(Antrim Guardian, 13 February 2008)
Wednesday 13 February 2008
Friday 8 February 2008
Dazed pop
(Morning Star, Friday 08 February 2008)
ALBUM: The High Wire - Ahead of the Rain
THE sleepy peaceful world of The High Wire offers a welcome foil to today's
frankly brash world. Londoners The High Wire nail their shoegazing colours firmly to the mast on this debut, with the drifting instant Saint Bees heading up a frankly devastating selection of dazed pop for confused kids.
Ahead of the Rain is a journey for the sleepwalkers out there.
From the blissed-out Easy to a sweetly naive You Don't Know What I Know, The High Wire have My Bloody Valentines' swooning signature all over them and it's a very good thing too.
ALBUM: The High Wire - Ahead of the Rain
THE sleepy peaceful world of The High Wire offers a welcome foil to today's
frankly brash world. Londoners The High Wire nail their shoegazing colours firmly to the mast on this debut, with the drifting instant Saint Bees heading up a frankly devastating selection of dazed pop for confused kids.
Ahead of the Rain is a journey for the sleepwalkers out there.
From the blissed-out Easy to a sweetly naive You Don't Know What I Know, The High Wire have My Bloody Valentines' swooning signature all over them and it's a very good thing too.
Friday 1 February 2008
A bit bizarre
(Morning Star, Friday 01 February 2008)
ALBUM: Paul Vickers and the Leg - Tropical Favourites
(SL Records)
AS the Scottish granddaddy of all that is wonky and alternative about modern pop, Paul Vickers's teaming up with The Leg was sure to be an event.
As one of those musical matches guaranteed to make obsessive fans water at the mouth, the completed Tropical Favourites ends up as half a disappointment.
After the initial collaborative single Wild Geese, there was a lot to work with and, when it comes off, the record is imbued with both proper musical sensibilities and Vickers's own unique Dawn of the Replicants-honed absurdity.
On tracks such as The Ballad of Bess Houdini and Wild Geese, there is an artistry, a sort of seasick meandering through the valley of the unusual.
But, when it falters, it can seem like a racket. Opener Umbrella Propeller has the vague association with a blasting car horn and all the associated tunefulness that this implies, while Powerful Soup is the aural equivalent of a Giorgio de Chirico painting - at best confusing and, at worst, vaguely terrifying. Proceed with caution.
ALBUM: Paul Vickers and the Leg - Tropical Favourites
(SL Records)
AS the Scottish granddaddy of all that is wonky and alternative about modern pop, Paul Vickers's teaming up with The Leg was sure to be an event.
As one of those musical matches guaranteed to make obsessive fans water at the mouth, the completed Tropical Favourites ends up as half a disappointment.
After the initial collaborative single Wild Geese, there was a lot to work with and, when it comes off, the record is imbued with both proper musical sensibilities and Vickers's own unique Dawn of the Replicants-honed absurdity.
On tracks such as The Ballad of Bess Houdini and Wild Geese, there is an artistry, a sort of seasick meandering through the valley of the unusual.
But, when it falters, it can seem like a racket. Opener Umbrella Propeller has the vague association with a blasting car horn and all the associated tunefulness that this implies, while Powerful Soup is the aural equivalent of a Giorgio de Chirico painting - at best confusing and, at worst, vaguely terrifying. Proceed with caution.
Just irritating
(Morning Star, Friday 01 February 2008)
ALBUM: Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down
(V2/Mercury Records)
KICKING off like the bastard offspring of Maximo Park and the Futureheads, it's an immediate shame that Laura-Mary Carter's best Wendy James impression comes on so strong.
In fact, this is the very negative which takes You Bring Me Down from wondrous, jagged, indie-guitar smash to merely another drone scarcely equipped to bother iTunes.
There's nothing wrong with the melody and the musicianship is accomplished and, in isolation, Carter's voice is unchallenging.
It's just that, together, they bring nothing but irritation. As the repetitive refrain barked out by Carter goes, "Dunno why, but it brings me down."
ALBUM: Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down
(V2/Mercury Records)
KICKING off like the bastard offspring of Maximo Park and the Futureheads, it's an immediate shame that Laura-Mary Carter's best Wendy James impression comes on so strong.
In fact, this is the very negative which takes You Bring Me Down from wondrous, jagged, indie-guitar smash to merely another drone scarcely equipped to bother iTunes.
There's nothing wrong with the melody and the musicianship is accomplished and, in isolation, Carter's voice is unchallenging.
It's just that, together, they bring nothing but irritation. As the repetitive refrain barked out by Carter goes, "Dunno why, but it brings me down."
ONE NIGHT ONLY - STARTED A FIRE
(AU magazine February 2008)
(Vertigo)
ONE Night Only have a terrible name.
It's not so bad - one of the greatest Brit bands of all time The Beatles, have one of the most appalling names ever dreamed up. But still - as a listener, one might say the name One Night Only is a deliberate barrier to musical enjoyment.
Unless... aha! It's a ruse! There's nothing to fear here, because One Night Only's debut album is one of the most 1980s - and therefore, thrilling - records to be released this side of the new millennium.
It's a gift for these retro times, with opener Just For Tonight being entirely indicative of its overblown style - its elegiac, 'St Elmo's Fire'-style soaring rock with a hint of style about the gills.
Elsewhere, the emotive He's There gives a nod to the stellar gloom of Editors coated in some otherworldly sparkle which takes the mundane above and beyond. If One Night Only can get offer their self-given handicap, they are destined to rise high.
(Vertigo)
ONE Night Only have a terrible name.
It's not so bad - one of the greatest Brit bands of all time The Beatles, have one of the most appalling names ever dreamed up. But still - as a listener, one might say the name One Night Only is a deliberate barrier to musical enjoyment.
Unless... aha! It's a ruse! There's nothing to fear here, because One Night Only's debut album is one of the most 1980s - and therefore, thrilling - records to be released this side of the new millennium.
It's a gift for these retro times, with opener Just For Tonight being entirely indicative of its overblown style - its elegiac, 'St Elmo's Fire'-style soaring rock with a hint of style about the gills.
Elsewhere, the emotive He's There gives a nod to the stellar gloom of Editors coated in some otherworldly sparkle which takes the mundane above and beyond. If One Night Only can get offer their self-given handicap, they are destined to rise high.
THE SEQUINS - THE DEATH OF STYLE
(AU magazine February 2008)
(Tough Love Records)
WITH distinctive indie-pop warblings to rival Sir Ferghal of Sharkey, there's a tradition into which The Sequins neatly slip.
Unfortunately, it is a tradition of irritating, overdone art rock which garners all the affection of haemmaroids.
'The Death of Style' is a voyage through the minds of five particularly self-aware Midlanders, evidenced most strongly on the frightful 'Everyone Loves The Sequins'.
There's a market for this stuff, of course. It's called space year 2001, folks. So The Sequins - and everyone else with a copy of Roxy Music's 'Roxy Music' tucked under their arm - should trundle back there.
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