If ‘Paper Monsters’, former Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan’s 2003 debut solo album, served any useful purpose it was a simple confirmation that its author still had a steady pulse – he of course infamously died for a couple of minutes in 1996 after a heroin overdose, the culmination of years of somewhat losing the plot. But beyond that it just really met Depeche Mode’s fans halfway and gave them something physical to hold, a photocopy of a heyday now Continue Reading
On Prince Paul and Handsome Boy Modelling School’s ‘White People’ (2004) we laughed our socks off at the extended ‘so naff, we’re cool’ handsome boy modelling motif. Trouble is, they extended, stretched and drew it out like a last dying breath over the 60 minute duration. And we didn’t like it. And then there was the fact that it was too much like a Royal Variety performance. The 25 or so cameos from folks like Del The Funky Homosapien, De Continue Reading
Talk about finding a diamond in the rough, a winning scratchcard you don’t recall buying in your back pocket, or the love of your life at a Hard-Fi gig (ok, possibly we have gone too far). Scout Niblett has proved herself over the course of four albums, even with the best will in the world on the part of the listener, to be an experience somewhat akin to conducting dentistry with a plastic ‘spork’. Her art has at points consisted Continue Reading
One cannot be too ambitious, can they? No, of course not, you’ve heard the sayings; the world’s yer oyster, the sky’s the limit, no sleep till Brooklyn, etc. Advice that Oceansize clearly ingested whole prior to recording their debut album, 2003’s swelling ‘Effloresce’, which soared through a metaphorical stratosphere or two, at least, on a journey towards the event horizon. You might have called it titanium reinforced progressive rock, or a post-rock space odyssey, but whatever it was it felt Continue Reading
It’s few people who can actually boast that their collapsing disaffection for the vicissitudes of modern British life can be best defined by refusing to sing in their native vernacular and resorting to Spanish and Italian to complete an album. But that’s Robert Wyatt – the man with the impossibly poignant voice, a five octave vocal range challenged only by a rather unassuming and unpretentious Home Counties accent and wheelchair bound purveyor of all lusty absurdities of war and peace Continue Reading
Arriving with their much lauded 4AD debut, ‘Gulag Orkestar’, early last year, Beirut – from, of course, Albuquerque, USA, joining a growing list of geographically deceptive bands – achieved a feat by conditioning multi-pronged Eastern European folk of a vaguely experimental bent and introducing it to Western ears, making the impenetrable deliciously intoxicating. Stacks of instruments largely underused by popular music since the 16th century assimilated into hypnotic meshes of sashaying organic sound. And they, along with The Arcade Fire Continue Reading
Post rock by its very nature – expansive and indeed expanding musical landscapes created usually by several interacting musicians, in dim light – is not likely to produce much in the way of carbon reproduction. Near approximations, naturally, but there are too many variables and intricacies for mimicry to be easily practiced. Yet equally it’s hard to consider the growing hoards who gather like creeping moss in winter, claiming membership of its clique, and believe that active evolution takes place Continue Reading
Dirty, scratchy, funky, skunky hardcore courtesy of Breakin Bread, the Funk & Hip Hop collective, based in South London and specialists in the kind of funk and hip hop common to B-Boying, Turntablism, MCing and Graffiti. The label also hosts the clubnight at The Social in London’s West End. Color Climax are Paul Toller and Steve Ashby who are based in Coventry. Steve plays the Hammond organ, who’s style is reminiscent of Alan Hawkshaw from the Mohawks “The Champ“ fame, Continue Reading
I have a couple of issues with this release, the first is that the lifeless DIY cover-shot in no way prepares you for the slick, occasionally saccharine content therein and the second is that for all it’s obvious graces, the single featuring Felix of Basement Jaxx, ‘I’m Your Lover’ is by far the biggest draw here. And yet both are something of a non-sequitur, neither reinforcing nor diminishing the swanky smooth ‘Jazzanova’ of tracks like ‘Wishing’ and ‘Don’t Take It Continue Reading
Jeez. What a history. Bet it didn’t happen like this at Rough Trade. Legend has it that Death Row was founded and funded largely due to money given to Dr Dre bodyguard and friend, Suge Knight by convicted drug dealer Michael “Harry-O“ Harris who was serving a prison sentence at the time. It was also reported that Knight posted bail for the then-incarcerated Tupac Shakur in exchange for his signing with Death Row. Add to this the controversy that surrounded Continue Reading