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The Crayonettes ‘Playing Out – Songs For Children & Robots’
I think I still have an album kicking around somewhere that purports to contain songs for children. The highlights, if I remember correctly, are a brace of jaunty tunes from Bernard Cribbins and Tweety Pie’s heartfelt ‘I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat”. It wasn’t what I’d call “never off my turntable”. This is an altogether more agreeable
SEPTEMBER 10 ALBUM & SINGLE REVIEWS
Album of the Month:
Grinderman
Grinderman II (Mute)
The continuing misadventures of Nick Cave and debauched cohorts gathers apace with the second Grinderman release which lurches up the same merry track that was laid down by their first album in the most slap-dashed of fashions. Expect scuzzed-up rock which is coming apart at the seams; frayed ballads which have been pulled from some despicable recess or other; and at least one song title going by the name of “Evil” (and another answering to “Kitchenette” – rock and roll). Rattlin’ good fun and proof positive that there is life in Ol’ Nick yet. RM
Released September 13
Nicolas Matar & Willie Graff
Cielo - Paradizo 2 (Nervous)
Soulful, summery house grooves with one foot in Ibiza's silver sands and the other in NYC's neon-drenched clubland. Languid beats take us on an excursion through deep bass accompanied by spacey flutes and sparse vocal refrains, reminding us of the summer we left school and discovered nightclubs and package holidays. It sounds so wrong, yet, as late summer burns in deep orange sunsets, preparing its golden swansong, it also sounds so right. CK
Released September 6
Gaudi
No Prisoners (Six Degrees)
Upfront dubwise electronica with plenty of spit and fire to commend it. Where dubstep and other 'newer' forms attempt to re-write the dub template, Gaudi plumbs the deep recesses of the more 'traditional' approach, opting for an organic sound that's heavy on rhythm and texture, rather than atmosphere. Spearhead's Michael Franti lends big-name credibility to 'There's Enough' while Easy Star All-Stars collaborator Dr Israel adds panache to 'No Time'. CK
Released September 20
Gecko Turner
Gone Down South (Love Monk)
More song-based funk-centric grooves from the Spanish beat troubadour, who loves nothing more than to throw jazz, rock, world and soul music into a farmyard with a bottle of tequila, a broken trombone and a tape recorder. Or at least that's what it sounds like on the more successful tracks. The rest sounds like okay Latin funk-pop of the sort international students smoke 'weed' to. CK
Released September 17
Robin Mahoney & Si Begg
We Made Our Own Disaster (Optronica)
I'm perplexed. DVD is fast being outstripped for choice, versatility and just plain old space-saving by online platforms and other digital storage media; VJing had its 15 minutes, so why release an "audiovisual album"? Watching/listening to the thing, I had all such concerns fade away as I am subjected to an optical/aural onslaught of jittery, fit-inducing editing and glitch-fixated beat mangling that leaves me feeling head-sick. CK
Released September 6
Special Benny
Toys (Proper Songs)
Is it folk? Is it electronica? No! It's electroni-folk! Guitars and, like, keyboards and stuff are put together and it's like, you know, Morris dancers on light-cycles or something. Or if a white person invented jazz as he was falling asleep but forgot to write it down and when he tried to remember it in the morning he came up with this. It's like taking E with gnomes and having sex with clouds while Jan Hammer tickles your perineum with a griffin feather etc. CK
Released September 6
Mice Parade
What It Means To Be Left-Handed (FatCat)
Mice Parade have been something of a hidden delight to their followers and they’re to be rewarded yet again with this sixth album which has more ideas than Leonardo da Vinci on coke. It manages to blend the sounds of Brazil and Flamenco with African rhythms and jazzy flecks – even adding some US indie rock for good measure – into a satisfying whole which never teeters into indulgence. Some feat, and one which Mice Parade are more than adept at pulling off. Rewarding. GM
Released September 27
Fenech-Soler
Fenech-Soler (B-Unique)
The world of indie-electro-dance-pop is an ever-expanding one and it’s got just that bit bigger, and that bit brighter, with this funky groover from this band currently setting knowing curtains a-twitch in all the most discerning houses. There’s something of Daft Punk about them; something of Friendly Fires; something of Delphic; and something of Frankmuzik too (especially on new single “Lies”). Itchy, urgent and not bad at all. DP
