Chimpomatic

Port O'Brien

All We Could Do Was Sing

City Slang

Van Pierszalowski, the front man for this Californian band, spends 3 months of the year on a salmon trawler on Kodiak Island, Alaska which goes some way to explain the great seafaring influence that dominates their sound - and like the sonic waves that wash over every moment of this record, Port O'Brien find themselves on distant and far richer shores than were explored on their debut.

2007's The Wind And The Swell was less of a debut and more of a compilation of the best of their self-released efforts, but it was very much a stripped down folk affair comprising of mainly guitar and vocals and tinny lo-fi drumming. It's very much a different story here with All We Could Do Was Sing, which curiously kicks off the same way their previous album did - with the frenzied group sing-along of I Woke Up Today. It's given a major overhaul this year but does slightly mislead the listener as to the general direction of this record. Stuck On A Boat is way more representative with its deep guitars and hollow vocals. It's a simple song vividly placing Pierszalowski on his Dad's trawler, it takes its time with the basic rhythmic structure but its glorious swathes of pastoral strings instantly hail the arrival of a whole new band. Fisherman's Son sees our protagonist leave his coastal roots and up and move to the city. Great waves of drums pick this song up and launch it into a vibrant gallop accompanied again by the string section.

Port O'Brien have developed many strings to their bow and this record is full of ideas that span more tempos than their debut hinted at. Songs like Pigeonhold show the band baring its teeth with crashing cymbals and truncated guitar solos that squeal and wine, until the strained vocals bring the whole thing to a calamitous close. This electric injection raises this band from the alt-folk wilderness that they threatened to reside in. The penultimate Close The Lid sees them perfect this element of their sound with a textbook indie jangle that lets rip into a joyous ramshackle of drums and raw vocals. Then as a total antithesis comes the frail closing sound of Valdez. More in line with the earlier songs this finishes the album with melancholic fragility and is the sonic opposite of how the record began. These polar bookends that contain this record illustrate perfectly the rich tapestry that Port O'Brien has woven. They may not be reinventing anything here, but as an example of a rock group that strives to evolve their sound, Port O'Brien's journey from lo-fi folk to indie rock confidence has resulted in a full bodied and endlessly listenable album.

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28th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

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The Kevin Bishop Show

C4

Following on from his collection of spoof celeb bios Star Stories, Kevin Bishop returns with his own Friday night sketch show.

As you'd expect, it's still pretty sleb-based - Simon Cowell's brother Brian (complete with matching super high-waisted trousers) running the fourth largest convenience store in Rotherham; Jonathan Ross introducing "my special guest... Wicky Gervais!!"; Sienna Miller's elegant new parfum Publicity; a Daily Mail DVD giveaway with alternate outtakes for films like Bruce Forsyth in The Shining and Al Pacino in Superman etc.

It's shot like you're watching someone flipping though the Sky EPG for you, at an ADD speed that keeps it moving fast enough to not let the duffers get in the way of what's mostly a pretty decent Friday night LOLathon; for once it's a sketch show where you feel like they're struggling to get all the ideas crammed into half an hour, rather than pad them out to fit.

Bonus fact: Kevin Bishop was Jim Hawkins in Muppet Treasure Island

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21st Jul 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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Adam Green

Sixes & Sevens

Rough Trade

Former Moldy Peach Adam Green makes a return with Sixes & Sevens, marking the prolific 26 year old's 5th solo album ...and as usual it's an eclectic, mixed bag spread over 20 songs.

The album covers pretty much every style you can imagine, whether it's the wakiki sounds of Tropical Island, the beatnik poety of That Sound Like A Pony or the Las Vegas lounge of single Morning After Midnight - which even goes so far as to stray from it's already unusual course and head into Rolf Harris outback territory with a touch of that bouncing spring sound. I'm sure there's a name for that instrument, but it's not one I've ever had to recall for a review before. When relative calm scales back the ambition, Green settles back into a relaxing groove and tracks like Twee Twee Dee have an unmistakable charm, while the seemingly superficial lyrics keep their meanings hidden away under deep, deep layers of pastiche.

