THE MINT CHICKS - Screens (Flying Nun)
They are describing this as troublegum pop - the bubblegum of troubled youth. After the cross-over-esque C?Y!D?N! where else could The Mint Chicks go (apart from Portland) but even more subversive pop-tastica - sonically creating something almost unbelievably sugar coated; but the operative word here is definitely "coated" - it's not far that you need to scratch too deep to hear what's really going on. The next layer is a definite sense of containment within the record. While others around them go for an expansive wide sound, The Mint Chicks, with Screens seem to have purposefully narrowed and contained their sound; at times leaving you feeling like you are restricted in a box somehow. Having spoken with Kody about one of the underlying themes of the record being called Screens being the social trend of people living their lives via social networking websites etc and sharing their personal details willingly through their computer terminal - the sonic containment now makes even more sense.
Kicking the record with hippy-summer-dreamy Red White or Blue which just after 2/3 rd s in has a genius / inexplicable quasi-medieval breakdown. Following is 2010 which was the first taste we got of the new direction - before the band re-located. Hot On your Heels has a fuzz-punk driving guitar riff underlying it's pscho-pop hand-clappy veneer. "Don't sell your brain out, baby, la-la-la" Kody vodo-croons over a wonderfully fucked-up do-wop. I Can't Stop Being Foolish continues to make use of the medieval-esque organs as the boy tells the story of a father in jail - "confused about the consequences / confused about the noose around your neck".
What a Way chugs and puffs and drones its way along like a locomotive with autism, before the stark upbeat ADD-on-a-summers-day contrast of the title track. Sweet Janine's juxtaposition of fuzz guitar and fairground organ coupled with a vocal placed lower in the mix creates a disturbing dream-like quality that gives me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach - like I shouldn't be listening to it. Telephone provides a quick-pop-relief late in the piece, clocking in at under 2 minutes. While album closers Enemies and Life Will Get Better Someday are both dark and haunting.
Perhaps there is no surprise that I love this record? Honestly I am astonished by how much I love it - I'll admit to finding the pre-releases of bNet hits difficult - but now, in full context of the record they make perfect sense. This is just how pop music should be - clever, dark and sinister, with handclaps (some of which are just implied). - AT
BEIRUT - March of the Zapotec w/ Realpeople EP (Pompeii Records / Rhythmethod)
Disc one of this double EP release finds our intrepid musical explorer in Oaxaca, Mexico - writing and recording with the local 19-piece Jimenez Band. The stretch from Balkan-to-French-to-this doesn't seem illogical in the least - with horns, percussion, and mandolin all part of the Beirut stable from the beginning. Rumour has always been floating that Beirut's Zach Condon had recordings hidden away of his pre-Beirut moniker "realpeople". The second disc sees that old-Zach come to life, with a collection of songs recorded under the realpeople banner. The tunes are mostly electronic and ambient, with Condon's now-familiar vocal stylings making them uniquely his - and perhaps surprisingly it works really well - melancholitronica at its best! MC
THE PRODIGY - Invaders Must Die (Take Me To The Hospital / Shock)
Experience and Fat of the Land are both crucial albums. I'd go so far to say they are, in fact, essential to any record collection. That said, The Prodigy's fourth album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned with its foray into a multitude of guest vocalists (including Juliette Lewis, Princess Superstar, Kool Kieth and Liam Gallgher) was frankly a bit of an epic-fail. So it was with some trepidation that I greeted Invaders Must Die - can a band like The Prodigy seriously make a vital, relevant and contemporary FIFTH album; especially after releasing a Best-of compilation last year? Listening to IMD the answer is clearly "FUCK YEAH". While lead single "Omen" and title track are co-produced by Does It Offend You Yeah's James Rushent; Howlett proves, resoundingly, that he still has the touch with tracks like the robo-spastic classic-Prodigy-referencing Take Me To The Hospital, the churning/driving Warrior's Dance (feat Dave Grohl on drums), the ominous Run With The Wolves and the brilliant Billy Childish and The Buff Medway sampling Piranha before closing with the decidedly weird (and wonderfully uplifting) Stand Up.