Released September 27
Hidden Orchestra
Night Walks (Tru Thoughts)
Debut album from this Edinburgh based band, and brainchild of Joe Acheson, a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, composer, music producer, sound designer and all-round Knows What He’s Doing kinda guy. Rummaging around a grab-bag of sounds from the softer, more thoughtful areas of hip-hop, jazz and drum ‘n’ bass and then filtering them through cinematic, classical lines, has resulted in an album which reveals its peculiar enchantments with repeated listens. JL
Released September 20
The Charlatans
Who We Touch (Cooking Vinyl)
Twenty years! That’s how long ago it was when The Charlatans first waded their way into the pop nation’s consciousness, and as you’d expect with a band on their eleventh album, they know their way around a decent tune. But they were always the Swinging Blue Jeans (baggy ones, of course) to the Roses’ and Mondays’ Beatles & The Stones; never quite hitting the heights except for a clutch of scorching singles. This is pleasant enough and fans who’ve stuck with them will find plenty to lollop around to. RM
Released September 13
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. (Cooking Vinyl)
Third album in from the Southend-born Sam Duckworth and it’s his most accomplished, most confident yet. He knows how to pick out a great acoustic song and has knocked together some really lovely tunes here but he’s certainly not afraid to spread his wings (and indeed fly) by adding some nice layers of electronics as well as hip-hop and drum ‘n’ bass stylings. And his non-flashy but strident vocals only add a pleasing amount of grit to the whole affair. DP
Released September 13
Chief
Modern Rituals (Domino)
Debut album from these Californian rockers and it shimmers very nicely indeed; country-tinged and with the alt.folk chops and vocal harmonies of Fleet Foxes they should clean up in the current climate. There’s also hints of everyone from Neil Young to The Beach Boys to The Band, so if you like your rock to come with a classic pedigree then you’re going to lap this up like a kitten gorging on the cream. JL
Released September 20
Various
Northern Soul: 20 Original Classics (Spectrum Music)
Kicking off with one of the solid gold Northern Soul classics ‘Do I Love You’ by Frank Wilson this compilation never lets up with stompers such as Dusty Springfield’s ‘Live It Up’ and Frankie Valli’s ‘The Night’ keeping those fires burning long into the night. Fans are sure to have many of the tracks here (probably many times over on various compilations and possibly even on the original vinyl) but newcomers will wonder why they’ve left it this long to immerse themselves in these wondrous, three-minute masterpieces. RM
Released September 6
Various
20 Original Mod Classics (Spectrum Music)
What! No Ocean Colour Scene! Don’t be daft: this is a collection of 60s originals that run from thumping Motown fliers from The Supremes (‘Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart’) and Marvin Gay (‘Can I Get A Witness’) to funk workouts from James Brown (‘Night Train’) and touches of pyschedelia from The Fleurs De Lys (‘Circles’). Space is even found to include that 60s dandy David Bowie (‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’) in a time before he found the stars… RM
Released September 6
George Michael
Faith (Sony)
The, erm, 23rd anniversary re-release for George Michael’s Faith album (23 – the big one) which is being banged out in all manner of box-sets and limited editions. Forget the frippery though; this is still a great album with Faith, Father Figure, I Want Your Sex etc still holding up really well as an example of wine-bar cool; funk-soul lite with breathy vocals all over you like an 80s yuppie in a petrol blue suit over a puff-ball clad lass slurping on an unspeakable cocktail. Listen without prejudice. RM
Released September 27
Single of the Month:
Example
Last Ones Standing (Ministry of Sound)
Jabbing synths ahoy! Example is a man making the kind of crunching dance pop which sets our hips to swivel mode as we slink our way to the floor for a three and a half-minute bout of frenzied frugging. Hands will be hurled skywards; choruses will be belted out in wild abandon; new stars will be born. Unstoppable. RM
Released September 12
Ramona
How Long (Bullitt Records)
This sounds very much like early Blondie, with all of their fuzzy CBGB riffs, hand-claps and ice-cream soda vocals. Would have sounded great in 1976 but is now about as relevant as a top-hat is when choosing suitable attire for a night out at the dogs . RM
Released September 13
Various
Gomma Dance Tracks EP (Gomma)
