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Records

RARE FUNK VARIOUS Midwest Funk (Jazzman) O...

Born in the heat of the desert. where no one will ever know yOur name. So it was for the pioneers of these funk 458 from down tornado alley. While Detroit and Chicago took all the credit it was often the more sparser populated areas of the Midwest that were churning out the tastiest of cuts.

You know you are in the right place when the glorious filthy lead Hammond of “The Hatch' by the TMG'S hits you. There ain‘t a bum groove here and these yokels certainly knew how to rock the funk out of their little studio cages. PartiCLilarly welcome in this collection is the inclusion of ‘Master

Groove' by Henry Peters & the Imperials and the urban jive of 'Mr Machine' the Chefs. Also big respect for drawing everything to a close with Illinois Connections excellent ‘Po' Boy's Dream'. (Paul Dale)

ALTCOUNTRY LAURA VEIRS Carbon Glacier (Bella Union) 000.

Sometimes the most special music is made all the better by its refusal to shout from the rooftops to be heard. Such is the case With this. the second album from Colorado's Laura Veirs. Benefiting immensely from the precision production and arrangements of Tucker Martine, it's a sparse record which conjures up

FILM SOUNDTRACKS

OSCAR WINNING SONGS?

The Oscars rarely properly acknowledge quality film songs and not since the late Elliott Smith was overlooked with ‘Miss Misery’ for Good Will Hunting has there been such a strong case for championing the underdog. It would seem just plain wrong for Ben Charest’s Belleville Rendez- vous (Labels .00. ) not to win the best song Oscar. The entire soundtrack is a classy, jazzy romp,

just like the film.

With two nominations for ‘Scarlet Tide’ and ‘You Will Be My Ain True Love’, Cold Mountain (Columbia ) would appear to have sheer numbers on it side. Both sung by country chanteuse Alison

Dog Star: Belleville Rendez-vous

Krauss and written by Elvis Costello and Sting respectively, these are the wetter moments of an otherwise compelling bluegrassy collection with notable contributions from Jack White and Tim

Efiksen.

A Mighty Wind (Columbia 0.

) may have been a piss take but the songs are sung dead

straight, hence the other outsider nomination for ‘A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow’. If you liked the

feelgood folk the film was Iampooning then fine but it doesn’t fare well without the comic visuals. Lastly is Annie Lennox’ ethereal end theme to Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (VI/EA

O ) ‘lnto the West’. Which should be the one gong this movie shouldn’t win. Remember though,

they gave this prize to a song sung by Sealion Dion once so anything can happen. (Mark Robertson)

summertime freshness and a certain desolation all at once.

From the gentle piano-led flow of ‘Rapture' to the regimented. strangely hip hop beat of ‘The Cloud Room' and the atmospheric backward-

guitar instrumental ‘Blackened Anchor‘, every song is shot

3 through with a beautiful

elegia that perfectly complements Veirs'

soft but wordly-wise

vocal. Recommended listening. (David Pollock)

ROCK THE NECTARINE NO 9

I I Love Total

Destruction (Beggar's Banquet/

Creeping Bent) 00000

If Davy Henderson really

did sleep with the ' Subway Sect. as he

suggests on the glam monster twang of soon- to-come single. ‘The End of Definition', the warped progeny

7 spawned is growing old

magnificently on this fifth opus from the best band alive. From the street jiving junkyard

THE DEBUT ALBUM FEATURING THE TOP IO SMASH ‘GENIE IN BOTTLE’ - AND THE CURRENT HIT SINGLE ‘CAN'TTURN BACK'

108 THE LIST ‘9 I el)» 4 Md" 2004

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