Chimpomatic

Cadence Weapon

Afterparty Babies

Big Dada

Recently I was having Quite an animated conversation with a Quality journalist friend of mine who writes for a Quintessential music magasine, the name of which I shall not Quote. When I asked him what he was listening to at the moment he sighed and told me of his disillusionment with the current music scene and said he only listens to old stuff now. His point was that no one makes complete albums anymore, they just make collections of singles. "Quite the opposite" I replied but then struggled to think of any examples to back me up. Well now I have one and if you're reading my friend, you may Quote me on that.

"My Dad said I was an afterparty baby; this goes out to all the accidents out there; keep on making mistakes." And so goes the dedication featured on Do I Miss My Friends, the opening track on this followup to Cadence Weapon's critically acclaimed debut Breaking Kayfabe. " I wanted to make music that afterparty babies were created to," explains Cadence Weapon aka Rollie Pemberton. Acting as a testament to Rollie's first influence, his father, Teddy Pemberton, creator of the Black Sound Experience Radio show and introducer of hip-hop to Rollie's hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, Afterparty Babies is a hectic journey through the world of club nights and house parties. This theme is explored through stories of friends, crews, nightmare DJ nights, hometowns, heroes, media and fashion.

Musically this is quite different from its predecessor. Where Breaking Kayfabe led with swirling, back-breaking electronic hip hop this one opts for a more electro/techno pace that serves to remove this artist from the hip hop roots that he may have once planted. Having seen him slot in a Joy Division cover at his London warm-up show last year, it's no surprise this album has moved on considerably from the debut and is the product of an artist open to a healthy array of musical influences. Pemberton presents an interesting juxtaposition between this thoughtful 'Wonder Years' style reminiscing and the harsh electro sound clash that carries it.

In my review of Breaking Kayfabe I was compelled to compare Cadence Weapon to a rampaging Terminator hell bent on destruction. It was a tenuous link I admit and made partly out of boredom of review-writing and also because 30 Seconds had a chorus that sounded a bit like The Terminator chase music. So I can't help feeling a sense of irony when mid-way through Afterparty Babies the song Messages Matter features a sample from Kindergarten Cop. " Who is your Daddy and what does he do?" comes the line and with it some interesting questions. Is Afterparty Babies the Kindergarten Cop to Breaking Kayfabe's Terminator? Are we seeing the human side of the cyborg? In a sense yes. It's not as hard hitting or relentless as the debut, it definitely has a lighter feel to it, it's more enjoyable and while you're jumping along to the uncharacteristically housey beats you know he's undercover and at the start of the movie you saw him kick someone's ass.

This may differ from the debut in all the ways mentioned earlier, it may be more melodic, spacious and palatable but let it run its course and you'll see it's just as tough as Breaking Kayfabe. It plays out like a night out clubbing but in reverse. It starts off strangely downtempo with Do I Miss My Friends? and by the end it's full on techno. There's no wind down, no gentle walk home with a kebab, it leaves you at top tempo to find your own way out. At the live show songs like In Search Of The Youth Crew and Real Estate were instant crowd pleasers and they don't disappoint here but instead become repetitive anthemic chants to Pemberton's Afterparty generation. True Story and Getting Dumb are electro master-classes, chucking in vintage house techniques with cuts and scratches and all topped by the most intricately crafted rhymes. It's certainly an album of 2 halves with the final few tracks providing the weight to this extraordinary record. Pemberton exited the stage at the Amersham Arms to House Music. It had the crowd jumping like a bunch of idiots and it has the same effect here. It's a dirty, crazy five and a half minutes. It swirls and bleeps to clapping beats and air-raid style sirens and it rules. By the time we get to the album closer We Move Away the techno conversion is complete. The club is in full swing and after a while the music even overtakes the creator and rises to a life of its own ending the album in almost 2 minutes of banging beats and grinding synths that threaten to go on until first light.

This has the feel of an album released by a well established hip-hop name that suddenly breaks from tradition and goes out on a limb, thus alienating hardened fans. It's exciting to see an artist do this so early and I can't imagine Cadence Weapon ever settling into a style. With this album he joins the ranks of MC's like Aesop Rock and Buck 65 as creators of their own style of hip-hop, constantly evolving and gathering up every influence and experience in their path. I am already eager to hear what this guy's got up his sleeve next and I bet I can find a Schwarzenegger link in it somewhere.

#Music
#HHG

10th Feb 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Superimposers

Harpsichord Treacle

Wonderfulsound

What do you look for in a new record?

The list might include a band's enthusiasm for the act of making music; being provoked by their lyrics; surprised by a sound, a riff, an unexpected instrument or chord. Anything that makes you sit up and think, 'I could never have done that, I wouldn't even know where to start'. Music making, though, has been liberated and people are no longer constrained by the mere inability to play an instrument. Who cares! Given a laptop, a vague rhythmic sense and the ability to sample a few bars played by someone else (possibly immeasurably more talented than you'll ever be) and you've got all you need. And thousands of you are at it.

The Superimposers are not musically incompetent in this way. They're just a little bit dull. There's no real surprise, no provocation, little of the unexpected. Sure, there's plenty of musical enthusiasm, but it's of the irritating kind for 'Fender Rhodes, harps and the mysterious Omnichord - a kidney-shaped Suzuki synthesiser played by strumming a touchplate'. I don't know about you but I don't think kidney-shaped synthesisers are a substitute for original sounding music and I'm tired of watching guys on stage hitting a multicoloured kid's xylophone or toy drum like they've just turned the music world on its head.

'Harpsichord Treacle' aspires to being the bastard child of The Beach Boys and Lemon Jelly. The music is determinately sun-shiny and warm, 'sound oozing from your i-Pod like treacle from a Harpsichord with plenty of peace, love and harmonies going on. Sounds delicious eh?' This is a direct quote from the band's promotional material and since Miles Copeland and Dan Warden, the duo behind Superimposers, released the album on their own record label: it's a direct quote from the band. Sounds delicious? Sounds sticky to me and just a little bit creepy. If someone turned and sold me their album on the strength of its 'peace love and harmonies', I'd run screaming for the Black Sabbath.

Miles and Dan are well intentioned, eager to be laid back and to grin inanely through a haze of good vibes. The first track on the album, 'Anymore' is apparently 'Glen Campbell-esque'. It sounds like the incidental music to a 1950's Western, which is no slight since I love 1950's Westerns. The rest of the album seems more unified, given direction by the band's self-posed query, 'How do they get that authentic 60's sound?’ A more pertinent question would appear to me to be, why would they bother?

It's not an unfamiliar problem, but listening to the eleven tracks on this album is like wandering through a sort of Musical Madame Tussaud's. They get the 'authentic 60's sound' by creating phonic waxworks which bear a questionable similarity to elements of the Byrds, through Serge Gainsbourg, the Kinks, the Mamas and Papas; all with added reverb and digital trickery. There's plenty of harmonising and humming. Miles and Dan 'met in an English seaside town', but they harmonise and hum like they're the Beach boys, goofing around at Baja. Then there's the sampling, every-so-often a few truncated bars of string instrumentals, looped and re-appearing as the tracks meander aimlessly. The ghost of Lemon-jelly drips off of many of these songs but there just isn't the same subtlety or eclectic humour. Dan and Miles may be musically proficient, talented even (unlike the lap-top crowd), but that doesn't stop many of the songs coming across as empty vehicles; showcases for the musical effects they have at their mixing-desk-fingertips.

