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| If you approach
an album with the same amount of trepidation
that you do a dentist appointment, how horribly
skewed is your outlook going to be? What if
it's like, meant to be a party album? By the
people who changed the face of pop music?
God jesus how sad is that? After channeling
a coke bloated Elton John on the last N*E*R*D album (and just straight
out coke bloat on his solo) Pharrel aka Skateboard P aka The Burnout King returns
with his crew to deliver another rap with
guitars album to the masses. Or not - the
mass is presently standing in line for Timbaland's
upcoming tour. It's a new monkeyfied album
cover but the same old sounds - stripped back
club bangers and bong-voiced ballads go back
to back, and there's something about spaceships,
and something about sex, and yeah, I think
we get it... (MR) |
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| So I’m pretty
sure there’s actually only ten or fifteen
musicians in Montreal, and the local council
just puts them on some kind of rotation system
forming different combinations (“bands”) each
month to make it look like a Creative City. Wolf Parade are part of that
clique, with co-frontmen Dan Boeckner’s Handsome
Furs and Spencer Krug’s Sunset
Rubdown having become so successful
and distinct since 2005’s Apologies To
The Queen Mary that you can tell who wrote what on Zoomer. To me,
it's not as exciting as their debut – the
best tracks are just the ones that sound most
like Apologies... But whatever, four
hundred blogs will wet their pants regardless.
(SH) |
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| To be honest,
I can't say I relate to rhymes like "Driving
down the block wifey feeling intimate/Park
up at the lake and turn the car into a cigarette",
but who cares when the beats are this good.
Not even wifey does. Kidz In The Hall are The In Crowd and they will remind
you regularly. Their album is a clean combo
of yesteryear (yeah I said it, so what) samples
and a fresh perspective. It's not flawless
but it's a good indication of where hip hop
is going, and it's not directly to the club.
(LM) |
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| Shearwater began five LPs ago as a bottom drawer for Okkervil River's Jonathan
Meiburg and Will Sheff to stow away their
quieter songs. But the 'side project' tag
kinda stopped applying after Palo Santo - Rook is the work of a fully fledged
Band existing in its own right. While Meiburg's
heartbreaking voice still drives the grand
ship, his bandmates are the (multi-instrumental)
sailors shoveling (musical) coal into the…
fiery part (?), as together they find their
way through haunted, lonely oceans to Rook land. For comparisons sake, they have
a much more successful journey than that metaphor
did finding its way to the end of that sentence.
And it's my favourite release from them so
far. (SH) |
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| Sigur
Ros have stripped down their expansive
aural masterpieces to as Lo a Fi as they can
get away with while still being Sigur Ros.
Inspired by their Heima-
documented acoustic gigs through Iceland,
they've made a much looser album with a twist
of imperfection. Med Sud. was written,
recorded and mixed in only six months, and
they've kept the guitar squeaks and strained
voices that would usually be produced into
oblivion. All that makes it more personal
than usual... But I can't help crossing fingers
that some of these tracks will be re-recorded
that Sigur Ros epic grandeur we love so much.
(SH) |
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| That 60's
psychedelic garage thing has become Pretty
Popular Of Late (finger on the pulse and again, you’re
welcome.) And as with all retro-gazing trends
there’s a bunch of shitty Xeroxes, so it’s
good when you can hear a band like BJM make it sound like you can only imagine it
should. This is their thirteenth album, with
the band’s founder Anton Newcombe being the only one left from the original
lineup. With a portmanteau title that evokes
the era of their portmanteau moniker, My
Bloody Underground is a thick, heady
trip that makes us want to say things like
“thick, heady trip” before reciting "Howl" and
namedropping John Cage. Yeah, none of us were there for it, but we can pretend, right? Buy it
you loved the first twelve. (SH) |
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| Let's take a moment to pity poor Tokyo Police Club for being forced to follow up something as ridiculously hyped
as last year’s “Lessons In Crime”.
