Reviews

Circus ringmaster for the terminally avant-garde, John Cale, spreads his numerous talents across a double CD that comprises a basic chronology of Cale’s musical career to date; from the Velvet Underground and Patti Smith to his recent return to the mainstream with 2003’s Hobosapiens and 2005’s blackAcetate. Featuring artwork by long-time friend Dave McKean, the album was kicked into life when Cale backed by his new band (Dustin Boyer – guitar, Joseph Karnes – bass and Michael Jerome – drums) Continue Reading

When a band starts talking about everything from architecture to the films of Aki Kaurismaki, French Impressionism to modern classical composers such as Arvo Part you can pretty much guarantee they’re not going to be shaking their arse and vomiting out the door of the stretch limo very often. But that’s no bad thing. Sometimes you want something a little more cerebral and a little more challenging. No, I’m not talking about Deal Or No Deal, I’m talking about another Continue Reading

Skeg and Rob Life started Breakin’ Bread as a club night in 1998 before it morphed into a label releasing numerous 7”s, 12”s, CD’s and LP’s. Now the whole fabulously grubby event has metamorphosed into one dirtybeatbreakinfunkandhiphop series of compilations beginning with The Deadly 7 Sins in 2001 (selling over 10,000 copies worldwide) and evolving into this, their second release and handpicking the finest beat bakin tunes since the pair’s last release. And for those who’ve got most of this Continue Reading

The head girl of ragged pre-grunge/riot-grrrl sweet-tonsiled US indie, with her influential band Throwing Muses (also featuring the equally spell-binding Tanya Donnelly in their formative years), has spent much of her solo life toning things down a little, seeking a sunlit zen, a folk-brushed calm, learning to sing like an angel, or indeed a star. Perversely, now she’s named an album as such, that’s not exactly the case anymore. Obviously driven by her aggressive metal-plated head-shaking side project 50ft Wave Continue Reading

What exactly are we expecting here? Do Bloc Party owe us anything? Are they, or should they be, held responsible for whatever you think it is they are responsible? And what is that? How important are they and this album, to their own sense of being, to the more general musical landscape in 2007 and to the wider world? Does the theory match the practice? Do they matter, at all, in the end? All questions worth chewing on as you Continue Reading

An unavoidable truth will follow this sentence. “New” rave (© 2006/7) is, by and large, about as rave as my Nanna. Thus dispelling a great myth of the quite present. But at least Klaxons’ inclusion in the whole construct has some basis in logic – the whole thing, of course, largely sprung from the fact that their debut single ‘Atlantis To Interzone’ sounded like the KLF chewing on a rusted metal wasp under medically inadvisable strobe lighting. And for being Continue Reading

Nauseating, you could say. But then you could also say that about riding the Big One rollercoaster in dead seaside town Blackpool after a few jars and with a mild trepidation of heights, and that turned out to be an awful lot of fun in the end. The man’s voice is almost certain to leave you suffering from motion sickness at points, but it’s much less dental-drill-through-polystyrene than Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and a little less psychotic-hick than Modest Continue Reading

‘In The Countryside’ – flashes of a White Album Rocky Racoon stumbling through a cartoon Dakota woodland in a Bunny Foo Foo outfit with a box of Marc Bolan records under one arm and clutching a bunch of balloons in the other; the record’s charming dumb logic, it’s whistles and bells and its wood shack drum skills in total harmony with their shuffling, acoustic surroundings and the undisciplined behaviour of auxiliary character, Ferree – a kind of latterday Alan-a-dale. And Continue Reading

Gambling is the leisure pastime of the devil, obviously. Wicked, addictive, packed with false promise, bright colours and short-lived fulfilment, it’s the full-blown commercialisation of sin, the scourge of the vulnerable, and it’s coming to a town near you soon with bells and neon bolted on courtesy of our government. Now, say thank you. We’d never endorse the act of gambling (and that includes watching bloody ITV after midnight), but if you were going to have a bash you could Continue Reading

Their debut was a thing of crystal-clean beauty, a gentle embryonic exploration of sound and its seemingly organic evolution, entwined with man made materials. Folktronica leaving the garden like a breakaway vine. It was almost onomatopoeic too, with regards to its existence; they were dismembered, split between Texas and Manchester, UK. They sounded just like you’d imagine the long-distance exchange of idea strands could sound like – a high-altitude, weightless meeting of minds somewhere over the Atlantic. Which was fine Continue Reading