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RECORDS Music
ROCK DANANANANAYKROYD There Is A Way (Pizza College) ●●●●● GLAM POP PATRICK WOLF Lupercalia (Mercury) ●●●●●
ROCK SHE’S HIT Pleasure (Re:Peater) ●●●●●
Award five stars or have them sectioned? It’s often a fine line, but a world without Dananananaykroyd’s glorious lunacy would be a sad place indeed. The Glasgow six-some have excelled themselves with There Is A Way; an incredibly smart rock record driven by their trademark tireless energy and bounce-inducing joy. Attacking riffs and rhythms race along throughout, while dual vocalists do their damnedest to outdo each other in the shriek, squeal and yelp department. Pushing their sound to the extreme – with legendary producer Ross Robinson teasing out some thrilling musicianship and eccentricity – this sophomore offering puts in a league of their own. (Camilla Pia) ■ See interview, page 98.
‘I wish you the top, top, top of the morning,’ beams Patrick Wolf on his fifth album’s rambunctious opener ‘The City’, as if springing out of bed to begin another fine day in fantastical glam pop land. Quite how the androgynous Londoner hasn’t yet fulfilled his destiny as Britain’s Rufus Wainwright is unclear – a hit that captures the wider public’s imagination is surely all it’ll take. Any number of songs on this starry- eyed, strings-laden swoon-fest of a partner piece to 2009’s The Bachelor could be it.
The Tarzan howling on ‘Slow Motion’ is rather overdoing it, though – as we’re reminded towards the close by ‘Together’, an operatic techno-pop camp-arama worthy of Kylie – OTT is pretty much Wolf’s MO. (Malcolm Jack)
Named after a suitably scuzzed-up epistle by Nick Cave’s former breeding ground/alma mater The Birthday Party, but judging by the band photos too young to shave, this Glasgow quintet take their forebears’ primitive voodoo trash aesthetic twang by the scruff of its studded dog-collar and let rip, and end up sounding like The Stooges giving the Jesus and Mary Chain what for. No luddites these elegantly
wasted kids, mind, because, while things get more urgent as things progress, the climax of the mighty ‘Miriam Hollow’ has shades of the Simple Minds ‘I Travel’, plus there’s an entire bonus CD of remixes designed to scare yourself in the dark with. (Neil Cooper) ■ See list.co.uk for a Labels of Love focus on Re:Peater Records.
INDIE POP GOLDEN GRRRLS (2011 Tour Cassette) (self-released)●●●●●
Now how DIY is this? An eight- track cassette of breakneck, spindly, indie guitar fuzz by Glasgow girl/boy trio featuring former Park Attack drummer turned singer/guitarist Lorna Gilfedder that has no name and no label and is available in a gloriously limited edition of 57. Soundwise, the Grrrls’ lo-fi
vignettes lean towards the C-86 songbook, all dolefully trilled harmony vocals counterpointed by FX pedal murk and biscuit-tin beats suggesting a darker side beyond songs about Paul Simon. This may be a wilfully back to
basics stance, but ‘New Pop’ might just predict the future. Did somebody say sha-la-la? (Neil Cooper) ■ See goldengrrrls.bandcamp.com for download version of this album
PUNK-FUNK TOM VEK Leisure Seizure (Island) ●●●●●
Circa his debut album We Have Sound’s arrival in 2005, Tom Vek was hailed by some as the new Beck – quit tittering at the back there already. The Londoner’s garage-recorded mix of monotone drawl, angular beats and popping bass was exciting, though it never quite set the world alight. Six mysteriously silent years on, he’s delivered a broadly similar follow-up – trouble is, the competition have since pilfered his sound. ‘Aroused’ recalls Passion Pit’s
day-glo electronica; the ravey pop overtones of ‘A Chore’ could be anyone from Friendly Fires to Metronomy. You’ve got to respect the years of geeky perfectionism that have gone into Leisure Seizure, but Vek might regret not instead getting out there and seizing his moment. (Malcolm Jack)
HUSBAND AND WIFE DUO JESSIKA KENNEY & EYVIND KANG Aestuarium (Ideologic Organ) ●●●●●
Ideologic Organ, Edition Mego’s ‘old records’ wing, give this 2005 recording by Sunn O))) and Mick Patton collaborators Kenney and Kang the reissue it deserves.
A Stephen O’Malley sleeve graces
this beautiful piece of spectral music, recorded on the shores of Colvos Passage in Washington State. Those familiar with the duo through their work with the avant- metallers shouldn’t be disappointed by a lack of heavy guitars; this has a quiet intensity of its own.
Responding to the surroundings and slow lapping waters, they meditate on loss. Kang’s viola and oud, and Kenney’s pure vocals inhabit haunting melodies inspired by Gaelic psalms and Tibetan notational gestures. (Stewart Smith)
ROCK/ PSYCHO-BILLY JACOB YATES AND THE PEARLY GATE LOCK PICKERS Luck (Re:Peater) ●●●●●
Hallelujah! The ghost of Uncle John & Whitelock, Glasgow’s seriously demented purveyors of their self- styled horror R‘n’B, is reborn and delivered here in the still possessed shape of Jabob Yates (nee Lovatt), former howler of that parish. Lovatt and co may brand their primitive psycho-billy musings as ‘doom-wop’ these days, but this twitch-hipped, finger-poppin’ but downright dark debut sounds more of a continuum, all back-alley hellfire preaching, growling fuzz guitar and wonky stumblebum piano with a parade of cartoon monsters tripping by the junkyard where the bad-boys hang out. Praise be and Amen for such a glorious resurrection. (Neil Cooper)
TRIBUTE EP VARIOUS ARTISTS Making Moonshine 3 (SL Records) ●●●●●
A blind musician and inventor of instruments who wandered New York dressed as a Norse god, Moondog was bloody great. He’s the subject of this third tribute covers EP from Edinburgh’s SL, with all five artists settling on a decidedly folky approach. 7VWWVW and Rory McLeod’s ‘High On a Mountain Ledge’ is the most resoundingly complete song, and the collection’s stand-out, a sea shanty for sailing through dreaming stars, while Burnt Island’s take on ‘Some Trust All’ is simple and sweet, a stream of acoustic guitar and barely whispered lyrics. ‘Lullaby’ by MacGillivray and ‘All is Loneliness’ by Sharron Kraus follow even more minimal patterns, recurring tone poems for voice and effects only, and Greg Dodgson’s ‘Do Your Thing’ is the least inventive arrangement, but still an inspired song. (David Pollock) 26 May–23 Jun 2011 THE LIST 101