list.co.uk/music GREEK FOLK XYLOURIS WHITE Goats (Other Music Recordings) ●●●●●
HIP HOP STANLEY ODD A Thing Brand New (A Modern Way Recordings) ●●●●● Records | MUSIC
Theirs is a pairing both unlikely and perfect. George Xylouris, venerated Cretan lute player, born into a family of renowned folk musicians, immersed in the age- old musical traditions of his homeland, and Jim White, in-demand and questing Australian-in-New York alt-indie / avant-rock drummer, most famous for breaking bones and hearts in Warren Ellis’ Dirty Three. Where Xylouris’ studious folk roots and White’s more confrontational, exploratory style come together is in the liberating tension of improvisation, the spontaneous moment of communication when formal mode meets uncharted territory.
The album opens with perhaps its most strident and striking moment: ‘Pulling the Bricks’ begins in a shamble of rambunctious, jerky stabs, underpinned by yearning chord transitions and hanging phrases. This gives way to a fluttery, almost tentative, butterfly-brief improvisation before returning to its good- natured, heavy-footed stumbling. Essentially, the track is Goats in a two-minute microcosm: a rare combination of elements, a meeting of spiky and honeyed, antiquity and modernity, full of warmth and life and human connections. ‘Old School Sousta’ is more traditional, a Mediterranean courtship stomp given extra muscle by White’s relentless but subtly varied pounding.
After the boisterous first two tracks, Goats largely shifts into a less physical, more contemplative mode, but it’s no less engaging. ‘The Bells’ encapsulates this duo’s distinctive chemistry, as nimble yet razor-precise lute melodies, sodden
With the Mercury Prize victory for Young Fathers still causing some reverberations in Londonista music circles, it’s eminently possible that this moment could be a turning point for Scottish hip hop. One act who might reap benefits from this surprise result is fellow Edinburghers Stanley Odd, a six-piece who concoct softer hues to their capital city comrades. Yet, if the sound of a Scottish accent in rap mode still sends your body into a full-on cataclysmic cringe, maybe Stanley Odd (or, more accurately, Dave Hook, aka Solareye) might be a Forth Road Bridge too far. But for Hook, embracing your heritage is at the heart of the truths he and his band are pursuing. Which will never stop some from making direct comparisons to Stateside acts: the moving ‘Draw Yir Own Conclusions’ has the majestic slow reveal of, all-too ironically, Marshall Mathers’ ‘Stan’ while several of the album’s songs are elevated by soulful interjections from Veronika Electronika.
As live performances at the likes of Wickerman testify, in the jumping flesh is
where Stanley Odd excel. There, Hook shows the Tigger-like joy of someone who has toiled long and hard to get the recognition he and his crew deserves (‘To Be This Good Takes Stages’ reflects that struggle). On A Thing Brand New, the brain is ticking away but there’s plenty time for the feet and head to take over in bouncy numbers such as ‘Knock Knock’ and ‘Get Back in the Basement’. The Odd lyrical standpoint proposes social justice while acknowledging
with emotion and storytelling potential, meet skittering but unobtrusive free-improvised drums. White’s subtlety comes to the fore on ‘Suburb’ as he accentuates the cracks in Xylouris’ delicate, impressionistic patterns. Yet it’s not all counterpoint and juxtaposition, and the two display remarkable telepathy on the faster, more rhythmically complex tunes, ‘Chicken Song’ and ‘Fandomas’. It all makes for a wondrous and perfectly balanced partnership. (Matt Evans)
Scotland’s dark side, such as its unholy part in Britain’s empire- building. ‘The Walking Dead’ insists that Thatcherism, unlike the totemic hate figure herself, is far from deceased and buried, and there’s even a swipe at Boris Johnson. But, as the melancholic pro-Yes final-track statement grinds to its ultimately fruitless halt, what kind of a Stanley are we left with? One that is far from flat, and should be receiving laurels for years to come. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Stanley Odd play Liquid Room, Edinburgh, on Fri 21 Nov.
