2010: My Final Thoughts

I'm always keen to point out that as far as music is concerned, there's no such thing as a bad year, but sometimes you just have to trawl a little deeper to get to the good stuff. Fortunately, 2010 was all too ready to deliver a wealth of goods. Whilst 2010 perhaps wasn't the best year for flourishing new talent (just two of my top 20 albums were debuts), it was a great year for young bands realising their full potential, both critically (Titus Andronicus, These New Puritans) and commercially (Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend). It also saw a number of highly dependable artists (The Walkmen, Spoon, The National, Menomena, Deerhunter) add commendable releases to already-impressive discographies, but if those records felt like safe bets, it was encouraging that equally established artists such as Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom and Caribou were willing to take risks that were no less rewarding.

It was an excellent year in particular for electronic music, with a clutch of imaginative and varied releases from the UK (James Blake, Four Tet), US (Emeralds, Flying Lotus, Oneohtrix Point Never) and everywhere else (The Knife, Pantha Du Prince). Indeed if I have any complaint about my favourite releases of 2010 (and it's something which could equally be applied to the last few years, to be fair) it's that the music tended to appeal more to the head than to the heart; plenty of songs blew my mind, but ultimately few were able to send a tingle down the spine.

2010 saw mixed fortunes for some of music's biggest egos. M.I.A went to war with everyone, but her highly anticipated third record /\/\ /\ Y /\ failed to win her the wider audience she clearly craved for, and alienated much of her existing fanbase to boot. But the year ended on a high-note for the equally confrontational Kanye, who after another wildly eventful year, was given an ecstatic reception for the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (including a perfect 10.0 score on P4k, the first time that's happened for a new release in eight years). And then there was Bono falling off the stage. That was pretty funny.

Every year we have to say farewell to a host of musical names, and we were struck pretty hard in 2010. We lost highly influential legends such as Captain Beefheart and Alex Chilton, and big personalities such as Malcolm McLaren. There were also the untimely losses of Jay Reatard and the perenially troubled Mark Linkous. Perhaps the most personally affecting loss to me was that of Slits founding member Ari Up who died rather suddenly of cancer in October; just a few months previous I'd spurned the opportunity to see the Slits  play effectively on my doorstep, something that I will rue for some time to come.

But it was also the chance to say hello again to some old friends. There were high-profile re-unions for Pavement and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, whilst the original Britpop scene turned full-circle with the acrimonious departure of Oasis, and the returns of Suede and Pulp (Blur too suggested that last year's successful run round the block wouldn't be the last we'd hear of them). But arguably the year's most unlikely success was that of Michael Gira's Swans who, 14 years on from the gaunt Soundtracks For The Blind returned with the fire burning bright in their bellies once more with the tremendous My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky.

So yes, if there really is such a thing as a good year in music, 2010 is a strong contender for that accolade. Roll on 2011.

50 Choice Songs of 2010: 10-1

10. Moonface - Marimba & Shit-Drums

With Wolf Parade continuing to deliver diminishing returns (little surprise then, that they are now on hiatus), it's increasingly apparent that Spencer Krug's other musical endeavors are where it's at. Marimba & Shit Drums is entirely self-descriptive, but with this seemingly limited pallette, Krug concocted a 20-minute epic of surprising crests and falls, and entirely recognisable as his work.

Download

9. World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation - Split It Concrete Like The Colden Sun God

2011 promises to be a big year for this deeply enigmatic Manchester-based band  as they seek to grow their wings. Despite their roots, Wu Lyf could perhaps best be desctribed as Isaac Brock fronting anarchic afro-pop, and Split It Concrete... was the pick of a gold-encrusted bunch of releases. The accompanying video is no less of a joy.

Video

8. Swans - Eden Prison

The highlight of their terrific comeback album My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, Eden Prison was a dirge in the best possible sense: Gira's booming voice of doom; the mangled-cat guitar wail; the relentless march of the rhythm section. Best of all was its brutal bridge, seemingly custom-made to be stretched into infinity to crush live audiences into submission.

Stream

7. Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Whilst The Suburbs was the success of substance over style, it did offer at least one stunner that hit home on the first spin in the form of Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains). Regine Chassagne's sole lead vocal on the album, her breathless vocal is perfect for the track's glistening Heart Of Glass-esque new-wave sound, and the key lyric ("quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock") seemed like the perfect analogy of the band's new work ethic.

Stream

6. Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars

Remember that joke in This Is Spinal Tap about the amps which go up to 11? Sleigh Bells took that joke quite literally when they recorded Infinity Guitars. The track starts off as a blistering noise assault of screeching guitars, collosal bass-drum beats and Alexis Krauss' hollered vocals, but somehow in its final 30 seconds Infinity Guitars cranks everything up to a new and unprecedented level. Sometimes, the word "loud" just doesn't cut it.

Video

5. Emeralds - Genetic

Does It Look Like I'm Here, the breakthrough record from Cleveland, Ohio trio Emeralds was an absorbing listen, but a lot to digest in one listen. Genetic serves up the album as a more manageable 12 minute slice, leaving you to swim through layers of lush synth arpeggios. This is a track to get lost in, and one you might never want to leave.

Video

4. Deerhunter - Helicopter
The pinnacle of what might just be Deerhunter's finest record yet (Halcyon Digest), Helicopter's soothing verses lapped gently at your feet, awaiting the moment that the majestic chorus engulfs you. Bradford Cox wails "no-one cares for me", but in reality Deerhunter's stock has never been higher. Where they go from this is anyone's guess, but for these five minutes, Deerhunter achieve aural perfection.

Video

3. Liars - Scarecrows On A Killer Slant
Hands-down the most terrifying song I listened to in 2010, Scarecrows On A Killer Slant rides upon a nasty, nasty riff that has all the menace and identity of the Jaws or Psycho themes. Meanwhile, Angus Andrew chants, howls and screams his way through a chilling recollection of a murder witnessed by the band during recording in L.A. An affectionate homage to their home city it is not.

