![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Crystal Castles, The Loves, Danielson, Plaid and Bob Jaroc, Mates of State, Harper Lee, Mclusky
Posted on 2006.10.06 at 19:19
Crystal Castles – Alice Practice (Merock Records)
Like Printed Circuit joining forces with Erase Errata or maybe like playing Tetris whilst having your face punched off, this is the sound of Alice Practice. If you believe what they say (I don’t, I think it’s stupid and pretentious) Alice Practice isn’t even meant to be a song (its just Alice practicing) and they’re not meant to be a band. The EP suggests they are good enough to get by without such claims unless they are all completely true at which point I take it all back.
There’s plenty here for the electro-spectro geek to fall for, analogue keyboard and gameboy noises turning up everywhere you look, the sampletastic Air War being my favourite, though all four are cracking, if you loved the Best Fwends Ep on Moshi Moshi then you’ll adore this.
The Loves – Xs and Os / She’ll Break Your Heart Again (Fortuna Pop!)
I can remember the day I logged onto www.thelovesloveyou.co.uk only to find this domain name was up for grabs, what had happened to this loveable bunch, the band responsible for one of the most danceable, whistleable, bone shaking, floor filling tracks of recent times Boom-a-Bang-Bang-Bang? So imagine my joy to hear of the return of the Loves, and you should be happy too ‘cos they’re back and as great as ever.
We already know they’re capable of creating great sixties sounding beatnik classics, dig out the Love album if you’ve forgotten, and Xs and Os (that’s text speak for Kisses and Hugs should you be looking at the cover thinking this is some kind of ridiculous marketing ploy from OXO) is up there with there best, making Status Quo sound cooler than ever, taking you back to the sixties, but not the sixties you hear on GEM AM the cool stuff you have to dig and find (Michel Polnareff, The Confusions etc) just like in forty years time when your watching I love the noughties on a Friday night there’ll be no Deerhoof or Dressy Bessy.
On the flipside is a reworking of She’ll Break Your Heart Again, the press release tells us its far superior to the original, I wasn’t sure at first cos I love the slow burning original, all fragile delicate like a broken heart, here we get what sounds at first like Brimful of Asha played at 78rpm, but I’ll admit that each time I hear it it grows a little more on me the way a girl can get prettier the more you find out about her. The sound is now super cool French garage pop/ Velvets, reminiscent of many a track from the excellent Pop A Paris compilations. You also get a new track, a more mature sound on My Sweet Drunken Blues (for you) and a cover of a band I never get round to checking out Os Mutantes, maybe this will give me the kick I need.
Get your leather jacket, flowery shirt and shades on, lets celebrate The Loves are back!
Danielson – Ships (Secretly Canadian)
I was first drawn to the Danielson Familie back in the days when Careless Talk would rave about them, though its possible that I didn’t actually read the words, I was just enthralled by the photos from there live shows, the girls dressed in nurses outfits, though not in a seedy Loaded/FHM manner, far from it and the boys dressed as great big apple trees. There’s a fine line between novelty and genius and I believed them to be on the right side, however because I’m tight (well I don’t agree with paying £12 plus postage for an album) I never got round to getting any of their albums until now, under the pseudonym of Danielson, I have no idea if there is any difference between the two, what I do know is that this is a fantastic album. I can’t even describe what its like or why I love it but I do. Its nothing like the White Stripes, but just occasionally I hear similarities, the same with the Arcade Fire, I think it’s the powerful blasts of pop in amongst the brilliant written songs and the high vocals. Did I Step On Your Trumpet is the obvious single with its lovely repeated lyrics boy/girl/boy/girl like some kind of playground chant, but to single out any track on this album would be unfair as there isn’t a bad one to be found, highly recommended.
Plaid and Bob Jaroc – Greedy Baby (warp)
You know the scene in High Fidelity, the one where he says “watch me sell ten copies of the new Beta Band album” and commences to break straight into the mind numbingly brilliant coda of Dry The Rain? Yeah? Well this album has nothing to do with the Beta Band, nothing to do with Jack Black or a guy who can’t get over his girl however I found myself in the record store quietly minding my own business flicking through the avante garde/ free jazz/ noise section to be greeted by the sound of “The Launching of Big Face” a song so good that I dare say if there was a musical dictionary this is the song that would be playing as the definition of electronica. A gentle twinkle as beautiful as Fortdax’s w.h.coder like the first drops of slow falling snow as you walk home on a winters night alone but satisfied, quietly rerunning the night through your mind, snow slowly beginning to cover parked cars windscreens. The thrill of opening the curtains in the morning to see your normally dirty, pollution infested street turned into some kind of winter wonderland, a breathtaking blanket of pureness.
The following track ZN Zero sold it for me, again lovely electronica, again I hear Fortdax but maybe more sinister, the slightly eerie, spy like sound that I associate with Plaid, a more bass heavy song yet still laced with twinkling bells and all things pretty. These two tracks along with Super Positions (a nod toward the Venetian Snares sound, though not as intense (or good if I was to be picky (yet still rather brilliant all the same))) stand out, though worthy of a mention is the slightly novelty The Return of Super Barrio and surprisingly War Dialer, a paranoid mix of dialling tones, unrecognised numbers and suspicious voices, its not immediate but give it a chance, maybe watch it with the accompanying DVD produced by Bob Jaroc (yeah I’ve not heard of him either.)
9 tracks in total plus 4 extras on the DVD including their previous defining moment Assault on Precint Zero, you’d be a fool not to join the queue.
