Albums of 2014

Okay, time for the annual EGG awards, aka “the Eggs” … or more simply, a list of your blogger’s favourite (read: most listened to) albums of 2014 …

10. Todd Terje – It's Album Time

It might well have been album time, but it was also about time. Norwegian producer Todd Terje has been relatively prolific as a remixer for other artists over the past few years, but this time it was finally all about him and he came up with a cracker. It's Album Time was an absorbing mix of tracks that had been out for a while in one form or another ('Strandbar', 'Inspector Norse') and newer previously unreleased material. It was also an almost perfect hybrid of state-of-the-art technology and old school dance vibes, with disco rhythms grinding hard up against softcore techno beats – all set to Terje's trademark electronic pulse. Bryan Ferry made a cameo appearance and gave us one of the album's surprise gems with his take on Robert Palmer's 'Johnny And Mary'. The album may have been a long time coming, but it was well worth the wait.

 

9. Al Dobson Jr – Sounds from the Village Volume 1

To be honest I probably wouldn't have known too much about this one if an old friend (connected with the artist and label) hadn't sent me a Bandcamp download code. Although some of the shorter sketches barely qualify as tunes, when consumed as a whole, the album was never anything less than a warm and seriously infectious listening experience. My original review can be found here.

8. Jack White – Lazeretto

Another year, another Jack White album, and while he appears to have overstayed his welcome in some quarters, I remain a fan. In fact I've got a theory about why I love Jack so much: for years I cursed that genre loosely defined as "classic rock" – it was just music for those who relied only on FM radio for their daily music fix and it wasn’t for me. In any form. Ever. Then along came Jack White – unconventional (White Stripes), raw (Dead Weather), challenging (Raconteurs), and farking loud (everything). A basket to place all those classic rock eggs I'd been denying myself (but had subconsciously, secretly even, started to appreciate). And so now that I'm at an age where the guilt has been removed from the notion of "guilty pleasures", I can just fully indulge in the music of Jack White without fear. Because White is nothing if not old school classic rock, and Lazeretto is merely the latest quite brilliant manifestation of that. Even though I know it's all been done before, there's no overkill here, and this shit still sounds relatively fresh to me.

 

7. Ha the Unclear – Bacterium, Look At Your Motor Go

Dunedin and/or sometime Auckland-based band Ha the Unclear is one of the few bands I missed at the Galatos showcase gig back in September … more fool me. And although I only picked up a copy of this album in early December, it's been given a good old fashioned thrashing across the past month – so much so I just had to include it as one of the most instantly loved albums of my year. To call the album “quirky” and quintessential Kiwi pop feels like an injustice to a work that’s so much more than that, yet for me those (admittedly lazy) descriptions somehow best nail the most immediate appeal of Bacterium, Look At Your Motor Go. I think vocalist Michael Cathro’s strong local accent only enhances that sense of Nu Zild-ness, because for the most part the album’s lyrical themes are universal, if somewhat odd and peculiar, and not at all exclusive to this part of the world – from religious ritual (‘Apostate’) to old age and regret (‘85’). But it’s when the perspective is expanded to include that of a coffee table reflecting upon its relationship with its owner (on ‘Secret Lives of Furniture’) that the narrative truly astounds … all set against a series of triumphant jangly/harmony pop tunes.

 

6. The Nomad – 7

7 was one of those albums that just kept getting better and better each time I heard it. Which was often. I got the chance to interview and profile Daimon Schwalger (aka The Nomad) for NZ Musician mag and I think what separates him from the vast majority of electronic producers is that he bears none of the stereotypical dance music snobbery you often tend to encounter with many DJ/producers. He is, in fact, a music lover first and foremost. It's something that shines through on all of his work, never more so than on 7, an album rich with the sort of cross-genre pollination we've come to expect from him. Co-conspirators on 7 included Jamaican up-and-comer Dexta Malawi, Melbourne-based grime merchant MC Lotek, talented newcomer (vocalist) Christina Roberts, Israel Starr, and past collaborators like Caroline Agostini, King Kapisi, and Oakley Grenell. Plus others. A line-up that pretty much speaks for itself. The album release party at Wellington's Boat Cafe in September – part of a NZ-wide tour – turned out to be one of the best nights out I had all year.

5. Tackhead – For The Love of Money

Some will just as likely write this one off as little more than just another covers album from a band struggling for any degree of 2014 relevance. I pity those people, for they know not what they miss. My original review is here.

4. Radikal Guru – Subconscious

Radikal Guru is a longtime everythingsgonegreen favourite and Subconscious was a more than worthy (late 2013) bass heavy follow-up to The Rootsteppa album, which topped this list in 2011. My review is here.

