my favorite - love at absolute zero
(double agent records, 1999)

My
Favorite's superb debut translates palpable pre-millennial tension into
neon-lit synthesizer drama -- recalling the heyday of the new wave with
none of the irony which sinks like-minded retro-futurists from Romania
to the Rentals, Love at Absolute Zero is the soundtrack to a youth
rebellion that never was, vividly conjuring a teen underworld as
romantic as it is claustrophobic. The album is wonderfully sleek and
cinematic -- songs like "Absolute Beginners Again" and the remarkable
"17 Berlin" unspool like music videos -- and although My Favorite bring
to mind the chrome-plated aesthetics of the synth pop era with uncanny
accuracy, their songs capture a passion and immediacy which the remote
robotics of their antecedents lacked. It's quite simply the best album
of 1983, delivered 16 years after the fact.
- Allmusic.com


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9/08/2007 | Category: |


anders ilar - ludwijka - extended visit
(shitkatapult, 2007)

Originally
released on 12" on the now defunct Merck label, 'Ludwijka' has now been
extended into a full album for the German-based Shitkatapult imprint.
This is Swedish bloke Ilar's foray into the murky (or should I say
Mercky?) world of IDM, and here he throws away his 4/4 tendencies in
favour of the glitchy beatplay of Proem or Mr. Projectile. You know
what the score is here, the year is 2000 and there are melodies
crawling slowly over MAX/MSP fried digital beats, you hear an
occasional fragment of piano, a submerged pad or a booming bass only
for it to be snatched away by a stray glitch. What sets this apart from
the IDM of yesteryear I suppose though is Ilar's extraordinary
attention to detail, a skill he has clearly refined while making tunes
to caress the mind while tear up the dancefloor. It might be nothing
new, but it's done very well indeed, and the final track 'Ludwijka IX'
is fifteen minute chunk of noisy ambience Tim Hecker fans would do well
to look closer at. Check it.



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9/08/2007 | Category: |


Asthmatic Athlete - Space Night
(2007)

This is my ep number two. More ambient stuff

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9/08/2007 | Category: |


Monkey Swallows The Universe - The Casket Letters
(Vinyl Junkie/Loose, 2007)

They
might boast a name apparently inspired by a particularly harrowing
chapter of the I Ching, but one spin of Monkey Swallows The Universe’s
second album, The Casket Letters, suggests this band mostly inspired by
matters somewhat less fantastical. That’s not to say either, however,
that these lumpen bloke-rockers are inspired by their fellow
simian-named, Sheffield-born kin, Arctic Monkeys. Rather, Monkey
Swallows The Universe take a quite delightful third way, picking up
acoustic guitars, lap steel and mandolin, cello and penny whistle for a
bright, rustic-sounding suite of folk-rock songs that bloom with bright
melodies and the intimate, English country garden vocals of Nat Johnson.


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9/08/2007 | Category: |



the montgolfier brothers - the world is flat
(poptones, 2002)

The
Montgolfier Brothers' second album, The World Is Flat, goes back to
that time in the late-1960s when psychedelia used "olde worlde" names
and titles with the recording techniques of the modish jet age. The
wised-up production values prove that this Manchester duo aren't really
members of the Flat Earth Society, and with their attractive mix of
rustic folk charm and studio nous they've managed to place themselves
in an otherworldly environment that marks them out as standard-bearers
for eccentric English pop.

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9/08/2007 | Category: |



Super Furry Animals - Hello Venus!
(Rough Trade, 2007)

The best welsh band ever!

After
a short run of albums that found Super Furry Animals exploring their
slower, more ponderous side, Hey Venus! sees Wales’ heady psychedelic
explorers revisit the bright melodies and glammy bounce that powered
earlier albums like 1999’s Guerilla and their fondly remembered debut,
Fuzzy Logic. While a vague sort of concept album, following the
narrative of a character, Venus, as she moves from a small town to a
great metropolis, Super Furries know enough about songcraft not to let
the backstory overshadow the melodies. "Run-Away" comes on like Queen
and the Beach Boys jamming on a Christmas Top of the Pops, "Neo
Consumer" is a pile-up of infectious vocal melodies, singalong choruses
and electronic blips that stubbornly refuses to outstay its welcome,
and as is customary these days, Bunf gets a chance on the microphone
for the profoundly odd "Battersey Odyssey". And to play counter to all
this cheer and exuberance, there’s a pair of late-doors slowies,
"Suckors" and "Let the Wolves Howl at the Moon", that usher the album
to a serene close. Eight albums in, and we’re still waiting for Super
Furry Animals to deliver a dud album; at this rate, it’s never going to
happen.
--Louis Pattison

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9/08/2007 | Category: |

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