Archive for March, 2009

March 30, 2009 0

Wildbirds and Peacedrums – The Snake

By in Music Reviews

Man, what is wrong with bands these days? They’re shedding instruments like…well – like a snake sheds its skin. Maybe that’s why the awkwardly named Wildbirds and Peacedrums (WaP) have insisted on dropping everything save for the vocals and percussion. I mean, even the White Stripes had the dignity to preserve the guitar (though it’s perfectly possible to understand why a guitarist wouldn’t want a bass player in the band: they’re a lazy breed who can only manage a paltry four strings. Losers!)

Anyway, this second release by Scandanvia’s premier husband and wife duo sounds spacious and captivating, which is very much what I  imagine that northern European region to be like. Starting with the haunting acapella of ‘Island‘ (which sounds like it was played at King Lear‘s funeral and sung by Kate Bush), the album moves like a Shaman onto the tribal ‘There is no light‘ where singer  Mariam Wallentin raises the undead spirit of Marlena Shaw with her epileptic vocal spasms.

‘Chain of Steel‘s’ marimba riff echoes that of The Four Tops’ ‘I can’t help myself’, but the similarity ends there as the song builds to an impassioned, broken vocal mantra. After ‘So soft, so pink’ continues WaP’s affair with the spiritual, it’s great to hear ‘Places’ take a more traditional approach with Andreas Werliin‘s steady, funky drumming driving his wife’s syncopated and, frankly, slightly nutty vocal catterwauling to climax.  Naturally, an album filled with drums and vocals lends itself to the primitive, and credit must been given to its capture which is consistently warm and lacking the dangerously compressed spikes that plague albums today as engineers vie for a place in the volume wars. The ennervating ‘Great Lines’ and ‘Today / Tomorrow’ announce the arrival of ‘Liar Lion’ which is the most ‘complete’ song here, comprised as it is of the most instruments played on a single track. It’s difficult enough for traditional bands to maintain consistency across 10 tracks, never mind being limited to only a few instruments.

The liberating and upifting ‘My heart’ is a wonderful paean to love: the likes of which we don’t hear often. The Snake is a deeply feminine album; and by that I mean exactly that. There are no twitching, distorted priapic guitars manically jerked around here; this is a soft, vulva of an album giving birth to a cathartic foetus in a forest at night – all captured on tape and narrated by David Attenborough‘s warm, silent breaths.

Tags: , , , ,

March 27, 2009 0

Strictly Sevens

By in Musical Murmurings

Some time last year, I felt all DJ-like again and put together a mix of guitar-based 7″ records.

It can now be downloaded here (53MB).

Tracklist:

The Little Flames – Isobella / Gallows – Staring at the rude bois / Lack of Afro – When the sun goes down / Biffy Clyro – Who’s got a match? / The Apples – Killing / Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed – Take my love with you / Richard Hawley – Bad woman / Brian Jonestown Massacre – Unknown track (parallel groove) / QOTSA – Turnin on the screw / Elbow – Grounds for divorce / Holy Fuck – Lovely Allen / Jimi Entley Sound – Apache / Brownout – Sexican / Black Keys – Strange Times / Reverend and the makers – Sundown on the empire (Adrian Sherwood dubland remix) / Warning! Heat Ray! – Spit it out / The Last Shadow Puppets – In the heat of the morning / Black Lips – Bad Kids / Paul Weller – Echoes round the sun / Raconteurs – Salute your solution / Maximo Park – Our velocity /Pete Molinari – Where she still remains / Band of Horses – No one’s gonna love you

Tags: , , ,

March 24, 2009 0

Land of Kush – Against The Day

By in Music Reviews

Against The Day references the recent Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name. I’ve not read the book, and I doubt I will. Not because this isn’t a good album, but because I’m a deeply lazy man.

However, Sam Shalabi, the Canadian behind the Land of Kush project is less so. Having assembled 30 musicians, he has set about creating a 60 minute piece of music, broken into five acts (apparently, this represents the chapters of the book – if it also takes an hour to read it, there’s the vague possibility I will). With its chaotic, clashing artwork, it is possible to judge Against The Day by its cover.

This is a genre-melding experience that finds traditional Eastern instruments tousling with African rhythms which are beset by Western surf guitars twanging harmonic Phrygian licks. The instrumental opening of ‘The Light Over The Ranges’ will send most listeners scuttling for cover like a gorged bedbug that’s seen daylight. If you can make it through those seven minutes, then the driving and corrosive 14 minutes of ‘Iceland Spar’ awaits. With a solo, male vocal matching a violin melody, it’s not long before the violin breaks free into scratchy, improvised chaos. As  other instruments hold down a traditional drone, it becomes enthralling stuff, with any lyrical content rendered subservient to the far more dominant musical harmonies. If that sounds like your cup o’ traditional tea, then just you wait for the multiple sax solos. They’ll blow your mind, brother.

