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ALBUM REVIEWS >>> SCROLL DOWN >>> |
| THE BLACK >>> THE DEAD
LAY WAITING >>> PONAMERO SUNDOWN >>> MARDUK >>> OMO
>>> W.A.S.P >>> MY OWN GRAVE >>> PERE UBU with SARAH JANE MORRIS >>> THE
FEW AGAINST MANY
>>> KILL IT KID >>> VOWELS >>> GONG >>> RAISING SAND >>> WE GOT THIS
FAR >>> DIETER MOEBIUS >>> KALAMAZOO >>> LEAVES' HANDS >>> LEFT LANE CRUISER
>>> WE INSIST >>> MONSTER CEILIDH BAND >>> FOOT VILLAGE >>> AIRPEOPLE >>>
THE ADVENTURES OF LOKI >>> HEALTH >>> VENTFLOW >>> YACHT >>> PORCUPINE
TREE >>> COWMAN >>> PORCUPINE >>> THE VICTORIAN ENGLISH GENTLEMENS
CLUB >>> MERAUDER >>> PRE >>> DAMON & NAOMI >>> IMPIETY >>> CRAZY
ARM >>> O.M.T >>> LIME HEADED DOG >>> TOURNAMENT >>> CONQUEST OF STEEL
>>> YEARS >>> LE CHAT NOIR >>> GUILT MACHINE >>> NEW DEVICE >>> LITMUS |
 2nd
OCT '09: THE BLACK – Alongside Death (Pulverised) - New album from
The Black, now if you're going to play hissing spitting black metal then
just cut to the chase with the no messing band name! The cult Swedish extreme
metal band have been around in one form or another for some fifteen years
or so now and this is abhorrently good extreme old school black metal.
Filthy onslaught of hiss and demonic piss, featuring members of Tyrant,
Eternal Darkness and Vinterland, this is a black wind of relentless noise.
A black noise that finally takes a breath somewhere in the middle of track
seven – The Wrath From Beneath – a stop for breath and some foreboding
low end resonance before they launch in to the fire again with the closing
title track. Alongside Death a throwback to the glorious early days of
no compromise shitstorming extremities, the best days before the whole
idea of black metal got lost in a stew of bluuuuurrrg and million silly
rule obeying identical silly logo parodies. The Black, once again, aren’t
doing that much that’s that different, they are however once again hitting
somewhere near the spot - these days most extreme metal doesn’t hit anywhere
anything any near any spot, most goes straight in the crusher over there
in the corner, once in while that In League With Satan bite crunches down
again, The Black’s new album just did it. Extreme metal from Sweden on
a label from Singapore, you got to love the underground... www.myspace.com/officialtheblack
or www.myspace.com/pulverisedrecords
THE DEAD LAY WAITING
– We Rise (Rising) - Pretty much standard issue aggressive intense relentless
metalcore deathcore grindcore whatevercore. Plenty of growling (give that
man a throat lozenge and tell him to shut up for a moment), there's some
of that technical show-off guitar playing and look at us aren’t we clever,
everything is pretty much a case of never relenting. They deal out an aggressive
onslaught alright, pretty impressive for a bunch of teenagers from Swindon
if you like this kind of thing I guess. The constant yapping, growling
and technical metal wanking is starting to annoy a little bit too much
now... If you want it then here it is, we’re out of here before something
gets broken - www.myspace.com/thedeadlaywaiting
or www.risingrecords.org
PONAMERO SUNDOWN –
Stonerized (Transubstance) – Perfectly righteous heavy stoner rock from
Stockholm Sweden. Simple basic cut straight to the chase stoner rock, heavy
groove, bag loads of big riffs, all the fuzz you need. Nothing radically
different, nothing you haven’t heard before, we could namedrop all the
usual bands needed when reviewing this kind of stuff – Sabbath, Kyuss,
Orange Goblin... Nothing clever needs to be said here, this is simply honest
no messing righteous heavy rock that just hits all the right spots in all
the right ways – in your blood, in your soul... This rocks, they rock,
we like rock. Thick fuzzy in the vital zone no messing heavy fuggin rock!
www.myspace.com/ponamerosundown
or www.myspace.com/transubstans
30th
Sept '09: MARDUK – Wormwood (Regain) – Sweden’s Markuk with
a continuing of that unswerving commitment to blasphemy and extremity...
Extreme black metal delivered with a little more colour than most and if
you really look nothing really is actually black, everything is full of
colour. Brooding extremity that gives way to flesh ripping riffs and punching
jackhammer buzzsaw speed before the next lull softens you up for the next
ripping apart. They not afraid to pace themselves these days, take on a
touch of light and shade, refocus the atmospheres, evolve a little where
once they went for nothing but full on brutality. Still mostly full on
brutality, they haven't gone all wet leaf on us. A rather decent Marduk
album then – www.myspace.com/truemarduk
or www.regainrecords.com
X |
 28th
Sept '09: OMO – The White Album (LoAF) – A minimal, clean
cut, precise kind of everything is white kind of band, white skirt, white
top, white trainers... washing powder clean, second serve, overhead smash.
Clean precise minimal electronic pop, “domestic pop for domestic occasions”.
Clean synthesisers, Laurie Anderson, slightly lo-fi strangely delightful,
Kraftwerk, warm sunny buzz, delightful repetitive goodness, strangely good...
advantage... deuce... Strange half spoken words over repetitive synth
lines and inviting hums, an appreciation of uncluttered space . Electronic
patterns, clever words...
www.l-o-a-f.com
W.A.S.P
– Babylon (Demolition) – Four rip crunching horseman just passed by the
front window, there’s blood on the doorsteps, reptiles jousting around
ankles and a new W.A.S.P. album just dropped. Good god is this what you’d
call a guilty secret? The kind of thing you carry in a plain brown paper
bag? Something you’d hide behind your cool post-rock albums so no one can
see it? “Not mine mate, someone must have left it here...” Nah, ‘course
it isn’t, this is W.A.S.P! They rule! Nothing to analyse or intellectualise
about here, no chin stroking needed! Just plug it in, turn it up, fire
up a mug of Jack and blast the bleeder at your street! You know the score,
a new W.A.S.P album day is always a good day... Who knows what old Blackie
is bleating on about this time? Has he ever made sense? Apparently those
four horsemen who just frantically galloped past the front window are now
riding full force through the seas of fire to Babylon with the wild child
going all blind in Texas on a godless run or something vaguely conceptual
where all the songs follow in some kind of who knows what while the sky
is full of thunder coming home and there’s no time to hide in the red hills
of hell... And he does bleat, Blackie is the metal sheepman, Blackie sings
like a sheep...
