Missive 99 - part 2
20-05-2006
Singled Out

Missive 99
Part 2

Dedicated to Mark and Kelly - missing you

As advertised above - part 2 - part three and no doubt part 4 to follow v.shortly - all contact info etc…see part 1’s preamble type gubbins…..

Cheju ‘Partition’ (October Man Recordings). Frankly you could have beaten me senseless and the smile brought about by this release would still have remained fixed and beaming brightly. Those with memories stretching back - ooh - a month or two ago may well remember us fondly waxing lyrical about Cheju’s ‘A rainy mile’ EP for Static Caravan. Since then there’s been an explosion of activity at Chez Cheju (Wil Bolton) what with the ‘Despite all resolutions’ EP available from Camomile (http://camomille.genshimedia.com/091.htm); a live split with Mint available via Kahvi at www.kahvi.org/110.php and his debut full length ‘Pica’ for Unlabel as part of their ongoing Series 52 catalogue (which is basically the issue of a weekly release by an artist not normally associated with Unlabel - each edition limited to just 100 cd-r pressings - subscriptions are still up for grabs - check www.unlabel.net for more information). Okay that’s the recent history out of the way. Cheju as said previously is none other than Wil Bolton a London based producer / musician and label owner (Boltfish Records - home of Statskcartsa, Mint, Infinite Scale, Lum, October Man etc….) who seems to delight in wiling away his days constructing and despatching his delicately absorbing electronic hatchlings to all fortunate enough to hear them. Pressed on an orange CD and housed in a homemade cream and gold sleeve designed by the man himself, this tasty 5 track outing is ridiculously limited to just 50 copies and only available via Norman Records (www.normanrecords.com) for a measly 95p plus postage (surely some mistake there?) and sure to have sold out faster than the time it takes you to say where my feckin credit card given that the labels previous 10 releases have a flown the coup in record time (well one of them was limited to just 7 copies). As said - five sublime slices of electronics and treated guitar ear wear lovingly inhabit this set that by our reckoning are of a better and more honed standing than those found orbiting that tremendous Static release (see above). The set opens with the grand sounding ‘Data Packet’ a stately slice of something else pop, all at once contemplative, drifting, lulling and creative wise expansive to the point it as though you are being lovingly smothered by an ever consuming and ever evolving (texture wise) hermetically sealed lunar-esque bubble of delights. Chamber like initially it soon begins to unfurl into a deliciously affectionate cocktail of glacial pirouettes and Oriental regalness with temptingly treading squelching beats that converge to gently tweak the mid 80’s standard bearing Harold Faltermayer euro electro pop axis while at varying points sublimely cross referencing elements of Japan (’Tin Drum’), Manual, Portal and the lushly vibrant ambient folds more common of Yellow 6. The aching ‘Sundial’ is more skeletally honed in terms of texture, execution and delivery, bobbling around in its own lonesome orbit it could be a tearfully mournful post scripting overture for a long forgotten celestial beach front contrast those moods with the classic metronomic chassis of ’Outdubstarn’ with its ‘Autobahn’ era Kraftwerk meets early career Jean Michel Jarre mindset as though paired down into a cerebra dissolving kaleidoscopic sonic experiment blurred with the suggestion of vague acid / house crossovers with Fly’s 70’s retro induced motorik ’Put the needle down and fly’ used as a key overriding template onto which Sonic Boom crafts his hypnotic states of tranquillity. The atmospheric sounds capes and subtle house / club overlays hinted within are coaxed seductively to the fore by a superbly scored remix of the same track by Mint. Elsewhere not forgetting the wonderfully lilting ‘Casiotonic’ which like ‘Sundial’ previously courts an element of sad eyed seaside ballrooms, think TV test card signatures given a lullaby-esque polish by Raymond Scott with ISAN on hand to twiddle with the analogue controls - one suspects that toasters and other electrical instruments may well see this as ’lurve’ music - you have been warned. Absolutely recommended. www.members.lycos.co.uk/octoberman or www.cheju.co.uk

