ANY VERSION OF ME
Home Alone
Independent/Digital-only
http://anyversionofme.bandcamp.com
Reporter: “Why do you sing like Americans and talk like Englishmen?”
John Lennon: “It sells better.”
Perhaps it was with this rationale in mind that 33-year-old Parisian Guillaume Lépine, aka Any Version Of Me, eschewed his native tongue to sing in the manner of a Liverpudlian aping an American. If his self-released, self-performed debut, Backward Forever, displayed a charmingly callow overreliance on Lépine’s uncannily Lennonesque singing style (and Fabs-drenched layers of meticulously assembled backing vocals/instrumentation), the follow-up trumps it by successfully inculcating these influences with greater poise and panache.
Make no mistake, Home Alone is not the work of just another Bedroom Beatlebore™. These are impeccably written, feverishly doted-upon songs incorporating influences ranging from buoyant Beach Boys to darker Gene Clark (and yes, The Beatles).
Tom Sandford
BABY WOODROSE
Baby Woodrose
Bad Afro CD/LP
www.badafro.dk
Since 2001 Baby Woodrose has been the outlet for prolific garage rock songsmith Lorenzo Woodrose, original drummer of criminally under-rated Danish psychedelic band On Trial. Originating as a solo project, then expanding to a trio and flirting with a major label the Rose now return with a seventh ‘solo’ album. This is no retro voyage but like the best garage rock of the ’60s, fuzzed-out psychedelic weirdness and pop sensibility are encapsulated together by ‘Fortune Teller’ and ‘Take It’. ‘Emily’ engages multi-layered harmonies and spaghetti western atmospherics, ‘Laughing Stock’ features dark electronic effects, ‘No Mas’ is pure raunch and the haunting acoustic ‘Scorpio’ precedes the albums closing psych epic ‘Secret Of The Twisted Flower’.
Despite the odd flash of the naughties it’s the ’60s that reign supreme on this album and whilst perhaps lacking the immediacy of previous releases, it does hit the mark enough times to warrant repeat plays.
Richard Allen
THE BARBACANS
God Save The Fuzz
Boss Hoss CD
www.bosshossrecords.it
Following on from their debut ‘Phantom Opera’ / ‘What’s Fantastic’ 45 comes the debut album from The Barbacans, a wildly enthusiastic quartet of Italian garage punk rock ’n’ rollers.
Recorded at Jorge of Dr Explosion’s world-famous Circo Perrotti studios in Gijon, Spain at the start of this year, God Save The Fuzz isn’t the kind of slavish outpouring of the school of ‘66 beat style, but rather the sound of an energetic young band with a love for some great fuzzed-up ’60s garage riffs. They have an abundance of attitude but I like it best when their squealin’ Farfisa noise is in the forefront. ‘Time For The Choice’, with blues harp in the blend, is a highlight.
Lenny Helsing
BLITZEN TRAPPER
Black River Killer EP
Sub Pop
MAPLEWOOD
Yeti Boombox
Tapete Records
How nice. Two new American acts doing bona fide good work with old folk, country and rural influences.
Blitzen Trapper, fresh from touring with both Fleet Foxes and Wilco, cook up their own take on bands inspired by Dylan with a post-modern US twist… but there’s a surprise, they do UK psych too, with the brilliant ‘Going Down’ sounding like a ray of light. The driving rural rock of ‘Big Black Bird’ on the other hand has the jive of 1970 all over it!
Maplewood are even more traditional and make the most beautifully laid back country-rock with a hint of the new, not unlike Midlake at their most CSN-flavoured.
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
TARA BUSCH
Pilfershire Lane
Tummy Touch CD
www.tummytouch.com
Although Tara Busch is a fervent blogger, and surely used to exposing her innermost thoughts, this is a curiously impenetrable album. At times – like on the title track – she comes up with electronic prog; elsewhere she attempts to channel Kate Bush at her high-weirdness watermark of the early ’80s. There’s peppered dance beats although you couldn’t call it a floorshaker, and any moments of pure pop are usually undercut by a jarring synth effect. There’s even a bit on ‘Superfriends’ that sounds like (of all things) Freddie Mercury pounding the ivories, treading a fine line between ironic appropriation and grievous error.
