Album Reviews – Clash Music

Hush Arbors - Yankee Reality

ClashMusic — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:57:52 +0000

With scene stalwarts Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr lining up in fervent support, ‘Yankee Reality’ is Keith Wood’s second Ecstatic Piece album after last year’s revelatory eponymous release.

Wood has taken his ghostly acid-fried folk-rock and bolted both feral garage and a carnal jangle to this Exocet of ideas. He manages to cajole J Mascis into overseeing production duties, while nudging His Slothness to knock out a ferocious riff on ‘For While You Slept’, which sounds like gloriously mangled Byrds.

‘Take It Easy’ is even better - a warped, honky tonk singalong, akin to a long-lost ‘Revolver’ track. Rarely has reality been as exciting.

8/10

Words by John Freeman

The Raincoats - The Raincoats

ClashMusic — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:53:45 +0000

This thirtieth anniversary release of The Raincoats’ seminal debut album should help them clamber away from being merely a footnote in Kurt Cobain’s mythology.

The Nirvana demi-god was seemingly hugely indebted to this riveting mix of spiky proto-Riot Grrrl pop for providing him respite during his darker times, but their genre-blasting breakthrough as one of Britain’s first all-girl post-punk bands is a more fitting legacy. Their warped, deadpan cover of ‘Lola’ by The Kinks is deliciously subverted - Ana da Silva singing from the ‘male’ perspective about a man whose first love turns out to be a transvestite.

Magnificently timeless - to be unearthed and taken delight in.

7/10

Word by John Freeman

Joe Goddard - Harvest Festival

ClashMusic — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:48:39 +0000

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the record label should, for Joe Goddard is the beardy fellow from Hot Chip, here giving his independent musical urges space to unfurl.

Released on his Greco-Roman label, with curious fruit themed song titles and the album’s title, you might fear some kind of concept album being offered up, but rest easy listeners, as Joe explains: “when making instrumental dance music, titles are often really meaningless anyway”. Taking lessons learnt from playing around the globe with his Greco-Roman Soundsystem, never mind the Hot Chip years, the twelve tracks here are roughly paced as for a night’s dancing, channelling Goddard’s expertise as DJ, and fan, of electronic music.

Just two of the tracks contain any kind of vocal, the robotic loop, “..and bullshit, and party, and bullshit, and party” of ‘Go Bananas’, and the more recognisably Hot Chip-like delivery on ‘Lemon And Lime (Home Time)’. Beginning with the luxurious, bubbling analogue synths of ‘Apple Bobbing’, it’s a low key but high quality opener before ‘Tinned Apricot’ continues things nicely and ‘Pear-Shaped’ offers up a more obtuse rhythm before the sweeping bassline of ‘Strawberry Jam’ makes itself known, moving the album onto the dance floor.

The aforementioned ‘Go Bananas’ keeps things moving before ‘Half-Lime Oranges’ gets all melancholic leading us into the vocal ‘Lemon And Lime (Half Lime)’. ‘Tropical Punch’, ‘Sour Grapes’ and ‘Pineapple Chunk’ go for a minimal approach, leading into ‘Mango Chutney’ (I warned you about the titles didn’t I?), perilously syncopated beat and album closer ‘Coconut Shy’’s blissful slow motion descent.

Given Greco-Roman’s peerless catalogue the pressure was on but the label boss shows the young ’uns how it’s done in fine style.

7/10

Words by Nick Annan

Various - Kitsune Maison 8

ClashMusic — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:37:32 +0000

Reaching a ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ like eighth volume, Kitsuné unleash their latest favourites and friends on this generous selection.

New kids this time out are the equally hyped Two Door Cinema Club, (with ‘I Can Talk’), and Delphic (with ‘This Momentary’), both deserving that hype too. Good to hear new material from Midnight Juggernauts, whose ‘Dystopia’ album was a firm favourite round these parts, and Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos delivers a remix of Chew Lips’ ‘Salt Air’.

The Drums’ whistler ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ is another immediate hit with an irrepressible joie de vivre (appropriately). A personal mixtape from your cool, French friend.

7/10

Words by Nick Annan

Various - Balearic Biscuits 3

ClashMusic — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:32:15 +0000

First up, strike the title of this album from your mind as it really doesn’t do this first rate compilation any favours - it takes the Balearic umbrella as a jumping off point for lost classics old and new that sound just right at a certain time of day (usually just as the sun comes up).

Alongside the expected ‘unexpected’ tracks, here a role fulfilled by Simple Minds’ ‘League Of Nations’ and The Steve Miller Band’s ‘Journey To Eden’, there is the genuinely unexpected ‘Tonight’s Today’ from reformed Cockernee Jack Penate that sounds like a more mature Friendly Fires, but no less euphoric.

7/10

Words by Nick Annan

Black Gold - Rush

ClashMusic — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:26:57 +0000

Made up of two of the ‘so hawt right now’ Brooklyn indie scene’s players, Black Gold’s Than Luu and Eric Ronick met as hired hands on an Ambulance LTD tour four years ago.

