Echoes and dust

On first listen to this Southern curated release, I was reminded of two particular phrases  used on occasion by my mother. The first,' Is it supposed to sound like that?', would be used in relation to music I’ve played in her vicinity, when there is something that she doesn’t compute as recognizably musical. The second, the rhetorical,' Isn’t it lovely when it stops?'. This second phrase might be used either in reference to the aforementioned noise which she has been stoically enduring or in the context of an unerring burglar alarm across the street which has been depleting her mental faculties for a seeming aeon.

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To music fans of a certain age, the name Hot Gossip conjures images of cavorting women in leotards or hot pants and ‘I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper’, however I suspect ‘You Look Faster When You Are Young’ has not come from that same stable.

This Hot Gossip have emerged from the back streets of Milan and play a kind of muscular Indie music with a hint of something funky and a definite chunk of pop catchiness.

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Andrew Bird has been making albums since 1996, but only really came across our radar with 2007’s magnificent ‘Armchair Apocypha’. A collection of spellbinding, erudite songwriting beautifully performed and produced.

As a result, expectations for ‘Noble Beast’ are pretty high hereabouts but sadly it disappoints. It’s hard to put ones finger on exactly why, the songs are intelligently written and well sung but somehow the collection lacks whatever mysterious factor that made ‘AA’ so great.

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Like a toddler taking a crayon to a Warhol. That's what Women sound like - Did they record an album of sunny, sixties, bubblegum, pop art only to discover on return from their celebratory drink down the local, that their younger crazed siblings had decided to try and add some parts of their own? Whatever, it's great stuff!!

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Beccy mailed us a few weeks back and asked if we’d be interested in reviewing her new CD, of course being the obsessive pursuers of new music that we are we said ’yes’ and the CD duly turned up a few days later.

Often in this situation what turns up is a battered CDR of grainy MP3s with a handscrawled track list, so when I opened the envelope to discover a nicely packaged ‘proper’ CD I thought things were looking up. This still didn’t prepare me for what happened when I put the CD in the player!

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Checkmate Savage is the debut album from Glasgow's Phantom Band. A band who are prone to performing shows with bags over their heads, changing their name at every gig (hence the Phantom Band moniker) and listing the following instruments in their MySpace biog: ‘Libraries, cheeseboards and ASBOs’ amongst others. Making it fair to assume that Checkmate Savage is not going to be your run of the mill indie album.

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‘Vacilando Territory Blues’ is J Tillman’s fourth album in three years but more importantly it’s his first on a major label and more importantly still it’s his first since the unprecedented success of the other project he’s deeply involved with, Fleet Foxes.

The same Laurel Canyon vibe that permeates the Foxes’ work is much in evidence here only Tillman’s take on it is very much coloured with a heavy dose of melancholy and lacks the sweet, uplifting harmonies of his companions.

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No wonder Mr Auerbach went solo for this one what with all its minimal techno beats, absence of any traditional instruments and a wealth of R&B guests....OK I'm being a little bit sarcy! The question begs to be asked though, why DID he release this solo effort?

Well, on his label website he says, "The one thing I didn't want to do is to try to sound different from The Black Keys. That would have sounded half-assed and boring."  Well, unfortunately that's exactly how I'd explain 'Keep It Hid' - Half assed and boring.

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Every now and then you come across an album and you think ‘Why has this been made now?’ and ‘Aplinisms’ by School Of Seven Bells is indeed one of those albums.

I’ll state upfront now that I love this album, but if it had dropped on to my desk ten or even fifteen years ago it would not have seemed out of place because it is essentially a Trip Hop album in the tracks of Portishead, Mono (not the Japanese one) and Thievery Corporation.

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You know that feeling - you hear something so good you can't help yourself from closing your eyes, opening your gobblebox in disbelief, smiling and letting out a sigh...followed by a quick explanation to your work colleagues that you’re not actually in the middle of orgasmic exultation -  "Look my hands are on the desk!"

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