Hi, hello - how the devil are you - some review type things for you -
Jason Urick ‘the eternal return’ (thrill jockey). Our ears occasioned a wee spot of fondness for this when said cut - a promo download MP3 of a track culled from Mr Urick’s ‘husband’ full length reared into view. To much admitted embarrassment we must own up to not having been previously aware of Mr Urich’s work with both WZT Hearts and thismoonstealingproject though judging by this brief shot it’s a situation we will be endeavouring to remedy because judging by ’the eternal return’ - once that is the cross wired communicative congestion that greets its arrival soon loosely fades there’s a discernible roar and rumble of turbo igniting riffage at play from out of whose chiming drone rupturing growls there is something which unless our ears do deceive should appeal first and foremost to long serving admirers of the early career catalogue output of Kranky - Stars of the Lid, La Bradford et al as well as those topper most table New Zealand noise niks Messrs Montgomery / Russell. Safe to say we’ll try and persuade the powers that be that a deserving home and eager turntable await a safe visit of said album for review.
A slight name change from the previously featured artist and we arrive at an email from former Dead Can Dance-r Peter Ulrich telling us that he’d been recently been invited to guest on tracks for the forthcoming Piano Magic album ’ovations’ which incidentally is due to hit the streets on the 12th October - which by our reckoning is this Monday. Piano Magic make an all to rare appearance to celebrate the release by playing a short early evening showcase at the Brick Lane Rough Trade shop and spending the rest of the evening at the Café 1001 spinning grooves. You can hear one of the tracks featuring Mr Ulrich’s yang ch’in playing skills by redirecting your mouse in the general direction of http://www.myspace.com/lowbirthweight and tuning into the track ’march of the atheists’ - a heart stopping lushly luxuriant and intoxicating arabesque mirage that seductively snake charms its way through your surrendering defences endowing your listening space with the mystical and the magical, mind you must admit it sounds to us like an all star mid 80’s 4AD gathering being set the task of re-culturing the Zep’s ’kashmir’ into a string drenched sultry slab of entrancing Eastern promise. And here’s more of those Piano Magic types in video form doing ’on edge’ again from the ’ovations’ set…..
http://www.myspace.com/scribblerns - with a brief band biog on their page vying to be weirder than the music they actually make, Nova Scotia’s Scribblers are a wired lot seemingly refusing categorisation - to date they released a handful of albums described at turns in their own words as ’an experimental’ one, ’one with actual songs’ and ’a death poem LP’ before going on to say that their later work has been heralded by the death of the sun and the irretrievable collapse and implosion of our galaxy planet by planet. Mmmm not sure about you but they don’t appear to make things easy for themselves in the selling yourself to new friends stakes. Of course we here are made of sturdier stuff and being the nosey and curious blighters we are decided to venture forth to sample their sonic wares and to be honest bright young things its not that bad for it seems that the Scribblers trade in a neat line of winsomely affecting distressed, battered and scuffed folk road blues funereal swansongs that are scarred and weathered by a teasingly ghostly and weathered and worn off kilter aspect that unless we are very much mistaken sound like something concocted around a midnight campfire gathering of Pere Ubu (especially the opening ‘dawe,daw, da‘), Pavement (the punch drunk and skewed fuzz rippled power chug of ‘middle child‘), Animal Collective and Black Heart Procession (the ominous ache of the dust riddled ‘jellyfish ghosts’) types with Daniel Johnston on hand serving up the beans n’ bangers feast. That said its their later work that reveals are more matured and dislocated mind set at play, the creaking and ominous atmospherics of the isolated drone pulses of ’pullo’ leave you markedly unsettled sounding like as it does like a grimly foreboding pre-overture to some aural horror chill dedicated by UK Decay while in sharpened contrast the rambling porch psychedelics of ’sky eye’ shuffles and stirs with a lysergic largesse. All said our particular fave moments come courtesy of the wallowing bitter sweet beauty of the clearly bliss fuelled, head bowed and inebriated hymnal homeliness of ’my old lady’ and the near perfect and humbling spaced out glow of the gem like ’off my roof’ which really does sound like a wasted and weary prairie located Spiritualized. And lest we forget to mention the Velveteen growl of the smoked neo psyche grinder ‘rock n’ roll party’ as it trumps the current brigade of nu age psych ensembles at their game. We need more of this.
