Thu 30 Apr – the mummers
On a personal note, it is with great excitement that I write this journal, as the next installment will be published whilst I am ensconced in the sunny environs of San Francisco! Provided I get around to writing it, obviously... So, as you can understand, new music and gigs won't exactly be on the agenda over the next couple of months! An incredibly special thanks to
Omissi0n for setting this whole jaunt up is in order also, as despite being a dispiritingly crap year at home so far, I now have something rather lovely to look forward to! X^D
So, joygasm over, back to my monthlies, and a quick little blurb about up-and-coming pop folkers
The Mummers, whose debut album received a rather glowing rating in my last entry. They'll be hitting the festival circuit this year and are well worth checking out, their sunny songs and laidback demeanor a perfect soundtrack to the (hopefully) good summer weather. Lead singer
Raissa's prior stage experience is a welcome feature too, mixing it with the right amount of detached whimsy and audience interaction; best example of which was when she introduced
Wonderland, she dedicated it to "everyone in prison", after receiving a fan letter from someone detained at Her Majesty's service, one of many nice touches throughout a delicately lovely gig.
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And now, to the albums; thankfully a little lighter on the ground this month, as even I was getting fatigued by all this journalising!
Braveface by
Esser
Whilst
Lily Allen was putting together her second album, she reportedly invited
Damon Albarn to try and write a few songs with her, but the resulting session ended leaving neither party particularly inspired enough to lay down a single tune. The reason I open the May album round-up with that tidbit of info is because the debut album from Ben Esser sounds remarkably like what those sessions could have thrown up if Lily and Damon clicked (indeed, the bequiffed popstar has been compared to both artists many a moment in the press and there is an unmistakably
Gorillaz-style sound permeating throughout). Since inheriting Next Big Thing plaudits a couple of years ago thanks to some well-received gigs, Braveface can’t help but come up a little short on those awfully imposing expectations on account of its at-time banal lack of subtlety (hear
I Love You), even though the album boasts its fair share of pleasant-enough ditties and winning personality (such as on mid-tempo ballads
Bones and
Real Life).
The Plot by
WhoMadeWho
Now we’ve officially hit the umpteenth ‘80s redux in pop music, WhoMadeWho’s late ‘70s house disco homage comes frustratingly late in the game. I say frustratingly, because, if this were released about five years ago, it would have sat nicely alongside the
Scissor Sisters’ debut as a revisionist pleasure, but now, especially after
Hercules and Love Affair’s gorgeous effort from last year, the otherwise-fine pop fluff found on the album is stifled and stale. Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a dearth of danceability to be found on their third album (particularly on the middle one-two of
Keep Me In My Plane and
This Train) and there are phenomenally more acrid/successful dance outfits you could be listening to (for instance, can you believe
this went double-platinum in America??), there just happen to be a few more exciting things happening with dance music this year, as we are sure to find at the end of this very journal.
Songs About Dancing And Drugs by
Circlesquare
Quoted as saying he was taking cues from the likes of
Leonard Cohen and
Talking Heads with their succinctly descriptive album titles, one man band Jeremy Shaw’s third album easily wins this month’s “Does What It Says On The Tin” award. Albeit, this isn’t a happy, summery dance record, as its sonicspace traverses minimal electro and spaced out eeriness to summon up the darker side of dance culture, i.e. the dreaded comedowns, the aimless conversations and aching worthlessness. And whilst you certainly cannot fault Shaw and company for following through on their singular trajectory based on artistic merit (and often giving the listener some subversive delights, such as on the sinister
Music For Satellites), the album isn’t nearly as revelatory or distinct enough to summon more than an occasional listen, often succumbing to uninspired indulgence (hear
Bombs Away, Away). It’ll be interesting to hear what tee-totallers make of the record, though!
Further Complications by
Jarvis Cocker
If I had to pick a Britpop hero from the mid-90s, spindly poet Jarvis Cocker would take the title over Damon Albarn and
Noel Gallagher certainly, if only because without him, we wouldn’t have had
William Shatner’s incredible
Ben Folds-produced cover of
Common People. However, there happens to be a lot more to respect the shuffling
Pulp frontman musically and Further Complications, incredibly only his second solo album to be released, is such an artifact and finds him in a spikily rancorous mood to say the least (interviews have said that this album was fresh out of the gate just after an acrimonious break-up). Stripped bare of many a stylistic flourish and content with a simple guitar-based sound, Cocker’s music still manages to serve up something special, predominantly thanks to his self-effacing lyrics and musical wit;
I Never Said I Was Deep and closer
You’re in my Eyes (Discosong) in particular are highlights, summoning up as much charisma as he did nearly fifteen years ago.
