The xx – xx

The xx
xx
Young Turks/XL
Rating: 5
17 Aug 2009

The xx create pared back, skeletally minimal perfect pop songs aching to be covered by powerpop bands such as Girls Aloud, Sugababes or the Scissor Sisters. As it stands, there’s no point coming to it full of beans, the music won’t reach you. Wait till you’re working or ready to unwind at the end of a long day, that’s when the album will open up.

Whilst the sound is dark, it wouldn’t be right to label them ‘melancholic’. There’s no sadness here. It’s dark as in nighttime, intimacy, romance. It’s dark as in whispers and stolen kisses.

The music is Cocteau Twins ethereal, elegant and sophisticated; the lyrics subtle and clever, all the more seductive for the just-there European accents of lead vocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim. The tempo throughout the album is languid and lazy; all torpor and fatigue; think Mazzy Star. There are no offensive bangs or crashes, nothing to jangle one’s nerves. It’s smooth and its done with an edgy Cure-like sensibility.

You get an idea of how powerful their songs would be in a ‘normal’ format when you hear their cover versions. Their take on Womack & Womack’s Teardrops is a triumph. Hot Like Fire was Aaliyah’s favourite song and The xx have done her proud. In interview, Romy said, “With a cover you should take the essence of it and completely change the music side of it.”

Like Soap&Skin, who I wrote about recently, The xx have yet to reach the age of twenty and also like Soap&Skin, their music belies their youth. Production was undertaken by the band’s own Jamie Smith. It should come as no surprise the talented youngsters hail from same south London school as the likes of Four Tet, Burial, Hot Chip and the Maccabees

Highlights of the album include Infinity, with the will she/won’t she lyrics against borrowings from Chris Isaak and Jimmy Somerville; the debut single Crystalised; and Basic Space.

for JunkMedia.org

The High Wire – The Sleep Tape 08 Mar 10

An essential purchase for insomniacs everywhere: the new album from dreamy shoegazers The High Wire – The Sleep Tape, due for release 8 March 2010.

New single: The Midnight Bell, 28 Feb 10

Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002XGIHO0/
MySpace: www.myspace.com/thehighwire
Last.fm: www.last.fm/music/The+High+wire

Mew – No More Stories…

Mew
No More Stories…
Sony
4
24 August 2009

If the album opener New Terrain isn’t stunning enough, it can also be played backwards, turning into new song, Nervous.

What follows is one gorgeous track after another, peaking in the middle with Cartoons and Macramé Wounds before dropping you back down gently on the other side. There aren’t many albums you can’t wait to play again even before you’ve finished the current rotation, this is one of them.

The full title of the album is a poem:

No more stories
Are told today
I’m sorry
They washed away

No more stories
The world is grey
I’m tired
Let’s wash away

‘No More Stories…’ is an experimental album, taking elements from seemingly disparate genres and putting them together to see what happens. The result is art rock disguised as glorious pop, all upbeat, summery loveliness. What we are to admire is the detail and how it all works together.

Think of it as musical embroidery: delicate elements contrasted against the weightier; the surprising heaviness of masses of tiny beads and sequins and the strength of fine fabric that supports them. The album is so pleasing to the ear, some people are already sneering at them for ‘appealing to the mainstream’. Usually the sign of a good album, is that. This one is not far from a 5/5.

The only thing that lets it down is the lyrics. Whether the intention was to be obscure and abstract in a poetic way, or whether it was to sing something, anything, along with the music is unclear. It’s a shame because the music is so jaunty and cheerful, you really do want to join in. As it is, what’s there is good enough to get by with, even if it doesn’t really make sense.

To date, Mew haven’t made much of an impression on charts outside of their native Denmark. They ought to with this, their fifth and best album. Highlights include the epic Cartoons and Macramé Wounds which veers into Supertramp territory, Introducing Palace Players and Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy, but don’t just listen to those three. Start with track one and leave it alone.

for JunkMedia.org

Bosque Brown – Baby

Bosque Brown
Baby
Fargo / Burnt Toast
2
3 March 2009

The first listen is rewarding. Bosque Brown sounds like Cat Power doing acoustic alt-country; production is lo-fi with all the errors intact; songs vary in length so the forty minutes pass by quite quickly.

Unfortunately, the first listen is where it’s at. Subsequent plays reveal all the flaws and shortcomings. The three short ‘On and Off’ tracks are the first to be skipped, becoming increasingly annoying with each appearance. The album as a whole doesn’t survive a good hammering and Mara Lee Miller’s gothic horror voice starts to grate after a while.

