Reviews

Weekly Reviews For October 8, 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

The Pipettes - Judy

I don't know how many of you saw the recent BBC4 Stiff Records documentary, but if you did you will have seen Tracy Ullman (looking delectable) resurrecting the girl group sound of the 60s when the likes of Shadow Morton were lurking in the backroom. Well, The Pipettes are doing exactly the same, 25 years on.

The tale of tale of a partying schoolgirl who has done too much too young will doubtless fly over the heads of the moral free mob, but actually does have something to say.

It's enjoyable in a second division Phil Spector kind of way, but Tracy did it better!.

Bernard Fanning - Wish You Well


Apparently, Sir Bernard Fanning is the owner of the most recognisable voice in Australia, which considering I refuse to believe in the existence of any such Antipodean nonsense, isn't much of a claim.

But apparently he is the lead singer / songwriter with the biggest band in Neverland - Powderfinger. Which has got to be a made up name. The next thing they'll be trying to convince me that gravity exists (it doesn't, only our belief in it exists). However, whoever and whatever he is, this is a splendid single. Taken from the album 'Tea and Sympathy'.it's one of those simple, straightforward tunes that doesn't bore us, gets straight to the chorus, and wraps you right round its little finger.

There's nothing big and fancy, just an acoustic based up tempo little ditty that you'll be singing for months. Well done, non-existent fella.

Astro Al - 4:20

How do they do it? How do they always manage to track me down? Is there some kind of nutter radar out there homing in on my brainwaves? Looks like I'll be looking out that tinfoil hat after all.

It's bad enough that Bartles knows my location (hi John), but now I have to worry about Astro Al and his deranged Beefheartian ramblings. Be warned - this CD has a track called "I Wish I Had A Goat". Sometimes Astro Al does stumble across a childlike space hymn as on "Octopus Sky". Shame it was inspired by a dead mother and a feral child.

And if you get past "Centipede Diary", "Dinosar Sushi" and their ilk, then you'll have all twenty one minutes of the title track ahead of you. Astro Al may say 'legalise it baby' but he puts up a commendable argument for criminalising just about everything.

Depending on your viewpoint, this is either a cry for help and / or a straitjacket, or a work of genius. Me, I'm painting the walls black. Zzzzzzzzzzzzkerkerkerkkek...over and out.

Kye Marshall Trio - Standard Time

Album number three from Kye Marshall and, as you'll maybe have guessed, it's an album of standards. If, like me, you've missed her two previous CDs of original material, then you'll be intrigued by the notion of a cellos as a lead instrument in jazz.

And it does take some getting used to. But it is worth the effort. I've always found the cello to be an abrasive instrument but, courtesy of some good song choices, arrangements and accompaniment, it ends up an enjoyable listen, even if I can't bear the version of "Summertime".

But thanks to the likes of "Round Midnight", "Girl From Ipanema" and "Windows", this is a CD I will return to.

Spotlight Kid - Departure

From the outset of choral feedback and lo-fi kit sounds that burst into a big and jittery pop anthem, it is clearer than a Spring-time dawn that this album will kick in hard but is so gorgeously pretty that you will be stunned and led into a state of bliss that is almost post-coital. Think of it as if Maralyn Monroe kisses you with tongues and everything, gropes you firmly, then changes her mind and boots you in the balls. With a smile still emblazoned across your face, tears of pain will trickle down and into your inflamed groin-region. Part of you will feel the hurt and sadness of it all, but a great deal of you will feel desperate for more. You'll feel love.

This is Chris Davis' brainchild (a key member of alternative hots, Six by Seven). Coupled with Katty Heath from Bent and additional appearances from other members of Six by Seven, it is clear where each element of 'Departure' comes from. Each song is very good at projecting an image, a portrait of a day or place or glittering piece of emotion. We could examine this and get lost, so before we get tongue-tied by staring into it's deep and ethereal eyes, let's just say that it's a wonderful thing.

For example, 'Hungover' is certainly not a song you would want to put on if in that familiar state, but is a great musical representation of a cotton wool head, sticky toes, throbbing brain, desert tongue and shaking skull. Lie down, shut your eyes and be glad you're not talking to God on the Big White Telephone, but can equally be taken on a night on the town and then the subsequent day in bed via this song. And with metaphors aside, there is something messy and basic in the use of singing, but manages to hold a modestly great quality. There is something beyond words, and that makes tough work for the journo, but brilliant rewards for the listener.

