Albums I Heard In May

Caribou-Swim

First up, I've never heard any of Caribou's stuff before so in terms of 'sound evolution' I don't know how this compares to his other work, but Dan Snaith's new album is a superb, grown up techno workout devoid of any weak tracks. The opening stomp of the single 'Odessa' immediately sounds like the best track but it holds momentum throughout. The slick 'Bowls' is also excellent and has a cool creepiness to it and 'Leave House' is a Balearic style track coming in the middle of the album and is another highlight. Towards the end though it really takes off, particularly with the dark, brass-laden 'Hannibal' before exploding with emotion with the brilliant 'Jamelia'. Actually the whole thing is superb! Overall the record sounds minimal, yet melodic, always upbeat and intriguing and improving on each listen. In the end, this is a fine album and sits alongside the Pantha Du Prince and Four Tet albums as being this years top notch minimal electro releases.


Charlotte Gainsbourg-IRM
The new album from singer/actress Charlotte Gainsbourg is actually a collaboration with junk rocker Beck. Both seem to be riding on a fairly creative high, Gainsbourg having recently appeared in Lars Von Trier's brilliant but bleak 'Antichrist' and Beck's last album 'Modern Guilt' was his best for years, though it was criminally neglected. They suit each other perfectly and have together created a perfectly charming indie pop album. The title track, arriving early on is particularly good, driven by tribal beats and an ethereal hum it is both seductive and creepy. Overall, it's quite an eclectic album; 'Le Chat Du Cafe Des Artistes' is a sultry French ballad that makes her worthy of the name Gainsbourg, 'Trick Pony' is a decent blusey tune, 'Heaven Can Wait' is a cheerful and very 'indie' sounding number while 'Vanities' is a beautiful, gentle folky number. Not an amazing album to be sure, but a decent, innovative and eclectic one.


Liars-Sisterworld
Again, never really heard the Liars stuff before, but this album, the follow up to a self titled album definitely warrants interest. Like the These New Puritans album out earlier this year, 'Sisterworld' sounds ominous and brooding; Andrew Angus vocals sound dark and sinister throughout and from the get go the album exudes a sense of dread about it. The opening track 'Scissor' with its stop/start dynamic gets things off to a suitably dark surrounding that is followed by the even creepier 'No Barrier Fun'. The album is mainly dystopic in nature and seems to revolve around themes of urban decay and alienation. Tracks like 'Drip' have a real subterranean quality of them and a genuinely paranoid nature that threatens to explode at any moment, even though the album rarely does. Another highlight is 'Proud Evolution' which has a bit more of a groove to it than the other tracks and in many ways is the albums centrepiece. On the whole 'Sisterworld' is not an especially enjoyable album, but it is a very effective one.

Crystal Castles-Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles are, on the whole, a group I really can't stand. Their stand-offish nature in interviews seems like less of a genuine attitude and more of a paper thin calculated stance. Their whole background (Alice Glass runs away from home at 14 to live in squats) sounds so contrived and their whole 'cool' aesthetic seems to be so pathetically try hard. To add to this, their first album also called 'Crystal Castles' sounded like someone had taken a hammer to a NES game before putting it back in the console to see what blips might come out. An appealing notion to some no doubt, but to me it sounded fucking horrible. Still, this album is something of an improvement and they have found a certain amount of structure to their songs and at least on record you can try and forget about their godawful visual posturing. On its own terms 'Celestica' is a fine, ethereal and oddly haunting electro piece and 'Baptism' opening with haunted Ibiza style synths before turning into an actually pretty good waily dance workout. Best of all might be the stomping 'Year of Silence' punctuated by Glass' gibberish vocals and the haunting 'Violent Dreams' provides a haunting interlude. The latter half of the album is somewhat by the numbers, but on the whole this album is actually kind of OK. I still think they're a bunch of wanky poseurs though.


The National-High Violet
Again, I am unfamiliar with The National's previous work, but this is being touted as their 'breakthrough album', an American equivalent of Elbow's last album and has thus been getting a lot of enthusiastic press and for good reason; 'High Violet' is an upper tier indie rock record sounding equally epic and personal. Something of an Autumnal album, 'High Violet' seems to glide through with a sense of gentle melancholy and uplifting statements throughout its 11 tracks. 'Terrible Love' gets things off to a grand start, setting the scene admirably, sounding particularly epic towards the end; make to mistake, this album should be played pretty loud. It dips a little early on, 'Little Faith' and 'Afraid Of Everyone' are a little weaker in comparison but from the brilliant 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' it takes off and doesn't dip until it ends. 'Lemonworld' and especially 'Runaway' have a gentle beauty about them and my favourite track 'England' arriving near the end of the album sounds like the kind of anthem made for festivals. The albums real talent though, lies in expressing fairly universal themes of love, longing and regret without sounding like a total bummer and doing it in the way that earns bands titles like 'band of the people'. As each songs hooks creep under your skin, 'High Violet' becomes more and more compelling with each listen. I definitely need to listen to more of their back catalogue, and even if this is their breakthrough, I can easily imagine they can do even better.


