NEW RELEASES
Edition 17 February 2005
David Thomas Broughton
The Complete Guide To Insufficiency (birdwar)
Interesting one this, even if there are faults. David Thomas Broughton mixes live plucked guitar and vocal loops while keening long repetitve songs which owe something to old American cotton picking spirituals while still remaining resolutely English, even to the point where it feels a little mannered. What's good here? Plenty; at its best it's gorgeously, if unevenly, melodic and the simple repeating pattern work like the best blues. Unmarked Grave takes a classic 'you'll miss me when I'm gone' theme and hammers it home while 'Ambiguity' is one of those songs that takes an age to start but it's opening is beguiling enough to carry along with it.
It's recorded live, so there are some errors and occasionally the loops go out of synch to the point where it jars. It is mood dependent, it never gets far from downbeat and can simply go on but overall it's rewarding and different. I'm up for seeing him live.
Jack Tractor
www.birdwar.com
Hood
Outside Closer (Domino)
Outside Closer is Hood’s first proper full-length album of new material to be released since 2001’s Cold House. That album was a beautifully strange concoction; mixing chopped and clipped austere electronic beats with sparse and emotional guitar rock. The most bizarre and surprising element of Cold House was the guest appearance by Dose and Why? of cLOUDDEAD.
The over-riding atmosphere of Cold House, at least to these ears, was bleak and wintry…the beats freezing in mid-air and vocals turning to steam on leaving the speakers. The music of Outside Closer is much warmer. The beats are still there but they have thawed and bloomed, intertwining with the instrumentation instead of merely battling against it.
The album begins with the self-descriptive ‘(Int)’; forty seconds of shimmering, processed sounds and distortion acting as an introduction to first proper song, ‘The Negatives….’. And it is this track that proves to be Outside Closer’s first real surprise. A snaking synth line plays over hip-hop style beats and haunting strings. The track’s finest moment is when the beat occasionally, almost subliminally, slips and skips out of sync. Wonderful.
Those warm electronics just keep on coming, kicking off the funky ‘Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive’, before being tempered by sombre acoustic guitars. The beats employed here have an almost Prefuse 73 quality to them, something the band use to even greater advantage on ‘The Lost You’, which utilises a glitching sample of Robert Wyatt from his Old Rottenhat album.
Another thing that is evident about Outside Closer is that the vocals are much more realised than on previous Hood albums. Coming from all sides in all shades, they have become as much another spectrum of sounds with which the band can work as those wonderful beats.
Jamie Stephenson
www.hoodmusic.net
Mama Scuba
You're a long time dead, so what's the hurry? (redemption records)
A good debut from Mama Scuba if not an instant classic. It's an album that sounds great but without necessarily being so, if that's not too confusing a statement. For example, Who Are, You Are? is the 6/8 business; wicked four note bass, crash chords and yelping it's a great way to fill two and a half minutes and moves smartly into Squeaky Clean, which, in sinuous tictacking way, is just that. But even if there's not a track on here which doesn't carry its weight as part of the whole not everything is quite so memorable.
Sonically there's comparisons to be made with the Somatics; this is a wonderfully clean sounding guitar record but whereas the Somatics err more towards melodic distortion there's a definite sharp 60s beat edge to Mama Scuba which manages to not be as self consciously necro as a lot of the Liverpool band around at the moment.
This has been a long time coming but probably worth it overall.
Jack Tractor
www.mamascuba.com
Various Artists
Misplaced Pets (Misplaced Music)
Misplaced Pets is a 22 track compilation CD released on Leeds’ label Misplaced Music. All profits go to Leeds Animal Rescue Centre and Whitehall Dog Rescue (two independently run and financed charities which rely entirely on donations).
I always think the test of a good compilation is a power to make you want to check out the back catalogues of those featured. Misplaced Pets passes with flying colours (I’ve already purchased Empress’s ‘Tea For Two’ 7” on the strength of ‘By The Lamproom’, their sublime contribution to this CD)
Martin Finke’s ‘US Coast’ is simply spine-tingling. Beautiful minor guitar chords and minimal drum-machine percussion back Finke’s multi-layered vocals. Another personal favourite is James Green’s instrumental ‘Damphound’, which is a glorious acoustic guitar matrix of Nick Drake melancholia and Derek Bailey arabesques.