Moment taken, there’s nothing groundbreaking
here. Nice, well-written pop songs with good
lyrics, pretty keys and a few harmonies thrown
in for good measure. TPC have gotten their Death Cab twee on here, and
the songs are pretty sticky and fun. The bonus remix
CD has some pretty great moments, but DNTEL
could remix a turd and it would sound like
staring up into the rain. Buy it to show
people that sometimes simple pop is simply
fine. Alternatively, just borrow it from someone
else. (SH & RS) |
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| Recorded during
the 2006 solo tour of The Decemberists’
frontman Colin Meloy, this
album sounds pretty much as expected – just
like the Decemberists, only lesser. Unfortunately
for Colin, it becomes clear after only a few
songs that people go to the Decemberists for
the full, ornate grandeur of the ensemble
- stripped down, it's all a bit samey. The best part is Meloy’s Tom Lehrer-esque
rapport with the audience, like when he offers
them with the worst song he’s ever written,
“Dracula’s Daughter”: "You think you got it
bad/Try having Dracula for your dad." So he's
poking fun at the arcane, period-driven Gothicism
that seems to drive, well, every Decemberists
song - it's nice he noticed too. Buy
it if you own more than one Decemberist T
Shirt. (SH) |
| 14
APRIL |
POLYESTER
RECORDS |
>MYSPACE |
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| Portishead to release their first album in 11 years?
I’m excited, surprised, cautious. Maybe I
even cringed a little, in a "oh, awful memories
of my youth!" kind of way. While Third maintains the brooding, anxious aesthetic
of Portishead’s catalogue, it offers a more
open admission of vulnerability which overlies
the beautiful seductive
uneasiness of their previous works. The enveloping
sensuality of Portishead and Dummy is replaced by a darker sexiness, expressed
through the combination of dissonant rumbling
beats and Gibbons' amazing vocal versatility.
Having said that, I didn't really like
it all that much. Just felt like throwing some wanky words around. Buy it to reminisce about the general happiness of your youth without
any of the actually awful details. (RS) |
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| Most of this
gypsy-folk album was written when Van
Pierszalowski was stuck alone on
his father’s fishing boat over one sleepless
Summer. Which would be fine if the whole thing
wasn’t so obviously written only for people
who too happened to be stuck alone on their
father’s fishing boat over one sleepless Summer.
The songs have titles like “Fisherman’s Son”,
“My Eyes Won’t Shut” and “Stuck On A Boat”,
and even when they don't, and seem like they
could be anchored (haha) in something more
general, he throws in a seafaring metaphor
or ocean sound affect to remind you not to
relate to any of it. Three stars for the surprising
last quarter, where his partner Cambria
Goodwin gets hold of the reins and
sings nicely about stuff that isn’t fish. Buy it if you were stuck on your father’s
fishing boat over one sleepless Summer. (SH) |
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After Movements and the tour DVD edition and the tour and DJ Kicks compilation and that hyper tech
sexy 'socket-jacking' Euro-dream
I had I was pretty excited about the new Booka Shade release. But whereas Movements was like that bit in Finding Nemo where
they go electric jelly fish jumping, The
Sun & The Neon Light is like that scene
in the whale. Or something. A real slow mover, that maybe possesses subtleties that I'm just not picking up, Sun... is a warm wash that doesn't start jumping til the second half, and even then didn't grab attentions. Unfair comparisons to earlier work? Maybe... but maybe we wouldn't have even given this three listens if it wasn't by them. Buy if you're a mega fan, or need some cutting edge background dinner music.(MR) |
| 14
APRIL |
ROUGH
TRADE / INERTIA |
>MYSPACE |
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| As soon as I heard that there was a “nu-folk supergroup” I was sold.
