Posts Tagged ‘ Ambulance LTD ’

Reviews: October 2005

NICK CAVE AND WARREN ELLIS
The Proposition Original Soundtrack (Mute/EMI)

This is the otherworldly place where Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and The Dirty Three amalgamate into one. Composed by Warren Ellis (violinist in both bands) and Nick Cave, these forlorn ballads and eerie melodramas hold similarities to the contemporary classical pieces of Cave’s 1996 soundtrack To Have And To Hold. Only here it’s Cave’s lost voice and piano combined with Jim White’s abstract drums and Martyn Casey’s detached basslines, creating a whole different kind of sadness and redemption.

While not conveying the brutality of the film, the desolate and barren terrain present on screen is clearly audible here, unease and menace interwoven into pieces like ‘Down To The Valley’ and ‘The Rider #2’. ‘Martha’s Dream’ and ‘Queenie Suite’ present a strikingly deconstructed resemblance to The Dirty Three’s ‘I Offered It Up To The Stars’. These 16 pieces of music will either draw you closer to the original imagery or leave you with no need for it at all.

PLANT LIFE
The Return Of Jack Splash (Shock)

Bringin’ the old school funk, Plant Life’s Jack Splash has tapped into the vein of creativity that still makes Prince, George Clinton and Isaac Hayes sound light years ahead.

Plant Life is filled with a laid back ‘everything’s gonna be all right’ vibe, and so much more. The seamless way in which Splash has sewn modern day hip-hop into the beats and grooves provides such a vast palette, from down-tempo sweeteners to bass line body-rockers. These variables give tracks like ‘We Can Get High’ and ‘Luv For The World’ a harder-edged sound that blends the languid bass lines to ever so subtly reinvent such a classic vibe. We’re talking about Neptunes-styled thinking, reinventing the funk, not just glorifying it – sensuality that’s exemplified in the music and then beautifully articulated through Splash’s sexy falsetto.

As the days start to swelter, these tunes work as the perfect tonic to kick back to, or possibly work up a sweat to.

 SMOG
A River Ain’t Too Much To Love (Drag City/Spunk)

While one man with a guitar singing what’s on his mind is not an unusual thing, Smog’s Bill Callahan is definitely not the norm. In fact, Callahan is definitely exceptional when it comes to exposing oneself through song.

Building on a remarkable 11 albums, here the baritone voice of Callahan has the warmest timbre, exuding equal doses of hope and loss. Where there were previously tragically personal tales, this album has beautiful stories that are vast, almost epic (‘Say Valley Maker’, ‘Drinking At The Dam’). Whether it’s the unique phrasing or melody, the songs seem completely uplifting even when they’re achingly sombre.

Jim White (of The Dirty Three) again fills out these 10 songs in such a way that his drumming acts as a wonderful conduit, adding life and spark (‘The Well’, ‘Let Me See The Colts’). Others such as Joanna Newsom add to A River…, but nothing really pulls your attention away from Callahan and the next softly spoken secret to reach your ear.

 
EDDIE MACRON

Shining On Graveposts (Preservation)

The beautifully haunting and tender songs of female multi-instrumentalist Eddie Corman and bassist Marcon _____ are as mysterious as the misty mountains of their Japanese homeland. These nine songs are deeply soaked in the acid-folk of a bygone era, aloof and completely interpretive to most Western ears due to the guitar’s, vocals’ and piano’s free structure, only the sparsest of percussion earthing the hazy sounds.

Songs such as ‘Umi No Uta’ and ‘Ami No Uta’ are completely dreamlike – not a harsh note or rough edge to be found anywhere – the songs expanding and contracting in the deepest of breaths. The intimacy that’s present throughout is both abstract and undeniable, the cultural gulf allowing you to travel into and throughout Eddie Marcon’s unique music, discovering along the way its many gorgeous mysteries.

SOUNDS LIKE SUNSET
Losing Sleep/It’s Alright (Architecture/Cross Country)

Sounds Like Sunset appeared beautifully upon the Australian music horizon a few years ago, only to just as quickly disappear. Now their sleepy sounds are reinvented and rejuvenated, ready to blossom. This double A-side single is the prelude to their second album and finds the ambience and shoegazing replaced with bristling guitars and vibrant pop rock melodies. There’s still some manic guitar squalls, but the restraint now present makes their fuzzy grooves much more instantaneous and enjoyable.

MIKE NOGA
Folk Songs (Sensory Projects)

As is usually the case, that inside every hard ass rock’n’roller is a soft and tender guy, Mike Noga now seems ready to show his tender troubadour side with this, his first solo album.

Unlike his years drumming for Kim Salmon, Legends Of Motorsport and these days in The Drones, Folk Songs is a whole other kind of rollicking. The tunes rumble through as sea shanties, harmonica-filled Dylan-esque folk and laid bare ballads. All the while, Noga’s sweet and sombre voice is without the troubadour coarseness common with music of this ilk. The album’s ever present drama cascades through ‘We 3 Are Lost’, only to beautifully collect itself in ‘Song For Bill’ in the most assuring of manners. Maybe not as loud on his own as with other bandmates, Noga is still in possession of a whole other kind of heavy.

THE WARLOCKS
Surgery (Mute/EMI)

The psychedelic haze that has whipped through the last couple of Warlocks albums seems to have blown away and worn down any harsh crevices and canyon-sized guitar freak-outs, noticeably absent from this album.

This leaves only a steady grooving rhythm, present from the outset of ‘Come Save Us’ and ‘…Surgery’ and never faltering or deviating for the whole 60-minute trip. It’s not that these seven cats have lost their edge, it’s just that the exploratory elements of their music that made the whole thing such an exciting adventure have been replaced with an endless desert highway of acid-soaked groove. Add to this the fact that they have three guitarists, two drummers and multiple keys, and the end product sounds remarkably like a decent three-piece.

