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ELIAS AKESSON coo. IRENE «0
Sounds of Sweden @‘ RAFA Club, Glasgow, Fri 12 May
Heeling ott a l:.’.' r,‘ '.‘.e'»': it,p~’~', ': m condemning a ’ case’}
Swedish tlrerne’l Chit, 'rr'iht a‘ rear; too grmrnrck, tr, rvrlri rt'. om .‘J’illlll H,- the natural ternptatror: here But there?
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respects/e country's musica‘ Taxes an} talent that does deserve celebrating
The opportunity to see l iraf, Akessoc alone rrrakes the ‘. .vortlr,-.tr=rlr- A self styled one man hand. with
entu'e
acoustic gurtar. kick drunr and hm cornho. tarnhounne and shak, egg thing all sorrrehow r irrerated simrrltaneouslv he makes a trne racket. part noisy sharrrhlrng pop. part smootl: country ia// and all perfectly (Lllttlll‘llltl. lrene meanwhile deploy a complement of lully eight members to create their own hrand ol indie surt sun/rndre'. as they terrrr it a tarrly weak take on the territory ot tellow Swedes, the Concretes. rs no less pleasing tor it. l ater. everyone danced to Ahha Of course they (“(1. (Malcolm \Jackr
which. despite resembling
rurunt sounns
PSAPP ooooo
BARBARA MORGENSTERN 8. ROBERT LIPPOK coco ABC2, Glasgow, Sat 27 May
Originally instigated hy Glasgow's own Stephen Pastel. this collahoratron hetween German electronic pioneers Barbara Morgenstern and Robert lippok has gone on to hear ahundant and wondertully strange lrurt. A patchwork ot lu//ed. sketchy heats. processed churns. lush rnultr lrngual lyrics and what looks lrke some kind of mechanical guitar l loover. it's a bounty ol lreethinkrng, and hest of all, it's delivered by two unashamed extrover'ts -r unusual for a movement more otten associated With people who won't even so much as open their curtains
Psapp, meanwhile. don't just dare to he openly revered but rather demand it. with small model cats made from pipe
‘1,
cleaner» herng the reward offered A trrnk‘, six piece ,arnrval of l atrr‘, rl:,rthrns,. krd‘ toy lrased l)(,‘l(.tif)‘5ll)lt and velvety hoy, girl vocals wrapped around wry and drsarmrngly gorgeous rrrelodies means they're thoroughly tar }‘;E;(}llll£l| and accessrlrle l nough so tor the words ‘progressrve' and 'populrst' to he used in the same sentence here. Who'd a thunk it? (Malcolm Jack)
out. .«et sorneho‘w’ still
H( )( ,‘K CLEAN GEORGE IV
Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, Sun 21 May 000
Alter the cancellation ot their debut Scottish show at Caharet Voltaire a couple of weeks prevrously. the Fdrnhurgh horn. London hased Clean George N couldn't have chosen a more precarious date to try again. A support slot to Bahyshamhles wouldn't have heen many people's idea of a sure thing to happen. hut rt went ahead and the Cleans proved to he rrrore interesting than the headliners.
More ramshackle than the Beta Band in their pomp. the guintet pr‘owde an odd brand of tux/ed-up rock augmented hy an electro sound provided hy keyboard player Amy (wearing an arnusrng ‘God Save The Clean' Trshrrt: where do we get one'?). lead singer Clean George seemed to he adoptrng the guise of a buskrng Meadows crusty in tracky hottorns and a llulty )lllll[)(}l the colour of a detuned telly. but his songs — like ‘Wasted on the Radio and ‘The Great l-lrghland Crack tprdemrc' — are garish. luxxy rockers that stick vrvrdly in the rnrnd. (Davrd Pollock)
‘ éiiiosunéw
" z .' rs L‘Jth.’ ' , z ,r',‘ fornonowsmusrr todi lh s< e lhe/rite/ls
A year ago eccentric Glasgow indie-poppers the Fratellis - Jon Fratelli (guitar and vocals), Mince Fratelli (drums) and Barry Fratelli (drums) - were a wedding band. Now they’re signed to Island and have just made a record in LA with producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, Belle and Sebastian, ldlewild, Supergrass). Where did it all go right? Jon Fratelli educates us. How did the Fratellis begin?
We started out as a wedding hand for a guy called 'Uncle' Hamish Fratelli. So we nicked his name and went out on our own, although our drurrrmer hroke his hack and that set us hack a hit. We were a good wedding hand though: you'd hook us it you saw us man. All the greats. like ‘Road to Hell' . . . someone actually asked for that at their wedding. Must've heen the groom!
Hold it right there. Barry broke his back?
Aye. he was in a car crash. He was out for three months but now he's back. I think it's still hroken like, he was playing wrth a hack hrace tor a while. He prohahly shouldn't he doing rt. hut he's still hloody good.
So you’re now signed to Island?
Yeah. well one of their rrnprrnts. Basically. loads of these record company folk came up on a Jolly to see us on the hasis ol our demo, and the Island lolk smiled at us more and said nicer things than the rest (laughs). The album's called Costello Music and it's out rn Septemher . . . I prohahly wasn‘t meant to say that. Shit. (Davrd Pollock)
I The Fratel/rs play two shows at ABCZ, Glasgow, Sun I l Jun (including an afternoon mat/rm) show for under 78s); King Tut's, Glasgow, Frr 23 Jun.
DISCO PUNK SHITDISCO Spies in the Wires@Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Thu 15 Jun
There (Ain't no party gurte like a Shrtdisco party. Take for instance the last of many (helore evrctron and a $10,000 legal suit) at their rnlarnous hang out/practice space/ahorle/tlat ‘61 '. A toaster, one computer keyboard, two televrsrons, a radiator. the ceiling and the entire lrvrng room floor (almost) were apparently among the casualties.
‘The parties are kind of how the hand began — when we ended up playing at them,’ says gurtarrst/bassrst/vocalist Joe Reeves. ‘lt jUSI worked as a good way for us to get grgs gurte easily. and somehow they've become part of the fabric of the hand. They were always unpredictable because it was sort of like a club, but there were no rules. so it always spiralled out of control.’
No great surprise considering the mass hysteria their lour-to-the-lloor fusion of skittery disco beats. hot-wrred gurtar chops and rndecupherable howling likely induced. Indeed. Fierce Panda got so excited that — despite the band's ever so difficult to market sweary name — they snapped them up sharpish and have had them relentlessly out on the road ever srnce, wrth an album on its way.
As the band get set to play The Lrst‘s favourite venue-based disco party, Spies in the Wires. Reeves assures us that the slightly more regulated environment of real shows can still be just as much fun for the band: ‘We like doing things on Our own terms, but normal gigs are still great,‘ he says. 'You just can't dance on the tables and stuff. because someone wrll probably throw you out.’
(Malcolm Jack.)
8—22 Jun 2006 THE LIST 65