RECORDING OF THEE WEEK
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - The Real (IIP DDS)
by DJ Fuzzyfelt
Storming return after three years away. If the rest of the forthcoming BJM album is as good as this then at 54, after 30 years of releasing music Anton Newcombe might well have made the best long player of his career.
SINGLES
KRUSH PUPPIES - Why (Holm Front Records)
by Toon Traveller
Straight 80s miserablist rock - meets a 90s alt-something sound. Crashing chords powering the song. There's a back of the mix vocal, there's some great heavy, fuzzed, and treated guitars. There's none of the traditional, 2 verse/chorus, middle eight, bridge, 3rd verse/chorus. An unusual song, voices otherworldly, somewhere from the mid-somewheres, with dropped echoes of heavy fuzzed desert blues. This breathes chaos out of calm, and builds to one raucous crescendo, that dies, in a hurricane-sudden post-storm calm. That said, it leaves me with a knot, who does this appeal to, I don't know. It's not rock, not avant-garde enough, it's new and inventive but there's not enough to excite. Some great ideas here though, a band to watch.
TIRED TAPE MACHINE - Thing (F.E.E.D.E.R. Recordings)
by Toon Traveller
Wow this is weird, even for me, I used to have a mate, AB, he'd absolutely love this. The off-beats, the odd cowbells, the treated sax, the sense of someone recovering from a workout, the indecipherable vocals... This all adds to music heard in snippets, as if someone has cut spliced a recording studio tape along its length and you get half a tune. That said not too sure how i feel, I like it enough to listen to a couple of times, but would I listen again and again, not too sure? Fans of Tangerine Dream, Gong, Faust 70's German Progressive Rock might find something here if that's your thing, but for me, nothing new or inventive, but it's got a 70s sophomoric sensibility that some will remember with shame OR delight.
ELIZA - Straight Talker (Parlophone)
by Tim London
There might be some who would take a little look at this and see/hear more age alienating young people’s sexy R&B and dismiss it whilst pushing their Sam Fender CD into their comfortable place. Shame. Over an irresistibly funky groove and the same chord progressions that once saw Jefferson Airplane take microdoses into the American top 20 Eliza drawls something irrelevant in a gorgeous manner and I am transported.
FAKE TURINS - Parcel Duchamp (Hideous Mink Records)
by Toon Traveller
NILS FRAHM - Brainwash (BMG)
by Lee Paul
I don't usually get the Nils Frahm beat. He's taken very seriously here, so how come I ended up with this? Anyhow. Reissued for Piano Day, Brainwash is totally great, wholly insistent from beginning to end with an undertone of jeopardy throughout. Urgent and appealing.
SOFT CELL AND THE PET SHOP BOYS - Purple Zone (BMG)
by Jay Lewis
If you've come here in search of answers to the perplexing question 'what is a purple zone and/or whether or not it's contagious, then sorry I can't help you. However, if you want an affirmation that this is the finest tune that Soft Cell have put their name to in a very, very long time, then you've come to the right place.
Why no one had ever previously considered how splendid Marc Almond's and Neil Tennant's voices would sound together is a mystery. And then there's Dave Ball's irresistible soundtrack blended together with a nod to PSB's Imperial Phase (well, it was Tennant who coined that phrase). Majestic pop.
KATY J PEARSON - Talk Over Town (Heavenly)
by Katherine Pargeter
The first taste of Pearson's forthcoming 'Sound of the Morning' is a spirited six-minute blend of country-tinged pop with occasional idiosyncratic swoops of synth noise. Her Gloucester's answer to Stevie Nicks vocals has matured into something of real depth, sweetness, and subtlety. Lyrically, Pearson is facing the sudden shock of going from relative obscurity to being a '...buzzy new artist' ('...all the jewels that you wore make you feel like you're going places'), and all of the insecurities that may entail. A significant move forward.
MARY J BLIGE - Good Morning Gorgeous (featuring H.E.R.) (Mary Jane Productions)
by Ancient Champion
Mary J. Blige, like anyone, of course, can do things wrong but then so rarely does. From a double-height atrium, Good Morning Gorgeous, featuring H.E.R. underpins an affirmation with just enough strings, bass, rimshots and hi-hats to make you positively believe her. Be careful with yourself out there.
AVILA BROTHERS - A Hard Working Man (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus and Snoop Dogg) (Avila Brothers Recordings)
by Ancient Champion
Billy Ray Cyrus and Snoop Dogg. It really is. And the Avila Brothers. There's more than a touch of the revisionist Lee Dorsey's about it. Bizarrely brilliant when somehow maybe it shouldn't be. "I'm a Hard Working Man." I can identify. Vicariously through.
