INDIE PAVEMENT Wowee Zowee (Domino) OOO
This sprawling reiSSue of Pavements least accessible album is entirely in keeping With the indie doyens' chaotically scattershot attitude to their craft. The original 18 tracks of the album are now thrown in with another 32 tunes Spread over two discs. leaving things more haphazardly incoherent than ever. The original album material holds up well. Suggesting it had more depth and quality than offhand fans and critics thought at the time. But the end result of adding all the B-Sides. live recordings. sessions and outtakes is that the occasional gems are now buried in ever- increasing piles of piss- about dross. What's the point of that?
(Doug Johnstonei
ROCK
DAN SARTAIN Join Dan Sartain (One Little Indian) O...
JOIN DAN A T IN
After the rocking good time garage punk. mamba and rockabilly workouts on Dan Sartain Vs The Serpi‘entes this follow up is slightly disappointing. But then the boy from Birmingham. Alabama did set the bar impossiny high with his superb debut. Less edgy than the preVious record. Join Dan Sartain introduces Wild West style country (‘Totem Pole' might be an alternative theme tune to
Bonanza) and Tex-Mex (on ‘Besa Me Mucho' Dan's accompanied by a Mariachi band). All of which SOunds (me enough. and good on Sartain for expanding his repertoire. but the new songs lack the snake- bite that made the preVious set so goddam great. (Miles Fielder)
METAL CRADLE OF FILTH Thornography (Roadrunner) COO
There will always be a place in the hist0ry of metal for Cradle of Filth. They've been reliany upsetting our self imposed moral guardians since their inception. However. this is Cradle's main problem — as an idea they're like a bolt from the bowels of hell but the music never quite lives up to their infernal promise of blacker than black metal. Here we have a serViceable slab of hard. heavy. operatic gothica. that at times veers into absurdist comedy iespecially their reworking of Heaven 17's ‘Temptation'i. Admittedly. Dani Filth is in on the Joke. but these often overwrought tales of death and mortal sin are far less engaging than the concept of CoF. (Henry Northmorei
INDIE SCI-(MINDIE LUXEMBOURG Front
:Dogbox Recordsi OOO
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Sitting as comfortably in the mid-90s as a Queen Anne chair in Morrissey's parlour, or a La—Z-Boy in Martin Rossiter's boudoir. Front is a curious period piece. Neglecting to take
on board that Mozza gets away with muscular pub-rock nowadays because he's known as Saint Morrissey in some quarters. LuxembOurg bluster on. warbly voice laid over swoony strings and meaty guitars. referencing The Cure. Pulp and what now must be called 'early Radiohead' (OK Computer and before). Taking in housewives. supermarkets and DIY. the action moves from the bedroom into — always. darling — the gutter looking up at the stars. (Robin Lee)
JAZZ
SOWETO KINOH A Life in the Day of Bl 9
(Dune Records) .00
Saxophonist Soweto Kinch has already picked up several awards and a lot of attention in his brief career. The Birmingham- born saxman-CLim- rapper has never seemed short on ambition. and this latest project is no exception. Subtitled Tales of the Trmer Block, it is the fiist of two CDs (as the cliff- hanger ending demonstrates) in which he attempts to weave three fictional narratives around a mix of (an and hip hop. With Kinch featured on both
saXOphone and rapping.
Set in his native Birmingham. it features newsreader Moira Stuart as narrator and a shifting cast of mu5icians. DJs and rappers employed to realise his eclectic mix of jazz and urban musics in the service of a tell-it- Iike-it-is narrative of contemporary city life. It is creative and often powerful, but a little uneven in execution. and the mix of genres may diyide potential listeners. The second disc. Basement Tales, is due in March.
(Kenny Mathieson)
UNCLASSIFIABLE TOM WAITS Orphans
(Anti) COO
When the BBC were planning their resurrection of Jackanory, Tom Waits may well have been on the longlist of proposed readers. But maybe they got wind of his disturbing night-time terror ‘Children’s Story’ and revoked the invite. Like some sepia-tinged train wreck, Waits has finally come back into focus since his last product, the piano-free splurge of Real Gone. So, having waited a couple of years for the next Waits recording, three of them trundle at the same time. Orphans racks up at a jaw-dropping 54 pieces long with a couple of missing numbers just in case you were feeling short changed. Split into ‘Brawlers’, ‘Bawlers’ and ‘Bastards’, this is archetypal Waits: growling, groaning and gurning; soothing, screeching and snapping; bluesy, boozy and
barking.
Only at one point, does it seem like someone else has infiltrated the scene of the crime. ‘Road to Peace’ has Waits rather ill-advisedly entering the fray of world politics with a horribly cack-handed essay on the woes of the Middle East. On safer ground is his clanking ‘Heigh l-lo’ which, rather cheatingly, first appeared on a Disney reinterpretation album in 1988. After a handful of listens, there seems not one single song that would earn a spot in the Waits pantheon beside ‘Burma Shave’, ‘Tom Traubert’s Blues’, ‘Kentucky Avenue’, ‘Tango Til They’re Sore’ or ‘Cold Cold Ground’. Maybe with a solid Abu Ghraib-style programme of round the clock month-long listening, the gems might emerge. For now, Waits has finally lost his sparkle. (Brian Donaldson)
CONTEMPORARY STEVE REICI-l
Different Trains (Black Box) 0000
Steve Reich '3 Different Trains is one of the classic compositions of the late 20th century. The original Kronos Quartet recording remains the benchmark in terms of sheer energy and
visceral punch, but this
new recording by the Duke Quartet has commendable strength and vision. and provides a reminder that Reich's interleaving of the music With spoken word remains one of the most multilayered and successful creations to come out of the minimalist movement. This disc also contains a razor-sharp performance of a much earlier and more purely minimalist work by Reich, 'Piano Phase' for two pianos. played by Andrew Russo and Marc Mellits. The world premiere recording of Mellits' own ‘String
ALL CDS WERE REVIEWED ON A SYSTEM SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED BY LOUD 8: CLEAR
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Quartet No 2' offers catchy melodic phrases and lively rhythms. (Kenny Mathieson)
FQLK JUNCTION POOL
Junction Pool (Junction Music) OOO
JUNCTION POOL
This young Borders ensemble was inspired by the example of The Unusual Suspects. and their own attempt at
30 Nov~14 Dec 2006 THE LIST 65