Full on W.A.S.P, none of your Headless Children almost-prog Who/Heepisms
this time around (well besides those overdriven Hammond Organs flowing
through those burning Uriah Heep style Lesley speakers there). This
is full on no messing W.A.S.P with those old school classic hard rock hints
lurking in the stew with the chainsaws and... Nothing subtle, just familiar
W.A.S.P and all as near to top form as can reasonably be expected from
a band of some twenty five years plus vintage. (that wasn’t a Headless
Children dis there either, that’s a damn fine album!)
You’ve got a W.A.S.P style cover of Deep Purple’s Burn on here, the original
of which is such riff-monster of a hard rock classic that it surely must
be almost near on impossible to mess the glorious thing up, Blackie and
company don’t. Pretty much a straight cover done with all the expected
in your face Waspness you require with your biscuits and tea. Hammond versus
guitar duel, skies burning, the full on make you burn with a wave of the
hand deal, W.A.S.P doing classic purple works as well as their previous
takes on Uriah Heep, The Who or Jethro Tull. And there really is no mistaking
the voice of Mr Lawless is there? Even when they’re ripping through a prime
slice of Purple (or an Elvis song like Promised Land), you know it can
be no other, you instantly know it can only be the mighty W.A.S.P flying
at your head with all that larger than life shock-rock cartoon metal revolving
chainsaw flamethrower cod-piece attitude of theirs. All as over the top
and almost as preposterously good as they’ve ever been... Yeah, sure, there’s
the doggy ballad, you’d feel cheated if there wasn’t wouldn’t you? The
arse factor lurking there in those lyrics really does jump out when they
slow it all down a little (arse or genius Blackian apocalyptic vision and
our skies really are about to turn as red as...?)
Hey look, W.A.S.P doing just what you expect W.A.S.P to do, you either
want it or you don’t. If you do then this is the band on more than acceptably
good form, if you don’t then you’ll find this to be their usual preposterous
over the top nonsense and you’ll bark you indignation as those of us with
the better taste demand the punch of the play it again only louder this
time button and dip another biscuit in the Jack. Nah, nothing like a good
but of Blackie, another good enough W.A.S.P album just landed, all is well,
ignore that winged beast over there and get on with it.. www.waspnation.com
x
3rd
Sept '09: MY OWN GRAVE – Necrology (Pulverised) – Sweden’s My Own
Grave with more of that angry wasp stuck in the devil’s jam jar stuff.
Dark dense merciless death metal storms, standard issue storms of relentless
extreme metal, heard it all before a thousand times, decent enough storms
though, kind of comforting to have it raging away here, soothing black
storm of noise as it were... Members of Depraved and Cavevomit...
www.myspace.com/myowngraveyard
X |
 ALBUM
REVIEW: PERE UBU with SARAH JANE MORRIS
– Long Live Pere Ubu (Cooking Vinyl) – Merdre this is good.... “Merdre”
is the single growled word that opens the album, “Merdre” was also the
single word that open Alfred Jarre’s play that, so legend has it, sent
audiences into riotous fits back there just over a hundred years ago...
We pretty much know the only thing we can reasonably expect from Pere Ubu
is the unexpected. Not content with pretty much reinventing rock music
in the mid 70’s, they’ve been reinventing themselves with each new album
since... down with Pere Ubu the hideous skunk... Long live Pere Ubu...
if you don’t hand over some meat and some gold... They’ve really
outdone themselves this time. Pere Ubu finally got around to making some
kind of semi-deranged rather ambitious concept album based on the absurdist
play that they originally got their name from... what a wonderful sight,
bring me more. Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu Roi” is said to have caused riots when
it premiered in Paris in 1896 (as did Stravinsky’s Rites Of Spring 14 years
later of course, there’s a hint Of Stravinsky’s strokes in here, his forward
motions) Ubu, my vileness, don’t be a bore... It has
taken the avant-punk-new-wave-prog band (or whatever the hell you want
us to call them this week for the purposes of this review and another exercise
is dancing around architecture) some thirty or so years to get around the
making an album based on the play that they originally took their name
form. Seems the original play was banned after the second performance and
the second night of riots... not it time to prevent it playing a large
part in launching the idea of the Theatre Of The Absurd and in turn the
name of this rather revolutionary band... And here they are paying back
the favour and doing some introducing themselves and slitting things open
from head to toe and...
This
isn’t a mere concept album, it really does grab the spirit of the play
and runs amok with it, this is a lot more than just another concept album...
We’re dragged all over the place with the continuous piece of music. Long
Live is an album that you’ll need to invest a little time in, this is an
album that takes a few listens and a little bit of undivided attention
before it really gets under your skin and you realise David Thomas and
company have pulled off something really rather impressive here. Thomas
himself is on top form with that distinctive instinctive voice, and Sarah
Jane Morris alongside, as scheming harpy Mere Ubu, is brilliant in a creepy
almost show-steeling way - taking advantage of the delirium, and angels
don’t swear, she has claws everywhere... at least the equal... She’s all
kinds of dalmatian tormenting Cruella creepy. Dark lounge jazz, twisted
operatic doom, concept-prog story telling, a liberal interpretation of
the original play so it would seem, so many splendid ideas, I agree to
everything.... Long live Ubo, now sing that song we love... and is that
the sound of bile or are we going to stay on the hill? Lot of twists here...
Punk satire? Social commentary? This isn’t really 1896 is it? Some of it
sounds almost childish in a very clever knowing kind of way, oh look, this
is an excellent album, let it in and let it settle then you want to dive
in further and further. A masterpiece..
