REVIEWS

blackstrobeWhile techno blatantly references metal (Vitalic, Justice), the floor is becoming a place to literally just bang your head and thrash around. And if that’s what you are looking for in an electronic record you found your joint. Rather than gritty machines and distortion soaked synths (which are all here too) Arnaud Rebotini uses heavy gain guitars, coming off as much like Ministry as EBM and club music. The first track on this record is a burner, in full Black Strobe fashion/tradition/ submission. Metal guitars with well produced pulsing, dinging and sub-base lines that should be blasted in order that you spit whiskey on someone’s tits under slow flashing lights. Arnaud Rebotini, alongside his new four-piece band do best on this record with phallic, dark industrial influence crossed with the motivation to be out on the floor all night. Strengths include amphetamine pissing energy, dirt-bag bass lines and mixed in organic drum fills with machines that make for more dynamic, rolling beats. “Buzz Buzz Buzz” is evil macabre techno, “Last Club on Earth” a beautiful NO style epic, and there are even Depechey piano ballads. Skip track 06, “I’m a Man”. Bo Diddley cover or not, who cares if you’re a man? It’s taken Black Strobe a long time to release a full-length record and Burn Your Own Church is multifaceted in its representation of club music. It varies nicely while staying heavy and mean and I can’t wait to see the shit live. Rebotini has become the Lemmy of techno and though this record might not be church burning, it’s definitely worth checking out :: Blackstrobe/Burn Your Own Church - Playlouderecordings/Beggars/Indigo.

jenny hoystonI just saw Erase Errata at the Melt Festival this summer and they totally rekindled my noisy girl-band lust, so I was amped to hear this record. Although some of it is made boring by clichéd phrases like “my love for you runs deeper than the ocean” alongside acoustic accompaniment with other ‘I’m in love’ lyrics that kind of make me want to gag, it’s not without it’s charm. ‘Break Apart, Reattach’ is soft, clever and finishes very to the point at 1 minute 11 seconds. ‘Structure’ is bad-slick sweetness, and ‘Kill Those Thoughts About’ is dynamic and poppy. Half the songs finish under 2 minutes, keeping the catchy stuff short, maybe as a point that a little bit is enough. There is plinking noise, ballads and country influence. Jenny Hoyston’s 4th solo record will probably excite really big fans, and maybe bring a few new ones. It also very obviously isn’t trying to be Erase Errata in any way :: Jenny Hoyston/Isle Of - Southern/Soulfood.

black lipsI love this band - so does everyone who likes their rocknroll bands to actually sound and behave like a rocknroll band, tattoo clichés aside. They play guitar with their dicks until blood, piss in their own mouths, scream, holler, spit, and have a great time playing wicked, garage influenced trash.
They came to my birthday party last year, drank whiskey out of the bowls, asked girls politely if they could suck on their tits, and Cole reportedly got a hand-job on my piano. Good enough for me - although I’m not sure ‘Wild Men in Action’ compensates.
Here, it takes the Black Lips more than half the show to warm up, the sound is quiet and distant, and we don’t ever see the crowd’s reaction to the show. Live, people get booze soaked and bat-shit for them, which forces you to do the same. I mean, they do go through almost everything you’d want to hear, including the film’s peak, “Wildman” where the shit hits the fan and Cole has to apologize for smashing a girl’s head in. Regardless of the DVD seeming a bit balless this band is gonna be huge, and you wouldn’t guess from the Madrid show of ‘05. You get a taste, but crave a mouthful, patiently waiting for the new record :: Black Lips/Wildmen In Action DVD - Munster/Cargo.

mushroom w/ eddie galeJoint Happening is the right name. Joint: a link, a space-out drug. Happening: Cage, Fluxus. What's being linked and juxtaposed is a San Francisco jam band collective (they call themselves "Mushroom," which says it all) and a legendary trumpeter, Eddy Gale, who's played with people like Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra. This sounds more like Miles Davis though. Extended joint improves - good musicians who really listen to each other. Big open music landscapes, lush and dreamy. Sometimes little tears let through some more violence and force. Its got a hippy jam band feel from the San Francisco people and a luxuriousness from the mellotron and the marimbas. Eddy Gale's trumpet is brilliant and really super sweeeeeeet! :: Mushroom w/ Eddie Gale/Joint Happening - Hyena/Rough Trade.

setsubun bean unitForget rice cakes, put Setsubun Bean Unit on the altar. During the Japanese Ondo festival gifts and dances appease and please hungry ghosts of ancestors. Matthew Herbert's Accidental label put out an offering. Mixing technological and Shinto magic -- embracing some African vibes via the Americas stuff too. Ondo dancers and singers join electric trumpet jazz, dub rhythms together with off kilter bell drum wackiness. Some stuff to dance to some stuff to drift to. All of it detailed and dreamy, quirky and charmed. :: Setsubun Bean Unit/Setsubun Bean Unit - Accidental/Pias/Rough Trade.