The band's name was born apparently of their love for superimposing their music on other peoples and vice versa. They'd be better of spending less time 'plugging in space echoes' and instilling some conviction into the music. Some of the songs are brilliantly accomplished musical pastiche. 'Autumn falls' and 'Twilight' expertly mix musical tributes with seductive orchestration, rippling behind the vocals. But in hackneyed lyrics like 'I will make it all better' and 'no one said it was easy', I hear the band's own subconscious telling them to push a little harder at the musical coal-face.

If I were to pick one waxwork, this album would resemble Doris Day; remastered, re-looped, re-engineered by their 'way-back machine'. It's not a great resemblance but it's kind of freakishly there.

#Music
#LG

5th Feb 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Cloverfield

(dir. Matt Reeves)

Bad Robot

boom... BOOM... BOOM...

MULTIPLE SIGHTINGS OF CASE DESIGNATE "CLOVERFIELD"

CAMERA RETRIEVED AT INCIDENT SITE U.S. 447

AREA FORMERLY KNOWN AS "CENTRAL PARK"

From the moment this film kicks in, with a pounding THX rumble and a Classified Department of Defence logo stamped over a black screen, you know you're in for a ride. It's the 9/11 Godzilla, a Blair Witch Ghidorah, a Handicam Ebirah loaded with post-millenium lo-fi paranoia, confusion and panic, that lives up to all the Slusho/1-18-08 viral hype.

The conceit is that we're watching found footage from the night of a mysterious attack on NYC. We start at a going away party. A bunch of hip New Yorkers are hanging out while one of them is walking around trying to get the others to say nice things for their buddy before he heads off to Japan. It's a nice touch - there's a reason for the camera to be there, it makes total sense that you'd keep filming if something like this really did happen - there's a few scenes with other people simultaneously freaking out and getting their phone-cams out. It also gets us used to the jump-cut edits before everything goes nuts.

And when it does? It's a rush - you're thrown in with the WTF reactions of the partygoers, rushing up the stairs in their heels to the roof to see what's blown the city's power and is making such a noise outside. Instead of the omniscient perspective we're used to in monster movies — skipping around from the military, to the government, to the ordinary guy who knows the secret to defeating the thing if only he could just get to whoever's in charge, and back to the monster — here we're stuck on the ground with the crowds screaming through the streets, rushing into electronic stores and catching snatches of news on TVs before zipping back outside where tanks are suddenly crashing through the traffic and there's the briefest of glimpses of something smashing skyscrapers or chucking the Statue Of Liberty's head around...

It's a great concept, simply realised. The terror's effective, the shooting style produces some brilliantly frustrating moments when the camera's dropped on the ground so you can't really see what's happening - the old less-is-more trick, but thrown into the mix here, one that captures that sense of a bunch of cynical urban citizens who can't quite believe that they're really under siege by some unknown thing.

In a way, that seems to be the point here - it's an obvious allegory for terrorist attack; the sudden unknown presence of "hostile aliens" smashing into the everyday reality of people living their lives without any real grasp of a world outside their own. Smoke billows through the streets, phone signals are lost, no-one knows which way to go until the army show up barking orders through loud-hailers. As a cinematic experience it's pretty visceral - 84 minutes (yes! a short flim at last!) of shakycam is enough to make anyone dizzy - don't sit too near the front for this one.

A creature feature with something to say, Cloverfield delivers on the hype.

#Film
#chimp71

20th Jan 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Be Kind Rewind

Dir Michel Gondry

Partizan

Highly enjoyable homage to the joys of hanging out in a video store from general genius Michel Gondry. Mos Def plays the Be Kind Rewind employee left in charge when store owner Danny Glover heads off on a mission to work out why no-one's coming to their shop anymore (clue: errr, they don't stock DVDs). Jack Black is his goof-off friend working in a junk yard in the neighbourhood and generally causing trouble. Without giving too much away, all the tapes in the shop get wiped, so they start shooting their own versions  of films like Driving Miss Daisy, Ghostbusters and Robocop to rent out to customers like Mia Farrow instead. These "Sweded" re-workings take off and it plays out from there...

It's a great excuse for Gondry to make the most of his imaginative lo-fi powers - the films are pretty sloppy, but totally charming - reminds you of the days when you'd get a video camera and just start shooting any old stuff, in order, without editing. Def and Black make a cool double act, it's fun seeing Mia Farrow in something daft again, and there's even room for a Kid Creole cameo. Once they get going, there's a brilliant montage zipping through their new films in classic Gondry style, flowing from one to the next - would love to know if it was all done in one take or not - kind of think it's the sort of thing he'd at least attempt just to see if it could be done.

Marking this one on a Gondry scale:  The Science Of Sleep was an easy **** and Eternal Sunshine stands up as a full ***** experience.  Be Kind Rewind is a smaller film in some ways, even though it's got a bigger cast. It's still totally enjoyable, but more like one of Graham Green's "entertainments" - a fun work that's still got a lot of heart and is saying something (communities falling apart/ big business taking over everything/ change/ friendship/ how good Robocop is) - but is basically more about the fun of making and watching it. For me, Science and Sunshine packed in a real emotional depth with the inventive camerawork and goofy plots - to say this isn't quite up there isn't to diss it, just to acknowledge how outstanding those two are. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Almost made me miss all the hundreds of VHS tapes I've chucked out freecycled over the years.

#Film
#chimp71

19th Jan 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Black Mountain

In The Future

Jagjaguwar

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

#Music
#CSF

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

Reaper

Pilot

E4/ CW

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

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

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

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

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

#TV
#chimp71

30th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2007

BC

Albums
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The album really lived up to the hype of it's release and it's proving to be their most consistent album yet.
LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
This is a shock favorite. Probably the most played album of the year
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
They had a lot to live up to after Funeral but their second album was bigger and better. One of the few followup albums to actually expand on what made them so good to start with.
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
This was no surprise, they just did what they always do and it wins every time.
The National - Boxer
Some of the richest music put out this year, a near perfect album and just what we wanted after Alligator.

Honorable Mentions
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
The More Shallows - Book Of Bad Breaks
Pela - Anytown Graffiti
Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls

Songs
All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem (Sound Of Silver)
Atlas - Battles (Mirrored)
Slow Show - The National (Boxer)
(Antichrist Television Blues) - Arcade Fire (Neon Bible)
John Allyn Smith Sails - Okkervil River (The Stage Names)

Gigs
Beastie Boys - Brixton Academy
Wilco - Shepherds Bush Empire
Beirut - Camden Roundhouse
Black Mountain - Cargo

TV
Sopranos
Flight Of The Conchords
Heros
Prison Break
Entourage

Turkeys
Death Proof (This needs it's own category)

Disappointments
Ian Brown - The World Is Yours
Couldn't even review this as it would mean I'd have to listen to it more than once.
24 - Day Six
Thank God for the writers strike and the incarceration. Although I was pleased to see Keifer taking one for the team by opting for a Christmas sentence so he can be free for shooting next year, that's Bauer would have done.
The National - Shepherds Bush Empire
An album of the year but didn't translate well live.

#Music
#BC

20th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2007

chimp71

Top 5 albums
1 Radiohead - In_Rainbows
Just instantly sounded better than everything I'd heard for months - and for once in our instant preview/early release/download era, an album felt like an event.
2 Devandra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Love the 70s laid-back vibe here, traversing rock, folk and tropicalia effortlessly.
3 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
Beyond the hipster hype, an album with something to say, and a fresh way of saying it.
4 Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Warm rock, the perfect soundtrack to a snow-bound expedition. Great solos too.
5 Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times
They disappointed live, but any album that kicks off with a good 7 minutes of slow-burning driving music is a winner round these parts.