Pan pipes are the wacky weapon of choice on You Get So Lucky, while the Hopalong Cassidy twang returns for Getting Led, along with some soulful backing singers. Not unlike letting a wide-eyed kid loose in the music room, Sixes & Sevens can best be described as like loading up a 1950's playlist on your iPod and hitting shuffle.

The female vocals mix things up again nicely on the country-tinged Drowning Feet First, while the lyrical rumblings of When A Pretty Face provide another one of the album's highlights, recalling the story-telling style of Louis Prima.

With your preconceptions set aside this is an album that adds up to considerably more than the sum of it's parts. Green's voice is his secret weapon and along with his lyrics style it's strong sound provides consistency that really ties this album together into a remarkably cohesive listen. Perfect, in fact, for that Aloha!-themed-kabuki-Halloween party you were planning.

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18th Mar 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Portishead

Third

Island

After a ten year hiatus, trip-hop pioneers Portishead are finally back with a new studio album - Third. Rumours have been flying around that this was in the works for a good 5 years, so it may come as something of a surprise to actually have it playing on your stereo. Reasons for the hiatus have never been explained, other than the members "keeping their heads down" with other projects. Beth Gibbons had the most notable success with her album with Rustin Man - Out Of Season, while Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrows have been mostly operating behind the scenes, producing and remixing bands as varied as The Pharcyde and The Coral.

The limelight is clearly a place this band don't like to be and the trauma that seems to be involved in them making music seems intense. Stepping back may have been the only answer, although by ducking out you can surely do little more than increase the pressure on your eventual return, which may explain the drawn-out production schedule of this third record.

With the driving drums of thumping opener Silence, the pressure builds immediately before abruptly pulling back as Beth Gibbons' haunting vocals quickly suck you back into the presence of your old favourite band. Where Dummy and Portishead had the big, expansive feel of epic movie soundtracks, Third takes a much more minimal and I suppose 'modern' approach. By modern, I mean 80's rather than 70's - as where the widescreen sounds of Dummy recalled Lalo Schifrin's 60's and 70's film scores for the likes of Dirty Harry or Bullitt, Third has a distinctive 80's sound - recalling the electronic horror scores of John Carpenter or the sci-fi future of Vangelis.

This is a record that makes very few concessions and takes no prisoners, which should be commended for such a mainstream, high profile release. The brash goobledegook electonic interruptions of Hunter, the distorted intro to Machine Gun or the abstracted Jazz solo towards the end of Magic Door do not make for immediate, easy listening - but every sound has its place and nothing feels overcooked. The superb production counterpoints every rough edge with a moment of magic, such as Machine Gun's  desolate, Blade Runner-like finale.

The Rip is the sublime high-point of the album - reminding us of everything that was so ethereal about Portishead's original output, but bringing a newer sound and dimension to the music. Starting with a rising electronic pulse, Gibbons' vocals lift the song up into the clouds before hypnotic, pulstating scales recalling the analog electronica of Jean Michel Jarre or Giorgio Moroder take over, letting the song fly off on its own.

Beth Gibbons' subsequent solo career seems to have upped her presence in the band, with some notable tracks focusing on the less-electronic themes she followed with her solo album - notably the wireless-radio-era sound of Deep Water. An album like this creates a demand for the sound you know, the sound you remember and the sound you love - but this new found eclecticism adds a further dimension. The highlights here certainly tick those retro boxes - but not without the introduction of some welcome new touches.

Bands like Portishead defined this sound, so it's no surprise to hear them pushing it further and moving it on - even with trip-hop at this mature stage. The anticipation for this record may have created a seemingly unachievable sense of expectation and in some ways I can't help but be a little disappointed. Every single track is not a bonifide masterpiece from start to finish, and some feel like they could have been developed further; but there are many highlights and it stands proud as an excellent record. The Rip is worth the price of admission alone and is one of several tracks to suggest that the highest of expectations can sometimes be soundly beaten.

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14th Mar 2008 - 6 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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Band of Horses

Koko, London

February 26th, 2008

Back in the UK for the third time in a year (and with more dates scheduled for July), Band of Horses have picked up quite a following since 2007's show at the Scala. After great support sets from MGMT and Sons & Daughters, the crowd went ballistic for Ben Bridwell's band of hairy truckers. The huge crowd response showed a lot of dedicated followers in the audience - showing that there may be hope yet that a band that has clearly never been made-over by a skinny-jeans promoting stylist can still crack the mainstream.

