Versatile Given a penchant for vintage analogue synthesis, Goblin and motorik drumming, and having named themselves after a Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer game, it is not only appropriate, but almost de rigueur, that Zombie Zombie should find themselves tackling the oeuvre of a key progenitor of electronic cinema soundtracks. John Carpenter‘s themes and incidental music for the groundbreaking low-budget and high-thrills genre movies was pioneering, and hugely influential […]
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LilBee The first part of the first track on Brooke Sharkey‘s A Taste Of Truth EP provides something of a conundrum for the monolingual reviewer, being in French. However, in some ways it’s a bonus- the backing is fairly traditional guitar-based stuff, though undeniably pleasant, and I have no idea what the lyrics are about, leaving my whole first impression entirely dependent on two things- the melody and […]
Drifting Falling London bliss-rockers Kontakte continue their journey into the outer reaches of motorik rhythms and chimingly elevated guitar work with an EP which works around the theme in differing ways. “Superbug” itself boils over with tightly-wound energy, surging from twinkly psychedelic guitar melodies which dive off into shoegaze metal territory on a bedrock of cascading, weighty beats and a buzzing undertow. It’s reminiscent of the way Bowery […]
The Cesarians – Flesh Is Grass/Woman Imprint Hailing from Hackney, The Cesarians have been packing out gigs for a while now, their frenetic live performances assuring them of a huge cult following (I thought I had a huge cult following once; unfortunately it turned out to be a typo. When he caught up with me he kicked my head in). So it’s interesting to see how their filthy, […]
Crystal Antlers – Crystal Antlers EP Touch and Go From the Comets on Fire school of sunshine-and-reverb-addicted, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink meltingpot psych come Crystal Antlers, the band with possibly the most unjustly off-putting name of the year. If you’re interested, the contest for the band with the most deservedly off-putting name of the year is currently a dead heat between Does It Offend You, Yeah?, and the Ting Tings. Anyway. […]
Monotonix – Body Language EP Drag City Israeli rock bands – I’ll bet’cha can’t name two. I’ve got a theory that countries with compulsory military service always have rubbish music scenes, because there just aren’t enough bored kids hanging around to start bands and go to gigs and buy records and scare old people and all that. The little buggers are all too busy doing press-ups, being shouted […]
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 […]
Label: Ad Noiseam Format: 12″ Forsaking his love of distended gabba-ragga-breakcore noise for something not entirely unrelated, Jason Kohnen has applied his carefully-crafted breaks and furious percussive cut-up skills to grindcore metal – and what a rushing mashup the result is too. Big riffs meet monster bass and hyperspeed rhythms, twisting an already evil-sounding form into new shapes of enthusiastically demented chaos. Track titles like “Bloody Cenotaph” hint […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: 12″ The Lesser Spotted Burberry EP could as easily be a paean as a pisstake, but there’s no doubting the fervour of Henry Collins‘ approach to beat-mangling. “Ellesse Warrior” swoons from driving mashup to celebratory breakcore with a dizzying sense of humour in the application of a hint of ragga and a good dose of manic intensity. Peppered with progressively more and more dissolute […]
Label: Bomb Mitte Format: 7″ The first Faust record I owned was on vinyl and now they have another release on the shiny black stuff. This time its a limited edition 7-inch collaboration with Dälek and is a taster of an album which will appear later this year. Collaborations appear to be part of the current Faust direction and it would seem to be a productive area to […]
Label: 4AD Format: CDS, 7″ “Son Of Three” finds The Breeders in ginding guitar-pop mode – but when have they ever been anything else? – chugging along their melodic road with carefree automobile enthusiasm. The soundtrack to a cheery buzzing taxi road movie where the lyrical concerns are as obscure as they are self-assured and disposably neat. Since the theme to Buffyalways sounded lie one of The Pixies‘ […]
Label: Thrill Jockey Format: CDS A five remix CD of a track from his album The Golden Age presents the man in full Seventies flow with lashings of Disco, Pop and Soul all decked out in fake chest wig, flares that defy measurement and cripplingly fashionable platform soles. The almost falsetto voice is all petulance with the ghosts of Marc Bolan and Michael Jackson jockeying for prominence. There […]
Label: Rock Action Format: 12″,CDS Three tracks, barely eleven minutes in total and more accomplished than an hour of almost any other band you choose to name. The five piece Kling Klang – the original core trio of Joe McLaughlin , Amy Corcoran and Dave Smyth with Ali McDonald‘s drumming and Peter Smyth filling out the keyboard ranks – are a force to be reckoned with. The band […]
Label: A-Musik Format: 3″ CD Combining Disco with toys seems like a fun idea, and Felix Kubin‘s Jet-Lag Disco likes its treble really reedy on top of some thumpingly mid bass kicks. Two thoughts spring immediately to mind – Alec Empire‘s hyper-bleepy Nintendo Teenage Robots project, but with more beats and structure, and the fact that this EP was intended for Kubin’s Japanese tour in early 2001. So […]
Label: Expanding Format: 7″ Abfahrt Hinwil‘s contribution to the Expanding Records EVS Series clicks and wheezes to life with “Links Oben”, built around a distracted melody constructed from synthetic bells. The undercurrents gurgle, fizz and whirr with biomechanical trills, keeping the electronica sweetly chilled. “The Light” starts off langorously swirled, rotating on a synthetic textural axis while deep down a bass tone generates vibrations. A gradual insertion of […]
Label: City Slang (Europe)/Mute (North America) Format: CDS,12″ The Pantone EP brings together a selection of tracks originally aired on To Rococo Rot and I-Sound’s Music Is A Hungry Ghost album, here revised in light of live performance. “Pantone (Red)” whirrs out from an opening skim across the glitchscape into a tinkly melody, all trailed echoes of brightly-sparking electronics and the characteristic TRR bass glide. The synthetic strings […]
Label: Speakerphone Format: 7″ Tucked away on this seven inch disc of transparent red plastic is one of Black Heart Procession‘s mini masterpieces of melancholic glorying in the sadness of things in general and the passing of time in particular. “Love Sings A Sunrise” coasts on a slow-turning beat and a lambent shimmer of electronic detritus, with Pall Jenkins‘s mournfoul voice declaiming his lost love as the band […]
Label: Flesh Format: 12″ Flesh Records take on the dancefloor with their blend of extended electro-techno-gothic, neatly introduced by the throbbing smash-to-be of ST AP 00‘s “Mr GD”, in which someone with a very keen enthusiasm for David Bowie describes a sinister encounter of the less than savoury narrator with the little old Mr Gravedigger. All this is set to a pounding dance track with some seriously groovy […]