Monthly Archives: March 2011

Album review – Found

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Found – ‘Factorycraft’ (Chemikal Underground)

This is Found’s third album, and sees the Edinburgh three piece having moved from one legendary Scots indie label (Fence) to another (Chemikal Underground).

Opening with ‘Anti Climb Paint’ the album showcases a band who continue to hone their sound and songwriting craft. It features a number of excellent songs, including recent single ‘Machine Age Dancing’, the dark and epic closer ‘Blendbetter’ and my favourite track ‘You’re No Vincent Gallo.’ The band continue to pursue their own path, mixing indie and electronica, and much more besides. I makes perfect sense that they’ve toured with labelmates The Phantom Band; in the best possible sense, the two are perfect bedfellows.

Several listens in, I feel that this album could do more than just expand their loyal fanbase, but actually help them make the commercial breakthrough they deserve to. Each successive listen reveals something else, and something really rather delightful…

****

Factorycraft is out now on Chemikal Underground

Album review – MEN

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MEN -‘Talk About Body’ (I Am Sound/Columbia)

I have to confess that I’m almost taken rather aback to discover that this is out on a major label. nt because i don’t think it’s any good – I do – but because this is a fairly leftfield release. With lyrical concerns about liberties and sexual compromise (‘I’m gonna fuck my friends and get a little tiny baby’ they sing on ‘Credit card babie$’…umm, okay…), this is not an album for Conservatives or conservative types.

If you are not like that, then so much the better. MEN are a brooklyn-based collective, including members of Le Tigre JD Sampson and and JOhanna fateman, as well as members of LTTR and Ladybug Transistor. Bearing this in mind, there’s something a little..not quite old-fashioned, perhaps, but certainly heard before; the mixture of post-punk basslines and attitude with electronic sounds. I suspect it might have been more lauded in 2001 than 2011, when the aforementioned Le Tigre were newer on the block.

This is not to slag it off, it’s pretty good in its’ own way. It’s sure to appeal to fans of acts like Peaches, Chicks On Speed and the aforementioned Le Tigre. Its’ sprit is infections. As with the aforementioned acts, it is eminently danceable, and a whole heap of fun. ‘Rip Off’ is quite bizarre, seemingly an oral history of Orange Juisce (the band).

Given the pedigree here, it’s surprising that it’s not perhaps a little more innovative, but maybe next time…

Talk About Body is out now on I Am Sound/Columbia.

Thom Yorke vs. Burial vs. Four Tet

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Obviously, over the last few days, opportunities and priorities haven’t centred around music.

However, a quick glance on the net lead me to check out news of a limited 12″ single featuring Thom Yorke (and this just a month after Radiohead’s latest album), Burial (maker of 17 Seconds Album of the Year 2007, less you forget) and Four Tet.

These are YouTube clips of Rinse FM radio rips – but I think both tracks are awesome.

If you’re after that 12″, act quickly…

A great Oxford band…not Radiohead this time

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Oxford five-piece Rock Of Travolta have just released their third album Fine Lines this week, and the free track doing the rounds is a corker!

I haven’t yet heard the album properly (as you’ll see from the post below it has been a very busy week!) but the band Jennie Bates (cello, keyboard, bass), Jon Carter (bass), Joe Durow (drums), Matt Spooner (guitar, keyboards, bass) and Dave Warrington (guitar) have been together for over a decade and made some great music in that time. Including making John Peel’s Festive Fifty with ‘Giant Robo’ in 2001, ad recording a session for the great man himself. They also released a single called ‘I Love It When a Plan Comes Together’ – and you gotta love an A-Team reference, right?

They have supported Radiohead in front of over 45,000 people, and they can hold their own with the post of the post-rock scene, including the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai and Mono, IMHO.

Go here to download ‘Last March Of the Acolytes’ for free. All you have to do is provide an email address and they’ll send you the mp3 (very quickly, as I found out).

Presenting…Cat’s Eyes

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There can’t be many acts whose first gig has been a performance at the Vatican.

But that’s exactly what happened back in December, when Horrors mainman Faris Badwan teamed up with Canadian Soprano Rachel Zeffira. This is the performance, which may very well be one of the most lovely things I have ever posted here. It reminds me of Philip Glass a bit, too…

This is their cover of Grinderman’s ‘When My Baby Comes.’

When My Baby Comes – Cat’s Eyes with Luke Tristram by Mute Artists

Hear lots of Cat’s Eyes here

Whether the Pope is a fan has not yet been disclosed.

