contents

albums - reviews ...                                       page 5

a c acoustics
BRMC
Boards of Canada
Billy Bragg
Camera Obscura
Chemical Brothers
Cooper Temple
Clause
Desaparecidos
Dread meets Punk
Hermann Dune
Electric Soft Parade
Gomez
Brian Gottesman
Ikara Colt
Sahara Hotnights
Shelley/Devoto
Soundtrack of Our Lives
Vex Red

see previous reviews page (#4)

GOMEZ In Our Gun (Hut)

Bang. Gomez are back. This, their third album, could be considered their most adventurous yet. Which doesn't make it particularly adventurous.
Opener and lead single "Shot Shot" is perhaps the best Gomez song since "Whippin Picadilly". Energetic, exciting, forceful, full of swooping melodies and gliding vocals, marred only by an ill-advised brass section. But then the robots start to invade. Gomez have started employing electronic affects, and tracks like "Rex Kramer" and "Detriot Swing 66" sound a million miles away from the bluesy rawness of their "Bring It On", and yet both retain that certain Gomez charm.

Title Track "In Our Gun" is uniformly fantastic, as emotional, powerful and downright tear-jerking as Gomez get. It would be an immediate choice for a single, if not for it's somewhat ambitious length. But that's not the album's peak. "Miles End" is a jangly wonder, commercial, ready made for daytime radio play. "Sound of Sounds" is another epic of an opus, designed to bring tears to grown men’s eyes and "1000 Times" is a ready-made soundtrack to a Sunday night BBC1 drama set in Scottish Highlands, as the camera pans across some green and pleasant land. Which is no bad thing.

So a classic album, yes? Well, not quite. At 13 tracks, the album feels somewhat overlong, particularly as some songs overstay their welcome. "Even Song" and "Ruff Stuff" are Gomez by numbers, and should really have been left as B-Sides to some entering-at-Number-36-single. "Drench" is a swamp-rock mess, saved only by some interesting lyrics ("keep your filthy hands off") and closer "Ballad fF Nice And Easy" is dreadfully anti-climatic. It sounds a bit like Blind Faith (Ask your Dad). But despite these slight lapses into mediocrity, Gomez have produced their most confident, brash and audacious album yet. Mercury Music Prize anyone?

Reviewed by Joe

VEX RED Start with a strong and persistent desire (Virgin) 

So, who lives in this particular house of rock? Let’s look at the facts:  
1: They are an Aldershot five piece. (OK, no-one is responsible for their birthplace).
2: Their music is a mix of hard rock and electronica. (OK, this is hardly groundbreaking).
3: They have been picked up by Ross Robinson, Slipknot producer, who also produced the LP.;  (Is this a clue?).
4: Because of Fact 3 interest and expectations are high. (Good luck to them)  

So over to the panel:

Panel member #1: They attempt to make emotive music, and some of this reminds me of Radiohead in its focus on sound shifts to create mood.  A sort of The metal Bends.  Lyrically pessimistic too, “I cut myself to get away” is one such cheery thought.  But then again, the vocals recall Embrace, especially on the quieter pieces such as “Vert”, which could be their Fireworks.

Panel member #2: Yes, but there are clear metal influences here with the numetal riffing that will get the heads banging along nicely, and there are Smashing Pumpkins type guitar licks thrown in too.  Having said that, the songs follow the now familiar pattern of quiet ballady tourniquets followed by rock injections.  Though this is nothing new, the band deliver it with cool efficiency.  The singles, “Can’t Smile” with its pulsing machine  noise, frenetic punky funky drumming, and scowling guitar  and “Itch” with its heavy rifferama and rising/falling electronica squealing, are fairly typical of the sound.

Panel member #3:  I think the numetal connection may be a vex Red herring, this is no Slipknot or other n/m wannabies.  There is something quite British about this sound – and VR are clearly not willing to be limited by the definitions of a genre - it has a possible crossover potential and it will be interesting to see if the kidz are ready to accept something that is not in the standard n/m clothing.

So to recap : An interesting house made of familiar elements and yet trying to be different.  It’ll do for a short stay at least, it has a good foundation and there’s room for an extension.   Who would live in a house like this? 

Reviewed by Kev

COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE See this Through and Leave (Morning Records)

A lot has been said and written about this Reading band already, so having not seen seen the band apart from their classy Who style performance on CD:UK, I'm judging everything by what is on this album. I starts of with Did you miss me, I bet you did with a keyboard and beat intro that has a bjorkish appeal with a soft vocal and prog rock guitar and 2 minutes 20 seconds in it wakes up into a rocker of a track with post rock effects and loud guitar to die for.  And this is just track one.