Indafusion ‘Runts of Darwin’ EP (Circular). An absolute gem of a record - in fact an absolute fucking gem of a record if that’ll make you sit up and take notice. It’s not beyond the realms of reason that this will figure highly in any end of the year poll given the chance. But first as always its apologies - because I think I might be right in saying we’ve had this for a fair old while - it literally being rediscovered only today and since that re-discovery the blighter has refused to give up its podium on the hi-fi. Indafusion for those not acquainted - as were we - are a Dunfermline based trio who to date have one full length under their collective belts - 2004’s ’Sweeping the Stars’. Filed under the indie / space rock bracket which itself is a bit of a misnomer, Indafusion as their 4 track EP ’Runts of Darwin’ attests are more your jack of all trades in that presented with a challenge you’d rightly expect this lot to lance the crap out of any genre without even breaking into a sweat. Quite simply one of the best we’ve heard in ages in terms of musical dexterity their ability to fuse / twist and drop unexpectedly the various elements of psyche / progressive / hard / punk and AOR is simply stupefying. Don’t be fooled into thinking what passes as the initial intro to the first / opening cut is an indicator as to what’s to unearth here - ’David and the Great Fog’ intro is as unrepresentative as you can get. Perhaps noteworthy for the guitar sound initially - imagine an illicit after hours knee trembling tremolo bunk up between the guitars of Queen’s Brian May and Thin Lizzy’s Gary Moore - nuff said. From thereon in you’re staring down the barrel of riff gun spewing forth a cascade of cool as fuck hip hugging booty shaking grandeur that swerves and swoons with such cock sure cat walk swagger it flattens you. As though to pour salt on what you perceived to be a pretty smart record collection the almost theatrical ’Elephant: Emperor of the Animals’ (don’t be alarmed by the title) just rips you up and deposits you in the middle of next week, a rampant chameleon of a cut that dips, ducks and twists through so many generic stables it leaves you panting for more - initially a foot to the pedal swamp grooving grunge babe it soon assumes a soft psyche accent and acquires a cortege of sweetly sweeping strings a la ‘Desiree’ by Left Banke / Nyman’s ’Draughtmans Contract’ before the arrival of fractious white hot fuzz laden riffs. As though wasn’t enough this blistering babe threads its way to the finishing post with some tastily played male variant of Stereolab’s Sadier / Hansen harmonies but getting suitably fraught with a ravenously schizoid riff thrashing finale. If prog rock had ever dared to be this fucking screwball punk would never have gotten a look in. ’Come back Katy 5’ the EP’s closer is a ticking bomb of discordant pop that frenziedly nibbles at Inspiral Carpet’s ’Saturn V’ as though re-trodden with the aid of Ian Hunter. Best of the bunch though the superbly titled ’I psychedelicised the children’. As you’d imagine from such a title it sounds like its stumbled from the Nuggets era wired on mind bending acid solutions and fallen through an Alice in Wonderland like shroom’d flight of fancy on a heliotropic helter skelter hazily into present day. Picking the bones from Beatles ’Magical Mystery Tour’ principally ’The Fool on the Hill’ and ’Blue Jay Way’ it combines the blurring lines with the kaleidoscopic authenticity afforded to psychedelia by the short lived and much missed Murmurs of Irma (whatever happened to them - anyone who knows shout) - the end result a day-glo bus trip through the evaporating mindset of Syd Barrett with ‘Stupid Dream’ era Porcupine Tree as your conductor. So bloody gorgeous it makes you weep in admiration. Single of the Missive by several wayward trips. www.indafusion.co.uk

Isa and the Filthy Tongues ‘I’ll do what I want’ (Circular). Staying with Circular for another corking release this time from Isa and the Filthy Tongues. The Filthy Tongues are in essences made up of ex members of Goodbye Mr McKenzie (‘the Rattler’ / ‘Goodwill City’ etc….) who were pretty much mainstay darlings of Radio 1’s early evening radio schedules in the 80’s and set for major success which somehow eluded them. Evolving into the short lived Angelfish they released one further full length before a certain Shirley Manson left for pastures greener with new friends Garbage. Stacey of Portland, Oregon who incidentally is Isa met the Filthy Tongues in 2004 the rest as they say is history. A debut album just released entitled ’Addiction’ (which we’ve just taken delivery of - a hell it’s a beaut) and the taster single ’I’ll do what I want’ is the first official unveiling to the greater public at large and blimey what an unveiling it is. ’I’ll do what I want’ reveals a band leanly stripped, hungry, recharged, packing an edge and letting themselves go and sounding in the process like their enjoying the whole spectacle. Casually dismissing all that I may have said in previous missives this may well be the coolest thing to have graced our hi-fi in such a long time (well at least until the next cool thing that is), sounding like some craftily concocted throwback from the 60’s thought up in a studio note swapping session between Quickspace and Richard Green’s the Somatics (a pairing indeed alone made in heaven) being dutifully lost in the hazily exotic psyche swirl of crucially classic early career Will Sergeant-esque riff signatures, this baby shimmers achingly all at once bristling, bruised and beautiful, a sweetly stirring soft psyche pop assassin replete with bent out of shape hooks that curve, curl and caress Stacey’s alluring matter of fact delivery - a bit like a day-glo Sonic Youth if you really need a fixed radar point. The gem like ’nae tongues’ precedes the spectacle, a stratospheric instrumental with rumblin’ Wray like signatures buried deep in the mix and saturated with a positive carnival of drip dried effects pedal bliss as though Terry Bickers had taken time out to wire up his guitar collection to create a cosmic rodeo minus the whip cracks, spurs and yee ha’s. Joint deputy single of the missive not ‘arf. www.circular-records.com

