Reviews – Albums
December 2006
Beatmag’s rundown of the best to throw your hard-earned money at.
Beatmag Album of the Month
1. The Klaxons
Myths Of The Near Future (Polydor)
This album is packed to the brim with galloping energy and a compulsive spew of cult literary references (Burroughs, Brautigan, Ballard, Anton Wilson, Crowley, etc), all tied to a music that rampages and shrieks with feverishness whilst also referencing everyone from Brian Eno to the Electric Prunes along the way. It’s the sound of a young band finding its feet and isn’t The Klaxons definitive work, but it has an enthusiastic ragged power and endearing eagerness to do something different.
2. Dextro
Consequence Music (Gronland)
One of the new breed of lone samplers, bedroom electronica boffs who are taking their music away from its robot heritage into the realms of the wholesome rural idyll. Created in an isolated Scottish cottage by 27 year old Glaswegian Ewan Mackenzie, drummer with cult band Snowblood, ‘Consequence Music’ gently fuzzes along, built round simple riff-like motifs and sweet hazy tones. Contains a number entitled ‘Destroy The Future Of All Mankind’ which is surely as good an excuse as any to have a listen?
3. Radio Dept
Pet Grief (Track & Field)
Radio Dept’s debut ‘Lesser Matters’ was a cult hit a couple of years back but the band have since scrapped any plan to follow it with something similar and have parted ways with their record company, XL. Their return has electronic touches but a blurred post-rock looseness alongside touches of New Order and even the Pet Shop Boys. Amidst the mild narcotic sloth resides some thoughtful downtempo pop.
4. James Holden
The Idiots Are Winning (Border Community)
The idiots may be winning, whether the ones in power whose foolishness is tearing Iraq to pieces of simply those on the street wearing tedious American leisurewear, but James Holden is not amongst them. The one time Oxford university Maths student has wisely decided against following his late ‘90s peers into the predictable career of weekend DJing and the odd niche hit ‘bangin’ choon’. Instead he runs Border Community whose Nathan Fake album is Beatmag’s Album of the Year and produces his own Warp Records-ish electronica. It’s still dance music, but smeared in distortion, buzz and glitch-techno crunch.
5. Husky Rescue
Ghost Is Not Real (Catskills)
The second album from Finland’s kings of downtempo is beautifully, magically illustrated by master-artist Kustaa Saksi. The music inside isn’t as immediate or upbeat as their ‘Country Falls’ debut but is just as lush. The best of it, such as the deliciously heartbroken ‘Hurricane (Don’t Come Knocking)’ is a match for their best material. One for late night lovelorn bedsit listeners everywhere.
6. OneTwo
Instead (There (there))
Paul Humphries is suddenly very busy. As well as becoming involved again with OMD to perform ‘Architecture & Morality’ live in May 2007, there’s this new venture with Claudia Brucken, once singer with ‘80s electro-popsters Propaganda. Beatmag only has a five track sampler but, judging on this basis, always risky, the duo work well together. Brucken’s melodramatically solemn vocals play off nicely against Humphries’ orchestral synths. It’s over-produced and too smooth but, in the end, they sometimes pull off such stadium dynamics.
7. Helge Sund Norske Store Orkester
Denada (ACT)
Playfully avant-garde big band jazz from a trombonist associate of Geir Lynse who has his own outfit. The Scandanavian jazz scene has been one of the big successes from that part of the world in recent years and this boundary-pushing Norwegian has been at the vanguard. What’s more, it’s accessible for everyone, not just bebop addicts in search of their latest dischordant fix.
8. The Ruby Suns
The Ruby Suns (Memphis Industries)
Ryan McPhun has one of the least likely names in rock but rather suitable for his music which harks back to the days of “phun, phun, phun till your daddy takes the T-Bird away.” In fact, late period Brian Wilson is more Ruby Suns thing, spliced with easy-going indie. He doesn’t have the Beach Boys’ capacity for timeless songwriting but there’s some high-aiming pop on board and McPhun has amalgamated the sunshine heritage of his native California with the guitar pop of his new base in New Zealand.
9. Trainwreck Riders
Lonely Road Festival (Alive)
San Francisco trio, comprising two strumming brothers and a drummer, who are part of the West Coast’s do-it-yourself scene wherein the bands just set up any-old-where and start a hoe-down party. Their music switches easily between old-fashioned country-folk of the Pete Seeger variety and Sonic Youth-lite, a strange combination that works fine. Decent enough, if a bit workman-like, but there’s potential…
10. Nickodemus
Endangered Species (ESL)
Nickodemus is from New York and has run the successful Turntables On The Hudson club night for some years with his partner Mariano. A homeboy at heart he was knocked off the hip hop straight and narrow by exposure to Brit labels such as Ninja Tune and Mo’Wax, which was a good thing as they opened his ears to the possibilities of all the sounds going on around him. Consequently, Nickodemus doesn’t deal in any one musical flavour but borrows from wherever he fancies, whether that’s Latin, jazz, African, Hindi, Afro, whatever else. This makes his album a wide-ranging funky dancefloor treat.
Reissues
Madness
Singles Box Sets Vol I & II (Virgin/EMI)
The Nutty Boys enter the cybernetic age with their entire back catalogue of singles and b-sides available on www.emimusic.com. It’s fair to say that Madness had one the tastiest runs of consistently excellent singles in the history of British pop. All the classics are here, of course, including the group’s only UK No.1 ‘House Of Fun’, but so are forgotten gems such as the spooked jazzy b-side ‘Madness Is All In The Mind’ and the contemplative melancholic records of the mid-‘80s when Madness, gradually fragmenting, considered where they stood as age weathered them. Genius.
Compilations
Relish Compilation
(Relish)
Relish come of age with this compilation which demonstrates just how on the ball they’ve consistently been since their inception in 2001. Label boss Robi Insinna, AKA Manhead, drops some of the juiciest material, as do Italy’s Franz & Shape, but it’s all pitched midway between muscular punk-funk, loose organic techno and rock stripped to its underwear. Like Kitsune, though not quite so immediate, Relish are the sound of 2007 writ large.
Fabriclive 31: The Glimmers
(Fabric)
Those Fabric compilations just keep coming and, like the club itself, show no sign of kowtowing to any commercial notions, which just shows that one can keep it hip and make money at the same time if one targets the right audience. The Glimmers open with a riveting new remix of Roxy Music’s ‘Same Old Scene’ but keep the pressure up, bouncing back and forth between retouched oldies such as Freez, Human League or Freddie Mercury and newer fare by the likes of Prins Thomas, Mekon and their own ‘Kobe’s In California’. The main thing is that they use their imagination – a rare treat in the world of the mix CD.
Albums for review should be sent to…
Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing BN11 9FG
