Music Record Reviews
SONGS OF THE YEAR
Bon Iver EXPERIMENTAL FILM/OST VARIOUS Kung Fu Super Sounds (De Wolfe Records) ●●●●●
Strictly one for the movie soundtrack buff (especially Tarantino fans), this collection of 43 Shaw Brothers/Martial Arts excerpts from 1976- 1984 on one CD, is a hit and miss affair.
The soundtracks of Dirty Ho, Return to the 36th Chamber and Heaven & Hell all feature highly on this multi- composer extravaganza of post- Blaxploitation/Bond- esque, orchestral jazz. Pick of the bunch (and
most recognisable) are ‘Horror House’, the thematic `Moonbird’, ’Spin Out’ & composer Reg Tilsley’s bombastic two-some ‘Counterspy’ and `Industrial Complex’ So listen up, bite the bullet, and get into the swing of things. Literally. (Martin C Strong)
FOLK-POP-ROCK ROZI PLAIN Inside Over Here (Fence Records) ●●●●● PICTISH TRAIL Secret Soundz Vol 1 (Fence Records) ●●●●●
These two wonderful offerings from the ever- expanding Fence Collective serve to highlight just how diverse and ambitious the East Neuk’s musical cottage industry has become. Rozi Plain is a young Bristol-based singer- songwriter, and this
We pick the tunes that mattered in 2008 ‘Skinny Love’ Bon Iver One man’s heartbreak becomes our joy from the album of the year. ‘Like the Rest of Us’ Atmosphere The leftfield dwelling purists may sneer but this is beguiling, introspective hip hop brilliance. ‘Run Run’ Those Dancing Days Honeyed vocalising over tinpot C86-isms. A marriage made in heaven. ‘Black and Gold’ Sam Sparro Just when we thought nothing further could be done with the Schaffel, this slice of perfect pop becomes a summer anthem. ‘Do You Feel Safe?’ The Xcerts Heartbreakingly good bittersweet alt.rock that is both romantic and emphatic. ‘All Hope is Gone’ Slipknot Five minutes of boiling, seething anti-capitalist rage, with heretical drumming and a scream-a-long chorus. ‘Love Triangle’ Popup A bitter, sordid tale of indie love and lust gone awry in the nefarious environs of the Glasgow indie underground. ‘I Kissed a Girl’ Katy Perry The finest example of guilty pleasure, faux lesbian pop sauciness since tATu’s school yard heavy petting. ‘Batcat’ Mogwai Shards of 13th Floor Elevators and Neurosis melt into something pensive and glorious in the hands of Scotland’s finest live band. ‘That’s Not My Name’ The Ting Tings Perfect for robot dancing and the festival pogo. Mud permitting. ‘Sex on Fire’ Kings of Leon Dirty wee men with terrible lyrics, overly tight trousers and enough rock horn to stimulate a herd of buffalo. ‘Ready for the Floor’ Hot Chip They look like Crimewatch photofits and sound like the Pet Shop Boys had a bunch of skaters for kids. Yum! ‘Wheels’ Come On Gang! Brittle, incandescent power pop to crash small cars to. ‘Say Aha’ Santogold Because she crazycool. And it’s a joyous dance-about riot. ‘Darling’ Sons and Daughters A great big sparkly charge of a song with killer guitar riff. ‘Kiss With a Fist’ Florence and the Machine Smouldery gorgeous yowling vocals, lyrics about a frightening passion. ‘American Boy’ Estelle ft Kanye West Marked a new high in Anglo-American relations while coolly putting US R&B in its place. ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ Vampire Weekend Long Island highlife evoking the spirit of Paul Simon’s Graceland, replete with baffling references to Peter Gabriel. ‘Welcome to Heartbreak’ Kanye West Hip hop navel gazing indulgence set to a ‘84 era Depeche Mode backbeat. Dark. Sort of. ‘Kids’ MGMT Wonderfully surreal pop from everyone’s favourite new hippies. It’s all about the drum breakdown climax. ‘One Day Like This’ Elbow Everything’s going to be alright. The sun’s out in Elbow’s world and we get to join them. ■ We loved loads more songs we couldn’t fit in. See – and hear – them at www.list.co.uk 78 THE LIST 11 Dec 2008–8 Jan 2009
www.list.co.uk/music song. On this session, though, she takes equal billing with her husband, bouzouki player and fiddler Éamon Doorley, Scottish guitarist Ross Martin, and Irish Gaelic singer Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh.