It’s not just acoustica that is featured, however, as Misplaced Pets runs the whole gamut from the freeform blowout of Vibracathedral Orchestra’s ‘Sparky’s Songs’, ace jazz cut-ups on Pedro’s ‘Heaven And Earth’ to the electronica experiments of The Unpleasants and Remote Viewer.
Hood’s brief and simple ‘Another Year’ is lovely. Adrian Crowley’s ‘These Icy Waters’ is sort of Sonic Youth backing Scott Walker. Burd Early’s ‘Drizzle (Alive)’ is Beck meets Beta Band. And all this is just a third of Misplaced Pets 79 minutes.
This CD will only cost you £8, but beware: your bank balance may be severely crippled when you end up buying everything else by these wonderful musicians. Highly recommended!
Jamie Stephenson
www.misplacedmusic.co.uk
Pink Grease
Strip (Mute)
So this is it, the one that catapults The Grease into the top 40. In with a bullet at number 36 just before this issue went to press, ‘Strip’ is a brand new track (not taken from 04’s ‘This Is For Real’ long player), and comes on a rather nice picture disc, Rory and co leering at you from the back of a big pink bus while the record spins.
While not quite as good as their previous almost-hits ‘Fever’ and ‘The Pink G.R.Ease’, it’s an appropriately sleazy glam stomper, sounding like the New York Dolls fronting Abba after stealing Roxy Music’s sax section. It misses the air punching indie disco catchiness of the current crop of chart breakthroughs such as the Kaiser Chiefs, but makes up for it with a raunchy swagger they can truly call their own.
The b-side sounds like the Doctor Who theme from a collaboration between the early Human League and Jean-Michel Jarre. It’s not that good. Luckily the a-side is and a welcome return to the top 40 for Sheffield. Well done guys, we knew you could do it. This could well be your year.
Pete Mella
Xi
Low
A band destined for bigger and brighter pastures. Xi's triage of tracks, released on a single to promote their full length debut The Glow of Television, is exactly the kind of rock the industry has forgotten about. A more upbeat, lighter bastard child of Rush and Billy Idol, 'Low' fulfills the single formula; catchy lyrics, demanding chorus, upbeat, familiar bridge and lots of emotion. In addition, the second track 'Under My Feet,' is equally gorgeous. Four wonderful minutes that display how the group's instrumental chops that intertwine loud, in-your-face choruses with complicated musicianship. Primarily dominated by a singer who sounds slightly more masculine than Geddy Lee with the same range and intensity, Xi has figured cock rock out. There is even an excellent cover of Idol's 'Rebel Yell' as well. Now all I need is a mullet, a crappy can of American beer, a gun rack and 2112 and life would be perfect. Very tasty stuff indeed.
Shain Shapiro
Long Blondes
Giddy Stratospheres (Angular)
Giddy Stratospheres’ attracts many comparisons, obvious and lazy ones to bands like Blondie, a mix of punk and 60’s pop that brings to mind The Ramones, and a wry lyrical approach that more than a little reminiscent of Pulp. It’s a good song, and Kate’s vocals sound great, but it’s not perfect, some of the different parts don’t seem to gel together that well and the edges are a bit rough. A cracking indie single nonetheless.
First b-side, ‘Polly’, is a full-on and hummable 50’s-style pop song, sounding like a song thrown off the Grease soundtrack for not being quite cheesy enough. Second b-side, ‘Darts’ is a live favourite, a deadpan, untidy and gloriously short burst of new wave. It’s this reviewer’s favourite Long Blondes song, although maybe I just have a thing for girls singing about traditional pub games.
They still need to hone their craft slightly to produce the record that will allow them to live up to their potential, which one of these days they will. In the meantime we get incredibly likeable slabs of fun, edgy and intelligent pop like this to enjoy.
Pete Mella
Flylife
Sour / Psycho Disco (48 Crash)
The latest 7" from Black Wire's label, 48 Crash, and unlike the aforementioned, it doesn't quite cut it. It's got all the swagger and energy it needs and a handily dirty / clean production from Choque Hosein (ex Black Star Liner) but there's not enough in the way of memorable hooks or tune. A Side - Sour - goes all Pink Grease minus the stomp, glitter and wailing but never really takes hold of you while the suitably deranged Psycho Disco simply sounds like turgid pub rock. There's some nice (if you like that kind of thing) winklepickers on the front but basically inside the sleeve it's the boot minus the foot to fill it.
Jack Tractor