ROCK SONIC YOUTH Murray Street (Geffen) O...
some sand-blasted dive in the desert. You'll be starting to get a feel for the atmosphere Mystery Juice create. but perhaps not yet the sound. For that think bass and drums as tight as a badger's arse. cool slide guitar. all topped off by frenzied beat poetry
_ Carry On Up The
Khyber, but the rest forms a perfect soundtrack for 508 bad girls or 608 Bond babes with titles such as ‘Lonely Little G-String' and ‘Bumps & Grinds'. You don't actually have to strip to enjoy this. but believe me. once those hypnotic beats get under your skin. you won‘t be able to help yourself.
(Louisa Pearson)
HIP HOP
BLAK TWANG Kik Off
(Bad Magic) 0000
(OK. call it rapping) and the Mr Whippy smooth fiddle of frontman Tim Matthew.
Forget Japan. Mystery Juice are huge in Russia. And for years they've been gnawing into the woodwork of
To disconnect soundtracking the aftermath of 11 September from rampant jingoistic flagwaving and Wyclef Jean-riddled tearfulness is no mean achievement, but hey, step forward Sonic Youth. No, no, don’t turn off, this is no alt.rock charity tribute LP, life is indeed way too short for another one of those. This is instead, something of an oblique tribute to the street where one of the engines from the planes landed; the same
The leerflm;
There shall be no talk of the World Cup or the Jubilee here. That's why we won't be mentioning Anastacia's official 2002 FIFA world cup single ‘Boom' (Epic O ) which is shite. Or Chumbawamba's free single 'Her Majesty (www.chumba.com 000 ) which is
street where the band’s studio is housed. In adopting Jim O’Rourke as new full time member, they’ve refocused their energies
towards rock'n’roll again instead of the avant
garde structures they’ve embraced on much of their late 90$ output. In doing so, they avoided the pitfall that their hero and pal Neil Young fell
into of creative stagnancy.
Murray Street sees the sonic dissonance of
their last couple of records enveloped in a gossamer of melodic guitar lines, Thurston Moore whispering and whining more like the aforementioned Young than ever. Of course there are moments of guitar abuse wig out,
particularly on the albums centrepiece ‘Karen
Revisited’, but the squalling, chiming guitars
give way to floaty, almost calming atmospherics.
At their most ferocious, Sonic Youth have sounded much like said Twin Towers catastrophic din: a thundering, bellowing maelstrom. Murray Street is an unofficial
soundtrack to the regeneration of Ground Zero, their home base since their inception: confident, occasionally difficult, occasionally melancholic
and introspective but utterly worth the effort. Tremendous. (Mark Robertson)
ELECTRONICA VARIOUS
Machine Funk Specialists (Rotters Golf Club) O...
the Hold's ‘You Can But Don't Touch the the more minimalist tracks on offer. stranded midway
and the sofa. but as
Keith Tenniswood was One half of Two Lone Swordsmen With Andy Weatherall. and on this album he sticks to his roots With a dark selection of techno and breakbeat that's as high on funk as it is deep and disorientating. There's even a spot of comedy. With the lovely groove of
one. (James Smart)
HIP HOP) BLUES
seed and have inexplicably found themselves playing
104 THE LIST (5-20 Jun 2002
Take my Glowstick . . .
White Glove' acting as a counterpoint to some of
A lot of these tunes are between the dancefloor
anyone who's ever felt confused at 5am knows. that position can be a surprisingly attractive
MYSTERY JUICE Seed (Vertical) 0000
Imagine a Vegas lounge band who've gone to
the Edinburgh underground. bringing their theatrical presence to an audience weary of indie. For a band that have been described as uncategorisable. their debut album showcases the full spectrum of their sound. Funk. blues. rap and hip hop are embraced and much more besides. As refreshing and good for you as an effervescent vitamin C tablet.
