NEW RELEASES
Edition 16 January 2005
ALBUMS
The Angel Brothers
Forbidden Fruit
The ground that falls betwixt East and West is fallow land indeed. Everyone from Asian Dub Foundation to Andrew Lloyd-Webber to the person who commissions the Pergot ads has tapped into the artistic, not to mention commercial potential of fusing multi-cultural genres.
Doncaster’s The Angel Brothers (who include ex-Magazine man Dave Formula amongst their ranks) take things one step further whisking us off on a virtual world tour in just over fifty minutes stopping off at pretty much everywhere to have a quick rummage through the cultural archives. Everything from Bluegrass to Bangra, Funk to Folk to the theme tune to Get Carter is covered and crammed in to varying effects.
Despite being under more influences than Pete Doherty on an average night out, its heart seems rooted in dubby Jazz Funk with nods towards TransGlobal Underground and Alabama 3. Whilst as an experiment it works well, the pressure to stuff in as many different styles as possible mean that as a whole album with any sense of flow it works less well. Some bits are intriguingly engaging, in particular Counting Beans with its sublime mix of American folk and dub. Other bits pass by with little effect.
Ultimately if you’re the type of person who can use the phrase “chilled-out jazz funk” without even a twinge of self-consciousness then this album will make a welcome addition to your collection. Others may find the knowingly “cool” exterior a little harder to penetrate.
www.theangelbrothers.com
Rob Paul Chapman
Hello Cuca
Gran Sur (GoJohnnygogogo)
There are some interesting influences behind Gran Sur. There is definitely a big pile of riot grrrl records that have lent their influence to the vocals, and an even larger collection of garage rock and surf songs that have fed into the guitar riffs. The real problem with this album is, other than its Spanish vocals (the band are Spanish, you see), there really is little to make it stand out. The pace of the whole thing makes it sound somewhat drawn out, so just as you think the album should be finishing soon, you find out you’re on track five. Perhaps if the whole thing had been recorded at double speed it would have sounded better.
It’s hard to think of a time when one would be drawn to putting this album on their stereo (other to review it). There is certainly not enough to Gran Sur to make it the kind of album you can sit and listen to without needing some major distraction. The songs so easily merge together, and the half-arsed pace draws you into the realms of ‘in one ear, out the other’, which is never a good thing (unless you plan to be the next Norah Jones). Still, I would rather hear it than get run over by a bus.
www.gojonnygogogogo.co.uk
Tom Goodhand
PRP Group
Today Was The Happiest Day Of Your Life
This Leeds instrumental trio (made up of Ashley Clarke on drums, Richard Errington on guitar and Michael Clough on bass) has, in one form or another, been together since 1982.
After a series of self-released EPs, comes what could be considered their full-length debut…Today Was The Happiest Day Of Your Life consists of just five tracks but offers a running time of 50 minutes. The album kicks off with the trance-inducing missing link between Can and the Necks: ‘Ptarmigans’, a 16 minute odyssey into cyclical drum patterns, looping bass and grinding, echoed guitar.
The pioneering cut’n’paste editing style of maverick Miles Davis producer Teo Macero is no secret in its influence on the band, evidenced when ‘Ptarmigans’ jump-cuts into ‘Shatner’s Bassoon’; 5 minutes of brooding percussion and electronics.
My favourite has to be ‘Cow’’s slowly disintegrating military alien dub funk; all fretless bass, broken metronomic drums and distant ghostly guitar. The self explanatory ‘Dub Version Of The Previous One’ is a 7-minute live studio dub of the preceding track. It takes the slow, gradual corruption of ‘Cow’ to extremes by totally annihilating the original into a textured mass of phased, echoed, looped and panned electronic drones, rumbles and distortion (imagine Aphex’s ‘Windowlicker’ minus the beats). It segues seamlessly into a closing 11-minute abstract improvisation; shifting layers of drum machine beats, psychedelic guitar, electronics and tribal percussion.
File next to The Liars’ They Were Wrong So We Drowned and Black Dice’s Creature Comforts. It really is THAT good!
www.prp-group.co.uk
Jamie Stephenson
Worm
Hate (Voltage Records)
Having heard the album I still couldn’t tell you what sort of band Worm actually are. It’s an uneasy mix of riffing Faith No More metal rubbing up alongside the sort of swirling bleeps beloved of The Orb and Orbital plus a touch of trance and a bit of Senser like rap / dance.
There is good stuff here, My God has that authentic dazed paranoia / euphoria of the hour before daylight at an all-nighter and the band sound most convincing on techno / riff opener Destroy Myself but too often it’s like chocolate and Marmite queasily fighting it out rather than complementing.
Overall the album doesn’t gel and suggest a project lacking a sense of direction rather than a significant piece of genre busting.
www.voltagerecords.com
Jack Tractor
Various Artists
…and besides everyone knows it's not just boys fun
"Equal but different," barked The Au Pairs as someone else in this magazine pointed out. And so it should be. Still, we know about the disparity of men and women, or boys and girls if you wish, playing in bands. And all the dumb clichés of rock and roll etc etc.
But rather than take us down the road of debate let me just point out that this compilation is great.
Forget who makes it this is a sharp, short, exuberant, witty, sometimes raging lo-fi punk, occasionally warped, acme of John Peel pop.
Mind, that covers a few bases. Black Bats are awesome , verging on hardcore, Mooz is soulful math rock (you've got to hear My Property simply for the vocal shrugs), The Holy Terror have ace guitars in as do The Long Blondes who add a touch of elegance to the whole thing. Personal favourites are Mrs Pilgrimm whose skeletal thing sounds like the Young Marble Giants hadn't knocked in on the head, slowed down and got better lyrics.
