SINGLES
IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS - Protect Your Light (Impulse Records)
by Toon Traveller
WILLIAM EGGLESTON - Improvisation ft. Brian Eno (Secretly Canadian)
by Toon Traveller
CREATION REBEL - This Thinking Feeling (On U Sound)
by Toon Traveller
L7 - Cooler Than Mars (Dunno really)
by Alan Rider
The re formed L7 have gotten the environmental activism bug, along with every right thinking person (so not any politician then) and this is available as a limited edition flexi disc, presumably because it uses up a lot less oil gobbling vinyl. First cassettes, now flexi discs making a comeback. Its like the 80s never went away. This is a good deal different to the rock sound of L7 of old, sounding far more Siouxsie-ish than Runaways-ish and even featuring (gasp) synths! They say the song was inspired by the "strange passions of billionaire space cowboys to explore and exploit the outer limits of our stratosphere" and generally fuck up everything they touch of course in a reverse of the Midas Touch, despite our Earth being way cooler than dusty and barren Mars will ever be, hence the title.
CITY GIRLS - Face Down (UMG)
by Ancient Champion
A folk music riposte to the positivity about Barbieland's brand of feminism? "I'd never do that to you," are words I am very familiar with. This is a follow up to one of the most essential of summer hits the City Girls riff on LLCoolJ's I Need Love, I Need A Thug. While I Need A Thug had pastiche hallmarks Face Down is the way we do pure pop fun now.
DOMINIQUE FILS-AIME - Our Roots Run Deep (Ensoul)
by Lee Paul
The title track from Dominique Fils-Aimé's new LP which will be released next week. Vocals are layered semantically over a well at first a double bass then the spare percussion. But kind of, it will always be about her voice, that voice. Dominique is an award winning superstar in Canada and even with this relatively understated single, has the ability to transfix, which feels like she should be transfixing folks from an international stage. Quality.
CASH AND CARTER - Letting Her Go (Soundcloud)
by Toon Traveller
JESSE KINEL - I Sat on a Ridge (Soundcloud)
by Toon Traveller
COURTNEY BARNETT V BUSTA RHYMES - Start Somewhere, Life Balance & First Slow V LUXURY LIFE (Various Labels)
by Tim London
Open up another tab, play these together and enter the 21st century.
LAIBACH - The Engine of Survival (Mute)
by Alan Rider
Slovenian collective Laibach are a difficult band to get your head around. Occupying the same ground as Swans they aim to challenge and intellectualise music. In many ways they are very up themselves, in others they provide welcome relief from the usual rock posturing. This sounds very Swans like to me (albeit with female vocals) and has an arty and silly video to go with it where a couple of models get paint smeared on their faces which is no doubt making some point that passed me by.
BIG THIEF - Born For Loving You (4AD)
by LamontPaul
2nd track to be previewed from the vinyl single due in late October (the other was Vampire Empire). Born For Loving You. Because. "From the first kiss, to the first fuck, I don’t think it’s just good luck. Take me to the back of your pickup truck, Show me a thing or two." That there is poetic. It's all pretty linear and no so bad for all that. Great even.
ADDISON GRACE - SLIME! (Wally The Wall Shark)
by Tim London
When you’re young everything you do is new. Of course, it’s all been done before and old cunts like me will point that out. Equally we are also impressed when we see or hear something a little different. In this case, I am pleasantly surprised by Addison’s wearing of an over-sized cricket pullover. And I wonder if they understand the cultural aspects as seen from a British POV.
AAYUSHI - Beach Pockets (Bandcamp)
by Lee Paul
Aayushi does this with ease and elan. Beach Pockets is a tail end of summer joy for sure. Layered vocals, intimate and warm. Laconic lyrics crafted so wispy and delicious. An intoverted inflection. Like a West Midlands Norah Jones at her ind-demand peak really. It's difficult to understand why this woman isn't a commercial giantess because musically she is for sure. Idiosyncratic and almost perfect, and it's in the lack of perfection where the beauty lies.
HOUSTON - Wag The Dog (Init Records)
by Alan Rider
Houston sound like they should be a West Coast soft rock band. Like Chicago or any other band named after a town. But they 'aint. They in fact sound more like Queens Of The Stone Age, Foo Fighters and so on. A lot like them, along with oodles of other bands. Its jolly good fun being in a band like this I'd imagine. Very blokey. All beer and farting. Once you've been round the festival circuit half a dozen times and everyone agree what a rockin' act you are though, another band just like you will come along and everyone will forget about how rockin' you were and tell the new lot how rockin' they are instead. Yes, I'm a cynic who thinks music stopped developing about 40 years ago and all this is now just part of the fossil record whether they know it or not.
SARAH JAROSZ - Jealous Moon (Rounder Records)
by Tim London
In another review I mention bored drummers and plodding. This tune definitely has plod possibility but, somehow, the drummer manages to inject a little energy into the arrangement of this fairly ordinary song, featuring one of those American country rock melodies that nods towards hippies but is more a well looked after clapboard bungalow in a gentrified part of town circa 2012 than a Haight Ashbury commune circa 1966.
