list.co.uk/music FOLK/POP CATE LE BON Mug Museum (Turnstile) ●●●●●
SOUL/FUNK/HIP-HOP RAE & CHRISTIAN Mercury Rising ●●●●● Records | MUSIC
She’s one of the crown jewels of the contemporary Welsh indie scene, but this third album from the majestic Cate Le Bon feels strangely unsatisfying when you compare it with the achievements of its predecessors. There’s something in the tone of it that suggests it’s being pulled in a couple of directions at once, at the same time being a lo-fi, low-key folk-pop offering in a very contemporary sense, and a stab at the epic, timeless sweep of everyone from Nico in her sonorous, fragile Velvet Underground days to Sandy Denny and her ethereal folk style.
Such a combination sounds great on paper, although the sense is that maybe
Le Bon should have jumped in one direction or the other throughout this California-recorded of fering. Her vocal on the opening ‘I Can’t Help You’ is really lovely, particularly with a layer of reverb on top of it, but the guitar line running alongside sounds tinny and somehow frivolous. There’s a similar sense on the halting ‘Are You With Me Now’, while ‘Duke’ thankfully pushes her vocals further up in the mix, and it’s all the better for it. A similar tension persists throughout the album, and the quality and drama of Le Bon’s voice are never quite served by the music. One can only imagine how the riot grrl prowl ‘Wild’ or the Hammond-led garage rush of ‘Sisters’ might sound if they were performed on the live stage, but hopefully they’d be more expansive and attention-grabbing than they are here.
It is 15 years since Mark Rae and Steve Christian released the Mercury Award-nominated Northern Sulphuric Soul, a debut that drew comparisons with Massive Attack’s Blue Lines thanks to its slick combination of hip hop and soul. Their 2001 follow-up, Sleepwalking, followed a similar musical blueprint, both albums characterised by their impressive array of guests, including Bobby Womack, the Pharcyde and the Jungle Brothers. Taking a lengthy break from recording together, Rae went on to produce two
solo albums, while Christian has been involved with renowned jazz label Verve, the pair eventually reuniting four years ago to begin work on Mercury Rising. Following in the footsteps of its predecessors, the end result shows just how accomplished a studio pairing the duo are, expertly combining their chosen palette of musical elements and influences to create a sound that this time round is more centred on electronic-tinged folk and pop, a point emphasised by their choice of collaborators. Bar the appearances of Jazzy Jeff and Agent 86’s scratching skills on ‘Check the Technique’ and Mystro, Masta Ace and Pete Simpson’s rhymes atop ‘A2B’, the input of starrier hip-hop and soul names has been replaced by a number of talented but lesser-known artists and singers, a change that better highlights the pair’s increased focus on songwriting.
Infectious opener ‘Happy’ offers a perfect illustration of this, Mark Foster’s cheery vocal soaring over a shuffling groove, amid whistling, acoustic guitar and
Yet a below-par Le Bon is still an artist who’s well worth paying attention to. And those points that do bring her voice and music into synchronicity – including the Perfume Genius duet ‘I Think I Knew’ and the delicate psychedelia of ‘Cuckoo Through the Walls’ – offer a power and a crystallised femininity that are entirely in keeping with the record’s lightly themed tribute to her late grandmother and the women in the singer’s family line. (David Pollock)
keys; ‘1975’ transforms from a tech-house groove into an epic folk-style ode to redemption lost on Berlin’s underground sung by Sam Genders of Diagrams. Elsewhere, Gita Langley, Ed
Harcourt and Kate Rogers sing on ‘Still Here’, ‘The Ballad of Roza Shanina’ and ‘Still Life Freefall’ respectively, these three tracks the best examples of Rae and Christian’s shift in musical direction, the duo also showing off their ability to craft catchy pop on the Jake Emlyn-sung ‘Favourite Game’. (Colin Chapman)
POP BEST COAST Fade Away (Jewel City) ●●●●● AMERICANA/INDIE HOWE GELB The Coincidentalist (New West) ●●●●●
