Missive 43
22-09-2004
Singled Out

Missive 43

Dedicated to Kelly and Mark, as always, in my every waking thoughts.

Singled Out – Sorting out the bullshit so you don’t have to’.

My, my I do spoil you don’t I? Okay the second of a fair few limited edition daily singled out missives due to run until this weekend and then it’s on a weekly footing (further info please check yesterdays musings: Missive 42).

Also please check likewise for details for cover mount CD submissions and other such like and to take note of my address as opposed to the magazine’s address, which talking of the magazine is out and about, somewhere. Information if you should need it about any of this then email me at mark@losingtoday.com

The Singles…….

Dead Combo ‘You don’t look so good’ (Output). A rather smart way to open these particular musings we think courtesy of New York based Finnish duo Nuutti Kataja and Harri Kupiainen who operate under the guise of Dead Combo. ‘You don’t look so good’ is a title that could easily apply to the song if the word look was replaced by sound, given that it has a odd funereal cast to it as though someone has gone out during the witching hour with a spade (and a rusty spanner…sorry couldn’t resist it Moz cadettes) and torch to the nearest rock graveyard and started exhuming old bits and pieces belonging to early Suicide and JMC releases and then, as though in some moment of Dr Frankenstein like genius, has wired the assembled limbs together and then given it an appreciation of early primitive Cramps, Gun Club and a smattering of austere Kraftwerk. The resulting creation a sparse, primal sounding electro- (rocka) billy groover from the dark side. In short imagine real early Gallon Drunk with electronics. Flip over to hear a live rendition recorded at the legendary CBGB’s of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ horse drawn and quartered in such sweet spastic like style and sounding more like Vega’s latter career association with Steve Lironi as Revolutionary Corps of Teenage Jesus rather than Suicide, all in all it’s doomy, deranged, detached and deliriously delicious, guaranteed. www.outputrecordings.com

Bloc Party ‘Little Thoughts’ (Wichita). Yum bloody yum a new release from media darlings Bloc Party, now signed to Wichita records these kids are I believe now minor chart pop stars not that I have a) the time to watch the nations dreariest pop show i.e. Top of the Pops, b) the inclination to watch the nations dreariest pop show i.e. Top of the Pops or c) have a TV on which to watch the nations dreariest pop show i.e. Top of the Pops (I think a theme is developing here…and in fact we do have a TV except it’s got one of those ultra cool built in sensors that weeds out shite programs…however if any company’s out there fancying a little promotion feel like sending a wide screen super duper plasma whatsitsface type thing, then hell buddy Top of the Pops is my favourite show, though the odd i-Pod, jaguar motor car and a house by a lake in the middle of nowhere will ensure I’ll be favourable to whatever crap you throw my way excepting Gareth Gates, sometimes there is a line even the devil knows that!). Blimey where was I? Bloc Party. Currently to be found in the studio recycling old tunes (only joking) in readiness for their debut album out early next year, for now this little teaser which I’d have to admit to saying doesn’t hit with the same potency as their previous releases, that’s not to be read as being bad, but those expecting the usual austere, angular agit pop formula be prepared instead for what sounds like the Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and Supergrass in a 1979 punk / new wave stand off shock pub fight stylee with Mega City 4 standing in a circle around them putting in the odd cursory boot for good measure. Packed aplenty with enough throbbing bass lines, serrated riffs and the odd to die for edgy hook ultimately making it stand out from the chasing pack. Flipside features the more with it ‘Storm and Stress’ obviously nothing to do with the Touch and Go act, but that said there is that nagging math rock (don’t you just hate that term…why not Pythagoras wave?!) groove undercutting throughout, think Rock of Travolta meet a tamed Fire Engines both with a penchant for an aggressively spasmodic white funk dynamic. Does it for me anyway and pressed on sky blue vinyl in case you needed a further prod. www.wichita-recordings.com