Cease To Begin opener Is There A Ghost? started the show and set the modus operandi for the evening: amp everything up to the maximum and rock it out. While that worked superbly for the harder rocking numbers like Ode To LRC or Islands On The Coast, the poor bass in the house sound system didn't take it well and pretty much every track was flattened out by the overbearing bass drum and guitar. Only Bridwell's powerful voice could climb out of the rumble, which unfortunately meant a lot of the subtleties of tracks like The Great Salt Lake or The First Song were flattened out and buried. Spirits weren't dampened however and the rock and roll energy of the band carried the show along on a wave of enthusiasm.

It's clearly Bridwell's band and following the personnel re-structuring after Everything All Of The Time that seems like a fairly natural order. Concessions were made to the new members with the first "fake end song before we probably come back on" - a barnstorming rendition of over-looked Creedence classic Effigy - before keyboardist Ryan Monroe stepped in to provide vocals on a new track in the encore, making for a welcome departure and a possible indication of territory a third album might head off into. With Bridwell releasing his grip of iron over the band, things were now flowing fast and loose and foot-thumping party tune The General Specific made for a fine sing-a-long before a flowing cover of Ron Wood's soulful Act Together.

This is a real, working band that are picking up accolades and knocking out good music in quick rotation. Hopefully this is still just the beginning.

 

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27th Feb 2008 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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Vantage Point

(dir Pete Travis)

Presidential assassin thriller that rewinds the Spanish action several times until you get to see what’s really going on/get bored/realise it’s all totally ridiculous.

That said, it’s quite enjoyable. One of those dumb rides that thinks it’s a lot smarter than it it, but then finally gives in and rounds everything off with a big chase and one of the funniest mano y mano declarations of love you’ll see in a long time. And it’s only 90 minutes, which is a real plus in the chimp book of not wasting your life watching duff films.

Dennis Quaid is the Secret Service guy who took a bullet for President William Hurt a few years ago, and still Hasn’t Quite Got Over It.

Matthew Fox has got some time off the Lost island to play the Agent Who Vouches For Agent Quaid cos he’s an old buddy and still trusts him even though he’s a bit twitchy.

Forest Whitaker is a tourist filming stuff with his SONY handycam (coincidentally, it’s a Sony movie too, what are the odds?)

Sigourney Weaver plays a hard-nosed rolling news producer making some Tough Calls. But then they forget she’s in the film and she disappears.

Said Taghmaoui was much better in La Haine etc.

“8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth (the end sucks)”
 

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26th Feb 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Why?

The Hollows EP

Anticon

After the triumph that was 2005's Elephant Eyelash, Yoni Wolf emerges with a sneaky EP to wet our appetites ahead of next years Alopecia. The Hollows EP is basically a a collection of remixes and covers by the likes of Boards Of Canada, Xiu Xiu, Dntel, Half Handed Cloud and members of Yo La Tengo.

The title track is the only new song on this record and it seems to be finishing off Why?'s gradual transformation from his hip hop associations to the indie rock sound this band have been gravitating towards for some time. Why?'s hip hop links have always been tenuous due to Wolf's sing song rap style and his work with the Anticon collective has been the perfect environment to expand on this. The Hollows is an awesome taster for things to come with Wolf's vocals emerging front and centre and the rock influence moving into full effect.

Strangely enough there's two remixes here of forthcoming tracks of the Alopecia album. Boards Of Canada's remix of Good Friday is a stripped down, head nodding reconstruction that levels out the background to give Wolf's voice the intimate closeness it deserves while Dntel's re-imagining of By Torpedo Or Crohn's provides Wolf's more hip hop delivery with a soft techno lift off. Elephant Eyelash's Yoyo Bye Bye is a popular choice with versions by Xiu Xiu and Dump (James McNew of Yo La Tengo) and the whole thing ends with Islands' Nick T's cover of Wolf's previous Anticon project Reaching Quiet.

The upshot of this EP is that Why?'s 'anything goes' policy has obviously inspired this fine collection of artists to stretch their wings and together they've created material that is as good if not better than any of their own work. Having heard the remixes I'm pretty confident that next March will see the release of one of the albums of the year.

