Reviews
JAE BURT/MACDONA LD SEXTET
A Day for a Reason (Tob Records) omit:
1’ we
-... ‘ «Avicenna-v:
The latest disc from this prolific group led by guitarist George Burt and saxophonist Raymond MacDonald features pianist Keith Tippett in a project commissioned by An Tobar Arts Centre on Mull, inspired by the town clock in Tobermory. Created and recorded in March, the music features the group's characteristic mix of tuneful, melody- driven songs and instrumentals with no- holds-barred free improvisation.
As in earlier live work in Glasgow, Tippett brings massive experience as well as artistic clout to the project, and fits seamlessly into the group aesthetic. A strong contender for their best work yet on disc.
(Kenny Mathieson)
WORLD MUSIC ZUBA
Allez
(Bassa) out: at
What do you get if you cross African singers and dancers with Scottish musicians and a French percussionist? Why Zuba. of course, a Glasgow-based seven- piece world music collective who produce a unique hybrid of traditional musics from around the globe with no small amount of panache and passion. Songs like ‘Tomayziyi' and ‘Zuba' are typical,
blending upbeat African I rhythms with gospel harmonies, a very definite Celtic ceilidh sensibility, an R88 twist and even a distinct English folk vibe to make something which manages, mainly through the band's unabashed exuberance, to not be a dog's dinner of a sound. Unusual. engaging stuff. (Doug Johnstone)
INDIE ROCK OURSIVE
The Difference Between Houses and Homes
(Saddle Creek) 0” You may already be aware of Tim Kasher's output as part of dark country band the Good Life. With Cursive. however, he takes a rockier approach to heartbreak, surrounding tales of drunken despair with thundering drums. chunky rifts, wiry solos and that trademark angst-fuelled howl. This collection is made up of early, unreleased tracks and ten sought after tunes from the Omaha outfit’s now out-of—print 7"s, spanning their career from 1995 to 2001.
Fans would do well to snap it up for the ragged beauty of ‘Nostalgia’ and 'Sucker & Dry', but newcomers should look to 2003's ‘The Ugly Organ' for a more satisfying first foray into the world of this magnificent foursome. (Camilla Pia)
WORLD MUSIC VARIOUS Italian Cafe (Putumayo) m
For those whose knowledge of Italian music begins and ends with ‘Shaddapa Ya Face', this compilation proves that for every Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and even Sid Vicious, the land of pizza. pasta and
Aucnsiiiimmounmm
designer shoes has its very own equivalent. Granted. some aspects couldn't be anything but Italian - there's a song called 'Cannelloni', and the sleevenotes include a coffee recipe — but love, loss and the superficiality of fame, crucial ingredients for lyric writers the world over, are all well represented. Pleasant background music, overall, it not destined to race to the top of most people's ‘must buy albums' list. (Emma Newlands)
POWER POP
THE POSIES Every Kind of Light (Ryko) O.
Does 2005 have a place for 903 Seattle power popsters the Posies’? On the evidence of this return album after seven years away. not really. It's not that there's anything specifically wrong with Every Kind of Light. There are considered, crafted pop tunes. sung earnestly with some crunching guitars in the background and all that. it's just that the world seems to have moved on a smidgeon from when a checked shirt and a jangly guitar were all you needed in life. Compared with, say. our own enduring gods of guitar pop, Teenage Fanclub. this is lacklustre stuff with little charisma or charm. (Doug Johnstone)
POSTPUNK GIANT HAYSTACKS
Blunt Instrument (Mistake) .0
Unbelievably. with a dozen songs lasting under 20 minutes, this is the sound of Scot abroad Allan McNaughton maturing, his Californian post punk trio turning in an album more thoughtful and considered than its
INI
D E DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE The Photo Album (Baisuk) 0000 We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes (Barsuk) .00 Something About Airplanes (Barsuk) 000 You Can Play These Songs With Chords (Barsuk) O.
In the UK, Death Cab for Cutie seemed to emerge fully-formed last year, their Transatlanticism album being a forceful piece of effortlesst epic indie rock atmospherics, with a typically poignant intelligence and literary attitude underpinning the layers of moody guitars and clattering, pounding rhythms. The band’s profile has shot through the roof since then, to the extent that they’ve now signed to a major label, and even appeared on The DC, where they’re geeky Seth’s favourite band.
DCFC are far from a new band, and with their newfound popularity, American indie label Barsuk is releasing the band’s four previous albums this summer. Spanning the years since 1998, there is nothing here on the level of Transatlanticism, but there is a steady progression from a band trying to find their sound, albeit pretty confidently right from the off, to one growing into their own. 1998’s debut Something About Airplanes shows promise and youthful bluster in equal measure, while We Have the Facts . . . is slower, more considered and thoughtful, but still lacking the killer tunes and the sense of poignancy that their music is now imbued with. Only You Can Play . . . is a letdown, being a rather scratchy, scattershot collection of rarities and early stuff, presumably only of interest to seriously geeky indie kid fans.
But by the time we get to 2001’s The Photo Album there is a real sense of the band’s potential beginning to be fulfilled, as big choruses combine with big ideas to create something which clearly paved the way for the band‘s deserved current success. (Doug Johnstone)
rather frantic predecessor. We Are Being Observed. l lavii ig said that, there's not too much to shout about here, in a slightly charmless collection which has moments of excitement (the low rent At the Drive-In of ‘Closing Time Scene' or the Gang of Four march
' of ‘Cost/Beneiit
Analysis') but has neither the muscle of Fugazi nor the
conviction of the Minutemen to pull itself out of the jerky. post— punk ghetto. (Doug Johnstone)
MENTAL ROCK BLACK MOUNTAIN Black Mountain (Jagjaguwar) O.
I thought Canadians were meant to be senSible, so what flavour of musical madness is
this? lhe first song is a squall of free jazz saxy nOise. then we get something mimicking early Rainbow and, by track tour. ‘No Satisfactioii', it's Pentangle jamming with the Stones fronted by LOU Reed. And it deesii'l stop there. 'No llits' setiiids like Ki'altweik getting involved lll soiiie avaiit gaide New Yoik sound expeiiiiient With Yoko Ono. and 'I lead of Snow' is an outtake harm The Wicker Man soundtrack. It's all unhinged and more than a little disoneiitating. Does the world need this soil of weiid shit? The jury's out.
(Doug JOilllSIOllO)
66 THE LIST 21 Jul—4 Aug 2005
seam-i iii—iiiuseiieiciueiiiami'i'I'i'i't'LLeuu "iiiaizzceiwr ' -