Arthur Russell - Corn - ★★★★★★★½☆☆☆
Comprised of unreleased early '80s recordings, Corn serves as an interesting timemap of Russell's recording life betwixt his Tommy Boy club hits and minor label releases such as World Of Echo. The relentlessness of Lucky Cloud sets the scene, a mixture of John Martyn-esque vocal-reflection and brittle Russell cello scraping that sets the scene for an album that is a cut above the usual Arthur Russell rubber-necking. Keeping Up continues the sub-folkisms of the first few tracks before the NYC throb of Let's Go Swimming permeates the album's version of said club classic. Overall, this is as good an intro to the sound magician's key period as you could wish to have.
Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh - ★★★★★★★★★☆
Those old enough to remember Aussie electro scaries Severed Heads (and believe me, they WERE seriously unnerving with their blend of mangled choral extracts and cochlea-pounding beats), passionate enough about Orbital's dark melodies and, natch, Fuck Buttons' fearsome ability to start a mudslide with the sheer volume of their soundsystem, should form an orderly queue to wallow in the glory of the Blanck Mass. Essentially one-half of FB, Ben Power has successfully churned all manner of weird and wonderful techno styles into one glorious record, the like of which makes you wonder why other people bother. Better than Fuck Buttons by a country kilometre, Dumb Flesh is the most sublime soundtrack to your darkest thoughts. The towering Cruel Sport, for example, makes the Shard look like a toothpick. I'm not kidding, this is close to being one of the albums of the year.
William D Drake - Revere Reach - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
The former Cardiacs keyboard-wielding eccentric Drake boasts a legacy that already harbours plenty of vivid imagery - with Revere Reach, he's lobbed his own rule-book out of the nearest studio window and embarked on an Alice-in-Wonderland type travelogue through more styles than you shake a tree stump at. English music hall, theatre and animated lyricism abounds, the whole experience reminds me of The Horne Section, Reeves and Mortimer, Monty Python, The Divine Comedy, end of the pier amusements, Chipperfields Circus and the man's previous band. Some of it stomp, some of it swings, some of it ebbs away quietly and much of it confounds and pleases in equal measure. Head to Distant Buzzing, Heart of Oak and Castaway for a summary of Drake's quirky bonhomie.
Some Kind Of Illness - Some Kind Of Illness - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
SKOI's friendship with The Durutti Column's guitar-wielding lynchpin Vini Reilly is noticeable from the gently eddying opening bars of The Test Of Time. While Reilly himself isn't present on these recordings, his spirit and influence certainly are - songsmith Paul Hinks casts a crepuscular aura around his songs, most of which are wide-eyed melancholia most befitting a day on a deserted north-western beach or a day in bed with the curtains drawn shut. Its all-too-short running time is blissful stuff. Stars and The Light are gloom-drenched ballads to rival earlier works by Elbow, I am Kloot, Doves et al, but it's the pretty musical interludes that really hit the sweet spot. After just one earful of Maple Leaf, you'll be stopping what you're doing, slumping back in your seat and pressing repeat. Currently available from a minimal amount of outlets (including Bandcamp), make the effort to find the soundtrack to all seasons, not just the summer.
Zeus B Held - Logic Of Coincidence - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
A producer's producer, Held is famous for his numerous production assignments with John Foxx, Fashion, Transvision Vamp, Win, Nina Hagen, Chas Jankel and somewhat surrealistically Spear Of Destiny. You can therefore imagine that Logic Of Coincidence is a mish-mash of styles and influence - and it is. Imagine ZTT's Andrew Poppy, Germanic ace Conny Plank and the likes of Trevor Horn, Steve Reich, Michael Nyman and Wim Mertens cuddling Held at a Paul Morley reunion party and you're someway there. This is a producer's album. Effects and programming a-go-go, Some Kind Of Illness sometimes feels like a demonstration album for a well-known keyboard manufacturer. This isn't a bad thing. The Glass Bead Dice Man is a Poppy-esque epic that traverses minimal classicism and arty boundaries, while Being and Time in Todtnauberg has an element of KPM library music about it (but in a good way) and Kepos Garden is a pretty ambient dalliance sharp enough to soundtrack your post-clubbing comedown. In fact, much of Logic demonstrates one man's familiarity with a mixing-desk just a bit too much. But I like Logic of Coincidence. Held is like Horn and Plank, an investigative producer and engineer whose very logic is governed by exploration and extravagance.
