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This Issue 17 Seconds
Based In Edinburgh
Roster Aberfeldy. Ex Lion Tamer, The Gillyflowers The gaffer Ed Jupp (brother of Ba/amory's Miles; ‘l'm easy to spot, I look like Archie the Inventor with a Kurt Cobain beard') and Laurent Gauffre.
Sounds like Mainstream. but with a strong distinction between each group's sound. Jupp is “pleased with the fact that none of our bands sound like each other'.
How did 17 Seconds start? 'I literally came up to Edinburgh from England for a week's holiday eight years ago and ended up staying. One of my first jobs was in a call centre with Ken Mclntosh. who would later be the bass player in Aberfeldy. and I also met a lot of people who are involved in music when I worked in Fopp. Now I‘m a teacher at lnverkeithing High School. as is Laurent. and we got talking about setting up a label when we probably should have been discussing things like teaching targets: then. when I interviewed Riley Briggs from Aberfeldy for my blog he played me some new songs. and things went from there.‘
What happened next? ‘The Aberfeldy single was released last year, and we're just about to release our second from Ex Lion Tamer. He's a guy called Tony Taylor who I knew when I worked in Fopp; I'd actually gone in to talk about their stocking the Aberfeldy single and was told I should listen to his music as well. Then it was Riley from Aberfeldy who suggested The Gillyflowers to us. because he'd produced their demos. The intention is that their single will be our third.‘
What’s the Man for the future? ‘As a label we're very much into the idea of releasing vinyl, although admittedly doing things download only is easier, particularly now we can get artists on iTunes. We'd love to release an album by each of our artists. though. even if that might be some way off. Long-term, the ambition is to be able to replicate the success of labels like Chemikal Underground or Postcard.‘ (David Pollock)
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POP
WAKE THE PRESIDENT
You Can't Change that Boy
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Hard to know whether those ”Smiths to reform‘ rumours WOuId hurt a band like Wake the Pre8ident. Should Marr and Morrissey eventually kiss and make up in public. there w0uld be no pomt in gomg anywhere near such newfangled ianglepoppers. yet
perversely they might also benefit from fans foraging for yOunger verSions of their Manc heroes.
Obviously, not all the tracks on this collection SOund like The Smiths
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Beware (Doiiiiiioi OOO
Wildsxood lothario Bonrue Prince Billy the alter ego of Kentuckian altcountry outlaw Will ()ldham » has inhabited and advanced the guise of folk defiler. kinship analyst and hirsute. horny man~beast since his come hither intones were first exposed on 1999's empyrean / See a Darkness.
Like last year's hoary rock expo Lie Down in the Light' however. Beware's cordial. abundant country and western is disheartening in comparison to our savage protagonists bygone naked. gruff avowals.
There are flashes of Bonny laid bare in Beware. but we're largely left unfulfilled. We need him desperate. wretched. bruised. He commandeered Our love that way.
(Nicola Meighani
JAZZ
TIM GARLAND Libra
(Global MiXi O...
The centrepiece of this multi-faceted and hugely impresswe double set is the saxophonist‘s four- piece suite Frontier. written for his Lighthouse Trio (With pianist GWilym Simcock and percussionist Asaf Sirkisi. plus the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and an additional Wind section of distinguished Jazz players. His writing for all these elements is excellent. and the playing Superb. Three
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ROCK
THE RED WELL Amid Storms We Arrive
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This Edinburgh outfit have been impressing live audiences for years. and this debut album does a great job of capturing their iinigue blend of post-grunge and Scottish folky indie. it‘s an ambitious record. epic grandeur lurking in the dynamics of 'Put In A Good Word For Me' and especially the awesome ”Water. Eventually". while there is a thread of pOignant melancholy throughout. most noticeably in the plaintive ‘Skerrywore'. Singer Jim Abel's emotive vocal is matched by arrangements that marry the wilful exuberance of Pavement With the heartfelt songsmithery of Springsteen‘s more
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Sci-Fi-Lo-Fi Vol 3 compiled by Rob Da Bank
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i‘i itYlttllgifii its .f .‘I’ it 5. (ill.‘.’tltiff§_ their 1. t offshrir it has (it l‘.‘. gr .l arms and legs following in the eclecti< fingertips of Andrew Weatheiall and Damian f,£t/'ttftlfr_ this (‘ltfft‘t‘fltili from Robert (Soiliaiii aka Hob Oa Bank treks a defiant path, that of the fearless shoegaxer (1981')? QUOU. Sf). hold on to your effects pedals folks. as we get Maps, Ride. 1 ush and other acts of more than four letters. including epic slabs of sound from Chapterhouse, Spirituali/ed and Dinosaur Jr.
Only My Bloody Valentine seem a blatant omission from the if) bands chosen but the overriding emotion is a sense of astonished regard that a scene which celebrated itself barely differed from its Velvet Underground default teriiplate drawn up three decades ago. (Brian Donaldsoni
JAZZ :HE BLUE NOTE
Mosaic (Blue Note Recordsi 0..
This septet was convened to celebrate this year's 70th anniversary of the founding of Blue Note Records by Alfred Lion. although both the recording and an extenSive American tour
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giving each a fresh arraiigeiiieift iii the process.
(Kenny Mathiesoni
POP
NICK LOWE Quiet Please - The New Best of Nick Lowe
(Proper Recordsi C...
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Curtis Stigers sang 'What's So Funny ‘Boiit Peace. Love and Understandirig?" on the silly-selling soundtrack to The Bodyguard in 1992. and Nick Lowe turned into a millionaire.
And that's how it's been for him. Never really much of a front man. and never straying too far from his 1970s pub-rock roots. Lowe the songwriter has got used to hearing his work poshed-iip Maybe this AB-track collection coold be sleeker and slicker. too. but it‘s still richly stocked With the cheeky couplets and killer hooks that have reeled in performers like Johnny Cash. Tom Petty and Elvis Costello over the decades. (Ninian Dunnetti
1—": Mar 20’)”: THE LIST 85