This is the debut mini-album from a Birmingham threesome who scream and wail whilst playing some heavily McLusky-influenced hardcore/post hardcore punk. They are signed to Tiger Trap Records, a new-ish small label created by a couple of former Drowned In Sound writers.

8 tracks and 16 minutes doesn’t turn out to be enough time for the band to fully grasp their own ideas and identity, unfortunately. UMP seem to be as much playing the best bits they’ve heard in other bands as playing something they’ve written themselves, the McLusky influence as heard in the bass work throughout the album and a particular guitar rhythm on “The A Minor Penatatonic Scale”, for instance. Or the cluster-fuck sound that Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower trade in. Or the clearly stolen bass riff in “Endless Deodorant And Bad Shoes”, (Klaxons will want that back guys, it’s the best thing about “Gravity’s Rainbow”).

There are brief moments of UMP doing things themselves, such as the judiciously restrained use of screamed vocals to add variety every now and then. But for the most part UMP define themselves from the first track when they shout “We’ve heard it all/We’ve heard it all before” in “The People Versus Michael Miller”. By no means bad, after all the band do manage to be competent at what they’re doing, yet by no means special, this self-titled release holds some seeds for future development whilst failing to be particularly inspiring in itself.
50%

Links
Untitled Musical Project [myspace] [buy it]

Film School’s follow-up to last year’s self-titled effort successfully busts out of the confines of the shoegaze genre. Awash in rich vocals and punctuated rhythms, Hideout sounds nothing like its cocooned namesake. In fact, Film School’s latest effort not only breaks out of the confines of the shoegaze genre, but reveals a band reinvented and reincarnated with a new lineup and sound. For the most part, the San Francisco quintet has discarded the goth posturings found nestled in swathes of reverb and loops on earlier releases, and replaced them with a sound rooted in a more conventional pop structure. 


At first, the My Bloody Valentine guitar grumbles on opener “Dear Me” sound rather routine until the skittering percussion and towering rhythm guitars crest at the minute mark. Greg Berten’s broken and commanding vocals tear through the uproar with the thematic lines, “we can hide out / we can hide here too / it will take us back to me and you.” Alongside Berten’s lead singing many of the new vocal additions add to Film School’s pulsing rhythms and textured ambiance. The eddying vocals of bassist Lorelei Plotczyk on “Florida” and “Compare” infuse decadent nostalgia to their ghostly chamber pop electronics.

Hideout’s mid-section leans towards ‘80s pop balladry with the heartbreaking love song ”Two Kinds” and the harpsichord tinged sweeper “Go Down Together.” The album breaks out of that mold when Jesus and Mary Chain chainsaw riffs fuzz everything on closer “What I Meant To Say.” Alongside the new experiments are moments when the old psychedelic interstellar rock of past Film School efforts zooms into focus (”Sick Hipster Nursed By A Suicide Girl”) only to be grounded in the terrestrial by the jackhammer rhythms on the well-named “Lectric.” The guitars scorch across the sky, leaving slashes and burn marks as they go.

Those burns feel all the more corporeal on a release that fully tracks the emotions of a caged mind without sounding blinkered. Film School has not only done this with Hideout, but also crafted its strongest album to date.
79%

Links
Film School [official site] [myspace]

Okkervil River bring their band of merry tunes to the UK again early next year for a trio of shows.

February
02 BELFAST - Empire
03 EDINBURGH - Cabaret Voltaire
05 LONDON - Scala

They’re also giving away a free download of recent single “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe”, which you can find below. TLOBFer Bridget reviewed their spangly new album The Stage Names here.

mp3:> Okkervil River: “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe”
[From The Stage Names; Out Now Jagjaguwar]

I have had a long-time love affair with Canadian bands, yet somehow Winnipeg’s The Weakerthans have been flying under my radar for years. Reunion Tour was actually released in the U.S. last month, and I’d heard it mentioned here and there, but didn’t bother to check it out until I was given it for review. Despite the title of the album, The Weakerthans never broke up, they just haven’t made a record in four years.