The world's greatest electronic dance label release yet another selection of modern disco with a retro-futurist sheen. Copyshop and Alan1 take the 'instant classic' honours this time round. Stupendous. CK
Out now
Vinyl Jacket
Lovers And A Starsign Guide EP (self-released)
Well here’s a five-piece from Wylam in Northumberland who’ve got ideas to burn (apart from great name ideas, that is – Vinyl Jacket?). They do have the clever clever tunefulness of Vampire Weekend but I can also detect a bit of the calypso skank/funk of The Beat, too: a very good thing indeed. Great to hear a local band not content to churn out sludgy Oasis inspired tripe. Seek: www.myspace.com/vinyljacketuk. DP
Released September
Ólöf Arnalds
Crazy Car (One Little Indian)
First single lifted from the forthcoming new album from this bewitching Norwegian folkie type and it’s her first sung in English. It’s a real winner too: fragile but glowing with an inner warmth which is only added to by the additional vocals from Ragnar Kjartansson. Lovely stuff. GM
Released September 6
Maroon 5
Misery (Polydor)
Sunny funk-pop-lite about being miserable. Hey, that dichotomy of the frothy with the flat can be a very potent weapon in the right hands but these are very much the wrong hands; hands that need a good slap. Impossible to listen to while not wondering about the futility of getting out of bed in the morning. RM
Released September 12
Abduction Of Margaret
Baby You’re So Crazy (self-released)
Abduction of Margaret are a local band with a nice line in fizzy electro/pop which is very much to the fore on “Baby You’re So Crazy” which is a thumping slice of synth-driven, hook-laden goodness. Other tracks display their whooshy intent and jack-hammer beats rather nicely. Seek: www.myspace.com/abductionofmargaret DP
Out now
Officer Kicks
Hold The Magic (We Make Things Up)
There’s a nice twangy feel to this lot, and this – the first single from forthcoming album “Citywide Curfew” – while nothing ground-breaking, is still nevertheless a very palatable chunk of indie-rock in the manner of The Manics at their most tuneful. JL
Released September 6
The Minutes
Fleetwood (digital only)
This promising Dublin three-piece knock out supremely confident swampy rock and roll and this heady track is built around a monster riff and shudders along very nicely indeed. Promising. GM
Released September 13
1 Undread
Sometimes It’s Not Easy (Permanent Damage)
Clippy beats and buried in the mix basslines form the backdrop to this experimental, vaguely nu-jazzy, release with utilises Nici P’s vocals as a counterpoint. It’s like an itch that you can’t scratch and about as annoying. RM
Released September 13
This Is The Kit
Moon (Need No Water)
This Is The Kit is, in fact, Kate Stables (a much better name) and she plays quite lovely folk music, this being a case in point. It’s an uptempo little toe-tapper full of warmth and delight. JL
Released September 6
Blame
Star (New State Music)
Drum and bass careers even further into pop territory with this fabulous single that also features Ruff Squad’s Fuda Guy and Camilla Marie delivering the sky-scraping chorus. There’s an orchestral monumentality underpinning the entire affair which is fluffed up by some neat hip-hop breaks and stiletto synths. RM
Released September 27
Sennen
Innocence (Hungry Audio)
This Norwich four-piece have come up with a very lovely tune which nevertheless sounds very much like New Order’s “All The Way” (from the Technique album) minus the beats. And a tick for their cover version of Teenage Fanclub’s “December”. RM
Released September 13
Laki Mera
Clutter EP (Just Music)
Downbeat chilly ambience with cinemascope ambitions and loungetempo beats anyone? I don’t mind if I do. Very good. DP
Released September 6
Nights Of Sevens, The Flood Sessions
Recorded in the old Tyne Tees Television Studio just before they were knocked down (the fire brigade booted them out on health and safety grounds) these two EPs are collectively entitled The Flood Sessions (due to the building flooding) and showcase the band’s uncompromising, post-rockular
Girl With The Replaceable Head
Death In Gateshead: that’s what it’s called (the album, that is) and lordy lordy if it isn’t amazing. What’s more it’s being released on vinyl only. Imagine! The Girl With The Replaceable Head are Sylvia Hughes and husband David Hughes (ex-Hurrah!) and they make music to cherish; music that deserves to be carefully slid out of an album sleeve and lovingly placed
Nick Cave re-mastered
“I was cut from her belly with a Stanley knife…”Nick Cave’s lyrical preoccupations don’t really find room for the pink ribboned stuff of life as evinced by the continuing, and very excellent, repackaging of his back catalogue.