Autokat ‘Dish Out’ (Akoustik Anarkhy). Just when you thought it was safe to leave the comfort and sanctuary of your home made bunker up pops another tasty morsel from those dudes with several hands as opposed to fingers on the pulse of what’s passes for essential ear gear on the underground scene - Akoustik Anarchy - between you and me I think it‘s a devilish cottage industry busy up all night creating facsimiles of automated doppelgangers laced with the distilled DNA procured from the finest moments of indie pop from 78 onwards. Having had us already in a state of delirium this year due to two quickly turned out and well heeled singles (Soft Priest and the Loungs - which you should by now own and if not then why are you reading this then - don‘t you like music or something?) and another by the excellently playfully wired Thomas Truax which we’ve just discovered we’ve missed out on which means the rest of the week will be ruined as I trudge about wounded - just exactly where are those sharp razors and rope when you need them. Okay this time around it’s the second outing for Autokat following last years absolutely crucial debut ’The Driver’ which regular viewers to these pages will no doubt remember us falling flat on our faces in awe at - we still have the scars you know. Two new cuts no doubt stupidly limited in quantity - opening with ‘Dish Out’. The first that strikes you about this particular release - both tracks included here - is the production and style. There’s an almost indelible casualness in the air, that experimental ideology of ’anything can happen’ and that unnerving sense of ’where is this going’ that attached to their debut set ’The Diver’ has been diluted and refined in its place a smoothed streamlined chassis has been carved out revealing a stature that only emerges with confidence. The thoroughly laid back ’Dish Out’ is an immediately fetching slice of proto punk pyrotechnics played out at cruise control replete with succulent MOR harmonies and roving melodically light jangle some riff threads of the calibre you’d rightly expect the Stone Roses might have played had they discovered late 70’s / early 80’s new wave and a small bag of speed instead of late 60’s Byrds / psychedelics and e’s and all liberally dusted down with dashing of barbed angulated jabs - quite tasty if you ask us. That said though the real gem is to be found on the flip side where that stature and confidence we mentioned earlier manifests and translates itself superbly on the divinely sounding ‘Get off the bar’. By far the stronger and more melodically developed of the two cuts this cutie has more sexiness and slyly styled strutting street cool than all of NYC‘s feted underground put together. A simply numbing babe that prods and presses salaciously beset by a devilish hip hugging grind that 1.33 in suddenly explodes into a euphoria inducing stratospheric sound wall of surging shoe gaze like feedback that literally cuts you in half to be soaked in its aching grandeur - in short their ’Creep’ but without the gnarled bits and that sense of wretchedness. Joint deputy single of the missive. www.akoustikanarkhy.co.uk

Blacknoisewhitesoul ‘Dirty Darkness’ (U-Discs). Time for us to partake in a little of that humble pie because in truth we should have reviewed this aeons ago - but then we are stupid here when it comes to filing CD’s and hey we swear (and its not excuse) that when records arrive here they do - honest - grow legs and go playing with all the other records. Well as implausible as it may seem that’s our excuse and we are sticking with it. No doubt you’ve no need for me to tell you how good this release is as you’ve no doubt been posing and seductively putting it about to it on all the coolest club floors - for those however wondering what the fuss is all about then budge up a bit and I’ll whisper in your ear. ’Dirty Darkness’ / ‘Sometimes with the Pet Shop Boys’ is an abrupt about turn compared to this collectives debut ‘Pop genius’ / ‘Sal the Swindler’ which was much loved in this gaff. Gone are the hi-fi chomping guitars and brazen riffs and in their place something deeply alluring, immeasurably statuesque and lovingly textured takes its place. Hard to believe it’s the same mindset at play such is the contrast. ‘Dirty Darkness’ is lush with silken sitars teasingly threaded with majestic orchestrations that shimmer with Eastern promise and dark industrial delight, sultry in nature they err with caution on the right side falling short of being claustrophobic, snake charm like vocals provided by Electric Boy Shock’s Kirsty M cavort and purr sensually all the time wickedly corrupting you - it’s enough to give your hi-fi and stand on. Flip over to hear the Pet Shop Boys ‘West End Girls’ suitably stripped off its pomp and given an earthy 21st C retread on the seismic ‘Sometimes with the Pet Shop Boys‘, wickedly infectious and very much reminiscent of those remixes of the type so much loved by early 90’s starlets Paris Angels which in our book is as near to perfect as you can get. www.u-discs.com - and while we are with u-discs expect a whole full length from the amazing Salon Boris towards the end of June.

Till part 3

Don’t forget - pod cast and net label specials - please feel free to contact if you need a mention

Take care

Mark
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