Cribsheet
The one and only big list of all the forthcoming artist albums in Beatmag's discerning hands, listed alphabetically under release date and including a brief summary.
For a listing in The Cribsheet send albums to...
Thomas H, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 9FG, UK
June 5th
Afterlife ‘The Afterlife Lounge’ (Ilabel)
Apparently, a bit of a name on the Ibiza chill-out circuit and it’s likely his album sounds great nutted on a beachside couch as the sun rises, but served cold it’s a tedious ragbag of clichés that trundles through dull soul and ethnic leanings.
Banco De Gaia ‘Farewell Ferengistan’ (Disco Gecko)
In the early ‘90s there was a Glastonbury-endorsed bond between hippies and ravers, best summed up by Tony Marks’ Banco De Gaia. This album will be ignored through prejudice but its vibrant tribal hippy-tronica is lush and lovelier than most.
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Blodwyn Pig ‘Ahead Rings Out’ (EMI)
1969 album from band founded by ex-Jethro Tull member Mick Abrahams. Proggy jazz-blues is the name of the game but a lot more lively and funky than expected.
Boxcutter ‘Oneiric’ (Planet Mu)
Northern Ireland’s Barry Lynn gives us some prime Planet Mu, ie warped horror film electronics and diseased crunch beats.
Camera Obscura ‘Let’s Get Out Of This Country’ (Elefant)
Female-fronted Glaswegian band whose sound is somewhere between Kirsty MacColl, Nancy Sinatra and Julie London, but simmered in their home city’s illustrious indie history. Alternately delicate, sweet and boisterous, it’s top sugar-pop.
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Willie Colon & Ruben Blades ‘Sembra’ (Fania/V2)
Part of V2’s ten classic re-releases from the ‘60s-‘70s Fania label which is, as Louie Vega said, “to salsa like Def Jam is to hip hop”. A 1978 anti-American concept album filled with Afro-Brazilian percussion and prog-Latino funk.
Couch ‘Figur 5’ (Morr Music)
German four piece who wander the electronic experimental zones Radiohead occasionally explore, combining it with post-rock soundscaping to passable effect.
The Neil Cowley Trio ‘Displaced’ (HideInside)
Child piano prodigy who turned his back on the Royal Academy to tour with the likes of Gabrielle and the Brand New Heavies. His newest venture is frolicking but straightforward jazz piano.
M Craft ‘Silver & Fire’ (679)
Australian songwriter who welds the old-fashioned narrative songwriting of Bacharach & David to a Simon & Garfunkel-ish ‘60s folk-poppinness, with many more timbres and tics thrown in for good measure. The result is often lovely.
Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco ‘Celia & Johnny’ (Fania/V2)
Part of V2’s ten classic re-releases from the ‘60s-‘70s Fania label which is, as Louie Vega said, “to salsa like Def Jam is to hip hop”. The album that crowned Cruz ‘Queen Of Salsa’ and contains the classic anthem ‘Quimbera’.
Da Vinci Vox ‘The Hidden Message’ (EMI)
Dreadful cash-in on the ubiquitous Dan Brown franchise. It’s tawdry Gregorian chant electronica, in the vein of rubbish old Enigma, and claims to be filled with codes and secret messages. Who cares. It’s crap.
David DeMordaunt ‘Blackbird’s Lullaby’ (Temujin)
San Francisco singer-songwriter whose music dives all over the place – one moment it’s folky, the next it’s vanished off on a spacey jazz guitar solo, and the next it’s sample-scaping gently. Intriguing. Check www.daviddemordaunt.com for details.
DJ 3000 ‘Migration’ (Submerge/Motech)
Quite boring funky tech-house-tronica from Detroit by prolific Underground Resistance new boy.
Ed Harcourt ‘The Beautiful Lie’ (Heavenly/EMI)
Dandy-ish intelligent songwriter nominated for a Mercury Music Prize in 2001 fires out a fifth album of spirited rockin’ bluesiness that’s full of stories and broken hearts.
Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid ‘The Exchange Session Vol. 2’ (Domino)
Four Tet/Fridge main man and jazz drummer extraordinaire join forces once again for three lengthy improvised jams wherein percussive showiness collides with bleeptastic curiosity. An acquired taste.
(hed)p.e. ‘Back 2 Base X’ (Suburban Noize)
Political hip hop pop punk thrash from Huntingdon Beach, California. Going since 1994, their chosen genre may not be in the spotlight now but they don’t seem to care and rip into their country’s leaders with an enthused passion that’s invigorating.
Jimpster ‘Amour’ (Freerange)
Faintly infected with the much over-hyped Berlin minimalism Jamie Odell’s Freerange label is doing OK and his Jimpster project release their third album in similar Snax-ish mode. Noodle-tronic bleep-funk with occasional MCing.
Marsen Jules ‘Les Fleurs’ (City Centre Offices)
Second album from Martin Juhls of ambient tone music and glitchy soundscaping that also aims for the avant-classical crowd.
Mick Karn ‘Three Part Species’ (MK)
Former Japan member always found wandering the fringes of the avant-garde while retaining his ear for a tune. He’s worked, in the past, with everyone from Nusrat Ali Kahn to Gary Numan, and his latest is indefineable ethnic ambient electro-folk pop. See interview [LINK TO INTERVIEW]
Little People ‘Mickey Mouse Operation’ (Illicit)
Anglo-Swiss fellow Laurent Clerc drops a downtempo breakbeat melange that shows imagination, iced with a few twinkling melodies and laidback female vocals. Trip hop, basically, and done rather well.
Christina Milian ‘So Amazin’’ (Mercury)
When will the world grow sick of this generic R&B diva shite? Sub-Beyonce nonsense that Cool & Dre should be ashamed to be producing. Plenty of tedious vocal showboating. Utter boredom, ripe for inducing narcolepsy on daytime radio.
New Buffalo ‘The Last Beautiful Day’ (Kooky Discs)
2002 album by Sally Seltmann from Melbourne, Australia, that finally gets a UK release (it was released in the US last year). She has a unique songwriting voice – sweet, witty, melodic and gentle, tempered with electronic whimsy.
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NFD ‘Dead Pool Rising’ (Jungle)
Taking the template of ‘80s goth-rock from where The Mission and their own Fields Of The Nephilim left it, these hardy black-clad troopers, deliver preposterous melodramatic doomy guitar pop that’s quite a laugh, in a funny sort of way.
Orson ‘Bright Idea’ (Mercury)
This lot can fuck right off. Remember Reo Speedwagon, Foreigner, Chicago and all that dire ’70s soft rock by mulleted men wearing checked trousers with elastic wastebands. It was shit then and it’s shit now, whatever ‘Guilty Pleasures’ popularity.
Primal Scream ‘Riot City Blues’ (Columbia)
After two albums of Krautrock-meets-Suicide moodiness Bobby Gillespie’s last gang in town return to their faux-Stones moves of 1994. Recorded in ten days, it’s not original but such a Lynryd Skynrd-meets-MC5 rock-out is a breath of fresh air.
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Louie Ramirez ‘Ali Baba’ (Fania/V2)
Part of V2’s ten classic re-releases from the ‘60s-‘70s Fania label which is, as Louie Vega said, “to salsa like Def Jam is to hip hop”. The ‘60s mambo band leader decided to get hip in ’68 and the result is this frantically fun dancefloor bomb.
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ROC ‘Night Fold Around Me’ (12 Apostles)
Genre-evasive three-piece, around since the late ‘90s, who scupper commercial potential through stylistic promiscuity – cool - but also possibly because they’re OK rather than A-league. The song ‘Journey To The Centre Of Brixton’ is ace.
Monguito Santamaria ‘Blackout’ (Fania/V2)
Part of V2’s ten classic re-releases from the ‘60s-‘70s Fania label which is, as Louie Vega said, “to salsa like Def Jam is to hip hop”.1970 Latino soul from a young master-pianist, coming on like an Hispanic Sly & the Family Stone.