Video

2. Caribou - Sun
sun sun sun sun sun sun sun suN suN suN suN suN suN sUN sUN sUN sUN sUN sUN sUN sUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUn SUn SUn SUn SUn SUn SUn Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun sun sun sun sun sun sun sun sun sun sun sun sun sun suN suN suN suN suN suN suN sUN sUN sUN sUN sUN sUN sUN sUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN

Video

1. LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean

At first, the opening track to LCD Soundsystem's supposed swansong This Is Happening is a muted, deeply understated affair; over an anaemic beat, James Murphy is in unusually sombre mood. And then of course, it all kicks off and Murphy finds his mojo, positively howling into his microphone, whilst cascades of electronic notes erupt from every orifice. It's an exhilirating transformation, and one that doesn't lose its impact even after repeated listens. Murphy pleads with us "give me just a bit of your time"; the rewards are more than worth it.

Live vid

50 Choice Songs of 2010: 50-11

50 Choice Songs of 2010: 50-11

Having rounded up the Albums that made 2010, here is a selection of the year's finest songs. The selection is limited to no more than one song per artist, but is not limited to merely singles. The Top 10 will be revealed in a few days time...

50. Benoit Pioulard - RTO
49. The Phantom Band - Into The Corn
48. Zola Jesus - Night
47. Gruff Rhys - Shark-Ridden Waters
46. The Delta Mirror - And The Radio Played On
45. Of Montreal - Coquette Coquette
44. Marnie Stern - For Ash
43. Andrew Cedermark - Anchorite
42. Tu Fawning - The Felt Sense
41.Gorillaz - Stylo

40. Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal
39. Vampire Weekend - Diplomat's Son
38. Esben & The Witch - Marching Song
37. Grinderman - Worm Tamer
36. Cults - Go Outside
35. Avey Tare - Heather In The Hospital
34. Meursault - Sleet
33. The Besnard Lakes -And This Is What We Call Progress
32. Crystal Castles - Celestica
31. Low Sea - Never Yours
30. Xiu Xiu - Gray Death 

29. Glasser - Home
28. Warpaint - Warpaint
27. Thee Silver Mt Zion Orchestra - I Built Myself A Metal Bird
26. Here We Go Magic - The Collector
25. Menomena - Taos
24. The National - Afraid Of Anyone
23. Keepaway - Yellow Wings
22. The Walkmen - Angela Surf City
21. Givers - In My Eyes

20. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round And Round
19. Avi Buffalo - What's In It For?
18 . Lower Dens - Tea Lights
17. Matthew Dear - Little People (Black City)
16. Broken Social Scene - Chase Theme
15. Women - Locust Valley
14. Beach House - Silver Soul
13. These New Puritans - We Want War
12. Sufjan Stevens - Now That I'm Older 
11. Titus Andronicus - Theme From Cheers

Wu Lyf announce first London and Glasgow gigs

One of the year's most enthralling and enigmatic new acts Wu Lyf (most commonly known as World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation) have announced their first London and Glasgow gigs. The Manchester-based four-piece will be playing at the Arches in Glasgow on February 1st, followed two days later by a gig in London's Corscica Studios. Tickets are available here for the London date. More 2011 dates are apparently on the cards.

If you haven't already seen the fantastic video for Split It Concrete Like The Colden Sun God, gorge on this:

Albums of 2010: 5-1

It's the final countdown (de-de derrr der...de-de der der derrr...)

5. Caribou - Swim

The greatest trick Dan Snaith ever pulled was convincing the indie-blogging world it liked club anthems. Sun and Bowls were essentially just that - woozy, euphoric and beat-driven - albeit constantly evolving, submerging and re-emerging as something quite different. But the pulsating 4-person live shows coupled with Snaith's frail tenor ensured that underneath it all Swim, as with all of Caribou's otherwise very distinguished records, possessed a beating human heart. The clinching vocal performance however, fell into the hands of Born Ruffian Luke Lalonde for show-stopping closer Jamelia.

4. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

As The Suburbs claimed the #1 spot in both the U.S and U.K, it sent Arcade Fire into the pantheon of artists such as Radiohead and previously REM of commercially successful bands that truly matter. The Suburbs was absolutely the right album at the right time for the Montreal band, eschewing blockbusting singles for more unified songwriting (I've heard no less than 9 of its 16 songs played on radio or on TV appeatances) and big themes for smaller, more fully realised ones which, in their mundanity, were paradoxically much more interesting.

3. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

The  Atlanta, Georgia band's musical journey over the last three years, from dissonant krautrock and ambient soundscapes to the blissful dreampop one might associate with their label 4AD, has been an enthralling one; Halcyon Digest felt like the next and quite possibly definitive piece in the puzzle, the sound of a band reaching its final destination. Guitarist Lockett Pundt made key song-writing contributions - Desire Lines, like Nothing Ever Happened before it, showed how Deerhunter can be epic without being even remotely showy - but Bradford Cox leant extra emotional heft to his songs, peaking with the achingly pretty Helicopter and He Would've Laughed's touching tribute to the late Jay Reatard.

2. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

James Murphy's supposed bow-out of the LCD Soundsystem name was in essence Sound Of Silver Pt. 2, and what's wrong with that? Murphy, who's gotten better and better as a vocalist with each release was, as ever, equal-parts sardonic, earnest and hilarious, and always utterly self-aware. But while Drunk Girls may have served as the obligatory go-to single, the album's true agenda was there for all to hear on You Wanted A Hit ("that's not we do"), backed up by a sprawling 70 minute 9-song cycle which once more drew upon the usual Bowie/Iggie/Talking Heads touchstones, yet maintained Murphy as no mere revivalist, but a peerless visionary.

1. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

It's some feat for an album bristling with such raw punk energy from the off to sustain such levels over 65 minutes, but The Monitor, the year's most exhilirating record, did just that. Vocalist Patrick Stickles spends pretty much its duration as man kicked into the gutter, lowest of the low, but no matter how wretched the situation, Titus Andronicus pulled thim up each and every time with one more venomous mantra, one more guitar solo, one more bagpipe solo(!). Theming the album around the American Civil War (cue readings of Abe Lincoln, Walt Whitman et al) may not have prevented lyrical references to Springsteen, Dylan and even Billy Bragg, but it was utterly appropriate; The Monitor was the sound of a band playing as though their very lives depending on it.

20-16

15-11

10-6

The Ones That Got Away

Albums of 2010: 10-6

The Top 10 begins here...


10. These New Puritans - Hidden

When chief song-writer Jack Barnett revealed his agenda in early press interviews - bassoons, choirs of children, "dancehall-meets-Steve Reich"- few took him seriously. Fewer still could have believed  he would pull it off quite as well as this. Putting its best foot forward with the wildly ambitious lead single We Want War, Hidden signalled a collosal step up for These New Puritans. Its wilful post-punk experimentation recalled seminal bands like This Heat, but its skull-crushing beats (Fire-Power was a better M.I.A. song than M.I.A. herself managed in 2010) ensured Hidden was its own beast entirely, and one right in the here-and-now. Southend-on-Sea had never sounded so exotic.

9. Liars - Sisterworld

Whilst Sisterworld, like its eponymous predecessor, is one of the more accessible entries in the Liars canon, it was still a deeply unsettling listening experience that hearkened back to their experimental second and third records. Whilst their previous record was a disparate and uneven affair, Liars' return to their home city of LA provided Sisterworld with a more resounding theme, in sound at least, and made for perhaps their most satisfying record yet. A sense of death and dread lurks throughout, awaiting the moment that the gratuitous Scarecrows On A Killer Slant jumps from the shadows and shoots you point-blank in the face.

8. Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

14 years on from their previous record, My Father... saw Michael Gira and members old and new in the rudest possible health. Huge slabs of rhythm fell like someone kicking tombstones to the ground, and Gira's 3-year old daughter duetting with Devendra Banhart (a man who has sung more than most about children) was creepy in every sense, but it was the none-more-black nature of My Father... that made it such a perversely enjoyable record in the day-glo indie climate; when Gira sings "we are reeling the liars in" you can hear the smirk on his face.

7. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

Speaking of day-glo, Pink's debut on 4AD saw considerably less arsing around, resulting in him making the album few thought he was capable of making: a practically flab-free collection of goofy but glorious songs spanning glam-rock (Little Wig), goth-metal (Butthouse Blondies) and cheesy synthpop (Can't Hear My Eyes), as well as delivering a rousing single in the form of Round And Round. Pink remained as much of an oddball as ever (Menopause Man was testament to that), but Before Today saw him seize the throne of a glo-fi scene he'd created almost single-handedly.

6. Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz

Having teased us with the "slight" 50 minutes of closet-clearing EP All Delighted People just a month or so prior, Sufjan let loose with his most audacious record yet. From the album's sci-fi artwork and the skittery electronic beats and bleeps and ominous orchestration, you could be forgiven for thinking Sufjan had made the switch from christianity to scientology, but underneath all the pizazz and vocoders (yes, vocoders) was a human being, one wracked with insecurities and self-doubt. He countered this by putting his all behind every second of Age of Adz, and he wants us to know it, to the point where he's screaming at us "I'm not f*cking around" over and over. Now there's conviction for you.

 

20-16

15-11

The Ones That Got Away

Gig Review: Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ The Troxy, Mon 13th Dec

2010 has been some year for re-unions; first Pavement, and now Godspeed You! Black Emperor, rising again from a 7-year hiatus. I've read a fair share of negative feedback on the choice of venue and the sound quality of the night's gig - even with their own sound engineer, arguably any venue's acoustics is going to struggle with the proposition of  GSY!BE - and whilst a couple of the early climaxes were perhaps a little muddied, I can't say I noticed too much from where I was standing. In truth, save for the annoying clinking of bottles from the bar staff, the lofty heights of the Troxy seemed an ideal place for the post-rock demi-gods to flex their muscles.

They did so tentatively at first (they had time on their side, after an all too fleeting set from the Dead Rat Orchestra), entering one by one and adding to the ominous drone which slowly engulfed the room (it was a mere matter of minutes before the first screwdriver-on-guitar action), until all eight members were on stage. The opening songs (okay, movements) also felt like GSY!BE were moving through the gears. Playing in almost pitch-black and with little or no acknowledgement of the audience, one's eyes were left to stray to the flickering (and expertly edited in real-time) backdrop images; the haunting shimmer of Sleep was appropriately set to ghostly images of Coney Island's amusement park, whilst I found myself hypnotised during Storm as it actually appeared as though a number of members were playing aboard the top of a moving train. The band bowed out of Sleep and worked themselves up into a cacaphony of industrial-orchestral-metal which, whilst scintillating at first, threatened ten minutes later to undermine the band's mastery of the crescendo.

Yet when Godspeed seeped their way into the quiet menace of Static, it was clear that the magic was still there, as the band accelerated inexorably towards the all-consuming denouement. From there on in, there was no let-up; Dead Metheny was followed by the apocalyptic waltz of Rockets Fall On Rocket Falls, shaking free the shackles originally placed upon it by Steve Albini's limiting production. With the night being brought to a close by Blaise Bailey Finnegan III, all of Godspeed's major releases had been represented, and represented well.

By the time they'd all put down their instruments to shred the speakers with feedback, GSY!BE had been on stage for a collosal 140 minutes. They'll be doing it all again on Tuesday, and once more on Wednesday, and as phenomenal as Godspeed were by the end of the night, you got the sense that they will only continue to get better as the nights go on.