Classic Rock #138 - one of the best music magazines around by our reckoning - it and Classic Prog as it happens - the latter coming via this lot wouldn’t you know - the latest edition - that’ll be issue 4 - is currently lurking upon the news-stands of local newsagents as I write and features a Radiohead exclusive interview plus all your usual prog related dietary requirements fixed upon the grooves of a cover mounted CD - a copy of which we’ll secure tomorrow and mention here no doubt in much fond prose in a day or so. Anyhow back to Classic Rock which arrived at our gaff the middle of last week accompanied by a bumper gift assortment featuring your obligatory cover mount CD comprised of cuts culled from the aural arse pockets of the likes of magic ship, pig iron, buck cherry, wired desire and Ace Frehley as well as a death headed ace of spades styled mouse mat, a sticker and a book featuring excerpts from rocks best writing covering as their chosen subjects Be Bop Deluxe, Humble Pie, the Faces and more besides. As to the magazine - the ominous cover declares in bold ’the 150 albums you must hear before you die’. yes I know what you’re thinking - give that one a miss, but hang on - instead of the usual Zep, Beatles, Floyd and er Stones Roses chart topping tedium all dictated and dependent on which ever trad rag you read - the Classic Rock dudes put a slight spin on proceedings by breaking up the selections into given generic categories and throw in a few guest selections from invited artists so that you have Julian Cope waxing fondly about Jap rock, Walter Trout prizing out some mellowed gems, John Robb revealing his top 5 second wave of punk selections, Steven Wilson discusses concept albums during the course of which he makes two remarks which we are in total agreement with - those being the rediscovered merits of a mature appreciation of the Who’s ‘Tommy’ and the sheer forgotten beauty of Lol Crème and Kevin Godley’s lost nugget ‘consequences’. throw in some choice selective cuts of grunge, southern rock, hair metal, industrial and spock rock and you have a more than refreshing counter argument for discussion at your local watering hole of choice. Elsewhere this issue David Coverdale is the subject of this months ‘how to buy’ or ‘how not’ as the case may be, buried treasure surveys the vaults for a once over of the Norman Haines Bands uber rare ‘den of iniquity’, stories behind the song focuses on Deep Purple’s ‘mary long’ while ACDC’s gives typically good account in this months Q&a feature. Still not satisfied then there’s articles, accounts and interviews with Guy Stevens, Wolfmother with Yes’ defining triptych ‘the yes album’, ‘fragile’ and ‘close to the edge’ are discussed close up. Nuff said I think.
Frightened Rabbit ‘swim until you cant see land’ (Fat Cat). First of two featured releases from those nice chaps over at Fat Cat records comes courtesy of the much admired Frightened Rabbit. Out in a month or so and pressed up on limited quantities of 7 inch wax pressings as well as the usual digital download palaver, ’swim until you can’t see land’ is a sneaky peak from the bands forthcoming as yet untitled full length due for completion and shipment ready sometime next spring. Its marks a slight tweaking in the FR sound dynamic and has them assuming a hitherto more mellowing muse that employs the accompanying string arrangements of label mate Hauschka, a softly swaying gem it should be said that fizzes and crackles with a flighty breeziness all the time working its way delicately as though by slight of hand beneath your skin and past your defences whilst finding itself clipped with a warming feel good MOR scribed folk imbued sea faring sereneness. Need I say more. Mind you flip side ‘fun stuff’ literally knocks it flying into next week, a sumptuously crafted deceptive sweetie that’s so frail and fragile you suspect a sympathetic arm about its shoulder is the order of the day - gorgeously humbling and hollowing this bitter sweetly affected babe see saws amid a sparse shanty pageantry for the part of its crushed duration seeking to loosen its bruised bolt casings towards its mid point wherein it unfurls ever so sweetly to reveal itself pierced with a subtle though stirring chest beating quiet euphoria all metered out by tip toeing bells cascade, a snow flaked winter bound scenes - a tear trembling master class. www.fat-cat.co,uk
Brakes ‘Why tell the truth (when it’s easier to lie)’ (fat cat). Two more cuts pulled from the award winning - well we say award winning without actually knowing for certain that it has won awards - its certainly deserving of awards - and if we had an award to give we’d give it to it - alas we only have a plastic fork which I’m pretty certain they wouldn’t care to be sent. So where were we before we got in a muddle and went seriously off road and wandering. Ah the Brakes - two more cuts culled from their ’touchdown’ set released earlier this year and perhaps two of that albums best tracks if that is you casually choose to forget the near perfect closer ’leaving England’, the Pixies by numbers ’oh forever’ and the arse kicking thud of ’hey hey’. both ’why tell the truth’ and the accompanying flip cut ’worry about it later’ provide ‘touchdown’ with its more stop you in your tracks reflective moments, in some ways they serve as momentary signposts that loosely appear at odds with the sets finite symmetry, each cut from the same bark yet each coiled and crafted to distinctly differing degrees in terms of dynamic. The scowling ‘why tell the truth’ rips and unravels amid a jarring blaze of teeth bearing jack-knifing riffage, acutely angular its opening carefree lull soon finds itself stripped bare and shot to pieces by a savage and scarring venom venting heavily laden aural assault that literally pins your lugs to the listening wall. In sharp contrast ’worry about it later’ is marked by a souring and hollowed underpin that’s dutifully set afloat to skip, hop and hip shimmy with such breathless airiness you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a distant and forgotten love child of Dylan.