Senor Coconut ‘Yellow Fever!’ (Newstate)
German electronic maverick Uwe Schmidt’s best known project returns, attempting to Latino up the Yellow Magic Orchestra as he winningly did Kraftwerk. It’s fine but unfortunately YMO are a more obscure and acquired taste so it’s less successful.
Shooting At Unarmed Men ‘Yes! Tinnitus!’ (Too Pure)
Jon Chapple, late of raucous Cardiff trio mclusky, with his new band. Never got mclusky, don’t get this. Lo-fi racket with a few murky gags, as if someone who can’t play were trying to be The Ruts and ‘Bummed’-era Mondays at the same time.
Labi Siffre ‘Labi Siffre’ + ‘The Singer And The Song’ + ‘Crying, Laughing, Loving , Lying’ + ‘For The Children’ + Remember My Song’ (EMI)
The gay rights activist and London-based poet-songwriter’s albums dating from the 1970-75 period. His songwriting embraces funk, pop and his African origins and while he sometimes veers into the syrupy, the best of it is intriguing and different.
Paul Simon ‘Surprise’ (Warner Bros)
His first album since 2000 is produced by Brian Eno and full of thoughtful ponderings called things like ‘Everything About It Is A Love Song’ that potter about over funky yet flat guitar grooves. Very Paul Simon and very grown-up, ie, clever but tepid.
Stuart A Staples ‘Leaving Songs’ (Beggars Banquet)
The Tindersticks frontman heads off to Nashville for an album of good-humoured poetic cigs’n’coffee growlers that, as ever, owe a debt to Mr Leonard Cohen but are none the worse for that.
Sweet Coffee ‘Perfect Storm’ (541/NEWS)
Belgian club track producers Red Carpet, AKA Patrick Bruyndonx and Raffaele Brescia, hook up with singer Bibi Diabokua for pleasant, if hardly gripping, jazz-house grooving, based around gentle nu-soul songwriting.
Sandi Thom ‘Smile… It Confuses People’ (RCA/SonyBMG)
24 year old Scottish south Londoner who famously garnered a record deal by staging an internet gig in her basement flat to much global interest. Her songs satisfyingly relish wordplay and range from rough-edged strum-alongs to orchestral opulence.
Towers of London ‘Blood, Sweat and Towers’ (TVT)
NME faves (ie, vacuously wild but not dangerous) debut is a raucous pretend Motely Crue punk rock party, and even has one song that steps off the beaten track, the Bowie-meets-Manics epic, ‘King’. Ridiculous, clichéd and cartoon-ish. But amusing.
US3 ‘Schizophonic’ (Us3.com)
While Geoff Wilkinson’s fifth album is an efficiently funky concoction of jazz-hop, as jolly and even witty as his pop hits of yore, it’s hardly vital and releasing it on a label called us3.com does it no favours in terms of presentation.
Bill Wells & Maher Shalal Hash Baz ‘Osaka Bridge’ (Karaoke Kalk)
Wells is a Scottish jazzer while the Maher Shalal Hash Baz ensemble hail from Japan. Together they create a mournful brass outing that sounds sweetly amateurish and is filled with beguiling slivers of tune, as if the school brass quartet hit a seam of gold.
Zero 7 ‘The Garden’ (Atlantic)
This duo and the Audio Bullies were the last stragglers to clamber through the majors-sign-club acts window before it closed. They’re still lame and these ‘70s folk pastiches are mostly drab, though there are a couple of sneaky crackers on board too.
June 12th
Barry Adamson ‘Stranger On The Sofa’ (Central Control)
The ex-Seed and Magazine man returns with his first album in eight years. Reknowned for his darkly jazzy instrumental material he now takes to the mic and rocks moodily, but all deeply marinated in his noir film soundtrack addiction.
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DJ Drez ‘Jahta Beat’ (Say It Loud)
Dude who’s big in the LA hip hop community and has even worked with the Black Eyed Peas, which is all a bit misleading as his album is a mantric dubby ethnic stew recalling Transglobal Underground or Fund-a-mental in jam mode.
