Music, Records, Issue 694
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18 articles
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Batida - Batida
8 Mar 2012
African-inspired electronica record that probably works best in a club setting
(Soundway) Having carved out a reputation for unearthing rare tracks of touchstone Latin musics, Soundway now champions hot sounds heard today on the streets of Luanda. Angolan/Portuguese DJ Mpula (aka Pedro Coquenão) creates electronic dance music…
VCMG - Ssss
28 Feb 2012
Vince Clark and Martin Gore minimal techno album is great fun
(Mute) For many, the news that Vince Clark and Martin Gore were making minimal techno together seemed the perfect coda to the screenplay-like story of their respective musical lives. The former Depeche Mode bandmates’ last musical contact came in…
Psyche and Wounded Knee share Single of the Month title
28 Feb 2012
Also featuring Martin Creed, Ladyhawke and Estelle
What this world needs is more high-concept ephemera created by actual, proper artists like Martin Creed, who create minute-long folk ditties like ‘Where You Go’ (Telephone) ●●● amidst light switch-flicking their way to the Turner Prize and Scotsman…
Profile: Cass McCombs
28 Feb 2012
Californian alt-country nomad set for UK tour
Name McCombs. Cass McCombs. Or ‘Combs’, as his close friends call him (we like to think). He’s that Californian alt-country nomad, right? Correct. The harmonious, folk-rocking ‘Combs’ has spent most of his adulthood travelling America, writing…
Dean Owens - New York Hummingbird
28 Feb 2012
Release from Edinburgh-based tunesmith a mixed bag
(Songboy Records) Could it be that Dean Owens suffers from Ron Sexsmith Syndrome? RSS is that little-publicised but extremely frustrating affliction which strikes talented singer-songwriters who are perfectly capable of crafting a gloriously melodic…
Randolph’s Leap - The Curse of the Haunted Headphones
28 Feb 2012
Homespun showcase from stripped-back Glasgow indie-folk rabble
(Peenko Records) Do not be misled by this bedroom recording, or its cassette-hissing, lo-fi aesthetic. While Glasgow indie-folk rabble Randolph’s Leap are known and loved for their elaborate arrangements and philharmonic live shows, this homespun…
The Wedding Present - Valentina
28 Feb 2012
Well-worn template mixes with stabs at hummability
(Scopitones) The last time this reviewer looked, which wasn’t yesterday admittedly, The Wedding Present were a bracing proposition, the musical equivalent of being dragged along a cobbled street in Halifax with one leg tied to a Raleigh Chopper. Flat…
Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra - Emergence
28 Feb 2012
Ensemble playing and the soloing achieves a very high standard
(Spartacus Records) Tommy Smith set up (and funded) this orchestra to encourage the cream of Scotland’s emerging jazz talent to flourish, and it is clearly working. There are only occasional passages on this fine recording where you might guess that you…
Grimes - Visions
22 Feb 2012
Jaw-dropping record of carefully crafted and cleverly created songs
(4AD) Visions is Claire Boucher’s fourth release in less than two years, and shows the Vancouver-born music-maker feverishly developing her sound at a rate of knots. Since she moved to Montreal in 2006 and birthed performance art, video and audio…
The Shins - Port Of Morrow
22 Feb 2012
Timely reminder of value of solid indie rock built on smart storytelling and melodies
(Aural Apothecary/Columbia Records) Oh, James Mercer, we’ve missed you. Port Of Morrow is The Shins’ first new material in four years and in a world where the young’uns are dabbling in skew-whiff electronica and art funk ‘jams’ with varying results…
Frankie Rose - Interstellar
22 Feb 2012
Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist goes solo and makes clean break from fuzz-loving past
(Memphis Industries) Years of flitting between scuzzy indie-pop bands from Vivian Girls to Dum Dum Girls, Crystal Stilts and her own ensemble Frankie Rose and The Outs have led this Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist finally to conclude what we could…
Belle and Sebastian - Late Night Tales Volume 2
22 Feb 2012
Eclectic mix of lush instrumentals, smoked jazz and 60s guitar interludes
(Late Night Tales) As with being invited to perform stand-up on Letterman or to guest-host Have I Got News for You, some people might only feel vindicated in their cultural pursuit when they are asked back. And so the people behind the Late Night…
Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
22 Feb 2012
Reasonably consistent album of simple, emotional music from multi-instrumentalist smartypants
(Bella Union) There are signs on Break It Yourself that multi-instrumentalist and genre-hopping smartypants Andrew Bird has mellowed out somewhat. The album is reasonably consistent and settles in a gentle neo-folk groove that shows off Bird’s…
Every Time I Die - Ex Lives
22 Feb 2012
Intense and hugely rewarding album of post-hardcore brilliance
(Epitaph) Every Time I Die just... don’t make bad records. Their last effort – the gregarious New Junk Aesthetic – was a blitzkrieg bombast of post-hardcore brilliance, and Ex Lives marks the next step in their evolutionary cycle. Opener ‘Underwater…
Little Doses - Rock Riot Soul
22 Feb 2012
Sadly lacking in songwriting originality and inspiration
(Black Ditto Recordings) Little Doses are an Edinburgh indie outfit established by bassist Mark McClelland, most famous for departing Snow Patrol just when they made it big. The Little Doses blueprint is undeniably more varied than Snow Patrol’s…
Lee Ranaldo - Between the Times and the Tides
22 Feb 2012
All-rounder rock record from Sonic Youth guitarist that soothes and soars
(Matador) Between the Times and the Tides is legendary Sonic Youth guitarist, vocalist and co-founder Lee Ranaldo’s first ‘solo’ effort to be turned out in nearly four years. In characteristically collaborative fashion it sees Ranaldo joined by a…
Tanlines - Mixed Emotions
22 Feb 2012
Brooklynite art-pop duo embrace the sound of 1980s pop on debut
(Matador) Brooklynite art-pop duo Tanlines, aka Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm, are contemporaries of Yeasayer and Health, and perhaps some positive pre-judging on that basis is required. After a batch of singles, splits and remixes, the pair fully embrace…
Andy Sheppard, Michel Benita, Sebastian Rochford - Trio Libero
22 Feb 2012
Highly compatible trio make album of lyrical material
(ECM Records) Saxophonist Andy Sheppard seemed a good match-up with ECM long before he actually made his debut with the label a couple of years ago. He now follows that release with this excellent trio project featuring Algerian bassist Michel Benita…
