Music Record Reviews
LABELS OF LOVE
PHUTURELABS What started as an electronic music blog has now become a record label. Paul Reset, founding member of Phuturelabs, explains more. What is Phuturelabs? Phuturelabs was originally a name myself and a friend used for some music we wrote at the end of the 90s. Last year we decided to bring the name back to life – this time as an electronic music magazine type blog, which has now developed into a record label. How do the blog and the label tie together? They go hand in hand. On the blog we feature music we like and always try to cover new and interesting music and artists – the same ethos as the label. All Phuturelabs releases will be available to download for free on the site. What’s it like for independent labels these days? The explosion of the digital download has enabled smaller labels to get their music out there in a much quicker and cheaper way. The modern world has been a great thing for music. What’s Phuturelab’s first release going to be? We have an artist called Wira whose identity is a little on the mysterious side. We received a package one day – a label-less DAT tape in a jiffy bag with no postmark. Inside was the tape, a small lock of ginger hair and a distinct smell of salt ‘n’ sauce. All that matters is that the music is brilliant – first track ‘Vloeitjes’ is driven along by a shuffly break reminiscent of classic garage, and enough space and atmosphere to create an eerie 4AM vibe. Communication between Wira and ourselves has consisted of short email blasts, but we are ensured that his identity will be revealed upon release! (Richie Meldrum) ■ www.phuturelabs.com Vloeitjes will be released on www.phuturelabs.com on Mon 13 Sep. There will also be a Phuturelabs launch night at The Ivy, Glasgow, Fri 17 Sep, featuring live performances from Kev Sim (FOUND) and S-Type.
SECRET POP DUO UNVEILED SUMMER CAMP Young (Moshi Moshi) ●●●●● After doing the fashionable thing and releasing a record incognito last year, London duo Summer
Camp came out as melodic crooner Jeremy Warmsley and pop-cult writer Elizabeth Sankey. Their debut mini-
album, Young, sounds like a nostalgic slice of sun-warped vinyl: all hazy electro, woozy harmonies and shimmering John Hughes reference points – and there’s vintage soul, rock ‘n’ roll and classic indie in there too. Bananarama, The Psychedelic Furs, The Cocteaus and the Shangri-Las are all
98 THE LIST 26 Aug–9 Sep 2010
discernable.
From the nagging melancholy of ‘Ghost Train’ to the swooning laser-pop of ‘Round the Moon’, Summer Camp soundtrack holiday crushes, fairground rides and endless nights. (Nicola Meighan)
NEW RAVE KLAXONS Surfing the Void (Polydor) ●●●●●
But is it really new rave? After all, that was just a joke someone cracked in an interview, right? So what the new wave of new rave leaves us with is more screeching, snotty- nosed pop with oblique sci-fi references and (this is a stretch) a few more guitars than before.
It’s no better than Myths of the Near Future, and worse in the very real sense that the element of surprise has gone. Comeback track ‘Flashover’, ‘The Same Space’ and ‘Echoes’ elaborate all that’s still good yet most problematic about Klaxons – you just know they sound great live, but these aren’t stunningly individual pop song exemplars.
A few stand-out points, including the frantic, heavy ‘Cypherspeed’ and the irresistible 80s chorus of ‘Venusia’ offer respite from the overall OK- ness, if not quite a full redemption. (David Pollock)
JAZZ CÉLINE BONACINA TRIO Way of Life (ACT Records) ●●●●●
It was one of the Munich-based label’s established stars, guitarist Nguyen Lê, who recommended
French saxophonist Céline Bonacina to ACT, and he is a guest on four of the tracks on this debut album. Bonacina’s main instrument is the baritone saxophone, but she is also heard on alto and soprano, and contributes some less memorable vocals along the way. Nicolas Garnier on electric bass guitar and drummer Hary Ratsimbazafy from Madagascar complete her core trio.
The groove-based world jazz the trio serve up is both attractive and accessible, strong on rhythmic vitality and colour. Bonacina’s improvising is good rather than great at this stage, but she finds her voice on the unwieldy baritone in impressive fashion in the surging up-tempo material, and engages in an intriguing dialogue on soprano saxophone with Lê’s guitar in the slower but equally charged ‘Entre Deux Rêves’. (Kenny Mathieson)
JAZZ JACKY TERRASSON Push (Concord Jazz) ●●●●●
Pianist Jacky Terrasson initially came to prominence in 1993 as winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk competition that year. After a long association with Blue Note, the pianist makes his debut on Concord with this release, essentially a trio set featuring his current band with bassist Ben Williams and drummer Jamire Williams (no relation), and a number of guests on saxophone, harmonica, guitar and percussion on half the tracks.
The trio is at the heart of the matter, and sounds like a unit to watch. The hallmarks of the pianist’s style are firmly in place, notably his dazzling virtuosity, his distinctive, oblique rhythmic feel, and playful sense of humour.
He covers two Monk tunes, cleverly grafts together Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ and ‘Body and Soul’, re- thinks ‘You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To’ and gets funky on ‘Gaux Girl’ and ‘Morning’, although personally, I could do without the two more poppy cuts that feature his vocals. (Kenny Mathieson) INDIE POP-ROCK EVERYTHING EVERYTHING Man Alive (Geffen) ●●●●●
Manchester pop boffins Everything Everything are the most aptly- named rock troupe since The Band. They cram pretty much every hipster device into their ebullient, chock-a-block debut, and then fire in the tenets of electro and classical. Tempo changes, vocal athletics, post-punk riffs and syncopated rhythms are therefore standard (‘Schoolin’, ‘My KZ Ur BF’); as are harpsichord madrigals (‘Two for Nero’) and rock histrionics (‘Qwerty Finger’). Their contemporaries might include Hot Chip and Silver Columns, but there’s something of The Darkness in the quartet’s melodic fervour and quick-fire falsetto. Still: Everything Everything are certainly masters of tropical, inventive – if relentless – guitar-pop. (Nicola Meighan)
LIVE ALBUM MOGWAI Special Moves/Burning (Rock Action) ●●●●●
This live CD/DVD package bears one very real disadvantage. No matter how good the surround sound quality of your television or stereo, you’re never quite going to get close enough to the raw emotional power of this group at their live best. It’s more of an aide memoire to those who
know and love their show already, and as close to a greatest hits as you can expect to see from their six- album-to-date career. So on its own terms
this is still a great package, with live staples like ‘Hunted By a Freak’, ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’, ‘Like Herod’ and ‘Glasgow Megasnake’ all collected together on one 11-track live CD, with Vincent Moon and Nataniel La Souanec’s Brooklyn-shot Burning film adding an atmospheric visual element. The next best thing to
being there, and that’s good enough. (David Pollock)
WORLD MOISHE’S BAGEL Uncle Roland’s Flying Machine Eachday Music ●●●●●
This has been my default album since its Bongo Club launch a few weeks ago, on repeat several times a day. It’s the perfect mix of original, catchy tunes, striking rhythms and nostalgic emotion, alternating tight nuanced play with fine solos.
Anyone who has seen the brilliant Edinburgh- based Moishe’s Bagel knows the sparks that fly in their infectious blend of Jewish klezmer, Balkan rhythms, world and jazz sounds (I swear puffs of smoke emerge when Greg Lawson plays fiddle). Long awaited and well worth waiting for, right down to Glen Baxter’s cover depicting the crazy flying machine that accordionist Pete Garnett’s uncle was building in his shed. (Jan Fairley) ■ www.moishes bagel.co.uk