And
they’re at the ICA in London this week, Friday 25th Sept More from
www.ubuprojex.net
or www.cookingvinyl.com
21st
Sept '09: THE FEW AGAINST MANY – Sot (Pulversised) – A storm of
cod-classical b-movie horror film soundtrack and technical death metal
growling ‘n crunching ‘n chopping ‘n riffing all mixed together in some
kind of over the top stew of death ‘n growl that kind of almost works in
a morbidly satisfying everything thrown in with the kitchen sink longass
sentence kind of way.... almost. – www.myspace.com/thefewagainstmany
X |
 KILL
IT KID – Kill It Kid (One Little Indian) - Kill It Kid are just so
likeable, they hit the spot in such an extremely good way, they bring the
sun out, they’re like floating down the sunny river without a care, they
just do it right... Sunny alt.blues and rich rich vibrant voices – they
sound like they’re wise way beyond their years, they sound like they’ve
been on the road and swapping tales for years and years with their gorgeous
two-part harmonies and their warm intimacy, their intriguing interplay.
They certainly don’t sound like they have an average age of just 21and
this does not sound like a mere debut album from an excited young band
making their first significant moves. There’s a touch of Tom Waits about
them, a hint of Delta blues sunshine in there with their Mid-West truck-stop
twists and their breezy folky Englishness (they got their name from an
old Blind Willie McTell song so it seems, this is an English thing though,
they know where they're from). Truth be told, there’s really nothing revolutionary
going on here, nothing that’s going to change musical lives, no, this is
just really good simple (clever) uplifting sunny tunes and some rather
intriguing lyrical interplay for those times when closer attention is paid.
Just a rather enjoyable album from a rather enjoyable band, sometimes that’s
more than enough... We like Kill It Kid and this debut more than lives
up to all the early promise... Strong songs, delightful tunes, something
just a little different (and they do always seem to bring the sun out)
– www.myspace.com/killitkid
or www.indian.co.uk.
19th
Sept '09: VOWELS – The Pattern Prism (LoAF) James Rutledge and drummer
Chris Walmsley with some rather fluidly experimental oscillation that touch
on Battles flavours, Terry Riley-like keyboard moves, different ideas,
nothing obvious. Swirling, fizzing, Tangerine Drones that fizz over the
top of the glass and flow all over the place, squelch and twinkle and gushing
flow, altering intensity and mind dancing crones, busy drums and dense
weaves and rewired synths, miasmic clouds and strange movements in different
directions, crafted, constructed and all kinds of entwined goodness and
dancing around architecture and nailing down clouds as unhelpful words
of description... Are LoAF ever going to release a predictable record?
www.l-o-a-f.com
X |
 19th
Sept '09: GONG - Gong 2032 (G-Wave) - Oh, but this is too easy to
dismiss, to brush aside because it's Gong being Gong, because what they
originally pioneered has been re-worked more efficiently, because it starts
a little slow and compared to the incredible stuff coming out of avant-prog
and post rock it sounds pretty, well, normal. But paying attention,
catching more of the lyrics, I found myself exhilarated and moved.
Hard for me, or I'm sure a lot of long-time Gong listeners, to say whether
that's down to knowing their history or whether it's intrinsic. Strangest
of all, Gong 2032 feels like a soundtrack to today, to the climate protests
on the TV and people Twittering from behind police cordons. And the
same kind of economic reality-check that accompanied Gong's first incarnation
in the 70s, and their early 90s rebirth too.
So, a quick, ahem, potted history of Gong, as given to an ignorant teen
of the mid 80s (me) by another of my generation who'd discovered them:
they're amazing, you should get Angel's Egg and Camembert Electric
and You, they're the best albums, they all lived in a commune in
France and played festivals and then there's Floating Anarchy 77
with Here And Now... Forbidden knowledge, and a breath of fresh air and
imagination and fun and colour in a time of now-unimaginable drabness.
For a while, an unreported stew of young bands blossomed underground, influenced
by Gong and Hillage and (more often than not, literally) fighting to play
festivals across the country. And in a few years, Daevid Allen would
astonish this new generation by coming out of the wilderness to play modest
London gigs, and a bit later Steve Hillage would be playing big clubs,
and Gong would reform to fill the Brixton Fridge... Eventually, we got
used to Gong being around rather than a mythic band we'd never get to see.
(And rave culture came along and extracted the spacey sounds and proto-dance
grooves and filtered out all meaning; concentrated it like processed food
or hydro skunk; made it empty instant joy without message or purpose or,
come the morning, hope. Discuss). Funny enough, while those first reunions
were real events and gatherings of the tribes, they were arguably not a
patch on Subterrania in 2000 or the Scala, where original Gong camp-followers
reckoned they were better than shows they'd been to in the Seventies.
How
strange. Bands aren't supposed to do this. They're supposed to have a virile
youthful heyday and then split or spend the rest of their careers as shadows
of themselves. But maybe there's some kind of vital energy that comes from
being a survivor - and the more obstacles, rejection and crap you survive,
the more you are bashed over and over again by bully culture the more meaningful
it gets.
Don't ever make the mistake that Gong's pixies and teapots are fluffy nonsense.
They're the biggest single finger you can contrive to the world.
When Gilli Smyth tells you in a voice worn even more beautiful by time
that there are witches, it is with layers of knowing and defiance and glee
that brings a lump to the throat. And scattered throughout this album
are references to the, ahem, here and now, to war and cluster bombs and
terrorists and bankers having breakdowns. There's always been real unflinching
darkness in Gong, not only reflecting the bigger world but the flipside
of the counter-culture dream - you only had to scratch their playful surface
and take a proper look at what they were doing and saying. In Escape Control
Delete Daevid Allen even seems to be singing his valedictory - stuff about
leaving, going back to that better planet, about 'the 21st Century too
bright for my eyes' ...but responds instantly with a call to hope and laughing
in the face of fear. 'If you feel like a stranger in a strange land/It's
probably who you are'.
By
the standards of many avant/psyche/prog bands doing the rounds at the moment,
Gong 2032 isn't hugely cutting edge - the drum sound is a bit of a let
down, for one thing. What it does have is heart, and lyrics that become
incredibly moving when you put them in the context of the band and their
history - their outsider-ness, their time in the wilderness and resurgence
as a rallying point for other outsiders. Oh, and of course, Steve Hillage.
With years of Ozric Tentacles and the like adopting spacey grooves it took
a few listens of the album to appreciate just how good that gliss guitar
sounds when it's done by the man himself - warm, subtle, the real deal.