Pilfershire Lane is an album to take apart before you can appreciate it as a whole, and for that Tara is an intriguing prospect. She wilfully makes things difficult for the listener, and it’s this quality that marks her out from the over-hyped annoyances like Florence and her sodding Machine.
Jeanette Leech
BUSKIN & BATTEAU
Red Shoes And Golden Hearts
Nouveau Retro Media CD
www.buskinandbatteau.com
The Northeast folk duo of David Buskin and Robin Batteau first linked up as part of the legendary Tom Rush’s backup band in the ‘60s.This 12-track collection of acoustic spunk and suggestive wit demonstrates that even after a 13 year hiatus (“raising kids” and “taking naps”) they have lost none of their multi-instrumental flair, emotionally vulnerable vocal harmonies and sense of the intricately filigreed, shimmering melody line.
Folk-pop treats abound — favourites are the optimistic reflection ‘Good Luck In The Promised Land’, a ‘50s Greenwich Village flashback (complete with Kerouac passed out and Ginsberg howling) titled ‘Rae Anne’, the haunting, a capella anthem ‘Tonight We Are Everywhere’ and the bluesy, end-of-summer plea ‘Just A Girl’. Also noted is the reflective rainy day remembrance ‘Warm’ and the irresistibly light-hearted, philosophical title tune.
Welcome back fellas.
Gary von Tersch
MICHAEL CARPENTER
Redemption #39
Big Radio CD
www.mcarp.com
Spending LOTS of his time twiddling knobs and playing whichever instrument is to hand while recording other people’s albums, this pop wiz from Oz often doesn’t have time to come up with an album of his own as often as he should. The Ludwig bass drum and Beatles typeface gracing the cover aren’t too much of a surprise and the “B” band’s inspired power-pop tag would be the easiest one to stick.
If it’s Merseybeat, Carpenter powers it up with a backbeat as manic as Keith Moon at his wildest (‘Can’t Go Back’); if it’s late ’60s pop, he puts it through the toytown psych prism by way of Jellyfish (‘The King Of The Scene’); if it’s folk rocking jangle, it’s like Fountains Of Wayne covering George Harrison, complete with a fuzzed-out backwards solo (the title track) and just before you think it’s all happy-go-lucky, he throws in some sweaty pub-rock as well (‘Workin’ For Livin’’).
Goran Obradovic
CHERRY CHOKE
Cherry Choke
Elektrohasch CD/LP
Afficianados of stoner rock will be aware of Leicester’s Josiah, who have released three fine albums and been credited with inventing garage metal. Led by guitarist Mat Bethancourt – also of the excellent late ‘60s US heavy psych homage The Beginning.
A savage mixture of early ’70s rock sludge, fluid motor city riffing and garage rock passion the band’s debut is a high volume assault. Bethancourt is a mean guitarist and what he lacks in vocal ability is easily compensated for by colourfully inventive fretwork. On side two of the album the band reaches their full stride with ‘The Need’ and ‘Fridays in June’ – both languid acid blues. ‘In My Mind’ and ‘Cheetah’ are full-on garage assaults whilst ‘I Can See The Girls Grow’ reinvents US ’70s proto metal.
Richard Allen
DEPARTMENT S
Wonderful Day EP
Sartorial CD
www.myspace.com/sartorialrecords
I should really be devoting the bulk of my brainache to the title track of this EP from revitalised UK post-punk legends Department: S, but I keep getting distracted by track two, ‘Clap Now’, an archive track from 1980 produced by Dale Griffin and Pete ‘Overend’ Watts of Mott The Hoople.
It’s an absolutely intoxicating post-punk masterclass, a real period piece boasting so many key elements of that Joy Division-derived style that it’s all I can do to stop myself digging out my chorus pedal and teasing my combover into an “asymmetrical”. We’re talking itchy funk flanged guitar, a stentorian lead vocal from the late, sadly-missed Vaughn Toulouse, furiously bustling drumming with eights on the hi-hat… innocent joy.
