Reviews
SOUNDTRACV VARIOUS
Music from the Films of Martin Scorsese (Rhino UKi OOOOO
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There are some of us who iust can't hear The Chips 'Rubber Biscuit' or Creariis "Sunshine of your l ove‘ Without picturing Robert De Niro going berserk in a Manhattan pool hall (ii/lean Streets) or stomping on a Wise guy's head (Goodte/Iasi Martin Scorsese's appropriation of contemporary rriusic in some of modern film's most memoral')le scenes has blazed a trail for Video and movre directors alike.
And from his work on lit/oodstock to the recent blues and Dylan drxtumentaries. few know pop better than Scorsese. Whisper it. but this two CD collection might actually be the best party album EVER. If you can suppress the VlSlOllS of bloody mayhem. (Ninian Dunnett)
SOUL BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT Brightblack Morning Light
(Matador) 00.0
Hippies are an irritating bunch. With their incessant roaming. (lower-filled barnets and happy clappy music . . . yet this extraordinary debut may Just tempt yOu over to the tree- hugging side. Brightblack Morning Light are Californian duo Nathan D ‘Nabob' Shinewiater and Rachel 'Rabob' Hughes; both prone to bouts of camping. unkempt hair and communal living in cabins. yet blessed with a distinctive sound
fuelled by whispered vocals. WOOZy guitars. dreamy horns. shimmering bells. tablas and the honeyed tones of a Vintage Rhodes piano. The s0ngs here range from (SO-second glimpses to ten-minute trips and owe as much to Spiritualized or lsaac Hayes as they do Bonnie Prince Billy or Joanna Newsorne. (Camilla Pia)
METAL MASTODON Blood Mountain (Warner Brothers) .0...
Loud. for some reason. has always been equated With stupid (Spinal Tap have a lot to answer for presumably). but as these four fairly well-adjusted yOung men from Atlanta prove. metal can be both big and very. very clever. They still indulge in a lyrical bent that borders on the Tolkien-esque. including talk of wolves. birchmen and sleeping giants. But. like the incomprehensiny verbose Mars Volta. this doesn’t take away from the quality of the music. which is complex. varied and textured. relying on time signatures and shifts of weight and dynamics rather than just berating listeners With coruscating riffage. And even when they do indulge it‘s with a certain purpose and guile. Tremendous. (Mark Robertson)
JAZZ OM
A Retrospective (ECM Records) 00.
OM were one of the more interesting groups to come out of the jazz- rock explorations of the early 70s. and remained together for a decade before disbanding in 1982. Saxophonist Urs Leimgruber. gurtarist Christy Doran. bassist Bobby Burn and drummer Fredy Studer brought an original and creative approach to a genre that often foundered on bombast.
Their muSic is made available for the first time on CD in this compilation. It is drawn from the four albums they cut for ECM offshoot Japo. comprismg four representative tracks from their first three albums. and the whole of their final offering, Cerebus. The music has aged rather better than much of the genre. (Kenny Mathieson)
INDIE
PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer’s Block (Wichita) 0000
Find nu-rave nonsensrcal and hipster bands quite horrifying? Then take comfort in the warm fuzzy guitar pop of this scene-swerving Swedish trio. who. with their third LP. offer up something more substantial. Writer's
Block is by far the band's most diverse work to date and boasts beguiling melodies coated in piano tinkles. scratchy riffs. clipped beats. bongos and even the odd bit of whistling on ‘Young Folks': a magical duet with ex- Concretes vocalist Victoria Bergman. 'Paris 2004' and 'Let‘s Call It Off‘ are by far the standout tracks. however. all bittersweet and SOs-tinged. You won't find a lovelier listen to take you through the autumn months . . . (Camilla Pia)
FOLK
SHONA MOONEY Heartsease (Footstompin’ Records) .0.
Fiddler Shona Mooney emerged as the eventual winner of the Young Scots Trad Musician 2006 final at Celtic Connections in January. and this debut
recording on. Sir“.,i" Thoumire‘s Footstompin' ape) is part of her prise. The
music is steeped in the traditions of her native Borders. but With the contemporary veneer that is now penasi\.e on the Scottish folk scene. It is a strong debut from a confident and expressive young intisician. ably supperted by Ali Vass' excellent work on piano. Ian Stephenson on guitar. David de la Haye on electric bass and electronics. and Capercaillie's James MacKintosh on drums. (George MacKay)
BLUES FOLK ROCK BOB DYLAN
Modern Times (Columbia) 0...
Dylan's long-gestating 32nd studio album may not. as the man pOinted out in a recent. much publiosed intemew. SOund half as good on CD as it did in the studio. but there is plenty here to warm the hearts of those who rallied behind 1998's Time Out of Mind and 2001 ‘s Love and Theft. Recorded With Dylan's current tOLiring band. including basSist Tony Garnier. drummer George G Receli. guitarists Stu Kimball and Denny Freeman. plus multi- instrumentalist Donnie Herron.
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Dylan produced the effort under the name ‘Jack Frost'. With the opener ‘Thunder on the Mountain" Dylan kicks up the dust of the now familiar mUSical scrubland he has come to inhabit in his last half dozen albums. The honky-tonk rhythms he perfected way back when he hung around
(Atlantic) 000
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Were the Singles and Downloads desk to dish out an award for Most Obvious Candidate For Being in an Advert of the FOrtnight, it would have to go to Zero 7 featuring Jose Gonzalez' 'Futures‘ (Atlantic)... imagine that for a minute . . . it's MOR squared. obviously, but kinda sweet too. in a way which washes over you like you hardly know it's there.
Not like Psapp's ‘Hi‘ charming and utterly incessant concoction of found sounds and exotic instrumentation by the pair of Gonzalez associates from London. Also emerging from the same stable is Vetiver's ‘Won't Be Me' (Fatcat) COO — their bandleader Andy Cabic is affiliated with Devendra Banhart. and his own style is a similar throwback to the breezy. jangling guitar pop of the 703. On the other hand Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly has nothing to do with Billy Bragg. but the lone Essex boy's ‘The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager Part One' repeats Bragg's acoustic mantra of romance meets polemic.
Onto something a bit more rocking. and who better for the job than Jet, making their comeback with ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is' (Atlantic) 000 reminiscent of a falsetto version of the identically-titled Oasis song? Why Wolfmother. of course. ‘Love Train' (Island) 0000 sees the hirsute Aussies squealing and shivering their way through another grand take- off of Led Zep. whose derivative nature shouldn’t override the fact they're more exciting than most of the guff out there. As are We Are The Physics — ‘Less Than Three’ is thrashy synth-punk from Glasgow — and The Walkmen. whose ‘L0uisiana' (Nonesuch) 00“ country anthem that suggests Music From Big Pink was on the stereo the day they wrote it.
Onto Single of the Fortnight time again. and it's tough to see past The Aliens. with ‘The Happy Song' (Pet Rockl) me . They have produced yet another gorgeoust odd piece of psych-pop, whose simplistic euphoria is kind of like The Beach Boys on acid. Oh, hang on a minute . . . (David Pollock)
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(Domino) 0.. . a
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is a mellow
subterranean dives With The Band and the nursery rhyme lyrics he honed on his 1985 album Empire Burlesque are present and correct and greatly improved upon. Things move at a pleasing pace from here
on in ~ impassioned tales of crime. corruption and governmental failure ('When the Deal Goes Down'. 'The Levee's Gonna Break') cross fertilise riith bluesy ballads of love and
7—21 Sep 200‘, THE LIST 65