Best Coast’s breezy, sun-kissed indie-rock created such a kerfuffle when it emerged into the world three years ago that it’s hard to forget it was just that – almost throwaway songs about love, weed and cats presented with an endearing nonchalance and lo-fi charm. Frontwoman Bethany Cosentino was suddenly a Pitchfork pin-up and fast-tracked to that crazy crossover ‘mainstream indie’ world that usually involves designing a range of T-shirts for Urban Outfitters, doing an awkward duet with a rapper, having a famous actor direct one of your videos, getting routinely filleted on acidic blog Hipster Runoff, and being papped playing Jenga with Johnny Depp in Greggs at 4am. All of these things happened to Best Coast (bar one) and their profile – or Cosentino’s at least, bandmate Bobb Bruno usually being spared – almost swamped their blithely appealing songcraft. To their credit, the duo don’t seem to have been overly bothered by that early media foofaraw, and this mini-LP released on Cosentino’s own Jewel City label shows they have the ability still to write songs with crunching hooks and moreish choruses. It’s conceived in anticipation of heading into the studio to record a ‘full album proper’ for next year, but considering Best Coast’s previous two albums just about break the half-hour mark, this snappy seven-song collection is not much shorter. Anyway, timekeeping aside, if this is an indication of what the future holds then Best Coast are not about to tinker with their formula of blissed-out earworms.
These may not be meaty morsels that you will savour for an especially long
period – but the great thing about instant musical gratification is that endorphin rush of cheerily singing along after hearing a song for the first time, and openers ‘This Lonely Morning’ and ‘I Wanna Know’ have that gift. The more languid ‘Fear of My Identity’ has more poise, while title track ‘Fade Away’ has a heavier, MBV-ish leitmotif. It’s not revolutionary, but Best Coast’s dutiful adherence to simple, catchy tunes has an easygoing, infectious appeal. (Mark Keane)
The continuing adventures of Howe Gelb are one of indie rock’s most rewarding sagas. Having spent much of the last decade in Denmark, Gelb recently reconnected with his Arizonan hometown, uniting musicians from both locations on last year’s Giant Giant Sand extravaganza, Tucson. That album was one of Gelb’s most ambitious projects to date, a ‘country-rock opera’ graced by the sonorous tenor of Brian Lopez, a Mariachi horn section and the romantic sway of Cumbia rhythms. By contrast, The Coincidentalist is a stripped-down affair, putting Gelb’s dusty crackle of a voice, guitar plunk and piano clunk centre- stage. The core band here is Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Giant Sand double bassist Thøger Tetens Lund, joined by all-star guests Andrew Bird, KT Tunstall, M. Ward and Will Oldham. The latter duets with Gelb on album highlight ‘Vortexas’, making like some bizarro world Merle Haggard and George Jones. These two sages of off-centre Americana go together like sasparilla and cherry, with Oldham’s loquacious and over-ripe croon a delicious foil to Gelb’s parched murmur. The music is elegant and spare, with soft jabs of electric piano and gorgeous water vapour harmonies floating over Shelley’s funky clockwork shuffle. Tunstall’s association with Gelb is one of those happy coincidences the album title alludes to. Relaxed and soulful, she sounds right at home on ‘The 3 Deaths of Lucky’ trading romantic verses with Gelb. ‘Triangulate’ sees her channel the B-52’s Kate Pierson, cat-calling over a gutsy soul vamp, while on ‘Picacho Peak’ she is the Sharon Robinson to Gelb’s Leonard Cohen, cushioning his ruminations with moonlit harmonies.
While not the best introduction to Gelb’s ramshackle muse (newbies are directed to Giant Sand’s elegiac masterpiece Chore of Enchantment or the peyote bubblegrunge of Center of the Universe) The Coincidenalist is a low-key gem, revealing its subtle magic over repeated listens. (Stewart Smith)
17 Oct–14 Nov 2013 THE LIST 85