If you’re after a 70s mellowed-out vibe a la Brian Jonestown, then this album is going to fit the bill. If it’s the burgeoning psychedelic rock beast of yore that you’re looking for, stick with past creations.

AMBULANCE LTD
Self-titled (TVT/Shock)

Letting loose a debut full of British invasion pop and hook filled post-punk, New York’s Ambulance Ltd are a wonderfully mixed bag of chiming melodies and soaring sounds.

In many ways, these four boys are like a younger Spiritualized, only with a greater sense of urgency and edginess. Tracks like ‘Primitive’ and ‘Young Urban’ interweave disarming vocal melodies into the songs, making everything instantly digestible to any ears. Just as you start to settle into a mood though, the music hooks a left or right, into some kind of pop Americana (‘Anecdote’) or psychedelica-soaked grandeur (‘Sugar Pill’).

As with a lot of NY bands, you can’t help but notice the underlying moodiness in the music that counteracts its boppiness. Still, lush pop such as this usually works its way under your skin and is hard to dislodge, and this album is no exception.

 GENTLE BEN AND HIS SENSITIVE SIDE
The Sober Light Of Day (Spooky)

As the children grow and multiply, they will consume the generation that lay before them. In this case it’s a generation filled with the sound of Wall Of Voodoo and the Beasts Of Bourbon, now spawned and fully formed into one Gentle Ben and his less and less every day Sensitive Side.

Building upon his 2004 debut, the pop and rock takes over here from his country-soaked beginnings. Filled with songs that strike like a whiskey glass over the head, it’s interspersed with torch songs that feel like the open wounds left from said whiskey glass. But as it’s always been, it’s Ben’s wrought voice that melts even the hardest heart (‘Help Me Make It Down The Street’, ‘Summertime’) – he sounds like a lost soul with no time for redemption.

For all its good, The sober light… could use some restraint. That is, unless these four boys wish to continue their slow transformation into Ben’s previous SixFtHick incarnation.

ALIAS & EHREN
Lillian (Anticon/Stomp)

The evolution of Anticon’s Alias is a unique one. Already coming from a left-field perspective in the hip-hop world, he has over several albums grown from samples and straight (but still skewed) beat tracks to here fully realising lusciously orchestrated electronica and avant hip-hop that totally transcends its genre’s roots.

Lillian’s intoxicating results are made possible mainly due to Alias collaborating with Ehren, his much more organically trained brother. Predominantly instrumental, Alias still handles the sampling and programming side of things, Ehren applying broad brush strokes of both alto and soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet and keys; these then basted in the abstract guitar tones of Alias.

The outcome is in a Boards Of Canada realm, but with much more emphasis on the live instruments groove. There is an otherworldly feel about these 13 pieces of music and a beauty that simply doesn’t exist in hip-hop. So let’s call this a signpost on the road to future jazz.

SOULFLY
Dark Ages (Roadrunner)

It’s been a long and somewhat spiritual road that Max Cavalera has taken with Soulfly over its eight-year existence, but it has to be said that it’s only now that Cavalera is reaching the creative and visionary heights that his final two masterpieces with Sepultura did.

Dark Ages has the tribal feel present in most of Cavalera’s work, only now it strengthens not dilutes the final product. Most prominent is the speed and brutality of the songs, finally thrashing for the first time in years. Gone is the disjointed religious imagery and in its place the bleakest and realest of modern life not seen since Chaos AD. Nothing highlights the lifeblood of Dark Ages more than ‘Arise Again’, the band re-invigorating power of the past. There seems to be more of a level playing field for all the musicians here, everyone at one point or another striking with blistering precision and speed.

Still tempered with Cavalera’s soul-searching moments of reflection, he has created a statement of metal with more depth and relevance than is possible from the majority of his peers.

ROSIE THOMAS
If Songs Could Be Held (Sub Pop/Stomp)

The same subtlety of melody and structure found in the songs of Ani Difranco or the Indigo Girls can be found here in the songs of Rosie Thomas.

But it needs to be defined that these 11 songs are unique in the way that Thomas can go from sounding like a close friend adjudicating her emotions with the aid of an acoustic guitar to some distant Nora Jones superstar at the piano. Even when veering into a more Alanis Morissette style of song (‘Pretty Dress’), Thomas still retains an emotional potency that negates the surface slickness. It’s the solo tunes though that are the most engaging, the backing band and duets generally numbing the songs.

Sappy to some, broad-reaching to others, kernels of beautiful song still exist here if you can make it through the unfortunate embellishments.

JOHN CALE
Black Acetate (EMI)

Enigmatic as ever, Cale still has an uncanny ability to sound current on the modern musical map. Known for his chameleon qualities, it’s a lively mood that sits stark against his dampened vocals, the songs embellishing upon the overt pop and rock elements of his character, this mixing with the soundtrack-styled abstractness of his past.

‘Brotherman’ sits side by side with the music of Barry Adamson; songs like ‘In A Flood’ and ‘Gravel Drive’ though recall the Cale of the past – simple notes and recurring structures giving the songs the hypnotic quality that he has always created most effectively. ‘Perfect’, ‘Woman’ and ‘Turn The Lights On’ (Hmmm… title sound familiar?) are on the other hand quite bizarre, boisterous rock songs, sounding both inspired from and the foundations for the whole Interpol phenomenon.

Like Lou Reed and others from his Velvet days, he seems born a creative force still not spent, simply not knowing how to be anything else.

WOLF PARADE
Apologies To The Queen Mary (Sub Pop)

With a world overrun by ‘wolf’ bands, it’s the sparseness of sound and the awkwardness contained in their jagged delivery that make these four Canadian boys that much more distinctive.