Even moreso when I read it was spearheaded
by Sam Genders, star of Throw Shapes’ fourteenth
issue and, less significantly, Tunng. The
album is named after the happy accidents which
brought Genders together with Memory Band’s
Steven Cracknall, singer-songwriter Liam Baily,
and Bicycle Thieves’ Hannah Caughlin. The
stunning vocals of Caughlin, coupled with
the strings of Serafina Steer and members
of the Elysian Quartet, lend soft intimacy
to the folksy tales, and bundle in all up
in an almost innocent optimism which is delightfully
difficult to resist. This album reflects a
variety of styles, but the Genders-driven
songs are the best because they all end up
sounding Just Like Tunng, only even better.
(SH) |
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| Not every
track sounds like Canadian lesbian twins.
So, phew. Cause this hyped little number jumps
around like the seek button on a boombox.
But it'll majorly turn the traditionalists
round on this whole ringtone rap game - RZA and Rhymefest can eat it, 'cause
when it sounds like Chrissie Hynde's
cross-ethnic nasal little neice singing over
car alarms the indie kids are gonna get up.
Haunted slow grinds, pop(corn chicken) nuggets,
day-glo dub funk, headband anthems, probably
some tablas, lalala trying not to mention M.I.A. lalala. All the right
names are involved, Hollertronix, Swith, Diplo;
but just give it three weeks to turn up on
a Bonds ad. (MR) |
| 03
JUNE |
DOWNTOWN
/ INERTIA |
>MYSPACE |
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| I was somewhat
hesitant when I saw the cover of the new B-52's
album. They all looked old and crazy, but
in that disturbing without-realizing-it way.
"Do you really want to taint my impression
of you, B-52's? DO YOU?!" I yelled at the
CD, "I am seething with frustration!" But
once you finish seething and settle down, the album is actually
pretty great - particularly the first song.
Their sound is surprisingly edgier than ever; just get past the idea of middle-aged people singing about erotic
robots and dumb shit like that, and everything
is fine, fine, fine! Rhyming "deviant" with
"ingredient" makes me happy too…not really
sure why. (RS) |
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| This album almost got ripped to shreds, something along the lines of, "If you're going
to make a boring pop album, at least don't
make every single fucking song about how you’re
an idiot in ‘love, love, love’. Also, when
you tell some chick that she doesn’t have
to worry about her hair because she’s beautiful
anyway, I want to fly to England and punch
you right in the nuts. Right there." But then
I heard it again and noticed that I was kind
of tapping along in spite of myself. This
album totally benefits from the fact that
humans prefer the familiar and, in short, The
Kooks are sort of my buddies now… but I probably
still wouldn’t be seen out with them. (RS) |
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| Replacing
the tension and creepy chills of past albums
with a more 80s new-wave sound, the archetypal
grandeur of M83’s vast aural landscape is
still there - with all the orgasmic lie-on-the-carpet-holding-hands-with-your-eyes-closed-in-the-dark
moments that you wanted. The album
cover offers a bunch of teens,
half of whom could have been plucked straight
out of the Breakfast Club, and the other half
from Bandits or Gay Bash; a telling mix reflecting
M83s pinching of music from both eras. It’s
the inclusion of 80s disco trope that defines
this album from their catalogue, and helps
us understand why they were chosen to support
the Juggernauts’ recent tour. (SH) |
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Last year
I became so obsessed with the debut album
from The Long Blondes' Someone To Drive You
Home that I started dressing in pin skirts
and neck scarves. So I was understandably
disappointed when their follow up album
broke all the promises of the first – it’s
not an offensive album, but they just sound
like a mish mash every other band now. “Century”
and “Guilt” are the stand out tracks, with
Kate Jackson’s vocals at the forefront and
the whole thing sounding far more akin to Someone. Lucky they’re the first two songs
- you can turn it off after ten minutes
and go do something else. (VM) |
| 14
APRIL |
ROUGH
TRADE / INERTIA |
>MYSPACE |
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I don’t usual like beaty, lyric-less music like this, and yes I’m aware that this admission could lose readers. "Sorry Spanx, you just lost that final shred of credibility", you might say. "Well fuck you!" I might retort, like the defensive brat I am. “I mean shit, we’ve never even met.” …But enough of this hypothetical banter, because The Bird surprised me by not actually sucking at all. After sending a bunch of live tracks to producers and artists like Resin Dogs, DJ Ritual, Kobra Kai and Hermitude to remix, the result is lo-tempo hip-hop/dub that fits right into the living room when you accidentally invite randoms to your house for a kick-on, and then begin to sober up. (RS) |
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| Experts of
comedy, genre, and having an incredibly hilarious
TV show - it’s great to get an audio version
to laugh to on your way to work like a drunken
homeless person, but you knew it would be.