‘Bilocations’ makes up a third of the album lasting a sprawling 20 minutes. Mostly due to the stellar vocal of Molly Sweeney, the track dips and slides in and out of a Bond-like psychedelia – rather like I imagine Daniel Craig felt after having his Martini spiked at Le Chiffre’s den in Casino Royale. You know, the bit when he rushes out to the car to jump-start his heart. You could play this song over that entire sequence and it’d work.

Final tracks ‘Against The Day’ and ‘Rue du Départ‘ both clock in at eight minutes, so I suggest preparing yourself for this album. Don’t expect to just wham it on when you’ve tottered back from your nightly four pints down the local. The racing pace of ‘Against The Day’ juxtaposed with the raging ambience of ‘Rue du Départ‘ will do nothing for your headspin, though it may perfectly soundtrack a night out if you’ve been chased by the law and maybe lost a finger in the process.

I recommend this album for its sheer artistry and epic vision. OK, it’s arty, dramatic; and some may baulk perceiving that as pretentious. But above that stands a piece of work driven by as much impulse and imagination as I’ve heard this year.

Tags: , , , ,

March 24, 2009 2

Black Dice – Repo

By in Movie Reviews, Music Reviews

Black Dice make some of the most fucked-up, psychotic music I’ve ever heard. At its core, Repo is industrial noise for the disconsolate. Or Black Dice are just taking the piss. One of the two. It’s almost incredulous to think that this is the fifth studio album for this Brooklyn trio, which just goes to show that there’s no accounting for taste. Let’s get it straight, you’re probably not going to like this album if your favourite album is something by Coldplay.

No, this is the sonic equivalent of a visual artist’s sketchings.  Frequently unlistenable, Repo makes me wonder what Karlheinz Stockhausen would have thought to it. It is truly avant-garde  and I fail to see how it is, in any sense, fully formed. Perhaps my brain is geared to chords, modes and, y’know – melody!

Bypassing any preconceived notions of ‘music’, Black Dice mash layers of sound together creating a textured impression of sampled beats and noise. Of course, my whole problem with this is: what determines this as art? Is it enough to say that because this audio collage exists and challenges the perception of music,  it is art? No – using the technology available today, this album could have been thrown together within the very shortest of timespans. But, props to the team for being able to listen to it while making it: listening to Repo caused me to furrow my brow so deep, it could be rendered permanently fertile.

There’s little point in me choosing any of these abstract pieces to critique as they’re all as bizarre as eachother. They’re either going to float your boat or sink your ship. For me, this is supreme art wank, and anyone forcing me to hear it again will get themselves killed in the process. I’d rather listen to Coldplay. What does that tell you?

Tags: , , , ,

March 24, 2009 4

William Orbit – my oracle lives uptown

By in Music Reviews

William Orbit is in dire need of updating. His name just doesn’t work. He should change it to Bill Orbit: Bill Orbit and the Comets would be ideal. Not original, but who’s going to care?

Orbit’s latest  finds his signature tripped-out style of dance music etched onto ethereal, lush soundscapes. However, that’s not to say that he is content to stick to one style. Whereas the initial ‘Radioharp’ and ‘Purdy’ are the more traditional club numbers associated with Orbit, ‘Optical Illusions‘ is a downtempo affair, which plays much like the soundtrack to a cut-scene in an episode of CSI Miami.

As if to keep the Madonna crowd onside (Orbit produced the multi-million selling album Ray of light), ‘White Night’ features a female vocal heavily reminiscent of the lady herself. Further on, and the ambience of ‘Nimbus’ gives way to the cheesy trip-hop of title track ‘My Oracle Lives Uptown‘.

Somewhat unusually, both ‘Spotlight Kid‘ and ‘Neutron Star‘ are funky, electronic numbers and work well as standalone tracks with the tremelo effect on the latter lending the song a ’60s shimmer. Though the album then proceeds to end much as it started, it does so in a much more assured and mature manner.

Though, not a great album, my oracle lives uptown is proof that Orbit has plenty of ambition and talent within.