Runners Up:
Justice - +
Demented production, great inventive dance/pop that felt like it could only have been released in 2007.
Brazil 70
OK, it's a compilation of post-Tropicalia freak-outs from 70s Brazilian, but most of it was new to me this year.
Burial - Untrue
Intriguing dubstep with soul
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Bit like eating a whole chocolate cake after a while, but still great in small chunks.

Top 5 gigs
1 The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang - The O2 August 26
They still rule. Billed as the last-ever tour too, glad to have finally caught them.
2 Prince - 3121 - The O2, August 31
Unstoppable showmanship, amazing guitar, huge catalogue of hits to draw on.
3 Wilco - Shepherd's Bush Empire, May 20
Possibly even better live than on record.
4 Beastie Boys - Brixton Academy, September 4
Good to see the BBs again, still got the skills to pay the bills.
5 Black Mountain - Cargo, December 5
Great introduction to a band I'd only heard on one track before - might have been higher in this list if I'd been able to sing along more.

Also: Cornelius/Matmos - Royal Festival Hall
Laptops, psychedelia, rock-outs and pure pop. RFH refurb works too.
The Vitamin Trip reunion, Joyce Is Not Here, September, Hong Kong
Just about pulled it all together again after ten years.

Top 5 films
1 Inland Empire
Unhinged Lynch. Not sure there's anywhere for him to go after this, but it's hard to beat for showing the extremes of cinema possibility; great performance from Laura Dern too.
2 The Lives Of Others
Brutally sharp in its dissection of recent state madness, and the ways people surprise and disappoint.
3 Superbad
McLovin!
4 Knocked Up
Great way to play both sides of the romcom gender split.
5 Disturbia
Enjoyed the tight scale and execution of this MySpace generation Rear Window.

Runners Up:
2 Days In Paris
Night Of The Sunflowers
Zodiac
Smokin' Aces
The Bourne Ultimatum

Most Disappointing threequel - Shrek The Third
Sucked as much as the first two rocked.

Top 5 tracks
1 Seahorse - Devendra Banhart
2 Bodysnatchers - Radiohead
3 Dear Dead Friends - Von Südenfed
4 Keep the Car Running - Arcade Fire
5 505 - Arctic Monkeys

Plus:
Ghost Ship - Menomena
Ponytail - Panda Bear
I Got Lost - Dinosaur Jr
Tenderoni - Chromeo
Love Your Man, Love Your Woman - The Broken Family Band
Veni Vidi Vici (Diplo Mix) - Black Lips
I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance - Black Kids
Is There A Ghost? - Band Of Horses

Top 5 TV shows
1 The Wire - FX/HBO
Just gets better and better. Does it really have to be the last series next time round?
2 Heroes - Sci-Fi/BBC2/NBC
Took a while to put everything in place, but this was one of the most fun shows around this year.
3 Entourage - ITV2/HBO
Vince and the gang are on a roll.
4 Flight Of The Conchords - BBC4/HBO
Jokes? Present. Songs? Present. Something new worth quoting.
5 30 Rock, Five/NBC
Didn't think this would be as funny as it is - Alec Baldwin's timing is great.

Runners Up:
Party Animals - BBC2
Lead Balloon - BBC2
Saxondale - BBC2
Comics Britannia - BBC4
Californication - Five
Five Days - BBC2
The Sopranos - E4/HBO
South Park - Paramount/Comedy Central

#Music
#chimp71

20th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2007

CSF

2007 has been a great year for music. The internet is finally paying off, with dozens of bands hitting the global mainstream through grass roots word of mouth and diy publicity. But it's not just the new boys bringing out the good stuff, with most of my current favourites putting out new records.

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky was a mild disappointment next to A Ghost Is Born, but was still a great album and an even better live show - but while the Kings Of Leon's Because of the Times started the year on a high their live show cut things down to size. The Beastie Boys instrumental Mix Up was a low-key release, but they still delivered the goods live - way past expectations. Band of Horses surprise second album didn't quite hit the highs of Everything All Of The Time, but their live show was barnstorming - proving they've only just got started. Arcade Fire also followed up their debut with an outstanding second album, and Eddie Vedder went semi-solo with his soundtrack for Sean Penn's movie Into The Wild.

Radiohead's In Rainbows has to get a special mention for the world's biggest band's adoption of guerilla marketing, genuinely lighting a fire under the record industry like only a massive band 7 albums deep could do.

Led Zeppelin are the clear winner in terms of stars, but I think it's fair to say that Best Of's don't qualify, so my top five albums of 2007 are:

5. Blonde Redhead - 23
Probably the only surprise in my list - for me certainly - Blonde Redhead's 23 found the low-key indie band hitting their stride and turning in a richly rewarding album.

4. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
After getting their instrumental callings out of the way with Axes, Electrelane returned and surpassed the sound of The Power Out for their fourth album.

3. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Spoon's sixth album matched it's conceptual title with a mix of complex songs and catchy pop. Nice to interview them too.

2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House always struck me as catchy but superficial, and the lead single from LCD's second album - North American Scum - did little to change my mind. Repeat listening peeled back the layers however and Get Innocuous! or All My Friends are unbeatable. Their 45 minute megamix makes for a great bonus track too.

1. The National - Boxer
After finding their feet with third album Alligator, The National turned things up a notch with the superb Boxer. Eschewing the bombast of hits like Secret Meeting, the album is dark and rich - so layered that it takes several listens to even break open.

Gigs
Some pretty good gigs this year too:

Wilco - Shepherd's Bush Empire
A long time coming. With their new squad Wilco could hardly be a better live band.

Beastie Boys - Brixton Academy
After the dismal 1999 Wembley show, the Beasties seemed destined to stay mainstream - but a self-initiated return to their roots has paid off nicely. Still got Time Time To Get Ill.

Black Mountain - Cargo
While still notably nostalgic in sound, these retro rockers blew the socks of Cargo with their forthcoming album In The Future. See next year's best-of list for more info.

Movies
Disturbia - Great modern spin on Rear Window
Bourne Ultimatum - A solid finale to the modern Bond
Knocked Up - Perfectly capturing the stupid antics of a group of friends.
Jesse James - Not up their with Mallik of Leone, but Andrew Dominick's second feature was a grand attempt.
Zodiac - Although long and flawed, David Fincher's 70's epic was an entertaining ride.

TV
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Still cracking me up, six seasons in.
Flight Of The Conchords - Guaranteed entertainment from the Kiwi troubadors.
Entourage - Aspirational TV from Ari, Drama and the crew.

Biggest Disappointments
Kings of Leon live - While the 'seats' were the problem, this band seemed out of proportion for their sound and style.
Death Proof - the worst film I have possibly ever seen. Seriously.

#Music
#CSF

20th Dec 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2007

Chimpovich

Albums
Honourable mentions to: Elvis Perkins, Love of Diagrams, Silversun Pickups, Battles...

5. The Ponys - Turn the Lights Out
4. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
3. Plate Six - Battle Hymns of the New Republic

(and these two clear by some stretch)

2. Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
1. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times


Songs (in no order):
Battles - Atlas
Two Gallants - The Deader
Elvis Perkins - While You Were Sleeping
Frightened Rabbit - The Greys
Dinosaur Jr. - Pick Me Up
Kings of Leon - Black Thumbnail

Film
Eastern Promises.

#Music
#chimpovich

18th 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

Cadence Weapon

Amersham Arms, London

After the powerhouse album that was Breaking Kayfabe, Canadian MC Rollie Pemberton aka Cadence Weapon is set to release the follow-up early next year. So in anticipation we thought we'd catch him at this intimate venue for a few reasons. Firstly, his debut was so electrifying I was intrigued how it would translate live and secondly, the gig was in a pub round the corner from our South London Division and we'd probable be drinking in there anyway. Well, it was worth the 5 minutes walk. For the first few songs things looked like they were going from bad to worse as the crowd was slow to warm to this full-on assault of electro beats and intricate wordplay. But the sheer exuberance of Pemberton soon stopped the tongues wagging at the back and he had us in the palm of his hand.

