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26 THE US! 17—24 Aug 2000
music
record reviews
ROCK/POP
Sheflac lOOO Hurts (Touch & Go) Hz *ki
No smirking, no tongue-in-cheek comments, no ass-licky cameos, no teen-friendly pop teasers; just pure undiluted emotion reproduced as dynamic and caustic rock music. It’s three albums in for Shellac and there’s progression here: louder, more direct lyrics; even a hint of vulnerability. Angular, pounded rhythms meet with a guitar sound like a scaffold pole dragged along a metal fence. There’s also a greater sense of pace and patience. Guitarist Steve Albini is better known as a producer for the likes of PJ Harvey and Nirvana, but this eclipses everything he has recorded by other artists. No extraneous production, pretension or fuss. Punk rock in its most distilled and captivating form.
(Mark Robertson)
Sigur Ros
Agaetis Byrjun (Fat Cat) ~k it at 9: in Music journalists are forever making fools of themselves by banging on about the next big thing. So here goes: Agaet/s Byrjun by Icelandic four- piece Sigur ROS is one of the most innovative, startling and downright beautiful records you’re ever likely to lay ears on. It sounds like absolutely nothing else on this planet. OK, if you’re pushing me, it sounds like Mogwai if they were Viking gods or something, in a transcendental state, with a full orchestra, a frail and twisted choirboy singing in tongues, and the biggest firework display ever going off in the background. Only better. Right, I’m off to lie down now. (Doug Johnstone)
Reef
Getaway (Sony) ~k it it Brit-rock's pretty boys have discovered
a formula which works for them, and boy are they gonna use it. Most tracks on Getaway have a mean and moody intro, building up to aggressive raw rock, charged by Gary’s distinctive granular nasal whine and hardy guitar melodies. Variation on the album is limited to a few atmospheric orchestral strings on ’Won’t You Listen’ and a pleasant upbeat groove to ’Saturday’. The album is polished if unadventurous and unimposing, and with lyrics such as ’Melody, I think you met your maker’, this will find favour with existing fans (not forgetting all those enlightened schoolchildren), but is unlikely to win over the unconvinced majority. (Maureen Ellis)
Pram
Museum Of Imaginary Animals (Domino) we
Domino have a pretty good track record for bringing impressive non- mainstream music to our attention, but sadly this album is the exception. The Pram musical style can be split into two main categories. First, there are the quirky little jazzy pop tunes, like ’Mother Of Pearl’ or 'A Million Bubbles Burst’, which host a particularly irritating sterile female
vocal and sound like a weird but rubbish little sister to St Etienne. Second, there are the utterly pointless wanky instrumentals, like ’Narwhal' or ’A History Of lce’, which are full of stupid noises and brutally self- indulgent to boot.
(Doug Johnstone)
Mansun
Little Kix (Parlophone) * Too embarrassed to admit they’re
from North Wales shithole, Flint, Mansun have instead always maintained that they hail from Chester, the far more fashionable (but also fictional) home of Hol/yoaks. This fabrication, like their manufactured image and their entire oeuvre to date, stinks of pretentious prima donna affectation. On their third album, Paul Draper continues to whine vapid lyrics in a sickly camp style and the guitar rock backdrop is as dull as it ever was. Redeemed slightly by the string arrangements of Ann Dudley (Art Of Noise), the new single ’I Can Only Disappoint U’ is a lesson to be heeded by impressionable indie fans everywhere. (Catherine Bromley)
HIP HOP Various Artists
The Unbound Project: Volume One (Realized) *‘k‘k‘k‘k
A party hip hop ride this ain’t. Inspired by the eighteen-year struggle of Mumia Abu-Jamal to receive a fair trial under the zero tolerance laws of the US Criminal Justice System, the Unbound Project brings together sixteen hard-hitting and thought provoking hip hop tunes from the likes of Saul Williams, Talib Kweli, Blackalicious and Mike Ladd. The accompanying 30-page booklet will fill you in on the extent to which minorities are getting shafted and those less interested in the political motivation at work here can take solace in the fact that this album is also a damn fine collection of beats and rhymes.
(Catherine Bromley)
CONTEMPORARY Jarvleplealnins
Garbage Concerto/’Rock' Symphony (BIS) ‘k n it
This well-respected label (now home to James MacMillan’s recordings, with a new one imminent) leaps into the weird with this enjoyable piece of classical subversion. Jan Jarvlepp’s Garbage Concerto, For Recyc/ed Garbage And Orchestra, played by the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble and Singapore Symphony, dates from I996. Two vibrant dance movements flank an eerie, spectral mood piece in a strange and beguiling sonic landscape permeated by the unconventional percussion timbres. lmants Kalnins ’Rock’ Symphony (1972) is more conventionally scored for the orchestra (and a soprano), but shares something of Jarvlepp's off- beat perspective and energy. Good fun for the connoisseur of the wacky, but entertaining and imaginative music as well.
(Kenny Mathieson)