The Little Killers ‘You got it made’ (Sweet Nothing). Rumbling rawk ‘n’ roll of the highest order. This (two girls / one guy) New York based trio already have been the subject of such fevered chatter in the cooler corners of the Big Apple so much so that Crypt records even ended their self imposed ban on new bands to sign them up and rush out their debut album which, by all accounts, has been kicking the competition into submission, and something which I’m gagging to hear based on this smarting raw as f*** two track debut on Sweet Nothing. An awesome wreckin’ ball of some measure with riffs so sharp you get cuts just being near, its easy to see why Crypt got so re-inspired given that ‘You got it made’ is blessed with a scuzzy fuzzed up exterior sounds like it just dropped through a wormhole straight out of the 60’s sounding like a rampant but playfully dirty Blues Explosion trashing MC5 while doing Heartbreakers / Chuck Berry licks for laughs. Flip the disc and you get a particularly hook zapping cover of blues master, Willie Dixon’s ‘Mellow Down Easy’ which if memory serves me right was at one time covered by the Black Crowes a few years back, left in the hands of the Little Killers they run the old baby into the garage for a complete overhaul, turbo, undercarriage, interior, new hubs ‘n’ chromes the lot, think of a cocky Dirtbombs being ram raided by the Soledad Brothers, only better.

The Dirtbombs / Justin Robertson ‘Split’ (Slut Smalls). It’s been way too long since we had anything on the Slut Smalls label so you can imagine our joy (if there’s an excuse to celebrate we’ll find it) at being passed this little nugget on a recent record buying jolly (at Probe records of Liverpool, address as previous missive). Stranger still to find Stateside’s dirtiest, the Dirtbombs, holding court on one side (we honestly thought it was a misprint at first) and going head to head with Lionrock’s, as was, Justin Robertson for instalment three of his ‘True Dirt’ series, where parts 1 and 2 went is anyone’s guess. The Dirtbombs serve up the riotously screwball ‘She played me like a bugger’ which has that essence of Mudhoney when they were going through their stripped down Garage / Mod faze (okay that doesn’t narrow it down I agree let’s try the splits they were doing around ‘She’s just Fifteen’ okay?) replete with off the rail antics, off the wall riffs, drunken party antics and the kind of heart stopping key changes that go to make a release that’s all at once wired, fraught, daft and alarmingly addictive. Justin Robertson is pretty much more closer to the spirit of Slut Smalls previous outings albeit if it is quite sugary tasting in a pop kind of way. No introductions needed here, Justin is famous for his remixes and work with the likes of the Manics, Bjork, Elton John in fact it’d be easier to write a list of the artists he hasn’t worked with. ‘Twisted and Torn’ has a strange Hacienda / late 80’s like after taste to it, a bit like latter career A Certain Ratio having their tapes nicked and re-jigged by Electronic and looped with a subtle waft of Stex’s ‘Still feel the rain’ with Hookie doing a guest spot with his trademark bass by the knees, perfect if you like your pop driving and casually laid back summery sounding. www.buggedout.net

Signaldrift / Nudge / Caural ‘Split’ (Frank Wobbly and Sons). The plot thickens, not barely 24 hours ago (Singled Out 42) we were recounting our puzzlement over what we thought was the missing release from the recent ultra limited series of 6 seven inch splits put out by the Wobblyhead splinter label, Frank Wobbly and Sons. After rooting through the releases to be reviewed we’ve unearthed another this time instalment 2. In brief these releases where put out at the start of the year all strictly limited to 250 copies worldwide with no chance of repress. Wobblyhead stars Signaldrift (Frank Buchholtz) snuggle up alongside Tigerbeat 6’s Nudge (Brian Foote and friends) for a spot of sweet music making with My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Nothing much to lose’ being the object of their desires. Not at all like the sound that I imagined in my head as to how the end result from this collaboration might come across, in fact its quite sedate and dare I say it, spellbinding. Opening to the sound of spectral orchestrations that soon melt away into a lightly bearing locked down looping hypnotic groove that in truth puts me in mind of early Stereolab crossing swords with Th’ Faith Healers. Damn fine with it. Caural (Zach Mastoone) has been peppering the undergrounds hipsters for some now with several releases via Chocolate Industries. ‘The girl with the stained glass eyes’ has him mutating through a series of subtle sound progressions, it offers a puzzling allure initially sounding quite wonkily warped (so much so we even checked the record to make sure it wasn’t that that was wonkily warped) he soon breezily enhances the melody with an off balanced frostily twee décor that’s both fluffy and sparsely frail at times passing for the Red House Painters as though collaborating with Duruti Column to gently shift again towards the finale where the wintry wrap of Archer Prewitt auditioning for FSA awaits. Excellent stuff it has to be said. www.wobblyhead.com

