reviews
albums
65DAYSOFSTATIC ***
Wild Light (Superball) A press release about disregarding preconceptions – namechecking two early Tool albums – suggested a more dramatic volte-face might have been on the cards. As it is, Sheffield’s 65daysofstatic develop on the synth experimentation of 2010’s We Were Exploding Anyway, dipping a toe into Squarepusher territory. Thoughtful and evocative, Wild Light suggests they could easily follow Mogwai into soundtrack composition, but without the big riff kick-ins of ASIWYFA or Adebisi Shank, it may prove a little too reflective for instrumental post-rock’s current tastes. GP
The Earth and Strangetown Records. JE
CLOUD CONTROL *****
Dream Cave (Infectious) In contrast to the psych-folk-centric style of their debut, this slick follow-up sees the Australian quartet veer towards a more refined and consistent sound. Dream Cave finds momentum in glossy vocal harmonies and effusive chamber pop melodies, with standout fare delivered in Scar and lead single Dojo Rising. Showcasing a hypnotic sense of drive and glistening charm, the album stands as a melodic as well as robust second studio venture, presenting a relentless fresh direction for the band. CP
drum’n’brass covers like Goldie’s Inner City Life and a Prodigy Medley peppering this vibrant album, you can play guess the groove and do your best James Brown shoe shuffling. CS
HJALTALíN *
Enter 4 (Hjaltalín/Believe) This Icelandic septet is a pretty big deal in their homeland – racking up awards, positive press from all the big players and being favourably compared to Arcade Fire – but all this hype is lost on me. While the album is beautifully produced with luscious strings and was born in difficult circumstances involving mental illness, it simply isn’t an enjoyable, interesting or inspiring listen. When the nice melodies do shine through the experimental flourishes, they’re ruined by malodorous lyrics and irritating vocals. SE
A cool thing about making a wholly instrumental concept album, as Berlin-based househead Murphy Jax has done here, is that the ‘concept’ can be about whatever you like. This one concerns “a pre-apocalyptic generation of robots on a planet of machines,” which almost sounds like a parody of what spacecase synth-blissed Chicago-indebted jackmasters – folks like Murphy himself, in other words – daydream about. Equally beholden to Phuture and John Carpenter over 15 largely thrilling tracks, thus steeped in the past, but immaculate if you’re cool with that. NG
MY FAVORITE ROBOT ****
Atomic Age (No. 19 Music) Toronto’s My Favorite Robot are back with another slice of synthy goodness. These heavy, layered tunes will transport you to a dark club filled with lust and sweat; the ground moving with every thud of bass, the room spinning as the synths whip you into to another climactic frenzy. Certain cuts have a nostalgic 80s feel about them, while the vocals are perfectly placed and almost always add to the feel of a song, rather than taking attention away from the captivating music. IR
EXIT_INTERNATIONAL ****
Our Science is Golden (Undergroove) Welsh indie-botherers Exit_International are masters of the unexpected. The guitarless trio’s third release is no less abrasive than their previous efforts, but a few curveballs are slam-dunked in for good measure. Pockets of minimal electro and garage band rehearsal squalls punctuate the rough and ready riffs, and vocalist Scott Lee Andrews’ guttural playground chanting on The Creeps is deliciously disturbing. By the time the gut-rumbling closer Sod Off, Punk rolls around you can almost taste the bile. BH
KA TATONIA ***
Dethroned & Uncrowned (Kscope) Nope, it’s not some kind of crazy Cerys Matthews tax dodge – Katatonia are in fact prestigious Swedish forerunners of the death/doom metal subgenre. Dethroned And Uncrowned, their ninth studio album, actually comes across as remarkably fresh. There’s a carefully managed level of space and introspection the tracks, and some interesting instrumentation throughout. It’s not really one for newcomers, to be honest, but for fans of the genre – not to mention of Katatonia – it’s certainly worth a listen. BK
BELLE & SEBASTIAN ***
The Third Eye Centre (Rough Trade) Belle & Sebastian enjoyed a return to form after moving to Rough Trade in 2003. This disc compiles B-sides and rarities from the years hence. Inevitably a mixed bag, highlights include Suicide Girl – a song lamenting a friend’s desire to become a porn star, which might have brightened up the underwhelming Write About Love. Their surprisingly successful funk/soul epic Your Cover’s Blown sadly only appears as a remix. The occasional ghastly saxophone solo aside, plenty to tide fans over until the next album proper. APR
YR ODS ***
Llithro (Copa) Welsh-language musos have long been ahead of the game as far as psychedelia-tinged pop goes, so even this summer’s influx of throwback acid-lite indie doesn’t hold a candle to Aberystwyth’s Yr Ods. The foursome have snatched the baton from Super Furry Animals and legged it, introducing ditzy keyboards and strange little hoots into a dance-friendly record that’s two parts Belle & Sebastian, one part undiluted nostaligia. It’s inoffensive and at times a little too saccharine, but charming nonetheless. BH
GLASVEGAS ****
Later… When The TV Turns To Static (G Wow) Glasvegas do what they do and, although the crest of their wave broke and rolled back somewhere between their first two albums, they continue to impress with their bleak urban anthems. Their third album sticks to the above formula, albeit a bit more stripped back in terms of soaring anthems. James Allan says the album is inspired by the loneliness of sitting before a static TV, and there’s the rub. Deluxe version comes with a booklet, DVD and extra tracks. RH
MANIC STREET PREACHERS ****