Sill living within the indie-rock world, Wolf Parade’s debut wields a double-edged sword of beautiful melody and articulated agitation, from the galloping ‘Modern World’ to the shimmering and syncopated ‘We Built Another World’. There’s a mood not too dissimilar to that of Modest Mouse, this accentuated by that band’s ringleader Isaac Brock being the producer of this album.

At the crossroads where the lo-fi of Guided By Voices meets with the glorious futuristics of The Flaming Lips you’ll find the multi-coloured sponge of Wolf Parade, soaking it all up and spitting it back out in its own glorious technicolour.

BIG STAR
In Space (Ryko)

Ok, this isn’t really a Big Star album in the true sense of that word – it’s somewhere between a good Alex Chilton solo album and a good Posies album (adding Auer and Stringfellow to the fold)!

Big Star drummer Jody Stephens joining Chilton in the creation of In Space is really the only tenuous link in the recreation of this great band. The problem with this album is that while Chilton is a noteworthy songsmith, his craft hasn’t changed or improved much in the 30 years between Big Star albums, these 12 songs not possessing that spark that made the Big Star of the 70s what it was.

Still ‘Turn My Back…’ and ‘Love Revolution’ are fun, rollicking pop tunes that have a vibrancy that does their authors justice. It’s not 1973 though; so don’t be fooled into expecting brilliance like ‘Oh My Soul’ – some things you just can’t re-create.

 

GRANDADDY
Excerpts From The Diary Of Todd Zilla (V2/FMR)

This seven-song, 30-minute album/mini-album is a sharp left on the Grandaddy highway. Part concept, part experiment, it’s hard to figure out what it is that powers it along. One thing that is certain is that this little package is the total creation of Grandaddy’s epicentre, Jason Lytle, not the creation of Grandaddy the band.

With experimentation and creative juxtaposition turned up to max, the songs here veer from the soft and squelchy indie pop of ‘At My Post’ to the outburst rock of ‘Florida’. The soft and tender moments (‘A Valley Sun’, ‘Fuck The Valley Fudge’) are of note, their piano and acoustic guitar sounding as fragile and fleeting as Lytle’s voice, beautiful songs that it’s hard to imagine Grandaddy the band preforming with the same level of success. After half an hour you do feel as though you’ve just consumed a full meal, even if you’re not sure what you’ve eaten.

 THE SPOILS
Goodnight Victoria (Reverberation)

Four or five years ago, Melbourne seemed to spawn another urban country rock band every five minutes. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen these days, but within the radar of a few years ago was The Spoils: country through and through, but with a heavy dose of city style.

After travelling separately to various parts of the country and back, The Spoils have reconvened to create a rollicking album of country and western music in its Sunday best. The sounds here show that there’s more fire in the belly of this band now, ‘Come Down’ and ‘El Mariachi’ seething and jagged. Laments like ‘Warmington St.’ and ‘Goodnight Victoria’ show the spark that the band ignites every time the voice of Shaun Simmons and yearning violin of Bronwyn Henderson come together.

Mix that with a few burlesque tunes and tall tales and it’s a long and wonderful winding road from the city to the country and back, all on a highway of heartache.

 

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
Self-titled (Arts&Crafts/Shiny)

These Canadian’s have returned with a much more complex and grand musical statement. Taking the modest and skewed pop of their last album, they have given it all a shot of fuelled intensity, these 14 songs overflowing with a cacophony of instrumentation, this in turn producing a greater density of sound and tension.

The songs here reflect the vast collective of individuals that make up the band, this present in the interchanging melodies. In ‘Ibi Dreams Of Pavement’ and ‘7/4’ guitars give way to strings which give way to horns, percussion and so on, only for it to all come together – wonderfully jostling for space in your speakers. There are still whimsical moments and brisk pop in ‘Fire Eye’d Boy’ and ‘Hotel’ but overall a heavier air hangs upon these songs, like agitated molecules vibrating faster than they should and sure to mutate before you reach the finish line.

 

DEPECHE MODE
Playing The Angel (Mute/EMI)

With all the solo stuff out of the way, it’s good to finally see the three individuals of Depeche Mode getting back to their dark underbelly of songs and this time around they’ve created a potent distillation of their electro-pop sound.

The songs here are filled with the same grit found in their Faith And Devotion years, this mixed with the song-craft of Ultra to create the most sophisticated cocktail of their 25-year history. Searing and distorted guitars cut into crunching electronics in ‘A Pain That I’m Used To’ and ‘The Sinner In Me’. Single ‘Precious’ is simply the perfect Depeche Mode song, filled with all those little melodies and sounds that make them what they are. Wounded ballads ‘Lillian’ and ‘Damaged People’ possess a tenderness that enriches the album as a whole.

Add to this Gore and Gahan sharing some of the songwriting and vocal duties, and you have an album that just goes to show that the electronic pop of the Killers and their ilk may have current sparkle, but they fade in the face of the dept h and detail of the real thing.

DEERHOOF 
The Runners Four (Kill Rock Stars/5RC/Trifekta)

For all the eclectic variety that lies in this 20-song, 55-minute musical collection,  the San Francisco four-piece comes across as an American indie version of Stereolab on this, their eighth album.

Quaint little pop songs that become off-kilter enough to derail their true saccharin qualities, ‘You Can See’ and ‘Bone-Dry’ comprise some of the rough gems that lie here. The amps do get turned up though for ‘Scream Team’ and ‘Sirustar’, which takes them more into the art-punk territory of past albums and shakes things up enough to keep you keen for more. If falsetto wears thin on you, then the constant pitch of vocalists Greg Saunier and Satomi Matsuzaki could dull some of the music’s shine.

Songs and melodies do get lost in the multitude of ideas, but given the time The Runners Four will come to cradle and entertain you, whatever your mood.