(Louisa Pearson)
STRIPPING TUNES SONNY LESTER AND HIS ORCHESTRA Music To Keep Your Husband Happy (EMI) 0000
Before you unleash your feminist fury, ready to spontaneously combust. slow down, relax and get ready to strip. Or belly dance. Or throw a retro party and wait for people to start flinging their keys in the bowl. These are seedy. saucy tunes of the decidedly old-skool variety. You can perfectly picture Marilyn Monroe doing her ‘jello on Springs' thing to the blaring horn section and ‘boom- badda-boom' drums. The belly dance numbers are a bit too
Excellent British hip hop album from the MC simultaneously known as Blak Twang, Taipanic and Tony Rotton. More surprisingly there's not a Yankee chorus among the Twang massive. this is Lahn-dahn calling and it's proud.
This is Blak Twang's third album after the excellent Dettwork South East and 79 Long Time and the man shows no sign of compromise. scaling sexy walls of samples with a plethora of styles. The title track is superb but the true delights here are the anarchic ‘SO Rotten' featuring Jahmali. ‘Dirty Stop Out Uncovered‘ and the eloquent ‘Ain't Done 2 Bad‘. The best British hip hop album of the year. a bigger achievement than it sounds. (Paul Dale)
HIP HOP
SCRATCH
The Embodiment of Instrumentation (Rykodisc) 000
Any idiot knows human beatboxing rules. ‘Boomph. tsch. boomph-bu-boom. tsch' goes the mouth and the crowd goes daft. While that stuff is undeniably great live. putting it down on record isn't necessarily the best idea.
Following in fellow Roots member Rahzel's steps. Scratch — “one third beatboxer. one third vocal turntablist.
pretty good (never thought I'd hear myself saying this about a Chumbawumba single but it is based on a Beatles tune).
Let us discuss instead Stylus Automatic whose Gold Rush (Own label .000 ) sounds like Lee Hazlewood on mogadon, or is it the sound of snapping Tindersticks. The Camouflage EP (Own label «00 ) by Tinrockit, whose single ‘My Heart's Not In lt' contains this lovely rolling riff and good old sulky vocals before it falls apart into what sounds like a Madness rehearsal session. Soon to be seen supporting Mansun. Athlete's ‘You Got the Style' (Parlophone COO ) are a cockney Hall 8. Oates with a nice line in ‘oooh oooh aaah’ choruses. As far as spotless Nick Drake rip offs go Nick Halstead's ‘Seasons' (4AD 0”. ) is great. The / Remember Trees EP (Pointy O”. ) by Flotation Toy Warning is bonkers in a fishing song archive accordion kind of way. Ben Christophers' ‘TransAtlantic Shooting Stars' (V2 .0 ) takes up the dirty electro waste ground between Beck and Gary Numan. lnterpol's ‘PDA‘ from their Interpol EP (Matador 0” ) sounds like the Bunnymen and Joy Division coated with a Hive-ish veneer. in a good way. Curveside's ‘Save Yourself' (Fuzzbox O ) and the Vines‘ ‘Get Free‘ (Heavenly 00 ) stink of broken skateboards and Stooges makeovers respectively. ‘Andy and I' (Own label “00 ) by the biblical sounding Edinburgh locals the Abrahams is lovely in a wispy. folky B&S way. Mercury Rev's ‘The Dark is Rising' (V2 0000 ) is gorgeous. digging its space boots into the Orchestra pit and refusing to budge.
Giddy punk pop comes in the form of 'Democracies' (Own 0.. ) by Coin-Op. If you feel like locking yourself in a room with your older brother's Sinclair ZX81 computers and pretending you are actually naked with Julie Christie in the house in The Tamarind Seed. Fonda 500’s “Computer Freaks of the Galaxy’ (Truck .000 ) may just be up your terminal. Single of the fortnight by a very slim stretch is the Libertines' What a Waster' (Rough Trade 00.00). This sounds like the Jam meets Ian Dury to me which is of course a great thing. but it is really because it contains the lines: “Where does all the money go?/ Straight up her nose." and then they have the audacity to rhyme divvy with spiv. ls poetry dead? You better believe it. (Paul Dale)