Month: March 2008

Fresh and funky. Tracks like ‘Woman To Womb’ happen to be the aural equivalent of opening several windows in some depraved smoky basement in Camberwell; flash brass stabs, the clatter of assorted percussion, some handclaps and some slinky funk-bass. Of course the psychedelic influence is square to the floor and there’s no end of tinkling jazz embellishments rippling beneath Philly’s sleepily skittish vocals. ‘Fish To Fry’ is a classic example: double-bass, a smattering of ivories, some slippery rhymes and flows Continue Reading

Bauhaus slid fully formed from punk rock’s womb in late 1978.  Over the course of four hot years, the unintentionally birthed a genre (Goth), moved on, moved forward and surged mercurial through the post-punk music scene, tearing into tense, stark, dub-bass driven new-wave, T-Rex-esque glam, and swirling, clattering, orchestral atmospherics, whilst churning it all into a grand velvet, Rimbaudian hallucination.  It was a wild, inspired, enthralling sound – thoroughly derivative of course – but marvellously so, especially for those who Continue Reading

There are always two ways to approach a hangover: you can either stay in bed till noon and sleep it off sipping at a glass of water in an effort to baptise the pain, or you can drag yourself downstairs, immerse yourself in coffee and daytime television and make the occasional pass at both your housemate and sobriety. And this is pretty much what we have here: a lo-fi, slightly inexpert, slightly impaired plea bargain. Whether it’s the wine ‘validating Continue Reading

To be honest, few labels stick to their principles as fiercely and uncompromisingly as Ninja Tune – the London-based independent record label started in 1991 by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut. More popularly known for nurturing DJs and producer ‘projects’ like DJ Shadow, Kid Koala, Spank Rock, Mr Scruff and cLOUDDEAD the label recently set up another imprint, Counter Records to release the debut album from diminutive Scouse rebel-rouser, Pop Levi (The Return To Form Continue Reading

‘Re-rewind, when the crowd say Bo Selecta’. That’s how it went, and up went the cry in every bar room, in every club and in every city in every town at the back end of the nineties. What did it mean? I have no idea. Never did, and because I didn’t it, it means I had no real right to know. But that’s the beauty of tracks like this, they alienate as many people as they involve – which is Continue Reading

It’s inevitable that people are going to speculate on whether or not this US-UK boy-girl duo have deliberately constructed their fashionably lo-fi ‘anti-music’ attitude; afterall, the cover art for the band’s first ‘Black Rooster EP, featured Mosshart and Hince arsing around in a photo-booth with the pouts the size of balloons, doing their best to look cool and undaunted. It was the war cry of someone reluctant to get out of bed in the morning – not revolutionary exactly, more Continue Reading

Wish I had a had a different road-map for this one, as the one I have is dogged-eared, covered in coffee-stains and falling apart at the seams from years of systematic abuse by young and deeply psychedelic celestial beings out to redefine boundaries eked out already rather satisfactorily by John Lennon’s ‘Mind Games’ and Sparklehorse’s ‘Good Morning Spider’. Not that it’s an unpleasant read by any means; rich tapestries of timorous, fragile vocals, hypnotic arpeggios, cellos weeping like cherubim and Continue Reading

To be honest they’ve been around a few years now, so there seems little point in rolling out all manner of shocking announcements and introductions. The band are from Montreal in Canada and, let’s face it, given that we’ve had no end of successful Canadian bands in the last five years – Arcade Fire, The Dears, Hot Hot Heat, Broken Social Scene, New Pornographers, Stellastarr* – it seems equally unworthy to start banging on about ‘new scenes’ and unruly, national Continue Reading

So, it’s hardly “hold the front page, Rupert!”, earthquakingly astounding  news (though recent Richter-scale bothering tremors in the UK have to be assigned to something we suppose), but Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds have made another truly great album. Remarkable, even. That has become such a given after 14 albums that it feels like it’s barely worth mentioning anymore. But there’s always something to exclaim about, that too is a guarantee, and ‘Dig!!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!’ has plenty of opportunity Continue Reading