Errors – Have Some Faith In Magic

Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic

By David Lichfield

A stylistic shift is always a welcome move when a band hits the second or third wind of their career, and the already unique ambience magicians Errors may be a man down after the departure of Greg Paterson, but there’s little on the Glasgow trio’s third full-length album Have Some Faith In Magic to suggest that the band haven’t reassembled themselves effortlessly to no detriment to their craft, adding vocals to their lush and layered hook-laden soundscapes and ultimately yet another weapon to their already formidable artillery. … Continue Reading

Erasure – Tomorrow’s World

Erasure - Tomorrow's World

By David Lichfield

With their insanely brilliant run of classic pop singles released between 1985 and 1992, all collected on their classic compilation Pop! The First Twenty Hits, Erasure were once one of my favourite acts. Having lost touch with them sometime around 1997, after their singles became outstandingly ordinary, it’s odd to reflect how the prospect of a whole new, modern-sounding album by the synth-pop duo could leave me feeling so distant. After ten years of covers albums, acoustic albums, another omission-heavy hits album and an updated version of the afore-mentioned singles collection (I remember the drop in quality heading into the middle of the second disc being horrific) and less-than-glowing reviews of studio albums, can an Erasure album have any relevance to 2011? … Continue Reading

Chilly Gonzales – The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales

Conceived as the world’s first ever orchestral hip-hop album, The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales is the prolific Canadian’s eighth album, and is a musically stripped-back affair, with only sparse percussion amongst the musical backdrop which has been orchestrated by Gonzales (AKA Jason Beck)’s brother Christophe Beck. … Continue Reading

Golden Glow – Tender Is The Night

Arriving via Mush Records, Tender Is The Night is the debut long-player from Manchester’s Pierre Hall AKA Golden Glow, and comprises a selection of demos whose stripped-back style led them to become the official versions of his tracks, after it was decided that the naive, raw style of the recordings added to the charm of his project. The album was conceived after a serious motorcycle crash made Hall housebound and unable to walk for six months. Eventually, due to his growing online presence, resulting from his time spent at home, a demo ended up on the hands of The Drums guitarist and keyboardist Jacob Graham, which led to a set at The Drums album launch. … Continue Reading

Destroyer – Kaputt

Arriving in the UK five months after its initial US release, Kaputt, the ninth full-length album from Canadian Dan Bejar’s long-running project Destroyer, marks something of a change of direction with regards to his previous output. As distinctive as ever, Kaputt employs lush, horn-tinged soundscapes to act as a backdrop to his often cryptic, dark and nostalgic (see references  to New Order, Melody Maker and Smash Hits) wordplay. With an approachable and tasteful 1980s feel comparable to that of acts like The Blue Nile and Talk Talk, the album also recalls the work of M83 in places, being in parts a love-letter to the distant past which maintains a contemporary edge, modernising arguably dated production techniques and embodying just the right amount of noir to keep its aesthetic sinister and engaging rather than outmoded and old-fashioned. … Continue Reading

Gang Of Four – Content

Arriving 32 years after their debut, Entertainment!, and with only half of their original personnel intact, the potential credibility of a Gang of Four album in 2011 was always going to be questionable. However, with the UK music scene at it’s most apolitcal, withering state in recent history, any socially aware voice is to be applauded. … Continue Reading

Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, the 12^th album from Michael Gira’s avant-garde noise-rockers Swans finds the act in typically uncompromising form. Their first studio album in 14 years, it includes songs previously released in acoustic form on the collection ‘I Am Not Insane’. With eight songs clocking in at 45 minutes, it’s a testing affair, but contains enough drama and ideas to make it an engaging one. … Continue Reading

Fang Island: “The pretentiousness is in not being pretentious. At least we’re us”

Fang Island

“The pretentiousness is in not being pretentious. At least we’re us”

Brooklyn five-piece Fang Island – so named after an imaginary island The Onion once claimed Donald Rumseld might reside upon – make some of the most dizzyingly raucous and celebratory music in existence. … Continue Reading

Paul Heaton – Acid Country

Paul Heaton - Acid Country

Acid Country, the third solo album from former Beautiful South and Housemartins man Paul Heaton, is a raw, rootsy, country-tinged gem, finding it’s author at the top of his lyrical game. Although record sales have seemingly eluded Heaton for the best part of a decade, long before The Beautiful South ground to a surprisingly low-key halt, Acid Country marks a politically-edged return to the creative fire with which his first chart act first rose to prominence a quarter of a century ago. … Continue Reading

Roots Manuva – Duppy Writer

Roots Manuva - Duppy Writer

Never shy of what the dub purists know as ‘versioning’, Duppy Writer is Roots Manuva‘s third full-length remix album, following 2002′s ‘Dub Come Save Me’ and 2006′s ‘Alternately Deep’. These alternative collections have often housed his most experimental work, concentrating on bass and sculpting strange landscapes of smoke-filled sound, spring reverbs and feedback, with vocals reduced to distant utterances – strange for a vocalist whose primary strengths are his lyrics – until you realise many of these dubs have been produced by Roots himself, under the name Lord Gosh. This time the UK rap veteran has handed over an abundance of underrated tracks from each of his four studio albums over to Wrongtom, the South London DJ and producer whose clients include Trojan Records, Kid Coala and Hard-Fi. After his work on Roots’ last bonus CD, ‘Slime And Version’, he was soon asked to assemble a full-length album, his directions being a re-imagining of the material as long-lost original versions from a bygone era. Fittingly, the album artwork was created by Tony McDermott, who concocted the sleeves for many iconic Greensleeves releases. … Continue Reading