Mates of State – Bring it Back (Moshi Moshi)
If you’ve not heard of Mates of State, I really don’t know what you’ve been playing out, if you ever read the paper version on this zine and haven’t heard of Mates of State then you are not a very good reader. However it’s only when I’ve read reviews in other publications that I realised that this is the first of their albums to actually have been released in the UK, which is surprising when you consider how packed their shows are and have been the last three times they’ve been over here.
It makes me wonder if there’s any justice in the world of music but also grateful for the fact that we knew about them first as its possible they may just go rubbish under record company pressure though on the evidence of Bring it Back they only seem to have got stronger.
What do you need to know about them? Well they are a keyboard and drum two piece with heavenly vocal harmonies, what adds to the fairytale is that they are also married (not just married but ridiculously in love, the way they stare into each others eyes as they play (what better way to live, touring the world playing fantastic songs to appreciative crowds with the girl you love?)), like a good (as in good opposed to evil, we love…) Quasi (who are a divorced keyboard and drum two piece) and genuinely lovely people.
Sound wise its not that different though there are a few slower tracks Like U Crazy & Nature and the Wreck featuring their new baby and the excellent sixties sounding what it means. For The Actor, So Many Ways and Puchlines can be added to the cannon of instantly loveable Mates of States tracks that you’ll be singing your head off to.
Its interesting that with their finally gaining commercial recognition that the album closer Running Out clocking in at 6 minutes 49 spends half that time on the chorus “tired of singing!” are Mates of State thinking of settling down?? Let’s hope not.
www.myspace.com/matesofstate
www.myspace.com/matesofstate
Harper Lee – He Holds a Flame (matinee)
I’ll admit that I hadn’t been that thrilled with this release up until now that is, much like the recent Lucksmith’s single and more appropriately Tim Ten Yen’s When The Song Applies to You perhaps its just the timing of events, you how sometimes you can relate so closely to a song, well that’s how I’m beginning to feel about this whole EP, each line seems so perfect, putting the thoughts that are so hard to express into the simplest yet most pinpoint definitions, direct, to the point and blatantly honest.
“but if you ever feel its through/ remember I’m still in love with you/ this boy still holds a flame”(He Holds a Flame)“I know the mistakes I’ve made/ as you pack your bags I write them down/ lost track of the wrongs and rights in amidst the arguments and fight/s I guess that I could be wrong but I think that you will agree how things didn’t turn out right was really down to me, I promise I can change, I want you back…”(I Could Be Wrong)2 minutes 18 of lyrically perfect pop and heavy hearted hindsight.
Musically its not far off from Lovejoy, another cracking EP from Matinee, don’t miss out.
Mclusky – Mcluskyism (too pure)
I remember for some reason purchasing their debut album (I’m not sure how it fit in with what I was listening to at the time, maybe it was the nice title (probably more likely to be described as pretentious these days but I liked it) my pain and sadness is more sad and painful than yours) and almost having a heart attack at the intensity of the opener Joy, a song that is not far from metal yet I can now honestly say is one of my favourite songs to this day, that along with Rice is Nice is a regular appearer on compilations I make, I love the way they mix (as already mentioned) almost metal intensity with pop sensibilities, the latter of the two in particular “I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it/ I don’t want to talk about it” screamed over and over whilst an angelic melody is sung over it, as poppy as the Poppyheads.
I feel that they are possibly a bit of a singles band (a bit like Blur, buy the singles worry about the rest if you don’t have too) I could be wrong but rather handily Too Pure have kindly compiled all 12 of their singles and an impressive collection of suitably aggressive clever lyric-ed rock (rock is such a horrible word but mclusky are a little too heavy too be called pop yet all the ingredients are there “you are such a stupid child/ you should have cottoned on that Alan is a cowboy killer!” Luring you in gently before exploding into a heap of feedback and semi screamed lyrics) (they sometimes remind me of Terrorvision, however bad that sounds, I used to quite like them) songs it is. Whoyouknow, Alan is a Cowboy Killer, There Ain’t Np Fool in Ferguson, Undress For Success, they’re all there for you, things are looking up. And if I’m totally wrong then pay the extra couple of quid for the special edition with two extra cd’s and 44 songs of b-sides and c-sides.
May the memory of Mclusky live on.
www.toopure.com
From the Archives - Records Still Deserving your Attention
originaly publisehed in Id rather be fat than be confused paper fanzine
From the Archives - Records Still Deserving your Attention
originaly publisehed in Id rather be fat than be confused paper fanzine
Charlie Parr – Criminals & Sinners (misplaced music)
So you thought it’d be cool to play guitar, thought it’d be easy & yeah, it is. Thought you’d learn a few chords, distort your guitar beyond recognition, sell a million records and that’d be the end of it. So now your walking home through the dusty back streets, the coolest kid in town, and there’s a guy sat on his back porch with a battered old guitar. He removes his pipe and starts to play. You cry and go and break all your fingers.
“Whats the point in running a label if you can’t indulge yourself once in a while with something you really love” reads the press release, and boy have they indulged. Criminals & Sinners is an absolute treat of an album. Reminiscent of Chris Whitleys Scrapyard Lullaby & John Herald from Shoeshine Records.
When you’ll hear it you’ll struggle to believe it was recorded straight to two track. Phenomenal guitar playing, sometimes dirty, swampy and bluesy. Sometimes folky yet always intricate and honest. Couple that with his great story filled songs and husky voice and here we have nine tracks of bareness and honesty.
Lets hope them nice people at Misplaced music feel the need to indulge more often.
www.myspace.com/charlieparr
www.myspace.com/misplaced_music
www.misplacedmusic.co.uk
www.myspace.com/charlieparr
www.myspace.com/misplaced_music
www.misplacedmusic.co.uk