A Pick of the
Week double header for eighties inspired, big hair combo, The Good Natured. Both
songs showcase the band’s trademark delicate pop sensibilities and retro
electro leanings. It’s sing-a-long-fest in both cases with some beautiful vocals
enhanced by the lovely posh accent of singer Sarah McIntosh.
Even better
is the big hair factor, which makes her look, a) like a cross between Siouxsie
and that guy out of a Flock of Seagulls, and b) a hamster. Both are great looks
and there’s even better to come with a Robert Smith meets deranged elf look in
the ‘Skeleton’ video. And there’s an LP out this year that’s on my listening
pile, so all is rosy in the world of the Good Natured.
As always a quality compilation of the best out there in the
World of world music. The highlights are as follows;
La Bottine Souriante – ‘Mon Pere’
Quirky French action which sounds a little like the weird
offspring of the Flying Pickets and Camille. No really. The Other Europeans – ‘Lauter Clarinet Suite #1’ Great clarinet tooting in a gypsy folk style.
Martyn Bennett – Swallowtail
I’m starting to really love the work of the late Martyn
Bennett. This is a funky little Celtic jig ideal for all occasions.
Spiro – ‘Yellow Noise’
String based instrumental that sounds like the soundtrack to
a gritty film, ideal for mowing the lawn to.
Emily Portman – ‘Stick Stock’
Selected by guest picker and ancient comedian Mike Harding.
Hopefully she’s not Natalie’s sister but one of the strongest tracks on the CD.
Love the way she pronounces every word, but especially ‘stone’ and possibly
recorded in fairy tale land.
A great selection as usual and on this showing Mike Harding
is a way better DJ that Diggers and Sasha put together. 6 Music sign him up
now!
In a similar way to Ojos de Brujo,
this is an extension to last year's review of a previous experience of the
artiste’s work. ‘A Curious Thing’ was so similar in terms of my reaction that we
hardly need another review. I didn’t fancy listening to it and when I
eventually got round to it, Amy won me over with her honesty, talent and lack
of pretention. It’s a great album if you like this kind of thing.
But apart from me, who does? It’s
not hardened folk, it’s not pop music, it’s neither throwaway or particularly
deep. Amy has a distinct audience problem since the demise of Pebble Mill at
One. Who else in the whole world actually likes Amy Macdonald? Maybe it’s a
Scottish thing. Who cares? Because I doubt Amy does.
This is her debut album and if
anything it’s stronger than the follow up. Every track is a winner, but my
favourites are the global single ‘This is the Life’, the quirky, upbeat ‘Poison
Prince’ and the Western soundtrack-a-like of ‘Let’s Start a Band’, which
definitely had the best ending of any song I’ve heard this year. The absolute
classic however, is the jaunty but deceptively dark ‘A Wish for Something
More.’ It’s reason enough to buy the album on its own and tells you everything
you need to know about Amy Macdonald in a three minute nutshell.
She’s globally well known and
obscure at the same time. She’s up there with Caitlin Rose and Eliza Carthy as
Into the Valley’s golden Girl and I’m now looking forward to giving the new
album a listen at some point this year. Loving your work Amy!
Pick of the
Week 29 – Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny
For some
strange reason I love this song. It’s quirky folk muisc that sounds like it
comes from another reality. Her voice somehow resonates with me, the lyrics are
original and it possesses a lack of commercial appeal in the same league as PJ
Harvey and Regina Spektor.
The video
meanwhile is something else entirely. What the hell is going on in this post
apocalyptic world? Surely they should be out searching for food rather than
coloured plastic trinkets? On the plus side, gas masks, slow motion sick and
those orange plastic buoyancy rings are always a good thing in most
circumstances. High marks for effort, but a maximum score for quirkiness.
Definitely someone to watch in the future.
So here's the next instalment in my Last.fm free downloads trawl and it's the ambient section that I've been investigating. Not the easiest of genres, especially when I was previewing the tracks. Thirty seconds of a swirly pad slowly rising told me pretty much nothing about the track. A hint to people putting ambient stuff on Last.fm: put something interesting at the start of it. Singing's always good, but if you really want my attention give a piccolo a toot.
The tracks took a while to get into, but I've selected five fairly choice offering that, given a chance, should delight your eardrums. The condensed milk of the crop is 'Delorian'. The Portishead style singing did it for me. Shame about the lack of a piccolo. 1. Delorian - The Atomica Project - Metropolitan
2. Secret Society - Logical Disorder - Violent Playground
3. Monocrom - Monoceros - Imaginary_EP
4. XHD - Aydio - Deltitnu EP
5. Syntax Data - Abfahrt Hinwil - Links Berge Rechts Seen
Next time we will be delving into the genre commonly known as 'blues'. Mmm... not that enamoured with that but I'll give it a go.
Another year, another Fall album and this time it’s 2010’s
non too shabby offering ‘Your Future Our Clutter.’ Don’t worry, there’s nearly
thirty to go at and I’m not even at half way.
This is the Fall in straightforward rock mode. It appeals to
the Fall fan’s lowest common denominator and harks back to the simpler
pleasures of the late eighties. Mark E Smith is his usual ranty self with
some lovely lyrical touches thrown in for good measure and surely he must be
immortal? He must have found the fountain of youth, or at least middle age, as
he seems to be stuck in aperpetual half
life somewhere between teenage attitude and old aged pensioner bodywork.
The pick of the tracks are the pounding opener of ‘O.F.Y.C.
