Friday 28 April 2017
Watch! - Quiet Domino - Metropelium
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Wednesday 26 April 2017
Review - Silex EP - Pulco | Better Than Teletext - Chow Mwng
In the world
of Karma, with bad news eventually comes good, and that was certainly true
following the news that Ashley Cooke would be ceasing recording under the name
of Pulco. After almost twenty years Ash
has decided to move on under a new moniker more appropriate to the music he is
now making. A final album, Artzoo will
be released later this year and the recent Silex EP will be the last as
Pulco.
His new
project as the alter ego Chow Mwng, has just released an EP entitled Better
Than Teletext and sees his creative juices flowing as effervescently as
ever. With work on an album already
underway, fans of Cooke need not despair.
The King is
dead, long live the King.
Pulco –
Silex EP (Recordiau Prin)
Vinyl (sold out) / CD / DL
8.5 / 10
Out Now
Kicking off with Silex–Moose, the
final EP from Pulco is as unpredictable as ever. With a continuous guitar riff and Ash Cooke’s
almost random vocals it sounds like the bastard son of The Fall, but
better. Oral meanderings and general
chaos reign in a peculiarly addictive track which relies on content rather than
quantity as it skips through little over two glorious minutes. The melody will take some shifting once heard
and may become a pleasantly annoying earworm as the line ‘like rats in a run’ enters
and continues to the end.
A Design For Dogs once again has
some marvellous guitar work with a crunching bass line nestled behind the main
focus. There are those slightly off-key
moments that make Pulco almost human and a delight to hear – the terms ‘lo-fi’
and ‘D.I.Y.’ suiting him perfectly as he continues to fly the flag for his comrades.
Stupid Films has a rapid fire
percussion and a comfortingly dulcet vocal with wonderfully improvised
guitars. Becoming a progressive
instrumental after an initial commercial entrance, electronic effects zoom in
and out like a Sega console on acid. Closing
with The Gaffer it’s easy to become slightly sentimental as Pulco becomes as
commercial as we would like to be. A
racing post-punk repetition and intricate vocal ramblings see him at his best.
For fans, it’s easy to see that
Pulco has developed over two decades and the decision to transform is both
brave and compelling.
Chow Mwng –
Better Than Teletext EP (Recordiau Prin)
DL
Out Now
8.5 / 10
Ever
wondered why no-one seems to record voices that sound like they are coming from
four feet under water? Ponder no more,
Ash Cooke has entered the Tardis and regenerated from Pulco to the absolutely engrossing
Chow Mwng. Four tracks on his debut EP
set the standard so high that’s it’s difficult to see where he’ll go next –
although this is often the beauty and fascination of the man.
First track Useless
Hands Pt 1 sees the darkwave synths characteristic to this new set play an
integral part as the bass line marches on with the strangely beautiful gargled
vocals. Midway through there’s a voice
in the background that sounds like an Italian John Motson (who knows what it is
and who cares?). Cooke evokes immense
feeling in the track and it’s obvious that Chow Mwng has been bursting to break
free for quite some time.
Digital Eyes
tips its cap in the direction of 80s alternative synth, the vocals adding a
sound of the future or maybe 50s and 60s sci-fi TV. A swing beat journeys the track along and it’s
surprisingly addictive as Cooke almost serenades the listener, whilst Monotone
has a strong krautrock feel with a slightly commercial edge.
EP closer,
Automation sees an electro post-punk John Lydon-esque PiL enunciation which soon
morphs into the freeform Cooke that fans love and crave. Vocals descend into an almost silence as the bass
line gurgles to a close.
Exciting
times ahead for the former Pulco man.
All is not lost.
Tuesday 25 April 2017
Monday 24 April 2017
Sunday 23 April 2017
In Short - Cotton Wolf - Life In Analogue
Cotton Wolf – Life In Analogue (Bubblewrap Collective)
LP / CD / DL
7.5 / 10
28 April 2017
Welsh Producer Llion Robertson and classically trained
composer Seb Goldfinch are Cotton Wolf and Life In Analogue is the rather
infectious debut album form the pair.
Sometimes ambient, sometimes bass driven dance, sometimes just digital
experimentation, it is nine tracks that are all completely enjoyable.
Album opener Glosh may sound like a heavier version of the
title track and the two may have been better placed seguing into one but it’s a
harsh criticism of an album that shimmers from beginning to end. Largely instrumental, the album is thoroughly
entertaining and the breaks of vocalised tracks particularly Lliwiau featuring Alys
Williams, could easily descend into something very ordinary but the skill of
the Cotton Wolf in keeping things fresh and edgy avoids any such event.
Vessels provides a simple, dreamy, minute long interlude
between the title track and Ultra Five which in itself is a locomotive piece
not dissimilar to the Chemical Brothers at times, and Cage Of Light and While Night Grows more than a hint of New
Order.
Review - Vök – Figure
Vök – Figure (Nettwerk Records)
LP / CD / DL
8 / 10
28 April 2017
Some albums are difficult to review, not because they are
unlikable but because they are just, well, great to listen to. Figure by Vök is one such album. Call it dream-pop, call it alternative pop,
call it whatever you like, maybe just call it a quite lovely listen.
Vök hail from Iceland and it would be unfair to compare them
to any other artist from the country, That
said, there are often similarities in vocal style from Margrét
Rán
to one Bjork and sometimes the music is as dreamy as Emiliana Torrini’s
stunning debut Love In The Time Of Science, sometimes it’s just a quartet
making fabulous sounds.