Reunion Tour opens magnificently with “Civil Twilight”, a song about lost love from a bus driver’s point of view, and undeniable proof that John K. Samson is one of our generation’s best songwriters. His lyrics are actually less lyrical and more narrative; he proves himself a masterful story-teller across the album’s 11 tracks, speaking from the point of view of an assortment of different characters. Most impressive is how The Weakerthans can take Samson’s story-ish lyrics and put them so eloquently to the music.

If you never thought you’d hear a tune about the sport of curling, grab a beer and take a listen to the infectious “Tournament Of Hearts”. “Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure” is a lovely yet heart wrenching sequel to Reconstruction Site’s (their previous album) “Plea From A Cat Named Virtute”. I can’t help but hope that all turns out well for the poor kitty… Or whatever it is that she represents. The horns are broken out on “Bigfoot!” and on the title track we hear a flute and bells tinkling over the lyric “I lost the chiming ring of keys to everything“. The album closes with a ballad of the everyman, “Utilities”, which laments such things as dirty dishes, household clutter, car trouble and self-doubt. The one misstep on the album is “Elegy For Gump Worsley”, a stream-of-consciousness tribute to the late hockey icon. It’s a good idea in theory, but the execution falls short with a twangy non-melody that lulls the listener into a stupor.

In the end, Reunion Tour comes together wonderfully with Samson’s distinctive, bittersweet tenor hovering just above the pop hooks and melodies. Hovering just below the pop hooks and melodies are garage rock undertones fueled by distorted and fuzzy guitars. Although the lyrics are somewhat depressing and the landscape of the album is rather cold and wintry, it still somehow leaves behind a lingering feeling of warmth.

The Weakerthans are a distinctively Canadian band, with mention of subjects such as the province of Ontario and the GST, and entire songs devoted to hockey and a Bigfoot sighting. So thus continues my infatuation with Canadian music. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to seek out more of their tunes…
85%

Links
The Weakerthans [official site] [myspace] [buy it]

Photographs by Rich Thane

November is just around the corner, the clocks have gone back and it’s suddenly, seemingly, dark all day. What better way to banish those Autumnal blues than see the long standing Idlewild tour their greatest hits around the provinces. Tonight, they visit our fair town of Cambridge.

The PA is continually looping the latest Rilo Kiley album and it only serves to annoy as we wait for The Resistance to take to the stage. A bit of a coup for them, they’re one of the finest local acts around and this is a great opportunity for them to stretch beyond their local fan base. I’m not sure the crowd were that impressed though. They seemed bemused by their gaze-rock. The sound didn’t do them much favours however, the PA seemingly unable to cope with the dark, dense sounds that they were crafting. Fellow TLOBFer, Rich Thane said that they made him physically sick. But hey, better a reaction of something than none at all - they’re still one of my favourite Cambridge bands.

The Twilight Sad

So next up were the real reason why the TLOBF troupe were here tonight; The Twilight Sad. We’ve championed them all year, their debut album Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is a wonderfully dense and esoteric slice of music that conjures up images from the darker corners of the imagination. Tonight, that music is realised, fully, live and in front of this partisan crowd. Beginning with the evocative “Cold Days From The Birdhouse”, singer James Graham stands in the centre of the stage, in self imposed isolation from the rest of the band. His solitary piercing vocals silence the members of the audience who were talking. When the rest of the band crash in, a wave of music envelopes the crowd and sends shivers down my spine.

The rest of their five song set passes far too quickly. Graham’s twisting, twitching and haunting stage presence captivates as he spews forth his powerful lyrics. His eyes roll back to the point that you think he’s completely lost in the music. Their wall of sound approach amazingly realised with just the four of them and a host of delay peddles. The album is full of dense sounds that build up to create a massive wall of noise. Live, the songs are almost stripped back and given air to breath. “That Summer At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy” rolls around, twitching like an animal in its final death throws. Graham’s vocals at turns beautiful, quiet and then harsh and piercing. He may be “shit at between song chat” but you don’t have to talk when the music is as good as this. As their final song descends into a mountain of feedback and noise, it feels like rolls after rolls of thunder are rippling through the venue and the crowd are left breathless.