Albums of 2010: 15-11

15. Working For A Nuclear Fre City - The Jojo Burger Tempest

The Manchester space cadets of WFANFC did nothing to curb their ambitions on The Jojo Burger Tempest, another 2CD set which went out of its way to encapsulate everything worthwhile to have emerged from their home city in the last 30 years (sorry Oasis). Whilst the first CD flitted between guitar-indie, shoegaze, acid-house and krautrock at the drop of a hat, CD2's 30-minute sound collage took an even more direct route through WFANFC's array of influences



14. Women - Public Strain

That wintry album cover is apt - Public Strain is shrouded in a near-inpenetrable mist, and the cold, metallic grooves of China Steps and Drag Open are chilling. But elsewhere on Public Strain, the likes of Eyesore and Venice Lockjaw exude a warmth only originally hinted by their 2008 debut, whilst the intricate guitar interplay on Locust Valley and Heat Distraction perfectly demonstrated Women's increasing ability to balance dissonance with melody.




13. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

After a couple of so-so member-focused releases, the only thing BSS had to apologise for was for leaving it 5 years to give us a proper follow-up to their last record. Forgiveness Rock Record was the collective's tightest sounding record to date, and Lisa Lobsinger thrived  from a more prominent role, but all the hallmarks - celebratory jams, odes to masturbation, a fine Emily Haines-led song in All in All - that  make any BSS record worth its weight in salt were present and correct.




12. Sleigh Bells - Treats

The formula couldn't have been much simpler; put Alexis Krauss' chearleader vocals to Derek E Miller's brash guitar riffs, add some mammoth beatds and crank everything up into the red. The sugary goodness of Paliament-sampling Rill Rill, strategically placed as the album's centrepiece,sweetened the deal, but Treats was as its album title suggested: probably not good for you in the long-term, but instantly gratifying, and absurd amounts of fun.




11. Andrew Cedermark - Moon Deluxe
The former Titus Andronicus guitarist's solo debut record was one of the year's surprise highlights. Moon Deluxe's energy owed at least something to his former band, but its organic instrumentation (guitars creaked  and roared like tree branches in a storm), seamless song progression and Cedermark's rambling, narrative vocal stylings had perhaps more in common with the likes of Phil Elverum and Jason Molina.

Albums of 2010: 20-16

The Ones That Got Away

Albums of 2010: 20-16

Here we go....

20. Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry

The Edinburgh folktronica band's second full-length was fuzzy yet beautifully crafted. The album was a blanket of lo-fi mist, cut through by band linchpin Neil Pennycook's anguished bleating, delivering the usual miserabilist kitchen-sink drama ("I got drunk on New Years Day/ I mixed my drinks and I lost my way") we've come to expect from Scottish indie bands since day zero. But few could argue that the propulsive shifts of pace and the orchestration, by turns forlorn and optimisitc, don't touch a nerve, and at its most bare, like on Sleet,  All Creatures is nothing short of devestating.

19. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?

Sounding like a 2010 version of Tangerine Dream, the serene Does It Look Like I'm Here? was one of the year's most immersive headphones albums. Whilst a tad overlong, the rippling electronic waves of Does It Look Like I'm Here? can't help but sooth as they wash over you. Guitars are applied sparingly but effectively, adding just enough variety, as well as providing the cross-over appeal to fans of ambient electronic, drone, post-rock and retro computer games alike. Should there ever be another Ecco the Dolphin game, this would surely be its perfect soundtrack.

18. Menomena - Mines

The recording of Mines was reportedly a turbulent period for the Portland, Oregon trio, and to some extent that comes through on the record. Whilst 2007's Friend & Foe was letting off fireworks at every available opportunity, Mines just broods and simmers; just compare their respective openers Muscle'n'Flo and Queen Black Acid if you need proof. Yet with its intricate and nuanced arrangements (which, thanks to their own programming language Deeler somehow depicts every minute detail), and the contrasting vocal contributions of each member, this was unmistakenably a Menonema album, and Mines was the sound of a band forging their distinctive sound into new and darker territory.

17. The Walkmen - Lisbon

If Bows and Arrows was the staggering out of the bar emotional and bleary-eyed, and You & Me was getting home and reminiscing in front of the fire, then Lisbon was the journey home on a starlit night. Lisbon didn't stray too far from the Walkmen's well-beaten track, but he likes of Angela Surf City and Woe Is Me demonstrated that few other bands can kick up so much dust in the process. It was the sound of a band full of confidence and completely comfortable in their own shoes; "well they say you can't please everyone / but I'm stuck on a winning streak" coos Hamilton Leithauser on  While I Shovel The Snow, and he's half-right at least.

16. Beach House - Teen Dream

In hindsight, Teen Dream was make-or-break for Beach House; Devotion was a fine sophomore effort, but did little to dispel the notion that this was a band destined to make the same (admittedly lovely) record over and over again. Yet in spite of that non-descript album cover, by the time the opening salvo of Zebra, Silver Soul and Norway - far and away the most dynamic and assertive songs they've ever written - are over, it's remarkable just how deftly Beach House had leapt out from the pigeonhole many (myself included) had put them in. The rest of Teen Dream was a more relaxed, loungey affair, but no matter, as Beach House had made their point; this is a band with the legs to carry them for a good while yet.

The Ones That Got Away

Albums of 2010 - The Ones That Got Away

 Over the next week or so, I will be revealing my top 20 albums of 2010, but as is always the case, there are a few albums that slipped the net; with limited funds and time, there are some albums which I just haven't had the chance to listen to, or at least not enough times to generate a fair assessment in the grand scheme of things. So before you gander upon my top 20 and feel outraged because such-and-such album is not there, consult this list first; in a fairer world, these albums might just have featured strongly.

