Label: Staalplaat Format: CD Originally released in 1993, The Grand Delusion takes as its themes the very idea of the American nation as a construct of media and cultural signifiers, especially as contextualised by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent events of the Gulf War. As a work of what The Tape-beatles mockingly trademark as Plagiarism®, the record also served as the soundtrack to their […]
Label: Asphodel Format: CD,LP The Heretic of Ether is one of those albums that comes out of the blue, hovers overhead and arond the ears and works its way into the subconscious. Seemingly a concept album concerning the life, death and re-birth of one Gashka Gavör, Moroccan Bedouin (or Badawi) heretic of the title, it makes a timeless quest romance in musical form which buzzes with passion and […]
Label: Silly Boy Lemon Format: CD Dave Brooks has had an interesting musical career, involving a court case taken against him by the local authorities over his playing his bagpipes on Hampstead Heath, a charge he defended by contesting that the pipes are a weapon of war, not a musical instrument. During the compromise which was reached in settlement, it was observed by the judge that bagapipes only […]
Label: Matador Format: CD I respect any album that contains references to Harry Harlow‘s somewhat cruel tests on Rhesus monkeys. The album is Quasi-Objects by Matmos, and the track is of course “Cloth Mother/Wire Mother”. You may not be surprised to find that the baby Rhesus monkeys preferred the cloth mother to the wire mother. What is more surprising is the fact that someone felt the need to […]
Label: Quarterstick Format: CD Rachel’s may be the logical conclusion of the tradition of Tortoise and Slint. This is not to say that they sound like either of these bands, but rather that one may trace an evolution in contemporary American music from a highly developed No-Wave to an end of millennium conservatoire music. Of course this music is not really specifically millennial either and at its best […]
Label: WEA Format: CD First off-yeah, I was suprised as fuck, too. Ministry. New album. Live dates. There’s a whole Snake Plissken thing going down here. (As in, I thought you were dead.) And I am pleased to report, continuing the Plissken metaphor possibly a little too far, that this album is no Escape From LA. I mean, yes, it rocks. As in ROCKS. As in R-A-W-fuckin’-Ks. Like several bastards. Absolute bastards. Nay, a WHOLE […]
Label: Go Beat Format: LP,CD Having ploughed the returns from their first two proper album releases into a full studio set-up, Fridge have been playing with the new toys to some good effect it seems. While there is much indeed to be said in favour of the recording of albums at home on four-track machines within tight time-constraints, previous releases have always seemed like not-quite complete sketches. Eph […]
The Peel Sessions Live Queen Elizabeth Hall, The South Bank Centre, London 3 June 1999 The ongoing, haphazard selection by John Peel for his live Sessions continues with the welcome return of Stereolab to live performance after an absence of a year or so. Peel compères in his usual style, jovial, knowing, knowledgable and slightly diffident, broadcasting (hopefully) the existence of the Neoist Necrocard to a national radio […]
Label: Warp Format: 2×12″,CD The first challenge to Autechre‘s latest release is which side to play. I received a blank CD, no markings, nothing to even hint that it had passed through the hands of Messrs Booth & Brown. I’ve not seen the version that’s going out for release, but I hold out the hope that it too will be just as uninformative. (It’s black – Ed.). EP7 isn’t really an EP, as it lasts for 70 […]
Label: Output Format: LP,CD Sharing less of the rock part of post-rock of his other band Fridge, multi-instrumentalist Kieran Hebden expands into wider areas with his debut album as Four Tet, leavening the cycling live drum kit and guitars of opening tracks like “”The Space Of Two Weeks” and “Chiron” with increasing amounts of synth burbles as well as more prominent Jazz elements. What emerges is a transition […]
Label: Cherry Red Format: 2CD Okay! Hands up everyone. Gimme your Alien Sex Fiend Moment (if you don’t have one, go out and buy this album and wait until something funny happens. May spoil the whole point of the review, but quite frankly, who gives one?). Mine? Here we go. Off me tits, so to speak, watching Sex Fiend at The University of London Union, oooh, a fuck […]
Label: Acrylnimbus Format: CD Hmmm. where to start with this one? From the packaging (which is, incidentally, very nice) and the track titles (which are, incidentally, very funny) you’d be forgiven for expecting something along the lines of Nurse With Wound. Funnily enough… …though I don’t remember the boy Stapleton ever having a passion for Drum’n’Bass. Think about that last sentence. Think harder. Yup, they said it could […]
Label: Guided Missile Format: 7″ The seven inch single, that ancient hallowed artifact: Conduit of commerce, copper coin of pop song, object of reverence and disposable frisbee. Once in a very rare while one will come along to download into your daytime consciousness and unconscious reverie: A hook, a lyric and a skilfully-turned bassline, a drumming of the fingers on public transport or a bout of air guitar […]
Label: Satellite Format: CD Hmmm – I found myself reciting a mantra over and over as I loaded up the pretty blue-backed disc… “Please don’t let this be like Marilyn Manson, please don’t let this be like Marilyn Manson, please don’t…” It isn’t. At all. Psycho patience may as well get in the car and volume up, rev up, run over some beautiful people along the way. Like […]
Label: City Slang Format: CD,LP There’s a thing with prefixes and the word “Rock” (or “ROCK!” if you prefer) – Post-Rock, Art-Rock, sometimes (dare I say it) Prog-Rock. Salaryman seem content to slide about in this general area, not quite difficult enough to be Post-Rock, too much fun to be Art-Rock (“Thomas Jefferson Airplane” as a track title for example. Cool!) and never going quite that little bit […]
Label: Staalplaat Format: CD At first seemingly a strange departure for Robin Storey in his Rapoon guise, The Alien Question starts out as a series of simple sound loops and harmonium chords accompanying the spoken words of alien ambassador Hoh Krll. The increasingly paranoiac ideas which Krll outlines are of course familiar to almost everyone from Western popular culture’s obsession with all things alien and Grey (or from […]
Label: City Slang Format: CD, LP From their beginnings as the musical department of an art exhibition, To Rococo Rot have shown themselves to be something special – it’s not the methodology alone, not the combination of sequencer, sampler, drums and the sometimes floor-threatening bass they favour live, but is to be found in the precise combination of all the above with that special spark of warm humanity […]
The Dublin Castle, London 17th April 1999 Hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana, Mr. Quintron is a genuine musical eccentric – but more on him in a moment. First up was partner Miss Pussycat and her amazing puppet show. Presented from inside a pink and glittery puppet booth, Springtime In Yeahsville follows other such masterpieces of performance puppet Electronica as her Flossie And The Unicorns album and show. Resplendent […]