(Howtoswim) ...
SINGLES & DOWNLOADS
It would seem that the season—sawy have been busy fashioning tracks to stay indoors to. Sofas, fine lounging and low key indie sounds are the order of the day for this fortnight's top runners. Producer Kwes' salutation to the slipper-set. debut solo single ‘Hearts in Home' (Salvia) «00 . makes for a warming slice of electro pop. with eclectic beats and rain sounds topped of by some honest cockney Skinner-style vocals. Lovely stuff.
Kings of the cotch Sigur Ros proffer the relatively ecstatic and surprisingly energetic ‘Vio spilum endalaust' (EMl) ... further backlash against the plaintive comes in the form of Sleeping States' unusually lively release ‘Old vs New EP' (Bella Union) «0 Conor Oberst’s overly enthusiastic jig, ‘I Don't Want to Die (In the Hospital)‘ (Wichita)
e , provokes not only confusion, but also a severe case of ear panic. A slightly better solo performance comes from New Zealand's Liam Finn with ‘Better to Be' (Transgressive)
.anda
Local outfit We See Lights sing with gusto. but sickenineg sweet folksy pop duet ‘Parachute‘ (demo) es BalamOry than Belle & Sebastian. Aberfeldy make a confident return with ‘Claire‘ (17 Second Records) ... dig at ‘the woman who lives down the stair’. And honourable mentions for quirk must go to the effortlessly pleasing ‘Genesis P and Me' from How to Swim. and Le Reno Amp's boldly backwater ‘Send Me on My Way‘ (Drift Records) «0
There‘s an R&B comeback for boy band New Kids on the Block with Usher aspirant Ne-Yo. ‘Single’ (Interscope) 0 only a brief gander, while Girls Aloud continue their girl/perhaps-a-little-too-grown- up-now group reign with consummate pop single ‘The Promise' (Polydor) ...
Close contenders for top position, Baltimore duo Beachhouse. release ‘Used to Be' (Bella Union) 0000 . an Autumnal lo-fi indie lament shot through with dreamy vocals. Single of the Fortnight, however. goes to New York City-based Asobi Seksu with the assertive and urgent ‘Me and Mary‘ 00” Indian), a punchy piece of pop with some added ethereal nonsense on the B-side. Pull the curtains and enjoy. (Rosalie Doubal)
is sadly more
, which takes a jovial
, is worth
(One Little
POST— ROCK ELECTRONICA
LIGHTS OUT ASIA
Eyes Like Brontide (n5MD Records) ....
Last year's Tanks and Recognizers album set the tone for this spaced- out. neo-shoegazing trio from Milwaukee. Wisconsin (comprising
ex-Aurore Rien duo Chris Schaler and Mike
Ystad, plus guitarist Mike Rush). Haunting, eerie and cinematic (think Sigur Ros, Godspeed and The Blue Nile). the set hones in on the senses with moody melodies constructed around dynamic drum machine beats. chilling keys and guitar-laden ambience. Who w0uld have thought you could warm your cookies by the fireside to tracks like ‘Radars Over the Ghosts of Chernobyl', ‘X-33', ‘Psiu! Puxa!‘ and ‘MIR'.
(Martin C. Strong)
SOUL BLUES GERAINT WATKINS
In a Bad Mood (Goldtop Records) ....
From the depths of South Wales via London, 50-Something Geraint Watkins delivers his fourth set. nearly 30 years after his Vertigo Records debut with The Dominators. Having intermittently worked as session keyboard player with Dave Edrnunds. Van Morrison and Nick
Lowe, Geraint has been f
described by the latter as a ‘well kept secret‘. It's no surprise then that devotee Lowe also features on five of the best numbers here. including opener ‘Easy to Say', ‘Champion' and a rendition of his classy ‘Heart of the City'. The album closes with a cover of an old Etta James hit, ‘At Last'. strictly one for the Later With Joo/s Holland brigade. (Martin C Strong)
KITCHEN SINK INDIE POP
DUMB INSTRUMENT No-One Knows What It‘s Like to Be Me (Bad Cool Records) ....
Described in their local
Ayrshire Post as like
‘lvor Cutler on lrn Bru'. the youthful trio of singer-songwriter Tom Murray, pianist Mikey Grant and bassist
yin-{l Owl-ark n-«A‘ J I \--l 't I! CI
Kieron Campbell, deliver ; their societally Scottish debut album.