domes of silenceThere is nothing original about ‘Mescaline’. The singing is flaccid and doesn’t evolve, the lyrics are pretentious, and the accompaniment is slow and kind of 90’s. If it’s supposed to be revivalist, then it needs to bring something fresh with it, and it doesn’t do that either. I’m bored you guys :: The Domes Of Silence/Mescaline - Shifty Disco/Rough Trade.

mother and the addictsTrack one: Rumpelnde Akkustikgitarrenbeats, like Violent Femmes on Acid, Track zwo ist ein Dancing-Song, Latino Rhythmus trifft auf Discofieber, bei Track drei meint man Blondie und die B 52’s zusammen musizieren zu hören. So geht es munter weiter mit Aha-Momenten, aber Sam Smith, Mastermind der schottischen Band, gelingt es scheinbar mühelos jegliche Plagiatsverdächtigungen zu zerstreuen, da er genügend sperrige eigene Ideen einbringt mit denen er die altriechenden Fassaden dick und bunt übertüncht. Mit dieser Herangehensweise liegt die Band gar nicht so weit entfernt vom Output der Glasgower Kollegen wie Franz Ferdinand oder Maximo Park. Spürbar hört man den gleichen, zittrigen Herzschlag, und die Seelenverwandschaft ist durchaus spürbar. Keine leichte Aufgabe also, denn diese Konkurrenz will aus dem Weg geräumt sein auf der Erfolgsleiter nach oben. Aber Mother and the Addicts nehmen diese Barriere wohl mit Leichtigkeit. Genauso leicht und unaufgeregt wie sie den auffälligen Stilwechsel von Song zu Song zelebrieren. Die den Songs innewohnende Zerrissenheit hält ihre Kunst spannend und gibt Raum für Entdeckungen. „Science Fiction Illustrated“ ist eines jener Kunstwerke, die perfekt das hungrige Lebensgefühl der globalisierten Generatin „Now“ auf den Punkt bringt, die sich so scheinbar ohne erkennbare Heimat durchs Leben schlagen muss. Sich dabei Sam Smith als so eine Art modernen Rattenfänger vorzustellen ist daher gar nicht so abwegig :: Mother And The Addicts/Science Fiction Illustrated - Chemikal Underground/Rough Trade.

GravenhurstI started listening to this record last week. It took a night with a pretty girl, dim lights and sea smashing against rock outside my window in Vancouver to jar me out of the travel coma I’d arrived in. Canadian countryside in the summer made me realize the gentle and diverse beauty of this 4 piece from Bristol.
I haven’t heard previous Gravenhurst, so I won’t compare by way of ‘deparcher from this’ or ‘the coming into of that’. But I will recommend you listen to it if you like poetic, poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes grim, always mysterious and bewitching music. The Western Lands starts with finger picked guitars and moody composition, touches on psych-ish rock, haunting instrumentals, and soft love-in folk style songs. The record is sweetened immensely by reverby double picking, and stunningly smooth vocals at times reminiscent of Kevin Sheilds and Pink Floyd. There are elements of beach, dark plains and tundra. The Western Lands look and play an amazing conclusion to this summer :: Gravenhurst/The Western Lands - Warp/Rough Trade.

MF DOOMA reissue of MF Doom's 2004 food-themed offering which is now accompanied by a new DVD with live footage from his Food Drive Tour a few years back on which audience members were asked to bring a non-perishable food item for children's charities. The album is laid-back, filled with soul-inspired strange beats and Daniel Dumile's easy-going meal poetics chopped with wacky samples. While his beats and lyrics are unique, his flow is fairly standard, though a little off-kilter. Since this is a reissue, the focus seems to be on the inclusion of the DVD, which features Doom performing in various US cities. His innovations, aside from his ever-present mask which hides his identity, begin and end on the album while his live show and performance is likeable, but quite boring. At times he gets a few of the white kids bobbing their arms in the front, and the crowd seems enthused, but his stage presence is unremarkable. The live footage would only be of interest to die-hard fans :: MF DOOM: MM..Food - Rhymesavers/Rough Trade.

eric copelandI used to live next to two old lesbians. They kept a middle aged border who was a camp counsler at some sailing camp on the chesapeake bay. Once I walked by his window and heard a song by a band called Queen. When I looked in his window I saw him totally naked lying on a bed with his legs spread. He had a cigar in his mouth and he was chewing on the tip of it. I stood there and watched the guy for a while, until one of the old lesbians yelled out at me “Quit spyin on the house guests, that’s an invasion of privacy.” I said “But hey, the guys naked.” And she said “So what, we´re all born naked” (Harmony Korine/The Bastard Wisher) :: Eric Copeland: Hermaphrodite – Paw-Tracks/Cargo.