Music Record Reviews
LABELS OF LOVE
CHEMIKAL UNDERGROUND Based in: Glasgow.
Roster: The Phantom Band (pictured), Lord Cut-Glass, Emma Pollock, The Unwinding Hours, Adrian Crowley, Zoey Van Goey, Aidan Moffat, Angil and the Hiddentracks, The Radar Brothers. Bosses: Set up in 1995 by the four members of now-disbanded Glasgow outfit The Delgados, Chemikal Underground is run by ex-Delgados Alun Woodward (who records as Lord Cut- Glass) and Stewart Henderson, with Andrew Savage.
Sounds like: ‘The only remit is to release music that we like and want to hear,’ says Woodward. ‘You’d broadly call it alternative independent music, but a lot of things we do just don’t fit into that typical “indie” bracket.’
It’s Chemikal’s 15th birthday next year. How is the label doing these days?
‘We’re in a good position right now, with a few records which have had a really high profile over the past year. Is this the best position we’ve ever been in? It’s hard to tell, because the industry right now is so different to what it was ten years ago. I honestly couldn’t tell you about our balance sheet, though. Every label needs someone who doesn’t think about money, otherwise you either wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning for worrying or overspend when things are going well. I find the best label strategy is always just to argue about every record, then go with who wins.’ What advice would you give to someone starting a label right now?
‘Go with your instinct. There are always people telling you what works and what doesn’t, but I find that what really does work is generally defined by people who come into the industry and take chances. Believe in the band you’re working with, believe that you can do something with them and then actually go and do it. Don’t sit around waiting for other people.’ What’s next for Chemikal Underground?
‘We’re putting on a 15th anniversary show in January at the ABC as part of Celtic Connections, and then hopefully something else later in the year. Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells will be releasing an album together next year, and so will The Unwinding Hours [two ex-members of Aereogramme].’ (David Pollock) ■ The Phantom Band and Lord Cut-Glass play the Arches, Glasgow, Sat 12 Dec.
JAZZ ABRAM WILSON Life Paintings (Dune Records) ●●●●● Arkansas-born trumpeter Abram Wilson has been based in London since 2002, but grew up New Orleans, where he absorbed the city’s rich musical traditions and its potent trumpet heritage. That heritage is clearly
reflected in his rich, open sonority and swing-based in-the- tradition sensibility, factors that are even
68 THE LIST 3–17 Dec 2009
more palpable in this purely instrumental quartet setting than on Ride! Ferris Wheel To The Modern Day Delta, its more diversely textured large ensemble predecessor. With the exception of a couple of ballads, his compositions are cast in a sprightly uptempo vein, and are intended to express different aspects of human experience, the ‘life paintings’ of the title. It proves to be a largely celebratory series of vibrant aural canvases that includes a tribute to ‘Obama’, childhood evocations in ‘Rainbows and Fantasies’ and ‘Chasing Mosquito Hawks’, and the exuberant stop-go flow of ‘Rush Hour’. Pianist Peter Edwards also leads a hard-swinging rhythm section. (Kenny Mathieson)
JAZZ TRIOVD Fill It Up With Ghosts (Babel) ●●●●●
The Leeds-based trio take their name from having saved a laptop recording of their very first gig as ‘trioVD’ (the initials standing for Valentine’s Day rather than the more dodgy alternative that might have sprung immediately to mind). The connection ends there, though. While the music has its gentler dimensions, Chris Sharkey (guitar and bass), Christophe de Bézenec (saxophone and electronics) and Chris Bussey (drums) are not going to furnish the chosen soundtrack for anyone’s romantic evening, unless they are of a fiercely experimental disposition. The players all have connections with the helter-skelter world of free improvisation, but there is more structure and subtle touches discernible here amid the raucous mayhem. Wisely, given the often frenetic pace and in- your-face assault of the