Film maker is performed Placebo style, starting fast and ending up even faster.  Panzer Attack has a techno beat intro, heavy bass line and from here on it's just guitar onslaught.  Who needs enemies is a balladish track with brass and falls into early Bluetones, early Oasis territory and ends with a 70s fade out. Amber is also Blutones-ish, fading into Nirvana-ish guitar attack.  Digital Observations is a nice slow Britpop track nicely sung and played with strummed guitar and tambourine, a bit like the Charlatans. Let's Kill Music is just guitar onslaught from the word go.

555-4823 is just dance beats and post rock nonsense.  Been training dogs, the single, is Motorhead fronted by Liam.   The Lake is just Oasis but better.  Murder Song, the last track on this fine debut album is very mellow, a bit Ian Brown, rocking gently until its close.  A great album, it is nice for a band to not stick with one style and along with The Electric Soft Parade's album, this is an essential purchase for this month.

Reviewed by Tone

DESAPARECIDOS Read Music/Speak Spanish (Wichita Recordings)

BOARDS OF CANADA Geogaddi (Warp)

Warp wonderkids Boards of Canada releases are like those great dreams you have, then try to relive once you’ve awoken - fantastic but leave you desperate for more. The Scottish duo of Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison create these dreams for you and their new full length album, Geogaddi, is no exception.

They claim to horizontally compose each track to create that level of perfection. I don’t know about that bollocks, but they have created the perfect bedfellow of Music has the Rights to Children. 23 fluid, organic tracks that meld rural imagery with futuristic auras…indeed, the pair come from Edinburgh, and its landscapes and countryside could easily be a visual interpretation of their music.

Alternating each song proper with their signature nuggets of nostalgic voiceovers, ghostly melodies and fleeting musical ebbs, they are emphasising their belief that a perfectly formed piece of music can be a mere tantalising 20 seconds. Just when you think you know a track, you are taken away and reminded of something else. It’s this personalised nostalgia that is evoked by their music that makes BOC’s music so intelligent and provocative.

So, what is Geogaddi actually like? Well, if you go back to the first time you heard Music Has the Rights…with its layers of melodies, aural messages embedded within…all was calm. Geogaddi continues in this vein, and provides a very personal listening experience. As with Music Has the Rights, there are no bad tracks, and you hit those occasions where the track finishes before you’ve fully immersed yourself in its elegance (Over the Horizon Radar, Ready Lets Go and Beware the Friendly Stranger). The real meat of Geogaddi lies in the even numbered tracks (as a rule, those longer than 2 minutes), and there are some absolute gems. The excellent trip, Music is Math, the hypnotic Alpha and Omega, and for my money anyway, the best track on Geogaddi, Julie and Candy.

I’m almost sad that Geogaddi is out…but for the reason that it maybe another 4 years before those mysterious Scots provide us with another luscious, fluid and exquisite piece of aural art. Geogaddi evoked many feelings and memories in me…lets see what it can do for you.

Reviewed by Eggz 

SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES Behind the Music (WEA)

Behind this music are a thousand influences from the late 60s and early 70s, like the Beatles (e.g. ‘Keep the Line Moving’), the Floyd and loads of British bands who interpreted the blues and garage sounds from the US in that very British, very reserved and controlled, way.  TSOOL sing about broken relationships and distress at the 21^st century by looking back.  They produce perfectly mature pop-rock on a brilliantly produced album but the overall effect is just Radio 2 ‘nice’.  It’s all very straight with no discernibly ironic chaser.   Ebbot Lundberg’s vocals are nicely sung but strangely neutral.  The band are more than competent yet the effect is still restrained and hinting at times of MOR; and the songs can be lovely and yet still lacking.  TSOOL win over your head more than your heart.  They wear masks on the cover and there’s a feeling of shielding themselves all through.    

Pick of the music is ‘Infra Riot’ which is thunderous heavy rock with a nod to the East and very melodic.  There are gentle lilting ballads like ‘In Your Veins’.  ‘Broken Imaginary Time’ has a Procul Harum organ driving a sad lament.  ‘Independent Luxury’ is their funky, soulful number.  ‘Nevermore’ has a lovely melody while ‘The Flood’ is TSOOL at their most excited.

For me, music isn’t just the noise going on in the background while you’re getting on with life, like in a Scorsese film; it should be interventionist, making you smile or gag, affecting your mood and occasionally screwing with your personal radar so you go off course when a strong musical signal comes through.  There’s lots to admire in this record but not enough to love.

