Mute Bristol in 1979 saw the emergence of one of the most beloved and influential bands of the punk era. Reformed again in recent years after a prolonged period of dormancy, decades after their serial appearances on the front covers of a number of influential music papers such as Melody Maker, NME and Sounds, they continue to draw in devoted audiences still in thrall to the energy and […]
Monthly archives: October 2019
30 posts
Bureau B Kreidler have been going for twenty-five years now and are on their twelfth or thirteenth album, let alone all the other projects that the various members have. It is an impressive record, and even more so that each Kreidler album brings something a little different to the table. For the follow up to 2017’s European Song, they have pieced together and album of two halves; the […]
Editions Mego Back in the late nineties, in an attempt to distract myself from the drilling sounds whilst waiting to be seen by the dentist, I flicked though this lad mag (I forget the name of it). Amongst the usual antics I spot this review for The Elbow Is Taboo, worlds removed from the normal chart-friendly preferences of the publication,
Taken from their forthcoming album for Interchill (Guardians, to be released in early 2020), the Condor EP finds Evan Fraser and Vir McCoy mixing up mostly acoustic instruments in ambient style.
Bristol 25 October 2019 Well, we may have missed The Jesuits, but Bristol’s Perverts more than made up for any disappointment. The charismatic leader was decked out in a silver jumpsuit, Elvis musical staves stitched to his legs and noddy-eared headgear completing the look. He danced the stage like a demented Tellytubby with this peculiar bent-knee jig as the music behind him jutted like a no-wave convention of […]
London 19 October 2019 Compere: “Jesus is a …” Audience: “CUNT!” [giggling] This is about as highbrow as it gets all evening. Camp as the campest tits. There’s also a punter dressed as Jesus displaying his irritation at everyone wearing the “Jesus is a cunt” t-shirt. #lol #classicbants.
Young God / Mute Michael Gira has never shied away from the bareness of the bulb’s inspection – his narrative always gnaws at the fragmented prism of the self, right from the sweaty simplicity of their beginnings to the sophisticated diatribes of the later years, even including the physical force of Swans‘ recent rebirth.
ADAADAT The continent-straddling meeting of musical minds that is Elephant House has reconvened after a couple of years’ rest to produce this ode to pan-cultural dream states that is Chollima.
Music On Vinyl / Seventh Claude Vorilhon was a racing car driver. He was a typical French man of the 1970s. Long hair, cigarettes, fast cars; he probably watched Un Homme Et Une Femme in the cinema. All of this changed for him abruptly at the end of 1973 when he had an alien visitation from an entity that called itself Jehovah. Those of you who are looking […]
Trace It still amazes me after twenty years or so how Mark Beazley can still make the bass guitar sound so different and vital across his various releases as Rothko. It feels like a personal crusade, a one-man (sometimes with help — Johny Brown, Michael Donnelly) to keep that cavernous echoing dream sound alive in the hearts of the listening public; and Rothko albums never fail to overwhelm, […]
Courier Sound Back in 2018, while creating sleeves for Graham Dunning‘s keg/Bulkhead release, Stuart Bowditch recorded the sounds of the Silhouette Cameo 3 plotter cutter and then offered it as basis for other artists to record a response. Now, if like me you have ever worked in an office and been surrounded by the rhythmic, mechanised sounds of copiers, printers, bursters, plotters and the like, you may have […]
Cherry Red Choose your own opening pun adventure: BEATification; aPOPtheosis. Mark E Smith as can/n/on. In fact naïf-historiographical Fall are legions worse than Nicene method – the archive is interminably tumescent, engorged for torrid bores. Better still see what Falls off the table, innit. Method — you see, this boxset is all 1982. An auspicious year. The year I was born. Now, I’m not arrogantly claiming my presence […]
Temporary Residence The recent collaboration between Date Palms‘ Marielle Jakobsons and Cali guitarist Chuck Johnson under the name Saariselka has yielded an album of exquisitely crafted and slow-moving beauty that employs steel guitar and the romantic thrum of Fender Rhodes to devastating effect.
Chocolate Monk On their second album, Psanck turn in a sprawling yet concise document of impressionistic free improv and modern minimalism, transporting you to some mud-spattered Welsh village to witness an ancient, timeless ritual.
(self-released) Meriheini Luoto‘s love for the forest and how the violin can be used to translate the mystery and wonder that it entails was used to excellent effect on 2017’s Metsänpeitto, which received much critical acclaim. Having been given the opportunity to perform it live, the idea was sown to produce a sequel and two years later, here it is.
London 17 October 2019 “Crom! How do the Four Winds get in here?” one might be forgiven for thinking, stepping into the Shepherd’s Bush Empire through clouds of weed smoke from the pavement outside. And it would be entirely appropriate, as the first band to take the stage this evening are Liverpudlian “caveman battle doom” merchants Conan. And they are mighty indeed.
Rockerill / Freaksville Josy And Pony have been gigging all across Europe since their first album dropped in 2017, and now they return with another fun-packed ride through the important matters of the day — but given their unique twist on ’60s French pop, ’90s indie and carefree hypnotic abandon. It is all topped off as ever with the mysteriously masked Josy’s winning French vocals, sometimes sultry, sometimes […]
Beggars Arkive Was it really forty years ago that I popped into my local Our Price record shop on my way home from school to pick up a copy of Tubeway Army’s “Are Friends Electric“?