The essence of festival, like the smell of trampled grass and diesel generators
(no wristbands, no adverts, maybe a man going around with a hat for the
genny, the odd knock from a truncheon... proper festivals). Does
it still take you out of yourself? Can we still dream of being saved
by aliens? Or are we all still smarting from the letdown, proud of
our cynicism and all grown up?
Oh,
but Gong knew about cynicism all along - it was never a sugary sweet cop-out,
not with those twisted melodies and puckish humour. It mocked the hippy
dream even while celebrating its childlike idealism and being one of the
purest, most glorious manifestations of psychedelia. It's actually not
nonsense at all, its wry and self-reflexive and ultimately honest.
And all these years down the line they’re wiser than ever. Reconnected
together, the elements of Allen, Smythe and Hillage, the mercurial spokesman,
the magical constant, and the sonic craftman - that's the essence of Gong
at the heart of this lineup, and you can feel it. And this Gong knows
the spirit's a bit battered, but it is there: still, incredibly, alive.
And that's enough.
(Marina)
www.planetgong.co.uk
X |
 17th
Sept '09: RAISING SAND – All Out War (Bullseye) - Liking this, the
English band have got things impressively together, they weren’t this good
last time around, what happened...? It was bugging me, this really does
sound like something, what the hell is it? Then it clicked, they sound
like Sammy Hagar’s Montrose (or maybe Young Heart Attack, who in
turn sounded very much like Montrose anyway), that should be taken as a
big compliment, Montrose, and indeed Hagar, rule. Raging Sand suddenly
got their musical shit seriously together with some rather decent old school
blue-edge storm-kicking hard rock then – nothing groundbreaking, nothing
that different, just a good helping of old school hard rock that’s done
right... www.myspace.com/raisingsand
or www.raisingsandmusic.com
WE
GOT THIS FAR
– Blunt Force Volume (WGT) – Some kind of dark stylised dark dark thing
from the dark side of Gothdom (and California) and the darker bits of Nine
Inch Nails. Some nice bits of colour in their darkness, worth your time
should you be one of the beautifully dark people... www.wegotthisfar.com
DIETER
MOEBIUS – Kram (Klangbad) – Respected German Electronic music pilot
with some fresh fizz and repetitive drive, oh OK then, some fresh Krautrock
(I really was trying to avoid being lazy but hey, call a spade a spade
while the toast burns...), some fresh Krautrock based compositions that
push forward in a rather crisp refreshing cleansing kind of way – kind
of timeless, kind of good... like it, yes, rather like it... www.klangbad.de
KALAMAZOO
– How To Hunt A Dear (Indiz) – Pleasant indie rock colour from Paris, France.
Touch of poppy Radiohead, hint of Television, maybe a trace of Placebo,
nothing obvious though, they have their own rather accomplished rather
enjoyable sound... – www.myspace.com/kalamuzic
LEAVES’
EYES – Njord (Napalm) - Another one of those Evanescence type operatic
girl singer backed by shouting man type neo-classical Euro goth metal bands...
Drowning in their own destiny so it seems... www.napalmrecords.com
X |
 15th
Sept '09: LEFT LANE CRUISER – All You Can Eat!! (Alive Natural Sound)
– Some right there in the zone, raw, blistered, no messing, slide-guitar
freight-train riding blues. Oh yes, Hillgrass bluebilly hard working
good honest black-lunged blues music delivered with a nail on the head
righteous punk-fried attitude. They’re from Fort Wayne, Indiana, they sound
like Seasick Steve for Rose Tattoo heads in need of an Ol’ fashion lo-fi
five
dollar shoe-shine... This is good, this is very good, certainly not
the putting in of a twenty and the taking out of a forty here, the good
is there in these Broke Ass Blues. There’s just two of ‘em, broken
down old scratchy electric guitar, gravel throats and drum kit. There’s
some great You Tube footage if you have the time to go look. They got bags
of soul in there, they got it all nailed, real deal stripped back raw broken
bottle stripped to the bone blues goodness - www.alivenergy.com
or www.myspace.com/leftlanecruiser
Some
YouTube: Left Lane Cruiser perform
at Wooden Nickel Music in Fort Wayne, Indiana back in 2006
WE
INSIST – The Babel Inside Was Terrible (Exile On Mainstream) – They’re
from Paris and they’re here at last with a follow up to 2007’s acclaimed
Oh!
Things Are So Corruptible album. This is quite a few more steps
forward, they’ve built on the strong foundations of recent times. They’ve
been evolving for some time now, they’ve been around for something like
fourteen years or so and this just might be their time. The Babel...
is very much a ‘now’ album, an album that fits in with the current rush
of high-end prog adventure and bands really wanting to challendge themselves.
We Insist are just there with a complex album and a sound that goes to
all the right places without ever getting too awkward or too hardboiled,
they're complex and colourful without being difficult. Melody... melodic
vocal lines, clever instrumental melody, real mathy prog, hints of lots
of things without ever sounding like anyone else – touches of At The Drive-In,
bits that taste a little of bands like 31 Knots or Don Cab, a little No
Means No flavouring, Victims Family, Tool, Primus, maybe even a touch a
bit of Cardiacs in there with their hint of post-hardcore and Gentle Giant
and this and that.... Touches of lots (and lots) of current prog-edged
modernity, a forever shifting feel - we’ll be somewhere, we’ll
be somewhere, bits of your land, bits of my land - and somehow pulling
it all together with something that’s solidly of their own - tall
enough to see over their own walls.
