Music Record RevieWs
www.list.co.uk/music
LABELS OF LOVE
Based In Edinburgh
right?
otherwise.
offers and events.
a month
(Doug Johnstone)
This issue: Avalanche Records Album Club
Roster Not a roster as such. but they dip into the finest indie music from around the globe. With a Scottish accent on things.
The gaffer Kevin Buckle. owner of Avalanche Records for an impressive 25 years. ubiquitous presence on the Scottish indie scene and the man responsible for National Record Store Day. which started last year to celebrate the place of independent shops in the music industry. Sounds like The widest possible range of independent music. from jangling indie to epic post-rock. sweeping electronica to delicate folk. It's a record shop not a label, though,
Kind of both. Avalanche have dabbled in releasing their own records in the past. but this Album Club takes a different tack. bringing a wide range of quality indie releases to a wider audience that might not have discovered them
How does It work exactly?
For an annual fee of $3120. you sign up to receive an album a month. But it’s a lot more than that. The album is carefully chosen by the Avalanche staff. plus you'll also get a mountain of record company and Scottish music freebies. the best local music around. a range of intriguing unreleased material from Scottish bands over the last 30 years and news of exclusive special
Really? That’s a lot of stuff for a tenner
Too right. The first package in March contained an album by Canadian post-rockers Flowers of Hell. signed to Fife-based Benbecula Records. as well as a fantastic Oxjam compilation album featuring the likes of Broken Records. FOUND. James Yorkston and Eagleowl. Also chucked in were two more limited edition EPs. two seven inch singles including one by Aberfeldy and money off an Edinburgh Art College live DVD. So where does it go from here?
The plan was to build gradually. but the initial take up has been much bigger than anticipated. with members as far afield as Beverley Hills and Ethiopia. all of whom can expect the finest rare Scottish indie money can buy.
I avalancherecordsmyshopify. com
POP
A BAND CALLED QUINN
Sun Moon Stars
(Neon Tetra) 00.
Originally self-released last year. these sultry Glasgow-popstrels' sophomore album gets a reboot on local label Neon Tetra. wrth extra polish.
Well. the cover art — featuring front lady
68 THE LIST 2—16 Apr 2009
Louise Ouinn porsed daringly on a Glasgow rooftop in a skimpy dress — is snaZZier.
a'I,‘.'.a. What's insde '(:"léiil‘.5 pfftl’” Sfi-SO Quinn's .oir.e 2:; effortlessly seductrm iMadonna has ever‘ given it a thumbs-up and opener ‘The Glimmer Song is the sort of swinging. glamorous number that the last Goldfrapp record (:Ouid arguably have benefited from. Yet the rest is largely wispy. electronicafringeil pop that. hut for all its light sprinkling of attitude. would sit comfortably on the coffee table. (Malcolm Jacki
HIP HOP DOOM
Born Like This (Lex) COO
So the MP is gone and underground hip hop's most malcontent son insists on uppercase only for his moniker. but other than that its business as usual for DOOM who follows his 2005 Dangerdoom collaboration wrth Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkely beatsmith Dangermouse wrth a expectedly varied album.
Demands for bowls of Wheaties and musrngs over the sexual orientation of Batman fill hrs cantankerous lyrical splurges. and backed up wrth verbal firepower from the likes of Wu Tang‘s Ghostface and Raekwon. he's an unstoppable force.
While Born Like This doesn't Quite Surprise. it is filled with flashes of the kind of brutal. cruel magic that singles DOOM Out as a unique musmal force. It everything's all gorng to hell. it‘s good to be in his company.
(Mark RobertSOnl
JAZZ
PAUL CLARVIS & LIAM NOBLE Starry Starry Night (Village Life) 00..
A delightful duet release from perCLiSSionist Paul Clarvrs and pianist Liam Noble. The premise is Simple — take a set of songs. ranging from
established Jazz standards to contemporary material like Don MacLean's 'Vincent' ithe Van Gogh link is echoed in Christina Blackley's eye- catching cover artl Or Paul Simon's 'So Long. Frank Lloyd Wright'. and work up a series of thoughtful and inventive iiiusrcal conversations that respect the material while allowmg plenty of scope for imaginative improvrsation.
