Download - FILTER Magazine

More documents

Recommendations

Info

the case with the Earlies, whose members are split between Texas and northern England. Thanks to technology, that 5,000-mile gap is bridged with a shared love for progressive psychedelic folk rock and mutual dedication to the cause. Here, on their sophomore LP, these pen pals have dotted their Is and crossed their Ts flowing in and out of tracks that appropriately run the line of both personal and distant. COLIN STUTZ dvd 87% Dynamic: 1 – The Best of DavidLynch.com SUBVERSIVE Those who didn’t want to pony up to view Lynch’s original short films and animation on his web site can check out two hours’ worth of his mindexpanding material on this disc. In addition to seven films, you also get footage of Lynch building a lamp, a short with his son Austin, and a creep-o mini-feature with Jordan Ladd and Cerina Vincent from Cabin Fever, as well as Lynch answering questions posed to him by site members. Like a kiss in the dark, it’s quick, bewildering, and entirely memorable. PAUL GAITA BABYSHAMBLES The Blinding EP 31% EMI Amid the drugs, arrests, court appearances and subsequent tabloid overexposure, it’s easy to forget that Pete Doherty is even in a band. The Blinding EP merely confirms that even Pete has forgotten, with brief flashes of talent only serving as a sad reminder that the ability is there, as in the glam-rock stomp of the title track, but woefully underutilized. The result is an EP of filler material (an embarrassing concept), taking the garage rock aesthetic of the Libertines into the realm of self-parody. EWAN ANDERSON ARBOURETUM Rites of Uncovering 90% THRILL JOCKEY Baltimore’s Dave Heumann has played with Will Oldham, Cass McCombs, members of Lungfish and David Pajo, but despite the impressive guest list, not once are we kept from seeing his band Arbouretum for the trees. The star here is Heumann, who wrote all the songs and flexes his folk rock guitar-god chops on several 8- minute-plus jams like “Sleep of Shiloam” and “Pale Rider Blues.” The songs titles aren’t the only things that sound like Oldham, but trust me, you’d be right to uncover this one. PAT MCGUIRE EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER The Essential Emerson, 75% Lake & Palmer SHOUT! FACTORY The Cliff’s Notes to Emerson Lake & Palmer’s 20-minute suite “Tarkus”: an armadillo-tank hybrid named Tarkus is born in an ancient volcano, fights a manticore, dies, and is reborn as Aquatarkus. Let me make it simple: if that sounded vomit-inducingly irritating, don’t even bother. If it sounded like the coolest thing you’ve ever heard, go out and get The Essential ELP and enter a world where “taste,” “subtlety” and “restraint” have no meaning. MAX READ LONEY, DEAR Loney, Noir 86% SUB POP You know the kind of sex that’s not fucking so much as lovemaking? The kind that starts out so slow and gentle you’re not even sure that it’s going to progress to actual intercourse but once it does, there’s not only tenderness there but also a sadness, as if all the joy of love was wrapped up with eventual heartbreak, yet you do it anyway because it makes you feel alive? That’s Loney, Dear. (To say that this disc is merely great “psych-folk from Sweden” would be to ignore its more, um, intimate qualities.) BENJY EISEN dvd ELVIS COSTELLO & ALLEN TOUSSAINT Hot as a Pistol, 89% Keen as a Blade HIP-O Riveting DVD of the shouldn’t-work-but-it-does pairing of Elvis Costello and New Orleans writer/producer extraordinaire Allen Toussaint as they work out tunes from their superior collaboration, The River in Reverse, as well as material from their own classic songbooks before an audience in Montreal. Costello adds fire and grit to Toussaint’s groove, and the Crescent City legend heightens the dark and bitterlovely soul of Costello’s work with his arrangements. Extras include an in-studio spin through “Alison,” interviews, and Costello’s tour diary. PAUL GAITA LILY ALLEN Alright, Still 88% EMI It’s odd listening to Lily Allen