singles
may
bloc party - banquet/staying fat
proper review. proper record.
graham coxon - bittersweet bundle of misery
standout track from a standout album. this is a lovely song. ray davies style, and yes its bloody similar to the radio friendly pop songs by the band that graham no longer want to part of. but so what when it's as gorgeous as this. and when the mellotron synth part comes in with grahams voice on full, if you don't feel the urge to clap along then you are a harder person than me. glorious.
katastrophy wife - blue valient (with carina round)/emit time
new band featuring kat 'babes in toyland' bjelland. as to be expected this is angry guitar rock stuff. screeched vocals, metal guitars, recalling the glory days of l7/polly harvey/early hole etc. the addition of the ever so in vogue carina round adds an extra element of interest. both of these tracks, its a double a-side single, are obvious album highlights, as over the course of 40+ minutes this stuff can be hard going, but in short bursts it's exhilarating stuff. 'blue valient' has a slow bluesy grind to it, whereas 'emit time' is an uptempo blast with the pre-requisite shouty fem vox fuzzed up basslines and an urgency that cannot fail to hit the spot. touring at the end of may. you have been warned.
inme - faster the chase
never really got into their first album .. was just too nirvana derivative. but,
even i will admit that this is quite an improvement. huge rock guitars, strong
melodies and the lead singer has thankfully discovered a new voice as opposed to
kurt-dom. the song has an uplifting feel to it and should indeed confirm their
status within the brit rock pack. yup, an improvement all in all.
yellowcard - way away
the current american college rock is a very different beast these days to the
glory days of the late 80's. there is still the prerequisite big noise fm
production, but the difference is in the vocals, previously bands were hiding
their voices behind the noise/haircuts etc now its all upfront happy mode vocals
with sing along chorus's . this is a prime example of the new rock. its not bad
at all .. tis like busted for the cool us teen market with an extra dah of big
boys rock layers. and i mean that in a good way. give me the masses gagging for
the next busted single any day over gareth gates/will young anyday. so yes this
is alright actually. just.
xisloaded - the start of everything
having found a new home at music for nations following their singles on
bossmusic this noisy lot from bath have obviously dug in hard and learnt their
trade well. strong songs with a big muse type of appeal, whether they will raise
above the current glut of emotionally intense guitar based bands at the moment
has yet to be seen, and as much as i would love them to go the whole hog i dont
think that this single indicates that they are ready just yet.
!!!
the group who will become known as 'chk-chk-chk' release their first high profile 12" 'pardon my freedom' through warp records in may as a taster to their forthcoming 'louden up now' album. tis a 6th form exercise of funked up liquid basslines, wah wah'd guitars, and lots of non-melodic shouty swearing set to an old chakk/shriekback 12" groove and is therefore superb. gets the feet moving and the head bopping for 6 minutes. fresh and new, for most people this should definitely hit the dancefloors of choice, not as abrasive and unfriendly as a lot of the punk-funk revival of last year, this has a polished well produced sound but looses none if the urgency. f*cking brilliant.
two lone swordsmen
3 track 12" of spooked up electrogoth funk from andrew weatherall and his long standing partner in electro crime keith tenniswood - lead track 'faux' features spoken vocals a la underworld set against a drum machine loop from 1979 (you can sing classic electro legend warm leatherette to the beat ..) and old school analogue synths. as far removed from screamadelica as possible. time warp stuff of the highest orders, spooky and intimidating .. with the instrumental version being titled 'sick when we kiss' – nice touch. final track on the 12 is 'roof one' which kicks away the mental cobwebs and goes for the full on sex electro rock groove - with more basslines and chopped guitars adding more meat to the decaying bones of the 2003 press friendly punk funk sound .. with weatheralls love for all things shriekback/post-punk he has created a track that will easily sit amongst his nine o clock set that he released a few years ago on nuphonic. makes me want more ..
the glitterati - here comes a close up
and so the world post the darkness becomes a hive of falsetto vocals and big rock. the gates of hell have opened and the big record labels are now after their own demons. the music media have supposedly been all over this lot following their Poptones debut, and seeing as i had heard a bootleg mash track which melded a Glitterati track with madonnas music and some bowie samples that got the blood pumping i had high hopes for this major label debut. well stand down. it's trad old fashioned fm radio sanctioned rock music with the currently in demand guns and roses style guitars and passioned screams. like grunge never happened.. ok it is a fun track, it is well done, it is noisy, and the handclaps/primal scream "Get your Rocks off" drum beat at the end is smile inducing .. but 4 plays and i've definitely had enough.
lots of build up then, fancy logo and all that, but all resulting in little sparkle.
calexico - black heart ep
a 6 track ep with the original track lifted from last years 'feast of wire' album being far superior to everything else on offer. calexico releases have always looked fantastic, the artwork always stands out, but till now i had little knowledge of their world. alt.americana was kinda the genre i had lumped them into, and the original version of black heart certainly indicates that they walk the same path as the Walkabouts and other doom and gloom merchants with a dash of Nick Cave thrown in. an excellently dark instrumentally rich downtempo track. the strings are particulalry glorious without adding an element of syrupiness that can so often happen. and so to the remixes/b-sides.
firstly, jazzanova get to attack the lead track. they add dubby beats, broken distortion sounds make the track more sonically experimental but maintains the actual structure of the song, its good, but lacks the emotional intensity of the original. from hereon though i find the appeal less fulfilling - the choice of remixes indicate that the band have desire to move away from the dark moods and add a little lite jazz to their reportoire .. 'attack el robot! attack!' is pretty uninspiring, acid jazz revival fans would lap this up though, and the popular gotan project add their de facto spanish flavours grooves to the party. hmm .. another one not for me, but the addition of the tex mex flavours on 'guero canelo' show a world groove element that would go down well on a sunny afternoon at any of the seasons festivals. all in all an interesting package with a full range of styles being soaked in.
so if a mixture of tex mex, spanish guitars, broken beats, light jazz, and dark broody alt.country sounds like your bag then this is a perfect release. for me, it is interesting in places but not compelling.