The Prodigy are back - do not be mistaken. - AT
BURAKA SOM SISTEMA - Black Diamond (Fabric)
"Ahhh yeah, I'm really into kuduro, but lately I've been really diggin more progressive-kuduro" you could say next time you're talking to that nerd-dj dude who is always trying to out-do you with his superior knowledge of genres and sub-genres. Of course with my luck he'll bounce back with "oh right... do you prefer Luandense or Lisboeta Prog-Kuduro?" But hah- I got you buddy - "Oh Lisbonese f'sure, I'm really digging Buraka Som Sistema" I can retort with an air of authority. BSS (I just made that acronym up) are from Lisbon, Portugal and are generally accepted as the creators of Progressive Kudoro. Kudora being a genre born in Angola where African percussion samples were mixed with simple Calypso and Soca beats while vocalists toasted over them. It's apparently quite big in Lisbon now. MIA features on one of the songs. -AT
VARIOUS ARTISTS - Watchmen Soundtrack (Reprise Records)
Finally released this week, after a controversial turn of events threatened to stop its release altogether - Watchmen has already been dividing audiences worldwide. At first glance, I doubt the soundtrack to the film is going to polarise fans quite so severely... it kind of just is what it is! Featuring a smattering of "classic tunes" including tracks from Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, there's also a cover of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" by My Chemical Romance - the main selling point of the record, if you're a fan that is. It's worth mentioning that Leonard Cohen's re-re-re-discovered hit "Hallelujah" is on here too, and with some Nina Simone and Billie Holiday in the mix - it's really not so bad. MC
LAWRENCE ARABIA - Chant Darling (Honorary Bedouin)
Sir Ed climbed a mountain, Paul Holmes demanded an apology, and Lawrence Arabia released Chant Darling; this is all the aliens need know about New Zealand.
Head Bedouin Lawrence Arabia - aka Mr James Milne (Canterbury) - has outdone himself with his sophomore "solo" record. Combining the pop smarts of The Reduction Agents' The Dance Reduction Agents and the curiousness of the self-titled solo debut, while at once outshining them both, this new long-player should - if rightful justice has its day - cement Lawrence Arabia into the walls of our national history. Recorded in various auspicious studios, and less auspicious basements, around the globe - Chant Darling features the bNet smash-hit 'The Beautiful Young Crew', live staple 'I've Smoked Too Much' and a host of favourites-to-be. Just try and deny the glory and the joy of 'Apple Pie Bed', the wobbly Carribbean-cum-starry-disco of 'Auckland CBD Part Two' and the triumphant build of 'The Crew of the Commodore'. Now is his hour. MC
BAT FOR LASHES - Two Suns (The Echo / EMI)
Natasha Khan's follow up to the Mercury Prize nominated 2007 Fur & Gold is due out in April - but we have an early advance copy of the record which features collaborations both Yeasayer and Scott Walker. It also, apparently, features Natasha's other alter-ego Pearl who she describes as "a destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale of a persona who acts as a direct foil to Khan's more mystical, desert-born spiritual self." Oh. Right. Anyway. The album rolls off with the gentle ethereal Glass before sliding into a quasi-alt-country-twang with Sleep Alone. Lead Single Daniel grinds with a funky mid-tempo disco beat with glorious Eastern flourishes and Pearl makes another appearance (presumably) in the rhythmic Pearl's Dream. Scott Walker finally joins Khan on the beautifully haunting closing track The Big Sleep with a piano that sounds like it's been recorded directly and ingeniously from an old 78rpm gramophone record. - AT
RAGAMUFFIN CHILDREN - The Seahorse Emporium (She'll Be Right)
With 2007's Werecat Lullabies raising the bar of beautiful music in New Zealand, the Christchurchian duo of Anita Clark and Brooke Singer had their own standards to compete with in making this new album. Fortunately for us all, The Seahorse Emporium couldn't be better. Recorded by Wellington producer-legend Lee Prebble, Ragamuffin Children sound less like children and more like a fully realised unit. Anita's voice invites the listener down a dreamy garden path while songwriter and pianist Brooke lulls you undersea to a world you'd forgotten about. Joined by a host of special guests rounding out the sound, Ragamuffin Children have once again raised the beautiful music bar - all the better for us. MC
TOTALLY MICHAEL - s/titled (Pop Frenzy)