Big hitters like Sharks and Black Hand from the debut came out at full force with Pemberton carrying himself more like a rock star, wielding his mic stand and shrieking into his fist. But it was cuts from the forthcoming Afterparty Babies that really rocked the house. His DJ was often allowed to take centre stage with his expert beat skills and the near-house beats that blasted out had the whole place bumping to his every move. With frequent spells into the centre of the crowd, this young MC was captivating to watch so much so that he was cheered back on stage for an encore where he delivered the awesome Oliver Square. His energy was unfailing and though I could have done with a bit more volume on his mic his blend of hard-as-hell electro beats and fierce yet acutely intelligent lyrics, not to mention a surprising cover of Joy Division's Isolation which made this Friday night in the pub a memorable one.

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26th Nov 2007 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Various Artists

I'm Not There [Music From The Motion Picture]

Columbia

As a soundtrack for his forthcoming Bob Dylan movie I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes has assembled an impressive array of musicians young and old to provide cover versions and re-workings of their favourite Dylan tracks.

Much like the Wylde Rattz project for Hayne's previous rock biopic Velvet Goldmine, supergroup "The Million Dollar Bashers" (featuring Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Nels Cline and Tom Verlaine among others) back many of the singers, and were put together to bring some cohesiveness to the album. As a cohesive album however, I'm Not There fails conclusively. Clocking in at a whopping 160 minutes, the jam-packed double CD is simply far too long - eclipsing the sprawling White Album and making Red Hot Chili Pepper's 2006 opus Stadium Arcadium seem like a couple of bonus tracks.

Taken as a collection of individual tracks however, the album provides a wealth of ammo for the mixtape masses with more than a few silver bullets in the arsenal. With such great material in the hands of these artists it would have been a tragedy for this album to be a faliure, but cover songs have always been a hit or miss affair - with the artists often taking one of two methods of attack when approaching the material. The most effective method here seems to be the straightforward approach, letting the bands own sound soak through the material. Sonic Youth's understated cover of I'm Not there is a highlight, as are Steven Malkmus' multiple contributions adding only a few restrained theatrics to produce some of his best work.

Black Keys provide one successful modernisation with their fuzz metal version of The Wicked Messenger, but The Hold Steady's version of Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window tries too hard to fit Dylan's square song into the band's story-telling style of a round hole. Not to mention Sufjan Steven's overblown theatrics, which make Ring Them Bells (what else?) smugly saccharine. Eddie Vedder's All Along The Watchtower would make for a live concert highlight, but it sounds pretty straightforward here  - as does Cat Power's solid, but karaoke-like cover of Stuck Inside of Mobile - following Dylan's version down to the tiniest vocal shift, in a way that even he refuses to do in his live show.

Some minor disappointments come from artists who have covered Dylan's work so well previously - such as Pearl Jam's version of Masters Of War or Jim James' superb Billy 4. Jim James covers Goin' To Acapulco on this album, which is a mild let-down when My Morning Jacket could have done a blistering version of something like Hurricane - particularly after they so perfectly blended their own heavy rocking style into Freebird in the woeful Elizabethtown movie.

For all of this, it's the breadth of Dylan's songwriting that is the star of the show - with 70's cowboy-era Dylan coming out particularly well. Calexico's multiple contribution's provide much of that, as do Los Lobos' spirited break for the border with Billy 1. It's when the musicians' really grasp the spirit of the songs that things really work - and while Cat Power's uninspired rendering illustrates Dylan's occasionally drawn out verses, John Doe's version of Pressing On and Ramblin' Jack Elliot's guitar picking on Tom Thumb's Blues provide a celebration of the music itself, rather than just the lyrics.

34 tracks picked from Dylan's catalogue of literally hundreds is in itself quite an achievement, resulting in an album so dense that it's taken me an extra week just to get to grips with it all. If it was actual Dylan versions it might be up their with Mothership in this year's best of (disqualified on a best-of technicality). And in fact, since hearing this album I have drawn up such a playlist, which is working out nicely.

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20th Nov 2007 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Led Zeppelin

Mothership

Atlantic

For the un-initiated, Led Zeppelin's vast back catalogue may seem impenetrable and the newly remastered compilation Mothership may be just the place to start. Unlike many of the upstart bands knocking out "Greatest Hits" after two albums, Mothership does much more than merely collate the highlights of a band and leave the albums redundant. It provides a depth gauge for a band with such scope to their repertoire, and rather than serving as a book-end to a band's career it rather serves to suggest more clearly the album you should follow this one with, as you're still yet to discover The Lemon Song, Tangerine, Thank You, Gallow's Pole, In My Time Of Dying, In The Light.....

The pretty even cull of tracks is taken chronologically from the eight main studio albums - with only post break-up Coda missing the boat. Led Zeppelin I provides a hefty chunk to set the scene, and IV and Houses Of The Holy are also well represented. In a minor concession to mix tape etiquette, the songs from each album are not always in the sequence they originally came in (Black Dog follows Rock 'n' Roll for example), and that makes for a more cohesive listen (although in that case I'd probably have opened with Communication Breakdown). In The Evening and All My Love finish things off, hopefully turning more people on to the often overlooked final album In Through The Out Door.

While it's easy to point out how great the albums are and try and ward newcomers away from this kind of thing, it's refreshing to come back and listen to the music in this different context and remind yourself how many of these individual tracks are absolute classics. As the album plays through, track after track gets 10 out of 10, with only the occasional sub-perfect moment - mainly due to the brilliance of the track before or after. Those minor 'dips' are quickly obscured when we hit the tracks from IV. Rock 'n' Roll was always a track for getting the party started and it's no exception here, moving things up a notch from from 10 out of 10, to 11. Awesome.

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15th Nov 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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

Robert Wyatt

Comicopera

Domino

There are few musicians of Robert Wyatt's generation who continue to approach their art with fresh thoughts and enthusiasm. Usually by the time rock musicians reach their 50's (or even their 40's) it's all over - jaded by the relentless treadmill of recording and touring, many simply give up trying to be original. You will find no such excuse making on this, the latest album from Robert Wyatt (b.1945).

Wyatt has a voice like no other - recorded solo it sounds wavering and fragile, harmonising with his own multi-tracked voice it becomes a rich silky chorus of unique character. His songwriting distinctly English, his lyrics effortlessly embracing everyday language, Wyatt's music tends towards Jazz as it's main source - the tight modal chord clusters of Bill Evans come to mind - and yet people who claim that they don't like Jazz would still find much to enjoy here.

Right away you can detect the presence of Brian Eno on this album, which is divided into three lyrically themed sections - the first section includes the melancholic Stay Tuned, and the beautiful AWOL, the second section includes Mob Rule which is not a cover of a Black Sabbath track, but Wyatt's wry observations on town planning meetings. The last group of tracks has Wyatt singing in Spanish, and all are punctuated by quirky instrumental interludes. So, not really a party album then, and an album which demands a bit of listening rather than something that's just there to set the mood. Well worth buying....and knock me dahn wiv a fevver if aint anuvver release on bleedin' Domino. Full marks for spending all that Arctic Monkeys cash on something unique.

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8th Oct 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Angels Of Light

We Are Him

Young God Records

Welcome all, please be seated, the service of the church of the Angels Of Light is about to begin. We hope your sitting uncomfortably, this will take a while, there will be no breaks but once we have finished you will all be cleansed of the filthy sins that riddle your sorry souls.

