Album Review Round-Up April 2016 inc PJ Harvey, The Posies, Karl Bartos and more

Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld - Nerissimo - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Familiar to audiences of Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Einstürzende Neubaten, Italian Teardo and German Bargeld's previous musical legacy has already hovered around the dramatic, the theatrical and the ritualistic. For Nerissimo, which translates from Italian as 'blackness' and is the duo's third collaboration, they explore personal themes, mortality, religious imagery and more in German, English and Italian. Buoyed by orchestration, delicate arrangements and pin-sharp production, Nerissimo's appeal lies more in its music than its lyrics or intentions. The Beast is as pretty and elegiac as it gets, a gently eddying stream of rhythmic bass synth and weeping strings and a recurring "I'll make it through..." motif, while the beatless The Empty Boat reminds me of Tuxedomoon at their most restrained. It's a pity the second half of Nerissimo drags things out a little more than required, until we're treated to an Italian version of the title-track as the album's closer. Without resorting to drums to propel the songs along or engaging in too much studio trickery, Teardo and Bargeld have created something of a slow burner, an album to quietly savour.

Karl Bartos - Communication (reissue) - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Prior to Communication's original 2003 release, Bartos had fulfilled his love of all things synthesized with key Kraftwerk appearances during their heyday, a short-lived electro-pop project in Elektric Music (including co-writes with OMD's Andy McClusky) and collaborative work with Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr under their Electronic moniker. Unsurprisingly, his solo work has absorbed influences from all points in his musical triangle with both this album and his most recent long-player, 2013's Off The Record, delivering beats, melodies and vocal stylings from the past and somehow turning them all into a contemporary experience. You can hear The Robots from Man Machine on the intro to The Camera, uptempo dance-pop a la Electronic's Raise The Pressure and other Brits like Pet Shop Boys, New Order etc on the kitsch 15 Minutes of Fame as well as all points in-between on Electronic Apeman and the single Life. Compared to the timeless and fragile beauty of Kraftwerk's most influential works and Bartos' most recent triumphant committal to vinyl and CD, Communication veers from overly-vocodered synth drudgery (Cyberspace) to peerless Teutonic tech-pop (Camera Obscura) with most of it falling just the right side of the boundary. Extra track and gatefold sleeve.

PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Not much has changed since the uncomfortable televised match-up on the TV sofa on Andrew Marr's Sunday political gloss-over vehicle between Polly Harvey and David Cameron - the arts are still being cut to fuckery and Cameron is still rooted in power and his own stench of wealth and still patronises, won't listen to opinion or answer questions directly. But hey, that's politics folks! Not a great deal has musically changed since 2011's Mercury-winning opus Let England Shake either. PJ Harvey continues the socio-political themes right from the off with the title referencing the United States' Hope VI ideal which involves clearances of run-down projects and replaces them with more expensive housing. After travelling to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington DC, Harvey has been inspired enough to record an album that by turns sounds folky, punky and shanty-esque with spikes of protest, commentary and earnest storyline. The Ministry of Social Affairs edges close to delta blues territory while River Anacostia reveals Harvey's inner soprano of a sort - all of which may have you thinking this is a mixed bag of influences that doesn't make a wholesome whole. Actually, The Hope Six Demolition Project flows as sweetly as Let England Shake and by the time we reach sprawling lead-off single The Wheel, we're heading for the replay button.

Pedro Soler & Gaspar Claus - Al Viento - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Fusing traditional flamenco and contemporary folk, Soler and Claus successfully highlight their chosen instruments (guitar and cello) in inimitable fashion. Occasionally mournful, sometimes pastoral and often lilting, Al Viento has all the acoustic elements of Morricone, Forcione, Vini Reilly, Bert Jansch and Pat Metheny pretty much sewn up. Unmistakably their own work and predominantly instrumental, Al Viento ('breeze' or 'light wind') truly beds in during the nine-minute epic Corazón De Plata during which the guitarist Soler weaves his way in and out of Claus' flamboyant strings. The album metaphorically takes a well-earned siesta during the blissed-out Silencio Ondulado which features Third Eye Foundation aka Matt Elliot and sound-sculptor Serge Teyssot-Gay, before the whole track takes on some unnerving transcendental madrigal trip prior to calming down to a tumbleweed hush.