3. Sun Kil Moon – Benji  

It's a simple enough formula: man, guitar, stripped back folk rock, and a lyric sheet full of compelling lyrics. Mix deathly themes with no little amount of personal tragedy, and you get the wholly unique yet nonetheless unsettling Benji. Original review here.

2. The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream

I'm sure I must have played Lost In The Dream more times than any other album during 2014. It probably helped that its smooth lines and nostalgia-friendly grooves were so workplace compliant ... my original review is here.

1. Robert Plant (& The Sensational Space Shifters) – Lullaby and The Ceaseless Roar

Harking back to that classic rock thing again, it turns out my favourite album of the year was made by a 66-year-old man whose music I could barely bring myself to listen to 30 years ago. But as much as I avoided Led Zep (where possible) during my teenage years, I've also grown to love the solo career of its key protagonist. Across the past decade particularly – from 2005's Mighty Rearranger to 2010's Band of Joy, and all collaborations in between – the music of Robert Plant has been nothing less than a revelation. And as much as that has given me a different and far more positive perspective on the band that made his name, Plant's latest work bears little resemblance to that of Zep. In fact, given the eclectic nature of Lullaby, it's practically impossible to burden it with any label – there's fiery Celtic rock, soft acoustic tones, some bluegrass, and a smattering of unrepentant edgy Americana. The critical element to all of it though is Plant's unmistakable vocal, which just keeps getting better with age. Another great body of work to add to an already incomparable legacy.

 

Honourable mentions: Celt Islam's Generation Bass, Brian Eno and Karl Hyde's High Life, First Aid Kit's Stay Gold, Jakob's Sines, and Vorn's More Songs About Girls and the Apocalypse.

Best reissue of 2014: it is impossible to go past the deluxe version of Nightclubbing, the 1981 Grace Jones classic. Aside from the original full length album you get five additional mixes of 'Pull Up To The Bumper' – including a particularly early version produced under the working title of 'Peanut Butter', which was credited to the Compass Point Allstars as a nod to the incredible studio line-up who worked alongside Jones at the legendary Bahamas-based studio. There are also alternative mixes for key album tracks like 'Use Me' and 'Demolition Man', but the other truly interesting artefact here is the cover of Gary Numan’s 'Me, I Disconnect From You'.

 

Best compilation of 2014: given the attention to detail I paid when diligently reviewing all four volumes of Hyperdub’s 10 series, I can’t really go past that little lot when it comes to ‘various artists’-type releases. With 101 tracks over the course of nearly seven hours it was as comprehensive as these types of retrospectives can be. A great collection from a seminal bass music label.

2014 was a year I finally got to listen to more Kiwi music. Something I’ve wanted to do for many a year, without really following through. Although The Nomad album shaded the Ha the Unclear release for my New Zealand album of the year, I could just as easily have selected a handful of local releases for the blog's ten albums of the year. That includes work from Jakob, Vorn, and Darren Watson.

Other thoughts: despite criticism elsewhere and a general shrug regarding the Pink Floyd finale, I thought the bulk of The Endless River represented a fairly decent album of previously shelved material. I also thought regular blog favourites like The Raveonettes and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart made good albums in 2014, even though neither scaled the heights of previous work. Thom Yorke’s latest solo effort also had its moments.

Flops of the year: U2’s spam effort, whatever the hell it was called. The Sinead O’Connor album was very ordinary and something of a generic plod-rock release with few redeeming features (and I say that as a Sinead fan). And naturally enough the Smashing Pumpkins (aka Billy Corgan) threw up another very disappointing effort, one that landed itself in the recycling bin after just one listen.

So there it is, the obligatory annual list posted for another year … here’s Grace doing Gary Numan:

 

 

 

 

 

Album Review: Dum Dum Girls - Too True (2014)

If there was any sort of award for the best “short” album of the year, the latest offering from Dum Dum Girls would be hard to resist. Co-produced by veteran New York-based studio wiz Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Go-Gos, others) alongside Sune Rose Wagner of Danish beat merchants The Raveonettes, and released on Sub Pop, Too True is essentially 30 minutes of garage-infused girl pop that harks back to some sort of golden age for the three-minute pop song.

The album is primarily the work of vocalist/guitarist Dee Dee Penny, who also gets a bass credit, along with help from co-producer Wagner. And while the end result is close to outstanding, the lyrically strong Too True tends to lack the fuller sound more evident on its 2011 predecessor, Only In Dreams, which in my view remains the best Dum Dum Girls outing (of the three albums). And it’s probably no coincidence that particular album was made by a full band line-up.