This is not to say the music isn’t charming in its minimal simplicity, or that Mara Lee Miller isn’t talented. Album opener, White Dove, and So Loud shine. What’s wrong is the album is unfocused and directionless. Some sharp and ruthless editing would make for better listening.

It’s an album you want to like but lets you down.

for JunkMedia.org

Rameses III – I Could Not Love You More

Rameses III
I Could Not Love You More
Type
Rating: 4
29 September 2009

Ambient music is usually associated with cool, cerebral sounds, distinct notes that focus the mind and allow it to wander. Rarely does ambient music sound warm or summery. Rameses III, from Croydon, south London, achieve just that with their new album, I Could Not Love You More.

The music is soft as it drifts and wanders. Notes are rounded and in the background, gentle vocals add a human touch without saying anything. Found sounds find their way into the scapes. Cloud Kings introduces rain. No Water, No Moon ends in birdsong.

There’s early Cocteau Twins in the shimmering guitars, particularly reminiscent of Victorialand (1986), which makes it the kind of ambient that came out of punk, leaning towards goth. Underneath is medieval drone, lending a timeless feel. Echoes remove the music from this plane to another. You don’t want to leave.

The tempo may be downbeat but it’s peaceful rather than melancholic, although there are moments of bittersweet beauty. The music ebbs and flows like slow ripples with some sort of rhythm, the patterns of which shift with each mood. The final track, All Shall Be Well, seems to be stuck in a moment that doesn’t introduce anything new until halfway through its 11 minutes, as if you were watching a sunrise.

Acoustic guitars, electric pianos, Mellotrons and field recordings blur into each other as each track melds and melts into the next. At nearly an hour long, you don’t notice the time pass.

If you are in London, you can see Rameses III perform a one-off set for free at the Union Chapel, Islington on 28 Nov 2009 at 12 noon.

http://www.unionchapel.org.uk/events.php/224/daylight_music_p_joslashrgensen_rameses_iii_seasons_p

For JunkMedia.org

Soap&Skin – Lovetune For Vacuum

Soap&Skin
Lovetune For Vacuum
Rating: 5
Play It Again Sam UK
Release date: 21 April 2009

Soap&Skin is nineteen year old Austrian artist, Anja Plaschg. Classically trained in piano and flute and largely self-taught in computer sound programming, her debut album, Lovetune For Vacuum, is less a pop album and more an art-piece.

Sleep, nightmares, horror, terror, death, the drama of the macabre are all themes explored in the album. Her style recalls artists such as Julee Cruise for Angelo Badalamenti in the Twin Peaks soundtrack, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins (Elizabeth Fraser), Scott Walker in Drift, Joan Wasser, and of course Björk.

The music is pure emotion, dark and brooding, at times disturbing though at no point ever uncomfortable. Using conventions familiar to us from horror movies, with a slight nod to Michael Nyman, the effect she elicits from the listener is that of rapt fascination. The range, depth and variety is complex and vast, repeat plays revealing finer and finer detail. This is an extraordinary and original album from a relative unknown.

Plaschg doesn’t so much indulge her feelings as describe them. At times painfully beautiful and others jaggedly torn, Plaschg holds her listeners on a knife-edge as she paints her world and draws them in.

Her songs are like little pieces of theatre, little vignettes. “When I was a child I toyed with dirt and I fought / as a child, I killed the slugs I bored with a bough”. Largely piano-based, there are elements that shouldn’t be there: screams rending in the background, birdsong, unworldly insects, the sound of the wind, or her own voice going from singing to wailing, as if she can’t hold things in anymore.

In her home country, Plaschg has already been noticed by film-makers. Her work has been used in two movies: the horror sequel Dead In Three Days 2 and the adult FILM IST. a girl & a gun (Film is: a girl and a gun).

The music isn’t right for summer days; it’s autumn music. The album will come into its own around Hallowe’en when, coincidentally, a vinyl release is scheduled.

Dead In Three Days 2 – Trailer http://www.terrorfeed.com/index.php?id=Dead-In_Three_Days-2-Trailer

Official site: http://www.soapandskin.com/

For JunkMedia.org

Brownswood Bubblers Four

Brownswood Bubblers Four compiled by Gilles Peterson (Various Artists) now streaming in full in We7.

http://www.we7.com/#/album/Brownswood-Bubblers-Four-Compiled-by-Gilles-Peterson!albumId=365158