when it’s 30 degrees outside. A saucy mix of twee, calypso, dancehall and grime-ish raps, Alright, Still is a seeping, heaving summer album through and through, with Allen’s sweet voice managing to make everything sound wholesome, even when she’s singing of “bitches” and “lazy asses,” or conceding, “Alright, buy us a drink then.” But if I turn my heat up really high and sit around in my undies while drinking daiquiris and blasting fuck-off track “Knock ’Em Out,” thanks to Lily, it feels like July again. CARRIE TUCKER HELLA There’s No 666 in Outerspace 78% IPECAC Meet the newly revamped Hella, known for years as two guys—Spencer Selm, Zach Hill—whose sobbingly brilliant melding of the Minutemen and Don Caballero made progressive punkjazz sound like the best idea in the world. On 666, the duo’s become a five-piece, with a real singer whose Bixler/Enigk croon makes this heady brew an easy-enough swallow for new recruits. No one outside of Lightning Bolt can pound their away into an infernal abyss of rhythmless funk like these guys, but Hella’s old guard are likely to be wicked pissed. JONATHAN PRUETT THE TWILIGHT SINGERS A Stitch in Time 86% ONE LITTLE INDIAN Since the Twilight Singer’s 2006 release of Powder Burns, something has changed. Namely, that brooding crooner Mark Lanegan has been hanging out more than usual and, well, he and Greg Dulli have really hit it off in a smoking-in-the-boys-room kind of way. Gearing up for their release as the Gutter Twins, these two are already starting trouble on this EP with a hypnotic cover of Massive Attack’s “Live with Me” and the attitude-fueled “Flashback”; elsewhere fellow libertine Joseph Arthur helps channel Marvin Gaye on “Sublime.” Nitty and gritty. COLIN STUTZ GILLES PETERSON & PATRICK FORGE PRESENT... Sunday Afternoon at 66% Dingwalls ETHER It’s fitting that this is titled Sunday Afternoon… The sense of letdown at the end of a weekend when you realize you’ve wasted most of your time is an apt metaphor for the listening experience. Continually holding onto the hope that the next track will be that hidden jazzy gem that redeems the filler before it is a futile exercise. There are several good songs (mostly confined to the second disc), but not one adequately compensates for the lack of inspiration pervading the rest of the mix. Here’s looking to next weekend. JEREMY MOEHLMANN GREENSKEEPERS Polo Club 88% OM Polo Club is a departure for OM, a label famed for its über-soul house mixes a la badasses Mark Farina and Kaskade. But draw closer, 14 <strong>FILTER</strong> GOOD MUSIC GUIDE
dear reader: self-destruction, love, fame and cowboys are addressed via vocals sincere in tone, sardonic in composition and riveted together in patchwork mimicry of Byrne, Ferry and Ramone. Most cuts would be well-received in a club but are rendered with real instruments on the main. It’s like a jar of peanut butter swirled with jelly, except with a lot more “spreads” in the arsenal. MARK VON PFEIFFER dvd 85% Factotum IFC FILMS Bukowski acolytes will either love or loathe Matt Dillon’s portrayal of Chuck’s fictional alter-ego in Norwegian director Bent Hamer’s take on this story of love and art among the lowlifes. Dillon doesn’t quite approach Mickey Rourke’s Hank Chinaski from Barfly, but he’s got the burnt-out nobility and looks good with a drink in his paw; Marisa Tomei, Lili Taylor, and the late, lamented Adrienne Shelly are more successful as velvetand-sandpaper distractions. PAUL GAITA U.K. Imports presented by ........................................................................................................................... BLOC PARTY A Weekend in the City WICHITA Inspired by what frontman Kele Okereke calls “the living noise of a metropolis,” Bloc Party’s second album sees them delve further into the dense, melancholic soundscapes that their first album only hinted at. “Song for Clay (Disappear Here)” is a bloody, brutal opening salvo—guitars sparring relentlessly—save for Okereke’s calm, considered vocal. “Waiting