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15th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Beirut

The Flying Club Cup

4AD

Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar was a critical success that slowly gained popularity by word of mouth. Zach Condon’s first album was, as is often noted, recorded at his parents house when he was all of nineteen. Beirut is no longer a one man band - he has since collected a group of musicians to tour and record, first the Lon Gisland EP and now the new album - The Flying Club Cup.

The first album featured no guitars. Violins, trumpets, piano and ukulele were used to produce a traditional Balkan sound. It was Zach’s melancholic, sombre singing which gave Beirut an added sophistication, making the East European sound more digestible to the average listener.

The Flying Club Cup is very much more of the same, which for me is the problem.  Opening song A Call To Arms is very reminiscent of Black's Wonderful Life. The comparison is not an insult or a compliment but does represent the reflective mood of the song and the album as a whole. It is the continuation of this tone throughout that frustrates me. Zach Condon's voice does not have enough expression to allow distinction or variation to make many of the thirteen tracks memorable. The Penalty is the exception, with a lovely accordion backing a restrained and expressive performance. This allows the music to sound complete and not a sullen teenage boy singing with his dad’s band. The Flying Club Cup never picks up from this point and continues to slowly deflate by the end.

The only time I can fully appreciate Beirut is when I listen to one or maybe two songs consecutively. I also struggled to hear the French influence (culture, history, fashion) which The Flying Club Cup is supposedly inspired by. This could be one album too many from Beirut if they have to state progression rather than been able to expand on their sound. If I were reviewing a single (with a b side) there would be more praise, but maybe in time (and as I grow old) my opinion will change.

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8th Oct 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Dylan Donkin

Food For Thoughtlessness EP

Wall of Sound

Dylan Donkin used to be in a band called Echobrain with ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newstead.  But don’t let that fool you into second-guessing what he sounds like.  In fact, listening to new EP Food For Thoughtlessness it’s possible that Mr Donkin himself isn’t exactly sure what his sound is.  But first a bit of post-Echobrain history:

After the band were caught up in a lawsuit with rival band called Echodrain (who’d have thought a band called Echodrain would have lawyers?), Donkin decided to do one and headed to Hawaii, where most admirably he developed a music teaching programme to help parents and children interact musically.  And it’s that sort of optimism, coupled with an inevitable laidback Island vibe, that runs through the 6 songs.

It’s a few stadium sizes away from metal monsters Metallica, but this isn‘t just one surf dude and his guitar a la Jack Johnson. Like Alec Guinness playing 8 members of the same family in Ealing classic Kind Hearts and Coronets or Eddie Murphy playing fat clan The Klumps in Hollywood film: Nutty Proffesor 2, the 6 songs that make up this EP may share the same mellow genetics, but are varied enough to showcase the considerable talents of Mr Donkin.

In mood, it’s a record of two halves (or 'sides').  Single Make a Choice is effortlessly upbeat in a hazy lazy kind of way. You can almost hear the Hawaiian tide breaking on the shore, as a slide guitar works its way over simple bass lines and gentle brushwork on the drums on Diatom Blues and what’s not to like about putting handclaps in a song called Depression Yesterdays.  For the second half Donkin, ever sensitive, gets a bit darker.  Fall Through The Wall and its slightly reverbed vocal recall Jim James or Neil Young.  Instumental The Commonaut is probably the most interesting, a talented yet troubled piano, drunk and misunderstood, wails at the world as a quiet lead quitar agrees and a small choir commentates.  And finally, Yolk bids farewell like a slightly more positive unplugged Kurt Cobain.

It will be interesting to see how Donkin pulls this altogether on a full-length album; will it sound like an album rather than simply a collection of (very good) songs?  Until we find out, the Food For Thoughtlessness EP is an intriguing and excellent appetizer, whetting the appetite for the main course to come.

