Music Record Reviews
SINGLES & DOWNLOADS
Bonlver
Let's get any hating out the way first. The Pussycat Dolls claim ‘When I Grow Up' (Interscope) O is a tongue-in-cheek look at attention-seekin'. dollar-sniffin', 'boobie' flashin' wannabes, but if there‘s a punchline to their melody-free joke. the girls sure are keeping it well hidden. Liverpool electro poppers Ladytmn show how to rock a moody 80s beat. iced over with simple. New Wave synths on 'Runaway’ (Nettwerk) «O . while Metronomy deliver another itchy disco hit with 'Heartbreaker' (Because) «0 . a bit more straightforward than their previous electronic treats. about a boy fed up with his friend being messed around by his girlfriend.
Edinburgh hip hop crew. Capitol 1212 keep things strictly old school, with bouncy soulful hooks and cut and paste samples of Jack Nicholson in The Departed on their “Raw and Disorder EP’ (Kool Kat) m . while at the other end of the Central Belt and the musical spectrum, Glasgow's Felt Tips give Belle and Sebastian's work a country makeover in ‘Lifeskills' (Cloudberry) m . backed up with a jingly. diddly sing-along 'My Girlfriend Tried to Run Me Over' on the B-side. Taken from their debut album. Glasvegas' ‘Daddy's Gone' (Columbia) «00 is a sweet and sour burst of reverb, intense guitars and dark lyrics about an absent dad, and hopefully a taster of more epic. melancholy vintage rock still to come.
There are glimpses of post-rock magnificence and blissful. eerie electronica on Swimming’s ‘Primary EP' (lzumi) m . but sadly. they dilute the celestial soundscapes too much with grungey detours. and try covering too many musical bases. Speaking of post-rock magnificence. the mighty Mogwai return with 'Batcat' (Wall of Sound) 00” . five and a half minutes of heavy. treacle-thick post-rock noise, swelling and growling along in the run-up to their album. The Hawk is Howling out later this month. But winning Single of the Fortnight by a beardy whisker. Bon Iver's soulful falsetto. accompanied by uncharacteristically upbeat horns on ‘For Emma‘ (Jagjaguwar) u” . proves you don't need to spend a snowy winter hiding out in a log cabin in Wisconsin to get full- body shivers. Beautiful, open-heart stuff.
(Claire Sawers)
METAL SLIPKNOT All Hope is Gone (Roadrunner) 00..
Slipknot could so easily have been a gimmick. Nine masked men in boiler suits battering out heavy metal. But from first single (‘Wait and Bleed' back in 1999) they have constantly proved their musical standing. Growing with each
album. All Hope is Gone is perhaps their most diverse yet. Corey Taylor demonstrates a remarkable vocal
68 THE LIST 4—18 Sep 2008
range. guitar solos are more prominent than ever before. while ‘Snuff' is the nearest Slipknot will ever get to a ballad and ‘Gehenna' crawls with creeping intensity. While this is all a sign of growth. it does temper the all—out aggressive assault of their previous records. (Henry Northmore)
ELECTRONICA DAVID HOLMES The Holy Pictures
(Mercury) .00
According to Holmes his fourth solo album began as a cluster of instrumental tracks which lead him into a creative cul-de-sac until seismic events in his life — becoming a dad. the death of his parents — inspired him to pen some personal lyrics and — for the first time — sing them himself. The result is a much more low-key record than his previous solo effOrts. although there are trace elements of Let 's Get Killed's funky electronica and. . . Presents the Free Association’s banging electro.
