Month: May 2006

Japan’s historical capital, Osaka is written all over this album by Yoko Solo, aka Brandon LeSan. Spaced out, wacky, alien, out of context, densely populated, digressive, transgressive, industrial, noisy, manzai, double-talking, vibrant, eccentric, bursting with energy, shamelessly outgoing and as delicious as octopus dumplings. Crafted from the wreckage of the furious, eclectic gift-rap of Pancake Circus and Quake Trap, Yoko Solo sees Quake member Brandon LeSan pursue the boundaries of Hip Hop and electronica with frightening lo-fi abandon. ‘The Beeps’ Continue Reading

One of NYC’s most legendary house DJs, producers, and innovators of the house sound brings us what is likely to be one of the most dreamiest, trippiest and salsa-slapping records of Summer 2006. He’s certainly come a long way from selling mix tapes in Queens. Recognised internationally and a Grammy winner, responsible for the ‘Release Yourself brand and radio show reaching 1.5 million people globally, his no nonsense approach coming into its own when he plays his 12 hour marathon Continue Reading

Talk of Britain and first impressions and you’re probably just as likely to hear mention of suffocating motorways, inappropriate overflowing landfill sites and unhelpfully grey skies as you are our worrying slide back in the direction of scary great hulking nuclear power stations. Yeah, depressing. Scandinavia isn’t like that though. Well, maybe it is, but in our stereotypical mind’s eye it certainly isn’t. We’re thinking snow kisses, pure crisp air, unending strokes from nature’s fine-tipped brush, and windmills. Lots of Continue Reading

So this, the label announce, is Shooting At Unarmed Men’s “first album proper”. Making last year’s 10 track debut ‘Soon There Will Be Shooting At Unarmed Men’ what, just a spot of horseplay, a pointless smidgen of clattering round, a bit of a laugh? We thought that was the whole point of the band anyway? But if there is more to them that’s honestly a bit of a relief, Jon Chapple’s first out of the blocks post-Mclusky project had failed Continue Reading

Folk music might not have exactly been through a revolution of late, if for no other reason than that all sounds a bit drastic. Steady on, brother. If we could talk about it changing its top we might be on the right lines. Either way, it’s smartened up a bit, thrown on something a bit sharper, reigned in the ambling stereotype, and got online. We’re fairly certain it’s not knitting its own underwear anymore anyway. Take as evidence for this Continue Reading

Contrary to popular opinion Green Gartside was born in Wales not Algeria and studied not at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris, but at Leeds Polytechnic at a time that happily coincided with the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy tour in 1977. His first EP for Rough Trade, “Skank Bloc Bologna” in 1978 didn’t define the roles of contradiction and overdetermination in western society as is commonly believed, nor did it compound the tasks of Ideological State Apparatuses in the British Continue Reading

As regrettably understandable as the reasons for the Beta Band’s premature retirement were (namely years of banging their creative heads against the wall – and not just in order to get the right percussive sound out of a patch of plaster), it’s hard to see the ultimate wisdom now. Steve Mason carries on under the guise of King Biscuit Time, while John MacLean and Robin Jones warp trippily onwards with The Aliens, neither moving starkly away from the template they Continue Reading

Named after the 2002 film of the same name about illegal immigrants in London, ex-Libertines Carl Barat and Gary Powell rise from the ashes of what has to be the longest running bong-session in musical history with an album about loyalty, depression and finding that something to live for, sprinkled with ‘mark my words’ assurances and tempered with love. Yes, the Dirty Pretty Things are this month’s most talked-about new band and yes they’re fairly decent. But naturally there’s a Continue Reading

There was one thing that got this CD straight out of its case when it arrived, rather than being pushed aside in the hope it might crawl off and degrade in a corner of its own accord. And that was the written legend “featuring Martha Wainwright” sat aside the sweetly titled ‘Set The Fire To The Third Bar’. Because Gary Lightbody is not a bad, or even insignificant, man at his core. He excelled as conductor and heart of the Continue Reading