Music, Records, Issue 696
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13 articles
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The Just Joans - Buckfast Bottles in the Rain
23 Apr 2012
Underwhelming concept album from the indie-poppers
(weePOP!) Naming themselves after a notoriously annoying tabloid columnist might be mistake number one, but it isn’t the worst of The Just Joans’ crimes. Claiming to have created an ‘audacious artistic undertaking’ of Bowie and Zappa-like proportions…
Julia Holter - Tragedy
18 Apr 2012
Celestial drones, mesmeric synths, ambient noise and unearthly vocals
(Night School) Perhaps you read that album title and started hollering the Bee Gees song or god forbid, Steps. Thank the stars, then, for LA composer and minimalist pop diviner Julia Holter, who will banish your garish disco horrors with celestial…
The Magnetic Fields' Quick is Single of the Month
27 Apr 2012
Also featuring Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves Of Destiny
What’s the consensus on imitation to the point that it rivals, perhaps even betters the source? Well, Glasgow’s Marvel Heights almost achieve such an accolade, kicking off this month’s singles run-down with their straight-outta-Paramore, angsty rock…
Zulu Winter - Language
23 Apr 2012
The indie rockers' debut is disappointingly unadventurous
(Play It Again Sam) With their unabashed love of Czech new wave cinema, Steve Reich, TS Eliot, Ayn Rand and modern dance troupes The List won’t even pretend to have heard of, we expected something a little more adventurous from Zulu Winter’s debut…
PAWS - Misled Youth
23 Apr 2012
A pacey, frantic and melancholy EP from the Glasgow garage pop-rock trio
(Fat Cat) Grrr, Paws are good. Be it gigging in weird places (the Glasgow trio have played in bathrooms, skate shops and on top of double decker buses) or the bedroom recordings released on painstakingly put-together, hand-numbered limited edition…
Two Wings - Love's Spring
23 Apr 2012
A warm-hearted fusion of vintage Americana and English folk-rock
(Tin Angel Records) The strident classicism of Two Wings may come as a surprise to those familiar with the avant-folk of Hanna Tuulikki’s other group Nalle. That project’s eerie soundworld is replaced by a warm-hearted fusion of vintage Americana and…
Star Wheel Press - Life Cycle of a Falling Bird
23 Apr 2012
A timeless album from the Americana heartbreakers
Bonnie Prince Billy is not the only alt-country bard to have dibs on Glen Lyon. Americana heartbreakers Star Wheel Press are based in Aberfeldy (BPB’s erstwhile stomping ground), and have quietly amassed a dedicated following since their lovely debut…
Martin Speake & Colin Oxley - Two Not One
23 Apr 2012
An album of light, buoyant jazz ballads, ideal in small servings
(Pumpkin Records) The airy combination of alto saxophone and guitar and a leaning toward ballad tempos gives the music on this duo outing a light, buoyant feel which does pale a little over the whole album, but works beautifully on any individual…
Jesus H. Foxx - Endless Knocking
18 Apr 2012
Long-awaited debut admirable in perfectionism, but feels laboured
(Song, by Toad) ‘I’ve waited two bloody years for these muppets to finish this album,’ writes Song, by Toad boss Matthew Young in an amusingly frank note accompanying Edinburgh seven-piece Jesus H. Foxx’s debut. We’ve shared his frustration in…
French Wives - Dream of the Inbetween
18 Apr 2012
An astute and highly promising opening salvo from Glasgow band
(Electric Honey) What a satisfying thing it is to hear a pop song that bypasses the tyranny of the chorus and sticks to its guns with a series of ear-warming verses. ‘Younger’, the shoulder-high stand-out track from the debut collection by French Wives…
Lone - Galaxy Garden
18 Apr 2012
UK producer's fourth album draws on Detroit techno, Chicago house and 90s rave
(R&S) Impressively, given Matt Cutler is still only a relatively tender aged 27-year-old, ‘Galaxy Garden’ is actually his fourth album recorded as Lone. However, in something of a musical departure from its hip hop, 80s boogie and rare groove-inspired…
Kuljit Bhamra, Jacqueline Shave, John Parricelli - Postcards From Home
18 Apr 2012
Cross-cultural fusion partly inspired by the Hebrides
(Keda Records) A fresh and deftly executed cross-cultural fusion featuring a tabla player with strong jazz connections, a classical violinist and a jazz guitarist, playing music inspired in part by the Hebrides. Violinist Jacqueline Shave’s ‘Machair to…
Various Artists - Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2
18 Apr 2012
Two-album reissue of classic compilations from 1989 and 1993
(World Circuit) The sinuous dance rhythms of the Colombian music known as Cumbia are captured in this nicely packaged and documented two-album reissue of two compilations regarded as the classics of the genre, which first brought Cumbia to wider…
