Wednesday 9 March 2011

Album Review: Bardo Pond - Bardo Pond

Bardo Pond: Transcending boundaries of meter and time
Noise-rock nearly men (and woman) return with first ear-splitting record for four years

Philadelphia
sextet Bardo Pond don’t like change. 20 years and 8 records served, the band’s droning noise-rock and psych-folk flourishes remain comfortingly embalmed in post-alt-rock boom 1993. The songs still regularly breach the 10 minute mark – although nothing rivals the 29-minute ‘Amen’ from 1995’s magnum opus Bufo Alvarius, amen 29:15 – while alterations in chord are eschewed in favour of spectacular dynamic shifts. It’s a cacophony of sound which explains why they never became alt-rock royalty, despite stints on pre-eminent indy labels Matador and 4AD; too impenetrable, too esoteric, and too darn druggy for the casual party stoner who’d rather be learning rote lyrics from a Pavement CD inlay.

However, they’re masters of their craft. Opener ‘Just Once’ explodes with hair-raising bursts of distortion. The shimmering feedback and the off-sync murmur of singer Isobel Sollenberger on ‘Undone’ – “spun out into space” – transcend accepted boundaries of meter and time, yet fashion something strangely regimented; until the microdots are passed around, that is. Better still is ‘The Stars Behind’, where rare open spaces are saturated with Sollenberger’s elegiac howl. “Lost in the night” she repeats, like a Jennifer Herrema who gave a damn. The world won’t listen. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

8/10

Choice Cuts: The Stars Behind; Undone

Out now on Fire records

Monday 21 February 2011

Album Review: Banjo or Freakout - Banjo or Freakout

Banjo or Freakout: A head full of ideas?
Yet another autonomous bedroom-introvert negotiating the psych-ambient divide under an unfathomable nom de guerre might not set the pulses racing, so Banjo or Freakout’s Alessio Natalizia at least has the good sense to have a mildly diverting back story. He grew up in a small medieval Italian town called Vasto. He started playing classical guitar at 8. He listened to Italian artists Claudio Rocchi and Alan Sorrenti – unlikely to figure on the average Spotify playlist. Perhaps the beaming coastal sun, Adriatic waters and unheralded musical preferences could engender something memorable and unique?

This review was written for Notion magazine. Go here to read the rest (page 91 of the digital reader).

Album Review: Wye Oak - Civilian

Wye Oak: No longer plunging in at the deep end
Baltimore, Maryland duo Wye Oak’s first two records, 2007’s If Children and 2009’s The Knot, sounded like a band with the all the tools required to be master-sculptors or their art, but one lacking in the requisite experience – and often direction – to fashion something truly worthy. Although their enviable ear for a hook was plainly manifested, the songs’ attempts to subvert de rigueur ‘trends’ overcompensated. Mix introverted folk-sprawl with hootenanny freakouts? That’ll show ‘em! But it was too much, too often; thrilling on an artificial level, without having the artifice to craft something with lasting appeal beyond the live performances for which they were famed. However, their apprenticeship served and with new UK label City Slang affording them a shot at reinvention, Civilian succeeds by playing it straight.

This review was written for Notion magazine . Go here to read the rest (page 90 of the digital reader)

Friday 18 February 2011

Album Review: Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo


Ever wondered what the Super Furry Animals get up to on tour? The sex, the drugs? The indie rock ’n’ roll? Well, according to SFA frontman Gruff Rhys, the one boundary of decadence most often pushed is the pilfering of vast quantities of hotel toiletries. Such was the childlike enthusiasm and wonder with which Rhys approached professional touring after the band signed with Creation in 1996, he’s been collecting hotel shampoos as mementos ever since. But what to do with your haul when there’s only so much hair to wash? Of course! Build a miniature hotel out of them and then name your third solo album after it. He’s a peculiar fellow...

This article was written for TheLineOfBestFit. Go here to read the rest.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Album Review: Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo - Almanac


Emily Barker is something of an enigma. The Australian born singer-songwriter has, since forming alt-folk outfit The Low Country back in 2002, racked up several remarkable musical milestones. She has enjoyed a critical kudos which has dutifully persisted from her earliest output through two outings with current foil the Red Clay Halo. She has toured with luminaries such as Jose Gonzalez. She also has an uncanny knack of picking up awards, with the handful of Aussie songwriting gongs she netted in 2006 now vying for pride of place in the trophy cabinet with the BAFTA and Royal Television Awards she won last year for providing the theme to hit BBC series Wallander (a reworking of her 2008 track ‘Nostalgia’). And yet, she returns this month as a virtual unknown outside a network of zealous folk-enthusiasts, and with a third Red Clay Halo album, Almanac – her first in 3 years – funded largely with donations thanks to an arrangement with the Pledge Music initiative...

This article was written for TheLineOfBestFit. Go here to read the rest.