Produced by Brett Cox (recent nominee for Young Producer Of
The Year), Figure follows EPs Tension (2013) and Circles (2015). The album is clinically pure, shiny pure and
full of whispers, echoes and dreamy melodies that swirl and delightfully spin
around for long after the album has ended.
It is in many ways, an absolute triumph.
Rán claims that the album claims the album is ‘about anger, obsession,
negligence, death, love, happiness and hope’ but it’s hard to feel anything that
complete adoration. There are no
feelings of ill on Figure, it’s pure joy.
Current single Show Me is infectiously addictive – it ups the tempo
slightly with cavalcades of guitars and drums which seem loud but distant at
the same time, synths effects reverb in and out and a simple bass underpins the
whole creation. It will undoubtedly attract
radio play.
The following track Crime, feels darker but still retains
the innocence that pervades throughout the ten tracks on display. It could almost drift into some sort of
Europop trite but resists beautifully, it often reaches climatic proportions
then holds back for one more surge, it feels sexy, it feels bleaker, and it
even has a hook that sounds like a Bond movie brass section.
Where Figure often succeeds is in its unwillingness to
compromise. Let yourself free with this
album and you’ll just ‘feel’ it. It isn’t
often an album comes along that allows the listener to wallow in delight and
magic, but this one does. It’s just
lovely.
Saturday 22 April 2017
Listen! - SeiSui - Oko-1983
Review - Morton Valence - Europa
Morton Valence –
Europa (Bastard Recordings)
CD / DL
7.5 / 10
Out Now
There’s much more
to the new album by urban-folk duo Morton Valance than initially meets the eye
(or ear). A ‘protest’ album in the wake
of the Brexit result of June 2016, Europa exists as not only a tribute to some
fine pop from the 60s and 70s but also as a statement and a stance on the
situation that the UK finds itself in.
Europa makes an
attempt to ensure that the UK stays European and whatever your view on the
referendum it is a clear intention. Nine
tracks on the fifth album from Robert Jessett and Anne Gilpin are a wonderful
testament to the joy of the union, eight cover versions and one remake of their
own material.
There are instantly
recognisable tracks here most noticeably Ca Plane Por Moi, the pop punk classic
by Plastic Bertrand from 1977 which has been used on many a TV advert over the
years and serves as a raucous reminder that punk could be commercial as well as
anarchic. Morton Valences version does
it great justice.
Kraftwerk’s classic
Das Modell (their sole UK number 1 as The Model) is given a quite remarkable
treatment, still familiar but with accompanying cello and operatic solo. It is, nothing short of brilliant.
Album opener, Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M’en (Serge Gainsbourg) maybe sets the tone
for the album being quite uncompromising, no over commercial effort but instead a simple,
subtle, gentle acoustic entrée which often appears throughout the album. Porque Te Vas
Jeanette) carries on this feel and borders angelic.
The tempo rises for penultimate track, A Tonga Da Mironga Do Kabulete (Vinicius de Moraes)
which talks of the diversity of Portugal albeit being a Brazilian song set in Africa before
Sailors Return, a remake of Morton Valance’s debut single Sailors, brings a sense of loss and
emptiness and closes an album more than worthy of your attention.
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Review - Vaarwell - Homebound 456
Vaarwell – Homebound 456
CD / DL
Out Now
Out Now
8.5 / 10
Portuguese alternative dream pop trio release their debut album.
This is special. This
is a glossy, clinical, angelic album that is an absolute delight from first
listen to the latest. By their own
description, Margarida Falcao, Ricardo Nagy and Luis Monteiro are ‘mellow,
simple and genuine’, and of that there can be no doubt. Think of a lush melting point of Emiliana
Torrini, Phildel and Ummagma with the occasional sprinkling of dreamgaze and
the scene will be set.
Hailing from Lisbon, the trio formed in 2014 after being in
the same music production class at art school their sound is said to represent
the city’s diverse blend of culture and nightlife. Gentle vocals meet pure electronica with the
occasional soft percussion and guitar thrown in for good measure.
Album opener, and second single Untitled is a stunning introduction. Falcao’s quite gorgeous vocals carry the
track for well over two minutes before a militarian drumbeat makes a brief appearance. It’s a track that is almost unbelievable in
its simplicity and is incredibly infectious along the way.
The theme of effortlessness continues through second track
Floater and American Dream tickles the boundaries of shoegaze with a hook that
is very difficult to let loose. It’s
easy to focus on the delicate vocals but let’s not forget the perfect
accompanying backing from the male contingent of Vaarwell (roughly translated from
the Dutch for ‘farewell’) which is as equally essential to their sound.
There are two semi-instrumentals in Terminals and Still Me
which act as anchors pulling the other tracks together, the former containing
tiny soundbytes from a train station intercom.
The album highlight comes in the shape of I Never Go I Leave which is
one of those songs that instantly resonates giving the feeling that you’ve
heard it sometime before. Once more, the
art of near perfect pop is attained.
Catchy, simple, effective – faultless.
As the album comes to a close, the title track appears with
some lovely percussive patter and innocently inserted echoes, its sublime, as
is the rest of the album. Perfect for
chilling, perfect for driving to, just perfect on so many levels. A ‘must listen’ album if ever there was one,
and one which will soon be heading for many a cd shelf in many a home.
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