POP / JAZZ / EXPERIMENTAL ROBERT WYATT Different Every Time (Domino) ●●●●● ROCK MOGWAI Music Industry 3 Fitness Industry 1 EP (Rock Action) ●●●●●
Robert Wyatt may have retired from music, but what a wonderful legacy he’s left: almost 50 years of avant-pop genius, taking in collaborations with everyone from Björk and Brian Eno to Ivor Cutler. Compiled by Wyatt and his biographer Marcus O’Dair, Different Every Time is a thoughtful two-disc overview of the great man’s career, encompassing solo tracks and collaborations from 1970 to 2009. Throughout it all, there’s that beautiful Wyatt voice, like an English ex-choirboy intoxicated by the moonlit jazz inflections of Chet Baker. In avoiding too much overlap with 2004’s Greatest Misses, this set leaves out the sublime ‘Sea Song’ from 1974’s essential Rock Bottom. Instead, we get an incredible live version of that album’s ‘Last Straw’, with Wyatt scatting ecstatically over his band’s oceanic jazz-rock. It’s a joy to hear two songs by Matching Mole, the group Wyatt formed after leaving Soft Machine in 1970, not least ‘Signed Curtain’, a charmingly self-conscious piano ballad which delivers a real emotional payoff by the end.
The author Jonathan Coe has described Wyatt’s words and music as a continuous, alternative running commentary on the past few decades; ‘sane songs for insane times’. Wyatt’s left-wing politics are most evident in 1980s recordings like ‘The Age of Self’ and the Chilean liberation anthem ‘Vencemeros (We Will Win)’, recorded with Working Week and Tracey Thorn, but a deep sense of humanity pervades all his music, while his surrealism and humour ensure his songs never descend into dreary agitprop.
The second disc uncovers rare gems like the mournful post-punk chamber pop of Epic Soundtracks ‘Jelly Babies’ and Wyatt’s starkly beautiful acapella reading of John Cage. Other highlights include the Cuban glam glide of Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera’s terrific ‘Frontera’ and the luminous jazz- pop of Jeanette Lindstrom’s ‘The River’. Oblique English magic. (Stewart Smith) ■ Listen to 'Shipbuilding' at dominorecordco.com
Less than a year after their unexpected but well-deserved most successful record yet (eighth album Rave Tapes broke the UK top ten), the ever hard- grafting Mogwai are back with an EP which leads off with probably the most commercial song they’ve ever recorded. Already being hammered by BBC 6Music, ‘Teenage Exorcists’ rips up the template which may be familiar to many, to the extent that even fans of the group might not have recognised them on first listen. Then again, despite the prevailing reputation they have for glacier-sized instrumentals, they’ve never been a group to accept pigeonholing lightly.
‘Teenage Exorcists’ skips along on a tumultuous squall of guitar that is, fair enough, not a million miles from what Mogwai usually do. Yet there’s a mood here they’re not famed for, a kind of wide-eyed glee which is more often than not tempered by the sheer gravity of the music. Amid it all there’s a voice: maybe Barry Burns, more likely Stuart Braithwaite, the recording’s just murky enough to be unclear. ‘I said nothing / I said too much / I think you are a good, good person,’ it says, then over and over, a bittersweet mantra: ‘it’s all dark and uncertain / an apology accepted’. Roll it round in your head and you’ve probably heard it, right? It’s melodic and memorable and gratifyingly noisy. It is – and we never thought we’d write these words in connection with Mogwai – a radio hit. The ground has shifted and new doors have opened; hopefully they step through. Elsewhere they’re perhaps on
more familiar ground with the original back-up tracks ‘History Day’ (a foreboding, murky slice of instrumental acoustronica) and ‘HMP Sean William Ryder’ (takes the Happy Mondays singer’s name brilliantly in vain, sounds more like Mogwai doing the Doors), as well as three excellent Rave Tapes remixes from Blanck Mass, Pye Corner Audio and Nils Frahm. (David Pollock) ■ Stream 'Teenage Exorcists' at soundcloud.com/rock-action- records/mogwai-teenage- exorcists 13 Nov–11 Dec 2014 THE LIST 71