Reviews

Weekly Reviews For August 7, 2006

Review Index

I am Managing Editor at Metal4Life

I also contribute reviews to getreadytorock

I am also featured reviewer at spacerock.co.uk

I was Editor & reviewer at MetalUK.

New Reviews

Telford Mining Disaster - Rodeo Wine

Now that really is a shoddy name for a band. But then TWD are an odd band. There are moments on this CD when it seems like the full horror of early Jesus & Mary Chain are bing thrust upon us. Then they go and chuck out an absolute poptastic gem like "A Second Farewell To Sheffield", which takes the minutae of life, wraps it up in a memorable melody, and leaves you reeling slightly.

But then they turn into a comedy country band and you realise that perhaps the medication isn't working as well as it should. But if lo-fi, mildly shambolic, slightly off kilter tales of everyday life are your thing, then go get some. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

V For Vendetta - DVD


A futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain or a glimpse into our near future? Personally I'm going for the latter as our dictatorial leaders clamp down on our freedoms against a backdrop of round the clock surveillance, ID cards and a culture of corruption which rots our political system from the top down.

When I saw this at the pictures I thought it looked spectacular but was lacking in plot, if not gunpowder. On the small screen there is more scope for the nuances with Natalie Portman turning in an excellent performance and Stephen Rea an absolutely dreadful one. Hugo Weaving / James Purefoy (can you spot the join) as V uses language in a vivid style rarely heard outside my head, as if to compensate for the permanent mask, and all in all, it's a fairly spectacular romp.

I've never read the comic but am assured that the movie has watered things down, but if even a handful of people get the message, and see the nightmare we're blindly wandering into, it will be worth it. My great fear is - nobody cares. And by the time they do, it will be far too late.

Kama Linden - Uninhibited

Somwtimes you just have to sigh and shake your head at living in a world where the mundane seems to be celebrated. Why anyone would want to be mundane and average is beyond me, yet we seem to thrive on elevating the dull to pedestals on high.

I'm writing this in the week that the lesser spotted tasteless monkeys of the UK have crowned their new musical princess in the UK singles chart. Her name is Lily Allen and she encapsulates everything that is awful about modern pop music, with her off key inane warblings. But hey, she suffered for her art. After all, her singlemother had to [quote] really struggle to pay three lots of school fees [unquote]. There were a lot of expletives around about here, which I have chosen to delete.

Over in the world of the extragavantly talented, Kama Linden i splying her trade, writing pointed, intelligent, literate pop / rock songs, searching for truth in life and love. So why aren't you people listening? Please stop being passive. Look for music that touches your heart and soul. You're not babies, so why do you sit there being spoon fed pap?

There are some fantastic songs here, Kama has a voice that stands out, and barring the odd moment of poor percussion this is a peach of a CD that you really should listen to. We need people like Kama to brighten our lives, so let her in.

Travis Terry - Navajoland

This CD is actually the soundtrack to a companon DVD featuring a presentation of the photographs of Alain Briot which depict the heart of Navajoland in Arizona.

Although the largely unaccompanied native flute instrumentation is beautiful in its own right, I actually found it enhanced by nipping off to the website and having a look at the photographs the music is intended to complement. And the images and music are truly in harmony.

Having a mental picture of the Navajoland certainly made repeated plays a more rewarding experience, and this is a fantastic cross culture and media project. Beautiful and inspiring.

The Aliens - Robot Man

Taken from their debut EP "Alienoid Starmionica", lead track "Robot Man" is a bizarre mix of electronica, Fat Boy Slim and baggie which is thoroughly delightful and invigorating.

It appears that out in space the alien monitors haven't started picking up 21st century music yet. Which is a good thing considering how uninspiring most of it has been. B-side "Only Waiting" is a long lost Flaming Lips track which they must have sent up in a rocket as a message to future visitors to our planet.

Good work, aliens, make sure you try the pizza, don't steal all the good women, and I'd like to leave what little remains of my brain intact, thanks. So no probes of any kind into any orifice. Cheers.

The 1990s - You Made Me Like It


Is it a deliberately misleading band name, designed to throw potential purchasers off the trail? I just wondered what with this being a bizarre hybrid of Status Quo, Goldfrapp and Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch. Which would make for a hairy, six pack brandishing, hotpant wearing dolphin. Which is pretty much how it sounds.

B-side, "Arcade Precinct" is one of those Kinks-ian semi-spoken word tales of everyday plebeian life that people seem to find interesting these days. Well listen up. Ordinary people are boring and their lives are uninteresting. More hotpant wearing dolphins please.

Present - High Infidelity


'High Infidelity' consist of three pieces, 'Souls for Sale', a suite of 3 parts with a unifying theme defined by bass guitar and nice use of brass and Pierre Chevalier's 'quirky' piano (and various other keyboards) with the Trigaux family (father/son) providing the 'angular' guitar and anguished 'vocals' in French through complex, rhythmic and melodic changes that are unmistakably the work of this unique 'RIO' Belgian progressive band whose roots are in avant-garde jazz, jazz rock and modern classical- Bartok, Stravinksy etc. The 27 minutes of 'Souls for Sale' is a great success, its musical ambition realised in similar fashion to other very successful Roger Trigaux compositions like 'Delusions'.

The second piece 'Strychnine for Christmas' begins with cello and some marvellous stereo effects with trumpet, guitar, piano and drums then the vocal on a rather sinister tale written by Pierre Chevalier. The second part begins with sax sounding like Van Der Graaf Generator's 'A Plague of Lighthouse Keeper's but even more chilling as the disturbing tale continues with words this time by drummer Dave Kerman with Chevalier's shimmering piano arpeggios and cello and Keith Macksoud's bass paving the way for some brass fuelled jazz rock (Alto and tenor sax, trumpet and flugelhorn all feature on this album). Chevalier's mellotron provides the bedrock for this track

The album concludes with Roger Trigaux's 'Rêve De Fer' ('Iron Dream') -similar musical ingredients and dramatic impact with squealing guitars and sax at the end- this is not background music! Jarring, dark and dissonant are all adjectives that can be applied to Present's music and are certainly pertinent to this release. There is also something very warm and remarkable about their sound and I enjoyed the fuller effect given by the addition of brass on this recording..

Recorded between 1999 and 2001, 'High Fidelity' is a very thought provoking sonic experience. If you like your music challenging and very different from the mainstream then take this rhythmic and melodic trip! In case you are unfamiliar with this band, Roger Trigaux is ex Univers Zero and their music can also be compared in places to a 'heavy' King Crimson and to the left of Magma! Present's music can be found on Carbon 7 and most recently on a live set 'A Great Inhumane Adventure' which also comes highly recommended.

(reviewed by Phil Jackson)