That fella out of the Police. No, not Sting. The other one.

While avoiding work and listening to the great Moon Wiring Club ASDA mix that can be downloaded here...

http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/3623/

...I stumbled across this short interview I did with Stewart Copeland out of the Police, many moons ago. It's one of those stock question and answer things, but I thought I'd dredge it out. They didn't run with my strap, sadly. Wonder why?

Stewart Copeland
He likes Squarepusher and urban hostility

What music are you currently grooving to?

I like a variety of stuff. DJ Spooky gave me a bunch of his records and I like them. He’s combined all kinds of urban hostility with beautiful, ethereal world elements. There’s a cool artist called Jesca Hoop who’s recording an album. Her producer’s a buddy and they’re probably gonna hussle me into recording a track with her.

What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album?

I would pick any of the first three Jimi Hendrix albums, but Electric Ladyland particularly. It had the best drums and the best guitar. I would sneak into the language lab in boarding school to listen to this record because I didn’t have a record player in my dorm.

What was the first record you bought? And where did you buy it?

Help! by The Beatles. I was in Beirut. A friend of mine was going back to the States for a couple of weeks and I gave him money to buy me something American. So he bought me an English album!

Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be?

Sting. Bastard can sing! I envy John Adams. He writes orchestral pieces and his works are performed all over the world. He lives up north of San Francisco in a beautiful place. He probably doesn’t even have an agent and he needs no contact with the real world. I wouldn’t mind a livelihood that allows me to live out in the mountains with the wind in my hair.

What do you sing in the shower?

I don’t. I make political speeches. I sing to the girls in the car though. (Sings) “You’re a little bunny rabbit and I’m daddy, we’re all going out to play.” All the back seat’s squirming, “Dad! Shut up!” I try to lead them in song to keep them from fighting. It doesn’t work. I’m sure my kids will grow up scarred and demented.

What is your favourite Saturday night record?

For going out, probably Latin music. Before I got satellite radio I’d just listen to Mexican radio stations and whoever came on would be great.

And your Sunday morning record?

Either Blondie, B-52s or Jimi Hendrix. That trades with whatever my girls play me. The boys turned me onto Squarepusher and Leftfield, but they’re grown up now. The girls are into Japanese pop music. The lamer it is, the more they get a thrill.

The logic of chance

The full version of my review of the stunningly awful new Dan Le Sac/Scroobius Pip album...



Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip – The Logic of Chance

Remember Legz Akimbo? They were a theatre troupe from The League of Gentlemen. All they wanted was to help The Kids by putting on plays about topical issues. Unfortunately, they were rubbish. See that, Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip? That’s you that is.

Sac and Pip, you may recall, are the duo behind ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’, the late noughties semi-hit which poked fun at hipsters, gangster-wannabes, musos and just about everyone else. It was a novelty record, sure, but a witty and sonically interesting one.

And now here’s their second album. It’s not good. In fact, The Logic of Chance may be the most patronising, tedious and curiously reactionary record you hear this year. It’s like being hectored by someone who gets all their news from Comment Is Free, but in the form of really bad rap. Imagine Chumbawamba recording a hip-hop album and you’re close to how piss poor this really is.

So ‘Get Better’ is a lame attempt at euphoric disco. It imagines a song that provides helpful criticism for youngsters. But if such a song exists, it isn’t this. Despite it’s ear-wormy chant of “get better”, over and over again, the centrepiece is a rant about the shortness of girls skirts and predatory teenage boys.

‘Great Britain’ is worse, ending as it does with Sac - Enraged of Tunbridge Wells - reading out knife crime statistics. It’s fist-in-mouth embarrassing, even on headphones. Other subjects include political apathy and, er, being a music snob.

This is hip-hop for people who hate hip-hop. They’ve stripped away the violence and the bullshit, sure, but also all the passion, grit, sex and fun. There’s nothing wrong with mixing politics and music, but give us some decent tunes too please.

Rating: 2/10

A reminder

I dreamt about my dad and woke up thinking that he was still alive.

Later on 'A Reminder' by Radiohead came on, on shuffle. There’s no explicit link, but dad died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1998, probably about a year or so after this song came out, and it feels connected in my head somehow.

If I get old, I will not give in
But if I do, remind me of this.
Remind me that, once I was free,
Once I was cool, once I was me.

And if I sat down, and crossed my arms,
Hold me into, this song.

Knock me out, smash out my brains,
If I take a chair, start to talk shit...

