INTRO
What a wonderful Outsideleft Week in Music we have for you right here. Really... Quirky, Spunky, Cheeky, Flirty, Sparkle-y might describe much of the joyous sounds and the gloom tunes too, and not just the new Jim White single 'Marketplace' which is stellar. Very. You be the judge! So many great, great records. And look, we're using small data to reveal that this week's reviews are brought to you by... Alan Rider (12), Lee Paul (1), Danny Rose (1), Ogglypoogly (2), Jay Lewis (2), Ancient Champion (4), Toon Traveller (6), and Katherine Pargeter (1), while presenting those names in a random, non-specific, digitally-generated order. Ha! Now I am going to get some cat food. For the analogue cat.
SINGLES
by Toon Traveller
What to make of this drum and keys piece? Sounds and notes, fast as hell, but not a rock speedster groove. Darkening dusk, but not in a Goth Rock sound. Tweets and cheeps but not in prog rock, post hippy feel. Ok so you know what it's "not", but what is it? That's harder to describe, define, and categorise. Different, well uncommon, inventive absolutely, machine made, impossible, human music, undoubtedly. I love it's quirky, spunky, cheeky, flirty, sparkle. Oh and Jim White plays everything, and has done on many great records by many artists you love for the best part of the past 20 years (Cat Power, Bill Callahan, PJ Harvey and way more besides). A whole LP, All Hits: Memories, emerges on March 29th. Getting into Jim's Marketplace is such a natural thing to do.
by Lee Paul
California's Warpaint sort of punch above their weight critically speaking. What do I mean? Relentlessly great reviews, I am sure you can search the Guardian website and find them praised to high heavens there. Meanwhile I could walk across Lightwoods Park without meeting one person who'd heard of them. Maconie maybe. Well without a doubt. Common Blue is cool though. Actually pretty much rocks in a greatly restrained West Coast way. The vocals all layered and in a not at all unpleasant fashion. Maybe if you heard something you liked in Fleetwood Mac's Tusk you might also find something here.
by Alan Rider
Hungarian electro-pop noir duo Black Nail Cabaret come back with another track from their upcoming album, ‘Chrysanthemum’, their sixth. ' Darkness Is a Friend' is an attempt to exorcise the demons that live in the dark. "There is only one scary thing out there in the dark: my own fear" they say. Singer Emèse Árvai-Illes sure has a great voice for this sort of thing, both sternly commanding yet soaring. Black Nail Cabaret's bass driven darkwave is infectious and not a little catchy. Exorcism complete.
ZERO s
by Toon Traveller
Boing boing boing, guitar's chug, sub Debbie, Madonna, twee innocent nasally whined vocals. A few crisp drum beats and a bass break, but it's all the same formula. A hook so badly baited, not even a starving shark would fall for it. It's got nothing to say. Crepes, just posh, thin, rather pointless pancakes. Save your money, go big, and real, with honey.
by Alan Rider
Leeds English Teacher endeared themselves to us with their November 2023 single about the worlds biggest paving slab. That probably really exists in an obscure town museum in the middle of Nowheresville, USA next to the giant ball of string. Despite being part of the dry sounding 'Mathrock' genre, they are anything but a bunch of cordouroy trouser wearing teachers, be that of English or Maths. 'R&B' tells of judgements placed on singer Lily Fontaine as a frontwoman of color. “The shivering truth of the matter is so easy to see/If I have stuff to write, then why don’t I just write it for me?/Despite appearances, I haven’t got the voice for R&B,” she sings about the prejudices she’s faced in the music industry. Their star seems to be in the ascendant and despite their obvious student band credentials (having all met at Uni) they are pretty decent and have a sharp turn of phase when it comes to social commentary.
by Alan Rider
I had thought '80s Gothic Rock act Gene Loves Jezebel had split up, but it appears they just split into two different versions of the same band, like a worm cut in half (and before you say it, I know that doesn't actually hold true in real life). After a court case between the warring factions, the two halves reached a confusing agreement over the use of the name. Jay Aston's band is now known as "Gene Loves Jezebel" in the UK and "Jay Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel" within the US; Michael Aston's band is now known as "Gene Loves Jezebel" in the US and "Michael Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel" in the UK. All clear? No, me neither. If I was you I'd just ignore all that though and listen to something else instead, as this is dated, pompous, overblown goth that you really needn't trouble yourself with.
