Music Record RevieWS,
SINGLES & DOWNLOADS
Eagleowl
LOCAL SPECIAL Locally-$0urced produce is all the rage these days. so let's have a cheeky wee Scottish round- up this issue. eh? Quality meat to kick off in the form of Frightened Rabbit. whose ‘I Feel Better’/'The Twist' (Fat Cat) 000. is excellently jittery. skittery folk-flecked indie. with all the yelping energy of vintage REM. Glasgow's Popup try similar fare with ‘Love Triangle' (Art Goes Pop) 000 Although their subdued jangle takes ages to get going, it does eventually reach a tipping point of fine. angsty bluster.
We See Lights show more diverse flavours on their ‘We See Lights EP‘ (self-release) eee veering from Arcade Fire anthems to Elliott Smith songsmithery. all well executed but lacking a little conviction. 'We're Not French EP’ (self-release) 000 by The French Quarter is promising too. their post-rocking ambient atmospherics have enough grit to suggest they could ripen into a decent prospect.
Very different but equally tasty are Pearl and the Puppets. The Glasgow-based outfit deliver relaxed but confident acoustic pop on ‘Pearl and the Puppets EP' (self-release) on like Amy Macdonald on a weird tip or Laura Marling gorging on juicy pop fruits.
By contrast Odeon Beat Club sound tired on ‘The New Kate Moss' (Yo Yo) CO lacking momentum and bite, and trundling along before limping to a sorry end.
Much more intriguing is the latest eclectic offering in the Kopparberg Singles Club. Swedish cider and Scottish music isn't an obvious taste combination, but it works on 'Jake of Monterey'/‘Qoral Reef' (Kopparberg) 000 by Injuns and Chase respectively. The former is a creepy. moody new wave stew, the latter is a platter of off-kilter, late-night SOUI with a jazzy garnish on top.
All of which just serve as appetisers for the fillet steak main course of Eagleowl's Single of the Fortnight. The Edinburgh-based trio's ‘For The Thoughts You Never Had EP' (Fife Kills: Records) 0000 is a wonderfully atmospheric piece of slowcore post-folk. reminiscent at times of Low, with a dash of Scottish sea shanty thrown in here. a soupcon of Adem's organic melancholy there. all of it positively oozing home-grown, home- cooked goodness. Bon appetit. (Doug Johnstone)
ROCK
MERCURY REV Snowflake Midnight (Co-op; 000.
The Rev are like an indie version of Madonna. c0nstantly reinventing themselves and their SOund With each album. and this seventh studio outing is another successful reincarnation for these dreamy loons. Their early drone-rock
weirdness and even the orchestral pop of 1998's Deserfer’s Songs are largely gone. here
66 THE LIST 18 880-2 Oct 2008
replaced by SOundtracky SOundscapes. sequenced rhythms and some driving, psychedelic space rock. Opener ‘Snowflake in a Hot World' sets the tone. Jonathan Donahue's willowy voice juxtaposed against building slabs of noise and beats. a pattern replicated throughout with increasing determination and conviction. Ethereal
yet also somehow earthy.
this is stirring stuff. (Doug Johnstone)
POP JENNY LEWIS Acid Tongue (Rough Trade) .00.
Lewis is a sultry indie poster girl with Rilo Kiley and delivered a beautifully moving COuntry record. backed by The Watson Twins. two years ago. This second solo album lacks the fOCLlS of those projects. but it's still a cut above the average. boasting as it does her undeniable talent and charisma. Acid Tongue starts slowly and only gets going with the SumthOUS country gospel of the title track followed by the rattling rock of ‘See Fernando' and the blue-eyed soul of ‘Godspeed'. Lewis's mice is as emotionally powerful as ever. meaning that while some of the material here lacks inspiration. she makes it wonh the trip.
(Doug Johnstone)
ELECTRO pop MANDA RIN MyDNA
(DlY) 000
After 14 years in bands like Data Panik. The Kitchen and most famously Bis. this is the first time Amanda McKinnon has stepped away from the collaborations and released under her own (stage) name — although listening to the album, it sounds like she had Duran Duran and Franz Ferdinand in the Studio With her.