WHY?
Elephant Eyelash (Anticon/Stomp)

Not since the early days of Beck has there been an emerging artist with genuine flair for bringing together  folk, rock and hip-hop into a seamless whole of unique song.

Transcending his time as one of Anticon’s premier hip-hop acts, Why? has fleshed out a fully functioning band to extinguish the one-man trickery, replacing it with lush and complex songs, subtle in their delivery but distinct in their mood. ‘Fall Saddles’ and ‘Gemini’ take the cross-pollination pop of Granddaddy and adds a dose of cinematic style, all bound to a sweet groove.

Like his peers Buck 65 and Alias, Why? is taking hybrids and evolving them into a singular musical species. Whether it’s piano, guitar, samples, drums and beats, you can almost see the history in the music, as much as you can feel a first glimpse into a boundless musical future. And you’d be silly not to want to come along for the ride!

 

WEEN
Shinola Vol.1 (Chocodog/Shock)

This shit is freakin’ weird! Well, that’s to say simply that this a new Ween album, music that at times only a mother could love. Not a new album as such, but the first in a series of releases that bring together random songs that have slipped through the cracks over the years, 12 ugly ducklings that never previously made the final cut.

In the timely tradition of Ween song-craft, the songs here are just cute, little pop songs in their infancy, only to be messed with so much that the end results are quite the opposite. ‘Tastes Good On Th’ Bun’ and ‘Big Fat Fuck’ have been put through gloriously twisted distortion hell, while ‘I Fell In Love Today’ and ‘Gabrielle’ are in fact left in pristine pop form.

As cohesive as any of their releases, these songs are fine creations from the Brothers Ween. But then how does that saying go? “You wouldn’t even know the difference between shit and Shinola”!

 

THEY THINK THEY ARE THE ROBOCOP KRAUS
Self-titled (L’age D’or/Epitaph/Shock)

Last year we were given XTC Mk2 in the form of Dogs Die In Hot Cars. This year we have Talking Heads Mk2 in the form of… The Robot Kraus.

I’m not being lazy here – the melodies are straight out of David Byrne’s songbook, the artwork is an update of Songs About Buildings & Food and the vocals are… well,  a twin to the original. Now that we have all that out of the way, it has to be said that this is quite a good guitar pop album in that whole new-New Wave vein. Catchy tunes like ‘You’re Just Fiction’ and ‘All The Good Men’ have a propulsion to them that’s totally fun. Filled out with this century synths, syncopation and that bloody cow bell, it’s music to dance the night away to and still enjoy around the home while doing the housework. In fact, it’s music that makes you move, even if it is to go get Remain In Light.

 

MESSER CHUPS
Crazy Price (Ipecac/Shock)

The latest instalment of spruced-up sci-fi, surf and horror by Russia’s premier exotica export Messer Chups are again a strange carnival ride of the kitsch and kooky kind.

Heavily sampled soundbites from old B-grade noir films are scattered throughout these 16 instrumental tunes, creating a mashed-up sort of soundtrack to the fringes of both sound and screen.

The music itself veers uncontrollably between slinky surf tunes (‘Sex Euro’ and ‘Satan Jeans’), straight-up Tiki tones (‘Monkey Safari’), dive bar/spy film jazz (‘Not Made In Japan’) and no-budget 60s schlock (‘Chasing for Young Blood’) – it all being as tripped-out as time-warped.

Think of the imagery of ‘Big Daddy’ Roth, of Ed Wood and Betty Page, and then devise the grooviest aural backdrop –without a doubt it will be that of Crazy Price.

 

SEAPLANE
Technical Difficulties (Roadside Furniture/Reverberation)

Given the diverse nature of the Seaplane boys and the multiple bands they seem to play in, it’s good to finally have a whole album. These 11 songs covering breath and depth that has long encompassed them live.

It has to be said though that everything that singer /guitarist Dale Peachy touches here becomes defined by his lo-fi indie rock aesthetic and sound. This drowning out the other two-thirds of the band and leaving you no other choice but to compare Technical Difficulties to Peachy’s previous output – so while good, it’s still a poor man’s Dollar Bar album. The scrappy sounds of the title track and ‘Bingo’ lacks the necessary definition to make them really resonate and the ballad-esq moments of ‘Latino’ and ‘Red Bones’ are a little too sappy to sound earnest. Ripping rock like ‘I’m Awake’ offsets these moments but it’s not enough to bring the band into their own. Good but not as good as you know they’re capable of, maybe that takes the spontaneity of the stage.

 

THE MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO.
Hard Man To Love (Secretly Canadian)

The first single from Jason Molina’s brilliant Magnolia Electric Co. album is more like an EP in itself than a promotional item for the album. Featuring the title track, a harrowing duet by Molina and Jennie Benford, the four additional songs are all previously unreleased. ‘Bowery’ and ’31 Seasons…’ are more languid tales of sorrow underpinned by aching pedal steel guitar and organ. ‘Doing Something Wrong’ is old-school Neil Young, while ‘Werewolves Of London’ is an intriguing Warren Zevon cover. It’s almost like this man can’t write a bad country song.

 

2005
10/31
CATEGORY
Music Reviews
TAGS

























Leave a comment

Reviews: September 2005

QUEENANDREENA
The Butcher and the Butterfly (One Little Indian/Shock)

This album is almost an article out of place, a collection of songs arriving some 15 years too late for a larger audience – the angst and wrought emotion of Queenandreena is akin to the toxic outbursts of Babes In Toyland and pre-L.A. years of Hole.

Veterans in their own way after years in various bands, vocalist Katie-Jane Garside and guitarist Crispen Gray have for Queenandreena’s third album continued their outbursts of naked rock. Creating a rollercoaster ride of soaring, screaming vocals and buzzsaw guitars, the songs translate difficult stories of exploitation and innocence, both lost and found. A blistering, almost revenge-fuelled aggression is the core thread throughout the album, this becoming its strongest spark or biggest turn-off.