There’s some strides being well and truly hit with
The Soviets’ new single released 24May
Combining the intensity of a Joy Division or an Editors with liberal splashings of melodic know-how are The Soviets.
The Sizzling Sounds of 1970s Nigeria
Oh man, these two releases are very fine indeed and have been on constant play since I was fortunate enough to stumble across them. I’m pretty well sold on early 70s Latino funk and breakbeats, but have never had the privilege of this Afrobeat stuff; and it turns out neither has anyone else outside of Africa
Top Ten Albums & Singles 2000's
Albums:
1. Outkast –
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Ooh, let’s make it a double. Two albums overflowing with
ideas, which coloured hip-hop’s palate with hitherto undreamed of hues.
Freewheeling experimentation has never sounded this assured and damn good since
Prince’s Sign Of The Times. Make that the two best albums of the decade.
2. Super Furry Animals – Rings Around The World
This album looped the loop when it came to standing freak
pop on its head. Dream tunes, experimental (but good) noodlings and the daring employment
of Paul McCartney eating a stick of celery.
3. The Avalanches – Since I Left You
This album was seemingly concocted in a bonkers crazy lab by
Aussie beat boffins who existed solely on fizzy sweets and old vinyl. Crazy in
the coconut.
4. The White Stripes – Elephant
Jack White plays his guitar a lot better than he wields his
cricket bat on the cover of this blistering album. A scorching testament to the
raw power of bluesy rock and roll, it combined passion and killer tunes in
equal measure. Give this Elephant a very sticky bun.
5. The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What
I’m Not
Rip-snortin’ riffs, juicy tunes and sharp as a dart lyrical
concerns marked it down as an immediate classic.
6. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
A frilly-knickered take on 70s MOR music which managed to be
sparky, inject some life into Pink Floyd, and pull off some dextrous word play.
7. Gwen Steffani – Love. Angel. Music. Baby
This had Madonna spluttering into her Kabbalah flakes for a
while. Frothily and endlessly inventive, it was a super-charged slab of pure
nowness. And every song screamed ‘single’.
8. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Cagoule boogie has never sounded so uplifting.
9. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
Juddering house, woozy disco and the kind of cool electro
pop which managed to be elegiac, funny and utterly idiomatic simultaneously.
10. Justin Timberlake – FutureSex/LoveSounds
A real supercharged slice of sci-fi r’n’b which, for a
mainstream album, managed to be utterly weird (and wired) and pleasingly soaked
in dizzying synths and glitchy guitar funk.
Singles:
1. Girls Aloud – Biology
Like a pop version of Bohemian Rhapsody (and consequently 1000 times as good), this melded at least three brilliant songs into one all-conquering monster.
2. Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out
The bit where it emerges – a quarter of the way through the song, butterfly-like from the carcass of a Strokes’ style indie-me-up – is one of the most seminal moments in recent music history.
3. Beyonce - Crazy In Love
An all encompassing groover, equally at home while in the car or in a club. A delirious whirl of super-swish r’n’b and sassy pop which will be frugged to for as long as people frug to music.
4. Hot Chip – Over & Over
Building up a rare old head of steam, this suitably repetitive groove was indeed like a “monkey with a miniature cymbal”. Super-duper.
5. Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
Big, soulful and unstoppable, this Cee-Lo Green/Danger Mouse collaboration was an instant classic. You can’t now imagine the world without it.
