>ANGULAR
RECORDS - THE NEW CROSS
Ah,
New Cross. Perhaps not the most glamorous corner of South London, but
one that holds plenty of fond memories for me, not least the wonderful
Alternative Rock Idol
gigs of last year, which showcased the cream of the area's musical talent.
Several of those bands are featured here, along with a mixture of Joy
faves and newcomers. Here's the track by track:
>BLOC
PARTY 'The Marshals are dead' - The jewel in the crown of
South London's burgeoning
music scene, currently being bigged up everywhere from The Face to NME
and with damn good reason - the disco punk pop equivalent of electro
shock therapy.
>THE
FAIRIES BAND 'Pink Socks Rock' - Brazen
punk-pop that
glides along like Elastica picking themselves off the floor after a
particularly vicious pub brawl. Also features band members called things
like Twinky and Sparkle.
>THE
VICHY GOVERNMENT 'Make Love to the Camera'
- the lead vocalist has one of those voices that you know should be
shite, but has some kind of unidentifiable charm that lures you in to
this tale of manufactured pop puppets.
>NEMO
'Picadily in Sepia'
- Middle of the road new romance with added squelches.
>THE
VIOLETS 'Laxteen'
-
What the garage scene should sound like - Sleater Kinney with added
loucheness.
>LUXEMBOURG
'Making Progress'
- Soaring indie pop with a singer has obviously digested his fair share
of Morrissey records. Lulls you into a false sense of bog standard indie
security before embarking on a vitriolic spoken word attack on the vicious
cycle of modern life and saving itself.
>THE
SWEAR 'High Rise'
- Yay! More Sleater Kinney shaped goodness, this time complete with
spangly pop chorus and depressing lyrics.
>ELIZABETH
HARPER 'Don Juan'
-
Pleasant enough indie twanging, but there are plenty of bands around
capable of producing this sort of thing.
>LOVERS
OF TODAY 'Guy Fawkes'
-
Strangely haunting and atmospheric - maybe it's the echoey vocals in
the chorus.
>ART
BRUT 'Formed a Band'
-
My personal highlight of the album. It's not irony & it's not rock
n roll, it's just class.
>LADY
FUZZ 'What It's Worth'
-
I reviewed this song quite recently on their demo, it's since had the
ace drum machine removed, losing some of the punch of the original.
Still a good track though.
>GIFTHORSE
'You Save My Life, I'll Ruin Yours'
- Drippy indie.
>THE
BRIDGE 'First Frenzy'
- Start with quiet bit. Build slowly to ferocious rock chorus. Repeat.
>MARK
SAMPSON 'The London Eye' - Tries to overcome lack of musical
virtuosity with passion and politics, and nearly pulls it off.
>LEAH
CALLAHAN - EVEN SLEEPERS
'Even
Sleepers' opens with a lovely accordion and strummed guitar tune called
'Valentine'. Leah's gorgeous vocals float along on the sparse backing,
and will bring a smile to the face of anyone who enjoyed Amelie.
The rest of the album follows the bare, organic flavour of the opener, and the wonky jazz of 'The Red Eye', with its pots & pans percussion and eccentric guitar backing particularly stands out. The whole album is pleasingly lacking in the sickly sheen that is often applied to voices of Leah's calibre, locking the sombre feel and emotion into the songs, and placing her head and shoulders above most of her contemporaries.
>V/A
- FEAR OF A BLACK KENNET
'Fear
Of A Black Kennet' is a 21 track compilation album put together by R*E*P*E*A*T
Records to raise funds for the Love Music Hate Racism campaign and a
better cause would be hard to find. The album has gained support from
some big name bands like Kinesis who provided a demo version of And
They Obey, Miss Black America, King Adora and Asian Dub Foundation.
As with all compilations some tracks are stronger than others but as a whole this is a brilliant collection of indie/rock/guitar tracks from bands who wish to support a very worthwhile cause and also gives you the opportunity to catch some bands you would normally not have heard. New bands to me who I really enjoyed include Neo with 'Die In America', Cosy Cosy with 'Oh Yeah' and '7 Hearts' from Chris T-T and I would recommend anyone with a hint of a decency should support this campaign and grab a copy of this CD.
