Records
THE SINGLES
Everyone knows you can’t have a coffee without a muffin, so this week to celebrate our new Eating ahd Drinking Guide - the proprietors of Caffeine. Alison Tudor and Ed Keefe. home to one of the finest cups of Java in the capital and the creator of heavenly Moon's Muffins. Joanna Mawdsley, cast their oven gloved mitts into the lucky dip of the latest singles. Interview: Don Pablo Dali.
Proud Mary ‘Very Best firiend' (Sour Mash) - The first signing to Noel Gallagher's new label. Not very surprising what they sound like.
Ed Keefe: I think they will be big in Australia (laughing)
Joanna Mawdsley: Very sort of Bryan Adams
Alison Tudor: Completely unmemorable. I'm quite surprised this is his first signing.
Debut Sing/e ‘Up For Adoption' (No label) - Edinburgh electro indie band from Abbey Hill.
JM: A bit 803, a bit Soft Cell but it doesn’t quite get there...
AT: A bit like um . ..
EK: Visage ’2
JM: Yeah
EK: These Scottish ?
JM: Yeah
EK: Coz he’s got a cockney singing voice — he’s a Jocko Cocko!
Echo and The Bunnymen ‘It's Alright’ (Cooking Vinyl) More of the same from their forthcoming new album - ‘F/owers ’.
AT: I don’t know why they continue to make records that are no where near as good as their old records.
JM: It‘s not bad but it ain't great la.
Future Pilot AKA ‘Beat Of The Drum' (Geographic) — another very odd slice of skewed electronica/indie from this brilliant Glasgow label.
AT: lt‘s like Teenage Fanclub - I like it."
EK: Yawn - American college bands with lyrics that girls like.
AT: It's a good pop tune
EK: It's twisting my thumb. it doesn't make me wanna hum, it can go up my bum.
JM: Yeah and they can stick their drum.
Lapsus Linguae 'My Numb Left Hand The Parasite’ (Jonson Family) - This Glasgow quartet's debut single - She/lac meets Tori Amos and Tom Waits snogging in a dark alley. Tipped for greatness.
EK: It doesn't sound like anyone else which is a very good thing.
AT: It is definitely the most different CD we‘ve listened to. The piano is lovely. JM: It‘s very interesting, I like it.
Bardot 'Poison’ (Warner) — Debut single from Australian ‘Popstars' winners. JM: The first initial word she sang went straight through me.
AT: They sound just Hear’Say
JM: They sound likegéfiry other shitty dolly-bird band going.
The Gents ‘MarvellouéS/ries' (Western Union) — The second single from these up-and-coming stars '6? the new Scottish wave.
JM: They reminds me of Poi Dog Pondering - do you remember them ? A little bit quirky. a little bit folky. I like this. I like his voice too.
AT: They‘ve got a great review in the Arbroath Advertiser!
I SINGLE OF THE FORTN/GHT: Simian ‘The Wisp‘ (Source) - lush piece of avant — electro )‘azz.
JM: Reminds me a bit of the Beta Band.
AT: It's fresh. really different.
EK: We like its psychedelic boldness (laughing) and the contemporary electronics.
JM: The heady bewitching sounds - I would like to know more.
JM: And we like the cover (Bambi with bat wings).
EK: I don‘t like the cover.
JM: That's coz you‘re a spook.
I Caffeine is at 154 Dundas Street and Moon ’3 Muffins are sold out of Caffeine and other selected outlets.
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108 THE LIST 12—26 Apr 2031
(X LIN" F-Y OH SUSANNA
Sleepy Little Sailor 82.; am [Togi 0...