by Alan Rider
Taken from the upcoming re-issue of rave pioneers Flowered Up’s 1991 debut album ‘A Life With Brian’, this Clive Langer-produced, masterful thirteen minute epic “Weekender” is now included on the album, which it certainly wasn't first time round as it would have taken up most of one side of the vinyl. The single was accompanied by a short film whose depiction of a weekend of clubbing gives an insight into early 90s rave culture and was the subject of 2022 Heavenly Films documentary ‘I Am Weekender’. Touted as an alternative to Happy Mondays, Flowered Up were superior in many ways, and despite their baggy/rave credentials had a lot more in common with 70s rock bands than 90's rave acts. Underrated and under appreciated in UK musical history, 'Weekender' acts as a timely reminder of just what a band like Flowered Up can achieve in the hands of a top producer like Lang, in the same way as Frankie Goes To Hollywood were transformed in the hands of Trevor Horn. This has to be heard to be believed.
by Toon Traveller
Beyond words... But I'll try. Flutes echo times and places long past. It's dawn, slow rising on pastoral mist brushed fields. There's lutes and pianos all very pre-industrial, agrarian, 17th Century back to roots romanticism. All impractical, implausible, but delightfully idiosyncratic in that very dippy, drippy English way. Back in my youthful 70s I'd see this as the child of early Virgin Records, well meaning folkie, hippiness. It's as much a rejection of commercial and pompous prog rock, and every bit as sincere as Punk's snarled, balls of spit and kick. It's a romanticized, idealised stance against the mainstream. It's the forgotten, alternative 70s revolution, but less energy, but like a lot of indy/new wave, good roots don't make it good.
by Katherine Pargeter
Whilst they were recently on tour in America, The Last Dinner Party made it known that they were having difficulty replacing the f-word in the chorus of 'Nothing Matters' so that it could become more radio-friendly. Cue Courtney Love arriving backstage after a show with her suggestion. The word should be 'punch' ! ('...and I will punch you like nothing matters' - really Courtney? really?). You'll be happy to know that this acoustic version of their fabulous introduction to all our lives does not include the Love-inspired amendment. Thankfully.
by Ancient Champion
With my finger so firmly on the pulse of significant musical happenings it is probably pretty hard for you to imagine I would be the very last to know about Eric Hilton's Sound Vagabond album, released today on the Montserrat House label. This track, Midnight Milan, is really quite quietly perfect, all past-midnight wind down promise. The co-founder of Thievery Corporation gives us neither too much nor too little. The Prince of languid, mercurial, downbeat trajectories. The LP is by turns as diverse as a musical jackdaw could be. Oh Wow!
ZERO s
by Toon Traveller
Hermanos Gutierrez are the Ecuadorian-Swiss sibling duo of Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez. Sondino Cosmico (Easy Eye Sound) is a spacey bit of somnambulism alright, timelessly so. It does have a sort of dispiriting Country File of you've seen that show, incidental music quality that could be seen as a drawback for some and it goes on way too long. The embodied mystery which begins so well ends up being one I'd rather not resolve.
by Ancient Champion
Brittany Howard goes totally, absolutely and amazingly Barry Biggs here. She is him. It is just gorgeous. In my life I don't think I have listened to a single record more than Barry's Sideshow. The astonishing eunuch falsetto. Oh man, let's talk about me. When I was writing We Can Help You With Your Lust... Barry Biggs was on my mind and has been ever since.
by Ancient Champion
Oxford Drama are two Polish kids, Maigorzata Dryjanska and Marcin Mrówka who have been together for a decade providing a sometimes semi-acoustic ironic cultural commentary. The Leader is a commentary of corruption and lies and there's a clue to why vast swathes of the populations despair of politicians. Sounds like it could've been produced by Johnny Marr though and will withstand repeated listens. And excitingly, the next record may sound nothing like this one. Why get too comfortable.
by Ogglypoogly
As the lead single for the upcoming album In This City They Call You Love, It’s the simplicity of this song that really stands out, the repeating descent along a fretboard, which has cemented itself so firmly in my head that I’ve found myself pattering rhythmically down staircases to it. Two for His Heels is on my ‘can’t wait to see this live’ list - stripped of the string section and chorus of backing vocals this isn’t a crooning baroque ballad, yet it still manages to fill the space with what might seem like the bare bones of a song in comparison to anything from the recent greatest hits. Should you give it a listen? I'd argue you absolutely should.
by Alan Rider
Reminiscent of Felt, 'Phone Screen' by Coventry duo Phases of is a gentle acoustic trip billed as a love song for the technological age, singing of reflections seen through a lover’s phone. Following up January's 'Vivre' single, a far more jagged and disjointed affair (which I preferred tbh), Phases of have the air of a vintage Cherry Red or Postcard act. Their profile may be low right now, but if they can pull an album together it'd be time to stick their heads over the parapet and let the world see more of them.
by Alan Rider
Ger Eaton (pronounced Jair, short for Gerard) is an Irish multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, hair stylist and retro-vintage aficionado. Yes, hair stylist is included on his biog. He might want to give himself a makeover though as he sports a dodgy haircut and showcases some pretty poor miming in the stroll-through-a-graveyard video accompanying this. Retro-vintage is actually a good description of 'Season Changes', a fey, psychedelia tinged folk rock workout that reeks of patchouli oil. Ger (pronounced Jair, short for Gerard) clearly wishes he could turn the clock back to the '60's when it was cool to wear loon pants, you could freely neck industrial quantities of drugs, and we only had the Cold War, Vietnam, and the looming spectre of imminent nuclear destruction to worry about. That is as opposed to now when it is absolutely NOT OK to wear loon pants under any circumstances, you can still neck as many drugs as you like, and we only have the New Cold War, Ukraine and Gaza, and the looming spectre of imminent nuclear destruction to worry about. Apart from the lack of loon pants, Ger (pronounced Jair, short for Gerard) should feel right at home in 2024 I'd say.
by Alan Rider
There is no one out there doing what Kim Gordon is doing these days. We tried to get her to talk to OL recently, but to no avail. So we have to content ourselves with throwing roses at the stage instead. Kim is very clearly not a man. What she is though is a fiercely inventive and confrontational artist who surpasses her previous work with Sonic Youth with every step. The album this is taken from, 'The Collective' will be a treat. We may ask her again to talk to us when that comes out. If we keep on at her like a small child in the back of a car asking "are we there yet?", one day she might just say yes. Won't that be a thing.
ZERO s
by Toon Traveller
There's a rolling Elvis P. send up. I mean no one else sounds quite like Elvis sending himself up. Uhh Huh, a Nirvana rebel yell, slash, crash. Pearl Jam feedback squeaks, peaks, in guitar rumbles. It screeches, drums pound. Standard stuff. Live, a leaping, snarling pit of angst, stage edge leaning, arms flailing. It's just a bit mixed up, mashed in, chowed down, rehashed like aging leftovers, been in the back of the fridge for more than a decade. Return to sender.
by Alan Rider
Like a budget Fire Engines, this has the same angular, stripped down and jarringly sliced up sound. Its urgent in the same way that Gang of Four were. Combine all of those elements with the Fall and you'd be coming pretty close to the noise Eyesore & The Jinx make and very good it is too. There are a lot of bands out there attempting to bottle the genuine post punk spirit of the end of the 70's/start of the '80s but E&TJ do it a hell of a lot better than most I've heard.
by Toon Traveller
From the EP John Dillinger Died For You, here comes London's Middlman with a standard "Indy" opening, thrashed, trashed drums, vigorous machine gun guitar, close my eyes it's 1978, College gig, post-Buzzcocks. Sure Middleman used 'play guitar, write 70s Manchester Indy Anthems, guide notes. There's a micro drum break, a vocal just this side of breathless, and retro feedback ending. That's all you all need to know about the band's roots, direction, and Heroes. If you're gonna 'Tribute Rock', do it with the top of the class, Middleman have done that, no question. Expect great live gigs from them
LPs
by Jay Lewis
As Kali Malone's last album clocked in at just over five hours and mostly consisted of extended drones of oscillator, guitar and cello, I've often wondered what it would be like to put it on at bedtime, much like Max Richter's eight-hour long 'Sleep'. I wonder what perplexing dreams Malone's music would inform? How rested I would feel, or how anxious? I'll let you know when it happens. There are similar moments here, the nine and a half minutes of 'The Unification of Inner and Outer Life' is - played (slowly, very s l o w l y, of course), on pipe organ - so little happens, yet you are utterly transfixed (you're transported to an old cathedral, shards of late afternoon sunshine pouring through the window? or is that just me?). But it's the three vocal pieces with the male vocal choir Macadam Ensemble that are the most unexpected and spellbinding moments here. 'All Life Long' has the power to envelop you, to transfix and hypnotize you. It is an album of spaces, of reflection, let it seep into you.
by Alan Rider
Cyrkle (pronounced 'circle') were the almost men of the '60s. They shared a manager with the Beatles (Epstein), supported them on tour, scored a couple of hits penned by Paul Simon and one of The Seekers, even played one of those silly combination bass/six string guitars, then pfffff! they were gone. 50 years and a few dodgy toupees and one very strangely trimmed beard later, and they are back with a new album but the same 'sunshine sound'. When my partner heard this she said "This is great! With all the gloom, doom and bad news every day, this is just what we need!" She is right too.
by Jay Lewis
A long time ago, somewhere between the tissue-thin 'joke' cover versions created by Mike Flowers Pops and the faux Latin American style re-imaginings of Kraftwerk by Senor Coconut, something abominable was created. The novelty of the 'lets take some punk/new wave/post punk/futuristic electronica etc and dress it up in some Bossa Nova stylings' wore very thin very, very quickly. Quite how Nouvelle Vague have been able to maintain this operation for two whole decades is a mystery. Many of the songs don't exist without the listener bringing some knowledge of what is being turned on its head. Do you want Depeche Mode's 'People Are People ' given a melodramatic overhaul? or ABC's 'The Look of Love' to be remade in the image of Dusty's song of the same name? Really? And the purrrrring Ertha Kitt-ness of the title track is too jokey to tolerate. I'll admit that the reggae-reimaginig of Tears For Fears' 'Shout' is inspired and that the 60's girl group reading of Yazoo's 'Only You' is delectable, but otherwise, this one trick pony is starting to look very, very old.
by Alan Rider
To say that Kraut Rock act Can were influential is an understatement, and having recently released two of their seminal albums 'Tago Mago' and 'Ege Bamyasi', 1973 was a good point at which to catch them live. Like most acts of that era there are tons of reissues, special editions, live recordings and so on available and Mute are currently busily adding to the pile with a series of remastered live releases, with this one pieced together from recordings in Can's own label Spoon Records vaults and those sent in by fans. The quality is still a bit rough despite the best efforts of modern technology, so this is one for fans only as a result, and is not the best from them I've heard, being very improvisational in places. It's an interesting document nonetheless, especially if you set it in the context of the times. With the death earlier this month of founder member and singer Damo Suzuki, this also takes on a poignant significance.
by Alan Rider
Circolo Vizioso (not the Italian one!) remind me of an alternative version of Suicide crossed with old school punk. Lets be clear, this album is not a slick production job, far from it. It sounds as if it has been slapped down in one take on a 4 track in a basement. That's not a bad thing by the way. It lends it an urgency that fits well with their desire to create an album that can "express anger, frustration and disaffection against an unfair world". It certainly does that with its blend of violin, guitar and drum driven garage rock with lyrics both in English and their native German. I actually like the rough nature of these recordings, presenting us with a welcome change from the ubiquitous slick and over produced, pristine quality and quantized beats that exist by the million thanks to technology making crystal clear home recordings commonplace. I like a dirty glass when it comes to music. Perfection often takes the edge off. This is perfectly not perfect.
by Ogglypoogly
Why the long face? The Red Rum Club review can actually be found over here→
Other Materials
by Ancient Champion
The man. Or at least one of them from back then.
by Alan Rider
There was a time, not so long ago (ok, 1984, so that is a while ago) when cut ups of newsreels and muscular electro went hand in hand and sometimes produced genuinely thrilling and powerful music. Severed Heads 'Dead Eyes Opened' is one, possibly better known, example, and 'Assassin' by Intimate Obsessions here is another. Within a year and one EP ('Erebus to Hades') and a 12" single later, they had gone forever. What a debut album would have offered we will never know, but on the strength of this, it's a loss to the world that it never had a chance to be born.
by Danny Rose
That lead singer has been listening to the Go Betweens hasn't he? But only the Robert Forster tracks. The keyboardist is clearly Steve Nieve in a dress. I mean both these things as a huge compliment. This is what the early 90s could have sounded like in Southern California.
Essentials
Main image Jim White by Anna White
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