Rough Trade Album Club - November Pack

Every Month I receive three cd's from the Rough Trade Shops and I can't help feeling a surge of excitement when the parcel arrives.

This Month I got

The Acorn - Glory Hope Mountain + 6 track cd - 9/10
Girl Talk - Feed The Animals - 10/10
Brightback Morning Light - Notion to Reform - 8/10

I'm satisfied and the records are great - HOWEVER I did sort of want the Headless Heroes album as I'm a huge Alela Diane fan.

Love Ends Disaster!

Nostalgia Moment : I remember the day when Love Ends Disaster's first ep dropped into my lap. To say that it blew me away is an understatement. Five flurryous tracks of epic guitar goodness (well with some electronic touches chucked in) I played that cd so many times I'm sure my cd laser drilled some kind of hole in it.

That was in 2005.

Three years later, the band have released some more singles and whereas the peers they were compared to in the beginning ( Bloc Party, Interpol) all sounded a bit stale, LED! have improved on their craft and have gotten better, stronger and even more anthemic. Each release is becoming a new high point in their discography.

Finally the band are recording their debut and when that is unleashed, I hope their time will come cause they sure deserve it.

Love Ends Disaster's! Myspace page

Jeremy Jay - Review

Jeremy Jay – A Place where we could go (2008)
K Records

The idea of the outcast plays a big part in music. The idea of the lonesome weirdo writing out poetry and offbeat music is appealing. Thus we have characters like Jonathan Richman, Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes) and Jeffrey Lewis cropping up.

You could say that L.A. born and bred singer songwriter, Jeremy Jay is a descendent from this batch. After all he sings about being in love (the title track for starters) or he places girls on high pedestals ‘Beautiful Rebel’. ‘Hold me in your Arms Tonite’. But ironically there is some swagger in what he does so he’s no wimp. Neither does we want to be some smarty pants a la Morrissey. It’s definitely mood that he’s after.

Within this debut album’s brief 30 minutes, Jay takes the listener on a stroll through 50’s imagery, French pop, basically a time when things were innocent and simple. Furthermore, and this is more important, he manages to do this perfectly. None of these songs are drippy with sentimentality but they do convey feelings.

‘A Place where we could go’ was produced by Jay’s label boss and Beat Happening founder Calvin Johnson and, so naturally there is a sparse production. Every instrument breathes (and by that I mean big gulps of air) but it’s suits Jay and helps the poignancy of his lyrics stick out, and like Johnson’s most famous band, there is a coy dancebility lurking all throughout.

Some people may gripe about the album’s shortcomings, especially the no frills production or lack of energetic songs (in fact there’s only one here, the jaunty Escape to Aspen) but with many spins things to make sense and Jay’s romanticism unfolds, Personally I don’t find anything wrong with this stuff. It’s soulful, melodic, a bit humorous and contains oodles of charm. How can one find fault in these things. At the moment Jeremy Jay is the last of the great romantics and if you understand what his world consists of then you’ll be glad that he seduced you into it.

Rough Trade Album Club. October Package

Every month I receive three wonderful cd's, courtesy of The Album Club. With the exception of one album, I haven't been disappointed once. Here's October's package :

El Guincho - Alegranza - 9/10

Department of Eagles - In Ear Park - 9/10

Phantom Slasher -Key to the Tripod - 9/10

another sterling month

Deerhoof Review

Deerhoof – Offend Maggie (2008)

Kill Rock Stars

Ever since 2004’s opus Milk Man, San Francisco’s Deerhoof have been moving closer to more melodic (poppy even) waters and I just know that some time in the future they will release the ultimate guitar anthem record. It’s in their blood and with each release they edging towards it.

Last year’s ‘Friend Opportunity’ had the band experimenting with a less muddled sound, thus making their tunes (they always had those from day one) upfront and also lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki’s voice had lost it’s shrilly edge and evolved into child-like cooing.

Needless to say that latest release ‘Offend Maggie’ is a progression from ‘Friend Opportunity’, thankfully there aren’t any twelve minute dirges this time around either. Now a four piece, the band have beefed up their sound and made a no-nonsense straight on guitar record and yet it still has those quintessential quirks that makes it undeniably Deerhoof.

Offend Maggie kicks off with ‘The Tears and Music of Love’ and the listener is practically given the blueprint of the whole album. The song itself consists of a crunchy stop start riff, which becomes elasticky and floaty during the rather beautiful chorus and grounds itself very quickly. This happens quite often throughout the album’s progression. The group have become tighter and it is welcome.

The amazing thing about Deerhoof is how they manage to have the Wire-esque ability to create a great song within a short space of time. The average two minute Deerhoof song feels doesn’t feel like some short forgettable blast but develops nicely. One of the highlights of record, ‘Basket Ball, get your Groove Back’ demonstrates the band’s ability to use brevity to their advantage. Same with the frankly awesome title track.

Most of the album alternates between these two song styles, Personally I don’t have any gripes with this record. In fact I have been listening to Offend Maggie more than I should really. It’s overall catchiness and sweetness just make me press repeat as soon as the whole thing is over. As well I just can’t help feeling that the BIG album is going to happen very soon.

