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GYPSY PUNK GOGOL BORDELLO Seekers and Finders (Cooking Vinyl) ●●●●● POST ROCK MOGWAI Every Country’s Sun (Rock Action Records) ●●●●●
Gogol Bordello’s breakthrough in 2005 can be at least partially attributed to their appearance on that year’s Warped Tour compilation. Drunkenly making elbow room among the likes of Fall Out Boy, Plain White T’s and Dropkick Murphys (the latter the closest thing they had to kindred spirits on the LP), ‘Start Wearing Purple’ was (and is) a rambunctious singalong that flew the flag for swaggering individualism over identikit emo whining. The album from whence it came – Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike – and the 2007 follow-up, Super Taranta!, cemented their reputation as boisterous, globe- straddling party-starters. In the decade or so since, at least one of two things has happened: I grew
out of punk, and Gogol Bordello stopped having fun. That unhinged quality that defined ‘Start Wearing Purple’ (and turned heartbreakingly remorseful on Super Taranta!’s ‘Alcohol’) is barely in evidence on latest release Seekers and Finders, a collection of country-and-western-tinged plodders that lack excitement or verve. A lively fiddle-driven intro on opener ‘Did it All’ gives way to a turgid chorus and a middle-eight that rhymes ‘mojo’ with ‘juju’. ‘Love Gangsters’ is the surf-rocky interlude when the moshpit empties to the bar. ‘Clearvoyance’ is called ‘Clearvoyance’. And so on.
There seems to be a school of thought working in certain corners that says Mogwai offer more of the same every time they return, that their disciplined and regular output has remained stuck in stylistic amber since Young Team first emerged on the scene in 1997. They’re the acme of noisy indie guitar groups for people whose ears are still stuck in the 20th century, runs this train of thought, although it’s an opinion which doesn’t survive the first listen to Every Country’s Sun. Produced by Dave Fridmann for the first time since 2001’s Rock Action, the record condenses a looming sense of all that has happened since Rave Tapes was a surprise chart hit in 2014; the Scottish Indyref, Brexit, Trump, the death of David Bowie. From these remarkably fresh old-timers comes the sound of their times, a blend of dark, foreboding build-ups and euphoric release.
Complaining about their instrumentation is a tired excuse for not immersing oneself in Mogwai’s mastery of pulling at emotional strings, from the hesitant uplift of ‘Battered at a Scramble’ to the title track’s strident resolve. The above tracks are two of the most rock things on here, and despite the band’s ready identification of themselves with the genre, the sound of clashing guitars is no longer the most exciting thing Mogwai do on record.
There are a few glimmers of GB’s previously boundless energy. ‘Familia Their current emphasis is on a dream-like ambience created by heavily
Bonfireball’, one of only two songs to top four minutes, takes its sweet time produced analogue instruments and electronic elements; for example, on
to ignite, but it’s fun and bouncy when it finally gets there. ‘If I Ever Get Home Before Dark’ has Cold War Kids-ian soul, with vocalist Eugene Hutz indulging in believably earthy specifics (‘I will sink my fingers in your hair’) instead of the cod-philosophical nonsense elsewhere on the album (‘Not all horses are gonna need blinders / not all seekers will be finders’). Still, even if it’s me that got old, Gogol Bordello are the ones that sound tired. (Niki Boyle) ■ Out now. the shimmering nuclear sunrise of ‘Coolverine’, whose outro appears to contain a saxophone part reminiscent of Berlin Bowie; the Cure-evoking anthem ‘Party in the Dark’ (the album’s sole track with proper vocals); ‘Crossing the Road Material’, which begins amid Neu!-like synths; and the fearsomely minimalist ‘aka 47’. For those attuned to Mogwai’s aesthetic, it’s the next layer of strata to a career which rewards geological excavation. (David Pollock) ■ Out Fri 1 Sep.
