MUSIC | Records
ALBUM OF THE ISSUE
PSYCH ROCK THE COSMIC DEAD EasterFaust (Sound of Cobra) ●●●●● It’s been a privilege to witness the evolution of Glasgow’s own psychonauts The Cosmic Dead over the last few years. In their protoplasmic stage, they had a pretty fluid line-up, a core trio augmented by itinerant satellite musicians – and the early gigs were
heavy on the onslaught, a relentless barrage of chaos and smoke and noise and propulsion. Since their solidification into a stable quartet, the Dead have toured relentlessly, gained a pretty respectable international following and, crucially, evolved far beyond their shaggy, brutish, nascent form. Last year, the band spent a week in a garage studio on the west coast of Scotland with maverick production wizard Luigi Pasquini. The result is EasterFaust, a limited-edition 12” comprising two 20-minute jams – a vast, rich offering to the gods of speed and volume. ‘EasterFaust Part One’ starts in a dazed psychedelic crawl, with spacefaring whale noises and woozy android vocals, recalling its namesake’s krautrock vibes. After a few minutes’ gentle meandering, we slip into a bright and optimistic groove, which builds, builds and builds again, adding layers and density and velocity. The side-B jam, ‘EasterFaust Part Two’, is more direct, exploding into a super-impertinent stop-start rock’n’roll riff, before exploring myriad permutations of sublimely heavy synapse abuse. While undeniably relentless, it’s not a matter of hitting a groove and driving it into the ground. Rather, it’s a living, breathing sound that’s constantly, seamlessly evolving into new transitional forms for which all four players have equal responsibility. Quite brilliant, and a great test ament to how far these voyagers have travelled. (Matt Evans) ■ The Cosmic Dead play Bar Bloc, Glasgow, Thu 17 Apr, with Howie Reeve.
ELECTRO-POP BABE Volery Flighty (Moshi Moshi) ●●●●●
Talented pals – who needs them? Fife-born Gerard Black’s Glasgow/Bordeaux- based brainchild Babe (also featuring Amaury Ranger, Thomas Ogden and Michael Marshall, a bandmate of Gerard’s in defunct Scottish synth-pop group Findo Gask) have been progressing towards a debut album for several years now, in which time his stock has risen and yet also been slightly obscured by association with other successful artists.
François Marry’s gallic-pop wonders Frànçois and the Atlas Mountains (see review, right), of whom Black and Ranger are both also members, have signed to Domino and grown steadily in stature, while sometime Babe co-conspirator Lauren Mayberry’s Chvrches have exploded internationally. Not exactly helping matters in giving Volery Flighty a strong start in life is the rather self-defeating scheduling of its release – just a week after Francois’ new album Piano Ombre.
But, much as circumstances may try and force Volery Flighty into the background, this is an album that refuses to pass by unnoticed. While maybe not the most consistent slice of globe-tripping, Francophile electro-pop you’ll hear all year, it yields several glorious moments, lead single ‘Aerialist Barbette’ being the most obvious, as Black’s fallen-angel falsetto weaves between liquid guitar lines and Mayberry’s plaintive backing vocals, which – as they do throughout the record, most alluringly on the woozy ‘Oft’ – float in and out of the sonic spectrum with an almost dreamlike essence. ‘Trip Wire’ could be Euros Childs collided with Sebastian Tellier. ‘Tilt’, with its taut funk bassline and luminous chorus, gets douze points just for squeezing in the word ‘brouhaha’.
Volery Flighty surely merits a reheat further down the line under more favourable release conditions, and proves that among the tight knot of gifted songwriters and musicians with which Black has become intertwined, as an individual player and songwriter he’s no loose link. (Malcolm Jack) ■ Babe support La Luz at Mono, Glasgow, Tue 1 Apr.
PSYCH-FOLK TWO WINGS A Wake (Tin Angel Records) ●●●●● REGGAE/DUB/DANCEHALL PRINCE FATTY VS MUNGO’S HI-FI Prince Fatty Vs Mungo’s Hi-Fi (Mr Bongo) ●●●●●
Let us play a game in which we attempt to swerve the adjective ‘soaring’ when discussing the uplifting folk-rock wonder of Glasgow five-piece Two Wings. It is a nigh-impossible task, such is the quintet’s knack for airborne verse and self- propelling arias, as evinced on their glorious second album A Wake.