Too True is practically flawless in its attention to detail, with reference points for the shiny 80s pomp of The Bangles at one end of the pop spectrum, and the raw reverb-driven dark edges of the Jesus And Mary Chain at the other. Somewhere in the middle you’ll find a bit of Ronnie Spector, some Chrissie Hynde, and perhaps even some Patti Smith.

And whilst Penny hasn’t completely abandoned the angsty post-punk stuff of the very earliest Dum Dum Girls work, the pop flavours evident on Too True tend to complement the more commercial sensibility previously found on Only In Dreams … only in a shorter and slightly sweeter form.

Key tracks: ‘Rimbaud Eyes’, ‘Lost Boys And Girls Club’ (see clip below), and ‘Little Minx’ …

Album Review: Various - Hyperdub 10.4 (2014)

The final instalment of the Hyperdub '10' series is an expansive 2-disc 28-track set that merely confirms what most of us already knew: when it comes to innovation and state-of-the-art bass music, the Hyperdub label pretty much leads the way - in terms of output and longevity.

The fourth release presents some new material, along with what amounts to a collection of the label's "greatest hits", and it includes a previously unreleased Burial track called 'Lambeth', which opens proceedings. It then goes on to cover all of the requisite bases and sub-genre types, with highlights coming from the usual suspects - four tracks from Cooly G, including some lovely retro-style housey goodness (see clip below), four from relative latecomer DVA, another classic from the Burial archives ('Street Halo'), and the obligatory but no less essential contribution from label guru Kode9 (with two tracks).

If you're reading this, I'm just as likely preaching to the already converted, so I'll leave it there. Suffice to say the Hyperdub '10' series has been one of the genuine highlights of my music-listening year in 2014 … here's to another ten years.

Having said all of that, it would be remiss of me not to reflect on the fact that, despite those birthday celebrations, the year hasn't necessarily been a particularly upbeat or an easy one for the label, or for those directly connected with it, with the sad loss of two of its key conspirators ...

R.I.P. DJ Rashad and R.I.P. The Spaceape.

Here’s Cooly G with ‘Him Da Biz’ (off 10.4):

Album Review: The War on Drugs - Lost In The Dream (2014)

Lost In The Dream is the third full-length release from Philadelphia-based indie rockers The War On Drugs.

Such was the level of critical acclaim during the weeks and months following its March 2014 release, Lost In The Dream is almost certain to feature on many of those upcoming end-of-year “best album” lists. And when it does, those plaudits will certainly be well deserved. In fact, despite the departure of the influential Kurt Vile after the release of its 2008 debut album, The War On Drugs is a band on the rise.

With its Eighties-style sheen and glossy pop production, Lost In The Dream was almost instantly familiar to my ears. In a warm and comforting way. It was like I’d heard it before, but I kept having to remind myself that I couldn’t possibly have – it was brand spanking new. It was like an old friend whose face I recognised but couldn’t quite place … I knew this music, but where the hell did I know it from?

It turns out that I knew it from the hybrid of Eighties reference points that feature heavily throughout its hour long duration. Such touchstones are everywhere on Lost In The Dream – from the dark Americana feel of Bruce Springsteen, to Fleetwood Mac, to The Blue Nile, to the “big” sound of The Waterboys … and beyond, well beyond. Derivative yet still unique, new, and original to The War On Drugs.

Then there’s the cinematic imagery: a vast open space, somewhere like the Arizona desert maybe, a road trip, top down in a ’56 Cadillac convertible. It’s dreamy pop music with a slightly shadowy hue, uplifting yet also a little paranoid, disturbing, claustrophobic ... calming, and liberating … all at the same time.

I’m pretty sure some will call it a masterpiece … and they probably won’t be too far wrong.

Highlights: ‘Under The Pressure’, ‘Red Eyes’, and the title track, but generally there’s no filler and this is a “no skip” album …

Album Review: Various - Hyperdub 10.3 (2014)

Hyperdub 10.3 is the third chapter in the series of 2014 compilation albums released to celebrate the Hyperdub label's tenth birthday in 2014. I looked at the previous couple here and here.

Again the tracklisting reads like a virtual who's who of the label's roster, with all of the main players being present and accounted for - see Burial, Kode9, Ikonika, and Darkstar to name only the most obvious. This time though, the focus is placed firmly on music residing at the more ambient end of the label's output.

A generous 23 tracks are showcased, and the most striking thing - aside from the ethereal and atmospheric nature of the music - is the almost complete absence of orthodox vocals. For example, we wait until track 12 - Cooly G's 'Mind' - before there's anything resembling a fully decipherable non-chopped up or sampled vocal.