Idlewild

After that, Idlewild were going to have to do something very special. Unfortunately, they bottled it. I’ve been a fan of Idlewild from their debut album, and was looking forward to catching them touring some of their “greatest hits” but, tonight, there was something missing. They seem to have distilled all their old angst-driven songs to the lowest common denominator so they now all sound like indie-rock thrashes. There’s little to distinguish between all their numbers. Woomble’s lyrics are lost in a swathe of riff’s and balls-to-the-wall rock. The delicate introspection that made them seems to have been discarded live.

Song’s like “Little Discourage”, “No Emotion” and “Actually It’s Darkness” feel limp and, dare I say it; boring. Woomble looked like he’d rather be anywhere than here, playing these songs. The rest of the band seemed to be enjoying themselves, pulling some Richman-esque moves with their guitars, but it fails to move me. It’s only towards the end of their set do they slightly rescue the evening. “Make Another World”, “A Modern Way of Letting Go” and “I Understand It” break the mould, their indie-rock by-numbers approach broken apart and the inner beauty of their songs shines through. It’s just a shame it was too little too late to help raise the opinion of one of my favourite bands that, sadly, have fallen in my estimation.

Links
The Resistance [myspace]
The Twilight Sad [myspace] [interview] [photos]
Idlewild [myspace] [photos]

Best Of albums are the most difficult albums to review, because really, what can be said that hadn’t already been said the first time around? This is particularly true when the Best Of compilation is (1) from a band that released a scant pair of proper albums, and (2) doesn’t even bother to include much of any bonus material. Ah, but here we are with the ever popular, too-short-lived Libertines offering up just such an album.

There’s no denying that The Libertines were an integral part of the great post-punk revival at the turn of this century. The tempestuous relationship between Carl Barât and Pete Doherty was often more of a focal point than the music itself, and the long, drawn-out Libertines breakup was clearly inevitable. The ‘boys in the band’ have kept themselves busy, however: Carl’s Dirty Pretty Things are working on a reportedly poppier, artier follow-up to last year’s excellent Waterloo To Anywhere. Pete, in addition to a still (at this writing) successful stint in rehab, has just released the brilliant Shotter’s Nation, his Babyshambles sophomore effort. Moreover, besides avoiding jail, he has just begun recording a solo album. Prolific times indeed.

But about the album. It’s entitled Time For Heroes: The Best Of The Libertines and consists of thirteen tracks culled mainly from the two albums, including all the singles and a couple of b-sides. It is a great overview of some of the band’s best material that will serve as the perfect introduction to anyone unfamiliar with The Libertines. Unfortunately, however, there is no previously unreleased material to entice longtime fans. For the idea to release of a Best Of album by a band who’s only released two albums: 23%. Perhaps Time For Heroes is a push by Rough Trade to finally bring about the oft-rumored Libertines reunion? For the non-inclusion of some live, demo or other tasty unreleased material: 0%. In the end though this is all about the music, and The Libertines are top-notch, so for that:
87%

Links
The Libertines [official site] [buy it]

Glaswegian foursome Sons & Daughters have announced details of their highly anticapted follow-up to 2005’s The Repulsion Box. Entitled This Gift, it’s produced by ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler and is to be released on 28th January 2008. A single was released on Monday, “Gilt Complex”, but we’ve not heard it hear yet…

Tomorrow night they kick off a massive tour of the UK that seems to hit every town between London and Glasgow, details below.

October
31 London, England - Rough Trade East (in-store)

November
01 Northampton, England - Soundhaus
02 Nottingham, England - Bodega Social Club
03 Birmingham, England - Bar Academy
04 Leicester, England - The Charlotte
06 Brighton, England - Pressure Point
07 Oxford, England - Carling Academy
08 Southampton, England - Joiners
09 Cardiff, Wales - Barfly (Sŵn Festival)
10 Plymouth, England - The Hub
12 Cambridge, England - Barfly @ The Graduate
13 Bristol, England - Louisiana
14 Wolverhampton, England - Little Civic
15 Wrexham, Wales - Central Station
17 Liverpool, England - Academy 2
18 Derby, England - Clubroom
19 Leeds, England - Cockpit
21 London, England - Islington Academy
22 Southend, England - Chinnery’s
23 Norwich, England - Arts Centre
24 Manchester, England - Night & Day
26 Sheffield, England - Plug
27 York, England - Barfly @ Fibbers
28 Hull, England - Lamp
30 Newcastle, England - Other Rooms