Flying Lotus-Cosmogramma
The third album from Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) has been much hyped and has become something of a darling to the critics, touted as his most varied and accomplished effort to date. Often billed as 'experimental hip-hop', to me it's sounds more like the IDM of Squarepusher, trading equally in house, electro and free jazz. The latter is a key ingredient: Ellison's Aunt is Jazz Legend Alice Coltrane, and the album is part dedicated to her. It certainly is an 'album' in the truest sense of the term, all of the tracks are around the two-minute mark and, much like the burial and Four Tet albums don't function as well on their own. Even the Thom Yorke collaboration '...And The World Laughs With You' doesn't leap out at you, but informs the record as a whole, much like the Panda Bear collaboration off the Pantha Du Prince album. That said, there are definite highlights in 'Cosmogramma'; the aggressive 'Computer Face/Pure Being' is superb as is the wistful 'Do the Astral Plane' and the oddly relaxed 'Satelliiiitteee' and 'Table Tennis' near the end of the album stands out for it's literal ping-pong ball percussion. So far, 2010 is looking like a good year for complex, innovative electronic music and Cosmogramma is as original and forward thinking as they come. Highly recommended.



Older Music:

Beach Boys-All Summer Long
Pleasant enough transitional album from the Beach Boys, but overall it's a little slight and nowhere near as good as the likes of Pet Sounds. It does contain 'I Get Around' though.


Popul Vuh-Affenstunde
Very ambient album from this 70's German group who also did the music to Aguirre: Wrath of God. A little too ambient for my liking and without being very atmospheric.


Funkadelic-Cosmic Slop
Another decent album from the P-Funk Empire. Not one of their best, but the opening 'Nappy Dugout' is pure filth and great fun and the family themed nightmare of the title track is outstanding.


A Tribe Called Quest-People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm
The best older album I have heard this month. A Tribe Called Quests debut release is one of the best summery records I've heard in a long while. Q-Tip's rhymes about women (Bonita Applebum), a holiday gone wrong (the brilliant 'Left My Wallet In El Segundo') and most bizarrely his diet ('Ham n Eggs') are all first rate. The almost psychedelic production is always chilled out, summery and hypnotic. I definitely need to listen to their other albums.


Captain Beefheart-Lick My Decals Off Baby
Captain Beefheart's follow up to Trout Mask Replica is a little more listenable than that legendary monster but is still one of his more avant garde numbers. Has some good songs on, but if I'm going to be honest I do prefer his more 'normal' stuff by a considerable distance.


Phil Spector-Back To Mono
Here is the start of a mini Phil Spector section, I've been reading a fascinating biography of him this month (Tearing Down The Wall Of Sound by Mick Brown...only £2 in Fopp!) and have been revisiting his work. Back To Mono is a box set anthology of his 1960's work and much of it will be familiar to most people. What with Spector's bizarre personal life it's difficult to forget he was behind some true pop masterpieces like 'Be My Baby', 'Da Do Ron Ron' and the titanic sounding 'River Deep - Mountain High'. At three discs, this is a long listen and you're mainly supposed to dip into it occasionally but there are some real gems here.


The Ramones-End of the Century
I've had something of a volte face regarding the Ramones this year, and I appreciate them a lot more than I used to. With this album, they enlisted Spector's services and made one of their more controversial albums. Spector is often blamed for softening up the group, but I feel his production on End Of The Century is totally appropriate. Despite their punk and aggressive guitar work, The Ramones songs are clearly rooted in 50's/60's pop and Spector gives their music a fuller quality which I always felt was lacking even in their seminal debut album. It is inferior to their past work in terms of songs though, but Rock n Roll High School and the opening Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio are both outstanding, leading me to blame the albums patchy nature on the band as opposed to Spector.


Leonard Cohen-Death of a Ladies Man
I am, however, entirely willing to blame Spector for ruining this album. When the legendary gloomy songsmith Cohen enlisted Spector as a producer he probably believed he was going to get something like the stark production on John Lennon's masterpiece 'Plastic Ono Band' which Spector also produced. Instead, Cohen's vocals and lyrics are drowned out by Spector's totally bombastic string and orchestral arrangements which seem totally inappropriate. The making of this album was again notoriously difficult, with Cohen finding himself locked out of the mixing suite. Subsequent critics are kinder to the album, saying the production amplifies the theatrical nature of the songs, but to me they were right first time round. 'Death of a Ladies Man', despite having some decent songs such as the nicely titled 'Don't Go Home With Your Hardon', is a pretty messy affair.


Miles Davis-Kind Of Blue
I never really listen to Jazz (not even sure how you're supposed to listen to it!) but I've stuck this classic album on late at night a few times and have been enjoying it very much. Not sure how I would distinguish this from any other Jazz album despite its monolithic reputation, but it's pretty good.


Syd Barrett-Barrett
Syd's second solo album is much patchier than 'Madcap Laughs' and lacks its sense of druggy desperation. He also sounds like he can't be bothered throughout most of the record, and much of it seems to wander aimlessly. Still, 'Baby Lemonade', 'Gigalo Aunt' and 'Dominoes' are among his best from his solo work.


