Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things
This Brighton band love to confound expectations. The band name makes them sound Japanese but they play krautrock and sound Gallic accented.
Ankle Injuries sets the tone. Persistent krautrock with a funky bassline and an insistent 'Fujiya Miyagi' refrain, it's Neu meets Hot Chip. In fact, Neu's influence is all over this album as illustrated by Cassettesingle's electronic, motorik drive.
There is an icy coolness to this album. Collarbone has an Ian Brown funky cool whilst the title track is all new wave attitude. Hell, imagine Hard Fi if they were good or credible and you've got Photocopier.
The title track and Suckerpunch have a nonchalant Blockheads feel. In One Ear & Out The Other is really good being one part Hot Chip, one part Sunshine Underground punk funk, one part '70s disco funk. The album closer, Cylinders, is the slowest track here, early '80s new wave with a Casio fragility. A really good album.
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
Thursday, 21 August 2014
Omni Trio - The Haunted Science
Omni Trio - The Haunted Science
This is intelligent drum 'n' bass from 1996, which was roughly the point where the genre moved from the clubs to swanky wine bars.
Astral Phase is centred around a smoky, jazzy bass line. Nu Birth Of Cool (Rogue Unit Mix) is all twinkling keys, deep dub bass, metallic sounding drums and futuristic sound effects, which wouldn't sound out of place on Goldie's genre defining 'Timeless'. Haunted Kind starts off with beautiful, delicate piano before morphing into mellow, string laden trip hop. Trippin' On Broken Beats (Carlito Mix) has some smooth sax which gives it a late night feel.
This starts off pretty cool but soon becomes background music, which is part of the problem when dance music forgets the dancefloor. The bonus tracks further illustrate this as they are alternative and extended versions of some of the album tracks, which I like more as they are more dance orientated. This album gets more interesting the further it edges away from muzak, which, unfortunately, isn't always often enough.
This is intelligent drum 'n' bass from 1996, which was roughly the point where the genre moved from the clubs to swanky wine bars.
Astral Phase is centred around a smoky, jazzy bass line. Nu Birth Of Cool (Rogue Unit Mix) is all twinkling keys, deep dub bass, metallic sounding drums and futuristic sound effects, which wouldn't sound out of place on Goldie's genre defining 'Timeless'. Haunted Kind starts off with beautiful, delicate piano before morphing into mellow, string laden trip hop. Trippin' On Broken Beats (Carlito Mix) has some smooth sax which gives it a late night feel.
This starts off pretty cool but soon becomes background music, which is part of the problem when dance music forgets the dancefloor. The bonus tracks further illustrate this as they are alternative and extended versions of some of the album tracks, which I like more as they are more dance orientated. This album gets more interesting the further it edges away from muzak, which, unfortunately, isn't always often enough.
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
LL Cool J - Mr Smith
LL Cool J - Mr Smith
Commercial hip hop can be a minefield. On the one hand, acts can try too hard to be popular, overdo the melodies and end up saccharine sweet or, on the other hand, acts that are already successful can try too hard to prove that they're 'street' and this thuggishness can come across as fake and inauthentic. This record was pretty popular back in the '90s and is a mixture of the two styles. This isn't a complete disaster because one of the styles is actually done rather well. LL's smooth flow is more suited to sweet and sexy rather than explicit sex and violence.
Make It Hot is soulful, commercial hip hop with a bit of a Will Smith vibe but is better than that sounds. Hip Hop, with its female harmonised chorus, has a SWV vibe. The slinky, Spanish flavoured Hey Lover is like a sweet '90s update of 'I Need Love' and is really good. Doin It is much dirtier but doesn't cross the line and gets away with it due to LL's cheeky charm. Loungin' is back in '90s female R'N'B territory.
LL does some of the harder edged material pretty well. Life As... has a more aggressive gangster edge and LL's vocals have a Flavor Flav feel here ('Cold Lampin' With The Cool J' anyone?). The thugged up I Shot Ya has a Naughty By Nature feel with its sparse piano and beats.
However, not all of the material works as well. Hollis To Hollywood is Warren G style West Coast G Funk but overdoes the explicit imagery. No Airplay goes overboard on the macho posturing with both graphic sex and violence yet cops out by bleeping out the profanities. I fail to see the point.
This has more hits than misses but the good stuff is decent at best which makes this not bad overall.