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25th Sep 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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Aesop Rock

None Shall Pass

Def Jux

It's not often that I can start a review of a record by an underground hip hop artist and thank one of the biggest corporate giants of our time for providing us with the only taste of this guy since 2003 - but if it wasn't for Nike commissioning Aesop Rock for its inspired series of jogging tracks our hungry ears would have had very little to feast upon since the triumphant Bazooka Tooth. And Nike's interest is the result of a steady rise in the shares of this Long Island born MC/producer since his first album for Def Jux Labor Days, what some regard as his finest stroke. So None Shall Pass, his fifth proper full length has been long in the making and much anticipated by any hip hop head with a brain.

Aesop Rock is a rare commodity indeed these days, an artist who is truly pushing the envelope and who, if you're into him, has never put a foot wrong and is pretty much guaranteed not to. Some criticised the Nike piece, but for the purpose it was made to serve it did the job and though it was stripped of the free flowing lyrics I can imagine it would be good to jog to if I could ever get out of this chair. So with None Shall Pass we get our guy back where we want him and with production duties shared between Aesop himself, Blockhead and El-P the result is little short of dazzling.

Things have changed since his last record and though this is still unmistakably Def Jux much of the production has been simplified and the claustrophobic machine-beats are played down in favor of more linear, live sounding instrumentation. This leaves space for Aesop's fables, and though this has always been his strength they seem to rise to the top here and it's damn near impossible to keep up. There's no dick-swinging bravado with this guy, just complex stories bursting with mind boggling imagery and all told with lyrical dexterity that defies belief.

With the title track Aesop provides us with one of the easiest entry points to his sound in a long time (Nike discounted) It's built around a pretty straightforward beat and melodic loop and with Aesop's lyrics it rolls along relentlessly. As is often the case your ears try desperately to keep up with this lyrical pace as juicy nuggets of the English language are dropped teasingly close to our understanding but as soon as we've stopped to gather them up Aesop's way ahead. I mean when the opening lyric is "Flash that buttery gold, jittery zeitgeist wither by the watering hole, what a patrol, what are we to heart huckabee art fuckery suddenly?" How are we expected not to feast on this. Unlike militant label mates El-P or Cannibal Ox, Aesop Rock often appears to take a different route but on closer inspection lyrics like "sign of the swine in the swarm when a king is a whore who comply and conform, miles outside of the eye of the storm" he shows a clear opinion of the current state of our world.

Bring Back Pluto encompasses this albums best assets. It has a plodding and delicate bongo beat that is still bass heavy enough to comfortably float the words to the surface. As does the awesome Fumes. The pace here is recreational compared to this guys previous work but as always vast swathes of texture are lurking in the background and at the half way point these textures cleverly manage to flip the beat around to a momentary quickening of speed without you even noticing.

But as much as I enjoy and appreciate this sunday stroll pace it sure is good to get moments like Citronella where the Jux machine starts grinding out stomping, gut-wrenching bass and wooly, static-frothed beats. This is brought to a climax on Gun For The Whole Family. Any album on this label wouldn't be complete without the whole Jux family getting involved and with previous songs featuring the familiar sounds of Cage and Mr. Lif it's here that label boss El-P weighs in and interestingly it's the erratic apocalyptic beat that suits El-P's frenzied style more than Aesop Rock's and it's really the bosses moment and not Aesop's.

The last track Coffee is a real departure for Aesop Rock. The beat is backed by distant vocal harmonies but then as if out of nowhere we get singing, yes, singing, and it's not just any singing, it's John Darnielle from The Mountain Goats. It would be hard to predict such a partnership but since moving to San Francisco these two artists have been collaborating and this is the first glimpse of the fruits - and it's fantastic. It also shows the kind of creative mind we are dealing with here. None Shall Pass is a hip hop record and never claims to be otherwise. It's full of deep beats, cuts and scratches and everything you'd want from a hip hop record but oh so much more. If you can decipher it you'll see a whole host of source points that go way beyond this genre. It's like reading a Kerouac novel at double speed, actually it's like reading a vast collection of short stories with no punctuation. It's a turbulent sea of words that stretches on for miles and you know that if you dive in you'll get embroiled in a whole torrent of forked-tongued, whiplash trouble but you do it all the same. After all these opportunities don't come around all that often so you'd be a fool not to.

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28th Aug 2007 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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Tortoise

A Lazarus Taxon

Some bands never put a foot wrong. Whether it's a perfectly pitched new album, a superb accompanying book, or a zeitgeist-defining DVD they get everything right.