Actually, the only reason we’re talking about
this album here is to sweeten them up for
an interview, because we were told they don’t
like them - they’re probably bored of questions
about being handsome and being from NZ. Dear
Bret and Jemain, we will ask you about your
music, your show and your work, and then we
will fill up the rest of the fifteen minutes
chatting wittily about politics, muesli and
funky slap bass. In conclusion, call me. Love,
Throw Shapes. |
| 19
APRIL |
SUBPOP
/ SHOCK. CALL ME. |
>MYSPACE |
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| Kesband is a completely astounding album in it’s own
right, falling short of Kes’
sophomore The Grey Goose Wing only
because this time around I knew what to expect.
Karl Scullin has a tender, unique voice that
tiptoes curiously but self-consciously across
whimsical, complex instrumental arrangements
which underpin it all. His lyrics are fittingly
warm invitations to each listener, asking
them to quietly reflect, play or just sit
with him a while in the intimate, shy universes
of his mind. Mostly, I love that there’s finally
an Australian so daringly experimenting with
folk and form - but hey, I’m pretty predictable
when it comes to this type of thing. (RS) |
| 15
OCTOBER 07 |
FAT
CAT RECORDS |
>MYSPACE |
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| Super. Fun.
The songs are teeny (longest is 2:24, shortest
is 4 seconds), but so so punchy that they'll
make you put your underpants on the outside
and wrap your wrists in aluminium foil like
a sexy, sexy spaceman that loves to dance.
It’s like the Go! Team have
been racking up with DEVO,
which you'd think would make them more annoying
but the result is actually LESS! Less annoying,
more awesome and it’s hard to say how long
it’ll last but right now, I’m a sexy, sexy
spaceman that loves to dance. (RS) |
| 12
APRIL |
COUNTER
/ INERTIA |
>MYSPACE |
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| When Be
Your Own PET!'s first album came
out I was saying to anyone who'd listen, "Can
you believe these guys are in High School?
What have I been doing with my life? This
album is amazing and I hate myself." Two years
later I hear the Nashville outfit’s second
and all I'm thinking is, "Please stop yelling.
You're making me nervous. Go back to school."
I could just be old, I could just be wise,
or they could have just turned into Operator
Please. While some bits are forgivably
catchy, you heard it all before the first
time, and I'm pretty sure once is enough.
You'll enjoy it if you take a lot of speed. (RS) |
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| I really should
have committed to reviewing some other young
Australian band, because these guys are in
no need of any push. They’re touring Europe
now, having just left SxSW in Texas to support the Vines at the Bowery in
New York – where they’re not even of legal
drinking age. A surprisingly mature and bastardly
moreish EP by four precocious rockabilly Brisbanites;
please insert something about Arctic
Monkeys, something about the
Rapture, something about the
Strokes, and nothing about anything
you usually hear coming out of Australia.