Look at their name from any angle and it resonates: the folk-rock lineage (Wings); the gospel-blues riffage (reminiscent of the Rev Utah Smith’s ‘Two Wings’); the avian fascination that vocalist/artist Hanna Tuulikki (also part of trio Nalle) has long explored in her work; the fact that vocalist/guitarist Ben Reynolds (Trembling Bells) issued a solo album called Two Wings in 2008. A Wake similarly inhabits and explores the myriad meanings of its title, from the accelerating gospel-rock valediction of ‘Adieu’, through the choral porch- swing blues of ‘A Wake To The Dream’, to the drum-tumbling madrigal swoon of ‘Loveless’, in which Tuulikki chronicles lovers in flight, and their ardour fading like vapour behind them.
Tuulikki’s vocal intonations in ‘Loveless’ are likely to garner Kate Bush comparisons (both are truly singular vocalists), and there’s no doubting (or resisting) the gorgeous, cosmic Fleetwood Mac-isms of ‘Stranger’, thanks to lavish instrumentation and arrangements – embellished by percussionist Owen Curtis Williams, bassist Kenny Wilson and vocalist Lucy Duncombe – that echo through the album.
But amid their vintage reference points (soft-rock, fried-country, ceilidh- bombast, psalm-singing, Memphis Soul), there are surprises. Euphoric opener ‘Peace-Fear’ invokes Phil Collins and Phil Bailey’s ‘Easy Lover’ in its maiden beats (this is intended as the highest of praise), and there’s some brassy, blues-folk bump’n’grind on ‘You Give Me Love’ – hot as you like, for the bedtime hour. It’s followed by a post-coital swansong, ‘Go to Sleep’, which sees the band sing in unison, ‘awake with the sun’. You bet Two Wings soar. (Nicola Meighan)
74 THE LIST 20 Mar–17 Apr 2014
Receiving little mainstream exposure, soundsystem culture is integral to the survival of the UK reggae scene. Prince Fatty vs Mungo’s Hi-Fi pays homage to the classic tradition of the soundsystem soundclash, each crew remixing tracks from the other’s catalogue in a north-versus-south battle of the dubs. Brighton producer/engineer Mike ‘Prince Fatty’ Pelaconi’s analogue-heavy productions for the likes of Little Roy, Winston Francis, Horseman and Hollie Cook take their cue from early 70s roots reggae and lovers rock, while Glasgow’s Mungo’s Hi-Fi have used their studio skills to push the sounds of dub and dancehall in more electronic-focused directions. For the first half of the album, Prince Fatty takes to the controls of his custom-
made, hi-grade mixing console. On ‘Herbalist’ he shapes a choppy guitar and rubbery bassline to form the backdrop for Topcat’s toasting lyrical style as he boasts his passion for marijuana, before dripping echo and reverb over the Sugar Minnot-sung, winding groove of ‘Scrub A Dub Style’. ‘Did You Really Know’ sees Soom T provide a cheery vocal atop a sunny arrangement of brass, bongo, guitar and Hammond organ, then Ishu and Junior Dread show off their quick-fire MC skills on police-protest song ‘Under Arrest’; Fatty then signs off with his skanking accompaniment to Marina P’s powerfully sung ‘Divorce L’Italienne’.
Mungo’s Hi-Fi partner Hollie Cook’s alluring vocal, describing the desire for her lover as ‘Sugar Water’ running through her veins, with their chugging, metronomic rhythm. ‘Dry Your Tears’ sees the five-man outfit add wobbling bass and hypnotic synths to the soulful, sympathetic lyrics of Winston Francis, while their combination of bright keys and stuttering drums backs Horseman’s rapid, horse-racing loving rhyme on ‘Horsemove’.
Prince Dekker’s is given the heavy dub treatment over the nursery rhyme-style refrain of ‘Say What You’re Saying’, before Mungo’s, merging their digital dub riddims with Cook’s vocal once more on ‘For Me You Are’, round things in sweet style. (Colin Chapman) ■ Mungo’s Hi-Fi play the Art School, Glasgow, Sat 22 Mar.