Commercial hip hop can be a minefield. On the one hand, acts can try too hard to be popular, overdo the melodies and end up saccharine sweet or, on the other hand, acts that are already successful can try too hard to prove that they're 'street' and this thuggishness can come across as fake and inauthentic. This record was pretty popular back in the '90s and is a mixture of the two styles. This isn't a complete disaster because one of the styles is actually done rather well. LL's smooth flow is more suited to sweet and sexy rather than explicit sex and violence.
Make It Hot is soulful, commercial hip hop with a bit of a Will Smith vibe but is better than that sounds. Hip Hop, with its female harmonised chorus, has a SWV vibe. The slinky, Spanish flavoured Hey Lover is like a sweet '90s update of 'I Need Love' and is really good. Doin It is much dirtier but doesn't cross the line and gets away with it due to LL's cheeky charm. Loungin' is back in '90s female R'N'B territory.
LL does some of the harder edged material pretty well. Life As... has a more aggressive gangster edge and LL's vocals have a Flavor Flav feel here ('Cold Lampin' With The Cool J' anyone?). The thugged up I Shot Ya has a Naughty By Nature feel with its sparse piano and beats.
However, not all of the material works as well. Hollis To Hollywood is Warren G style West Coast G Funk but overdoes the explicit imagery. No Airplay goes overboard on the macho posturing with both graphic sex and violence yet cops out by bleeping out the profanities. I fail to see the point.
This has more hits than misses but the good stuff is decent at best which makes this not bad overall.
Sunday, 17 August 2014
Live Review
Extreme - Glasgow O2 Academy (5/7/14)
This shouldn't be a fair review at all. You see, I'm very vocal about my hatred for Extreme yet I have seen them live once before and have to concede that they weren't that bad. They played Donington in 1994 alongside Pantera, Sepultura and Biohazard, and I have to admit that I was looking forward to throwing piss at them because that's what you did with shit festival acts back then. However, their performance was such that I dropped my urine filled container and watched the rest of their set in the company of warm, overpriced beer.
Fast forward twenty years and I'm watching them again, this time as a treat for my wife, who is a big fan. She was excited as this tour marked the 25th anniversary of the Pornograffitti album and they would be playing the album in full. I had no bottle of piss this time around but I was no more enthusiastic about seeing them again.
It is all the more surprising then that Decadence Dance is such a powerful opener, and it is immediately apparent that they are much rockier than they are on record. The band are tight and Loud, Gary Cherone sounds great and the vocal harmonies are excellent. Li'l Jack Horny has a swaggering groove and, unlike its studio counterpart, it has balls. Get The Funk Out is performed with energy and Nuno's guitar solo is blistering. He Man Woman Hater has a good groove while Nuno's show off piece, Flight Of The Wounded Bumblebee (a riff on Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Flight Of The Bumblebee') is flashy yet excellent. Song For Love is a great feel good ballad.
However, it isn't all good. When I'm President's rock/rap/country hybrid is still horrendous whilst When I First Kissed You, the lounge track on Pornografitti, is flat and lifeless.
Some of the more successful numbers are aided by the interaction with the crowd. More Than Words is sung by the entire crowd and even an old curmudgeon like me can't help but be moved. The band also have great fun with a Cajun flavoured Hole Hearted which the crowd get enthusiastic about .
The encore features some of their other hits. The aggressive riffing of Play With Me is particularly impressive.
I still don't like their studio output but I have to admit that they are a pretty decent live act and I enjoyed this more than I expected.
Some of the more successful numbers are aided by the interaction with the crowd. More Than Words is sung by the entire crowd and even an old curmudgeon like me can't help but be moved. The band also have great fun with a Cajun flavoured Hole Hearted which the crowd get enthusiastic about .
The encore features some of their other hits. The aggressive riffing of Play With Me is particularly impressive.
I still don't like their studio output but I have to admit that they are a pretty decent live act and I enjoyed this more than I expected.
Saturday, 9 August 2014
Peanut Butter Wolf - My Vinyl Weighs A Ton
Peanut Butter Wolf - My Vinyl Weighs A Ton
No wonder his vinyl weighs a ton because Peanut Butter Wolf sounds like a crate digger extraordinaire, mining hundreds of samples from his vast collection.
PBW is the head honcho of Stones Throw Records. I remember when this came out, it was the hip hop record everyone was talking about. Wolf handles the beats while various others spit the rhymes and scratch.
