Reords
AMBIENT
SUSUMU YOKOTA
The Boy and the Tree (Leaf) 0000
SUSumu Yokota was last seen on these shores. doodling around with a laptop and experiencing loss of sound during his deep acetistic guitar solo while supporting Philip Class at Edinburgh's Oueen's Hall. His someiivhat overblown stage antics. when it seemed he wetild be more likely to dedicate a song to the T\.'V€OITIC‘S than crack a smile. actually distracted from some xivondenully affecting textured ambience.
Much of that material is repeated here. ranging from the sinister 'The Colour of Pomegrai'iates' to the joyous mantras of ‘Red Swan'. For the full
Yokota effect. stay in more. (Brian Donaldson) ROCK POP
PAUL WELLER
Illumination (Independiente) 0000
Despite all the pairs of pants wet over Wi'ldwood there has never really been a Paul Weller solo album consistent enough break the hearts and charge the sOul like he (and we) would always have Wished. TOO often the shadows of Marriott. Townsend. Lennon and Dawes loomed a little too large. but with his fifth? Well the clue is in the title.
The trOubadoric “Who Brings JOy' has him getting all Arthur Lee and Terry Callier on us while there's enough blues rolling—stock in ‘A Bullet for Everyone and
“It's Written in the Stars'
to make it down to the delta for a jam. A considered mix of
antiquated and modestly futuristic. thanks in part to fruitful collaborations
with Simon Dine of
Noonday Underground.
Weller has germinated.
nurtured and let flourish an album of varied and
organic beauty. Wake up and smell the flowers. (Mark Robertson)
INDIE ROCK
THE CRESCENT
The Crescent (Virgin) .000
Another year. another
hyped music movement.
T—shirts read ‘I love Liverpool — the re-birth of retro cool'. but the happy-go-gutSy rock- jiggery of the Crescent
COuldn't be funher away
from the concept of
slick. fashion-consoous
scenes. Gravelly vocals and
Stones riffs power the
burning ‘On the Run'.
Spidery guitars Surround
'Wake Up"s swollen Stone Roses-esque choruses. and a guitar
Puressence
Out September 23rd
On Tour October 2002
1 1 Stoke On Trent Sugarmill
12 Liverpool Stanley Theatie 15 Sheffield Barfly
16 Northampton Soundhaua
17 Leicester Princess Charlotte 18 Cardiff Barfly
20 Oxford Zodiac
21 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
108 THE LIST "J 80;; I5 Oct 21.02?
22 London Scula
23 Brighton Payillion Theatre
227 Wolverhampton Little Civrc ’28 Middlestnough Cornoihouse 2‘) Glasgow King Tut's
'30 Edinburgh La Hello Angelo
further dates to be announced
VISIT W\‘-‘W.DU'OSSOHCC.k)().llk for details
solo spirals into discord over the strings and fairground folk of ‘Another Day'. Flared indie mopers will look down their noses but you won‘t care cos your heart will be bursting and y0ur head will be in a spin as you sing all the way home. (Camilla Pia)
POP ROCK SUPERGRASS
Life on Other Planets (Parlophonel 0000
Small. but perfectly formed. Like its three predecessors. this latest instalment from the Supergrass camp will demand little over 40 minutes from y0ur life and you'll feel all the better for it. The eardrum offensive goes full throttle from the start with the sonic force of 'Za'. neatly cascading into the heavy strings of ‘Rush H0ur SOUI'.
‘Seen the Light'. ‘La Song' and first single 'Grace' are easy highlights from a polished album that. in spite of faltering slightly in the middle and venturing into tentative space-synth territOry towards the end. is an angry. beautiful. melodic piece of poprock steeped in dark hum0ur and self-conscious invenhon.
Like the album title's acronym. Life on . . . really does loop. Buy it and marvel at its splendour.
(Maureen Ellis)
ROCK SOMETHING CORPORATE Leaving through the Window
(Island) 0
It's the oldest one in the book. You know you really shouldn't like what you're hearing. but because your foot is going up and down or side to side. we tend to eguate Such movability with quality. It ain't necessarily so. And in the case of the dreadful Something Corporate. it most definitely doesn't follow.
Succeeding in making
the once noble guitar 50und almost entirely redundant. these rawkers will undoubtedly appeal to a certain ratio of those listening to music for the very first time. It's Green Day having been sired by Toto and sounding as horrendous as you'd imagine. Something Cobblers. more like. (Brian Donaldson)
HIP HOP
DJ VADIM USSR: the Art of Listening
(Ninja Tune) 0..
Though back in the USSR. this is a cosmopolitan affair with MCs from both the UK and US collaborating with Vadim alongside disparate musicians from around the globe. The aim of the album seems to be fuse underground hip hop with world music. yet this exciting idea's results are often disappointing.
While rappers such as Blackalicious' Gift of Gab and the Task Force posse excel lyrically. Vadim's eclectic production style jars with rather than complements their centributions. Luckily “In Control vol. 3'. showcasing champiOn turntablist DJ Plus One's amazing seratching skills. and French rappers TTC's contribution 'L'art d'ecouter'. both make this album w0rth owning alone. (Nick Dawson)
ACOUSTIC MALCOLM MIDDLETON
5:14 fluoxytine seagull alcohol john nicotine (Chemikal Underground) OOOO
It's comforting to find that. removed from his Arab Strap other half, guitarist Malcolm Middleton is as forlorn as ever. The Wistful opening track introduces Middleton's misanthropic alter ego 'Crappo the Clown' and sets a sombre tone. revealing this debut solo
album as a slight departure. though no less enjoyable for that.
While Middleton retains the Strap's pithy lyricism — ‘ hen I fuck up. I fuck up so good'. he grumbles on 'Wake Up' — there's a stripped— down directness to songs like Best in Me' and ‘1.2.3.4' that makes this an altogether gentler listening experience. (Allan Radcliffe)
ROCK
JOHN SOUIRE Time Changes Everything
(North Country) 0000
The artist formerly known as the Stone Roses' guitarist and the Seahorses' major domo has finally released his debut album. And anyone still reeling from some of the atrocities his last band committed WIII be pleasantly surprised to hear that it's a peach.
Much of the big- Crotched riffage of old has gone. to be replaced by Sqiiire's confident. croaky. Dylanesque vocals. ‘Joe Louis' and the majestic ‘All I Really Want' still feature some chiming. autumnal fretwork. of course. but otherv/ise it's the more mature. less stated approach of Lou Reed and George Harrison's A/l Things must Pass that Wins through.
Even With the veiled Roses references. Time Changes Everything withstands a barrage of listening. Definitely the work of a man who's rediscovered his muse. (DaVid Pollock)
ALSO RELEASED Various Artists 48cott N2) Pulp. Badly Drawn Bey. Richard Ashcroft and SIGFGODITOHICS go live for charity on this tribute to press plugger Scott Piering.
Various Artists El Sue/i0 de /bi7a i/biza Dream) OS T (Easfl/l/esf) IbZian master of chill-out Jose Padilla compiles the languid seiindtrack to this Spanish art- house mOVie.
His Name is Alive Last Night MAD) Warn Dafever and Lovetta Pippen join forces to make a modern R8.B record in the old fashioned sense.