ETHEREAL MAJESTY SIGUR ROS Takk
(EMI) O.”
After a startling
introduction to the wider
world. this Icelandic outfits last album, ( ). was a disappointment — monumental soundscapes by numbers. if you like. Thankfully Takk sees them back to near genius. changing from
painfully fragile piano-led i
atmospherics to apocalyptic walls of noise in the space of a few seconds. There is real drive to the likes of ‘Glosoli'. an immediacy married to their typically outlandish. alien sounds which is thoroughly invigorating.
They still sound like angels from a distant planet. but these days it seems as if they're here to take over the world instead of just making incredible. heart- crushing sounds in our general direction.
(Doug Johnstone)
INDIE ROCK
FRANZ FERDINAND
You Could Have It So Much Better (Domino) 0000
The temptingly self- defacing title might suggest moments of self-doubt. but Franz Ferdinand have held their nerve and come up with something that while it has it's the occasional dead patch
—two duffers out of 13 to
be exact — can stand proudly next to their boisterously cheery clang of a debut. There's the odd
ALL CDS WERE REVIEWED ON A SYSTEM SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED BY LOUD 8: CLEAR
honeyed downbeat strum and some rigid backed 60s widescreen pop has been integrated into the blend but at the heart is riffs you can sing and beats you can stomp. They're testing their own boundaries — gently — while still managing to get a refrain like ‘see ya later!‘ credibly into a songs. A home win.
(Mark Robertson)
ELECTRONIC POP BROADCAST Tender Buttons (Warp) 0”
It's all change for Broadcast as they return after a two-year absence. downsized to a duo and offering their most sparse LP to date. Featuring hypnotic beats. fuzzy electronics. stripped-down scratchy guitars and some incredibly dark lyrical themes ranging from the Iraq war to prostitutes and psychological hang- ups. Tender Buttons sounds initially like it may make for pretty harrowing listening. However Trish Keenan's sublime vocal treatment of incredibly sweet melodies ensures that the record retains its haunting quality without ever dipping into depressing territOiy. As infectious as they are experimental. Broadcast sit nicely on the merrier side of melancholy. (Camilla Pia)
SOUL ROWETTA Rowetta
(Gut) .00
WW
g CUC\
Entirely blowing away the thus-far entirely founded preconception that anyone who has
earned fame through a reality TV show is unmitigatedly pish (Girls Aloud the only possible exception, if you're feeling very charitable). ex-Happy Mondays backing singer and Mancunian ‘character' Rowetta has only gone and recorded a good album. Well okay. it's decent — of course it's aimed at the easily pleased masses who managed to watch X- Factor with anything but a snigger on their face. But the fact she has a truly tremendous voice cuts a lot of mustard, and faithful. wholehearted renditions of “The Look of Love'. ‘Higher Ground' and even Oasis' ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out' earn respect from even this jaded hack. The only thing missing is a Shaun Ryder duet — it'd have number one written all over it.
(David Pollock)
EXPERIMENTAL BELL ORCHESTRE
Recording a Tape of the Colour of Light (Reugh Trade) .000
When not being part of godhead Montreal melodramatists Arcade Fire, Richard Reed Parry and Sarah Neufield like to build taut. luminous instrumental pieces out of wire. string and brass. Drawing from a varied palette. Recording. . . evokes thoughts of everything from Aphex Twin to Penguin Cafe Orchestra to PiL: the six players Create a varied heavily landscape to get lost in. Moments are not far off the pair's day job while others have an the kind of hollow atmosphere fellow Canucks Godspeed You! Black Emperor excel at. A reminder that instrumental music need not mean background music. (Mark Robertson)
ROCK
THE BETA BAND The Best of Beta Band Music
(Regal) 0000
In a music world where lowest common denominator pish is king. the Beta Band were way too smart. Men in spacesuits. swapping instruments and singing about dogs and generally confounding ideas about what normal rock bands are supposed to do. they remain one of the most ingenious bands of the last dO/en years.
This 16 track re-cap through their modest but quality back catalogue and a bonus live show from London just before they split are evidence that they were brave musical trawlermen fishing something great out of a sea of deaf ears.
(Mark Robertson)
COUNTRY JOHNNY CASH Walking the Line: The legendary Sun Recordings
(Union Square) 0000
Since his death in 2003 there has been a pretty constant stream of collections extolling the virtues of the man in black. Unlike the Legend box released last month but similar to the American Recordings box collecting his latter years with Rick Rubin. this is very much a snapshot of a moment in time. when Cash as one quarter of the million dollar quartet (Cash. Presley. Perkins and Lewis) spent three years in the mid—50s recording enthusiastically at Sun Studios.
Some songs here are incredibly familiar. while others are rarely aired. but they capture Cash and country music at a time where the emotive power of the story
Casting a critical ear or two over the singles this issue are Edinburgh '3 own electro rock heathens
THE X VECTORS
Rowetta ‘And I'm Telling You I‘m Not Going' (Republic Media) Power- voiced balladeering from former Happy Monday. 0
Rory It reminds me of what Mel B's new single might sound like. It's just awful.
Paul I backed her when she was on Xfactor. Rory Everybody backed her cos she used to sing with the Monday‘s but that's awful.
David We'd like it to be known that if we could. we'd give her a zero.
T.A.T.U. ‘All About Us‘ (Umusic) Comeback single for the Eastern European jail-bait lesbo pop tarts 0
Rory It starts like a car advert. “Enjoy the new Vauxhall Vagina".
Paul It actually reminds me of ‘Poison' by Alice Cooper.
David Can we say “John [the member of our band who isn‘t here today] thinks this is rubbish".
Robbie Rivera feat Jesus Jones 'Right Here' (Nebula) Reworked version of the Jesus Jones 903 hit. Sure-fire lloorfil/er at meat markets nationwide. 0
(Band laugh as soon as song starts).
Rory Oh Jesus.
Paul None out of five for the song but one Out of five for the video featuring the birds doing the gymnastics which can be guaranteed.
Rory I would rather listen to another band do a cover version of a Bryan Adams song than listen to this.
The Cinematics ‘Chase' (TVT) Quirky, indie pop from new Glasgow based collective. 00
Dave The verse scunds like Grandaddy and the chorus sounds like Mansun.
Paul I thought they had a good frontrnan when I saw them live. It's quirky but it's the sort of thing that might do well with enough airplay.
Rory It's not bad but it doesn't grab you.
The Bloodhound Gang ‘Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo“ (Geffen) Hilarious/y coded pop-punk return from the lunks who taught us to ‘do it like mammals '. 0
(Band listen bored until the chorus)
Rory There's the hook. We were all waiting for it. Paul (Tongue firmly in cheek) I love American bands like this.
SINGLE OF THE FORTNIGHT: Louis XIV ‘Finding Out True Love is Blind (Atlantic) The next big hipster band from the US pillaging the sound of l970's London. one
David I think it's brilliant but I've heard the album and it‘s the only good song they'll do.
Paul It's alright.
Rory I like that and it's the song that's lasted the longest so far!
I The X Vectors play with the Unabombers at Trouble, Cabaret Voltaire. Edinburgh, Fri 23 Sep.
(‘3. Loud
oCleor
3;) SP!) K; Oct .‘Qt‘f‘
THE LIST 6 1