The Casanovas ‘Shake It’ (Hell Squad). This Melbourne based trio last featured in these musings as part of the stomping ‘St Valentine’s Killers’ mini compilation earlier this year for Butcher’s Hook records and saw them sharing billing with the Flaming Sideburns, the Hellacopters and the Datsuns and putting in the boot themselves with a ripping cover of Ted Nugent’s ‘Just what the doctor ordered’. Since then there’s been an album entitled the Casanovas which I’m yet to hear (another excuse to harass the local vinyl emporium) and from which the lead track featured here ‘Shake it’ is taken. Both devilish and dirty it at times nibbles away with a jagged riff that’s sounds at times like Tom Petty’s ‘Running down a dream’ only speeded up, ‘Shake it’ as you’d imagine from the title is a drop dead gorgeous slab of floor bouncing rock ‘n’ roll mayhem that’s ran ragged with a ferocious metal blues heart at its core, executed with screeching solos to make even Iron Maiden pant with admiration and a no nonsense in your face scowl delivered at 100mph, dare you avoid? ‘Let it ride’ over on the flipside sounds at times like the Saints stripped down to the bare bones bunking on to the Canvey Island pub rock bandwagon to chew up and spit out T-Rex for fun splintering the whole thing with riffs lifted from the more potent of AC / DC’s back catalogue. Vengeful stuff. www.hellsquadrecords.au

Velma ‘A different atmosphere’ (Lykill). Those with good memories may recall us joyously singing the praises of this French based labels return to the fold after a short sabbatical with the divine release from Piano Magic off shoot Textile Ranch. Now it’s the turn of Switzerland based trio Velma to win over your hearts with this alluring little two-track release. Now we have wrestled this, yes sir we have wrestled, ‘A different atmosphere’ is not so much droney (which in fact it is) it’s more to do with how Velma creepily build texture upon texture giving you the impression that at any given time soon their going to emerge from behind a hidden corner and decimate your speakers with some abrupt sonic uproar. Of course it never happens, instead Velma instil a subtle menace, plenty of moodist dynamics and a shed load of what can only pas for an eerie almost chilling demeanour to their cause, while possessing a seriously blissed out lazy eyed Spacemen 3 vibe as though Boom and Co where overdosing on some seriously out of it medication. Flipside features the equally tasty ‘No risk to be taken’ which despite its slightly more upwardly jaunty exterior still finds them wrapped in an oddly off centred down tempo fabric that fuses together a gently looping piano motif over the faintest of shuffling beats whilst being attached to a seriously arresting noire-ish soundtrack like back drop that recalls a three way conglomeration of sorts between El Muniria – Godspeed and the Blue States. Worthy of investigation indeed. www.lykill.com

Tunng ‘Maypole Song’ (Static Caravan). And by way of a nightcap and to make sure your all-comfy and safe here’s a sly little gem of a record to tuck you up for night. Again one of those lathe cut clear polycarbonate releases that are, as is always the case, extremely limited, this one in fact strictly to 100 pressings and featuring Tunng who we honestly believe will be the subject of a fair number of critical lists in the very near future now that they have an album in the can and ready for imminent release entitled ‘Mothers daughter and other songs’ and so good is it that we like to reckon all who’ll hear will, by rights, fall head long in love with before term times out in fact this disc even features a tasty teaser in the shape of ‘Surprise me 44’. Tunng are normally to be found filed under the leftfield / experimental umbrella and yet it’s probably a mistake to assume as such as while they tread a similar lulling path as many of the current crop of so called folk-tronic artists such as J Xaverre, their acoustic glitch pop owes more to the softening folk styles so often found hiding amid the Fence Collective roster. In fact the inclusion here of a cover of ‘The Maypole Song’ originally on the ‘Wicker Man’ soundtrack bears testament that spiritually they are a more reclining version of Candidate (who themselves have incidentally released an album ‘Nuada’ inspired by the same film) but with the accompaniment of skipping clicks and blips to mix. It’s a well thought out idea to include the cover as it fits perfect with the sleepy eyed rustic charm that seems to invade throughout their compositions creating that unseen bridge between the timeless and the tranquil. ‘Surprise me 44’ takes you doey eyed by the hand to skip without a care in the world through enchanted woods, breathlessly dizzy and docile very much sounding like a more upbeat and less tortured King Creosote, mellow, laid back and shimmering with mouth watering desire. www.staticcaravan.org

Till tomorrow chaps and chapess’ for another bag on wing ding dinging life depending tunes.

May the groove be with you.

Take Care,

Mark
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