CHEMISTRY SET - Paint Me A Dream (Fruits de Mer Records)
by Ancient Champion
Great to hear this track from the forthcoming Chemistry Set long-player, Pink Felt Trip (June - Fruits de Mer Records). Paint Me A Dream is a pretty exciting guitar-driven piece of nu-psychedelia. When I say 'guitar-driven', these guitars have the gain stage at 11. The solo actually does sear and soar, languidly though, tearing the speaker cabinet. Music to take drugs to make music to. I'd love to know how they've made this recording sound so exciting. In the garage, I guess.
WORKING MEN'S CLUB - Widow (Heavenly)
by Jay Lewis
Darker than a 'Black Celebration' with the young Depeche Mode and far more surreal, the first taste of Working Men's Club's forthcoming 'Fear Fear' album is a warped little wonder.
There are the shuddering retro electronics that we were prepared for, but this time mixed with the curious chorus: ("Lust was easy until you died/ now I fuck inside my head but not outside..."). As with last year's one-off single 'X', Working Men's Club are heading in a musically dense and lyrically dour direction. And yes, you can still dance to it.
HARRY STYLES - As it Was (Erskine)
by Erin
Harry Styles manages to balance the upbeat instrumentation (A-ha's 'Take On Me' being a clear sonic inspiration for him), and a more vulnerable side of his lyrics. Styles explores isolation and romantic disillusionment as he quietly states that '...it's not the same as it was' and recalls instances where people asked '...what pills are you on' only to realise that '...nobody's coming to help'.
This is a more understated lead single, in contrast with the booming and grand statements that he made to introduce his previous albums. His forthcoming 'Harry's House' looks set to be his most introspective work to date.
ANGEL OLSEN - All The Good Times (Jagjaguwar)
by Erin
The first new material from Olsen’s forthcoming ‘Big Time’ album finds her in a retrospective mood. ‘All the Good Times’ opens with just a sparse drum pattern and the reverbs of her own voice before gradually growing, adding more drums and trumpets, then she delivers the potent line ' you always know how to get straight to my head' leads into the song's denouement that's full of resignation as she states: '… thanks for the free ride'.
It's a deeply emotional and powerful song that places Angel Olsen and her personal experiences at the centre in a beautiful way - blending the glitzy, expansive, expressive nature of her 2019 ‘All Mirrors’ album and the stripped-down follow up ‘Whole New Mess’ which showed those glitzy songs in their original form and manages to assure listeners that she is still as talented as ever.
PASTOR CHAMPION - Storm Of Life (Luaka Bop)
by Tim London
Religion, it’s a funny thing. It can be an alcoholic priest threatening children with hell, it can be a ‘Father Christmas bearded bastard’ (thank you Alexei Sayle) sending some duped boy to blow himself up in a market or a war and it can be this. What’s this? Music for the godless made in the name of god. Thank you.
WILLOW - PURGE Feat. Siiickbrain (Roc Nation)
by Tim London
The producers of Star Trek V The Final Frontier imagined a 21st-century girl group from the planet Snargrrrrl. Willow is the one who can see that an American military controlling various universes is the obvious way to go, whereas Siickbrain is in love with a demon alien and wants all the universes to be sucked into one, enormous digitally black hole of eternal pain. The band split up and Siickbrain eats the manager.
EPs
LEE SCRATCH PERRY - Spring Thunderstorm (Fruits)
by Ancient Champion
Lee Scratch Perry, 18th Parallel, and Robert Sanchez combined on the Cosmic Drop Riddim EP and this is just an incredible piece of music to come out of that. So smooth, if you ever lost your faith in dub, Spring Thunderstorm is here to rejuvenate it. Just Gorgeous.
LPs
MOMUS - Smudger (Darla)
by John Robinson
The 2022 album from Momus is Smudger: John Robinson provides you with a full review here...
BROTHER LEE - Discotheque Blues (Dime Records)
by LamontPaul
Brother Lee intervenes personally, to talk you through his latest new five-star LP, Discotheque Blues, right here. Meanwhile here's some incomparable - except for the Faces vibe, which you can compare to Ronnie Wood on the old six string - Mountains...
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Unlimited Love (Warner Records)
by Spanish Pantalones
While I was driving around town today, I was listening to Marc Maron’s podcast; he was interviewing Flea. Flea doesn’t seem so bad. He gives back to his community. He's a good father. It’s a bummer that the singer of his band has such a rancid singing voice. I mean, just horrible. Not only horrible, but embarrassing. Scrub Anthony Kiedis’ voice from the mix of 'Unlimited Love' and you have a decent recording. It’s a little spacey and funky – sorta like My Morning Jacket without the pitchy vocals. Flea doesn’t deserve this, no one does.
Essential Info
Main Image Brian Jonestown Massacre borrowed from defunct Australian student magazine...