Tags: , , , ,

March 24, 2009 2

Jai Ho – featuring Nicole Scherzinger

By in Musical Murmurings

Yes! Everyone’s favourite film of the year gets its lead song remixed! It wasn’t enough that the quite famous composer A.R. Rahman should simply win an Oscar for his score to the globally over-rated Slumdog Millionaire. No. The end song, which featured the abused children as adults celebrating their requited love and millions of rupees dancing in a train station, had to be remade into a Rn’B smash for 2009. Why?

“Nicole like many others felt as though the song was perfect and that it couldn’t be remade. However, after giving it some thought Nicole Scherzinger felt she could create a English adaptation to the captivating track.”  (Desi Hits)

According to the interview, it took her a few days to work out if she could do it. Do what? Decide to lay some vocals down on an already written track? To do your job? You think you can do your job? Can you do what your label tells you for a pot of cash? Oh well done. And, no, you didn’t need to pray to find that out. You need to pray to God that He can forgive you for snuffling around Satan’s anal ring for this treat though.

I thought that this form of anglicization occurred primarily in the world of film. For example, Guillermo del Toro‘s brilliant and spooky The Orphanage is being remade into an English speaking version so it can ‘reach more people’. Oh, please fuck off. Any members of the English speaking world who can’t be bothered to read subtitles, deserve to be culturally starved to death.

Incidentally, on remakes, Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona noted that “The Americans have all the money in the world but can’t do anything, while we can do whatever we want but don’t have the money. The American industry doesn’t take chances, that’s why they make remakes of movies that were already big hits” (sources: Wikipedia & Sitges 09).

Same now applies to this musical monstrosity. While ‘Jai Ho’ was already a hit – having a skinny pussycat temptress shamelessly wank her vocal chords all over it, mispronouncing the title ‘Jay Ho’ so the ‘industry’ can shift a few million extra downloads is clearly all in the game. As if that wasn’t annoying enough, South East Asian media, like DesiHits.com for example, are lapping this crass shit up, and Nicole now wants to work with children in India.

It’s enough to make me  scoop my fucking guts out with a wooden spoon, invoking the gag reflex and puking with every thrust as I shove my fist down my gullet. Look away. Now.

March 23, 2009 0

Faze Action – Stratus Energy

By in Music Reviews

I’d never heard of Faze Action till this particular release landed on my doormat. It turns out that the duo have been around since the mid-nineties, which makes me even more foolish. What I do now know, after listening to Stratus Energy is that Faze Action make high-quality disco music.

Strange beast, disco. I think I might have quite liked it, had I been of age at the time. The outfits, the drugs, the clubs and the music – it was a scene, man. Disco was immortalized in film: Car Wash featured Rose Royce’s massive hit, and then there was the astronomic Saturday Night Fever. The most that grunge got, was the dreadful Singles. What I’m trying to say, albeit in a somewhat convoluted manner, is that, to me, the ‘disco’ genre is aligned with a bag of crisps at worst and a couple of films, drunken nights on dodgy dancefloors and Disco Stu from The Simpsons at best.

But that hasn’t stopped Faze Action. No sir. If anything, it’s spurred them into creating this retro-behemoth of distilled disco soul. And it’s not like they’re pretending to update the genre, choosing instead to graffiti their studio with the simple mantra If it ‘aint broke…I assume. For all I know, these 11 tracks could be undiscovered classics from the late 1970s all lovingly remastered and thrust on a winsome audience some 30 years on.

Regardless, Stratus Energy gives out everything that a disco album should. Grunting 4/4 beats comprised of repetitive kick, snare, kick, snare patterns interspersed with hovering high-hats all lie beneath a glorious synthetic wash of intergalactic noise. And yes, there are cowbells and bongos too. ‘Goodlovin’ features wah guitars, a syncopated bass line skipping between octaves and delightful harmony vocals. It really could be 1979 all over again. ‘Hypnotic’ takes on Disco-Funk with a brilliant, squidgy wah-bassline and muted guitars – much like those heard on Michael Jackson‘s ‘Don’t stop till you get enough’.   Paul McKenna and Derren Brown should be in the video performing funked up shoulder dancing as choreographed by one of the dancing monkeys on Strictly Come Dancing. It would be comedy gold. Please, someone make it happen.

With song titles such as ‘Venus and Mars’, ‘Starship’ and ‘Weightless’ (which is actually a brief, wafting, ambient number), you get the idea that this album is very much geared toward the space travelling market: NASA and groups like that. For the remainder of us without  necessary means of interplanetary travel, Stratus Energy is an engaging ride into the stratosphere. And if we do venture into a black hole and become locked in some twisted time-space continuum; this chic, melodic album crafted with loving nostalgia should be entrancing enough to keep us engaged for a few millennium.