Maybe it doesn’t reinvent the rules, but it
bends them, and its one of the most fun EP’s
I’ve heard so far this year. (SH) |
| 05
APRIL |
DEW
PROCESS / UMA |
>MYSPACE |
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How good
is that bit in a Martin Scorsese movie when
they have the montage just when everything
is starting to be crazy good for the hero
and there's slow mo champagne and boobs
and coke and then it speeds up and the guy
walruses out of a hot tub to snort more,
knocking over the chick blowing him and
there's a close up of his crying wife and
you're like, "oh man, highs and lows, seriously,
highs and lows". The album's concept is a day in the life of playboy
automobile mogul Delorean; it's all Beach
Boys and Spankrock and Simon Le Bon's daughter
and fucking Racquel Welch and stripped 80's
synth jetset autobahn adventures. Pretty
hot. (MR) |
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| I’ve been
attempting to introduce the genre title of
“progressive beard-folk” into the everyman
vernacular for months now – think Band
of Horses, Iron & Wine, Devendra Banhart… Coco
Rosie… Bon Iver is another case in point. With vast, luscious
landscapes reminiscent of Midlake,
the song construction, ambience and falsetto
harmonies of Iron and Wine, and surprisingly,
the calmed-down voice of Tunde from TV
On The Radio, Bon Iver is the one
man project of one man – Justin Vernon – who
quit his band some Winters ago, moved into
a deserted cabin for four months, and warmed
the snowfields around him with hopeful, inviting
music. Progressive Beard-Folk. Say it with
me. (SH) |
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| My
Disco gigs are spectacular, you’re
there zoning out at one end of a tunnel and
they're at the other, and your eyes become
pin pricks like when cartoon characters fall
into a trance, and maybe it goes for minutes
and maybe it goes for days. They have this
intense droning noise and an art for restraint
and close inspection which, surprisingly, Paradise captures reasonably well.
It’s not perfect, but with zero visuals and
no tunnels, it must be near impossible to
excite listeners with a reductive minimalism
that amounts to – let’s face it - one note
repeated over and over. Not really one to
add to your "shuffle songs" selection, but
it creates a killer mood. (RS) |
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| People should
really stop trying new things if the old things
are working fine. This is especially true
when those new things are music about "clowns",
"little birds" and "happiness". This album
is very nice. And pleasant. And lovely. It
would be real swell to listen to on a summer
day in the park with a bladder of goon, and
clothing impervious to grass stains but damnit,
I want the moody dark Goldfrapp back. The Goldfrapp that speak of wolf-ladies
sucking my brains and such. When I usually
hear a Goldfrapp song, I expect to go "meh"
initially but then on second listen for my
brain to quietly explode in a mist of appreciation.
That didn’t happen this time. (RS) |
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| We want to
hang out with The Kills every
day. They'd call up and say, "Hey, you are
a fever. Wanna come get some breakfast?" and
we’d be like, "Uuuuuhhh, YES. Hang on a sec
my groin exploded." Compared to their previous
efforts, Midnight Boom is quite a
bit more produced and less distorted, less
noisy and more beatsy – no surprises there,
being produced by Spank Rock’s
very own Armani XXXchange.
It’s a fine, FINE album that’s going straight
into the spank bank and if you haven't heard
much of this "threesome right now please"
band before, this is probably the best place
to start. Their catchiest album for sure.
(RS) |
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| Self-parody
and sinister insouciance prevail throughout Cave’s 14th studio album,
with him satirizing his own tendencies for
didacticism and verbosity. Most tracks hark
back to the morose licentiousn Cave of Murder
Ballads, leaving little room for the romantic
pianist Cave of No More Shall We Part. While
philosophical ruminations are more subtle,
they lurk backstage for whoever looks hard
enough - and Cave is still playing the sinister,
sexual cowboy-gangster who’d rather paralyse
with penmanship than murder with a machete.
All of that said, a friend gave a more efficient
summary of the whole experience: “It pretty
much just sounds like Nick Cave, right?” (SH) |
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With a vaguely theatrical
darkness coupled to lush orchestral arrangements
and a smoky sax, I can’t think of a better
title than The Great Depression for this debut LP. Plastic Palace
Alice are clearly an exceptionally
talented, bold and mature band – so sophisticated,
in fact, they run the risk of losing the
audience whose attention they grabbed with
the first hooky single ‘Empire Falls’. Perhaps
‘Girl Who Cried Wolf’ would have been a
more appropriate first release, being far
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