Eyes Of a Blue Dog - Eyes Of a Blue Dog - ★★★★★★★½☆☆☆
Dressed in a sleeve that belies the trio's obviously audible talent, Eyes of a Blue Dog is a surprise discovery. Comparable to Lamb, Olive and other '90s downbeat specialists, Anglo-Norwegian outfit Eyes of a Blue Dog have assembled something of a keeper here. Named after Gabriel Garcia Marquez's fantasy piece, EOABD are formed of honeyed-vocalist Elisabeth Nygaard (LOOP Collective and a guest on Grasscut's recent Everybody Was a Bird), creator Terje Evensen and Blur's touring trumpeter Rory Simmons. The threesome create an engaging sound that melds warm reassuring electronic beats with folky harmonies and some glorious trumpeting from Simmons. There are some super moments, not least the single Closer, the opening Spin Me and the elegiac Before The Night Ends featuring Guillemots Fyfe Dangerfield. Hamartia means a hero/heroine's fatal flaw before a downfall but there aren't many of those on here.
Fred Abbott - Serious Poke - ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Noah and the Whale were the Marmite of indie-pop weren't they? Whereas I have no issue wolfing down a few slices of the much-reviled yeasty spread, I always develop a nervous twitch when NATW entered my ear-space. Perhaps firing a harpoon through my chin might cheer me up somewhat. Listening to Serious Poke certainly hasn't. A quick journey back with the time-machine set at 1984, we're in Bruce Springsteen territory here, with a soupçon of the Stones, bad-era Lou Reed, Southside Johnny and any other fist-pumpin' American rawk outfit you care to mention. It's all capably handled by all involved but honestly, who needs to revisit that part of the eighties again?
Carmine Rose - Naked - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Previously Miss Beatrice nee Byakika and now nom-de-plume Carmine Rose, the East African songstress tries her hand at an English language album with mixed results. Not mixed as in muddled or average but mixed as in styles. The opening title-track is laid-back Massive Attack territory with a David Lynch twist (it must be that bass), Power is sad-face string-laden balladry while there's an element of the Bacharachs about the slinky sixties-flavoured Crazy. However, Naked's heart is in gutsy soul and reflective R'n'b which sometimes works (Unconditional) and occasionally sounds a bit featureless (Occupy Your Mind). In between these highlights, there is a veritable smorgasbord of the sweetly sung (Fade) and the anthemic - for instance, the closing Loving You Still 'out-Bliges' a certain J Blige. Perhaps a little too long at fourteen songs, there's much promise here for sure.
Last Days of April - Sea Of Clouds - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Swedish alt-rockers LDOA sit somewhere between Wannadies and The Eagles, happy to coat their harmless MOR trade with polite jingle-jangle and earnest reflection. And that just about sums them up. Last Days Of April probably wouldn't scare the shell of a snail with anything from Sea Of Clouds, although The Artist, Oh Well and The Thunder and the Storm are above average in the songwriting stakes (musically, not lyrically). Pleasant but not ground-breaking.
A.J.Holmes and the Hackney Empire - Soft Power - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
You get the feeling that Holmes and his crew are afforded royal status in the capital but little else outside the M25. Think Pulp, Blue Aeroplanes and The Fall and you'll be some distance closer to what this lot sound like. Lyrical smartness, intricate rhythms from the African continent (as well as ours) and a sense of fun should ensure sold-out gigs a-plenty. Thing is, the artwork suggests a tight budget and a frustrating lack of love and support. What is wrong with you? Kick out Martyn's Elephant Charm or Ghost Daddy or Ghost Retribution and it's late eighties Afro-pop fun all over again. There's a carnival waiting for Mr Holmes, book him now, his outfit is chipper.