ROCK LCD SOUNDSYSTEM American Dream (Columbia Records/DFA) ●●●●● RAP ROCK THE LAFONTAINES Common Problem (Wolf at Your Door Records) ●●●●●
If LCD Soundsystem’s 2002 debut single ‘Losing My Edge’ was bathed in knowing sarcasm about James Murphy’s fear of falling out of touch with the pillars of underground freak-rock history, there’s a more tangible despair to ‘Change Yr Mind’, in a lyric which will doubtless be quoted all over reviews of LCD Soundsystem’s new album American Dream. ‘I’ve just got nothing left to say,’ it runs. ‘I’m in no place to get it right / and I’m not dangerous now / the way I used to be once / I’m just too old for it now.’ Is this another piss-take, railing against pre-emptive accusations that his band should not have bothered returning to the fray? Possibly, but there’s a weariness to his voice as he croons ‘you can change your mind’ over and over; on top of a gorgeous, clashing guitar line which reminds of Bowie’s ‘Fashion’. And despite the buoyant DIY disco of ‘Tonite’ this isn’t primarily a party record in the LCD tradition.
It feels, instead, like Murphy has reconvened the group because he has
something to say about the USA today, rather than because he has new music to explore. In this respect, the centrepieces are the propulsive LCD cowbell funk of ‘Other Voices’, through which Nancy Whang wonders: ‘who can you trust / and who are your friends . . . who is the enemy?’, and the ferocious overdrive of ‘Emotional Haircut’, during which Murphy orders the listener to ‘get on the streets / wipe the shit off your feet.’ It’s an album offering little new but plenty of value to fans of this band, an
In naming their second album Common Problem, Motherwell rap-rockers The LaFontaines declare they have something to say about our shared societal ills. There are scraps of this ambition littered through the album: ‘They gave us Brexit and The Apprentice’ sneers rapper Kerr Okan in the opening bars of ‘Explosion’, while the video for single ‘Release the Hounds’ has dancers in Donald Trump masks thrust and gyrate while the band post wads of cash through housing estate letterboxes.
These token mentions aside though, the targets on Common Problem are pretty vague: a general angst about the world we live in, but with no specific focus. Take the lyrics of recent single ‘Asleep’: ‘Trip just to fall with finesse / Or drop like bombs from the West / Wasted faithless man has awoken / Baptised in the ocean – soaking’. It scans well enough, but what does all that actually mean? (It doesn’t help that Okan’s vocals are often poorly served by the guitar- heavy production, a criticism to be shouldered by guest producer and erstwhile Courteeners bassist, Joe Cross..) Musically, things are much more satisfying. The LaFontaines, having grown-up
in the era of rap-rock and nu-metal, are clearly indebted to both Linkin Park (with their rapped verses and sung choruses) and Rage Against the Machine. There’s even an explicit nod to RATM’s spiritual successors – not the (frankly embarrassing) Prophets of Rage, but hip-hop duo Run the Jewels – on
LCD Soundsystem-style protest record which was created for the purer-than-most reason that the band felt compelled to make it. In the 12-minute ‘Black Screen’, the synthesised closing funeral march, it’s possible to hear lines which may be directed at Murphy’s sometime collaborator and influence David Bowie, and reflect upon them that perhaps following Bowie’s lead of artistic perpetual motion is where Murphy feels most at home. (David Pollock) ■ Out Fri 1 Sep.
‘Goldmine’: ‘they tell me to run for the jewels, whatever it costs, just cut me a piece of the cheque’. Elsewhere, ‘Armour’ and ‘Total Control’ are built on Royal Blood- like riffs, ‘Asleep’ has a satisfying Die Antwoord synth throb and ‘Atlas’ is possessed of an indie- tropical bounce that’ll function well as part of The LaFontaines’ much-revered live performances. It’s just a shame that Common Problem’s melodic inventiveness is undermined by a lack of lyrical incisiveness. (Niki Boyle) ■ Out Fri 27 Oct. 1 Sep–31 Oct 2017 THE LIST 73