Reviewed by Ged

CHEMICAL BROTHERS Come With Us (Virgin)

This is the fourth album from the Chems and already some are beginning to write them off, accusing them of mere consolodation rather than their usual innovation.   However, whilst this has no one obvious WOW! moment that will bring in the royalty cheques for years to come (eg Block Rockin Beats or Hey Boy Hey Girl), it’s a good varied mix of their tried and tested winning formulas.

The opening few minutes of the album are stunning as the title track builds from the foundations of a Samuel L Jackson style voiceover.  It has the bricks and mortar of drum loops and chopping violin synths and staircases of spiralling keyboards.  Superb.  The rest of the album is a pot pourris of all your favourite Chemical bits.  Star Guitar is Giorgio Moroder meets Kraftwerk, It Began in Afrika is dancefloor techno, Galaxy Bounce is funk, Hoops has a bit of inoffensive De La Soul style hip hop (then techno), The State We’re in (with Beth Orton) is slow ballad, The Test (with Richard Ashcroft) is remixed Verve with a hint of a dancey U2, Denmark is hi energy Eurodisco funk…  PAUSE FOR BREATH!  All are more than adequate on their own, but together they mean that everyone has something to twitch a muscle to.

So whilst the chin strokers will tut and say it’s not as good as Exit Planet Dust or Surrender, just flick their ears. Remember these were the same fad hoppers who wrote off Fatboy’s last efforts too and I’d rather have this than silence resulting from the fear of critical rejection.           

Reviewed by mawders 

IKARA COLT Chat and Business (Fantastic Plastic)

Maybe this band are our answer to the Strokes.  Well, same love of the past but for New York read Manchester.  Dip into this and you’ll hear the Fall and Joy Division but also a headbutting contest between the Buzzcocks and Slaughter and the Dogs.   This is noisy, spunky, energetic and still very melodic.  The obvious touchstone is the Fall.   On ‘City of Glass’, a Mark E Smith type urchin vocal fences with a ringing Craig Scanlan guitar figure while in the background bass and drums propel the song along.  ‘After This’ has shades of Eat Y’self Fitter, with brilliant playing by the band.   ‘Here We Go Again’ even has a Brix Smith like intervention in the choruses.  At the same time they can be punky.  The singles ‘One Note’ (apt title – it’s a pretty punchy and insistently punk rock song) and ‘Sink Venice’ (energy and passion, marrying the Stooges and the Fall) show what they can do.  It’s not all great; the MES vocals could do with some variety and the last two tracks feel like filler.  But overall, it’s loud, not too deep and proof that you don’t have to look to the USA for the answer to the question “whatever happened to my rock ‘n’ roll” – it was here all the time. 

Reviewed by Ged

VARIOUS Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit (Sympathy For the Record Industry)

A Detroit compilation or a Jack White one?  Well, Jacko produced and recorded the album at his studio, contributed one track and appears on at least two others.  A number of tracks show a clear White Stripes influence.  Perhaps it’s the Napoleon complex: short guy conquers world, starting with his hometown.   The album is the typical compilation mix of good and indifferent but it has an interesting concept: it’s recorded in the same studio with the same amps and mikes in not very much time so there’s a endearing roughness and live feel to it.  You might recognise some of the songs but you’re buying different versions.   Scores a brownie point for that.

So to the music.  There’s a range of bands and styles.  The White Stripes’ ‘Red Death at 6.14’ is the WS in their bluesy Led Zeppelin mode and very live sounding (and great of course).  White-Stripesian is Bantam Rooster’s excellent ‘Run, Rabbit, Run’ with its hollering vocals and frantic blues rifferama.  Less successful is the Soledad Brothers who produce a old ZZ Top boogie and stick the entire riff from Jeepster on top; less a case of adding “a knob of Bolan” and more of sticking in the whole meat ‘n’ two veg!  The Hentchman track is pure 60s class and they’re definitely devotees of the Chocolate Watch Band and Music Machine.   Staying in the 60s, Ko and the Knockouts ‘Black and Blue’ is poppy with a knowing Debbie Harry-like vocal.  Other tracks are 60s soul influenced; a number of these bands, as the Dirtbombs sing, were “watching Soul Train on a Friday night”.  Tracks like the Come Ons and The Paybacks are real party food but the latter’s ‘Black Girl’ shares an uneasy theme with the Rolling Stones’ Brown Sugar. 