Showcase’, the twangy insistence of ‘Cowboy George’ and the jolly singalong of
‘Funnel of Love’. Best of all is the two part rock out of ‘Bury’ which has got
to be part of the all time Fall top ten. It’s the perfect example of clashing
guitars meeting ambiguous northern lyrics and delivery.
If you didn’t have a sneaky admiration for the Fall before,
this is not going to change your mind. But if you used to enjoy a bit of Mark E
Smith and lost the habit, then this is as good a place to jump back on the horse
as any.
In the first of an occasional new series, we pit two of
those perennial show offs,or Disc
Jockeys as they are more commonly known, against each other in a DJ shoot out
of global proportions. Hopefully we can discover who is actually worth
listening to in the world of turntablism, mixing and dropping huge tunes. Here we
present you with the first match up of round 1; Diggers versus Tenaglia…
DJ Shoot Out Round 1
There was a time when I wanted to collect all the Global
Underground compilations. That was before I'd heard a few of them. But I couldn’t
resist Digweed's Los Angeles and Tengalia's Athens disks when I saw them in a
three for a fiver promotion. So in the first of this new series, we ask the
question; which of these superstar international DJ types produced the best
selection of tunes?
Being a DJ is the most over-rated occupation in the whole
world. Essentially their task is to pick out records for us to listen to, but
invariably they pick sixteen duffers and perhaps one better than average track.
To make matters worse they 'mix' them all together into one gigantic abysmal
continuous mess that engulfs the odd entertaining song which is now almost impossible
to find. These guys take a real pride in their ability to seamlessly mix two
songs together to the point of absolute smugness. I've got news for you boys;
no-one cares!
With this in mind, I didn't have high hopes for our
protagonists. Diggers once picked a couple of good songs for a Northern
Exposure Compilation years ago, but on this showing he manages to pick just one
decent song out of the twenty two (Kelli Ali-Love in Traffic). For a man whose
job it is to pick good songs, that's a pitiful return atjust over 4%.
The problem is DJ's will do
anything to avoid being referred to as 'cheesy'. To your average DJ, 'cheesy'
is not the Vengaboys, but anything even slightly entertaining or interesting.
Diggers packs his two CD set with the most dirgy soulless and vocal-less
repetitive beats, that could only be out-dirged if PJ Harvey took up human
beat-boxing and blasted out repetitive bleepy dirge at the same time as her indie rock
dirge. To summarise: it's boring.
On the other hand, Tenaglia manages to pick no good songs and
his set is equally boring but with a dirty, scuzzy New York kind of vibe.
Basically, it's his job to pick good songs, but he can't find any. That's like
a miner who can't find coal, a dentist who can't find your teeth or a dinner
lady who can't lay her hands on some flapjack!
At the end of the day it's a hollow victory for Diggers and
you can save yourself a lot of time and pain by Youtubing the Keli Ali track
instead (or just click on it below). But he’s through to the next round, where
who knows which international superstar show off he will meet?
This is what happens when you’re
past your sell by date as an indie band, but don’t want to give up and become a
primary school teacher. It’s all very wholesome;
from the twee jangle-pop of the song to the rather disappointing game of pass
the parcel, Shrag appear to be lovely, adorable people. Musically, it takes you
back to 1989, somewhere between the Shop Assistants and Stereolab, but that’s
no bad thing in my book. I guess we’re running out of sane excuses now…
Despite the fact that everyone in the World music community
loves Ojos de Brujo, I've never managed to engage with their flamenco based
charms. I am not going to bore regular readers with my views on the band as
they have remained unaltered from my original rant on the review ofAocaná
last year, but there is one startling difference about Bari; I actually
really like one of the songs!
The curiously titled Ventilator R-80 is an exhilarating
roller coaster ride through an alt-folk Spain. The chorus is an anthemic call
to arms although with my limited knowledge of Spanish I have no idea what it
means. The whole effect is not even spoiled by some Speedy Gonzales style
vocals and some more Spanish Vanilla Ice style rapping. If I could loop just
the chorus over and over again I'd be a happy man. Sadly the rest of the album
reverts back to the Ojos formula, but let's not be greedy.
I'm sure Ojos de Brujo fans will love this collection
ofnu-wave flamenco, but for me I'm just
happy I can finally see a glimmer of the appeal. If you like Gloria Estefan
with Speedy and a Spanish rapper on backing vocals then this is the album for
you.
The Soderberg sisters are not the most original talents in
the world of popular music. They serve up a timeless take on female vocal folk
that pushes no boundaries and blurs no genres. The fact is their folk music is
so perfect and pure that no-one cares. This is folk music filtered through
Scandinavian rock formations and served from expensive New York water coolers. For artistes of such a tender age this is an accomplished
and mature album. It sounds like generic Americana, but spiked with a shot
ofakvavit and served with a cherry on a
stick. The girls voices mesh with a synergy not seen since Agnetha and
Anni-frid were warbling their way to international super-stardom, but sadly the
girls are possibly headed for folky rather than mainstream success.
Every track is a slow burning winner, but if pressed I'd say
'Ghost Town', 'Heavy Storm' and 'Sailor Song' are all worthy of special
attention. Best of all is the eerie melancholy of'Winter is All Over You'; a gorgeous
juxtaposition of crystal vocals and profound lyricism, and one of my favourite
tracks of last year.
I can't wait to hear more of what First Aid Kit have to
offer. Fans of folk will love their approach, but music lovers in general
cannot help but be moved by the passion, purity and confidence inherent in
these songs. A sure-fire winner; go and search them out immediately.
