Living In Amerika

Yes Maybe No
Laura
A New Entity, 2008
7.6/10

Yes Maybe No is a 30-minute EP, produced primarily for the US market and distributed by new US experimental label Elevation (home of Nadja and Blood Meridian). It's a short set of foggy, melancholy (and somewhat self-indulgent - a post-rock staple) instrumental meanderings, with peaks and troughs in all the right places. Fans of Radio Swan Is Down will lap this up - the band's sound hasn't changed much at all in the couple of years between releases, and anyone that caught a Laura show in the last couple of years will tell you this is a very good thing. They've obviously spent some time playing with words though ... Bobik Is In America? Cardboard Cutout Robot Victim Hero Children? With titles as pointlessly cryptic as these (another post-rock staple), the music itself has to be good - and thankfully it is, especially on slow-burning closer Another One For The Humans.

Post Post Post Punk

The Devil, You + Me
The Notwist
Domino, 2008
2.5 stars

The Devil, You + Me sees the Notwist stuck somewhere between the melancholy soft-pop of Syd Matters and the electronic-laced stadium rock of Kashmir - a land far far away from their punk beginnings, though unfortunately no place particularly interesting. The album starts off well with Good Lies, a nice-enough ambient indie rock track, and elsewhere on the album there are tidy moments, but overall it's just a bit flat. Pardon the meat analogy, but had they trimmed off a bit of the fat (a few of the soft programmed tracks perhaps), they might have found themselves with a nice little piece of indie eye fillet and not a bulky, over-cooked porterhouse.

Artwork: A

Published in mX, Thursday 29 May, 2008.

Back On The Horse

Lie Down In The Light
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Drag City, 2008
4 stars 3.5 stars

The Letting Go was a kind of break-up album - a disarming, bittersweet stroll back over years of fond memories. Compared to its predecessor, Lie Down In The Light might as well be called The Getting Back Up. It sounds like the Prince is getting his spark back, and the result is a more upbeat collection of rootsy, folky Americana, with all the subtly-rich musicality of the former. There's still hints of longing (Missing One is definitely some of his best work) but for the most part it's Oldham at his positive, ponderous and overtly-lyrical best. Lie Down is the perfect follow-up.

Artwork: A

Published in mX, Thursday May 22, 2008.

Tub Thumpin'

This Is Not The World
Futureheads
Megaforce, 2008
2.5 stars 2 stars

This album is not a lot of things. It is not the world - too true - but unfortunately it is also not the band's best work to date. Futureheads used to make catchy, clever guitar pop the straddled the line between new-wave and post-punk, but on this album they've made a set of songs for pissed soccer fans to scream over at the pub. The sound is unmistakably British, and not just for the sunderland accent - you can definitely hear the group's British punk origins coming through, though it's just a bit too neat and tidy for my liking. Past Futureheads albums have been genre-defining classics that have hooked listeners (yours truly included) from the first listen - this one, i'm afraid, is not.

Artwork: C+

Published in mX, Thursday May 15, 2008

Done it

Do It!
Clinic
Domino, 2008
3.5 stars

Distorted guitars, organs and chiming cymbals open the latest installment in the Clinic saga, and right off the bat you can tell this is going to be one of the Liverpool four-piece's better records. Hints of the pop sensibility that made Internal Wrangler such a great album are all over Do It!, no moreso than on first single Free Not Free, a watery lounge groove broken up by shards of buzzsaw guitaring, and the stylistically similar (but every bit as good) Emotions. The fast paced psych-soul stuff is still here (Shopping Bag's rempant rockabilly really kicks things along nicely), but this album's strength is the even-weight given to it's many styles. After a few disappointing albums, Do It! is a welcome return to form.

Artwork: B

Published in mX, Thursday May 8, 2008.

The Tea And Cake

The Bowery
Firekites
LP, 2008
3.5 stars 4 stars

What a nice album. Nice in the way that teapots and cold days spent indoors are nice. The tone of The Bowery (named after the abandoned building it was recorded in) is definitely set in winter or autumn - cold, quiet months when people have plenty of time to sit around and reminisce. Musically, it's a rich, melancholy set of folk-pop songs, with various stringed instruments, hushed percussion and just a tad too many handclaps. As I said, it's nice. I read elsewhere that members of this group play in other bands such as The Instant (a great Aussie post-rock group also out of Newcastle), and that group's fingerprints are found in the electric flourishes that dust many of the songs. Tim McPhee's breathy vocals are particularly good - you can see why The Sea And Cake chose them as their support act (I imagine local fans of The Sea And Cake will no doubt make up most of Firekites' fan base). The Bowery is a smart, absently-catchy album with some beautiful moments but, like the long rainy days we're starting to get in Melbourne - always welcome at first - after a while it may become just a little too much of the same.

Hindsight: "Too much of the same" - I take that back. This album has taken up a four-month residency in our bedside CD player, its soft, melancholy tones the perfect recipe for a good night's sleep (Saturday September 20, 2008).

Artwork: A

Published in mX, Thursday May 8, 2008.

