NY lives start to overlap. Much more mainstream fodder than Lost or Alias (no spies, gadgets or black smoke monsters in the pilot) which may be why it's the first US show that ITV1 have picked up in the UK for ages. Characters are: Grieving Mother, Moody Photographer, Doubting Businesswoman, Girl Hiding From Past, Nice Lawyer, Shady Chauffeur. Dorian Missick, Hope Davis, Erika Christensen, Bridget Moynahan, Campbell Scott, Jay Hernandez make for a decent, multiracial cast. Bit cheesy in places, but might work; good to see a mainstream drama that's trying to do a little more than just have another law firm with kooky characters etc.

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29th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

High School Musical

Kenny Ortega

Demented combination of every guilty pleasure ever: Grease, Saved By The Bell, Bring It On, Karate Kid etc etc, HSM is a worldwide phenomenon. Not standard chimp fare, but strangely enjoyable

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29th Aug 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip

Pilot Episode

New show from Aaron "West Wing" Sorkin, applying the walk'n'talk model to a Saturday Night Live-style comedy show. Matthew "Chandler" Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet all chat through the super-sharp dialogue like they're really enjoying themselves. Classy, intelligent, angry and a little cheesy, but it feels like this will work as a series.

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28th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Pearl Jam

The Point, Dublin

Having seen Radiohead earlier this year, and with My Morning Jacket coming up in September and MC Hammer in done 1990 only Pearl Jam and Wilco remained as the pillars of my music taste yet to be seen live. Now, after one memorable night in Dublin, Wilco stand alone.

This could have gone either way, as I have been into this band since I was a kid and although I love the new album it rarely gets played when a Pearl Jam mood grips me - often losing out to such classics as Vitalogy or No Code. I was quite surprised to find myself at the front of a seething mass of frenzied fans as I thought it was just me, CSF and a few other Chimp affiliates that still followed this band. Apparently not. Even though the Dire Straits sounding Inside Job is far from being my favourite track on the new album I was very grateful to hear its slow steady build up as the opening track. Had a more anthemic opener been chosen I fear my rib cage would have collapsed under the pressure of 7000 foaming, sweaty fans. This calm intro didn't last long as the band began to race through a string of the best of the new stuff, with the mighty World Wide Suicide being a crowd favourite.

From then on the order of the day was 'hands-in-the-air-platoon-moment-classics,' and it was simply dazzling. Given To Fly had the fans in a blissful state of euphoria and the wonderfully extended version of Daughter was followed by the live favourite Better Man which saw Vedder's voice being drowned out by the swell of a 7000 strong sing along which couldn't help to send shivers down the spine. As if this wasn't enough the first act was brought to a climactic finish with the phenomenal Rear View Mirror, Pearl Jam's finest moment in my opinion. It's a pretty epic song at the best of times, the bands Bohemian Rhapsody if you will, but tonight it was extended beyond my wildest dreams. It dipped and soared and seemed as if it would never end until finally it burst into a climactic crescendo with every light in the house being called upon.

Two encores later and just about every classic you could possibly wish for (including a cover of Dublin favourite The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy) and I was truly exhausted. Every time I was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of Eddie Vedder through sweaty bodies and other peoples wet hair plastered across my face he looked to be having a really good time. Lots of banter with the crowd made us feel that this was an important night for him and the band as well as us, and after a lengthy rendition of Neil Young's Fuckin' Up Vedder thanked the crowd for welcoming them back after six years and humbly departed the stage.

It was clear to see the bands unity after 15 years of playing together as they often huddled together and jammed furiously, as if alone in this great hall. In true Donnington Monsters of Rock style they all stepped aside during Even Flow for a five minute Matt Cameron drum solo which was simply ossum. My only criticism was the shear size of the venue. I gave up fighting for my life while straining to see anything along time ago and even though it beats sitting it's far from ideal. Apart from that it was everything I expected and much, much more.

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25th Aug 2006 - 9 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

The Letting Go

Something has happened to Billy, he's not so depressing anymore. During 'Lay and Love' he eulogises about a woman. 'From what I've seen, you're magnificent, you fight evil with all you do… From what I hear you're generous. You make sunshine and glory too. When you walk in things go luminous.' What's going on? What happened to the Billy that made me feel my life is so much better having heard how tough his life is? Is she the one he's in love with? But then why not? For someone with such poetic sensitivity, he's bound to find love.