A fair introduction I feel to this, the sixth album by Michael Gira's Angels Of Light. But as Gira's previous work with Swans was unrelenting in it's post-punk avant-guard ferocity We Are Him holds you tight with an unnervingly quiet intensity and bores deep into your being with slow, controlled focus. Musically it's the lightest and most accessible of all his work adopting an Americana flavor but instead of jaunty, thigh slapping hoe-downs it's more like stumbling across a time-forgotten town way down the Mississippi where everyone seems hell-bent on saving your soul. Claims like "I am the god of this fucking land," has Gira sounding like a twisted preacher who listens to too much Nick Cave. He employs a pattern of repetition in his writing that aims to mesmerize and hypnotize and it's very effective from the word go. Black River Song's heavy, pounding rhythm and booming vocals take you by the hand and lead you down to the water for the baptism to begin. Promise Of Water uses a subtler musical approach but the intent is the same. behind Gira's deep vocals is a throng of chanting backing voices like the towns folk carrying you aloft to your salvation. But after this dark introduction you can almost feel your soul getting lighter as The Man We Left Behind has a majestic swell to it as if stepping out of your riddled body and walking forward into the light. Gira's vocals are lighter and for a minute you feel that the job's done and just as you're about to exclaim, "well that wasn't so bad,'" My Brothers Man sits you down firmly and tells you that that was just stage one, and the wailing commences

Gira's vocals are complimented beautifully by the use of the female voice. Seen most effectively in Not Here/ Not Now they come at you like beckoning sirens, seductive and enticing. They provide a much needed richness to this sound. But one of the most thrilling aspects about this album and most of Gira's work is its unpredictability. After all this mournful seduction the title track resounds like a twisted, hand waving celebration as it frolics like a possessed gospel choir, and they march on in this manner throughout Sometimes I Dream I'm Hurting You but just as you start to enjoy yourself this song turns a scary corner, a corner that really should have been predicted by the song's title. Gira's repeated vocals take on a frenzied urgency and it's clear that your exorcism is in its final stages as he becomes possessed by the demons that pour forth from your lifeless body.

But hey, don't let that put you off, it's a journey we all have to make and no matter what the outcome it's a thrilling ride. It's a work of dark, hypnotic beauty that keeps you blindfolded all they way. It's heavy yet seductively charming and a real high point in this artists expanding career.

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14th Sep 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Okkervil River

The Stage Names

Jagjaguwar

As the first beats of The Stage Names creeps into audible view any fan of this band will undoubtedly realise that times have changed since the fantastic Black Sheep Boy, Okkervile River's 2005 desperate triumph. With The Stage Names, front man Will Sheff has again managed a triumph but its of a wholly different nature. I guess you could call it a triumphant triumph which I would have thought was the best type. Black Sheep Boy had the power to almost drown you in melancholy as Sheff's tales of woe and despair were delivered with treacle like denseness over all encompassing soundscapes. Though he has by no means cheered up he is aiming his desperation to the heavens and the result is epic.

Sheff writes like a novelist and composes songs full of mysterious characters and plays out his worldly misgivings through each of their sad, broken-down lives. While Black Sheep Boy conjured up images of a time long past The Stage Names is very much rooted in the present. Here we see Sheffs characters as musicians, fans or failing victims of the show-biz mangle. All this is told with Sheff's unique lyrical ambiguity as he manages to swamp you with bookish poetry while always slipping a wink here and there to warn you not to take it all too seriously.

The first three tracks set the tempo high as the dirty riffs of Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe count you in, Unless It Kicks is an endlessly climbing rock powerhouse of a track while A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene has a swaggeringly jovial jaunt as satisfying as a Love Cats-era Cure and as it descends into blasts of trumpet and backing 'doo doo doo's' we could be listening to Spoon. (Yes, it's that good.) But as thrilling as this opening run of songs is we know it can't continue and it just wouldn't be the same without Sheff providing us with ample opportunity to give in willingly to his unavoidable wave of blissful melancholia. Savannah Smiles is an achingly delicate tale of regret and lost moments while Girl In Port is Sheff at his storytelling best.

But if for some unimaginable reason, like you're mental, all this hasn't managed to convince you by the time you get to the penultimate John Allyn Smith Sails then you're given one last chance to reach out and grab this sorry talent by the scruff of its dirty neck. This is Sheff's tribute to the late John Berryman and it's his finest moments to date. Sheff adopts the first person as he chronicles the poets suicide but as a final twist of the grimmest humor he turns the song into a masterful rendition of the Beach Boys Sloop John B. As he launches himself to his death 'with a book in each hand,' the sorry admission, "this is the worst trip I've ever been on," rings out with laughable desperation and this songwriters genius is immortalised for ever.

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7th Sep 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Prince

3121 - The O2

Another week, another legend at the O2.

Prince is one of those artists who's wandered so far from the stuff that got you into him in the first place, that you forget just quite how good you once thought he was. Yes, Guitar, the single off his new (Daily Mail giveaway) album is alright, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a solid hit from the last few.

Live though, he's a different proposition. He's sold out 21 nights at the O2 (aka the Dome), which is pretty phenomenal in itself. But that would mean 420,000 disappointed Prince fans if he wasn't still so utterly on top of his game.

After kindly showing us the UK Rock n Roll Hall of Fame round-up of his career (Prince - he's great! Who knew?!), Sunday's show launched straight into Musicology, which turned into a long funk jam, introducing Maceo Parker (JBs saxman) and the rest of the band. Weirdly, they then gave us versions of INXS's What You Need and Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music (White Boy) (maybe some ironic comment on the crowd members he'd already encouraged to dance up on stage?), and The JBs' Pass The Peas, before hitting the back catalogue. "I've got so many hits, you can't handle them all" he kept reminding us, although he did find time to also cover Come Together, and Gnarls Barkley's Crazy...

The old cliche about him channeling James Brown and Jimi Hendrix is pretty much true - his moves are amazing, solos soaring, and he's got that conducting the band thing at the drop of a funky hat down. Pretty essential outing from a real master overall - could have done with 1999 and Let's Go Crazy, but maybe they the two we couldn't handle.


Setlist:
Musicology
Prince + The Band
What You Need (INXS)
Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry)
Pass The Peas (The JBs)
Cream
U Got the Look
Shhh

Piano set
Diamonds and Pearls (1 verse 1 chorus)
A 1000 Hugs and Kisses
Little Red Corvette
Raspberry Beret (1 verse 1 chorus)
Sometimes It Snows In April

Full Band
7
Come Together (The Beatles)
Black Sweat
Kiss
Purple Rain
Encore
I Feel 4 U
Controversy inc Housequake chant

Encore
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
Nothing Compares 2 U

Encore - Prince solo synth set
Sign O The Times
Pop Life
DMSR
Erotic City (sample)
I Wanna Be Your Lover
When Doves Cry
Alphabet St

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5th Sep 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Lightning Dust

Lightning Dust

Jagjaguwar

Who would have thought that the strange and beguiling space-rock monster of Black Mountain would bear so much fruit since its magnificent debut in 2005. This awesome beast has spewed from its depths many fascinating side projects and this most recent one is no exception. Formed by Amber Webber and Joshua Wells this debut album is the total opposite to the mothership's blend of psychedelic rock and penetrating guitars and yet touches the same grand heights. Webber's haunting vocals form the backbone of the sound and the result is a compelling collection of songs that have the quiet power to make you shiver with icy discomfort as in the hollow Take Me Back. Webber's vocal depth was only hinted at on the Black Mountain debut but its power is fully realised here. She sings with such ease and yet commands an epic respect. Her voice can seem up-close and intimate as in the beautiful Castles And Caves and yet conjure up visions of sprawling, desolate landscapes seen on one of the albums highlights Heaven.