Cat’s Eyes will be released on April 11.

The return of J Mascis

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Over nearly a quarter of a century, J Mascis has, both with and without Dinosaur Jr, presented the world with some awesome songs, and given the slacker image much of its’ dictionary definition (in terms of image rather than recorded output). Given the way that his songs have frequently bludgeoned their listeners – in the best possible way- perhaps the idea of a mellow acoustic Mascis album seems unlikely. Not least from the man who took the Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’ and turned it from a pop tune into a full-blown psych out track.

Well, next week sees the release of his first proper solo album (yeah, I know, this is being disputed in various places too) Several Shades Of Why. It’s coming out on Sub Pop, which is almost always a sure sign of quality. It features many contributors, not least Kurt Vile who’s just released his fantastic Smoke Ring For My Halo album which features Mascis.

It is a gorgeous, beautiful record, which is different to how we have mostly come to think of him, and yet unmistakably, it is him. I hear so many acoustic albums that lack a je ne sais quoi – yet this bewitches you right from the very first listen.

Stream it here:

Sub Pop have also made a couple of the tracks available as free mp3s available from their website:

J Mascis -‘Is It Done.’ mp3

J Mascis -‘Not Enough.’ mp3

Album review – Nasty P

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Nasty P -‘Choosers Can’t Be Beggars’ (KFM)

If you still think that the idea of Scottish Hip-Hop is an oxymoron, then actually, the joke’s on you. Acts like The Young Fathers and Stanley Odd (both of them from Edinburgh) have been making steady inroads for a couple of years now. Added to which, Nasty P has been involved with the acclai8med Soul Biscuits club, which lends its’ name to one of the standout tracks.

Nasty P is a producer, so this album is more of the ilk of acts like Burial, DJ Shadow and fellow Scot Rustie, rather than being driven by his lyrical flow. It’s a dark-sounding record, not in terms of violence (thankfully) but those looking for radio-friendly Hip-Hop with R’N’B choruses won’t find it here. There are collaborations with Jurassic 5’s Akil and Skinnyman, amongst others, which should draw in the curious.

Final track ‘Signs’ with its’ 80s computerised backing is probably the standout track here. It seems a little at odds with the rest of the album – not in terms of quality – but in terms of its’ sound and approach. It’s a short album at 34 minutes, but repeated plays (I played this four times in one morning) do reveal other aspects of a well-rounded album.

Nasty P continues to make his mark felt. An album worth hearing and getting to know.

***1/2

Choosers Can’t Be Beggars is released on March 14 on KFM.

Support Withered Hand

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Regular 17 Seconds readers will know that I rate Dan Willson AKA Withered Hand most highly.

I was privileged to interview him last year, and his debut album, Good News is one of the best albums made in 17 Seconds’ nearly-five year lifetime (read the review here).

This year, Dan is supposed to be heading to South by South West (SXSW), the annual music convention that takes place in Austin, Texas.

However, there are currently complications with his Visa, and Dan is actually having to demonstrate – despite the fact that he is signed to a label in the US, Absolutely Kosher – that he is ‘a musician of extraordinary abilities’ (well, duh!) to be granted a visa.

So…there is a campaign going to support him, and persuade the US authorities to let him in.

Please sign it here and lend your support.

If you still haven’t got Good News, check this out:

Presenting…Weather Barn

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For whatever reason, Aberdeen has never had as high a profile in terms of music stars over the years as Glasgow and Edinburgh. OK, so most famously there’s Annie Lennox, The Shamen and Geneva…but not a long list.

…so maybe Weather Barn can help extend that list. Describing their influences as Band Of Horses, Death Cab For Cutie, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Frightened Rabbit (yes, you DID read Death Cab and Lynyrd Skynyrd in the same list).

Formed by brothers Matt and Steve Morris, and joined by Iain Dallas and Daryl Rankin, the band released their debut single ‘Park Hands’ through London’s Kittiwake Records last September. They found themselves being tipped by the likes of Jim Gellatly and Vic Galloway. The follow-up, out at the end of the month, is entitled ‘The Boat Ride.’

What I like is the way you’re just about to say ‘Oh they sound like…x’ and then you suddenly hear ‘…though that’s quite like …y.’ Twee pop meets southern boogie? Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. What also endears them greatly to me is that the two singles sound so utterly different from each other. And in an age of identikit indie bands, that’s a very welcome thing indeed.

Hear below and see what you think…I’d love to know.

Park Hands by Weather Barn

The Boat Ride (Out on iTunes 28th March 2011) by Weather Barn