Louise Quinn & Kid Loco -‘Oh Jackie EP’ (Tremolo Records)
Although credited to Louise Quinn and Kid Loco, this is, it would apppear, very much a new release by A Band Called Quinn.
But irrespective who it’s by, the important thing that you need to know is that this is a gorgeous release. It draws on Scottish indie, French pop and the legendary Dorothy Fields (who co-wrote the EP’s second track ‘Exactly Like You.’ Louise has collaborated with Kid Loco on several of his albums, and the ante is upped even further by the third track ‘Ghosts From The War’ remixed by Glasweigian jazz legend, Bill Wells (yes, as in the man who collaborated both with Isobel Campbell and Aidan Moffat).
This EP exudes cool, class and sophistication but most of all, it just oozes greatness.
The Draymin -‘Should’ve Known Better’ (Townsend Records)
Rosyth five-piece The Draymin have been together for a number of years now, and it’s clear that getting here has been quite some labour of love. The five piece acknowledge their debt to 90s dance as much as the indie music of the same era.
There are some strong songs on this album – album opener ‘Heart Attack’ gets proceedings off to a fine start, and having played this album about half a dozen times before sitting down to write this review, ‘You Bring The Fire’ is another strong cut.
There are some good ideas going on here, but there is a risk of the band a) wearing their influences too much on their sleeves and b) despite the professed dance influences coming perilously close to the overly full bin that is ‘Indie-by-numbers.’ ‘Hold Your Position’ for example, sounds way too close to Kings Of Leon for comfort. Yes, KoL are very popular, but it doesn’t do anyone any favours to sound too similar at the expnse of their own sound.
At fifteen songs (and I do blame the CD era for this) the album also seems too long – paired down to a dozen or even ten it would come across as stronger. Not a bad start, but it would be good to hear The Draymin shine through over their record collections.
***
Should’ve Known Better is out now on Townsend Records
Are Django Django an indie band? Well, up to a point. It’s a great relief to be able to start of by proclaiming that this very much NOT indie by numbers (which I think I reached saturation with several years ago -and I think is why guitar bands aren’t selling in the way they sometimes do at the moment). There’s a family link with the much missed Beta Band (drummer David Maclean is the younger brother of Beta Band’s John Maclean), and while there might be something in common with The Betas, there’s a krautrock (or German Prog-Rock, if you prefer) vein going through the album. They might be playing drums, guitar and bass, but these guys know there’s a world beyond the meat and two veg guitar world. Positive comparisons might be made to the way that both Vampire Weekend and Bwani Junction have influences that they have built upon that aren’t standard NME/Evening Session fodder.
Are Django Django a Scottish band? This much is clear: they met at Edinburgh College of Art (merely a block or two away from 17 Seconds Towers) and formed in 2009. The Beta Band were Scottish. There are people now popping up out of the woodwork to say that they saw the band at small venues in Edinburgh (these are rapidly disappearing) in the previous few years. NME says they’re Scottish; The Guardian refers to them as being from East London.
Are Django Django worth listening to? Oh God, yes! These young men have produced a psychedelic wonder of an album that makes you want to dance and charge around. It’s not everything but the kitchen sink eclecticism, but it is music made by people who understand the beauty of the pop song, the art of experimentation and share a common vision and spirit of adventure. Tracks like ‘Firewater’ and ‘Hail Bop’ will doubtless be blaring from far more than just a handful of Hoxton Hipsters’ headphones before long.
Have they chosen a silly name, especially as you end up saying the same word four times? Yes, but on the strength of this (debut) album, I think we’ll forgive them. And let’s face it, The Beatles might be a silly name, but it would be stupid to change it now…
It’s been quiet around here these last few days. The reason for this is that Ed has been ill – nothing serious, thankfully, but he’s been off work for four days, trying to get better. He’ll be back here soon!
For A Minor Reflection – ‘Heading Towards Chaos.’ (self-released/through Proper Music distribution)
‘Age ain’t nothing but a number’ as Aaliyah once sang. Well, maybe, but that still doesn’t mean that it’s not very impressive that the four men who make up For A Minor Reflection are only aged twenty and this is their second album.
Hailiing from Reykjavik, Iceland, these guys have released a sophomore album that is one of the most beautiful things to gace my ears this year. Sure people will make comparisons with Sigur Ros because they’re Icelandic and post-rock, but they also doff their caps to the likes of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Mogwai.
Over the course of ten tracks and fifty one minutes these guys show that you don’t need vocals to keep the attention up, and more it’s the thrill of listening to what they will do next. The centrepiece of the album is ‘Sjáumst Í Virginíu’ which clocks in at fourteen and a half minutes but that shouldn’t give the impression that this descends into self-indulgence. because -no mean feat, this – it never does. Not for a single second.
Sure, we may have heard beautiful shimmering post-rock meets shoegazing before; and the fact that a band is Icelandic is no longer unusual either. What is amazing is that such a beautiful album can exist. Thank heavens it does. If this does not appear in best of lists at the end of the year, then shame on the bloggers, music press, radio staff and anyone else who considers themselves tastemakers, frankly.
****1/2
Heading Towards Chaos will be released on September 6, 2010.
So, it’s been discussed time and time again over the last week. Various points have been made: Simon Cowell is the great Satan (true, IMHO). Rage Against the Machine are great. Rage against the machine and the the X-Factor track are both on Sony so ultimately Simon Cowell and his ilk win. It’s pointless and no-one cares anyway. It matter a great deal. No-one cares about chart positions anymore. Simon Cowell is aiming to be Prime Minister and is a closet Tory.
OK, so I made that last one up, though it would be yet another perfectly reason to hate Simon Cowell. As to whether it’s a battle between pop and metal…let’s face it, the ultimate battle in music is between good and bad music. The Fall have a stylist. The Sugababes may be becoming a brand name, but I’d rather listen to them than Travis, Stereophonics, Nickleback…
…and is there not something secretly rather pleasurable about seeing a band like Rage Against The Machine reach #1, or at least, be serious contenders? Will it change the world? No, it won’t; and Sony are going to be quids in this Christmas. But the facebook campaign was not started by Sony, but by a husband and wife team making a protest. And whilst the Rage track may be old, may be on a major label, and may ruin some cherubs life because of us being scrooge-like to be a track on download…it’s Christmas.
To paraphrase Bill Nighy as Billy Mack in Love Actually: ‘Wouldn’t it be great this Christmas if the number one wasn’t yet another one of Simon Cowell’s puppets but a metal band who wiped the grin off that smug, evil, pseudo-svengali’s face and it was down to the general public?’
It won’t change the world, it won’t make Cowell stop making records (unfortunately) or bring an end to this ridiculous obssession with celebrity at any price. But it might show that the public have had enough.
This is the Canadian band’s sixth album. Comprising four tracks simply entitled ‘Do,’ ‘Make,’ ‘Say’ and (you guessed it) ‘Think,’ they refuse to compromise and make an album that is directly on their terms, and yet excites and is enjoyable to listen to, rather than being an album that you feel you have to respect, even if you can’t bear to listen to it.
If I were going to speak in genres (!) then I might consider DMST to be ‘post-rock’ in the sense that they are not interested here in dealing with verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle 8 etc.. but instead start following a line of enquiry which they may break off from, but then return to at a later point in the piece. There’s hints of jazz here, and -dare I say it – prog?And yet at the same time, they seem to have just as much in common with the spirit and attitude of Fugazi as say, Tortoise.
Four tracks, three of them over ten minutes long…on paper this might sound a forbidding proposition, and yet, the reality is that DMST are an astonishingly easy band to love. Cast aside your prejudices and be prepared to be impressed.
