GLITCHY FOLK THEE MOTHS Glytchvélk Musique Concrete
(Pet Piranha) 0000
There’s a joyous impatience in the music Thee Moths make. Whether it’s on clipped, sweet acoustic jingles or powdery, brittle electronic cut ups or general strung out oddness is infectious. The songs swim into one another and the overall effect is slightly disorienting but highly enjoyable. The playful nature of their sound suggests they’re unlikely to be booking that slot on Later. . . with Jools Holland any time soon but for that we must be thankful. Any record that makes you check to see if the CD player is working right has got to be a good thing.
(Mark Robertson)
JAZZ
ALISON BURNS Kissing Bug
(P3 Music) 0”
Scottish singer Alison Burns concentrates on a programme of familiar standards for her debut album, including pleasing versions of ‘You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To', ‘But Not For Me’, ‘Shadow of Your Smile’ and ‘The Way You Look Tonight', as well as the less familiar title track. She brings a lightly swinging touch and a nice fee! for the lyrics to these numbers, and has a very pleasant voice, if a little short on colour and range at times.
Alison has the advantage of being able to call on her partner, drummer James Taylor, and his distinguished dad, guitarist Martin Taylor, who handles production as well as playing. High-class
accompaniments from the likes of trumpeter Guy Barker, pianist David Newton and accordionist Jack Emblow, frame her vocals in agreeable fashion, and bring additional lustre to the music.
(Kenny Mathieson)
ROCK PILOTCAH Eventually, All Your Friends Will Let You Down, Eventually (Evol) 0000
PILOTCAN C!
Four years in the making and EIGHT years since their last album, the Edinburgh veterans have eventually got their act together long enough to complete this, their third long-player. And, thankfully, it's well worth the wait. An irresistible melting pot of modern music, this record merges shimmering atmospheric post-rock with lo-fi US-style indie and succeeds, despite its history, in still sounding very ‘now’. The band may have undergone what should have been crippling line- up changes, squabbles and assorted mishaps, but it seems they’re back on track, and stronger than ever.
(Stuart McHugh)
ELECTRONICA THE BLACK DOG Book Of Dogma
(Soma) coco.
This double-pack of some of The Black Dog’s most seminal work will have veteran techno-heads the world over salivating with anticipation, or in some cases, cursing. Vinyl pressings of most of these recordings have been changing hands for insane sums of money more or less since they first emerged
in their absurdly scant quantities over 15 years ago. Much like Kraftwerk before them, The Black Dog will continue to be referenced by music scholars and music makers alike for years to come. A combination of rawness, simplicity and a child-like enthusiasm for experimentation sets The Black Dog apart from so much electronic music that has emerged since, whether ingeniously fusing James Brown breaks, Stevie Wonder keys and Mantronix lyrical licks, manufacturing their own alien sounds or just exploring the ambient ether. But, while the ‘new rave’ misnomer continues to be applied, abused and misunderstood, it's heartening to know that esoteric classics such as these will re-emerge to set the, ahem, record straight.
(Andrew Richardson)
INDIE THE PLIMPTONS Pomp
(Ivan Lendl) 0m
62 THE LIST 29 Mar-12 Apr 2007
Lanarkshire, so much to answer for - so it’s only right that one-time Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub man Brendan O'Hare is on hand to polish the, shall we say, raw materials presented to him by the Motherwell quartet, who keep the ‘shambling’ traditions of bands like The Pastels or BMX Bandits alive. However, it’s not for nothing the band christened themselves ‘Franz Ferdinand 2’, as their wry lyrics are matched by their way with a tune, the band even raising their game to that of a Scottish Pulp on closer ‘Impulse Records’, in another nod to their very fertile local music scene. (Stuart McHugh)
COUNTRY ROCK THE BEES Octopus (Virgin) om
Is there any band that says summer more than The Bees? I don't know
_ WE BEES
what they put in the water on the Isle of Wight, but this is one of the most breezy records you’re likely to hear. It should be given out at the gates of every summer festival in the land.
