INDIE FRIGHTENED RABBIT
The Midnight Organ Fight
(FatCat Records) 0000
Graduating from underground heroes to a mainstream proposition often,
unfortunately, requires a little softening around the edges. No signs of this
where Frightened Rabbit are concerned, however. While the Glasgow-
based foursome have been kicking up a stir Stateside since folky indie pop
debut Sing the Greys was released to critical acclaim last year, their sophomore effort features even grittier, blackly comic songwriting than
ever before.
Hollered, heartbreak-driven vocals collide with clattering rhythms, plunked pianos, accordions, horns, thundering riffs and smart, off-kilter lyrics stripped back and unbearably raw at times as they tell tales of intoxicated sexual encounters, painfully falling in and out of love and the occasional oddity plucked from deep within singer Scott Hutchison’s magnificently warped mind. It’s epic and anthemic stuff boasting searing melodies that creep into your consciousness from first listen and
bombastic choruses which explode out of nowhere while still maintaining
that typically Frightened Rabbit lo-fi feel. Reminiscent of early REM, Sebadoh and ldlewild The Midnight Organ Fight feels like this incredibly talented act’s coming of age record. From shimmering opener ‘The Modern Leper' through woozy acoustic ballads and scratchy waltzes to darkly atmospheric finale ‘Who’d You Kill Now?’, each track bristles with brilliance, passion and bleak beauty. An outstanding achievement indeed. (Camilla Pia)
sparkling instrumental sets like the ‘The Aphrodisiac' and 'Rose Cottage Reels‘ and Karen Matheson's vocal features. including a brace of anti-war songs in John Martyn's poignant ‘Don‘t You Go' and Donald Shaw's ‘Soldier Boy'. Her Gaelic singing is well- represented. notably on the lovely ‘Seinneam Cliu Nam Fear Ur'. the vocal highlight of the album. (Kenny Mathieson)
ELECTRONICA PORTISHEAD Third
(Island) I...
No one ever really
expected Dummy Mkll did they? For trip hop —
the smoky sub-genre Portishead inadvertently helped create — is a distant. smouldering ember but Third is glorious. odd and timeless. a record of clanking. throbbing. grinding, bubbling machine
music countert)alanced
by Beth Gibbons
soulful heart.
The motorik hum of 'We Carry On' is a distant cousin of the Scouse eccentrics Clinic while ‘The Rip' grows from ac0Listic campfire ballad into a lustrous Kraftwerkian
pulse. “Deep Water' is Beth Gibbons in playful mood. with only the twang of a ukulele and a choir for company. Only the soporific plod of 'Threads' specifically evokes memories of Dummy. References aside. however, it's important to note that these songs are pretty much all tremendous. It's rare for people to make records of such singular vision these days and Third is a triumph in that it sounds like nothing other than Portishead. (Mark Robertson)
SOUL TINDERSTICKS Hungry Saw (Beggars Banquet) .0.
Tindersticks have always understood that the essence of great soul music was a tall (occasionally tragic) tale set to something grand sounding and have amassed a back catalogue of heartbreaking. often breathtaking albums.
Hungry Saw falls a little short of their finest work. however. These songs swell and grow from barely there. plaintive shuffles and burst forth. string sections and brass tumbling forth like the Stax house band collaborating with Nick Cave's Bad Seeds on the grand arrangements of Nelson Riddle.
Stuart Staples' bitumen-soaked croon keeps everything rooted in a dark corner of the room, and while several of the songs here are truly moving. Hungry Saw is missing a spark that w0uld lift it towards the sublime. (Mark Robertson)
ECLECTICA VARIOUS
Defected Presents Charles Webster (Defected) 0.0
If Charles Webster doesn't sound like a typical superstar DJ. well that's because he
CHARLES WE l? :
isn't. He is a true cult hero of dance music and this triple CD package gives us a considered showcase of the breadth of work Webster programmes and creates.
Disc one is a blend of bubbling vocal house. all soulful flourishes which bumps along but never fully ignites despite the occasional classic like Rosie Gaines' ‘Closer than Close' in tow. The second is a joyously random chill out selection where Black Sabbath and Kate Bush nuzzle into Simian and D'Angelo . . . and somehow. it works. The final instalment is all Webster originals which shows his love of lush soul songs — imagine Massive Attack getting down at Studio 54. (Mark Robertson)
ELECTRONICA VARIOUS
Bugged Out presents Suck My Deck Mixed by Boys Noize
(New State Music) 0..
Boys Noize is the wholly apposite nom de plume of Berlin native
Alex Ridha who. for his
first ever mix CD has set ticking a whole Crate of techno smart bombs for our delight. He mercilessly cuts up tracks by Kitsune. Modeselektor. Erol Alkan and Justice with his powerful deck techniques, never giving anyone the opportunity to outstay their welcome. This is the main attraction of the mix but also. and oddly, its main failing.
: When he gets going.
Ridha often sacrifices groove in favour of dynamics and relies on jacking breaks for
’ ' Record Reviews Music
The Osslans The MacPherson Tapes (45b) Akin to Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. this long lost Edinburgh quartet ‘coulda been contenders' had they not ended up imploding in a hail of rock’n'roll misfortune. This is the recently uncovered album that never was: seven tracks of incandescent indie rock energy which shows Connor Alexander up as a writer of some substance.
Atlas Sound Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (4A0) A multicoloured array of sonic adventures from Bradford Cox, Deerhunter frontman's debut, fusing tripped out ambient electronica to jittery garage rock with surprising panache.
Tetlne Let your X '3 Be Y’s (Soul Jazz) This relatively unknown duo gave birth to the baille funk/post-punk mix up associated with CSS. Bonde do Role and. in part. M.|.A. and this is their eighth album of furious electro pop (their first for the UK). Alabama 3 Hits and Exit Wounds (One L/tt/e Ind/an) A welcome. expansive retrospective for these gnarly but debonair alt.rock demons. Proof perhaps that there's more to them than just the theme from The Sopranos.
ALSO RELEASED
impact. There are. however, a few playful moments — Laurie Anderson's ‘0 Superman' and an instrumental of Reel 2 Reel‘s 'I Like to Move It especially — and these. along with the plundering of techno's early pioneers and those passages when the throbbing electronics overheat and come to furious peaks, makes for a vitriolic. textured mix. (Mark Robertson)
24 Apr—8 May 2008 THE LIST 73