 

Which is all well and good, but the effect can be a little disorientating, and there's perhaps a tendency for a lot of the tracks to blend together, forming an almost borderless sonic mash. Which means that although it remains an enjoyable enough listen - mostly mellow and downbeat, but not always - it's difficult not to get a little lost in it.

The two Burial tracks, the eerie 'In McDonald's', and the slightly spookier 'Night Bus', are welcome additions, but each one feels like a snapshot of what might be, and there's disappointment that neither track really goes anywhere. Having said that, I do appreciate that sometimes less is more, and even half-formed Burial ideas can take innovation to a level more conventional artists can only ever dream about.

Overall 10.3 offers yet more impressive evidence that music released by Hyperdub is practically impossible to categorise (as much as I’ve repeatedly tried to do exactly that over the course of three reviews!). If the '10' series is proving anything at all, it's that the label actually transcends orthodox genre descriptions, and surely that’s got to be a good thing.

I've just listened to a copy of the very expansive 2-disc series finale, Hyperdub 10.4 … so watch this space for a final review to complete the full set.

Super Narco Man

Following on from a similar theme where I posted about Tauranga’s Here Comes Alice (here), and where I reviewed the Rotorua-based Prophet Motive’s album Manifest Density for NZ Musician (here), there’s some ridiculously good independent music coming out of the Bay of Plenty region at present.

Good, as in straightforward no-holds-barred punk, and/or noise pop with a political bent.

In a week or two I will upload a feature I wrote on The Prophet Motive for NZ Musician (I’d like the magazine to have some sort of exclusivity for now, for whatever that’s worth) but in the meantime I want to draw your attention to a self-titled debut album for Super Narco Man, another Tauranga-based band, and another name-your-price Bandcamp release.

But where regular (and current) tour-mates The Prophet Motive make music that sits firmly in the folk-punk category, with an obvious left-leaning political allegiance in plain view for all, the music of Super Narco Man is a little more ambiguous – both stylistically and politically.

Sure, they’re angry as hell about something, and they take great delight in letting us know that, it’s just that these riffs chug and churn, and Super Narco Man’s big three-piece sound ticks far more formula-bound boxes. If this is a form of punk rock, and I think it is, then it’s a version which remains resolutely indebted to classic rock’s trademark touchstones. Not an altogether bad thing.

Super Narco Man won’t appeal to all, and it’s certainly very different to the sort of stuff usually covered on everythingsgonegreen. I’m more than a couple of listens into it now, and I’m still digesting how ferocious and raw it can be in parts. But I want to stop short of tagging it with the dreaded “acquired taste” label, because it’s far more deserving than that.

The key thing here is attitude, the keen sense of unrepentant DIY at play; this is hard-edged rock n roll from provincial New Zealand’s heartland, and the album has a certain rough-round-the-edges appeal that in many respects harks back to a bygone era long since lost. Grab a copy, take a listen, and decide for yourself …

Super Narco Man on Facebook

The Prophet Motive on Facebook

Album Review: J.Bird Taylor – The EP (2014)

 

Wellington artist J.Bird Taylor certainly can't be faulted for any lack of commitment, drive, or passion. Taylor’s been around the traps for more than a decade now, having released two previous EP-length albums, touring regularly, and fronting various bands as a lead vocalist. Yet she’s never really broken through or crossed the mainstream radar to any great extent. But her drive and her passion compel her to keep fronting up, and she’s back again, pushing the boundaries on release number three, a mini-album simply called The EP.

The release consists of seven tracks on one disc, plus an additional four-clip DVD containing some older video material. As a package it’s professional and impressive, with each disc showcasing Taylor’s unique take on 80’s-inspired theatrical rock. Some of this is experimental and almost genre-less, with shades of Nina Hagen at one end of the spectrum, and rather more low key or conventional acoustic forms at the other.

The EP probably won’t appeal to everyone, and some of the production feels as though its not all it could be, with Taylor’s vocal seemingly a little lost in the mix at times. A few of these tracks would definitely translate a lot better in a live setting, and the clips highlighted on the DVD would tend to confirm as much. Taylor’s art at its best is clearly just as much about the visual as it is about the aural, and as a two-disc set, The EP provides for a good overview of her talents.

(an edited version of this review appeared in the August/September edition of NZ Musician magazine)

Civilian Sol - When Tomorrow Comes

More name-your-price local goodness from Bandcamp. This time from Wanaka-based producer Civilian Sol (aka Danny Fairley), and the When Tomorrow Comes album, which was released a month or so ago. The album comes to us via Austin TX-based Gravitas Recordings and has a seriously good dub-hoppy electro-soul vibe, combining state-of-the-art bedroom studio wizardry with real instrumentation and luscious production. The end result is hard to resist – a soundtrack for those upcoming warm summer evenings, or for any northern hemisphere readers, a pocket full of warm fuzzies to help fend off the winter chill …

Also check out (separately) Civilian Sol’s own Bandcamp page here.