The Detroit cream has already risen to the top and it’s the same here.   Apart from the White Stripes, the Von Bondies produce an eerie “The Sound of Terror” with Marcie Bolan’s crashing guitar speeding up your heart.  The brilliant Detroit Cobras turn in an interesting version of ‘Shout Bama Lama’ with Jack White making a big country piano sound, though Rachel Nagy sounds curiously flat on the record (check out the awesome version on their second album!).   The album shows that lightning hit Detroit and hasn’t yet been earthed; here’s evidence of all that energy – and Jack White is a conductor in more ways than one.   

Reviewed by Ged

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB BRMC (Virgin)

This is the debut album from the third hugely tipped young retro pups to come swaggering over from the States in less than 12 months.  This three piece take their name from a cult Marlon Brando movie, dress in black and play dark music.   However though the look of the band is American, this dish is a hot pot of tasty ingredients from this side of the Atlantic; the odd dab of My Bloody Valentine, a sprinkle of Stone Roses, lashings of Joy Division, a slice of Spiritualized, essence of Ride, and even a knob of Bolan… but these are swamped by the thick gravy - fuzzy vocaled, chugging guitar and feedback, Psychocandy era Jesus and Mary Chain.  

Nothing on here attempts to start a riot quite like the marvellous pumped up debut single, Whatever Happened to My Rock n Roll, save of course the song itself.  Other tasty numbers though are Awake, a sort of Everyday is Like Sunday but performed by Ian Brown, As Sure As the Sun, which has a simple, slow but excellent bassline topped with spaced guitars and Rifles which is like a wigged out La’s, sweet pop harmonies accompanied by Mary Chain feedback. 

It’s not the greatest meal you'll ever have but it’s a lot more than just a snack and it’ll certainly do until something more substantial comes along. 

Reviewed by Mawders

BILLY BRAGG England, Half English (Cooking Vinyl)

Relocated with his family to lovely rural Dorset, you’d think Billy might have closed his shutters to the issues facing the world today.  The answer, through this album, is a most definite no; Billy’s still alive, aware, thinking and caring despite not having the Miner’s Strike to rally behind, Tory Government or Apartheid to decry or Cold War to fear.  So he gives domestic violence (He’ll Go Down), disappointment with the current Government (Another Kind of Judy, ok I may be reading too much into this one…) and uncaring multinational companies (NPWA) the Bragg treatment and as always the words are clear, clever and thought provoking.  Interestingly, there’s even a song about the problem with the apparent contradictions of being Billy Bragg, political animal and fighter for the underdog, and Billy Bragg, family man, living comfortably surrounded by natural beauty and close to the sea.

A couple of the songs are about his homeland.  One’s about the falling apart of the kingdom of Great Britain, brought together for financial reasons but now splintering, a fact which is unlamented by Billy.  The second, and the one that will probably get more close scrutiny than all the rest put together, is the title track.  It is a patriotic song about England which finishes with the line “Oh my country, what a beautiful country you are”.  However what rescues it from being racist or xenophobic is that the England he refers to is not just Morris dancing, Marmite and bubble n squeak, it’s these things plus curry and cappuccino and all the other things that make a multi-cultural country.  He also refers to the origins of Britannia, St George and even the three lions of the football team as proof that this is not just a recent development.  It’s Billy’s attempt to reclaim the flag from the hate filled right in an age when being English as opposed to British is being defined following the slow break-up of the UK.  It’s lyrically stirring stuff and an excellent contribution to the debate.

Musically this is on the whole a fuller sound compared with much of his previous output.  Working with others for the Woody Guthrie sessions has brought in new ideas and experimentation. The opener is basically quirky cockney knees-up, Lazy Sunday Afternoon, which in view of the fact that the former Small Faces keyboardist is one of the Blokes is maybe no surprise.  England, Half English is a whole world of styles, Jamaican Ska fused with Egyptian and even a spot of Turkish, delivered with an Ian Dury vocal.  It works and is apt bearing in mind the point of the song.  There’s even an uptempo African dance number (Baby Faroukh) which sadly doesn’t really come off. 

There’s a few awful songs on here.  The lyrics to NPWA are fine but the music is basically Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, which has to be one of the most loathed tracks of all time.  Dreadbelly is pretty silly and Tears of My Tracks is the tale of Billy selling his LPs at a boot fair.  As these two are the last two tracks on the album they can be dismissed as filler.

Whilst, overall this won’t go down as Billy’s best ever work, there’s no St Swithin’s Day, The Marriage or Sexuality, there’s still a fire in his belly and whilst the songs are not instant beauties, there’s enough on it lyrically to please the long-term fans, which truth be told are probably the only fans he has now.  