The Babel Inside is an album
to really get your teeth around, serious modern prog, impressive foundations
of their own... bits of your land, bits of my land. Recommended
– www.myspace.com/weinsistband
x
MONSTER
CEILIDH BAND – Make Me A Dancer (self release) – An happy jiggy reeling
real instrumental fiddle and accordion type dancing around wildly none
more folk type four piece Celtic sounding folk band. One of those frantically
twirling bands that demand cider and sunshine and reels and jigs and should
you feel like reeling wildly to some wildly traditional instrumental folk
then here you go, they’re rather good at it – www.monsterceilidhband.co.uk
or www.myspace.com/monsterceilidhband
x |
 13th
Sept '09: ALBUM REVIEW: FOOT
VILLAGE – Anti-Magic (Upset The Rhythm) - They explain that they’re
“an acoustic hardcore band who make thunderous drum ‘n shout music” and
that’s kind of right only they’re nowhere near as mellow as that would
have you think, nothing anywhere as peaceful as mere drum ‘n shout might
suggest.... Members of Gang Wizard, Friends Forever and the “infamous”
International Voice Of Reason, with some kind of telling screaming drumming
tribal new wave who knows what – brilliant, addictively brilliant, as addictive
as lots of people drumming and yelling and screaming could possible be...
no really. They’re from Los Angeles, they build walls of aggressive carnal
noise with just drums and voices. They write love songs in a secret language,
they are human, they are animal, cold blood reptiles. The Foot Village
nation’s first war, their third album and a “collection of drum essays
embracing the physical and rejecting the imaginary”. They insist these
aren’t jams, these are very structured, worked out pieces, they’re “anti-jam”
so they say... Well that’s what they say. Brutal male and female voices,
yelling, screaming, cathartic... brilliant actually - www.myspace.com/footvillage
or www.upsettherhythm.co.uk–
over here in the UK in November, consider this an early warning.
AIRPEOPLE
– The Golden City (Golden Antenna) – No real idea where Airpeople are from,
they really could be from anywhere with their politely modern, occasionally
complex (not that complex), instrumental rock music. Says here on the press
release they’re for fans of Tortoise, Sean And Cake, Mogwai and such, they’re
not doing much to excite any ears around here, if you’re curious then go
hit the links. They’re from Germany by the way – www.goldenantenna.com
or www.myspace.com/airpeople
X |
 12th
Sept '09: THE ADVENTURES OF LOKI – The Adventures Of Loki (Maitre-d)
- Just one second chance, I see a little silhouetto of a man, get in
touch, get in touch, get in touch with your feminine side... They’ll
catch you in their headlamps, knife to your back, gun to your heart, and
that’s just how it starts... Dance like maniac, lose control. Teathered
and tongue-tied, feisty ball of colourful indie-punk energy (indie-punk?
How damn lazy of us is that, write proper reviews godammit!) and a tag-team
of girl/boy shouty vocals to go with the frantic attitude and the beating
of everything to submission before they tone it down and settle in to the
body of the album... Two girls on bass and drums, boy on guitar,
they’re from Lancaster, North of England, they serenade, they scream, they
got it, they got, they got it, they know you’re gonna get it... Debut album
after a couple of well received singles and see how they can turn you inside
out.. Energy, melody, spikiness, they want to do something before you die...
She’s one hell of a raw energetic drummer, Rachel is her name, anchoring
it down and pulling you all over the place while the other two – Brigit
and Steve – add the colour... A raw threesome, raw frantic energy that
has a lot more than just the energy to hold it all together and Get
Yr Beat On. Seems it was a little more than just a couple of promising
singles and a ball or energy then, seems they have some substance, a touch
of depth, something that marks them out as just a little more... Angular,
slicing, inventive, edgy.... good good good, get in touch, get in touch
with your feminine side, the tough mean no messing side... www.the-adventures-of-loki.org
or www.myspace.com/theadventuresofloki
x
10th
Sept '09: HEALTH – Get Color (City Slang) – Los Angeles art-pop,
some kind of subtle manipulation and moulding of noise and texture... well
maybe not so subtle once you work in to the body of the album and get the
colour of it, once you get in to the flow... Clever songs embodied with
noise, with different textures, experiments brought under some kind of
structured control. Experiments for those who don’t really like it too
‘experimental’ or ‘strange’? Drenched in light and shade, and ever
changing set of colourful moods and their much anticipated next moves.
Crunchy distortion and all there within some kind of formal disciplined
indie alt.rock framework and some kind of idea of song as key – which some
might say is tougher to pull of them just bring ‘experimental’. Damn fine
whatever it is... Does it get a bit Jesus & Mary Chain go U.S post-alt.pop
there for a while? I think it does.... Rather fine album, fine tunes, fine
textures, fine songs, fine pin-point focused ear-burning noise... www.myspace.com/healthmusic
or www.cityslang.com
8th
Sept '09: VENTFLOW – Terrorsiah (Casket) – Hissing, spitting snarling
storm of Lamb Of Slipknot type no-messing metal from Australia or Southern
England or Germany or some such place should you want it... www.myspace.com/ventflow
5th
Sept '09: YACHT – See Mystery lights (DFA) – Catchy, joyous you
might say, joyous catchy squelchy sunny electro pop from Portland Oregon,
little new wave left-field feel, just a little extra something...
– www.myspace.com/yacht
x |
 4th
Sept '09: ALBUM REVIEW: PORCUPINE
TREE - The incident (Roadrunner) - Really don’t know about Porcupine
Tree these days, they don’t really challenge either themselves or their
listeners that much do they? I guess they’re doing just what those legions
of fans and followers all over the planet want them to do, I imagine their
devotes, of which there seems to be hundreds of thousands now, will once
again be more than delighted with this latest Porcupine Tree album. We
go back a long way, Organ and Porcupine Tree, we were probably covering
them and their early demos before anyone else took them seriously, those
prog-pariah early days when no one else cared that much for such unfashionable
notions. Indeed they headlined the second day of the Organ tenth
birthday party weekend at the London Astoria back there somewhere in the
early 90’s... People expect us (what with all our prog rock championing
and colours firmly nailed when it wasn’t fashionable to do so, with all
our self-proclaimed love of all things Van Der Graff or Yes, our
shouting about the coolness of early Genesis when we’d probably have been
far better off in keeping these things to ourselves), people expect is
to rave and drool over Porcupine Tree... Truth is, they’re kind of boring
aren’t they?
If mid 70’s Shine On Welcome To The Machine Floyd is your thing, if the
smoothness of say Camel or Barclay James Harvest does it for you...
He’s no Roger Walters though is he? And luck is all you make and you
just reach out and take it.... And yes, good luck to them, they’ve
stuck to their guns and made their good luck, they’ve defiantly hung in
there and done their thing and, without really being noticed by the mainstream,
evolved in to a rather massive international band. Good luck to ‘em...