Bass Culture Players - Foundation EP

I can’t let this one pass without blogging about it. On a few occasions now I’ve used everythingsgonegreen to highlight some of the exceptional dub and roots music coming out of mainland Europe, and this name-your-price Bandcamp release is yet another prime example of that.

Bass Culture Players is a collective of dub devotees operating out of Madrid, Spain, and the Foundation EP contains four top notch tracks, plus a (dub) version for each. It features several different vocalists and the music itself is an infectious blend of classic roots and contemporary dub.

It’s difficult to identify a favourite track on the EP but I have to say that Payoh Soul Rebel’s vocal on opener ‘Forgiveness’ is a stand-out, and his voice sounds a little bit like the perfect hybrid of Lee Perry and Bob Marley himself.

Truly wonderful stuff.

The Foundation EP was released last week, grab a copy by clicking on the link below:

Bass Culture Players – Foundation EP on Bandcamp

Album Review: Various – Hyperdub 10.2 (2014)

Hyperdub 10.2 is the second release in the Hyperdub label’s series of 10^th birthday celebration releases. We can expect two more in this series, and everythingsgonegreen cast a beady eye over 10.1 a little earlier in 2014.

Like 10.1, the second album is another sampler collection seeking to showcase a few of the label’s more prominent artists and acts, and label luminaries like Burial, Ikonika, DJ Rashad, Cooly G, and Kode9 feature once again.

But with just 14 tracks on offer this time around, compared to the extended double disc package we got on the first retrospective, 10.2 feels somewhat abbreviated and perhaps even a little lightweight. Not only in terms of the album’s length but also stylistically. Where 10.1 was quite edgy and very club-orientated, 10.2 reflects on some of the label’s more commercial R&B moments. As a result it falls a little short of my (admittedly very high) expectations.

I completely understand what label guru Steve Goodman is trying to achieve by offering a wider overview of the label’s output, but however else I see it, R&B just ain’t my bag, and a lot of this is just too sugar-coated for my own taste; I think there’s an over reliance on chopped up vocals, and/or additional vocal FX, and I definitely prefer my Hyperdub sounds with much more of a focus on the “bass” side of the spectrum.

Highlights are a bit thin on the ground with this one, the Burial track ‘Shell of Light’ is probably the best thing here, but if I’m being kind, the contributions of Morgan Zarate and Jessy Lanza – two tracks each – are not too bad either.

If I wasn’t such an anal collector of Hyperdub compilations I’d probably be tempted to discard 10.2 (but I won’t) …

 

Album Review: Vorn – More Songs About Girls And The Apocalypse (2014)

Wellingtonian Vorn Colgan and his team of merry pranksters always leave the impression that they’re so full of clever ideas there’s never quite enough room or time to get them all down on one album. As is the case once again with album number seven, More Songs About Girls And The Apocalypse, which is fair brimming with wry observational humour, smart social commentary, and the usual Vorn-sized portions of self deprecation.

Out on Powertool Records, and recorded at You Call That A Studio studio in Newtown - which I suspect is something akin to Colgan’s bedroom - More Songs is yet another example of Vorn’s predilection for thumbing a nose in the face of convention.

This time out we get a little bit of everything and a whole lot more; from the Sgt Pepper-esque chamber pop of the opener ‘Flint And Tinder’, to the warped synthpop of ‘Drowning Kittens’ (featuring Anna Edgington), all the way across multiple styles to the Celtic flavours of ‘This Is What’.

We even get a variation on Hip hop, and some plain old fashioned guitar-driven pop. You never quite know what’s coming next - and that’s a pretty cool thing. There’s plenty of violin, there’s trumpet, double bass, and that wonderful piece of technology we call the Kaossilator, yet somehow the music almost feels peripheral at times, such is the dizzying appeal of the lyric sheet.

And while the very funny and hopefully-not-autobiographical ‘The Story of My Fucking Life’ perhaps offers us the best illustration of that, I find it hard to go past ‘Repentance Song’, which coughs up this little gem:

“I have strayed and I have sinned, I can’t even touch myself because I don’t know where I’ve been … my straight and narrow’s bent and stretched beyond repair ..."

(an edited version of this review originally appeared in the June/July edition of NZ Musician)

Album Review: Bonjah - Beautiful Wild (2014)

Coming to us out of Tauranga by way of Melbourne, where they’re currently based, hard rocking four-piece Bonjah return with studio album number three, Beautiful Wild.