With the smudged lipstick and baby-doll imagery of the early 90s almost a distant memory, the dirt playing field of menstrual aggression is now left to bands like Scarling and Queenandreena.

 

RICHARD SWIFT
Collection Vol.1: The Novelist/Walking Without Effort (Secretly Canadian)

Like finding an old, dusty suitcase in the attic filled with a treasure trove of past lives, the songs of Richard Swift are like perfectly crafted pop artefacts from a bi-gone era. This release sees the compilation of two past albums, combined into one easily obtainable 17-track whole.

While it’s not really there, the crackle of old vinyl and mood of classic 60s AM permeates the songs, mainly comprising of piano, guitar, a little drum machine and Swift’s crooning, sombre tones. The inclusion of a little clarinet in ‘Lovely Night’ or accordion in ‘The Novelist’ adds an element of abstract beauty to these already great songs.

Swift’s sound is hard to pin-point, traversing opposite ends of the pop spectrum, from the uniqueness of Syd Barrett to the craftsmanship of Bacharach, this out-of-place uniqueness translating into an unquestionably earnest album able to stand the test of any time.

 

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME
Alaska (Victory/Stomp)

Precision-based hardcore or overdriven power-metal? This North Carolina quintet are trying so damned hard to forge a path of their own that instead they’ve produced a third album as confusing as it is impressive.

One minute it’s all growls, furious shredding and blast-beats (‘Alaska’) and the next it’s Dreamtheater-styled prog pomposity and falsetto (‘Selkies…’), the band’s penchant for creativity regularly getting out of hand. It has to be said that the playing is exceptionally executed; especially in regards to guitarist Nick Fletcher’s preoccupation with Cathedral-styled high-fretboard guitar leads. The musical interplay, while heavy on the metal scale, is blueprinted with a total math-rock set of musical equations. Even when simplified songs such as ‘Roboturner’ bludgeon and sludge their way out of the speakers, it is only a respite between more cross-pollination. There are just too many ideas and not enough focus for this to ultimately be enjoyed.

 

THE JUAN MACLEAN
Less Than Human (DFA/EMI)

From the DFA stables (home of LCD Soundsystem and Rapture) comes Mr Juan Maclean, a man with an already long list of credits to his name, being at the core of robot rockers Six Finger Satellite and himself producing a slew of underground 12”s which buoyed DFA’s initial success.

For his debut album, Maclean’s electro tangents stretch far and wide,  back to the core of Herbie Hancock’s funk jazz trailblazers and taking the groove and precision of Daft Punk light years ahead. It’s the live feel of the instrumentation in ‘Tito’s Way’ and ‘Crush the Liberation’ though, that really spark the music, turning dancefloor funk into a carnivalé street party, bells and whistles skirting between vocodered vocals and throbbing squelch bass lines.

Maclean’s use of classic moods – whether they be from the house of Kraftwerk, Jean Jacques Perry or that of Mr Moog – translated through the latest tools has produced a wonderful hybrid that is as eclectic as stylistically futuristic.

 

SILVER CITY
Self-titled (20/20 Vision/Stomp)

Remember in the 60s how the future would see us wearing those one-piece funky outfits, groovy spaceboots and all those cool toys and flying cars, just like the Jetsons? Well, we‘re not there yet, but that hasn’t stopped Silver City from attempting to create a soundtrack for this futureworld.

Combining funky electro, boogie disco and upbeat dub this Leeds duo has futurised the vibe pioneered by George Clinton, now ready to be consumed by the punk-funk generation. From the vocodered vocals of ‘Dance Til The Morning’ to the slap’n’pop bass of ‘What You Get’ a high-octane funk is the lifeblood driving these 11 songs. The only downside is how easily digestible it all is, ‘Down Till 7’ and ‘Shiver’ are the only moments when the vibe breaks out into something definable as its own. Still, for a bit of a boogie or light dancefloor groove, Silver City does the trick.

 

SPIDERBAIT
Greatest Hits (Univeresal)

Spiderbait are a unique band in this country, coming across as a trio of ocker footy fans who should be hooning round in their Monaros, not making some of this country’s heaviest and cleverest rock. After 15 years and five albums, they have certainly cemented a sound instantly recognisable to everyone from meatheads to punks to fresh-faced teens.

These 22 tracks have all Spiderbait’s best elements: Whitt’s blistering and over-cranked guitar riffs, Janet and Kram’s sweet and sour vocals and, of course, Kram’s limelight-stealing, driving drum workout. The tracks run back from the chart-topping hits, ‘Black Betty’ and ‘Glockenpop’ to their trailblazing ‘Buy Me A Pony’ and ‘Monty’. Years later, earlier tunes ‘Run’ and ‘Footy’ are still some of the funniest rock songs ever embraced by head-banging youth. This compilation should be all the proof needed that, recognised or not, Spiderbait’s four-to-the-floor talents are all but flawless.

 

FRANZ FERDINAND
Do You Want To (Domino/Sony-BMG)

With a world of expectation upon them, Franz Ferdinand’s first single is exactly what you’d expect. Filled with the necessary glitz to pack dancefloors from here to Glasgow, the song possesses the same angular guitars and middle breakdown as their other hits. Lyrically it’s another self-absorbing and inane focus on going out and getting a shag. This tune is sure to be worn out soon by iPods and Dj’s alike.

 

THE WHITE STRIPES
My Doorbell (XL/Remote Control)

Not the catchiest tune from their latest album, ‘My Doorbell’ still has a heavy stomp and could be seen as Get Behind Me Satan’s ballad single. With Jack White’s clunking piano and Meg White’s booming kick, the songs charm comes from the innocent boy-next-door sentiment in Jack’s lyrics. Backed up by two live tunes, the equally sentimental ‘Same Boy You’ve Always Known’, it’s only ‘Screwdriver’ that displays the powerhouse side of this ever more diverse band.