‘Wonderful Day’ struggles a bit by comparison, but it’s still a bracing, insistently catchy and committed performance, particularly in full-length form with its apocalyptic wig-out ending. Ex-Pistol Glen Matlock and ex-Ant Marco Pirroni add illustrious guest star clout, and an endearingly straight-faced version of Alvin Stardust’s ‘My Coo Ca Choo’ radiates true affection.
Marco Rossi
DOCTOR EXPLOSION
!!Chupa Aqui!!
Discos Perrotti CD
www.circoperrotti.com
In this, their umpteenth long-player, Doctor Explosion – a three-piece from Asturias in Spain – bring forth a veritable cornucopia of cool moods and styles, almost all redolent of the ’60s beat explosion. They also have a passion for basic garage punk rock ’n’ roll.
With ‘I Want You’, however, they succeed with more than just a dash of the playful pop-punk approach The Undertones once excelled at. Ringing 12-strings and emphatic vocal harmonies are also much in evidence – the essential components for sumptuous folk-beaters ‘Sorry’ and ‘Fishing’. Gene Clark’s Byrds flipside ‘She Don’t Care About Time’ and the gorgeously swooning ‘Summer Sun’ – by the should’ve been mega-famous ’66 Eastern Bloc combo The Beathovens – are also given fresh readings
There’s plenty of effervescent pop know-how and a humour on display here too; check out ‘Chesterfield Childish Club’, a modern Spanish/English language re-write of Larry & The Blue Notes’ quintessential garage party nugget, ‘Night Of The Phantom’.
Lenny Helsing
THE HEAVY
The House That Dirt Built
Counter Records
www.counterrecords.com
Out of nowhere Shindig! was exposed to The Heavy’s dirty flash of genius after hearing a handful of sterling singles which promised to one day deliver a long awaited follow up to 2007’s Great Vengeance And Furious Fire.
Based in the West Country but operating in more than one field of expertise, here, The Heavy unashamedly pummel everything from the furious scuzz of Detroit garage (‘Oh No! Not You Again!’) to recent single ‘Sixteen’ which tramps on a fairground like merry-go-round of feral horns and lamenting blues.
The Morricone-soaked ‘Short Change Hero’ is a definite and epic number as much about being way out West as it is being too far gone and the understated ‘Love Like That’ takes a step back from the fray to become a mid-paced indie anthem in waiting.
An all-encompassing record that builds impressively on the foundations laid by some of your all-time favourite bands.
Richard S Jones
HORISONT
Tva Sidor Av Horisonten
Crusher Records LP/CD
www.crusherrecords.com
Are there any musical genres that the Swedish can’t conquer? This debut from hard-rock act Horisont is yet more proof that there must something in the Scandinavian water that makes their current crop of bands such utter world-beaters.
Ploughing similar terrain to label mates Dead Man, the band have been described as a mix of November and Black Sabbath. The vocals may be pure Ozzy but they’re much nearer to the former in style. The opener ‘Nightrider’ is incredible riff-based magic that should, by rights, be a huge hit. ‘High Time’, with its gear change into the chorus, is fresh and catchy as hell, while ‘The Unseen’ has doomy guitar runs to rival Iommi’s best.
If you like the early ’70s hard-rock sound, then buy this now. Actually scrub that; if you’re a music fan, then buy this now. Meanwhile, I’m going to contact the Swedish embassy and see if they’ll accept my immigration application on musical grounds.
Austin Matthews
INSTANT FLIGHT
Endless Journey
Headspin CD
www.instantflight.com
Stalwarts of both the London pub circuit and European retro festivals, Anglo-Italian four-piece Instant Flight have found themselves unwitting torch-bearers for modern day psychedelic rock.
Endless Journey is their second long-player and finds them revisiting tried and tested Beatles/Floyd terrain (check the parping Mellotron and Leslied guitars on ‘Magic Stream’ and ‘Dreamland’) whilst mixing in a fair whack of Churchills-style Middle Eastern exoticism (‘Endless Journey’, ‘The Land Is The Same’), late ’60s pop-psych whimsy (‘Universe In A Verse’) and even a dash of blues-rock muscle (‘Get Away’).