If, however, you hate everything disco (including the crisps), then you will have stopped reading this some time ago, and still not know who Faze Action are.

Tags: , , , ,

March 23, 2009 0

Thunderheist

By in Movie Reviews, Music Reviews

 

Heist was already a cool word. But put Thunder in front of it, and Thunderheist (TH) becomes some kind of übercool. It happened to Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s production of ‘Cats’; someone put Thunder in front of an otherwise lifeless, corporate title and presto! One iconic cartoon show. See? Actually, that doesn’t apply to Thunderheart. Or Thundercats.

Released on Ninja Tune’s Big Dada label, Canadian duo Isis and Grahmzilla have crafted their own brand of electro-rap sleaze. It’s akin to listening to Missy Elliott freestyling with Salt-N-Pepa in 1986, but with the lyrical sauce of 2009. Truth is, though you’ve heard music a bit like this in the charts before, I’d compare TH to a digital postman: a seemingly conventional, everyday workhorse – but dressed like Grace Jones and shovelling thick packets of sex through your door. If you’ve ever seen an episode of ‘The Wire’, I’d expect TH to be playing at Avon Barksdale’s strip club. Getting the picture? Yeah, good, innit?

From the off, ‘Sweet 16′ drops us into the dirty disco world of dirty dance and dirty talk, where little girls party in a big girls world. Though a cautionary tale of underage sex, it’s incredibly appealing (which I’m guessing is the point), especially with its singalong “Tap tap tap tap tap the booty” chorus. Just listening to the track makes me feel I’m in serious danger of committing a deeply illegal act. If you’ve not been locked up by track two, ‘Nothing to step to’ finds Isis taking her cue from Rakim, pushing you further into a world of sleaze and sweat to  supremely danceable effect. With its floating analog synth lines, stomping percussive march, and perfumed vocal hooks, it’s pretty irresistible stuff.

The ravey ‘Jerk it’ features on the soundtrack to The Wrestler and can be heard in a scene with the delectable Marisa Tomei. The song’s video, however, stars a woman holding a live cock(erel). I can’t work it out. Can you?

‘LBG (Little Booty Girl)‘ is one of the best tunes on here. With a bassline similar to that found on Dead Prez classic ‘Hip-hop’, Isis even quotes from it with a slight change: “One thing ’bout music, when it hits you feel no pain, especially in the bank when you know you gettin paid”. It’s slick electro complete with 808 sounds and a vocal delivery bitten fresh out of Kanye‘s heartbroken corpse.

Sickeningly, there is little let-up in the album, with ‘Bubblegum’ enticing the listener to “Get ya back up off the wall, move sum’tin!” It’s not an album for a Sunday morning – unless you’ve not found your home yet. Naughty you. Maybe you’ve been asking where the afterparty at? Well that’s the question moodily posed asks over the dense, rolling bass of ‘The Party after’. Do these Canadians never sleep? No – sleep – till – Toronto?

Of course, no electro-inspired album would be complete without a vocoder. Thankfully, Grahmzilla drops one on the appropriately titled ‘Do the right thing’ which will surely have you pulling out a robot to shame Peter Crouch. Well, that’s not difficult.

TH have gifted us a great album: perfect for the club, the afterparty and the stripclub. Expect to hear it everywhere well into 2009 and beyond.

Tags: , , , ,

March 19, 2009 2

Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard

By in Music Reviews

Em are I artwork

I’ve made mistakes before; like the time I went to interview Jeffrey Lewis at The Rainbow in Birmingham and Misty’s Big Adventure were supporting. I watched as a man dressed as a tree danced (like only a man dressed as a tree can) to music that sounded to me like the spirit of the sixties being raped. Anally. A few of us watched, bemused, and propped up the bar. A few people joined in the revelry, and I recall one badly-dressed, scruffy, bearded weirdie in particular dancing wildly and unashamedly at the front. And I, like the rest of my chums there that night, laughed at him.

Jeff sat watching the band; watching us, and when he  took to the stage, the scruffy weirdo joined him: his bass-playing brother, Jack. The shame rendered me incapable of doing anything other than anonymously getting Jeff to sign my CD at the end of the show while he was distractedly chatting to an enthusiastic female supporter who hadn’t openly mocked his brother’s inability to dance.