Totally Michael is Michael Dunlap. Totally. He's from Bloomington, Indiana and, basically, he combines electronic sequences with pop-punk retardation and potty-mouthed adolescent lyrics to create.... AWESOME-FUN. The beats are infectious, and the rhymes are (comical) genius. It's the thinking-man's Blink-182 or Bloodhound Gang! Check out this from his love-song to Winona Ryder - "I'm not a high class retail outlet / But I'd love for you to steal my heart / Winona I'd like to get know ya / Let's burn saks fifth to the ground..". You just cannot argue with this - and then there's the sing-along duet of Casual Satisfaction "Damn girl, you make my dick erect / Ooh boy, you make my pussy wet...". The first person he thanks in his liner notes is him mom - she must be so proud. - AT
KING CREOSOTE - Flick The Vs (Domino)
King Creosote is the nom-de-plume of Mr Kenny Anderson, who also owns and operates Fence Records out of Fife, Scotland. Part of the infamous Fence Collective (Lone Pigeon, James Yorkston...) Fence represents a kind of anti-folk scene unto itself. Through his own label King Creosote has reportedly released nearly 40 albums to date - with many of the tracks ending up reworked and revisited on later records. Make no mistake - it's not a straightforward folk record, and bear in mind that Anderson's brother Kenny was the founder of curious chap-gang The Beta Band! Curiousity meets oddity on a lo-fi folky-pop creation, with a Scottish accent that's oh so charming! MC
WAR CHILD HEROES- Various Artists (War Child / Parlophone)
I do love crazy, unusual and interesting cover versions, so when offered a serving of 15 such treats from the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,, TV on the Radio, Peaches, and Hot Chip just to mention a few, I began salivating. Add to the heady mix the fact that the original artists of the 15 songs were approached and asked to nominate who should do the cover - makes the collection even more interesting. But then, just as you thought that was pretty cool, get this : proceeds from each copy of the album goes towards the registered charity War Child.66% of all people killed by war are children. War Child is the only child protection agency still operating in southern Iraq where two million children have been displaced bythe conflict. War Child is the only charity to have separated children from adults in Afghanistan prisons, a country where 1 in 4 children die before the age of five due to the impact of war. War Child is the only international organization working with ex-child soldiers in northern Democratic Republic of Congo - a conflict where 2.7 million children have died. Check out www.warchild.org.uk . - AT
BELLE & SEBASTIAN - The BBC Sessions (BBC / Jeepster)
They were good days, they really were. I hadn't thought life had changed all that much, but upon listening to this collection I've just now realised how far we've come. And what we've left behind. There's a wistful simplicity to the early tunes here... that's not to say the lines aren't just as witty and memorable as ever, or the melodies as catchy, but there's a distinct lack of urgency to it all, and an effortless playfulness seldom heard in indie pop these days (at least without a matching sense of earnest and pretense). Spanning from the Tigermilk era through to the end of Isobel Campbell's time with the group, the BBC Sessions are a fond time capsule of days not long gone, but certainly gone. MC
QUINTRON - Too Thirsty For Love (Rhinestone / Aarghtrecords)
Mr. Quintron, from New Orleans, utilizes a custom-made Hammond organ/Fender Rhodes synthesizer combo which he has had custom outfitted to resemble the body of a car, complete with working headlights and a Louisiana license plate which reads "Quintron". He also uses The Drum Buddy - a mechanically-rotating, five-oscillator, light-activated drum machine which he invented.. Imagine a crazed Southern rave where all the zombie participants are infected with a dangerous dose of funk. The sticker on the CD calls this Swamp Tech and, surprisingly, that's actually a pretty accurate description of the weird and wonderful sounds that await you when you experience Quintron - AT
A new record from Mr Ward is always something worth waiting for, and Hold Time is no exception. Beginning and ending with two simple and pretty songs, what goes on between is a lovely ride itself - featuring special guests Zooey Deschenal (the She to his Him on last year's record), Lucinda Williams (turning in her gravelliest number yet on 'Oh Lonesome Me') and Grandaddy's Jason Lytle noisying things up a little. Unexpected cover versions seem to be M. Ward's field of expertise, this time with Buddy Holly's classic 'Rave On' getting the treatment! Heartbreakering and floor shaking, Hold Time is another superb and innovative record from a fellow who sorta kinda just does no wrong. MC
PLANTS AND ANIMALS - Parc Avenue (Secret City Records)
Parc Avenue, the debut album from Montreal's Plants and Animals is like a warm crackling campfire on a late season summer night heading towards autumn. It tells stories, flickers unusual melodies and unsuspected harmonies are struck with the crickets.