Tortoise might well be one of those bands. With this 3 CD+DVD box set, the Chicago band collect together 12 years of rarities, b-sides, remixes and live material - as well as numerous promo videos and some live footage - all superbly presented in this box set with artwork by retired Swiss policeman Arnold Odermatt.

Where oddities and rarities often make for a patchy album at best, Tortoise manage to hold steady over three CDs without ever feeling like we're being fed scraps and left-overs.

The first two discs compile 25 tracks from Japanese issues, compilations, promotional 7" singles and more. The opening 12 minute Gamera is superb - a drastic reworking His Second Story Island from the debut Tortoise album. Gamera is then re-worked itself later on - now called Goiriri. David Pajo's composition Vaus also stands out, as does promo 7" track Madison Area - all using sublime instrumentals to creat a moody, atmospheric landscape.

For disc three this compilation manages to avoid the pitfalls of some compilations and keep even the remixes on-message. Following the release of their debut album, the band asked some friends to provide remixes - which became long-out-of-print album Rhythms, Resolutions & Clusters - included here in it's entirety. Generally avoiding the "Blah Blah (Ho Hum Remix)" path, most of these are re-built as completely new tracks - often with new titles. Steve Albini, Jim O'Rourke and Mike Watt are amongst the chefs - with Watt and Kira Roeseler adding some Dos bass to extra bonus track Cornpone Brunch.

Like the 4 sided double album ("let's play disc 2, side 1") before it, even a 3CD set is condensed into one, long digital playlist these days. Although 33 songs, 3CDs or 2.9 hours is certainly a lot to cover there's barely a moment to rest and like Fugazi, Wilco, Radiohead no record collection is complete without some Tortoise - and this might well be the place to start.

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17th Oct 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

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The Keene Brothers

Blues And Boogie Shoes

Billed as 'pure pop magic', The Keene Brothers is a collaboration between GBV's Robert Pollard and one-time Matador alumni Tommy Keene. Although not exactly 'pop,' Blues And Boogie Shoes is far and away the most solid and cohesive of these three new records.

Death Of The Party and Island Of Lost Lucys are classic mid-90's-style Guided By Voices. The album has far fewer of the throw-away tracks of the other two new albums, and Keene's polished guitar work adds a layer of sonic quality and sophistication to Pollard's often rough-and-ready recording style - particularly on instrumental tracks like The Camouflaged Friend.

THe album occasionally treads the line a bit to close to FM radio A.O.R., but Pollard's eclectic lyrics always pull things back from soft-rock meltdown.

This Time Do You Feel It? is a masterpiece, borrowing heavily from Pinball Wizard (perhaps Pollard's most overt tribute to heros The Who). The song is followed by A Blue Shadow, another great Pollard song, which brings the album to a worthy close.

So, as usual, 41 new songs from the over-active mind of Robert Pollard has yielded a number of classic tracks, easily distilled down. In the case of these three albums however, those gems are often unpolished rocks.

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28th May 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Radiohead

Hammersmith Apollo, London

OK, what you are about to read is a totally 100% biased, one-sided opinion masquerading as fact but I don't care. This was a perfect gig. All morning I have tried my hardest to pick holes in it and find some kind of fault but I'm afraid I concede, simply perfect. Whenever people ask me what was the best gig you have ever been to I get nervous because I feel my answer should be some seminal moment in music history, like "Sex Pistols at St. Martins" or the "Stone Roses at Spike Island", when all that really ever came to mind was "MC Hammer, Wembley Arena supported by the mighty Snap". But now I have an answer to be proud of.

I suppose the only slightly less-than-perfect point was that they opened with a new song Videotape that Thom Yorke plays on the piano so no one can actually see him until the second song. But that was National Anthem and the show was under way. This was followed by 2+2=5 which is when the crowd really found their legs or lost them depending on where you were standing. I had heard that this tour was going to be an opportunity for the band to air some new songs and some of the lesser played ones. This was true but they still managed to treat us to such classics as Karma Police. This is what I would refer to as 'A Platoon Moment' where I assume a Willam Defoe, hands-in-the-air-euphoric stance only this time not being gunned down by the Viet Cong. This pose was invented for this band and for this moment. It was nothing less than spectacular.