Reviewed by Mawders

SHELLEY/DEVOTO buzzkunst (Cooking Vinyl)

The grand dames of punk get together for the first time in 25 years to record 14 tracks of electronica – never mind punk nostalgia, this is buzzkunst. To start with when I heard the word “kunst” I reached for my pocket German dictionary.  And then my luger.  buzz-Culture?  buzz-Art?  buzz-Words.  buzz buzz buzz.  

25 years ago Shelley and Devoto recorded Buzzcocks demos in an attic (released as the Time’s Up LP) and there’s a similar homely DIY approach at work here - for buzzkunst was recorded in Shelley’s front room, and on a computer (probably).  So it’s a bit like old times with Devoto taking lead vocals with his ‘ I’m an insect and not really human’ vocals and Shelley backing and (I assume) doing a lot of the programming and playing of instruments.  It certainly has a ‘written on a computer’ feel to it – more mechanic than organic, more digital than human, which befits the alienation in Devoto’s voice: now his delivery is more Magazine than Buzzcocks, more alienated miserabilism than teenage itchy angst.  But that’s what you would be expecting I hope.

There is no attempt to go back, to recapture old times.  This is something new. The LP starts brightly with the opening Can You See Me Shining? and its catchy soundcard guitar riffs and beats comes as close as the LP gets to a pop song.  Whilst ‘Til the stars in his eyes are dead, with it’s rushing tempo and Devoto sneer, is near nigh buzzpunk, with guitar thrown in for effect.  I’m sure the neighbours would not have been pleased about that, or the lyrics “A sexistic boy/Having a worldwide wank/He says/That’s very punk of me!” Natch.  Is Devoto is revisiting Orgasm Addict with a snarl here? Could be.    

But mainly, the tracks are electronic backings to Devoto’s lyrics and, along with the instrumentals such as Gods’ Particle with its True Faith type drum rhythm, these are a soundtrack to a familiar alienated landscape – if you’re familiar with Devoto’s landscape that is!  At time’s it is sort of bedroom versions of electropop (ah, those cheesy synth orchestra stabs) or electrodisco (ah, that NRG bassline) or 80’s indie electronica (ah, The Normal).  But these are passing references - this is a modern sounding LP, the sound is never staid and avoids cliché.  It’s an interesting collection of pieces, and is like listening to a radio station transmitting songs from some unknown location: it’s buzzcity talking.  And I look forward to further transmissions.

If Postcard Records had signed the Loving Spoonful, this is the album they’d have released.  Very light and poppy, with songs constructed in a Belle and Sebastian fashion, and with similarly literate – if far less barbed - lyrics.  Some lovely string arrangements too.  Tracyanne Campbell sounds like Delores O’Riordan after an anger management course.  There’s a lot of chiming guitars, ah-ah-ah choruses and plenty of treble that often runs the risk of being too saccharine.  Though they sing about Lee and Nancy on “Anti-Western” they sound dangerously close to the sleep-inducing Ben (Watt) and Tracey (Thorn) on the album – strange, as they demonstrate a harder edge live.  Best songs are the compassionate “Eighties Fan”, produced by Stuart Murdoch, and “Swimming Pool”, though it contains the unforgiveable line “my head’s been lying dormant like a sleepy little mouse”.  Pick is probably “I Don’t Do Crowds” which is upbeat and swinging.   Generally it’s an album placed firmly in that ‘new acoustic’ slot.   

Reviewed by Ged

A C ACOUSTICS O (Cooking Vinyl)

Recorded (unbelievably) in 10 days, a c acoustic’s fourth LP is an accomplished work of well-crafted, maturely-written, comfortably played, superbly recorded songs in a generally vaguely melancholic vein.  Starting off with a wonderful semi-shoegazing track, Hold – all soaring guitar and echoey vocals – the LP progresses into less FXy more slowly affecting songs.  All smooth edges, vague sensations, intangibility and impalpability, the songs ebb and flow into your mind: Paul Campion’s vulnerable, hypnotic vocals floating like an ancient mariner on a ghost ship of keyboards, guitars and drums.  The nearest comparisons I can think of are probably a Tindersticks (but with balls), an REM (but with real emotion), or a Buffalo Tom (but without the overbearingness).

a c acoustics have garnered critical acclaim for their previous works, as far back as 94’s mini LP Able Treasury, 96’s Victory Parts and 2000’s Understanding Music.  This LP is surely going to receive similar praise, and please the a c acoustic fanbase and the older indie listener.

Reviewed by Kev