Opening the album with the choral infectious splendor of Bye Bye Bye is as best a way to open an album as any. Lead singer Warren Spicer's natural tenor leads and, often at the same time contrasts to the interpolated Polyphonic-Spree (meets, Go Team, in Mercy) choral stabs throughout the record, keeping it interesting. It's definitely one of those records that'll give you something new to discover on each returning listen. -AT
TELEPATHE - Dancemother (V2 / Shock)
The New School is here, and Telepathe are our teachers. Under the watchful gaze of headmaster David Sitek (TV On the Radio), Brooklyn's Telepathe have released a futurepop record that will tangle with your mind, in the best way. The music is as unlikely as their names (Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais?!) - and will simultaneously have you on the dancefloor and staring at the stars. Single 'Can't Stand It' features Sitek himself, and the record will inevitably be judged as compared to TVOTR, but given time Telepathe will out-dream the dreamers, out-dance the hipsters and Dancemother will be your new favourite record. MC
BON IVER - Blood Bank EP (Jagjaguwar)
As the story goes, Justin Vernon locked himself away in a wintry forest cabin to record and escape the outside world for a while, with pleasing results! Here we have four more beautiful ditties from the same era which spawned 2008's favourite For Emma, Forever Ago. The title track is a stunner - as are they all - and if you'd heard the album, the first few tracks here will be more or less in that vein. Aka - falsetto vocal harmonies and a nice melancholic bent. New here, though, is the use of piano... and... vocoder? Yes - vocoder! Namely on the closing track, the accapella 'Woods', which layers affected voice upon voice until it's like a chorus of gospel robots is in the house. Lovely stuff! MC
THE VIEW - Which Bitch? (1965 Records / Sony)
I just didn't get it. The fuss, that is. About Dundee's The View. When I listened to 2007's Hats Off to the Buskers or went I was in a very crowded Kings Arms when I saw them play. It was all well and good - but, hype-band? Really?! Maybe it was their ability to play instruments having only a few years mastered walking and talking (allusion, there, to their slight ages - see what I did? Funny huh? No? Oh, okay).
But they are all now over twenty and here is their second album and it's not the pedestrian rock n roll roll Artic Monkey-esque sophomore I cynically expected - in fact it's actually jammed with ideas, surprises and risks (like the unlikely inclusion of Scottish crooner Paolo Nutini on Covers, the orchestral arrangement in Distant Dubloon) . I'm kinda pissed off actually, 'cos I kinda wanted to not like it. Lil' bastards for making a damn good record. Damn you. - AT
MARISSA NADLER - Little Hells (Spunk)
Last night I spent what felt like hours scouring youtube and various sites looking for "actual photographs" of ghosts - just to see if there'd been any new proof. I was about to give up and settle back in to writing my reviews, when Marissa Nadler's ethereal new album Little Hells immediately gave me all the evidence I needed to believe in the ethereal and the haunted. With a ghostly falsetto and echo-laden folk songs, the fourth studio record from Nadler could pass for the soundtrack to a panic-stricken coach fleeing a headless spectre, or the funeral of the prettiest maiden in the village... Think an almost medieval Beach House, and you get the idea. Dreamy as can be. MC
THE WHITEST BOY ALIVE - Rules (Pod / Inertia)
FYI, Whitest Boy Alive is fronted by Norwegian singer Erlend Øye, also of Kings of Convenience. There's something undeniably unique about his voice; not simply in the slight accent he sings with, but also it's strangely chilling-slash-chilled in its delivery. Rules is a kinda laid-back lounge-y yet funk-y and ind-y pop-tronica made by a really attractive serial killer. If you dug Air's Moon Safari (and if you didn't what is wrong with you?) you'll find room in your heart for this record, in a Stolkhom Syndrome kinda way (yes I know Stokholm is not in Norway) - AT
Reviews by Andrew Tidball (AT) & Matthew Crawley (MC)
courtesy of The Eavesdrop
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