The Roots - How I Got Over

Pretty much the only hip-hop album I've liked this year, and it's come from the ever-reliable Roots; being the house band on an american talk show has done their credibility no harm whatsoever, it would seem.

No Age - Everything In Between

I have no good excuse for not owning this; Nouns was one of my favourite albums of 2008, and based on the reviews there's every reason to believe that the LA noise-rock duo made a fine follow-up.

Field Music - Measure

Winging its way to me in the post as I type this, Measure is a release which slipped under my radar. The Sunderland four-piece returned in 2010 from a three-year hiatus with a 20-song magnum opus of their uniquely clever and intricate power-pop.

Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me

I've never been a fan of Newsom and her Lisa Simpson-esque vocals, but it's hard not to admire somebody who follows up an album as grandiose as Ys with a triple album, albeit one which still manages to be regarded as her most accessible record to date.

Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo

This release ticks a lot of boxes -  signed to Sub-Pop, comparisons with Pacific Mid-West bands like Built To Spill and the Shins, naive love-lorn lyrics - but Avi Buffalo's self-titled debut has yet to find its way onto my CD rack. All in good time.

Kanye West - My Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye, like Joanna Newsom, is an artist I respect more than actually like, but judging by the ecstatic reviews it's been receiving, the man's pulled something special out of the bag with this one.

Her Name Is Calla - Long Grass

Despite having been around for a good few years now, The Quiet Lamb, which came out on Denovali Records in October, is actually Her Name Is Calla's first full-length release. And full-length doesn't mean semi-skimmed -  at twelve songs and 75 minutes, this is full-fat. Some of its songs - Condor & River, Long Grass - have been doing the rounds for a while now, but if you haven't seen the band's simple but effective video to Long Grass, here it is.

Zeroes

In the days of X-Factor, truly nothing is sacred.

The flawless original:


The fine modern re-interpretation:


The descecration:

Gig Review: Titus Andronicus @ The Haymakers Thu 18th Nov

I spoke to a number of people at the gig on Thursday, and the general consensus was this; The Monitor is the best album to be released all year, bar none. I don't expect to see it topping too many critics Best-Of lists, as there are too many other artists out there which seem to have reached a wider audience (Arcade Fire, Deerhunter et al), but those who have stumbled across The Monitor seem to hold it dear and know it word for anguished word. The visceral delivery of Titus Andronicus appeals at the very lowest level, but they offset this with passages from Shakespeare and famous figures of the American Civil War, and clever poetry ("reasons for living are seldom and few, and when you find one you'd better stick to it glue"). Placed in the cauldron of The Haymakers, and you had the makings of an unforgettable gig.

To say that the band didn't disappoint would be a gross understatement. Stripped of some of the embellishments of their records (no horns, no sax), the band let their sheer punk energy do the talking, and the crowd duly responded. Things really took off  half-way through No Future Pt.3; Titus Andronicus cast out angst-ridden mantras ("The enemy is everywhere"/"It's us against them"/"Your life is over") like particularly tasty bait, and the crowd ate it up like bloodthirsty piranhas. The only let-up subsequently was on the histrionic ballad To Old Friends And New (the ever-affable Patrick Stickles joked that they would play slow songs for the rest of the night).

The only remotely anticlimactic moment was the lack of bagpipes on The Battle of Hampton Roads, but by the time the band had wound up a particularly explosive version of Four Score And Seven, my voice was shot and I was soaked in sweat (lord only knows how Stickles keeps it together). Over the last year the Haymakers has emerged as a terrific music venue in Cambridge, and this really felt like a gig for the ages.

Here's some pics; a special mention to the guy who responded to Stickles' comment about the brit who's done the most for the band with "what about Shakespeare?".

Music Video: Spoon - Nobody Gets Me But You

Spoon's 2010 album Transference is a much pricklier affair than 2007's universally liked Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but there's no getting away from its fine closing track Nobody Gets Me But You. Here's its raw music vid:

Do You Remember The First Time? #2: The Replacements - Sixteen Blue

The Replacements did more than their fair share of jerking around on and off stage as well as on record, but they nonetheless had an innate ability to write a song that really connected with disaffected teens in a more earnest way than the likes of Nirvana et al ever could or would some 5-10 years later. Singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg's sensitive side is something which came through more and more with each Replacements release, but even as early as Johnny's Gonna Die from 1981 debut Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash!, Westerberg had a way with an affecting lyric.

The Replacements song that I adore above all others is Sixteen Blue from their undisputed classic album, 1984's Let It Be, a song about the sexual confusion and frustration which comes with being a teenager. To be truthful, it's a song I didn't listen to until I was 24, so I can't claim to be the song's target market, but such is the song's power, it almost makes me want to be sixteen again, just so I can connect with it that more resonantly. I love the way Westerberg takes on the role of a kind of sympathetic older sibling who puts his arm round you as the rest of the world seems to be mocking you ("You're looking funny/you ain't laughing are you?"). He's lived through it all, and throughout the song it's like you're confiding in him; "Your age is the hardest age/everything drags and drags" he tells you. The problem faced by the pained teen of Sixteen Blue isn't even as simple as getting the girl; "A girl and a man/a boy and a man/everything's sexually vague/now you're wondering to yourself if you might be gay". Nonetheless, there's a sweet naivety to the song ("You don't understand anything sexual") that no longer quite rings true in a time when teenage pregnancies seem to be ever on the rise.

The song  closes with Westerberg howling as the late, great  Bob Stinson delivers one of his most soaring guitar solos. Along with Unsatisfied (which, as the title suggests, is the Replacements' own  anthem of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction proportions) and Answering Machine (whose line "how can I say I miss you to an answering machine?" depicts the breakdown of one-to-one communication before the days of social networking), Sixteen Blue forms the heart of Let It Be, one which beats just as hard and heavy as it did in 1984.

Listen to Sixteen Blue by The Replacements for a limited time on the Hear The Secret player!