 

IRON ON
Oh The Romance (+1/Reverberation)

Next time you’re in the record store looking for that special song that moves your feet as much as strums your heartstrings, chances are that you won’t find it in overseas indie bands such as Death Cab For Cutie, Bright Eyes or The Shins. Chances are it’s right on your doorstep in the form of local four-piece Iron On!

This debut album sees the band stretch their wings and reach full flight, interweaving articulate melodies that leave a lump in your throat with the type of rock-out abandon usually reserved for the more leather clad type of band. It’s the magnetic vocals of Ross Hope and Kate Cooper that really strike the biggest chord, their tales of love both right and horribly wrong (‘Hearts’, ‘High Miami High’, ‘More Than Tape’) making you pine for more than the 10 songs on offer here.

It seems unfair for them to be labelled indie rock because that’s such a limp-wristed term, and when it comes to standout moments like ‘Playing Hard To What’, their resolve to totally disarm and dismantle you is unrepentant. A remarkable album.

 

PSAPP
Tiger, My Friend (Arable/Didgeridoo)

Taking that quirky intellectual pop vibe that you usually find in Belle & Sebastian songs and vastly expanding the pallet, London’s PSAPP produce songs with a childlike innocence, squeaky toys as beautifully orchestrated as strings or xylophone. Imagine the worlds of Autechre and Cocorosie melding into one, but where anyone can play anything, even Splodge the cat (‘About Fun’).

This debut’s songs range from the unique and organic (‘Rear Moth’) to the glitchy and surreal (‘Leaving In Coffins’), the most astounding thing being that this kaleidoscope of song is born out of only two people. It’s not that this album is sooo left field; it’s simply that the guitar and piano at the core of these pop gems are where most groups would end, and it’s here that Tiger, My Friend’s magic really begins.

 

DEVENDRA BANHART
Crippled Crow (XL/Remote Control)

With the cover art of Banhart’s fourth album recalling a neo-folk version of St. Pepper’s, it’s in fact a more subtle and personal expansion of sound that’s carried throughout. This time accompanied by a village full of friends, there’s less obvious weirdness and more orchestrated and immaculately crafted freak-folk than before.

Peppered with the flamenco and samba flavours of his youth in ‘Santa Maria…’ and ‘Quedate Luna’, the album expands progressively over the 22 tunes, both in scope and sound. The delicate beauty of ‘Heard Somebody Say’ uncannily recalls the soul of Nina Simone, Banhart crooning like a lost offspring. While piano, guitars and drums regularly fill out his troubadour sound, it’s ‘Long Haired Child’ when things start to go truly psychedelic, its hazy 70s vaudeville sound blooming into an exotic Middle Eastern echo with ‘Lazy Butterfly’ and rollicking stomp in ‘Queenbee’.

With an obviously unique folk music talent, Banhart hasn’t yet produced his best work, but with Crippled Crow he’s created his greatest statement of what looks to be a real magical, mysterious career.

 

URDOG
Garden Of Bones (Secret Eye/Sensory Projects)

It’s a strange psychedelic haze, a merry prankster-styled journey that the three members of Rhode Island’s Urdog seem to be descending into. It’s a place where dense, droning guitar, freaked-out Farfisa organ and derailed drumming mix with static interludes that find the music separating like molecules only to reform moments later as fully functional song structures.

The eight songs here play themselves out when and whichever way they please, whether in a playful one-minute ‘Smoky Narghile’ or spectral nine-minute ‘Ice On Water’. They always feed you enough line though, so as to feel lost in the sounds, but never abandoned within their swirling landscapes. Refraining from anything as brash as Beefheart, the songs retain a softer focus on detail, similar to early Pink Floyd or Can, the one moment of jovial sideshow alley atmosphere being ‘Urdog Awaken!’. A curious and enjoyable journey towards the third eye.

 

PUBLIC ENEMY
Power To The People And The Beats: PE’s Greatest Hits (Def Jam/Universal)

PE blazed a trail into the world’s musical conscience so deep and wide that no one collection of songs (or review) is ever going to do them justice. That said, these 18 tracks are a damn good start to outline one of music’s most important contributions since James Brown or Bob Marley.

While the combo of Chuck D, Flavor Flav and Terminator X could never better the early years of their first three albums (15 of the 18 tracks here), it doesn’t matter because those years in the late 80s saw PE redefine hip-hop, take it to the masses, fuel it with revolutionary messages and turn upside down the world’s kids, both black and white.

Tracks like ‘Don’t Believe The Hype’, ‘Fight The Power’, ‘Brothers Gonna Work It Out’ and ‘Bring The Noise’ (the latter producing what’s still the best synergy of metal and rap) combined humour and politics in equal doses, their songs’ fires still raging now decades after their creation.

And while you’re reading, remember this was during the Reagan years and life looked grim for many in the ghettoes. PE gave desperate kids hope and that can’t go understated in the déjà vu spectre of Bush Jr!

 

CONTROLLER.CONTROLLER
History (Paper Bag/Shiny)

These Canadians are making sure every last drop of blood and sweat is wrung from the dance punk cravat. Released a year-and-a-half ago, this EP still manages to sound fresh in a genre fast running out of ideas. ‘History’ is My Bloody Valentine trying to connect to the internet one minute and exhuming A Certain Ratio’s grave the next, while ‘Bruised…’ is the darkest and best track of the six. With its mixture of 4/4 disco styling, live instrumentation and Deborah Harry-infected vocals out front, within minutes it’ll feel as though you’ve been listening to this for years.

