Music RECORDS
FOLK-POP ERLAND AND THE CARNIVAL Nightingale (Full Time Hobby) ●●●●● REISSUED DEBUT QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE Queens of the Stone Age (Rekords Rekords) ●●●●●
London-based trio Erland and The Carnival, led by eponymous Orcadian folk artist Erland Cooper, follow their self-titled debut album up with this dark and engrossing piece of work. Josh Homme is the king of cool. He has the rockstar wife (Brody Dalle, formerly of The Distillers), he makes smoking less ‘fatality’ and more ‘finesse’, and, of course, he is the ginger Elvis.
Trawling the depths of 60s folk This reissue of Queens of the
and psychedelia, E&TC holed themselves up in the hull of an old ship moored at Embankment on the Thames and resurfaced with this unsettling yet head-bobbing collection, inspired by a mix of surreal art and poetry as well as personal journeys (both physical and figurative). The overall atmosphere
conveyed on Nightingale shows off the band’s collective talent and vision and is likely to please anyone bored with The Coral. (Ryan Drever)
Stone Age’s self-titled debut album goes back to his post- Kyuss days of 1998 when perhaps he wasn’t quite so hip, but the music is most certainly doused in swagger. ‘Hispanic Impressions’ is an engrossing instrumental, vagabond in nature, whilst the barbed ‘The Bronze’, one of the reissue’s exclusives, manages to convince any doubters that maybe, just maybe, reissues aren’t entirely futile exhibitions of cash-snatching or egotism. (Chris Cope)
ALT-ROCK THE VACCINES What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? (Columbia Records) ●●●●● The Vaccines’ name may already be synonymous with over-inflated hype, but to be fair, the London quartet have mastered the art of penning incredibly infectious melodies ridiculously quickly – claiming to have completed this much-anticipated debut in a few weeks last year. Tracks like ‘A Lack Of Understanding’, ‘Nørgaard’ and ‘All In White’ back up their burgeoning flair for creating buzz- worthy indie rock on the back of some great singles, but it’s the shockingly dodgy lyrics throughout and Justin Young’s detached singing style that ultimately let them down. ‘Put a wetsuit on, come on come on. . .grow your hair out long . . .put a t-shirt on. . . do me wrong, do me wrong’ he drones on, erm, ‘Wetsuit’– oh dear. (Camilla Pia)
LONGSTANDING COLLABORATION KING CREOSOTE AND JON HOPKINS Diamond Mine (Domino Recording Company) ●●●●● This was apparently a labour of love between Fife folkster King Creosote and London electronica artist and producer Hopkins, recorded in fits and starts over the last seven years. It’s a beautifully complementary collaboration, Kenny Anderson’s plaintive vocals and guitar strums making a great counterpoint to Hopkins atmospheric and melancholic soundscapes. Homely hisses and creaks gently filter through sweeping strings and synths to give songs like ‘Running on Fumes’ and ‘John Taylor Starts His Month Away’ a new lease of life, subtly bringing a fresh dimension to King Creosote’s bittersweet melodies and leaving the listener in an oddly uplifting dwam. (Doug Johnstone)
AMBIENT ELECTRONICA VECTOR LOVERS Electrospective (Soma) ●●●●●
FRENCH HOUSE BUSY P & DJ MEHDI Let The Children Techno (Ed Banger) ●●●●● ALT-ROCK THE STROKES Angles (Rough Trade) ●●●●●
SPACE DISCO DEN HAAN Gods From Outer Space (Courier of Death) ●●●●●
A game designer in real life and a producer since 2002, Martin Wheeler here collects a bunch of the tracks he’s released on Soma into one handy compilation, even more so considered he’s remixed and remastered each one from scratch. The collection is kicked off by a rare outing for Wheeler’s digitised vocal on ‘Melodies and Memory’ (‘we gave up our tears to the neon sky’) and characterised by a laid- back downtempo pop and hiss the whole way through, betraying a distinctly oriental influence in titles like ‘Shinjuku Girl’ and ‘Tokyo Glitterati’. Unashamedly artificial but soothing nonetheless, Electrospective comes across like a stoner’s-pace Kraftwerk. (David Pollock)
This new compilation haemorrhages many of Parisian label Ed Banger’s 00s cool points with its hasty mixes (courtesy of Busy P and DJ Mehdi), cheesy raps and hackneyed futurist skits. Many of the songs from the
label’s stalwarts – Sebastian, Mr Oizo, Bobmo, Feadz et al – show off the same cut-to- shreds, fuzzed-up French house that once ruled the blogosphere, but this is now the era of disco, deep house and dubstep, and the Bangers have fallen behind. Stripped back tracks by Discodeine and Gesafellstein add echo, depth and edge. But overall, on the basis of this, it sounds like Paris is no longer burning. (Jonny Ensall)
‘Under Cover Of Darkness’ is undeniably sparky, but for The Strokes to follow it with a whole album of classic Is This It?-isms would have been a mistake. That’s not to say this long-awaited fourth release doesn’t have flashes of the quintet’s former work – but it’s also like nothing they’ve ever made. The band have shaken things up big time; sounding revitalised and clearly brimming with ideas as off- kilter electronic and synth-driven interludes, intricate picked guitars, big lolloping basslines, sultry disco beats and haunting effects-ridden vocals are combined seamlessly with anthemic, stroppy pop songs. Angles is easily the most brilliant The Strokes have been since that seismic scene-altering debut. (Camilla Pia)
It’s taken them a while to get down to it, but Glasgow duo Den Haan (Matthew Aldworth, aka Crème de Menthe, and Andy Gardiner) finally deliver the debut album their electrifyingly sleazy live sets have promised. Beginning with a spooky snatch of ‘70s sci-fi scene-setting entitled ‘The End’, it soon settles into a rhythm of groovy as hell Italo and John Carpenter-style minimal electronica, from the Jarre-on-pills title track to the beautifully unsubtle suggestion of ‘Release the Beast’ and ‘Night Shift’, complete with gruff and unashamedly camp vocal effects. Your new favourite after- club album, without doubt. (David Pollock) ■ Den Haan play with a club set album launch at Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 11 Mar, see page 49.
84 THE LIST 3–31 March 2011