If I get old, remind me of this:
That night we kissed, and I really meant it.

Whatever happens, if we're still speaking.
Pick up the phone, play me this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXX_hoSmWNs

Upon the ritual hour, they meet beneath the trees

Brrrr... rubbish day. But! You can download a free EP by Moon Wiring Club here:

http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/3723/

And you should, because he/they are really rather wonderful. The finest purveyor of hauntological sounds not on Ghost Box, by my reckoning.

If you like that, head on over to www.blankworkshop.co.uk and see what else Mr Hodgson and his eerie animal-faced singers have to offer.

In unrelated news, I recently interviewe Eve Myles from TV's Torchwood/Doctor Who. And what a very lovely lady she was too. You can read that at the link below, if you like.

http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=eve_myles_interview_exclusive#comments

Breathe out

Hmm... Wrote this a fortnight ago, saved it and forgot. Oops.

REALLY DIGGING…

Charlotte Gainsbourg’s album IRM.

Partly this is because I’m a Beck fanboy, and he produced it. You can tell – a lot of it sounds like his last album, Modern Guilt. There are also a couple of weird bits that sound like Gainsbourg aping Beck, who’s spent his career aping her dad…

But mainly I like it for Gainsbourg herself. She hasn’t got an amazing voice, but she has character, and an impressive ability to swap between soulful, sensual and scary. On ‘Me And Jane Doe’ she sounds as artfully flat as Laetitia Stereolab, and the title track has a lovely industrial buzz, as awkwardly groovy as Broadcast's 'Pendulum'. You can hear it here (and check the natty stop-motion video) http://vimeo.com/8068355.

OVERRATED HALF-BAKED DANCE-LITE BOLLOCKS

See below for my unpublished Clash review of the re-released Psychonauts album, due out some time this month.

Psychonauts – Songs For Creatures

“Eclectic” doesn’t quite do this album, from the formerly Mo’ Wax aligned duo, justice. Over its 12 tracks, Songs For Creatures somehow packs in electro-folk, jazzy-house and Depeche Mode pastichery.

It gets off to a cracking start: ‘Circles’ is beguilingly lovely, with vocals that recall a softer Devendra. A couple of tracks later and ‘Empty Love’ is a towering analog banger. But then it all comes apart at the seams…

The album was first released in 2003, so it’s no surprise that it sounds a little dated in places, but there’s no excuse for the generic dance-lite of ‘Hot Blood’ and the tracks that follow it. ‘Fear Is Real’ aside, the album never regains its footing. Enjoyable enough, but with more filler than a branch of B&Q.

Rating: 5/10


OH, ALRIGHT…

I quite like the new Vampire Weekend album, and retract my snarky comments in the last post. It is actually quite good, though I feel a bit dirty admitting to it.

I have icicles on my eyelids

Or at least that's what it feels like.

It’s stupidly cold in Bath today. The sort of low temperature that makes being outside physically painful. I love Winter, tis my favourite season of all, but this is just silly.



Anyhow, a new track from Liars. Alright, it’s been kicking around the net for a couple of weeks, but I’ve been lazy. As ever with these guys, it grows in the listening. Really, I’m jumping around the room as I type. Also, doesn’t that opening “hrrrrrrrmmmmm!” sound weirdly like the beginning of Children of the Stones?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZzjH8vWOfI

And you can download it for keeps here...

http://www.thesisterworld.com/


And a classic from that slightly patchy last album…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-r8HWri41s&feature=fvw

Had a first listen to the new Vampire Weekend album Contra today. Granted, they’re not really my kind of music, but I sorta liked parts of that first album. This time, I’m even less sure. I guess you’ve got to almost admire a band that tries their hand at cod-reggae. Don’t you?

Yeah, maybe not.



http://www.clashmusic.com/live-review/live-broadcasthttp://www.clashmusic.com/live-review/live-broadcast

My review of Broadcast’s show at the Bristol Cube last month. A really fantastic night by one of our most perennially underrated bands.

I wonder what's the latest acceptable date for wishing people a happy new year?

If you think that's expensive guys - try war!

With thanks to tonight's Question Time for the lovely header.

There's a cracking new tune from Portishead (yes I know, only a year after their last record) available. It can be listened to and downloaded here, with all proceeds going to Amnesty International.

http://www.7digital.com/portisheadamnesty

It's great. Upbeat! And still showing some of the krautrock influences at work on Third and the recent Beak> album. Lovely.