December
01 Carlisle, England - Brickyard
02 Edinburgh, Scotland - Cabaret Voltaire
03 Dundee, Scotland - Fat Sam’s
05 Aberdeen, Scotland - Barfly @ Moshulu
06 Glasgow, Scotland - Grand Ole Opry

The rather marvellous Stars have announced a tour for early 2008. Off the back of their recent album In The Bedroom After The War (reviewed here) they’ll also be releasing the track “The Night Starts Here” as their latest single on 3rd December via City Slang.

January
24 DUBLIN, Tripod
26 ABERDEEN, Moshulu
27 GLASGOW, Oran Mor
28 BIRMINGHAM, Barfly
29 LONDON, KOKO
30 BRISTOL, Thekla Social
31 MANCHESTER, Academy 3

February
2 NOTTINGHAM, Rescue Rooms
3 SHEFFIELD, Leadmill
4 BRIGHTON, Concorde 2

Hot off the press ladies and gents…

Singer Róisín Murphy suffered a nasty injury on stage on Saturday night (27th October) at Moscow’s Ikra Club. Whilst performing the track “Primitive” from her hugely acclaimed new album ‘Overpowered’ she hit her head on a chair and severely damaged her eye socket.

She left the stage immediately and was raced straight to a Russian hospital for emergency treatment and was then flown back to the UK early on Sunday morning. Last night she had an operation under general anaesthetic to repair the damage to her eye socket and eyebrow. Fortunately, despite serious concussion and losing a lot of blood, her vision is unimpaired.

Róisín is now recovering well but her European tour dates have been cancelled for at least the next seven days as have all promotional commitments.

It is hoped that Róisín will return to the stage within a week’s time but she is under doctor’s orders to rest until fully recovered so the recovery time may need to be extended. However her UK and Irish tour dates starting on 26th November should be unaffected.

The cancelled tour dates will be rescheduled for later in the year.

Well, at least it’s a better reason for cancelling than Wilco came up with…

It’s always nice when a collection of ‘rarities’ actually does what it says on the tin. Covering the period of 1992-2002, this is nine ultra-limited singles, plus their respective B-sides, with a couple of ‘hidden’ oddities shoved on the end for good measure. And when you consider you had to be at random gigs in Brazil (”Push Some Air”) and Hoboken (”Naked”), and a Sassy magazine competition winner (”Showgirl”), as well as one of four people to snag a test pressing of a never released single (”Caroline”), chances are even the biggest fans will have a few of these as embarrassing gaps in their lovingly alphabatised collections.

The rest of the compilation comprises the five singles that make up the In the Red label’s Jukebox seven-inch series; no bad thing, as they’re all belting tunes. Described by the man himself (who you may know from other popular music combos such as Pussy Galore and Boss Hog) as “wild, low-tech rock ’n’ roll”, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion fuses Elvis with dentist drills, the history of blues with the history of violence, and a garage rockabilly racket that transcends its peers by being sparklingly, angrily, and balls-out we-don’t-fucking-care imaginative. From the pure uncompromising adrenalin of “Shirt Jac” and the “Train” tracks (sorry) to the stomping but groovin’ swagger of “Caroline” and “Showgirl” (featuring the girls of Boss Hog on backing vocals), JSBX make blues-punk make sense, just as it should – while they may be fifty years apart, they both sprung from the same abandon and frustration. With the exception of the comical, chilled “I am Tupac “(one of the bonus tracks) there is none of the experimental, remixing Jon Spencer here; this is purely the noisy stuff, but Jukebox Explosion is none the worse for it.

If you like the band, buy this CD: unlike many cash-in compilations, this is well worth your hard-earned. If you know nothing about them, buy it anyway. Put simply, it fucking rocks. Hard.
85%

Links
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion [official site] [myspace] [buy it]

When our friends over at Fat Cat records started talking about frightened rabbits I was a bit concerned. Perhaps their water had become contaminated with LSD or they’d been watching some random remake of Watership Down. However, it was cleared up when a CD popped through my letter box and it became apparent that Frightened Rabbit was, in fact, a band who were releasing their debut single “Be Less Rude”.