Quickly developing what they claim to be a telepathically close musical empathy, the pair have worked on and off over the past few years bringing this debut album to fruition. Swiftly dodging the hipster tag, the duo testify to ‘Rush’ as a labour of love, drawing on their talent friends and neighbours to help flesh out their vision.

Despite such credible beginnings, the results are surprisingly mainstream, big choruses and FM airplay beckon.

5/10

Words by Nick Annan

Twinkranes - Spektrumtheatresnakes

ClashMusic — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:52:56 +0000

Dublin trio Twinkranes were spotted by Twisted Nerve head honcho Andy Votel and signed up after one of their always impressive, mind-expanding live appearances.

‘Spektrumtheatresnakes’ sees the band, with the suitably adventurous monikers Blonde Fox, Rooster and Auburn Spinner, hone their psychedelia down to nine pulsating tracks with the nine-minute mark barely troubled. Taking the rhythmic devotion of dance music as their altar, they conjure an impressive from drums, bass and synths.

Recorded live in the studio, minus vocal overdubs, in three intense days, they capture the lysergic mood perfectly. A singular, courageous trip into rhythm, sounding at once organic and otherworldly.

8/10

Words by Nick Annan

Various - Panama! 3

Nick Annan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:45:32 +0000

Subtitled with the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin name ‘Calypso Panameño, Guajira Jazz And Cumbia Típica On The Isthmus 1960-75’, this is the third in the series, a collection of twenty-three songs selected with assistance from Colombia resident, Quantic’s Will Holland.

Further showcasing the unique mix of the music of Panama, sandwiched as it is between North and South America, geographically and culturally, and its ‘Combos Nacionales’, groups influenced by the Black Power period in the US and brewing up a heady blend of funk, soul, salso, cumbia, calypso and more.

Giving a frame of reference is the album’s excellent linear notes, supplying welcome background and fleshing out these exotically titled performers and songs.

7/10

Words by Nick Annan

Ex Libras - Suite(s)

ClashMusic — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:33:43 +0000

Though recorded in a garden shed by a trio who met while working in Hounslow Borough Library, these mundane beginnings don’t readily set you up for Ex Libras’ debut album, ‘Suite(s)’.

The kindred spirits, however, have gelled their love of “alternative music with a groove” into a post-rock (or post-breakbeat as they’d have it) dynamic maelstrom of guitar, piano, drums and atmospherics. Underpinning their excursions with a solid core of melody gives their songs an immediacy, draw in the casual listener, and those moments when vocalist Amit Sharma breaks through are worth treasuring, his howls on closer ‘19:04’ recalling Matt Bellamy or Sigur Ros’ Jonsi.

A bold, impressive debut.

7/10

Words by Nick Annan

Various - And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Avant Pop

ClashMusic — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:35:49 +0000

This amusingly titled album draws together People In The Sky’s friends and family for a superior trip through, as they say, avant pop.

The label that brought Friendly Fires to wider attention (cheers for that), People In The Sky here unveil their manifesto against modern life’s banality with fifteen exotic tracks. Friendly Fires’ ‘On Board’ appears remixed by Nightmoves, Warp’s Bibio remixes Wax Stag’s ‘Folk Rock’, Architeq’s ‘Sleeping Bear Lament’ is subjected to a James Pants makeover, while Richard Norris’ Time And Space Machine contribute ‘Children Of The Sun’.

6/10

Words by Nick Annan

Ghana Special, Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Ghanian Blues 1968-81

ClashMusic — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:25:46 +0000

A labour of love, ‘Ghana Special’ is a work ten years in the making that took Soundway label boss, Miles Cleret, to Ghana to seek out the musicians, DJs and promoters who were so active in the scene.

A result of the collision of highlife, rock and soul as well as Ghana’s tradition and culture, the two discs feature thirty-three previously un-reissued songs from a cross section of the period’s bands including Oscar Sulley, who’s ‘Bukom Mashie’ appeared in the film ‘The Last King Of Scotland’, and Hedzolleh Soundz, who went on to back Hugh Masekela.

6/10
Words by Nick Annan

Choir Of Young Believers - This Is For The Whites Of Your Eyes

ClashMusic — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:20:27 +0000

Although the focus is the majestic voice of frontman Jannis Noya Makrigiannis, Choir Of Young Believers is made up of a ten-strong collective from Denmark, all of whom boast their own side projects and bands.

Their own description of their music as “orchestral pop” is certainly suitable, with a rare complexity and depth delivered throughout, constructed around and supported by Makrigiannis’ initial piano and guitar sketches. Compared to Neil Young or Colin Blunstone, I hear more of My Morning Jacket’s Jim James in Makrigiannis’ wonderous voice.

Finding yourself checking that this is indeed their debut album is a sign of the monumental achievement here. Count me a believer.

7/10
Words by Nick Annan

Shut Up And Dance - How The East Was Won 1989-2009

ClashMusic — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:04:56 +0000

Growing from the illegal party scene back in the late ’80s, Smiley and PJ, set up Shut Up And Dance as an outlet for their own material.