Just, well... um... and some of those Animals bits there? Little
too close for comfort? Time Flies? Time stands still with Porcupine
Tree and they’re pretty much doing the same thing now as they have been
doing for the last fifteen to twenty years.... Oh they have their ‘nice’
moments, they have their restrained dynamics, they have their melting ‘prog’bits
and their Welcome To The Machine instrumental moves, none of that
real cynical Floyd darkness though, none of that baggage that always gave
Pink Floyd that vital edge back there... And surely, if this is what you
want then Radiohead have more than shown how to really be a Floyd for now
rather than just very very competently aping the then in such a clinically
slick way? How does time break down? Porcupine Tree are a slick
Floyd machine on some kind of very well controlled and ‘faultlessly’ satisfying
auto-pilot and after a while you realise time flies and the best thing
you can do is take whatever comes to you, you better watch out, there may
be dogs around.....
Oh
look, Porcupine Tree have made yet another very slick, very polite, very
tidy, very melodic, very clean-cut album, a very Porcupine Tree kind of
album. Those who want this kind of thing will be more than satisfied, they
claim it to be a Porcupine Tree classic.... Those of us who like our music
with a bit more, who like our bands to challenge, who like things to come
with a bit more bite, a little more dirt under the nails, a little more
risk taking danger, we’ll be wondering why Porcupine Tree are content to
continue to just make albums like this. Each to their own, good luck to
‘em, not really enough from our so called ‘prog’ bands though, need more
than this... www.porcupinetree.com
or www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk
3rd
Sept '09: COWMAN – Palpating The Rumen (Ingue) - Some kind of frantic
insect-like relentlessly scuttling scratchy bass punky locked-on drone
that’s all wired up and frantic and pecking and pecking some more and on
it goes pecking at the wire, sounds like more than one bass, sounds all
obtuse and angular and frenetic and menacing and like things are never
going to end and on and on scratching and pecking and drilling and and
sometimes kind of singing in a frantically shouty way underneath the constant
drive that never ends, never stops pecking at the wire and the awkward
timings and and arrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Like being eaten by thousands of
little scratchy metal insects - www.myspace.com/cowmanonemanband
PORCUPINE
– The Trouble With You (Blueworm) – Mid West North American alternative
indie pop rock. Rather polite – lighter side of Foo Fighters, Lemonheads,
Buffalo Tom, that kind of thing, feels like something from the early 90’s,
not really doing that much for us, go investigate over at www.porcupineband.com
x |
 THE
VICTORIAN ENGLISH GENTLEMENS CLUB – Love On An oil Rig (This Is Fake
DIY) - Has their parrot started to talk? Are The Victorian English Gentlemens
Club at last finding a voice worth listening to? They’re still rather
difficult to really pin down and this album does sometimes sound like a
collection of vaguely related bands rather than the work of just one. Primal
ideas, flies stuck in white paint, obscure harmonies and when it does fall
in to place then yes indeed. They claim to have a musical understanding
now, a more confident beast and they say they’re ready to demand our respect,
and yes, they might just be right to think they have a right to think about
making that demand... They are starting to talk, they are finding that
voice... There’s an awkward something here now, laid out over a whole new
album, the Cardiff foursome are staring to make some kind of awkward primitive
sense, they’ve put the kettle on. Wire, pointed distortion, strange words,
what turns their dial? Strange, weird, kind of compelling, no longer the
over-anxious teenagers, rounded absurdists now, focused drums and things,
still disconcerting but they may just be starting to make some kind of
off-hinge sense now. Wire and Fall and lying around waiting on the floor
like a dog settling down for some telly... Kind of like them now, first
time that’s been said around here... kind of like this, kind of definitely..
maybe... with the benefit of hindsight... yes, like it... definitely, yes...
definitely like it.
www.thisisfakediyrecords.co.uk
or www.thevictorianenglishgentlemensclub.co.uk
x
MERAUDER
– God Is I (Regain) – Brutal hardcore punk/metal crossover from New York
that pretty much does all you want from a new album delivered by a classic
NYC crossover hardcore band like Merauder. They’ve been a big part of the
metalcore scene since the early 90’s and they’re pretty much sticking to
their aggressive guns here... Keeping it real, true to the scene, just
like it says on the tin and all that kind of stuff – www.myspace.com/merauder
x |
| 1st
Sept '09: PRE – Hope Freaks (Skingraft) - Ah Jezzzzzz, once was
enough wasn’t it? Do we really need more of their headpecking noise and
their discordant screaming? Is there really any point in repeating the
exercise, as glorious as that first album was, do we really need a second?
There she goes again with her high-pitched manic ‘singing’ and screaming
and yelping and there they go with their frantic new wave left-field ‘difficult’
scuttling.... You know, there are people, people who are usually tolerant
when it comes to these notions of music and noise and going off and things,
people otherwise reasonable and tolerant, who come in here and yell “oh
no, not bloody Pre again!”. Indeed, people phone up the radio station and
complain when Pre are on air, I love Pre! And yes, it is very much a case
of going off and things - you know what we mean by that, squalor
is alive, things abound... And yes there is a very big point in this
second album, they are extreme with their hard-boiled noise but this is
as relevant as anyone’s second album, maybe even more so? Could they take
it anywhere after that debut? Are they just going to be a glorious one
trick noise-pony? No they’re damn well not! Pre have expanded their sound,
they’ve challenged themselves, they’ve become even more gloriously awkward,
even more difficult, maybe even slightly poppy (in a deranged way), they’re
even more addictive... Try listening to beautifully bendy pointy pencil-sharp
tantrums like Cold or the title track
Hope Freaks and then
dare to come here and tell us you’re not instantly addicted. Pre are glorious,
they’re like Deerhoof thrown in to the deep end of the Pond, they really
are going off and things, kissing big ugly sharks like early Cardiacs on
extra hyper-active orange juice, they are hope freaks, they are hope, nothing
freaky, who knows what she’s yelling about? Once was never going to be
enough, this builds perfectly on the original attack of Epic Fits, Pre
have more than followed their debut up.
