Music Record Reviews
INDIE POST-PUNK W21
Forever 22 (Powbeat) 0000
Back in 1981. Edinburgh's TV21 were poised to stand alongside Scots post- punk giants (i.e. Simple Minds and The Skids) after their debut LP. A Thin Red Line garnered rave reviews. However. things took a downturn for the power-pop outfit and they subsequently splintered.
An astonishing 28 years later. Norman Rodger. Ally Palmer. Neil Baldwin and newbie drummer Simon McGlynn get around to a sophomore set. poignantly entitled ‘Forever 22'. With retroid hooklines/riffs intact. tracks such as ‘One Day In. 'Summertime‘. ‘Look to the Sun' and the Eddie & the Hot Rods-esque ‘How Did You Get it So Wrong?‘ create a sense of deja vu that compares with classic debut nugget ‘Snakes And Ladders' — now featured as one of eight bonus tracks.
(Martin C Strong)
lNDlE
SPARE SNARE I Love You, I Hate You (Chute) COO
SPARESNARE:
For the uninitiated. Spare Snare (voted 46th in The Lisf's all-time Top Scottish bands poll) have been on-the-go since leader Jan D Burnett set up his home studio in Dundee around the early 90s.
An acquired taste. their blend of noisy/trippy kitsch-pop was once a fave of the late. great John Peel. while DlY albums surfaced periodically.
Clocking in under 40— mins. the group's new 12-track album ploughs
an identical formula: simplistic. anthemic and paranoiac. Very good but never amazing. memorable moments come via ‘Kicking Up Leaves'. ‘We Know the Truth'. ‘Owerty for the Masses' and ‘Bad Day'. (Martin C Strong)
WORLD
SARA TAVARES Xinti
(World Connection) 0000
Portuguese singer Sara Tavares writes amazing songs. delivering them with one of the most shape-shifting voices around. a fusion of the gentle and wistful with subtly buoyant rhythm. Xi'nfi' which means ‘feel'. tells its own story with bewitching songs like ‘Sumanai' about music as the heart's voice quenching the thirst. moving to ‘Touch of Light' to ‘Wayfarer' to ‘Free Fall' all of it ‘Of the Soul'. The whole effect is poetically magical and while there are various male musicians involved Tavares plays all the guitars and the producer and engineer are both women. Play it again and again. (Jan Fairley)
CELTIC COUNTRY-FOLK PROCLAIMERS
Notes & Rhymes (W1 4-Universal) 0000
”#5? 2w .~. ‘VKA‘I’ . 4 my; ‘“
Hardly taking a breath from an award-winning theatre musical (Sunshine on Leith) and a triumphant global tour last year, the Hibee- supporting twins get all- emotional on their eighth set. Notes 8 Rhymes.
Probably Scotland's top export. and still cool with it. the prolific Proclaimers attract an eclectic pop fanbase. thirsty for their lyrical
64 THE LIST 25 Jun—9 Jul 2009
brogue of honest Celtabilly. N&R highlights come via tearjerker. ‘Sing All Our Cares Away' (surely a chart- topper to-be). ‘Love Can Move Mountains' (a rival to Waterboys' “Whole of the Moon'). ‘Three More Days' and ‘I Know'. Chuffing brill. (Martin C Strong)
SACRILEGE JOHNNY CASH Johnny Cash Remixed (EAR Music) 00
‘My father made his stead by defying the expected and accepted way of things.‘ says John Carter Cash on the liner notes to this ambitous project exec produced by Cash. Beyonce's old man Matthew Knowles and Snoop Dogg. And while the idea behind these 18 tracks is true. the result is. frankly, a mess.
Mixing Cash's hillbilly growl and shuffle with hip hop and dance was always going to be fraught with danger. the worst comes from the biggest names here as SnOOp himself phones in some flaccid gangsterisms over a morsel of ‘I Walk the Line' and hip hop legend Pete Rock turns the grim drama of ‘Folsom Prison Blues' into a weird cartoon theme.