Three of the most impressive moments were the opening tracks to 3 of their best albums. Everything In It's Right Place, Airbag and best of all Planet Telex. Here the band arranged a supped up version of such magnitude that it was almost unrecognisable and sounded like something off Kid A or Amnesiac. The set list didn't seem to be set in stone either and after repeated crowd requests for OK Computer's epic Let Down they finally obliged. Maybe it isn't a song that is often played as half way through the second verse Thom seemed to forget the words and backed away from the mic looking confused. The crowd soon came to his aid and rose with a crescendo of straining voices bringing a grateful smile to the front man. What was also very evident is that we are in for a treat judging by some of the new stuff that was played. Arpeggi being a particular highlight, a slow building number that evolves into a power house finale making full use of Ed O'Brien's impressive backing vocals which are fast becoming Radiohead's secret weapon.

So two encores later and a string of classics having delighted and exhausted the worshipping crowd we are eased down from the clouds gently with Everything In It's Right Place, which saw Yorke come to the front of the crowd and dance along with us with a big smile on his face. I will end this review by apologising again for my rather over emotional sentiments but I am not of sound mind. If you want an over technical and slightly cynical opinion go read Pitchfork but as for me, if I was Sam Becket from Quantum Leap, I could definitely 'leap' now.

#Music
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19th May 2006 - 6 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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King Kong

(dir. Peter Jackson)

The biggest chimp of the all, revamped by the LOTR crew.

For some reason it's taken a while to get round to this super-ape outing here at chimp HQ, so it's nice to finally open up the DVD (although there's 2 bullshit ads included as part of the "extras" on my R3 copy).

Like what Peter Jackson's done over his career, and there's some nice touches to his monster/gore past which I wasn't expecting in the Skull Island bits (been so long since I saw the original that the plot was basically new to me).

Jack Black's money-making movie director works well in the first half, although you do get the impression that Jackson sympathises with his blagging skills and general enthusiasm for getting a film made, which does seem to jar a bit with the second half in New York, with Black then the evil maestro putting on Kong's Broadway debut.

Naomi Watts does the most with her scream and faint routine, and gets the compassion for Kong over without saying too much. It's much more of a human getting on with a wild animal relationship than some inter-species romance. She's like a friendly zoologist with juggling skills that he's stumbled across. You feel like Kong's pretty lonely on the island without any other giant apes around, and that Naomi's better company than the local savages who seem more interested in keeping in chucking him the occasional sacrifice from behind a wall. Adrien Brody's ok, but a bit sidelined towards the end.

The Kong animation/acting from Andy "Gollum" Serkis (who's also the ship's cook) is pretty cool, wasn't expecting so much dinosaur bashing which seemed like Jackson having fun with some Godzilla-style showdowns, and the crew of the Venture are at least pretty wowed when they first come across all these huge mythical beasts running around. All the whooping natives stuff is a bit odd, not quite sure where they're going with that.

Enjoyed it overall, but it did feel a touch overlong for what's essentially a pretty simple B movie plot - although holding off on Kong's entrance works, and all the on-board scenes build up to Skull Island's sighting.

Could have been a much more intense, wham-bam experience at 20 minutes shorter: just because it's a really big monkey doesn't mean it has to be a really big epic… but hey, it's a big monkey smashing up New York and punching out dinosaurs - that's always going to go down well here.

#Film
#chimp71

30th Apr 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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The Island

(dir. Michael Bay)

In the future, two beautiful survivors of Earth's 'contamination' while away their days in a utopian paradise, hoping to win the lottery and move to another even more utopian paradise. Then they realise they're just clones of rich or famous people, being harvested for spare parts in a secret underground bunker.

Very nice of Michael Bay to 'tackle' the issue of cloning for us, as I wasn't really sure what to make of it. The whole set up to this movie is kind of dumb, and pretty derivative of THX1138 and Logan's Run, but once they get out into the real world things pick up. The fact that the 'real' Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are characters not dissimilar to themselves (Scottish motorcycle riding hoon & Calvin Klein model) is a nice twist, and the whole thing is just so big, fast, slick and expensive that it's hard not to enjoy it.

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20th Aug 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet

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