Album review
(Morning Star, September 20, 2009)
These former Bad Seeds have come a long way from their gothic roots. It is more a case of mellowing and maturing than selling out which has made them acceptable in the mainstream.
White Lunar includes soundtrack material from the 2005 Cave-penned The Proposition and The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. The skill is in the evocation of the cinematic moment, and the duo have captured the emotion of their subjects in spades.
The songs from forthcoming literary adaptation The Road are chilling, but the best work seems to come from The Girls Of Phnom Penh.
Subtle and feminine, the electrifying soundscapes of quiet desperation go towards making this whole record a real credit to these former enfants terribles.
Sunday 20 September 2009
Friday 18 September 2009
Euros Childs - Son Of Euro Child
(Muso's Guide, September 18, 2009)
Album review
The new solo album from warbling Welsh oddball Euros Childs is probably already in your record collection - it’s been on sale at recent E.C. gigs for a measly £10 and it’s even available free of charge from the official Euros website.
For the unencumbered and, well, the uninitiated, a small digest of its contents may help.
Best known as the voice - and, let’s face it, heart - of 1990s indie wunderkinds Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Euros is a multi-instru-mentalist with a nice line in Welsh language tunage.
Son Of Euro Child makes this young chap’s fifth solo record, and is easily the most accessible to date. It’s easy when you hit your 30-something stride, it seems. But for all his newfound maturity, from the opening jolly ‘Shithausen’, it’s clear that E.C. is in his best childlike form, all giddy rhythms and entrancing organ wrapped around deliciously sweet vocals.
There are moments of darkness, such as ‘The Dog’ - all reverberating organ and wistful words - but the mood is predominantly one of musical lightness, through the wonky piano parade of ‘The Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke’ to the blistering pop insta-classic of ‘1000 Pictures Of You’ and beyond.
‘Mother Kitchen’ is none more Gorky’s, with its staccato melody and quirky lyrics: “So buy yourself some dinner/Have a chicken soup/Stick it in the oven/See what it will do/Your mother’s in the kitchen…” It’s like it’s 1996 all over again - and it tastes good.
There is a very real sense of the magical about Euros - he takes the meandering musical mystery tour and places it at the heart of all of his work, revelling in tangential sounds and intangible feelings and making everything seem terribly abstract and free.
But this is a trained musician with a lot of experience making music that people love to listen to, so to dismiss him as a nonsensical Celtic pixie is to do him a tremendous disservice.
The second best thing about Son Of Euro Child is that it’s free to download right now. The first best thing is listening to it.
Tuesday 1 September 2009
Dieter Moebius - Kram
(AU magazine, October 2009)
Thanks to international notoriety with Cluster, Kluster and Harmonia,
Dieter Moebius has contributed to the pervasive view of German music
across the globe with his hand in 'Krautrock'. Got that? Good. Because
there's nothing more 'germanic' than the plinky plonky utterings of a
crazed keyboard maniac, filtered through the pounding red rage of someone
who has devoted precious life minutes to a run-through of this record.
With a 'beep' sound for every occasion, it's clear that Dieter is a madman
or a genius. But truly just a madman. Pass.
INME - Herald Moth
(AU magazine, October 2009)
As a band whose own press release for this, their fourth album, carefully
states that they have "always divided opinion", it seems safe to surmise
that Brentwood's own INME have a face that barely their record company
could love. Like Simple Minds fronted by P@TD's Brendon Urie, the frequent
frenetic guitar breaks of near-Yngwie Malmsteen proportions make them A
Guitarist's Band. As a general rule, when the music is more fun for the
band playing than the people listening, it's time to bail, but only after
you've heard the hilariously pompous Nova Armada.
Killa Kela - Amplified!
(AU magazine, October 2009)
Like a male La Roux, Killa Kela at first listen seems to have finally
found the cultural zeitgeist on this, his third studio record. A beatbox
hero with fans in Pharrell Williams and Prince, there's less of his
special skill on show here and more of the sort of sleazy electronic pop
that the youngsters are loving these days. On Amplified! his star ascends
with single Everyday, but the exuberence is short-lived, as the appearance
of Hadouken! on Get A Rise brings to mind Linkin Park in a food processor
with Fischerspooner. Not pretty.
La Coka Nostra - A Brand You Can Trust
(AU magazine, October 2009)
An American hip hop supergroup may have some listeners foaming at the
mouth, but despite the impressive roll call of La Coka Nostra - including
Everlast and Ill Bill - A Brand You Can Trust is more prosaic than punchy.
With a myriad of cultural - although not always entirely contemporary -
references, there are plenty who might be offended by the lyrical content,
including women, Americans, Saddam Hussein, David Koresh and Phil Spector.
Worth it for Snoop's turn on Bang Bang, but not much else.
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