MUSIC | Records – Jazz & World ALSO RELEASED
SUEDE Bloodsports (Warner) ●●●●● HOMEWORK 3 Towers (Home From Home) ●●●●●
Brett Anderson mourns ‘car alarms / making us feel so low’ in the dour ‘Power of Love’isms of ‘Faultlines’, exemplifying how this first (sadly still Bernard Butler-less) new album in 11 years is no more or less than we expect from Suede: finely honed metropolitan disaffection, overwrought drama. An elder but equally impassioned return to their finest form. (David Pollock)
THE STROKES Comedown Machine (Rough Trade) ●●●●●
From most important US band to dull revivalists retreading former glories, Julian Casablancas and co. regain credibility here, in the sense that this follow-up to 2011’s Angles tries something different. It’s not a classic, however. The sleek New Wavery of stand-outs ‘Tap Out’ and ‘Chances’ fails to disguise a lack of incessant choruses which first caught the imagination. (DP) EDWYN COLLINS Understated (AED) ●●●●●
New music from former Orange Juice singer Edwyn Collins is a life-affirming thing, not just due to the health scare which nearly ended his life in 2005. On ‘It’s a Reason’ his voice is tenderly powerful, while the joyous Glaswegian soul of ‘Carry On, Carry On’ and a misty-eyed take on ‘Love’s Been Good to Me’ are among his finest recent works. (DP) ■ See interview, page 112. WAVVES Afraid of Heights (Mom+Pop) ●●●●●
San Diego garage punk Nathan Williams (pictured) unleashes a sure break-through alt.rocker of Weezeresque proportions, stuffed with nasal whines, choppy guitar solos and a Jenny Lewis cameo on the surf anthem title track. What it lacks in originality it makes up for in energy, with John Hill's (MIA, Rihanna) production twisting many of these songs in new and interesting directions. (DP)
Recorded in an old lighthouse, this formidable debut from Edinburgh’s Homework is awash with volatile synth- pop, industrial wig-outs and brooding electronica. Conjuring Public Image Limited, LCD Soundsystem, Ultravox, Franz Ferdinand and fellow Auld Reekie art-rockers FOUND, 3 Towers’ highlights include the shimmering death-disco of ‘The Edge Of Control Was Black’ and a thrilling machine- pop epic in the gorgeous ‘6s and 7s’. (Nicola Meighan) ■ To win a copy, see page 84.
LOCH LOMOND Dresses (Chemikal Undergrnd) ●●●●● Ritchie Young’s Portland, Oregon ensemble has issued myriad gems since 2003, but this enthralling chamber-folk opus marks LL’s most melancholic and sonically dramatic work to date. Exploring love, depression and freedom via wry humour, giddy harmonies and orchestral splendour, it’s a liberating widescreen choral-pop album, and a precious one at that. (NM)
JAVELIN Hi Beams (Luaka Bop) ●●●●● Song one on this Brooklyn duo's second LP is ‘Light Out’; ironic because they make some of the brightest experimental pop around – and that’s part of the problem. Yet what Hi Beams lacks in emotional range it makes up for in colossal synth anthems. ‘Judgement’'s intergalactic MOR is nigh-on parodic, yet hard not to fall for. (NM)
MUDHONEY Vanishing Point (Sub Pop) ●●●●●
Days go by, seasons pass, and suddenly it’s the 25th anniversary of these Seattle garage-rockers and their kindred label, Sub Pop. Not ones to rest on their laurels (inventing grunge; inspiring Nirvana; ripping it up with blues-punk forebears The Stooges), Mudhoney prove they’re still slacker kings of searing, unhinged super-fuzz. (NM)
80 THE LIST 21 Mar–18 Apr 2013
JAZZ & WORLD JAZZ DECOY WITH JOE MCPHEE Spontaneous Combustion (Otoroku) ●●●●●
A veteran free-jazzer (check out his 1971 classic Nation Time for a righteous blast of fire music, James Brown funk and radical black politics), Joe McPhee has made some of his most adventurous and vital work in recent years. This head-spinning live set with London organ trio Decoy is testament to the beauty and invention of McPhee’s pocket trumpet and saxophone playing, moving through the alien landscape of Steve Noble’s