 

BONNY/SWEENEY
I Gave You (Drag City/Spunk)

If the eerie drawl of Will Oldham melts you, then this Ep is likely to work it’s magic from the moment his saddened drawl calls out for release. These four tracks of twin guitar and vocals are for all their sparseness; lush sounding country lullabies, warm in their mood and timeless in their sound. Matt Sweeney matching Oldham’s fragile vocals note for note.

 

AGAINST ME
Searching for a Former Clarity (Fat Wreck Chords/Shock)

It’s been bandied around that Against Me are this generation’s Clash. If that’s the case, then that makes Searching for a Former Clarity Against Me’s London Calling. On their fourth album, the band come into a sound of their own, striking the perfect balance between rock, punk (old and new) and blue-collar strike-line chants.

There’s an undeniable swagger and confidence present, from the opener ‘Miami’ and on, but the melodies set Searching For… apart – not in a Green Day pop way, but a mixture of folk-fuelled, rum rebellion-styled hooks with strong, Fugazi-like focused aggression. The political aesthetic is stronger then ever and originally articulated (‘From Her Lips To God’s Ears’, ‘Violence’ and many more), the music’s space allowing you to soak up the messages, temper the bristling bile and provoke thoughts, not just bashing your ears.

Seeing as most people don’t care about positive rebellion, it’s only the few who will be inspired by this remarkable statement and while there are real voices of dissent out there, there’s also a real hope for change.

 

TIM FITE
Gone Ain’t Gone (Anti/Shock)

Recalling the twisted pop/country/folk of Jim White or early 90s Beck, Fite has ensured his album grooves at a thoughtful and reflective pace, through the fiddles, the humour, the short blasts of misguided rock and the hip-hop vocal delivery.

Obviously a child of these eclectic times, it’s not since Sparklehorse that someone has brought so much varied sound to bear under one roof. The looped samples and answering machine vocals of ‘Eating At The Grocery Store’ meld beautifully into the slide guitar moans of ‘Forty-Five Remedies’. His sampling of culture stretches so far as to include portions of Dave McCormack’s music in ‘Not A Hit Song’. The strongest and most poignant aspect of Fite’s music though comes from interlude track ‘I’ve Kept Singing’, featuring the musical dissertation of the legendary Paul Robeson.

Anyone can produce pop songs and call them interesting, but not just anyone can make their melding of styles and sounds really work for them. Fite has, creating a completely original musical statement.

 

PIVOT
Make Me Love You (Sensory Projects)

From the moment the title track’s instrumental hip-hop groove beat blossoms into fully flourishing post-rock to the final ebb and pulsed frequencies, the journey taken by Pivot is a gorgeous subtle and languid affair, one that you easily get lost in.

Through predominantly live instrumentation, this Sydney five-piece build and meld their layers of sound to produce songs akin to Tortoise or Tommy Guerrero. The songs undulate from turntable moods (‘Make Me Love You’) to string sections (‘Artificial Horizon’) to broken down dub (‘LaMer’) with a seemingly effortless manner. Like all great instrumental music, the focus shouldn’t be the instrumentation or immaculate musicianship (which here is impressive enough) but the power the sounds have to fuel your imagination.

These nine glorious soundtracks frolic with as much depth as you can envisage – it all comes down to whether your imagination is up for this smorgasbord of sound.

 

CLUE TO KALO
One Way, It’s Every Way (Mush/Spunk)

This electronically orchestrated, luscious pop album is yet another leap forward for the man who is Clue to Kalo, Mark Mitchell. For his second album, he produces songs full of multi-part harmonies, sombre vocal tones and an air of bittersweet adventure.

Again refining a raft of organic instrumentation through the filters of electronic precision, these 10 tunes are reminiscent of the post-rock electronica of Tortoise or Fourtet. The juxtaposition of organs and accordion with saxophone, gu-zheung and mandolin bring together the perfect marriage of sounds, creating an air of past meets future (‘Seconds When It’s Minutes’, ‘Nine Thousand Nautical Miles’). There are also pure electronic pop moments (‘As Tommy…’, ‘The Tense Changes’) that rekindle the same spark that The Postal Service did with their songs.

Beautifully structured as a musical palindrome, Mitchell has presented a never-ending cycle of swirling lo-fi folktronica.

 

GOGOL BORDELLO
Gypsy Punks (Side One Dummy/Stomp)

While they hail from New York City this album breathes a mixture of Clash revolution and Pogues revelry, its title of Gypsy Punk right on the money.

Steeped in the cultural musical heritage of eastern Europe, with its interplay of violins, accordions and chorus-line chants, it’s structured punk side works to really propel these songs, the guitars and drums blistering beneath it all. ‘Not A Crime’ and ‘Think Locally Fuck Globally’ rouse the spirits with a multitude of voices heralding change, and with songs so culturally diverse, the core melodies regularly come from ethnic structures (and the odd reggae trip) – ‘Immigrant Punk’ and ‘Avenue B’ create a sound that will be fresh to most ears.

Not since Les Negresses Vertes has a group tried to reinvent such revelry and musical camaraderie, its uniting sounds only a good thing for punk.

 

THE WHATS
All Mouth No Trousers (Reverberation)

Whether as a side project to their long-time band Screamfeeder or as something definitively different, it’s hard not to look at The Whats as a legitimate entity in its own right.

With a very back-to-basics approach to the songwriting and sound, these 13 songs have a fun, old school rockity-roll feel to them, made up entirely of the sparse drums of Dean Shwereb and the guitar/vocals of Tim Steward. This approach brings the hooks and grooves easily to the fore in full hip-swinging effect, ‘Trouble’, ‘Chorus Ghetto’ and ‘Where Was I’ unashamedly brash in their delivery and resonance.

In this day and age, you can be sure of a few things – there will always be good three-chord punk, sad country and, in this case, stripped bare, stomped-out rock. So just enjoy it!