What elevates Instant Flight a fair few heads and shoulders above any other ’60s-worshipping psych recreants I can think of is both their level of musicianship (a rock solid rhythm section, near-symphonic keyboards and plenty of fluid lead guitar work) and frontman Marco Magnani’s wicked way with a tune.
This isn’t an exercise in chin-stroking authenticism, it’s a pop record – albeit one drenched in the trappings of pop’s hallucinogenic golden age.
Andy Morten
JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER
Ballads Of The Revolution
Fire CD
www.firerecords.com
For the past 15 or so years, Jackie-O Motherfucker have been responsible for composing some impressive and conceptually self-indulgent neo-psych hymns with the caveat – “leave them to their own creative devices”.
Ballads Of The Revolution is the latest culmination of Tom Greenwood and Nester Bucket’s romantic mesmerism. Opener ‘Nightingale’ is a traditional piece reworked in waves of watery guitar that stream pedal steel and country sighs into ‘Dark Falcon’, looping under ethereal passages read from a Mamas & Papas record’s liner note, by the oft called upon Honey Owens.
After taking you from A to B before you’ve even had chance to debrief, ‘Skylight’, a stock song from the band’s library (which has been aired live on occasion) bounds across the universe with big country folk strides, carried along on loosely strung guitar lines and wandering abstract jams.
It’s 10 thousand miles above and beyond anything else I care to actually care about this year.
Richard S Jones
STEPHEN J KALINICH AND PETER LACEY
South Downs Way
Pink Hedgehog CD
www.pinkhedgehog.com
Plenty of us are healthily obsessed with the sonic architecture of The Beach Boys: but few can claim a more thorough understanding of the inner workings than the great Peter Lacey.
Peter’s albums have staked out an elegant, weightless territory which to my ears nods more towards Carl Wilson than Brian (specifically, the Surf’s Up-era visionary of ‘Feel Flows’ and ‘Long Promised Road’). It was surely inevitable that he would eventually come to the attention of the Beach Boys’ inner circle, and so it has proved with South Downs Way, a collaboration with Stephen Kalinich.
Stephen worked as a lyricist with The Beach Boys, and South Downs Way weaves his emotive, avowedly pacifistic narrative poetry into a range of intensely melodious backdrops. To hear the title suite, ‘The Rose & The Weed’ and ‘He Loves Her (More Than She Will Know)’ is to be pleasantly reminded of ‘Mt Vernon & Fairway’ and even The Doors’ An American Prayer, while the luscious pulse of ‘Play On Maestro’ and ‘I Know Roads’ will effortlessly satisfy the cravings of my fellow Carl-o-philes.
Marco Rossi
LITMUS
Aurora
Rise Above CD
www.riseaboverecords.com
Deviating little from a course first embarked upon in 2004 with You Are Here, Litmus continue a trajectory to the stars and beyond on this, their third, album. The debt owed to Hawkwind is still large, and the influence of late ’80s British festival bands such as Omnia Opera is also unmistakable.
The Dalek-like vocals, relentless heavy-guitar driven punk riffs and cosmic synths that typify the Litmus sound still permeate. They’ve eased back slightly on the Warp accelerator though, and a number of lush symphonic soundscapes have crept in, adding a more rounded, mature feel to their oeuvre. For better or worse, whether this is a direction that eventually sees them heading into more mainstream territory is another matter. But, for now though, Litmus confirm they’re still one of the leading exponents of 21st century British space rock. Time to lock yourself in a darkened room, pull on those headphones, and enjoy this trip – don’t forget the dilithium crystals!