chiming metallic percussion, John Edwards’ inquisitive bass and Alexander Hawkins’ outer-limits organ. A remarkable player, Hawkins coaxes high cosmic tones, hovering UFO drones and Sun Ra death-rays from his Hammond B3, helping to create a strangely beautiful gas planet atmosphere. The lyricism and sense of space makes the wilder moments – a demented organ freak-out, and a hair-raising passage where McPhee answers Noble’s galumphing floor-tom lurch by wailing into his sax – all the more arresting. (Stewart Smith)
JAZZ FIRE! ORCHESTRA Exit! (Rune Gramofon) ●●●●●
We know Mats Gustafsson is an insatiable collaborator, but this is ridiculous. Exit! sees the intrepid saxophonist expand his jazz-rock trio Fire! into a 30-strong big band. As with previous Fire! releases, the music is driven by Johan Berthling and Andreas Werlin’s hypnotic krautrock grooves, but instead of just Gustafsson wailing on top, we have a whole horn section, plus pin-point piano bombs from Sten Sandell, fizzing electronics and barbed-wire guitars. Crucially, Gustafsson understands the importance of space, organising the orchestra into smaller cells to create a range of textures and dynamics, making the final free-for-all all the more climactic. Fans of Gustafsson’s work with Neneh Cherry will appreciate the central roles for Sofia Jernberg and Mariam Wallentin (of Wildbirds & Peacedrums), who charge Arnold De Boer’s elliptical lyrics with brooding Scandinavian blues and leave nerves twitching with improvised babble and howl. A thrilling gambit. (Stewart Smith)
WORLD ROKIA TRAORE Beautiful Africa (Nonesuch) ●●●●●
Rokia Traore has an extraordinary voice, a deceptively gentle alto to which she brings a vibrato that can be tender or fierce. This, her fifth album, sees Traore working with PJ Harvey producer John Parish, who deftly combines a natural live sound with analogue effects. Opening track ‘Lalla’ is the most conventionally Malian of the tracks, with kora and Ali Farka Toure style guitar. Yet Traore makes it her own by adding harmonised backing
vocals and a jazzy stand-up bass. ‘Kouma’ reaches a riveting climax thanks to Polar Bear drummer Seb Rochford’s lean and driving rhythms and thrillingly raw guitars from Traore and Parish. The experiments continue on ‘Tuit Tuit’ which sees birdsong and itchy high-life guitars refracted through prisms of delay, and the remarkable title track, where Traore addresses the unrest in her homeland in an impassioned English-language rap over spitting wah-wah guitar and an infectious groove. Superb. (Stewart Smith)
WORLD LOS CHINCHES Fongo (Movimientos Records) ●●●●● Sharing its name with a popular South American corn- based alcoholic drink, chicha is a music style from 60s Peru, where hot cumbia rhythms sweat it out alongside pentatonic Andean melodies and groovy psychedelic fuzz. London-based Los Chinches update it, bringing chippy ska rhythms and a festival-friendly energy to the retro style. Instrumentally, they’re very good indeed, particularly the Latin American percussionists who propel the tunes across the dancefloor. The Ventures-style surf guitar and rinky-dink Farfisa organ of ‘El Longing’ is irresistible, while ‘Mueve Calor’ brings the psychedelic spy movie vibe of The Specials’ second album to the Amazon. Vocal tracks, ‘Senorita, Can You Tell?’ and ‘Be Still, My Beating Corazon’ are the weakest; Marty Shtrubel’s decidely unfunky vocals sound out of place, while the jokey punter-waiter dialogue loop of ‘Gracias’ is a bit too cute. (Stewart Smith)