May 2006

01/05/06 Roddy Frame - Western Skies - The legendary composer, singer and leader returns to the scene with his third album under his own name. this record follows a similar pattern to 2002's brilliantly received 'Surf' released on the Redemption label. The 11 tracks feature delightfully soulful, emotive vocals from Roddy, expertly crafted songs and Roddy's accomplished, immaculate guitar work. Whereas 'Surf' was an entirely solo effort, 'Western Skies' was recorded and co-produced with Jeremy Stacey in his Chelsea studio with Roddy playing guitars and occasional bass, Jeremy playing drums and other instruments and some additional bass from Mark Neary. There is more light and shade than on 'Surf' but it's still an old-style back to basics record, all recorded on tape with nothing digital in sight. One man, one voice, one hell of a record!
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08/05/06 Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You - Following in the steps of her lauded 2003 basement-tapes 'Catalpa' and 2004's studio-debut 'Escondida', the new album takes Holland's sepia-toned, song noir to a transcendent level. 'Springtime Can Kill You' 12 track song-cycle is a crossroads where haunting meets joyful - a voice from the heavens singing stories of the underworld. Holland's songs rise and fall like heavy eyelids and convey the peace of that place between asleep and awake, Creating a special place for you to be. There sounds from past and present-tense waltz together to a never-ending melody that flickers between folk, jazz, blues and pop. Holland's lyrics conjure characters and situations one might find in the surrealistic celluloid of Jim Jarmusch.
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15/05/06 !Forward Russia! - Give Me A Wall - 'Give Me A Wall' is the debut album from Leeds combo !Forward Russia! and released on their own Dance To The Radio (run by guitarist Whiskas). The 11 track album includes singles 'Twelve', 'Thirteen' and current hit 'Nine'. Produced, mixed and engineered by Paul Tipler, the album is a clattering, exuberant and spikily attractive post-punk masterpiece. Think a mix of Fugazi and later day Dischord records, The Rapture, At The Drive In and Bloc Party but with real energy and passion. Limited edition vinyl.
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22/05/06 Beirut - Gulang Orkestar - This week's hottest band. While it may sound like an entire Balkan gypsy orchestra playing modern songs as mournful ballads and upbeat marches, Beirut's first album, 'Gulag Orkestar', is largely the work of one 19-year-old Albuquerque native, Zach Condon, with assistance by Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk And A Hacksaw) and Heather Trost (A Hawk And A Hacksaw). Horns, violins, cellos, ukuleles, mandolins, glockenspiels, drums, tambourines, congas, organs, pianos, clarinets and accordions (no guitars on this album!) all build and break the melodies under Condon's deep-voiced crooner vocals, swaying to the eastern European beats like a drunken 12-member ensemble that has fallen in love with the Magnetic Fields, Talking Heads and Neutral Milk Hotel. Cd only on Da Ding.
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29/05/06 Jets Overhead - Bridges - Yet another one to watch from Canada, this five piece deliver a fantastic no nonsense indie rock album which every track seems to be a gem. Influences clearly range from the Dandy Warhols to Arcade Fire, Elliott Smith and even some Pink Floyd, even through the trance rock parts the hooks and melodies give it a real sheen and style.
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August 2006

07/08/06 Circulus - Clocks Are Like People - The medieval minstrals of acid folk are back, this time they've jumped five centuries into the future and have created a baroque-rock album of the highest calibre. The much improved and accomplished songwriting/production on 'Clocks Are Like People' shows Circulus in a more laid back and comfortable light. Key tracks 'Song Of Our Despair' and 'Wherever She Goes' have radio written all over them, whilst the Elizebithan harpsichord workout of 'To The Fields' or the moog soaked wonders of 'Bouree' prove that they have lost none of their creative appeal. Their music is a gentle fist fight between a group of under nourished sixteenth century court musicians and an acid soaked bunch of hippie rockers from the early seventies. Reality's a fantasy. (tell me more)

14/08/06 The Isles - Perfumed Land - Manchester's Melodic label goes from strength to strength and this debut album by The Isles looks set to be by far the label's biggest album to date. There is a real buzz on these twenty-something New Yorkers who have successfully distilled in their debut album everything that was good about Morrissey, Ian Curtis and Ian Mcculloch into a thoroughly modern package. The Isles either have the capacity to bend time and space or appear to have been born in the wrong time and place. because although their sound is very definitely in the now, it's almost as if they began writing whilst surrounded by the cream of British 80's 'miserablist' indie-pop, fell into a deep sleep and awoke with hit-seeking precision in a climate where their talents would be best appreciated. So we have ten songs which evoke English urban grey, wearing the latest New York fashion. January's striking single 'Eve Of The Battle' switches from Bunnymen to Strokes with the change of a chord, whilst 'Flying Under Cheap Kites' revels in its excess of melody and discotheque-style backbeat. 'Summer Loans' has an unmistakably east coast groove but such an intrinsically familiar tapestry of woven guitar parts and vocal melody you'll swear you've been getting up to dance to it for the last ten years. Limited double yellow vinyl set. (tell me more)


21/08/06 Various - Rogue's Gallery : Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs And Chanteys - A Hal Willner Production - While working on the two 'Pirates Of The Carribean' films, Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski became fascinated with the lore and fable of the pirates and sailors who ran the high seas. Enter legendary producer Hal Wilner, who brings his knack for matching maverick musicians with extraordinary material. Artists on this double disc set (with a lot of exclusives) include Bono, Sting, Nick Cave, Bryan Ferry, Lou Reed, Richard Thompson, Van Dyke Parks, Jolie Holland, Lucinda Williams, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, and many more. 'Rogue's Gallery' offers a look at the hardships, the horrors, the lusts and lurid depths, and the crystal beauty that led men to the sea in ships for hundreds of years. (tell me more)

28/08/06 The Sunshine Underground - Raise The Alarm - The early singles showed promise, but the debut album demonstrates that this is a band with class and intelligence. While a flux of guitar-led bands take either the mournful route or the upbeat one, this Leeds three piece - named after a Chemical Brothers' track - have decided to take a different route to stardom, namely a blend of Happy Mondays-esque funk and no-nonsense ballsy rock. hence the 'Psychedelic' label, perhaps, but that's probably more to do with their predilection for substances of a social nature. 'Raise The Alarm' starts brightly, all upbeat and full of attitude, then dips wonderfully into more thoughtful territory on the album's highlight, 'Somebody's Always Getting In The Way', before rejoining the fast lane with the driving 'Borders'. Huge choruses and anthemic sounds weave their way through much of the material in a Doves / Stone Roses type way. On City Rockers. (tell me more)