It's from the Manifesta collective who put on the 'Not just boys fun' nights and some of it's sung in a pitch which can make bats woozy (Mary Jane's singer seems to have a piano length of range mind you and a throat covered in razor blades). It's great and there's an end to it
www.manifesta.co.uk
Joan Tractor
SINGLES
Beautiful Feet
Headstrong (5:1)
Given the current climate of blind acceptance / instant dismissal / vein busting rage when a band offers up a piano driven, mid tempo heartfelt ballad (you know the bands I should be referencing) it's tempting to take a swipe just to keep up with the times.
Headstrong though, while rather obviously pushing certain buttons, is simply a good song, well done. Maybe, in a backhanded way, one of its strengths is the fact that the production is not over buffed, sheering its melancholy off with process. In a Juke Box Jury situation I'd give it the tentative nod.
Fairer play to drummer Rich, simply for confessing to a ten month Frisbee related injury in the band biog.
www.beautifulfeet.co.uk
David Boswell
Jim Muir Slideshow
Popular Art / As Equations EP
(Bowman’s Capsule)
Jim Muir was part of Action Spectacular, a Sheffield band tipped for big things that produced some good songs with a dry sense of humour, and played live in doctors’ coats and those funny glasses with eyes painted on.
And he continues that brand of well-made, intelligent pop, but in many ways much better, and without need for such gimmicky costumes.
This collection of four songs are a masterclass in great songwriting. Sometimes touching on Pulp style observation (especially in ‘How The North of England Saved My Life’), backed with subtle electronica, and acoustic guitar. They’re sweeping, epic, ambitious, but without pretension, and full of insightful lyrics about everything from drugs to relationships.
This is the second in an ongoing series of EP releases, the last one getting single of the week in the Guardian Guide. You never know. This could be worth something one day.
www.jimmuirslideshow.com
Pete Mella
Smokers Die Younger
SDY / Consumer Advice (Detail)
The long-awaited first single from Smokers Die Younger, and it was well worth the wait. With Alan Smyth at the helm, and a band who obviously have so many influences, yet so few you could easily put your finger on, it was always going to be interesting, and this is an absolute corker.
The first side, ‘SDY’, is an immediate song with a great accordian riff. Singer James’ voice sounds great, with a hint of vitriol hissed through clenched teeth. An intelligent song that could pack a dancefloor, what else could you ever want?
Consumer Advice’ is a slower affair, with an infectious bassline, heartfelt vocals, driving guitars and simple keyboards, building up into a crescendo and the song goes on.
It would be a great injustice to make the usual lazy journalistic ‘they sound like x and y with a bit of z thrown in’, and to be honest I wouldn’t know where to start. Yeah occasionally you think of the Pogues, or that it sounds a little Velvets-y in places, but mostly it’s like nothing else you’ve heard.
Smokers have got another one on the way from Thee SPC soon. We can’t wait. This is startlingly good stuff. Hard to categorise, incredibly individual, yet very easy to like.
Pete Mella
Kaiser Chiefs
Oh My God! (b-Unique)
It’s reissued at the end of the month with a bit of a tweak. Here’s what we said first time around:
Kaiser Chiefs are a band fairly readily thrown into the very ill-fitting garage rock genre. Trying to shove the band under this banner is like trying to get a fully-grown adult to squeeze his feet back into his first ever pair of shoes. In case you’ve never tried that, rest assured, it’s very tricky indeed.
Fair enough, the tracks on this EP (especially ‘Born To Be A Dancer’) may include the odd funky bass line and distorted guitar, but there is much more to Kaiser Chiefs than this. ‘Oh My God’ sounds for the most part like some long-lost collaboration between Blur and Madness, but at the chorus quickly turns into an 80s electro-rock monster.
Throughout the EP the vocals are often somewhat reminiscent of Madness, but the ska is thankfully pushed out of the way by some fantastic Britpop tunes. The keyboard gives the tracks an added, at moments, very indie-ish sound. But this isn’t indie in a tuneless Menswear way. For Kaiser Chiefs, the most important thing are clearly the tunes, and what great tunes they are. Kaiser Chiefs make pop-music the way it should be, each song is around four-minutes long, contains a great melody, catchy vocal lines, and killer choruses. What more could you look for in a band?
www.kaiserchiefs.co.uk
Tom Goodhand
Yellow Stripe Nine
Trouble With Girls
Now, it’s always good to see a band with a little more ambition than getting laid and getting glammed is harder work than getting greasy. Take ABC, great weren’t they? A swoosh of strings and gold lame preceded some highly adept musical pilfering and a good dose of arch and occasionally self deprecating lyricism. Briefly, they sparkled. There’s nothing wrong with beg, borrow or stealing music. Itr’s either how well you hide it or how well you do it.
The jury’s out on Yellow Stripe Nine for the moment. The ambition is there but they are going to have bring in something more substantial than this nicely put together if overly knowing bit of fluff.
Pete Wurlitzer’s voice is so stagy it makes the likes of Momus and Neil Hannon sound like gritty soul men. It swoops and flounces all over the shop without the song itself ever moving out of neutral and it’s all a bit Lionel Blair. Still, the heart’s in the right place and next time…who knows?
www.yellowstripenine.com
Jack Tractor
look out for new releases from Hood, animal charity Misplaced Pets and GoJohnnyGoGoGo’s new compilation