It’s also not afraid to throw every genre at the wall to see what sticks, from the West Coast country rock of ‘Love In The Harbour’, to ‘Left Foot Stepdown’s writhing skank-pop and ‘(This Is For The) Better Days’, which has its roots in a car chase funk keyboard riff. The whole album seems to recreate an imaginary Summer of Love which stretched from ‘68 to the summer of ‘72. (David Pollock)
FOLK WOLFSTOHE Terra Firrna
(Once Bitten Records) «0
Fiddler Duncan Chisholm sees Wolfstone as a Highland rock band who happen to play fiddles and pipes, and the musical mix here bears out that emphasis. This new set on their own Once Bitten label (if you see that name as reflecting earlier harsh experiences with the music industry, you
won’t be far wrong) is probably their strongest studio work to date, and comes closest to capturing their live sound.
For these ears, the band have never quite succeeded in fully integrating the two poles of their music, and that see-saw effect is apparent as they switch between Ross Hamilton’s contemporary rock
vocals and highly- charged folky instrumental workouts, all driven by Alyn Cosker’s powerful drumming. That won’t trouble their world-wide fan base, though, and there is plenty prime Wolfstone here to enjoy. (Kenny Mathieson)
INDIE _ MAXIMO PARK Our Earthly Pleasures
(Warp) 0”
It may be a cliche, but second albums are tricky. Deviate too far from the sound that took you to the big time and ‘you’ve lost your touch’. Conversely, plough on down the same furrow and ‘you’ve run out of ideas’. And it’s in the latter camp that Maximo Park find themselves with Our Earth/y Pleasures. Where their debut (2005’s A Certain Trigger) bristled with an angular punk aesthetic drenched in swirling Hammond organs, this
follow-up retreads the same themes. ‘Our Velocity’ and ‘Nosebleed' hurtle by with art pop abandon while there’s yearning heartbreak on ‘Karaoke Plays'. But they don’t have that spark that made them so compelling two years ago. Not a bad album, far from it, but more of the same as Maximo Park coast on neutral when they are capable of so much more. (Henry Northmore)
HAUNTED ACOUSTIC UNCLE FRITZ Field Reports
(Pet Piranha) m
There’s a terminally bleak air to Dundee painter and musician Fraser Stewart’s quiet-time aside from Alamos and Perineum metal outlets. With a penchant for tuneless whistling and testing, syntax-free deep vocals, Fritz undermines the beautiful melancholy of his oft-inspired melodies, dextrous guitar work and sparing atmospherics. It certainly
MUSIC BOOKS Tony “scout! The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy (HarperCo/lins) Here’s a cat who lived his and a few others’ nine lives, having produced and played on some of the greatest rock’n’roll records in history and lived to tell the tale. Morrissey has written the foreward. Dick Porter The Cramps: A Short History of Rock 'n ’Roll Psychosis (Plexus) As bands that were mad as shithouse rats and still truly, truly genius, The Cramps had it all: danger, glamour, riffs, black, black, humour. This is a slight, if enthusiastic, reading of their legend.
Paul Mk8 Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed (Sphere) The lggster gets the substantial biog he deserves to fit in all the fun, filth and fecking that make him one of rock music’s true individuals.
Doug Hokestra Bothering The Coffee Drinkers (Canopic Publishing) Okay so it’s not stn'ctly a music book but it is a book by a musician, Nashville resident Hoekestra. This is a collection of fiction and essays from the man often billed Americana’s answer to Oscar Wilde’. Find out more at www.cano picpublishing.com.
makes for a morose and often chilling outcome, dazzling and infuriating in equal measure. Lyrically we are treated to tortured ramblings on a myriad of dark concerns, from not fitting in at parties to attention-seeking shotgun fantasies, all tailor made for the miserablist's self-harm soundtrack.
(Mark Edmundson)