Label: Mute Format: CD OK, confession time- I have yet to get around to seeing the film to which this is the soundtrack, though I have been assured by people who have and whose opinions I respect that it’s awesome. Though that’s not really the point – the point is that I’m only able to judge this album on how well its stands up on its own. Don’t […]
The Water Rats, London 27th October 2007 Even though it’s about as far from the stuff he plays these days as a non-executive directorship is from a proper job, the spectre of Swans‘ Cop weighs heavily on proceedings tonight- particularly its mantric repetition of the phrase “THE HEAT… HURTS! THE HEAT… HURTS!” Mr Gira, avuncular and smiling, has decreed that the lights be turned on full. On the […]
Label: Beta-lactam Ring Records Format: CD Fom the opening blasts of the title track, it’s apparent that Epitafio a la Permanencia is going to be more than just strange – it’s going to be weird. First off Un Festín Sagital get top marks for impersonating Magma within the first few bars, then dropping the dramatic chorale motif for now in favour of a deliciously avant slide into the meanders of […]
Label: Attack Attack Format: CD There’s something a little disorienting about this CD right from the off — it uses a different font. Yup, that’s right, gone is the stencilled military-style lettering they’ve been using for… blimey, for about TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS! (Doing a quick bit of mental arithmetic I’ve just frightened myself with the realisation that my first New Model Army gig was some eighteen years ago. I’ll get me slippers). […]
Label: Letterbox Format: CD Paradoxes. (Yeah, I thought the plural’d be “paradoces” as well, but no). Paradoxes and Hackney. I love Hackney, yet at the same time I fear her something rotten. No, it’s not just the fact that I’ve been mugged here more times than I care to remember (well, even just the first time was technically “more than I care to remember”, but, y’know…), or that […]
Label: City Slang (Europe)/ Ernest Jenning Record Co (USA) Format: CD Head Home is a record which works its way into the subconscious, and O’Death are one of those bands who become such a fixture on the scene in a relatively short time that they are now a yardstick against which to measure similar bands. Country music – in its widest sense – has come a long way this century […]
Label: Very Friendly Format: CD The Super Roots series is an epic series of compilations containing previously unreleased material from the Boredoms. Previously unreleased in the west, at least. The series is as ever shifting and hard to pin down as the band themselves, which makes Super Roots a good introduction to the crazy noisy creative genius of the Boredoms. There are some absolute gems in the series, […]
Kriss Donning a swift alter-ego for a heavyweight re-rendering of a pair of Black Sabbath classics, Aaron Funk proves that he’s as adept at the dub(step) as he is at splattery digital grinds when the Venetian part is elided from his Snares moniker. It also comes as no surprise that the record should appear on Bong-Ra‘s label Kriss, given his penchant for mashing up old-school grindcore in a […]
Meltdown 2007 Queen Elizabeth Hall, London 18th June 2007 The smoke and glitter which characterises Chrome Hoof‘s performance at Meltdown 2007 is something of a wonder to behold. Unleashing a brain-boggling riot of progtastic disco – complete with intoned disclaimer for any responsibilty for the effect of the show on the audience at the start, this thirteen-piece bunch of silver-clad space invaders proceed to set out to do […]
St. Giles in the Field, London 1st June 2007 I hit the church shortly after opening time, still muddleheaded from work, the sun only just beginning to slip it’s way behind central London’s monstrous office monoliths, and St. Giles’ church is already packed, a situation not helped by the decision to close off the balconies. I succeed in grabbing a pew toward the back though, and bear happy […]
The Scala, London 29th May 2007 Part Chimp not only open with a big, metallic stoner rumble, they compound matters by using almost the exact riff from “Electric Funeral” to confirm that they are coming from a location somewhere between Black Sabbath and The Melvins. So then its heads down for an excercise in riffology, volume and mass squared by amplification, with the product being ringing ears and […]
Bush Hall, London 27th May 2007 It’s raining. Not just raining, but absolutely pissing it down. The streets are running with water, and my eyes are so full of rain it takes me fully half an hour longer to find the venue than it should otherwise have done, meaning that by the time I get in, Mr Harvey‘s set is already underway. And by crikey, he looks like […]
Label: Central Control International Format: CD,LP Not so much a supergroup as a superhighway-connected collective, mostly based in the south of France, Strings Of Consciousness delight in melding acoustic instruments with electronics, sliding one over the other and processing the former with the latter. The results could be messy, or could be described as extremely hallucinatory soundtracks to that imaginary collective headtrip movie which everyone who composes this sort of music seemingly contributes […]
Label: Vivo format: CD Featuring guest musicans (or sound carriers as Damo Suzuki prefers to refer to his collaborators) from Rovo, Ruins and the legendary Hoppy Kamiyama of God Mountain records and Optical*8, The Fire of Heaven at the End of Universe was, as its subtitle indicates, recorded live at Tokyo’s UFO Club in March 2006. The recording quality is good, if very live sounding and lacking in […]
Dingwall’s, London 15th May 2007 It’s been a while since The Young Gods have appeared in London, but they’re back at last, in support of their new album Supeready/Fragmenté. Dingwall’s turns out to be a good choice of venue, allowing for a capacity crowd but without getting stiflingly overstuffed with people. Support band Shy Child are a duo of a drummer and synth player, the latter playing standing up […]
Bush Hall, London 11th May 2007 Bush Hall is a strangely grand venue for A Hawk And A Hacksaw to appear, all faded burlesque glamour in the plaster cherubim and beneath the voluptuous chandeliers. Given Jeremy Barnes‘ reinvention and re-imagining of a multitude of folk styles, the image conjured by his music is perhaps more one of rustic dances and Eastern European taverns, but since ultimately his music […]
Corsica Studios, London 2nd May 2007 Looking like refugees from several different bands who all met up in a jail cell after a drunken night gone horribly wrong, it’s north London’s finest pirate bar band Owlls, and they really should be playing in Tortuga in the 17th Century rather than Elephant & Castle. But no matter; by the time they’re a couple of songs in you feel like […]
Label: Very Friendly/Adaadat Format: CD/LP Fox Mulder described Bach as having a genius for polyphonic composition. That’s all well and good, and yes it’s all very clever stuff, but there will always be some people who feel that Bach just doesn’t rock enough. DJ Scotch Egg redresses this balance and gives the classics a hardcore noise work over … on a Gameboy, that low tech favourite. The results sound […]