It is not a record that grabs your attention through an iii-your-lace aural assault —« quite the opposite is true. The music insinuates itself into your consoousness in almost understated but highly ab80rbing fashion. Communication, both between the two muSiCians and wrth the listener. is the keynote here. Noble Spins out his melodic inventions to great effect. and Clarvrs coniures up impeccably Judged percussive responses.
(Kenny Mathieson)
GRIME POP LADY SOVEREIGN
Jigsaw (Midget Records) 0..
Pony-tailed brat—camp rap star Lady Sovereign reaped copious props for her day-glo debut. Public Warning. in 2006 — not least in the States. where she was glorified by Jay-Z. Gwen Stefani and MTV. Now the UK emcee bounces back with a follow-up tussle of playground hip hop. 80s Synth-pop and budget grime. Jigsaw by turns recalls Kelis (‘Bang Bang'). Tricky (‘I Got You DanCIng'). Dr Alban (‘Let‘s Be Mates'). and alcopop balladry ('Jigsaw'): while current single ‘80 Human'
doesn't so much lift the Cures Close to Me' as lob it tour-to-the-floor. and trample bubblegum braggadocio all ox er ll. (Nicola Meighanl
FOLK
ALYTH
People Like Me iNawgator Recordsl O”.
I} Kl?”
Derby—based Navrgator Records has established a significant presence on the Scottish folk scene in the past year or so. and now adds Alyth to a roster that also includes Lau. Kris Drever. John McCusker. Martin Green and rootsy singer-songwriter Dean Owens. It has been a long wait for this second album from the Lewrs— born singer. and she is in good form on an engaging mix of contemporary material and traditional Gaelic songs.
The modern songs draws on both folk and pop sources. including Justin Currie's 'PeOple Like Me' (wrth the writer on backing vocals). Suzanne Vegas 'The Queen and the Soldier'. Jim Malcolm's ‘Neptune'. and Boo Hewerdine's ‘A Smugglers Prayer'. A fine band features fiddlers Jonnie Hardie and Aidan O'ROurke on fiddles and Fraser Fifield on whistle. but 'Mo Ghaol Oigfhear a Churl Durnn' is Sung unaccompanied. and Brendan Graham's ”Till Morning Will Come' with Just Brian McAlpine'S piano.
(Kenny Mathieson)
METAL
MASTODON Crack the Skye (Interscope) COO
Resisting any temptation to compromise their $0und in pursurt of any continued commercial growth. Atlanta‘s
The Black Dog Further Vexations (Soma Records) Techno-legends The Black Dog GOING! an album of perfectly crafted soundscapes of glistening highs and the deepest bass. Further Vexations is a self-proclaimed ‘2tst century response to the rat on your neighb0ur smokefree Britain'.
Thomas Truax Songs From the Films of Davrd Lynch (Psycho Teddy/8L Recordsl Inventor of strange instruments such as the hornicator and the mother superior (a drum machine. strangely enough). New York's Thomas Truax returns with an album of cover songs from the films of David Lynch. including a Gogol Bordello-style rendition of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' timeless classrc ‘I Put a Spell on You‘.
Tim Exile Listening Tree (Warp) Berlin's Tim Exile. the mu3ical alias of Tim Shaw. releases his debut. an album touted in Germany as being comparable to DaVid Bowie and Depeche Mode. Steady on. Germany. traditional progressive hip hop to a sharper electro sound with this self- titled release.
Mastodon run headlong down a dark path where giant nocturnal beasts ravage the land With the making of exploratory progressrve metal as the Only real aspiration, They throw us further out into orbit than ever wrth an ambitious. dense record. which is so damn complex and intrigurng that that you barely notice the pseudo Dungeons and Dragons lyrical topiary or flashes of style over substance. Crack the Skye has neither the immediacy or weight of its two monolithic predecessors. but it does have a saucer full of cosmic secrets inside to sup that Will provrde new and different rewards over time. (Mark Robertson)