Do we need more album reviews? Do we need any of this? Probably, there is too much stuff isn’t there? But then we are as always, cherry picking, we are only picking the things, the stuff, the best, we’re not bothering with the rest and these are just sign posts and doorways, you don’t need big long chin-stroking reviews, you just need us to say well there’s this stuff and here’s where you go to find out about it, here’s the door, here’s the link, here’s the Bandcamp, and how good is that new Nick Carlisle album and if we don’t cover these things then who will? You don’t need our thoughts on the new Cure album that everyone seems to love, or the never read a book, too scared to take a look of the rather decent (at times) new Primal Scream album (The Cure never did much for me) and well here you go….
Nick Carlisle – Sailors On The Roiling Sea (The Colour Inverted Records) – There’s too much stuff, too much stuff, too much stuff, this is the stuff, this is good stuff, this is drenched in good stuff. There’s never too much good stuff and this is drenched in subtle vintage keyboard flavours, drenched in delicious Mellotron, this is proper pop music that’s deliciously soaked in (later) 70s flavoured art rock and hints of things that fed off early Roxy, proper Mott, Robert Calvert dancing barefoot on crushed glass without ever being in danger of getting hurt. That simple spiralling riff on Too Much Stuff is jsut perfect and…
And the room is as it was and you can’t just give any of it away and oh that’s a good bit. I can’t draw the line, you can never have too much stuff, so so much good stuff here on this fine album. Falling ice in New York City is dramatically gorgeous, Nothing Ever Ends is epic, do those keyboards on the final track taste of early 70s Genesis at times? That is of course meant as compliment. Some of it might be a little more 80s and it comes all stitched together by those delicious vintage keyboards as well as the beautiful pop hooks that make you think you already know these songs well, that they are already old friends and not the recent met acquaintances that you are soon going to love. This is the classic art of pop, these really are things that just can’t can’t just be given away, beautifully detailed timeless proper English pop art songs and not just one or two either, the whole album is good, every little bit of it, highly recommended. (sw)
Gouge Away – Deep Sage (Deathwish Inc.) – Yeah I know it came out back in late March and here we are just past the cusp of November. No appology! No Idealized appology, and hey, better late than never surely? It was their announcement of a new video and single as well as tour that doesn’t come to these shores that brought the beauty of Deep Sage our way today.
There’s an urgent bite to these songs, to this band, I guess if we were feeling lazy we’d talk of post-hardcore grunge, there’s a bit more to it than though, a touch more left-field colour, a slightly different bite, shattered slice of noise rock, fragments of all kinds of sharpe-edged things from stylishly in control vocalist Christina Michelle. There’s a forceful urgency, a colourful set of moods, a confrontation or two, a positive 90s feel and more cherry picking of those musical things that stand out, do check out the still rather new Gouge Away album, the North American band are sounding strong…
Moon Goons – Lady of Many Faces (Romanus Records) – They’re from Indianapolis, Indiana, it says here that they’re “Indiana’s hungriest goblin rockers” and that they play “heavy proggy-psych music”. I guess if that’s how they want to tell it, they’ll get no argument from us. They, whoever they are, have this kind of Gong-in-a-bit-of-a-hurry thing going on, some kind of slightly fairground flavoured thing, or maybe a some kind of off-hinge circus operation? They kind of sound like a band called Moon Goons should sound. Some of it sets off wacky alarm bells, but hey, it teapot taxis (still) do it for you then they’ve got this urgent psychedelic space rock fizzing thing happening, like they took the wrong turn years ago and there’s an om riff coming up any moment now, like they want to lead us to a thousand and one nights, In the perfumed garden of delights. “heavy proggy-psych music” is indeed what they do and they do it rather well
Valerian Swing – Liminal (Pax Aeternum) – Rather think we can call the Italian band’s latest album positively experimental, Valerian Swing are blending rather a lot of things to come up with this rather fluid sound. You might be right to point out that almost expected post rock feel to this their fourth album, post rock yes, delivered with a properly progressive outlook though, a need to push things forward and the important thing here is that Liminal works, the whole thing, as one body of work, as one whole album, it all works. They might be imaginative enough to have UK Grime artist Flowdan voicing one piece and they might have just let a really jazzy piece flow by and yes, Liminal might well be threaded with flavours that hint at contemporary film score, at jazz, at crisp electronic music, at touches of dub as well as great big servings of mathy post rock but it works as one thing, it all makes perfect sense as one body of work. Liminal never feels awkward or disjointed and if it does occasionally get a little difficult then it is positively so, these some really beautiful moments here, some delicious details.
Check this stance, Flowdan fits perfectly in the middle of it all, London Grime over European post rock lushness, check that skyline, check it all, let it flow, let it grow, an album where dub co-exists with post-rock melodies, with jazzy interludes, with full bodied orchestration, with rich colour, with a fine blend of electronic, synthetic and acoustic elements, with expansive cinematic goodness, an album that works so so well. Seriously good exciting contemporary music, seriously good contemporary art. Rather recommended.
Jay Tausig – World Of Illusion – Now we can’t get far into saying anything much about this one without mentioning Peter Hammill and to a slightly lesser extent Van Der Graaf Generator, actually Peter Hammill fronting an amalgamation of Yes and Gentle Giant or something very near that might be a little more accurate, it lacks the visceral threat of VdGG and instead there’s a heavy flow in the relatively more relaxed realms of the previously mentioned bands. You might need to give it a number of plays before you find his own feet rather than those of Peter, the simple fact is that some of it might just be way too close and from where we are standing there might be no turning back and can you brain compute that it isn’t actually Peter Hammill? Everything about it, the voice, the phrasing, the choralness of the way the voice is recorded, you can feel it all around you, it is almost too close for comfort, it is really (really) good though. In some kind of strange way, because you know it isn’t Hammill, the pressure is off, Tausig has a liveliness of his own, a different kind of weight and is there a touch of a mellow Hawkwindish space rock undercurrent in there with the big slices of Van Der Graaf and the hints of Yes and pieces of Gentle Giant? He does kind of sound like it is a natural thing to sound like Hammill that his voice means he can’t escape it, it could be argued that hie could have made more of an effort to step away though, in that matter you do when you’re painting something and you realise it is just too close and you need to take it is slightly different direction and you do wonder, to quote Mr Tausig and the final track of the album, if each careful turn of phrase is all just a waste of time because it is too close? But this is a fine album, I really really like it, there some epic 70s flavoured progressive rock, he has it all more than nailed, there is enough here to not just write him off as some kind of foolish clone and to really sound like Van Der Graff you need the craft and colourful intensity of Guy Evans, the drums here take far more of a backseat, they’re of a different flavour, you almost don’t notice them, but the undeniable fact is that he’s standing on the shoreline sounding very very much like someone unique and when all is accounted for, he is being very very Peter Hammill and as good as this all is, you do wonder, because this is a really really good album, what Jay Tausig could do if he made more of an effort to step a little further away? The vital thing here is that he isn’t annoying, you sometimes hear a band or an artist who are nothing but a not so good version of their influence and you just can’t listen to what they have to offer, this is very very listenable, the playing, the composition, the whole thing as one is just very very enjoyably good.
And while we’re here, let’s just park this…
THE ORGAN 