Since then, my affair with Jeffrey Lewis’ music has been pretty ambivalent. I blame him for the existence of Noah and the Whale and the non-sensical and now ubiquitous term ‘Anti-folk’. With a good fanbase in the UK, cult celebrity on the ‘net (his brief biography of Barack Obama), he now seems to have become something of an authority on comic books – particularly with the release of  ‘The Watchmen’ this year.

I was enthused to hear of his return to the UK and imminent release of his new album: ‘Em are I. I’m not going to pretend to know what that means or even hazard a guess – it’s probably a play on words but I wouldn’t say that’s a fact, Jack. The excellent Pixies-esque ‘Slogans’ finds Jeff, once again, in a reminiscent mood – much like on a previous album opener ‘Back when I was four’, but now with raucous band in tow. Conversely, Roll Bus Roll, is the more traditional New York folk number you would expect from Jeff, complete with sing-a-long chorus and flighty ukulele licks.

Jeff’s introspective, wistful ramblings are certainly an acquired taste, but on ‘Broken, Broken Heart’, a nice off-beat set of handclaps and an upbeat mood is almost discernible. But don’t panic, ‘To be objectified’ is precisely the sort of song you came looking for. Self-depreciating, humorous and dispirit. It’s a twisted paean to love – the sort that only Jeff Lewis can conjur up; the sort of song that Noah and the Whale so desperately want to write. It’s not all good news, though.

Jack Lewis wrote ‘The Upside-Down Cross’ (and I know that because Jeff announces it midway through the song in the exact manner that David St Hubbins acknowledges Derek Smalls as Spinal Tap play ‘Jazz Oddyssey’ to a non-plussed festival crowd) which features a rolling bassline, twirling piano lines, a drifting muted trumpet, crashing drums and squealing feedback. It’s a pretentious piece of eight minute toss that has no need to be there. And, no, it doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to Hendrix‘s ‘Third stone from the sun’. OK? So stop whatever internal dialogue you have going on in there right now.

So when does cool and retro become wanky, pretentious and elitist? It’s a pretty fine line and ‘Em are I is in danger of wrapping its face around it. Though an intermittently enjoyable listen, it’s not Jeff’s best album.With any luck, he’ll drop the Junkyard and give us a decent solo album again.

But then, I’ve been wrong before.

Tags: , , , ,

March 19, 2009 2

Le Reno Amps – Tear it Open

By in Music Reviews

Oh no! Le Reno Amps have been kidnapped and they’re being forced to point guns at each other and they’re all tied up and stuff in the forest! QUICK! Call the bloody cops, moron. No, I don’t think we’ve not got time to listen to a CD. What? It’s only 35 minutes? Well I suppose they could wait just a little bit longer.

This Scottish quartet’s release is supported by the Scottish Arts Council, and has been recorded with producer Andy Miller (who works for Chemikal Underground’s recording studio).  With all these delightful credentials firmly in place, how does their debut album ‘Tear it open’ sound?

Well, it’s a confusing affair.  ‘Outlaws’ is a galloping, pyschobilly affair comprised of distorted guitars and anarchic intentions and is immediately followed by the Johnny Cash inspired ‘If you want a lover’. Featuring a train-like shuffle, the band manage to hold on to their country leanings all the way up to track three, ‘Going under’. But, on arrival, they derail and deliver a large slice of lemon-meringue sweet power pop. Like I said, it’s confusing stuff.

Until, that is, you reach ‘The Stand Off’, which seems to positively revel in its dodgy vocal harmonies, obtuse lyrics and bizarre electronic interlude which serves to expose Le Reno amps as ‘a great live band’ with lots of energy and little content. With vocal inefficiencies continuing through the uninspiring ‘Body’ – musically, the band are tight and proficient, as the changes on the bright punk-pop of ‘Slow decay’ shows.

The most interesting and exciting song on ‘Tear it open’ is ‘Dangerous boy’ which combines the infamous Mersey-inspired skank with some delicious off-key guitar noodlings. If only the band had the bravery to stick to this more convincing and suitable style, it would have made for a far more cohesive and interesting record.

With some awful power-pop and great punk made by the same band on the same record, this is an unusual album: one that defies explanation. Maybe they were all drunk; maybe they don’t know who they want to be; maybe they’re all schizophrenic and the Scottish Arts Council thought they’d fund this project to meet their sinister mental health targets for 2009.

Whatever the reason, if they don’t work harder at controlling their urge to please everybody, the goodness of the band is going to be consumed by the shit that’s floating around in the same tank. With a firmer steer, the band could really grow to reach their twisted potential.

What? Go where? Don’t be stupid. They’ve got guns, you fool.

Tags: , , , ,

Older Entries