If you cannot find the CD in your local music shop (it is being distributed by Pinnacle) or want more info on Repeat Records try their website www.repeatfanzine.co.uk or find info on the Love Music Hate Racism campaign at www.lmhr.org.uk
Review by Darren Bunting
>BIKINI
ATOLL - MORATORIA
It
starts with a squelch. A repetitive, synthesized squelch that echoes
around your head and builds and builds until the guitars and drums kick
in and turn everything to bliss. This is a wonderful album, and wonderful
in the true sense of the word - it contains so many twists and turns
that you're never quite sure what's coming round the next corner. Guitars
duel it out for supremacy over shuffling snares and hypnotic bass, and
by the end of it you're exhausted. And that's just the first
song! Vocals are added for the rest of the album, losing a little of
the atmospheric edge of the opener, but the imperative tone of 'Then
Amplify' and the metronomic beats and scuzzy effects strewn throes of
'Black Dog' keep up the impeccable standards. A late addition to my
best of 2003.
>MEZZANINE~C14
- HE KEEPS SILENT & SACRIFICES HIMSELF
As
you may have guessed from the title, there are not a lot of laughs to
be had here. Flutes and gentle piano do not waft reassuringly in the
background creating a relaxing melody to soothe your ears, and syrupy
love ballads are a little thin on the ground.
Instead, we get a lot of shouting, guitars that sound like broken glass being scraped along a blackboard by an agonised cat and more than the occasional nod towards At the Drive-In. There's a lot of this stuff about at the moment, but M~C14 do it well, and thankfully without the sickening hi-sheen production that the denizens of MTV2 are offering us at the moment. The icy sleaze of 'Bedroom Eyes' particularly catches the ear, sounding as it does like Girls Against Boys covering Pearl Jam's 'Do The Evolution'.
www.angelfire.com/punk/mezzanine
>V/A
- HO HO HO SPICE
Ah,
the obligatory Christmas charity record, this time to raise funds for
Hospice, who provide care for people in the final months of their lives.
We get 49 mostly original songs of festive cheer, with the odd traditional
standard thrown in, largely by obscure bands who I have never come across
before, and probably never will again, and a few 'big' names in the
form of Better Than Ezra and members of Whiskeytown & The Police.
Of course, it's an almost unremittingly awful affair - sleigh bells jingle, cheap synths buzz and cliche after cliche is crooned, but it's a Christmas album, what did you expect? There is the occasional break in the sap - Andrea Perry's 'Christmas With Fat Aunt Bette' is a light hearted romp, The Butties' Beatles-y reading of 'Joy to the World' is a good laugh, and Marina Belica gives a classical and emotive rendition of 'O Come O Emmanuel'. But all in all it's a shallow, tacky and ultimately unfulfilling experience, and isn't that really the true spirit of Christmas?
>HELLO
GOODBYE - HEART ATTACK
Hello
Goodbye are yet another garage punk band, this time from Scandinavia,
but unlike the marauding antipodean hordes, louche New Yorkers and identikit
Detroit blues punkers, Hello Goodbye are taking the genre on from a
new perspective. Coming on like a collaboration between Boss Hog and
Bjork, Hello Goodbye have an ace up their sleeve in the form of shrill
voiced singer/violinist Lisa Lundkvist, whose off the wall vocal stylings
light up the likes of 'Have You Seen My Boy?' and 'Pussycat'.
Musically they also throw in a few curve balls, and while there is the
odd three chord thrash along, there's also a great deal of variety through
the surf balladry of 'Highway Kind', the Moldy Peaches style dual vocals
of 'A Little Bit Hurt' and the slow burning 'Second Hand Teenager',
while 'Wind (Sha La La)' is as bizarre as it is insanely catchy.
Welcome Hello Goodbye into your life. You won't regret it.
Hello Goodbye can be found at Racing Junior
HAMILTON
FIELD - S/T
Bit
of a mixed bag this, both in terms of style and quality. Hamilton Field
offer us ratehr straight forward and uninspiring rock n roll (Girlfriend),
dull sturmalongs (Stereo), pure pop thrills (Change) and best of all,
Flaming Lips style skewed psychodelia (My Shoes). If they can work on
the quality control a little, and maybe add some semblance of continuity,
Hamilton Field might just be worth a look.