Amon Duul II-Paradiewarts Duul
This spacey, chilled out 60's German record is nothing mind blowing but works enough for fans of its type. The epic title track 'Love is Peace' is very good though.


Amon Duul II-Phallus Dei
Another proggy album from these Krautrock pioneers, this one a little more jittery than Paradiewarts Duul and has a lot more in common with Can. Luzifer's Ghilom is probably the best reason to tune in here as is the superb and brilliantly named title track.

Films I Saw In May

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (Sydney Lumet, 2007)

The most recent film from the legendary Lumet, now in his sixth decade as a director as an admirable, character based drama themed around a heist gone wrong. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are both excellent as two brothers who conspire to rob their parents jewelery shop that backfires when their mother is shot. The advertising for this film was somewhat misleading, promoting it as a slick crime caper, and although the style is slick with a non-linear narrative, the film is deliberately paced and actually rather pathos-driven. Has great performances from all though, Hawke in particular delivers one of his best ever and Albert Finney is excellent as always as their father. Quite tough going, but worth it.


4.3.2.1 (Noel Clarke, 2010)
The latest film from actor/director Clarke is your standard multi-character/heist/things go wrong crime drama involving four girls who get caught up in a jewel heist over the course of a weekend in London and New York. Split into four interlocking stories a la 'Pulp Fiction' or 'Go' the first segment with Ophelia Lovibond (the underagte model from Nathan Barley) is by far the weakest, but it does pick up as it goes on and the latter two sequences with Shanika Warren-Marland and Emma (niece of Julia) Roberts are an improvement. Still, the whole thing is totally unbelievable and at times seems to tap into Noel Clarke's own fantasy ideas about women (he even casts himself as a character who Roberts proclaims to be "sexy"). At times, the film could do with a lot less 'directing' and a few more original ideas, but it is perfectly watchable...just not very good.


Margot At The Wedding (Noah Baumbach, 2007)
Baumbach's follow up to the brilliant 'Squid & The Whale' is another family oriented tragi-comedy played to a indie soundtrack. But where that film was a superb examination of family dynamics, 'Margot At The Wedding' is filled with some of the most contemptible characters of recent years. Nicole Kidman continues her 'box office poison' phase as a neurotic, self-obsessed writer who meets with her annoying sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and her bum fiance (Jack Black) for a disastrous weekend. The film is neither funny, nor insightful; it aspires to Checkov like brilliance, but instead is tedious, plodding and hateful. In fact the only good thing about it was its minus 90 minute running time. Avoid this film like the fucking plague.


The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Neils Arden Oplev, 2009)
Admittedly, I am slightly biased when reviewing this, as I read the books quite recently, but overall this is a well cast but somewhat rushed adaptation of Steig Larsson's posthumous best seller. Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist are perfect as goth computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and crusading journalist Mikeal Blomkvist, a mis-matched duo investigating the long ago disappearance of a tycoon's niece and their performances are the main assets of the picture. It's well directed and staged, and overall it is fairly faithful, but to someone who hasn't read the books, the plot seems to be rushed through at almost breakneck speed and I'd imagine it would seem confusing or have holes, where the book moves along at a more thoughtful pace. Again, I'm prejudiced but despite the fine acting and directing I was a little underwhelmed by this.


The Missouri Breaks (Arthur Penn, 1976)
Despite its poor reputation, I've been meaning to see this film for a while, mainly because it features two of my favourite actors: Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando. A failure critically and commercially upon its release, this is an offbeat western with Nicholson underplaying his role as a horse rustler who moves in on the land and daughter of a local baron who hires the psychopathic Brando to take him and his gang down. The scenes where Nicholson philosophises with Brando or Harry Dean Stanton are all worth savoring, and the film looks beautiful, it just feels somewhat muddled. The film's either greatest asset or most fatal blunder though is Marlon Brando's performance. He is completely out of control, switching between his normal voice and an unconvincing Irish brogue seemingly at random, all the while decked out in an escalating, bizarre series of costumes and man-dresses. His performance is completely over the top and out of control; I can't think of anything else like it and for better or worse, his performance is the reason to see this film.


The King Of Marvin Gardens (Bob Rafelson, 1972)
Another Jack Nicholson film, this time a dark, again offbeat family drama and follow up to his previous collaboration (Five Easy Pieces) with Rafelson. Again, Nicholson delivers a somewhat atypical performance as a melancholic talk radio host who gets mixed up with his ne'er-do-well brother (Bruce Dern) in Atlantic City. Nicholson proves he doesn't need to go over the top to deliver a fine performance and Dern is superb as is the always excellent Ellen Burstyn as his wife. Still, despite the strong performances, the script lacks direction and seems to have a very 'dead' feeling to it. It also seems to go on for longer than its 103 minutes may suggest.

Film Of The Month: I haven't seen a great deal, but it would have to be Before The Devil Knows You're Dead.