Giardini De Miro ‘North Atlantic Treaty Of Love’ (2nd)
This Italian six-piece sound as if they should come from Manchester as there’s a touch of ‘Movement’-era New Order to their post-rock moodiness but, just to throw you of the scent, there’s also a few numbers that borrow from the Anticon blueprint.
Joan As Police Woman ‘Real Life’ (Reveal)
Joan Wasser has worked with Anthony & the Johnsons and one of them has rubbed off on the other, but where she recalls his delicate self-absorption there’s also a significant dose of indie rock thrown into the mix. A feisty original.
The Longcut ‘A Call And Response’ (Deltasonic)
Up’n’coming Manchester three-piece whose output only clicked for Beatmag on hearing the album (we even saw them live to no avail). Theirs is an original mash-up of mantric riffing, drum machines, guttural yelps and relentlessly jamming the groove.
Mr Lif ‘Mo Mega’ (Def Jux)
Boston MC whose wordsmithery is couched in poetry and intelligence, here assisted by El-P on production. Admirable stuff but, in the end, such gritty political material densely packed over a grungey soundtrack, is a hard-going rather than enjoyable.
Moco ‘Once Bitten , Twice Shy’ (Stunt Monkey)
The sort of band the NME adores. Young, London-centric, belligerent, punk-ish and snappy – they tick all the boxes but add nothing new to their Stooges-riffed pop. If they’re lucky they’ll have a Noughties guitar band conveyor belt moment in the sun.
Moonstone Project ‘Time To Take A Stand’ (Majestic Rock)
The label’s called Majestic Rock and so it should be for Italian guitarist Matt Filipini has persuaded ex-members of Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, Rainbow, Dokken, and Quiet Riot to join him on his sweaty blues rock mission to old school Kerrang heaven.
The Nags Head ‘Welcome To The Meat Raffle’ (Manna)
A pinch of Cassetteboy, a smidgeon of Squarepusher and a dose of songs struggling to be heard amongst the manic carnival of ideas bursting from a renegade computer, and that’s just the beginning. Off the wall stuff.
The New Cars ‘It’s Alive’ (Eleven Seven Music)
Live set by ‘reformed’ Cars. The founder member died of cancer in 2000, the original lead singer isn’t involved so Todd Rungren’s standing in. While, in itself, not dreadful, the overall impression is messy, lost, unnecessary and faintly desperate.
Perspects ‘Peopleskills’ (Interdimensional Transmissions)
Detroit artist Ian Clark mines the moody electro seam that I-F made his own in the late ‘90s. He robot-chats away cynically to a soundtrack of droid-beats and analogue synths, and should develop a small following in Germany.
Sizzla ‘Waterhouse Redemption’ (Greensleeves)
One of reggae’s biggest names returns with a combination of singing and chat, backed by some of Jamaica’s most famous rhythms reinterpreted by King Tubby. Laced with the sunny benevolence of conscious Jah and weed, it all goes down easily enough.
Venetian Snares ‘Cavalcade Of Glee And Dadist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms’ (Planet Mu)
More ludicrous cacophony from Canada’s Aaron Funk who has carved himself out a prime niche as the man to go to for chopped breakbeat madness, sample silliness, hyperspeed BPMs and atonal noise. Done with humour rather than anger.
Verb T & Harry Love ‘Bring IT Back To Basics’ (Silent Soundz)
Funky London lyrical hip hop featuring Yungun and Jehst amongst others. Skilled but somehow never whips up the storm it might have.
June 19th
The Automatic ‘Not Accepted Anywhere’ (Polydor)
“So much trash on the radio today – he does it in the routine way,” they sing but, while their shouty indie-punk is feisty enough it sounds like every other NME-friendly ‘The’-prefixed post-Libertines band. Routine, in other words..
Dennis Bovell ‘Ah Who She Go Deh?/Leggo! Ah-Fi-We-Dis’ + ‘Audio Active’ + ‘Brain Damage’ + ‘Scientific, Higher Ranking Dubwise/Yuh Learn’ + ‘Strictly Dubwize’ (EMI)
Founder of Matumbi and leading light of the UK reggae scene at a time (late ‘70s/early ‘80s) when it looked like it might go overground in a way it never did. These albums range from the excitedly exploratory to perfunctory genre exercises.