Fast-forward twenty years and ‘How The East Was Won’ documents the pair’s amazing ride across three discs spanning the tracks, artists and movements that have made up Shut Up And Dance Music, the label. Also featuring Ragga Twins, Nicolette, Peter Bouncer and Rum And Black, anyone of a certain age will be transported back in time, as the roots of many subsequent scenes unfold over the set.

An essential history lesson.

7/10

Words by Nick Annan

The Antlers - Hospice

ClashMusic — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:46 +0000

Formerly the singer/songwriter Peter Silberman, now a real band with the addition of drummer Michael Lerner and multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci, The Antlers make full use of their newly expanded talents on ‘Hospice’.

News that the theme of the album is of a carer looking after a terminally ill relative, and being destroyed by the experience, makes the album sound like a daunting listen. The reality is of an ebbing and flowing symphony of tender vocals and shoegazing guitar washes, expressing the narrative tension with admirable empathy, punctuated by blasts of reverb drenched choruses.

A quantum leap from those singer/songwriter beginnings, ‘Hospice’ is a remarkable record.

6/10

Words by Nick Annan

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire: Deluxe Edition

ClashMusic — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:34:27 +0000

Remastered for it’s twenty-fifth anniversary, ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ is the pinnacle of U2’s first, irony free incarnation.

Available in a variety of formats, the ‘Deluxe Edition’ is bundled with a second disc of rarities, demos and live tracks including the ‘Wide Awake In America E.P.’ with its skin prickling version of ‘Bad’. Other songs are less essential but ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ single’s B-side ‘Bass Trap’ is a gem, sounding like a church going Verve.

Of course, ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ was the band’s first material produced under the tutelage of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois and its atmospheric framing still entrances today, not without flaws but a classic none the less.

8/10

Words by Nick Annan

The Kabeedies - Rumpus

ClashMusic — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:30:05 +0000

Music can make people feel many different things, some makes you feel sad, some makes you think, The Kabeedies simply make you want to dance around the room, forget your troubles and have a bloody good time.

The band’s debut album ‘Rumpus’ is a frantically-paced slice of indie-pop full to the brim with pacey tunes and infectious choruses. Having played various radio sessions for the likes of Zane Lowe, Marc Riley and Huw Stephens the band seem set for great things and with such a strong debut album 2010 could be the year for The Kabeedies, they have all the ingredients to be true stars.

8/10

Words by Kevin Angel

Various Artists - 10 Years Of Technique

ClashMusic — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:24:20 +0000

‘10 Years Of Technique’ represents the jump-up, corrosive (or should that be contemporary?) end of the scene, consistently throwing grungy basslines and bullet train-breakbeats at turntables, skidding and slaloming as a thoroughly upfront D&B outfit without their dogfights ever threatening to derail.

Mixes include 2009 spruce-ups that wouldn’t sound out of place on national radio daytime playlists, Tantrum Desire’s crushing take on ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, and two liquid rolls from Technicolour - along with the good-natured run-out ‘Clap Ya Hands’; nice enough, but probably not what you’ve really come for.

Get your ears tested if they aren’t ringing after these fifteen tracks.

7/10

Words by Matt Oliver

The Tragically Hip - We Are The Same

ClashMusic — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:58:28 +0000

Let’s face it, the country that gave the world Celine Dion is not going to let the record-buying public down any time soon.

But seriously folks, there are many great bands in Canada. No really. Country rockers The Tragically Hip have been going since 1987, but they remain relatively unknown outside their homeland. Singer Gordon Brownie leads from the front, like a more roots-focused Ben Gibbard, with some incredibly catchy choruses.

The Hip walk the tightrope between country and rock with a minimum of fuss. There’s no pretension or delusions of grandeur, just epic and accessible songs.

6/10

Words by Jamie Hailstone

Brazilian Groove Band - Anatomy Of Groove

ClashMusic — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:48:35 +0000

If ever there was a Latin funk supergroup, then it was the Brazillian Groove Band.

The band included heavyweights like Reuben Wilson and Grant Green Jnr. Those sort of musicians simply do not know how to drop the ball. The swinging Nuyorican soul that encapsulates the New York funk scene has not dated one little bit. The only question is why it took so long for this gem to be released? There’s no fat, just lean and mean groove.

It’s almost as if the 1980s never happened and the world just wants to dance to sexy Latin beats. Friday night records don’t get any funkier than this.

7/10

Words by Jamie Hailstone

Ola Podrida - Belly Of The Lion

ClashMusic — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:39:55 +0000

David Wingo’s sophomore release under the moniker Ola Podrida navigates a familiar path through the American folk of Iron And Wine or Sufjan Stevens, setting itself apart from these peers with understated poetical lyricism.

Hailing from Texas, Wingo evokes the torn emotions of a claustrophobic rural existence as seen through adolescent eyes, but without ever straying into sentimentalism. ‘Donkey’, the pick of the pride, is a triumph, its upwards melodic march to trumpet fanfares demonstrative of Wingo’s superlative ear for orchestration.

Though not consistent enough to dazzle, ‘Belly Of The Lion’ nonetheless enchants with subtle artistry.

6/10

Words by Hazel Sheffield