There’s also a live album about to surface shortly from the Brakes entitled ’rock is dodelijk’ - a twenty track set featuring material culled from a hometown appearance in August 2008 and a set from Cologne recorded in May this year. Billed as a ’best of’ collection it comprises of tracks culled from their career defining three full lengths - expect reviews shortly. www.fat-cat.co.uk
A little something that we’ll be re-visiting later in the week is the forthcoming single from Majiker entitled ‘tongue’ which according to Jeff at Gaymonkey records will be hitting the digital racks shortly via two extended play formats positively bulging with remixes, the single culled from Majiker’s full length ‘body - piano - machine’ is graced by the video below which stars American actress Tiffany Limos. The single itself is driving me to distraction mainly because asides sounding like a silken and sophisticated Beloved the blighter is blessed with a hook so familiar to our younger self that its causing it to scream itself through the years though for the life of us we can’t nail it - though I’m strongly suspecting its something of the Imagination et al late 70’s / early 80’s disco vein - mind you bet its something embarrassingly obvious like Kraftwerk or some such - anyway the video…..
OK ‘Its not too late’ (sound of monkey). Ridiculously catchy and effervescent, the debut offering from Cardiff beat pop combo OK may just well be the perfect shot in the arm for those preferring their sounds primed with a sense of refusal to toe the current trendy party line set by certain magazines whose names we won’t sully the pages to mention here. Admittedly on first initial listening peaks at their debut full length ‘under the weather but over the moon’ we here are picking up on the homely though subtle skiffle folk pop dialects much admired by the likes of early career incarnations of the Coral / Zutons and something of the Blur boys (see ‘any other way’) that said ‘the dawn chorus’ does rather more find itself possessed of a fracturing Latino tweaked Black Francis / Pixies-esque wonkiness. So to the lead out single ’it’s not too late’ - something of a fly in the ointment it has to said because this bugger is a brazen radio rogering dynamo that bristles with an uncontrollable sun shining aspect that quite frankly ought to come complete with antidote jabs made up as it is of soaring and swerving swoon like love tipped riff arrows the type of which cause the hairs on the back off your neck to stand on end while simultaneously being crafted and kissed with a cutesome pop sensibility that fizzes and sparkles with a more than unnatural ear twinkling affection. www.telltheworldok.com
Here’s a video for ‘stiff upper lip’ taken from the aforementioned debut full length ‘under the weather but over the moon’….well cute…
Expect Hidden Shoal action aplenty over the course of the next missive or so as they gear up for the end of the year and shift their release schedule gears into overdrive….first up….
The City of Satellites ’stranger than fiction’ (hidden shoal). Last venturing these pages way back at missive 181 wherein we were sent to swoon heaven courtesy of the silken electro retro sounds found on their sumptuous three track ’the spook’ EP debut. The duo - Jarrod and Thomas - have spent the intervening year busily sculpturing an album which now completed is proudly lined up on the shelf awaiting release at the tail end of next month. The album entitled ’machine is my animal’ continues their odyssey into the realms of dream pop, ’stranger than fiction’ culled from that set to serve as a taster is equipped with hulking ice tipped chorus’ of synth chime serenades that cast out a colourfully vibrant swirling haze that’s both as demurring as it is intoxicating all the time regaling within a disarming shy eyed aspect brought to the fore by Jarrod’s softly caressing feminine like vocals and arrested by the uplifting backdrops of starry eyed dream weaves - one we suspect for admirers of OMD’s ’Souvenir’. www.agora.hiddenshoal.com
More later this week - have fun and take care of yourselves
Mark
X
You have been blessed by the Sunday Experience - now don’t let it happen again.