As country musrc goes. this is pretty much the exact antitheSIs of the dariin snangly schmaltz ::<;<f;t'-=.: by Dolly Parton. Shania Twain, Garth Brooks et al. Oh Susanna is the pseudonym of Canadian songstress Sumo Unger'leider and Sleepy Little Sailor, her third album, is a fragile. intimate and tearful collection of starkly beautiful heartbroken country gems. Ungerleiders voice is the focus. warmly wasted and sumptuoust strained ()l) Tyr'cally desolate tunes like ‘Beauty Boy‘ and “Forever At Your Feet. With a precisely underplayrxi backing har‘d giving the whole thing a delicate. teetering edge. Sleepy ixttr'e Sailor is a very late night record indeed. (Doug Johnstone)
ELECTRONIC
DAVE TARRIDA Paranoid (Tresor) O...
ave Tarrida may reside in Barcelona and is signed to Berlin's Tresor (surely the world's greatest techno label). but Dave Tarrida cut his teeth DJing in Scotland. Mainly at the now defunct club/art event/ lunacy inferno Sativa and currently as a resident at Test in sunny Glasgow, which continues this predilection for hard as nails dirty techno. The album unsurprisingly continues this trend: fucked up techno action of the highest order that sets your teeth on edge and sends shivers down yOur spine. With highlights including opener 'Stop The Ride' and the terrifying ‘Horrormone'. this is the s0undtrack to the scariest movie you've neverseen. (Henry Northmore)
HIP HOP
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Westwood (Def Jam)
~;'.—, 92 .s f"- i»
. a __ YiiSW-Wiiifl
The personality-led compilation album market has been getting a little saturated lately (Jo Whiley? Okaay . . . Jamie Oliver? Fetch the carving knife . . .). but Radio 1's legendary hip hop head here provrdes a worthwhile addition to the genre. Little Tim may be a figure of fun to many. but he can pick a tune or two. These tracks from the likes of Eminem, Lil'Kim, Dre and Jay-Z mostly date from the last couple of years. and many are as fierce and essential as music gets. But why do Black Americans, with such a wealth of slang at their disposal, persist in calling
breasts ‘titties'?
(James Smart)
ELECTRONIC THE HIGH FIDELITY
The Omnichord Album (Plastique Records)
Those who thought John
Peel only played records have obviously forgotten his foray into fiddling on Red Stewart's Maggie
May. For ex-Soup
Dragon Sean Dickson's
The High Fidelity. the
laconic DJ has a go at writing with the ambient retro-futurist waft of ‘Pig Might Fly.“ For a fusion of Les Rhythms Digitales. Low-period Bowie and Ride, the album as a whole is surprisingly soothing. a mood no doubt aided by the presence of the aforementioned omnichord — a rare seventies synth gizmo. This record may have
‘spliff' written all over it in big shaky letters. but it's
also a tranquil and uplifting listen whatever you're on. (James Smart)
SOUL REISSUE SHUGGIE OTIS
Inspiration lnforrnation (Virgin) 00000
This is amazing - a 1974 album remastered and reissued by an artist virtually unheard of and it
is so damn goed .t makes yOu want to cm. Imagine Geno Washington recording songs by Prince under his Superyision in Paisley Park but With Outcaste as his in house orchestra conducted b\ DJ Shadow Even tune is a diamond cut of psychedelic soul funk that one cannot help but compare to Curtis or Maryln (as Daud Byrne does on the sleeye notes). There is also an added bonus here of extra tracks from the. album Freedom Flights which if anything are even better than what precedes them. Lush. (Paul Dale)
FOLK
VARIOUS ARTISTS
25 Years Of Green Linnet (Green Linnet) 0...
Another compilation from the US record company — among the first. way back in the 70s — to market the emerging Scots. Irish, Breton and Galician bands under the 'celtic' umbrella. There is a great variety of style and ability on display in the 30 or so tracks. so you pretty well have to find what you like - from Touchstone's Oregon< based New Ageism, to the Braveheart beats of Scots folkrockers Wolfstone. Or what about Ireland's Altan, Deanta or Lunasa - the latter losing out only in that they eschew vocals in faVOur of a wholly instrumental attack. The cynical might suspect that GL are trying to raise some revenue from their back catalogue — and there are certainly some tracks here that are well past their sell-by date — but then listen to the fiddle mastery of Chicago's LIZ Carroll. (Norman Chalmers)
JAZZ
MARILYN CRISPELL/GARY PEACOCK/PAUL
MOTIAN
Amaryllis (ECM) coco
This stellar trio of improvisers follow their very Successful disc
dedicated to the music
of Annette Peacock. Nothing Ever Was. Anyway, with a new set built around their own
compositions. The
results are predictably