I think this series needs to be quite formulaic, with set criteria - kind of like Joe Bob Briggs' series of Drive-In Movie Reviews during the 90s. Any suggestions?
Taken By Trees - East Of Eden
Lady from The Concretes gone solo voyages to remote area in Pakistan to make an album that sounds like lady from The Concretes gone solo making a record in Pakistan, full of intricate rhythms, of-the-moment harmonies, pan pipes and ennui-laden post-Velvet Underground vocals that I still have difficulty distinguishing at five paces from Camera Obscura or indeed The Concretes, post-lady from The Concretes going solo. This is by no stretch of the imagination a minus. Love the sound of children chanting.
Crocodiles - Summer Of Hate
What you wanted Jesus And Mary Chain to sound like, grown up on Suicide and discontent. Distortion, repetition and abrasion all play their part, as they should. One song starts as a ringer for 'Then He Kissed Me'. There was a year in the early 80s when every other independent UK record sounded like this.
Heavy Trash - Midnight Soul Serenade
Rock should rock. Piano should rattle. The gates of hell should roll. You wanna do rock-a-spike-a-swoon-a-billy? Then do it right! DO IT RIGHT! Matt Verta-Ray and that dude from Pussy Galore who ain't anywhere near as good as he should be, do it right. Full stop.
recs of the flesh - Illusory Fields Of Unconsciousness
There was another year in the early 80s when every other record sounded like this, sometime around the first time Sonic Youth visited our shores, and everyone still hated Loop - stressed-out washes of guitar overload, repetitive menacing vocals, Gothic shards of echo...now they call it stoner, or post-QOTSA, or summat, but we know better don't we kids? From Sardinia. This makes me feel very uneasy.
Surely the way to go is to review based on utterly random things you can discover in one minute... i.e the sheen of the disc, the smell of the package, the seductive elements PRIOR to the actual sounds. Like JBB reviewing based on number of breasts or heads being chopped off.
ReplyDeleteI'd be with you totally Jack - indeed, much of my companion blog, Record Rummage, is based on these factors - but for one small point. Almost everything I have now is MP3 sent.
ReplyDeleteit's the coming of age! but in all seriousness, nothing can replace holding a CD in my hands and being about to discover what will happen when I'll press PLAY...
ReplyDeleteCD is the new vinyl?
* suspiciousness *
(from Facebook)
ReplyDeleteClint Barnes
Joe Bob Briggs. Wow, that takes me back to working at the bookstore in the 80s and reading his review collections during lunch breaks while listening to Public Enemy and NWA.
September 4 at 12:10am · Delete