Review: The Octopus Project - Hexadecagon

Anybody who has witnessed The Octopus Project live can vouch that they are about the most fun you can have with an instrumental band; theremins, instrument-swapping and big balloons are the order of the day when the Texas four-piece come to town. Their music too is never lacking in colour and vibrancy; with their amalgamation of post-rock with noisy electronics, the band occupy a similar musical territory to Toronto's Holy F*ck, successfully avoiding the po-faced pitfalls of many of their contemparies; their sugar-coated sound is as likely to appeal to fans of Deerhoof as Explosions In The Sky.

But on their fourth album Hexadecagon, the band have taken a turn for the serious. Comprising just eight songs, many stepping over the 6-minute mark, the album sees the band attempt more focused, patient song-writing, cranking the songs up gradually in true post-rock fashion. Don't expect to find any two-minute blasts of hyperactivity in the vein of Truck here. Not surprisingly, Hexadecagon takes a lot more listens to fully engage with, and annoyingly some of the material refuses to ignite at all. After the high-tempo and yet somehow tentative piano-led opener Fuguefat, Korakrit simply kills the initial momentum, never lifting itself beyond anything other than pleasant background music.

It's this lack of immediacy compared to their previous work that makes it all too easy to dismiss Hexadecagon on the first few listens - I know I nearly did - but sticking with it yields its rewards. Toneloop's ghostly wordless vocals and reverberating guitars are a reminder of The Octopus Project's ability to create haunting atmospherics. Both Glass Jungle and  Hallucinists, the most inherently Octopus Project-sounding songs here, are rich with the usual twinkly effects and electronic pyrotechnics that suggest the band are still hitting the E-numbers pretty hard. Album centrepiece Circling peters out over its final four minutes, but not before delivering six minutes of jackhammer beats and rippling piano chords, and whilst the closing Catalog builds in logical fashion, its last few minutes of crash-bang-wallop still satisfy.

Hexadecagon sees the Octopus Project mature their sound, and for the most part it's a success. Its not without its growing pains, but a few different shades of grey amongst their broad pallette of colours hasn't caused them the harm you might expect.

75/100

Pulp return!

Who's better, Blur or Oasis? The smart-arse (and in fact, correct) answer is of course Pulp, and the fantastic news is that next year they're re-uniting next year for a string of shows. Better still, it's the classic line-up that put out mid-90's gems Different Class and His' N' Hers, playing all together for the first time since 1996. So far, the only confirmed shows are next summer's Primavera and Wireless Festivals, but the band have confirmed that more dates are on the cards, and you can sign up for updates on the band's website; judging from the promo messages, they've lost none of their legendary wit.

Live session from C Joynes this Sunday on Cam FM Breakthrough!

Tune into Cam FM Breakthrough on Sunday 7th November for an exclusive live session from Cambridgeshire musician C Joynes. Currently signed to Bo'Weavil Records, Joynes has been wowing audiences both as a solo artist and with a collective of artists known as The Restless Dead. Calling his technique “Anglo-naive and contemporary parlour guitar", C Joynes' masterful and highly unorthodox playing of the guitar, banjo, and anything else with strings is not to be missed.

If you're local to Cambridge, tune in to 97.2 FM from 9pm; otherwise you can listen online at www.camfm.co.uk. Missed a show? Just find it on the archive here.

Forthcoming Releases - November

The release schedule is showing clear signs of slowing down as we head towards Xmas and those Album of the Year listings, not to mention all those Best Of... compilations and the X Factor single (shudder).

 

Monday 1st November

Andrew Bird - Useless Creatures (Fat Possum)
Brian Eno: Small Craft on a Milk Sea (Warp)
Elliott Smith: Introduction to...Elliott Smith (Kill Rock Stars)

Monday 8th November

The Concretes - WYWH (Friendly Fire)
Earth - A Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular Extractions (Southern Lord)
Gary War - Police Water EP (Sacred Bones)
Haight Ashbury - Here In The Golden Rays (Lime Records)
Weezer - Pinkerton (re-release)/Death To False Metal (Commercial Marketing/Geffen)

Monday 15th November

Japandroids - Heavenward Grand Prix 7" (Polyvinyl)
Stereolab - Not Music (Drag City)

Review: Avey Tare - Down There

The transition of Animal Collective from experimentalists confined to indie-blogdom to mainstream acceptance and acclaim, confirmed by the success of last year's Merriweather Post Pavilion, was the result of 10 years of honing their sound, writing more tangible and accessible songs and melodies, whilst  refusing to their boundary-pushing vision. What has also developed in that time, however, is a more personable side to chief members Dave Portner (Avey Tare) and Noah Lennox's (Panda Bear) songwriting. On A Highway, from last year's Fall Be Kind EP, contained Tare's most bitterly frank lyrics to date, "I'm sick from too much reading/ jealous of Noah's dreaming/ can't help my brain from thinking", catching him in deep thought whilst on tour with the band.

Whilst Lennox can't help but let beams of sunshine radiate from even his most melancholic songs, Tare is more prone to subvert and disorientate, so it's no surprise that Tare's first solo LP (not counting the back-to-front nonsense of his Pullhair Rubeye project with ex-wife Kria Brekkan) is a rather more dark and personal affair than we've come to expect from his day job. Tare has mentioned in interviews about its swampy theme and feel, relating to the crocodile skull on the cover, and so the album retains the watery feel of AC's most recent work. But whilst Merriweather's booming, cushy percussion was akin to bouncing off a giant marshmallow, Down There's clicks knocks and gurgles sound hollow and anaemic by comparison (save for the bass-drum beat on Heads Hammock). There's a murkiness to the album as a whole, far removed from the crystallinity of recent AC releases; songs are permeated by sinister, aquatic voices, and on a number of tracks Tare's vocals become submerged, only to re-surface again, as if something is continually pulling him under the murk and scum.