Soulwax - Review

(not actual dvd cover)

Soulwax – Part of the Weekend Never Dies (2008)

PIAS (Dvd)

One band which has taken me completely by surprise has got to be Soulwax, I remember when watching the band’s ‘Much Against Everybody’s Advice’ video and thinking that they would be the next dEUS i.e. A solid album band with a healthy European following.

Who would have known that this guitar pop band from Ghent would have changed the face of dance music, not once, but twice! First they pioneered the mash up genre under the 2 Many Dj’s guise and then actually remixed and recorded their 2004 album ‘Any Minute Now’ thus bridging indie with dance (and maybe making them the precursors of Nu Rave??) under the name Nite Versions. Add that to their live show which is called Radio Soulwax, which includes Soulwax, 2 many dj’s, Nite Versions and touring mates and you’ve got quite a confusing mess of side projects.

Hence one of the main reasons the group release this dvd. For starters it clears the whole Radio Soulwax ,Nite Versions polemics and it shows a portrait of the whole Radio Soulwax show. Not only that there’s a documentary which focuses on Soulwax and how they cope with the rock and roll life.

Now in theory this sounds like a disaster. I mean Soulwax aren’t exactly the most exciting band in the universe and let’s face, the possibility of descending into cliché is high. Drugs, girls, sweaty guys waving their arms and lots of vans.

Thankfully the documentary, although, feature these, it strays from the usual dull scenes due to the fact that there are a lot of people who have something to say about Soulwax and we get clips from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Nancy Wang, Tiga, Erol Alkan, Justice and tons of Pioneers and young pups of the nu rave scene all extolling their love for Soulwax and what makes them tick. It is also beautifully film. I have a soft spot for eye catching scenes and there are plaenty of those here. If you were to take each still and frame it, you’d have a memorable picture. I’m not exaggerating director Saam Farahmand does a wonderful job with editing and capturing every perfect moment from live performances to interviews.

The second part of the dvd consists of a 55 minute performance of Nite Versions, all edited from 120 shows and again, in normal circumstances this would be boring but due to the excellent collaging and simply energetic music your attention is grabbed from the start and can be viewed many times.

As for special features there’s a rather vapid documentary commentary by Tiga and a quite good 11 minute mini documentary about the live show. However the best ‘feature’ is an accompanying audio cd of a live show, which is pure headphone hedonism.

As a whole package ‘Part of the Weekend Never Dies’ works. It’s interesting, eye catching and captures one of the hardest working bands in the business and it’s the closest thing to experiencing the whole Soulwax experience (or if you did see them live, it’s a good memory)

Metronomy - Album Review

Metronomy – Nights Out (2008)
Because Music

It seems that every time critics declare that nu rave is well and truly dead an album pops up and redefines the genre. The first time this happened was in March, When Australian duo Cut/Copy actually improved on their generic debut and released a first class second album and now history is repeating itself a second time round with Metronomy’s sophomore release. Furthermore I really wasn’t expecting it, which made my love for this album heighten.
In 2006 Joseph Mount (aka Metronomy) released his debut Pip Paine. It was good, not great and I listened to it a few times and even danced to a couple of tracks but stupidly lumped with the nu rave movement and that’s it.
Now comes this!
First of all Mount expanded the band by adding two new recruits and secondly for the first time on a Metronomy album, there are vocals. However this is not the reason why I think Nights out is one hell of an album. It is because during the albums duration mount pulls off tons of little tricks which throw the listener off course.
The first prank starts the second you press play, Mount begins the album with mournful rubbery sounding horns and this doesn’t change for quite few minutes, until the horns start to disappear and keyboards and synths weave themselves in and then the instrumental just explodes into a flurry of harmonicas and ska-ish beat. It’s six minutes long and is stretched out over two tracks. It also displays Mount’s sense of humour for not only did ‘Nights Out’ start with one fake misleading introduction but is merged with another wayward one. Basically, dear listener, you have been tricked not once, but twice and it is a great stunt.
The album proper begins with single ‘Radio Ladio’ and this sets the tone for the rest of the record, loping basslines, stinky synthesizers and deadpan vocals, mind you on the surface this may seem simple but in reality Mount creates a very complex sound, infused with the melodies are dozens of instruments flitting through the mix, saxophones, trombones and even some strings in places. Like Simian Mobile Disco’s debut, ‘Nights Out’ is an album which can be enjoyed anywhere due to the diversity that is offered. Sure ‘Hearbreaker’ or ‘Holiday’ will work on a club night but even in the comfort of your living room sofa. Again Metronomy doesn’t make predictable music so ‘Nights Out’ is not something you easily absorb in a couple of spins yet it’s very easy to appreciate what is going on due to the fact that Metronomy will never shy away from a tune.
By the time the albums ends, The band throw the last curveball and that’s in the form of closing track ‘Nights’, which is performed entirely on an acoustic guitar, it’s the ultimate comedown to a record that’s mostly electronic and maybe it’s not the best track on this otherwise stunning album but it works and is very welcome.
‘Nights Out’ is quite a special album, for the past few years it seems that most British bands, especially the popular ones tend to be inconsistent album-wise and furthermore it’s very rare for an artist nowadays to follow up a good debut with an even better sophomore effort. Thankfully Metronomy have achieved both objectives and well. In the future ‘Nights Out’ will be looked very highly upon.