'Typeface'. in particular, comes on like
HAND _. . .
a Cross between “A View to a Kill‘ and ‘l'm Your Villain'. and there's nothing wrong with that. Across the album the pace is brisk and McKinnon's voice is almost artificially high- pitched. meaning that a hyper- real air of Kylie also crops up in ‘Love to Hate You', most notably. Much like Bis. though. this extremely pop-sawy debut will polarise Opinions rather than unite them. (David Pollock)
ROCK
LORDS OF BASTARD Lords of Bastard (SL) 0..
Some people just know how to say the right things and this trio of
Edinburgh bams got two -
stars for the top name and the sticker on the CD case alone declaring . . if you like albums.
then this might be for you . . .' Maybe ‘if you like The Melvins. The Stupids and Thin Lizzy. . .' might have been more truthful but perhaps not as genial and inclusive.
But quality packaging aside. Lords of Bastard's unholy rumble is equal parts bludgeon and groove. swollen riffs swaying like a hairy mammoth's enormous scrotal sack. They allow their guitars to twist. turn. build without too much extraneous and potentially off-putting vocal gymnastics and crunch through a debut set that is brutal. silly and deeply satisfying, often in the same song. This might seem two- dimensional by some people's dim standards. and the production is deliberately primitive but that's son of the point, no? A heraldic success. (Mark Robertson)
JAZZ
CHARLES LLOYD Dream Weaver - The Atlantic Years 1966-69 (Warner Jazz) on
Saxophonist Charles Lloyd is now a respected elder statesman in jazz circles. but in the late 608 his group with pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette was making inroads into the rock audience with appearances at venues like the Fillmore and a series of albums that included Dream Weaver, Love-In and Forest Flower, prior to the Memphis-born saxophonist’s decade- long withdrawal from music in the early 70s.
Jazz purists didn't always like what they heard from the band. but their trademark fusion of post-bop and free jazz. with influences from Indian music. made them one of the most celebrated and talked about groups of the day. This two-disc anthology provides a snapshot of their work in the period that illustrates both their merits and weaknesses. Their free-wheeling invention is often powerful and even exhilarating. but can turn a bit aimless at times. and Lloyd's fondness fOr the flute — along with some of the music - now SOUndS a little dated. (Kenny Mathieson)
JAZZ
INNER SPACE MUSIC
Five Animal Dances
(Spherical Records) .0.
The name most likely to catch the eye on this release is probably drummer Seb Rochford. although the disc was actually recorded back in 2004. and Tim Giles seems to have taken his place in the band's more recent live dates. Nonetheless, he makes a typically compelling contribution to a band that reveals a fascinating line-up behind the unfamiliar name.
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Like Rochford.
. trumpeter Loz Speyer.
saxophonist Chris Biscoe and bassist Julie Walkington are all band leaders in their own right, but they combine in a more collective fashion here. although Speyer does take the lead in providing the ten compositions, including the five graphic pieces — ‘Bird', ‘Tiger', ‘Deer'. 'Bear' and ‘Monkey' — signaled in the title. The music is all realised through both structured and free improvisations that may prove a little abstract for some tastes. but draw characteristically inventive and energised responses from the musicians.
(Kenny Mathieson)
FOLK
THE DUPLETS Tree of Strings (Pond Chicken Music) 0..
The harp is enjoying something of a resurgence at the moment. with new
I young players like Ailie
Robertson. Rachel Hair and The Duplets pairing of Freya Thomsen and Gillian Fleetwood all focusing on the oldest of the Scottish folk instruments. The Duplets debut album is definitely stronger when they concentrate on instrumental music rather than their disappointingly weak singing. but does reveal a pleasing musicality along with technical facility in their playing. Their instrumental sets combine traditional tunes like ‘O'Neill's March' and three Gaelic tunes from the Angus Fraser Collection (including the album's title track. ‘Croabh nan Teud/Tree of Strings')