Lightning Dust sees Webber emerge from the other side of the dominating rock of Black Mountain with proof that the time spent in its all-encompassing shadow only strengthened her talents and in many respects informed her own work. One of the interesting things about this record is its ability to suggest the same vastness and space as Black Mountain but with a much lighter touch. It's a delicate thing that evokes grandeur by offering emptiness and is another tick in the box of this Vancouver collective and its fantastic record label Jagjaguar.

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3rd Sep 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Jeffrey Lewis

12 Crass Songs

It’s been a good week for record label PR and a bad one for Chimp research, following from Muxloe’s Young Marble Giants admission, I had penned the following review based upon the first few listens of Jeffrey Lewis’ 12 Crass Songs:

Jeffrey Lewis began life as a beatnik, or at least his parents were, a lifestyle choice that deemed comic books and blues records more suitable entertainment than that old Hippy’s foe: Television. Lewis took that early absence in his life personally it seems, as TV is one of several targets in the sights of his nasally-voiced shotgun on new album 12 Crass Songs. 

Before becoming a musician and a member of New York’s anti-folk movement (the power and anger of punk via acoustic guitar) Lewis drew (aha) on his upbringing to become an underground comic book artist. The sparse/direct style of comic books runs through 12 Crass Songs; it’s a wall-to-wall bunch of blunt, angry self-effacement - delivered like a crude black and white sketch through minimal music and Lewis’ talking/singing.

12 Crass Songs doesn’t let up. Nothing is spared as various tones of grey are added to the bleak portrait of the western world today. The human race is the first in the firing line on End Result “I’m part of the race that kills for possessions, part of the race that’s wiping itself out” On I Ain’t Thick, Lewis has his daggers drawn for that old villain 'The Man' who uses TV/Sarah Jessica Parker, consumerism and even history books, to keep the masses downtrodden, but Lewis ain’t having that y’all.

Systematic Death plays out like a comic book story, etching a sketch of Mr and Mrs Average America doomed to a life of misery, oppression and downright idiocy under the SYSTEM SYSTEM SYSTEM!

If he’s pissed at Sarah Jessica Parker, then imagine the ire Lewis reserves for Bush (I bet even Sarah Jessica Parker is pissed at him) and Mr. President’s policies, particularly his idea of defence, come under the penlike scalpel of Lewis. Even punk itself isn’t safe. Punk is Dead laments that the movement that once inspired Lewis and his contempories sold itself out “Punk is Dead. Punk is Dead. Just another cheap product for the consumer’s head”.

I would disagree however, what is punk other than getting a personal message out there by the most direct means possible (or is that DHL? (Corporate Fascists)). It’s easy to roll the eyes at another New York artist bitching about conspiracies and the like, but that’s exactly the fuel that feeds 12 Crass Songs. The world in 2007 is a mixed-up place of complacency and terror, artists that stick their head out, stare you in the eyes and point that out should be saluted. However, it surely wouldn’t detract from the message to add a splash of colour now and again, if only musically….

Then, like a tardy Colombo, I discovered that I had overlooked a vital piece of evidence; 12 Crass Songs is exactly that; 12 cover versions from late 70s/Early 80s English Anarchists Crass.  It’s depressing to think that 30 year old messages of protest and opposition still ring true and clear today, and strangely all of my thoughts were still valid - even though I refuse to believe that Sarah Jessica Parker was a key instrument in Thatcher’s oppression of Britain’s working classes.

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3rd Sep 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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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#HHG

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

The Rolling Stones

A Bigger Bang, O2

There's always that risk when you get to cross off your heroes from the all-time must-see list. Neil Young, Jane's Addiction, Dylan and Van have all delivered for me - only Lou Reed's grumpiness has really let me down. So it's kind of surreal to finally be able to check the Stones off, esp catching the final show of their two year Bigger Bang tour ??which is rumoured to be their last tour ever. Even Bill Wyman showed up (in the audience).

It's clear from the start that Mick wrote the book on being a rock frontman - he jogs around the stage, shouts out to all the different bits of the stadium, gets everyone singing (like they're not going to), tells the odd joke, strips off various layers as the gig goes along etc etc.

Keith's playing is still pretty awesome; the way he strokes chords out of his battered telecaster is one of those archetypal rock poses. No illegal smoking this time round, but everything else was what you wanted - his solo singing spot w Ron was one of the highlights, (although though you think they got the "you play guitar/I'll sing" division sorted out from the start when Mick starts playing guitar for a bit).

Ron looks like he's covering for the bits when Keith steps back for a little wander around; he also holds down some of the classic riffs as well.

As ever, Charlie's drumming holds it all together - one of those musicians who's so tight he never really looks like he's even playing.

What really impressed was how loose they still keep it - if you think about the machine behind a two year tour, it's cool to see them smiling at each other, mucking about, occasionally looking like they're going to bump into each other etc. Obviously, there's a lot of choreography, with mini-breaks built into the set to give them all a rest at different times without having to all go off stage; but that also gives the gig as a whole a natural pace and balance - they go from the bare bones version - the four Stones plus Bernard Fowler on bass - to adding backing singers, a brass section, keyboards, percussion, another guitar player (not quite sure they really need him).

The best section is probably when they step onto a section in the middle of the stage which lifts up (as they're playing) and zooms them forwards into the crowd. They drop the cameras and the giant screen footage and it's just the four (plus two) of them rocking out.

The O2 (that's "the Dome" to you and me) is a surprisingly good venue (in stadium terms) - decent rake so you can see over the people in front, sound loud enough to feel like it's a big event without it being deafening - and also, (for the crowd safety and facilities minded of you) pretty well organised - North Greenwich tube right there, didn't feel like the insane crush you get in some older giant venues around London getting in or out. Overpriced burgers, hotdogs and beers all present as you'd expect, but not crazy $; a kind of Vegas/Starbucks vibe going on around the other bits you walk through to get there.

personally, would have loved to hear Gimme Shelter, No Expectations or Midnight Rambler, but it's hard to argue with a mostly killer 19-song set that included Miss You, Tumbling Dice and Can't You Hear Me Knocking alongside the obligatory hits like Satisfaction and Start Me Up.


Set List

Start Me Up
You Got Me Rocking
Rough Justice (yup, it's a "new one")
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
She Was Hot (from 1983's Undercover)
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Can't You Hear Me Knocking
I Go Crazy (James Brown cover)
Tumbling Dice

Solo Keef n Ron moment:
You Got the Silver
Wanna Hold You

Ooh They're Coming Into The Crowd:
Miss You
It's Only Rock And Roll
Satisfaction
Honky Tonk Woman

Now They're Back On The Main Stage Again:
Sympathy for the Devil
Paint It Black
Jumpin' Jack Flash

Encore:
Brown Sugar

#Music
#Gig
#chimp71

28th Aug 2007 - 6 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Devendra Banhart

Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Mountain

XL

More freak-folk from the leader of the freak-pack. SRDTM delivers on the idea of Devendra Banhart, moving effortlessly from 70s stoner jams, to warm folky riffs, nods to Tropicalia and cheeky numbers answering that old Zappa question: does humour belong in music?

Recorded in Topanga Canyon, the 70s enclave in the LA hills where Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills etc all decamped to play guitar in each other's back yards. That laidback spirit fills this album; a retro exercise perhaps, but the songs are strong enough to make it feel relevant in 2007. It's got that feeling of a band hanging out, living and breathing the songs, and seeing where they can take them.