Opening track ‘I Heard Wonders' sounds like upbeat Velvet Underground. while ‘St0ry of the lnk' plays like a Jesus and Mary Chain dirge and closer ‘The Ballad of Sarah and Jack' might have been written by Daniel Johnston, despite being about Holmes' late parents. Those expecting another soul-fuelled DJ compilation or a groovy film soundtrack will be disappointed. Those willing to open their ears will discover a whole new musical landscape mapped out by the Belfast lad. (Miles Fielder)
HIP HOP UNDERLING
Underling (Cymatics) 000
Based in Dunfermline. Underling pull off the hitherto impossible trick
of making the Kingdom of Fife sound like a district of Brooklyn. Their music is played live. a light but spirited bed of intently grooving jazz. through which Aron Moorhouse's raps attain a certain kind of indistinct transatlantic buzz. While his accent flattens though, his delivery is purposeful and precise.
In all fairness. Underling do sound a bit Ninja Tune circa the late 90s — or perhaps as if they've worn a hole in all their DJ Shadow LPs by playing them late into the night amidst a suspicious- smelling fog. Yet if that's your bag. then you‘ll definitely want to take this fine debut home in it.
(David Pollock)
INDIE GLASVEGAS
Glasvegas (Columbia) 00000
‘The Best New Band in Britain' says the NME. And for once they have thrown their fickle arrow of instant fame at a worthy target. In 2006. former footballer James Allan assembled a motley crew to give form to his 'poems' — disjointed conglomerations of heavily accented laments. suffusive feedback and surfy SOs pep. His vision reaches finality in a debut album that draws a masculine. if emotive picture of the underside of Glasgow and the innards of the mind.
Like the swirling miasmic songs. the mythos has piled up around the foursome until Allan is hailed as a working class poet. an articulate voice of the
[illlSVEGflS
masses. Aggrandise- ment aside. they have produced an album of originality. Five perfect pieces of pop you'll be singing in your sleep. your dotage and on your deathbed with enough eccentricities to reveal more with every listen. Anyone care to argue with ‘Stabbed‘s trial by violence strung over Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata? Didn't think so. (Suzanne Black)
HIP HOP
THE STREETS Everything is Borrowed (sixsevenine) COO
m 3mm};
Mike Skinner might be one of the finest pop artists of our generation. but there's no escaping the fact that his fourth album is a real disappointment. Certain passages of it might well grow over time. yet the SUSpicion is that it's just too damn cheerful to stand up alongside his best. The first thought on hearing ‘Heaven For the Weather', for example. is that it sounds like an S Club cast-off. while ‘I Love You More (Than You Like Me)‘ seems lightweight and inconsequennat
‘The Way of the Dodo' is also a tritely cack-handed ecological warning. But it‘s not all bad. ‘The Sherry End' sets up a funksome New York hip hop motif. while ‘The Escapist' and the title track more successfully sum up the album's relaxed mood. If the next album really is the last. hopefully it will be much better than this one. (David Pollock)
JAZZ HAFTOR MEDBOE
GROUP
New: Happy (Fabrikant Records) .0.
The current line-up of Haftor Medboe's group is the strongest yet.
The guitarists accomplished soloing is
supported by powerful contributions from two of the leading horn players on the Scottish scene. saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski and trombonist Chris Greive. while Danish bass player Eva Malling and Icelandic percussionist Signy Jakobsdottir add shimmering colour and rhythmic drive in response to the shifting needs of the music. The guitarist ‘s new compositions continue to evolve his exploration of jazz- rooted but pop-aware instrumental forms. His writing pays characteristically careful attention to intricacies of musical texture. timbre and interwoven electronic effects. but the slower moving and more impressionistic elements are balanced by highly energised accelerations that raise both the temperature and momentum of the music. Available as an on-line exclusive from http://www.iabrikant- records.net/ (Kenny Mathieson)
METAL DRAGONFORCE Ultra Beatdown (Roadrunner) 0..
~i"'.‘f""'l“'.tx \
if a u s it ; ..- )
DragonForce play the most extreme power metal and it‘s impossible to review Ultra Beatdown without the words ‘pompous' and ‘bombastic'. They sound like every Iron Maiden song every written. all played at once. due to the sheer Speed Of delivery from the masterful double axe assault of Herman Li and Sam Totman. It's not so much heavy as fast. Really, really stupidly fast. We're talking a hypersonic.