Though the true killer execution and final blow lies within 'Seefeel', a disco indie throbber that grinds, licks and pumps away on you, scratching at your eardrums and covering you in sordid thoughts. In fact, it is pretty much nigh on impossible to not envision the dirtiest, smuttiest and most amazing and lucid night of your life without this being somewhere in amongst the soundtrack and just audible above the heavy breathing. If you want to treat your partner to something they'll never forget, you wouldn't do wrong to study this track and ask yourself how on earth a piece of music can project such strong feelings and whether you should just let your partner run away with it for a dirty weekend.

Further into the album, we can see trends, but all of which are forgivable. Take 'Electric Forecast' – another repetition trip of lyrics and compositional structure ('taking drugs under your bed') sung with such an innocent nursery rhyme of a melody that makes it almost unnerving.

The album will leave you as it started, in a wash of hypnotic substances, slightly tripped out playing and with no real vocal hold as such, but with enough honesty and conviction that it would seem a shame to for it to be burdened with any more.

Of course it should be seen that this material isn't a total, erm, departure from the vibes that Six by Seven were so bloody great at, but with a sharper pop tinge and an additional few layers of sound and production lumped on top of already heaving songs, all 11 tracks soar up into the heights so effortlessly that there is enough leeway for the once-thought essentials to take the backseat, dose off and enjoy the ride ('Never's Too Soon' and 'Machines' are both songs that have a very simplistic vocal use but are no less intriguing for it, and with 'Liquid Coloured' also holding the torch, this is the dominant feel of the album).

It almost sounds like a culmination of feelings and pent up frustration that have been brooding since Six by Seven died away. There are so many colours emanating from its frame, but if you didn't like the member's previous acts, you aren't necessarily going to be converted.

You should give it a go, though. The light and all these feelings that cause splutterings of wordwank are, well, beautiful. Hold this one tight and look after it, for it is brilliantly fragile and pure.

Reviewed by Gary Munday

Hey Negrita - Nine To Five


Sadly an opportunity lost being neither a cover of the Dolly Parton movie tune, or the perky Sheena Easton hit.

However, it is perky in a different way, has a fabulous chorus which utterly belies its perkiness and a splendid little banjo motif. Probably the only UK band who've got a handle on the whole alt country thing, even the harmonica break is joyful.

And for your added interactive pleasure, the single has the video and mini documentary on their recent US tour. Splendid stuff.

Jack Butler - Velvet Prose

So, here I am beside the seaside, beside the sea, looking for something uplifting to aid my constitution. nd along comes Jack Butler, in finest 'which one's Pink' fashion.

Normally, the only uplifting thing to come from Stirling is the train back to Edinburgh but, lo and behold, this is rather delightful, despite the out and out lies of the press bumph which promised me 'funk-tinged psychedelic grooves'. I actually approve of pr lies, but I've seen George Clinton live and can tell the difference between angular, skinny white boys dancing badly and the funk.

Which is to take nothing away from the intensely melodic lead track or the Talking Heads with talent vibe of "He Got No Game!" These are good things and deserve encouragement.

Aron Dees - Along For The Ride

The man has a Steston and comes from laramie, somewhere I thought was a made up TV place. But it's where the ex ranch hand, rodeo rider and current oil rig worker, Aron Dees, has been dreaming his country music dream.

Shame then that lead track "Along For The Ride" is so country by numbers, unremarkable in the extreme. Luckily, "Fortune Teller" comes along to save the day with a spirited, fiddle driven romp. "Ride" is the big ballad, and it's a quality slide driven thing.

A few more like "Fortune Teller" and Aron could find himself with a musical career.

Menil - Waiting For A Ghost

I know absolutely nothing about Menil, bar two things. He / she / it knows his / her / their way around a dark edged pop song, and he / she / it is quite possibly Belgian.

The lead track is a driving, up tempo number, the B-side, "Like A Soul Man", an acoustic based tune, teetering on the edge of collapse.

Both are splendid and may yet force me into checking out t'internet in pursuit of more.

Sinetone - Chillout Beach

I smell hippy. And it's the worst kind of hippy. It's the executive media consultant living in Notting Hill with the kids at private school kind of hippy. Designer candles from Peru dontcha know. And they are going to lurve this as the background music to their next ethnolentil dinner party.

Evil genius Pieter Nijntes is the mastermind behind this latest plot to take over every dinner party in the Home Counties. Which is a shame, although I doubt his bank balance will agree, if the Waitrose shoppers get their way.

It's a shame because the music actually deserves to be heard. You read that right hippy. The volume control is actually adjustable upwards, so you can actually hear the music above the conversation about little Tarquins espadrilles. For there are some delightful songs here. "Loving loving" is the best song Sade never sung, and deserves to be a massive hit.

So, turn up the jukebox and do yourself a favour.