This is a young band with a great back story; high school friends who left the bosom of home for the bright lights of Oz back in 2006, they honed their craft busking, initially out of pure necessity, before then hitting the road – touring extensively, not only in Australia, but right across the globe. They’ve done their time as a support act, as occasional headliners, and more recently as firm festival favourites.

All of that nous and experience is immediately apparent on Beautiful Wild, an album that positively bristles with the sort of self-assurance that only comes from time spent playing together. This is garage-meets-blues rock, of the harder variety, eleven solid tunes running the course of some 37 minutes.

Brooding opener ‘Bullet In The Barrel’ sets the tone, with the raspy vocal of Glenn Mossop well equipped to complement the slow burning tension at play in the music. ‘Evolution’ and ‘Honey’ were put out there as tasters well in advance of the album’s release, and they’re among the highlights, but the title track has to be the best thing here. It works as a slightly menacing centrepiece, with soulful harmonies, and a terrific vocal cameo from Ella Hooper.

Recorded at two locations in Melbourne and produced by Jan Skubiszewski, Beautiful Wild is all about possessing a certain type of swagger - let’s call it a rock’n’roll thing - and it’s something these guys have in spades.

(an edited version of this review originally appeared in the June/July edition of NZ Musician)

Album Review: Warpaint - Warpaint (2014)

LA-based indie rockers Warpaint first crossed my radar a few years back when I heard their inspired cover of David Bowie's 'Ashes to Ashes', and a superb track called 'Undertow', which was a single off the band's full-length debut The Fool. I never got around to picking up a copy of The Fool, but that initial exposure to Warpaint left a big enough impression for me to grab a download of the band's eponymous second album when it was released earlier this year.

Produced by Flood and mixed by Nigel Godrich, the second album has proven to be a marked success, propelling the all girl group into a whole other stratosphere from the humble origins of the low key debut – as their recent raved-about appearance at Glastonbury would tend to indicate. Warpaint, it seems, is one of the "buzz" bands of 2014, and one that offers yet more evidence that no longer is there any line between what we once called indie, and what now amounts to commercial pop, class of 2014. But I'm personally not so sure I get what all the fuss is about.

There's not really a lot wrong with the album - it's essentially lush dark atmospheric pop music, not too dissimilar to the more commercial variant offered by the Cocteau Twins all those years back. In fact you could argue that all of the album’s strongest moments have a soft-rock retro crossover feel about them.

Buzz gurls

But as much as I've tried to get on board with it, as many times as I've given it "another chance" by giving it another spin, I'm quite bored by it. It's all just a bit bland.  It ticks many of the boxes; it’s well produced, as you'd expect from a production dream team, there’s nothing offensive about it (to damn with faint praise), it’s just that nothing on the album really grabs me, nothing really screams out … "listen again" ... so, the truth is … I probably won't.

Highlights: it certainly feels like all of the best moments occur in the first half of the 12-track album – say, 'Keep It Healthy', 'Love Is To Die', and 'Biggy'. 

 

This is a great little clip and one that catches the band in an almost perfect light:
 

Album Review: No Broadcast - No Broadcast (2014)

This one came recommended by a couple of local bloggers and it’s a “name your price” download on Bandcamp, so I figured what’s to lose?

No Broadcast is a hard rocking Christchurch-based three-piece and this self-titled debut album was released digitally a few months back. The band has been together in one form or another for the best part of a decade, calling itself Anthesiac for a few years – releasing an EP titled ‘Null And Void’ under that moniker back in 2011 – before a name change to No Broadcast. An EP called ‘1736’ followed in 2013, and earlier this year a second EP, ‘Live at the Dux’, showcased the band performing live in Christchurch.

Finally getting around to a full length release, the Bandcamp blurb notes that the album was “recorded throughout the year of 2012 in Josh's garage and house” ...

The fact that the band has honed its craft with regular gigs and live performances over a prolonged period probably explains why the album itself immediately comes across as very assured for a debut release. These guys are tight, and the album feels like the culmination of many years worth of hard work.

Whatever else it is, No Broadcast is a solid set of very heavy tunes – not metal, but atmospheric hard rock, brooding and foreboding at times, with prog rock influences also at play. Classic rock touchstones abound, and the album seems to get progressively heavier, relentlessly building to the climax of the eight-minute-plus closer ‘Driven’.

Other highlights here are the opener ‘Reset The Sun’, plus ‘Realise’, which I think was an advance single, and the mid-album two-part ‘Drone’, with part two being particularly impressive in its menacing Mogwai-esque approach.

