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RECORDS Music
GLAM-POP BOBBY CONN Macaroni (Fire Records) ●●●●●
Imagine if something really emotionally scarring happened to, say, Prince, something in his formative years that sent him down an altogether darker path. Now say hello to Bobby Conn, flamboyant glam-pop weirdo from Chicago with a pocketful of showbiz tricks, a DIY ethic and a confrontational hipster vibe.
This is album number six, and while it fails to reach the heights of his peak (2001’s The Golden Age), it’s still a fun ride, as Conn mashes up funk, soul and rock with a rather muddled protest-song lyricism about the woes of Western civilization. Sadly, there’s not enough memorable melody to match the chutzpah this time round, but the world’s still a better place for having Bobby Conn in it. (Doug Johnstone)
ELECTRONICA DEAN BLUNT & INGA COPELAND Black is Beautiful (Hyperdub) ●●●●● Can Tupac and Kanye West-lensing promo director Hype Williams finally have gotten wise to the ridiculously inventive London duo using his name? Is that why the pair are using their own names for this debut album on Kode9’s Hyperdub? The oblique press release and lack of a tracklist suggests we’d best not go looking for an answer: instead, enjoy some of the most striking and boundary- crashing music you’re likely to hear this year, from the Krupa-drumming intro to acres of off-balance, late night ambient dick-aboutery, crisply produced but lent an eerie edge by Copeland’s lo-fi, atonal vocal. Low- slung hip hop beats arrive later, but the overall sense is of the dubstep Throbbing Gristle having risen from the shadows. (David Pollock)
HIP-HOP OFWGKTA The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2 (Columbia) ●●●●●
Declared ‘the future of the music business’, controversial young California alternative hip hop crew OFWGKTA – aka Odd Future – make their major label debut off the back of a reputation forged through mix-tapes and bad behaviour. With major label solo efforts from members Tyler, The Creator, Frank Ocean and MellowHype set to follow, it’s as if the lunatics are taking over the asylum.
A typically quality-control-free spurt of hyper-creativity, The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2 is impressive but fatally flawed. No matter how strange, sinister, inventive and box fresh the production, Odd Future’s collective obsession – ironic or otherwise – with violence, bitches and fellatio makes them sound depressingly commonplace. (Malcolm Jack)
PSYCH FOLK ALEXANDER TUCKER Third Mouth (Thrill Jockey) ●●●●●
Avant-pop druid Alexander Tucker has long ruled with his explorations of memory, mythology and landscape – from the experimental psalms and pastoral drones of Old Fog (2005), through the otherworldly psych folk of Furrowed Brow (2006), to the high-watermark of last year’s uncanny Thrill Jockey debut, Dorwytch. Third Mouth sees the English
artist cultivate lusher melodic pastures in a record that’s stirring, compelling and glorious. While the choral guitar psalm of ‘Sitting in a Bardo Pond’ goes some way to locating Tucker’s muse it’s the string-drawn psychedelia of ‘A Dried Seahorse’ and the title track’s encircling beauty that best illustrate, and illuminate, Tucker’s command of (un)earthly wonder. (Nicola Meighan)
LO-FI POP TORO Y MOI June 2009 (Carpark) ●●●●●
DIY SYNTH-POP MOTHER GANGA Pineal Soup (Instructional Media) ●●●●● FOLK SEAMUS FOGARTY God Damn You Mountain (Fence Records) ●●●●●
Chillwave pioneer and Carolina native Chazwick Bundick follows up last year’s second release Underneath the Pine with further lo-fi pop trinkets dating back to June 2009, which should be stacked alongside the likes of his pals Washed Out, Aerial Pink and Real Estate. Lewis Cook’s first release as Mother Ganga was made mostly at his girlfriend’s flat, in her bedroom. The 21-year-old calls it ‘electronic haze-pop’, and the wonky results (a limited run of 100 cassettes) show up in time to make a good soundtrack to the sudden burst of early summer.
Originally released as a tour-only Buried beats, warped, gothy
CD-R, there’s enough infectious melody on this repackaged artefact to keep the art school kids entertained, but there’s also an unnecessary amount of throwback chic piled on quickly. Once you step out of the forcefully retro nature of a lot of the guitar- driven tracks, there’s much more life to this release when Toro delves into a funkier realm. (Nick Herd) vocals, melted and bendy analog synthesisers – it’s a lot less doomy than the stuff he’s made with Glasgow’s Cosmic Dead – aka, ‘Scotland’s foremost Hawkwind tribute band’, but retains some of their psych, kraut sounds. Only 20 minutes long, it’s Oneohtrixy, Com Truisey, space-straddling spectral- pop, with a Scottish-accented frill round the edges. (Claire Sawers) ■ soundcloud.com/motherganga
We’re beginning to suspect Fence Records have some secret laboratory in Fife where they genetically splice brilliant musicians to create new wonders. In the case of Irish singer-songwriter Seamus Fogarty, that would involve DNA samples from a James Yorkston nail clipping, a strand of Mark Linkous’ hair and some spit from Jason Lytle, maybe.
This is folk music that nods towards Irish tradition but with a dreamy, mesmerising feel all of its own; echoes of Scotland and rural Americana haunting everything. While the stripped-down tracks in the middle display Fogarty’s songwriting chops, it’s the more experimental beginning and ending that really demonstrate an exciting talent. (Doug Johnstone)
FOLK-ROCK TREMBLING BELLS FEAT. BONNIE PRINCE BILLY The Marble Downs (Honest Jons) ●●●●● Over three albums in as many years, Trembling Bells have refined their heady mix of courtly psych- folk, Yorkshire country and colliery band jazz, losing some of their rickety charm, while gaining in dynamism and panache. For their latest, lead singer Lavinia Blackwell is given a new sparring partner in Will Oldham, a wolfy colonial aristocrat to her steely English rose. Oldham’s vocals are highly mannered, situated somewhere between backwoods Kentucky and Vivian Stanshall’s Rawlinson End. It works, lending a fustian air to the band’s eccentric Renaissance rock. An intriguing start to what is hopefully an ongoing collaboration. (Stewart Smith)
29 Mar–26 Apr 2012 THE LIST 87