Rich Deakin
MADE
They Don’t Understand
Area Pirata CD
www.areapirata.com
More Britpop than mod, as they’re being described in the press release, but it’s a thin line between the two anyway these days. Made seem to be all over Italian Mod rallies for the last decade so it doesn’t seem to bother the parka wearin’, scooter ridin’ cappuccino kids. In fact, had the pairing of ‘Everybody Under Your Spell’ and ‘The Same Old Story’ been issued as a 7” single, most of the mod-vintage ’60s beat references would’ve been pretty accurate. The former mixes the pounding Medway Delta sound with the big beat of late ’80s/early ’90s British mod revivalists The Clique, while the latter throws in some psychedelic flavour.
Special notice must be taken of the amazing Yellow Submarine-inspired artwork by one Riccardo Bucchioni, more of which I strongly recommend you to see at www.riccardobucchioni.com.
Goran Obradovic
BRIAN OLIVE
Brian Olive
Alive CD
www.alive-totalenergy.com
First solo effort for the Greenhorne that got away (to my knowledge Olive is yet to partake in any Jack White-affiliated project), Brian Olive is a sometimes explosive but never anything less than appealing genre player. Swaying freely between the ’60s Brit-beat influence he channelled as founder of the aforementioned Greenhornes (‘Ida Maria’ and ‘Calling All Around’) and the bold-ass brass that Olive often leant to Soledad Brothers as guest saxophonist.
The astoundingly rhythm section of ‘Jubilee Line’ is exemplary, promising sunshine but instead giving listeners a muddied and addictive pop serving that tethers rainy notions of London to Olive’s love for The Kinks and Small Faces.
Littered with tambourine claps, the girly backing work of The Kadish Sisters and Donna Jay, and plenty of resplendent bass lines; even a misguided nod toward Henry Mancini (‘High Low’) ensures this is a multi-coloured foray into those respectable realms of flattery and imitation.
Richard S Jones
PETER & THE PENGUINS
How To Choose A Sweetheart
Penguphone/Not Lame CD
www.myspace.com/peterthepenguins
Joining the ranks of Peter Berry & The Shake Set, here’s yet another Norwegian band that hasn’t been told that we’re way past 1965 now.
In spite of the lead off track ‘Barefoot’ being a looser, post-Smile Beach Boys pastiche, they’re sticking to classic Merseybeat sounds throughout most of the album, with ‘She Took Me By Surprise’, ‘If You Wanna Leave Me’ and ‘There’s No Living Without You’ being highlights that wouldn’t sound out of place on With The Beatles or Please Please Me.
The less obviously Mersey-flavoured tunes seem to stick out, such as the Turtles-like ‘Sweetheart’ or the minor chord jangle of ‘There Goes Pete Best’ (“... the unluckiest bastard in the world”). Besides an unsurprising cover of ‘Bumble Bee’, they pay tribute to more contemporary soul mates The Spongetones, by covering their ‘Here I Go Again’, proving that they are willing to peep out of their time bubble after all.
Goran Obradovic
PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE SOUND
Painted Shadows
A Silent Place CD
www.asilentplace.it
Watching a band grow is a beautiful thing and Chicago psychedelic stalwarts, Plastic Crimewave Sound are a group that just gets better and better with each record, coalescing here, into what I feel is their apotheosis.
On their umpteenth release they’ve created a soundscape of such droning psychedelic beauty that it sweeps the listener majestically through a prism of multi colored pictures and sounds.
The lead off track, ‘I Feel Evils’, is the perfect amalgamation of Edgar Broughton/Hawkwind free festival rock mixed with the heartbeat drone of Spacemen 3.
Painted Shadows is texturally beautiful and musically dense, which is perfectly demonstrated on the 20-minute title track, which ebbs and flows, then explodes into a kinetic hail storm.
If you are serious about psychedelia, you might want to get on board this lysergic train.
Eric Colin Reidelberger
THE PUSSYWARMERS
My Pussy Belongs To Daddy
Voodoo Rhythm LP/CD
www.voodoorhythm.com
Fancy something a little different? Digging further back than most, this new Swiss band take their sonic inspiration from the early part of the last century, plundering numerous musical forms from jazz bands to torch songs, exotica and Weimar cabaret.