Folk Symbol

For Emma, Forever Ago
Bon Iver
Jagjaguwar, 2008
4 stars

Listening to this album, you'd be excused for thinking Prince had re-invented himself as an introspective bedroom folk hero, ala Sam Beam of Iron And Wine. Justin Vernon has a sensational voice - soft, but with great range, easily capable of hitting the high notes. Songs such as Lump Sum are essentially straightforward pop songs, but given a rich, atmospheric campfire-chant-folk treatment they become something else entirely. And the thought of Prince singing folk songs may not sound like an instant winner, but on highlight The Wolves (Act I and II) it works beautifully. The best parts of this album come from simple combinations of subtly layered vocals, strummed acoustic guitar and a basic beat - musically there's nothing over-the-top happening here, but as we all know the simple things are often the best.

Artwork: C+

Another Time

FLASHBACK

Calling Out Of Context
Arthur Russell
Audika, 2004
5 stars

I've been meaning to write about this album for a while now. One of my friends stumbled across one of Arthur Russell's disco tracks one night a few years ago while trauling Limewire for trashy '70s dance anthems (don't ask), and it has been one of the nicest discoveries of my music-loving life. For those that don't know of him, Arthur Russell was a formally schooled Cellist who pioneered avant disco in the late '70s and early '80s - check out his bio on AllMusic.com for more info. His music can often be recognized by his awkward vocals and skeletal cello playing. Though the sparse, aching instrumentals found on Another Thought are some of his most interesting and critically-acclaimed work, Calling Out Of Context showcases Russell at his most inventive, and his most out-there. Beginning with the bubbly introduction The Deer in The Forest Part One, the tone is really set by second cut The Platform On The Ocean, a dark, disco-oriented epic with possibly some of the strangest lyrics ever found in popular music. Words can't really describe the kind of bent gems found on this album, but I'll give it a shot anyway. Title track Calling Out Of Context's low-fi strings, skewed calypso percussion and glitchy electronics are an absolute treat, and the mechanic beat and blippy melody of Arm Around You, combined with Russell's naiive, evocatively simple lyrics ("that's me and you, yeah in a rocket ship", "got to put one arm around you") make for one of the sweetest electronic tracks found anywhere. Later, Hop On Down dresses up an organ solo with a hip-hop beat, and Get Around To It (one of the more '80s-sounding tracks on the album) sees Russell's lyrical genius coming through again ("show me what the girl does to the boy, if you can get around to it ") with some subtle cello-picking filling in the gaps. That some of these songs - not to mention the cover photo - were produced twenty years ago is startling; today they still sound just as cutting-edge as they must have back in the day. And that the late composer's fan base is still growing steadily - perhaps more steadily than ever - is only proof of his enormous talent. Thankfully Audika have done a fantastic job looking after his vast catalogue, and this release is no exception.

Artwork: A

Persons, Places, Things

Nouns
No Age
Sub Pop, 2008
4 stars 4.5 stars

One of the things I love about No Age is the drumming. At times it sounds like they're just making it up on the spot, smacking whatever is close, just enough to form a beat that will push their trolley of fuzzy pop down the road. Other times it's pure garage, tight and taut, but without a beat out of place. This style of percussion was all over Weirdo Rippers, and it forms the basis of Nouns too - the canvas if you will - with a wide palette of guitar noise supplying the colour. Rippers was remarkably cohesive for a compilation, and Nouns takes it even further, without forfeiting any of the spontaneity or variety. The moments on this album that make you sit up and notice are the shifts between styles, such as when punchy low-fi rocker Cappo gives way to spacious instrumental Keechie, then follows up with the rampant drumming and surging melody of album highlight Sleeper Hold. Singer/drummer Dean Spunt's vocals are just as slack-sounding as ever - it's a sound that works perfectly - but these guys are no slouches, as the 60+ page art book that accompanies the album shows. Nouns is an album of not just light and shade, but all the tones between as well.

Artwork: A+

Pure and Simple

Primary Colours
Eddy Current Suppression Ring
AARGHT!, 2008
4.5 stars

In a scene dominated by affected, fashion-driven rock groups, ECSR stick out like a sore thumb. Clever haircuts and poser attitude are as foreign to these guys as bad reviews, but you can't blame Eddy and co. that the Melbourne scenesters have adopted them as their act of choice. These boys make garage rock music the way it's meant to be done - great tunes, minus the frills, played with loads of energy and imbued with the sense that lead singer Brendan could just lose his shit at any given second. You can tell Brendan has a blast singing (and, on this their sophomore record, playing too), and the feeling is infectious - live, these guys are amongst Melbourne's best, and on Primary Colours they've proved that their brilliant debut was no fluke. And the fact that both albums start with the same guitar chord just adds weight to the notion that if it ain't broke, you don't fix it.

Artwork: C-

Published in mX, Thursday May 1, 2008

Eighties Haze

Saturdays = Youth
M83
Mute, 2008
4 stars

Just think - in fifteen or twenty years the music of the '00s will just be coming back into fashion. Shit that's a scary thought. However, if artists continue to channel the '80s as authentically as M83 do on Saturdays = Youth, we might just be listening to the '80s for the next century. This album shows us what the music of the '80s would have sounded like if it was made with the technology of today. Super-clean synths wash over filtered guitars, programmed beats and hazy vocals, but it doesn't feel 'dated' for a second. Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez has produced some of his finest work on this album, in particular the Degrassi-inspired single Graveyard Girl and the fantastic synth-fest that is Kim & Jessie. Tears For Fears meets My Bloody Valentine, and somehow the result is the sound of 2008.

Artwork: B+

Published in mX, Thursday May 1, 2008