I really could preach about Bonnie Prince Billy forever, how special and rare his talent is etc. I love the way he peppers biblical references in his previous albums. The thing about Bonnie Prince Billy is whenever I listen to his songs I get lulled into a false sense that I'm listening to something very pretty and sweet, only to be stunned he's actually singing about the very opposite of that - sometimes dirty sexual encounters, at others times kinky affairs. 'No Bad News' is a fine example of this, a very melodic song about someone bearing bad news – by far the best song here, and the most accessible. His melodies don't always immediately hit you, they take time. But once they do you really do feel like you've worked for it – and you feel an ownership to it. "The Letting Go" in some ways has lost that edge, as it is more accessible, but that edge has been replaced giving us a fuller, meatier album. This is a fantastic album with beautifully crafted songs.

'The Letting Go' has a female vocal to complement Will Oldham's coarse voice - vocal harmony of the highest order. At times these songs feel like duets. There are drum beats too – we're talking electronic beats - but having said all this we're still talking about Bonnie Prince Billy and even when he attempts more accessible songs they still have something no singer can get near. His lyrics are like little Raymond Carveresque stories, full of poignancy and wonderment.

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25th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Tapes 'n Tapes

Madame Jo-Jo's

A great set from apes 'n apes favourites Tapes 'N Tapes. Pretty much a one-albumitis gig, but The Loon's good enough to hold up live. Drummer totally on it, rest of the band looked like they were enjoying it as much as the chimps. Worth catching if you can.

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23rd Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Big Lebowski (Oudoors at Somerset House)

(dir. Joel Coen)

As usual "Some new shit came to light". This time with about 2000 other dudes and dudettes at Somerset House. Great movie, great setting, hampered only by a little drizzle mid-way.

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22nd Aug 2006 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Dexter

(Season One)

Michael C Hall (David Fisher in Six Feet Under) plays a forensic cop in this show on FX later this year. The twist is... he's also an anal retentive serial killer! You see?!

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21st Aug 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

The Evidence

(Season One)

You see some clues. Then the crime unfolds. Then some cops w issues solve it. Will you solve it before them? Probably. Martin Landau wears a Warhol wig. Like one of those Swords and Sorcery books for eight year olds. Only not as involving.

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21st Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Electrelane

Singles, B-Sides & Live

"Singles, B-Sides & Live" is a title that speaks for itself, with this album collecting together some odds, ends and non-major(ish) label releases from this Brighton based all-girl band.

Things start off well, with heavy instrumental Film Music - which is exactly that. I'd like to think it would be laid over a montage of a murderous rampage at a seaside fairground. I Love You My Farfisa is another moody highlight, building up a slow instrumental until it finally bubbles over with a screaming finale.

Cover versions have a great way of bosltering your opinion on a band - either when they cover a favourite song, or do an unusual cover that sends you off looking for the original. Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire does the business here, falling nicely between both camps.

Some of the live tracks are also covers and, while the sound quality often leaves something to be desired, the enthusiasm of covers of Roxy Music's More Than This and Leonard Cohen's The Partisan have definitely added this band to my live hit-list.

The album suffers from the lack of sequencing that often thwarts a compilation album. Here they have gone for Singles (by date) / B-Sides (by date) / Live (by date). That seems to lump things into blocks, making the album top heavy on sound quality, but bottom heavy on the material that is most 'new'. The album does however collect together some real gems - mostly suitable for inclusion on a flirtatious mix-tape.

Electrelane have been on heavy rotation in the office this year, so if you don't fancy this one then at least get a copy of the Steve Albini produced album The Power Out.

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20th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

M. Ward

Post-War

Post-War is a warm, lovely record. Determinedly low key and melancholic from the outset, it is however never less than immediate and grabs your attention throughout. M. Ward's song writing is as strong as ever; the opening Poison Cup is a quietly stunning masterpiece and Requiem is another early highlight.

As an album it feels altogether more polished and coherent than its predecessor Transistor Radio. The sound is slightly bigger and warmer without Ward loosing his slightly loose and ramshackle quality. The excellent first single Chinese Translation is majestic, with it's shuffling guitars and drums. Later, Chimp favourite Jim James guests on the excellent Magic Trick - a rousing bar room sing-a-long. Great.

Bush Hall gig review.
Click here for pictures.

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18th Aug 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet