intro.
As Alan Rider points out, single type singles are kind of rare these days. What we get instead as an industry habit, are weekly focus tracks from an album or EP or whatever. Everyone does it. The labels do not underestimate the lack of focus of their customers. I can't remember the last song I listened to let alone what I heard last week. I'm addicted the the new. Dudes, we need to discuss our vernacular. But Kim Gordon has done it, Kim has released a non album single and it is something to consider being excited about. This is a big Week in Music for Outsideleft. Next Friday, it's the Outsideleft Night Out with live music from Soho. Come along! If you can! Check out Soho's USA travelogue video here→. Meanwhile, this week's reviewers... Alan Rider (5), Toon Traveller (2), LamontPaul (2), Lee Paul (2), John Robinson (3), Ancient Champion (7)
singles.
by Alan Rider
Public Image seem to have got a 10 year old to write their lyrics for them, sung in the voice of an annoying drunk shouting at a bus stop, the sort you'd cross the road to avoid if you saw them stumbling towards you growling "I wanna feckin' tell you how it feckin' is, you feckin' bastid! Bollox to the lot of yer!". End-of-the-pier Music Hall act Uncle Johnny Rotten lost the plot a long way back, but this is just embarrassing.
by Ancient Champion
This has that sound you love if this is the sound you love. Seriously. Everyone is working on auto everything. This doesn't mean it's not a lovely enough sound although not even really amounting to a distraction. Would probably be a fixture on MTV 120 Minutes with Carson Daly.
by Alan Rider
Daniel C, drummer with US gothic rock act The Wake's side project '2 Forks' are big on horror. Their debut album 'Quanticode' follows a fictional hunt for a serial killer, with each track comprising a different stage in the mental breakdown of the protagonist. ‘Rip My Hair’ is the fourth video-single on that theme. There is some sort of zombie/alien thing going on. I don't really understand it, but it's funny and entertaining, as are all zombie/alien movies. There is a bit of live footage cut in too, which tbh only adds to the confusion. I just go with the flow on these things though ,and I have to say, this is not bad.
by LamontPaul
A new single from The Congos, who just deliver don't they, superior sing song reggae, you can whistle to and rock to at the same time. This video is a recent liver version of the song. Massively entertaining.
by Ancient Champion
This is so painful to listen to from start to finish isn't it. Rockin so earnestly and adultly. Everytime I think well, at least there aren't bands that sound as lazy as that any more, turns out they are. Music you could bring home to your mom and her mom too. I've been moving some paving slabs around. Let me think. Was that worse that creating a roller banner or jury service this week? I fired up Logic Pro and listened to the files for the month overdue single I have no time to finish. So fuck, if you have time to make music please don't make it a fucking soporific as this. For people who are probably quite safely boring. Your ability to enjoy this is a comment on you. You're probably quite stable.
by Lee Paul
Okay, a little shuffly shuffly understated thing. It looks like Chance might be into taking some art classes. Stars Out, he's really alright.
by John Robinson
A darkwave artist, Trentemøller produces soundtrack-like dream pop, along the lines of M83. Grandiose synths, intrusive frequencies and breathy lyrics from Icelandic singer Disa. This builds and dies away, matching the theme of dreams and scattered thoughts. The press release, as you can imagine, goes slightly overboard and promises to "release any dormant hallucinations you may be harboring": not sure that's a good idea frankly. Still, it's pleasing enough to give the album a go when it arrives in September.
by Toon Traveller
Delightful, whimsical, vinaigrette of voice and fun mopey clap along music and song, hints of Karen Carpenter, and, an especially happy Joni Mitchell. Just a delight, of joy, pleasure, and feel good music and voices. It's a vibe, full of delight and happiness. who cares about the words, it's just, just sit, chill, listen and bathe in it's delightful light and warmth.
by Ancient Champion
Probably the biggest reason I have to get out of sleeping is to listen to the astonishing music of Alessandro Allesandroni. There's not a moment of disappointment in this Greek Wedding. Unlike you guys with your familiesa and friends I am an older person with no one and so I sit deep into the night watching Newsnight repeats with the sound down, listening to Alessandro Allesandroni and wondering how he did it. I did some media recently and was asked who influenced all I do and I didn't know the answer to that because I didn't want you all to know. And know you do. Tony Hatch and Alessandro Allesandroni.
by Toon Traveller
High on atmosphere, and feel, a soundscape of dappled light, shadows, all very reminiscent of Japan, John Foxx and the 80s UK Art School music. Meditation, contemplation, imagination, it's easy on the ear, but there's a sense of 'is that it?'
by John Robinson
King Isis sings about living in the borderlands, grungey but based on formal classicism, Dissonance describes the out-of-place way they interact and exist, "I'm in love with dissonance, she makes me feel", with a stop-start chorus to set you on edge, you might question the format, but it's to a lyrical purpose, "I'd rather be a mess than just wash away", the way most rock music does. The single follows their EP Shed, inspired itself by the writings of Gloria E. Anzaldúa, and King Isis' musical heritage, their queer, black, genre-melding style belies their formalised training in this exploration of non-binary identity and sexuality.
by Lee Paul
Meandering mightily and swaggering all at once. This is a record for sure that belongs after dark, in seriously hot city night. It's imbued and belongs. It's not for the suburbs, county towns or villages. From the album 'God's Timing' out in July. Grapf x 38 Spesh are making it and inviting their friends along. Special.
by Ancient Champion
We might have to have an internal discussion about our vernacular, I don't know if these are called singles. Wind & The Rain ft. Joe Yorke is another track from Elija Minnelli's Perpetual Musket. Elijah is the incomparable for me really. What not to love about a reggae inflected hit!
by John Robinson
Angry grunge influenced track from an Ohio based band, Nail Biter answers the age old question, what would Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and their ilk sound like back when they were doing exactly this?
by Alan Rider
It is rare these days to have a non album single release. Even rarer is to get a single of the quality that Kim Gordon brings to everything she touches. Her latest album 'The Collective' is a new high point, as are all the tracks released off that. We have been keen, nay, desperate, to get her to talk to us, but without success so far. She is on tour, so maybe when she is done with that we will ask again. One day she will say yes. That will be a great day.
by Ancient Champion
Oh this! It's like having the privilege of being in the sixth form and being just, around the one. Not with them. Not yet. But they know you're there too. It's subsumed in promise. What joy, sometimes a record as great as this, with it's Nico type love, just makes me wish I could do it all again and do it all differently. Maybe beginning with Helen, from Loughborough. Back then.
long plays.
by Ancient Champion
Glorious Game was just one of the great ones when it was released back last year. Black Thought and El Michels... Big Crown Records... So many of my fave ingredients in one place. I can't recommend the Glorious Game - The Instrumentals highly enough. I owe Big Crown their share of the acclaim I get for my incongruously stretchy short fiction I write to their instrumental LPs. They are so magical I get lost and cut off from the outside world. Just ask The Detective Postman, or space alien Meteor Ford, they'll tell you how they wouldn't exist without the sound of this stuff. Thank you, Big Crown.
by Alan Rider
First we had the risible 'Punk Floyd' album of dreadful cover versions of Pink Floyd tracks mangled by various desperate, do-anything-for-the-price-of-a-pint, 'punk legends' (UK Subs etc), and now this. Many of the usual suspects are present - yes, the UK Subs - plus a few surprises like Chrome , Pink Fairies, and Jah Wobble. Some of the versions are not half bad, others are, but the point remains; why do you need bands that are effectively their own tribute acts mangling up songs that it is impossible to improve on? Seriously, who buys this stuff? Vive La Rock will love it, but I'd advise giving this a wide berth. If you really hanker after a Rolling Stones 'Best Of', go buy a Rolling Stones 'Best Of'. There is no video to go with this release, so to illustrate the point, here is the Stone's original of 'Gimme Shelter.'
by Alan Rider
The need to stand out amongst the crowd has spawned some innovative approaches and a wholesale return to the once dreaded concept album. For Industrial acts, those will always depict a dystopian future, as spearheaded by reinvented cyberpunk Gary Numan. SINthetik Messiah have taken that ball and run with it, releasing both an album AND an accompanying novel, both with the cheery title of 'Lies, Secrets And Death'. Listen to the blurb, which sounds like the script of the next Star Wars instalment: "In a galaxy torn by strife, a hero rises but falls to tyranny, sparking rebellion. Amid chaos, a journalist's death fuels uprising while another leader seeks peace. War looms between factions as a loyalist questions his cause amidst shadowy manipulation, setting the stage for a power struggle". Familiar Sci Fi fare then, and, as you can imagine, the music has a strong soundtrack vibe to it, melded to an industrial version of Drum N'Bass reminiscent of Prodigy, with 'When The World Is On Fire' being the album's opening track. The husky male White Zombie style vocals let it down a bit, as they so often do on industrial records, but its a strong opener. Things quickly get more sound track-y, accompanied by the type of punishing beat and portentous orchestral breaks that seem to be cropping up all over these days due to the abundance of sample packs out there. To describe this as an album is a bit misleading, as the last six tracks comprise three different mixes of two songs, so its more of an extended EP with bonus remixes, but the LP/Novel combo is a neat take on an overly familiar topic all the same. Whether it will make SINthetik Messiah stand out sufficiently from the crowd though remains to be seen.
so, have you got anything else.
by LamontPaul
Soho are rolling into town. If your town is Bearwood, for the Outsideleft Night Out on Friday July 5th. Could a July 5th ever be more exciting? It's going to be the first day after the Tory government and we can all be optimistic for a day can't we? Anyway, to hear Jacqui and Pauline sing is an astonishing thing, we can't wait. Can't wait to see Tim too. Here's one of their perfect pop songs, Nuthin' On My Mind. OMG! Have a great three minutes in your life. You can catch them too on Adrian Goldberg's radio show on Saturday morning on Brum Radio and also on Mixcloud almost immediately after. Fun interview... More info about Soho at the Outsideleft Night Out it here→.
by Ancient Champion
Oh wow! Of course. This is an amazing moment in music history. Lauryn Hill and Roots and in Philadelphia on July 4th 2012. The question I suppose is not whether you'll go to see her play in the fall in the UK if you're here then, like Lauryn will be, but more, how much are you prepared to pay?
essential info.
Main image Kim Gordon
The previous Week in Music 'Outsideleft Week in Music Surveillance' is here→
