Peter Cooper - Magic

So I'm sent a CDR with no details apart from a hand written name and title. Makes life more interesting I suppose. Bastards. So let's assume for the moment that it's musician Peter Cooper from the internet, rather than Peter Cooper postman from Poole.

If it is, then this a remarkably good release, considering the chances of it gettin gplayed were close to zero. If ye olde internette is correct, then this is Mr Coopers 3rd release, and with tracks as stonking as "Comforting The Dead", I'm surprised the name is not better known. It's full on seventies guitar rock, which is fine by me. And his bio is so quotable "There was this huge organ in our house and I would go up and climb this thing.." No matron ,really. The ladies will thrill to know that he was approached by Playgirl magazine to model (he turned them down), and has done other part-time modeling work on websites and layouts.

When that guitar wails Randy Hansen sits up from his velvet encase coffin and looks around going, "hey baby, thats my vibe". Get in my big black car and ride my skee diddly bop until it drops. Me likey. Especially the Randy Rhoads cops. Nice axe. "Take The Wheel" goes the way of Satriani, Joe and grooves grooves grooves. A brave take on "Stormy Monday", although it's no gruntin gregg.

Website for music (and pictures for the ladies, and of course, some of the gentlemen)

ACADEMY MORTICIANS - What Happened?

Several hunnerd years in the making, having wandered round a gazillion record labels, the Academy Morticians finally see the light of day via Iron Man/Who Killed Culture? Was it worth the wait? Well yes, if politically charged indie punk straight out of the Buzzcocks takes your fancy.

And they are very good, with the highlights being "This Is What Democracy Looks Like" and "Welcome To England (registered trademark)". Probably more relevant than at any time since the benign tyranny of La Thatcher, the kids will probably need the poppy hooks to suck them away from the lifeless Blink 182 to wrap their ignorant little ears around melodic diatribes against capitalism, the destruction of the earth and globalisation.

It also sounds marvellous, no doubt helped by being recorded by Paul Siddens and Mitch "Napalm Death" Harris. Not since the summer of '77 (insert hoary old memory from fat middle classs bastard here).

THE PROJECT - So Little Time

Straight out of Glasgae, The Project have been together for 5 years, drawing on such influences as The Doors, The Kinks, Pink Floyd & Guns 'N' Roses, although there is little evidence of the latter in their progtastic melodic demo EP.

"The Girl" kicks things off in mellow, balladic fashion, coming all Twelfth Night on your ass before the arrival of "Chaos" which lived up to its name, skipping like buggery before launching into cyperspace in a frantic finale. "The Clockwatcher" is the least of the tracks which suffers from poor percussion.

Well worth checking out, and with the burgeoning underground progscene in the UK, they ought to make more of that in their approach to publicity.

MICAWBA - Linear

Blimey, this is a bit good. Slabs of psychedelic influenced guitar rock, with the merest nuance of early Verve (that is to say when they were The Verve and not shite.) OOdles of top pop tunes that could easily give the Coldplays a run for their money in the Top Pop Forty game, but without 1000 times the character.

Where to begin? "Persistence" - played on Radio 1, and released as a single, should have been huge. "In Another Lifetime" - Swathed in strings (well a cello and a violin), dark and acoustic, and a leetle beet scary. "The End" - smacks of the 1960s sound that Robert Plant thinks existed, but which didn't. In fact, Mr Plant, get this lot out on tour with you. I'd pay to see that. "My Escape" - aack. Kiss drum intro, bowel inducing bass riff, festival crowds swaying to the flavour of cheap beer. Mama I'm coming home.

Und so weiter. This is a truly fabulous release, and I strongly expect it to feature rather largely in my 2003 best of thingy, assuming we're all still here. And is that ex Tyger of Pan Tang Fred Purser on part production? We should be told!

Zeitgeist, PO Box 13499, Edinburgh EH6 8YL, United Kingdom