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and the other with his hip hop band Experiment, with guest vocals from Bilal and Mos Def. If some listeners will divide around the two styles, Glasper is equally committed to both. His trio with bassist Vincent Archer and drummer Chris Dave can hold their own with any in the field. Glasper’s incisive and inventive pianism is central to both, and most of the music is his own as well, other than a trio interpretation of Monk’s ‘Think of One’ and the Experiment’s take on Herbie Hancock’s ‘Butterfly’. (Kenny Mathieson)
FOLK POP STRIKE THE COLOURS Seven Roads (Deadlight Records) ●●●●●
Jenny Reeve is a well- kent face in Scottish indie circles, having worked with Idlewild, Malcolm Middleton and The Reindeer Section in the past. This second album from her current project is a subtle and considered affair, a collection of simple but effective pop tunes flecked through with folk and displaying assured songwriting prowess. Reeve’s breathy voice is as emotive as ever on the plaintive ‘If I Don’t Belong’ and spine- tingling opener ‘Cold Hands’, but her bands are actually at their best when they crank it up a notch, evinced by the tumbling climax of ‘Safety in Numbers’. Quality stuff. (Doug Johnstone)
AVANT-GARDE INDIE THE LEG What Happened To The Shrunken Tina Turner (SL Records) ●●●●●
Edinburgh-based arthouse indie maverick Dan Mutch has provided flickers of genius in previous bands Khaya and Desc, but latest incarnation The Leg is wilfully obscure to
vanishing point. Compared to their recent inventive collaboration with Dawn of the Replicants frontman Paul Vickers, this is a charmless collection of antagonistic, anti-song, shouty clichés, full of distorted incoherent hollering, clattering soup can drums, anaemic jangly guitar and obfuscatory sound effects. The tender lo-fi creepiness of ‘A Cunted Version of the Truth’ and the scuzz-blues of the closing title track aside, this is puerile, posturing stuff from an artist capable of much more. (Doug Johnstone) ROCK THE LOW MIFFS AND MALCOLM ROSS Malcolm Ross and The Low Miffs (Re-Action) ●●●●●
Josef K/Orange Juice axe-man Malcolm Ross remains the most tasteful guitar hero to twang out of post- punk’s jangular alley. This collaboration with Glasgow’s most dashing young pretenders, then, is a perfect marriage of experience and influence. The Low Miffs write songs about girls called Cressida and Josephine, wrapped up in guitar patterns that recall, not just classic Postcard jitter-funk, but Felt’s Maurice Deebank and long-lost 4AD instrumentalists Dif Juz. While Leo Condie’s croons soar like the ghost of Billy Mackenzie, Ross is more laidback, but this is an equal partnership, suggesting that The Sound of Young – and slightly older – Scotland is in wonderfully safe hands. (Neil Cooper)
ALSO RELEASED
The Law A Measure of Wealth (Local Boy) Finally edging out from the sizeable shadow of their kin The View with a more accomplished, indie rock flavour of their own.
David Gray Draw the Line (Polydor) 12 million albums in, Gray remains the acceptable face of stadium-sized introspection. Pixie Lott Turn It Up (Mercury) Britain fashions its own sassy retort to Lady Gaga, a nation sighs at the mediocrity of it all.
Paramore Brand New Eyes (Fuelled By Ramen) Surpassing their mentor Pete Wentz’s band Fall Out Boy with more boisterous emo pop turns.
Big Star Reissues (Universal) The band without whom there would be no Teenage Fanclub have their two classic albums Radio City and #1 Records re- mastered and expanded.
Various A Boy’s Own Odyssey (Defected) As if this month’s Hacienda comp wasn’t enough, here’s more hazy recollections of the halycon days of acid house mixing Underworld, Happy Mondays and Bocca Juniors in Boy’s Own’s own inimitable style.
Tommy Reilly Words on the Floor (A&M) An assured debut of the heartfelt, thoughtful pop produced by Bernard Butler, from the Torrance teen.
Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson Break Up (ATCO) Showing continued musical balls of steel, Johansson collaborates with the articulate alt.pop man on a song cycle depicting a tempestuous relationship.
24 Sep–8 Oct 2009 THE LIST 65
Y H P R U M N O M S : I
O T O H P
INDIE ROCK IDLEWILD Post Electric Blues (Cooking Vinyl) ●●●●●
With a bulky back catalogue soaked in boisterous, if melancholic, guitar rock, the expectation for Idlewild has always been for them to make their Automatic for the People: a weighty album which crystallised all their most extreme emotions. Post Electric Blues gathers up the requisite joy, breathless excitement and the even the impudence for such a project, but steers away from the truly introspective.
‘Readers and Writers’ is a shot of pure crystalline pop, and while the brass parps and the guitars ring out, Roddy Woomble seems almost flirtatious, even if lyrically he remains joyfully obtuse at points, and the Johnny Marr-esque swing and swoop of ‘All Over the Town’ is tucked in behind the monolithic guitar strangling of ‘Post Electric’, a double bill that illustrates their six-string chops to perfection.
There are frustrating moments though where you wish they’d take things up or down a gear and really go for it. A couple of songs float along sweetly but fail to go for the emotional jugular like they could or should. This is perhaps symptomatic of bands deliberating between sticking to what they’re good at, and satisfying a loyal fanbase, or risking it all to adventure outside their creative comfort zone. This is something that many bands struggle with over time: Wilco, REM and Mogwai are all pertinent examples. And while Idlewild haven’t thrown out their rulebook by any means, Post Electric Blues shows they are happy to bend some rules.
This is a confident, astute, concise guitar pop record which, in the current deafening sea of 80s aping, indie am-dram non-contenders that clutter our earholes, is something to be savoured. (Mark Robertson)
back to their grimy sound, while the title track enjoys an Elton John guest appearance and pop sensibilities. Is it as good as their glory days? Perhaps not, but they gave it a darn good shot. (Chris Cope) INDIE IAN BROWN My Way (Fiction) ●●●●●
To complain about Ian Brown’s production- bandaged voice or swaggering Manc intonation is to not really get it, quite frankly. Predictable, dullard
technical proficiency is cooed over on X-Factor every week, if that’s what you want, but the ex-Stone Roses singer’s sheer force of personality is unique. This, the sixth album of a productive solo career, is a success on its own terms. Highlights include
‘Always Remember Me’, a measured ballad which recalls the Roses’ own ‘(Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister’, the straight-faced electro- funk of ‘Marathon Man’ and an unfeasibly impressive, Latin- trumpeted cover of Zager & Evans’ ‘In the Year 2525’. Not a classic album by
him by any means, but one that reaffirms Brown’s solo ability with confidence and soul. (David Pollock)
JAZZ ROBERT GLASPER Double Booked (Blue Note) ●●●●● Said double booking is captured on two voicemail messages on this disc, one from trumpeter Terence Blanchard and the other from The Roots’ Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson, both looking to have Glasper on the same night. The split reflects his allegiances to both jazz and hip hop, reflected in the division of the disc, one half with his adventurous jazz trio