Rewind The Film (Columbia) The Manics have something of a knack for reinvention: not many artists can rival the manner in which not one release in their 11-album discography conforms to the same intrinsic genre as its predecessor. This latest effort is no different. Having ditched the electric guitar for the first time in their history, in favour of a more stripped-back and multiinstrumental affair, they have produced something very much understated and, at times, downright beautiful which still manages to retain that classic Manics feel. JS
THE BLACK TAMBOURINES ***
The Black Tambourines (Art Is Hard)
JOANNA GRUESOME ****
Weird Sister (Fortuna Pop!) A banner month for debut albums by emergent ramshackle indie bands from Britain’s geographical fringes, who also happen to have silly names: The Black Tambourines, from the Cornish town of Falmouth, and mostly-Cardiff’s-partly-London’s Joanna Gruesome. The former outfit’s method of choosing a moniker (stealing that of an esteemed jangle-pop band of old, but pluralising it) is somewhat redeemed by their bowlcut garage romanticism, most songs under three minutes long and punkily hyperactive like Black Lip. Sorry, that’s The Black Lips. Joanna Gruesome’s LP also carries echoes of Sarah Records, C86 and 90s American twee (it’s released on Slumberland in the US) and, like The Black Tambourines, is 28 minutes long. Recourse to meaty Dinosaur Jr riffs, as well as the winning vocal performance of Alanna McArdle, hands them the imaginary trophy. NG
SENDELICA ***
The Kaleidoscopic Kat and It’s Autoscopic Ego (FRG) Wearing their influences like trophy skins, their music is basically a cut-n-shut job of mid-period Pink Floyd and early Tangerine Dream, and taking a somewhat rote approach to the kosmiche genre, Guitarist Pete Bingham presumably has shares in a factory producing wah-wah pedals and delay devices, West Wales’ Sendelica have created an album which it’s hard to dislike. The soporific skank of the music creates a dreamlike atmosphere, which may or may not be redolent of certain narcotic states. DG
GOLDFRAPP ****
Tales Of Us (Mute) Upon first listen to their mellow yet quirky sixth studio album you’d be forgiven for considering Goldfrapp unrecognisable as the outfit previously responsible for kitsch commercial club stompers like Ooh La La and Ride A White Horse. They put the brakes on all that with 2008 album Seventh Tree, and although they revisited their uptempo period on last album Head First this brings things back down with wonderful organic, floaty tracks titled with female names like Jo, Simone and Laurel. RH
MARK LANEGAN *****
Imitations (Heavenly) Outsider songwriters with a dark and witty slant to their art have a soft spot for crooners and rockabilly rebels from the distant past – Morrisey and Nick Cave are both admirers. So, it is not surprising to hear Mark Lanegan covering Andy Williams, Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra, amongst others, on Imitations. Lanegan has restrained his usual fire and brimstone vocal style to reveal a voice that is as equally moving as Richard Hawley’s or even Alan Vega’s quieter moments. DN
THEO PARRISH ****
Black Jazz Signature: 1971-1976 (Snowdog/Black Jazz) Theo Parrish owns so many records that if you laid them all end to end, they would take ages to put back on their shelves and he’d be furious. Somewhat paradoxically, this mix – selected from the output of cult 70s label Black Jazz, precisely 20 LPs – might be one of the Detroit house-and-its-family-tree DJ titan’s greater challenges yet. Black Jazz generally sat at the spiritual end of the form, but Parrish consistently zones in on the nucleus of the tracks’ grooves, like the expert he is. NG
GOLDIE LOOKIN CHAIN ****
Kings of Caerleon (1983) Hip-hop head with a love of immature funny as fuckness? Get dis ... Shops in Newport, bouncers, Biggi e, drive-thru restaurants: all the big issues are tackled over borrowed beats (Because I’m) is a class take on Beastie Boys’ Ch-Ch-Check It Out). Essential listening, from the opener It’s The Chain onwards: “I’m Mike Balls, I used to listen to Slayer / Ray Barneveld is my favourite darts player.” Need I say any more? JE
MONEY ****
The Shadow Of Heaven (Bella Union) This much-hyped debut is going to be hard to avoid in end of year lists. You can judge these tunes by their cover, depicting one man suspended in mid-air, poised between crucifixion and reverie. The space between the piano notes and the feeling of time suspended gives songs like Goodnight London and Black a transcendental and intimate quality, while Hold Me Forever, the mainstream breakthrough, is resonant of This Mortal Coil’s heavenly hymns. Worship at the altar of money. CS
CIAN CIARAN *****
They Are Nothing Without Us (Strangetown) Cian Ciaran’s second solo album since the last Super Furry Animals effort gets better and better, not that it was bad to begin with. Tracks like Sewn Up, Sleepless Nights and Bee My Baby... to heck with it, the whole album can be feasted upon countless times. I look forward to seeing Cian live; as much as we mourn the loss, or at least extended hiatus, of SFA, we’ve now got Cian Gruff, Gulp, BUZZ 46
HACKNEY COLLIERY BAND ****
Common Decency (Wah Wah 45s) This second from the same Hackney trumpers who conquered the Olympics closer was recorded as-live with all nine of the parping players crammed into one studio. The HCB are more New Orleans than NCB, with self-penned numbers like Superhero Disco, kicking off like a TV theme tune then swinging to the ubiquitous Pete Wareham’s agile sax. With playful
YOUNGBLOOD BRASS BAND ****
Pax Volumi (Tru Thoughts) Whilst a continued proliferation of emerging brass bands continue to challenge and reshape a once abandoned genre, none have done so with
MURPHY JAX ****
Teleport: Echo City (Chiwax)