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RECORDS Music
SYNTH-POP COLD CAVE Cherish the Light Years (Matador) ●●●●● ELECTRONICA PREFUSE 73 The Only She Chapters (Warp) ●●●●●
NU-DISCO HOLY GHOST Holy Ghost (DFA) ●●●●●
It’s disappointing to find NYC trio Cold Cave following up the clutch of dark 80s post-punk and synth- pop rip-offs on their 2009 debut Love Comes Close with, er, another clutch of dark 80s post-punk and synth-pop rip-offs. Though in fairness, with nobody pushing the envelope particularly at present, there’s plenty to be said for a band that mimic their idols as convincingly. The Sound are invoked in the
industrial churn of ‘The Great Pan Is Dead’, while ‘Alchemy and You’ could be The Teardrop Explodes between the blaring horns and Wesley Eisold’s extravagant Julian Cope-esque baritone. Judging by ‘Underworld USA’, if all goes tits- up, Cold Cave have a promising future as a Cure tribute act. (Malcolm Jack)
Guillermo Scott Herren, another of Warp’s ever-reliable stable of boundary-busting electronic innovators, returns with a concept LP in the loosest sense: the theme involves giving each of its 16 tracks a name beginning with the words ‘The Only . . .’ and roping in a high- end supporting cast of female singers, who lay down psychedelic sonic shapes rather than literal vocals. Herren’s cut-up beats and samples are of the futurist variety, although there’s a real warmth to even the sinister clock-chime mechanics of ‘The Only Hand to Hold’ and the cut-up cataclysm of the Zola Jesus-featuring ‘The Only Direction in Concrete’. The late Trish Keenan’s presence on the gorgeous ‘The Only Trial of 9000 Suns’ lends added poignancy. (David Pollock)
In March this year, NY duo Holy Ghost supported Australian electropop heroes Cut Copy at the Arches. This debut album also comes in the wake of the excellent recent Cut Copy record Zonoscope, and does little to advance on the Aussies’ good practices. There are the same smooth 80s-influenced grooves, with all the requisite handclaps, synth fills and falsetto vocals, packaged within some familiar paeans to late nights, bright lights and fleeting love affairs. There’s a peak moment when the synth bassline squelches into life on mid-album juggernaut ‘Hold On’, but it’s one of HG’s older tracks, further emphasising that this is cosy disco revivalism only, and not a groundbreaking debut. (Jonny Ensall)
QUIRK-POP TUNE-YARDS w h o k i l l (4AD) ●●●●●
Having graduated to a real studio from the dictaphone-plus-editing- freeware set-up of first album BiRd- BrAiNs, Merrill Garbus returns with a little more sheen and clarity than before, but still flaunting the junkyard beats, catchy playground raps, lashings of white-girl ’tude and utterly heartfelt soulful yowls that made her such an appealing prospect back then. Never one for making ‘easy’ music, Garbus’s idiosyncratic songcraft occasionally loses sight of melody, particularly in the record’s lacklustre closing third. Nevertheless, an artist with the audacity to splice calypso with doo-wop with folk with rap and top it with disconcerting lyrics disguised as cheeky nursery rhymes is always welcome round our way. (Laura Ennor)
DROWNED POP PANDA BEAR Tomboy (Paw Tracks) ●●●●● Noah Lennox, aka Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, has been a major influence on the rise of music that sounds like it’s been made in a bathtub, and Tomboy has some more standout examples of the woozy, filtered indie pop that he’s helped break to the world. ‘Last Night at the Jetty’ and ‘Alsatian Darn’ are tuneful sea shanties for slackers, and ‘Slow Motion’ takes the skipping turntable motif to a new high. ‘Drone’, however, is just that – four long minutes of buzzing synth notes and vowel sounds. ‘I’ll be so up for it/Know at least I’ll try,’ Lennox sings on opener ‘You Can Count On Me’. The effort shows, and even if some songs never break the surface of the bathwater, there are compellingly raw and beautiful moments throughout. (Jonny Ensall)
GYPSY PUNK ORKESTRA DEL SOL Lung Capacity (Sol) ●●●●● INDIE FOLK LONE PIGEON Time Capsule 001–010: A Selection (Domino) ●●●●●
FOLK ALELA DIANE Alela Diane & Wild Divine (Rough Trade) ●●●●●
Gyspified, klezmeric, samba- soaked party tunes: anyone who’s heard the previous two albums by the Edinburgh-based nine-piece will be well prepared for what’s in store on this third instalment. As ever, the band’s infectious
live energy, produced by an anarchic mix of trumpet, sax, trombone, clarinet, accordion, two drummers and a noisy tuba- like instrument called a sousaphone, is 90% present here – there’s only so much you can do outwith the sweaty confines of a Balkanarama club night. It’s the lack of deviation from form rather than lack of effort that brings the album one star short of perfection, but with tunes this riotously enjoyable, it’s hardly worth quibbling over. (Niki Boyle)
You don’t see him for years and then he pops up with this. Get ready to (re)introduce yourself to Gordon Anderson, aka Fife’s maverick songwriting talent Lone Pigeon, a man who counts The Beta Band, The Aliens and the Fence Collective among his sometime affiliations. For all but the most devoted, of course, this seven-disc boxset may be several steps too far, but the limited vinyl selection 28 Secret Tracks will do as a primer. For those with the time and curiosity, however, and the well-placed trust in Domino’s selection of this material, prepare to be inducted into the way of an artist with minimal public profile but the potential to rank alongside the great gifted mavericks of blues, folk and rock’n’roll. (David Pollock)
Something of a family affair this for the third album by Californian twentysomething Alela Diane, with husband Tom Bevitori and daddy Tom Menig helping on co-writing and guitar duties respectively. In this patchy yet occasionally
uplifting collection, a downbeat Joni Mitchell vibe permeates proceedings, but the shackles are flung off by showing how much fun she can have by rocking out a bit more, especially on the Ron Sexsmithy ‘Long Way Down’. Even if, like me, you don’t fully trust people with two forenames, you should cast those prejudices aside and give Miss Diane a blast. She comes with the Joanna Newsom seal of approval too; both live in Nevada City and Newsom is a fan. (Brian Diane Donaldson)
31 Mar–28 Apr 2011 THE LIST 83