INDIE
POPUP
A Time and a Place
(Art Goes Pop. SW03) oooo
If it has felt like a long time coming for Popup’s debut long player to land in our arms then maybe it’s because we’ve been aware of them being damn good from very early on. Furious early demos, bursting with barely contained energy, recorded the spittle-strafed epithets shot from Damian Gilhooly’s lips, setting the bar high early on, and as a slow trickle of songs suggested, considerable promise. For A Time and a Place they’ve come
good on that promise.
The musical reference points are plentiful but it points to a certain romance and freewheeling - Arab Strap in their fondness for a wandering narrative, The Delagados’ skill with a delicate image and Sons and Daughters’ nous for a rollicking driving beat. At the same time, however,
their sound is all their own.
At points wistful, warming and biting, Popup sound like indie music from back when indie meant music made by intense young men and women whose fondness for a treny guitar sound was second only to their taste for a confessional lyric; music made for its own sake regardless of the potential for global stardom. This band are the real deal, trading in blunt
confessionals instead of vast terrace chants.
All we ever want from our pop music is a connection, someone who understands the pain or pleasure in our predicament, our hopes, our dreams, and perhaps most importantly, our failures. We want someone who can convey our hurt in a way that makes us not sound like a clown.
Look no further. (Mark Robertson)
JAAEZAN piece band features SKIDMORE’S Skldmore's tenor
alont side German UBIZO J
trumpeter Ingolf Burkhardt. the keyboards of Steve Melting and Colin Towns, bass and drums
50 Journeys (Provocateur Records) 0..
Another foray into the fusion of Coltrane- influenced jam with a vibrant African vibe that saxophonist Alan Skidmore has prewously explored With Ubizo. but with a stronger slant toward the world music pole than on their two earlier discs. The eight-
WUBlZD: v.50 JOURIEVS
66 THE LIST 2-46 Oct 2008
from NeVille Malcolm and Mike Paxton. and two African musICians. Saidi Kanda and Musa Mboob.
Towns also produced the album. and the combination invests the music with some punchy soloing (notably from Skidmore and the McCoy Tyner-influenced Melting) and a lively. percussion-heavy. feel- good world Jazz groove. although it's hard to shake the feeling that the music sometimes
gets stuck between the two poles without quite aiming for anything more ambitious than an infectious dance feel. (Kenny Mathieson)
REGGAE ETC MUNGO’S HIFI Sound System Champions (Rockers Revolt)
Sound system culture is surprisingly at home in a dreich Scotland and one has come of age here throughout the course of the last decade. Here Mungo's self-congratulatory debut long-player champions the collective as no less proactive in the studio than their reputation as a forward thinking live phenomenon attests. Less a roll call and more an organic setip of Jamaican stylings. throwing rocksteady. roots. ska. dub and dancehall into the pot With no la/y production values. each track features a different guest vocalist from international waters and closer to home. And it's a winner: all hail Mungo's Hifi. (Mark Edmundson)
POP
TV ON THE RADIO
Dear Science (AAD) O...
Since they first sneaked into view five years ago. throwmg down doo— wop takes on Pixies tunes and post-MBV space funk. TV on the Radio have been. to say the least. awkward customers. their sonic tricksiness often being a barrier to the enjoyment of their music. No one after all. likes a smart arse. Three albums in. they're beginning to
unravel some of the peculiar joys aural mastermind David Sitek has bound up in their dense orchestra.
The sensory overload of 2006's Return to Cookie Mountain is diffused in favour of a more playful collection filled with languid grooves and varied if measured instrumental variety. Tunde Adebimpe remains a sonorous focal point. his crooning falsettos. strained. Prince-ian raps and voluptuous baritones suggest him to be one of the most versatile and beguiling singers anywhere today
Dear Science is less conventional rock than anything else the band have ever done but suggests a well of ideas that goes beyond genre conventions without sounding to self- consciously clever. just inspired.
(Mark Robertson)
ALT-FOLK COUNTRY OUG
HOEKSTRA Blooming Roses (Folkwit Records)
\‘i‘v P.
New several solo albums and 1/1 years into his career (not COunting his pre-solo time with Chicago outfit Bucket No.6). Nashville- based Hoekstra returns with another set of whispering. easy-on- the-ear songs.
While Dylan. Cohen and Lou Reed are the names thrown into the cloudy DH mix, his sound is both emotive and honest. Blooming Roses has already received critical plaudits following release in America in February. tracks that shine Out are ‘The Best There Ever Was'. 'Acquired Taste' and ‘Everwvhere is Somewhere'. He strays into the all too familiar folk/country territory of his heroes at times but that doesn't stop it being highly listenable stuff.
(Martin C Strong)
ALSO RELEASED
MUSIC DVDS
The Clash Live Revolution Rock (SongB/l/lG) Apparently Joe Strummer found the long-lost tapes of this 1982 concert while moving house. The punk rockers shake up New York's Shea Stadium with hits including ‘London Calling' and ‘Rock the Casbah'.
Kris Drever Live (Navigator) The Orcadian singer performs his album. Black Water live at this year's Celtic Connections festival, alongside other Scots folk revivalists including Karen Mathieson and John MCCusker. Footloose and Flashdance - Collector’s Edition (Paramount Home Entertainment) Get your fix of leg- warmers and welding with this reissued 80s classic starring Jennifer Beals. All that plus Kevin Bacon relieving small-town Bible-belt boredom with shaky legged dancing in a warehouse.
Various The Peace One Day Concert (Warner Music Entertainment) Last September a clutch of stars took to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate Peace Day. the first global ceasefire day. Annie Lennox and Marc Almond put their Vs in the air and make music. not war. Sheryl Crow Live (Soundstage) Tick off the hits from this nine- time Grammy winner, in a one-off concert for US TV. featuring ‘All I Wanna Do' and ‘Leaving Las Vegas'. Lou Reed Ber/in (Artificial Eye) A concert film shot 33 years after the one- time frontman for the Velvet Underground first released Ber/in. Julian Schnabel. director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly captures him resurrecting the album over five-nights in Brooklyn.