for the 7.18” is an angular-pop neo-classic, whilst the chopped-up rhythms of “Hunting for Witches” see the band dipping a toe into the jarring electronica that’s characterized noughties Radiohead. It might lack some of the killer choruses of their debut, but A Weekend in the City furthers Bloc Party’s reputation as one of the U.K.’s boldest, bravest bands. NIALL DOHERTY THE VIEW Hats Off to the Buskers 1965 Dundee’s teenage whiz-kids the View drop three-minute pop songs like most of us leak farts. Second single “Superstar Tradesman” comes on like Pete ’n’ Carl riding a next-generation Trident missile sidesaddle, while fellow chart-botherer “Wasted Little DJs” sports the kind of killer la-la-la-along that’ll keep Kaiser Chief Ricky Wilson’s eyelids permanently peeled during those pre-second album sleepless nights. Then comes the tumbledown Levellers-on-speed cacophony of new single “Same Jeans,” a triumph that proves the View’s shit don’t stink. Hats off indeed. JJ DUNNING KLAXONS Myths of the Near Future RINSE Following up on unrelenting hype with their debut album could’ve seen Klaxons, 2006’s new rave pioneers, come unstuck. The trick that makes Myths of the Near Future tick, though, is that it’s delivered in much of the same frenetic force of the threepiece’s euphoric, party-’til-you-puke live shows. “Atlantis to Interzone” rides on a DayGlo wave of juddering, righteous basslines before breaking out into a snarling, mischievous chorus whilst the jittery-punk groove of “Gravity’s Rainbow” ensures the hype obstacle is well and truly hurdled. Myth or not, the near future is theirs for the taking. NIALL DOHERTY JARVIS COCKER Jarvis ROUGH TRADE As Jacko will testify, Jarvis Cocker is not one to keep his mouth shut, and in a year that sees fellow Britpop luminaries Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield release solo albums, it seems only fitting that the ex-Pulp frontman should have his say. Jarvis finds the speccy songwriter on top form, warbling over his most infectious melodies for years and letting us all in on his latest eccentric musings on life with typically quick-witted lyrics. Majestic. CAMILLA PIA MOGWAI Zidane: An Original Soundtrack PIAS/WALL OF SOUND Zidane was never the fastest man on the football pitch and this recording, like the film it accompanies, also takes its leisurely time to work its magic. Everything on this record is done with gentle flourishes but there’s always a threat of violence, much like the man himself. Free of the hyperbole that film soundtracks often succumb to, it works its way by suggestion and intuition and moves with the same ambient fluidity as the moving image, one moment seamlessly integrated into the next. HANS LUCAS BRAKES The Beatific Visions ROUGH TRADE Brakes new album starts brilliantly— “Hold Me in the River,” the greatest song the Ramones never wrote—and gets better. This is a 28- minute U.S. road-trip of a second album—taking in punk stomps, country ballads and West Coast melody—and, like Kowalski’s jaunt across the States to deliver a 1970 Dodge, it’s one hell of a fast trip. The country-tinged “Isabel” and “If I Die Tonight” border on Bonnie “Prince” Billy in places, but possess a tautness and focus that makes this one a sure contender for any album of the year list you care to mention. JON-PAUL WADDINGTON The Fly is the U.K.’s second largest circulated music magazine. Focusing on emerging talent, it’s the essential guide to new music in the U.K. Subscriptions are available, priced at £40 for 12 months (11 issues), by contacting subs@channelfly.com, or online at www.the-fly.co.uk. GOOD MUSIC GUIDE <strong>FILTER</strong> 15
Page 1: BLUR • THE CLASH • THE VERVE
Page 4 and 5: cheat sheet Your Guide to Innovatio
Page 6 and 7: Air’s Guide to Paris, France BY S
Page 8: Gimme Strange Fiction Talkin’ Mov
Page 11 and 12: How did the four of you end up in a
Page 13: THE APPLES IN STEREO New Magnetic W

Download - FILTER Magazine

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?