However, their debut starts off with a vocal a little reminiscent of Ween and for a few awful moments you get the impression that this might be a redundant exercise in irony. Their stab at calypso is pretty dreadful and doesn’t offer any clue as to why you would want to listen to this over the original source material.
However from here on in something rather wonderful happens; the dark gothic ballads seeped in wine and cheap European fags transcend their origins and give a real Brechtian chill.
The melange of styles may alienate some but there are some truly great moments buried amongst the rough. I would like to see some of their ideas developed more fully but, as it is, this is an intriguing listen but certainly no classic.
Austin Matthews
THE SKYGREEN LEOPARDS
Gorgeous Johnny
Cosmos CD
www.cosmosrecordings.com
Serial avant-garde popsters The Skygreen Leopards have a bit of knack for turning in addictively lo-fi psych pop just when you need it.
Their 2006 LP Disciples Of California was met with seasonal appreciation thanks to its sun soaked harmonies and here on Gorgeous Johnny – which may well or well not be based on a concept loosely tied around a potentially “made-up” ‘Leopard – has arrived in time to remind us of just how versatile the Donovan Quinn and Glenn Donaldson partnership really is. Crafting simple and enchanting ’60s Byrdsian folk melodies on ‘Johnny’s Theme’ and a slow downed latter-day Dylan ballad on title track ‘Gorgeous Johnny’, there’s little to fault. Along with the additional help of the talented Jason Quever of Papercuts fame (who did in fact tinkled keys on the ol’ Joanna for Disciples…) we get a collaborative Californian effort that owes as much to the ability of three great songwriters as it does this fictious “Johnny bloke”.
Richard S Jones
THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES
Communion
Akashic/Rawpower CD
While Oasis continue to make millions with their watered down take on one-time support act The Soundtrack Of Our Lives’ sound, the visionary Swedes are still suffering from a low profile in the music industry.
Latest album Communion has only just been released in the UK, and what an epic it is too. Humourously sleeved in what looks like an advert for the Swedish branch of Specsavers SOOL’s fifth album in 13 years is far from a joke. A double that runs for over 90 minutes, its 24 songs tackle the modern technological world and the alienation progression brings. As always, SOOL liberally borrow from key sources the Stones, Floyd, Love, Zep, The Doors, The Kinks, veering between Aphrodite’s Child-like Keyboard driven prog, Who-like power chorded rock and pastoral psychedelic folk. Never slavishly imitative and always sounding like their own creation, this may well be SOOL’s most comprehensive record yet. Who else could turn misery guts Nick Drake’s ‘Fly’ into a chiming electric folk-rock tune?
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
POWELL ST. JOHN
On My Way To Houston
Tompkins Square CD
www.tompkinssquare.com
Marvelously ingratiating vocalist and stupendous harmonica player, St. John cut his teeth at Austin, Texas’ famed Threadgill’s Bar as part of a trio called The Waller Creek Boys with Janis Joplin and Lanny Wiggins. He subsequently wrote songs for The 13th Floor Elevators and formed Mother Earth. This self-produced project was recorded in Oakland, California with members of Erickson’s later band The Aliens and has an all-too-rare earthy vigour to it that brings a smile to the face.
The longer songs in particular are quite impressive. The psychedelic folk-rocker ‘Hardest Working Man’ (a hitherto unrecorded Erickson composition) along with a panoramic, Pink Floyd-influenced ‘Song Of The Silver Surfer’ and the Dylanesque title song (great harmonica) all fall into this category. A hopefully not true-to-life ‘Ballad Of Travis Rivers’ and a tongue-in-cheek High School flashback ‘I Loved The Way You Played The Piccolo’ are also a gas.
Gary von Tersch
MATTHEW SWEET AND SUSANNA HOFFS
Under The Covers Volume 2
Shout! Factory CD
www.shoutfactory.com
For the second volume of their covers collections, Sid ’n’ Susie dig no deeper into their stash of flower pop, mod and psychedelia to dazzle us with more renditions of ’60s gems. Rather they’ve moved forward a decade. It’s easy to pick apart their selections, both for being predictable and also for all the artists and songs they missed. Why Carly Simon and not Judee Sill? Why ‘All The Young Dudes’ and not one of the many stellar Mott songs we haven’t heard a zillion times?