Ent ‘Fuck Work’ (Baskaru)
Great title. It’s not angry punk noise, though, it’s crackle’n’fuzz avant-garde noise from Italian multi-intrumentalists Michele Scariot and Emanuele Bortoluzzi.
ISAN ‘Plans Drawn In Pencil’ (Morr Music)
If you’re a fan of super-mellow outer space bleeptronics with a warm humanity at their heart, then ISAN are worth an extended visit, as is most of the back catalogue of Morr Music. The conjunction of the pair is as things should be.
Laid ‘A Room For You’ (Loaded)
Swedish chill-house producers John Anderson and Johan Emmoth go for the tropical beach vibes in a Man Called Adam-ish way, and even haul in The Beloved’s Jon Marsh on vocal duties. Pootles along rather than wins one over.
Martin Luther ‘Rebel Soul Music’ (Avatar)
Not the 16th century church reformist but an ex-member of The Roots who claims an original angle on soul-funk, but really it’s a tasty rijig of the old recipe albeit willing to get heavy if needs be and occasionally over-seasoned with jazz fusion.
Milosh ‘Meme’ (Plus Research)
There seems to be a mini-scene in Canada where they take glitchy gentle electro instrumentals and turn them into soulful songs. This, from Toronto, is interesting and easy on the ear.
Nybbl ‘The Path From A Point Is In The Shape Of A Heart’ (Noise Factory)
More from Toronto. Tim Quackenbush carves out a series of ambient breakbeat-based instrumentals that will sit easily with those who think there’s too much guitar in the work of Tortoise.
Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands ‘Snake In The Radio’ (Evangeline)
The former Screaming Trees drummer has' joined forces with producer Steve Fisk for an excellent album of doomed bar-room honkytonk that comes on like the Only Ones re-imagined as Americana. Recommended.
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Radio 4 ‘Enemies Like This’ (EMI)
After the muted reaction to their last album, the over-produced and tritely political ‘Stealing Of A Nation’, the latest was recorded in ten days, a song a day, and is rippin’ smash’n’grab short-haired new York rock with teeth and passion.
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Max Sedgeley ‘From The Shoots To The Roots’ (Sunday Best)
Brit-funker who popped above the profile parapet with ‘Happy’ a while back, returns with a whole set of jovial funk that wears its heart on its sleeve.
SEE ALBUM REVIEWS SEE INTERVIEW
Swimming Pool ‘Good Old Music’ (Combination)
Minimal, minimal, minimal – hip as Hell, great loud on a spaced dancefloor and mostly soporific off it. Dusseldorf duo Michael Schreibenreiter and Stefan Schwander deliver a plodding 4/4 noodle with little to hold the attention.
Veldt ‘The Cause: The Effect’ (Outstanding)
Outfit based in Brighton, UK, who combine trip-hop-ish breakbeats, ‘60s film soundtrack pop and sensitive indie guitar songwriting. It’s an entertaining concoction that stays away from tired blueprints.
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Xavier ‘Santo Subito’ (Accretions)
Ah, Accretions, a label so perversely avant-garde they’re actually admirable, even if you’d only choose their music to get rid of unwanted guests. This one is the sound of Indian religious music and electronic tones filtered though the noise of a traffic jam.
June 26th
Dabrye ‘Two/Three’ (Ghostly)
The ever-hip Ghostly drop another album by Michigan hip hop vanguard-ist Tadd Mullinix whose instrumental electronica sound-bed amalgamated with the dense MC skills of MF Doom, Beans, Wildchild and others, makes for a tasty concoction.
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The Freelance Hellraiser ‘Waiting For Clearance’ (Ugly Truth)
On the label Ugly Truth which couldn’t be more apt as Roy Kerr, whose productions defined the early Noughties bootleg craze, has birthed a hideous self-conscious indie-dance turkey featuring various members of Snow Patrol on vocals. Terrible.
Man ‘Keep On Crinting – The Liberty/UA Years’ (EMI)
Late ’60s Welsh blues rockers who sound as if they were very hairy but muster a hefty broth of riffs they’ve nicked from Chess Records.