6. Hercules & The Love Affair – Blind
A stunning modern disco tune which successfully added trumpets and Antony Hegarty’s melancholy vocals to its intoxicating mix.
7. Kylie - Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
This is the cherry on Kylie’s sublime cake.
8. Rihanna – Umbrella
Appropriately enough was deservedly number one throughout 2007’s rain-soaked summer.
9. MGMT - Kids
The killer groove, the bouncy verses, the sense of the sun coming up inside of yourself when the chorus hits. Fantastic, basically.
10. Missy Elliot - Get Ur Freak On
Missy’s spiky soundscape was one of those rare tracks that you never grew tired of despite it being the ring tone of choice in 2001.
Warp 20th anniversary editions
If your speakers could handle the lowest bass notes in LFO’s eponymous single ‘LFO’ then you had a pretty nifty set up back in 1989 when it first hit the charts. It was one of the very first Warp releases and the Sheffield based label were famed for their electro goodness
The Stone Roses Collectors and Legacy Editions
Listen carefully to the extended guitar solo at the end of I Am The Resurrection (the closing track on the album and the only acceptable guitar solo in the history of recorded sound) and you can hear a little ringing bell. You probably won’t notice it on the first 100 listens or so, but it’s there, and if it were
Siouxsie and the Banshees at the BBC, released on June 1
Upon first catching wind of what Siouxsie and the Banshees were all about, John Peel and his producer John Walters, made an unsuccessful attempt to sign them up for the BBC. Imagine: the bare breasts, the swastikas, that Bill Grundy TV appearance with The Sex Pistols...
Erasure, Pop! Remixed
If The Pet Shop Boys were the (self-proclaimed) Smiths that you could dance to, then surely Erasure were Kraftwerk that you could really party to. The aural equivalent of a sequined g-string, the band have racked up an incredible roster of hit singles including the likes of Stop!,
New Order
Can we toss around the word ‘seminal’ at this point? I think we’re going to have to, yes. Of course, the 80s has long since been rehabilitated as a brilliant decade for music and five of its most lofty peaks came in the shape of five New Order albums.
alt vinyl releases
One of Newcastle’s top independent record shops, alt vinyl, has a few sparkling new releases worthy of your attention.
These releases are an aesthetic joy and that’s even before you get a chance to listen to them. They come on square 8” clear polycarbonate lathes which means each record is individually cut by lathe rather than stamped on a press from a metal master. And the sounds? Check these out: Alan Courtis (pictured) ‘Llegaron Los Turcos” (Alan uses a wide variety of sources both digital and analogue to construct stunningly out there worlds of sound
Platinum Disc
Diana Dors’ fabulous 1960 album Swingin’ Dors has been re-released as a deluxe limited edition vinyl LP and a CD digipack. Get yours while they’re hot.
They don’t make them like Diana Dors anymore. The original British blonde bombshell was in a class of her own; a star without the starriness and a professional performer. At the peak of her career, juggling TV shows and cabaret nights, the busomic beauty recorded Swingin’ Dors, an album that had Dors’ detractors spilling beverages down their fronts and eating their collective hats.
E-Type Wag
Mark E. Smith, eh? Noted wit, grumpy raconteur and the centrifugal force behind The Fall, one of Britain’s most idiosyncratic bands. Looking forward to their latest box-set: Robert C. Meddes.
Acid pops
A new 4-CD box-set, Real Life Permanent Dreams, showcases a cornucopia of British psychedelia culled from the years 1965-1970.
Is it safe to start talking about the 1960’s again yet? The Mini, the mini-skirt, the Kinks, kinky boots, Keith Moon, the moon landings – yeah yeah yeah (as the Beatles put it).
Soul searching
Northern Soul aficionados are famed for their Indiana Jones like abilities for seeking out rare vinyl. Those of us who prefer our heady music vibes served up on a platter, however, should make a bee-line for Keeping The Faith, a new box-set which celebrates all things Northern Soul-like in one handy collection
Meek soup
Pioneering record producer, Joe Meek, wasn't afraid to use ground-breaking echo and reverb effects as well as early sampling techniques to create his own unique "sonic signature". A whole raft of releases are marking the 40th anniversary of his death.
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