Gibber and Twitch indeed
- www.myspace.com/prepreprepre
or www.skingraftrecords.com
DAMON
& NAOMI – The Sub Pop Years (20.20.20.10) – A retrospective anthology
best-of collection drawn from one Galaxie 500 duo’s Sub Pop albums and
if you’re not already familiar with their embracing work then this is just
what you need. Their delicate warmth and those glowing melodies that caress
the earthly peaks, their American alt.folk take on the gentle art of shoegazing,
an exquisite swirl of words and rather human honesty that may sometimes
lack cheer, but, to quote Robert Wyatt, is “like real water in a world
of soda pop...
www.damonaandnaomu.com
or www.20-20-20.com
31st
AUG '09: IMPIETY - Terroreign: Apocalyptic Armageddon Command (Agonia)
– They’re from Singapore, took an age to work out what the name on the
front cover was, same old unreadable logo and yet another hellstorm of
pissed-off wasp guitars, growling vocal regurgitation and more of those
million mile an hour speed metal riffs... Like we keep on saying, we get
hundreds of albums like this, piles of them puking out of our speakers
every week, a spewtum of extreme metal projecting at us from all over the
world... Most of the time they’re dealing out the same old same old, most
of it doesn’t impress enough to get even the briefest of mentions around
here, most of it is a conforming waste of everyone’s time, more about the
pose than the substance... Oh, he’s singing goat father, had to
check the lyrics there... Bestial To The Bone... Black Fu... Impiety
are not that different to the hundreds of others, just they just hit the
spot a little more than most do. Classic old school storming death/black/thrash
venom, unrelenting onslaught of noise - a terror rain of matted hair, bullet
belts, growls and riffs, nothing radically different, just that they’re
hitting the extreme metal sweet spot with their hail of damnation and boiled
up blackness, their violent onslaught and shitrain of black noise, hitting
the spot just little more than most and when this stuff hits the sweet
spot then wooooooaaaaaaaaaaagghhhhhhh, bring it all on. This, for once,
is wreckomended extreme metal noise -
www.myspace.com/impietyofficial
X |
 29th
AUG '09: CRAZY ARM – Born To Ruin (Xtra Mile) - Darren Johns, front
man out of The Once Over Twice with his latest shot and a debut album that
carries on along the same slightly dusty American sounding alternative
(positive) track that Darren and his various bands have always followed.
It isn’t that Crazy Arm are radically different, just that there’s some
rather fine, rather intelligent, rather rewarding depth here, some serious
song writing – a band with a little more - crafted, a little more
to hold on to, a band who sound like really do matter a little more than
most.... committed songs. I don’t know, if Johns was from California
or some other place, rather than Plymouth here in the UK, then people would
be shouting about him and his new band, this man can write a song! We’re
vaguely talking Husker Du, X, Fugazi, maybe a touch of REM, Springsteen,
The Replacements, The Clash, maybe even a hint of the timeless country
warmth of CSNY in there with the hard edge and that intelligent alternative
feel... Crazy Arm, like The Once Over Twice before them... well to put
it bluntly, if Crazy Arm were North Americans then people would be raving
about them (seems the album has been out since the start of June, only
just limped in here this week with a very short hand-written note from
the band themselves - “here’s a copy of the Crazy Arm album for review
if possible, thanks, Darren” – if only you English labels had things a
little more together a bit more when you have treasures like this!). Eleven
quality songs, all good, no hint of anything near filler, timeless depth,
serious alternative, punk-edged, alt.rock intelligent quality - born to
find reason, each building on the last – boring looking front cover but
don’t let that stop you going in – just get out and give this a little
more than just the once over, there’s a seriously good band with some seriously
good sentiment and some very serious songs here. If that start to Kith
And Kingdom don’t grab your heart first time then I fear you’re already
dead to music... Highly recommended - www.myspace.com/crazyarm
or www.xtramilerecordings.com
28th
AUG '09: O.M.T – Anamantium (Rising) - Choppy growly shouty mix
of Maiden style melody, galloping riffs, thrashing metal – brutal bits,
melodic tuneful old school metal bits, apparently it stands for Our Malevolent
Tyranny, they’re from the South coast of England, this is their decent
enough well produced debut, our work is done here, there’s the link – www.myspace.com/omtmusic
LIME
HEADED DOG – Kfum & Kfuk (Volcano Attack) – All kinds of different
angles here, isn’t enough to just be so different, does help though, Lime
Headed Dog are as different as a strangely coloured animal;s head, Lime
Head Dog are different and good – very good. Discordantly melodic, alive
with strange tunes that somehow come out really poppy and yes, there are
lots of current reference points (or at least recent, what ever did happen
to The Klaxons?). “Microwaved and unlike anything that you can instantly
put your finger on..” we said last time... words and beasts and built of
love alone... think klaxons, Streets, and flipping like a fish out of water,
chess wars and bishop taking knight and all kinds of rushes and going off
and things, different pop, awkward, was that a touch of Cardiacs? Just
a touch? Different, lime-headed... curiously good - www.myspace.com/limeheadeddog
TOURNAMENT
– Years Old (Forcefield) – More of what we like, raw aggressive imaginative
bleeding noise, Tournament are from Brooklyn, New York, they deal in raw
alternative metal that’s delivered with blistering style. Oft-kilter driving
edge for those who like their metal with a little bit of thought, with
the challenging edge of bands like Rye Coalition or Drive Like Jehu – www.myspace.com/tournamenttournament
x
24th
AUG '09: CONQUEST OF STEEL – Storm Sword, Rise Of The Dread Queen
(No Face) - Old school battle metal from the Northern wastelands of England
(Bradford actually), proper old school metal, Iron Maiden, Angel Witch,
Manowar, Dio, Anvil, all swords and galloping riffs and a touch of English
folk/prog for added light and shade, and fighting for the queen and the
promised land and a grandiose unabashed boldly ambitious concept album.