Moloko ‘Greatest Hits’ (EMI)
‘Time Is Now’ and ‘Sing It Back’ are here, of course, but many forget that before the Ibiza-dance-hit years came the trip-hop-meets-‘60s-spy-movie years, which was most of the ‘90s, so there’s quite a few moments of fascinatingly oddball forgotten pop.
The Morning After Girls ‘Shadows Evolve’ (Best Before)
Australian band who deliver fuzz-laden rock’n’roll that tips its hat to Sonic Youth and early Bob Dylan. Nothing new, then, but they have the bite, the brashness and, best of all, the songs to see it through.
Niobe ‘White Hats’ (Tomlab)
Cologne’s Yvonne Cornelius returns with a bizarre combination of offbeat singer-songwriting, ‘50s jazz club and ‘80s funk flourishes. Uncategorizable stuff but not unapproachable.
Outputmessage ‘Nebulae’ (Melodic)
“I like to dance so I like melody to be prominent,” says Bernard Farley, the 22 year old Virginian behind this, so why is his album a bleeping crunchbag of electronica that could be any one of the billion releases Planet Mu regularly foists on the world?
Serena-Manesh ‘Serena-Manesh’ (Playlouder)
Norwegian band on an odyssey into the speaker-blowing psychedelic rock realms of Spacemen 3, M83 and Hawkwind, with a seasoning of melody-flecks sprinkled throughout. Sound like they’d tear the roof off in a live environment.
Sparo ‘Geniac’ (Scenario)
Virgil Howe, son of Yes/Asia guitarist Steve Howe, spends some of his time drumming for the Killer Meters and the rest firing out psychedelic, sampledelic, cut-ups such as this, happily also rich with decent MCing, mad ideas and tunes.
Wise In Time ‘The Ballad of Den the Men’ (Crammed Discs)
Ian Simmonds, once of the wonderful Sandals and more recently known as Juryman, has moved to Germany and developed yet another project. It’s light, airy band-led acoustic jazz-meets-indie threaded through with Simmonds’ talent for wordsmithery.
July 3rd
Louie Austen ‘Hear My Song’ (Tirk)
Sexagenarian Austrian hotel lobby crooner ‘discovered’ by leading lights from the German techno scene and relaunched in the late ‘90s. His greatest hits is the sound of the Rat Pack reimagined as a Berlin electro act, while holding onto their jazzy cool.
Amusement Parks On Fire ‘Out Of The Angeles’ (V2/Pavilion Of The Dead)
Only 21 and from Nottingham there are great expectations for Michael Feerick’s band but, it turns out, with good reason. They deal in great swirling 4AD-ish burnt out guitar rock, noisy but floaty. Recorded in Sigur Ros’ Icelandic studio and you can tell
.
Charlie Dore ‘Cuckoo Hill’ (Black Ink Music)
After a minor US hit in 1980, she’s spent the intervening years writing songs for the likes of Tina Turner, Celine Dion and Jimmy Nail - nothing to be proud of but a decent living. She returns with a pedestrian sub-Joni Mitchell effort for niche tastes.
Alexander Kowalski ‘Changes’ (Different/PIAS)
Featuring collaborations with Funk D’Void, Khan, Joris Voorn and others, the Berlin producer still nails his own distinct sound - techno-disco – pumping and floor-friendly, but with vocals and humanity that give it a visceral heat.
Lansing-Dreiden ‘The Dividing Island’ (Kemado)
Appears to be a New York art collective whose schtick is that they’re a company dealing in multiple idioms. Be that as it may, their album is invigoratingly offbeat. Imagine The Who circa 1970 making an electro-psychedelic prog-punk album.
Metallic Falcons ‘Desert Doughnuts’ (Voodoo-EROS)
CocoRosie’s Sierra Casady with her side-project, reminiscent of dirgey old Nico, but given a post-rock tinge and folk trimmings. It’s the sound of mysterious New York avant-arty sorts experimenting with downers.
