TOBY HAY ****
QUANTIC & NIDIA GÓNGORA ***
Mid-Wales folk guitarist Toby Hay’s demeanour is unassuming but ought not be mistaken for lack of confidence. On this debut album, he lets his playing do the talking: eight songs of instrumentals nodding to the American Primitive style of John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke, similarly internationalist in its outlook with flashes of Indian and Chinese-sounding tunings. The sleevenotes, detailing the influence of his rural homestead on The Gathering’s sound, are illuminating as the album is engrossing. NG
Never been able to get permanently onboard with the opulent funk meets WOMAD-worthy ‘world fusion’ steez of Quantic, but I can dig this. A teamup with Columbian singer Nidia Góngora, prefacing a whole album of the same, Que Me Duele? is a sassy hoedown of tender-yet-tough marimba and fierce vocals. NG
VOIVOD ***
SUPERFOOD
The Gathering (Cambrian)
Build Your Weapons: The Very Best Of The Noise Years (Noise) The strangest of all the big league thrash metal bands, and during certain parts of the lunar cycle the greatest, Canadian marvels Voivod’s second, third and fourth albums are justly getting quality reissues. Shortly before that, there’s this doubleCD compilation which features nearly all of the music on those, and so feels a mite redundant. If you like Metallica, King Crimson and/or forwardthinking 80s hardcore, you will flip for Voivod... and then chide yourself for not just grabbing the actual albums. NG
ZU ***
Jhator (House Of Mythology) Ominous gongs and drones, the twittering of electronic insects, eerie metallic sheets of sound, non-verbal non-Western mysticism, all over two tracks lasting a combined total of over 40 minutes. Pop music Jhator ain’t – but neither is it what we’ve come to expect from the Italian noise merchants and heavyweight sax botherers. It might be a smart move: while others are preoccupied with trying to soundtrack the apocalypse, Zu have moved on to contemplating how to soundtrack what comes afterwards. BW
singles AMOR *****
Paradise / In Love An Arc (Night School) Fine Glasgow label releases fine questing disco record from bunch of moonlighting Glasgow mates. As much arthouse as dancefloor, both songs here push 14 minutes, with rubbery double bass, sporadic piano sunshine and Scottish weirdo hero Richard Youngs’ madly ecstatic vocals. Out of time, and way too short. WS
FAR OUT MONSTER DISCO ORCHESTRA *** Vendetta (Far Out)
A fitting selection for lengthy, flamboyant summer parties, this one really goes out of the way to adhere to its name. Depending on which mix you listen to, you’ll be subjected to abundant rhythmic ornamentation over slightly off-the-wall string textures and a very characteristic disco beat. Interesting, but repetitive, astonishingly repetitive! CPI
JOHN MOUSE ****
Tough Day For The Trains (Crocfinger) It’s always good to know there’s someone out there who cares. John MOuse’s paean to the British rail network gently humanises trains who “don’t know they’re getting old”. Jangling Johnny Marr-esque guitar chords sit on top of motor-rhythmic drums and organs that sound like engine whistles. A charming look at beleaguered Britain. JPD
Que Me Duele? (Tru Thoughts)
Double Dutch (Dirty Hit) Now slimmed down to a duo, Superfood are back with a tasty new sound. The cool guitar sounds are left over from their Britpop debut, but now are layered in dreamy synthpop/soul, interspersed over a sample of girls enjoying that summer pastime. Languid and hippy-hoppy at the same time. A yummy treat! RLR
THEM DEAD BEATS ****
Hang On A Second (Bywyd) The most refreshing thing about Hang On A Second isn’t that Them Dead Beats are a two- piece band with the sonic force of twice that number – see The White Stripes and Royal Blood. It’s the range of music they cram into a five-song EP. Their varied garage-rock sound bursts from the speakers with the ferocity of their live shows. JPD
demos MAX UNITY
soundcloud.com/max-unity The main guy behind this Cardiff-based act, if not the sole entity responsible, is painter Sean Donovan. Can a mere cloddish demo reviewer discern a creative link between Donovan’s idiosyncratic watercolours and his music? It’s a no from me – which isn’t to say that these concoctions of shuffling dance beats and live instrumentation aren’t enjoyable. Situation Vacant and Jon Snow, despite their janky recording, are where Max Unity does it for me, via their droney psychedelic backdrops, muffled crooner vocals. NG