It was clear from the first time I played it that I was falling in love. The lyrics delivered in a winning Scottish lilt, friends of the Twilight Sad and a love for all things indie rock, it was a perfect combination. “Be Less Rude” has all the hallmarks of a great indie-pop record. The opening riff should have Johnny Marr on the phone asking if he can have this signature guitar tune back. The vocals pained at the realisation that you’ve now fallen in love with a girl who’s frightfully rude, and who you might also have offended in previous meetings. There’s also a touch of The Wedding Present to it’s crashing guitars that mount up as the song progresses, the resignation in the vocals strikingly similar to David Gedge.

Flip side “The Greys” proves they’re no one trick pony either. It’s a futher charge of electric guitars that rush out of your speakers, coming on like Idlewild at their earliest, aggressive selves. The song lamenting those days when you just can’t get from underneath a dark cloud that’s following you around.

Do yourself a favour, hunt these guys down. Don’t wait though; the wave of support is growing. Listening to 6Music the other night and Mark Riley is already on about booking them for his show. If he has his way, they’d never leave, so make sure you catch them before they get locked in his cupboard.

Video for “The Greys” from the forthcoming album, Sings The Greys

mp3:> Frightened Rabbit: “Music Now”
[From Sing The Greys; 19th Nov 2007 Fat Cat]

Ok, so we’re a bit late to this one, but it makes interesting reading nevertheless… From the NME (of all places):

Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys will release an album with producer and solo artist Boom Bip next February. The duo, recording under the name Neon Neon, have titled their debut album ‘Stainless Style’, and have roped in a slew of stars to contribute to the record. They have recruited Fab Moretti of The Strokes, Har Mar Superstar, Yo Majesty, Spank Rock and The Magic Numbers to make musical contributions to the album. Neon Neon will release “Raquel”, the first single from the album, on November 26.

Now, this could be something exceedingly good or exceedingly bad… Initial listens to the single via their Myspace site suggests something a bit different for Mr. Rhys. Its got cowbells. Lots of them. As well as a 70’s disco vibe…

Following on from their highly acclaimed debut album House, UK States return after a two year absence with Psychogeography. Fundamentally the fourteen tracks here are all home recordings but with an added (psycho)geographical twist – see what I did there? Having fled the city lights of London to find a new home in Australia, pedal steel extroadinare Jolyon Gray was forced to record his parts with a little help from his broadband connection. A lengthy process ensued which found the remaining members of the group cutting and pasting their backing tracks whilst at home in London. The alt-country equivalent of The Postal Service then? Well maybe, but first we’ll swap the blips and beeps of Tamberrello and Gibbard and replace them with the gentle, sparse acoustic backing of scratchy mandolin, softly strummed acoustic and a sprinkle of bittersweet cynicm via the pen of Christian Lewcock and Toby Carter.

Opening with the outstanding “I Have No Legs”, the mood is instantly subdued. The brittle, almost deadbeat lyrics are lifted and carried along by the infectious backing of mandolin and harmonica. It finds Lewcock and Carter in a rather defeatist mode as they sulk through the lines “my bottle has broke, my metal has been crushed, my one eye’s on the blink” it’s only when they add “my spunk is up the wall” that you find yourself smirking. Not in a childish way I hasten to add, it just makes realise that they’re more than likely taking the piss out of themselves.

One thing that is apparent, almost instantly, on this record is the lack of drums. It’s quite refreshing too, as after a while you just don’t miss them at all. Opting for a more “pots and pans” approach, UK States use cassette cases, wooden spoons, and their sock drawer (seriously) to add the percussive element, and it works a treat. As with a lot of “bedroom” recordings though, you rarely get the quality and sheen found in a professional studio. Everything is a little more amateurish, off the cuff, sloppy even. But with UK States this only acts as a good thing. The sense of depth to the songs is a joy to behold.