New Flesh ‘Universally Dirty’ (Big Dada)
Regular Big Dada producer Part 2 leaves behind his disappointing solo album to stew up a raunchy mess of electro-ragga-grime-funk which MCs Juice Aleem and Toastie Tailor utilize for a rude lewd sexy hip hop party.
Nouvelle Vague ‘Bande A Part’ (Peacefrog)
The French group who so stylishly, emotively take post-punk songs to the jazz lounge reappear with their second album. As ever, it’s hit and miss, but the versions of ‘Fade To Grey’ and ‘Bele Lugosi’s Dead’ are worth the price of entry alone.
Pretz ‘Soundcastles’ (I Label)
Keyboardist Neil Cowley, who also has a Cribsheet-listed release with his Trio, is someone to stay well away from. Zero Seven collaborator and one half of Fragile State, his noodling jazz chillage is modern easy-listening at it’s very worst.
July 10th
Amy Millan ‘Honey From The Tombs’ (City Sland/Arts & Crafts)
How good is this? One of the singers from Toronto’s extravagant indie sorts Stars cuts loose with her own solo set. She deals in broken-hearted delicate acoustic country that’s run through with the latest late night moments of the Velvet Underground.
Jeff Mills ‘Blue Potential’ (Uncivilised World/Axis)
The Detroit techno DJ returns with that staple of ‘70s prog bands - an orchestra - in this case the Montpellier Philharmonic. The results, while never ludicrous, simply sound like incidental music from a Hollywood blockbuster, with occasional beats.
Peaches ‘Impeach My Bush’ (XL)
The outrageously rude Canadian Berliner returns with a whole heap more electro-grunge filth. Her third album may be her nastiest yet and comes on like a Suicide synth assault fronted by a nymphomaniac. She’s a one–off. Great stuff.
Osaka Popstar and the American Legends of Punk ‘Osaka Popstar and the American
Legends of Punk’ (Rykodisc)
Ageing American punk rock ‘supergroup’ including Marky Ramone, Misfits associate John Cafiero, Misfit Jerry Only, Black Flag’s Dez Cadena and Voidoid Ivan Julian. It’s a fun if unreconstituted Luddite take on the original formula.
Ray ‘Daylight In The Darkroom’ (Pito)
A second album of widescreen big-voiced indie rock from London that contains hints of nascent U2 grandiosity. They sound hungry for glory but the music’s plain. May succeed on the basis of a hefty work ethic. Particularly in the US.
Rodelius ‘Works 1968-2005’ (Gronland)
Krautrock pioneer (with Kluster) and instigator of much wibbly anything-goes experimentalism. A fascinating character whose proto-soundcsaping, loops, mantric riffing, etc, is an addendum to his lifelong socio-historical adventure.
Sebadoh ‘III’ (Domino)
Lou Barlow left Dinosaur Jnr and hooked up with home studio malingerers Eric Gaffney and Jake Loewenstein, as well as a bale of weed. The results, originally released in 1991, here with extras, hailed a new dawn for lo-fi indie Americana.
Technasia ‘Popsoda’ (Technasia)
The latest from the Japanese-Parisian techno duo who have a strong following in mainland European clubland. It follows a rather dry late-‘90s blueprint veering between deep housey electronica and fiercer Dave Clarke-friendly bangers.
Cortney Tidwell ‘Don’t Let The Stars Keep Us Tangled Up’ (Ever)
Girl-fronted guitar pop from Nashville songwriter whose material is intriguing and far from saccharine. There’s a faint whiff of the Cocteau Twins but she’s developed a style that’s thoroughly original, stiletto sharp hip but also easily accessible.
Underworld ‘Misterons Mix’ (underworldlive.com)
Available to download from July 10th, it’s a mash-up of the three ‘Riverrun Project’ downloads from underworldlive.com (‘Lovely Broken Thing’, ‘Pizza For Eggs’ and ‘I’m A Big Sister, and I’m A Girl, And I’m A Princess, And This Is My Horse’).