The immediate winner is Seahorse, a three-part epic that rolls from an acoustic opening to take in touches of The Doors, Dave Brubeck, The Stranglers' Golden Brown, Wild Wood-era Paul Weller etc, all with his Marc Bolan-ish vibrato over the top; feels like a lost classic that's going to storm live. Kind of fitting that it's about reincarnation with so many references tucked in.

Tonada Yanomaminista is a triumphant, summery singalong, almost breathless at 2:53; Bad Girl is as mellow as Fleetwood Mac's Albatross; Seaside a moving piano ode to er, the seaside; Latin flavours come out on Samba Vexillographica, Carmencita and Rosa; Shabop Shalom and So Long Old Bean fun songs that break up the fragile romance of My Dearest Friend and I Remember.

One of 2007's strongest albums so far.

Like his alternative list of album titles:

Milk the Wind
Shes a Hot Dog
Mountaneous Confunktion
Greatest Hits
Hubba Hubba Planet
Electric Pizza Cops
Foreskin Sword (what it is & how to use it)
Mama, Mujhe Mall se Jeans Lenee Hai
Porkin' the Broken Knee (Electroxtensial Chop!)
Who is Kadamon?
The Burnt Frizbee
Abhor the Coagulator (1964 version)
Koala Mans Return to Pineapple Temple
ihop ihop
Bacchanalian Beat Box
Thrice the Phat Magus
Gaga Blood & the Balls of .......
Rich Gals Shampoo n' Conditioner Blues
Talkin Weleda Haushka Bronners Blues
Military Massengill
Cyber Christ and the Gnostic Titi-Slap Part Deux
You Who are Familiar with Grandma's Hyacinth

#Music
#chimp71

26th Aug 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Menomena

Friend And Foe

City Slang

Friend And Foe is the debut UK release for avant-garde US trio Menomena and it could just be the most interesting indie rock record since TV On The Radio's Return To Cookie Mountain. This is actually their third album and it presents itself as an amalgamation of various musical experiments. It is clear that there is no real leader in this band and that as a whole the group is packed full of ideas each wanting a shot at the title. Vocal duties are shared from one song to the next and musically it's all over the place. But what makes this record so rare is that instead of being the groups undoing, all this fragmentation serves to enrich the sound and actually becomes the uniting force running through everything.

Multiple vocalists is normally a recipe for disaster in my opinion. The listener will undoubtedly warm towards one sound and then reject the rest. Not the case here and the result is a musical spectrum that spans the afore mentioned TV On The Radio as in the opening track Muscle'n Flo, The Flaming Lips (Wet And Rusting) and even a touch of Folk Implosion (Air Aid). But though these comparisons may present themselves they are by no means the lasting talking point about this record. It is thrilling to hear an album that offers you so much choice from the minimal and rhythmical Weird to the astral bliss of My My not to mention the chaos of The Pelican, a whiskey soaked bar room brawl of a song that pounds its heart out until finally collapsing into a heap of crashing cymbals and screeching guitars.

Musically there is so much to sink your teeth into here but once you've found out a thing or two about this band you'll see that they stand alone in their complete vision of creating a record. The wall-of-sound music is painstakingly crafted using a complicated series of improvised loops that are recorded and arranged using a computer program developed by one of the band members Brent Knopf called Deeler. Though this computer manipulation is hardly recognizable in the finished product the bands meticulous attention to detail is glaringly obvious, shown also in the cover art designed by Craig Thompson, acclaimed creator of the graphic novel Blankets. This features a tangled mesh of drawings that change and evolve throughout the multiple permutations available depending on whether the CD is in the case or in the player.

Though fascinating, all this only serves as a bonus to the music itself. This is a band dedicated to their craft and it shows in every second of the record. Friend And Foe is the crowning achievement in the bands history and will take some skill to top but I am in no hurry to see what they do next as I feel I've only scratched the surface of this wonderful creation.

#Music
#BC

24th Aug 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Devastations

Yes, U

Beggars

Devastations are three Berlin based Australians whose last album, “Coal”, was well received far and wide. Now they’re back with their third full length offering - “YES, U”.
 
The album is a sparse, sinister affair full of dark corners and bad moods. Vocalist/bassist Conrad Standish, guitarist/vocalist Tom Carlyon, and drummer Hugo Cran prove skilful in building up moody and broody songs, all the while maintaining an intensity without it ever boiling over – I refer the reader to exhibits a and b: “The Saddest Sound” and “The Pest”.
 
The best bits are when they layer on feedback and white noise over their slow beats and drawled vocals - such as on ‘Oh My, Oh Me’ and ‘Misericordia’. However, I’ll have to confess that I lost interest on a couple of numbers when they take us back to the 80s with some slowed down bontempi organ beats (‘Black Ice’ and ‘As Sparks Fly Upwards’).
 
There are obvious comparisons that can be made with Nick Cave, which is no bad thing. I saw a live performance from the big man a couple years back. He blew me away with a depth and intensity that’s never seemed captured on the recordings I’ve heard. I’ve a feeling the same might be said for the Devastations.
 
While not suited to all moods or occasions (I’m thinking family parties, sunny days or gittin’ it on with a lover), on the whole this is a good album that’s a bit of a ‘grower’ (if you know what I mean, which I’m sure you all do).

#Music
#Locochimpo

23rd Aug 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Shearwater

Palo Santo (Expanded Edition)

Matador Records

For those slackers who missed 2006's dazzling fourth album by Shearwater, Matador are here to save your bacon with a pimped-up re-release consisting of 2 discs and new deluxe packaging featuring some stunning artwork. Palo Santo is the bands first album where Jonathan Meiburg assumes full vocal duties and the result is a grander, more rounded sound that sees them rise like a phoenix from the thick melancholy that engulfed their earlier work. This isn't to suggest that this isn't melancholy. The record is inspired by the life of Warhol muse Nico so it isn't going to be a bag of laughs but while they keep to the icy chill that has become their trademark Palo Santo serves up many moments of awesome grandeur only hinted at on previous records.

Formed in 2001 by Meiburg and Will Sheff, Shearwater was meant to be a vehicle for the quieter songs penned by the two musicians while working on their principle collaboration, Okkervile River. But after the addition of new multi-instrumentalists Shearwater soon grew way beyond initial intentions and Palo Santo is their crowning glory.

La Dame Et La Licorne opens the album and actually mirrors the career of this band quite nicely. It creeps into view with Meiburg's frail, quivering voice barely audible but gradually swells to thumping piano and howling declarations. And this sets us up for Red Sea, Black Sea, one of the albums many highlights. This takes no time to pound with all its heart on the galloping rhythm that dominates this song. It's these moments of real muscle that make this record pull away from the bands back catalogue and race forward with renewed energy and confidence. Seen again in White Waves' gritty electric guitar and Seventy Four, Seventy Five's pounding piano. Having said that, there's still plenty of room for the feather-light delicacy of the title track and the achingly beautiful Failed Queen where hollow landscapes are created with sparse acoustic guitar and the frail musings of Meiburg.

This element is explored in more depth on the second disc where we get demo versions of four of the original tracks. These are drastically stripped down renditions showing the extent to which this vocalist can vary his delivery. Having seen the heat of this voice on the first CD we now get the drifting whisper like a feint trail of smoke from a newly extinguished flame. There are also 4 new songs on this bonus disc including a cover of Skip James' Special Rider Blues.

This is an expansive album from a band who started from humble beginnings but are now evolving into a great rock outfit. Shearwater have always fitted into a tradition of songwriting that seems to capture the great American landscape in all its sparse, lonely beauty but with Palo Santo they have started to evoke the power and strength of this landscape and this refurbishment only serves to enhance that.