It isn’t a record that’s instantly accessible though. After my first couple of listens I was dreadfully let down. My brain switching off after the half way mark, leaving the remaining songs to merge into one. I only really “got” this record after I listened in a different setting. The long commute home on the train found itself to be the perfect companion to Psychogeography. It allowed me to concentrate on what was going on underneath the surface. With no distractions, the startling beauty of “This Island Was Manmade” and “Winter Rose” revealed themselves as album highlights. In retrospect, my original opinion was probably not helped by the ill placing of second track, the Carter penned “Jessie Found A Baby Cow”. It’s by far the weakest thing here. Even after repeated plays I still find myself reaching for the skip button. This little niggle is soon ironed out with the moving “Surrounded By Darkness” which, in a way, acts as the antithesis of Paul McCartney’s crass mandolin workout “Dance Tonight”, whilst “Be Brazil” finds the UK States in a suitably apt Bossa Nova guise.

Fans of alternative country would be wise to investigate immediately. This really is a gem of a record that could, and should, see UK States take a place amongst their peers in the (not as bad as you might think) UK Americana scene.
82%

Links
UK States [official site] [myspace]

The Second Coming by The Stone Roses was a real pain in the backside to put on my Ipod. Why? Because, during those five years dicking about in deepest Wales, Squire and the guys decided to fill the CD with 85 blank tracks and a glorious hidden bonus. What a wonderful idea, no-one will ever find it there!?! Except really it isn’t a wonderful idea, it’s a rubbish idea. What you end up with are 85 blank tracks, which is annoying, and what sounds like a middle school music lesson mixed with 24 cans of Stella and five bottles of vodka (two for Mani).

I don’t sleep well at the best of times, and so I quite like listening to music to get me away. Once I laid in bed listening to Mellow Gold by Beck, a fine album. The last track, “Black Hole”, was the perfect bridge from consciousness to slumber, a beautiful composition of floating guitars and dreamlike vocals. It softly closes, followed by a yawning silence that sends me spiralling into sleep, all done with that day. Or rather I would have been, if Beck hadn’t decided after 15 minutes of nothing to fill the dying moments of his album with shrill, random, and downright scary bursts of electronic noise. Suddenly my ears are filled with a blaring cacophony of crapness and my heart nearly gives way. Thank you Beck for my bonus track. Thank you VERY much.

Apparently it all began with The Beatles (those crazy guys!) who placed a random piece of music into the run-off groove in Sergeant Pepper, something my Dad used to find really annoying as he had to get up and flick the needle to switch it off. However, since the inclusion of “Endless Nameless” on Nevermind the hidden track has become rampant, with all sorts of bands rummaging through the demo box to find something they can shove on the end. I just don’t get the hidden track. And here is why:

1.They are annoying
What is the point of filling up the last track of an album with dead space. Its not so much of a problem now but I remember when I had my first MP3 player, finding it enormously frustrating how much memory those last tracks consumed. Pulp’s This is Hardcore ends with a sustained note, amusing enough on the first listen (well, about thirty seconds into it) but subsequently frustrating. It’s a fine song, but you wouldn’t want it to come up on shuffle. And forget about ever putting it on a mix CD. Also, I like to put a CD on repeat when I am reading, so when it finishes it flips back to the start and plays again. Fat chance of that happening when the last twenty odd minutes are silent.   Its supposed to be a hidden TRACK. Just give it a track number of its own and cut out all that nothingness.

Most frustrating are those where you have to wind the CD back to hear what is usually a total waste of time. Soulwax did this on Much Against Everyone’s Advice (with a useless little ditty about how they are not to be confused with KC and the Sunshine Band, ho ho) which used to jam up the CD Player in my car. It was a useless joke anyway. Just play the album!

2. They are indulgent
Yes, I would love to sit and listen to the sound of Ash being sick in a bucket, boy, I wish the whole album had been like this. They could have been sick in different sized buckets to see if it changed the tone, or maybe vomit on different surfaces. That would have been SO funny. Terrovision on How to Make Friends and Influence People added an extraordinarily long piece of guff – one of the band strolling around at night with a tape-recorder capturing for posterity the “antics” that ensued. It goes on forever and is probably boring for the person who recorded it, let alone the listener. Please, by all means record stuff for pleasure, but why inflict it on me?