It has to be said, though, that the 16 choices make up an accurate, broad representation of what commercial rock music was like during the ’70s. They do ‘Hello It’s Me’, ‘Here Comes My Girl’ and ‘Go All The Way’ with great spirit and tunefulness. I’d love to have picked the set list but I love how they did this. And Susanna Hoffs’ voice is lovely.
Brian Greene
TIMES NEW VIKING
Born Again Revisited
Matador CD
www.matadorrecords.com
If you could wire tinnitus, ADD and the folly of youth through a homemade fuzz pedal, it would ring to the fidelity of Times New Viking.
After making a move from Siltbreeze to Matador for last year’s acclaimed Rip It Off, the Columbus, Ohio three-piece return to the scene of the crime to further poke and prod a body of work built around gain-laden garage and the late ’70s British art-school messthetics/Ellie Jay ethos that birthed punk acts like Das Schnitz.
Clocking in at a few heartbeats over half an hour, Born Again Revisited presents a further 15 tracks, most notably ‘2/11, Don’t Forget’ and ‘Martin Luther King Day’ – pop songs that could earn lesser bands respectable livings – as carved, jarred and beautifully mutilated melodies.
DIY ethics withstanding (the master was submitted to Matador on VHS tape) Beth Murphy’s vocals transcend the often callous nature of garage-punk and turn this into a record you’ll never hear the same way twice.
Richard S Jones
TRAINWRECK RIDERS
The Perch
Alive CD
www.alive-totalenergy.com
Upon listening to the lush and lucid ‘Chug Along’, the crux of Trainwreck Riders’ The Perch – a seemingly endless story of American expedience – one is instantly comforted by their close association with San Fran bedfellows Two Gallants. A sonic union that finds them sharing similar free-roaming ideals, and an approach that sees TR’s singer Pete Frauenfelder’s as less of a wayward son and more an aged teller of troubadour tales. As opener ‘Safety Of A Back’ explains; ‘You may not know where we’re heading to / Or where we’re coming from / So what are you running from?’
‘Upon The Losing End’ ups the pace into a memorable and moving take on alt-country participation, bolstering their depictions of foolhardy topics (love, essentially), and on ‘Lucia’ the ‘Riders prove unequivocally that they know exactly how to make these experienced calls without ever sounding trite, worn or too popular for everyone’s ears.
Richard S Jones
THE UPPER FIFTH
Take The Fifth
Vectra CD
www.myspace.com/theupper5th
Lots of cool, if obvious, references here. Just a short glance at the mid-60s inspired artwork doesn’t leave too much of a doubt about The Upper Fifth’s sound. They’re fronted by Mark McGounden, formerly of Makin’ Time, which leaves even less doubt, and with Nigel Clark of Dodgy at the desk, an image of a ’60s mod band wrapped up in contemporary packaging becomes clear. With lots of Hammond organ and stomping beats, the people I see as the main target here are fans of The Prisoners.
The pair of tunes that hit the bulls-eye for me are ‘In An Empty Room’ – quite reminscent of The Action’s take on ‘Wasn’t It You’ – and the Eastern-tinged jangle of ‘Long Cold Night’ by way of ‘66/67 Rolling Stones.
Goran Obradovic
VARIOUS ARTISTS
International Pop Overthrow Volume 12
Not Lame
www.notlame.com
The annual IPO round up of guitar pop purveyors is as vibrant and varied as ever, which is mightily encouraging. Over 70 tracks by as many artists fill this triple CD set to its chord-ringing brim.
It’s impossible as always to do justice to them all here. The Janks’ ‘You’re Gonna Die’ and Fat City Reprise’s ‘The Last Waltz’ must take the prize for stylistic inventiveness; a dark, brooding lyric atop a pop take on rural rock an the former and a manic pop guitar striding across a periodically bastardised 3/4 rhythm on the latter.