Manners by
Passion Pit
A bright blast of incandescent synth-rock now, featuring five young Massachusetts natives playing the kind of songs that define summery goodness. One reason why this debut album works as well as it does above many other young upstarts debuting this year though is the Pit’s unabashed willingness to play it charmingly straight, or rather their appealing lack of a cynically engineered cool veneer to earn plaudits with those fickle indie kids (unlike, say,
The Ting Tings). At once chock full of modern dance signatures and chopped up beats, whilst at the same time retaining enough funky melody lines and frankly adorable quirks to win over pretty much anyone within earshot (I dare you not to grin when the children’s choir chimes up on highlight
Little Secrets’ chorus!), the sheer amount of good feeling bursting through each of these songs is impossible to ignore, even on slower affairs such as
Swimming in the Flood. Moodier folks be wary though; unless you’re naturally “up” most of the time, some of the falsetto vocals/shrieks can err on the wrong side of irksome.
Duke Pandemonium by
Marmaduke Duke
So, The Atmosphere (AKA Simon Neil of
Biffy Clyro) and The Dragon (AKA JP Reid of
Sucioperro) continue afoot with their conceptual album trilogy and their second release, which just so happens to take a more dance-heavy direction than their previous effort. The shamelessly pretentious genre traverse of the prior album is nowhere to be found and a more conventional, tighter set is the result (a trim 35 minutes actually), but rest assured, their is still a thick air of inscrutably arty chaos, particularly on the gorgeously bonkers centrepiece
Demon, which segues from punkish rabble to one of the finest slow burn sequences to climax a song this year. It could easily attain the title of being the most annoying album of the year, precisely because it’s hard to tell whether songs like
Erotic Robotic or
Je Suis Un Funky Homme are being played straight or for
Flight of the Conchords-style laughs. That said, any album with the finale called
Skin The Mofo is worth at least one listen.
Epiphany by
Chrisette Michele
Following on from her success at the Grammys this year for the track
Be Ok with
will.i.am, Michele follows on the promise of her well-received debut
I Am with what at first appears to be a rather severe case of “sequelitis”. Gone is the jazz-influence that helped ignite her listenership’s attention in the first place and welcomed into her discography are big-name producers responsible for every single lead-off track from every hip hop princess’ debut album over the past few years. Which would be crushingly disappointing if it weren’t for the fact that Michele actually utilises these production tricks from the likes of
Ne-Yo and
Stargate as opposed to being swallowed whole by them, making each song her own with that rather beautiful voice of hers. Moments like feelgood break-up ballad
Blame It on Me, the old school flavour of
Mr. Right and sassy anthem
Porcelain Doll confirm that Michele could take over the world of R&B anytime she wanted.
The Bachelor by
Patrick Wolf
With his genres of choice spanning between romantic folk and techno pop music, especially given the fact he is comparatively a lot younger than most prolific multi-instrumentalists working today, you’d be forgiven for finding Wolf’s talents more than a little precociously annoying. It must be said though, that Wolf simply has whatever
it is, and this fourth album provides plentiful evidence of this, mixing earthy organs and quaint folk arrangements with enough distorted electronic feedback and fuzz to make
Black Cherry-era
Goldfrapp jealous. Insofact, The Bachelor (like
Relapse and
Junior earlier this year, the first of a two CD work released little under a year apart) could be seen as the darker counterpoint to Alison and Will’s
Seventh Tree from last year, albeit even more contemplative and moody. And whether you like him or not, convincing
Tilda Swinton to feature on one of his tracks (
Oblivion) is nothing less than impressive.
Man Of Aran by
British Sea Power
It goes without saying that, with regards to the spectrum of artistry involved, singers/rock stars make better fists of their forays into celluloid fancies than actors do of their often misguided attempts at musical dominance (between
Jennifer Lopez and The Disney Channel roster of squawking starlets, no argument is necessary!) It’s also often heartening when some popular musicians receive accolades for their scoring duties on said films; following in the more loftily credible footsteps of
Jonny Greenwood and
Björk over recent years, Brighton rock group British Sea Power have seen fit to supply a brand new score for the 1934 documentary
Man Of Aran, highlighting the poverty of a pre-modern Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland. The result is at once classical and rock-oriented, admirably almost-entirely instrumental and further proof that some UK acts aren’t all redundant swagger and facile chants (especially on the frankly beautiful
Boy Vertiginous).
Big Science by
Bodies Without Organs
Another act for whom international success seems to remain frustratingly elusive is
Alexander Bard’s present pop project, the pop trio self-described as the missing link between
ABBA and
Kraftwerk. However, even that description doesn’t come close to how irresistibly catchy Bard and company can be, that particular facet being found in fine fetter on this their fourth LP, especially on opening salvo
Right Here Right Now (which is basically
Clocks re-worked as a gay disco ballad... FUCK, YEAH!) It’s all fabulously critic-proof, enviably straddling a gossamer-thin line between awesomely sophisticated "synth"phonies and unabashedly camp joy pop, the kind that has you singing along by halfway through the first chorus without a care in the world. Yes, there are infinitely more zeitgeist-floggingly swoonsome pop acts out there right now, but I’m firmly on the side that the world is nothing less than lucky to have a band like BWO around.