The better ones — Midnight Juggernauts's ambient reshape of ‘Port of Lonely Hearts' and The Heavy‘s chunky redraft of ‘Doin' My Time' lift the spirit. if not the sound of the original to create something new. A cynical (ahem) cash-in? A proud project? An admirable failure at best.
(Mark Robertson)
JAZZ
JULIAN ARGUELLES & FRANKFURT RADIO BIGBAND Momenta
(Basho Records)
0...
Earlier this year the saxophonist issued the excellent Inner Voices, a
multi-layered but entirely solo disc. This disc takes him to the opposite end of the jazz spectrum in a live recording with the Frankfurt Radio Bigband and guest pianist Gwilym Simcock. The saxophonist takes the lead role as soloist on both tenor and soprano. but leaves ample room for Simcock and several fine soloists from the band.
They draw on compositions from various points in his output. including the new. Spanish-tinged ‘Barcelona 1936'. the idiOSyncratic ‘Skull View'. a fiery nod to Evan Parker in ‘Evan's Freedom Pass'. the almost pastoral contours of ‘Hi Steve' and the delicious ‘Mish Mash'. He sidesteps all the conventional cliches of big band writing and arranging. and the Frankfurt mUSIClanS revel in the shifting moods and colours. (Kenny Mathieson)
JAZZ PUNK ACOUSTIC LADYLAND Living With A Tiger (Strong 8. Wrong) 00.
Acoustic Ladyland announced itself as something other than a jazz outfit with the release of its 2001 debut album inspired by the songs of Jimi Hendrix. The punk jazz label subsequently attached to the band confirmed founding members Pete Wareham (sax) and Seb Rochford (drums) were even more determined to break musical bOundaries than they were with their other genre-busting group. Polar Bear. Ably assisted by now
established members Ruth Goller (bass) and Chris Sharkey (guitar). Ladyland's fourth album announces its departure from anything like straight jazz with ten tight tracks that blister with a wild sound reminiscent of 80s American alternative acts such as Romeo Void. Morphine and The Lounge Lizards.
(Miles Fielder)
FOLKtlSH) MALCOLM
MIDDLETON
Waxing Gibbous (Full Time Hobby) COO
The former Arab Strapper has had some wonderful moments in his seven year solo career. but this fifth album has a faint whiff of treading water about it. The wry. bittersweet lyrical observations are still present in the likes of ‘Don't Want to Sleep Tonight‘ and ‘Ballad of Fuck All'. but there is an understated feel to the whole thing. and there are no moments that reach the truly affecting heights of 2007's A Brighter Beat. The music sways between folk. rock and electronica well enough. but it's all frustratingly undenxvhelming when you know what Middleton is really capable 01.
(Doug Johnstone)
METAL KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Killswitch Engage (Roadrunner) 000
It seems that for today's metal bands to achieve Success. they‘ve got to be able to mix the traditional guttural distortion with clean melody and soaring choruses — and Killswitch Engage are
premier purveyors of this dichotomy. This album. however, fails to capture some of the ball-busting potency of previous efforts. and despite their usual nimble guitar thrashing and infectious vocals being impressive on the likes of ‘The Forgotten' and ‘Take Me Away'. these once colourful Americans are threatening to become a little pallid. Saying that. there's plenty here to keep the die-hard fans happy — and they could possibly win over a couple of newbies too. (Chris Cope)
JAZZ GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA GlOpoetics (Creative Sources) 000
The Glasgow lmprovisers Orchestra continue their determined exploration of the complex dynamics of free improvisation using a very large ensemble. For this latest chapter. the regular GlO line-up is augmented by Portuguese musicians Ernesto Rodrigues (viola) and Guilherme Rodrigues (cello). The re8u|ting music has more of a string-driven bias in the timbres and textures than usual. Three of the four selections are completely free improvisations. and the fourth is what saxophonist Raymond MacDonald describes as a ‘discretely structured piece'. In each case. the 20 players delve into new variants on their customary range of imaginative abstractions and off-the-scale sonic explorations. The usual caveats apply — if you are looking for swing and conventional big band playing, head elsewhere. (Kenny Mathieson) I wwwg/asgow lmprovisers orchestra. com