July 17th
Mekon ‘Something Came Up’ (Wall Of Sound PIAS)
Wall of Sound original and former Psychic TV sidekick John Gosling delivers a set of roaring muscular punk-breakbeat rockers featuring the likes of Bobby Gillespie, Alan Vega and Roxanne Shante. Loud and lively, if a bit one note.
The Occasion ‘Cannery Hours’ (1965)
New York band whose sound is tinged with psychedelic electronics but at its core is sweet eccentric songwriting that comes on a bit like Lambchop. Good.
Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada ‘El Nino Y El Swol’ (ESL Music)
Martin Perna, of the New York afro-beat group Antibalas, hooks up with Quesada of the Texan Hispanic band Grupo Fantasma and the results are more computer-reliant than either of their groups - a lazy sunny afternoon Latintronic jam, in fact.
The Pipettes ‘We Are The Pipettes’ (Memphis Industries)
The idea of 21st century Phil Spector girl-pop sounds worth a novelty single or two but that’s all, so it’s a happy surprise that the trio’s debut is a cracker, contagiously tuneful and laced with a parochial lyricism worthy of Arctic Monkeys.
Ali Farka Toure ‘Savane’ (World Circuit)
The late Malian guitarist and singer is always fascinating to listen to as he provides an almost direct sonic link to the blues’ African origins. As ever transposing his native jerkel and njarka music for guitar his last album is a World music treasure trove.
Whomadewho ‘Green Versions’ (Gomma)
The Scandanavian-American disco-rock band, last seen supporting the likes of Mylo, Soulwax and Art Brut, reappear with their debut album re-jigged as a downtempo acoustic strum-fest. Works surprisingly well.
July 24th
Jenny Wilson ‘Love And Youth’ (Rabid/Cooperative Music)
A Stockholm-based mate of The Knife and signed to their label. Her debut solo effort is admirably unique – Joni Mitchell meets Supertramp but with a thoroughly crisp original modern twist to the proceedings. Great.
The Isles ‘Perfumed Lands’ (Melodic)
New York group with the appropriately dark eyelinered look who sound just like The Smiths with a little extra groove added. Not bad but very, very Morrissey.
John Foxx ‘Tiny Colour Movies’ (Metamatic)
The original Ultravox main man and all round synth pioneer drops a session of cool spacey doodles redolent of Vangelis’ ‘Bladerunner’ soundtrack, all influenced by Arnold Weizcs-Bryant’s collection of leftfield arty shorts and found films.
McPullish ‘Dub Harvest’ (Charlie’s)
Cottage industry operation from Denver, the sixth in his‘Night Owl Dub’ series. It’s sweet electronic dub for heads available from www.tantyrecordshop.com. There’s a wonderful snap on the sleeve of him amid the Colerado snow outside his studio.
Rubicks ‘In Miniature’ (Sharp Attack)
London duo that sound like a full-blown band. Vanessa Redd is guitarist and vocalist and Marc Makarov is bassist and electronic whiz. Together they go for a choppy tuneful guitar sound, occasionally like an electro-punk-pop Cocteau Twins.
August 21st
Natalie Walker ‘Urban Angel’ (Dorado)Dull delicately mournful jazzy singer-songwriter stuff from New York. Produced by Stuhr, who helped created Bebel Gilberto’s sound, which boded will but unfortunately it slips by unnoticed.
August 28th
Tim Exile ‘Nuisance Gabbaret Lounge’ (Planet Mu)
Cabaret – Gabbaret – geddit? And that’s exactly what you get, absolute beats mentalism and electronic silliness interspersed with moments of onstage banter. Sounds like it’d be unhinged in a live environment.
Fireworks Night ‘Fireworks Night’ (Organ Grinder)
Original Devonshire act whose oeuvre sits somewhere between archaic folk music and modern singer-songwriter duets. Skilful and different but initially hard to digest en masse. A grower.
The Rogers Sisters ‘The Invisible Deck’ (Too Pure)
Sometimes Jennifer and Laura Rogers run a New York bar, sometimes they knock out albums of lean sinewy punk rock with their mate Miyuki Furtado. Their third is lithe and fierce with an iron funk to it that mingles with their Pixies/Clash powerblast.