3. They are always crap
Yes, I would love it if Nirvana’s new album took the direction hinted at in “Endless Nameless”. Or rather I wouldn’t, as it’s a noisy piece of guff that doesn’t go anywhere and has probably only ever been listened to once by every owner of the album. If a hidden track is SO special, why are they hiding it. The answer – they never are that special, they are usually worthless messes of melody dismissed at the demo stage. They are not on the album, because they are no good. So why put them on the album?

Actually, I will make one exception. Mansun’s Attack of the Grey Lanterns includes a fantastic hidden track. Its probably one of my favourite songs on the album. Shame then that I can’t get at it and have to keep my finger pressed on the forward button to listen. And then you have the annoyance of your finger slipping and the first track coming round again (see point one).

So I just can’t see the point of a hidden track. They are rarely a bonus, rarely of any real interest past the initial listen, and just clog up the dying moments of an album. They are the audio equivalent of the outtakes in a Burt Reynolds movie or Ferris Bueller popping up at the end asking why we’re all still sat there – cheap gimmicks that serve no purpose and whilst charming at first, eventually frustrate. I just don’t get them. So prove me wrong.

You only need to listen to Kid Harpoon for a short while to realise his country of origin. Since the release of Riverside, his debut single on Brikabrak in 2006, Kent born Tom Hull has built up a strong following through his live performances and wild claims to have some 100 songs written and ready on his laptop. This release, “The First” EP, is available on vinyl or on a tour only CD. It represents a varied, original collection of songs, echoing in texture and tone a very British musicality, with a wide mix of instrumentation and sound.

At times the sound and the songs are full of glamour, but without the buttock-clenching awkwardness of (dare I say it) Mika. “Milkmaid” has a British streak a mile wide, the sort of thing Larrikin Love have tried and failed to emulate, with Kid Harpoon’s vocal very much to the front, backed with a dizzying array of other talents from horns to strings. “Fifty-Seven” has the potential to be irritating (I refer you back to Mika), as does “Aeroplanes and Neon Lights”, but the sheer enthusiasm displayed prevents the songs from dipping towards offensively twee. Here we have elements of XTC, The Kinks, with a hint of Sufjan Stevens thrown in for good measure.

If this EP is anything to go by, he is clearly a talented songwriter, who shows huge potential with this release. His vocal is sometimes too strong, sometimes overly theatrical, but this is a mild criticism. Musically this release is very appealing, and a slightly toned back Kid Harpoon could become an artist of quite some calibre.
74%

Links
Kid Harpoon [official site] [myspace]

Múm release a new single on the 17th Dec, via Fat Cat Records, called “Marmalade Fires”. Taken from the rather wonderful album, Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy (you can read our review here), it features the splendid B-side, “Rhubarbidoo”, which has its own quirky and acid-trip influenced video here:

Building up to the release of this single, you can catch them on a quick tour of UK and Ireland – support on all shows from Seabear + Benni Hemm Hemm (London only) :

December
10 Brighton Concorde 2 
11 London Scala
12 Manchester Academy III
13 Dublin Tripod
14 Glasgow Oran Mor

L-R: Leila Moss, Toby Butler, Olly ‘The Kid’ Betts, Luke Ford, Dan Higgins

It’s been a long time coming but the Duke Spirit are well and truly back. This Monday (22nd Oct) marked the release of Ex-Voto, a brand new EP recorded out in the Californian desert. It may only be four tracks but it sees the band revitalised and fighting fit. We caught up with Leila Moss (vocals) and Toby Butler (bass) to discuss their new material, up and coming tour and what they’ve been upto since we last saw them in 2005.

It’s great to have you back with the new EP and tour. You’ve been greatly missed. For the benefit of our readers who are less familiar with the Duke Spirit, can you fill me in on what you’ve been up to since cuts across the land was released.
Leila: We toured america, twice in theory. We went round and round again in a splitter van. We were away for months! Last winter we changed labels, which is always a drag because weeks fly by and you’re sat at home going, “is the deal done yet? When can we go and record the next album”. Finally, this January, we were ready to make a proper recording schedule. We sifted through all the songs we’d stacked up, and cut the wheat from the chaff, and went to make the record this April. Continue Reading

It may have been three years since they emerged out of the throng of post-Britpop bands with a gutsy, unfashionable album called Cuts Across The Land. Their dusty, grunge-influenced songs bristled with greatness. Taking their cues from the Pixies and American female rock acts of the 90’s, it was a breath of fresh air during a time when the UK charts were awash with Oasis-aping monkeys.