Down There opens with two of its more immediate offerings. The seven minutes of Laughing Hieroglyphic are relatively light and airy, thanks to its reverberating accordian, but still offers insight into Tare's mind-set ("and when I get f*cked up/ I do my best to make myself not f*cked up again"), whilst the ayyy-ohhhh backing vocals and twinkling carnival organ of 3 Umbrellas makes it the most AC-sounding thing here. But the subsequent warped textures of Oliver Twist and instrumental Glass Bottom Boat pull the album under, where it remains for most of its duration. The album's finest song, Heather In The Hospital, is also its saddest and most auto-biographical, as Avey Tare overviews his sister's recent battle with cancer over throbbing heart-beat percussion. As he sits in the hospital, he's visited by what seem to be ghosts or maybe personal demons ("Someone's in the room listening to me/ noone's in the room it must just be me") but even at his lowest ebb, Tare maintains this sense of wide-eyed wonder of the happenings around him; "It brings me down/ machines of modern magic keeping folks above the ground". The closing Lucky 1, which seemed somewhat slight as a lead cut, works much better within the context of the album, offering a hopeful hand to pull us out of its depths.

Those who arrived at Animal Collective off the back of the hype for Merriweather Post Pavilion might want to approach Down There with some degree of caution, or even hold out for Panda Bear's Tomboy which hangs just on the horizon. Down There is a wilfully more initimate and low-key affair, but none of this should be taken as criticism; Down There reminds us that these animals have very human traits after all.

77/100

Animal Collective to curate May ATP!

Yes, the news is enough to make anyone's mouth water. Animal Collective are curating one of May's ATP Festivals, which will be held at Butlins, Minehead during the 13-15th May. Looks like they've already been extremely busy curating the line-up, which is every bit as varied and surprising as you might expect.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
GANG GANG DANCE
LEE SCRATCH PERRY
ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
BROADCAST
BLACK DICE
MEAT PUPPETS performing Up On The Sun
THE FROGS performing It's Only Right & Natural
IUD
OMAR-S
PRINCE RAMA
SPECTRUM
DENT MAY
GROUP DOUEH
THE BROTHERS UNCONNECTED
SUBLIME FREQUENCIES DJs + Films
DERADOORIAN
ZOMBY
VLADISLAV DELAY

Plenty more still to be announced. Tickets on sale this Friday; see the ATP website for more details.

Also, be sure to check here in a day or two for a review of Avey Tare's solo record Down There.

Spotlight Artist: Low Sea

Galway, Ireland's the Low Sea have enjoyed a busy but ultimately successful year. The band's debut album Las Olas (Spanish for The Sea) provided an excellent showcase for the duo's sultry electronica, and was good enough to see them snapped up by the fast-emerging Lefse Records (who also boast the likes of Neon Indian, Keepaway and How To Dress Well amongst their ranks). Their first official release under Lefse is new 6-track EP The Light, which includes a couple of cuts from Las Olas, plus a bundle of new songs.

Such is the sophistication of the Low Sea's sound, it's easy to forget that they comprise just two members; when Billie turns up the sass on the likes of Save My Soul, her enunciated drawl recalls Mazzy Star, whilst the dark, scuzzy soundscapes provided by Bobby D bring bands such as Spacemen 3 to mind.

The Light is out now. A limited edition of the band's debut Las Olas is available from the band's website.

Listen to Save My Soul for a limited time on the Hear The Secret music player.

Review: The Phantom Band - The Wants

Scotland has, and continues to produce a lot of fine bands. There's something about the painful earnestness of a Glaswegian accent which sells itself so much better than, say, a Mumford & Sons, not least when it's put to bruising guitars. Yet as good as the current likes of Meursault and Twilight Sad can be, there's perhaps a tendency to play on that scottishness. Not so The Phantom Band; whilst there's no mistaking the locality of Rick Anthony's baritone, their music has its own distinct identity ("proto robo-folk" is their take on it) which makes their Glaswegian roots seem inconsequential. Their second album, The Wants, is an album that confirms the sextet as a strikingly original band, and one that is thrillingly hard to define.

If I was to draw a comparison with any band (and it's a pretty weak comparison admittedly) it would be Portland, Oregon trio Menomena. Both bands thrive on attention to detail, adding little nuances (a saxophone here, a xylophone there) which run through and characterise their songs. Both bands skilfully integrate electronic elements with more organic instrumentation, with the ability to arrange these myriad sounds into crisp, uncluttered songs.

After the brooding glam-stomp of opening track A Glamour, The Wants' first major surprise comes in the four-to-the-floor of O. Filled with falsetto vocals and gurgling synths, it nonetheless carries some serious weight behind it thanks to Damien Tonner's thumping beat. Throughout The Wants, the Phantom Band possess an innate ability to up the anté; three minutes into The None Of One's rootsy folk, the song clicks up several gears with a brisk shift in tempo and a sinuous synth-line; suddenly a song that initially appeared to be a long and patience-testing 8 minutes skips past you before you know it. That's followed by Mr Natural, the album's most propulsive track thanks to its surging rhythm, police-siren guitars and Anthony's authoritive, sure-footed vocals.

The detail within each of the 9 songs on The Wants is meticulous, and whilst in some bands hands the end result might have been sterile, but The Phantom Band never forsake atmosphere for craft. On the album's best track Into The Corn, the band deliver something akin to a bugged-out version of Bunnymen classic The Killing Moon, right down to that song's dark undercurrents as Anthony intones "Into the corn I fled / everyone I knew there was dead". The Wants is wanting of very little: an expertly executed and yet very human record, from a band only too happy to experiment, but far too accessible and consistent to be deemed experimental.

84/100

New A Sunny Day In Glasgow album, available for free!