Josh Braden’s vocal, guitar playing, and production is strong throughout, while rhythm pairing Sam Hood (bass) and Chris Self (drums) lay an unyielding foundation, and I’m struggling to recall the last time I heard this much of a racket from a three piece.

Harder rock forms aren’t usually my bag ...well, not post-millennium hard rock forms anyway ... but this was well worth the trouble of the download and it took me a little by surprise. You really should grab a copy from the band’s Bandcamp page and decide for yourself.

 

No Broadcast on Bandcamp here

 

Here's 'Reset The Sun' ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Album Review: Celt Islam - Generation Bass (2014)

This is the first of two recent Earth City Recordz* label releases the blog currently has queued up for review. The other release is another instalment in the label's Future Sound of the Underground sampler series – Volume 4 – and I hope to get back to that one soon. But this one takes pride of place and is yet another cutting edge work from the label's main man, Sufi electro/dub specialist Muhammad Hamzah (aka Celt Islam).

Earlier in the year I took a look at Celt Islam's seriously good Medina EP, but Generation Bass represents something entirely different. Not only in terms of the album being rather more expansive than the EP format – featuring twelve frenetic tracks – but because it also appears to represent a move toward a much harder edge style.

Where much of Celt Islam's past work has merged electro textures with dub and softer world music signatures, Generation Bass morphs industrial strength dubstep with high tempo EDM in a way that elevates this sound to another level of intensity altogether. It doesn’t sacrifice a commitment to global sounds – a wide variety of “world” music influences remain intact – yet it also feels quite different to past work ... heavier, more urgent. In short, Generation Bass feels like progression, a genuine step forward for Celt Islam.

The album opens as it means to go on, instantly reaching for the jugular on the highly charged dubstep-infused 'Dub Virus', followed by the sub-rattling 'Ghettoblaster', which does exactly what it says on the tin. They’re clear highlights and a great choice as an opening pairing, but there's no let up all the way through to album closer ‘Energize’. With no obvious catch-yer-breath chill out moment, this is relentless high bpm electro dub of an almost post apocalyptic nature.

If Celt Islam’s music is all about sending a message – and it is, the message has always been one of respect, tolerance, and inclusiveness – then right now it appears that something is under this man’s skin, and right now it seems he’s as mad as hell.

And why wouldn’t he be when every day it feels like nobody is listening? When every day (on a global scale) there’s another new conflict? When every day murder, hatred, and division is rife just about everywhere you care to look ... when you’ve reached the stage where you can no longer trust your own government or its puppets in the mainstream media?

Generation Bass, whatever else it is, feels as though it was a cathartic exercise for the man who made it.

Other highlights include ‘Cosmonaut’, ‘Earth Tribe’ and ‘Interstellar Nomad’, but there isn't really any filler on what amounts to a take-no-prisoners no-holds-barred beast of an album.

My copy of the album is an advance release for preview, so it’s not quite out yet ... but keep an eye on the Earth City Recordz Bandcamp page ... and maybe grab a couple of the label’s other releases while you wait.

* belated postscript/update 27 August 2014: it turns out Generation Bass was released on Urban Sedated Records - not Earth City Recordz. This review was written pre-release and I just presumed Earth City Recordz would release and distribute as per the case with much of (but not all of) Celt Islam's previous work ...

Album Review: Al Dobson Jr. - Sounds from the Village Volume 1 (2014)

South London DJ/producer Al Dobson Jr certainly gets around. It seems he's everywhere at the moment – with two brand new album releases and a couple of high profile Boiler Room sets behind him, along with the buzz being generated by the heavyweight likes of Mixmag, XLR8R, FACT, and Resident Advisor, he's very much a man of the moment.

Fresh from dropping a curtain raiser for the fledgling Rhythm Section International label, an album called Rye Lane Volume One, we get this one, Sounds from the Village Volume 1, a second full-length release, this time on Kutmah's IZWID imprint. There were 2013 collaborations with Creole - on the experimental Japanese-themed Japan Project - and Tenderlonious - four tracks on a shared release, and it’s fair to say Dobson Jr’s current profile and status as a genuine up and comer is hard earned and well deserved.

 

Quite often these new releases come with promo blurbs so far wide of the mark it renders them rather pointless, but IZWID's own description of Dobson Jr's album nails it in a way that almost makes this review utterly superfluous. I honestly can’t think of a better way to describe what we get on Sounds from the Village than … “cosmic vocal rips and a myriad of loose, soul-infused beat tape-style sketches with its digital flourishes”…

Each and every one of those sample-licious “vocal rips” blend beautifully with the bass-centric rhythmic foundations underpinning everything else, while those “digital flourishes” consist of loops that glisten with washes of warm synth and a host of other glitchy bits and bobs. This is one part soulful-5am-vibe, and two parts dirty funk leftovers, with a sense of pure decadence right at its core.