#Music
#BC

20th Aug 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

Various Artists

Hallam Foe - Original Soundtrack

Domino

Film maker David McKenzie wanted to free himself from the convention of composing an original score as a sound track to his forthcoming film Hallam Foe. Discouraged by the prohibitive costs of forking out for already licensed published source music McKenzie decided the best avenue to pursue this would be to approach a record label about buying up a job lot. It was a move that evidently paid off with McKenzie and Hallam Foe winning this year's Best Music in a Film Silver Bear award at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. McKenzie's master-stroke was plumping for Domino as his label of choice. Who better to paint the aural landscape of a coming of age tale set in contemporary Britain than Domino? With the exception of the title track by label luminaries Franz Ferdinand, not a single song in this collection was commissioned for the film but instead the whole Domino archive was trawled for appropriate tunes. It's a deal that pays off for everyone because Domino have the opportunity to showcase some of their lesser known talent. And what a stable of talent it is too. As much as a film soundtrack this is a chance for the label to say 'meet the family'.

Listening to the Hallam Foe reminded me of those big occasions when one meets a whole new family, perhaps the in-laws or a new step family for the first time. In this case the Domino family. Like all family do's it is a gathering of quite disparate characters who all have little more than a name in common. Like a family from a Mike Leigh film, or Jonathan Franzen novel there are inevitably secrets. The Domino's are no exception and provide a soundtrack populated by acts who all have a role to play.

Opening the album is 'Blue Boy' by Orange Juice, with Edwyn Collins in the role of the family hatchback driving Uncle reminding all that he once zipped around on a scooter and chopped out songs with military beats and Clash riffs. King Creosote discloses the discovery of an extra marital affair that everyone pretends not to know about in 'The Someone Else'. Rebellious cousins have shown up with Clinic's 'if i could read your mind' snarled out like Jonny Rotten singing a Smiths song and U.N.P.O.C screeching 'here on my own' like Frank Black attempting a Talking Heads number. Pssap is the cute little niece playing kazoo and singing about their Tricycle. The role of exotic wife of the uncle who made all the money is played by Juana Molina with a sultry seductive voice. Franz Ferdinand are the golden boys who have been overindulged and fail to entertain. The sister who's been damaged by a broken heart comes in the form of the sweet and sensitive 'I hope that you get what you want' by the soothing Woodbine and all the teenage heart break is narrated by James Yorkston with the wisdom of an 80 year old granddad. The gathering is completed by a couple of annoying younger brother's, in particular Double Shadow with their pretentious sub Prince effort and Future Pilot AKA who linger with a brooding air of menace.

Like any big do, it's not possible to remember all names and recall all the characters, some just add a background hum to the atmosphere of the Hallam Foe affair but on this one meeting alone the Domino family are ones that I'd definitely like to spend more time with.

#Music
#Muxloe

31st Jul 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

The New Pornographers

Challengers

Matador Records

I went to see The New Pornographers a couple of years ago at London’s Borderline. I hadn’t really heard many of their tunes, but this Canadian 7/8 piece came highly recommended. I can’t say every one of their hard driving indie pop tunes clicked with me, but I was certainly impressed and puzzled by their style. There was something about the structure of their tunes that was odd and original and very compelling. (Plus, their drummer was mental and who doesn’t like to see that?).

Their fourth album, “Challengers”, is similar – there’s such variety in the way they build songs, and some great riffs dotted throughout, that on my first listen I kinda knew I liked it but at times I was perplexed as to why.

“My Rights Versus Yours” is a brilliant catchy opener that builds from a mellow folky start to flourish into an air-punching, foot stomping tune. This is followed by the equally ace “All the Old Showstoppers” which houses some great hooks and again made me do a little jig when it hit the heights. “All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth” is where they sound closest to fellow Canadians Arcade Fire, but the next two tunes, “Failsafe” and “Unguided”, are battling it out as my favourite on the album.

"Myriad Harbour", is another cracking tune where the singer starts the lines only for the rest of the band, like an annoying girl I once worked with, to finish his thoughts for him. This song also heralds the first of a couple of moments on the album, as the vocals get a bit Tenacious D (he asks his local record store for “an American music anthol-low-geeee” – Jack Black stylee), where I’m not sure if they’re having a laugh or being deadly serious.

Singing duties are, however, swapped around four band members (lady singers Kathryn Calder and Neko Case have - I can exclusively reveal - nice voices) and they pepper songs with some pleasant harmonies. These come through strongest in the splendid “Mutiny, I promise You” and the sparse “Adventures in Solitude”.

The main man of this side project (all band members release records as solo artists or with other bands), A.C. Newman, says “Over the years I’ve just learned how to write better songs”. It certainly seems apparent here as it feels like there’s more depth and diversity than on their previous albums. While it might not be as constantly full on as, say, Electric Version (their 2nd album from 2003) - which some of their fans may not thank them for - I think with repeat listens you’ll reap the rewards of this interesting and enjoyable album.


Bonus Trivia:

- The New Pornographers name, its suggested, was inspired by a quote from American Pentecostal Televangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, who declared that music was, yep, the ‘new pornography’.

- Jimmy Swaggart also hated gays: “'I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm going to be blunt and plain: if one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died.”

- Jimmy Swaggart also publicly exposed one of his buddies for having an affair - claiming his mate was a "cancer in the body of Christ."

- What goes around comes around… Jimmy himself got busted – twice - for sleeping with prostitutes, but was less forthcoming in criticism on this one:  "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business."

#Music
#Locochimpo

24th Jul 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet

O'Death

Head Home

City Slang

What do you get if you cross a wailing voice, a banjo and a fiddle? This isn't a joke. Country music right? Well normally yes but in a parallel, and slightly perverse, universe the outcome is O'Death.

Listening to O'Death I'm reminded of the scene from the Blues Brothers where the band reform and secure a gig at Bob's Country Bunker. 'What kind of music do you usually have here?' asks Elwood and the response is "we have both kinds; country and western" whereupon the band are forced to launch into Stand by your Man and the theme from Rawhide before a riot ensues. To me this has always summed up country music. As an outsider it has always seemed to be something of a closed shop existing in a vacuum that fails to acknowledge or incorporate any other form of music. Those on the inside appear to know the ropes and stick to the formula - it's either plaintive songs of heartbreak of the 'stand by your man' ilk or sing-along hoe downs from the Rawhide vein.

O'Death are the outsiders who don't play by the rules, they've left the country bunker and discovered a whole other world out there. Now there is another suffix to add after country; it's not just 'and western' because to the musical lexicon O'Death have introduced 'country and gothic punk'. Based in New York, these are rural boys embracing the attitude of the big city. Theirs' is a sound not so much for barn dances on Walton mountain but mosh pits with the characters from Deliverance on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre farm. This is the riot at Bob's Country Bunker in musical form.

It is an edgy and at moments slightly disturbing journey but O'Death is a travelling carnival of infectious energy. Their relentless refusal to charm is charming in itself and if you get it then it rocks! Melody is certainly not sacrificed.  Most tunes being of the foot stomping variety rest on beats that recall Iggy and the Stooges. These songs could've been penned by Tom Waits imagining them being delivered by a voice that at times could belong to either Frank Black, Jack White or Neil Young. At the end of this barn dance you can imagine that someone has spilt volatile moonshine over a hay bale. A stray cigarette thrown away by the fiddler has caused a fire and the band have to make a sharp exit on the back of a pick up truck. The locals elders are up in arms bemoaning the trail of destruction but the kids have had their eyes opened and will never be the same again.

#Music
#Muxloe

23rd Jul 2007 - Add Comment - Tweet