 

HORRORPOPS
Bring It On (Hellcat/Shock)

These Danish psychobillies pack a greater punch with their second album, full of all the hooks and drive that lies throughout rockabilly’s extensive history.

Charging their honky-tonk rock foundations with punk attitude and speed, ‘Freaks In Uniform’ and ‘Bring It On!’ get the album racing. What makes this band work though are the moments of restraint – in ‘Hit’N’Run’ and ‘Walk Like A Zombie’, they’re not afraid of having their hearts on their sleeves and their sound steeped in the history that preceded their genre. Songs like ‘It’s Been So Long’, with its saccharin guitars and vocals, are sure to piss off purists and give the band crossover appeal, but this cross-pollination actually does more to keep rockabilly interesting, the songs here never sounding watered down.

Ultimately, the Horrorpops do look harder than they sound, but even kids – punk, psychobilly or whatever – need something to snap their fingers to now and then.

 

BOYSKOUT
School Of Etiquette (Alive/Chatterbox)

This all-girl group of post-punk rockers have been slowly filtering this record out across the world for almost two years and with it now being our turn, it seems to still fit perfectly in with our current musical trends, it’s sound sitting side by side with the Presets or Snapp Krakk.

With a penchant for dark new-wave moods (especially Pornography-era Cure), the standard rock set up of bass, drums and guitar is filtered heavily through the barrel of thick keyboard overtones. While never totally turning dancefloor (‘Imaginary’) or fully rocking out (‘Sunday Morning’), there’s a constant edginess in the vocals and disdain in the air that makes it sound like they’re holding something back.

Still, with something for punks, goths and synthkids alike, Boyskout are sure to strike a chord with those ready to swoon their way through the dark nights.

 

AMBULANCE LTD
Self-titled (TVT/Shock)

Take away the noisy 80% of Sonic Youth and you’re left with the lovely pop parts and that’s the majority of Ambulance LTD’s sound right there. The indie guitar-pop shimmers in ‘Stay Where You Are’ and sounds quirky in ‘Primitive’, the songs always hinting at more unbridled sounds but never fully unfurling. Vocalist _____ has a whimsical way with words that recalls Stephen Malkmus, but the overt pop sensibilities never let the content of these five songs stray for long.

 

SIGUR ROS
Takk… (EMI)

Iceland’s Sigur Ros are as removed from pop as popular music can get – the sound that’s slowly been expanding over three albums is here both honed and reinvented into music as beautiful and harsh as their Arctic winds.

The 11 songs here have more sonic weight than their previous album, drums and cymbals cascading throughout ‘Takk…’ and ‘Met Blotnasir’. The vocals of Jon Thor Birgisson are emotions filled with sound, but unfettered by the crudeness of language, his soaring and uniquely high falsetto as powerful as all the instruments around him.

While there’s the strings and bowed guitars that you’d expect, there’s also jovial moments like the tubas in ‘Se Lest’ and on several occasions you’re reminded that this is a rock band of unique vision, not some mini-opera.  This no more evident than in ‘Soeqlopur’ and ‘Gong’, tracks that rival Godspeed You! Black Emperor for orchestrated ferocity.

Ultimately, in the context of modern music, Sigur Ros could only be aptly described as a sound of innocence both blind to and more powerful than a world of wrongs. Whether it’s sounds of sadness or joy, these songs cry out like a child would for its mother, communicating something vital and pure that only the coldest heart would ignore.

 

FEAR FACTORY
Transgression (Roadrunner)

From the outset, this doesn’t sound like the Fear Factory of old, primarily due to line-up changes, with former bass player Christian Olde Wolbers now shredding it on guitar while former Strapping Young Lad bassist Byron Stroud takes up the bottom end.

At the core, this is still very much the blistering tech-heavy metal that’s defined their 15-year career, but with new songwriters comes a different focus. There are no longer banks of effects and samples, their moods present in but a few songs and on Bell’s vocals. A thick wall of deep guitar does blanket everything, this held up by Herrera’s arrhythmic drum patterns and countered by the hooks of Bell’s soaring counter-melodies.

For the first time, their music presents a warmth that draws you in; still emotionally enraged, the cold futuristic precision of the past is now precision with a human soul and sound to it. For the first time, Fear Factory sound like they have ahead of them a real path beyond their future hell.

 

SHOUT OUT LOUDS
Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (Capital/EMI)

Okay, first thing, The Shout Out Louds don’t shout, howl or rock out in the way that their exterior suggests. They do, though, pop, chime, yearn and bop their way through a debut album of 11 tunes.

Consisting of five Swedes playing with a Bright Eyes-come-Interpol-ish pop-rock sound, they mix the moody air of their songs with a gleeful delivery that comes across in a very uplifting manner. ‘Very Loud’ is a building exhortation of sound; ‘Oh Sweetheart’ on the other hand is a unique mix of wafting strings and straightforward bottom-heavy stomp. There’s the odd Grandaddy-esque reflective ballad (‘A Track And A Train’, ‘Go Sadness’), but all in all it’s the sort of fun springtime music that you would expect from say, The Go Betweens. Luckily it’s arrived at just the right time and will hopefully be blossoming out of stereos far and wide.

 

MORTI VIVENTI
AKA: The Living Dead (Timberyard/Shock)

With a searing sound, these five boys from Melbourne have unleashed their debut EP, five songs of angular rock-come-hardcore that progressively build with intensity. Sonically similar to The Icarus Line or Hot Snakes, this is basically solid rock with the tempo sped up and squalling noise working as the glue to keep everything together. While pushed to the limit, Jordan Bloomer’s vocals luckily never fall into bad screamer mode, ‘Roman Polanski Discoteque’ the best example of his forceful delivery.

2005
09/30
CATEGORY
Music Reviews
TAGS

























Leave a comment