After an opening couple of minutes (and tracks) so laid back they’re practically horizontal, the highlights start to emerge, and it’s an album that steadily builds in momentum to become a rich and warm listening experience.

The production from label guru Kutmah and Dobson Jr himself is pristine, and as is the IZWID way, Kutmah contributes wider design and cover art, which LA-based collective HIT+RUN will hand-print on a chipboard jacket … (er, not quite sure how that works, but obviously this is for vinyl only copies and not something you’ll get with a download or anything … which I sincerely hope goes without saying!).

The best tracks here are ‘Dunza Blues’, ‘Maiysha’, ‘Sensi Block’, ‘Work Together’ and ‘Tomorrow’, but even some of the shorter tracks, some of the more experimental half formed ideas resonate in a way they probably really shouldn’t.

So if I have a small criticism it’s exactly that. Some of these tracks do actually feel slightly less than fully formed – just as they’re warming to their task they abruptly expire and we’re immediately onto the next way-too-short groove. I get that sometimes less is more, but equally, with vibes this good, sometimes more is also more. The entire 15 track album is over in a tick over 33 minutes, so it is fairly short by album standards.

 

Then again, perhaps that’s part of its charm. If brevity is the source of any genuine frustration, why not just flip it over or press “repeat play”? …

Download Sounds from the Village Volume 1 here

 

And also from IZWID, there’s this little beauty, Seven Davis Jr doing Prince’s 'Controversy', this has been out six months or so now, but it’s a freebie download so you know what you should do …

Download Seven Davis Jr – 'Controversy' here

Al Dobson Jr Boiler Room DJ Set:

 

Album Review: Various – Hyperdub 10.1 (2014)

Glasgow-born Steve Goodman has crammed a huge amount of living into his 40-odd years on the planet. He’s a DJ/producer (aka Kode9), a label founder/owner (Hyperdub), an author, and a noted academic – he has a PhD in philosophy, no less.

He’s been a busy guy, and while he’s probably best known at present for his work under the Kode9 moniker, it’s a fairly good bet that in years to come the now London-based Goodman will be best recalled for what he’s achieved with the Hyperdub label.

Hyperdub was of course one of the first independent labels to unleash what’s become known as dubstep upon an unsuspecting world when Burial’s much acclaimed self-titled debut was released on the fledgling imprint back in 2006. That album is widely credited with kick-starting the genre, and a year later Burial followed it up with his masterpiece Untrue, which cemented Hyperdub’s status as a leading player in what might loosely be called club or “dance music” circles.

In truth, Hyperdub is about so much more than just dubstep, and across its ten-year existence it has released a diverse range of music – from techno to grime to drum’n’bass to electro to Hip hop and multiple sub-genres in between.

It seems like only yesterday I found myself salivating over the release of Hyperdub 5, a compilation release celebrating the first five years of the label's life. But that was as long ago as 2009, and here we are, a full five years on, looking at tenth birthday celebrations and the release of 10.1. Apparently 10.1 is merely the first of four birthday or anniversary releases we'll see this year, and just like 5, it's a two disc set with new or recent tracks on disc one, and a collection of back catalogue releases on disc two.

Kode9

In fact 10.1 almost feels like a companion release to 5 given that the archive disc only goes back about five years, effectively picking up where 5’s archive content left off. And 10.1 stands as testimony to the label’s diversity – where artists like Burial, Darkstar, Joker, and Zomby delivered the highlights on 5, the best moments on 10.1 are offered by the likes of Mala (‘Expected’), Flowdan (‘Ambush’), the recently deceased DJ Rashad (‘Acid Life’ with Gant-Man), and Kode9 himself, who again does his best work alongside the imposing growl of The Spaceape (on ‘Chasing A Beast’).

The aforementioned tracks all feature on disc one – as new or recent content – but perhaps disc two offers a better perspective of what Hyperdub is all about, where it’s been, and where it’s headed. Highlights among the archives being tracks by Burial (‘Spaceape’ featuring The Spaceape), Cooly G (‘It’s Serious’), DVA (‘Natty’), Ikonika (‘Idiot’), a couple more from Kode9, and a couple from grime merchant Terror Danjah.

Overall this is great value – the 36 tracks here (including three “bonus” tracks on my version) provide a superb overview of a hugely important and influential state-of-the-art label that shows no sign of slowing down or dipping in the quality of its output. Something worth celebrating after ten years. I eagerly await the three follow-up releases we’ve been promised in 2014. Thanks Hyperdub.

Here’s Flowdan with ‘Ambush’ ...