and a couple of Cole Porter songs. She is backed by a fine band led by pianist Paul Kirby, while trumpeter Colin Steele adds his trademark feel to four of the songs. Available locally in record shops and from Lorna’s gigs. (Kenny Mathieson) ELECTRO POP TROST Trust Me (Bronzerat Records) ●●●●●
The sound of Berliner angst then, is a woman saying over and over and over again how things are wrong. Her shoes are wrong. Her apartment is wrong. Her cheap lipstick is wrong. That particular track, then, is entitled ‘I Was Wrong’. Coming over like a Germanic Husky Rescue but substituting haunting melodies for noirish burbling, Annika Line Trost gives it both barrels in genre-bending, chucking in the jazz- fused lunacy of ‘Neonlight Deadland’, the moody percussive dead ends of ‘The Scales and the Score’ which sounds like Tom Waits gatecrashing a David Lynch soundtrack and the chatty, strummy ‘Black’. All of which, by rights, should leave you in a foul temper. (Brian Donaldson) FOLK DOORLEY/ FOWLIS/MARTIN/ NIC AMHLAOIBH Dual (Machair Records) ●●●●●
Julie Fowlis has been the most prominent success among the new generation of Gaelic singers, and her award- winning exploits have done much to help raise the profile of Gaelic
The collaborative nature of the project is reflected in the music as well as the title (a Gaelic word meaning ‘twine, braid, interlace or coil’). The two singers share vocal duties on a selection of songs, lays and mouth music from the Scottish and Irish Gaelic traditions. They are strong, expressive singers, and their voices work very well both as contrasting leads and in harmony. Both also make instrumental contributions alongside the men, who return the role-swapping by chipping in backing vocals. (Kenny Mathieson)
TECHNO/HOUSE VARIOUS Soma 2008 (Soma) ●●●●●
The opener (an Adam Beyer remix of Slam’s ‘Staccato Rave’) is a stormer of understated techno brilliance and while at over 12 tracks this compilation loses momentum at times, the old school acid squelch of Funk d’Void & Sian, the insistent gurgling throb of Xpansel & Massi DL or the wonky electronics of Mr Copy’s ‘Minerva’ more than make up for any lulls. The ‘Soma sound’ is instantly recognisable throughout but is warped in myriad directions by a solid line-up of talent. Once again this proves 2008 has been another killer year for Glasgow’s pre-eminent dance label. (Henry Northmore)
debut collection of intimate folk-flecked tunes is gorgeous, original and brimful of character. Plain’s sumptuous yet simple voice trips delicately over banjos, clarinet and accordion on tracks like ‘Stolen Shark’ and ‘Forks and Knives’, sounding like Kathryn Williams with Adem and Sufjan Stevens as backing band. The sparse, swaying arrangements throughout give her off- kilter melodies room to shine and given a decent tail wind Plain could easily establish herself at the front of the nu-folk pack.
In comparison, Pictish Trail’s debut is more eclectic and expansive, melding quirky acoustic strums with geek-beat rhythms, like James Yorkston arguing with Hot Chip. It all hangs together magnificently somehow, singer Johnny Lynch’s powerfully emotive vocals delivering everything from sublime melancholy on ‘I Don’t Know Where to Begin’ to almost unhinged fury on ‘Words Fail Me Now’. Chuck in a handful of irresistibly catchy sampler-led quasi- instrumentals and you’ve got a lo-fi gem Beck would be proud of. With these two releases, Fence cements its place at the forefront of innovative, charismatic music. (Doug Johnstone)
JAZZ LORNA REID Gypsy in My Soul (Lorna Reid) ●●●●●
Jazz singers are not in short supply these days, and there is plenty of competition in the kind of straight-ahead standard repertoire that Edinburgh singer Lorna Reid tackles in this self-produced debut release on her own label. I can’t say that she stands out from that competition, but she does hold her own, and clearly knows her way around jazz feel and phrasing. Her sultry reading of John D. Loudermilk’s ‘Turn Me On’ suggests she is comfortable in a blues idiom as well. The remaining songs are mainly familiar standards, including a nice take on the title track, a slinky version of ‘Black Coffee’,