dreamy and euphoric umbrella of electronica. there’s room for Joe Acheson Quartets ‘Celtic Harp'. a floaty. jazz- soaked soundscape of breaks and rolling drums: English producer Marvin Wilson's piano-heavy trip hop. and Scottish hip hop from MC Solareye of the DoPE Soundsystem. who has hooked up with Hooverfish on 'The Rain'. (Claire Sawers‘i
ELECTRONICA BJORN TORSKE Feil Knapp
(Smalltown Supersound) OOOO
There was a time you knew where you stood with a term like techno. Back in the halcyon days of jackhammer beats and painfully minimal backing it meant the true definition of machine music. Now with folks like Torske around it can mean anything, and does on this Kicking off with a beatless seething the aural equivalent of a Norse wind on the back of your neck. Then he tosses in a fruity dub rhythm peppered with ZX Spectrum sound effects followed by a spooky Drexyian electro bubbler. He continues on this way for another half dozen tracks. each one as unlike the next as you could wish. but somehow it all holds together. sharing an understated elegance and a fondness for wry. bittersweet melodies. Joyously unpredictable. (Mark Robertson)
ROCK CLINIC Funf (Domino) 00
Apparently. Clinic‘s motto is ‘ignoring the
tenets and trends of the
music industry'. Admirable sentiments.
60 THE LIST 549 Jul 2007
but not really enough when your brand of stomping voodoo surf punk sounds as old as the hills. and feels just as mucky. This b-side compilation does them little favours. eking out perhaps one and a half ideas and stretching them way beyond their unappealing limits: particularly annOying
are the chugging. non- festive ‘Christmas‘ and the plodding, non-good ‘You Can't Hurt You Anymore' which sounds like a pubescent‘s first guitar lesson going horribly wrong. This Liverpool bunch formed in the weeks prior to Blair's ‘97 inauguration and have similarly blown the promise of those heady early days. (Brian Donaldson)
ROCK
ASH
Twilight of the Innocents (lnfectious) 00.
Ash hit their creative peak blending pure pop and adrenaline rock with the near-flawless Free All Angels in 2001 . so. after the heads- down metal reaction of 2004's Meltdown. where next? Back to basics. it seems. the band ditching Charlotte Hatherley and returned to a three-piece. with mixed results. Most bands would kill for the riffage of opener 'I Started a Fire' or the blistering chorus of 'You Can't Have it All‘. but Tim Wheeler's incredible songwriting history is a rod for his own back. and too much here pales in comparison to Ash's extraordinary back catalogue. Some killer, but too much filler. (Doug Johnstone)
JAZZ
FRAUD
Fraud
(The Babel Label) .0.
Fraud are making considerable waves on the more experimental end of the London jazz scene at the moment. and have clearly won some influential backers. as this debut album was nominated for album of the year at the BBC Jazz Awards even before it was released (saxophonist James Allsopp is also up for the Rising Star award. the reStllIS of which will be announced on 12 July). On disc. the music still Spunds like a work-in- progress. Allsopp and Tim Giles on drums and electronics are the principal movers. supplemented by keyboards. guitar and a
1:7 unlit! ’
second drummer. but no baSSist. They are in the Ac0ustic LadylandiLed Bib school. where raucous free jazz blowing crashes headlong into funk and rock. but it's not all manic action. Their mUSIC is hauntingly delicate at times. and they work hard at creating a varied and intriguing tonal palette from their instrumental resources.
(Kenny Mathieson)
ROCK
SHELLAC Excellent Italian Greyhound
(Touch ‘N' GO) 0...
Shellac have always played by their own rules. Whether it is their obsessions with pure analogue high fidelity and high quality packaging — this album (that's vinyl Antique Roadshow fans) is the finest piece of work yOu'll see all year, no competition — or dealing without as many of the machinations of the music industry as possible. they are to be admired.
Steve Albini breeds feverish devotion in young and old men everywhere and this
wuovnyu
album almost explains why. There is a crisp. spacious sound that does the whole power trio thing in the broadest sense. albeit with an unforgiving sense of humour and a brutally fine understanding of dynamics. But most of all it all feels very human. very real.
This. their first album in seven years. reminds us they can be playful to the point of wilful. The album centrepiece. the sprawling suite ‘Genuine Lullabelle'. illustrates the eccentric. beautiful and testing nature of the band in what can only loosely be defined a song. Initially the record feels curt. almost impolite in its conciseness and as ever. Shellac leave you wanting more. Live. they are untouchable. but on record they're still flawed. Oh well. nobody's perfect.
(Mark Robertson)
FOLK
SIMON THOUMIRE & DAVID MILLIGAN Third Flight Home (Footstompin' Records) 0...
Folk meets jazz and cuts a very acceptable deal in the music of concertina player Simon Thoumire and pianist David Milligan. The pair bring a diverse range of stylistic options to their music. The combination of instruments is an unusual but very effective one. and while both players are capable of considerable instrumental virtuosity. there is never any sense of showing off their skills for the sake of it.
Much of the well- chosen material is drawn from contemporary sources.
and the music has a refreshing zest and sparkle that never flags. whether on conventional reels and Strathspeys from the Scottish tradition or more off-the- wall selections like Russian pianist Misha Alperin's ‘Wedding in the Wild Forest'. Milligan's jazz expertise adds delightful and surprising harmonic and rhythmic twists to his accompaniments. but he has an equally good feel for the often simpler requirements of the folk material. and never overcooks his embellishments.
(Kenny Mathieson)
ROCK SONIC YOUTH
Daydream Nation (Geffen) 00000
Plaudits land at the feet of anyone who's managed to straighten out long enough to make it to the pressing plant these days. It's not difficult to make music and the internet age has meant it's even easier to get it out there. but it is hard to make good music. Sonic Youth have been on their own wayward path through rock for almost three decades and right in the middle of those decades they made an album that wasn't just great. it was breathtaking. Ambitious in scope — a double album at a time when double albums were unfashionable — aurally adventurous. which is saying something from the band who put the 'arde in avant garde. 19 years on. Daydream Nation still sounds fresh. righteous and explosive. A second disc here. of the album played live. adds to the value. but the orginal is the real attraction. The only odd thing is that. given just how influential the album has become. how few bands have subsequently risen to the challenge and bettered it.
(Mark Robertson)
SONIC YOUTH DAYDREAH NATION
I
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