It's been a busy twelve months for Philadelphia shoegazers A Sunny Day In Glasgow. Following on from this year's Nitetime Rainbows EP, the band have self-released a follow-up full-length to last year's massively underrated Ashes Grammar, and they've made it available for free. Autumn, Again maintains the same ethereal sound aesthetic of Ashes Grammar, but whilst Ashes Grammar ebbed and flowed over its great expanse, the relatively slight (just 34 minutes) Autumn, Again wisely goes down a more concise route, offering up some of the band's most immediate pop songs to date, on the likes of the Cure-esque 100/0 (Snowdays forever) and Calling It Love Isn't Love (Don't Fall In Love), which sounds like Dinosaur Jr's Freak Scene being covered by The Cocteau Twins.  The only sprawl on this album comes from the song titles; Violet Mary Haunts Me Or Loss Of Forgtfulness On Renfrew Street takes longer to say than the song's duration. The band have rather humourously genre-tagged the album as "Awesome"; that's not really that far off the mark.

You can download the album from the band's website. Consider it an early christmas present, but for those of you with a conscience, you can also make a donation; this band deserve it, so go on go on go on go on go on.

Cam FM Breakthrough: Live session with Fuzzy Lights TONIGHT 9-11pm

Cam FM Breakthrough, my music show dedicated to unsigned and up-and-coming artists, made its debut on the newly launched Cam FM last Sunday. This Sunday I'm delighted to have one of Cambridgeshire's finest, Fuzzy Lights coming in for a live session on the show; expect discussion and songs from their excellent new album Twin Feathers. Tune in tonight (and every Sunday) from 9pm on 97.2 FM Cambridgeshire, or online at www.camfm.co.uk.

Review: Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz

I'm getting London Bus syndrome with Sufjan Stevens at the moment. You wait 5 years for a proper release from the guy, and then two come along at once. August's All Delighted People EP (an LP's-worth of material to anyone else) was a closet clearer in the very best sense; a varied and at times exuberant collection of odds and sods that both nodded at the Sufjan who made Illinois and Michigan, whilst making clear hints towards pastures new.

Nothing, however, could quite prepare anyone for The Age Of Adz, an immense and initially almost unfathomonable work which sees Sufjan embrace all kinds of electronic bells and whistles in what is his busiest sounding record to date. Opening track Futile Devices is a red herring, albeit a fantastic one, full of the intricate guitar-picking and floaty vocals that Sufjan is so good at. Then Too Much squelches its way into view, anchored with the hums and drones and skittery beats that littered Kid A. Yet whilst Kid A was the sound of a band eschewing traditional instrumentation, The Age Of Adz still retains most of Sufjan's hallmarks: the angelic female backing vocals; the flourishes of orchestration; the fluttering of flutes. Now though, there's an added sense of urgency and desperation, something which translates into the lyrics. On Too Much a chorus of voices sings "there's too much riding on that" over a clattering coda. "Barricade the bathroom doors" cries Sufjan on Get Real Get Right as the song constantly raises its key, seemingly spirally inexorably toward the skies. Then there's his Thom Yorke-esque strangled delivery of the refrain "I'm not f*cking around" over I Want To Be Well's frantic mantra, one of the most exhilirating songs he's ever put to tape.

Self-doubt looms all over The Age Of Adz too, not surprising, given Sufjan's recent bouts of depression. On I Walked, he remarks "I walked/ 'cause you walked/ but I won't probably get very far". No longer restrained by a state-sized concept, The Age Of Adz is one of the personal offerings in Stevens' canon. Even so, the androids and extra-terrestrial deities that adorn the album's artwork don't feel out of place; you could imagine the hisses. gurgles and foreboding orchestration that usher in the title track soundtracking some skyscraper-sized robot laying waste to a city.

Yet amidst the chaos, there are moments of unadulterated beauty here. Now That I'm Older is formed on heavenly backing vocals and ripples of autoharp which swell and shimmer, allowing Sufjan's vocals to echo weightlessly over the top. It's one of the album's simpler arrangements, devoid of the clutter that appears elsewhere, and no more so than on the culminating 25 minute-long Impossible Soul, which features auto-tuned vocals, joyous exclamaitons of "it's not so impossible" and "boy/we can do much more together!" and a whole bundle of right-turns which eventually see the album go full-circle to the rustic playing which opened proceedings some 75 minutes previously. When guest vocalist Shara Worden's soothing tones tell us "don't be distracted", it's hard not to be, what with so much going on.

So yes, The Age Of Adz is overwhelming at times, and for the less patient it will be met with admiration but little love. But when things fall into place, as they so often do, Sufjan hits heights of songwritings that his contemparies cannot even see, let alone reach. In another crisis of self-confidence Sufjan notes, seemingly in disgust that "ordinary people are everywhere you look/ everywhere you turn". He needn't worry.

89/100

New album, new label for Deerhoof

It's been more than two years since the last Deerhoof record Offend Maggie appeared, which in Deerhoof terms is eons, but the wait is almost over. The fantastically titled Deerhoof vs. Evil is out on January 25th and they've jumped ship from Kill Rock Stars over to Polyvinyl (although the album will still be released through ATP Recordings on our shores). The album is self-recorded, mixed and mastered, and includes a cover of an instrumental from the soundtrack of a greek movie. Polyvinyl describe the record as "The musical equivalent of hormones raging out of control, it explodes out of the speakers with its gawky triumph and inflamed sentimentality". Sounds suitably barmy and loveable. Track-listing is below. Click on the link to download first single The Merry Barracks; it sounds especially awesome through headphones.

01 Qui Dorm, Només Somia
02 Behold a Marvel in the Darkness
03 The Merry Barracks
04 No One Asked to Dance
05 Let's Dance the Jet
06 Super Duper Rescue Heads!
07 Must Fight Current
08 Secret Mobilization
09 Hey I Can
10 C'Moon
11 I Did Crimes for You
12 Almost Everyone, Almost Always

The safe bet is Deerhoof will be victorious.