Music, Records, Issue 625

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

FOLK ROCK When Anglophile Oregon native Colin Meloy bills his band’s fifth album as ‘an odd bond between the music of British folk revival and classic metal’ he’s only telling half the story. Sonically, The Hazards of Love rocks like Sabbath and…

PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By

ROCK From topless indie pin-up to tormented folk mythologist, cult pop monarch Polly Jean Harvey has long exposed and scrutinised the predicaments of the human condition. She’s populated copious roles over her swaggering, nigh-on 20-year career…

Courtney Pine - Transition In Tradition

JAZZ The saxophonist sub-titles this powerful and eclectic outing ‘En homage à Sidney Bechet’, but admirers of that early jazz master may find that to be a bit of a red herring if they expect it to actually sound like the first great soprano…

Big Air - Big Air

JAZZ An inspired debut from this Transatlantic aggregation, although one that has been a while in the making. Big Air features London-based trumpeter Chris Batchelor and saxophonist Steve Buckley with Americans Myra Melford on piano (and harmonium…

The Martin Green Machine - First Sighting

FOLK Accordionist Martin Green unleashed the Green Machine as a New Voices commission at Celtic Connections in 2006, with guitarist Tom Cook as his principal co-collaborator, and a powerful band willing and able to take on his iconoclastic vision. I…

1990s - Kicks

INDIE Unfairly under-rated for their sleazy glam riot of a debut album Cookies in 2007, Glasgow’s 1990s have returned to finish the job. With Bernard Butler producing. So most of the sleaze, the glam and the rioting has been kicked out. Okay, so…

Smoove and Turrell - Antique Soul

ELECTRONIC SOUL Soul is one musical genre constant judged less by its actual quality and more by its supposed authenticity, which, as anyone with ears knows, is the surest way to find yourself down a musical blind alley. So when someone like this…

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

INDIE If My Bloody Valentine and Belle and Sebastian had babies, they’d no doubt be pretty grotesque-looking little mites. But we reckon their musical outpourings would sound a lot like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – and boy, would they be able…

Frightened Rabbit - Quietly Now!

LIVE INDIE Don’t be misled by their cuddlesome designate, nor indeed their cutesy demeanour: Frightened Rabbit are a savage pop mob, whose colossal debut proper, The Midnight Organ Fight, was a fierce contender for the album of 2008. Said melodic…

Dan Deacon - Bromst

ELECTRO More complex, euphoric and chaotic than ever, Dan Deacon’s follow-up to Spiderman of the Rings is his showpony. From the home of weirdo electro-noise, Baltimore, the oversized specs wearer is worshipped like a demi-god at live performances…

Pet Shop Boys - Yes

POP Everything that’s ace about the Pet Shop Boys is here. Sure, the electronic voyagers’ ingenious pop template has been updated by clarion chart messiahs Xenomania (Kylie, Girls Aloud), and embellished by Johnny Marr and Final Fantasy’s Owen…

The Answer - Everyday Demons

ROCK Northern Irish four-piece The Answer were hand-picked by AC/DC as support for their current Black Ice world tour, surely one of the greatest honours in rock. Live they tear it up and you can imagine the whole crowd reaching for their air…

Various - Round Black Ghosts 2

DUB Scape is one of the best labels on the scene for deep dub experiments, courtesy of one of Berlin’s true pioneers – Pole. This, the second round of the Round Black Ghosts series sees Scape gather some real gems from the more diverse end of the…

Iain Archer - To the Pine Roots

INDIE FOLK Dripping in the ethereal, To the Pine Roots is the latest folky affair from Bangor’s Iain Archer. Formerly a ‘secondary lyricist’ with Snow Patrol (an odd thing to brag, perhaps), Archer follows up 2006’s Magnetic North with songs recorded…

Sideshow - Admit One

DUB SOUL Sideshow are the group brought together by Fin Greenall aka Fink (Ninja Tune) for an album of very listenable soulful dub experimentation. There are some quality moments of dub electronics here, like ‘Sequential Dub’, ‘African Cherry’ and…