Comprised of unreleased early '80s recordings, Corn serves as an interesting timemap of Russell's recording life betwixt his Tommy Boy club hits and minor label releases such as World Of Echo. The relentlessness of Lucky Cloud sets the scene, a mixture of John Martyn-esque vocal-reflection and brittle Russell cello scraping that sets the scene for an album that is a cut above the usual Arthur Russell rubber-necking. Keeping Up continues the sub-folkisms of the first few tracks before the NYC throb of Let's Go Swimming permeates the album's version of said club classic. Overall, this is as good an intro to the sound magician's key period as you could wish to have.
Those old enough to remember Aussie electro scaries Severed Heads (and believe me, they WERE seriously unnerving with their blend of mangled choral extracts and cochlea-pounding beats), passionate enough about Orbital's dark melodies and, natch, Fuck Buttons' fearsome ability to start a mudslide with the sheer volume of their soundsystem, should form an orderly queue to wallow in the glory of the Blanck Mass. Essentially one-half of FB, Ben Power has successfully churned all manner of weird and wonderful techno styles into one glorious record, the like of which makes you wonder why other people bother. Better than Fuck Buttons by a country kilometre, Dumb Flesh is the most sublime soundtrack to your darkest thoughts. The towering Cruel Sport, for example, makes the Shard look like a toothpick. I'm not kidding, this is close to being one of the albums of the year.
William D Drake - Revere Reach - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
The former Cardiacs keyboard-wielding eccentric Drake boasts a legacy that already harbours plenty of vivid imagery - with Revere Reach, he's lobbed his own rule-book out of the nearest studio window and embarked on an Alice-in-Wonderland type travelogue through more styles than you shake a tree stump at. English music hall, theatre and animated lyricism abounds, the whole experience reminds me of The Horne Section, Reeves and Mortimer, Monty Python, The Divine Comedy, end of the pier amusements, Chipperfields Circus and the man's previous band. Some of it stomp, some of it swings, some of it ebbs away quietly and much of it confounds and pleases in equal measure. Head to Distant Buzzing, Heart of Oak and Castaway for a summary of Drake's quirky bonhomie.
Some Kind Of Illness - Some Kind Of Illness - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
SKOI's friendship with The Durutti Column's guitar-wielding lynchpin Vini Reilly is noticeable from the gently eddying opening bars of The Test Of Time. While Reilly himself isn't present on these recordings, his spirit and influence certainly are - songsmith Paul Hinks casts a crepuscular aura around his songs, most of which are wide-eyed melancholia most befitting a day on a deserted north-western beach or a day in bed with the curtains drawn shut. Its all-too-short running time is blissful stuff. Stars and The Light are gloom-drenched ballads to rival earlier works by Elbow, I am Kloot, Doves et al, but it's the pretty musical interludes that really hit the sweet spot. After just one earful of Maple Leaf, you'll be stopping what you're doing, slumping back in your seat and pressing repeat. Currently available from a minimal amount of outlets (including Bandcamp), make the effort to find the soundtrack to all seasons, not just the summer.
Zeus B Held - Logic Of Coincidence - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
A producer's producer, Held is famous for his numerous production assignments with John Foxx, Fashion, Transvision Vamp, Win, Nina Hagen, Chas Jankel and somewhat surrealistically Spear Of Destiny. You can therefore imagine that Logic Of Coincidence is a mish-mash of styles and influence - and it is. Imagine ZTT's Andrew Poppy, Germanic ace Conny Plank and the likes of Trevor Horn, Steve Reich, Michael Nyman and Wim Mertens cuddling Held at a Paul Morley reunion party and you're someway there. This is a producer's album. Effects and programming a-go-go, Some Kind Of Illness sometimes feels like a demonstration album for a well-known keyboard manufacturer. This isn't a bad thing. The Glass Bead Dice Man is a Poppy-esque epic that traverses minimal classicism and arty boundaries, while Being and Time in Todtnauberg has an element of KPM library music about it (but in a good way) and Kepos Garden is a pretty ambient dalliance sharp enough to soundtrack your post-clubbing comedown. In fact, much of Logic demonstrates one man's familiarity with a mixing-desk just a bit too much. But I like Logic of Coincidence. Held is like Horn and Plank, an investigative producer and engineer whose very logic is governed by exploration and extravagance.