Intimacy Remixed by
Bloc Party
Another year, another major release from the Bloc, this time enraging their indie fans further with more glorious electric carnage by having the whole of their previous album remixed by various danceheads, featuring both up-and-coming and more commercially established acts behind the decks. So we have
Armand van Helden whipping
Signs (formerly one of
Intimacy’s softer tracks) into a lovely frenzy,
Hervé actually bettering the original version of
Mercury in terms of paranoid audio onslaught and album producer
Paul Epworth remixing sophomore single
Talons under his newfound
Phones pseudonym. Some pay dividends more than others (
No Age’s re-work of
Better Than Heaven being the lesser assignment found here) and fans of the Party’s earlier indie delights will be dismayed to hear the final nail in the Party’s indie coffin being hammered in; but anyone else who has a pulse and looking for a party can do a helluva lot worse than this!
Yesterday and Today by
The Field
In spite of the platinum-certified horridness of the likes of
Basshunter and
Scooter, dance music continues to throw many a delightful surprise these days, the better efforts tending to follow on from its revolutionary progenitors in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s period that heralded the birth of IDM. Alongside the more reputable examples of
Deadmau5 and
Gui Boratto, Finnish one-man arsenal Axel Willner is another such hero, though his chilled-out opuses take more of a referential cue (check out the subversively poignant cover of
Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime). Nothing on his sophomore effort quite betters the minimalist sophistication on his debut (which managed to find warm dance fuzz with samples from
Lionel Richie and Coldplay!), but it certainly demonstrates that Willner isn’t afraid to incorporate more live percussive elements in his work, typified by his duet with
Battles drummer John Stanier on the title track. Expect this to be played at A LOT of chill-out sessions this summer.
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse present: Dark Night of the Soul by
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
I do confess with a smidgeon of embarrassment that perhaps I was a little over-excited about this month’s premier audio curio, courtesy of producers
Danger Mouse and
Sparklehorse. In a year seemingly teeming with out-of-leftfield collaborations and celebrity-packed compilations (surely earmarking the end of the Noughties era of revisionist genre-blending... ,';^}), ‘mouse and ‘horse’s event record promised the most with regards to its mind-boggling audacity, taking in star turns from the likes of
Gruff Rhys,
Iggy Pop,
Nina Persson,
Suzanne Vega,
The Flaming Lips and the film God himself,
David Lynch (who also provides the 100+ page artwork). Like Lynch’s films, the album confounds, enthrals, offends and entertains in equal measure, taking in moments of rough-hewn alt-rock, distortedly ravaged beauty and discordant sound design, alongside the more melodiously tuneful compositions; in short, it makes a thoroughly convincing first stab for Curio Of 2009.
Fantasies by
Metric
Canadian indie rock hipsters Metric have been bubbling under for over a decade now, not least thanks to their side-projects as well as their own work, hampered publicity-wise thanks to promotional shake-ups at their label. However, upon the release of their fourth LP (and swiftly following frontwoman Emily Haines’ well-received solo project,
Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton), it would appear that the band are more eager to grab the brass ring of international breakthrough status than ever before, Fantasies being chock full of rock pop ditties that do well to sate appetites of both respectable genrehounds and the more passing listener. Be it with the incessant clash of
Stadium Love (with its siren-like whoops spearing your head instantly) or the more reserved swoon of
Collect Call, Metric do well to lay down the gauntlet for forthcoming pop-rock albums this year.
Moderat by
Moderat
Debut albums that have taken a whole seven years to get made and released should always be greeted with more than a modicum of suspicion; unless you are electro-dance troika Moderat, it would appear, in which case you should readily prick up your ears for the finest dance album of the year so far. Splitting in two before delivering on the promise of their 2002 EP (during which time has been spent on extremely high profile remix duties and tour support), noisenik dance duo
Modeselektor and solo instrumentalist
Apparat finally got back together in 2008 to craft this stellar gem; at once unremittingly grimy and urban (check out
Slow Match), urgent and primal (hear
Porc # 2), with some unquantifiably fabulous dance-rock thrown in (
Seeed vocalist Dellé contributes mighty fine to
Sick With It), it’s the most consistently brilliant work of the year so far...
And that is why
Moderat is my
Album Of The Month For May!
Usual gubbins and comments at the bottom please, if ye can be bothered. Don't despair if I take longer to reply, have to get my suitcase sorted... well I've only got three-and-a-half weeks!!!
Take care and easy listening! xxx
Lionel Richie