The Leftovers’ ‘Telephone Operator’ (short and sweet) and Clockwise’s ‘Boomtown’ are fab reminders of the skinny tie era. Other aural hard hitters include Happless, Loveday, Michael Carpenter (great drum sound) and The Romeo Flynns.
Good value for a ton of great modern pop sounds.
Paul Martin
VILLAGE GREEN MACHINE
England’s Dreaming Spires
Paisley Arcade CD
www.paisleyarcade.com
Village Green Machine is to all intents and purposes a one-man operation, the man in question being the estimable Mark Lemon: and a man of considerable taste and refinement he is.
England’s Dreaming Spires, as its title readily suggests, taps into a very specific and cherishable vein of UK popsike. However, while Mark’s unadorned English singing voice betrays a loving debt to Syd Barrett – and often calls to mind David Gedge of The Wedding Present, oddly – the finished product utilises a considerably broader palette than one might expect. The super-clean guitars and splashy drums, deliriously awash in a bath of reverb, are closer in essence to Joe Meek than George Martin, while Mark’s lyrics throughout are sharply observant, wholly contemporary, insightful and witty.
‘You Make Me Feel That Way’, ‘Rollercoaster’ and ‘The Whole Of My Heart’, all effortlessly immediate, would be hit records in any truly civilised society, while ‘My Eccentric Cousin’ is what ’65-era Dylan would have sounded like sharing a travelling rug with Phil Spector in a rainy Birmingham bus shelter.
Marco Rossi
WHITE DENIM
Fits
Full Time Hobby CD
www.fulltimehobby.co.uk
Of the countless and unaccountable things already inked about Texas outfit White Denim, when it comes down to brass tacks there’s just too much to be said for Fits.
A great album. An album miraculously free from the burdens they must have felt making it. An album that incorporates more influences per beat than anything you’ll ever hear – yet an album strangely idiosyncratic in its own right.
In a schizophrenic state of mind, ‘Say What You Want’ is a furious and unrelenting bluesy Beefheart stomper that spars with the Eastern myrrh of India. The punk of ‘I Start To Run’ stabs with penetrative Gang Of Four chords to spite the creeping Afro-beaten bleeps that seem to house it comfortably in a ’70s NYC disco. ‘Sex Prayer’, faintly echoes British riddim behind library samples of potential jazz OSTs…
…plain old fact is White Denim’s Fits needs more words than I, you or even White Denim can muster.
Richard S Jones
THE WILD SWANS
English Electric Lighting
Occultation 10”
www.occultation.co.uk
A new record label has dawned; in these troubled times, that takes some balls in itself. To then issue singles only on 10” seems like tantamount to having a ready-made excuse when it goes belly-up. However, pessimism aside, Occultation does appear to be a labour of love undertaken by dedicated people.
The Wild Swans were a Liverpudlian post-punk crew of some cult success during the 1980s and, despite ‘English Electric Lighting’ sporting some very nasty cover art of a poor little kitty as a bloodied martyr, the single itself continues largely where they left off. It’s moody and snarling and sarcastic, especially the autobiographical B-side ‘The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years’.
Jeanette Leech
DISCO LEPERS/GG ALLIN
Killed By Cuntry
Indian Recordings/Ponk Media split EP
www.indianrecordings.com/europe www.ponkmedia.com/ponk.uk
If a band deserves to come with a health warning, then surely it must be Disco Lepers, who, if its members’ names and songs are anything to go by, seem to have an unhealthy interest in viral diseases – HIV, tuberculosis and canker sores all figure prominently here. With Vinny Typhoid’s caterwauling helium vocals at the fore, Disco Lepers fuse unsavoury lyrics and punk sensibilities with competent C&W melodies and Pogues-like rhythms. Strangely enough, this melange of influences works well, and if it doesn’t get you up off your crab-ridden arses, nothing will!
As for the flip side, Ponk UK, in collaboration with Indian Recordings, are doing a fine job in keeping the late GG Allin’s flag flying. GG’s acoustic ‘Carmelita’ may not be the best version he did but ‘Fuck Authority’ is rep |
