Crows, ghosts, the midnight coast...

I'M ON HOLIDAY!

And thank fuck for that. So far, 2011 has sucked quite badly. Here's to things improving...

But before I head back up North (I know... wish me luck...), here's a couple of new reviews, all originally published in Clash - which has just had a redesign and looks bloody lovely. See you shortly people.



Tinchy Stryder – Third Strike

After conquering the worlds of grime and fashion you'd think Stryder would be feeling pretty confident, yet much of Third Strike seems preoccupied with addressing his doubters. He doth protest too much. At this point his position as grime's most bankable asset looks unassailable, and this will sell a bazillion. Which is fine, if MOR rap with radio-friendly 'grit' are your thing. The problems come when Stryder strives for soulful, and comes up with Stinking Bishop like the Taio Cruz collab 'Second Chance'. It's all inoffensive stuff. But people of the UK, is that what you want from your rappers?

Rating: 4/10



Roedelius – Selbstportrait 1 and Selbstportrait Vol. 2


Two of the visionary Cluster man's solo releases get a long-awaited reissue. It's quiet, contemplative stuff; with little-to-no percussion, dreamy analog soundscapes emerge from a fog of tape hiss. Hardly the records to put on if you're in the mood for dancing, but two volumes worth of sparse electronic sketches make for an absorbing journey into the great man's mind.

Rating: 7/10



Broken Records - Let Me Come Home

Oh goody, another “new Arcade Fire”. But wait! There’s more to the Scottish sextet’s second album than that comparison suggests. Sure, they share a love of sound, fury and huge emotional peaks, but there’s a vein of gentle folk beneath the bombast.

‘A Darkness Rises Up’ is furiously upbeat and affecting, while ‘Dia Dos Namarados!’ recalls one of Nick Cave’s murder ballads. Over the course of the album, the grandiosity gets wearying, and Jamie Sutherland occasionally sounds like Vic Reeves in full club singer mode. But, at its best, ‘Let Me Come Home’ is a thing of troubled beauty.

7/10

And finally, a link to Telekinesis:

http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/telekinesis-12-desperate-straight-lines

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow night in Bath! Me n' Joss n' Louie will be playing an oddball selection of vinyl curiosities in the city's finest pub. And it's free to get in! Come along and drink yer fill of Bath's strongest ales in fine company. And then do it all over again on the 26th. Go on, it's almost certainly better than staying in for Casualty.

Then, in April, we've got a special performance from all-lady Monks tribute band, the Nuns!



http://www.myspace.com/itsnuntime

Broadcast

Music is emotion. And the emotion I experience when I listen to Broadcast is joy.

I can’t number the reasons why I love this band so much. The opening discordant notes of I Found The F before the drums crash in; Valerie’s beautiful delirium; Come On Let’s Go’s sage advice (“stop looking for answers in everyone’s face”); walking through Bath in the snow with Winter Now on... too many reasons.

I first heard of Broadcast around the time of The Noise Made By People, I think. There was a piece in the fondly remembered (by me anyway) Jockey Slut, and I was struck by their look. If the Tomorrow People formed a band, they’d look like Broadcast did back then. To me, that remains the height of cool.

Still, I think it took me until 2006 before I actually properly listened to them. That year was tough, but music helped. The Future Crayon became a favourite. Then in 2007 I met my girlfriend and we discovered Tender Buttons together.

I’m writing this because I wanted to express my sadness at the loss of Trish Keenan last week. My own feelings are, of course, utterly insignificant compared to what her family, friends and loved ones must be going through. But I wanted to say what I never got to say to Trish in person: I listen to Broadcast every day. They’re my favourite band and have been for the last few years. Basically, I think they rule.

Rest in peace Trish, and thank you for everything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqINetENovg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4ahXhBsutY

10 for 2010

Erk. Yes, I'm late with this.

Ten faves from 2010.


10. Jónsi - Go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBgPmw3JCN4

9. Pye Corner Audio - Black Mill Tapes Vol. 1
http://soundcloud.com/pye-corner-audio/sets/black-mill-tapes-volume-1

8. The Advisory Circle - Mind How You Go (Revised edition)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0m-137dGHc

7. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW8FKkVnqng

6. Vampire Weekend - Contra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyHU5k4Elts

5. Moon Wiring Club - A Spare Tabby At The Cat's Wedding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbGX1AHWwM

4. Kenny Graham and His Satellites - Moondog and Suncat Suites
http://www.we7.com/#/artist/Kenny-Graham-And-His-Satellites

3. Umberto - Prophecy Of The Black Widow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyyfkgvGy3c

2. Matthew Dear - Black City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaEzAekTsJs

1. Liars - Sisterworld
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4ro_Mel4q4&feature=related

Bubbling under

Massive Attack - Heligoland
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Caribou - Swim
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

It's that time of the year...

