More albums, more cherry picking through the mountain of albums that land here, more picking of the cherries, picking off the cherries, the never ending pile of demanding cherries that find their way here on a daily basis. You surely know the policy by now? We do, on the whole, only feature the albums and things we feel positive about. We really don’t have time to clutter up these already overloaded pages with negative coverage of things that do nothing much for us, there isn’t the time or space, there isn’t any need, although some times there probably is. Here’s another three or so as we hopefully start to ease through towards something that starts to look like Spring and…
Fangus – Emerald Dream (From The Urn) – Well we’re told this album only just came out, we’re told that these Canadians only just made it, that they haven’t fallen through a timehole from 1971 and some kind of Heavy Rock flavoured Proto-Metal daydream where they were opening for a still youthful Budgie or maybe with those keyboards, Uriah Heep. In there and going toe to toe with those early 70s heavy rock bands with their blend of classic riffs, slight hints of blues-infused progressive rock and galloping guitars. That channelling of what the band say is “spectral energy”, something that’s part ritual, part theatre as they shape sounds that “feel unearthed”. They look right, they sound right, they sound like the real deal, they don’t have an original bone in their musical bodies, they’ve got more than enough of those classic proto-metal riffs to keep the magpies at Metallica fuelled for a couple of albums at least, Fangus do their thing very very well indeed, nothing revolutionary, nothing original but we rather like their rather retro (very retro) thing… Bandcamp
Jah Wobble & Jon Klein – Automated Paradise (Dimple Disc) – In which Mr Wobble, with the help of Mr Klein, continues to go all radio rental in this oh so modern world (the form of Spurs probably isn’t helping his state of mind right now), he’s going mental and he’s not alone, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop (not that I’m that bothered about Spurs and their fancy modern world stadium). Actually this review has just been interrupted by our MP wanting a chat, she must be as worried as Mr Wobble, this was once a very safe Labour seat, something that everyone took for granted, nothing can ever be taken for granted. Hang on let me make a cup of tea. Labour actually having to campaign in Hackney, what is going on with this modern world? Gonna vote for the other lot from your weekend retreat in Normandy? Finding your authenticity? A cheap holiday is someone else’s misery while someone is crossing stormy seas just looking for a chance to breath? Nah let’s not mention his old PIL mate and well, no, we won’t be toasting any of this with any organic fair trade wine, our rent went up far too much to toast anything in any kind of wine and oh we’re so conscious or was that contagious? Nine parts contagious one part outrageous. I like Jah Wobble, I like his reality, the way he’s grounded in it all, the way he paints the picture (actually I like his paintings as well), I like what he sees, the way he tells it, I like what he has to say, his poetic observations and that there’s little time to stop and contemplate any of this, History repeats, he tells it how it is…
And oh how close we are to the very brink and Automated Paradise is telling us the one time tube train driver isn’t going to take any of this quietly (I like to think at some point or other Mr Wobble drove us and that often carried big bag of Organs to a gig or two, surely he must have done?), that’s a rather defiant fuck off that comes with an slightly evil rather knowing laugh at the end of Automated Paradise tells is the old punk rocker can still give it out. Actually defiance is the key word here, that and a sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, the ultimate truth beyond the lies. This is a defiant album, wonderfully so. Okay so not everything hits, the opening track is maybe not the strongest of opening shots? Do stop staring at that phone though, do we need a quick history lesson here? Probably not, here nevertheless is a bit of history….
“Having initially combined forces to make the (rather impressive) album Metal Box – Rebuilt In Dub in 2021, Jah Wobble and Jon Klein have maintained their association both live and in the studio. This has resulted in Automated Paradise, their third album as a duo. Jah Wobble (born John Wardle) is a renowned bass guitarist and vocalist from East London. He was the original bassist in Public Image Limited (PiL) in the late 1970s, but left the band in late 1980, a year after the release of the band’s second album, the iconic Metal Box. He had begun developing a solo career before leaving PiL, formed Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heat in 1982, while the early ‘80s also saw him collaborate with Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of Can, The Edge of U2 and producer François Kevorkian. He has since worked with Ginger Baker, Björk, Brian Eno, Baaba Maal, Massive Attack, Sinéad O’Connor, Pharoah Sanders, LoneLady and his wife Zi Lan Liao (a Chinese guzheng player and harpist). He reunited with PiL guitarist Keith Levene in 2012 to record the album Yin & Yang and perform a series of Metal Box In Dub shows. Wobble’s well received autobiography, Memoirs of a Geezer: Music, Life, Mayhem, was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2009 and reissued in expanded form as Dark Luminosity by Faber & Faber in 2024″.
“Jon Klein is a guitarist and producer best known for being a member of Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1987 until 1994, a period that saw the release of the acclaimed albums Peepshow, Superstition and The Rapture. He had originally been in the Bristol-based band Europeans before co-founding glam-goth act Specimen and relocating to London, where he was also involved with The Batcave nightclub. Klein has recorded and played live with a wide variety of artists that include Talvin Singh, Sinéad O’Connor, Thomas Dolby and Shriekback, while his production company Ground Control has overseen recordings by the likes of David Devant and his Spirit Wife and Spanish chart toppers Fangoria” –
The meditation app says breath, hang on, Endless Sky is highlight, well not really, this album isn’t about highlights, this once again, despite a couple of reservations, is a great body of work with pieces working together and off each other, each one a natural state (or maybe a true disguise). Sip your latte, read the news while someone drives your delivery through the wind and rain, while someone is crossing those stormy seas, risking it all for just a chance to breath. These pieces, songs, tracks, whatever you want to call them are rather like Mr Wobble’s paintings of tower blocks and he and Mr Klein have painted Brockwell Lido so so well here, an almost carefree escape in a the middle of it all (well at the end of the album, in the middle of this modern world), a stop for a musical swim in the middle of another stressful day or week or month. Brockwell Lido is a piece of beauty, Brockwell Lido is one of life’s pleasures not to be taken for granted here at the end of a rather fine album. Brockwell Lido is a brief escape pod from a world on fire and as fine as the music they make is, it is mostly about the words, about the bite, the wit, the reality, the broken mess of it all. Going mental and he’s not alone. The diamond geezer does have a way of hitting them nails right on their bleedin’ heads and of course the system is rigged. Who are we? Through lunacy we will prevail? Well that’s what Mr. Wobble says. We love this man, we love this man, we love this man, we love this land, how can you not like Mr Wobble and his cutting observations, his cutting base lines, his real world electricity, his authenticity… (sw) Bandcamp
Previously…
Cultivate presents Mixtape No.2 – an online art exhibition
Rien faire Le Défilé (Dur et Doux) – Rien faire have a third album, the bright and breezy band from Lyon continue to blaze a trail in the world of quirky new French (language) music. Pop yes, but never throw away, lots of detail in the clever delight of it all, in the slightly obtuse way they build it, in the way it sometimes pecks as it runs around your feet. it is all very straight in a rather bouncy way, not your usual Lyon complexity, of the same family though, it is very much what you’d expect from Dur et Doux, it does kind of sound like their album cover looks, maybe if Sesame Street was in Lyon and they’d all grown up listening to Gong and playing on the Magic Roundabout? Bandcamp
THE ORGAN 