music, they have kept the album to a compact 41 minutes, after which you will very likely feel wrung out, but possibly equally exhilarated. Not for the faint hearted or conventionally inclined, but an invigorating blast on its own uncompromising terms. (Kenny Mathieson) remote mountain shack, the exceptions, such as ‘In Falling Timbers Buried’, ‘Tell As a Marksman’ and ‘I Could Bring You Jewels’, recreating some kinda funereal sing-a-long fete for dysfunctional Dylan- ites. Hide the razor blades. (Martin C Strong)
ELECTRO POST-ROCK KESER Robo_Ghost (Alex Tronic) ●●●●● ALT/POST-ROCK EX LIBRAS Suite(s) (Wirebird) ●●●●●
This has all the hallmarks of a plush, textured, guitar-rock album – only, it’s not ’97, and they’re not Mogwai, nor Orbital. Keser are two instrumentalists and programmers (Kevan Whitley and Gavin Clark) on a mission to recreate hypno-ambient musak; their first effort, Esoteric Escape (2006), was testament to that. Probably best served-up live (they’ve recently supported The Phantom Band and Amazing Baby all across the globe), one can only reach fever pitch via the breathtaking ‘Acts Of Dog’ or ‘Diablo Canyon 1’. (Martin C Strong) FIRESIDE FOLK JOSEPHINE FOSTER Graphic As A Star (Fire) ●●●●●
Formed in the unlikely locale of their Hounslow Borough library workplace, the London trio of Amit Sharma (vocals, guitar), Kieran Nagi (piano, bass) and Ross Kenning (drums) recorded this promising debut in, of all places, the garden shed.
First impressions give off an air of Muse meets Talk Talk/‘O’Rang (see ‘Underachiever’, for example), although further investigations (on ‘Phat Knickers’ and classy download single ‘Radar’) reveal more than a penchant for Radiohead’s Kid A or Sigur Ros’ ().
Mixing math-rock, breakbeat grooves with melodic, Mogwai-esque crescendos, Ex Libras should be worthy of subsequent major- imprint circulation. (Martin C Strong)
ALT-FOLK JESCA HOOP Hunting My Dress (Last Laugh) ●●●●●
Colorado-born folkie Jo Foster, delivers her fifth solo set, inspired and based on the works of 19th century poet Emily Dickenson. Comprising 26 short fireside-folk dirges (think Shirley Collins or Tiny Tim), it falls short of the oblique talent she showed on last year’s This Coming Gladness.
On too many occasions promising songs are left abandoned like some
The Mormons have given us several terrific musical acts – Arcade Fire, Low and The Osmonds among them. To this heavenly litany we now add folk confounder Jesca Hoop. A Californian singer-
songwriter living in Manchester, Hoop’s
disquieting trove of alt- rock arias, murder balladry and bone- rattling blues is enshrined in US and English folk traditions which variously evoke Suzanne Vega, Shirley Collins and Kate Bush. The Tom Waits and
Guy Garvey endorsements might open your ears to Hunting My Dress, but Hoop’s vertiginous larynx and bewitching psalms will steal your heart and stir your breast. Her earthy wig- outs are disconcerting, mystical and excellent. (Nicola Meighan)
WORLD GHANA SPECIAL Modern Highlife, Afro- Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968–81 (Soundway) ●●●●●
A thrilling soundscape of 33 tracks from Ghana between the ‘golden age’ of 1968–81, this maps the optimism and energy of new independence from British colonialism heralded by cutting- edge modern Afro- sounds and Ghanaian blues. Presented in a cool ‘double CD as small book’ telling each band’s story with atmospheric pictures, it fits the bill for clubs, parties or cafés seeking irresistible sounds to beguile customers to stay. This showcases a sophisticated diversity of soul and rock influenced music, from saxes and trumpets sparring over funky keyboards, to guitars, harmonicas and wild choruses, to Afro- Caribbean percussion re-infusing brassy local dance bands. And it’s an original re-mastering so nothing here will be found on any other compilation on the market. (Jan Fairley)
RETRO POP RHETT MILLER Rhett Miller (Serial Lady Killer Records) ●●●●● With Ryan Adams disappointingly adrift, there’s a vacancy for a