Music Record Reviews
JAZZ TIM RICHARDS TRIO Shapeshifting (33 Records) ●●●●● This is Tim Richards’ first trio recording since
2003, and marks a return to jazz activity after taking two years out to study for a Masters in Composition. The pianist may be best known for his work in
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Spirit Level and the subsequent Great Spirit, but there is plenty to admire in this setting, a combination of original compositions and well chosen covers in a variety of styles, taking in bop, modal, blues and Latin along the way. The covers include
engaging takes on material by fellow pianists – Bud Powell’s propulsive ‘Un Poco Loco’, Bobby Timmons’ funky blues ‘This Here’, Cedar Walton’s much-covered ‘Bolivia’ and Duke Ellington’s ‘Prelude To A Kiss’ and ‘Come Sunday’. Bass player Dominic Howles forms a swinging unit with drummer Jeff Lardner in the engine room of the trio, and provides one of the five originals. Richards wrote the others, and is in inventive form throughout an enjoyable set. (Kenny Mathieson)
ELECTRONICA COLIN POTTER: MICHAEL BEGG Fragile Pitches (Omnempathy) ●●●●●
When this unholy alliance of Nurse With Wound associate Potter and Human Greed’s Begg saw out 2009 at Edinburgh’s St Giles’ Cathedral with an electronically manipulated 90-minute sound installation, the densely textured, extended rumbles sounded like spirit- voices calling from the Earth’s core.
This double CD – based on the trinity of fire, light and space (hence the Hogmanay event’s anagrammatic title, Fragile Pitches) – captures the experience’s ancient- meets-sci-fi surround-
EUPHONIOS Based in Glasgow
Roster Only a singles label up until now, Euphonios has released short players by Unicorn Kid, Kid Adrift, Think About Life, Come On Gang, Saint Saviour, Tommy Reilly and shortly MOPP. The debut album release, Tommy Reilly’s Hello, I’m Tommy Reilly, is out now. Bosses Jen Anderson, who also works in artist management and for DF Concerts, for whom she helped set up the King Tut’s Recordings label.
Sounds like ‘Whatever I like and think is going to work,’ says Anderson. ‘Unicorn Kid and Kid Adrift are more electronic, for example, and then Tommy Reilly’s completely different again. It’s entirely driven by my taste.’ In each case, Euphonios’ bands are pop-aligned acts with plenty of commercial potential and their own unique selling points.
Why did you start the label?
‘Originally Euphonios was conceived as a street team when I was at uni about six years ago. We’d flyer shows and do promotion for artists – one of the main ones we were involved with was KT Tunstall. When I started working for DF it went by the by, but I decided to restart it as a label purely because I wanted to try something different and to learn how to start one of these things and to keep it going.’ What are your ambitions for Euphonios?
‘To keep it going. And if I see a great band I want to help out and can get involved with, that’s the main thing. There are no set rules at the moment. It’s a bit of a hobby which keeps me interested in new music right now, and of course the advantage of running my own label is that I don’t have to run the bands I sign past anyone, it’s all my choice.’ (David Pollock)
66 THE LIST 24 Jun–8 Jul 2010
sound elemental foreboding, if not its promenading visual glory. With each track named after one of the Pentland Hills, this is best listened to on headphones in a monument of your choice after dark. (Neil Cooper) ■ www.omnempathy.com ALT. COUNTRY THE FOX HUNT Nowhere Bound (Skull City Records) ●●●●●
The Fox Hunt are a bluegrass/alt. country band from West Virginia who manage to stand out from the densely packed crowd, primarily down to the fact they write above average tunes. They have banjo, fiddle, mandolin and upright bass in their repertoire – all expertly played – but it’s the songs that really impress, from the Old Crow Medicine Show charms of opener ‘Crack Shot’ to the old timey elegance of ‘Lord, We Get High’. ‘It’s just an old drinking song’, croon John R Miller and Matt Kline in perfect harmony. No, it’s much more than that. (Rachel Devine) PUNK ROCK ETERNAL FAGS Eternal Fags (At War with False Noise) ●●●●●
If the inmates of Napa State Mental Hospital formed a band after The Cramps visited to play there in 1978, they might have sounded something like Eternal Fags. The tortured yowls and strange austerity of the melodies on songs like ‘Annie’ and ‘The Slug’ certainly conjure images of lunatics triumphant, and opener ‘Forever’ is
like the Wipers falling in slow motion up and down an MC Escher staircase while the singer is repeatedly tasered in the back. The album continues on in suitably abstract fashion for just over 17 minutes of edges, yelps and euphoric, imploding riffs. Like a maniac’s bedside table – cracked, packed with wild ideas and well worth a rummage. (Sean Welsh) ■ Free download at winningspermparty.com / upcoming physical release on At War With False Noise, late summer, date tbc. INDIE POP KID CANAVERAL Shouting at Wildlife (Straight to Video) ●●●●●
Harvey Milk, experimental noisemongers of gargantuan riffage, bowel-loosening bass and primal, apocalyptic howls. It’s elemental, monumental stuff, but if that were all, they would be in danger of collapsing into a black hole of misery. The tiny tempering glimmers of light – the nerve-tingling piano of ‘I Know This is All My Fault’ or the unexpectedly soaring chorus of ‘I Know This is No Place for You’ – are just enough to buff the genius elsewhere. This is as far out as rock music gets, but it’s worth the trip (Doug Johnstone) JAZZ STEPHANE KERECKI TRIO Houria (Zig-Zag Territories) ●●●●●
Indie guitar pop is out of favour with music industry fashionistas at the moment, but Scottish boy-girl quartet Kid Canaveral could be the band to bring it back with a bang. This debut is packed with singalong melodies, frisky jangles and a real sense of purpose, with ‘Left and Right’ and the joyous ‘Smash Hits’ reminiscent of the best bits of Bis or The Shop Assistants. There is depth behind the shimmer too –’And Another Thing!!’ is the kind of sweetly intimate gem Snow Patrol used to produce before they started aiming at row ZZ. A jubilant and skilful racket. (Doug Johnstone) HEAVY ROCK HARVEY MILK A Small Turn of Human Kindness (Hydra Head) ●●●●●
Welcome to the crawling, heavy, doom- laden and utterly convincing world of
French bassist Stephane Kerecki occasionally recalls his countryman Henri Texier in his approach to combining group improvisation with composition, but he is very much his own man, and brings an intriguing mixture of influences to the table on this fine set. Houria means ‘freedom’ in Arabic, and there is an overt feel of Algerian and Moroccan music (he has worked for several years with Algerian singer Jamel Allam) throughout the music, as well as an evocative strain of early church music. The bassist leads his
regular trio with saxophonist Matthieu Donarier and drummer Thomas Grimmonprez, but his trump card is the addition of New York saxophonist Tony Malaby, a perfect fit with the spontaneous improvisational principles underlying the music, and a powerful solo presence. They do both gently reflective and robustly muscular with equal aplomb. (Kenny Mathieson)