CODEW4LKERS
www.codewalkers.uk Even Better Enemies, the debut by Cardiff trio Codew4lkers, has one of those chorus hooks – “Biggedy-bo-oh-oh!”, delivered by Seun Babatola in a style somewhere between a toaster and an elf from a kids’ movie – that you know is going to lodge itself in your head for a long time. That’s a compliment, broadly speaking, but fair warning: this melange of conscious hip-hop, pop reggae and someone like Gorillaz might drive you bonkers. There’s a good chance you might hear more about Codew4lkers soon, though. NG
HANA2K
facebook.com/hanamakesmusic The ‘2K’ of Hana Evans’ artist name refers, I assume, to her birth year; for whatever reason, 16-year-old pop artists don’t cause me age-based personal anguish like 16-year-old footballers do. Not that Evans is pro level yet, but she’s got a pretty sussed personal brand on the go – uploading one song per month to Soundcloud, starting with Jealousy, a wistful and very modern sliver of electronic pop with soft pads, autotune and lyrics about gossipy friends. NG
WE'VE BEEN WATCHING... TABOO BBC (available on BBC iPlayer) James Delaney (the impeccable Tom Hardy) returns to 1815 London to claim his mysterious and valuable inheritance, but first he must beat the Crown and the almighty East India Company in a battle of wits. If you're a fan of voodoo, incest, duels on misty riverbanks, cinematic gloom, Dickensian rascals and stolen diamonds then you're going to seriously love this show. Watch out for Mark Gatiss playing the Prince Regent, complete with League Of Gentlemen fatsuit and a stuffed ostrich. ****VO INSIDE NO 9 BBC (available on BBC iPlayer) Deranged, somewhat unhinged and spectacularly dark. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s third series of Inside No.9 is perfectly in keeping with the previous two. Each episode takes a different narrative. One is themed around cryptic puzzlers, one around karaoke and another around a restaurant bill. All is not as it seems, though. Each 30-minute episode unravels in different ways so much so that you have no idea what to expect, so when it finishes, you’re left completely captivated. *****SF CLIQUE BBC (available on BBC iPlayer) After last year’s female-focused Thirteen, BBC3 continues to focus on the female experience. Its latest glossy, teen-focused effort Clique is no exception. Written by Jess Brittain, best known for her efforts on Skins, Clique depicts the various entanglements of university students with a darker edge. Billed as a psychological thriller, it focuses on Holly (Synnove Karsen) and Georgina (Aisling Franciosi), two childhood friends who find that university life and a mysterious internship begins to drive a wedge between them. ****SD MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Best Brains (available on Netflix) Set in the “not-too distant future”, two mad scientists launch a janitor into space to force him to watch B-movies to find the perfect bad film to use to take over the world. To prevent himself from going mad, the janitor builds robot friends to talk over the film. Yes, it’s a weird premise, it’s an essential for any lover of bad films. Their classic Eegah and Manos Hands Of Fate episodes are highly recommended, while an entirely new series is to be expected soon.*****LOB THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN MGM (available on Amazon Prime) This remake of the 1960 American Western classic, which was in turn a remake of the 1954 Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai, is unsurprisingly unoriginal and innovative. That being said, the stellar cast’s chemistry is marvellous, starring as a team of mercenaries hired to defend a simple mining town from a robber baron and his army. The tension builds and culminates in an explosive shoot out finale. Good action flick. No thinking required. ***LOB LIMMY'S SHOW BBC (available on Netflix) Without a doubt one of the greatest comic minds to have ever come out of the United Kingdom, Brian Limond’s Limmy’s Show is absolute pure genius. The Glaswegian comedian is famed for his rather disturbing and irreverent personas, and characters like spaced-out Dee Dee and his bizarre musings on life, television psychic Raymond Day who tells people their relatives have ‘gone downstairs’ and RPG host Falconhoof makes this sketch show outstandingly funny, even though you can’t quite explain why. *****LOB
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