Music Record Reviews
LABEL OF LOVE
ARMELLODIE RECORDS Launched in early 2007 by Al Nero and Scott Maple of blissful guitar slingers Le Reno Amps, Glasgow rock ‘n’ pop cavalry Armellodie has but one vital mission: Say No to Bland Records. What musical treasures do you bring us? ‘Our current line-up consists of an eclectic bunch of buxom comrades: Super Adventure Club, Kill the Captains, Cuddly Shark, The Scottish Enlightenment, Thirty Pounds of Bone and Le Reno Amps.’
You’ve got some pretty vivid logos and visuals going on: how significant is your artwork and packaging? ‘We put every effort into all our releases and we have a team of arty folks who all muck in: Cheryl McCann, Stuart Brett and Jane Elliott. One of the benefits of being a humble operation is that we can be flexible with the model, and we can do small physical runs on singles or EPs, and really make the artefact something to cherish. Such is the case with the recent Scottish Enlightenment EP, which was released in beautiful handmade card booklets. With the more prominent retail releases it’s also imperative that the artwork is of über-quality.’ Do you thrive on being a DIY alliance, rather than just a record label? ‘I think it’s important to have fun, and if it spills over into other creative processes, so be it. Armellodie has several operations under its wing: Neil from Super Adventure Club works hard on an old- school paper fanzine called Muckle Sandwich. Kill the Captains have had their own club-night, Mutiny, in Sheffield, for a few years now. Label, stable, collective, rock co-operative, promoter, whatever – just so long as your ears aren’t painted on and you enjoy what you’re doing then you’re onto a winner.’
What’s in the Armellodie pipeline? ‘After summer we’re looking forward to releasing the new album from Shetland-raised, whisky- soaked tunesmith Johnny Lamb, aka Thirty Pounds of Bone, and later in the year we’ve got the debut album from The Scottish Enlightenment, which promises to be pretty special. Armellodie’s troops are constantly gigging through the UK and into Europe: keep your eyes peeled and your ears raised.’ (Nicola Meighan) ■ www.myspace.com/armellodie
66 THE LIST 22 Jul–5 Aug 2010
LO-FI ELECTRO/ ROCK COLLABORATION TONY DA GATORRA VS GRUFF RHYS The Terror of Cosmic Loneliness (Turnstile) ●●●●●
The most striking thing about this clattering, madcap alliance between psychedelic Super Furry Animal Rhys and Brazilian counter-cultural vanguard Da Gatorra occurs on recent single (and standout track) ‘In A House With No Mirrors’: it sees our primal-electro duo tone down their DIY brouhaha, and start channelling Nick Cave. Sure, the album’s short on additional pop hooks – save perhaps the machine-spatter of ‘6868’ – but its technicolour racket serves a higher purpose, according to Da Gatorra: ‘peace my brothers, this record was made with lots of feelings and love to bring consciousness and show a little bit of truth.’ Amen. (Nicola Meighan)
PUNK/POP WAVVES King of the Beach (Bella Union) ●●●●●
Wavves’ Glasgow show last November disappointed some of those charmed by the fuzzy, home-recorded pop thrum of their first two albums, Wavves and Wavvves. In sharp focus, the qualities that led some dizzy minds to lump them in with a new wave of ‘hypnagogic pop’ fell away, leaving a clumsy and inexperienced San Diego garage band struggling to justify the hype. But with the studio- recorded King of the Beach, Wavves
successfully fill the spaces once occupied by tape hiss and distortion with keyboard washes, samples and vocoder. And while Nathan Williams’ insolent vocals on ‘Post Acid’ may veer dangerously towards the Blink 182, ‘Baseball Cards’ and the Phil Spector-sampling ‘Mickey Mouse’ make King Of The Beach a worthwhile listen. (Sean Welsh) CULT COMPILATION VARIOUS Les Filles du Crépuscule (LTM) ●●●●●
LTM Records chic and boutique catalogue exists like some raincoat-clad European republic that’s forever 1981. This 20-track collection sashays through the Belgian- based Les Disques du Crépuscule’s roster of chanteuses, many of whom set the template for today’s nouvelle vague even as they referenced the first. Antenna’s opening cover of ‘The Boy From Ipanema’ sets the tone for an arch, artsier flip- side to Euro-pop that takes in the nouveau noir of Virna Lindt, the ice-cool electro-funk of Zwischenfall and the Latina jazz-feminism of Ludus, through to post- Postcard outfit The French Impressionists, ex-Young Marble Giants’ vocalist Alison Statton, Cécile Bruynoghe’s take on Eric Satie and 13 other vignettes. Subversively gamine. (Neil Cooper)
ROCK JOHN GOLDIE Picked In The Past (Watercolour Music) ●●●●●
John Goldie has earned a considerable
reputation as a jazz guitarist, but his personal musical roots go back to 70s rock, and this is his tribute to that era, albeit played on acoustic guitar. It all started when he worked out a clever arrangement of ‘Smoke On the Water’ that proved a big hit on his live solo guitar shows, and encouraged him to make the further investigations contained here. ‘Alright Now’, ‘Black
Magic Woman’, ‘Honky Tonk Woman’, ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’, ‘Space Oddity’, ‘White Room’, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, the aforementioned ‘Smoke On The Water’ and a half-dozen more are remade in intricately picked fashion. It was all done ‘live’ in the studio with no overdubs, and he succeeds brilliantly in his aim to capture the spirit and shape of the originals in this very different format, while adding his own personal stamp to them. Superb playing and great tunes add up to a real treat from start to finish. (Kenny Mathieson)
FOLK-POP BENNI HEMM HEMM Retaliate (Kimi) ●●●●●
Edinburgh via Iceland’s Benedikt H Hermannsson – that’s Benni Hemm Hemm to his many music-loving friends – has long enkindled our local stages with his gentle, warm acoustic pop. Retaliate, his first all- English language outing, is a rich, slow-burning mini-album that’s likely to captivate fans of Nick Drake, Euros Childs and eagleowl. Embellished by some
heady, measured double bass from Emily Scott, and Peter Liddle’s understated brass, Benni Hemm Hemm’s unhurried psalms are lovely: the nostalgic, pastoral folk of the title track; the wistful melody
of ‘Shipcracks’. But don’t be misled by their welcome demeanour: knives, tattooed corpses and bloodshed all feature. (Nicola Meighan) DRONE FOLK NALLE Wilder Shores of Love (alt.vinyl) ●●●●●
Inspired by the Greek myth of doomed lovers Hero and Leander, and named after a Cy Twombly painting, the third album by vocalist Hanna Tuulikki, viola player Aby Vulliamy and multi-instrumentalist Chris Hladowski fuses ancient and modern in a song cycle of love and loss. Book-ended by two
solitary slide-guitar laments and fleshed out by dustbowl harmonica, pounding piano, medieval drums and even a furious fuzz-box laden Turkish saz, at the album’s heart is Tuulikki’s remarkable voice, which swoops, trills and keens its way to delirium and redemption. In between, free jazz raptures and east European harmonies conjoin the ecstatic and the mournful in this most intensely bittersweet of purgings. (Neil Cooper) ■ See also Exposure, page 65.
WORLD EL EXISTENTIAL Grupo Fantasma (Nat Geo Music) ●●●●●
Riotous energy pulses through this exuberant set from Grupo Fantasma, who put a 21st-century twist into salsa and Latin sounds. Underpinned by heavy rock grooves and percussive layers, arrangements fizz with funky trumpet and