The Geraldine Fibbers – Butch

After the Geraldine Fibbers festive fifty entry this year with ‘Fancy’ I famously stated ‘Where have the Geraldine Fibbers been all my life?’ Sadly, this may have been a little rash on my part. ‘Butch’ is a hotch potch of semi-alt-country soundbites that often don’t quite hang together as songs, let alone as a full album. It’s reminiscent, in spirit anyway, of albums by Sufjan Stevens, Done Lying Down and Guided by Voices. There’s just something  that doesn’t gel.

That’s not always a bad thing, but in this case it is. ‘Butch’ is seriously hard work apart from the way too catchy opener; ‘California Tuffy’ and the dark growl of ‘Toy Box’ which is a cracking little song. The rest just gets flicked.

The Geraldine Fibbers sound much better when the female singer provides the vocals. I’m assuming this is Carla Bozulich and I’d be really keen to hear some of her other work. Apparently she’s been quite a prolific artiste. Maybe it should have been ‘Where has Carla Bozulich been all my life?’ I hope so anyway.

2014 has been a tough year at the Into the Valley office and it’s already the end of April!

Bis - The New Transistor Heroes 1997

Rarely, if ever, do I actively dislike an album I've chosen to listen to. Don't get me wrong, if I'm forced to listen to Robbie Williams I'd certainly actively dislike it, to the point where I want to kick the stereo in. But for an album that I've ordered out of my own free will this is a rarity. Having said all this, I really hate 'The New Transistor Heroes'.

I generally like shouty Scottish agit-pop, so why are Bis so annoying?

1) Both singers have voices that grate like fingers scraping down a blackboard. One irritating member in a group is fine; see The Sugarcubes and Rage Against the Machine, but two is overkill.

2) All the songs sound like they were written in Primary school. They are shouty and Scottish, but they are rubbish; level 2c at best.

3) Every song sounds identical to the last and follows the formula; (Boy shout + Girl Shout)*childish voice + immature lyrics + some music in the background = rubbish.

I'm sure they're lovely people and their fans love them, but for the first time on 'Into the Valley..' it's a 0/10. Sorry.

 

24. X-Cabs - Infectious - (Hook Records) 1997

I remember hearing an interview with Hook's owner and premier techno producer Chris Cowie one festive season. The interviewer asked him what he'd been up to on Christmas morning and Chris said that he'd been in the studio working on some new tracks because he loved making music so much. That love manifested itself in some beautiful trance and techno from the Aberdeen based producer and his stable of mysterious electronic artists.

Whether as a solo artist, with his groups the X-Cabs and funky techno equivalent Vegas Soul, or through his mixed compilation albums, Cowie turned his enthusiasm and expertise into special little nuggets of techno brilliance. I once listened to one of his DJ sets that I'd taped from the radio for about a year on the car stereo and never once got bored. It was as close as digital dance music can get to immortality.

And where are we now? Who knows what Chris Cowie is doing, but I bet it's great and I bet he's happily producing album after album of techno classics in his studio that will never see the light of day. I'd still love a Hook Records T-Shirt in the unlikely event that anyone in the Hook/Bellboy organisation is reading this?