05/10
07/10
07/10
07/10
Singing Adams
Joe Gideon & The Shark
Siliver Pyre AeXE
Vinyl Williams
Moves
05/10
Leminscate
Callers Reviver
(Records Records Records Records) By Chal Ravens. In stores Dec 10
Freakish (Bronze Rat) By Chris Watkeys. In stores Jan 7
(Sedgemoor) By David Zammitt. In stores now
(No Pain In Pop) By Nathan Westley. In stores Dec 3
(Partisan) By Chris Watkeys. In stores Jan 7
After a decade in The Broken Family Band, the Cambridge quartet who squeezed anglicised alt-country from a grown-up indie pop template until their split in 2009, frontman Steven Adams turned his attentions to this erstwhile side project, who now release their second record of mild, restrained rock paired with ever-so-slightly acrid lyrics.‘Theme from Moves’ stands out for its arch title and pairing of minimal lap steel guitar with old-timey phrases (“The train’s passed but the tracks are still humming, no one knows when my baby’s coming home”), drawing attention to the sentimental streak of Americana that greases the wheels of these 10 short songs, as lap steel and the odd harmonica lend pathos to the guitars’ warm tones and Adams’ cool delivery.Your liking for ‘Moves’ will hinge on your kneejerk reaction to the term ‘alt-country’, but it’s worth a spin or two.
‘Freakish’ kicks off with Gideon talk-singing his way over a very filthy riff on ‘I’m Ruined’, an amusing tale of the many negative consequences of being in a permanent state of wrecked-ness. It’s the lyrics and stories, in fact, that grab a large part of centre stage on this second album, not least because, for the most part, the music is bludgeoningly simple – the sonic equivalent of large, friendly blocks of primary colour.This blunt simplicity – heavy, repetitive hooks – works brilliantly on ‘Poor Born’, the vocal debut of ‘The Shark’ (drummer Viva). One big departure from the template, though, arrives in ‘Nine Bells of Hell’, a superb musical maelstrom that comes across oddly like a twisted combination of ‘Is This It’ era Strokes and a more up to date National.‘Freakish’ sounds like it was a hell of a lot of fun to make, and it’s as much fun to listen to.
On ‘AeXE’, Gary Fawle uses his Silver Pyre nom de plume to explore a uniquely English folk mysticism, wedding classic Warp electronica and ’80s new wave to found sounds and his own deadpan vocals. It’s an achievement that this functions at all, however ‘AeXE’ actually manages to keep the bar high for much of its 51 minutes. It should be noted, however, that Fawle does pin his influences fairly conspicuously to his sleeve so that while ‘Leathered’ replicates the hypnotic playfulness of ‘Incunabula’ era Autechre with panache, it’s also difficult to make the case for its place alongside the Rochdale duo’s back catalogue. Similarly,‘Calendar’’s exploration of the human desire for structure seems in thrall to David Byrne, clumsily evoking Talking Heads’ study of the banal on ‘Don’t Worry About The Government’ (“My building has every convenience / It’s gonna make life easy for me”).
With ‘Lemniscate’,Vinyl Williams aka Lionel Williams, the LA based artist and musician, has crafted an album that will sit pretty with those who have a penchant for the more adventurous things in life; it is not an album that can easily be filed away into one effortlessly identifiable genre, instead it flicks between them with relative ease. ‘Tokyo Sumatra’ is a layered introduction, one that is atmospherically rich in multiple textures of sound that are delicately weaved together in a complicated manner that will draw comparisons to Flying Lotus’ more controlled moment. ‘Higher Worlds’ then sounds more like ‘Hail To The Thief ’ era Radiohead getting it on with funk edged bass impresario Thundercat, while the rhythmically charged ‘Who Are You’ is like a musically loose Bjork at her most seductive. ‘Lemniscate’ will casually lure you in.
The spectacularly fertile musical plains of Brooklyn spew forth another crop, this time in the form of Callers, a boy-girl duo clearly with arty inclinations.The female half, Sara Lucas, is possessed of a great, soulful voice, here used to varying effect on a debut album that seems delicately and almost painstakingly constructed. ‘Good Years’ sees hesitant, light-footed vocals skim over a musical backdrop that is equally as unsure of itself, while ‘Heroes’ is like a scaled-down version of a big soul classic, punctured here and there with jazzy touches. On the gentle ballad ‘Turning’, all the elements the band try so hard to cram in seem to fit together, and it works. But large chunks of this album feel like an experiment in willful pretension, littered with pointless small yelps and mildly irritating rhythms. It really is best to stick with Dirty Projectors.
Naomi Punk The Feeling (Captured Tracks) By Chal Ravens. In stores now
07/10
There is a great and mighty school of American music that posits that the best way to communicate your latest gosh darn fine pop song to your listeners is to PUMMEL THEM IN THE FACE with it over and over, taking up rust-ridden serrated guitars and crash cymbals to slice straight through their brains, leaving nothing but mutilated chunks of cortex and gristle pulsating out of time on the kerb.Well, the fine debut by Naomi Punk (who naturally hail from Olympia, Washington, spiritual home of riot grrrl and grunge) emerges from this very school, combining grubby lo-fi melodies with introspective slowcore darkness to excellent effect, even touching on that great unspoken canon of American rock genius stretching from Mars to Butthole Surfers to Royal Trux. Released on Couple Skate Records in the U.S. this spring,‘The Feeling’ well deserves its repress and international release, from the unhidged crank of ‘Voodoo Trust’ to the foreverdetuning wobble of closer ‘The Buzz’.
www.loudandquiet.com
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