Bombastic. Proper, no messing tyrant-vanquishing old school proper proper
metal – www.myspace.com/conquestofsteel
X |
 23rd
AUG '09: YEARS – Years (Arts & Grafts) – This is rather special,
a lush summer’s day of an album. Bits of delicate acoustic glow, touches
of Arvo Part classical caress, some delicate post-rock glitch – warm inviting
compositional sound-scaping, all green and glowing - mostly instrumental
but that only adds to the delicate understated power of the vocals when
they do occasionally come in in such a soothing window-opening way. Some
of this is lush and rich, pastorally classical in an avant kind of way,
some minimal and simple (clever) acoustic guitar. When the triumphantly
epic 65 Days style prog-glitch does gently kick in, it kicks in a subtle
crafted considered intelligent thoughtful way - everything here is done
with restrained though and an extra touch of class, a beautiful appreciation
of less being so much more. Leaf-green and alive, the work of Ohad Benchetrit,
an immense work and very much a piece of work that’s of now. A wistful,
uplifting beautiful body of work, alive with hope and shimmering steams
of sunny warmth (and maybe just a touch of melancholy). Acoustic guitar
pieces that grow in intensity and flow in to digitally sequenced lush orchestral
arrangements. Ideas knitted together to form one coherent body of flowing
work – flowing emotion, rewarding musical colour, restrained trumpet, whispered
violin, prog adventure, lush plants and seeds flowered, sunny, inviting
– sometimes things are just right, this is just right, this is one of
those times. Just right soothing summer-bright heart-lifting beauty
from Broken Social Scene’s Ohad Benchetrit – www.arts-crafts.ca/years
or www.myspace.com/themusicofyears
X |
| 21st
AUG '09: LE CHAT NOIR – Postcards From The Dark Highway (Garage
Sale) - Gruff, whisky raw, Bonny & Clyde, lo-fi, highway guitar blues
and dust and rough Nick Cave-ish punkish barroom country rock ‘n roll blues
bluster with a side-serving slice of a surf punk rockabilly driving it
on.... They’re from Exeter (rather than Texas), there’s two of ‘em, Eileen
on drums, Teddy on scratchy guitar and vocals. And I guess we should mention
the energy and attitude of those White Stripes as much as Johnny Cash or
being on the run or spilt gin or Valentine’s Day Massacres or...
She’s from California, he’s from London... wish she’d join in with the
vocals a little more, really good when she does.
Really good anyway, her under-used voice just gives it an extra edgy dimension.
Fiery stuff, hellbound whisky-drenched, raw, wild and black cat good, go
investigate – www.lechatnoir.org.uk
GUILT
MACHINE – On This Perfect Day (Mascot) – One of those dark moody Porcupine
Tree type melodic neo-prog bands. This time from Holland, they do it with
epic dimension, extremely melodic, very easy on the ear in that smooth
slick long-winded polite modern clinical neo-prog way that some people
appreciate far more than we do, here’s the link if you want to know more
– www.myspace.com/guiltmachine
20th
AUG '09: NEW
DEVICE – Takin’ Over (Pwerage) – Real deal Eighties sounding big bold
brash North American sounding slick ‘n nailed hard rock from the South
of England. This debut album came out in late July, impressive stuff, slick
hard rock for you people out there who know the idea of a big stadium power
ballad jousting with a touch of road-racing, galloping, arm-out-of-the-window
hard rock is a very good thing. Bits of classic rock and vital bands like
Y&T, Sammy Hagar’s Van Halen, early Aerosmith, the harder edge of those
first Bon Jovi albums... see, like we just said, cool as f... turn it
up, turn it up.. Fist in the air, peddle to the metal.... Heavy
Pettin’, first Def Leppard album, Skid Row, Krokus... you know what we’re
talking about... Hands up, do it right... Yep, this
is the real deal, they got it nailed, they clearly love their craft, this
ain’t no Darkness / Steel Panther poseur bolloxium.... Proper big brazen
stadium filling 80’s hard rock goodness... Some of us around here
love it as much as a Steelheart ballad while some of us think it to be
diabolical hard rock poodle-headed turn it off dated 80's radio-metal nonsense...
Highly recommended - www.myspace.com/newdevice
D |
 18th
AUG '09: LITMUS – Aurora (Rise Above) – What a curious spaceship
Litmus is, can’t help but like them and their oscillating swoosh, their
classic timeless space rock keyboard driven locked-on fizz ‘n swish...
The problem here, if indeed it is a problem (and it really isn't), is that
every note, every move, every line, has already been played out by those
masters of the universe Hawkwind. Litmus may have an album full of their
own rather fine compositions here, they are however, pretty much a Hawkwind
tribute band - a very very good Hawkwind tribute band and more than welcome
what with the Hawkship not flying with so much shine and lustre these daze....
London’s Litmus have a new album then - this is what you wanted, this
is what you get
they sing, and yes, it pretty much is, it maybe none
more Hawk but it is the classic swirling throbbing on the runway spot on
authentic best days sound and they could well just be the new kings of
infinite space... Hey look, we love Hawkwind around here, they’re still
out there in some form, we miss their glory days though – their Acid Daze
and Sonic Attacks, the free festivals, the multi-coloured all dayers, Stonehenge...
Litmus are doing it in style, this is their finest release yet, it has
the right spirit, it has the classic style. Hawkdrive space rock nailed
down and done just right should you want it. Recommended - www.myspace.com/litmusspacerock
or www.riseaboverecords.com
X |
| ALBUM
REVIEW DIRECTORY |
| PREVIOUS
PAGE >>> SANCTIFICATION >>> PLANAR
EVIL >>> BRESCHDLENG >>> AZARATH >>> FIREBUG >>> DIE PRETTY >>> AHAB >>>
ABRAMIS BRAMA >>> NITKOWSKI >>> TEN
CITY NATION >>> THE DEVILROCK FOUR >>>
DEAD STARS >>> STUPIDITY >>> SYRACH >>> AMBASSADOR GUN
>>> MORAL DILEMMA >>> MASTERS OF REALITY >>> JAMES YORKSTON
& THE BIG EYES FAMILY PLAYERS >>> OKIE DOKIE >>> FATHER MURPHY >>>
BLINDFOLD >>> BLEED FROM WITHIN >>> THE CHURCH >>> GULLICH >>>
NINJA DOLLS >>> OEN SUJET >>> STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB
>>> NUTSAK >>> END OF EVERYTHING >>> INNOCENT ROSIE
>>> OBLIQ >>> THE MORNING AFTER >>> ANDY NICE >>> ELECTRIC RIVER >>> CHEVAL
SOMBRE >>> WAVVES >>> GOODNIGHT AND I WISH >>> ADMIRAL ANGRY
>>> SLEEPER >>> FALCONGATE >>> MANGROVE >>> THE THING >>> HYSTERICA
>>> KONG >>> HOW’S MY POP >>> THE DANDY WARHOLS >>> MAGNETIC MORNING
>>> GARETH SAGER |
 |
|
|