I'm in alignment with something in the NME!

At the risk of sounding ancient, I remember the days when Godspeed You! Black Emperor got on the front cover (apparently leading to the worst-selling issue in the history of magazines, or somesuch). And I loved it, for all it's frequent stupidity. I got into Boards of Canada through an NME cover mount and... well, a good third of my record collection has spun off from my love of BOC: Ghost Box, Moon Wiring Club, the new Pye Corner Audio* album to name a recent handful.

And now Warpaint. Yes, a hipster band. But a really, really good one. It's just a really lovely, dark and atmospheric record. Weatherall is on production duties, and you can hear him stamped all over it. Undertow, especially, has a lovely reverby spatiousness to it. Right now it's my second favourite thing in the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMkqbY0oGKQ

My absolute favourite thing in the world, of course, is Umberto. Of course! Merciful Zeus, but this is one of my albums of the year. It's basically fake seventies/early eighties horror film music. In fact it really should be called Music To Stalk Teenagers By. But that would probably be wrong.

What I really love is that he (Matt Hill from Expo 70) hasn't just copied the warbly synths and artfully misplayed notes (though check Night Stalking for a class example of that) but he's got some really nasty bass terror going on. It sounds ginormous on a turntable.

You can hear a couple of tracks here. Go with Temple Room first.

http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/14994-someone-chasing-someone-through-a-house-temple-room/

* Go download it, it's only a fiver and it's really good...

http://pyecorneraudio.bandcamp.com/

The end of TG

Sorry to hear today that Genesis P-Orridge has, once again, dissolved Throbbing Gristle. Sleazy, Cosey and Chris Carter are trucking on as X-TG, but it all sounds pretty much over for another 10 years or so.

I was lucky enough to see them last year in what was one of my favourite ever gigs. I reviewed it for Clash here, if you're interested.

http://www.clashmusic.com/live-review/throbbing-gristle-london-heaven

I will miss them. They may have frequently disappointed on record (oh come on, they did. Coil were a million times better) but live they were a fearsome proposition, and the music world is diminished without them.

New obsessions

Deliriously weird dream last night. I was in Mirfield, my mum's West Yorkshire home town (and that of Captain Picard himself, Patrick Stewart). I was staying in a B&B called The Overlook. And indeed it turned out that this was the place that inspired The Shining. I spoke to the landlord, and he told me that a few years previously, he'd been jailed for murdering someone with a rope (at this point he noosed it around my neck...) but that he had been set up. Now that he had got out, he was producing music which was, “closer to Boards of Canada than Orange Juice”.

Funny how these things work in, innit? Mirfield was there presumably because my mum's just been to visit. The Shining... not sure, but I do love the film. Boards of Canada I was thinking about yesterday, and I used to know a member of Orange Juice.



SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HAUNTOLOGISTS

It's a fine time for admirers of Radiophonic weirdness. A couple of new net labels have sprung up over the past few weeks, no doubt inspired in part by Ghost Box, but offering music with a subtly different flavour.

First up is Café Kaput, run by Jon Brooks (Advisory Circle/King of Woolworths) with art direction by Ian Hodgson (Moon Wiring Club). As seems to be the way with this scene there's a healthy dose of humour at work. The first release is an unearthing of DD Denham's lost classroom-based electronic experiments. Except that's a load of old bobbins. DD Denham never existed and it's all Brooks own work in a bleepy, bloopy John Baker style. Ruddy lovely it is too; tricksy, playful and weird. You can stream and download it here:

http://dddenham.bandcamp.com/album/electronic-music-in-the-classroom




Then this weekend I stumbled across Pye Corner Audio. Wobbly synth and tape distortion is the order of the day, and the three tracks they've put online (from their album, Black Mill Tapes Vol. 1) have been on repeat ever since. 'We Have Visitors' builds for ages before opening up into something that reminds me of Ken Freeman's Tripods theme. 'Theme Number 4' meanwhile sounds not unlike early Boards of Canada. I was hoping to be the first to blog about these guys, but alas Mr Brooks has beaten me to it!

The full Black Mill Tapes Volume 1 will be available to download on October 31st for a fiver. In the meantime, check out the preview tracks here:

http://soundcloud.com/pye-corner-audio/sets/black-mill-tapes-volume-1

http://pyecorneraudio.wordpress.com/