Eyes Of a Blue Dog - Eyes Of a Blue Dog - ★★★★★★★½☆☆☆
Dressed in a sleeve that belies the trio's obviously audible talent, Eyes of a Blue Dog is a surprise discovery. Comparable to Lamb, Olive and other '90s downbeat specialists, Anglo-Norwegian outfit Eyes of a Blue Dog have assembled something of a keeper here. Named after Gabriel Garcia Marquez's fantasy piece, EOABD are formed of honeyed-vocalist Elisabeth Nygaard (LOOP Collective and a guest on Grasscut's recent Everybody Was a Bird), creator Terje Evensen and Blur's touring trumpeter Rory Simmons. The threesome create an engaging sound that melds warm reassuring electronic beats with folky harmonies and some glorious trumpeting from Simmons. There are some super moments, not least the single Closer, the opening Spin Me and the elegiac Before The Night Ends featuring Guillemots Fyfe Dangerfield. Hamartia means a hero/heroine's fatal flaw before a downfall but there aren't many of those on here.
Fred Abbott - Serious Poke - ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Noah and the Whale were the Marmite of indie-pop weren't they? Whereas I have no issue wolfing down a few slices of the much-reviled yeasty spread, I always develop a nervous twitch when NATW entered my ear-space. Perhaps firing a harpoon through my chin might cheer me up somewhat. Listening to Serious Poke certainly hasn't. A quick journey back with the time-machine set at 1984, we're in Bruce Springsteen territory here, with a soupçon of the Stones, bad-era Lou Reed, Southside Johnny and any other fist-pumpin' American rawk outfit you care to mention. It's all capably handled by all involved but honestly, who needs to revisit that part of the eighties again?
Carmine Rose - Naked - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Previously Miss Beatrice nee Byakika and now nom-de-plume Carmine Rose, the East African songstress tries her hand at an English language album with mixed results. Not mixed as in muddled or average but mixed as in styles. The opening title-track is laid-back Massive Attack territory with a David Lynch twist (it must be that bass), Power is sad-face string-laden balladry while there's an element of the Bacharachs about the slinky sixties-flavoured Crazy. However, Naked's heart is in gutsy soul and reflective R'n'b which sometimes works (Unconditional) and occasionally sounds a bit featureless (Occupy Your Mind). In between these highlights, there is a veritable smorgasbord of the sweetly sung (Fade) and the anthemic - for instance, the closing Loving You Still 'out-Bliges' a certain J Blige. Perhaps a little too long at fourteen songs, there's much promise here for sure.
Last Days of April - Sea Of Clouds - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Swedish alt-rockers LDOA sit somewhere between Wannadies and The Eagles, happy to coat their harmless MOR trade with polite jingle-jangle and earnest reflection. And that just about sums them up. Last Days Of April probably wouldn't scare the shell of a snail with anything from Sea Of Clouds, although The Artist, Oh Well and The Thunder and the Storm are above average in the songwriting stakes (musically, not lyrically). Pleasant but not ground-breaking.
A.J.Holmes and the Hackney Empire - Soft Power - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
You get the feeling that Holmes and his crew are afforded royal status in the capital but little else outside the M25. Think Pulp, Blue Aeroplanes and The Fall and you'll be some distance closer to what this lot sound like. Lyrical smartness, intricate rhythms from the African continent (as well as ours) and a sense of fun should ensure sold-out gigs a-plenty. Thing is, the artwork suggests a tight budget and a frustrating lack of love and support. What is wrong with you? Kick out Martyn's Elephant Charm or Ghost Daddy or Ghost Retribution and it's late eighties Afro-pop fun all over again. There's a carnival waiting for Mr Holmes, book him now, his outfit is chipper.