The Ex-Voto EP is the sound of a band refreshed, recharged and full of ideas that have finally had the chance to crystallise. Recorded out at the Joshua Tree, all four songs have a wide, expansive feel to them. Bursting to life with the outstanding “Lassoo”, it’s obvious that the time spent touring with the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s has helped develop their sound. The production is more focused whilst the guitars sound urgent, driving and perfectly complimenting Liela’s breathy and aggressive vocals. “Dog Roses” is full of Western promise, a soundtrack to a long lost Sergio Leone film; you can imagine Clint Eastwood strolling purposefully through a dusty, ramshackle town with this echoing his every move.

“A Wild Hope” might begin with some of the most off the wall lyrics I’ve heard for a while “I wish I tasted like a buttered angel“, but its chugging guitars and piercing vocals are reminiscent of Howling Bells, who’ve stolen The Duke Spirits thunder whilst they’ve been away. “Masca” finishes the painfully short EP. It broods and seethes under Leila’s sultry vocals, the killer line “I’ll bet anything for gold” echoing around the gently building guitars and marching drums that build an air of menace which titillates and tantalises but just falls short of reaching the cusp of something great.

This EP just wets the appetite for their new album which is set for release early next year. The question is, now that they’ve raised the bar to this height, can they maintain it?
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Look out for an interview with the band later on today…

Links
The Duke Spirit [official site] [myspace] [live review] [interview]

Cats on Fire are a Finnish four-piece who have been around since 2001. After releasing an EP last year this is their first full-length album. An old biography on their website has two interesting nuggets: that they tried to be as un-ROCK as possible for their first ever gig, and that the mentality of the band has always been to be serious and un-ironic.

For a band of non-Brits this is probably one of the most English-sounding, or certainly Anglophile records you could hope to find. The first thing that will strike you on this album is the clear debt owed to The Smiths. This can be heard in the very Morrissey-like vocal: on most tracks but particularly on the minor-key “Heat and Romance” and “The Sharp End of a Season”. There is a definite Smiths-like way with words too: “We’re getting tired of your antics / Well so am I” from “Higher Grounds” and “Your name / forgettably plain” from “Heat and Romance” could convincingly pass for Morrissey lyrics; whilst “Chain of Saints” sounds strikingly similar to the Manchester band’s “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”.

It would be misleading, however, and unfair, to write this band off as a Smiths tribute band. There is very much here to enjoy. Other less obvious influences emerge on repeated listenings: Pulp, for example, can be heard in the Jarvis-esque “kiss of” line used in “The Smell of an Artist” and the “uh-huh”s in “Draw in the Reins” and there’s even a couple of Beatles-y “Oooh”s in “Higher Grounds”.

Lyrically things are interesting, with much use made of surprising out-of-the-ordinary metaphors. The prime example of this is on the superb opener “I Am The White-Manteled King”, where the singer describes his feelings on a broken relationship whilst “Folding bedsheets on my own” and pretending to be “A bedouin leader” who “doesn’t need her”. An arresting and original image, and a break-up song that manages to be uplifting rather than depressing. “On Mesmer and Reason” they sing, intriguingly, about “Wash[ing] my hands with this woman’s tears”, on an odd but nonetheless stand-out track. They also do ire to great effect on “Born Again Christian” who they refer to as a “phoney” that they “despise” and on “The Smell of an Artist” (“…it’s a shameless piece of shit”), all backed with Hammond organ and jaunty jangly guitars, and upbeat melodies to sugar the pill.

Cats on Fire then: certainly they sound like fairly serious, un-ironic and non-ROCK (if we are talking ‘rock’ with a capital RAWWWW) chaps. What they have, instead, is a charm of their own, and an endearing way with melody and words, combined with a distinctly 80’s overall feel. I would say that on the evidence found here, this is greatly preferable.
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Links
Cats on Fire [official site] [myspace] [buy it]