IAYE - you're my achilles heel (Sony)
by Tim London
Drummers famously get bored. That’s why they are often the top party people in a band’s entourage. Songs like this are probably responsible for that attitude. When lots of plodding is required. Must be boring. Plodding away behind a pout. Comparing the asses of the whole band.
ROGER WATERS - Time (DSOTM Redux) / Money (DSOTM Redux) (SGB Music Ltd)
ZERO s
by Jay Lewis
The main thing that infuriates me about Roger Waters is that he genuinely believes that he is one of the greatest popular music lyricists. Forget Bob, forger Joni...Rog is the self-appointed best in class. But, and I won't bore you with the evidence - just trust me, he is a crass writer, his lyrics are didactic, lacking nuance, humour, or any hint of poetry…and his characters are poorly sketched, seldom believable. These two tracks remain some of the earliest examples of this, they sounded trite back then, and, with all the decent musicianship removed for their 2023 REDUX, they are now fully exposed in all their juvenile awkwardness.
And I haven’t got around to mentioning Putin yet.
EPs
SKEET - Park Road (Almost Unknown Records)
by Alan Rider
Alan Rider listens to the sound of 80s bedroom creativity by Skeet, check out his thinking, right here
SOFT CELL - Nostalgia Machine - The Remixes (BMG)
by Alan Rider
Soft Cell really seem to be hitting every opportunity to maximise/milk their material of late. Aside from a live DVD record set, deluxe reissues, and a couple of extensions to their 'Happiness Not Included' album you can buy as add on CDs and special editions, they are now releasing an EP of remixes of the track 'Nostalgia Machine'. Its a good track, but like most remixes it's a bit of a pointless exercise designed largely to reach further into the rapidly emptying wallets of their hard-core fans. I have a message for Marc and Dave - give it a rest now guys, we've got more than enough to be going on with.
LPs
BILL LASWELL AND PETER NAMLOOK - Outland Box Set (Cold Spring)
by Alan Rider
The ‘Outland’ album series spanned five instrumental drone/electronic albums over a thirteen year period from 1994, all of which are collected together here, along with a sixth one of bass drones, all in a big box. It requires a good deal of patience to listen to the lot and I won't pretend that I have. Intended to evoke different emotions in a sort of musical voyage, its very Prog Rock in its approach. Personally though, on the evidence of the tracks I did play, I doubt very much I'd be sitting down to spend over 6 hours of my life on this in the hope it would be a consciousness changing experience.
BUCK CURRAN - The Long Distance (Obsolete Recordings)
by Alan Rider
Buck Curran isn't a name you would normally associate with electronic soundtrack albums, of which there has been a steady flow of late. I don't know a great deal about him but I gather he is better known for acoustic guitar instrumentals. Having said that, this isn't bad. Its akin to the sort of SF soundtrack you might well hear on a creepy, edge-of-the-known-universe SF horror. He sounds like he has just discovered that hey, you can make some really weird sounds with synths that you just can't wring out of an acoustic guitar and he is having a lot of fun with that. It gets a bit samey after a while as he overdoes the horn sounds and portentious analogue rumbles a bit, and goes heavy on the reverb, but hats off to him for getting stuck in.
DADá JOãOZINHO - tds bem Global (Innovative Leisure)
by Sofia Ribeiro Willcox
dadá Joãozinho's ambitious new LP get a listen from Sofia Ribeiro Willcox right here.
MAGNETIC SKIES - Empire Falling (ReprinT Records)
by Alan Rider
When we last came across Magnetic Skies in OL I commended them for their guts in attempting to launch a new 80s sounding synthpop act that had elements of Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, and suchlike running through it like a stick of rock. Mesh tried this a few years back and did pretty well with it too, but I'm just not sure that the world needs another Mesh right now. 'Empire Falling' is a slickly performed, recorded and produced pastiche, right down to the videos. These are no fresh faced teens either so I have a feeling they may be working to a plan. Whether that plan will work I couldn't say, but they are certainly giving it a damn good try.
IVAN LINS - Renata Maria (Resonance Records)
by Toon Traveller
GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS - Last Chance to Learn the Twist (Big Stir)
by John Robinson
Graham Parker, a legendary British songwriter, most famous with his backing band The Rumours during the 70s, returns with an excellent set of songs, backed by a hugely talented band featuring Geraint Watkins, Martin Belmont and The LadyBugs. The songs run from the intensely personal to the globally urgent, and Parker has clearly gone against his more usual writing habits to produce songs with a wide variety of instrumentation, song structure and intent. The Music of the Devil, his own celebration of classic rock, is a great introduction and Sun Valley is the stand out for me, single tracks We Did Nothing and Them Bugs both highlight environmental concerns and elsewhere his musical heritage, sound lyrical insights and ear for a hook are in good stead: a stalwart of the British and American music scenes showing just why he has endured.