This is indie hip hop with retro beats and samples, and a dry and smoky production. Fans of early Jurassic 5 and Edan will find much to like here.
In Your Area has a cool Gangstarr feel. Casio has DJ Babu from Dilated Peoples scratching up a storm on an old school flavoured b boy track. Hold Up is harder edged, like the first Wu Tang album. Keep On Rockin' It is cool, old school hip hop with some sparse, one note piano and a slow, electro tinged beat, very 'Licensed To Ill'. Mobbin is driving, gangster rap with a laid back, indie credibility.
There are a number of vocalists on show here. Styles Crew Flow Beats is an excellent crew cut featuring El P and Quasimoto among others. Rasco's hard edged, aggressive flow on Run The Line contrasts well with the '70s soul vibes whilst Interruptions is the most forward thinking track here with Antipop style, futuristic cut up beats and Zest's charismatic, fast talking, robotic vocals. Although the vocalists vary, the flow is good throughout, apart from Quasimoto's puerile, high pitched Eminem crap but, then again, I've never liked Quasi's shtick.
The DJ Format style crate digging, allied with J5 style innovation and Premo beats is good but I probably appreciate this more than I like it because, clocking in at 65 minutes, this is probably a little too long.
No wonder his vinyl weighs a ton because Peanut Butter Wolf sounds like a crate digger extraordinaire, mining hundreds of samples from his vast collection.
PBW is the head honcho of Stones Throw Records. I remember when this came out, it was the hip hop record everyone was talking about. Wolf handles the beats while various others spit the rhymes and scratch.
This is indie hip hop with retro beats and samples, and a dry and smoky production. Fans of early Jurassic 5 and Edan will find much to like here.
In Your Area has a cool Gangstarr feel. Casio has DJ Babu from Dilated Peoples scratching up a storm on an old school flavoured b boy track. Hold Up is harder edged, like the first Wu Tang album. Keep On Rockin' It is cool, old school hip hop with some sparse, one note piano and a slow, electro tinged beat, very 'Licensed To Ill'. Mobbin is driving, gangster rap with a laid back, indie credibility.
There are a number of vocalists on show here. Styles Crew Flow Beats is an excellent crew cut featuring El P and Quasimoto among others. Rasco's hard edged, aggressive flow on Run The Line contrasts well with the '70s soul vibes whilst Interruptions is the most forward thinking track here with Antipop style, futuristic cut up beats and Zest's charismatic, fast talking, robotic vocals. Although the vocalists vary, the flow is good throughout, apart from Quasimoto's puerile, high pitched Eminem crap but, then again, I've never liked Quasi's shtick.
The DJ Format style crate digging, allied with J5 style innovation and Premo beats is good but I probably appreciate this more than I like it because, clocking in at 65 minutes, this is probably a little too long.
Monday, 4 August 2014
The Black Crowes - Three Snakes And One Charm
The Black Crowes - Three Snakes And One Charm
After home runs on their first three albums, the question was whether that run would come to an end here. At one time, I thought so but these slow burning country rock songs take a number of plays to reveal their charms.
Good Friday is fantastic, with the harmonica, slide guitar and picked banjo making this mournful country rock of the highest order. Girl From A Pawnshop finishes with a gospel flavoured climax whilst (Only) Halfway To Everywhere's horns even add a '20s speakeasy touch. The horns also give Let Me Share The Ride an old fashioned rock and roll vibe, like the Stones in their RNB days.
There is a more psychedelic influence to this album compared to their earlier releases. Under A Mountain's chorus has a hypnotic, psyche rock quality while One Mirror Too Many has an eastern influenced, '60s psychedelic pop feel.
This is a very good album if you have the patience.
After home runs on their first three albums, the question was whether that run would come to an end here. At one time, I thought so but these slow burning country rock songs take a number of plays to reveal their charms.
Good Friday is fantastic, with the harmonica, slide guitar and picked banjo making this mournful country rock of the highest order. Girl From A Pawnshop finishes with a gospel flavoured climax whilst (Only) Halfway To Everywhere's horns even add a '20s speakeasy touch. The horns also give Let Me Share The Ride an old fashioned rock and roll vibe, like the Stones in their RNB days.
There is a more psychedelic influence to this album compared to their earlier releases. Under A Mountain's chorus has a hypnotic, psyche rock quality while One Mirror Too Many has an eastern influenced, '60s psychedelic pop feel.
This is a very good album if you have the patience.
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