Ten Kens – For Posterity

September 2, 2010 Album, Reviews Comments
Ten Kens - For Posterity

Ten Kens - For Posterity

Following a couple of personnel changes within their ranks the Toronto noiseniks Ten Kens locked themselves away from the world for a number of months to gestate this, For Posterity, their second album, and boy does it sound like it. Loud is definitely the word of the hour here whilst the sense of the frustration born of too much time in each others’ company is palpable throughout, so clearly they fed off the self-imposed studio confinement. … Continue Reading

The Super Vacations – Thicker Milk

The Super Vacations - Thicker Milk

The Super Vacations - Thicker Milk

Being let down following the big build up of a band’s new release seems to be an occurrence of increasing frequency these days. The Super Vacations, unfortunately for them, do nothing to reverse that trend. In the year that old hands The Coral come up with a career defining album, anyone else trading in anything even vaguely resembling Sixties psych, or garage at the lighter end of the scale, has a tough job on their hands already – but even without that benchmark being set these guys were never onto a winner. … Continue Reading

Sleepy Sun, Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh

August 21, 2010 Gig, Reviews Comments
Sleepy Sun

Sleepy Sun

August 19, 2010

The Edge Festival at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe has at times had that “back of a fag packet” feel to it (misspelling Phoenix on early adverts, the process to get reviewer tickets, tonight’s gig not featuring in the month’s programme), but at the venue they at least extend the courtesy of displaying clear stage times for each act – albeit these are diminished in use as we’re told things are running late and a post-Midnight headline show is on the cards.

Sneaky’s is about the size of the cupboard in my childhood bedroom but the potential for severe hearing loss is staved off by a sound engineer who clearly knows how to get the best out of the small space’s acoustics. Echo effects feature heavily in tonight’s mix, both for Sleepy Sun and the support, but to good purpose. What takes a little getting used to (and unfortunately some of the small crowd never manage to and so can be heard chattering throughout the latter part of the set) is the near lack of vocals that Sleepy Sun employ. At times it’s like watching folk drown – you can see their faces making word shapes but you can barely hear the results. This though makes for a thoroughly absorbing show that bears very close resemblance to their recorded output. They’re not the most mobile of bands and the six of them can barely all fit comfortably on the stage at the one time but Rachel Fannan manages to throw some interesting shapes in between singing in her clear-as-a-bell voice and Bret Constantino (bearing a fair resemblance to Gary Oldman) lopes about and scowls a bit as well as getting in some harmonica action. They manage to transport the crowd to somewhere in the realm of a contemporary Woodstock of the mind with their faultless folk-psych playing, genuine pleasure at being in a live setting and those gossamer light and ethereal voices. An intimate show to be proud of.

… Continue Reading

Full Time Hobby – Hobbyism

Full Time Hobby - Hobbyism

Full Time Hobby - Hobbyism

Full Time Hobby here give us another budget priced compilation of some label highlights (following on from the Full Time Hobby 7″ five years ago and 2008’s Not Doing It For The Quids, with which it shares pretty much all the acts featured). At only eight tracks it could be supposed that the credit crunch has had some impact on the amount of material available to promote this perenially resiliant, upstart label but it succeeds in not only making the source albums desirable but in leaving you in hope of a part two, so well chosen is the song order and the mood resultant from it. … Continue Reading

Au Revoir Simone – Night Light (The Remixes)

Au Revoir Simone - Night Light (The Remixes)

Au Revoir Simone - Night Light (The Remixes)

So. What is Night Light (The Remixes) then? A ‘tween albums filler? A long-held desire realised? Or a bit of a lame attempt and for Au Revoir Simone completists only?

Things certainly start well as Neon Indian takes on ‘Another Likely Story’ and the beats start out with a touch of menace, rather like a John Carpenter soundtrack. The song goes wrong though when the vocals arrive on the scene. They’ve been stripped of whatever effects were in use on the original version and this only serves to heighten the impression that the music is actually at a different pace and the whole song begins to jar. The melancholy of the original has also been lost and it could even be said that this is less danceable too. … Continue Reading

Jeremy Jay – Splash

Jeremy Jay - Splash

Jeremy Jay - Splash

Blink and you’ll miss it – this isn’t a particularly long album. Unfortunately for him Jeremy Jay’s third long playing effort, Splash, is pleasant enough but not particularly memorable either. Dozing off to it is not an impossibility.

The tone across the nine tracks is one of Scott Walker-goes-Indie (a feeling borne out by the mac clad troubador photographed in what looks like a Parisian park on the album’s cover). Musically Jay attempts to create a sustained sense of urgency throughout (the album’s title track is probably the best example of this) but more often than not the songs deteriorate into repetitiveness and lyrically he’s nothing special. … Continue Reading

Robert Wyatt – His Greatest Misses

Robert Wyatt - His Greatest Misses

Robert Wyatt - His Greatest Misses

Having re-released upwards of half a dozen of Robert Wyatt’s solo studio and live albums over the last few years, Domino have now got around to introducing His Greatest Misses (previously a Japan-only sampler of his post-Matching Mole career) to a wider audience. Is it though a worthy introduction to the years 1974 onwards? … Continue Reading

The Chap – Well Done Europe

The Chap - Well Done Europe

The Chap - Well Done Europe

Taking up pretty much where 2008’s Mega Breakfast left off Well Done Europe successfully continues the evolution of The Chap’s own particular folktronica/indie/pop hybrid. Clocking in at just under the three quarter hour mark, the London/Berlin-based quintet have once more expertly crafted a set of a dozen songs that sit somewhere between ‘Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast’ and ‘You Will Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties’ in the compendium of British left-field songwriting. … Continue Reading

The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

It’s safe to say that last year’s effort from The Gaslight Anthem (The ‘59 Sound) was a very pleasant surprise and an album I’m happy to still play pretty often. With a name that brought to mind the sort of Russian play that Withnail would have hated (ducks flying to Moscow etc.) I had initially been sceptical of the band yet on first listening the pace and heartfelt, early Springsteen-esque singing grabbed me from the off and made a welcome change. New Jersey was breathing life back into the American Punk life-form. … Continue Reading

Teenage Fanclub – Shadows

Teenage Fanclub - Shadows

Teenage Fanclub - Shadows

Right from the opening chord of the lush ‘Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything’, Shadows is unmistakeably a new Fannies album. Five years after their previous self-release (Man-Made), Teenage Fanclub’s essential elements are all still in place and performing to good effect – they can still jangle and harmonise along with the best of them, and indeed lead the field when necessary. While that 2005 album was probably the group’s most understated of their now 20 year career, this new release finds them tapping a more youthful and upbeat vein last seen on Howdy! From 2000. … Continue Reading

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