Augmented by fiddler Matt Harvey, the Stevenston Strings,
guitarist Miss Georgie
and harmonica-man
' Blind Bobby Bell, Dumb Instrument are indeed
‘Suffering from Scottishness' — the title
of the album‘s closing
track. and has there ever been a better narrative about death
than in ‘Reverse the
Hearse'? Lyrically, Murray makes morbid milarky from everyday necessities such as
wheelie-bins via ‘What a
Load of Rubbish' and skins via ‘The Exterminating Angels'. And as for ‘Jaffa Baws' (for all carrot-tops
everywhere). little . explanation is required.
(Martin C Strong)
POST POP
VARIOUS
é Sleepwalk: A Selection
By Optimo (Espacio)
; (Domino) 0.”.
Any album which takes a full ten minutes to
actually develop any
BPM at all — over Chris Watson‘s found
f wavesound and the
5 calming tone of Nurse
Q With Wound's “Funeral
Music For Perez Prado'
3 isn‘t your typical dance mix. But then, as should v be obvious by now.
Optimo are the polar
g opposite of being your 3 typical DJs.
It's a record to be
‘ absorbed. From Arthur Russell‘s ‘This is How
We Walk on the Moon'
I (a song which forms the
basis for Antony and the
j Johnsons' entire career)
to the might of Damon's
. ‘Don't You Feel Me' and ' Chris and Cosey's
‘Sweet Surprise'. this is
f as close in form and - intent as a mix CD can
b views:
come to being an artist album. (David Pollock)
lNDlE BLANDNESS SNOW PATROL A Hundred Million Suns
(Fiction) 00
Zzzzzzzzzz . . . Oops sorry — you want to read a review right? OK. Here goes. Nothing very new to report from Glasgow/Belfast's premier guitar balladeers; just more of the same insipid arena rock we've been battered round the ears with for the past few years — think heartfelt pleas. plaintive strums and big weepy epic choruses. all Magic FM- ed up by producer Jacknife Lee. That in itself isn't the problem. but the fact that this is a less innovative, more conservative version of themselves.
Those who loved the scrappy brilliance of Songs For Po/arbears and When It’s All Over We Still Have to Clear Up or even those fond of the high points on Eyes Open will be struggling to find something fresh to chew on. (Camilla Pia)
ROCK
THE CURE 4.13 Dream (Suretone/Geffen) ...
As Robert Smith shuffles — his unlaced hi-tops squeaking across the floor — into pop musical maturity, his willingness to indulge his dark side wavers. The band's last album, a self-titled behemoth from 2004. was The Cure gone metal. For the greater part 4:73 Dream sidesteps the wondrous dirges in favour Of a live sounding. stripped
«:34
‘
back quartet. The
- results are quirky
(‘Freakshow‘), dreamy (‘Siren Song‘) and occasionally cliched (‘Sleep When I‘m Dead') but Smith doesn‘t fully harness the drama and dynamic potential that previous highs have.
That‘s not to say The
Cure are only good I when Smith is
miserable. but moments of 4:13 Dream feel only half thought out and as a result SOund
disconnected. It works.
when Smith’s vocals get wild and untidy, but that's only half the story.
. (Mark Robertson)
FOLK CORRINA HEWAT
Harp I Do
(Big Bash Records) ....
Corrina Hewat forsakes the chumminess of the various groups in which she is involved — including co-directing the might Unusual Suspects — for the more isolated terrain of solo harp. As the title says, harp she does. and very well too.
_ She approaches her
selected music in technically accomplished and expressive fashion, both in her own tunes and in her borrowings
from diverse contemporary peers,
including Charlie McKerron, lan Carr, Mike Vass. Anna Massie and Peter Ostroushko.
Her self-composed material includes ‘Making The Connection', the opening section of her 1998 New Voices commission at Celtic
Connections. She admits ‘ her regret at not
recording the full band at
the time. when both
Martyn Bennett and
5 Johnny Cunningham
were still around. but it is worth hearing even in reduced form. Many listeners will know her as a singer as well, but she sticks to purely instrumental music on this disc.
(Kenny Mathieson)
13—27 Nov 2008 THE LIST 61