Sophia - As We Make Our Way (Unknown Harbours) - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"I don't know why we're always resisting/or what we're even kicking against" thunders second song Resisting on this, lynchpin Robin Proper-Sheppard's first Sophia outing in seven years. Formerly a Brussels and London resident and now footloose again, the change seems to have transferred Sophia's mindset from introspection to wide-eyed observation, Resisting being a case in point. It's a commentary on the dangers of pushing against things negatively rather than embracing with positivity. All of which might sound a bit hippy but then this man hasn't ever bull-nosed his way through life - just listen to The Drifter or Don't Ask for proof. Neither song breaks sweat or changes gear once, the latter almost funereal in its make-up with a cracked, fractured vocal that borders on trembling. The album perks up a little during Blame and California, the latter inspired by its creator's time in Los Angeles and includes the arch line "the sunshine isn't everything...". Far from being a bedwetting bozo, Robin Proper Sheppard's skilful songwriting and understated melodies recall early Elbow or recent Christian Kjellvander - and that's no bad thing.

Ben Watt - Fever Dream - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

After relaxing his grip on long-running dance-label imprint Buzzin Fly in 2013 and potentially bursting with ideas after the warm praise levelled at his last solo album, 2014's Hendra, Ben Watt turns his attentions to something rather more analogue, organic and back-to-basics. His second album featuring touring and recording buddy Bernard Butler, Fever Dream is a hazier, psychedelic set of songs that recalls bits of Buckley (both Tim and Jeff), Weller and even Chris Rea when he's harking on about cars. Watt's vocals have obviously blossomed since his 1982 debut North Marine Drive or his infrequent turns on the mic when performing alongside his eternal lady love Tracey Thorn in Everything But The Girl - he's an assured performer again and when he intones on the plaintive yet hopeful Winter's Eve "there's still so much I want to do", it sounds genuinely heartfelt. Perhaps the album's highpoint is the closing New Year of Grace, featuring Sacred Bones vocalist Marissa Nadler fresh from crooning with Father John Misty. It's an otherwordly esoteric song that deserves pride of place in Watt's repertoire.

Various - Village Green Collected 1 - ★★★★★★★★☆☆

It isn't every day that a quality indie label chooses to share its wares for nada, nil and zilch but Village Green have done just that with the free Soundcloud download of Collected 1. The title may be a little unimaginative but the music is far from it. If you've previously appreciated any one of the label's lush roster or are learned enough to remember Windham Hill, Editions EG, Art of Landscape and ECM in their heyday or indeed today's Erased Tapes, VG probably has something in its locker for you. For reflective instrumentals head to opener Ben Chatwin's Mirroring for a sunset dawn of a track that is only missing some birdsong to complete the picture or scroll down for the rhythmic Chris Morphitis and his cyclical Timelapse. He's not dissimilar to Stuart McCallum so expect agile acoustic-guitar plucking and wistful drones aplenty. Angèle David-Guillou offers up some Wim Mertenseqsue piano before seeing out her two minutes of But Now I Am Joyful with wistful vocals and Ryan Teague possibly sources inspiration from Mike Oldfield's Incantation or Steve Reich, Philip Glass, even Morphitis himself - whatever, Cell Cycle is super. David John Sheppard's Thumbnail Sketch draws from the same cask, truth be told and is just as moreish, while Snow Palms Index Of River is also from the same heady brew of busy but pretty repetitive minimalist classical style. Look, it's free ffs and it's all rather wonderful.
Free for a limited period, here

The Posies - Solid States - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Painfully undervalued in the UK since their inception in 1990, The Posies were thrown around various genres by the press back in the day. Some labelled them as grunge (are you kidding?), west-coast pop (hmm, better), country-rock (uh?) and anything other than 'well worth a listen' it seemed. 1993 saw the band enter the country's consciousness with a late-night appearance on cult 'yoof' vehicle The Word performing Flavor of the Month - what a tune. Decent parent album Frosting on the Beater didn't exactly flourish under the spotlight and the band slipped back under the radar all too quickly. Twenty years on and the band's lynchpin drummer Darius and bassist Joe have passed away suddenly, leaving founders Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow to glue this eighth album together. They've done a decent job in the main. Scattered and Unlikely Places possess all the trademark harmonies and surfed-up melodies, minus perhaps the 'oomph' of earlier work. Squirrel vs Snake brings to light the disharmonies and mismatches in the US, all of which could apply to the UK in truth. Solid States sounds like a studio album - laptop and synths are prevalent on the Pet Shop Boys-esque The Definition and closer The Radiance - but the remaining members are promising full band participation on tour-dates. Nice album on the whole, the sleeve is perhaps too subtle for shops but I admire the hard times The Posies have had to overcome to bring it on.